She/he Said
"We're all God's children and if you're a real minister, and a real child of God, you're going to accept anybody … . I try to stay away from churches who don't accept gays."
– Patti LaBelle to BTL before her Dec. 1 stop in Detroit
"The public eye has always been kind to me, and until recently I have been able to live a pretty normal life. Now it seems there is speculation and interest in my private life and relationships. So,
rather than ignore those who choose to publish their opinions without actually talking to me, I am happy to dispel any rumors or misconceptions and am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay
man living my life to the fullest and feel most fortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love."
– Actor Neil Patrick Harris from TV's Doogie Howser, M.D. and "How I Met Your Mother," to People magazine
Entertainment
America likes Borat! High five!
There's was a possibility those who saw "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," which raked in 26 million opening weekend despite a limited release, would find the ignorance toward Jews and gays offensive. But the chance was greater that those shenanigans were marked with laughter so intense that missing some of the action required repeated viewings.
When he lands at a Gay Pride Parade in Washington, D.C., he confesses that these people – as he rubs up against them and grabs their crotches – are nicer than those in New York. He confesses, "They say, 'I wash you in the shower.' They wash me in the shower."
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20900
Trans character cast on soap
In a story unusual even for a soap opera and believed to be a television first, ABC's "All My Children" introduced a transgender character who is beginning to make the transition from a man into a woman.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21436
Transitions
Affirmations Lesbian and Gay Community Center Executive Director Leslie Thompson announced that when the center moves into its new headquarters, it will be known simply as Affirmations. The announcement of the name change was made at the 7th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance in a nod to members of the transgender community who have been calling for a new, more inclusive name for years.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21262
George Westerman was promoted to IBM's GLBT Sales Team as a global business development executive. A 20-year employee with the company, Westerman is also on the board at Affirmations in Ferndale.
In his new position, Westerman will be cultivating and driving IBM sales opportunities with LGBT executives and influential decision-makers at large enterprises and government agencies.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20909
PFLAG Downriver celebrated ten years of activism Oct. 29. Honored guests included Auxillary Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, who has a gay brother.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20830
Keith B. Smith, a lobbyist and gay activist who served on the board of the National Stonewall Democrats, died in Oklahoma at the age of 51. He was Oklahoma's first openly gay delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21437ÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩ
Michigan Highlights
Granholm, Stabenow coast to big victories
Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm won a decisive victory with 57 percent of the vote in her bid for reelection, defeating Republican Dick DeVos, who spent tens of millions of dollars out of his own pocket in the campaign.
Democrat U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow won her reelection bid by almost the exact same margin as the governor. She defeated her Republican challenger, Mike Bouchard, who has returned to his job as Oakland County Sheriff.
Michigan bans Affirmative Action
LGBT leaders were disappointed Nov. 7 when residents approved Proposition 2, the constitutional amendment that bans public institutions from using affirmative action programs.
iI think we sent a wrong message in terms of valuing diversity and wanting to make sure people have equal opportunity," said Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the LGBT project for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Michigan is now the third state to ban some types of affirmative action.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20924
Ferndale voters overwhelmingly pass a human ordinance
The city's human rights ordinance passed by a landslide, with 5,428 residents voting in favor of the law and 2,897 rejecting the measure.
The new ordinance bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and other factors, in employment, housing, public accommodations and public services. Violators face a $500 fine.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21078
HRC fires staffer over Foley blogging
The Human Rights Campaign fired Lane Hudson, 29, an employee working in Michigan, for igniting the U.S. Rep. Mark Foley (R-Florida) scandal. Hudson has admitted to being the anonymous blogger behind stopsexualpredators.com which published sexually explicit emails from Foley to several male congressional pages.
When ABC News called Foley to follow up on the blog story, Foley resigned from Congress Sept. 29, and the scandal later grew to encompass the response of Republican congressional leaders to previous complaints about Foley's contacts with the pages and inconsistencies in the leaders' public statements. It is believed the scandal contributed to the Republican Party's loss of control over Congress in the November election, as well as the end of House Speaker Dennis Hastert's leadership of the House Republicans. Kirk Fordham, chief of staff to Rep. Tom Reynolds and former chief of staff for Foley, also resigned as a result of the scandal.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20826
Music store targeted for gay-friendly stance
After helping the local Gay Straight Alliance with their float in the Mason High School Homecoming Parade, an independent music store in this small town 15 miles south of Lansing was boycotted for being gay friendly.
In the days following the parade, business at Davey's Basement, located at 448 S. Jefferson St., dropped drastically.
"I mean, literally, the door didn't even open for two days," said Teri Yale, who opened the store a year ago. "We didn't even make a sale. I said, 'This is weird. What's going on?' Finally, one kid came in and said they had heard a rumor at school that some parents had told their kids they couldn't come in here because we support gays."
LGBT people from around the country have reacted to support the store by purchasing products off their website at www.daveysbasement.com.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20913
Conservative stalls Mich. judicial nominee over gay marriage
Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Janet T. Neff, a liberal nominated by President George W. Bush to be a U.S. District Court judge as part of a compromise struck with Democrats, was set to be confirmed by the full Senate, but Sen. Sam Brownback, a conservative Republican, stalled it because of her attendance at the 2002 same-sex ceremony in Massachusetts.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21433
Trans victims remembered at Day of Remebrance
About 75 people gathered at Metropolitan Community Church of Detroit in Ferndale Nov. 17 for the Day of Remembrance Ceremony, an annual ritual to honor the memories of trans persons who have been victims of violence.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21267
First Black Pride film fest focused on domestic violence
The Black Pride Society presented the 'Stop the Violence' remix Film Fest Nov. 16 at Focus Hope in Detroit. Three films were shown that each presented violent relationships involving same-gender-loving couples, and a discussion followed.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21259
National/World Highlights
Most anti marriage initiatives pass, but support lessens
On election day, anti-marriage bans passed in seven out of eight states, but Republican-dominated Arizona rejected its proposed ban. And in several conservative states, the bans were approved by margins that were well below the 41 percent average recorded in voting in the 20 states which had previously approved the bans.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21084
A kinder, gentler Congress for gays
Voters elected enough Democrats to the U.S. House of Representatives to give Democrats control of that chamber. And, in doing so, they gave the House Speaker's gavel to San Francisco's U.S. representative, Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi, who has earned a perfect score on gay-related votes according to the Human Rights Campaign, will be in a position for at least the next two years to stop anti-gay legislation from coming to the floor.
Democrats also won the 51 seats they need to assume control of the Senate next January. Control of the Senate is especially important to the LGBT community because of its critical role in confirming U.S. Supreme Court nominees.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20915
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20995
Giant LGBT church welcomed into United Church of Christ
The United Church of Christ voted to admit the 4,300-member, Dallas-based Cathedral of Hope, which bills itself as "the world's largest liberal Christian church with a primary outreach to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people."
The move prompted about 140 churches in the 5,700-church denomination to leave the UCC. But 65 churches have expressed interest in joining, the most since the UCC was formed in 1957 by the union of the Congregational Christian Churches in America and the Evangelical and Reformed Church.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21439
South Africa legalizes same-sex marriage
Gays in South Africa can be joined in matrimony under legislation parliament passed. Veterans of the governing African National Congress hailed the Civil Union Bill for extending basic freedoms to everyone under the spirit of the country's first post-apartheid constitution, adopted a decade ago by framers determined to make discrimination a thing of the past.
"When we attained our democracy, we sought to distinguish ourselves from an unjust painful past, by declaring that never again shall it be that any South African will be discriminated against on the basis of color, creed, culture and sex," Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula declared.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21083
Human Rights Campaign released its annual guide on how to vote with your dollars, a list of more than a 1,000 brand name products and how the corporations who produce them rate in terms what they do to ensure "fair treatment" for their LGBT employees.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21431
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