Lee Lynch is a going to be a bride. ?What?s amazing about marrying my sweetheart, besides my incredible good fortune, is the feeling of being old-fashioned. I?ve talked to all kinds of straight folks who pooh-pooh the marriage idea. A youngish insurance guy I spoke with the other day laughed at the idea that gays would destroy marriage and said, ?Marriage is already destroyed.? He cited divorce and spousal abuse and ignoring the needs of the kids as the real culprits. So, with that resolved and no feelings of guilt about what non-gays have brought on themselves, I am pleased to say that my sweetheart and I will forge ahead with our plans to marry in October. With a growing number of gay and non-gays planning to watch this dangerous joining of two women who want the commitment the ceremony commands. That?s the other amazing thing: the incredible people who want, or are willing, to witness our vows. Some of them are traveling long distances at considerable expense to be there with us. I?

All too often the price tag is either not disclosed at all or hidden in plain sight on customer utility bills, buried inside charges for power generation and distribution. NStar, as part of its obligations under the state's Green Communities Act, recently asked state regulators to approve three wind-power contracts the utility signed after a lengthy bid process. Hundreds of pages of testimony supporting the contracts were submitted to the Department of Public Utilities, but on the copies available to the public the product and pricing information for each contract were blacked out. NStar says public release of the pricing information would result in the disclosure of competitively sensitive bid terms and hinder the ability of its suppliers to compete for future contracts. Disclosure might also set a floor on bids for future wind power contracts. ``This is consistent with all of NStar's energy supply contracts,'' says NStar spokeswoman Caroline Allen. But green power deals are different

But now on cable news shows, in recent polls, at dining room tables across America, Obama is being dogged by a different image. He's been labeled as sort of a nerd, a cream puff, a softie, a - ahem - wimp. From his national security efforts (which Dick Cheney said Obama was projecting ``weakness'' to our enemies) to his handling of the massive BP oil spill (which was not actually his fault), Obama has somehow earned wimp rankings similar to that of Jimmy Carter. And if there's one thing Americans won't tolerate in the White House, it's a wimp. At a time when the nation is slowly recovering from one of the worst economic downturns in history, suffering massive job losses, and growing increasingly fatigued with the war on terror, Americans want, no need, to feel more comforted. They are relying on the White House to make them feel protected from the woes that have somehow overtaken them. They want to believe there's a gleaming light at the end of this long, dark and uncertain tunnel. The

Is it ice cream or today's headlines this summer for Lee Lynch?. ?La, la, la. Summer?s here, the kids are pouring out of schools, onto playgrounds and into pools. And I am going to ignore every disaster going on around me. Wildlife dying in the Gulf and up the east coast of my country? These things only happen in Other Countries, not mine. I'm not going to read the breaking news on Twitter and instead go for an ice cream. When I was a kid the sound of the Good Humor truck bells were music to kids' ears. We ran to our mothers for a dime or two and skipped to the gleaming white truck and the smiling man in uniform. A white uniform, not camouflage, and holding not an automatic weapon, but a Toasted Almond Bar. They told us little kids had been saved by our fathers from the enemies and war was gone forever. No wonder we grew up to be peace activists: our older brothers went to Korea, died in the snow, marched again into walls of foreign soldiers. Meanwhile, ice cream trucks all over the U.

Lee Lynch would have liked to read about gay history in school, now she lives it.. Up on the podium is a short, wide dyke in a cowboy hat. Next to her is a shirtless gay guy in leather pants, suspenders and cap. They take turns at the mike, exhorting the crowd. Down in the audience a slight balding man in a pink tutu periodically does demi-plies as he applauds the speakers. Back a few rows two white-haired women, one in a wheelchair, are so moved they are crying. Millions of gay people have now witnessed scenes like this. They?ve been happening for at least 40 years now. It?s an ongoing story with the makings of history even as we live it, even as gay historians document it. When my first few books were published, readers thanked me for depicting our history. I?d explain at readings that I wasn?t writing history, that I was writing reality as it is experienced by many gays who aren?t on the ramparts. The stomping diesel dykes who wear high heels to work and effeminate male hairdressers

Lee Lynch waxes nostalgically about the food co-op. It?s very strange to think of food co-ops as part of the good old days. To me, the good old days happened back in my mother?s youth ? and she was born over 100 years ago. When I came of age in the 1960s, the world was being reinvented by kids like me. At least we thought we were more clever than anyone had ever been before. We thought our ideas were new. We thought we could bring about world peace, end poverty, eradicate injustice, feed the hungry and take back the means of production from the corporate blue meanies. In New Haven, as in most places, the food co-op started small. The lesbian-and-straight-feminist collective where I lived joined forces with the mixed-female-and-male-straight commune around the corner plus some alternative culture strays, and turned the basement of the Unitarian Church into a food store on Saturday mornings. A few members ? that would not include me ? hit the produce wholesalers at the crack of dawn and

Lee Lynch on the changes she's seen. As a gay kid in high school, when I wasn?t in the Village trying to fake my way into bars with my girlfriend, I used to hole up in my tiny room, reading Kerouac and Camus and listening to WBAI, an alternative radio station in New York. I refused to own an A.M. radio or watch anything on T.V. other than late night movies. The consequence of that and later similar behaviors was isolation. It was bad enough that I was gay in the 1960s, I hated the pre-Sgt. Pepper Beatles, James Bond flics and women?s clothing. I had nothing in common with most of my peers and couldn?t sustain conversation even with queers. I was a big bad rebel dyke who wanted nothing to do with pop culture. Well, not really. I was just a nice gay kid from Queens, but that?s what I felt like inside so I rejected much of what the dominant culture embraces. Forty-odd years later, I wonder what happened. Actually, I know what happened. In my thirties, I tried to write dialogue and realize

Enter Thomas Jefferson and his Virginia neighbors. Thinking like a current-day congressman, Jefferson regarded the prisoners as an economic opportunity for the remote valley near his home at Monticello. The prison camp would pump money into his hometown of Charlottesville, along with much-needed craftsmen and laborers. It would be a bonanza. And there was an added benefit: some of the British and Hessian officers were excellent violinists, just the kind that Jefferson hoped would join him in the parlor at Monticello. Thus began one of the more remarkable journeys of the Revolutionary War, and one of the greatest miscalculations of Jefferson's career. Massachusetts was only too happy to pass its problem to Virginia. The British and Hessians left behind most of their belongings and marched through blizzards, passing what one called the ``quite grand'' houses of Cambridge, the ``antique Roman'' buildings of Harvard College, the ``thriving little city'' of Worcester, and the ``tolerably ki

Talk is cheap when you don't have the political capital to back up what you say. There is a colloquialism that says ?talk is cheap.? In politics, you could add that talk is cheap when you don't have the political capital to back up what you say. President Obama's sudden renewed interest in gay rights is cheap talk. A pander to the left, as useless as a campaign promise, now that Congress is on a fast track to gridlock. Last Wednesday, Obama reiterated his promise to repeal the military's ban on open gay service during his first State of the Union address. He picked up where he left off the next day, calling on Congress to approve a bill that gives unmarried partners of gay federal employees equal benefits as married spouses. Speaking in Tampa, he said approval was ?the right thing to do.? Equality is once again in fashion at the White House now that Republicans ? with the help of anti-gay groups ? have regained their footing. In Washington, tremors can still be felt over the loss of th

Republican Scott Brown has won the US Senate seat long held by Ted Kennedy - and by doing so, stamped a large question mark on national healthcare reform. Initially written off by the pundits (including this one), Brown proved to be lightning in a bottle - and once a poll or two shattered the ``can't win'' container, his candidacy touched off a political wildfire. Brown's promise to be the 41st vote to block ObamaCare clearly resonated with an electorate uneasy about the national legislation. Beyond that, he offered the electoral cotton candy of more tax cuts or avoid-the-complexities national security stands. His symbolically sophisticated campaign cast him as the affable guy next door fighting the Democratic machine. Supporting him became a way to express disagreement with the Democratic agenda, impatience with Democratic dominance, resentment against perceived elite insiders. As for Martha Coakley, she seemed to mistake this election for an anointment in which she hardly had to argu

It began with black and white footage of Democratic President John F. Kennedy asking Congress to enact an investment tax credit to stimulate the economy. ``The billions of dollars this bill will place in the hands of the consumer and our businessmen will have both immediate and permanent benefits to our economy,'' Kennedy says. JFK then morphs into Brown, who continues the 1962 speech: ``Every dollar released from taxation that is spent or invested will help create a new job and a new salary. And these new jobs and new salaries can create other jobs and other salaries and more growth for an expanding American economy.'' The neighborhood consensus: clever and attention-grabbing. Martha Coakley laughed it off. It was a serious mistake; many others followed. They included a barrage of terrible ads and Coakley's incredible question about what people expected her to do: stand outside in the cold, shake hands and ask for their vote? As legions of politicians from Tip O'Neill to Ted Kennedy c

But Adams held one secret closely within his family. In 1987 his niece told him that her father had sexually abused her from 1978, when she was 4, to 1983. Adams's coverup of the allegations against his brother calls into question his political future. The allegations became public last month during a television interview with Adams's niece, Aine Tyrell. Adams said he believes the allegations. Yet he did did not go to the police in 1987 when Tyrell told him. IRA supporters never did, because they considered the police to be British agents. And, according to ``A Secret History of the IRA'' by Ed Moloney, Adams was then involved in maneuverings that would eventually result in the Good Friday Agreement, which ended the armed conflict in 1998. The Tyrell interview was broadcast a month after a report was issued that denounced the Catholic hierarchy in the Irish Republic for a decades-long cover-up of clerical sexual abuse. Four bishops have resigned as a result. Like the bishops, Adams kep

The risen China certainly has its weaknesses within and without. The communist ruling class needs to create a social welfare safety net for peasants as well as urban workers. This must be done not only for the sake of social justice, or to tamp down popular discontent with crooked communist officials, but so that Chinese consumers feel free to save less and buy more domestic goods and services. The party also needs to rein in corrupt officials, respect the human and civil rights of Chinese citizens, allow Tibetans to have cultural autonomy in their homeland, and cease partnering with the blood-drenched regimes in Sudan, Burma, and Zimbabwe. Morality, however, has no part in the brief for China's ascendance as the central, defining phenomenon of the first decade of the new century. The mesmerizing sound-and-light show China staged for the 2008 Summer Olympics was a fitting climax for the China decade. Alan Berger is a Globe editorial writer.

Coincidentally or not, the story of real-life Italian-Americans striving for success - and earning it legitimately - dominated Boston during Tony Soprano's mobbed-up television run. For a couple of years, three Italian-American sons of Boston jointly held the brass ring of political power. The overlap between Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Senate President Robert E. Travaglini, and House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi represented a brief but heady moment of consolidated triumph for Boston's Italian-Americans. But their fates diverged. In November, Menino won an unprecedented fifth term, which will make him the longest-serving mayor in Boston's history. Travaglini left office in 2007 to become a lobbyist. DiMasi resigned this year, caught up in a white-collar rendition of the ethnic stereotype glamorized by ``The Sopranos.'' He was subsequently indicted on federal corruption charges. Even as Italian-Americans were wielding new power, old-school ethnic politics were evolving. The decade ended with

But for every triumphant Kelly Clarkson, there were dozens who experienced brief stardom and plunged back into anonymity, like so many contestants falling off the giant balls on ``Wipeout.'' And by the end of the decade, the lure of the cameras had turned ugly. ``Jon & Kate Plus 8,'' once a benign tale of fertility in semi-rural Pennsylvania, devolved into a marital spat that ruled the tabloids for months. Richard and Mayumi Heene, who wanted their own TV show so badly that they tried to fool the nation with a Mylar balloon, were recently sentenced to jail. And in the saddest cautionary tale, ``Survivor's'' Hatch spent years in prison for tax evasion - and was prosecuted partly because he had created such a convincing, conniving character on TV. In July, a few months before he was freed, he sought a judge's permission to play on another round of ``Survivor.'' Joanna Weiss is a Globe columnist and editorial writer.

Christmas in the Lynch household, not your usual holiday. The winter holidays have always been a bit confusing for me. As a little kid, my mother gave me dolls I ignored and my big brother gave me the fun stuff: trucks and guns. We had a little tradition. My father would lug home a Christmas tree and hide it on the fire escape. Christmas morning, Santa would have it up, decorated and ringed with gifts. Except for the big package from my mother?s family in Boston ? how come they didn?t let Santa do his thing? It also puzzled me that Santa could be at Macy?s and Gertz?s, ringing the Salvation Army bells and circling the globe all at the same time. I somehow knew that I shouldn?t ask for explanations, though. Grownups enjoyed keeping their tricks secret too much. By the time I was eight, my family had a car. Suddenly, Santa wasn?t in New York any more, he was in Boston. How did he do that? My Boston aunt always had a ceiling-touching tree absolutely hidden under ornaments, garland and sil

Lee Lynch on the meaning of marriage. I spent way too much of my childhood learning not to be my mother. She was a wife and a housewife; I didn?t want to be either. Every time I hear one lesbian call another ?wife,? it sends shockwaves through my system. I have the same problem when lesbians use the term ?husband? although it sounds perfectly natural to me when gay men say it to each other. In the lesbian feminist movement of the 1970s, lesbian couples were sometimes accused of imitating heterosexuals. What was then called copping out is now a gay movement. I?m having a little problem segueing from the old revolutionary highway to the new, but my sweetheart and I hope to marry next year so I?d better get with the times. Heck, the desire to formally, legally, spiritually and officially marry is pretty much a surprise to me too. My best friend recently went down to a city hall in Connecticut and tied the knot with her partner of many years. She seemed a little squeamish about it, but her

Last week I was taken to task by a reader for classifying WIC (government aid to Women, Infants, and Children) as welfare. He said this was an incorrect categorization of WIC. His rationale centered around the ubiquity of the program, i.e., he claimed that almost any single mother could qualify for it. I?m not sure whether he is right in making such an estimate. However, it wouldn?t matter if everyone in America qualified for it. That?s not the point. The point is that WIC is an unearned government handout, which qualifies it as welfare. It?s not like Social Security or Medicare, programs that people pay into when they are younger and draw benefits from when they are older. WIC, on the other hand, frequently provides benefits to those who pay little or no taxes, while those who pay the most taxes will likely never see a dime from it. It?s just another government redistribution-of-wealth scheme, aka welfare. You can call it whatever you would like. Welfare by any other name is still wel

According to the U.S. Constitution, free speech is one of the rights that we enjoy as Americans. However, I see this right arbitrarily abridged every day, and most people seem to go along with it. In some cases, this violation of the First Amendment is even coded into law. Here are some things that should never be allowed to infringe on free speech rights, although they commonly do:1) A person?s inability or unwillingness to fight back2) Law enforcement3) Judges4) Corporations5) Bullies6) Unions7) Bosses8) Peer pressure9) Government agencies, including the FCC, FBI, CIA, TSA, and Homeland Security10) Military superiors 11) Zealots12) Laws that regulate campaign finance13) Laws that restrict ?hate speech? or apply additional punishment to ?hate crimes?  14) Laws that govern tax-exempt status (especially as they apply to religious organizations)15) Etiquette16) Political correctness17) Lack of social status18) Power brokers19) Political parties20) Social activists

American TV is now dominated by political correctness. That's the primary reason why I watch very little of it these days. However, I have watched enough of it in recent years to learn all of the following "precepts":1) All burglary, drunk driving, theft, and violent crime are committed by white males.2) There is absolutely no downside to going green.3) Education is the answer to all of mankind's ills.4) Born-again, evangelical Christians are all hypocrites. 5) Most, if not all, of the nation's wing nuts and wackos can be found in the conservative Republican ranks.6) One religion is as valid (or invalid) as another.7) Capitalism is bad; pure capitalism is an abomination. 8) Although somewhat essential to the family unit, a father is by far the dumbest member thereof.9) There's no real difference between homophobia and racism. 10) Corporal punishment is tantamount to child abuse. 11) The sure path to heaven is to be philanthropic and fight for social justice, regardless one's personal c

That's primarily a contest between City Councilors Sam Yoon and Michael Flaherty. I gave Yoon the edge. Polite but pointed in his critique of Menino, Yoon returned repeatedly to his contention that a strong-mayor system - a system that gives Menino tremendous power - isn't good for Boston. His performance would have been more persuasive with concrete examples of how the governance changes he advocates would make Boston better. Still, he gave voters a serious matter to mull. As for the incumbent, he never got rattled, not even when developer Kevin McCrea went after him with blunt charges that his administration has exchanged favors for political donations. But neither did Menino give viewers much of an idea of what an unprecedented fifth term would mean, beyond a continuation of the incremental leadership we've seen so far. And he sometimes played into the criticism that he is too powerful by dismissing his rivals' critiques with broad assertions - his administration is working with the

My local newspaper recently began an editorial by quoting a portion of Galatians 3:28 from the King James Version of the Bible as follows: ?There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male or female?.? Interestingly enough, the editors chose to exclude the final and most important phrase of that passage, which states, ?for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.? Even though the editorial had nothing to do with biblical matters, the verse from Paul?s epistle to the Galatians should have been included in its entirety. Without its concluding phrase, the passage loses its meaning and is rendered completely ridiculous. Of course there are Jews, Greeks, males, females, free people, and (unfortunately, even today) slaves ? in the physical world. But as Paul was trying to tell the Galatians, in Jesus Christ (and in Him only), all of these earthly distinctions melt away.  Their treatment of this scripture verse is comparable to quoting someone as having made the fo

Commerce: Toyota last week quietly announced it will shutter its famed NUMMI plant in Fremont, Calif. This should be taken as a warning: The facility had all the features of the green economy the White House wants.

Energy: We balk at importing "dirty" oil from Canada, but others aren't so reluctant. Exempt as a "developing" nation from Kyoto-like agreements, China has decided to help Canada develop its energy-rich oil sands.

Civil Rights: Eric Holder's Justice Department plans to hire more than 50 new civil rights lawyers to ferret out racism in American society. And you thought you were getting a post-racial presidency.

Taxes: With so many bad ideas rolling around Washington these days, what's one more? Democrats and their union allies think slapping a tax on investment trades is a good idea. In fact, it's a recipe for a meltdown.

1st Amendment: Mark Lloyd, a disciple of Saul Alinsky and fan of Hugo Chavez, wants to destroy talk radio and says free speech is a distraction. The new FCC diversity "czar" says Venezuela is an example we should follow.

The Law: If there's any doubt Ecuador's $26 billion lawsuit against Chevron is nothing but a scam to shake down Big Oil, check out a new video of Ecuadorean operatives who prove how justice works in that country.

Media Malpractice: Among the many encomiums that the mainstream media showered on the late senator from Massachusetts, something was curiously missing: the link between Sen. Ted Kennedy and the KGB.

Axis Of Evil: North Korean arms bound for the Islamic Republic of Iran in violation of U.N. sanctions were intercepted, but Tehran will still be the first nuclear terror regime. No wonder Dick Cheney wanted to attack.

When parents plunk down $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 and maybe $50,000 this fall for a year's worth of college room, board and tuition, it might be relevant to ask: What will their children learn in return?

The Hemisphere: With allies such as Honduras flatly condemned, and Colombia being left to defend itself over its ties with our military, the United States is squandering its influence in Latin America.

Media Bias: Veteran reporter, author and commentator Bernard Goldberg reports that when CBS News did its fake National Guard story on George W. Bush avoiding service in Vietnam, it knew it was a lie.

Missile Defense: The U.S. has abandoned plans to install a missile defense system in Europe, according to a report. If true, this is a major strategic error that will have serious consequences for our allies in Europe and for us.

Public Trust: What did the speaker know, and when did she know it? With CIA documents contradicting Nancy Pelosi's claims on classified briefings, will a death watch begin on her leadership?

The health overhaul debate has generated plenty of heat. Yet no one has offered a solution to one vital and unavoidable dimension: the future.

Junk Science: The EPA may be considering closing the watchdog office that exposed the flimsy evidence of man-caused warming. So much for the administration's promise to "restore science to its rightful place."

Health Care Reform: A study by the British Patients Association tells the true story about socialized medicine in Britain. It's one of willful and woeful neglect of millions, missed diagnoses, and elderly patients left in pain.

The scenario is all too familiar, and plays out daily in my office. After evaluating a patient I recommend a particular course of treatment. More often than not, the first question from the patient is not, "How effective is the treatment?' or "How safe is it?" Rather, the refrain is "Will my insurance cover it?"

Thursday marked the 150th anniversary of a seminal event in history: the birth of the oil industry. On that day in 1859, Edwin Drake struck black gold with the first commercial oil well -- creating an industry that would provide the lifeblood for modern civilization.

Lee Lynch finds a good dyke cut hard to come by. After decades of discomfort in barber shops and beauty parlors, I finally found a lesbian haircutter. She co-owned a little salon on the north end of a hot dry town at the tail end of a series of mountain passes. Both owners were local moms, with a loyal following of housewives, retired ladies and dykes. It was a strange mix that might have made me hopeful that this right wing county would learn that we?re not contagious except that my haircutter, in her forties and a member of the pre-liberation generation, wasn?t out. Didn?t need to be because she could talk about her kids with the straights and whisper coded words with ?family.? Of course I had heard the old stereotype of gay men as hairdressers, but I?d never been lucky enough to find one. When I learned that lesbians did this sort of thing, well, I knew there was a haircut heaven somewhere. Another lesbian cut hair an hour west of us, but that was too far.  Once I?d experienced the

Energy: Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal warns that coming economic recovery means tighter oil supplies and higher prices. He's right to be appalled at the White House's inability to see the obvious.

Health Systems: Health care in France is often held up as a model the U.S. might follow. Yet the French have their own problems that show there's no such thing as a free lunch -- or a free doctor's visit.

Health Care: Powerful California Rep. Henry Waxman wants to save Medicare billions by going after drug industry "windfalls." As usual, his "savings" will very quickly turn into higher costs for you-know-who.

Labor: If there's any question as to why union toughs turned up at recent health care town halls and got violent, consider what they were gooning for: a $10 billion bailout for their mismanaged pensions -- at our expense.

Health Care: "First, do no harm" is never the maxim of Washington politicians. With a public uprising killing ObamaCare,

Monetary Policy: The renomination of Fed chief Ben Bernanke to a second term came as no big surprise. The same can't be said for the naming of a union activist as head of the

The fate of the Waxman-Markey climate bill rests upon two myths about so-called "clean coal." The first is that coal, as used today in the U.S., is a dirty fuel. The other is that coal can be made "clean" by capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power plants and storing them underground in geologic repositories.

Energy Policy: A new study shows that Waxman-Markey will increase prices at the pump, deepen our dependence on foreign oil and shred our ability to turn crude into gasoline. Even fuel-efficient cars will still need fuel.

National Security: Appointing a prosecutor to harass CIA interrogators exposes this administration's priorities: The global war on terror takes a back seat to terrorizing some of America's most selfless warriors.