Billy Masters
"Oh, my God, I looked like a fat pig! I looked like a fat pig!" - Britney Spears screaming after watching her MTV Video Music Awards performance on a backstage monitor, as reported by US [...]
Creep of the Week: Fred Thompson
Looks like Fred is going after that coveted fag-bashing constituency. Let the games begin. If you thought that when Fred Thompson threw his hat in the ring as a presidential candidate the GOP had found [...]
Parting Glances Hands off my Sect, Woody!
Woody Allen - who takes religion, God, get-saved theology - with a grain of salt (no doubt Epsom) once quipped, "I don't believe in an afterlife, although I am bringing a change of underwear." (He [...]
Living OUT brings loonies from the shadows
And although society wants to define us, the LGBT community, by our sexual activities, our relationships have all the complexity, depth and emotion of any other human relationship. Viewpoint Just when I thought I had [...]
Crumbs from the Table?
by John Corvino Beyond these concerns, I'm tempted to respond to Blankenhorn's point about "the equal dignity of homosexual love" with an exasperated "Duh!" Yes, we love our partners! We rejoice with them in times [...]
Artwork for AIDS awareness
By Jessica Carreras When Carl Demeulenaere got the call to participate in Artworks for Life, he was thinking of friends he lost to AIDS throughout the '90s. Like many others donating to help AIDS prevention, [...]
Chamber Music Society offers nine-concert chamber music series
FARMINGTON HILLS - The Chamber Music Society of Detroit has announced its concert series for the 2007-2008 season. Two series are offered: the nine-concert Opus 9 Series and the three-concert Opus 3 Piano Series. Continuing [...]
Between The Sheets
By Ed Woody Tough Stuff These are real men, not boys, enjoying some real sex where they really mean it, and not just some mechanical in-and-out. These butch fellas are doing construction work on a [...]
Marty’s short on gaydar. Just not jokes.
An Evening with Martin Short 8 p.m. Sept. 22 The Whiting, Flint 810-237-7333 Who wouldn't peg Franck, the flamboyant wedding planner in "Father of the Bride," as a queeny queer? The guy who played him: [...]
What can one person do?
Rev. Deb Dysert Viewpoint I believe this question is a struggle that many people have. We struggle with how we can live as a model of faith in a world that seems to be growing [...]
Now Playing
September 24, 2007 NEW THIS WEEK: The Brave One New Yorker Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) finds herself on the wrong side of a mugging when three vicious thugs attack her and her boyfriend (Naveen Andrews). [...]
The OutField: Transformation, A Sportswriter’s Journey to Fulfillment
by Dan Woog September 17, 2007 When Mike Penner told a fellow sportswriter and former soccer teammate that he'd be transitioning from male to female, the friend said, "Could you have picked a worse profession [...]
Art & Around for the period Sept. 20-29
EDITOR'S PICK: The Detroit Symphony Orchestra continues its 2007-08 season with music that recognizes a global tragedy, and offers a moving tribute to it victims. DSO Resident Conductor Thomas Wilkins will lead the Orchestra in [...]
Theater Events for the period Sept. 20-29
EDITOR'S PICK: The Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College Diversity Guest Artist Series presents a visually engaging and politically charged live art documentary about one man's escape from hurricane Katrina, at 8 p.m., Sept. 29 in [...]
Suddenly, there are more gay Canadians
by Rex Wockner There are a lot more gay Canadians than there used to be. Or maybe not. Perhaps the census has gotten better at counting them, and gays are getting better about coming out [...]
International News
by Rex Wockner Ugandan tabloid outs gay citizens The Ugandan tabloid newspaper Red Pepper on Sept. 9 again outed several citizens as gay. Under the headline "HOMO TERROR! We Name And Shame Top Gays In [...]
LGBT health advocateslobby Congress on Meth
by Bob Roehr WASHINGTON, DC - Methamphetamine, mental health, and HIV in gay and bisexual men were the subjects of a congressional briefing by the National Coalition for LGBT Health on Sept.10. The goal was [...]
Maryland court ruling upholds ban on marriage
By Lisa Keen The supreme court of Maryland reversed a lower court decision Tuesday which had found a constitutional right for gay couples to marry, making Maryland the fifth state where the high court upheld [...]
Letter: Just thinking about sex…
As a gay man, its easy to stand on the side and shake a shameful finger at the hypocrit who I think he (Larry Craig) probably is. But, I think we are missing an important [...]
Letter: Responding to hate on campus
And Michigan State University LGBTQA groups are going to do what exactly? Of course they could protest this speaker with much effort. Would it just get the MSU YAF group mad and sputter this more [...]
WRAP addresses community concerns
ANN ARBOR - The Washtenaw Rainbow Action Project's board of directors addressed the future of the organization, which is struggling from limited income and a loss of board members, on Sept. 11 at the Kerry [...]
AIDS WALK 2007
The Michigan AIDS Fund reports that each year, 1,000 Michigan citizens discover that they are HIV-positive. The cumulative estimated numbers of diagnosis of AIDS through 2005 in the United States and dependent areas were 984,155 [...]
Record numbers come out to run and walk for AIDS WALK 2007
By Cathy Markes ROYAL OAK - A record number of participants and sponsors brought their optimism and hopes to last Sunday's 17th annual AIDS Walk in Royal Oak. While the final tally of money raised [...]
FOR THE RECORD: BTL reporter, community leader receive death threat from ‘Army of God’
Friday Sept. 14, 2007 Our reporter Todd Heywood reports first hand on the receipt of written threat to him and second Lansing LGBT leader also receives same letter. "Dear Sodomite," the letter began. It arrived [...]
Countdown to Creating Change
Event to put our Creating Change organizing in gear for Fall and Winter projects Tonight! - Thursday, Sept. 20, 7 p.m. Affirmations Community Center, Nine Mile west of Woodward in Ferndale All welcome. FERNDALE - [...]
Reminder: Detroit’s Design SuperStar Challenge
DETROIT - While entries continue to pour in, anyone interested in entering Detroit's Design SuperStar Challenge will have to do so soon. The entry deadline is fast approaching, with all submissions due on Friday, Sept. [...]
Ingham County changes HIV post-test counseling procedures
Capitol Correspondent LANSING -- For the second time in the last month, the Ingham County Health Department has changed the procedures of post-test counseling for persons testing positive for HIV. Previously, the ICHD had required [...]
Faith as a grain of mustard seed: Troy Perry had it
Eight months before the Stonewall Riots - our LGBT call to freedom from police, political and religious oppression - Rev. Troy Perry invited 12 friends on the quiet Sunday morning of Oct. 6, 1968, to [...]
Murder prelim hearing begins
by Tana Michaels SAGINAW - "It went from smoke coming out of the second and third story windows to an instant ball of fire in a flash," said key witness Jeffery DeGuise a tenant of [...]
Political Round-Up
Triangle Foundation hires new staff DETROIT--Triangle Foundation has added two new staff members to their team. Joining the organization are Georgia Carpenter and Chene Koppitz. Carpenter, who has a Master's degree in Psychology, joins the [...]
‘The Born Gay Hoax’ speaker date moved
EAST LANSING - BTL has learned Ryan Sorba,Aeos speaking engagement at MSU has been moved to Sept. 25 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. according the MSU Student Life Office. No room has been announced [...]
Victim in antigay attack in East Tawas speaks out
Capitol Correspondent DETROIT- Angela Potter was having a good day Sept. 8. She was in East Tawas for an annual softball tournament. A trip she has made for at least five years. "I play the [...]
Editorial: The safest place is ‘out’
A key role for the LGBT press is to frame the issues of the day, and help create a dialogue about the controversies that face us all. Here at BTL, we take that role seriously, [...]
Messy lives, slick season opener in A2
Elsewhere in BTL this week: 'Seven Passages: The Story of Gay Christians' in Grand Rapids. With pretty much every play that's ever produced, the audience is expected to "suspend its disbelief" - that is, to [...]
The Ringwald: It’s all good, of course
One of the great religious debates since the Reformation has centered on the Catholic and Protestant positions regarding free will and predestination. Playwright Craig Wright modernizes the discussion by placing it squarely in the aftermath [...]
Gay and Christian: New play explores subject many churches won’t address
By Jessica Carreras GRAND RAPIDS - For local director Stephanie Sandberg, the relationship between homosexuality and Christianity is more than a question asked by some of her students at Christian school Calvin College. "It's an [...]