fiction and musings from a gay black dude with delusions above his station
Dear Mormon Temple of Oakland, Hi. You don’t know me, but we’re neighbors. As such, I thought I’d give you some neighborly advice in regards to marriage equality – you know, that whole gay marriage thing that you got so exercised about five years ago. You remember, right? Five years ago this month, after the…
Shirley and Patty were invited to attend a local revival to give a presentation on the intersection of African-Americans, gays, and the black church. They asked me to come, too, and I said yes, though I had my reservations. Unlike Shirley or Patty, or their friend Grace who they also asked to come, I was…
Two big time apologies concerning gay issues came out this past week, almost back to back. Both were in response to stupid, homophobic or at least homophobic-tinged statements made by the speaker. And in both cases, they were genuine apologies, not those silly, half-assed “I’m sorry if you’re offended” type apologies. First we had Howard…
Something happened to me the other day on Facebook which has never happened before. I put up what I thought was an innocuous post about 82 year old Jim Nabors marrying his partner of 38 years in the Great State of Washington. Mr. Nabors and his now-husband Stan Cadwallader live in Honolulu, but hopped across…
After the service, I became visible again. Folks asked me if I enjoyed the service, and I had to say yes, I did, because I did get into singing and clapping and all that. XY spoke to me. He told me to wait with XX while he got the car. So I did. But then…
Dr. Demento, every single Sunday, KMET radio…yeah! Back in the day, Angelenos heard four hours of the good Doctor, from 6-10 Sunday evenings. I played it while cleaning the kitchen, scraping roly poly fish heads into the garbage under a soundtrack of Weird Al Yankovic, George Carlin’s “Ice Box Man,” Cheech & Chong’s “Sister Mary…
The magic, they say, happens after the lights dim and the images begin to flicker on the screen. In this case, though, for most, there would be little magic as the story was already known. But for others who were young like me, black like me, and torn asunder by my queer loins like me,…
Grease splattering, water boiling, pots and pans clanking, bodies moving and shuffling, and layered above it all were the voices of the too many chefs against a backdrop of old school blues moaning its heart out. Crissy got annoyed. She always got annoyed. “Can’t we play something more upbeat than this? When I’m cooking I…
“…[G]ay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.” – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Addressing the United Nations on International Human Rights Day Do read or watch Secretary Clinton’s remarkable speech on LGBT rights. She spent about a half-hour talking about the need to further the cause for LGBT human…
