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From an interview I did with Rachel Kramer Bussel, editor of Best Sex Writing 2008, about my essay in that book: Amy Andre has a master’s degree in human sexuality studies from San Francisco State University. She works as a sex educator and writer. What inspired your article “The Study of Sex?” I’m actually the [...]

I can’t believe it, something Jewish was actually screened in the U.S. in places before New York? Yes, it’s true. It’s the first time I can say since leaving that I was excited I wasn’t in NY, because let me tell you, there’s nothing like Jewish life in New York, as is referenced through the [...]

I recently sat around with friends in my newly relocated life in the bay area, talking about presidential candidates. Wouldn’t you know, at that time, they all brushed me off when I said I was worried Giuliani might win. Now, they’re paying more attention. Giuliani is the front running GOP presidential candidate. The past few [...]

This is a parsha of contradictions. Balak, king of Moab, fears the Egyptian Hebrews and seeks help from the powerful prophet, Balaam. YHWH goes back and forth as to whether or not Balaam can go to Moab. He finally goes and (according to some rabbis) tries to curse the Hebrews, but is only able to [...]

In brief… Jen Sorensen is brilliant. So is LanguageLog’s Arnold Zwicky. The furor has mostly died down over Imus’ remarks about the Rutgers womens’ basketball players, as he has lost nearly every public forum. Over the last few weeks I read the outrage expressed everywhere and felt no need to comment on it myself. But [...]

At 5, he learned his primary colours. Red, blue, yellow. Except that the red wasn’t truly red, but a pinkish red that he later learned was called magenta, and the blue wasn’t really blue, but an electrical turquoise hue called cyan. At 13, he learned the colour of longing when his family abandoned the arid, [...]

Gavriel Ansara is a polycultural polyglot from an observant Jewish background with ties to several continents. He is a board member of Keshet, Boston’s Jewish GLBTQI advocacy and education organization, and founder/coordinator of Tiferet, a Keshet project designed to meet the needs of Orthodox and traditionally observant Jews who self-identify as gender and/or sexual minorities. [...]

Sunday November 26. I fixate on the photo of Sean Bell with Nicole Paultre his about-to-be wife and their laughing baby. November 25, their wedding day. Police fired 50 bullets at the groom and two friends., Sean Bell is dead. Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman are hospitalized, seriously wounded. They were unarmed. What makes these [...]

Ah, the next generation of Republicans… what can I say? They aren’t Millicent Fenwick, or even Nelson Rockefeller. I thought that each generation was supposed to grow up and reject the values of the dominant culture, but unfortunately there seems to be a faction that’s rebelling against the wrong people. At a time when most [...]

I’m adding my own categories to this: police brutality, xenophobia, imperialism, violence (Click on the picture) The following are two videos documenting the police brutality of Mostafa Tabatabainejad, a UCLA student, who was repeatedly stunned with a Taser and then taken into custody when he did not exit the CLICC Lab in Powell Library in [...]