While there hasn't been a shortage of music to listen to during the pandemic, there's not been much in the way of new performances. And while it's not safe enough to go back out to [...]
It all started with Rufus Wainwright in his bathrobe. The crooner, at the forefront of virtual pandemic performances in March 2020, performed a song a day at his home piano in the Hollywood Hills during [...]
Without any positive trans role models, Brian Michael Smith grew up in 1980s Michigan thinking a Black transman couldn’t be an actor. He wasn’t seeing himself on TV, or anywhere. But now and then, things [...]
Sitcoms have been classic American TV fare since the 1940s, but it's arguable that they didn't really hit their stride until the '80s and '90s when previously held records for viewership shattered and reached the [...]
LGBT Detroit’s winter Pride celebration, Cold As Hell, is the sister event to Hotter Than July. With the birth of this event in 2020, Cold As Hell advocates for and celebrate queer sexuality, attraction, education [...]
A New Start During Crisis The novel coronavirus pandemic might have wreaked havoc on actor and singer Cory Shorter’s theatrical career this year, but with shows canceled left and right, the time off actually allowed [...]
Whether starting means picking up the pen or sitting down at a laptop, even if one's passionate about a project, writing a novel is no easy feat. And as many writers can relate, spouses Kelly [...]
File this under 2020’s “Content We Lived” category: "Social Distance," Netflix’s anthology series completely conceived, cast and shot in quarantine. Tucked into the show’s eight episodes is “Zero Feet Away,” which follows a gay couple [...]
Dolly Parton’s been everywhere this year, and everywhere she’s gone – virtually, that is – she’s brought good, gay tidings to all. Dolly’s contributions to both science and Christmas amidst our collective existential pandemic [...]
As 2020 comes to an end, it's safe to say that it's been one of the most stressful years on record in recent history. In fact, the American Psychological Association has found that 67% of [...]
Kristen Stewart is waving around what appears to be a joint. Even her "Happiest Season" co-star Mackenzie Davis, who’s seen on Zoom with Stewart, doesn’t quite know exactly what Stewart has lit. “Oh my god,” [...]
With all the classic elements of a televised Christmas show — spirit-possessed eggnog, chainsaws and an all-out battle for creative control — fans can expect that "The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Special" will be making [...]
Few know their way around a funeral scene like master of mortality Alan Ball. The writer-director-producer had his fair share of time to get it just right while his crowning jewel of a series, "Six [...]
Filled with many a guide for revolutionizing one's life, career or relationships, the self-help section is unmistakable in any bookstore. And while many of the books within that category contain valuable life lessons, it can [...]
Lady Ace Boogie has been a fixture in Michigan's hip-hop scene for years now, but for the longtime musician, 2020 has been a year of significant change. In addition to the unprecedented novel coronavirus pandemic [...]
If 2020 embodied a physical vessel, it's not unlikely that it would be a dumpster fire. At least, that's certainly how it's felt for most of the year. But for drag queen Miz Cracker, she's [...]
The light falling on R&B queen Brandy is casting tiny rainbows that dance above her head. She’s looking up at them, telling me what she sees. Little rainbows everywhere. On an ordinary day, sure, this [...]
As a child, Southeast Michigan native Jonathan Peregrino looked out the window a lot wishing he could play with the other children, but his athletically induced asthma kept him home. Still, it was at home [...]
She admits it took several painful years, but gay icon and Latin pop trailblazer Gloria Estefan is now in a "really good place" with her 25-year-old daughter Emily, who is openly queer. After working on [...]
While the operatic stage has been responsible for sharing some of the world's most famous stories, it's still regarded by many to be an artistic medium that is inaccessible to the general public. For years [...]
A lot has happened this year, and that’s aside from Jim Parsons dancing around in a bra. That bit, of course, graced screens across the world thanks to Netflix’s "Hollywood," the "Big Bang Theory" actor [...]
If you want to know how musical chameleon Shamir is right now, expect the 25-year-old to answer much like he approaches making music. In both cases, he doesn’t like to repeat himself. “I’ve done a [...]
Peppermint has a habit of breaking the mold. Both the first out transgender woman cast on "RuPaul's Drag Race" and the first to originate a principal role on Broadway in "Head Over Heels," this versatile [...]
It was 30 years ago when Reba McEntire – music legend, gay icon, the epitome of country glamour – made Bobby Gentry’s “Fancy” her own. A feminist statement about a woman who turns to sex [...]
From The Guardian Building to the GM Renaissance Center, Detroit has its fair share of grand buildings that have made architectural history over the years, but even some of the city's most unassuming structures contain [...]
That scene. You know the one: the one in "Basic Instinct" where Sharon Stone’s legs are open. It’s been talked about and talked about, and talked about some more. It’s been talked about so much [...]
The name Rod Thomas might not be instantly recognizable, but it’s likely you’ve come across the one he uses on stage. As Bright Light Bright Light, Thomas has been a staple of the international LGBTQ [...]
Developing, writing and recording an album is no easy feat, but sometimes, when the environment is just right, one new idea can set off a creative chain reaction — one strong enough to pull a [...]
When the topic of relationships comes around, particularly in film and TV, it's common for the focus to turn romantic. But in writer and director Erin C. Buckley's brand-new web series "Platonic," that tendency is [...]
As Yale psychology professor Paul Bloom puts it, stereotypes are a part of our daily experience. We make split-second decisions not to trust a child to give accurate directions or an elderly person to carry [...]
“Now that I have a massive platform, and now that the people want to listen to the Black sissy, I’m gonna talk,” Billy Porter says, fired up, leaning into the camera. On Zoom, Porter commands [...]
Dallas native, Ash Christian was an Emmy Award-winning producer, actor, filmmaker and LGBTQ activist. He died his sleep on Friday, Aug. 13, 2020, while vacationing in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. He was 35 years old. Christian [...]
Writer-actress Paula Pell knows it’s ridiculous: a dowdy, out-of-touch suburban broad with an accent that is somehow a little British – or Irish, or something – who solves murders in her quaint town. But the [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
'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. [...]
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 [...]
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 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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
