Similarly, I mostly write about LGBTQ people suffering unjust discrimination and exclusion. I'm writing a story right now about the Catholic diocese in Denver barring trans students from attending Catholic schools and mostly barring the children of gay parents from attending Catholic schools.

I think it's awful that queer families have to experience religious trauma and exclusion from religious communities.

I write about things like that because I'm a gay man and because I come from a great big Catholic family. I write about those things because I know about them personally, and because over the years I've gained technical expertise. I know where to look for information, and I know how to report on connected matters and issues in ways that might escape somebody without my deep familiarity.

Yet from time to time, some cisgender straight white man will whine at me for being selfish, for concentrating on fringe matters when I could be reporting on things that impact everybody - by which he means matters that impact him as a cisgender straight white man.

What people like that are saying to you and me is the definition of privilege, the assumption that their concerns are and must always be central to conversations.

Yeah, well, sorry. I'm busy. Lol