BTL Staff
Improv-able Lives' at Ledges Playhouse
GRAND LEDGE – The Ledges Playhouse returns this summer with "Improv-able Lives," an original sketch and improvisational comedy starring local cast members Mark Bethay, Tonya Burnham, Melanie Cherry, Luke Elder, Michael Hayes, Ben Holzhausen and [...]
Jewish Gay Network of Michigan receives grant, expands programming
The Jewish Gay Network of Michigan has hired Kim Phillips-Knope as its program director. An educator and specialist in LGBT issues, Phillips-Knope is the organization's first paid staff member. Founded in 2005, JGN is a volunteer-based network [...]
Jewsical! The Musical' lacks chutzpah
By D. A. Blackburn The Second City opened a revival production of "Jewsical! The Musical" on July 9 to a packed house, but few guests offered toasts of Mazel Tov at the curtain call. While the show succeeded as a lighthearted commentary of Jewish [...]
Kellyanne Conway Says Trans Military Ban Is 'Forthcoming'
BY KAREN OCAMB, LOS ANGELES BLADE Kellyanne Conway speaking at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. Photo by Gage Skidmore Kellyanne Conway, a senior advisor to President Trump, appeared on ABC News' [...]
McCain opposes gay households adopting
By Lisa Keen Keen News Service Adoption became an issue this week in the presidential campaign – at least for Republican nominee-apparent John McCain. The New York Times, in an interview published July 13, asked the candidate whether he agrees with [...]
Michelle Obama speaks to supportive crowd in Pontiac
By Cathy Markes PONTIAC – Nearly 300 people crowded a renovated theater in downtown Pontiac last Wednesday to hear Michelle Obama share her hopes for America's future and to campaign for her husband. In what became a rally for her as much as Barack [...]
Michigan Equality unveils online resolution for Independence from Hate Crimes and Hate Speech month
LANSING – Michigan Equality, the only Lansing-based LGBT activist group in the state, unveiled an online resolution last week as part of Independence from Hate Crimes and Hate Speech month. Michigan Equality announced a new educational campaign [...]
Kern County supes reject marriage ban
by Rex Wockner National News Briefs Supervisors in Kern County, Calif., voted unanimously July 8 to do nothing with a proposed ordinance to ban same-sex marriage in the conservative county. The measure was proposed by the Campaign for Children and [...]
Obama on California marriage
by John Corvino The Gay Moralist Barack Obama believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman. Yet he opposes the California ballot initiative that would write that view into the state constitution, calling it "divisive and [...]
Porn stars tie knot - and so do Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Wanda Sykes?
"Let me tell you, if 'Robin' somehow crops up in one of the new 'Batman' films along the line, I'll be chaining myself up somewhere and refusing to go to work." – Christian Bale makes a stand regarding any sidekick showing up for "Batman." While I'm [...]
Large, violent attack on Budapest Pride
by Rex Wockner International News Right-wing extremists attacked the 1,500 marchers in Budapest's gay pride parade and fought with police for several hours afterward July 5. Hundreds of counterdemonstrators reportedly threw rocks, eggs, bottles, [...]
Massachusetts may OK marriage for out-of-staters
by Rex Wockner National News Briefs Massachusetts' legislature is considering repeal of a 1913 law that prohibits people from other states from getting married there if the marriage wouldn't be allowed where they live. The law – which stopped [...]