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 [...]
Aside from women daring to make their own reproductive decisions, there’s nothing right-wing conservatives hate more than Pride Month. The “rainbow deluge” the Family Research Council’s professional hate monger Tony Perkins calls it. Honestly, Rainbow [...]
I remember it like it was yesterday: Trump supporters flying flags that said, “Fuck your feelings," wearing “Suck it up, Buttercup” T-shirts and making fun of safe spaces. Now, these same people are demanding that [...]
When I was a kid in the '80s I saw an episode of the "Twilight Zone" called "To See the Invisible Man.” In a future society, people get a mark on their foreheads, kind of [...]
Tennessee is on an anti-LGBTQ+ roll, y’all. You may remember that I wrote about how gay country music star T.J. Osborne was supposed to get honored by the state legislature via a resolution. But a [...]
Consult any daily horoscope worth its intrinsic wait in days, hours, star signs, planet probabilities and second guesses, and you’ll come to the probable (or, improbable) planetary conclusion that everything is indeed a matter of [...]
You know how they say there’s no such thing as bad publicity? And also how they say don’t feed the trolls? Well, in a convergence of the two I have discovered The Brothers Osborne, a [...]
I’ve posted quite a bit about trans kids, but I haven’t talked about their parents. Republicans are characterizing parents like me as dangerous, reckless, abusive and, in some cases, worthy of incarceration. Since they’ve spent [...]
Congratulations, everyone! We did it! Anti-LGBTQ+ bias is over and done now that Caitlyn Jenner is running to be California’s next governor! If we’ve learned anything from these past four years, it’s that putting a [...]
Whenever I want to bum myself out, I do a Google news search for “Florida.” Because if terrible things are happening in the country, I can always count on Florida to kick the awfulness up [...]
Greetings from a pandemic that is still ongoing and getting worse in places. Here is a public service announcement: you don’t need to be eating inside of restaurants right now even if your state says [...]
To create the right kind of atmosphere in order to write this I have all the lights off and am using a black background instead of a white one on my computer. I’m also burning [...]
I celebrated the return of Spring three weeks ago by helping to fulfill a 135-year-old request by America’s beloved poet, Emily Dickinson (1830-1886). That recent memorable day in March was occasioned by what poet Emily [...]
Arkansas is auditioning hard to become America’s biggest nightmare state. There is a lot of creepy stuff afoot right now. Across the country, Republicans are passing anti-voting legislation because they know they can’t win on [...]
If it feels like Lil Nas X releases a new video for “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)” every day, it is because the Twitterverse and Lil Nas himself haven’t had a moment’s pause since [...]
Michigan Republican Sen. Lana Theis recently introduced Senate Bill 218 that will discriminate against and prevent transgender youth from playing school sports consistent with their gender identity. Last week, several Ozone House staff and community [...]
It’s been one hell of a week. First, the good news. Vaccine distribution is going great! Hooray! Go get stabbed when it’s your turn! I can’t wait! So many exclamation marks!!! Then the bad news. [...]
Stonewall! Stonewall! STONEWALL! Say it loud. Say it proud. It’s without doubt to our LGBTQ+ conviction and consensus — and that of the so-called heterosexual community — the single most important event leading to our [...]
They are at it again. After years of focusing on restrooms and locker rooms as an entry point for excluding trans people from public life, opponents of LGBTQ+ equality lately have shifted strategy to focus [...]
