Crystal A. Proxmire
Step Up or Shut Up: Pugh on the Hunger Strike and on Detroit Politics
FERNDALE – "Stop complaining if you're not doing anything to change it. Step up or shut up." That's what Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh has to say about folks who sit on the sidelines in any community. His new Step Up or Shut Up [...]
Ferndale Fur Trading Company is the New Pet Connection
FERNDALE – Andrea Johns is no stranger to helping displaced animals find homes. As a former organizer for Fido Does Ferndale and a volunteer for the now dis-banded Waggs & Wishes she's helped make dozens of pet connections. Now, in the absence [...]
ALEC Power: How Corporations are Taking Over Government One Policy at a Time
A new study details the way ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, is wining and dining conservative legislators while handing them model legislation to cut-and-paste into their bills. The report, ALEC in Michigan, was released last week [...]
Oswald and Cadbury, Bunnies on a Mission
FERNDALE – Oswald and Cadbury are grey Flemish Bunnies on a mission. The super soft and extra friendly rabbits ride around the Ferndale area in a double baby carriage pushed by animal-loving activist Julie Miron of Ferndale. Miron hosts rescue [...]
Making a DIFFAerance
WEST BLOOMFIELD – The first time Michael Bartus really stopped and paid attention to Michigan AIDS Coalition (MAC) was back in December when they brought Max Fisher in to do a lunchtime presentation about his journey in AIDS activism. "I came to [...]
Ruth Ellis Graduates 20 Interns
DETROIT – For the second year in a row Ruth Ellis Center gave LGBT youth the opportunity to work as interns for six weeks out of the summer. The internship program is a partnership between Growing Detroit's Young Talent (funded by DTE),Youth [...]
Black Hebrew Israelites Threaten Rape of Women at Gay Day, GR Police Let it Happen
GRAND RAPIDS – At the end of the East Hills Neighborhood Gay Day Aug. 4, women faced threats of violence, rape and an inevitable race war where men of the Black Hebrew Israelites would kill white men and ravish their women. A group of men, some [...]
Hunger Strike Week Two
FERNDALE – "Did you hear about the Hunger Strike at Affirmations?" That question is being asked all over the country, and especially here in Michigan where someone can be fired just for being gay, Michigan families were stripped of domestic [...]
Youth Find Their Voice at Ozone Ypsi
If you want to see a success story unfold on stage, visit the Heritage Festival's Frog Island Stage on Aug. 18 between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., and look for Tiffany Cho, Trisha Gwinner and other youth from Ozone Ypsilanti and Community Records. Ozone [...]
Citizens Speak Out After Council Refuses to Discuss Human Rights Ordinance
ROCHESTER HILLS – There are signs welcoming people to Rochester Hills, which label the city as "progressive," though a group of citizens called Rochester Hills Together is starting to have their doubts. At the July 30 city council meeting several [...]
Struggles, Pride and Support all shared at Trans Pride
FERNDALE – Bonnie Gibson doesn't usually "do the whole group thing," but she did make the trek across the border from London, Ontario to attend her first Transgender Pride in the Park, which took place Aug. 4th at Geary Park in Ferndale. She was [...]
Dream Cruise's Michael Lary
Between Ourselves FERNDALE – Behind the scenes of the mammoth hot-rodding, classic-car-loving, traffic-jam-celebrating Woodward Dream Cruise is an activist and event enthusiast named Michael Lary. He's been event coordinator of the Ferndale Dream [...]