She/he said
"I don't understand why you want to know [if I'm gay]. I don't understand why it's any of your business. At some point, [the question] becomes just really rude, you know? … I've gotten to a point where I feel it's invasive. Forget it. What I do in my private life is nobody's business anymore, period. … I'm not spending my time with this anymore. This is a waste of my time."
– "American Idol" star Clay Aiken to Diane Sawyer on TV's "Good Morning America"
"My trainer married her girlfriend last weekend and we went. It was beautiful. I was so touched by their vows to each other, I totally cried. They have some disapproving family members who actually decided to be present for the wedding. Afterwards, I wondered, Did they get it? Did they see the love? I never get people that think [being gay] is some kind of choice. You might be able to suppress it, but why would you live life that way? It really saddens me."
– Singer Christina Aguilera to Advocate.com.
Transitions
Former Congressman Gerry Studds died at 69. He was the first openly gay member of Congress. For 24 years, until he retired in 1997, he represented a district that included Provincetown on Cape Cod. When same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts, among those who tied the knot were former Rep. Gerry Studds and Dean Hara. But getting married didn't protect them under federal law: Hara has learned he is not eligible for any portion of Studds' estimated annual $114,337 pension following his partner's death.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20649
Derek Smiertka is named new Michigan Equality Executive Director. He is co-founder of the lobbying firm Advocacy Specialists, and has been on the board of Midwest AIDS Prevention Project for five years.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20640
The after-work networking group "Ties Like Me" celebrated their one-year anniversary Oct. 18 at Via Nove in Ferndale. The group was founded by Reid Beyerlein and Robert Lalicki.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20556
Melissa Etheridge and her partner, Tammy Lynn Michaels, became new parents of twins. Michaels gave birth to a boy and girl Tuesday: son Miller Steven and daughter Johnnie Rose.
Etheridge has two children from her relationship with former partner Julie Cypher: daughter Bailey Jean and son Beckett. Cypher had the children through artificial insemination using a sperm donation from rock legend David Crosby.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20726
Michigan Highlights
ÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩÔøΩNational Coming Out Day Oct. 11
Generational gaps alter coming out experiences
BTL explored the intriguing coming out experiences of three people from different generations and backgrounds; a 70 year-old gay Detroiter who said that in the 1950s ieverything was hidden and everybody lived a double life," a 19 year-old gay man living with his mother in Westland (who does not know her son is gay), and a 27 year-old bisexual woman in Ann Arbor whose mother is also bisexual.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20472
HRC dinner small but enthused
Martin Contreras and Keith Orr, co-owners of the aut Bar and Common Language in Ann Arbor, received the HRC Equality Award Oct. 23 at the 17th annual Human Rights Campaign Michigan Dinner at the Royal Park Hotel in Rochester. U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow gave the keynote address to the black tie crowd of a little under 200 people.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20738
Students protest dismissal of gay guard
After learning that Marian High School Campus Safety Officer Charlene Genther was fired because she publicly came out as a lesbian, nearly 600 supporters protested her dismissal on a popular school networking Web site.
"She needs to know how much people care about her and that she's going to be missed. She went out of her way to make sure people were smiling and having a good day," said Stephanie MacDonald, who began the open forum on Facebook's Web site and graduated in 2003 from the Catholic school in Bloomfield Township.
Genther of Royal Oak worked at Marian since 2001. Sister Lenore Pochelski, the school's president, terminated Genther because she came out publicly and her "lifestyle doesn't coincide with the teachings of the Catholic Church," Genther said.
http:// https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20737
LGBT film festival depicts what Hollywood won't
The fifth-annual Reel Pride LGBT Film Festival Oct. 13-20 at Main Art Theatre, Royal Oak, featured more than 40 LGBT-themed movies. Nearly 5,000 people attended the week-long event which included many films available only at this type of festival, including iSaving Marriagei by filmmaker Mike Roth.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20551
Marygrove hosts "Between Sistahs" Conference on HIV/AIDS
The Between Sistahs conference on Black women facing the challenges of HIV/AIDS Oct. 7 at Marygrove College was sponsored by AIDS Partnership Michigan, and YWCA Interim House.
The keynote address was delivered by, Linda Villarosa, a self identified lesbian and freelance writer, Essence Magazine editor-at-large, and contributing writer to the New York Times.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20642
Black employees accuse Affirmations of racism
Protestors picketed outside Affirmations Lesbian and Gay Community Center in Ferndale and at a fundraising event after two of the center's employees said racism played a part in their departure.
Kimya Ayodele, who served as the center's community outreach coordinator for two years, said that she was fired on Oct. 2 after giving notice the week before. Upon Ayodele's departure, the center's community engagement coordinator Vanessa Marr resigned in protest.
{URL https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20550}
Activist writes for children
Move over Louis Carroll, and make way for Michelle Brown. The longtime and well-respected community activist has added a new line item to her resume with the release of her children's story, "Jack with the Curly Tail: A Home For Jack – Episode One."
Shocked? Well, you're not alone.
"Even I was surprised," said Brown. "It's like, 'I'm writing a children's book?' But I did."
What can one expect from the sequel?
"I already see a little transgendered poodle," Brown said.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20625
National highlights
Mass. court rules that RI couples can marry
A trial court in Boston ruled Sept. 29 that there is nothing in the law of Rhode Island to justify having Massachusetts refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples from the neighboring state. The development is a dramatic step forward for equal marriage rights for gays because it means gay couples in two states are now able to obtain marriage licenses.
Meanwhile, Rhode Island's Democratic attorney general Patrick Lynch told reporters that it would be up to the legislature or the courts to determine whether marriage licenses obtained by same-sex couples in Massachusetts would be recognized by the government of Rhode Island. The Rhode Island legislature is adjourned until January.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20478
Foley says he was molested by priest
The Archdiocese of Miami said it has barred the Rev. Anthony Mercieca from all church work as it investigates a claim by former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley that the clergyman abused him as a teenager.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20726
Author outs father
All the signs alluded to a secret Alison Bechdel's father hid. But to this day the author of the long-running comic strip "Dykes To Watch Out For" will never know her dad's actual sexual orientation.
"I'd like to think of him as gay," said Bechdel, 46. "I don't really know."
A year after Bechdel's father, Bruce, died – when she was 20 – she perused old family photographs and found one of a young man in his underwear. It wasn't her father; it was one of his students.
"He had affairs with other men and boys," Bechdel revealed.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20470
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20470
'Real World' housemate fights back
Gay housemate Tyler Duckworth was known for his signature high kicks and shower singing on MTV's "The Real World: Key West." Now, he's being charged with more than ad-libbed crooning.
The October issue of Details magazine accuses the cast member of using the "gay card."
"It was just really offensive not only to me but to the community because I feel if you're going to make claims like that they should be based in fact and they certainly were not," Duckworth, 24, told BTL.
https://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20723
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