L.A. LGBT Center’s Phillip Picardi

I Let Passion Rule My Life

Phillip Picardi is the chief marketing and communications officer at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. His previous work in media includes digital editorial director at Teen Vogue, founder of them, and editor-in-chief at Out magazine. He also holds a master’s from Harvard Divinity School. Before joining the panel for the Zócalo program “How Does Confronting Our History Build a Better Future?”—the final event of our Mellon Foundation-supported series “How Should Societies Remember Their Sins?”—he sat down in our green room to talk queer history, Britney Spears, and where he finds …

Destined to Be Trans, Muslim, and Indonesian

I Leaned Into My Faith and My Queer Identity—And Gained My Family’s Acceptance in the Process

“This is my son’s taqdir,” said my father—my destiny. “If I kicked him out for being who he is, then I reject what Allah has destined for him, for my …

Why Is the Latinx Debate So Fierce?

Gender, Language, and Identity Are Complicated. But Inclusivity Doesn’t Have to Be

In 2018, I was interviewed for Univision’s morning talk show ¡Despierta América! (Wake up, America!) to discuss the meaning of the identity label Latinx. I was nervous because I had …

Uncovering a Life Deemed ‘Unworthy of Life’ | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Uncovering a Life Deemed ‘Unworthy of Life’

Why the Story of Hans Heinrich Festersen—Gay, Disabled, and Murdered by the Nazis—Matters

On September 8, 1943, Hans Heinrich Festersen was hanged at Berlin’s Plötzensee prison. Festersen, 35, had been arrested almost a year earlier, on October 12, 1942, for violating Paragraph 175, …

Where I Go: Hunting Queer Ghosts in Chicago | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Where I Go: Hunting Queer Ghosts in Chicago

Why Being Gay and Being Haunted Go Together in Fundamental Ways

We think the ghosts will come to us as we sit in Kaitlyn’s car, once our car, on top of the man-made hill that houses the only mausoleum in Woodlawn …