She/he Said
"The thing is, I'm not ashamed; that's the one thing I went to say. I don't think it's wrong, I'm not devastated going through this. I'm more liberated and happy than I've been my whole life. I'm just happy."
– Former 'N Sync member Lance Bass on coming out in People Magazine
"I enjoyed working on that series [Queer As Folk] because of the importance of it. It addressed a civil rights issue. That's something that shouldn't be taken lightly. … My parents are fairly open-minded and they realized the show's importance, too. But my mom didn't like me kissing boys any more than I did."
– Actor Hal Sparks to North Carolina's The News & Observer
Transitions:
BTL welcomes new managing editor, Jillian Bogater. Bogater had worked for five years as an editor on the national desk at The Detroit News. She also served as unit chair for Local 22, the newspaper's union, and an additional 10 years of journalism experience working at The Oakland Press and other papers in Milford, Hillsdale, Plymouth and Cheboygan.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=19857
The Rev. Deb Dysert announced she would step down Oct. 29 from her position as pastor of Divine Peace Metropolitan Community Church in Pontiac after eight years with the church.
The church flourished under Dysert's leadership, with the congregation growing from 11 members in 1998 to 87 members.
{URL https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=19948}
Knoll Larkin became the new health services coordinator at Affirmations Lesbian Gay Community Center. Larkin had recently graduated from the University of Michigan's School of Public Health with a master's degree in public health.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=19772
John Wilson, a founding member of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association who held editing positions at several newspapers, including The New York Times, died at age 56.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20026
The Vermont couple who entered into the United States' first same-sex civil union officially split up. Carolyn Conrad and Kathleen Peterson, had entered a civil union shortly after midnight on July 1, 2000, the day Vermont's first-in-the-country law went into effect.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20026
Meetery Eatery, a popular LGBT gathering spot in Detroit, closed.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20036
Tim Retzloff, a former BTL assistant editor and prominent LGBT historian, left Michigan to pursue his Ph.D. at Yale. Retzloff is working at Yale with George Chauncey, one of the premier LGBT historians in the country, and author of books including, "Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940."
Retzloff worked for the University of Michigan for 17 years. In 2005 he was awarded the Joan Heller-Diane Bernard Fellowship in Lesbian and Gay Studies by the National Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=19763
Gay-friendly Paramount Bank opened its newest branch in Ferndale. More than 200 people attended the grand opening, including LGBT leaders, city officials, artists, architects and fellow Ferndale business owners.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=19782
Tom Barwin, a strong LGBT supporter, left his post as Ferndale City Manager to take a similar position in Oak Park, IL.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=19781
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Entertainment
Festival celebrates womyn
"The generational spectrum is much, much wider than it was back in the '70s," said Sandy Ramsey, a Michigan Womyn's Music Festival worker for more than 20 years. "There are women (here) who now work beside women who they watched grow up at this festival, as children, then as teenagers and then as young adults."
Before thousands of women rally together at the festival in Hart, Mich., the land is mostly empty aside from trees and wildflowers, said Ramsey.
"Women build this small city every year," she said.
More online: Issue 1431, "Michigan Womyn's Music Festival crosses generations," by Chris Azzopardi
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=19784
Indie film gives gay new face
It's easy to see the reason "Little Miss Sunshine," which features Steve Carell as a self-loathing non-stereotypical gay man, garnered positive buzz shortly after its Sundance Film Festival run. Directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton crafted an uproariously smart indie comedy, one that will resonate with anyone who has a porn aficionado granddaddy – or any oddball family members.
More online: Issue 1432, "The 'Little' indie film that could," by Chris Azzopardi
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=19828
A man's best friend
"When I was diagnosed, I was still diving competitively so the diving helped me focus on something positive," he says. "So through a lot of the initial stuff – depression, realization and mortality – I was still diving so I had a positive focus and that really helped me through."
It's his dogs that give him the positive energy to combat his virus.
Louganis laughs, "I've always been an animal lover. My parents never allowed as many animals as I wanted."
More online: Issue 1434 (Health and Wellness Issue), "A man's best friend," by Chris Azzopardi
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=19914
ÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩMichigan News:
Five local colleges selected for LGBT advocacy
The Advocate selected five Michigan colleges as the 100 best schools for gay students and featured them in a College Guide for LGBT Students. The University of Michigan ranked as one of Top 20 Best Campuses for LGBT students.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=19852
Michigan's gay college offices form coalition
The Michigan Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Centers, conceived and facilitated by Triangle Foundation, provides a means of organized communication and strategizing between offices at Michigan's higher educational institutions.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=19775
The other women's festival – Camp Trans
While the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival rocked across the street, Camp Trans 2006 continued their sixteen-year protest of MWMF's "womyn-born woman" policy. Camp Trans took place in a national park nearby MWMF. according to the Camp Trans Web site.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=19773
Democrats choose Williams for AG, Sabaugh for secretary of state
A "clear champion" for LGBT issues, Amos Williams, won the Democratic nomination for Attorney General Aug. 27. Macomb County Clerk Carmella Sabaugh was nominated to take on GOP Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land. Both candidates were defeated in the November election by Republican incumbents Attorney General Mike Cox and Land.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20033
Man sentenced in shooting outside Gigi's
A Detroit man was sentenced in Wayne County Circuit Court to six-to-12 years in prison – more than the suggested guidelines – for shooting a Windsor man as he left Gigi's Nightclub.
Steven Williams Jr., 18, was found guilty of assualt with intent to do great bodily harm and possession of a firearm after he shot Salvagio Vonatti, 31, in the head on Jan. 10, leaving the victim in a coma and on life support.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=19850
Arcus grant expands Ruth Ellis Center
The Arcus Foundation announced a grant of $322,821 over three years to help the Ruth Ellis Center, which serves homeless and at-risk LGBTQ youth, hire a director of development.
The Ruth Ellis Center grant was among $10.6 million in grants given to nonprofit groups working for LGBT equality, including Affirmations and the ACLU, and to organizations working globally to promote Great Ape conservation.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=19848
Detroit Police lax in anti-gay investigations
The Detroit Police Department released four suspects arrested in the shooting of a man outside the Woodward Bar on July 28, saying that witnesses could not identify the men in a line-up.
However, had not been contacted to look at police photos of the suspects.
In a separate incident, a Detroit police spokesman said he was unable to locate a report on the alleged beating and robbery of a young transgender woman outside Ruth Ellis Center's transitional living facility in Detroit on July 28.
"We are frustrated and chagrined at the pace of these investigations,i said Jeffrey Montgomery, executive director of the Triangle Foundation.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=19851
National / World News:
Thousands rally against San Diego gay-bashing incident
More than 2,000 people rallied and marched in the gay Hillcrest district Aug. 4 against the bashings of six gay men near the LGBT Pride Festival on July 29.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=19856
Lesbian candidate barely survives challenge in Alabama
Patricia Todd almost lost the opportunity to be the first openly gay person to serve in the Alabama legislature when the mother-in-law of a failed candidate challenged her, saying that Todd was trying to hide the fact that she had received contributions from the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund. Toddis victory in the Democratic primary in Birmingham was first declared void, then reinstated by party officials within a matter of days.
{URL https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20029 }
California addresses 'invisible epidemic' of gay domestic violence
After years of fighting what one service provider called an "invisible epidemic," The California Legislature passed a law requiring gays and lesbians who register as domestic partners to pay $23 toward domestic violence programs specifically aimed at same-sex couples. It is the first of its kind in the U.S.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20034
Bangkok big for gender reassignment surgery
With its large, open transgender population, Bangkok is a haven for foreigners in search of acceptance and gender reassignment surgery at a cheap price.
Dr. Thep Vechavisit of the Pratunam Polyclinic said mostly Thais and other Asians, especially Vietnamese and Japanese, and occasionally foreigners from America or Europe come to him for gender reassignment surgery.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=19951
Vaccines, treatment focus of International AIDS conference
Some 24,000 delegates from 170 nations attended the 16th International AIDS Conference Aug. 13-18 in Toronto.
In an opening-session address, Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates and his wife Melinda, co-chairs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, called for increased focus on women, accelerated research on microbicides, and stepped-up global prevention and treatment efforts. Other celebrity attendees included Bill Clinton and Richard Gere.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=19940
NY judge says state law protects transgendered people
A cook who claimed he was fired by a fancy restaurant when co-workers discovered he was a woman living as a man is protected by New York state's human rights law, a judge ruled.
State Supreme Court Justice Joan Lefkowitz held that although discrimination against a transgender person is not specifically listed in the law – which does mention racial discrimination, religious discrimination and sexual discrimination – it is covered nonetheless.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=19953
