Dear Jody: Being second best
Q: I've been with my boyfriend "Hal" for seven years. We get along well and enjoy being together. I love him dearly and have adored him since the day that we met. The problem I [...]
Book Marks: ‘Probation’, ‘Songs Without Words’, ‘Party Animals’
by Richard Labonte "Probation," by Tom Mendicino. Kensington Books, 344 pages, $15 paper. Perfect wife, perfect home, perfect job - well, a perfect job if you like being a traveling salesman, and Andy Nocera does; [...]
Small talk with Little Boots
Walk a mile in Victoria Hesketh's Little Boots and you'll realize why every man over the rainbow hearts her. She's cute, fun and sounds like the second coming of Kylie. After posting a series of [...]
Robert Kidd Gallery features local photographer in new exhibit
Robert Kidd Gallery's latest exhibit featuring Cyrus Karimipour's photographs opened this past weekend and runs through April 10. Born in metro Detroit in 1973 to Scottish and Iranian immigrants in the medical profession, Karimipour dedicated [...]
Singled Out
No joke: Jamie Pierce used to be a ballet dancer. Then he stumbled on his funny self, scoring a Top-10 spot at the Underground Comedy Festival's "Emerging Comics" competition at the Laugh Factory. For the [...]
Deep Inside Hollywood
By Romeo San Vicente 'Mad Men' actress climbs 'Family Tree' Given the lascivious reader comments that followed a recent AfterEllen article about "Mad Men"'s Christina Hendricks ("Dear Lord, thank you for creating this woman..."), it [...]
Another queen exits the stage on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’
By Bebe Zahara Benet After a week's hiatus, it's wonderful to be with you again! It's week five of "RuPaul's Drag Race," and if things weren't competitive enough for you before, they certainly are now. [...]
Be careful, Gemini!
By Jack Fertig Q Scopes Entering Aries, Venus opposes Saturn then squares Pluto, challenging us to greater integrity. That requires some risks. This aspect also highlights values and benefits that can arise from current global [...]
Red Tails in the Sunset
Across 1 Word before ass 5 Bill T. Jones' partner Zane 10 Cho's "I'm the One ___ I Want" 14 Voice in a loft 15 "Brigadoon" heroine played by Cyd Charisse 16 Fine-tune 17 Farmer's [...]
Good grief, CB! Parody tackles teen issues
By D. A. Blackburn Snoopy is dead. So is Woodstock. And not just because their creator, Charles M. Schulz, moved on to the great comic strip in the sky back in February 2000. In "Dog [...]
Laugh at 300 years of Detroit’s history
By Jenn McKee In a comedy show about the history of Detroit, you pretty much have to expect a Native American character named White Stripes, don't you? Well, there's that and more in "Detroit Be [...]
Cyprus may legalize same-sex marriage
by Rex Wockner International News Briefs Cyprus is going to look at legalizing same-sex marriage, Interior Ministry Permanent Secretary Lazaros Savvides told the Cyprus Mail on Feb. 28. He said a large group of government [...]
Euro Court considers same-sex marriage case
by Rex Wockner International News Briefs The European Court of Human Rights held its first-ever hearing in a same-sex marriage case Feb. 25. The hearing considered the admissibility and merits of a case from Austria, [...]
Homophobe appointed Russian deputy justice minister
by Rex Wockner International News Briefs An anti-gay member of Russia's upper chamber of Parliament has been appointed deputy minister of justice, GayRussia.ru reported March 1. Vasily Likhachev has expressed support for the Ministry of [...]
Anti-gay law takes effect in Lithuania
by Rex Wockner International News Briefs Lithuania's "Law on the Protection of Minors Against the Detrimental Effects of Public Information" took effect March 1. It bans information that promotes sexual relationships, "denigrates family values" or [...]
Gay marriage is legal in Mexico City
by Rex Wockner International News Briefs Mexico City's law legalizing same-sex marriage took effect March 4 and hundreds of gay and lesbian couples applied for marriage licenses at civil registry offices. The first weddings are [...]
UK gay humanists denounce government’s ‘kowtowing’ to religion
by Rex Wockner International News Briefs England's Pink Triangle Trust, a gay humanist group, denounced the House of Commons on Feb. 24 for passing an amendment to the Children, Schools and Families Bill that would [...]
Hundreds of thousands at Sydney Mardi Gras
by Rex Wockner International News Briefs Several hundred thousand people turned out for Sydney's 33rd Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade on Feb. 27. Nearly 10,000 people took part in the parade, and there were [...]
Telling TheirStories
by Jessica Carreras Melissa Hasbrook wants to hear women's stories. And not just stories told by women, but about women, for women and in celebration of women. That, and a need to reconnect with her [...]
ACLU’s gay history
by BTL staff In 1966, Michigan's gay community faced many challenges. Undercover police officers regularly baited and arrested men in prostitution stings at gay pickup areas. Raids on downtown Detroit gay bars were frequent and [...]
Beloved volunteer dies
Ernest "Ernie" Horne, 83, died peacefully at his home March 5 after battling a long-term illness. Horne was an active volunteer for the Human Rights Campaign, serving on numerous committees for the HRC Michigan Dinner, [...]
“Rent” goes to school
by BTL staff LANSING - Everett High School is bringing "Rent" to Lansing March 17-27 as the first high school in the lower peninsula of Michigan to ever perform the controversial musical. It has also [...]
Second-parent adoption activist, mother, dies from cancer
Ellen Joan Mettler, a fierce advocate for second-parent adoption rights and mother of two from the Flint area, passed away in her home Feb. 23 after a decade-long battle with cancer. She was 51. Mettler, [...]
Between Ourselves: James Eaton Tyler
by Jessica Carreras James Eaton Tyler is an equal mix of activist and event planner. The 29-year-old Ferndale resident owns REALLY LOUD, LLC, an event planning, marketing and promotions business that hosts many of the [...]
Hugh to hold fundraiser for Ruth Ellis Center
Hugh mixes vintage and contemporary design aimed at providing the best in classic bachelor style. Hugh is a one-stop shop for refined home decor, personal accessories, barware and furniture, and from 5-10 p.m. March 18, [...]
Music, Munchies and More
A fundraiser is being held to cover Lansing's Goldenrod Record Distribution manager Susan Frazier's medical expenses as she battles acute myloid leukemia. The event, held at Perspective 2 at 319 E. Grand River in Lansing's [...]
Anti-gay California senator arrested, outed
by Rex Wockner An anti-gay California state senator who has been a "traditional values" activist was arrested on suspicion of driving drunk in Sacramento on March 3 and subsequently outed. Then, five days after his [...]
Women’s history is gay history
March marks the beginning of spring, and many other things. St. Patrick's Day. National Nutrition Month. National Frozen Foods Month. National Reading Day. World Water Day. Save a Spider Day. But here at Between The [...]
Creep of the Week: Roy Ashburn
Closet Pro Tip No. 1: If you go to a gay bar and pick up a dude, don't drink and drive. Closet Pro Tip No. 2: Especially if you're an anti-gay state senator. Look, I [...]
Parting Glances: Your quincunx or mine?
One of the pleasures of English is the imaginative and poetic use of its collective nouns. Their fanciful pedigree as names for person, places and things goes back to the 15th century. A pride of [...]
S/he said: Latinos, Chinatown and the Oscars
Compiled by Howard Israel "Among Latinos, homosexuality is understood as a problem with your gender, and there is a lot of shame connected with that. The Latino culture is obsessed with the question, 'Are you [...]
Voices From an Urban Bush Sista: Celebrating Herstory
By C. Imani Williams As we enter into wimmen's herstory month I say "congratulations." As sistas in a still very male-dominated, patriarchal society, we thrive. As wimmen we often offer and sometimes find a myriad [...]