Steven LaChance
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The other day I was going through some old family photos and came across a picture of one of my great grandfathers. I stopped and just stared at it. The truth is, I know almost nothing about him. I didn’t even know he ran a small store in the Soulard area of St. Louis. That’s…
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Dear Readers, On June 29, in Indianapolis, a lay pastor stood before a congregation during a “Men’s Preaching Night” at Sure Foundation Baptist Church and told LGBTQ+ people to “shoot yourself in the back of the head.” That’s what he said. From the pulpit. In a church. A so-called sanctuary. This is why I wrote…
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Demons. Ghosts. Monsters. A preacher with blood on his hands and something far darker in his ear. That is Gorilla. What if MK-Ultra never died? What if the government’s mind-breaking drug experiments were resurrected by a powerful evangelist determined to build a stronger believer through fear, through pain, through control? But what he created was…
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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what faith really means. Not the version wrapped in rules or ritual, but the kind that grows quietly inside you. The kind you don’t always have words for, but you feel it. It shows up in how you love. In how you choose kindness. In the way you…
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“I am German and am waiting for the Germans to come back; they have gone to ground somewhere,” Victor Klemperer wrote in his diary. He was the son of a rabbi and a World War One veteran who chose to stay and somehow survived. The warning signs were there then. They are here now. Trump’s…
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I’ve been working on Gorilla for a long time. The timing never felt right, so I’d stop writing and push it away. But now? There has never been a more perfect moment for this book to exist. I’m sure Gorilla will find its way onto banned lists—and honestly, I’m okay with that. If it does,…
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When I was raising my three children as a single gay father in a small Midwestern town, I had to hide being gay. It wasn’t something I ever wanted to do, it was something I had to do. I had come out at 29 to the people in my life who truly mattered, but to…
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The Real-Life Horrors Behind My New Book, Gorilla Take a moment and really think about this. You’re at a park. A stranger bumps into you, just a casual brush. But with that touch, they smear something onto your skin. It feels slick, maybe slimy. You might not even notice. A few hours later, you start…
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Growing up gay meant learning how to scan a room before you ever opened your mouth. You became fluent in body language before you even understood your own. A wrist held too loosely. A vowel dragged too long. A laugh that felt too bright. You noticed what made people flinch. What made them stare. What…
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I came across a meme today from someone back in my hometown. I’m not going to share it. I won’t give it the space. But I will say this: it was hurtful. The kind of disguised homophobia that hides behind “just my opinion” or “I’m not being hateful, I just have standards.” You know the…
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