Preschooler Heather is no stranger to opposition. Lesléa Newman’s 1989 “Heather Has Two Mommies,” the first picture book to depict happily coupled same-sex parents and their child, faced opprobrium from conservatives since its publication. Now, [...]
Are straight people OK? And before you answer, just let me say: No. No, they are not. Case in point: I just read an article about how there is a national blood supply shortage and [...]
It’s 2022! Happy New Year, everybody! As we face 2022 there are some hot button questions that I know you’re dying to get answers to: Will COVID-19 ever end? Will U.S. Democracy be trashed like [...]
I discovered a really cool book over the weekend called “Bodies Are Cool” by Tyler Feder. My sister bought a copy for her daughter, who is almost 2. It is one of her favorite books, [...]
These are dark times. The Supreme Court is going to either overturn or completely gut Roe v Wade, making abortion illegal, or at least impossible to get, in states across the country. We’re still in [...]
A lot of people are dead in this country. In two years, more than 800,000 people have died as a result of COVID-19, and yet we still have folks declaring it their God given right [...]
Ho ho ho, it’s the height of the War on Christmas. What have you done to subvert this struggling holiday so that it can finally be replaced by a Winter Pride Festival featuring parade Grand [...]
There are paths that by strange chances on Christmas Eve mix up in time, space, thought, crazy activation... Some fact. Some fantasy. Who knows? So it happened once upon a near but distant whimsical time [...]
When former star of “The Bachelor” and pro football player Colton Underwood came out on a “Good Morning America” interview in April 2021, there was one question interviewer Robin Roberts didn’t ask: What’s your type? [...]
I never met Stephen Sondheim or had an endearing correspondence with him. Apparently, there are a lot of people who have framed letters from him, or a tantalizing story about a chance encounter. Neither of [...]
After writing for Between The Lines and Pride Source for the past 22 years, I’ve lost track of exactly how many Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) vigils I’ve attended. This year was the 20th year [...]
Do you have the devil in you? If not, then what are you waiting for? ’Tis the Season, after all. Flu shot season, that is. And COVID-19 vaccination booster season. And if saving your own [...]
About a dozen days ago tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow — at my age how can I be sure? — I was gifted with a pair of John Lennon enchantment glasses. Gold rimmed. Sunset [...]
Taking a look at what’s going on in U.S. public schools and I have to say, things aren’t great! From parents harassing and threatening school personnel with physical violence for daring to make their kids [...]
We are organizations across the State of Michigan that serve members of the LGBTQ+ community and we write this statement in opposition to the so-called “Secure Michigan Vote” petition drive. We believe that such initiative, [...]
"Two Bloody Marys" is what Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel consumed at the MSU-UM men's football game on Oct. 30, according to a statement she released on Nov. 10 via Facebook. Michiganders were quick to [...]
Those who forget history, or who willfully ignore it, are doomed to repeat it, which is why it should worry you that the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capital has been dismissed by Republicans [...]
I started writing my Parting Glances columns in 1990 or thereabouts. The premise was simple enough. Choose an important LGB — and occasionally T — historical event that actually changed things for us, or challenged [...]
Twitter owes U.S. Rep. Jim Banks (R-Indiana) a big apology. They canceled him! Just because he used the site to do something that directly violated their terms of service — the very terms he agreed [...]
Hair is political. The rules about hair in the United States are, well, hairy. A lot of it goes back to the Bible, which has lots of wild opinions about hair. In Leviticus, it states [...]
As the Allies began to beat the Axis in World War II, a mood of cautious celebration took hold in Detroit’s gay bar clubs. Downtown side streets Farmer and Bates, home to Rio Grande, Silver [...]
Dear Readers, I am not filth. And neither are you. This isn’t something that I should have to declare. But readers of this column know that there are people who don’t think LGBTQ+ people are [...]
It's the end of an era. A very harmful and stupid era. Pat Robertson is stepping down from "The 700 Club." Robertson, the founder of the Christian Broadcast Network, has been the star of this [...]
Monday, Oct. 11 offers three choices: LGBTQ+ celebration, Native American reconsideration, and some conflict of interest to Chris Columbus 1492 believers. As everyone knows, this date marks National Coming Out Day (and the Pride Source [...]
U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) is not going to save us. I know it's all the rage to point to her as the one reasonably sane Republican in a sea of seditious liars, but it's [...]
The question on everybody’s mind right now is whether Texas is terrible enough. They’ve got a broken electrical grid, a reprehensible abortion ban that sets bounty hunters loose to enforce the law, newly passed voter [...]
“To hold that piece of paper brought tears to my eyes.” That is how my friend and former ACLU of Michigan colleague Amy Hunter says it felt to finally obtain a birth certificate showing her [...]
Tuesday, September 7, marked the observance of Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the Jewish New Year, 5782. Shanah Tovah! (Good Year!). Kenahorah! (Keep the evil eye away!) Last year, Jewish New Years, 5702, was [...]
If you spent this past weekend on a beach harassing teenagers for wearing "pornographic" bathing suits, it's totally okay as long as God told you to do it. Or at least that's the reason Area Man [...]
Do you remember that scene in "Pee-wee’s Big Adventure" when Pee-wee Herman and Francis, in an argument about Pee-wee’s bike, end up insulting each other and then shouting, “I know you are, but what am [...]
I’ve been wrestling with one painting ever since selecting works for a new exhibition at the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) back in September 2019. The show, called “Oh, honey…,” isn’t about “queer [...]
There are two things I need to say right up front. One, getting a COVID-19 vaccine is a safe and effective way to prevent yourself and others from getting really sick and possibly dying. Two, [...]
It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for! The Pfizer vaccine has been officially FDA approved. Finally, those completely reasonable and rational people who’ve been refusing to get the shot until it was upgraded from [...]
A recent Michigan Court of Appeals decision in People v. Rogers points the way to civil rights protections for Michigan’s LGBTQ+ community. In July 2018, Kimora Steuball, a transgender woman, had a terrifying encounter with [...]
Have you ever driven or walked across a bridge? Have you ever turned on your faucet and received water that you could reasonably expect was safe to drink and/or to bathe in? Have you ever [...]
“Your fine's been paid! Alexander. Ease up! Go back and get on the bus to the city limits." "This time, stay out of trouble!” I was 23 when I heard that bit of last-minute redemption, [...]
What an incredibly stupid time to be alive. Every day Republicans and their network, Fox, are telling people NOT to get vaccinated. That COVID-19 is either a hoax or just not a big deal. That [...]
I just returned from a cross-country trek with my wife and son and I am happy to report that in much of the country, COVID-19 is over and only freaky liberals wear masks. Fun! Seriously, [...]
Growing up, I followed in my mother’s footsteps. Like many single Black women raising a child, she represented diligence and poise. I performed femininity out of example, an obligation of what I knew womanhood to [...]
When I was about 22 or 23 years old, I had what one might call a confidential confrontation. A professor of English said to me bluntly, “I’ve been told you are or may be a [...]
The Michigan Bureau of Elections recently released a report blocking Fair and Equal Michigan from moving forward on its first-ever LGBTQ rights bill, despite acknowledging at least six errors in its review of citizen signatures. [...]
This may come as a surprise to many of you, but there is a lot of porn on the internet. More porn than right-wing evangelical sites trying to sell you buckets of survivalist food or [...]
Somewhere over the rainbow in the fabled Land of OZ there were rumors circulating like chatterbox whirlwinds that the latest, newly appointed Wizard of OZ is transgender. It wasn’t a sure thing who was responsible [...]
Y’all, people are being very mean to Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) on the internet. Again. I mean, what does this guy have to do to get some respect around here? On July 14, Graham [...]
This year’s Pride Month was also the second year of my stay as a senior at Henry Ford Village (HFV) in Dearborn. The HFV “campus,” as it’s called (although it has nothing to do with [...]
“Pride month is over,” Christian evangelist Franklin Graham declared on Facebook. You hear that, everybody? Those rainbow flags should all be taken down and boxed up in the basement next to that giant, light-up, inflatable [...]
Congratulations to Gavin Grimm. If you don’t know that name, you should, especially if you give a damn about transgender rights and the attack on trans kids in this country. Grimm sued his Virginia school [...]
I’ve gone from grocery store to grocery store buying up every box of the Kellogg’s Together With Pride cereal and I have them all listed on eBay. I’m kidding, I did not do that. Although [...]
Onslaught is the name of a thrash metal band from the U.K. Rainbow is the name of a hard rock band once fronted by metal legend Ronnie James Dio. Rainbow Onslaught is, sadly, not a [...]
On June 11, I realized a dream come true 33 years in the making when I got to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Detroit Tigers game, part of the celebration of LGBTQ [...]
