BTL Staff
AIDS Demonstrators leaves shoes at the White House
By Bob Roehr WASHINGTON- The biggest AIDS demonstration in more than a decade surged through the streets of Washington, D.C. on May 5, fueled by the energy of some 3,000 people. They placed 8,000 pairs of shoes in rows on Pennsylvania Avenue in [...]
Catholic group gives Affirmations grant for new center
By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman FERNDALE – At the end of April, Dignity Detroit, the metro Detroit organization for LGBT Catholics, donated $7,500 to Affirmations Lesbian and Gay Community Center's efforts to construct a new center in downtown [...]
Kerry pans same-sex marriage
By Bob Roehr BOSTON- The Massachusetts Democratic Party is expected to adopt a party platform that includes a provision supporting marriage equality when it meets on May 14. Equal marriage is now part of the legal and social fabric of the state and [...]
Marriage equality foes push for restricted divorce, gay adoption ban
COLUMBUS AP Wire– Religious conservatives who succeeded in rewriting Ohio's constitution to ban marriage for same-sex couples are pushing state lawmakers to make divorce more difficult and to ban gay people from becoming foster or adoptive [...]
Conscientious objector bill introduced in House
By BTL Staff LANSING – A bill called the "conscientious objector accommodation act" was introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives on May 5. The bill, HB 4741, reads, in part, that its purpose is "to provide standards for personnel [...]
Microsoft to support gay rights
By Lisa Keen In a stunning reversal, the Microsoft Corporation announced May 6 that it will not remain "neutral" in the fight for equal rights for gays. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive officer, sent an email to employees saying the [...]
National News Briefs
Compiled by Dawn Wolfe Gutterman Politics Gay-rights foe admits to same-sex relations SPOKANE, Wash. – Mayor James E. West, a Republican foe of equal rights for gays, was caught by a Washington newspaper using the trappings of his office to try [...]
Secretary of State reverses pro-trans policy
By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman LANSING – Transgendered people will not be allowed to have their gender on their driver's licenses changed unless they actually have gender reassignment surgery. That is the result of a reversal by the Secretary of State's [...]
Over 200 families at risk of losing benefits, says CMU Life
By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman MOUNT PLEASANT – An April 27, 2005 report by Central Michigan University Life stated that 217 employees at nine state universities are utilizing the domestic partner benefits offered by those universities. That means that [...]
Complicity in hypocrisy
By Mubarak Dahir Hypocrisy was the word of the day when the Spokesman-Review, a daily newspaper in Spokane, Washington, recently published the findings of a three-year investigative effort that proved the mayor there led a secret gay life. But the [...]