Category Archives: LGBTQ & Gender

My True Confession, from 1968: All Downhill from There

Here it is:

I didn’t vote for Hubert Humphrey for president in 1968. Humphrey lost to Richard Nixon, by less than one percent. And as Andy Young had warned me, it’s been (almost) all downhill from there.

Not that I voted for Nixon instead. Or for George Wallace, the fiery segregationist Alabama governor, who carried five deep southern states that year.

Instead, I didn’t vote at all.

I’m not proud of it; but my feelings and regrets are not the point here. Continue reading My True Confession, from 1968: All Downhill from There

It Took a Split to Rainbow The Methodist Church. Is Rome Next??

AP News: United Methodists repeal longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy

May 1, 2024

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — United Methodist delegates repealed their church’s longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy with no debate on Wednesday, removing a rule forbidding “selfavowed practicing homosexuals” from being ordained or appointed as ministers.

Will NPR’s Internal Dissenter Outlast My Cabbage??

Will NPR’s public dissenter lose his job before the cabbage in my fridge goes under the knife?

There’s a purple cabbage in my fridge. Cabbages will last pretty long if they are kept cold. But I plan to take it out one day soon, chop it up, then cook it with onions in a simple but delectable recipe I learned from my late lamented next door neighbor, Ms. Hazel.  It’s good.

But this post isn’t about a recipe. It’s  echoing a vegetable question I read about while dipping into online newspapers from England in late October 2022. Continue reading Will NPR’s Internal Dissenter Outlast My Cabbage??

Durham: Will Another Big Bruising Bathroom Bill Battle Bust Up Bull Durham’s Burgeoning Business Boom?

Protesters in the state legislative building, 2016.

I Woke up this morning to find my (adopted) home town & state made the big-time news AGAIN over our 2024 state election campaign.

Anybody who recalls the NC political scene in 2016 — especially business people and boosters — likely still feels twinges of trauma when the phrase “Bathroom bill” is mentioned.  NC lost billions of dollars in investment and bad press after the Republican-dominated legislature passed the notorious HB2 anti-trans “bathroom bill.”

Anybody, that is, except those topping the 2024 GOP ticket. Their candidate for governor, incumbent Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, is a  certified fire-breather of anti-trans  rhetoric. His latest headlines trumpet a pledge to arrest trans folk who dare to use the “wrong” facilities. His running mate, Michele Morrow, aiming to become state superintendent of schools, mixes  a record of QAnon conspiracy postings with her culture war platform.

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, GOP candidate for NC Governor

Who cares about this offensive blather?  According to today’s big Washington Post story, NC business cares.

Not that our local barons of commerce are all rainbow-flag wavers; their favorite color remains cash green. Yet they remember how bad the business backlash got last time, before the current, term-limited governor, Democrat Roy Cooper, was elected. He got HB2 repealed enough so folks could get some relief.

Continue reading Durham: Will Another Big Bruising Bathroom Bill Battle Bust Up Bull Durham’s Burgeoning Business Boom?

What am I Missing? Some Burning Questions

[Note: These days, I don’t get out as much as I used to: age, ailments, etc.  That means I don’t keep up well as I once did.

So I may be missing some stuff, and I hope somebody will catch me up.  

This anti-LGBTQ news from Ghana and Burundi (and Kenya & Uganda) is really tough. And Quaker groups have connections there, and in that region, some long-running.

So, they’ve gotta be taking this on, right?

They must be working to protect LGBTQ Friends (& non-Quakes too), of course?

Good Samaritan and all that great  Bible stuff? Don’t they still teach that all the time? Continue reading What am I Missing? Some Burning Questions