Sometimes, the most surprising successes in the media world come when their creators take the expectations about a topic and turn them on their heads. Such is the case with the podcast “Transform: Beyond the Transition."

By Liz Massey, June 2018 Issue.At 5 years old, Cesar Cramton escaped from an abusive father by fleeing with his mother and brother. Like most who’ve survived scenarios like his, Cramton explained that this experience impacted his life in many ways, leaving him with scars, feelings of lack of safety ...

By Liz Massey, May 2018 Issue.Matty Steinkamp and Pita Juarez attended the 2017 Phoenix Pride parade to film what they thought was going to be a peaceful protest – not to get their hearts broken.The duo was gathering footage for a forthcoming documentary, and had previously interviewed Karyna R. Jar...

By Liz Massey, May 2018 Issue.I have to admit it – I cried recently watching the protests that happened in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, led by students around the country. They happened in places I never expected (Idaho!) and included participants who were 12 years old and even y...

By Liz Massey, March 2018 Issue.There is sometimes a misconception about what happens when a person, or a group of people, act on their “grand passion.” It isn’t always the case that this person becomes the best in the world at what he or she does; sometimes, the path to excellence lies in sharing w...

By Liz Massey, January 2018 IssueAs each year comes to a close, the Echo Magazine team takes pause to reflect on the events that defined the past 12 months and the exceptional individuals who led the way. To these individuals, Echo bestows its Leaders of the Year recognition.We’re proud to announce ...

By Liz Massey, January 2018 IssueI woke up giggling the other day because I had a long, elaborate dream about competing in a combination karaoke-and-long-form-storytelling contest at a local bar. I realized after the dream was over that, as campy as things seemed, it really wouldn’t be all that far-...

By Liz Massey, December 2017 Issue.As I write this, our nation is poised to plunge itself into the surrealistic two-month frenzy that Americans know as “the winter holiday season.”I am one of those folks who has almost entirely positive associations with Christmas … I love the special holiday foods,...

By Liz Massey, November 2017 Issue.Just months after a devastating fire at their previous location, the LGBTQ youth support organization one•n•ten opened its new Youth Center, located inside the Parsons Center For Health & Wellness at 1101 N. Central Ave. in downtown Phoenix.The organization, wh...

By Liz Massey, November 2017 Issue.As part of LGBTQ History Month, Echo Magazine will induct another class of community leaders into its Hall of Fame. More than just measuring fame, this recognition amounts to a “hall of honor,” an award acknowledging civic achievement.One thing is certain: it’s not...

By Liz Massey, October 2017 Issue.Each October, I make an extra effort to tie this column to a creativity-related topic for Echo’s arts season preview. Over the years, I’ve written about things like artistic burnout, lessons learned during the five years that I published a blog on the creative proce...

By Liz Massey, October 2017 Issue.There is an old bit of advice to artists that encourages them to focus their talents and not spread themselves too thinly. But the other side of that argument is this: when you have a confluence of multiple strengths, each skill amplifies the others. Think of a migh...

By Liz Massey, September 2017 Issue.I come from a family of teachers. This tradition stretches back at least four generations and my relatives have taught everything from “reading, writing and ‘rithmetic” in a one-room schoolhouse to psychiatric nursing in a college setting.But as much as my family ...

By Liz Massey, June 2017 Issue.It seems that everyone has a couple of mostly useless “superpowers,” and one of mine seems to be remembering the exact date of several major milestones in my life. For example, I remember the date of what I consider to be my official coming out: Jan. 16, 1990, when I s...

By Liz Massey, June 2017 Issue.In the annals of great combinations, there’s peanut butter and jelly, milk and cookies, and dinner and a show. Local adoption agency Child Crisis Arizona (CCAZ) is hoping to add “comedy and adoption education” to that list, with its Night of Comedy gathering, an event ...

By Liz Massey, May 2017 Issue.There’s an old cliché about our community that happens to be largely true: LGBTQ people have historically been tastemakers in American society, creating or recommending the food, fashion, films, music and other items that became crowd favorites. There is a reason the Br...

By Liz Massey, April 2017 Issue.Many of us in the LGBTQ community we can divide the recent past into the world we knew before Nov. 8, 2016, and the world – particularly the America – we knew after that. The election of our current president changed everything for us, and indeed for all marginalized ...

By Liz Massey, March 2017 Issue.The 17 members of the Ham family are no strangers to the spotlight. They’ve shared their story with the Arizona Republic, they’re the recipients of the ONE Community’s inaugural Change Agent Award and, yes, you’ve gotten to know them through several stories in the pag...

By Liz Massey, January 2017 Issue.From the time she was a child, cycling always offered Jillian Bearden a sense of freedom – a way to feel independent and powerful. As she grew up, and realized the male gender she’d been assigned at birth didn’t match how she felt, cycling offered a powerful escape ...

By Liz Massey, February 2017 Issue.A lot of LGBTQ adults will tell you their awareness of their sexual-romantic attractions and/or gender uniqueness stretches back to their earliest memories.One of the clearest ways my proto-queerness reared its beautiful head when I was a youngster was through my c...