D'Anne Witkowski
Hear Me OUT March, 2005
All the Best Tina Turner (EMI) There's just something about Tina Turner. She's been making music for over four decades and she's still got it – vocal power, sass, and legs that still look good at 60. No wonder both lesbians and gay men love her. [...]
Ani Difranco gets a little help from her friends
Love takes work. For fans of Ani Difranco, the past 15 years have been evidence that long term relationships are hard. People change, people grow – and not always in the directions we want them to. For those who fell in love back in 1989 with the [...]
A humble beacon for truth
When the Vatican condemned Sister Jeannine Gramick to silence for ministering to lesbian and gay Catholics and ordered her to renounce homosexuality as "evil," her answer was as courageous as it was simple. She said no. When Emmy and Peabody Award [...]
Citizens demand equal rights
LANSING – Two hundred people gathered at the Capitol steps to demand protections for LGBT individuals and families as new lawmakers began their first session of the year Jan. 12. Representative Chris Kolb (D – Ann Arbor) addressed the rally and [...]
Reel Pride reviews
BTL's Assistant Editor D'Anne Witkowski takes a look at three of the highly anticipated film festival's offerings. For more info visit ReelPrideMichigan.com. Dorian Blues There's a reason "Dorian Blues" is screening twice at Reel Pride Michigan. [...]
Creep of the Week: Jack Abramoff
Jack Abramoff Unless you've been beneath the same rock lobbyist Jack Abramoff crawled out from under, you've heard his name in conjunction with corruption in Washington D.C. Before he was busted, it seemed Abramoff was a man who could literally [...]
Sexual healing
Social conservatives across the nation have their panties in a bunch over "Kinsey," the new biopic of the legendary sex-researcher starring Liam Neeson. We've come a long way since 1948, when Alfred Kinsey published the ground breaking "Sexual [...]
National LGBT leaders respond to 2004 election
The outcome of the 2004 election was not what the LGBT community was hoping for. Eleven states passed anti-gay marriage amendments to their constitutions. In addition, an administration hostile to LGBT rights received another four year term. It has [...]
Human connection of disconnection'
"Angela's Secret" by Seattle band These Arms Are Snakes is exactly what Barbara Ehrenreich's book 'Nickel and Dimed' would sound like if it were a hardcore punk rock song. Both highlight the struggle of a single mother barely getting by: "When I eat [...]
Opposition abounds for conscientious objector bills at hearing
Photos are: Hammerstrom: Senator Hammerstrom, Chair of the Senate Committee on Health Policy. Jacobs: Senator Gilda Z. Jacobs, (D-Huntington Woods.) LANSING – The Senate Health Policy Committee heard testimony Sept. 22 on a package of bills [...]
Conference to address needs of LGBT youth in religious schools
GRAND RAPIDS – When Don Bergman's 23-year-old son came out to him, his eyes were opened to a problem he didn't even realize existed: anti-gay harassment in religious schools. "I taught at Kalamazoo Christian High School for 30 years and didn't [...]
Get out the vote at the Aug. 3 primary
During the Aug. 3 primary election, proponents of fairness and equal rights have the opportunity to cast their vote for candidates that support LGBT equality. BTL spoke with Pride PAC's Sean Kosofsky about a few of the candidates who have earned [...]