by Philip Van Slooten LGBTQ activists in Virginia and across the country continue to celebrate the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in the state’s General Assembly. Vee Lamneck, executive director of Equality Virginia, told [...]
The start of the new year means the start of state legislative sessions around the country — and the annual emergence of anti-LGBTQ legislation is right on cue. Just two weeks into 2020, a slew [...]
New Campaign A citizen-led campaign is underway that seeks to initiate legislation that would expand the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act and ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression across Michigan. Twenty-one states already [...]
A National Epidemic Claiming the lives of nearly 50,000 Americans annually, calling suicide an epidemic is by no means a stretch, and it's certainly not a silent issue. Even for those people who haven't been [...]
Political observers gave U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren high marks in Tuesday night’s debate — the last debate before the first voting that will happen before the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses. She adeptly deflected a question [...]
The first-ever Pride of the Americas is a chance to hit the beach and join hundreds of thousands of individuals in bringing global attention to the inequalities LGBTQ communities faced in Latin America and the [...]
A three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 10 unanimously upheld a national injunction to stop the U.S. Air Force from discharging service members just because they have HIV infection. [...]
Clerks in Tennessee have been operating under the assumption — one widely held by just about every legal authority — that they’re bound by the U.S. Supreme Court to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples, [...]
A petition campaign is underway that seeks to create legislation that would expand the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act and ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity across Michigan. Created by a group called [...]
LANSING— On Tuesday a Michigan Court of Appeals panel ruled 2-1 that Michigan's state law criminalizing ethnic intimidation does not protect transgender people. It currently criminalizes "race, color, religion, gender or national origin." The case in [...]
For many in the LGBTQ community, the words "religion" and "progress" are seldom considered synonymous. Still, it's vital not to downplay the value of those pro-LGBTQ religious activists who have led the charge in both [...]
Rev. Ric Beattie Pastor and Spiritual Leader Unity of Royal Oak How are religious exemptions being used to harm the greater LGBTQ community? Religious exemptions allow people to hide behind their prejudices and preconceived notions [...]
Effective sexual violence prevention is a community effort — that's what researchers concluded in a recent statewide report. In October of 2019 the Center for Healthy Communities at the Michigan Public Health Institute developed the [...]
A transgender man who challenged his Virginia school district’s bathroom policy has been elected to the American Civil Liberties Union’s board of directors. Gavin Grimm on Jan. 3 in a tweet said he has been elected to [...]
Last week the United Methodist Church made headlines when it revealed a proposal by church leaders to split the church over the issue of LGBTQ clergy and same-sex weddings. At a contentious church general conference [...]
EAST LANSING – Michigan State University College of Music’s annual "Jazz: Spirituals, Prayer and Protest" concert celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be performed twice on Sunday, January 19th at 3 [...]
A Grandmother to Many As the founder of the former transgender advocacy group Crossroads, Grace Bacon is considered the grandmother of the transgender community in Michigan by many. Some know that Bacon spent her career [...]
The United Methodist Church, which has struggled for years with LGBTQ acceptance, has announced a plan for a split in which parishes that oppose same-sex marriage will leave the denomination, but pave the way for LGBTQ inclusion [...]
The first lesbian elected mayor of the Colombian capital of Bogotá took office on Wednesday. Claudia López, a former Colombian senator, on Oct. 27 was elected with slightly more than 35 percent of the vote. López, who [...]
On Monday, Dec. 30, Mark David Latunski, 50, of the Morrice area was charged formally with the murder and mutilation of 25-year-old Swartz Creek resident Kevin Bacon. He was arraigned in 66th District Court on [...]
The U.S. has recalled its ambassador to Zambia after the country’s president sharply criticized him for publicly defending a gay couple sentenced to 15 years in prison under a colonial-era sodomy law. Reuters on Dec. [...]
Profound Sadness When Father Scott Nolan called Sara Smolenski on Nov. 23, the chief judge of Michigan’s 63rd District Court thought perhaps he was reaching out because she hadn’t attended services at St. Stephen Church [...]
Cases the Supreme Court has recently agreed to take up on the right for religious non-profits to hire and fire employees consistent with their faith could have major implications for LGBTQ workers at those institutions, [...]
The new head of the National Center for Lesbian Rights will be a Chicago-based activist who has served as a voice in the LGBTQ movement for black women, the organization announced Tuesday. Imani Rupert-Gordon, who [...]
Just before adjourning for the holidays, the U.S. Senate confirmed Robert Gilchrist as the next the U.S. ambassador to Lithuania, making him at least the fifth openly gay person to serve in an ambassadorial role [...]
Investment Partnership On Dec. 12, the Oakland County Board of Commissioners approved a budget amendment that grants $500,000 to Planned Parenthood in the absence of Title X funding. Planned Parenthood of Michigan had been forced [...]
One might argue that 2019 was a pretty good year for LGBTQ people. An openly gay man rose to the top tier of a large field of Democratic presidential candidates. A second openly LGBTQ person [...]
Whether driving, traveling out of the country or simply purchasing a drink, proper identification is a requirement in the United States that impacts many aspects of life. However, for the transgender community, once transitioning it's [...]
As 2019 winds to a close and the 2020 presidential election draws closer, many Americans will be shifting their focus to all things political. Within the LGBTQ community candidates who have pro-equality stances will be front and center for consideration. And while that is a regular trend for every election cycle, it's worth noting that the current administration's rollbacks in LGBTQ equality are unrivaled for a president who ran as an ally.
Not Out Publicly “I’m an elected official who happens to be gay; I’m not a gay person who happens to be an elected official,” said a city councilmember in Macomb County who was eager to [...]
Fulfilling a Need Detroit, Ann Arbor and Ferndale have long-held Pride festivals. Marquette, Grosse Pointe and Ypsilanti celebrate the LGBTQ community each summer, too. And for the first time this June, Royal Oak and Cadillac [...]
Bravo, Eastpointe In what may be a first for Macomb County, the city of Eastpointe adopted a Pride Month resolution this June. Cardi DeMonaco recalled how he responded to fellow city councilmember Ron LaForest’s suggestion [...]
Motor City Pride may be the oldest, largest and best-known Pride festival in the state, but celebrations in other Michigan cities have become well-loved, annual mainstays, too. And over the past several years, the LGBTQ [...]
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called for a ban on so-called conversion therapy in his country. Trudeau in a letter he sent to Attorney General David Lametti on Dec. 13 directed him to work with Diversity, [...]
On July 18, a majority of the Oakland County Commission voted in favor of a resolution to ban conversion therapy in Michigan. Specifically, the resolution supports Senate Bill 284, introduced by Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal [...]
As temperatures start to dip closer to zero this winter, adequately bundling up changes from a matter of comfort into a matter of life and death. And for those who are homeless, staying warm is [...]
A Legislative Dead End Discredited by every mainstream mental health and medical organization in the nation, so-called conversion therapy has long been condemned as not only ineffective but harmful. There is little point in engaging [...]
Conversion Therapy = Junk Science “I think absolutely conversion therapy should be regarded as consumer fraud,” said Erin Knott, executive director of Equality Michigan. “Medical professionals all across the United States have highlighted that this [...]
The Affirmations Board of Directors, with new interim president Cheryl Czach helming her first regular meeting Dec. 4, passed a proposed 2020 center budget. The budget, drafted by Executive Director Dave Garcia, showed an operating [...]
The new Holland city council is likely to soon discuss new ordinance language that would protect LGBTQ residents from discrimination, and this time around there is a greater chance it will pass.
Its effects felt by millions around the world, in the U.S. alone it's reported by the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network that over 400,000 people aged 12 and older become victims to rape and sexual assault annually.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told an audience of mostly legislative aides to members of Congress at a Dec. 5 congressional briefing on Capitol Hill that scientific [...]
Newly introduced legislation in the U.S. House backed by the Mormon Church seeks to strike a middle ground on LGBT rights and religious freedom in federal civil rights law, although major proponents of each refuse [...]
The U.S. ambassador to Zambia has sharply criticized the sentencing of two men to 15 years in prison under the country’s colonial-era sodomy law. “I was personally horrified to read yesterday about the sentencing of [...]
The Atlanta-based Names Project Foundation, which has served as the custodian of the massive AIDS Memorial Quilt since 1987, is turning over that task to the San Francisco-based National AIDS Memorial, officials with both organizations [...]
At any age, it's true that preventative care is the key to identifying and treating a myriad of diseases and medical conditions early. But when it comes to the LGBTQ community, it's not always as [...]
'I'm spiritual, but I'm not religious.' It's a common statement and something that many people have likely heard in casual conversation. But it's more than just idle water-cooler chit chat. According to Pew Research Center, [...]
Some believe you can’t go home again because if you try to return to a place you remember from the past it won't be the same as it once was. That might be true, but [...]
The Detroit Lions football team is hosting a Pride Package event at its home game on Sunday, Dec. 15, against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Lions first held a Pride night back in 2015, in conjunction with the Detroit LGBT Chamber of Commerce, when former Lions player and ally DeAndre Levy donated 100 tickets to LGBTQ youth non-profits. But there hasn’t been a Lions Pride event since.
The 47th annual Noel Night is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 7, with over 110 participating venues, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Michigan Science Center, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, [...]
