Politics

  • You Don’t Need Fixed

    You Don’t Need Fixed

    I grew up in a time when you could turn on the news and hear people tell you, plainly, that if you were an LGBTQ+ young person, something about you was wrong. Not misunderstood. Not still figuring it out. Wrong. And it wasn’t quiet. It was said out loud, in living rooms, on television, in…

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  • I Want You to Know Who I Am

    It was around 1998. I was dating a man who lived in Columbia, Missouri. He was a tennis player. A handsome man who looked a little like a young Robert Redford. I fell hard for those blue eyes and that chiseled jaw. At the time I was raising my three children on my own. On…

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  • Eyes Open. Heart Steady.

    Eyes Open. Heart Steady.

    If you live in this world long enough, you are going to live through some type of instability. I know I have. I could list them out. Hate crimes. Civil unrest. Moments that remind you how quickly things can shift. I remember Ferguson. I remember fire trucks parked across streets like makeshift barricades. I remember…

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  • Coming Out

    Coming Out

    Here’s something I’ve learned over the years. Coming out is not a one time event. It is not just something gay people do. It is something we all do, over and over again, in different ways, throughout our lives. We just do not always call it that. Coming out is what happens when you finally…

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  • Neighbors, Not Enemies

    Neighbors, Not Enemies

    You know what has been bothering me lately about the state of things in the United States? How much of what we are living through feels rooted in hating your neighbor. Not debating policy. Not wrestling with ideas. Not even arguing about the direction of the country. It feels personal now. It feels aimed at…

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  • Recognition

    Recognition

    I want to start this quietly, because this is not a reaction piece. It is me trying to place a current moment inside a much longer human story. When Donald Trump hosted a prayer breakfast, stood in front of cameras talking about faith and values, and then later that same night shared a racist video…

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  • “No One Is Illegal on Stolen Land”Billie Eilish

    When people get mad at a line like that, it usually is not because it is historically wrong. It is because it cuts too close to something we are taught not to question. But maybe we should. If you look at the history of the Americas, borders did not appear because everyone agreed politely. They…

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  • We the People?

    We the People?

    I keep thinking about how different things might feel if we actually lived in a country of ideas. A place where “We the People” meant everyone. Not some of us. Not the protected. Not the powerful. Just all of us. But we never have. And that truth stings more than I want to admit. What…

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  • A Calm Blueprint for Uncertain Times

    These are unsettled times. That does not mean panic. It means paying attention. When the information environment is noisy and trust is thin, the most responsible thing people can do is quietly steady their footing. Preparedness is not fear driven. It is how adults reduce stress, protect their families, and keep options open when uncertainty…

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  • The Emotional Pandemic

    The Emotional Pandemic

    This morning I sat down to write and worked on a few things. The grammar was right and the punctuation was right. The sentences did exactly what they were supposed to do, and that was the problem. None of it felt like me. It felt like I was behaving on the page, keeping things in…

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