As simple as it sounds, the inability to get a required class could derail a foster youth's future because they cannot afford to extend their college education. After overcoming every imaginable obstacle to secure a higher-education degree, foster youth are confronted with same reality as every other Californian: a system...

Despite every obstacle imaginable, foster youth are making it to college in California. It is a testament to their incredible young spirits that they find a path to persevere and overcome a litany of abuses to get that far in their education. Despite abuse, neglect, homelessness, rampant mobility, multiple schools,...

In early 2002, I donated bone marrow only because I lied about having sex with men.

At the moment of my lie, a seven year old boy lay dying with Leukemia. As the chemo deployed to save his life destroyed his small body, I was at Vassar College being...

In 2004, the American political-religious Right, led by Karl Rove and President Bush used the matter of Gay marriage to rob Sen. John Kerry of the Presidency. It was a successful campaign that saw 11 states pass constitutional amendments against Marriage Equality. With America engaged in two wars, the political-religious...

Can you hear the drumbeat, right out of a battle march? An egregious death: 2-year old Viola Vanclief was killed by hammer-wielding caregiver. A hammer. Viola died while in the care of a foster care agency, United Care, that had a history of sloppy work including citations for caregivers choking,...

The APA treads Carefully in Denouncing Reparative Therapy

This Just In: the earth is round, gravity always wins, and the oceans are wet. Oh, and yes, and you cannot cure homosexuality by Reparative/Conversion Therapy. The American Psychological Association (APA) announced this month that the public should avoid psychologists that portray...

With a loaded AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle strung casually over his shoulder, a 9-millimeter Beretta pistol strapped to hip, and a bullet clip in his back pocket, Christopher Broughton stood yards from our president at a rally in Arizona this past week. Who was this person, and what was his...

Congress and President Obama's plan must include a Public Healthcare Plan Option because it's the moral thing to do, because it is the financially prudent thing to do, and because all the arguments against are merely-fear mongering. In 2007, the USA spent over $7500 per person on healthcare -- almost...

Today the Californian Supreme Court of CA birthed new classifications of people, the Gays & the Super-Gay; and a new legal doctrine, Almost-Equal Protection. These creations will not be long-standing because neither the California nor the United States Constitutions allow for a bare majority to strip fundamental rights from a...

Let us today put to rest this nonsense that words do not matter. Today we must claim as a community of moral-people that the word Marriage is available for all those that legally commit to their other. Words matter, we know they do -- and while they may not break...

This November 2008, I was gifted the chance to address the 35,000+ strong Civil Rights March in Los Angeles, California. I walked to the podium, passing the Mayor, Ricky Lake, Lucy Lawless, the City Attorney, Connie Rice, amongst a host of other luminaries. Amongst this series of speakers, I was...

The chickens won, and I congratulate them - because by protecting their rights we as humans are better for it. But I can't help but wonder (insert Sex and the City music) do chicken's deserve humane treatment anymore than I deserve equality from my country, from my brethren? Perhaps on...

Senator McCain: "I think that we've proven that both parents are important in the success of a family, so, no I don't believe in gay adoption."

We must leave behind opinions of convenience that exaggerate difference for political advantage. Senator McCain, himself an adoptive parent of Bridget - adopted from...

"BABY DIES IN FOSTER CARE", screams another tragic headline. Another instance of loss -- preventable, lamentable loss. A head will roll, probably that of a low level social worker, ill equipped to handle the overwhelming caseload. Calls for systemic change will result, yet none will occur. And as always the...

At the frontlines of the battle to reclaim youth from the throes of mobility, insecurity, and the insanity of the injustice thrust upon their shoulders - are foster parents. Daily, the task of caring for the immediate needs of these the most vulnerable is not met by the Foster Care...

Awash in a sea of educated individuals for seven years, I found I earned my PhD in foster care reform not in the halls of a classroom, but instead, amongst the countless foster homes, foster brothers, foster sisters, social workers, judges, lawyers, therapists, etc. that acted in and upon my...

Close your eyes; what do you see? That is the path foster youth see, know and expect: an endless expanse of black. Keep your eyes closed. Now, remember how you got from high school to where you sit today. Think of all those memories as stepping stones and visualize all...