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long-form narrative nonfiction, reporting

Holy Mess: The Battle Over St. Stanislaus

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Just after a late-afternoon thunderstorm, the corner of Aliceanna and Ann streets in Fells Point is alive with activity. Horns honk. A woman speaks through a PA system. A man dressed in flowing robes and a tall hat impersonates a […]

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essay, long-form narrative nonfiction

The Semi-Free State

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It was Oct. 28—adoption day—and Courtroom 2 of the Baltimore City Circuit Court was packed. Well-dressed parents and children squeezed into the hard wooden benches like churchgoers on Christmas Eve. Babies cried and young children squirmed on their parents’ laps. Adolescents […]

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long-form narrative nonfiction, reporting

Lifeline: Chase Brexton Celebrates 30 Years

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It was a warm Friday evening in 1978. Scott MacLeod and about a half-dozen other young gay men whom he didn’t know sat in a cramped basement room. “We all looked at each other and said, `Who wants to go […]

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long-form narrative nonfiction, reporting

In Between Days: Baltimore’s Transgender Population

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The sign on the bathroom door read ABSOLUTELY NO MEN IN THE WOMEN’S RESTROOM. Cydné Kimbrough couldn’t believe her eyes. Wanting to believe the best, she carefully peeled away the Scotch tape from the corners and brought the sign to the […]

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long-form narrative nonfiction, reporting

Speed Bump: Maryland Doesn’t Have a Meth Problem—Yet

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If you’ve read a national newspaper or news magazine lately, you know the story. Methamphetamine use is moving east from the West Coast, where it’s had a stranglehold on states such as Oregon since the ’90s. Backwoods meth labs pose dangerous […]

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long-form narrative nonfiction, reporting

Raising a Glass: Leon’s Turns 50

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It’s a typical Monday night at Leon’s. The two front doors are propped open—usual for a spring evening—but the fading sunlight does nothing to illuminate the tiny corner bar at Park Avenue and Tyson Street. At just before 8, happy […]

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long-form narrative nonfiction, reporting

Rational Decisions

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Courtroom 5 at the John R. Hargrove Sr. District Courthouse in Brooklyn is as nondescript as a courtroom can get. Front and center is the judge’s bench, a mammoth desk of dark wood shined to a high luster. A pile of […]

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My Queer History: Me and the Indigo Girls

In this essay series on Medium, I explore my personal history as a queer person, through the songs of the Indigo Girls.

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Laura Laing, writer

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