Supposedly, April is the cruelest month (and with the arrival of Hurricane Sandy, October is making a bid for the title this year,) but for LGBTQ people, November has long been the cruelest month. It is the month when America goes to the polls.

According to Urban Dictionary, a “nonpliment” is a back-handed insult disguised as a compliment, and trans* people hear a lot of them. Sometimes the insult is actually intended, but as often as not, an insult isn’t what the nonpliment giver had in mind at all; they genuinely thought they were praising the recipient.

This week, Hootenanny presents a sharp piece of satire about the strangeness of legislating against people’s sexuality in the first place.

Leaving the Bay Area. I’m afraid to say… I chose to do this. I moved to Gay Mecca to attend grad school with a strict plan to stay only the three years my program required. Six years later, the momentum of NorCal living still had its gentle, stoned tentacles caressing me. Over the years I grew quietly accustomed to the low empty rattle of homesickness and disconnection from place and family, season and belonging.

“I am impressed boy.” Primate Dion’s voice emanated from the walls of the lift car. “In the midst of your personal upheaval you did not resort to mealy-mouthed self-pity. I honestly expected you to go for the screeching that typically accompanies those kinds of arguments.”

David Gerrold is the author of "The Trouble With Tribbles" episode of Star Trek, and the Hugo and Nebula award-winning story, "The Martian Child" which was made into an inadequately heart-warming movie starring John Cusack. He isn't convinced just wearing purple will solve the bullying problem. Wayne Self offers some concrete suggestions on ways you can make a difference at the end of this article.

Brother Sun is a collaborative project composed of three well established singer-songwriters: Greg Greenway, Joe Jencks, and Pat Wictor. They specialize in chillingly beautiful harmony and stirring songcraft. This week’s song is Jencks’ creation. Here’s what he has to say about Love Is The Reason.

Everyone knows what a bully looks like. For starters, a bully is a kid—one who threatens to beat up a smaller kid if the smaller one doesn't give up his lunch money, (or her Twinkie, or his place in line for the swings.) A bully is the one who mercilessly mocks the kid with braces or a birth mark or an accent or second-hand clothes.

My name is Ryan, and I’m a bully. (Hi, Ryan.) Actually, it might be more accurate to say that I was a bully, but really, bullying is a lot like smoking—you’re never an ex-bully, you’re just one who doesn’t.

Joshua Harrison and Jeremy Jeffers are the Texas couple who made national news after their home was vandalized with a death threat on October 1 (see photo). I had a chance to speak with Josh and Jeremy on the phone about their lives in Clarendon, TX before and after the vandalism, the media attention they’ve received, and how the events of recent weeks have only worsened their predicament.

Shooter got me right on the shin. He was off-leash and had actually approached nicely a couple of times to take treats. On the third go around though, he nailed me good. He bit fast and hard, ripping my jeans but missing the skin. Then, he was gone. Australian Shepherds move quickly. Sucker punch.

Captain Stephen Hill is the gay soldier deployed to Iraq who was booed on national TV at one of last year’s Republican Presidential Primary debates. He’d been invited to ask a question for the debates on the subject of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the policy which for nearly twenty years had kept soldiers quiet about their sexual orientations and had only recently been repealed. This is what happened:

October 11 is National Coming Out Day, and that’s an awesome thing. I’ve done a little research and found that the term “coming out” as it refers to non-heterosexual orientation dates to around the 1950s academically, and bears some kinship to the the concept of a debutante “coming out” into society, a coming of age ritual with cultural peers all over the world. Americans will be most familiar with Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, Quinceañeras, and getting that oh-so-coveted learner’s permit from the DMV, but there is hardly a civilization in the world that doesn’t in some way formally observe the transition to adulthood.

Coming out is a weird process. Sometimes, it’s easy, like a few weeks ago, when I fell sideways into a conversation with a friend.

Scooter Pearce has been called “The Voice of Authenticity” by the Austin Post. Her latest CD, Authentic, is intimate and uncompromising, navigating from tender ballads to raucous honkytonk. Pearce wrote nine out of the fourteen songs, but has a way of taking full ownership of everything she plays.

“Remind me who Sivar is again?” I asked. “The Prelate whom you met shortly after arrival,” Dion replied. “Now come along; you do not want to meet her with a bloody lightning bolt drawn on your forehead and blood on your cheeks.”

Interest in what queers get up to ranges from the silence to “What really goes on in the bushes?” Of course it’s interesting to know what queers get up to because we live such fabulous lives! We have all this extra cash and income, which we spend in buying and pursuing the beautiful and the vain.

Each week, Carlos Delgado would unfold a little lace doily and place it on the baby grand piano, smoothing it with wrinkled, spotted hands. He would pause for a moment to survey his work, then he’d pull the small white statue of Mary from its velvet cover and gently stand it on the doily, meticulously aligning it according to specifications known only to him. Finally, he’d turn to me and say “Where’s my hug?”

Seven years later... The vast trunk of the Central North American Beanstalk never failed to impress me. It never truly disappeared over the horizon. Dark during the day and dotted with lights at night, it slowly swelled as we grew closer, camping each night because neither Paulos or I really looked forward to what would be happening when we returned.

I was never told that advocating and “getting involved” would be so tedious and mind-shatteringly boring. It’s like getting stuck in a ping-pong game from hell, with your opponent bettering you at each step while you constantly have to play catch-up! I find myself thinking that there are better things I could be doing with my time.

In recent months, a number of venerable media organizations including New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, CNN, and Dateline NBC have run sympathetic feature stories about transgender kids, their parents, and the challenges they face.