Compiled by Sharon Gittleman
• Same-sex couples apply for marriage licenses
Same-sex couples in Michigan lined up Valentine's Day morning at county courthouses in Michigan to apply for marriage licenses seven years after Michigan passed its "Defense of Marriage Act" expressly prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying in Michigan. Feb. 14 was declared a "day of action" in the Freedom to Marry campaign. Same-sex couples from all over the country also participated in response to a national call to action by the Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the United Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. Although the couples were denied licenses, many vowed to return each year to protest the inequality in Michigan and national marriage laws.
• Teens face anti-gay onslaught
A junior high school student and a high school teen in the Tawas school district faced a series of assaults, death threats and offensive graffiti in the place they should feel safest – their own school.
"I have been assaulted, locked in a room at school for 45 minutes, thrown against a wall and received death threats," said Krista Starr, 14.
High School senior Robert Wells, 17 said he's endured death threats and frequent anti-gay obscenities.
Both students felt the schools were not doing enough to help them.
"My dealings with the school board has been disastrous because I'm the fag's mom," said Robert's mom Beverly Brewer.
The Triangle Foundation intervened to assist the youngsters.
"We are adamantly working with the Tawas situation," said Crystal Witt, Triangle's Victim Advocate.
• New hope for AIDS treatment
People with HIV-AIDS had some long-awaited good news in Feb. Dr. John Jovanovich, a senior staff member in the Infectious Diseases Department of Henry Ford Hospital, reported a Roche Laboratories drug called Enfuvirtide offered dramatic results in patients who unsuccessfully tried other antiretroviral therapies.
According to Jovanovich, the five test patients had dramatically reduced amounts of active HIV in their blood and improved immune systems after treatment with the new drug, but the drug isn't for everyone.
"The patient has to fall into certain parameters," said Jovanovich. "Each case would have to be handled individually."
• Students angered at display
A Black History Month display booth honoring African-American gays at the Wayne State University campus Student Center incensed several straight students. The exhibit pointed to Langston Hughes, Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, and James Baldwin as members of the LGBT community.
One opponent described the display as an effort to bring down black people.
"He was in our face screaming," said Natasha Jackson. "I was terrified."
Student Liz Aulette-Root said the exhibit wasn't intended as a political statement.
"Its purpose was to show pride for our LGBT students and to demonstrate the existence of black gay people – that they overcame two social barriers," she said. "The fact is there were black gay people involved in the black struggle. They were all oppressed people."
• Anti-war gays march
LGBT anti-war protesters participated in a downtown Detroit demonstration that drew hundreds of activists.
"We're American citizens and this effort is being done in our name," said Triangle Foundation Executive Director Jeffrey Montgomery. "It's very important for people, gay or otherwise who oppose this action to stand up and say, 'this is not in our name.'"
• Trans woman murdered
Nikki Nicholas, born Anthony Lionell Nicholas, 19, was found dead in an abandoned house in Green Oak Township. Nicholas died from a gunshot wound.
Nicholas' brother said she told relatives she was going to a party just before she disappeared. The victim was missing for six days before her body was found.
Milestones
• The Oak Park City Council appointed Triangle Foundation's Sean Kosofsky to the city's Ethnic Advisory Commission.
• Anne Tracy, 64, who developed a LGBT archival collection at Michigan State University in the 1970s, died of liver cancer.
• Civil rights leader Professor Eugene Feingold, who worked on the anti-gay ballot initiatives in Ypsilanti, Grand Ledge, and Traverse City before his death in 2002, was honored with an exhibit on display at the University of Michigan.
