Bay Area Reporter :: Commentary News

Transmissions: Trans for the holidays

November 29, 2023 | by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

We're in that time of year, post-Thanksgiving but not yet Yule, when you cannot breathe without being bombarded by messages of family get-togethers for the holidays.

Spirit of Gay Games 2023 outshines COVID, politics, and doubters

by Roger Brigham
Nov 15, 2023

The Bay Area Reporter's former sports columnist shares his opinions on the recent Gay Games that took place in Hong Kong and Guadalajara, Mexico.

Transmissions: In difficult times

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Nov 15, 2023

It was 1998 when Rita Hester, a young Black trans woman, was found dead in Alston, Massachusetts.

Transmissions: Forgotten histories

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Nov 1, 2023

It should come as no surprise to anyone that I feel that the trans community often fails to grasp its own history. That focus is, after all, part of my own history.

LGBTQ HIstory Month: SF LGBTQ pioneers helped form the community

by Chuck Forester
Oct 25, 2023

That gay person at the Pride parade is the result of an unusual social experiment that started in 1970 in San Francisco.

Transmissions: In God's image

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Oct 18, 2023

Longtime readers will note that I don't often discuss matters of religion. It's not a topic I am comfortable with. I am predominantly agnostic, with a very strong pagan bent to my spirituality.

Transmissions: Ghosts, specters, and very old bones

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Oct 4, 2023

It's frightfully common for anti-transgender activists to rely on old tropes in place of actual arguments, and one of the favorites in their arsenal nowadays seems simple on the surface, but gets crueler the deeper you dig.

Transmissions: Very personal questions

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Sep 20, 2023

My partner was usually by my side when I was in the long process of coming out to our friends and family.

Transmissions: The world has changed

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Sep 6, 2023

I had the best of intentions. I had planned to focus purely on a quartet of aging rock stars, and their anti-trans statements, made all the odder by the gender-transgressive history of many of them.

Transmissions: Checkmate

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Aug 23, 2023

As we've all seen, the last few years have been chock full of attacks on transgender rights.

Transmissions: Barbie, through a trans eye

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Aug 9, 2023

In the early 1970s, Mattel partnered with United Airlines to enter Barbie into one of her many careers.

Transmissions: Take a mile

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Jul 26, 2023

You really don't need me to tell you that 2023 has been a challenging one for those of us who are transgender.

Transmissions: Casa Susanna and the mists of time

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Jul 12, 2023

The trans community has a long history, but all too often, the archives are buried, hidden behind the firmest of closet doors, and under threat of being forever lost.

Transmissions: Shooting off one's mouth

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Jun 28, 2023

In British Columbia recently, an elementary school track meet became something very different.

Transmissions: Stand in joy and Pride

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Jun 14, 2023

Pride, in 2023, feels a bit surreal. For months, we have heard the worst people on the right relentlessly labeling LGBTQ people — and in particular transgender people — as groomers, preying on the nation's children.

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