We’re here. We’re queer. We’re proud of it
While we at BTL try to report as much good news for our community as possible, bad news is unavoidable. And even though we would love to give you a paper with a smile on [...]
Parting Glances: Young hearts (and Mary): Pt. 1
Years ago bars were the only places gays could socialize in. There were no community centers, no organizations, no newspapers. Gay life was by word of mouth (and often hand to mouth). The ideal bar [...]
Pride 2005, Albom-style
By John Corvino This column was due before Motor City Pride in Ferndale, even though the paper in which you're reading it wasn't published until several days afterwards. But heck - why should Mitch Albom [...]
Genetic redemption?
By Gwendolyn Ann Smith The same week that medical science grabbed headlines for determining that gay men process smells differently from straight men, another notable piece of research eluded attention. This other study, to be [...]
Because we have to
By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman Several years after coming out as a lesbian, comedian and hero, Ellen DeGeneres has come out as a survivor of sexual abuse that happened when she was a teenager. I don't [...]
Art & Around
Summer Solstice exhibitions at BBAC BIRMINGHAM - From June 10 through July 15 the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center's galleries will be brimming with artworks that are bright with heat, color and the vibrancy of the [...]
Art, music and food-lovers delight in Royal Oak
By Sharon Gittleman ROYAL OAK - Have you been yearning for a glass figurine, some funky dance music and a fine waffle nacho? Your prayers will soon be answered, when the 11th Annual Clay & [...]
‘Brother to Brother’ to Air on PBS’s Independent Lens June 14
SAN FRANCISCO - Rodney Evans' award-winning drama "Brother to Brother" will air nationally on the Emmy-Award winning PBS series Independent Lens, hosted by Susan Sarandon, on Tuesday, June 14. The DVD of the film will [...]
TV in the pink in June
During four separate evenings in June, LGBT and allied viewers will have the opportunity to relive the past 40 years of TV shows and characters that have appealed to them. "Inside TV Land: Tickled Pink," [...]
Jan Phillips to present Divining the Body workshop
BIG RAPIDS - Out lesbian author and teacher Jan Phillips will present "Divining the Body: Reclaim the Holiness of Your Physical Self" from June 10-12 in Big Rapids. Participants are invited to "think of this [...]
Concert Connections
This Week: Swing Out Sister Thurs. 6/9/05 Magic Bag, Ferndale Electrelane Thurs. 6/9/05 The Shelter, Detroit Wynonna Judd Thurs. 6/9/05 Soaring Eagle Casino, Mt. Pleasant Ivy Fri. 6/10/05 Magic Stick, Detroit Natalie Cole Fri. 6/10/05 [...]
Curtain Calls
Review: 'Hannibal of the Alps' World premiere drama at Detroit Rep examines the sexuality of poet Langston Hughes When Hannibal crossed the Alps Ð with elephants, no less Ð into Italy in 218 B.C., he [...]
Curtain Calls XTRA
Review: 'The Laramie Project' Detroit Ensemble ends season and leaves Roseville on high note The horrific murder of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard in October 1998 brought the community of Laramie, Wyoming under intense scrutiny. To much [...]
Theater Events for the period June 9 – 18
Professional Theater: The Daughter of the Regiment A light-hearted comic opera performed in English set during the Napoleonic Wars. Staged by the Michigan Opera Theatre at the Detroit Opera House, June 8, 10 - 12. [...]
The gourmet nun, Baile Corcaigh
By Sister Serena Scatterpin, RSM DETROIT - As a Renegade Sister of Mary nun I'm just like your average saint de jour when it comes to dining out. I like to go with gourmet gusto. [...]
Swing Out Sister at Magic Bag June 9
FERNDALE - With the release of "Where Our Love Grows," Swing Out Sister (Corinne Drewery and Andy Connell) begins its twentieth year of existence as purveyors of their very special brand of pop soul derived [...]
As seen on TV
Whether it's a documentary about a gay-friendly Christian teen, the family dramatics of a gay mortician, all-gay all the time networks, or campy classic TV shows on DVD, this summer may as well be dubbed [...]
Deep Inside Hollywood
By Romeo San Vicente Kelsey Grammer is blue and hairy After years on one of the gayest sitcoms in TV history, will "Frasier"'s Kelsey Grammer finally be playing gay himself? It all depends on whom [...]
Now Playing
Just Out The Longest Yard After violating his probation for taking part in a point-shaving scheme, NFL quarterback Paul Crewe (Adam Sandler) winds up in a Texas prison. Once inside, he and an inmate known [...]
Q Puzzle Clues
Dramatic Poetry Across 1 Cole Porter's Miss 5 Fastener on a drag queen's pearls 10 Olympic medalist Louganis 14 Augusten Burroughs' "Running ___ Scissors" 15 Greeting for Dolly 16 Rock's longtime companion 17 Lesbian poet [...]
Community Connections
Get connected! Non-profit organizations are encouraged to send listings of ongoing events to Community Connections via email at [email protected] , fax at 248-615-7018 or postal mail: 20793 Farmington Rd., Ste. 25, Farmington, MI 48336. FORTY [...]
Carpooling with Family Pride
By Ari Lev How exciting for a writer to have a blank sheet of paper and a new audience! I have been invited (alright, I begged) to publish my LGBT parenting column in Between The [...]
Thousands flock to Ferndale for Motor City Pride
By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman FERNDALE - Some came to enjoy community. Some came to support each other, or to support a cause. For others, it was a chance to make friends, or a chance to [...]
International Mr. Leather competition heats up Memorial Day weekend
By John Quinn CHICAGO, IL - One and a half minutes of original verse might have been his key to victory as Michael Egdes took first place at the International Mr. Leather competition in Chicago [...]
Michigan AIDS Fund to focus on prevention
By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman SOUTHFIELD - An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That's the new philosophy of Michigan AIDS Fund, which will concentrate its funding on prevention programs alone during the [...]
Creep of the Week: Texas Governor Rick Perry
Considering Pope Benedict's recent ranting against gays and lesbians (basically the same old "gay marriage=the destruction of family" tune), I was considering crowning the pope Creep this week. But then I read that Texas Governor [...]
U of M to host spring/summer LGBTQ Coming Out Group
ANN ARBOR - The University of Michigan/Ann Arbor Office of LGBT Affairs will offer a nine-week coming out group beginning June 16. The group will help participants explore a variety of coming out issues, and [...]
AFA suspends Ford boycott
By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman DETROIT - On again, off again. That's the story of the attempted American Family Association boycott of Ford Motor Company. One week after announcing the boycott, on June 6 the AFA [...]
Michigan News briefs
UofM to host spring/summer LGBTQ Coming Out Group ANN ARBOR - The University of Michigan/Ann Arbor Office of LGBT Affairs will offer a nine-week coming out group beginning June 9. The group will help participants [...]
Bracelet sale to benefit TransGender Michigan
LANSING - TransGender Michigan has joined the Lance Armstrong Foundation, AIDS Partnership Michigan, and other organizations that are using brightly-colored silicone bracelets to raise funds and awareness. TransGender Michigan's orange bracelets say, "Transgenerator," and the [...]
Pro-gay Hope College professor: ‘I had no choice’ but to leave
By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman HOLLAND - Speaking up for gay rights is detrimental to your career, at least if you're a professor at Hope College. That's the message that Dr. Miguel De La Torre says [...]
Get your house in order with Divine Peace
By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman CLARKSTON - Divine Peace Metropolitan Community Church will host a day-long series of free workshops on June 11 to help participants get their financial, personal and relationship "houses" in order. Individual [...]
Thousands flock to Ferndale for Motor City Pride
By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman FERNDALE - Roughly thirty-five to forty thousand business people, artists, activists, organizers and revelers made downtown Ferndale their temporary home on June 5 for Motor City Pride 2005. Sean Kosofsky, policy [...]
People are the festival at Motor City Pride 2005
By Sharon Gittleman FERNDALE - Motor City Pride 2005 painted a true picture of the many faces of Michigan's LGBT and gay-friendly communities. Thousands of people passed under the rainbow balloons arching over Nine Mile [...]
Three couples say their ‘I do’s’ during Pride weekend
BY SHARON GITTLEMAN FERNDALE - Suzanne McNeil and Wanda Durland's lifelong love affair seems to have been written in the stars. The couple met when Durland was 11 and McNeil was just 13. "We fell [...]
Troy poster protest has reverse effect
By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman FERNDALE - A protest by anti-gay parents in Troy has backfired. Rather than stopping a message of tolerance, that message has proliferated beyond Michigan. The poster, which was created by Ferndale's [...]
A Woman’s Prerogative to close after 13 years
By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman FERNDALE - After thirteen years, Ferndale's women's bookstore will be closing its doors this month. "My first priority was to find someone to keep the store open as 'A Woman's Prerogative [...]
What does Pride mean to you?
By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman Pride means hugs. New and old friends hug each other, partners hug each other - in public - and PFLAG parents hug everyone. Pride means activism, from the Human Rights Campaign [...]
Race Matters – If you agree, group needs your help
DETROIT - The year was 1999; the place Oakland, Calif. Alice McKeage was attending a Creating Change conference and dropped in a session sponsored by The Color Triangle, a Chicago-based group that examined racism in [...]
New website responds to AFA boycott of Ford
By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman BOSTON - Three people. Three cities. Three hours. Just like that, a website responding to the American Family Association's attempted boycott of Ford Motor Company was born. The site was the [...]
National News Briefs
Compiled by Dawn Wolfe Gutterman National Security Gay Purple Heart honoree discharged SANTA BARBARA, Ca. - Sgt. Robert Stout, the Army sergeant who came out after being awarded the Purple Heart for bravery in Iraq, [...]
Marriage News from Around the Country
Compiled by Dawn Wolfe Gutterman California: A bill to legalize equal marriage rights died June 2 after it failed to gain the simple majority needed to pass the state Assembly. The bill lost by four [...]