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Dear Jody: Help me come out
Q: My story is really too long to tell; it spans over 40 years of self-denial and people-pleasing. To make this long story short, I've denied being me by trying to fit into the mold [...]
Scene Check @ Gigi’s…
1. Denishwa, Garnett and Evelyn 2. Dale and Buddy 3. Miss Gigi's title holders, past and present BTL photos: Danielle
Cocktail Chatter: They Hate Me. They Really Hate Me!
by Ed Sikov I was trying not to take it personally. Really. OK, I was taking it personally. Why else had they all called to say they'd be at the house in time for dinner [...]
Book Marks: Secret Historian, Water Mark, Hot off the Presses
by Richard Labonte "Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade," by Justin Spring. FSG, 478 pages, $32.50 hardcover. Among queer erotic connoisseurs of the 1960s, '70s, and [...]
Dark Dark Dark… and queer
Twin Cities band Dark Dark Dark performs in Detroit on Oct. 27. Photo: Todd Seelie Dark Dark Dark 8 p.m. Oct. 27 The Bakery Loft 4300 W. Vernor Highway, Detroit http://www.brightbrightbright.com You're not the [...]
Pointer Sisters ‘Jump’ to Detroit
The Pointer Sisters: Sadako, Ruth and Anita The Pointer Sisters 8 p.m. Oct. 28 Sound Board at MotorCity Casino Hotel 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit http://www.motorcitycasino.com So excited and just can't hide it? Well, [...]
Deep Inside Hollywood
By Romeo San Vicente Ron Howard wants Jodie for 'Stroke of Insight' Harvard neuro-anatomist Jill Bolte Taylors' 1996 stroke at the age of 37 turned her life upside down. Eventually, though, after eight years, she [...]
Q Scopes: Get it all off your chest, Capricorn!
By Jack Fertig Mars is in Scorpio trine to Jupiter and Uranus, inspiring powerful - even surprising -passions. Alas, he's in hard aspect to Saturn and Neptune, arousing anxiety and confusion. Try to be alert, [...]
Slip of the Tongue
Across 1 Murdoch with a flower? 7 Overhand strokes, for Mauresmo 14 "Cape Fear" star 15 Sultry Dietrich 16 Start of a quip 18 Halloween mo. 19 Series ender 20 French river 21 Mistake for [...]
MOT makes the most of ‘The Mikado’
By Michael H. Margolin The Michigan Opera Theatre opens its 40th season with "The Mikado." Photo: MOT Saturday night was the opening of Michigan Opera Theatre's 40th season, and while David DiChiera took five [...]
Tales of the macabre at Planet Ant Theatre
By John Quinn Alysia Kolascz and Pete Podolski in "Nightmare Box" at Planet Ant Theatre. Photo: Planet Ant. As the calendar draws closer to the Great Pagan Feast, the Celtic blood pulses a little [...]
‘Shining City’: a ghost of its own potential
By Jenn McKee Jamie Richards is haunted in the Who Wants Cake? production of Conor McPherson's "Shining City" at The Ringwald. Photo: Colleen Scribner. Plays, by their very nature, are usually more about what's [...]
An American classic in downtown Detroit
Eric W. Maher as Brick and Alan Madlane as Big Daddy in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Photo: Matrix Theatre Company For a playwright working in the mid 1950s, Tennessee Williams tackled a controversial [...]
Saline strikes out: Write-in Candidate Needs Our Help
by Jessica Carreras Former Saline School Board Trustee Marian Faupel will be running as a write-in candidate for a seat on the board. Her decision to run was spurred by last Tuesday's vote. SALINE [...]
A place to call home
by Jessica Carreras Transgender Michigan founder and Executive Director Rachel Crandall at the organization's Oct. 13 open house celebrating their first-ever office. BTL photo by Jessica Carreras FERNDALE - The small office located on [...]
National survey shows widespread bias in trans health care
Transgender and gender non-conforming people face rampant discrimination in health care settings and are regularly denied needed care, according to a report released jointly Oct. 13 by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and [...]
Affirmations’ changing face
The recent retirement of CEO Leslie Thompson and the hiring of interim CEO Kevin Howley are just two of the changes taking place at Ferndale-based LGBT community center Affirmations. The organization has seen many new [...]
Between Ourselves: Gabe Javier
by Jessica Carreras Gabe Javier works for the University of Michigan's Spectrum Center, which serves the needs of the school's LGBTQ and allied students. An Ann Arbor resident, Javier and his team are working on [...]
Race for attorney general job turns ugly
This article ran in full on MichiganMessenger.com. The race for Michigan's next attorney general went from spirited to ugly Oct. 18. Debbie McIntosh, the mother of a murder victim who appears in a television commercial [...]
MCRC condemns assistant AG conduct
by Jessica Carreras LANSING - The Michigan Civil Rights Commission has condemned the conduct of an assistant state attorney general accused of harassing the openly gay student assembly president at the University of Michigan. The [...]
Emergency food and shelter program announced
DETROIT - On Oct. 13, The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, in partnership with the Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation, announced the creation and launch of a year-long program designed to help provide [...]
Gov’t seeks to resurrect ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’
by Rex Wockner The U.S. government moved Oct. 14 to block a Riverside, Calif., federal judge's worldwide injunction issued two days earlier that bars the government from making any further use of the "Don't Ask, [...]
Lawsuit filed on behalf of corrections officer
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Oct. 18 on behalf of Andre Cooley, a corrections officer for juvenile detainees with an exemplary record. Cooley was fired when his supervisors discovered [...]
Gay marriage debate persists in some Nov. 2 races
by David Crary This election will be the first since the 1990s without a measure to ban gay marriage on any state ballot, yet the divisive issue is roiling races across the U.S. during a [...]
Making excuses
On Oct. 12 at a meeting for the Saline School Board, dozens of people spoke passionately for over two hours about the need to protect LGBTQ students in every way possible, from bullying to anti-discrimination [...]
Creep of the Week: Saline School Board
I think we can all agree that bullying is bad. No one likes to be bullied (Well, OK, some people do, but not, like, for real. That's why they have a safe word.) and no [...]
Parting Glances: Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hide
To diddle an old saying: You can't judge a gay author - or his book - by the cover. Case in point: Groundbreaking 1951 sociological expose, "The Homosexual in America." Gay nom de plume: Donald [...]
S/he said: Bullying, Facebook and It Gets Better
Compiled by Howard Israel "There's a connection between Prop. 8, 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and now this string of teen suicides. It's almost sanctioned to bully gay people and treat them as second class citizens. [...]
The Gay Moralist: Paladino’s problem
by John Corvino Republican New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino's recent remarks about homosexuality have been widely decried - even by his fellow east coast Republicans - as offensive. They are certainly that. But upon [...]
Viewpoint: A plea to gay teens
by Jim Larkin "I am terrified by this dark thing That sleeps in me; All day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity. ... Its snaky acids kiss. It petrifies the will. These are [...]
Oakland U students hold vigil
Professor Lisa Dalton, a sociology teacher and an out lesbian, who told students the LGBT faculty would be more visible going forward. Photo: Todd Heywood http://michiganmessenger.com AUBURN HILLS - Nearly 500 people gathered at [...]
Student drops out of school due to bullying
The Bay City Times is reporting that 17-year-old Cassandra Morris has dropped out of Ogemaw Heights schools because of bullying based on her sexual orientation. Morris came out to her friends and family last year, [...]
Florida adoption ruling will not be challenged
By BTL Staff MIAMI - Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum announced Friday that he will not appeal last month's ruling by a state appellate court striking down a state law barring gay people from adopting. [...]
Gary Glenn’s robocall attacks lesbian candidate for state house
MIDLAND - Over the weekend, Gary Glenn, the chairman of the Campaign for Michigan Families and long-time anti-LGBT activist, released a robocall attacking Toni Sessoms because she is a lesbian. She is the Democratic candidate [...]
Gary Glenn’s robocall attacks lesbian candidate for state house
MIDLAND - Over the weekend, Gary Glenn, the chairman of the Campaign for Michigan Families and long-time anti-LGBT activist, released a robocall attacking Toni Sessoms because she is a lesbian. She is the Democratic candidate [...]