Happy New Year! My top 7 blogs of 2023.

I am continuing my New Year’s tradition of sharing my top seven blogs that received the most hits during the past year.

Six of my top seven most read blogs were published in earlier years.  I guess as more people read them, they come toward the top on google searches and get even more readers.  Only one of the top seven was actually written and published this year.

Six of the seven blogs relate to some aspect of diversity: LGBTQ+, Hispanic, Muslim, diversity in sports and diversity in job search.

Here are the seven most read of 2023,  starting with number 7 and working up to number one.

7) This year’s number 7 was the one blog on the list that was written and published this year – Seven “Trigger Words” Against the LGBTQ Community.  I share seven words or phrases that are highly insulting and demeaning to LGBTQ+ people. This may be important content to include in LGBTQ+ diversity training.

6) This year’s number 6 was also last year’s number 6 – “Three Wonderful Recent Examples of Diversity and Sports,” in which I provide short summaries with links about an NFL football player with one hand, an WNBA player who is a new mother with her wife, and a college track star who overcame a harsh abusive upbringing in Africa.

5) Returning from 2021’s “Top 7” is this blog initially published in 2018.  I received excellent assistance from local activist and Muslim woman Zainab Baloch, “Five Things To Never Say To a Muslim.”

4) Appearing for in the first time in my “Top 7” last year at number five, and now moving up one slot is “Active Listening Skills of Influential Leaders” published in March 2020.

The Hispanic population in the USA is one of the fastest growing segments

With the growing number of Hispanic people in the US, it makes sense that:

3) Written in collaboration with my part-time biligual consultant in staff, Elsa Maria Jimenez Salgado, “Five Things to Never Say to Hispanic People.”

2) And actually written as a guest blog piece by Elsa Maria Jimenez Salgado and 2021 and 2022’s number one blog, “Seven Misconceptions or Stereotypes of Hispanic People.”

1) And now number 1!!  Written in 2020 and appearing in my list for the first time last year as #2 is “Five Tips for Highlighting Your Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion in Your Resume: Here’s How.”    As diversity, equity and inclusion becomes increasingly important in the workplace, this blog can prove to be a valuable resource for job seekers.

I wish all of my faithful readers a happy and fulfilling 2024.  To stay in touch and to receive my monthly newsletter in which I summarize all blogs written in the previous month, please do subscribe to my newsletter. Or check out this page to connect to my LinkedIn or business Facebook page.

Are you (or your company) complicit in the mass killings at the Colorado Springs LGBTQ+ Club?

Local Colorado Springs memorial to the 5 people murdered at Club Q (Photo KOAA, Alasyn Zimmerman)

Not again! As an out and proud gay man, I feel both sick and angry when I heard the news of a hate-filled AR-15 gunman killing five and injuring at least 25 at Colorado Spring’s Club Q. Club Q was hosting a drag show during the attack to commemorate the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which is a time to focus on the disproportionate number of transgender people killed by violence. (Read my initial blog about this day.) An all-ages family friendly drag brunch was scheduled for the next day.

Why does this keep happening and who is to blame?

A large part of the blame must go to many conservative Republican politicians who continue to demonize the queer community.

US Representative Lauren Boebert (R-Colo) says that drag performances are intended to “groom” children. And what? Turn them into gay or transgender kids?

My own state’s North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson referred to LGBTQ+ people as filth.

Florida passed a law which basically outlaws mentioning gay people or gay families in grades K through 3. What are young kids living with two moms or two dads to think when their own state government sends the message that there is something sick or sinful or wrong with their families?

This continued messaging of hate against any community incites violence. It gives permission to people that because these “others” are a scourge to society, it is perfectly fine to kill and hurt them.

Please consider your role in the increasing number of mass killings in our country.

Now to the hard discussion. Anyone who votes for political leaders who demean any group with hate speech is just as responsible for those night club murders as the gunman who fired the bullets. If you care about life, you have the responsibility to tell the people you vote for and the political party you support that you will not support any form of hate. Your failure to do so makes you complicit in these lost lives.

And not only are individuals who vote to blame, but companies that give political contributions to these hate-mongering leaders at the same time while waving the pride flag and telling their employees they support all diversity are totally hypocritical. We saw that Disney Company could not get away with proclaiming their LGBTQ+ inclusiveness while at the same time donating money to Floridian lawmakers who passed their “Don’t Say Gay” Law. (Read my blog “Companies cannot claim to be LGBTQ+ supportive while contributing to anti-LGBTQ+ legislators” that I published back in April. It tells part of this Disney story.)

Next time you read about a mass killing, please examine your own heart and actions, and ascertain if you are contributing to this pandemic of murder, or doing your part to fight it.