Racist hate literature was found on cars in Ferndale New Year’s Eve. The fliers, created by a white supremacist group based out of Texas, were met with disdain and disapproval by local community leaders.
Creating Change will be held at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center from Jan. 23 through 27 in 2019. More information its included events, speakers and programs can be found online at creatingchange.org. Creating [...]
For the Huntington Wood Library’s Drag Queen Story Time, a glittering drag queen comes to the library to read to young children once a month. The program, said to be the third of its kind [...]
Kelly Stough, known to some as Keanna Mattel, was laid to rest in fine style Saturday with a funeral at the James H. Cole Home for Funerals in Detroit with a memorial service later in the evening at the Affirmations LGBTQ community center in Ferndale. Stough was murdered Dec. 7 in the Palmer Park neighborhood and was remembered fondly by friends and family. That, her mother said, is the way it should be.
Creating Change will be held at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center from Jan. 23 through 27 in 2019. More information its included events, speakers and programs can be found online at creatingchange.org. Creating [...]
A crowd of almost 60 gathered at Affirmations' community chat to discuss the future of the center. BTL Photo: Eve Kucharski Searching for answers and concerned about its future, a crowd of 56 [...]
A small crowd of about 20 came out Monday, Nov. 19 to the Wayne State University Student Center Ballroom for what organizers believe was the university’s first official Transgender Day of Remembrance service. The service, [...]
About 20 people came out on Tuesday, Nov. 20, for a Transgender Day of Remembrance service at the Ruth Ellis Center in Highland Park. The service was designed to be an intimate conversation among trans women and men of color.
It was supposed to be a quick run to pick up a few groceries, but when Jacqueline Street, a trans woman, stopped into the Walmart in Benton Harbor on Nov. 15, she got more than just bread and milk at an unbeatable price. Street said she was discriminated against and repeatedly misgendered while attempting to check out.
Creating Change will be held at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center from Jan. 23 through 27 in 2019. More information its included events, speakers and programs can be found online at creatingchange.org. Creating [...]
In a press release posted on their website Nov. 8, the San Francisco Opera announced it was removing University of Michigan professor and countertenor David Daniels from the role of Medoro in Handel’s "Orlando." Initially planning to present the opera next summer, the announcement comes in the wake of a lawsuit filed last month against Daniels in which it is alleged that he sexually assaulted one of his students.
They held out as long as they could. Keith Orr and Martin Contreras, owners of Common Language Bookstore in Ann Arbor, recently announced that they plan to close their feminist, LGBTQ store at the end of the year. The announcement comes after years of dwindling sales that they attribute at least in part to internet sales and the rise of online giant Amazon.com
AARP's Purpose Prize is designed to honor extraordinary individuals who use their life experience to make a better future, each year selecting winners who have gone above and beyond to achieve that goal. In the case of one of this year's winners, Marc Sophos, his focus has been on LGBTQ youth. The New York-based journalist is the founder and executive director of Media for the Public Good — a nonprofit that focuses on creating media from underrepresented points of view. Putting his nearly two decades of radio experience to use, Sophos created "OutCasting" a youth LGBTQ public radio program, and the accompanying podcast "OutCasting Overtime." Each episode is created by LGBTQ teens.
Creating Change is an annual LGBTQ conference put on by the National LGBTQ Task Force. Hosting hundreds of workshops, caucus sessions, keynote speakers and more, the more than 30-year-old event tours across the U.S., every year choosing a city in which to showcase the LGBTQ community's local and national community. This year, Creating Change 2019 is coming to Detroit in January. In advance of the event, BTL has reached out to interview four local co-chairs who are involved in putting on this Detroit-specific event. This interview is part of that series.
Rev. Dr. Justin Tanis is known by many in the LGBTQ community for his book that explores the relationship of the transgender community to religion: "Transgender: Theology, Ministry and Communities of Faith." The 2003 work has helped give Tanis, who is not only transgender himself but also the managing director for the Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies at the Pacific School of Religion, a unique outlook on the topic.
The rally was called We Will Not Be Erased and the message was clear: no matter what he tries to do, Donald Trump cannot redefine the transgender community out of existence. The rally, which drew a crowd of about 120 to the Ruth Ellis Center parking lot Friday, was organized after The New York Times reported on a leaked memo from the Trump administration that revealed its desire to define gender as a “biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth.”
The Michigan LGBT Peer Support Network is a new group aimed at helping people in the LGBT community start support groups and build alliances. “I didn’t create the Network to compete with other organizations, but [...]
Its aim is to promote intergenerational conversation over a nice meal. For the second year in a row, SAGE Table, sponsored by SAGE — an organization that provides advocacy and services for LGBTQ older adults — will bring together the old, the young and those inbetween as part of a nationwide initiative. Last year, there were 232 SAGE Tables across 40 states involving more than 3,000 participants.
Oct. 5, 2010 started off just like any other day for Brandon La Forest. He woke up a little early, had a meeting at the office and was on his way to an appointment in Lansing. But just outside the city, while La Forest stopped to avoid an accident that had just happened in front of him, his life changed forever.
At a press conference Friday, Oct. 19 that capped off the daylong Faith, LGBTQ Inclusion and Human Rights conference at Metropolitan Community Church – Detroit in Clawson, faith leaders from across Michigan came together to [...]
According to Dr. Truman Hudson everyone starts life with a "blank canvas." “Which oftentimes is shaped by the decisions that others have made for us," he said. He is a lecturer of multiculturalism at the [...]
Dr. Truman Hudson is a lecturer of multiculturalism at the University of Michigan–Dearborn. Hudson, who won the 2018 Ford Fund Community Corps award, is currently conducting a class, EDA 515 – Communities and Schools: Building and Sustaining Partnerships, that will require students to work with LGBT Detroit and Ford GLOBE to co-design a leadership development supplementary educational curriculum. The effort is called the Blank Canvas Project.
Longtime Between The Lines columnist and contributor Charles Alexander was recently recognized by the Hannan Center as one of their 70 over Seventy: The Next Chapter Awards honorees. Alexander was presented with the award at [...]
They say that everyone has at least one book in them. However, it’s in the getting it out and on paper where complications sometime arise. Jennifer Miracle-Best, the author of the soon-to-be-released book "Divinely Queer: My Journey to Spirituality through Sexuality" is all too familiar with that process. She is gearing up to sign copies of the book at a launch party at Metropolitan Community Church-Detroit in Clawson on Friday, Oct. 19.
Inclusive Justice will present a day-long conference called Faith, LGBT Inclusion & Human Rights on Friday, Oct. 19. Inclusive Justice is a statewide, faith-based coalition inclusive of all traditions that affirms the inherent dignity and worth of every human being as a matter of spiritual conviction, and its conference will take from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Metropolitan Community Church – Detroit in Clawson.
The group is called Phoemale and, for anyone wondering, is pronounced just like the word "female." The unique spelling represents the words “phoenix” and “female” combined and the group celebrates women rising from the ashes. More specifically, Phoemale is a non-profit organization that enables women to empower fellow women in Metro Detroit who are rebuilding their lives after overcoming domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking or homelessness.
Coming out stories. In the LGBTQ community, we all have one. Now, a unique collaboration between Kristi Faulkner Dance and the Ruth Ellis Center is turning those stories into art. "Not in my House' radically shifts the narrative about LGBTQ identity through the creative re-imagining of coming out stories in an evening-length performance blending vogue, contemporary dance and storytelling,” said event organizers.
The Black Bear Brotherhood of Detroit, a local social group dedicated to black gay men of size, and the Onyx Great Lakes Chapter, a fraternal order for men of color, are co-hosting a panel discussion called Black Gay Men: Cultural, Social, Sexual & Political Power in the Age of #45.
At its 46th anniversary service on Sunday, Sept. 16, Metropolitan Community Church – Detroit debuted its new publication called "Ignite." The 24-page glossy magazine features information on all the events and new programing happening at the church through the end of the year, as well as some spiritually enlightening information and lessons. The publication was a dream 10 years in the making for assistant pastor Rev. Deb Cox.
Trangender Michigan will host their 8th annual Transgender Health Fair on Saturday, Sept. 29. The fair will take place at Affirmations from 1 to 4 p.m. and Dr. Patricia Schmidt of the Center for Transforming Health will be the featured speaker.
TNT Health Club, Detroit’s longest-running gay bathhouse, has recently shuttered its doors. Located at 13333 Eight Mile Road, TNT first opened in 1979 in the spot of a former Jewish schvitz bath. At that time, [...]
Between The Lines has learned that the TNT Health Club, Detroit’s longest running gay bathhouse, has recently shuttered its doors. Located at 13333 Eight Mile Road, TNT first opened in 1979 in the spot of [...]
Trans Sistas of Color Project Detroit (TSCOPD) Founder and Executive Director Bre’ Campbell shocked many at the beginning of the summer when she announced in a post on Facebook that she had actually left Detroit and relocated to New Mexico more than six months ago. She made this announcement while expressing resentment toward a funder, who she did not name, that Campbell said had threatened to take back their money upon learning that Campbell was no longer living in Michigan.
The fourth annual Stand with Trans Youth Empowerment Workshop is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 6. The workshop is open to gender expansive young children, trans youth ages 12 to 24 and parents and caregivers of trans youth. It will once again take place at the Orchard United Methodist Church in Farmington Hills. This year’s theme is "I Am."
They call themselves showboys. They are boys, men actually, who sing and dance. And, just as often, one can find them lip-syncing at gay bars or competing in male beauty pageants across the state and [...]
Lynelle Osborne (left) and Monica Givens of Linden. BTL Photo: Andrew Cohen. Well, Facebook may be considered a bit passe by today’s social media standards, but as Monica Givens and Lynelle Osborne [...]
As BTL continues the Mayors Against LGBT Discrimination series, we hear from Southfield Mayor Kenson Siver who pledged his oath as the first openly-gay mayor in the city of Southfield on Nov. 16, 2015. Despite running a campaign distracted and disrupted by people writing "fag," "rapist," "sodomite," and "racist" on his campaign signs, Siver said at the time, "it is a testament to the people of this city that they saw through the hatred, bigotry, homophobia and dirty tricks and elected their first gay mayor."
Christ Church Cranbook, Michigan’s largest Episcopal church, will be getting a new associate rector – and he happens to be gay. From San Diego, his name is Rev. Chris Harris and he stepped into the post Sept. 1. Harris said he is relocating to Michigan to give his twin daughters a familial connection.
Local activist Ahya Simone has received a Kresge Artist Fellowship. While she is most known in the LGBT community for her work with the Trans Sistas of Color Project, Simone is a Detroit-based harpist, singer [...]
Deonton Rogers was arraigned in 3rd Circuit Court in Detroit on August 15. The 29-year-old was accused of pulling a gun on a trans woman in a gas station on the city’s west side and shooting her while in a scuffle, Rogers is charged with discharging a firearm causing serious injury, felonious assault, being a felon in possession of a firearm, fourth-degree child abuse and ethnic intimidation based on gender and a felony firearms violation.
As BTL continues the Mayors Against LGBT Discrimination series, we hear from Highland Park Mayor Hubert Yopp who was sworn in on Jan. 1, 2016 for a second non-consecutive four-year term. Yopp has a varied background of experience with over 40 years in the operation and administration of local government, serving in various positions in Highland Park, including Highland Park Police and Fire Manager for 31 years and Highland Park City Council for four years.
They’re a marginalized minority within a marginalized minority and often overlooked when we scan the periphery underneath the rainbow umbrella. Now Rimonte’ Parker, a youth peer leader at the Ruth Ellis Center, has started a group for young trans men and he’s calling it NuiiWaav.
It’s the fastest growing group at Affirmations, and without a doubt one of the center’s most successful, the Senior Koffee Klatch continues to grow by leaps and bounds.
When Josh Winowiecki and Andrew Morton planned a trip to Paris, they planned it with their mothers in mind. “We took our moms with us because they both turned 60 this year,” said Winowiecki.
Roles of Gladys, Patti, Dionne Revived It’s been 32 years since HBO first aired the iconic Sisters in the Name of Love concert. The television special starred Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle and Dionne Warwick and [...]
It’s just days before the primary elections, and candidates running for office took one of the last remaining opportunities beforehand to talk to LGBTQ folks during the 23rd annual Hotter Than July celebration. The second [...]
Fourth annual Community Chat and Candlelight Vigil Kick Off Hotter Than July Detroit Police Chief James Craig made sure to emphasize his support for everyone in the crowd of about 100 people who came out [...]
State Rep. Candidate Talks Economic Development, What his Grandma Taught him About Politics and Why It’s Time for Him to Step Forward […]
BJ So Cole to Make Return Performance Bounce music. It’s a unique form of hip-hop music that originated in New Orleans. Reality TV star Big Freedia brought it to popular attention with songs such as [...]
