Bay Area Reporter :: Commentary News

Transmissions: Embracing trans dignity

April 17, 2024 | by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

There are three stories that have recently crossed my desk, each of which are unrelated, but together paint a very descriptive image of what's wrong with the way non-trans people are speaking about trans lives.

Transmissions: In visibility

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Apr 3, 2024

Though completely random happenstance, Easter and the Transgender Day of Visibility occurred on the same day this year, Sunday, March 31.

Transmissions: A space for trans rights

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Mar 20, 2024

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama is the home of Space Camp, a program where kids of all ages can explore what it is to be part of a space mission.

Transmissions: A death in Oklahoma

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Mar 6, 2024

On February 7, a 16-year-old student at Owasso High School in Owasso, Oklahoma entered the girls' bathroom. Twenty-four hours later, that student would be dead.

Transmissions: Bad intentions, bad compromises

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Feb 21, 2024

I regularly discuss the astounding amount of legislation put forth by lawmakers across the country aimed squarely at trans rights.

Transmissions: Send in the clowns

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Feb 7, 2024

Today, I want to talk to you about clowns. No, I am not slyly referring to the various Republican politicians who are filing ever more draconian bills to squash transgender freedom across our country, though the thought had occurred to me.

Transmissions: Linguistic history

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Jan 24, 2024

I was recently made aware of a fascinating bit of linguistic history, courtesy of the 1661 edition of Thomas Blount's "Glossographia, or a dictionary interpreting all such hard words of whatsoever language now used in our refined English tongue."

Transmissions: We need you

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Jan 10, 2024

I recently wrote that last year saw 589 anti-trans bills that were introduced within 49 states. Of those introduced, 85 passed into law.

Transmissions: The closing of the year

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Dec 27, 2023

As we close the book on 2023, my mind keeps going back to one number: 589.

Transmissions: A holiday wish

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Dec 13, 2023

The holidays were different when I was younger. Lacking the internet, one would eagerly anticipate the arrival of the Sears catalog at your front door around August or September.

Transmissions: Trans for the holidays

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Nov 29, 2023

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.

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