Jacksonville, Florida citizens who self-identified as LGBTQIA brothers and sisters, allies and advocates gathered in Hemming Park on Saturday, January 10, 2015 to celebrate marriage rights equality with the performance of about sixty wedding ceremonies. Although the event’s significance garnered widespread local news attention, the human spirit shared among participants was...

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is frequently noted to have said that eleven o’clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week. It probably holds true for racial segregation among churchgoers, but if you’re looking for the pinnacle of segregation based on gender or sex, it’s all about location,...

Every now and then, affirmation comes along with a sweet melodic surprise. Shortly after Mike Bernos [aka Mondo Mike, band leader for Mondo Mike and the Po Boys] heard my TEDxJacksonville talk, Gender Bound: lessons from the world between, he wrote Soul to Soul. The song resonates with me on countless levels. I’ll...

Our city recently experienced an empiric social experiment. In a nutshell: To resolve personal discomfort, an elected representative demanded action that threatened citizens’ rights. First amendment protection deflated the demand, eliminated the threat, and the pending battle of wills evaporated. Good things happened. The experiment brought city cultural institutions together, new members and...