Columnists and Letters

Read op-eds, thoughts, reflections, and opinions on LGBT subjects and life in general.

Paul Hagen, Editor of Metrosource

Editor Paul Hagen Wonders: Does the Cologne Make the Man?

The year is 1999. I’m at home in New Jersey after my freshman year of college, and having gotten a taste of the freedom and excitement of living in NYC, I’m climbing the...

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Paul Hagen

Editor Paul Hagen Asks: Does Anyone Ever Outgrow Childhood — Or its Artifacts?

Looking at the walls of my home today — generously sprinkled with framed photos, prints, posters and the like — it’s strange to remember a time when I didn’t own a single...

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Kevin Phinney

First on Your Travel List: Know When to Go Commando

Kevin is anxious to find time to enjoy Amsterdam’s less-family-friendly pleasures, but ends up finding a state of freedom more total than he bargained for. That Amsterdam would...

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Wade Rouse

Wade Rouse Asks: If Clothes Make the Man or Woman, Can They Unmake a Vacation?

Wade and his pal Trish spend a year planning to look fabulous on vacation, only to end up arriving without a thing for her to wear. The four of us stood in silence as the luggage...

Columnists and Letters • Gay Voices|

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Paul Hagen

Lessons Learned: Visting Relatives Can Make A Gay Wedding Even More Gay

When I was a freshman in high school, my then-best-friend Pete had an older sister who was (more-or-less openly) a lesbian. It was something that he and I joked about: I suppose...

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Wade Rouse

And . . . Voilá! Wade Rouse Explains His Pen Name of Viola Shipman

When Wade begins writing fiction under a female pen name, he’s forced to consider what womanhood means to him. “What’s he doing up there? Where’s Viola? That’s a man!”...

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committee

Design by Committee

David lands on a committee to redesign a lobby, and chaos ensues. My most memorable experience working with interior designers came in the course of doing volunteer work. I’d...

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valentines mailbox

Diary: Love, Wade

Wade remembers crafting a valentine mailbox in school that attracted the attentions of a fellow student who liked him — and a bully who did not. In my grade school, it was...

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Wade Rouse

Dark Blue Marcia

Wade regretted lying to the women who helped him pass as straight over the years — until one of them asked for help in return. A beard is any person who — with or without...

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david dean bottrell

“You Love Me?”

David looks at a life through the eyes of a person he loves: his outspoken, gay, octagenarian neighbor, who is still very much alive and loving. My 85-year-old neighbor, Bernie,...

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Paul Hagen

My Night of Surprises with Frances McDormand and Shakespeare

It did not start out as a good night. my then-boyfriend Jonathan and I had fallen into a pattern of fighting — particularly about whether we were spending more social time with...

Columnists and Letters • Lifestyle|

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Kevin Phinney

Kevin Phinney Finds A Meaning for Christmas All His Own

After a childhood of unhappy holidays, Kevin wasn’t sure why people people said that Christmas was for kids — until one child brought out the kid in him again....

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