All Entries in the "Columns" Category
Mine the chasm, fill the void
By Jason Dilts Gayly Columnist When we go to a bar, we have an agenda. Refreshing, tasty beverages are not what most of us seek when we walk into our favorite watering holes. There is no natural lust for alcohol that beckons us to imbibe. There is, however, a yearning for connection imbued in each [...]
Your Rights Are Toast if GOP wins Presidency
By Rob Howard Political Columnist At the New Hampshire Republican debate on January 7, any hope that LGBT people would have any rights left if a Republican is elected President in 2012 were blown away. They spent nearly one-quarter of the debate talking about the “Right to Privacy,” affirmed by the Supreme Court in the [...]
Private First Class Manning
By Paula Sophia Gayly Columnist In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, eradicating the stigma of mental illness from the lives of gays and lesbians. Presently, this development seems like a moment of elementary understanding that declares an obvious truth, a “well, duh” in the struggle [...]
Intimacy Addiction and how it keeps us from finding fulfilling relationships
Robert C. Grupe, PhD Contributing Writer Every culture has a general set of built in expectations regarding behaviors of life. The gay culture is no different. As with many cultural expectations- they may be as much myth as truth. I have heard comments similar to “They were together as partners for three years. You know [...]
Twenty years of hope in Oklahoma
By Chuck Longacre Red Rock BHS Columnist In 1991, a small group of Oklahomans saw the limitations of state and federal funding for men and women infected by HIV. The discrimination caused by the epidemic in our state was, and still is, astounding. Imagine a time when telling your family that you had tested HIV-positive [...]
Facts or Feelings
By Steven Michael Hall Gayly Columnist Making a change should be easy. Coming out of the closet should be just opening the door. Changing fashion should be a trip to the mall and laws should pass Congress with simple readings, debates and votes. But that’s dreaming. Look how long it took for the new healthcare [...]
Fossils
By Paula Sophia Gayly Columnist In recent Republican Presidential debates, the old specter of Social Darwinism has reared its ugly head. Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul are espousing a “survival of the fittest” brand of laissez-faire economics. They want government to do little or nothing to help those in need in order to [...]
Same Sex Adoption in Oklahoma
By Ashley Manning, Esq. Contributing Writer Under the current Oklahoma Law, LGBT families are largely invisible. Because of this, extra-legal attention must be paid to protect LGBT families. The State of Oklahoma does not recognize same sex marriage, thus inhibiting same sex couples from jointly adopting a child. In states like Oklahoma where same sex [...]
A Modest Proposal
By Rob Howard Political Columnist In 1729, Jonathan Swift (you know, the Gulliver’s Travel guy) wrote an intensely satirical essay titled “A Modest Proposal,” in which he suggested that poor people in Ireland eat their children to prevent the effects of poverty. As you might imagine, it wasn’t well received. But today, right-wing politicians think [...]
Out of the Attic
[box size="large" border="full"] Matt, OK — I need your help. We’re furnishing a new (well, really an old) home in the Paseo, and we really want Mission-style furniture for it. We found this bookcase at an antiques shop over the border in Perryton, Texas. We paid $275.00 for it. (Well, plus tax.) Did we pay [...]