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J.M Sorrel's column [“Misogyny as entertainment and entitlement,” Gazette, May 3] fails to recognize that the people who started drag were gender non-conforming people of color. They were not cis men, seeking to appropriate femininity from women, but...

By JOHN SHEIRER

When I walk our dog Libby, a little, shaggy, sweet-natured border terrier, through our neighborhood, I can safely predict two things. First, everyone will love seeing Libby. Second, Libby will love seeing everyone.One of our neighbors calls Libby “The...

By CHRISTI PAYNE and GREG DARMS

My husband and I moved to New England from Oregon five years ago, not knowing for sure where we would end up, and fortuitously landed in Shutesbury. We could not have chosen better than this forested rural hilltown we now call home.One of the very...

By MICHELE SPRING-MOORE

Usually I breeze past J.M. Sorrell’s columns, but her latest, published in the Gazette three days before the Hampshire Pride march, was too over the top to ignore. This column created a toxic anti-transgender stew by mashing together her feminist...

By NAOMI DARLING and PRESTON SMITH II

Many well-meaning South Hadley residents say they want affordable housing in South Hadley, but stop short when it comes to supporting the policy changes required to help us reach that goal.For years our town has offered limited housing options to...

It is the best of times. On May 6, after a three-year COVID-induced hiatus, Pride is returning to Northampton. On Main Street, dozens and dozens of groups and thousands of people will march and chant and celebrate.Later, on the stage constructed at...

By JONATHAN KLATE

There are more guns than humans in the U.S., about 120 per 100 people. The next highest percentage in any country, the Falkland Islands, is about half of ours. You probably already know this.But did you know that 3% of American gun owners possess...

By RAY AHEARN

The “Americans,” the 1980s TV series which ran for six years, was one of my favorite shows of all time. This drama featured two Russian spies masquerading as northern Virginia travel agents with orders to steal intelligence secrets to send back to...

By J.M. SORRELL

In 2019, I wrote a column suggesting that drag is to misogyny as blackface is to racism. I had read about feminists who questioned the preponderance of drag at annual pride events in other cities. At the time, I was called a TERF (trans exclusionary...

By MICHAEL DOVER

Dear President Biden:I congratulate and support you on your decision to run for reelection. The legislation and policies you have implemented are already strengthening the country economically, environmentally and morally.However, the extremist MAGA...

By JOANNA BUONICONTI

Ever since I was a little girl, I have had these life goals instilled in me: to go to college, graduate with a high GPA and find a job. It’s hard to articulate how completing these milestones has been tied to my sense of self-worth because they have...

By SUSAN J. TRACY

In addition to the recent carnage in Nashville, last spring 18-year-old shooters in separate incidents killed 10 adults in Buffalo, New York, and 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas, 10 days apart. Both shooters were using semiautomatic...

By U.S. REP. JIM MCGOVERN

Last month, House Republicans brought to the floor H.R. 5 — a bill I call the “politics over parents” act, which would supercharge book bans like the ones Gov. Ron DeSantis has imposed on Florida and bring them to states across America, including here...

By REBECCA FRICKE and MEG GAGE

Classrooms infused with daylight and fresh air, small group learning spaces, a positive learning environment for children of all backgrounds and abilities. This is our vision for the new Amherst elementary school building, and we hope you will join us...

By WESTON DRIPPS

I feel compelled to offer a few key facts relevant to the April 3 guest column, “Amherst College’s tree problem” that didn’t make it into the final column. The piece suggested that sustainability isn’t top of mind when it comes to the college’s...

‘Florida parents upset by Michelangelo’s ‘David’ force out principal,” Washington Post, March 24: Firing a Florida charter school principal for forgetting to notify parents of sixth grade students of Renaissance classical art seems a bit of a...

By ROB OKUN

“Until people start to go into the streets and protest, we’re not going to see the changes … If you don’t have the people rising up, like what they did with civil rights, like what they did to end the Vietnam War … If you don’t have that,...

By SARA WEINBERGER

On the first Sunday in February, I ascended the steps of New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, bought my ticket, and headed for an exhibition that friends had urged me to see. “Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield South Carolina,”...

By RANDY KEHLER

My partner Betsy and I have often been referred to, usually derisively, as “tax resisters,” or “tax refusers,” which implies that we are people who refuse to pay all taxes, across the board. In fact, we’ve always paid all of our state and local taxes....

By PATRICK O’CONNOR

I considered not writing about my son’s experience playing soccer this winter. I didn’t want to turn a positive —  children competing, learning teamwork and having fun — into a negative, experiencing racial biases in white suburban communities in the...