Pregnant and Miserable
By Dana Rudolph Andrea Askowitz is pregnant - and she's grumpy. In "My Miserable, Lonely, Lesbian Pregnancy" (Cleis Press, May 1, 2008), she shares her cantankerous journey to parenthood as a single mom, complete with [...]
Creep of the Week: John McCain
You can judge a lot about a man based on the company he keeps. When Louis Farrakhan endorsed Barack Obama this month, Obama was quick to distance himself from the vocally anti-Semitic Nation of Islam [...]
General Gayety: The royal treatment
by Leslie Robinson The most prominent person due to attend a Dutch gay rights conference is a future queen, and I don't mean a teenager with a tendency toward the fabulous. A spokesman for the [...]
Parting Glances: Let’s leap times four
I spend February 29th late lunching with three friends. Nancy. Treena. Ellen. A painter. A gallery coordinator. A poet. All straight. All avid fans of BTL. We brave persistent snow during this day's 2008 bissextile [...]
She Said this Week
compiled by Howard Israel Sports "I was concerned about losing a fight and people saying that he lost the fight because he is gay. But I wanted to be the one voice that makes a [...]
My apology to black women for gay America and Charles Knipp
by Jasmyne A. Cannick Viewpoint At this year's State of the Black Union, Dick Gregory apologized to President Bill Clinton on behalf of Blacks for our role in allowing Clinton to believe that he was [...]
What’s your vantage point?
by Rev. Deb Dysert Last weekend I went to see the opening of a movie called Vantage Point. It was a fantastic movie, pointedly illustrating the lesson that things are not always as they seem. [...]
Sky Covington sings the blues – and more at 1515 Broadway
DETROIT - Ask the average chanteuse where she got her first big break, and most will likely talk about a dark, smoke-filled gin joint. But not Nicole "Sky" Covington, who returns March 7 to Detroit's [...]
Hefty Ha-Ha’s
Richard Ryder has a wardrobe background - but you wouldn't know it. Not if you critiqued his own self-proclaimed "shitty" style, which fashion guru Tim Gunn would no doubt disapprove of. You can't blame the [...]
The Shaw Redemption
Vickie Shaw didn't always rant about her three kids, strict Baptist upbringing and menopause. Well, at least not professionally. Or comically. The once-married matriarch was a motivational speaker, taught in a Comedy Defensive Driving School, [...]
Derek Jarman, Are We Here Yet?
By Anthony Paull The young gays of our generation, sadly, we are so easy to forget. We're too focused on being trendy, indie, hot, now, cool - we barely have time to take in a [...]
Theater Events for the period March 6-15, 2008
PROFESSIONAL THEATER/OPERA: A Man of No Importance The Oscar Wilde classic gets a modern-day update by writer/director Mike McGettigan. Fevered Egos Entertainment at Planet Ant Theatre, Hamtramck. Through March 15. $15. 313-365-4948. http://www.planetant.com Almost, Maine [...]
‘As the World Turns’ … Straight?
By David Bauder, AP Television Writer The love affair between two young men on the venerable CBS soap opera "As the World Turns" has triggered a protest campaign by angry viewers. It's just not the [...]
‘Friday Night Lights’ turns dark
By Dan Woog The OutField "Raiders Night" is the novel J.D. Salinger might have produced, had he not stopped writing in 1965 and had Holden Caulfield been a morally conflicted high school football captain, not [...]
Fighting HIV and addiction…together
by Jessica Carreras Several weeks ago, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman was both vilified and applauded for identifying the concern of HIV as a "gay disease," stating that the LGBT [...]
Good to be a gay-thelete
by Jessica Carreras For Leeron Kopelman, the best thing about being part of a gay sports organization is obvious: "Never before could I admit to my teammates that I wanted to sack the quarterback - [...]
Get fit, have fun
International Front Runners http://www.frontrunners.org/ Ann Arbor Queer Aquatics http://www.a2qua.com/ Metro Detroit Softball League http://www.mdsl.org Michigan Panthers football http://www.michiganpanthers.org Motor City Tennis Alliance http://www.motorcitytennis.net Rainbow League Bowling http://www.rainbowleague.netfirms.com Lezhike http://www.lezhike.com Iron Maidens Golf League cbodis@comcast.net Rainbow [...]
Youth-only HIV testing
FERNDALE- Affirmations offers HIV testing for youth ages twenty-four and under. Midwest AIDS Prevention Project (MAPP) provides confidential and anonymous testing on the first and third Friday of the month from 6 p.m. - 9 [...]
Starving for perfection
by Jessica Carreras Sitting and watching a documentary on eating disorders, Robert Hunter casually munches on a salad, looking unconcerned about what he's consuming. One would never guess that the willowy, middle-aged Hamtramck man has [...]
Body. Mind. Soul. Your get-healthy calendar.
Don't go it alone. Whether your concern is eating right, treating your body right, finding a doctor, or finding peace of mind, there are classes, seminars and discussions all over Michigan to help you reach [...]
Granholm doesn’t support medical marijuana proposal
AP- A proposal to legalize marijuana for medical purposes does not have the support of Governor Jennifer Granholm. Granholm says she is not in favor of opening the door to legalization of marijuana. A citizen-led [...]
State Capital vigil planned
LANSING - Lansing Community College Gay Straight Alliance will hold a vigil March 25 from 6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. at the state Capital building in memory of 15-year old Lawrence King. King was murdered [...]
2nd Annual Easter Dinner
March 23rd, 2008 Transgender Detroit, Metropolitan Church of Detroit, Affirmations and TransGender Michigan are proud to announce the 2nd annual Easter dinner. This dinner is the first in a series. The other holidays in the [...]
Activists picket HRC dinner
by Rex Wockner Some 50 activists, including members of the Radical Homosexual Agenda, picketed the Human Rights Campaign's annual Midtown Manhattan dinner Feb. 23, Gay City News reported. They were upset over HRC's support for [...]
International News
by Rex Wockner Argentine president said to support gay marriage New Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner supports legalization of same-sex marriage, according to the president of the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism [...]
First trans youth group parent night a hit
FERNDALE- Eighteen youth and parents attended the first Parent Night hosted by Trans Youth Group at Affirmations. On Feb. 23 young people and their parents participated in a discussion, a screening of the documentary, TransGeneration [...]
Local trans murder victim identified, Fort Lauderdale sees similar shooting death
DETROIT - T he identity of a young transgender woman found dead in Detroit Feb. 4 was revealed late last week in response to a FOIA request filed by this newspaper. The Detroit Police Department [...]
Open Letter from Barack Obama to the LGBT community
I'm running for President to build an America that lives up to our founding promise of equality for all - a promise that extends to our gay brothers and sisters. It's wrong to have millions [...]
BTL Editorial: Healthy is powerful, beautiful
With recent snowstorms pounding away at Michigan, it's easy to forget that spring is almost here. But just think: Over the next few months, we'll forget the non-shape-related reason why we call our state "The [...]
‘Amadeus’ mystery, magic resurrected in concert
Fans of the movie "Amadeus" will have the chance to relive its magic, mystery and great music as Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings presents "Geniuses and Wannabes," a concert featuring works by Mozart and Salieri. [...]
Undoubtedly an excellent night of theater
This season, area theatergoers have been treated to a rather unusual experience: three competing professional productions of the same Tony Award-winning drama. While some industry observers - and even this cranky critic - initially thought [...]
Out of the mouth of babes at Planet Ant
One advantage small theaters have over their big-budget siblings is the ability to take chances with new and untested playwrights. With less at risk - an audience of five or 10 won't drive them to [...]
Theater Events for the period March 6-15, 2008
PROFESSIONAL THEATER/OPERA: A Man of No Importance The Oscar Wilde classic gets a modern-day update by writer/director Mike McGettigan. Fevered Egos Entertainment at Planet Ant Theatre, Hamtramck. Through March 15. $15. 313-365-4948. http://www.planetant.com Almost, Maine [...]
Now Playing
NEW THIS WEEK: The Other Boleyn Girl Thomas Boleyn (Mark Rylance) and his brother-in-law the Duke of Norfolk (David Morrissey) conspire to improve the family's fortunes by pimping out Thomas' daughter Anne (Natalie Portman) to [...]
Coming out happy
by Tana Michaels Long before becoming program coordinator for Ypsilanti's Eastern Michigan University's Your Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center, Kate Brindle had another passion: Theater. Majoring in theater and arts as an undergraduate at [...]