She/He Said
"Once you explain to the kids that there's two mommies whereas most kids have a mom and a dad, they completely get it. They understand that it's love. As they get older, you start saying 'Yes, some people think that it's wrong and our relationship is bad for you.' And they laugh. They think it's the most ridiculous thing on earth that our relationship is bad for them."
– Melissa Etheridge, Us Magazine, Dec. 25 issue, discussing what it is like being gay parents.
"I think Mary is going to be a loving soul to her child. And I'm happy for her."
– President Bush to People Magazine
Transitions
The Detroit-based Triangle Foundation announced it will open a new Western Michigan Field Office in Grand Rapids in the spring of 2007. The expansion is supported by a new grant from the Kalamazoo-based Arcus Foundation.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21939
John Burchett, Gov. Jennifer Granholmis openly gay chief of staff, announced his resignation, saying he plans to return to Washington D.C.
"I did what I set out to do," Burchett said of his 15-month tenure as the nation's first openly gay chief of staff. "I came to Lansing to help the governor direct government through what we knew would be a year of great challenge and opportunity."
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21806
Interior designer and local LGBT activist BC Cabangbang opened his new boutique, ChoZen by BC, in Royal Oak.
{URL https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21803 }
Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, announced she is pregnant. Mary Cheney, 37, and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, 45, are expecting a baby in late spring.
{URLhttps://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21703}
Entertainment
Stamos goes to war
It'd be easy to peg John Stamos as a gay man. After all, he plays a doc on "ER," and two acting MDs recently stepped out of the closet.
But he's not. He's just on our side.
"I'm growing older and I do feel like I have something to say. And I felt for so many years I've been kind of wishy-washy in trying not to get political … ," Stamos said about his gay role on A&E's "Wedding Wars." "I thought, by doing this movie, it would kind of show and represent the way I feel about the issue."
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21526
Michigan News
Lansing approves human rights ordinance
The Lansing City Council voted unanimously to approve a comprehensive human rights ordinance, then voted to make the ordinance effective immediately.
The ordinance, introduced in October, is the first comprehensive human rights ordinance on Lansing books since 1996, when a similar law was repealed by voters. It covers discrimination in housing and employment for a variety of categories, including sexual orientation and gender identity.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21810
MSU student group likely hate group
Young Americans for Freedom, a student group that is eligible to receive money from Michigan State University, qualifies as a hate group based on a recent series of anti-minority and anti-gay actions the group has made, according to the Intelligence Project for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a national tracking organization.
If YAF is listed, it will be the first university-recognized student hate group in the nation that Beirich is aware of.
YAF has been involved in a series of minority bashing events this fall, most notably its attempt to organize a campus-wide "Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day."
And on Nov. 20, about a dozen members came to downtown Lansing to protest the Lansing City Council's proposed civil rights ordinance, which would protect gays, lesbians and transgender persons from discrimination. Outside of City Hall, protesters held up signs with slogans like "Straight Power" and "End Faggotry."
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21542
Jay Kaplan named BTL's Person of the Year for 2006
If the LGBT community has a goodwill ambassador, it can only be Jay Kaplan.
"You never hear anyone say anything negative about Jay," explained Susan Horowitz, co-publisher and editor-in-chief of Between The Lines. "In fact, he's probably the most loved and respected of our community's leaders – with accomplishments to back it up – and that's why we chose him as our first-ever Person of the Year."
Whether he's in the courtroom fighting for our rights or singing on stage at one of our local community theaters, Kaplan, 46, is universally admired for his never-ending positive energy.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21952
National News
Several US parishes to split from Episcopal Church in feud over sexuality
Two large Episcopal parishes in Virginia voted overwhelmingly to leave The Episcopal Church and join fellow Anglican conservatives forming a rival denomination in the United States.
Truro Church in Fairfax and The Falls Church in Falls Church plan to place themselves under the leadership of Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who has called the growing acceptance of gay relationships a "satanic attack" on the church.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21807
Law creating civil unions for gay couples signed
New Jersey's governor signed legislation giving gay couples all the rights and responsibilities of marriage allowed under state law – but not the title.
When the law goes into effect Feb. 19, New Jersey will become the third U.S. state offering civil unions to gay couples and the fifth allowing gay couples some version of marriage.
Connecticut and Vermont also offer civil unions for gay couples, while Massachusetts allows gay couples to marry, and California has domestic partnerships that bring full marriage rights under state law.
{URLwww.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21938}
{URLwww.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=21938}
