Quince Mountain
KtB editor Quince Mountain lives in the Great Northwoods and is currently at work on a chronicle of belated manhood and unlikely self-help. You can hear about his sexploits as a teenage cowboy for Christ here.
Recent Posts by Quince
An Open Letter to The Antioch Review
Dear Antioch Review, In your May 5th statement regarding the essay, “The Sacred Androgen: The Transgender Debate” by Daniel Harris, you celebrate an admittedly “deeply offensive” essay for “stirring debate.” In doing so, you note that a “key Antiochian value” is to offer a forum for free expression, to encourage critical thought and dialogue. I…
Against Literary Transphobia
An early writing mentor told me once that sharing my story will save lives. I believe in the power of words to save lives, but the flipside is their power to harm. And I can’t overstate the harm transphobic writing like Daniel Harris’s “The Sacred Andogen: The Transgender Debate,” published in The Antioch Review, can…
Cowboy for Christ
Gender-bending love at Bible camp. From Believer, Beware, now available as an e-book!
Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t
Apparently it still sucks to be gay and evangelical.
Nerdjacking Old Glory
An irritable butch dyke with a fifth of Southern Comfort does her duty at a Boy Scout jamboree.
Charismata and The Big Donut
Unemployment calls for desperate measures, and last week I was asked, in an application packet, to list not only my natural gifts and talents, but also, under a separate heading, to list my spiritual gifts. I had no idea. I knew that spiritual gifts include aptitude for leadership, prophecy, discerning spirits, and working miracles—all things…
Why Not Share?
Since Mary Valle’s digging through her archive, I’ll post something from my own: a workbook page from Youth for Christ’s DC ’91 “Congress on Youth Evangelism,” the occasion of my first visit to the capital. Now, what image will you send us from your religious youth?
Today Needs Another Name
This Columbus Day, the spirit of 1492 is alive and well.
Trish Hooper’s Last Words
KtB has had a spate of submissions regarding illness and death lately, and autumn has only just begun. In today’s piece, “Letting Gravity Win,” KtB editor Meera Subramanian reminds us that “we are all guilty of having lost the art of dying” and builds a case for the widespread reclaiming of this lost art. To…
Let Freedom Wring
I didn’t know it was Banned Books Week when I attended the discussion on Sherman Alexie’s National Book Award-winning The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian at the school library last night. Nor had I read the book, though it seemed worth supporting. Heck, anything that gets my 19-year-old welding and construction students to…
NYT Buries Researcher’s Ex-gay Legacy
Twenty days after his death, and long after KtB did so, the Times finally got around to publishing a piece on autism pioneer Ivar Lovaas. The article is fairly long and covers Lovaas’ career in some detail, even gracefully qualifying Lovaas’ use of electroshock, slapping, and other harsh reinforcements. Especially given the span of the…
KtB Fall Fashion Tip #62: Eyewear for Luminaries
Nathan’s not the only KtB editor having trouble in the dating department. And if you think the OKCupid pickins are slim in NYC, imagine trying to find a suitable mate in a Northwoods town with a population of 200. There’s not a single OKCupid member, male or female, gay, straight, or otherwise, within a 25…
A Behaviorist’s Ex-gay Legacy
Since Dr. Ivar Lovaas died last week, he’s been memorialized tenderly on autism sites and elsewhere. I remember learning about Lovaas in my community college Pscyh 101 class. He’s rightfully credited with shifting the focus away from psychogenic theories of autism so that we no longer blame distant “Refrigerator Mothers” for their children’s social impairments—a…
Independence Day, almost
This one day during basic training when we did a night live fire exercise crawling under exploding things made me kind of done with fireworks. I was low-crawling through the sand with tracer bullets flying overhead (“Don’t stand up, or you might get killed,” they told us, though I figured the bullets were probably higher…
Flag Day: Keshena, WI
Not two weeks ago in Kyle, SD, on the Pine Ridge Reservation, a woman caught me looking at an image of a red, white, and blue tipi drawn onto a sheet of old camp meeting ledger. In front of the tipi stood a feathered and braided brave wearing a union jack cloak with tails striped…
Love the Sin, Not the Sinner
Maybe one of you heterosexual married Buddha-killers wants to adopt George Alan Rekers’ son. Rekers, co-founder with James Dobson of the Family Research Council and current board member of NARTH (National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality), long ago came to the professional conclusion, “based on research and logic,” that “homosexually-behaving adults should not…
The Ice King
An unexpected catch on Fish-O-Rama weekend.