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Rod Hensel: It’s Time for New York State to Step Up for LGBT Seniors
By Rod Hensel
Our LGBT seniors who are still out and about and active need to be willing show they know how to post on Facebook and use a phone when election time draws near. We’re not even asking for money, just the right to live with dignity and pride.
On the west coast, California gets it. Washington state gets it. It’s time for New York State to take a leadership role on the east coast and show they “get it” too.
The “it” is legislation requiring professional caregivers — especially those in nursing homes and senior housing facilities — to take a course on the special needs of LGBT seniors so their charges can be out, open and comfortable in their senior years.
You can call it “cultural competency” or “sensitivity training” or whatever you wish, but the fact is LGBT people of my generation are scared to just be themselves and are going back into the closet in their autumn years.
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The Twist Podcast #58 Feel Good Edition: Bitter in the House, Out and Angry, and Age is Just a Death Sentence
Welcome to show #58 of the Twist Podcast. Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we take a look at the headlines, awards snubs (will we ever learn?), the attempted erasure of queer people, and age as a downer.
Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and right here at The Twist Podcast page.
Copyright 2018 MadeMark Publishing
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Snow Day in Jersey
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Book Review: Tomorrow Will Be Different, by Sarah McBride
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez“Tomorrow Will Be Different” by Sarah McBride
c.2018, Crown Archetype $26.00 / $35.00 Canada
288 pagesThings are never as bad as they seem.
There’s always a brighter spot if you just look for it, always something to be thankful for, a way of making yourself feel better because things aren’t as they seem. As in the new book “Tomorrow Will Be Different” by Sarah McBride, there’s always a chance to make a change.
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One Thing or Another: The Kids Are Not All Right
It’s always One Thing or Another … a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.
By Mark McNease
Imagine the despair young people feel today. Imagine the frustration at being governed by the old who ignore their fears, anxieties, terrors, hopes, dreams and concerns …
Not long ago I was among those crusty older people who bemoaned and occasionally belittled younger generations for effectively forgetting I’d existed. As a sixty-year-old man (I tend to round up), I was embittered to know so many people even a decade younger did not share my memories of the devastation of AIDS, of my government’s indifference to that plague, of Madonna’s performance in a wedding dress at the Grammys, or of the celebration in the streets of West Hollywood following Bill Clinton’s election. It was, I insisted, a matter of preserving history, without admitting it was as much my personal history I wanted preserved as that of my country or tribe.
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The Twist Podcast Now on Stitcher!
Now you can enjoy The Twist Podcast on Stitcher, too!
You can also listen to The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, SoundCloud, and right here at The Twist Podcast page.
Copyright 2018 MadeMark Publishing
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Four New Profiles for Angel On My Shoulder Cancer Foundation
Hey, I’ve only got so many murder mysteries in me. I’m doing writing assignments again, working for and with my 30+ year bestie and collaborator Rick Rose. I’ve been doing work for their Jolly Good soda campaign (see Jolly Good’s Facebook page here, Instagram here, and stay tuned for more stuff I can’t reveal right now), and I just did four profiles for the Angel On My Shouldernewsletter, an amazing organization founded by Lolly Rose after the death of her husband, Rick’s father and namesake, Dick Rose.
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Stephanie Mott: The Kansas Republican Party
Guest Column by Stephanie Mott
And ultimately, an ideology that says you can determine my gender identity is broken and is causing a lot of pain, and that’s why it’s important to bring us back to what we know to be true and good.
The Kansas Republican Party has lost its mind, and its heart, and its soul. Not that this is news in Kansas right now, rather more of a status quo, but if any doubt still remained, the recently approved resolution on “sexuality” removed any remnants of even the most basic humanity.
In case you missed it, KRP approved, by voice vote, this resolution completely inaccurate and horribly destructive to transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) Kansans, and then turned around and absurdly proposed it was the product of love.
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The Twist Podcast #57: Guns on the Catwalk, Food Trends 2018, and Gayest Olympics Ever
Welcome to show #57 of the Twist Podcast. Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we talk about America’s mass shooting epidemic, food trends for 2018, and the gayest Olympics ever (we hope).Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and right here at The Twist Podcast page.
Copyright 2018 MadeMark Publishing
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One Thing or Another: Name Your Poison
It’s always One Thing or Another … a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.
By Mark McNease
Anger is a quick and easy fix, a rush injected straight into the vein, but it’s poison, and I named it. I asked for it. I ordered a lifetime supply.
Observing the current cultural and political climate, I’m reminded of a scene from the westerns once so popular with American moviegoers. A bartender in a grimy, dusty saloon, says to a weary customer, “Name your poison.” The customer asks for whisky—they all drank whisky in the movies, with names like Rot Gut and Dead Eye—and the bartender serves him from a bottle on the shelf. The customer throws back a mouthful from a greasy shot glass, grimaces as it burns its way down his throat, then smiles, slaps the glass on the counter and orders another one. That sure felt good.
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The Twist Podcast #56: Post-Super Bowl Backstage Update, Facebook Snoozes, and Memo? What Memo?
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we get an up-close update from Rick on his Super Bowl experience, peruse some headlines, hit the Facebook snooze button, and prepare the planet for Trump, Year 2.
Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, SoundCloud, and right here at The Twist Podcast page.
Copyright 2018 MadeMark Publishing
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Working on new writing assignments (photo)
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Book Review: The Toronto Book of the Dead, by Adam Bunch
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm“The Toronto Book of the Dead” by Adam Bunch
c.2017, Dundurn $16.99
U.S. and Canada 423 pagesWatch your step!
Be careful where you tread; you don’t want to disturb anything important beneath the soil. Watch your feet; be mindful of where you put them. As you’ll see in “The Toronto Book of the Dead” by Adam Bunch, you’re not the first to walk on hallowed grounds.