Ask Dr. Wang
By Dr. Kevin Wang Obesity: Part II First, I'd like to respond to a letter sent to me after Part I was published. A reader said my column was offensive to people that are overweight [...]
Parting Glances: Pages from a book (Pt. 1)
I keep on my desk a piece of a red brick. It's all that's left of Cassboro Apartments, 444 Peterboro, Detroit. I found the small memento among the broken boards and shatter glass of the [...]
Lesbian mother torn from children
By Mubarak Dahir Donna Ellis' fingerprints are all over the lives of her two little girls. There she was, with her partner, holding the younger daughter at the girl's baptism at Joy Metropolitan Community Church [...]
All Politics is Loco: Detroit tackles the Super Bowl
By Sean Kosofsy Ok, sports fans and sports avoiders, the Super Bowl is finally here. We have seen the construction, we have been sold on the hype and now potentially tens of thousands of people [...]
Voices from an Urban Bush Sista! Don’t sleep on this one
By Imani Williams "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As we honor the legacy of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the contribution he made by [...]
Art & Around for the period Jan. 19-28
Art, Historical & Science Museums: Cranbrook Art Museum Current exhibit: "Contemporary Photography from Local Collections," through March 26. Free with $6 museum admission. 1-877-462-7262. http://www.cranbrook.edu. Detroit Historical Museum Current exhibit: "Reflections, The Mary Wilson Supremes [...]
Concert Connections
This Week: Lucy Kaplansky Friday, 1/20/06 The Ark, Ann Arbor Feist Tues. 1/24/05 Blind Pig, Ann Arbor Upcoming: Ann Arbor Folk Festival The Robert Cray Band, Iris Dement, Catie Curtis, more Fri. 1/27/06 Hill Auditorium, [...]
Theater Events for the period Jan. 19-28
Professional Theater/Opera: Bad Dates How one woman copes with that bizarre social ritual between men and women. BoarsHead Theatre, Lansing. Thu.-Sun., Jan. 26-Feb. 12. $21-$33. 517-484-7805. http://www.boarshead.org. Edge of the Brook Playwriting Showcase Readings of [...]
Take a second look at Grand Rapids
Dear BTL, I do agree to a degree that Detroit is not the best place for the gay and lesbian audience. I'm from Grand Rapids, I have found that everyone I have met here has [...]
On the gay ‘brain drain’
Dear BTL, I completely agree with the article "Gay 'brain drain'" by Sharon Gittleman in last week's issue. This was a great article that spoke true and direct to the current climate in Michigan. I [...]
Book Marks
By Richard Labonte The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer By David Leavitt. W.W. Norton, 319 pages, $22.95 hardcover "The Man Who Knew Too Much" is part of [...]
Curtain Calls
Review: 'Going to St. Ives' Lost hopes drive determined women By John Quinn "Kits, cats, sacks and wives/How many are going to St. Ives?" So ends the old rhyme that inspired the title of Lee [...]
Curtain Calls ONLINE
Professional Theater News Hot Off the Wires: Broadways' biggest blockbuster comes to Detroit and Affirmations has tickets FERNDALE - Affirmations has reserved a block of tickets for one of Broadway's top-grossing musicals, "Wicked," which arrives [...]
Now Playing
Just Out Casanova Legendary Venetian lover Giacomo Casanova (Heath Ledger) must marry before a papal inquisition catches up with him and hangs him for fornication. No sooner has he proposed to besotted Victoria (Natalie Dormer) [...]
Meet Emily the BTL pet of the week
Emily is a beautiful three-year-old medium hair cat with gorgeous tiger markings. She is at the shelter with her sister Annabelle because her previous family moved and could not bring them along. Emily is very [...]
UofM strikes up the band for relief
ANN ARBOR - The Hot 8 Brass Band from New Orleans will perform a special benefit concert at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor on Friday, Jan. 27 at 8 p.m. The Hot 8 Brass [...]
University Musical Society continues celebration of Mozart’s 250th birthday with multiple events
January programs include a visit by Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra ANN ARBOR - The University Musical Society's 05/06 season moves into the dead of winter with several events that represent the [...]
Genre Man of the Year?
BLOOMFIELD HILLS - He calls himself "just a regular guy," but 33-year-old Joe Fitrzyk staked out new territory late last year when he became Genre magazine's first-ever Genre Man from Michigan. And now - along [...]
One person’s journey is at the heart of ‘TransAmerica’
BLOOMFIELD HILLS - Inspiration, we're told, can come at any time from anywhere and from any source. Just act writer/director Duncan Tucker whose much-anticipated movie, "Transamerica," opens locally next week. "A woman who I knew [...]
Film puts a face on the T community
Throughout the LGBT community's long battle for equal rights, one group of participants has often felt left out of the public discussion. And with good reason. For it's certainly no secret that some gays and [...]
National News Briefs
Compiled by Dawn Wolfe Gutterman Politics IRS inquiry sought of two Ohio churches COLUMBUS - The New York Times reported on Jan. 16 that a group of religious leaders have sent a complaint to the [...]
Creep of the Week: Jack Abramoff
Jack Abramoff Unless you've been beneath the same rock lobbyist Jack Abramoff crawled out from under, you've heard his name in conjunction with corruption in Washington D.C. Before he was busted, it seemed Abramoff was [...]
SHe Said Jan. 19, 2005
"I know as actors our job is usually to shed our skins, but I think as people our job is to become who we really are and so I would like to salute the men [...]
Affirmations offers new health programs for 2006
FERNDALE - Affirmations Lesbian and Gay Community Center will be offering new health and wellness programs along with old favorites during the first few months of 2006. Living with Depression: A four-week structured group focusing [...]
LGBTs wary following Alito hearings
By Lisa Keen WASHINGTON - Federal Judge Samuel Alito Jr. says he's not a bigot, and during his Senate confirmation hearing last week, he disavowed anti-gay remarks that showed up in the publication of an [...]
NGLTF to receive $3 million from Arcus Foundation
By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman KALAMAZOO -- The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has been awarded a combined gift of $3 million over three years from the Arcus Foundation and its founder and president, Jon [...]
Michigan Civil Rights Commission audited post Prop. 2
By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman LANSING - According to a story in the Jan. 4 Detroit News, an audit requested by Rep. Leon Drolet (R-Clinton Township) found that the State Civil Rights Commission's actions to defend [...]
Anti-gay family groups strike out against Ford
By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman DEARBORN - Undaunted by their failed boycotts against Disney, Kraft, and the Ford Motor Company, anti-gay family groups are trying once gain to bully Ford into backing down from its support [...]
Penny Gardner to retire
By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman LANSING - Most people move from Michigan to Florida, but not Michigan Equality's Penny Gardner. Gardner, who will be retiring in February from her position as program director in February, did [...]
Gay Day at the auto show
By Sharon Gittleman DETROIT - For nearly a dozen car lovers there was just one place to be last weekend - Gay Day at the North American International Auto Show. The group met up at [...]
‘Brokeback Mountain’ leads Golden Globes with four prizes
By The Associated Press BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - The cowboy romance "Brokeback Mountain" led the Golden Globes on Monday with four prizes, including best dramatic film and the directing honor for Ang Lee. It was [...]
KGLRC president and secretary issue matching grant
By BTL Staff KALAMAZOO - Jim Knox and Tom Seiler, the president and the secretary of the Kalamazoo Gay/Lesbian Resource Center, have issued a challenge to the greater LGBT community of Michigan. Between now and [...]
We’re Golden
"Anti-gay right-wingers can flap their wrists in worry all they want about Hollywood's supposed homosexual agenda, but it's nice to see middle America paying to hear LGBT stories and being moved by what they see." [...]