As the world continues to learn more about coronavirus and its spread, it's vital to stay up-to-date on the latest developments. However, it's also important to make sure that the information being distributed is from credible sources. To that end, Between The Lines has compiled, [...]
Jessie Ware Declares That Yes, Gays, She’s at Your Mercy
Jessie Ware sees all the fan-sent rainbow emojis on her Twitter feed, and “definitely a lot of Spanish writing and I don’t know what they’re saying to me but I love it,” gushes the British [...]
The Chicks’ Natalie Maines Talks Queer Creators Behind Trio’s Comeback LP, LGBTQ Activism & Advice For Lady A
Sitting somewhere with an abstract-art background obscuring her precise location, (Dixie) Chicks frontwoman Natalie Maines erupts into an explosive maybe-I-shouldn’t cackle during our Zoom call as she talks about how she’s about to get in [...]
R&B, Dance Diva Sybil to Perform on July 25 at Hotter Than July Virtual Picnic
R&B and Dance Diva Sybil is set to perform at The Hotter Than July Virtual Picnic on Saturday, July 25. LGBT Detroit organizes the event annually and is the producer of HTJ, which has become [...]
COVID-19 Redraws 2020 LGBTQ Travel Roadmap
By Scott Stiffler When Dorothy returned from Oz and declared, “There’s no place like home,” that tribute to domesticity made sense, coming from a Kansas farm girl recently abducted by flying monkeys and repeatedly threatened [...]
Crazy Sexy Time: ‘Eurovision’ Actor Dan Stevens On How He Out-Gayed Even His Gayest Role
As closeted Russian pop prince Alexander Lemtov, actor Dan Stevens shows up in the Netflix comedy "Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga" bejeweled in rhinestones, with a moppy head of Wham!-era George Michael [...]
Walk a Mile in Her Shoes
Across 1 Gunners shoot it off 5 Terence of _Priscilla_ 10 "There Is Nothing Like a ___" 14 At no time, in poems 15 Moore costar 16 Ready for press 17 _Julius Caesar_ costume 18 [...]
Michigan ‘Hamilton’ Star Sydney James Harcourt Talks Broadway and Loving his Home State
Sydney James Harcourt is a Detroit success story. Many young actors from Michigan move to New York City hoping to make it in theater, with Broadway, of course, being the ultimate goal. But unlike Harcourt, [...]
Criterion Films Celebrate Diversity in All Its Forms
'Paris Is Burning' In "Paris Is Burning," a strut is a defiant act, an exertion of suppressed power. In the mid-to-late 1980s, when the landmark documentary was filmed, these moves couldn’t be showcased just anywhere. [...]
Keiynan Lonsdale Learned to Celebrate His Black Queerness. Then Came the Defiant Music.
Once Keiynan Lonsdale made no apologies for who he is, the music followed suit. The star of the CW’s "The Flash" and 2018’s gay teen comedy "Love, Simon" celebrates his Black queer identity on his [...]
Jason Mraz Talks Protesting, Pride and His Journey to Being Openly Bisexual
The coronavirus pandemic has forced Pride events around the world to go virtual this year. For Jason Mraz, that means he can, for the first time, take part in the annual summer festivities. After all, [...]
Mighty Real/Queer Detroit, Motor City Pride Partner on Virtual Art Exhibits
Mighty Real/Queer Detroit was designed to gather together, for the first time, a grand-scale representation of the range and depth of Detroit LGBTQ art. But plans for the month-long, multi-venue exhibit had to be scrapped [...]
Remembering Lynn
Across 1 Mark Bingham of 9/11 5 "I ___ Kick Out of You" 9 Desperate cry 13 Bird, to Brutus 14 Come together 16 Estimating words 17 Kerry, who plays Mia on 48-/64-Across 19 Animal [...]
‘Pride is the People’: Bob The Drag Queen on Creating Connection During Pride in Era of COVID-19
Maintaining a packed schedule can be tricky for drag queens at the best of times, but for Bob The Drag Queen, even a global pandemic can't keep her down. Despite heading into a [...]
Haaz Sleiman Talks Visibility, His Gay Marvel Kiss, and Why He Wants to Play James Bond
Actor Haaz Sleiman is on a mission to take part in stories that broaden the pool of queer perspectives on the screen. And if you already know his work, you know he’s on a roll. [...]
Q&A: Indigo Girls on Pandemic Life, Trump-Era Inequality & How Pride Can Help Heal Country’s Divisions
The day before I got on a call with Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, famously known as the Indigo Girls, the longtime folk-rock duo and LGBTQ activists were playing a set for fans during a [...]
Music Royalty
Across 1 It requires several G-strings 5 Start of a _South Pacific_ song 9 One who often screws actors 14 Friendly opening 15 Genie portrayer Barbara 16 Cut 17 Ethnic cuisine type 18 Police incursion [...]
Heather Mae, Crys Matthews to Headline Singing OUT Virtual Pride at The Ark
Even at the best of times, Pride festivals are a reprieve from many of the daily struggles faced by the LGBTQ community. There, acceptance is given freely, and if done right, the celebration allows any [...]
Q&A: Tori Amos Talks Bad Days, Memorable Mornings & Wearing Your Big Boy Boots
In her second book, "Resistance: A Songwriter’s Story of Hope, Change, and Courage," flaming piano queen Tori Amos shares her personal stories against a world-in-crisis backdrop and discusses how they’ve shaped songs from her three-decade [...]
Go Comedy! Improv Theater Interviews BTL Entertainment Editor Chris Azzopardi
As part of its LGBTQ True Colors series, the Go Comedy! Improv Theater has over the past several months collaborated with Between The Lines contributors and staff to host a unique improv experience. Because of the [...]
Newly Founded Nicely Theatre Group Prioritizes Inclusivity, to Host its First-Ever Online One-Act Festival
Having participated in southeast Michigan's world of theater as a performer, director and teacher for two decades, it's fair to say that Mitch Master lives and breathes his craft. In fact, it was at a [...]
Q&A: Janelle Monáe Talks ‘Too On the Nose’ Pandemic, LGBTQ Representation & Pride Plans
I really hadn’t planned on telling queer powerhouse singer-actress-activist Janelle Monáe that I made food for my boyfriend the night before I got on Zoom with her. That afternoon, Monáe was feeling it all. This [...]
Kissing Taylor Swift’s Brother
Across 1 Nine inches 5 Lie beside 9 Roddy McDowall's _Planet of the ___ _ 13 Woody Guthrie's son 14 Lesbian magazine Vice ___ 15 Part used in forking around 16 Like a generation, to [...]
They Sold Gay Porn. Now, Their Daughter Tells Their Story.
Gay porn is not what straight, religious-conservative married couple Barry and Karen Mason thought they’d become known for. But for over 35 years, they owned a bookstore that sold videos like “Confessions of a Two [...]
Go Comedy! Improv Theater Interviews BTL Co-Publisher Jan Stevenson
As part of its LGBTQ True Colors series, the Go Comedy! Improv Theater has over the past several months collaborated with Between The Lines contributors and staff to host a unique improv experience. Because of [...]
Nina West Hosts COVID-19-Inspired Broadway Week on ‘DragCast’
"RuPaul’s Drag Race" alum and all-around humanitarian Nina West is hosting a series of online interviews with famous Broadway stars this week via "DragCast with Nina West." Available from dragcast.net or Spotify, this podcast will [...]
Patti LuPone on ‘Hollywood,’ Her Basement Videos & Why ‘Ladies Who Lunch’ Will Never Be the Same
In Ryan Murphy’s "Hollywood," the wife becomes the boss, the “black screenwriter” is simply a screenwriter, and the gay leading man is just himself. Naturally, it stars Broadway icon Patti LuPone, who, in conversations like [...]
Review: ‘Strange Bedfellows’ by Ina Park
As someone living with HIV in their 20s, I find myself constantly intrigued by books on STIs. I’ve read "And the Band Played On" and On Borrowed Time," but there really hasn’t been any larger [...]
If at First You Don’t Succeed
Across 1 Aid's partner 5 Gave a damn? 10 Where a trolley goes "Clang, clang, clang" 14 Singer Vikki 15 Pool shot hitting two balls 16 Enchanted Disney girl 17 Start of a Stephen Sondheim [...]
Jadein Black and Boylesque Drag Present Virtual Drag Shows Weekly and Give Back to the Community
With bars and clubs across the state — and most of the nation — closed due to the COVID-19 crisis, the LGBTQ community’s beloved drag performers and nightclub entertainers are, like so many, out of [...]
Dernaissance
Across 1 Irene of _Fame_ 5 Sound of three men in a tub 10 Bit of salt, for Stephen Pyles 14 Way to come 15 Stars that shoot off 16 Emerald lsle 17 _To ___ [...]
The Boys in the Band
Across 1 Masticate 5 Leathermen ride them 9 Banana treat 14 Jamie who cross-dressed on _M*A*S*H_ 15 Current Amsterdam currency 16 Linney of _Tales of the City_ 17 Early Ron Howard role 18 ___ all-time [...]
Melissa Etheridge Has Chosen Hope for ‘Beautiful Change’ Over Fear in Uncertain Times
Throughout her dynamic three-decade career, Melissa Etheridge has beat cancer and weathered the devastating emotional toll of the AIDS crisis. Having overcome her own battles, the music legend consequently became a beacon of strength, resilience [...]
The Frivolist: 5 Ways to Experience Orlando (Mostly) For Free
1. Stroll around Winter Park on a Sunday Winter Park, a swanky-ish neighborhood a short drive northeast of downtown Orlando, offers a Sunday Funday’s worth of activities that starts with a farmer’s market where you [...]
The Purpose of Homosexuality
Across 1 Chef Des Jardins 6 Shuttlecock 10 Tops cakes 14 Quinn of Practical Magic 15 Personal lubricant ingredient 16 "South Park" cocreator Stone 17 Public spectacle 18 "Boys Don't Cry" character 19 Ask for [...]
Q&A: Sean Hayes on Playing a Woman in Earnest and the Definitive End of ‘Will & Grace’
Under any other conditions, it might seem strange to tell Sean Hayes what I’m wearing. Given that Hayes dons a plush robe to play a do-nothing cisgender woman named Susan O'Connell – hence the movie’s [...]
Q&A: Brandy Clark Talks Being Gay in Country Music, Coming Out and Politics
So, about doing an LGBTQ press interview such as this one: coveted out country music singer-songwriter Brandy Clark is really into it. “This is exciting for me,” she tells me one recent afternoon. To be [...]
Friend of Elmo
Across 1 Peter player on "ER" 5 "Cast Away" escape boat 9 XXX, to the Greeks 13 Cafeteria list 14 160 rods 15 Chase game 16 The last part of "Semper ubi sub ubi," in [...]
Review: ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’
By George Elkind Freely embracing the erotic core of figurative art, Céline Sciamma’s "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" finds Marianne (Noémie Merlant), a working painter, visiting an island estate off the French coast where [...]
Detroit to Showcase its Mighty Real, Queer Art in June
A group of LGBTQ artists are planning a multi-venue art exhibit to run in June throughout Detroit for Pride month. Called Mighty Real/Queer Detroit, it is the brainchild of visual and performance artist Patrick Burton. [...]
Improvetry: The Return
In its second round, Improvetry is an evening event to be held on Saturday, March 7, at Le Crepe in Royal Oak that features live music, food, drinks and, of course, poetry. This event is [...]
David Bowie Alumni Tour in Royal Oak March 20
Having sold millions of records worldwide, written, produced and performed dozens of hits like "Heroes," "Rebel Rebel" and "Starman," it's clear that David Bowie's cultural impact on the world was just as immense as his [...]
Affirmations Hosts Monthly ‘Interrupting Social Media Stereotypes’ Events
LGBTQ community center Affirmations will host its latest public event called Interrupting Social Media Stereotypes, or ISMS, on March 19 from noon to 1 p.m.. A roundtable networking discussion, this group meets every third Thursday [...]
‘Working: A Musical’ at Stagecrafters
Royal Oak's Stagecrafters community theater is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit that provides opportunities for community members to test and develop their theater abilities on stage. This March, the nonprofit will be putting on "Working: A Musical," [...]
The Frivolist: 11 Smart Ways to Use Spare Change at the End of the Month
Some might consider those loose pennies, dimes, nickels and quarters annoying, but money is money. Save it for a month and see what you can do. Here are a few ideas. 1. Treat your [...]
Drag Bingo for Ann Arbor Pride and Alzheimer’s Disease Center
on March 27, bingo and drag lovers are invited to Conor O'Neill's Irish Restaurant in Ann Arbor for a night of performance and prizes. Tickets are going fast, contact cmgi@umich.edu to find out more and [...]
Unified Hosts Event to Quit Smoking March 25
Hosted by Unified - HIV Health and Beyond in Ypsilanti, this event is for current smokers who don't want to quit, don't think they can quit, or are considering quitting at some point. This event [...]
Deep Inside Hollywood
By Romeo San Vicente 'The Book of Ruth' re-opens the book on AIDS Now that the 1980s are officially vintage and the subject of period films, a mini wave of projects about the first decade [...]