Independent since 2002 Issue No. 1102 Week of November 7, 2026 Get the free email dispatch →

Editorial Board

The Reverend Irene Monroe

Oprah Hurts Obama - Inclusion By The Reverend Irene Monroe

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member and Columnist, The Reverend Irene Monroe is an ordained minister, motivational speaker and she speaks for a sector of society that is frequently invisible. Rev. Monroe does a weekly Monday segment, “All Revved Up!” on WGBH (89.7 FM), on Boston Public Radio and a weekly Friday segment “The Take” on New England Channel NEWS (NECN). She’s a Huffington Post blogger and a syndicated religion columnist. Her columns appear in cities across the country and in the U.K, and Canada. Also she writes a column in the Boston home LGBTQ newspaper Baywindows and Cambridge Chronicle. A native of Brooklyn, NY, Rev. Monroe graduated from Wellesley College and Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University, and served as a pastor at an African-American church in New Jersey before coming to Harvard Divinity School to do her doctorate. She has received the Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching several times while being the head teaching fellow of the Rev. Peter Gomes, the Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard who is the author of the best seller, THE GOOD

396 pieces

Commentary

Cheating Harvard

By The Reverend Irene Monroe Editorial Board

Adam Wheeler defrauded Harvard out of thousands of dollars: $31,000 in financial aid, $8,000 in a research grant, and $6,000 in English prizes. Many applaud his feat while others are appalled by his nerve. Had his hubris not gotten the best of him – vying for the prestigious Fulbright and Rhodes scholarships – Wheeler would…

Adam Wheeler defrauded Harvard out of thousands of dollars: $31,000 in financial aid, $8,000 in a research grant, and $6,000 in English prizes. Many applaud his…

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Commentary

Lena Horne Was More Than Skin-Deep

By The Reverend Irene Monroe Editorial Board

Lena Horne died this Mother’s Day at the age of 92. If you are of my generation of Lena Horne fans your first encounters with the star was her role as Glinda, the Good Witch of the South in “The Wiz,” the 1978 film of the all-black version of L. Frank Baum’s children’s classic “The…

Lena Horne died this Mother’s Day at the age of 92. If you are of my generation of Lena Horne fans your first encounters with the…

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Commentary

A Letter to a Mother Unknown

By The Reverend Irene Monroe Editorial Board

Share or Print this Page of BC | I am thinking about you this Mother’s Day, but what shall I call you? Mommy! Mommy? I never called anyone Mommy although I remember one day during my first spring semester at Union Theological Seminary in 1988 when I was rolled into St. Luke’s Hospital Emergency Room…

Share or Print this Page of BC | I am thinking about you this Mother’s Day, but what shall I call you? Mommy! Mommy? I never…

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Commentary

ROTC Marching Its Way Back Onto Harvard’s Campus

By The Reverend Irene Monroe Editorial Board

For decades the Reserve Officers” Training Corps( ROTC) was an unwelcome sight on Ivy League college campuses, like Harvard University, because of its ban on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) servicemembers. But in February of this year, when the nation’s top two Defense officials, Defense Secretary, Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman…

For decades the Reserve Officers" Training Corps( ROTC) was an unwelcome sight on Ivy League college campuses, like Harvard University, because of its ban on lesbian,…

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Cover Story

Gay community loses black civil rights ally Dorothy Height

By The Reverend Irene Monroe Editorial Board

Civil Rights activist Dorothy Irene Height died on April 20th at the age of 98. Of prominent African American civil rights allies to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community ” Coretta Scott King, Julian Bond, and John Lewis, to name a few- Height wasn’t profiled and honored enough. But this unsung heroine…

Civil Rights activist Dorothy Irene Height died on April 20th at the age of 98. Of prominent African American civil rights allies to the lesbian, gay,…

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Commentary

The Catholic Church Needs Its Gay Priests

By The Reverend Irene Monroe Editorial Board

Share or Print this Page of BC | The Catholic Church is in damage control. Pope Benedict XVI won’t resign and he can’t be defrocked. And Catholics worldwide are enraged. The Church now needs a quick out, an easy solution and a fall guy to tamp down our rage and to explain away its decades-long…

Share or Print this Page of BC | The Catholic Church is in damage control. Pope Benedict XVI won’t resign and he can’t be defrocked. And…

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Commentary

The Pope’s Pedophilic Church

By The Reverend Irene Monroe Editorial Board

Who among us would not flinch at the thought of a “holy man” preying on children instead of praying with them? And what faith can anyone have in a Church that says it stands on the teachings of Jesus yet violates his biblical mandate stated in Mark 10:14: “Let the children come to me; do…

Who among us would not flinch at the thought of a “holy man” preying on children instead of praying with them? And what faith can anyone…

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Commentary

ObamaCare Passed Passing Up Reproductive Justice

By The Reverend Irene Monroe Editorial Board

Eight million more women than men voted for Obama for president. And one of the reasons we did was because of his purported position on reproductive justice issues like abortion and emergency contraception (EC). For example, in 2008 he pledged to Planned Parenthood: “I will not yield” to pro-life concerns. But with the stroke of…

Eight million more women than men voted for Obama for president. And one of the reasons we did was because of his purported position on reproductive…

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Commentary

Jamaica’s Gay Underground Christians

By The Reverend Irene Monroe Editorial Board

Sometime in the late hours of Saturday night the call will come in. Philbert (not his real name) like many of his Christian lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) buddies wait anxiously for the call in order to know the time and place of the van pickup, and where it’ll drop them off to…

Sometime in the late hours of Saturday night the call will come in. Philbert (not his real name) like many of his Christian lesbian, gay, bisexual,…

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