News :: Commentary

Guest Opinion: The Castro Theatre belongs to the community

Guest Opinion: The Castro Theatre belongs to the community

  • by Tom Ammiano and Michela Alioto-Pier
  • Apr 24, 2023

For over 100 years, the Castro Theatre has been an architectural and cultural jewel in our city's crown and has evolved as an icon of the LGBTQ community and culture.

Transmissions: Under the influence

Transmissions: Under the influence

  • by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
  • Apr 19, 2023

It sounds positively cynical to say this, but we live in an era of spectacle and circus, provided to us hour by hour via social media.

The revolution, as always, will be led by drag queens

The revolution, as always, will be led by drag queens

  • by Michael Yamashita | NewsIsOut.com
  • Apr 6, 2023

At the root of revolution is revolt—a revolt against oppressive power. Once again in our history, we must rise up against a deranged right-wing front that is harnessing political and social power to legislate and discriminate LGBTQ+ people out of existenc

Transmissions: Weapons

Transmissions: Weapons

  • by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
  • Apr 5, 2023

On March 27, a gunman used an AR-15 military-style weapon to shoot open a lock to a door at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.

Transmissions: Lies and deceptions

Transmissions: Lies and deceptions

  • by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
  • Mar 22, 2023

There are many who want to claim that transgender lives are built on falsehoods, that everything about us is a lie.

Transmissions: An alchemist's passing

Transmissions: An alchemist's passing

  • by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
  • Mar 8, 2023

In 1994, when dinosaurs still roamed the Cretaceous Earth, I was but a budding trans woman. I was still largely trying to find where I fit in this thing called "transgender," and fighting through a mountain full of shame and guilt over who I was.

Transmissions: Six days in February

Transmissions: Six days in February

  • by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
  • Feb 22, 2023

On the afternoon of February 11, a girl by the name of Brianna Ghey was found on a path in Culcheth Linear Park in Warrington, Cheshire, England. Pronounced dead at the scene, she was the victim of multiple stab wounds.

Transmissions: Being dragged into a culture war

Transmissions: Being dragged into a culture war

  • Feb 8, 2023

Decades before the upper floors of a three-story building at the corner of Broadway and Kearny in San Francisco became a co-working office space, it was home to a nightclub called Finocchio's.

Transmissions: Our history, and what it tells us

Transmissions: Our history, and what it tells us

  • by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
  • Jan 25, 2023

Legislative sessions have started in statehouses across the country, and with them, scores of new anti-LGBTQ and anti-trans bills.

Transmissions: Transition is not a destination, it's a passage

Transmissions: Transition is not a destination, it's a passage

  • by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
  • Jan 11, 2023

Recently, while in the throes of nostalgia, I went through a pair of filing boxes I have containing decades of old snapshots.

Commentary: Make drag queens illegal? It's happened before

Commentary: Make drag queens illegal? It's happened before

  • by Michael Yamashita | NewsIsOut.com
  • Jan 5, 2023

Today drag queen storybook readings for children have been opportunistically subverted by the far right using an old and recurring slur that it is a ruse used by pedophiles to "groom" children for abuse.

Transmissions: The New Year

Transmissions: The New Year

  • by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
  • Dec 28, 2022

It was eight and a half years ago - in spring of 2014 - that Time magazine declared the "transgender tipping point" on its front cover.

Transmissions: No more

Transmissions: No more

  • by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
  • Nov 30, 2022

It was late in the evening of November 19 at Club Q, an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Guest Opinion: New governor's council is state's latest step to stop hate

Guest Opinion: New governor's council is state's latest step to stop hate

  • by Joyce Newstat and Scott Wiener
  • Nov 22, 2022

Every year, at the beginning of Pride Month, we put on our parkas and wool caps and head up to Twin Peaks to light the incredible pink triangle installation.