Correction
In our May 25 issue, we reported a quote by Phill Wilson, director of the Black AIDS Institute, which said that "nearly 70 percent of the new HIV/AIDS cases in America are among black women." [...]
Parting Glances: Scatterpin does DaVinci?
I hesitate to say how I spent Memorial Day weekend, all 72 nonstop hours. But confession, as the eager priest said to reticent acolyte, is good for something or other. (Just don't get caught doing [...]
All Politics is Loco: Mutant Love
by Sean Kosofsky As a young boy I loved comic books and my favorite characters were the Incredible Hulk and the X-Men. I have always had a fascination with secret power and hidden strength. I [...]
FMA Again – It’s time for a different song
Every era has a song that symbolizes the hopes, fears, dreams and aspirations of the country at that time. As people started to come together forming unions to protect their rights and for safer working [...]
What’s Really Going On: God
By Renee McCoy Our lives as LGBT people continue to be affected by this entity known as God. The word itself conjures such power and majesty, such incredible ability, such utter fear and dismay. Religious [...]
Art & Around for the period June 8-17
Architecture/Design/Garden Tours: Edsel & Eleanor Ford House Tour the magnificent house and grounds (Tue.-Sun.). Detroit: 313-884-4222. http://www.fordhouse.org. Arts Festivals: Detroit Festival of the Arts The 20th anniversary international festival that features over 100 music, dance [...]
Theater Events for the period June 8-17
Professional Theater/Opera: The Aboriginal Treatment Center Poet/playwright Ron Allen's examination of the archetypical black man's mind. The Thick Knot Rhythm Ensemble at the former Furniture Factory, Detroit. Fri.-Sun., through July 2. $20. 734-576-9547. Additional Particulars [...]
Concert Connections
This Week: ABC Tues. 6/8/06 Royal Oak Music Theatre The Fiery Furnaces Thurs. 6/8/06 Saint Andrews Hall, Detroit Liza Minnelli Fri. 6/9/06 Music Hall Center, Detroit Loretta Lynn Fri. 6/9/06 Meadow Brook Music Festival, Rochester [...]
So-called ‘Family Values’
Dear BTL, Again the election season is upon us and once again the Republicans are up to their predictable dirty tricks. Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) vowed to the religious right that there will be a vote [...]
Kudos for McGuire
Dear BTL, I was the first EMU Music Therapy student to complete all four years of the program under Professor Michael McGuire who was profiled in last week's Pride issue. I was his first graduating [...]
Weapons of Mass Distraction
Dear BTL, The Federal Marriage Amendment is yet another ploy in W's Weapons of Mass Distraction agenda. How about those three recent alligator murders in Florida, not to mention GEICO's talking salamander! Time for a [...]
Lights, camera, action: Hamtramck film and video festival attracts international attention
Planet Ant Film & Video Festival returns June 14-17 HAMTRAMCK - When the average person thinks about film festivals, it's the Sundance Film Festival in Utah and the Cannes Film Festival in France that come [...]
Curtain Calls ONLINE
Professional Theater News from Around Town local festival gains regional, national recognition JACKSON - The Michigan Shakespeare Festival has announced that its 2006 season has been recommended in regional and national publications. The Fort Wayne [...]
Curtain Calls
Review: 'John, John The Miller's Son' Bowen & Glasgow excel in Det. Rep drama It should come as no surprise that some in our criminal court system take a hardened view whenever convicts claim they [...]
Jacqueline Carey to be at Borders June 22
ANN ARBOR - Jacqueline Carey will be at Border's in Ann Arbor on June 22 to sign the latest in her Kushiel trilogy, "Kushiel's Scion." Library Journal said of the first novel in the series, [...]
Rainbow House to hold wine tasting June 15
ANN ARBOR - Rainbow House, Washtenaw county's LGBT Habitat for Humanity project, will host a wine tasting of fine Italian wines on Thursday, June 15 at 6:30 p.m. In addition to wine tasting and gourmet [...]
Rock-a-bye baby
ANN ARBOR - Without Ana Egge's baby, she'd feel lost. But this baby doesn't drool, it's the kind made of wood and strings. "There's always something good about most guitars, but there's a lot that's [...]
Lost in ‘Wonderland’
Not only did singer-songwriter, and newly reformed pop princess, Jewel recently appear on "Extreme Makeover," but she also has a commonality with the show. No, not a newly renovated home, but a new start. That's [...]
Lookin’ like Liza
It's not everyday that Hallmark manager Diane Preslow fluffs up her hair, throws on some heavy makeup, wears a sequined gown and fishnets. But when she's adorning in the glitz and glamour of stage performer [...]
King for a day
By Jane Martin Nora Vincent went out in drag one day with a friend in New York City. Men didn't leer, catcall, or even stare. She felt freed by this, and a bit curious. And [...]
‘The Last Stand’
By Cornelius A. Fortune There's something beating beneath the skin of this thing, but it ain't a heart. Could be the percussion on the soundtrack, biding adieu to a once great-and-future franchise, by a director [...]
International Briefs
Compiled by Dawn Wolfe Gutterman International Briefs Spain seeks to ease identity changes for transsexuals MADRID, Spain - Transgender persons who wish to change their legal gender identity under Spanish law could do so without [...]
Creep of the Week: George W. Bush
George W. Bush Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Lord knows these are desperate times for George W. Bush. Like a four-year-old who retells the same joke expecting the same level of unbridled hilarity, [...]
Fundraising party for One United Michigan June 14
DETROIT - Crystal Home Care, a home health care agency and provider of durable medical equipment, will host a fundraising party for One United Michigan from 5-8 p.m. on Wednesday, June 14. One United Michigan [...]
Thompson recovering from back surgery
FERNDALE - Leslie Thompson, executiveÊdirector of Affirmations LesbianÊand Gay Community Center, is currently on medicalÊleave and recovering from back surgery which was performed the week of May 29. She has been discharged from the hospital [...]
Bush backs marriage amendment
By Lisa Keen WASHINGTON - It's hard to call it a "snub" because it was a "White House event" and widely reported as such by the media; but the staging of President Bush's endorsement of [...]
Pre-Pride picnic brings smiles to LGBT families
BY SHARON GITTLEMAN FERNDALE - When Kristin Gilbody was pregnant with Zachariah, the youngest of her four children, she learned she had cancer. Then her partner abandoned their family. Gilbody was just 29 years old. [...]
Live, love, be proud
FERNDALE - Like several dog owners on Sunday at Motor City Pride in Ferndale, Melissa Cauchon of Rochester brought her partner and pooch Leo to the state's largest LGBT event. It's too early to tell, [...]
LGBT couples take their vows at Ferndale City Hall
BY SHARON GITTLEMAN FERNDALE - Joan Kiesling, 35, had no apprehensions about marrying her fiancee. "You just know," said Kiesling. "It's a feeling." Her soon-to-be wife said they'd been together for a year. "We are [...]
SHe Said June 8, 2006
"Marriage is the most fundamental right in our society and it should not be defined by activist judges." - George W. Bush during his June 5, 2006 press conference in support of the Marriage Protection [...]
Looking toward a proud future
On June 3, 2006 thirteen couples were wed at the annual mass Commitment Ceremony in Ferndale - more than in the event's two previous years. On June 4, a straight couple brought their kids to [...]