Cross-dressing is more of a set of actions or behaviors and not synonymous with gender identity (straight, gay, bisexual, transgender, among others).

From my vantage point, when I'm criticized in a way that I can hear what's being said - i.e., the issues - I'm more likely to listen and respond. A lot of the personal email I receive consists of name calling; I'll write back and say: Talk to me like I'm a person and you're a person and tell me where you disagree with me. I can't tell you how that turns people upside down. More often than not they write back with an apology and a reasoned argument.

Acceptance comes through understanding.

I really don't understand how parents can talk about gay couples' PDA as a problem or a transgender teen's suicide and not the fact that too many of our kids are being murdered in the schools and on the streets.

Okay, so here's my question: When did civility become incompatible with protest? Why do some people consider civility an antonym - anathema, even - to political action and dissent? Because, and I'm raising my voice, it's not. Have we forgotten how Mahatma Gandhi used nonviolent civil disobedience to free India from British rule and inspire civil rights movements worldwide?

What really surprised me was that more than half of all deaths by gunshot are suicides, more than 20,000 a year, about 58 a day.

There's nothing you can say that won't make you seem ungrateful or rude.