Q: I am an Eagle Scout and I am gay. Having been involved with the Boy Scouts since I was six years old, I would like to become a scoutmaster for my local troop, but I don’t want to hide my sexual orientation. What should I do?

A: Despite how much the world has changed since the founding of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) over a century ago, so many young men just like you still can’t openly be themselves in one of the largest youth organizations in the United States. Unfortunately, the national BSA has repeatedly said that local Councils must comply with its discriminatory ban on openly gay and bisexual members and leaders, which continues to trouble young scouts and their families across the country. Although the BSA is an organization that teaches the value of respect for others, and not about discrimination, openly gay scouts continue to be punished for standing firm for the values they learned to uphold.

How Richard Herod III Turned a Townhome Rule Into Powerful LGBT Activism

Richard Herod III is a general manager of a Woodbury car dealership. He’s a Big Brother. He’s a member of Children of Deaf Adults, where one of his more fun contributions is signing pop songs on YouTube. He kickboxes and does autocross racing. And after November 6, 2012, he can add being a successful political activist to his life resume.

Herod started the Vote No: Taking It To The Streets car campaign in Minnesota, a movement which eventually included 300 vehicles across the state and raised $17,000 for Minnesotans United for All Families, a coalition of organizations, community, and business leaders determined to defend and secure marriage equality in Minnesota.

It all started when someone told him no.

I Made it Out of the Closet…How did I get Here?!?!?!

Fifty percent of women over 50 in same-sex relationships have been married. The question of why is this happening so often is a question researchers are now seeing as relevant. Same-sex marriage, women declaring their sexuality more openly, high profile women personally speaking to the issue, and broadcast media bringing the LGBT life to focus, they started to take notice of the middle-age woman who comes OUT for the first time.

Looking in a rear-view mirror

This last month I am filled with gratitude as I reflect on the past year. While there have been some incredible experiences, the fight to get where we are now and the people who fought along the way need to be remembered as the heroes they are.

First, of course was the election. Human Rights win again...enough said.

Second, working on the All-Iowa AIDS Benefit was an incredible experience with some incredible people. Who, against all odds, are showing me how to live. What I got out of the Benefit was the notion of "human-kind"...be both!

A judicial bombshell Friday afternoon, as the Supreme Court announced it would hear arguments on two marriage equality case: California’s Proposition 8, which narrowly passed in 2008 and which lower courts have found unconstitutional, and the 1996 Defense of Marriage (sic) Act (DOMA), passed by a Republican Congress and shamefully signed by a Democratic president, who now like so many people seems to have changed his mind on the subject.

Dill-Vodka Martini

When we left our hero, he had just ruined yet another dinner party with a rare but deadly combination of bad memory and gracious seasonal taste. I had made dill-infused vodka and served it to a good friend who, I’d forgotten, had auditioned for the role of Dill in the film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird and, having not gotten the part, has spent the rest of his life in mortal dread of the very word dill, let alone the herb it signifies. I mentioned that the dilled vodka was delicious, and I gave instructions on how to make it, but the following weekend’s (shall we say) full-throated reception of the cocktails I made from it was so overwhelmingly positive I’ve actually decided to expand on the recipe and offer one particular suggestion for a cocktail to make with it.

Social Contexts and Engagement

While studying a number of bullying prevention programs, I find many that, while providing good overall theoretical and conceptual foundations and strategies for prevention and reduction of incidents, I perceive crucial components missing from these programs, namely the social and cultural contexts wherein bullying attitudes and behaviors often stem and ways to comprehend and engage in correcting these larger social and cultural contexts.