-
LGBT Senior Featured Share: 150 Homes in 10 Years – How the Foster Care System Fails Trans Kids
This story was originally published by Uncloseted Media, an LGBTQ focused investigative news outlet.
Transgender youth in foster care face abuse, instability and new federal policies that are making it even harder for them to feel safe.
Sam Donndelinger
Photo by Mark Felix for Uncloseted Media. Editor’s note: This article includes mention of suicide and self-harm. If you are having thoughts of suicide or are concerned that someone you know may be, resources are available here.
At 8 years old in rural Kansas, Hayden Dawson remembers being forced to eat outside with the dogs.
Other times, they weren’t fed at all.
“I would chew sunflowers outside because I was so hungry until my face would become splotchy with a rash,” Hayden, now 20, told Uncloseted Media.
Photo by Mark Felix for Uncloseted Media. Hayden, who is nonbinary and gender fluid, says whenever they wanted to wear boy clothes, play with boy toys or express themself in a gender nonconforming way, their foster parents were “highly offended” and worried that Hayden would be a “bad influence on the other kids.”
They lived in the turberlance for eight months until their caseworker changed their placement after noticing the severity of Hayden’s weight loss and the rash spreading across their face.
But the next home was not safe either. Or the one after that.
Photo by Mark Felix for Uncloseted Media. “You have to pick and choose,” Hayden says. “Do I wanna be happy in the identity that I am and the body that I want to have, or do I want to survive?”
From age 8 to 18, Hayden was placed in over 150 foster homes. They say roughly 80% of the homes were “non-accepting”: their foster parents refused to use their chosen name, called them a girl, told them God doesn’t love them and they’re going to hell, and physically beat them with the Bible as they chanted, “Be gone, Satan.”By the time Hayden was a teenager, they became suicidal, cycling through mental health facilities and hospitals.
-
LGBT Senior’s Featured Essay: A Win-Win, by Rick Rose
Winner Winner
By Sup. Rick Rose
The headlines came in fast Tuesday night. Winners and losers. Who’s up, who’s down. The tallies rolled in across Dane County — this one wins, that one loses, on to the next race.
I was on that list. After four years serving District 16 as County Board Supervisor, the voters chose someone new. In the language of election night, I lost.
But that framing is wrong.
Democracy isn’t a zero-sum game. It’s a hand-off of trust. The people weigh in, they make a choice, and then something remarkable hopefully happens — the person leaving makes room, and the person arriving steps up. That’s not defeat. That’s the whole point.
-
The Twist 325: Weekly News Roundup Returns, Road Trip Fun Facts, and Rick Interviews Enjoyiana Nururdin
Episode 325 of The Twist is packed. Mark and Rick dig into the week’s biggest news stories in their Weekly News Roundup — the headlines, the highlights, and the takes you won’t get anywhere else. Then things get a little lighter with Road Trip Fun Facts, just in time for the open road season. And Rick sits down with Enjoyiana Nururdin, journalist and lifestyle content creator, for a conversation about her work, her voice, and what drives her to tell the stories she tells.
-
Mark McNease’s Fearsome Fiction Podcast: Genre Classic ‘The Mystery of the Yellow Room’ by Gaston Leroux (Chapters 1 – 6)
Fearsome Fiction Podcast: Genre Classic Series The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux — Chapters 1–6
Let’s talk about a book that has been quietly influencing mystery writers for over a hundred years. The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux was published in 1907, and it did something so clever, so carefully constructed, that readers and writers are still talking about it. You may know Leroux from The Phantom of the Opera — but this is the book that made him a legend among mystery aficionados.
And once you spend the first six chapters inside the Château du Glandier, you’ll understand why.
An Impossible Crime
Here’s what we know. Mademoiselle Stangerson was attacked inside her laboratory — a small room with yellow wallpaper that gives the novel its name. The door was bolted from the inside. The windows were secured. No one could have gotten in, and no one could have gotten out. And yet the evidence of violence is everywhere: blood, a weapon, signs of a brutal, terrifying struggle.
Leroux doesn’t bury the lead. He plants the impossibility right in front of you in the opening chapters and essentially says: go ahead, figure it out. Most readers can’t. That’s the fun.
-
LGBT Senior’s Weekly Survey Results: What’s Your Preferred Way to Travel?
What is your preferred way to travel?
What’s your preferred way to travel?
By plane — I love getting there fast and going far.
33.33%By car — I enjoy the freedom of the open road.
41.67%By train — I prefer a scenic, relaxed journey.
25.00%By cruise ship — I like the destination to be part of the experience.
25.00%Home is where the heart it – staycations are my thing.
0%Other/comments
I love it all! Probably cruises first, but if train travel was more common in the US, we would be on the choo-choo on a regular basis!
I like all of the above. Everything depends on the destination and how much time/money I have.
-
LGBT Senior’s News On the Positive Side by Cora Berke: New Orleans’ Gay Easter Parade
Cora Berke News On the Positive Side- by Cora Berke
“An American has not seen the United States until he has seen Mardi Gras in New Orleans.” – Mark Twain.
When we think of New Orleans, one of the first things that come to mind is Mardi Gras, also known as Fat Tuesday. The first recorded Mardi Gras celebration in the US was in 1699 in Louisiana, celebrated by French explorers, who named their settlement Point du Mardi Gras. Centuries later, Mardi Gras grew in New Orleans, attracting about a million tourists a year today!
With all its famous floats, glitter and beads, Mardi Gras is not the only celebration in New Orleans. Celebrated on Easter Sunday in New Orleans is The Gay Easter Parade. This year on April 5th., 2026 the Gay Easter Parade celebrated its 25th. anniversary.
-
Savvy Senior: Low-Cost Smartphone Plans for Budget-Minded Seniors
By Jim Miller
Dear Savvy Senior,
What are the absolute lowest-cost smartphone plans for seniors who mainly talk and text but need a little cellular data for email and occasional use? I’m currently paying $40 a month and hoping to cut that down.
–Looking to Save
Dear Looking,
You’re asking a smart question. Many seniors pay far more for smartphone service than they actually use. If most of your phone activity is calls, texts, email, and light web browsing, there’s usually no need to spend $40 or more a month. The good news: plenty of low-cost carriers now cater to light users who want reliable service without the extra cost.
The cheapest plans today mostly come from mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) – smaller carriers that lease coverage from major networks like T‑Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T. Because they don’t run their own towers, MVNOs can offer basic service for a fraction of the cost of major carriers, while still providing nationwide coverage. Here are some of the best options available now.
-
LGBT Senior’s Weekly Survey: What’s Your Preferred Way to Travel?
What is your preferred way to travel?
- By plane — I love getting there fast and going far
- By car — I enjoy the freedom of the open road
- By train — I prefer a scenic, relaxed journey
- By cruise ship — I like the destination to be part of the experience
- I don’t enjoy travel and prefer to stay close to home
-
On the Map: How to Prepare for a Long Road Trip with Multiple Stops
We’re about to head off on the first real road trip I’ve taken since I was a child. How it happened is a long story. The crux of it is that we’re meeting two other couples in Savannah, and I wasn’t interested in flying there for a three night stay. I suggested to my husband Frank that we make a road trip out of it, and that’s how it came to be. Our friend Michael, who often goes on cruises with us, signed on, and the three of us will heading off next Saturday for an 8 night trip with four stops: Roanoke for two nights, Savannah for three, Wilmington for two, and a final stop in Baltimore to visit friends before heading home.
So how, I wondered, does one best prepare for that much time, and that many miles, in a car? One of the reasons we’re making so many stops is because I really don’t like being in an automobile for more than several hours. We break up our annual trip to Provincetown this way, staying in Mystic or somewhere that’s basically half the distance, and doing the same on the return. But there’s more to it than just picking a halfway point on a map, so let’s take a look at some practical preparations for a serious road trip.
Road Ready: How to Prepare for a Long Road Trip with Multiple Stops
There’s something very enticing about a road trip — the open highway, the spontaneous detours, the sense that the journey itself is the destination. And the good news is that age doesn’t have to change any of that. It just means you plan a little smarter.
Whether you’re heading out for a week-long adventure across several states or a long weekend with three or four stops along the way, preparation makes the difference between a trip you’ll remember fondly and one you’d rather forget. Here’s how to get ready.
-
LGBT Senior’s Weekly Writing Prompt: Building a Character in Five Minutes
Build a Character in Five Minutes
Most of you know I write fiction, and I conduct writing workshops in addition to journaling. Here’s a fun way to explore character creation.
Characters don’t arrive fully formed. They show up in fragments — a gesture, a habit, a thing they always say. Answer these five questions about a person who just appeared in your mind. Write the first thing that comes:
• What does this person do first thing in the morning?
• What are they afraid of that they’ve never told anyone?
• What do they keep in their pockets or their bag?
• What do they want more than anything right now?
• What one sentence do they say so often that people who love them could finish it for them?
