No, Mr. W, gay narratives are not taking over the media — As if the din of internet noise would lull me back to sleep (despite the dual detriment of blue light and the blood-boiling screams of political extremists), I was scrolling Twitter the other night during a bout with insomnia. …

In a year fraught with painful lessons on life’s fragility, I celebrate Queer Pride by forgiving the ones who have loved me the hardest and failed me the most — myself included. — My last exchange with my eldest brother, a fully professed Carmelite monk and an ordained priest, ended harshly. It was an email parlay that began innocently enough — a basic check-in with each other on our respective happenings. In response to his update I followed a perhaps impetuous impulse to…

An ode on the joy of cultivating aquatic life — I grew up in a pet-loving family. By the time I was in middle school, our five-person clan, consisting of my mom and dad and my two older brothers, welcomed a dog (a beagle-hound mix we named Spots), a cat (an orange and white tabby we named Samson) a hamster…

How archiving my intimate past is a lesson in growth — It’s a love loss / It’s in my mind / It takes me to places I don’t want to find / It’s a cold shock straight to my heart / Feeling afraid of what’s come apart / … Know if tomorrow we shall lie / In the relations of our…

I had intended my new website’s first blog post to be a reflection on the phenomenon of sexual nostalgia, currently under research by social scientists at New York University, according to a piece in the February issue of Psychology Today. …

As the Omaha-bred rockers of alternative radio fame commemorate three decades of music making, this 311 head reflects on growing up with the best band in the land — According to its etymology, which is the same as that of mission, a message is always composed of truths sent (missus) to a person, a group, a period in time, to satisfy an expectation and sometimes to answer a call for help. — Jean Leclerq, O.S.B. …

A recent study suggests unsheltered are twice as likely to die. What can we do before it’s too late? — As of the time of this writing there were 1.7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 recorded internationally with a death toll nearing 106,000, according to the World Health Organization. The United States, NBC News reports, now has the lead globally in total deaths caused by the virus with over 20,000…

As accusations of witch hunting, lynching and inquisition fly among Trump and his Republicans, it is high time white men think more seriously about our whiteness and how we use it — While House Democrats sift through witness testimony to build an impeachment case against Donald Trump, his Republican cronies are rallying with thanatophobic desperation, calling the investigation an “inquisition” and recently interrupting a closed-door inquiry under the purported aim of upholding government transparency.

As the meaning of Title VII comes under review, queer visibility is our greatest defense — I was called into the assistant principal’s office of the all-boys Catholic high school where I taught in my mid-20s for a scheduled meeting with two pompous officials from the diocese. …