Charles Alexander
Gay-2-Zee': ABC/PDQueer summer reading
Cell phone conversation between a "cafeteria" queen and a "slut hut" boytoy, recorded word for word by a "wrinkle room" writer. Namely yours truly. (My wrinkles have wrinkles.) QUEEN: "Well, girlfriend, for a Stepford fag, SHE may be bunker-shy, [...]
Parting Glances: Dogs, cats, rats' winkies
A $10.5 million, GOP-funded study undertaken by the Institute for the Regionalization and Redistricting of Dogs, Cats, Kittens & Pups sheds new – and controversial – light on how we humans treat our wagtail friends. The Good Ol' Pets study, [...]
Parting Glances: Suits moi to a T!
Suits moi to a T! Back in the mid-80s I met my first male-to-female T-person, Stephanie DuCharme, introduced to me by violinist Gordon Petersen, then Assistant Concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Stephanie was a gourmet cook, artist's [...]
Don't worry. Be happy! You can change. (Or, can you?)
According to a Sexuality Poll conducted by Scientific American MIND magazine in its April/May 2006 issue, 50 percent of its readers believe that sexual orientation is innate, genetic or predetermined by other factors such as environment. Eleven [...]
Remembrance of passing parades...
This June hundreds of thousands of LGBT celebrants take part in local, national, and international pride parade events. Thirty-two years ago New York City's Christopher Street, in the highly gay-populated Greenwich Village, was the birthplace of [...]
Parting Glances: Beauty & The Great Lafayette
"You may drink my wine. You may eat my food. You may command my servants. But you must respect my dog!" So read the bronze plaque affixed to the door of the palatial London home of Sigmund Neuberger (1872-1911) — The Great Lafayette — the highest [...]
Parting Glances: Daffodils, lilies, rainbows
For reasons of remembrance, gay spirituality, and activist statement, I'll be attending one of three Easter Sunday services at Metropolitan Community Church of Detroit. I won't be wearing a designer spring ensemble, or jocundly carrying an armful of [...]
Parting Glances: Pages from a book (Pt. 8)
When Detroit-born, Cass Tech graduate Bernard Johnson died of pneumonia in January 1997 at age 60, the New York Times carried a quarter-page obit celebrating his life as "a Renaissance man in dance." Little bigger than a metronome minute — at [...]
Parting Glances: One hour diary
I haven't patience to work today's Free Press crossword puzzle as I wait for the current BTL to be delivered at The Potato Place, my favorite breakfast nook on the Wayne State campus. I consider owners Joyce and Cliff Berman friends, and know the [...]
Parting Glances: Swiss Guard buttons
Beloved friends! I bring you greetings from good Sr. Serena Scatterpin, Renegade Sisters of Mary, who's just returning from a fabulous Q-Line Cruise of the Mediterranean, with a special two-day busing layover at Rome and the Vatican, planned [...]
Parting Glances: Pages from a book (Pt. 7)
Detroit's ancient, seven-story Cass Technical High School has been replaced with a new $127 million structure; and an era of excellence in education has ended. A new era — 21st Century post modern — begins. The original building dates to 1918, and [...]
Parting Glances: Pages from a book (Pt. 6)
My Lavender Time Capsule spins counterclockwise and lands with a hop, skip, and jump in the year 1955. The landscape is barren for gays and lesbians, who are hit on and worked over by shrinks, cops, clergy, family and so-called friends. [SCORECARD: [...]