Dear Jody: Bad boyfriend behavior
Q: I am writing to you because my boyfriend "John" and I are having an argument, and I am sick and tired of the way he reacts every time we don't agree. The other night [...]
Book Marks: Family Parables, Vieux Carre Voodoo
by Richard Labonte "The Big Bang Symphony," by Lucy Jane Bledsoe. Terrace Books/University of Wisconsin Press, 340 pages, $24.95 hardcover. There are four memorable characters in Bledsoe's novel about yearning and healing. Three of them [...]
Award-winning art fair kicks off its 29th year
BIRMINGHAM - March's exit in Southeast Michigan is usually heralded as one of winter's last vestiges. With the return of the brilliant sunshine, we've got our sights on spring events. One event that is a [...]
Deep Inside Hollywood
By Romeo San Vicente Jackman taking road to 'Selma' Under normal circumstances, the casting of an actor to play Martin Luther King, Jr., in "Selma," the latest project from gay Oscar nominated director Lee Daniels, [...]
It’s Bebe’s turn to dish the ‘Race’!
By Bebe Zahara Benet Can you believe we are nearing the final stretch of the current season of "RuPaul's Drag Race"? Sometimes wonderful things go very fast! This week a repeat episode is running, so [...]
Go back to basics, Gemini!
By Jack Fertig Q Scopes Saturn backing into Virgo reminds us to clean up old business before starting new relationships. Aspecting Uranus and Neptune, she'll dig up complications that must be dealt with to make [...]
First version of ‘Two Point Oh’ perfect
By D. A. Blackburn In many instances, new plays are a lot like new computer operating systems -- largely functional, but frequently unleashed on the public with a few bugs undetected in beta testing. And [...]
‘Superstar’ at The Encore: a mixed blessing
In 1970, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice released upon an unsuspecting world their third collaboration, a "rock opera" that depicts the passion of Jesus Christ based on the Gospel of St. John. Although the [...]
‘Hurlyburly’ intense, powerful but flawed
By D. A. Blackburn When the opportunity to review Who Wants Cake?'s production of "Hurlyburly" arose, I enthusiastically jumped at the chance. After all, the theater community had been abuzz about the show for some [...]
British gays say pope must resign
by Rex Wockner International News Briefs About 50 protesters, including members of the gay group OutRage!, demonstrated outside London's Westminster Cathedral on March 28 demanding that Pope Benedict XVI resign for "covering up child sex [...]
Gay British Cabinet minister marries in Parliament building
by Rex Wockner International News Briefs Britain's openly gay Europe minister, Chris Bryant, and his partner, Jared Cranney, married under the United Kingdom's civil partnership law March 27 inside the Palace of Westminster, where Parliament [...]
Guernsey to lower gay age of consent
by Rex Wockner International News Briefs Legislators in Guernsey, a British crown dependency in the English Channel, voted unanimously in March to lower the legal age for gay sex to 16, the same as for [...]
German foreign minister signs on as Gay Games sponsor
by Rex Wockner International News Briefs Germany's openly gay foreign minister and vice chancellor, Guido Westerwelle, has signed on as a sponsor of Gay Games VIII, which will be held in Cologne from July 31 [...]
Russian court OKs ban on gay ‘propaganda’
by Rex Wockner International News Briefs Russia's Constitutional Court dismissed a complaint from gay activists March 31 which argued against the Ryazan region's ban on "exposing minors to homosexual propaganda." Gay activists Nikolai Alekseev, Nikolai [...]
Zimbabwean leaders denounce gays
by Rex Wockner International News Briefs Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai lashed out at gay people on March 25 during a belated International Women's Day event. Mugabe said: "Three days ago, [...]
Activist works for safe schools, coalition building in Genesee
By Jim Larkin GENESEE COUNTY - Terri Dinsmore figures she has tacked about 4,000 miles on her car while doing volunteer work for the Genesee County PFLAG - not an easy thing to do when [...]
Bullying activists ‘not going to give up’
By Jim Larkin GENESEE COUNTY - Kevin Epling and the Genesee County Safe Schools Coalition have the same goal: to make schools safe for all students. They're just taking different routes to accomplishing that goal. [...]
ACLU: Drop bio-terrorism charge against HIV-positive man
DETROIT - A bio-terrorism charge against an HIV-positive man accused of biting his neighbor should be dropped, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan told a Macomb County Circuit Court in a friend-of-the-court brief filed [...]
Between Ourselves
by Jessica Carreras Christopher Shaw is finishing his Master's of Social Work at Wayne State University. He's also the co-president of Bisexuals, Gays, Lesbians and Allies in Social Work at the college. 1) How did [...]
A Survivor’s Tale
The Michigan State University Alliance of LGBTIQQA Students is bringing activist Patrick McAlvey to the school to speak at 7 p.m. April 12. McAlvey gained national attention last year with his story of falling victim [...]
Dining By Design kickoff yeilds community support
The Michigan AIDS Coalition's kickoff event to their summer Dining By Design dinner went off fabulously, said Executive Director Helen Hicks. The March 25 event, which was aimed at helping to organize supporters and participants [...]
LGBT service members to be honored at Kzoo Pride
The Kalamazoo Gay Lesbian Resource Center is looking for names of LGBT current and ex-military members to be recognized at their June pride event. This year's Kalamazoo Pride, held 2-11 p.m. June 12 at the [...]
Support federal anti-bullying legislation
The Safe Schools Improvement Act, aimed at helping to stop bullying nationwide, was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in May 2009. Sincethen, the bill has grown from 34 co-sponsors to 101. But more [...]
Bullying raises questions about schools’ vigilance
By Denise Lavoie A gay teenager in New York wins $50,000 from a school district that failed to stop taunts about his sexual orientation. The Justice Department investigates complaints that administrators ignored racial bullying in [...]
Religious bias case hits high court
By Lisa Keen When Concerned Women of America, the Boy Scouts, and Evangelical Scholars, line up on one side of a legal case, one might naturally assume that gay groups are lined up on the [...]
One of nine
Out of the 50 states in our nation, there are nine that currently have no legislation in place to protect school-aged children from being bullied. This is, of course, excluding Massachusetts, which is in the [...]
Creep of the Week: Tom McClusky
Call me overly sensitive, but I always thought it was an insult to black people when Bill Clinton was called America's "first black president." For one thing, it was as if folks were saying that [...]
Parting Glances: Humpty Dumpty’s glibido
'Twas brillig on the slithy toves did smog at brunch and talkathon ..." This mixmaster of poem "Jabberwocky" and movie "Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More" (at least not in L.A.) contains six snarky species [...]
S/he said: Fight Stigma, Ricky Martin
Compiled by Howard Israel "No human institution is perfect, and it would be foolish to suggest that incidents are always investigated and that abusers who don't happen to be priests are never protected by colleagues [...]
Voices from an Urban Bush Sistah: A Time for Healing
By C. Imani Williams April offers an end to winter and is a time for fresh starts and new love. April is also Sexual Violence Awareness Month, and once again, I find myself "coming out." [...]
Dreams come true
James Calleja was pissed. He and a good friend had just been thrown out of a wig shop in Warren "where a couple angry Asian ladies" refused them service. Calleja says they waved their fingers [...]
Legally Lovable
Omigod, you guys: Laura Bell Bundy is, like, totally cool with you. That she'll have a country album out on April 13 in a genre that has often been known for being conservative and not [...]
Granholm urges for anti-bullying bill passage
LANSING - Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm renewed her call for state lawmakers to pass anti-bullying legislation on April 2. The governor's call for action comes on the heels of new reports of teen suicides that [...]