Between lovers
Dear Jody Q: I'm so upset that I hope I can write this letter to you. Hopefully, it will make sense. "Ron," my partner of 13 years, announced to me that his first love had [...]
Parting Glances: Sister gets origamic at 39
"You gay kids are a lot of laughs. Thanks for the invite to celebrate our jointly shared June 19th birthday. I turn 39 this year," winks Sr. Serena Scatterpin, Renegade Sisters of Mary. "Born on [...]
Beyond Proposition 8
By Diane Silver Political IQ The California Supreme Court decision upholding Proposition 8 is the best thing to happen to the GLBT movement in years - and no, I'm not joking. Don't mistake my meaning. [...]
Viewpoint: Judgment or compassion?
by Denise E. Brogan-Kator On May 25, a young woman was shot to death in Highland Park; another was attacked and shot in Detroit. Both victims were reported by police to be "commercial sex workers." [...]
Leroy Swailes
Creep of the Week Homosexuals aren't human. Also they are the anti-Christ. And pedophiles. And bestialiacs (I don't know if that's a word and while I could probably do a Google search and find an [...]
DOMA speak
by Jennifer Vanasco It is starting to seem like a tautology that if the Obama administration is asked to weigh in on a question of gay rights, then it will come down on the wrong [...]
Viewpoint: There’s no time like the present
by Jeff A. Ward Contrary to what we were taught to believe, patience isn't always a virtue - especially when it comes to our right as LGBT Americans to marry one another. Patience may seem [...]
Book Marks
by Richard Labonte "Risk," by Elana Dykewomon. Bywater Books, 268 pages, $14.95 paper Woman meets woman herein, and romance ensues. But this isn't one of those dozens-a-year breezy reads crammed onto the lesbian bookshelves of [...]
Girls gone … boring
The DVD Low-Down Thank goodness Amy Poehler has a sitcom. And Parker Posey has her gay support group. And Rachel Dratch? Well, ah, yeah - she has her pride. Or what's left after conceiving this [...]
Deep Inside Hollywood
By Romeo San Vicente Jackman and Craig - in uniform! It's not like gay men necessarily need special incentive to go see a Broadway show, but some shows seemed specifically designed to appeal to queer [...]
A buncha Pansies
By Jessica Carreras Detroit, be nice to Pansy Division. After their 1995 stop in Motor City while on tour with Green Day, we're lucky the gay punk rockers are even returning. "Every night on the [...]
Three Great New York City Neighborhoods
by Andrew Collins Out of Town This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, which galvanized New York City's GLBT community and helped ultimately to kick-start the modern gay rights movement. To commemorate [...]
Stagecrafters announces auditions for the musical ‘Little Women’
ROYAL OAK - Stagecrafters will hold auditions for "Little Women - The Broadway Musical" on June 28. Registration begins at 12:30 p.m. with auditions starting at 1:30 p.m. The auditions will be held at the [...]
The Best Bartending Books
By Camper English Cocktail Chatter Whether it's a lack of money or an excess of agoraphobia, you've decided to start making more cocktails at home. But there are so very many recipe books on the [...]
Gay C&W Bars
Q Puzzle Across 1 Bingham of United Flight 93 5 Sexual partners, to the insensitive 9 Food, clothing, shelter, and sex? 14 Environs 15 Word from a Spanish count? 16 Santa's assistants 17 Direction for [...]
Think ahead, Gemini!
By Jack Fertig Q Scopes The Sun squaring Uranus is provoking verbal outbursts that seem brilliant - and actually may be - but will provoke arguments. Venus and Mars fuel that fire with creative and [...]
50,000 at EuroPride
by Rex Wockner International News Briefs Some 50,000 people turned out for the EuroPride parade, held in Zurich this year on June 6. Openly lesbian Zurich Mayor Corine Mauch joined in. Next year, the parade [...]
Australian prison OKs gay conjugal visits
by Rex Wockner International News Briefs The Alexander Maconochie prison in Australia's Capital Territory has decided to let gay inmates receive conjugal visits six times a year. The policy applies to prisoners who are well-behaved [...]
China sees its first gay pride week
by Rex Wockner International News Briefs China saw its first-ever gay pride week June 7-14 in Shanghai. Events included movies, plays, art exhibits, panel discussions, swimming and badminton competitions, and a big party, though at [...]
Denmark is not gay nirvana
by Rex Wockner International News Briefs Denmark, the first nation in the world to legalize gay partnerships, in 1989, still has a problem with homophobia. Eighteen percent of GLBT people in Copenhagen and 8 percent [...]
Moscow gays want to picket Obama
by Rex Wockner International News Briefs Moscow Pride founder Nikolai Alekseev says members of his group will attempt to stage a picket in favor of same-sex marriage at the U.S. Embassy on July 7 during [...]
20,000 march in Tel Aviv
by Rex Wockner International News Briefs Around 20,000 people joined Tel Aviv's 11th gay pride parade June 12. The march ended with a beach "wedding" of five gay couples. Same-sex marriage is not legal in [...]
Between Ourselves
by Jessica Carreras Dr. Dennis R. Jacobs is the founder, president and chief executive officer of NewPASSAGES Behavioral Health and Rehabilitation Services, which provides health services to several Michigan counties, including Saginaw, Sanilac, Ingham, Genesee, [...]
Marriage equality by 2010?
by Jessica Carreras Michigan state Rep. Pam Byrnes (D-Lyndon Township) announced Friday, June 12, that she would be introducing legislation soon that aims to repeal Proposal 2. Proposal 2, approved by Michigan voters in 2004, [...]
Kick to continue Learn and Live series
At 6 p.m. June 18, Michigan LGBT African-American organization Kick is planning to continue their Learn and Live series, a free educational program targeted to the LGBT community. This session will be the second in [...]
Michigan Pride
by Jessica Carreras LANSING - Opinions of this year's Michigan Pride, held the weekend of June 12-14 in Lansing, were all over the spectrum - from enjoyable, to educational, to disappointing. Although some called the [...]
Affirmations sports fair inspires repeat
Community spirit is traveling westward across Michigan, spawned by the success of the first LGBT Sports Fair in the state, hosted by Affirmations on March 19. In fact, two men who attended the fair were [...]
Visiting Nurse Association to open new HIV/AIDS clinic
Visiting Nurse Association of Southeast Michigan's Ryan White HIV Program has recently expanded to work with the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services in Dearborn. The VNA is the largest non-profit to provide [...]
A mother’s story keeps her son’s voice alive
FERNDALE - There's a country song that sums it up well. "There ought to be a hall of fame for mamas." So often in the LGBT community, it's the mothers of heroes and martyrs who [...]
DOMA doublespeak? DOJ defense goes ‘too far’
By Lisa Keen Keen News Service The honeymoon is over. The gloves are off. The anger is fierce. In a somewhat obscure gay marriage case in California, the U.S. Department of Justice submitted a brief [...]
Obama falters, Michigan soars?
What a strange time it is for LGBT Michiganders. As we watch the nation's LGBT activists and leaders cry out, enraged at President Barack Obama, we also see several small - yet noticeable - changes [...]
Love, sex and vengeance at the Blackbird
There's a reason - several, actually - why Tennessee Williams' "Orpheus Descending" is so rarely produced. Considered a failure after a 68-performance run on Broadway in 1957, the three-act, three-hour tragedy (based on an earlier [...]
The ‘Grease’ that you want (oo-oo-oo)
By D. A. Blackburn You may have noticed an unusual phenomenon of late; everyday people dancing their way through the day, humming the unmistakable, infectious music of "Grease." You can count me among them -- [...]