GayFest: Live from Romania
by Rev. Mark Bidwell BUCHAREST, ROMANIA - Despite rain the GayFest march went on as planned for almost a year.The event served as a reminder to me that we in the United States take pride [...]
New HOPE Fund grants announced
DETROIT - The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan announced grants totaling $55,000 from The Hope Fund to assist agencies and organizations that support the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals and communities. Grants [...]
Whitney story fires up a national debate
Capitol Correspondent LANSING-- When BTL published the story on Tyler Whitney's coming out last week, it was to inform readers. It was also picked up by Sirius radio host and gay journalist Michangelo Signorile. From [...]
Creep of the Week: Dr. James W. Holsinger
Does America need Surgeon General who believes that gays can be "cured" of their gayness? George W. Bush seems to think so. On May 24 he nominated Dr. James W. Holsinger. to be the next [...]
Addiction hurting our relationship
Q: I have a real problem with my boyfriend, "Richard." Before I get into that, I want to say that I love Richard very much. He is the sweetest guy you could imagine. Or, at [...]
Parting Glances: Time shifts ten-speed
I'm biking up Third Avenue to Jefferson, down Jefferson to Belle Isle, around Belle Isle, and back. Easy 10 miles. Not bad for a well-seasoned geezer (or, more aptly gay: in Yiddish: an alte kokker). [...]
In Pride, June 2007
By Imani Williams Voices from an Urban Bush Sista What an honor it is to congratulate my sister and friend Michelle Brown on being chosen as this year's recipient of the Pride Media Award at [...]
Looks like it’s Vera Wang for a Banana Republican
By R.J. Beaumia Blind item: Which popular deity might be catering that conservative homosexual pundit's wedding this coming August? Wags around town are already imagining having to scarf down the tired fare of bread and [...]
Take my pet, please
by Sean Kosofsky All Politics is Loco Even mild exposure to the right wing's panic and fear-laced rhetoric about gay people would give the average person the impression that we are really bad people. They [...]
Bubbly, blunt & totally anti-Bush
Amber June 23 Menjo's, Detroit (313) 863-3934 http://www.menjosdetroit.com http://www.myspace.com/ambersings Amber's not one to filter herself. Ask her about President Bush, and she'll lash out with a harsh expletive. Ask her if she ever wished for [...]
Lansing folkie returns home to jam
Barb Barton with Rachel Alexander and Terri Stangl 8 p.m. June 23 Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lansing 855 Grove St. East Lansing Admission: Suggested donation $8-$20 http://www.barbbarton.com Barb Barton, a Lansing folk music fave [...]
Art, antiques, feet to adorn Royal Oak
PHOTO: RO-Antique INFO BOX Antique & Garage Sale 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. July 14-15 Lafayette and Sixth Street Parking Structure Thirty thousand people will visit the sale of the year in downtown Royal Oak — and [...]
Craving k.d.
k.d. lang and Lyle Lovett 8 p.m. June 27 Kresge Auditorium, Interlochen 8 p.m. June 28 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor http://www.kdlang.com Jeans are like cars. It's only time to clean them when their blue color [...]
Book Marks reviews Maupin, Grossman, Davis
by Richard Labonte June 18, 2007 "Michael Tolliver Lives," by Armistead Maupin. HarperCollins, 304 pages, $25.95 hardcover. In prepublication interviews, the author of the six "Tales of the City" books insists this isn't a seventh [...]
Now Playing at the movies
June 25, 2007 NEW THIS WEEK: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer The Fantastic Four - Mr. Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd), the Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba), the Human Torch (Chris Evans) and the Thing (Michael [...]
Q Scopes:Focus on art, Aquarius
by Jack Fertig June 18, 2007 The sun in Cancer and Venus in Leo both elevate sweetness and generosity, but they are clashing with each other, so the effect can be cloyingly precious and pushy. [...]
Q Puzzle: Togged Out
June 18, 2007 Across 1 Materials for Paul Cadmus etchings 6 Gus Van Sant's "Good ___ Hunting" 10 "Gay ___ Sutra" 14 _The African Queen_ co-star, informally 15 Morales of "Resurrection Blvd." 16 Pindaric poems [...]
GayFest: Live from Romania
by Rev. Mark Bidwell BUCHAREST, ROMANIA - Despite rain the GayFest march went on as planned for almost a year.The event served as a reminder to me that we in the United States take pride [...]
By Todd A. Heywood
Capitol Correspondent and wire reports LANSING-- The Kalamazoo City Manager Kenneth Collard announced Monday night that the city was reversing itself on its earlier announcement it would cut domestic partner benefits to contract employees. The [...]
Record numbers come out for West MI Pride
By Sarah Mieras GRAND RAPIDS - More than 3,000 people turned out Saturday for a hot celebration of the West Michigan LGBT community. The 19th annual event showed steady growth in attendance, drawing folks from [...]
New HOPE Fund grants announced
DETROIT - The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan announced grants totaling $55,000 from The Hope Fund to assist agencies and organizations that support the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals and communities. Grants [...]
Statewide LBGT prom a dream come true
Capitol Correspondent LANSING- As youth, dressed to the nines in ball gowns and tuxedos, arrived at the Lansing Center, a recently married couple posed for traditional bride and groom photographs by the Grand River, and [...]
LGBT campers to enjoy their week in the sun
by Sharon Gittleman DETROIT- Roasting marshmallows, swimming in a sun-warmed lake and performing silly skits with the help of your new best friends. Thanks to the Triangle Foundation, lesbian and gay kids don't have to [...]
Update: Michigan Pride a go
LANSING - The events for Michigan Pride are a go. As of Monday, the permits from the City of Lansing have been issued. The event continues to look for more volunteers. Those interested in volunteering [...]
Mich. Court of Appeals to AFA: No standing on Domestic Partners benefits
Capitol Correspondent LANSING- The Michigan Court of Appeals upheld an Ingham County Circuit Court judge's ruling that the American Family Association of Michigan lacked standing to sue Michigan State University over its Domestic Partners program [...]
Whitney story fires up a national debate
Capitol Correspondent LANSING-- When BTL published the story on Tyler Whitney's coming out last week, it was to inform readers. It was also picked up by Sirius radio host and gay journalist Michangelo Signorile. From [...]
Time works its magic
Nothing makes our week here at BTL fly by faster than some good news. The vote in the Massachusetts legislature last week to uphold same-sex marriage was indeed historic and glorious. Three quarters of the [...]
Art & Around for the period June20-30
SUMMER ARTS FESTIVALS: Ann Arbor Summer Festival A three-week celebration of performing arts, outdoor entertainment and community spirit that offers dozens of legendary artists, pop icons, international superstars and emerging newcomers in and around the [...]
Actress, advocate makes magic in Detroit
She's everywhere. Although the name Madelyn Porter might not sound familiar, there's a very good chance you'd recognize her as one of Metro Detroit's jewels of the theater - a powerful actress who's graced pretty [...]
No errors in this comedy at Stratford
By Robert W. Bethune You don't take "The Comedy of Errors" seriously. It isn't about anything. It's entertaining proof that the greatest of dramatists put out fluff. The pedants may have dug into this play [...]
A commie lurks at the Purple Rose
CHELSEA - Life might have turned out significantly different for Grosse Pointe native Matt Letscher had he not found his way to the Purple Rose Theatre Company immediately after receiving a bachelor's degree in theater [...]
Dark Visions exhibit
EDITOR'S PICK: Everyone may have a different conception as to what might be considered dark or edgy. "Dark Visions" is a collaborative exhibit featuring the photography of several different regional artists, including Boyd Hambleton, that [...]
Record numbers come out for West MI Pride
By Sarah Mieras GRAND RAPIDS - More than 3,000 people turned out Saturday for a hot celebration of the West Michigan LGBT community. The 19th annual event showed steady growth in attendance, drawing folks from [...]
Loving and the Fight for Marriage Equality
by Bob Roehr Advocates for gay and lesbian equal rights to marriage celebrated the 40th anniversary of the historic US Supreme Court decision of Loving v. Virginia, which struck down the last remaining state laws [...]
Mass. will keep same-sex marriage
By Lisa Keen Between The Lines Online BOSTON - When Massachusetts Senate Press Therese Murray gaveled the joint session to order and then moved immediately to a proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, gay marriage [...]
Gay candidate loses in Dallas mayor’s race
by Bob Roehr DALLAS- Hopes for electing the first openly gay, big city mayor, were dashed on June 16 when Ed Oakley lost a nonpartisan run-off election in Dallas. Advance polling had shown the race [...]
Bucharest pride succeeds with heavy police protection
It took 800 police officers to protect it, and the arrest of 108 counterprotesters, but the June 9 gay pride parade in Bucharest, Romania, was a success. Officers tear-gassed hundreds of anti-gay protesters who threw [...]
World record: 3 million march in Sao Paulo
Three million people took part in the 11th gay pride parade in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on June 10, making it easily the world's largest such parade ever. The president of the Sao Paulo Gay, Lesbian, [...]
Moscow Pride organizer guilty of disobeying cops
Chief Moscow Pride organizer Nikolai Alekseev was found guilty June 9 of disobeying police orders regarding traffic control at the May 27 pride rally outside City Hall. The ralliers were protesting Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's refusal [...]
Lesbian Japanese politician gets married
Openly lesbian Japanese politician Kanako Otsuji, 32, and her girlfriend, Maki Kimura, 32, got married June 3 in Tokyo. They wore white dresses and carried roses in the ceremony that was not recognized legally. A [...]