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Casey Hoffman, candidate for mayor of Menominee, stands to become one of the only known openly LGBTQ+ Republican elected officials in Michigan history. It’s a distinction Hoffman is proud of. Municipal elections are nonpartisan, so [...]
Gender-affirming healthcare has come a long way in Michigan. Just this past March, Gov. Whitmer signed legislation to amend the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) to include LGBTQ+ people, which will ensure transgender Michiganders won’t [...]
While the recent expansion of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act may go a long way toward combating discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in Michigan, the fact remains that genuine respect and civility cannot be legislated. Such [...]
Hilary Murmers readily admits she didn’t have a lot of faith in Michigan. When Murmers and her spouse moved here in 2021, “We felt like, OK, we'll go try this out. We'll give it a [...]
Full disclosure: I have at least a dozen photos of myself standing next to Governor Whitmer since she was Candidate Whitmer in 2018. The first was taken at a meet-and-greet in June of that year, [...]
Grab a printable digital download of this timeline (click here: Between The Lines ELCRA Timeline). Pop open the Champagne and sparkling juice. The day so many in the LGBTQ+ community tirelessly battled for has arrived. [...]
Like a lot of queer boys, Ben Rubinstein steered clear of the locker room in middle school, afraid that he would be teased for being an overweight kid. Whatever it means to be a “sports [...]
Following the signing of Senate Bill 4, which amended the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include protections for the LGBTQ+ community, Pride Source was granted a one-on-one interview with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. But even before [...]
Known primarily for her spectacular loss to Jocelyn Benson in Michigan’s 2022 secretary of state race, queer-bashing Kristina Karamo, an election denier, has secured a seat as chair of the Michigan GOP in what some [...]
This year, Brother Thomas R. Zerafa, activist and prolific volunteer for LGBTQ+ and numerous progressive causes, would have celebrated his 50th anniversary of coming out as gay. He informed me of this milestone in December [...]
Since becoming mayor of Pleasant Ridge in 2021, Bret Scott has married twice, soon to be three times. More precisely, he’s officiated at two weddings. Though he’s single, it’s one of Scott’s favorite mayoral duties. [...]
Reciting prose from the pages of Penthouse magazine at a school board meeting is an unconventional way to make a point. But lately, caregivers and community members in Michigan are going to great lengths to [...]
When Tashawna Gill paused our interview to take a call from Lansing, it didn’t faze me. I knew Gill was simply conducting official business for LGBT Detroit Mobilization, where she’s served as field director since [...]
Last year’s highly publicized grassroots movement to defund the Patmos Library in Jamestown Township was just the start of a larger conservative push in West Michigan. That effort, spearheaded by a group known as Jamestown [...]
Supportive parent and caregivers of LGBTQ+ children often fear their kids will be bullied at school. But what if it’s not the classmates but school officials who are creating a hostile environment through policy-making and [...]
The 2022 midterm elections are history, and LGBTQ+ Democrats in Michigan are rightfully celebrating some significant wins. The state boasts a newly redistricted, majority-blue leadership for the first time in 40 years, as well as [...]
Luke Londo said learning of his appointment to the Michigan Civil Rights Commission (MCRC) was the “second coolest” thing that happened to him that week. Becoming a dad was the first. And to be honest, [...]
A self-described “data nerd” with an interest in public policy, Chase Cantrell first learned of the Citizens Research Council of Michigan (CRC) around 10 years ago. It’s a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank whose goal is [...]
Just ahead of the 2018 midterms, I was attending a GOTV prep meeting for Mallory McMorrow’s first state Senate campaign when I received a text from my sister’s eldest. A college student, they asked if [...]
Although Grosse Pointe is shedding its reputation as a conservative bastion, it’s still notable voters in the Grosse Pointe Public School System (GPPSS) just elected their first LGBTQ+ school board trustee. Even the winner herself [...]
Susan Estep, a Saline Area Schools Board of Education trustee, says she’s passionate about her role as an elected official. But openly queer Estep possesses an unusual determination to carry out her official duties in [...]
38th State House District candidate Joey Andrews is on a mission to get the word out about Southwest Michigan. Despite a general sentiment he sees coming out of Lansing, the area is not strictly an [...]
Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist's LGBTQ+ allyship began when he was just a kid because of, he says, "someone I had a great deal of love for." That person was his Uncle Glen. Gilchrist’s father’s [...]
Megan Cottington-Heath, an attorney who owns a family law practice, calls it the worst divorce she’s ever seen. The candidate for an open seat on the Saginaw County Circuit Court made that assessment after reading [...]
More than seven months ago, on Feb. 23, the Kyiv City Ballet left their country for a long-planned European tour. The following day, Russia invaded Ukraine. Unable to return home, the company has been sheltering [...]
Jason Morgan is no “Debbie Downer.” Yet that’s what the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners Chair and candidate for Michigan’s 23rd State House District fears people might think upon learning he has Becker Muscular Dystrophy. [...]
Within months of losing his job and health insurance during the last recession, Justin Mendoza’s late father was hospitalized with an infection in his legs. Three days later, he returned home with $10,000 in medical [...]
In an outrageous move that strains credulity — and just plain common sense — the Family Research Council (FRC) has obtained "church" status with the IRS. Specifically, they claim to be an “association of churches,” [...]
While she and other white allies were painting an outdoor mural the summer of George Floyd’s murder, Lansing resident Emily Dievendorf was hit head on by a white supremacist on a motorcycle. In that moment [...]
Yesterday in the Pride Source series, Monkeypox in Michigan, Devin O’Hara shared how an idea and an Instagram account turned into an opportunity to educate his community about the monkeypox virus. Today, in the final [...]
Yesterday in the Pride Source series, Monkeypox in Michigan, Dr. Calandra Green described the finer points of transmission and prevention. Today, Devin O’Hara explains how a weekly bar night served as a springboard to educate [...]
Yesterday in the series, Pride Source featured infectious disease expert Dr. Paul Benson, who said he believes monkeypox can be eradicated. Today, Oakland County Health Official Dr. Calandra Green separates fact from fiction and talks [...]
Yesterday, Pride Source shared the perspective of an individual who came home from Europe with the monkeypox virus. Ryan Abraham described what it’s been like to deal with the symptoms, to get treatment and to [...]
As recently as a few weeks ago, those who support an anti-gay agenda in Michigan were out in full force. Voters in west Michigan’s Jamestown Township were so outraged by their library offering age-appropriate reading [...]
In an attempt to keep pace with the monkeypox virus spreading rapidly across the state, Pride Source is featuring a five-part series, Monkeypox in Michigan, by Ellen Shanna Knoppow. Since the first probable case of [...]
Until recently, individuals in crisis who wanted to seek help by phone or text had two main options: They could call 911, which might involve the police or result in a trip by ambulance to [...]
I was an uneducated voter. The first time I voted, I thought it would be easy: just vote for all the Democrats. I wasn’t expecting a test. For some offices, more than one Democratic candidate [...]
The 2021 Netflix documentary about conversion therapy, “Pray Away,” was a turning point for Doug Booth, a political activist and openly gay man living in Grand Rapids. After watching the film, he said he had [...]
Although the draft was leaked, many have said when Roe v. Wade and 50 years of precedent were unceremoniously thrown out the window, they weren’t quite ready for it. And as Pride Source found, those [...]
On April 22, Toni Mua tweeted, “Hi I’m Toni Mua & I believe I just broke history as the first trans person to run for state legislature in Michigan! I’m doing this to change the [...]
As of today, abortion is legal in Michigan. But after the Supreme Court so cruelly overturned Roe v. Wade, that right hangs in the balance. Attorneys and lawmakers face mounting pressure to determine the extent [...]
According to State Sen. Jeremy Moss, Jason Hoskins is the most prepared person to run for the State House District 18 seat — probably more prepared than Moss was when first elected back in 2014. [...]
In Feb. 2019, when Maurice Turner and his now husband, Blake Milnes, took a leap of faith and purchased their historic home in Highland Park — a “fixer upper” if ever there was one — [...]
When Ashlea Phenicie, communications director for Planned Parenthood of Michigan (PPMI), needed a professional photographer to join a new campaign focused on gender affirming care, she knew where to look. Phenicie had been following Quinn [...]
As a first-year student at the University of Michigan (UM) in the late '70s, Martin Contreras struggled with his attraction to men. “Didn't have a name for it,” Contreras told Pride Source. Contreras and his [...]
Known for delivering vital health care, sex education and sexual health information to people of all ages, gender identities, national origins, races and sexual orientations, Planned Parenthood of Michigan (PPMI) now offers gender-affirming hormone therapy [...]
This summer in Michigan, Prides of all kinds are springing up across the state. From Madison Heights to New Buffalo, Pride Source checked in with the organizers of some of the new (or nearly new) [...]
Beverly Hills attorney Amanda Shelton may soon be one step closer to winning her race for Oakland County circuit court judge, well ahead of Election Day. Shelton’s wife, Kay Shelton, has filed a complaint with [...]
Last spring, a bill was introduced in the Michigan State Senate that would ban transgender students from playing on school sports teams that align with their gender identity. Now, with the same goal in mind, [...]
Chances are “magic mushrooms” won’t be available at local pharmacies anytime soon. But if their inclusion in the medical resource WebMD is any indication, the movement to decriminalize what are formally known as entheogenic plants [...]
