Guest columists
"Before Pose" Guest Writer: Bishop Hartsel Clifton Shirley Pose is the current television program that unapologetically displays the lives of gay, lesbian and transgender individuals. For some of us, it’s just short of sacred as it helps to reveal the hidden lives, pains, heartbreaks, and joys of a segment of the population all too often overlooked, ignored--and even worse--forgotten. Mainstream television has [...]
"Staying Sane in 2020" Guest Writer: W.D. Foster-Graham 2020, in many respects, has been a year of insanity. I won’t rehash that which we already know, but the negative energy from it is something we cannot allow ourselves to be inundated with. As a man of a certain age, I have learned much from my 90-year-old mother from [...]
“The Midas Touch” Guest Writer: R. L. Norman We were standing six feet apart from each other. Because of the coronavirus, it was the ritual. We’ve been dealing with this virus for the last seven months, and social distancing has become a part of life. So, here we stand. We’d just finished having lunch and walked to my car, which [...]
"A Devastating Truth" Guest Writer: Bishop Hartsel Clifton Shirley History’s gatekeepers often write it, omitting crucial characters and events. While they shine a more positive light on the misinformation, this does history an egregious disservice. The history of AIDS--particularly in the United States--is no different. A case in point is the ethnicity of the individual suggested to represent the earliest [...]
"The Right to Be" Guest Writer: W.D. Foster-Graham Indeed, it is exciting to have a new book launched. In writing Never Give Up: A Christopher Family Novel, I wondered in the beginning if I could write a whodunit, given that I love to watch movies and shows like Midsomer Murders, Forensic Files, Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Inspector Morse, Poirot, [...]
"Return of the Arc" Guest Writer: Bishop Hartsel Clifton Shirley The much-anticipated return of Noah’s Arc came and tantalized us just as the series did for two seasons on Logotv. This time with much more freedom and creative control, Patrik-Ian Polk--the groundbreaking program’s creator, writer, producer, and director--returned to whet our appetites with Noah’s Arc: The ‘Rona Chronicles. The ‘Rona Chronicles, [...]
"Flirting With 70" Guest Writer: W.D. Foster-Graham Yes, I said it. I haven’t consummated it yet, but I am in the flirting zone with 70. That was such an alien concept to my 21-year-old brain in the early 1970s, somewhere in the future far, far away, off in my grandmother’s territory. And to be gay and [...]
"Before The Rainbow" Guest Writer: Bishop Hartsel Clifton Shirley Drag queens, female impersonators, transgenders. We’re very familiar with the terms, even if we don’t personally know someone who is. Throughout American history, these individuals have been taboo, underappreciated--and rejected. In Black America, these persons were “worse than freaks, were abnormal, and the dregs of society.” Therefore, imagine how [...]
"MARK MY WORDS, YOU NEVER KNOW, NEVER GIVE UP" Guest Writer: W.D. Foster-Graham Besides the COVID-19 pandemic (which, paradoxically, has given our planet a chance to breathe), there is another pandemic that is front and center at this time, though it has been around far longer: systemic racism. Indeed, George Floyd's murder has sparked a revolution around the [...]
“Pardon Me” Guest Writer: R. L. Norman As I sit here, I swear I can feel the walls closing in on me. I don’t know how much more I can take of this “quarantine thing.” But they say, “It’s for my own good.” I’m not so sure about that: I’d rather be with my family and friends during this time. I [...]
"Second Home" Guest Writer: W.D. Foster-Graham Indeed, COVID-19 has brought about drastic changes in our lives. My state has a shelter-in-place order at this time, and all that goes with it. People overall have been good about compliance here; I must admit it’s weird driving on freeways with hardly any traffic, but I will take it for what it’s [...]
“Jump!” Guest Writer: R. L. Norman I was frozen with shock. I couldn’t move. My mind was racing with so many thoughts. “I can’t believe he did that. I can’t believe we did that. Right here in the alley between two buildings. Anyone could have walked upon us.” At twelve years old, I thought about [...]
