It’s time for my annual gift guide to some of the year’s best LGBTQ-inclusive children’s picture books! There were happily more books published this year than I can include here, so please visit mombian.com for [...]

Transphobia, like homophobia, isn't generally using the suffix "-phobia" to mean "fear," but to mean "aversion." It's the same notion as hydrophobic surfaces refer to their ability to repel water. That said, I feel there [...]

How I contracted HIV is none of your damn business. I'm going to tell you what happened, but not because I owe you an explanation. Here goes.

On Nov. 20, transgender and non-binary people — and our allies — across the world come together to honor those murdered due to anti-trans violence. This year marks the 20th since a group of people [...]

In 2008, a woman named Jenna Karvunidis sliced open a cake, revealing pink frosting within the layers. With her, the "gender reveal party" entered the popular lexicon. A decade or so later, the gender reveal has gone a long way from those humble beginnings becoming something far different from that cake.

Halloween is a time of magic and mystery. Traditionally, it once served as the end of the year, where autumn — and the abundance of the harvest — gave way to the dark and dim days of winter. In that liminal space between the seasons, one could get a moment to pierce the veil between other states, even between life and death itself.

Last week the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in three cases that will determine if people can discriminate against LGBTQ people based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The future of our community's rights is at stake here in the U.S. The three cases that are before the Supreme court are Bostock v. Clayton County, GA, Altitude Express v. Zarda, and R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Home v. EEOC. The first two cases involve plaintiffs who were fired for being gay. The Harris Funeral Home case involves plaintiff Aimee Stephens, who was fired for being transgender.

It starts as a thread. Some little tidbit of information dangling out there that captures my attention. A conversation, a news article, radio interview, yes, even Facebook posts and the dance begins. I reach out [...]

Every week, in my email, I receive dozens of story pitches. Some are quite good, connecting me with engaging people and interesting stories that I might otherwise have missed. Most, however, are pretty useless to me in the overall scheme of things. A lot only tangentially veer into any topic I write about, or are blatant product pitches or just an overall bad fit.

LGBTQ students in rural schools are more likely to face bias and discrimination than those in urban and suburban ones, but their schools are also less likely to have LGBTQ-inclusive resources to support them. That’s [...]

I have always been intrigued by history. I love to look at how things came together over time, and how advances in knowledge, technology and society — for both good and ill — helped to [...]

Summer is here in Michigan; it’s a bittersweet time. It's an opportunity to celebrate how far LGBTQ people have come and a reminder of how far we have to go.

Gavin Grimm, at long last, has won his case. When Grimm was a sophomore at Gloucester County High School in Virginia, he came out as a transgender boy. As soon as he opted to use the boys' restroom, the Gloucester County School Board decided to require that all changing rooms and bathrooms, "shall be limited to the corresponding biological genders, and students with gender identity issues shall be provided an alternative appropriate private facility."

At long last, North Carolina's House Bill 2 is dead. For those few who are reading who may not know the significance, I'll explain: The Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, otherwise known as HB2, was a bill passed in North Carolina in 2016.

Summertime is Pride time! And I’m saying it loud: I’m black, gay and proud!

If you looked up homosexuality in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 50 years ago, you would see it listed as a mental disorder. There’s no question we’ve come a long way since [...]

“Ho Ho! Hey Hey! We won’t pay to be gay!” The chant, led by Vivian Thompson on a bullhorn and in unison with a couple dozen or so other protesters, announced the stance of Lansing People’s Pride as they marched on June 17th through Old Town, home to this year’s Michigan Pride celebration.

Have you ever been motivated to put yourself at risk in order to stand up for someone else or for a cause? For some, to place themselves on the line is too much to ask. [...]

June 28, 1969. With no civil rights protections available for LGBTQ people and rampant harassment and brutality by law enforcement against our community and LGBTQ establishments, a group of brave men and women — including two transgender women of color, Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson — stood up to the New City Police Department and determined that they were not going to take it anymore.

It's June and pride is busting out all over! This year’s celebrations are just a little brighter as we also celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising.

"When Aiden Became a Brother," written by Kyle Lukoff and illustrated by Kaylani Juanita (Lee & Low), is a sweet and joyous tale about a biracial (black and South Asian) transgender boy awaiting the birth of his new sibling. The book starts by explaining that everyone thought Aiden was a girl when he was born, but he later realized he was a boy.

Caster Semenya is a South African middle-distance runner. She took home Olympic gold in both 2012 and 2016 and has won the world championships three times. She grew up in the village of Fairlie, located [...]

So often when people who are not transgender speak of transgender people, there is one important thing that is gotten terribly wrong, and I think it's a core part of understanding exactly what it is to be transgender.

Can a business fire someone because they’re LGBTQ? The Supreme Court will soon tell us.

If you are like me, your position on the 2020 presidential election might come down to this: You will elect any of the Democratic candidates for president, no matter how far they stray from your [...]

Lori Lightfoot was elected Mayor of Chicago! Let that sink in – an African-American Lesbian was elected Mayor of the nation’s third largest city. If that wasn’t historic enough, on the same day Madison, Wisconsin, and Kansas City, Missouri, also elected queer women as mayors - Satya Rhodes-Conway and Jolie Justus.

Centuries ago, during the witch trials of the medieval era, a unique way of determining who was or wasn't a witch was created. A woman suspected of being a witch would have her right thumb bound to the big toe on her left foot. She would then have a rope tied around her waist, and be thrown into a nearby pond or river.

As a lesbian, I often feel the urge to be vocally happy in my engagement to a woman. It’s a spiteful parry to a book I keep on my shelf as a joke: "The Unhappy Gays," a messy assortment of Christian ramblings about how queer people are actually miserable, pilfered from the collection of my deceased grandmother.

One would think that in the field of burlesque, sex and the discussion of it would be welcome, but this may not always be the case. In 2019 there is open discussion about all things LGBTQ as well as openly gay celebrities, but in the burlesque world, sex and sexual orientation are still considered dirty words by some. Why is this the case? Perhaps the answer to this and many other questions lies in pondering why humans readily embrace some things and people and not others. Normally, that which is deemed different is looked at with suspicion and approached with caution — as is the case with the LGBTQ or queer burlesque performers.

I am a Detroiter, born and raised. So was my mother. My father, although born in Kentucky, grew up in Chatham, Ontario, before settling in Detroit.

Every HIV story is a sad story. And, generally, it’s always a surprise story for people, something they weren’t expecting. In January 2014, I was dating a guy in Memphis, Tennessee, named Andre. We fell [...]