Dating Diet: U and Ur Hand
By Anthony Paull I really need...sex. Yes, I've been trying this celibacy bit for the last nine months, but I'm going to be the first to admit - it sucks, and not in a good [...]
Dear Jody: So do I have a brother?
Q: I just got back from spending the holidays with my folks who live in another state. I had a good time - until News Year's Eve when my parents had a party inviting family [...]
Book Marks: The Cruel Ever After, Mesmerized
by Richard Labonte "The Cruel Ever After," by Ellen Hart. Minotaur Books, 320 pages, $25.99 hardcover. Did readers of Hart's long-running mystery series - this is book number 18 - ever know that restaurateur and [...]
Old Town in Top 10 for National Award
The 2011 Great American Main Street Awards semifinalists have been selected, including Old Town Lansing, from a nationwide pool of applicants and now move to the final round for consideration. The National Trust for Historic [...]
Life After ‘A-List’
Some people had a hard time sitting through "The A-List: New York," Logo's tawdry teledoc about a gay gaggle that got eye-roll reactions from viewers who couldn't completely look away. Imagine starring in it. Reichen [...]
Q Scopes: Take up the tough issues, Leo!
By Jack Fertig Mars is very happy in Capricorn where the planet of energy and action is focused productively. Aspecting Uranus and Jupiter in Pisces, and Neptune in Aquarius, he can lose focus, but if [...]
DVD Low-down
'Prayers for Bobby' The harrowing book-turned-biopic about a gay teen's struggle for acceptance that led to his tragic suicide was heartbreaking on its own. But then Bobby's story became a reality for kids everywhere, as [...]
Recently Out
Across 1 Judy's daughter 5 Screen siren Garbo 10 In need of some South Beach rays 14 Carbon compound 15 Looks at a hottie in a bar 16 Jannings of old films 17 Where to [...]
The OutField: Keelin Godsey has a hammer
By Dan Woog As a high school student in Palmer, Colo., Keelin Godsey dabbled in track's throwing events. Shot put and discus were OK; soccer, basketball and softball were much more interesting. Heading east to [...]
‘Cell 13’ – tale of an unhokey pokey
By John Quinn Patrick O'Lear as Fielding, John Arden McClure as Professor S.F.X. Van Dusen and Donald Couture as Warden Ransome in "The Problem of Cell 13." Photo: Broadway Onstage Literature is full of [...]
Pigeon Creek makes merry with Shakespeare
By Bridgette M. Redman Actors Katherine Mayberry, Scott Wright and Kathleen Bode in "The Merry Wives of Windsor." Photo: Joel L. Schindlbeck. In the hands of the indifferent, Shakespeare's comedies can be dreadfully dull. [...]
MBT’s ’39 Steps’ has its ups and downs
By Jenn McKee At the start of "The 39 Steps" - now having its Michigan premiere at Meadow Brook Theatre - the main character, Richard Hannay (Rusty Mewha), is briskly rolled onto the stage in [...]
‘3 Guys, 1 Jar’ equals one funny night
By John Quinn If I'm going to venture out from my suburban Fortress of Solitude into the frigid nights of mid-winter Michigan, there'd better be a damn good reason. I think I've found one - [...]
Chilean court to rule on same-sex marriage
by Rex Wockner INTERNATIONAL NEWS Following a referral from the Santiago Court of Appeals, Chile's Constitutional Court will take up a same-sex marriage case this week. The court will consider a protection demand from MOVILH, [...]
Irish civil-partnership law comes into force
by Rex Wockner INTERNATIONAL NEWS Ireland's new same-sex civil-partnership law took effect Jan. 1. Couples can unite before a registrar after giving three months' notice of their intention to tie the knot. Civil partners receive [...]
Malta fights trans marriage
by Rex Wockner INTERNATIONAL NEWS Malta's attorney general is appealing a ruling that transgender woman Joanne Cassar must be allowed to marry her boyfriend. The constitutional arm of the First Hall of the Civil Court [...]
Married Mexican gay couples granted spousal health coverage
by Rex Wockner INTERNATIONAL NEWS A Mexico City lesbian, married under the city's same-sex marriage law, won the right to insure her wife in the national health-care system. In 2010, a judge ordered that Lol [...]
Top Russian judge insults Euro court ruling on gays
by Rex Wockner INTERNATIONAL NEWS The chairman of Russia's Constitutional Court, Valery Zorkin, said Dec. 23 that the recent European Court of Human Rights decision that struck down Moscow City Hall's annual bans of gay [...]
Ugandan court rules for gays in outing case
by Rex Wockner INTERNATIONAL NEWS Uganda's Kampala High Court ruled Jan. 3 that media outlets cannot out gays or urge that they be hanged. The case stemmed from an October 2010 article in Uganda's Rolling [...]
UK to expunge gay sex ‘crimes’
by Rex Wockner INTERNATIONAL NEWS The United Kingdom is preparing legislation to expunge the "crimes" of adult men who were prosecuted for having consensual sex with adult men in earlier eras. The slate will be [...]
Gov. Snyder’s DHS director no friend of LGBT community
By Tara Cavanaugh On Jan. 6 the new Gov. Rick Snyder announced the appointment of Maura Corrigan, a Michigan Supreme Court Justice, as the new director of the Department of Human Services. This is troubling [...]
Lansing Community College starts first LGBT scholarship
By BTL Staff LANSING-- Lansing Community College, the state's third largest community college, announced it is offering a scholarship for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. While some four-year institutions such as [...]
Celebrating 40 Years of Spectrum
In 1971, the University of Michigan became the first public university to recognize the gay community with an official office to deal with the issues of gays and lesbians on campus. Now, 40 years later, [...]
New LGBT choir in Grand Rapids
In Harmony is a new choir established by the founding artistic director of the West Michigan Gay Men's Chorus, Marty Kiefer. The community ensemble of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and straight singers and their allies [...]
Survey deadline extended
Ferndale, MI- Affirmations' Multicultural Advisory Committee is extending the period of time in which to collect community perspectives on Affirmations' levels of racial and ethnic inclusion and to begin a series of focus groups. In [...]
Between Ourselves
By Tara Cavanaugh Alli Sheppard is the new LGBTQA Coordinator at the University of Michigan Dearborn campus. 1. Why is a position like yours necessary? My main job is providing students with resources and support [...]
The surprise behind the Navy training videos scandal
By Lisa Keen, Keen News Service The Navy on Tuesday, Jan. 4, relieved from command its new commanding officer of the USS Enterprise, the Navy's best-known aircraft carrier, after widespread media attention for training videos [...]
9th Circuit punts federal Prop 8 case to California Supreme Court
by Rex Wockner U.S. NEWS The federal case against California's Proposition 8 took an odd turn Jan. 4 when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals punted the case to the California Supreme Court. The [...]
Activists to push Anchorage LGBT rights ordinance
by Rex Wockner U.S. NEWS Alaska's Equality Works coalition will attempt to pass a gay and transgender rights ordinance through the Anchorage Municipal Assembly this year. The proposed law would ban discrimination based on sexual [...]
Same-sex marriage threatened in New Hampshire
by Rex Wockner U.S. NEWS Even as Rhode Island legislators introduced a bill to legalize same-sex marriage on Jan. 6, fears are mounting that New Hampshire may be preparing to repeal its same-sex marriage law. [...]
More than Palin to blame.
After tragedy, people start pointing fingers. How else to understand why it happened? The Jan. 8 shooting in Arizona, that left Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition and six dead, including a 9-year-old girl and [...]
Creep of the Week: Cindy Jacobs
Thanks to Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist thugs, everybody knows that God hates fags. But you know what else God hates? Birds and fish. Because of the fags. At least that's what Cindy Jacobs [...]
Heard on Facebook
Do you think Sarah Palin's "target map" influenced the Arizona shooter on Saturday? Language always matters. And injecting imagery suggestive of violence doesn't help either. -Christine Trinh It's hard to say if Palin's target map [...]
!thgir ti od ,dik !yeH
I suggested to a school secretary that she might experience the frustration that a child goes through in the process of learning to write if she tried writing with her left hand. The secretary is [...]
Religion, HIV/AIDS
S/he Said "Perhaps the most important development (in 2010) is that we're zeroing in on who is at risk for HIV in America today - and why. And we're developing successful ways to help. It's [...]
LGBT foster youth overlooked
By Ruth Ellis Center Executive Director Laura Hughes PQ/ While we have made some progress in providing support and a safe environment for these young people, much more needs to be done. One of the [...]
Openly gay intern honored
By Lisa Keen Emergency personnel and Daniel Hernandez, an intern for U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, second right, move Giffords after she was shot in the head outside a shopping center in Tucson, Ariz. on Saturday, [...]
Department of Justice says Defense of Marriage Act prevents ‘inequities’
By Lisa Keen The U.S. Department of Justice filed its brief Jan. 13 with a federal appeals court that will hear the government's appeal of two district court decisions that found the Defense of Marriage [...]
Why does it matter that Giffords’ heroic intern is gay?
Daniel Hernandez, the intern who is credited with saving Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' life, received two waves of attention in the aftermath of the tragic shootings: The first for his fast thinking and aid to [...]
No re-run of Prop 8 in Washington, D.C.
By Lisa Keen The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday refused to hear the appeal of a group of clergy in Washington, D.C. who want to put the city's new marriage equality law on the ballot. The [...]
GOP lawmaker seeks to end HIV prevention funding
LANSING -- A bill submitted by state Rep. Dave Agema, R-Grandville, that would eliminate state funding for HIV prevention and other important health initiatives is raising alarms in the public health community. Agema has proposed [...]
GOP lawmaker seeks to end HIV prevention funding
LANSING -- A bill submitted by state Rep. Dave Agema, R-Grandville, that would eliminate state funding for HIV prevention and other important health initiatives is raising alarms in the public health community. Agema has proposed [...]