Pain indeed. I was 23 and into my fourth year of a rewarding affair when I was dumped by my partner Ernie for a soldier on leave named Joe (Ernie and I were working at Discount Records in downtown Detroit and Joe was a hunky customer).
I keep on my laptop desk a corner of chalky red brick. It's all that's left of Cassboro Apartments, 444 Peterboro, Detroit. I found this memento among broken boards, shattered glass of the recently razed, [...]
To diddle an old saying: You can't judge a gay author or his book by its — or by his — cover. Case in point: the groundbreaking 1951 sociological expose, "The Homosexual in America." Gay nom de plume: Donald Webster Cory — a pen name name gleaned from Andre Gide's 1924 gay novel "Corydon," later published in America in 1950. Real name: Edward Sagarin. Outed dramatically 24 closeted years later.
Detroit's imposing, massive, block-wide Masonic Temple was built in 1922 — cornerstone-dated 5022 — following the Hebraic custom of noting esoteric history. At one time in the 1960s every major dance company in the world, classical musician, orchestra and performer appeared there; many brought to the city by famed impresario Sol Hurok.
June 28, 2025 [Editor’s Note: Translated Cursive English] Dear Diary: Another same-sex couple has been “relocated” – my neighbors two doors down, the boys who did a wonderful job of gentrifying that old house on Wells Street.
“Animals can also zero in on clues that we provide without knowing it.” One supposes it’s called, Straydar. The Grim Reaper in the guise of a mild-mannered tabby named Oscar is making news lately. A [...]
There’s a scene in the popular musical “Cabaret” where several German, blond, Aryan youths seated at an outdoor cafe, prompted by Nazi zeal and bombastic music, leap up one by one, and contagiously sing, “Tomorrow the world belongs to us!”
“Gay is good. You are not alone.” This was the slogan when the Affirmations LGBT Center opened its doors in Ferndale more than 20 years ago. It was a bold statement to make at the time: reassurance for many cautious, confused, isolated young people in need of understanding, trained organizational support and a place to hang out.
some with caution some with confidence some seeking rainbow courage (now!) all join hands and promenade: black, white yellow, red stripes and stars unfolding our marching drums our music, yes play it proud (so out [...]
Long, long before The Village People made "Y.M.C.A." the unofficial, persistent national anthem of Winter Olympian skater Brian Boitano, the Young Mens Christian Associations played an important role, second only to bars, as places to meet available others of like-minded, body-mind-and-spirit, triune persuasions (“You show me your triune, I’ll show you my try-unity. Let’s shower in unison. One with the others”).
FRIDAY (a.m.) I ride backpack on Sister Scatterpin's Heavenly Harley, the two of us heading to Chicago for Gay Games VII. Sister keeps to an ecumenical 85 mph on I-94, with a meditational rosary pullover [...]
I had a tarot reading last Sunday by a psychic friend of Sr. Serena Scatterpin. “She’s a marvel and a looker,” was Sister’s intro. “If just a tad off her ever-lovin’ spiritual rocker.” Glad that [...]
No matter the time or the weather, there’s something emotionally tingling about the cellphone vibrations whenever Sr. Serena Scatterpin, Renegade Sisters of Mary, rings me up.
“It’s a pity that youth is wasted on the young,” said George Bernard Shaw, whose play “Pygmalion” was given a fresh start, with an ongoing heart pacer as Broadway's “My Fair Lady.”
It’s been 65 years since I last saw the young man who now sits across from me. He has at age 19 what a friend calls “the lyric poetry of youth:” a freshness of look that’s a joy to see.
The mind-boggling possibility of recording dreams may soon be a reality predicts "How It’s Made," a British monthly science magazine. The nanotechnology/brain scanning techniques are now such that translating neural impulses from brain neurons and [...]
At 19, I went to my first gay bar, The Silver Slipper, a dyke bar on Grand River, near downtown Detroit. I used borrowed ID, was escorted authoritatively by two lesbian regulars, Speedy and Draino.
This week’s issue of Between The Lines marks the kickoff of our celebration of 25 years of our dedicated, meaningful, challenging, rainbow-community outreach publication. Whew! Who would have thought it possible? (Did you?)
For five dynamic years — 1940 to 1945 — Detroit was America's Arsenal of Democracy, a vital source of war materials and weapons. First, for England's defense, later, for our own.
In 1987 some 165,000 people pledged $1,000 to Muskegon-born Jim Bakker’s Heritage USA, a Bible-themed vacation and so-called recreation village. For their ready cash, each attendee was promised a four-day stay and a [...]
After five years of faithful, heavy-duty service the battery in my expensive gift Shinola wrist watch expired. I should have known it was going to happen, because, for the past several weeks, its second hand hesitated, stopping completely for milli-seconds, before lunging forward by five-minute notches at a time. In spite of this, its time was impeccably accurate, so I ignored the warning signal.
My out-of-body guide, Archangel Diva Deluxe tapped me three times with her magical wand of LGBTQ truth and saving grace circumstance on my D&G-designed choir robe. It was coupled with my leased-for-10-minutes, no-charge angel wings. [...]
It’s 12:01 a.m. according to my now celestial iPhone. I have been just 60 seconds in Heaven — the result of a Michigan Republican-sponsored pothole tripping mishap, courtesy of Gov. Snyder — but it seems like an eternity to me.
MODEST DISCLAIMER: There are several books about afterlife experiences on the New York Times Best Seller list, including one by a 5-year-old kid (with a little grammar and spelling help from his word-savvy dad). Another [...]
Once upon an evil time, when darkness began to gather, hate by political hate, at rainbow’s near end of tunnel, those anointed LGBT and Q by special life’s enchantment and DNA calling, began once more to tremble.
For over 50 years, Life magazine informed Americans about current events both in the U.S. and abroad. Photos and content were dramatic — mostly conservative, occasionally controversial and, sometimes, downright shocking.
Well-known Spanish philosopher Jorge Agustin Nicolas Ruiz de Santayana y Borras — known succinctly in English as George Santayana — was born in 1863 and died in 1952. He was gay — lived through the [...]
In 1953, a madam by the name of Polly Adler wrote a tell-all best seller about her 30 years in the brothel business, "A House is Not a Home." It created a sensation (I was [...]
Charles Alexander Were I 50 years younger, and given a now wishful-thinking opportunity, I just might make a pass at Justin Bieber, troublesome idol turned born-again celebrity entertainer. What has captured my foolish, [...]
Charles Alexander This is the story of Dorian Lavender who has vanished from the party scene of music, stimulants, sex and is now ironically beyond the saving grace of suddenly-discarded friends of which [...]
Charles Alexander Mart Crowley's "Boys In the Band" opened off-Broadway 50 years ago. I bought a copy of the play in Chicago in 1968 and read dialog aloud while driving back to Detroit [...]
Charles Alexander Contrary to rumors circulating for years in Story Bookland Weekly Tabloid there never was any real friction between Dorothy, Cowardly Lion, Tin Woodsman and Scarecrow.(And those horrid pictures of an aging [...]
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 [...]
As a gay teenager I hung out at the Hub Grill in downtown Detroit, a greasy spoon of a place, located at Farmer and Bates Streets, in convenient walking distance of four quite popular gay [...]
There were two newspaper stands in once-busy downtown Detroit in the 1960s. One was situated at Grand Circus Park. The other at Campus Martius, across the street from the still-standing 1877 Soldiers and Sailors Monument. [...]
Fifty years ago Detroit's Washington Boulevard was a busy setting for exclusive shops, upscale restaurants, elegant bistros stretching sedately from Grand Circus Park's popular Statler Hotel to Michigan Avenue's prestigious Sheraton Cadillac. Both hotel bars [...]
For five dynamic years -- 1940 to 1945 -- Detroit was America's Arsenal of Democracy, a vital source of war materials and weapons. First for England's defense. Later, for our own. Automotive factories focused on [...]
Detroit's imposing, massive, block-wide Masonic Temple was built in 1922, or, cornerstone dated 5022, following the Hebraic custom of noting the inception of ritual religious history. The impressive venue is once more hosting youth-oriented music [...]
At 19, I went to my first gay bar on Halloween: the Silver Slipper, a dyke bar on Grand River, near downtown Detroit. I used borrowed ID, was escorted authoritatively by two stone butch regulars, [...]
Detroit's ancient, seven-story Cass Technical High School was replaced with a new $127 million structure five years ago; and an era of excellence in education and art -- 21st Century post modern -- began. The [...]
BY JON HOADLEY This month, people across Michigan celebrated National Coming Out Day and Spirit Day. When Robert Eichberg and Jean O'Leary started the first National Coming Out Day, it was built around the premise [...]
"I'm burning my candle at both ends. It will not last the night. But, oh, my foes, and, ah, my friends. It gives a lovely light!" These words are by poet Edna St. Vincent Millay [...]
I was in the Sunday habit, a few years back, of taking a suburban bus to Birmingham. Riding with me were regulars, most of whom were off to church, or gave that halo'd impression by [...]
Like people, words can be outed. Take the noun "testimony" for example. It's closet meaning goes back to biblical times, and the quaint family values custom of holding and swearing an oath on the balls [...]
FORM REQUEST: We, the undersigned, do hereby petition the Michigan State House of Representatives and Senate to confer Honorary Second Class Citizenship on [insert name], who tirelessly works to deny the civil rights of LGBT [...]
I've been out of the LGBT lovebird loop-the-loop for so long that it rarely occurs to me that dating can be hazardous to ones mental and physical well being, and can occasionally require subterfuge, quick [...]
I've no firsthand knowledge of the profession, but I imagine being a porn star isn't everything it's cracked up to be. Not by a long shot. But! somebody's got to do it. (I've got a [...]
I recall a New Yorker cartoon that appeared years ago. Picture if you will: two or three animals are gathered in a sunlit forest. A cute rabbit looks up to a chirpy bird and asks, [...]
On the eve of his 58th birthday, just hours after telephone chatting farewell with his wife Primrose, Dr. Harold Shipman, Britain's most prolific serial killer, cheated the hangman's noose by committing suicide with bed sheets [...]
Somewhere pressed in my book of tattered memories is a green carnation, still remarkably fresh with the passage of so much time. It's there with a wrist corsage I hadn't the courage to wear [...]
