How soon before other nations adopt the German playbook? The strong showing of the far‑right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party in local elections in the German state of Saxony‑Anhalt — more than 40 percent of the vote — is the most pointed indicator yet that
WWDD: The Gospel of Dolly Parton There’s a social media post going around that goes something like this: I’m just tired of everything being political. So am I. I’m tired of whether a child gets lunch being political. Whether a sick person gets medicine being
A once-wide door that threatened to close When I first came to France, life felt like a wide-open door. My wife Caroline and I built a rhythm here — simple, steady, full of small joys. I worked as a teaching assistant once a week, learned
Faith came before fear Some of my earliest memories are of going to church. I remember my grandmother taking me every Sunday. She taught me to have faith, to love God, and to worship Him. Before I knew anything about sexual orientation or identity, I
Among right-wing Christians there seems to be a real psychological compulsion to “make America a Christian nation.” It looks to outsiders as more than just wanting everyone to be “saved” but as a driven emotional need to religiously justify themselves and their worldview and feel
A confession to the trans woman I failed She was brave. And I was a jerk. It’s really that simple. Let me set the stage. Back in the mid-2010s, as a very conservative evangelical straight white man, I was assigned yet another mentee. Nothing surprising
When you first found the courage to be who you are, who stood beside you? Not the people who tolerated you from a safe distance. Not the ones who offered a quiet nod and then changed the subject. I mean the person who actually showed
I first walked through the doors of Sydney’s Divine Playhouse as a teenager in the 1960s, when it was the home of the Genesian Theatre. Like thousands of Sydneysiders, I went there to enjoy live theatre. Back then, homosexuality was a criminal offence in the state of
After God showed me so clearly that I can be a lesbian and still be loved, cherished and fully accepted by Him, I was so overwhelmed with happiness, I spent a long time trying to get everything else right. Not just right in a general
Despite a recent Supreme Court ruling, the majority of Americans are still protected by bans When the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision this spring to overturn Colorado’s ban on so-called “conversion therapy” for minors sparked a global reaction, much of it missed what the Court actually