tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366172292012-01-20T08:24:30.716-05:00OUT in the world.KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.comBlogger1931100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-66713118184377865072012-01-16T15:19:00.000-05:002012-01-16T15:20:25.132-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellSunday morning, my girlfriend and I piled on the layers and shivered our way to the West Village to see a movie. The F train wasn’t running uptown, so we sprang for a cab and got there early. We thought about going for coffee to kill time, but a crowd accumulated quickly, and I got nervous until I realized most were there for the handsome Harry Belafonte, not the Wim Wender’

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-62852940021878512772012-01-02T12:21:00.002-05:002012-01-02T12:27:57.272-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellSurprisingly, I’m a little sorry to see the old year disappear. Sure, it had a few holes, was a little frayed around the collar and cuffs, but I could have stretched it out a bit longer, then pieced it into a quilt or something. But poof. It’s gone.Perhaps I will refuse to move on. Who says a year has to have 365 days and must be reckoned by the movement of the sun around

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-56824063001484781892011-12-19T13:08:00.004-05:002011-12-19T13:34:49.241-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellAll I want for Christmas is for our presidential candidates to be struck dumb for a week or two, maybe even through the Republican primary votes in Iowa and New Hampshire. Imagine Newt and Mitt, Ron and Michelle, their mouths opening and closing like fish. Getting all red-faced and frustrated when nothing comes out. And while I’m at it, let’s silence the pundits, too. And

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-31761625576916356162011-12-05T13:34:00.002-05:002011-12-05T13:37:14.810-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellI’ll probably die of cancer of some girly part, like tits or crotch, with Loki, the trickster god looking on and snickering at the irony, because I preach so often that it’s usually the ticker or lungs that gets women just like for men. Loki’s the only god I’m ever tempted to believe in. Who else could be responsible for the Christmas season with all that earnest

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-18430525448360082862011-11-21T13:46:00.003-05:002011-11-21T14:04:03.966-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellNot that anybody cares, but the U.S. just celebrated the tenth anniversary of a monstrous milestone. On November 13, 2001, Bush legalized kidnappings, indefinite detention, secret military tribunals and hidden prisons for any suspected terrorist. Or suspected supporter of terrorism.He ordered them all classified as military combatants. Except when it came time to applying

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-14761462691776471922011-10-24T15:22:00.002-04:002011-10-24T15:29:59.802-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellI’ve spent half my life as a lesbian activist. First taking to the streets with the Lesbian Avengers, then as a journalist trying to mobilize Americans for the sake of their own withering democracy. Like when the Supreme Court awarded Bush the presidency, making Florida votes toilet paper. Or when the U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales advised the nation that torture isn

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-82110010991505245062011-10-12T10:14:00.002-04:002011-10-18T13:28:57.600-04:00

By Kelly Cogswell, HuffPostA couple of weeks ago, I went to Barnes & Noble to see Jane Lynch. I expected a line full of dykes waiting to meet one of their few heroes, but it was mostly straight women and fags until Lucy and Marie got there, and we butched the place up.We killed time taking pictures of ourselves with Dust Jacket Jane and laughing until our faces hurt. She looked almost real if you

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-39031726385863506672011-10-10T15:36:00.004-04:002011-10-10T15:43:54.439-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellLast Friday, the 2011 Nobel committee split the peace prize among Liberians Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee, and Yemeni writer Tawakkol Karman, recognizing them "…for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work." It’s one of only 12 peace prizes given to women in the 112 years of the award,

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-34608434815105964442011-10-05T10:46:00.000-04:002011-10-10T10:47:58.376-04:00

Kelly Cogswell, HuffPostPeople keep telling me I shouldn't be so dismissive of the Occupy Wall Street folks. It's early days yet. Somebody's got to do something about poverty and corruption. And there they are, eager and willing. Hell, they got arrested. They're practically ACT UP.So I went to City Hall, where a demo was scheduled. Nobody was there except a bunch of bored-looking cops and

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-80963862517919532922011-09-25T15:44:00.001-04:002011-09-25T15:46:22.494-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellI would really like to support the Occupy Wall Street folks. The economy is crap. Poor people are suffering. Young people can’t get work. And god help you if you’re a female. At first men were just hogging ninety percent of newly created jobs. (Yeah, men were losing their jobs at higher rates, but nothing like 90 percent more.)Now, women are not only getting screwed on the

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-37479526981619925462011-09-12T12:07:00.002-04:002011-09-12T12:24:28.420-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellFriday night, we walked over the bridge to Williamsburg, grabbed a beer, and offered up our blood to the mosquitoes which drank as much as they could hold, and probably woke up hung over. I hope so. So many welts. Why the ear? And three bites on one arm is excessive. That bone on my ankle couldn’t have been the most tender spot. I hope you broke your schnoz.On the way back,

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-59209134009007854812011-08-29T13:00:00.002-04:002011-08-29T13:13:29.567-04:00

By Kelly Jean Cogswell My girlfriend and I snuck out of New York well ahead of Irene’s arrival, but didn’t miss much here in the Catskills what with the rain that came pouring down, and the creek roaring up, and the wind hurling tree branches against the cabin roof. The electricity is out again, and for the first time in years I’m writing with paper and a pen. Between all that, and the

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-24481639533857780692011-08-14T20:26:00.000-04:002011-08-14T20:30:03.232-04:00

By Kelly Jean Cogswell We’re up in the Catskills with no car and I’m obsessed with the weather. Will the storm hold off until I can hike to town and back for groceries? Will the sun last long enough to dry the laundry? Is that rain, or just wind moving through the birches or elms or whatever has that silvery bark and dangly, whispering leaves? Will I catch pneumonia if I get soaked? I check

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-54976949152804103442011-08-01T13:30:00.001-04:002011-08-01T13:35:44.169-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellYou see it in the city all the time, the big crane and wrecking ball bringing down whole blocks of perfectly good tenements or warehouses that people were living in until the week before. Destruction seems cheaper than renovating, and besides you can usually build higher, construct more apartments, more offices. Make more money. Make your mark. I think of it as a kind of

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-41465288828215413962011-07-18T12:08:00.004-04:002011-07-18T13:08:35.469-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellWow! Little tiny Japan beat the Amazonian U.S. and took the Women's World Cup of Soccer. The final was an amazing game, at least after the first ten minutes when the Japanese players looked stunned just to be on the pitch, and would have been squashed if the American players hadn't been unlucky enough to hit the goal posts twice.I'm not an automatic U.S. fan. I even rooted

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-47364593505900668362011-07-04T10:16:00.006-04:002011-07-04T11:22:38.963-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellMy god, there actually is one Democrat committed and competent enough to keep a promise to queers. I'd think our victory in Albany was a dream, except that straight and gay people alike continue to ask me if I'm getting married. I'm noncommittal. Some of the financial and legal benefits would be nice, but there's the fact that marriage itself remains kind of

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-19373949193520173742011-06-20T12:21:00.006-04:002011-06-20T13:29:46.263-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellIt's LGBT Pride. I should get out there, wave the rainbow flag, celebrate. Especially since our New York State legislators are on the verge of legalizing same-sex marriage, and the UN Human Rights Council finally declared lesbians and gay men shouldn't get stoned to death, beaten up, tossed out of our jobs, or hung by the neck until dead. This is hugely important for queers

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-43429404856490939632011-06-02T15:35:00.000-04:002011-06-02T15:36:55.301-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellThe dogwood is blooming in the back garden. The clematis is full of fat purple flowers, and for a change we have a million red roses. I finally learned that this wasn't the species you prune the hell out of, trying to get rid of what they call suckers to make room for strong, promising growth. No, the thick and thin branches alike put out their gloriously fragrant buds.The

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-26088812240891618382011-05-23T12:44:00.004-04:002011-05-23T13:27:21.534-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellIt's almost time to commemorate those movement-launching warriors of the Stonewall Rebellion, so get out those rainbow flags and cocktail glasses and checkbooks. What a better way to celebrate legendary dykes and drag queens and street fags than by kicking back and doing nothing! Or doing something, but calling it nothing. Because nothing is more shameful these days than

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-76392365412869306952011-05-09T13:02:00.004-04:002011-05-09T13:17:03.867-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellSince I wrote last, curfew was declared in Tunisia where demonstrators are protesting the interim government, and elections may not happen in July after all. In Egypt, Muslims and Christians are honoring their own recent revolution by killing each other. The Syrian government aims to prevent one by rounding up democracy protesters and shooting into crowds. Bin Laden who

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-43566381526316745902011-04-25T11:57:00.007-04:002011-04-25T13:04:12.000-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellWhile the world watches people in North Africa and the Middle East struggle for democratic reform, Christian extremists in Hungary have been busy unraveling them.Hungary's new constitution, recently approved and slated to go into effect in January 2012, is a particular triumph for demagogues, grafters, and bigots of all stripes. Railroaded through parliament by the

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-79098796025034798522011-04-11T12:06:00.005-04:002011-04-11T13:03:02.630-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellI keep having flashbacks to the culture war of the early nineties. Like in December, when the Smithsonian precipitously yanked a video by gay artist David Wojnarowicz from its show "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture" after two rightwing U.S. Representatives complained a few seconds of ants crawling over a crucifix were sacrilegious and offensive.Two

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-81555064006953679652011-03-28T13:12:00.002-04:002011-03-28T13:24:56.196-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellSorry. I'm not done writing about Kentucky and my family. My mother's gotten sick and I spend way too much time dialing the 502 area code checking her health and dealing with relations who smugly believe they're not homophobes, but somehow can't bring themselves to use the words "gay" or "lesbian" or even "queer." Yesterday, my sister actually referred to my, ummm, "

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-15580503097592408942011-03-14T12:51:00.005-04:002011-03-14T13:44:44.546-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellIt's hard to know where to start this week. Pro-democracy Libyan rebels are getting slaughtered by government forces. An unforgiving Mother Nature has been destroying Japan. New York's own Peter King seemed intent on launching an anti-Muslim witch hunt, though all the terrorists arrested in the U.S. this week are white Alaskans, and very American as they spout the rhetoric

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-89659675369976457622011-02-28T10:24:00.003-05:002011-02-28T11:01:11.583-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellThere have been riots ever since humans have had cities, strikes ever since we’ve begun leading mechanized lives. Mass movements have been claiming the streets ever since there have been masses. Facebook doesn’t change that. It’s just a new version of an old tool, media, that makes popular action easier and more effective. Instead of sending human messengers, or letters, or

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-91858458914808162312011-02-14T13:42:00.003-05:002011-02-14T15:23:22.939-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellBy the end of it, they were all in Tahrir Square - young kids hoisted onto the shoulders of their parents, old men arguing in groups, women and girls screaming at the top of their lungs. Even early on, soccer rowdies paired with the Muslim Brotherhood youth to beat back the cops, and at prayer, Muslims were ringed by Christians protecting them vigilantly from Mubarak’s thugs

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-25152688921929132882011-01-31T12:33:00.008-05:002011-01-31T15:54:33.925-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellOn Wednesday, gay activist David Kato was bludgeoned to death with a hammer in his home in Uganda. He's been under threat of violence since 2009 when he was one of the few queers to openly denounce legislation proposing to execute homosexuals, instead of just tossing them in jail. Afterwards, a local newspaper published an antigay rant along with David's picture on the front

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-53979570936150366132011-01-17T13:20:00.009-05:002011-01-17T17:35:33.604-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellA couple of months, or a year from now, when another antigovernment or bigoted nut climbs to the top of a tower with a sniper's rifle, or puts a bomb in a bar, or buys a semi-automatic and kills a dozen or more, I'll wonder aloud why you're so surprised. We'll still have the same "eliminationist" speech, the same river of guns, the same untreated mentally ill giving teeth to

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-62152116039221750972011-01-03T13:15:00.004-05:002011-01-03T13:59:27.467-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellThe lead story in Le Monde and El País Saturday was the inauguration of Dilma Rousseff as President of Brazil. Apparently power can be handed over in one of the biggest, most dynamic countries in the world, with the new leader remarkably a woman. Nevertheless, the New York Times has no choice but to feature the latest college bowl game.That's pretty much par for the national

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-68158174401358879992010-12-20T13:32:00.005-05:002010-12-20T17:35:37.539-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellDon't Ask, Don't Tell is finally over and done with, so get out the champagne, point it away from your lover's face, and pop the plastic cork. Eventually, the Defense of Marriage Act will be overturned. A couple more laws will be passed against homodiscrimination. And with full legal equality, we can dissolve into our country like the other lazy liberal slobs America plays

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-78751378481566801532010-12-19T15:54:00.006-05:002011-01-03T15:16:24.838-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellOne of the best kept secrets in Lesbolandia is power couple Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman, the doyennes of fantasy fiction. We sat down earlier this month and talked about writing, relationships, and the virtues of operating outside the box. They met at a Boston Science Fiction Conference in 1985 when Delia was living in Boston and shopping a novella that would turn into

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-64472604142382418952010-12-06T11:27:00.002-05:002010-12-06T11:40:55.804-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellYou'd think the Tea Partiers would be acclaiming WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, as their newest hero. What is he but the ultimate Buffy single-handedly taking on the global vampiric network of the U.S. government and the international banking industry, not to mention the autocrats of Africa and Eastern Europe? By exposing how they operate, and sharing their inner

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-30442470805789559272010-11-22T10:52:00.007-05:002010-11-22T21:00:12.525-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellEarlier this month, I went back to Louisville for the first time in thirteen years. My mother still lives there, as well as my father, his second wife, and my oldest sister's family. My other sister came in from Colorado with her husband and kid. I set the "reunion" as far as possible from the landmine holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas when everything's supposed to be

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-17412451661577526962010-11-03T15:51:00.002-04:002010-11-03T15:55:36.085-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellI'd like to say I care about the Republican triumph this mid-term elections, but I just don't. The Democrats are no prize for queers, and it's been clear for months that the bulk of the country was on another of its freakishly alienating trajectories. Like when Americans continued to embrace Bush as he defended the torturers of Abu Ghraib, only turning away when the economy

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-406784164088759792010-10-25T14:14:00.006-04:002010-10-25T16:01:02.334-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellI am a little depressed almost all the time. It's a result of keeping my temper when I should be barricading buildings, storming Bastilles, or taking a big crap on your "progressive" doorstep. The tea party fury over furinners trying to steal their godgiven rights is nothing compared to what I feel at the daily betrayals of people pretending to have my big dyke back.You can

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-75811369348629582662010-10-11T14:12:00.000-04:002010-10-11T14:17:28.480-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellLast week was the CLAGS conference on Lesbian Lives in the 1970's. One of the big questions they asked participants was, "What did you think you were doing?" The extraordinary answer was, "Changing the world." In some of their mouths it sounded almost bitter. Some went on to blame Reagan for cutting down the hopes of the Seventies. Others blamed AIDS for drawing dykes into

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-38614353470950479732010-09-27T15:06:00.002-04:002010-09-27T15:10:17.706-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellAfter being told three times this week how much better things are for queers than in the bad old days, I decided to spend the weekend taking stock. Hell, maybe I'm just a cranky old dyke unwilling to let go of her complaints, and her crap-colored glasses.After two days with unusually open eyes, I have to announce that the verdict is mixed. There's no denying the legal

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-24162228934472261702010-09-25T14:55:00.006-04:002010-09-26T12:19:44.551-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellThe Seventies were the "Me" decade of disco, bell bottoms, and platform shoes. They were also the decade of agitation for social change. Antiwar protestors demanded U.S. troops leave Vietnam. Feminists fought for Roe vs. Wade. The energy crisis converted oil addicts into environmentalists. The Black Panthers stalked across America's urban centers. Queers, too, were still

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-7492289953473415222010-09-13T13:33:00.004-04:002010-09-13T13:55:02.572-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellI was still in upstate New York last week, and spent Sunday counting flags on the five mile walk into town. I lost track pretty quickly because the rarity along the road was the house with no stars, and no stripes hanging from a pole. Maybe they wanted to make sure I knew I was in America, and not Canada or France. Maybe they wanted to proudly trumpet their identity. Which

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-80509921951625940932010-08-29T21:49:00.003-04:002011-10-10T10:39:09.655-04:00

Earlier this week, I got an email about a young lesbian in a small town in Oklahoma who has been harassed for years, and not just verbally. She's reportedly been "run over by a car, cornered by a football team, her family completely abandoned by the entire town." She fought back for ages, thinking her struggle would make it easier for the kids that followed her, but she finally dropped out of

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-21429820681215778832010-08-15T14:16:00.003-04:002010-08-16T09:03:34.110-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellOn August 2, New York lost one of its unsung heros, African American lesbian Candice Boyce, a driving force for social justice, early founder of the LGBT community, and mainstay of the Center. I remember her as an intelligent, generous, and extraordinarily committed activist, words I don't always put in the same sentence. I met her in '94 or '95 at a moment when I was

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-51659711626861590602010-08-02T10:16:00.005-04:002010-08-03T09:01:40.364-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellIn case you haven't heard, there's an Islamic center proposed for a spot a couple of blocks from Ground Zero. The multi-story project would be run by an interfaith board, and include a performance arts center, restaurant, pool, and yes, also, a mosque. At first, the local opposition tried to block construction by arguing the site should have landmark status. And while I know

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-22588430471590709212010-07-16T15:21:00.004-04:002010-07-16T15:55:30.602-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellArgentina's Senate did Bastille Day up right, celebrating the holiday with a revolutionary vote approving modifications to the law that will make same-sex marriage legal. Here's hoping that while stuffing themselves with cake and champagne, queer newlyweds tip their tiaras to all the activists that made it possible.The LGBT Federation of Argentina (FALGBT) certainly deserves

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-56488773301216740392010-07-06T11:44:00.002-04:002010-07-06T12:19:16.852-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellThere are plenty of lesbians who think we're on the way up. They're "out". They fit in, and feel like they're just a hairsbreadth away from getting their props in society. They'll take the legislature over the streets any day. But for the rest of us desperate for a voice and face, there's still the Dyke March. We meet at Bryant Park at 5 the Saturday before the LGBT Pride

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-66908781323639325912010-06-21T10:35:00.008-04:002010-06-21T11:38:01.653-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellThe Soccer World Cup opened June 11th in South Africa, but the country's toughest players weren't even at the stadium when Bafana Bafana opened play by battling to an unexpected draw with Mexico. No, South Africa's dyke players were celebrating the event on muddy rocky fields and in front of TV sets. The country's most well known lesbian team, the Chosen FEW, watched the

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-85638531753316673292010-06-08T11:38:00.006-04:002010-06-09T09:34:41.669-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellIt's that time of year again, when stores get out their rainbow flags to pull in proud homo customers, and het celebrities indulge in playful homo kisses to make the front page news, or at least the entertainment section. In the U.S., the White House and Congress are even benevolently clearing the way for queers to serve openly in the military. Despite the hoo-hah from the

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-50344872060840505962010-05-25T11:55:00.003-04:002010-05-25T12:14:42.916-04:00

By Kelly Jean Cogswell"¿Caíste?" she asked. Have you fallen? I had a vision of myself on a re-enactment battlefield dramatically clutching my saber-wounded gut as I fell to the ground, though all my mother-in-law wants to know, really, is if I've finally gotten sick like my girlfriend.Yep. Brought low by the enemy, bacteria, I've gone completely reptilian. There's no yesterday or tomorrow. The

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-53719564957331178162010-05-11T11:56:00.003-04:002010-05-11T16:21:14.063-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellIt's official. Cuba's taken a great leap forward against anti-gay hate. For the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) they're gonna screen "Aimée and Jaguar," "Querelle," and "Milk" with Sean Penn invited to the island as a guest of honor. The organizer is the National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX), led by heterosexual Mariela Castro Espín, daughter of current

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-33991970008396928352010-04-27T11:16:00.005-04:002010-04-27T13:40:36.963-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellI was a foreigner for a couple of years in France, and it's not so bad as long as you have a proper visitor's visa. In exchange for fistfuls of documents, promises, little tiny photos and a check, the state gives you a laminated ID card, temporary status, and warnings they'll throw you out on your ear if you try to get a job, abuse their health services or just get on their

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-53770172382959277992010-04-13T11:23:00.008-04:002010-04-13T12:24:00.100-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellI meant to stalk Catherine Deneuve. I really did. She apparently lives at Place Saint Sulpice which is only a fifteen minute walk away. And it has plenty of benches for the lazy stalker, though you'd be advised to bring an umbrella, not so much for the rain but for the lurking pigeons.Unfortunately, I've run out of time. I'd remember, then forget. Or have something else to

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-71264757491325536932010-03-30T10:12:00.004-04:002010-03-30T13:20:31.780-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellThe world might be coming to an end. Not just because the Large Hadron Collider is back in action, or was, accelerating particles in 17 miles of track and potentially generating teensy-weensy black holes capable of swallowing up the earth in a single gulp, but because Obama actually got that health care reform bill passed. I'd jump up and down and throw a party except I'm

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-51133376017280299092010-03-16T11:20:00.003-04:002010-03-16T16:05:07.760-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellAmericans never let a good fact get in the way of imagining a glorious past and even brighter future. I expect a remake of "Annie" any day now announcing that the sun will come out tomorrow, with the next chairman of the Fed telling Americans to bet their bottom dollar on it, buy a nice new car and drive off into the sunset. France, by comparison, seems increasingly caught

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-40112244438096480242010-03-02T11:56:00.004-05:002010-03-02T12:37:20.182-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellI missed the lesbian and gay kiss-in on Valentine's Day here in Paris, and the March 1st pro-immigrant demos, but last month I did put in a little community service at Place de l'Odeon ripping down signs announcing, "Smart may have the brains, but Stupid has the balls. Be Stupid."The posters were supposed to advertise jeans, but because they were in English, the real message

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-20452368159046585472010-02-16T11:10:00.005-05:002010-02-17T11:14:28.866-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellIt's par for the course when the Pope bashes openly gay people in Britain for having consensual homo sex, yet in Ireland refuses to fire the criminal bishops that covered up child abuse for several decades. Apparently all that you need to make things right is a few stern words against rape and torture, a couple of Hail Marys and a "journey of repentance, reconciliation and

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-51310618331689300232010-02-02T10:25:00.002-05:002010-02-02T10:50:00.918-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellHere's to Groundhog Day, that gloomy 2nd day of February midway between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox when an unkempt rodent sticks its head out of its hole, and either retreats at a shadow that predicts six more weeks of winter, or frolics at the sign of early spring if there's nothing to see. The logic is a mess. To cast a shadow there'd have to be sun, which

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-28045505893503405332010-01-19T11:19:00.005-05:002010-01-19T11:33:12.403-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellI watch the news every night, while trying not to -- grey limbs sticking out of rubble, buzzing flies, and the groans of the wounded. I imagine Port-au-Prince like Gettysburg, only earth versus flesh, with tens of thousands dead in the space of a couple of miles and a couple of days, and in a hundred years you'll still hear stories of farmers plowing up bones. 9/11 was

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-75974552635985896902010-01-05T11:00:00.005-05:002010-01-05T11:48:21.485-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellI remember it well, December 31, 1999, and the collective fear that as the clock ticked over into a new millennium all our circuits would be melted, our data destroyed, and chaos unleashed upon an unprepared world. If only that had been the extent of it.My girlfriend and I did what we could, backing up our old computers on now obsolete floppies, while others backed up public

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-90705705334106344262009-12-22T10:52:00.009-05:002009-12-22T12:33:25.238-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellActivists just won same-sex marriage in the megalopolis of Mexico City, giving equal rights to a couple of million lesbians and gay men. When the bill passed 39-20, supporters reportedly yelled, "Yes, we could! Yes, we could!" It seems almost like a taunt considering U.S. queers that voted for Obama and the audacity of hope are stuck with mendacity and, "Oh no. Not at all

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-15218165201203748422009-12-08T11:05:00.006-05:002009-12-08T12:53:07.048-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellAfter years of largely uncritical support for the Castro regime, the African American intelligentsia has finally been nudged into looking at the racial legacy of the revolution. The result is the "Declaration of African American Support for the Civil Rights Struggle in Cuba."Signed last week by sixty African Americans including Cornel West, Ruby Dee Davis, Melvin Van Peebles

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-19443781115151236802009-11-23T12:10:00.008-05:002009-12-03T04:21:23.971-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellIt being very nearly Thanksgiving, let me lift a glass in gratitude to Beth Ditto, probably the most famous lesbian in Paris. She turns up nekkid on the cover of magazines, plays fashion shows, and gets interviewed for hip culture rags. A couple nights ago when I was channel surfing I saw her on the show Taratata. The crowd gave her a standing ovation when she walked on

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-13355951322427158502009-11-10T10:27:00.001-05:002009-11-10T11:17:12.277-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellEvery time I watch the images of the crowds streaming through Berlin's Cold War gates it's magic. God, what joy. What exhilaration when that wall you'd lived with for twenty-eight years just crumbles, and along with it the paranoia and surveillance and fear, the degradations and mutual betrayal of friends, all the lies you had to tell to others and yourself just to survive.

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-60848475954503739582009-10-27T13:18:00.008-04:002009-10-27T14:32:16.623-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellIt should have gone to Philip Roth. Philip Roth, or maybe Joyce Carol Oates. That was the consensus on the American side of the pond after Herta Müller was named the latest winner of the Nobel prize in literature.In a Washington Post article, Mary Jordan asked, "Herta who?" and quoted that luminary Harold Bloom announcing he had, "Nothing to talk about because I have never

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-8192989009925762952009-10-13T10:08:00.004-04:002009-10-13T11:30:33.284-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellThere are only a couple reasons to march, and plenty not to. Prior to the Sunday March for Equality in Washington, D.C., the compromised politicos of the Human Rights Campaign ilk expressed their preference that we queers sit in the closet with some gags on our mouths until 2017, so as not to embarrass the Promiser-In-Chief Barack Obama.Some lefty queers were also refusing

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-64480789634129602612009-09-29T09:19:00.001-04:002009-09-29T09:22:49.561-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellI saw the women's 800 meters in Berlin. This young thing was facing the cameras before the race started, pretending to brush a few specks of dust off her shoulders because that's what the other runners were to her, just dust she was gonna leave behind. She wasn't in the lead at first, but pretty soon she broke out and that was the end of it. Afterwards, the French announcer

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-65716982965338984002009-09-15T11:06:00.003-04:002009-09-15T13:26:21.081-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellSome people have two left feet. America doesn't even have one, not a toenail. My latest theory is that the impotence of our left can be judged in inverse proportion to the amount of Che tee shirts worn by its proponents. And the decibel level of their response to political outrages. When the Democrats recently forced out Van Jones as Obama's green jobs Tzar to quell

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-55875447292609930752009-09-01T11:06:00.004-04:002009-09-01T11:23:09.446-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellWhen I drop in on the American health care debate my only response is "Freaks!" Seriously. Universal health care = death panels? Communism? Armageddon? On the other hand, who on earth believes access and regulation will fix it all?I'm an unexpected skeptic. I'm living in France where the value of universal coverage is self-evident. Despite their complaints about the high

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-8663613863596508922009-08-18T12:11:00.005-04:002009-08-19T13:20:26.835-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellYou see tons of Muslim women in Paris near the Institut du Monde Arabe on the fancy Left Bank. They're mostly young and scholarly, and charge down the sidewalks with colored headscarves, or black hijabs and abayas floating behind them like capes. They remind me of young queers taking to the street in their uniforms of leather bracelets and Doc Martens with pink and black

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-73359293764051457062009-08-04T11:03:00.001-04:002009-08-04T11:05:36.545-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellTerrible, the queer kids shot in Tel Aviv, terrible the lesbians raped and slaughtered in South Africa. Then there are the bashings and murders in the States. Terrible. We need more laws, more resolutions, more vigils and marches, more politicians on our side, more media, more verbage to step over on the way to work in the morning before the super sweeps it off the curb.More

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-19518495781551830352009-07-21T11:46:00.003-04:002009-07-21T17:29:44.027-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellFrench TV's been full of nostalgic documentaries celebrating the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's trip to the moon. It was hailed not only as a superpower's scientific advance, but a human achievement belonging to us all, a first step towards a glorious future in which we would all hold hands and sing Kumbaya while circling the campfire on our jetpacks.All things

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-14049079606423157172009-07-07T12:43:00.010-04:002009-07-08T06:53:42.908-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellSo how do we build an LGBT movement? Despite the enormous turnout at pride parades we don't really have one. For a while people rallied for the same-sex marriage fight, but if Facebook posts are any indication, a big minority was relieved when the "reactionary" fight for gay marriage in California went bust. "Now we can get back to more important issues." How do we reconcile

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-27800095966097041352009-06-22T11:14:00.012-04:002009-06-22T11:49:21.807-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellIt's that time of year when queers hold barbecues and parades, and lift their Cosmopolitans to the dykes and drag queens that helped start the modern LGBT movement. Our institutions honor an activist or two, usually a jovial sort that won't offend any of their funders, and point to Barney Frank, Ellen, Rachel Maddow, queers marrying in Massachusetts then declare, Yes, we've

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-43598597716163203242009-06-09T10:28:00.012-04:002009-06-09T11:21:25.013-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellI've always liked Larry Kramer. He's one of the few people as perpetually pissed off as I am, and equally obsessed with gay history. While his thing lately is extracting queers from their historical closets, I'm desperate to preserve our activist history. Without history, without memory, each generation seems to reinvent itself from scratch with a piecemeal vision for our

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-1448672574398626762009-05-26T11:01:00.010-04:002009-05-26T11:25:34.063-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellAnother Memorial Day, another moment of national pageantry broadcast on PBS. There were tear-jerking songs by fully fleshed Hollywood and Broadway types and a flag-waving crowd intercut with lengthy displays of abbreviated limbs that apparently caused less pain than a haircut. In the hospital videos, the damaged soldiers all wore brave smiles. Their girlfriends and wives

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-87752914849216424062009-05-12T12:03:00.006-04:002009-05-12T12:21:41.288-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellIn a couple of weeks New Yorkers will be marking the anniversary of the Stonewall, but probably nobody's gonna throw a bottle or a punch. State-by-state we're winning the rights to same-sex marriage. In the academic world, queer and gender studies programs are practically mainstream. And during the post-election protests against the passage of Prop H8te, there was a brief

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-11228405561918000642009-04-28T10:10:00.004-04:002009-04-29T08:38:10.473-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellThis week, I'm sick of straight people and their carefully guarded innocence. First a friend's mom asked, "Homophobia, is it really a problem?" Then, after Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, an eleven-year old boy, was literally bullied to death, killing himself after months of getting called "faggot" and "gay," we had the article, "Dude, You've Got Problems," in the New York

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-85235938804325846202009-04-14T14:51:00.005-04:002009-04-14T15:36:32.449-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellThere was a lesbian conference this weekend in Toulouse, France. The theme: lesbians and the weapon of laughter. Somebody thought it would be a good idea to have the Lesbian Avengers, and I appeared with Ana Simo on a panel of activists including the Paris feminist group, La Barbe, and Madrid's Toxic Lesbians. We showed video snippets of Avengers taking over Fifth Avenue to

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-1779126077446303032009-03-31T10:30:00.010-04:002009-03-31T11:12:49.650-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellI used that title in my blog last month, and could have used it several times since. Why not? It gets your attention. Responds to the most common message out there, unspoken, and hidden between the lines, declaring, "I Hate Women. Always."In South Africa, it's written large in sexual violence. Lesbians, especially, are raped to "cure" us of our sexual orientation, and keep

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-11363014025543232782009-03-12T06:02:00.001-04:002009-03-12T06:06:21.679-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellYou want health care reform, you better just pack your bags and move to France, or maybe Sweden. You'll have time to learn the language, turn old and grey, and maybe kick the bucket before any real reform takes roots in the States, despite the love-fest at Obama's recent forum on healthcare.Did you see that saccharine nonsense? Democrat Charles Rangel announcing how well he

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-42910515569182803792009-03-03T10:26:00.013-05:002009-03-03T11:31:19.616-05:00

Imams -- and priests and pastors and monks -- are mostly just a bunch of power-hungry goats, and I better say it while I can. Our right to speak freely about religion is disappearing almost as quickly as chances the world will pull out of this "recession" any time soon.This week, the UN will consider resolution 62/154, on "Combating defamation of religions," an annual motion supported by the

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-74048807312167434822009-02-17T11:39:00.012-05:002009-02-17T12:28:42.301-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellIn Pakistan, the government dumped democracy in the violent Shat region, agreeing Monday to institute homo-cidal Sharia law in exchange for the Taliban there laying down their arms, or at least not killing the local cops. In the U.S., meanwhile, Obama's pushing ahead with his faith-based funding dumping money in social service programs run by religious groups that (to less

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-75764318271110508162009-02-03T11:11:00.003-05:002009-02-03T11:16:28.008-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellI thought I could imagine equality, but not really. As an activist, I just push forward in the dark with no idea towards what. I got a glimpse Sunday when I tuned in to one of France's CNN-like channels just in time to catch a Latin American map and a voice talking about which country gave which rights to queers. Colombia's High Court had just ruled that same-sex couples had

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-18721621143262561672009-01-20T12:48:00.011-05:002009-01-20T13:02:38.173-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellThe wave of Obamaniacs that made their way across America to shiver at DC's National Mall knew Barack Obama was not just the forty-fourth president of the United States, but a symbol of historic achievement, of possibility, and yes, of change. Just a couple of generations out from Rosa Parks and segregated lunch counters, ten years from the lynching of James Byrd, and three

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-38581611214952962212009-01-06T11:51:00.008-05:002009-01-06T12:47:16.928-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellIf you want to foster AIDS, and kill queers in Africa, Rick Warren's the man for you. While Warren's characterization of queers (and Jews and Muslims) as godless perverts fuel bigotry in the U.S., the real effects of inviting Warren to preside over Obama's inauguration will be felt in sub-Saharan Africa. He has missions all over the place, and he's rolling in dough and

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-92108327686897190142008-12-22T09:10:00.014-05:002008-12-22T09:58:13.403-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellThe only surprising thing about Obama's choice of a homophobic bigot to bless his inauguration, or for that matter, the Albany debacle with the Gang of Three, is the outrage that greeted them.Where were the official queer protests when Obama campaigned with ex-gay Donnie McClurkin? Or when BO exalted the advice of Reverend Kirbyjon Caldwell who runs programs to free lesbians

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-4826463626964601312008-12-16T11:57:00.012-05:002008-12-16T13:23:06.580-05:00

By Kelly Jean Cogswell It's not just the wire-tapping and kidnappings and torture that are undermining Bush's War on Terror, but the fact that his target's all wrong. How effective is it really, chasing down the elusive figures of Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, or the Lashkar-e-Taiba, presumably responsible for the recent attacks in India? Are they our worst enemy? Their membership, compared to the

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-63098103883590707642008-12-09T11:20:00.012-05:002008-12-11T08:59:12.970-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellThursday, I bought a bathrobe and pajamas, packed a bag, and took the metro to the hospital where I handed over both my credit card and a check so they would accept my 59.2 kilos of flesh to be depilated, disinfected, knocked unconscious, pierced with holes, de-cysted, and released.Even paying full price, it was a bargain by American standards. In Paris, doctors will make a

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-49474595300020159792008-12-02T10:47:00.019-05:002008-12-03T07:24:05.107-05:00

Like every election year, most LGBT people spent this one working for Democrats, and writing checks in exchange for promises of little things like anti-discrimination laws, gay marriage, and equality.There's never much of a payoff. If Democrats were an investment fund, we would have pulled out years ago. They're the Lehman Brothers of queer rights, offering worthless paper to willing marks. How

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-71204122361266599752008-11-24T10:31:00.015-05:002008-11-24T12:49:53.477-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellOur adaptability is endless. Spend time with a person of a different race, you can relinquish prejudice, says Ben Carey in the New York Times. Then again, have your city bombed, and toot sweet from the ashes flowers anti-Muslim rage. Suddenly a name like Mohammed or Hussein makes you fair game for airport delays, long ones, in grey rooms off to the side. You get elbowed in

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-56258212262695041282008-11-18T09:00:00.011-05:002008-11-25T09:38:41.956-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellIt's not just a theory. There really was a Mormon conspiracy to suppress same-sex marriage in California. Michael R. Otterson, a P.R. guy for the Latter Day Saints came clean to the Times. "We've spoken out on other issues, we've spoken out on abortion, we've spoken out on those other kinds of things... But we don't get involved to the degree we did on this."All I have to

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-1098455579255326702008-11-11T06:40:00.004-05:002008-11-11T06:46:18.913-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellIf our defeat in California tells us anything, it's just how pathetic the gay civil rights movement currently is. Instead of putting ourselves out there, engaging in real community organizing, we more often focus on raising money, taking meetings, and lobbying and advertising our way to civil rights.After all, it's easier to send an email, and make a speech or a donation,

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-55249496125594935242008-11-05T07:36:00.012-05:002008-11-05T10:32:24.225-05:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellI would like to be on the right side of history for once. I would like to say I saw Obama's landslide victory, and the cheering crowds, and heard his speech, declaring, "Change has come to America" where anything is possible, I would like to say I saw all that, my heart melted, and I was swept away by a sudden burst of optimism and joy.But in truth, my heart didn't melt. I

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-34892236249245439792008-10-28T07:51:00.005-04:002008-10-28T07:58:12.156-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellI think of Washington as that place where politicians spend their days waving around the feathers that create hurricanes on the other side of the world, or at least Louisiana. At swearing in ceremonies, they should all be required to take the Hippocratic oath. First do no harm.You're not going to get that kind of modesty from the Democrats if the polls are right, and they

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-84716348677532584592008-10-21T07:04:00.021-04:002008-10-21T10:33:31.215-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellOn June 6th, the last day of the Hillary-Obama battle, fifty-six Democrats in the House of Representatives asked the Attorney General for an immediate investigation into whether Bush and Company were in violation of "the War Crimes Act ... and other U.S. and international laws." Their letter charged new information had surfaced about top level meetings at the White House

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-19245971858753061782008-10-14T13:27:00.007-04:002008-10-14T14:25:52.584-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellApparently, there's some fixed amount of freedom in the world, like oil in the ground, or gold, and anybody in their right mind tries to hoard it. That's the idea I get, anyway, when somebody's explaining why you can't give more rights to women (or people of color or immigrants). It'll be coming right out of their pocket, and they can't afford it.That seems to be the main

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-35158306541612956632008-10-07T10:54:00.008-04:002008-10-07T14:13:06.916-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellI spent half of yesterday in front of MSNBC watching the market crash in slow motion, first dipping below 10,000 then sinking bit by bit until something like 800 points had been lost. An hour before the closing bell, there was a small rally as traders dove in reflecting optimism about a global interest rate cut, or maybe they just snatched up some bargains because even blue

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-19175368391444679662008-09-30T08:33:00.010-04:002008-09-30T08:58:09.153-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellRemember that scene in Star Wars where Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo and Chewbacka are trapped in the garbage compacter room and barely escape as it closes in ominously on all sides?That's the perfect metaphor for Identity Politics 2008 -- all of us minorities trapped in a shrinking box of trash in which the crushing walls represent not just society, but community

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-75307821113961544202008-09-23T11:23:00.001-04:002008-09-23T12:21:08.361-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellSaturday, my girlfriend and I took a tour of the Palais Royal in central Paris. Usually closed to outsiders, it houses the Ministry of Culture and Communication, the Constitutional Council, and the Council of State. Flat computer screens and fax machines were integrated into spacious rooms with gilded ceilings that since 1622 have seen a parade of cardinals and kings and

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-72689123879765993372008-09-16T10:59:00.000-04:002008-09-17T04:42:11.754-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellThe Democratic tradition in New York City is to hold your nose and vote for the lesser of two evils. So, up against George W. Bush, I voted first for Gore, then for Kerry, despite my discomfort with their relatively conservative social stances (literally posed in front of stained glass windows). As my reward, the Democrats have swung more and more to the right. In Election

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-31054692846219380212008-09-09T09:49:00.000-04:002008-09-09T12:11:05.608-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellIn the distant presidential campaign of 2000, when the Democrats could have touted the flourishing economy and budget surplus of the Clinton administration, they preferred to focus instead on more important issues. Like how George W. Bush pronounced "nucular." We also heard about W.'s cowboy hats, ridiculous big ears, terrible grades at Yale, drunkenness, and cheerleading

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36617229.post-61011058480538103902008-09-02T10:11:00.000-04:002008-09-02T12:13:32.924-04:00

By Kelly Jean CogswellMcCain did what eighteen million women couldn't. By choosing Sarah Palin to run as VP, he got Obama and the Democrats to retrieve women from the shit heap where we'd been dumped. At least for the moment.Already her Democratic handlers had forced the accomplished Mrs. Obama to put on her metaphorical apron and play mom and wife at the DNC. Hillary even interrupted the

KChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241556587624969142noreply@blogger.com0