William Walker, Bertha Canty, Dr. Anita Grier and Rafael Mandelman at City College’s Lavender Graduation (Photo by Katherine Gelardi)

By Rafael Mandelman

Happy Pride, Gentle Readers! Tis the season for queer celebrating. The LGBT community at City College got an early start with a Lavender Graduation ceremony the evening of May 24 in the Diego Rivera Auditorium at the Ocean Avenue Campus. The past two years have been difficult ones for everyone at City College, not least the students, so it was especially sweet to be able to honor the accomplishments of our graduates that evening and the following morning at the all-school commencement ceremony in Ram Stadium. Over commencement weekend, I was able to hear some of the extraordinary stories of City College graduates, queer and straight, who had overcome a host of challenges – from incarceration to teen parenthood to homelessness – to earn a degree at City College and put their lives on a new and better trajectory. These students are my heroes.

Speaking of heroes,...

By Thom Watson,
Marriage Equality USA

Next week is our anniversary. That is, one of our anniversaries.

I’ve joked that one of the rare upsides to the lack of marriage equality is that, unlike our opposite-sex counterparts for whom the wedding anniversary is the focus...