Equal Marriage Supporters Light the Way to Justice
DETROIT - Raymond Shepherd was in awe of the crowd that gathered with him on the steps of the Federal [...]
Big Love For Lianne La Havas
Remember Alicia Keys before she became a big enough name to revive the BlackBerry brand and hold her own in a Jay-Z collaboration? Back in 2001, when she released her critically lauded Grammy-winning debut, "Songs [...]
The Lollipop Kid
By Anthony Paull Dating Diet "We need to stop at the Sugar Shop," I tell Greg. Meeting in Vegas for the weekend, we're ready for a night of dancing and debauchery when he reveals that [...]
Keeping Abreast Of The Oscars
Across 1 Gay-friendly student org. 5 Fit for a king 10 Rebuke from Caesar 14 Sign of calculating to get sum 15 Ooze out 16 Not just one of those things 17 Small amount in [...]
Jarod Bormann Goes To The Mat For Equality
By Dan Woog The OutField Like most Iowa boys, Jarod Bormann grew up on a wrestling mat. That's the unofficial state sport - the University of Iowa has won 23 national championships, with Iowa State [...]
Hello! Irreverent ‘Book of Mormon’ Accomplishes Its Mission At The Fisher
After a Mormon family moved in across the street from me many years ago, I became accustomed to finding smiling, neatly pressed and overly friendly pairs of handsome young men at my door offering to [...]
Once More Unto The Breach
By John Quinn American musical theater provides broad choices. The hot ticket in town right now is "The Book of Mormon," big, brash and raunchy. Compare that to "The Fantasticks," the enduring classic that first [...]
Raise A Glass, Bend An Ear
By Carolyn Hayes To close its all-Irish season, The Abreact could not have made a more Irish-for-Irish's sake selection than "The Weir." Beer, whiskey, yarn spinning, and supernatural folklore are the foundation of playwright Conor [...]
Dealing With Intimate Partner Violence In Focus
By Lisa Keen In signing the Violence Against Women Act March 7, President Obama singled out a number of activists on the issue, including the head of an LGBT anti-violence group. "Today is about all [...]
Training For A New Life
Kimo Frederiksen (back) teaches Kyle Williams how to be a personal trainer. BTL photo: Crystal A. Proxmire When Kyle Williams lost his breath walking up a flight of stairs, he got scared and knew [...]
Jillian Michaels’ ‘Maximize Your Life Tour’ Heads To Detroit
Promising an evening of inspiration that will forever motivate and change lives, America's health and wellness guru, Jillian Michaels, will bring her first ever "Maximize Your Life Tour" to the Fox Theatre at 7:30 p.m. [...]
What Healthcare Reform Means for LGBT Communities
The biggest challenge with healthcare reform is the abundance of rumor and misinformation that is out there. That's why Michigan Consumers for Healthcare and the Center for American Progress are traveling around the state explaining [...]
Conference Addresses LGBT Issues in Education
Oakland University's conference area was packed with counselors, teachers and school administrators for the second annual SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) Issues in Education Conference earlier this month. The daylong series of speeches and [...]
Odawa Indians Perform First Michigan Same-Sex Marriage
After thirty years as a couple, Tim LaCroix, 53, of Boyne City, and his partner Gene Barfield, 60, originally of Long Island, New York became the first same-gender couple to marry in Michigan thanks to [...]
HIV Data Collection Violates Intent Of Statute, Says Lawmaker Who Helped Create Law
LANSING - Michigan's health department is violating the legislative intent of an HIV-related statute - and maybe the law itself - by indefinitely collecting information on people who test for HIV at federally funded clinics, [...]
Supporter of Human Rights Bishop Coleman McGehee Dies
The Rev. H. Coleman McGehee, 89, a retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, died March 14 after a short illness. McGehee, of Bloomfield Hills, served with the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan from 1973 [...]
It’s Not An Easy Choice
OAKLAND The Oakland/Macomb Chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in partnership with Oakland University Gender & Sexuality Center, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Michigan and Northland Family Planning Clinic to present the second annual [...]
March For Equality
Grand Rapids On March 26 and 27, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider two cases that are fundamentally about whether LGBT Americans should have the same rights as everyone else. Those two cases will decide [...]
Hillary Clinton Comes Out In Support Of Marriage Equality
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced her support for marriage equality for same-sex couples in a video posted to the Human Rights Campaign YouTube channel on March 18. "LGBT Americans are our colleagues, [...]
HIV Testing and Care
Here at BTL we feel the same betrayal, anger and frustration as many of our readers do, over the recent revelations that the Michigan Department of Community Health has been improperly collecting personal information about [...]
Andrea Lafferty
Creep of the Week As you may have heard, Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) has come out of the closet. Not as gay, but as the father of a gay son. And not only as the [...]
Fruit-flavored Banking
Parting Glances The following quote is just too, well, fabulous - to use an overworked gay adjective - not to bring it out of the celluloid closet to coincide the HBO's planned May airing of [...]
Platonically Star-Crossed Lover for Sale
By Evelyn Dykes I came out, stupidly, because I fell in love with my best friend. Because I don't want to totally give away her identity, I'm going to rename her Violet, which is equally [...]
Transparency, HIV Stigma And Accountability
LANSING - The conversation went something like this: "You mean you would report my HIV status?" the man asked. "If it was relevant to the story, yes, yes I would," I told him. The man [...]
LCC Tackles ‘Laramie Project: Ten Years Later’
Matthew Shepard has become a symbol. An idea. He is what hate crimes look like. And Laramie, WY, the town where he died - a horrible, brutal death: tied to a fence, beaten with the [...]