To be queer means resisting the repression of our true selves and the forces that demand we conform to others’ ideas of who we should be. It’s a declaration of our commitment to live authentically — who God created us to be — not who society or religion says we must become.
Over a grainy international phone call, I could hear people singing at St. Peter’s Square as I spoke with BBC journalist Mark Lowen about Pope Francis. It was April 21, and I, along with two other queer Catholic advocates, Max Kuzma and Simon Fung, were reflecting on what Francis had meant for each of us and our hopes for the future of the Catholic Church.
The Mississippi Delta. 1932. A young Black man (Miles Canton) drives up to a small church building. He climbs out of the car, clutching the neck of a broken guitar. He is covered in blood.
As he approaches the closed doors, a children's choir sings "This Little Light of Mine." The doors open and the young man staggers inside. The left side of his face bears deep claw marks. The pastor, unperturbed, opens his arms and demands the young man — Sammie — come forward. A sudden cut transforms the Black preacher into a white creature, its mouth open and dripping blood, its arms spread wide.
In NPR’s Alternate Realities, Zack Mack, who is a podcast producer and storyteller, hosts a three-part series about his father falling down the conspiracy rabbit hole and the effect it has on his family. After challenging his dad about his conspiratorial thinking, his father responded by suggesting they make a bet: He would make 10 predictions that he believed would come to pass before the end of 2024, and for each one he got right, Mack would pay him $1,000. For each one he got incorrect, he would pay his son $1,000. Mack’s dad, who is a Christian, was certain that his predictions were ironclad.
One of the most awaited Supreme Court rulings of the year ended in a deadlocked decision that led to triumph for supporters of church-state separation in schools.
I don’t know that I have what I could exactly call a “favorite artist,” but if I did, it’d probably be Bruce Springsteen, and I’m glad he’s speaking out about the importance of things like attacks on free speech and the exploitation of kids. What I don’t love is how quickly this stand is flattening him into just another liberal mascot. A fake photo of Springsteen in a “Keep America Trumpless” T-shirt has gone viral.
This bill, which passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on a party-line vote, serves as a thermometer — and the reading we’re getting back is telling us that the United States of America is suffering from a dangerous fever.
On April 16, 2025, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom passed a ruling that the legal definition of a woman excludes transgender women in some cases. This came after the campaign group For Women Scotland fought to oppose sex-based protections for anyone not assigned female at birth. The group’s agenda had focused on the Scottish government’s interpretation of The Equality Act of 2010, which provides protections against discrimination. This ruling does not prevent trans people’s protection from discrimination as trans people, but it does reinforce the idea of a strict binary for gender.
So far, this escalating feud is a rather depressing back-and-forth, a cycle of violence for which there doesn’t seem to be any way out. But instead of letting us bask in Ellie’s righteous violence a la John Wick, the series questions the line between justice and revenge, asks whether mercy has any part in the equation, and doesn’t offer any easy answers to these reflections.
I went on a trip to the American South with the Telos Group, a nonprofit dedicated to equipping people to advocate for peace and reconciliation amid conflict. The purpose of the delegation was to help Palestinians learn about the histories and current realities of the Black and Indigenous struggle for justice in the United States.