NEWS

Monday, September 7, 2026 Happy Monday, my friends! It’s no secret that America likes its cowboys. These mythical men who go off to lonely places where they interact only with a few other people, several working dogs, and whatever livestock are under their care. We romanticize their solitude, longing ourselves for those rare moments of silence in our noise-driven lives. Around them we’ve constructed ideals rooted less in reality than in our perception of how we too might achi

Monday, August 31, 2026 Happy Monday, my friends! After three weeks on vulnerability and discussions about how I’ve seen myself as a Queer man in relation to masculinity and masculine people, I want to pivot a bit to how media both helps and hurts people construct their ideas of gender. Many of us have heard for decades about the overt effects of media which crop, decrease, airbrush, enlarge, and embellish the features of models and public figures to achieve supposed ideals o

Monday, August 24, 2026 Happy Monday, my friends! I can’t remember the first time I saw one of the reports, when it started to become socially acceptable for local news affiliates and the national news to report on domestic violence in the LGBTQIA+ community, but still acceptable as well to televise photos of abuse victims. That domestic violence would pervade the Queer community, and specifically gay male couples blew my mind. Not that I ever saw myself as an aggressor, I si

Monday, August 17, 2026 Happy Monday, my friends! Last week I named something plainly for the first time really in any space: that what I had called “wanting to be one of the guys” was, underneath, wanting to date them. But that confession and realization is deeper than just identifying a “type” and more about who I am and how I see myself beyond externally objectifying other people. This week I want to peel back another layer, looking further into a reality that I still find

Monday, August 10, 2026 Happy Monday, my friends! Size matters, some people say, whether it’s the size of your bank account, your social media following, your physical prowess, your sexual anatomy, or the many options men use to compensate for a perceived lack of size in one or more of those areas. Growing up I always marveled, at a distance, about the groups of men who were wealthy, influential, athletically gifted, and likely well endowed, though my experience with that las

Monday, August 3, 2026 “Therefore, Their sons grow suicidally beautiful At the beginning of October, And gallop terribly against each other’s bodies.” ~From “Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio” by James Wright Happy Monday, my friends! Recently, I discovered that a friend of mine was born and lived the first few years of his life in my hometown. If that wasn’t a fun enough coincidence, it turns out that our parents worked and volunteered together and, after almost 30

Monday, July 27, 2026 Happy Monday, my friends! Last week clergy from throughout the United States and beyond gathered in Charlotte, NC, for The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries’ (TFAM) 2026 Leadership Conference. Though I had registered as soon as tickets were available, by April I knew that I wasn’t going to be in the financial position to make the trip (airfare, lodging, food, etc. add up quickly!). While friends assured me I could have been more creative about funding t

Monday, July 20, 2026 Happy Monday, my friends! Following a recent conversation with an acquaintance, he leaned in and said, “Ben, I think your problem is you’re a narcissist.” I tried hard to hear that criticism and tried to understand it and the context in which this person was basing his nonclinical judgment. My first reaction was to be defensive, but then I started to look into clinical definitions of narcissism which sent me down a rabbit hole of considering many of my a

By NV Gay, Columbus Underground All I can do is sit here and ask myself, why? Why am I being attacked for practicing my constitutional...

By David DeWitt, Ohio Capital Journal COLUMBUS, Ohio — JANUARY 10: House Speaker Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill, strikes the gavel during...

by H. L. Comeriato, The Buckeye Flame CW: Anti-LGBTQIA+ content, Nazism, and white supremacy. Across the state, white supremacists are...

"The Waiting" was preached for Pacific School of Religion on December 13, 2023. It is a modern, dramatic retelling of the Christmas story...

By David Dewitt, Ohio Capital Journal CW: Suicidal ideation, self-harm, and discussion of HB68 and anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation. Ohio’s...

By Megan Inwards You rubbed mud in your eyes Since the world was too bright And you couldn’t make out What was wrong, what was right But...

By James Blackhall A rainbow community Diverse and dispersed. Some I know well Some I've only just met... Nurturing and loving. Queer and...

By Megan Inwards LOOK AT ME look at my broken fingers And the bruises around my neck. Hear the rasp of my voice. Put your hand into the...

By Megan Inwards They’ve taken your word And fashioned it into a sword That they hand to me To point at my own heart. But I have beaten...