It’s 8 p.m. on an idle Monday night. The pruning sheers cut through the stems of the roses, hydrangeas, and assorted annoying nameless blossom flowers of this week’s arrangement with ease. As with the last three daily pruning sessions, this one is a success. Each flower has been arranged, returned [...]

A dramatic performance of the composer Richard Strauss’ symphonic tone poem, “Death and Transfiguration,” by the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center last weekend revealed the amazing prescient nature of the work. Surprisingly, Strauss was only 25 when he composed it, first performed in 1889, a compelling 14-minute work [...]

This past Tuesday, we recognized World Autism Day, a time to raise awareness and understanding about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). ASD is the fastest growing serious developmental disorder in the United States, affecting nearly two million Americans. One in 88 children is on the autism spectrum by age 8, and [...]

A broad consensus has emerged in New Jersey that clinical attempts to change one’s sexual orientation is harmful and ineffective. It is a waste of time and money and can leave permanent psychological scars. For example, the editorial board of The Star-Ledger acknowledges that so-called conversion (aka reparative) therapy “is [...]

This week is a historic one. The Supreme Court heard the cases of the California gay marriage ban, or Proposition 8, and the federal Defense of Marriage Act. As a gay man, I am used to arguments about my way of life and my apparent “choice” to become gay but [...]

Facebook is awash with bright red this week. A movement launched by the Human Rights Campaign kicked off and has gone truly viral. With two key cases speaking to the issue of gay marriage coming before the U.S. Supreme Court, the HRC proposed that supporters temporarily substitute their profile pictures [...]

Get your bucket of popcorn and take a front row seat to watch the unfolding of history. The most important week in the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender movement is finally upon us. The world is watching as gay marriage is twice on trial in front of the Supreme Court. [...]

As the term “China syndrome” has already been taken, I am terming what is happening in the country these days the “Beijing syndrome,” for China’s capitol seems to be shaping up as the epicenter of a great upheaval to come. A “syndrome” is a group of symptoms that when taken [...]

She grew up in a small town and was destined to be a star. She worked hard; her overbearing stage mother pushed her into every beauty pageant, dance contest, talent show, local carnival, state fair and singing contest that would have her. They did the try-outs, the auditions, the callbacks, [...]

Do you want to see a waste of talent? Check out born again folk singer Michelle Shocked, whose career just went down the tubes after she launched into a strange, anti-gay tirade during a concert in San Francisco (of all the places to have an anti-gay meltdown!). According to USA [...]