Jason A. Michael
Jason A. Michael is a senior staff writer for Between The Lines and Pride Source Media Group. He has been writing for BTL since 1999. Jason is also an Essence bestselling author. He may be reached at [email protected].
25 and Out!
I am 52 years old and incredibly corny. As I write this, my final column, I keep hearing television variety show sign-off songs in my head, whether it’s Carol Burnett tugging on her earlobe and singing “I’m so glad we’ve had [...]
Re-Remembering Brent Dorian Carpenter: A Writer Who Pushed Boundaries With His Fearless Essays
Over the past two decades, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing my name among the bylines in this paper of some pretty talented writers. I was blessed to win the media award at the former annual Community Pride Banquet & Awards in 2005. I was [...]
Supreme Birthday Wishes to Mary and Diana
Sixty years ago this year, Motown supergroup and Detroit darlings The Supremes had their first of what would go on to become 12 number-one hits with “Where Did Our Love Go.” It broke a long losing streak and swiftly brought an end to the [...]
'Bargain Block' Real Estate Expert Talks LGBTQ+ Allyship and 'Love at First Sight' for Keith Bynum and Evan Thomas — Her Chosen Family
A lifetime Detroiter, Shea Hicks Whitfield is the third member of the superhero team on HGTV’s "Bargain Block." For three seasons now, the real estate agent — along with real-life couple Keith Bynum, a designer, and Evan Thomas, a [...]
How Ruth Ellis Inspired My Early Activism Helping Queer At-Risk Youth
My friendship with the late Ruth Ellis predates my time with Between The Lines, Pride Source's print publication. But just barely. I first interviewed her for KICK! Magazine. I was managing editor of the publication, and we were putting Ruth on the [...]
Celebrating 20 Years Since First Legal Same-Sex Marriage
The year was 1989. I had finally accepted the fact that I was gay and started the long, tedious process of coming out shortly after turning 17. It was a time of liberation for me. I threw off the shackles of convention — and my Southern Baptist [...]
Stevie Baka Encourages Detroit Community to Reimagine ‘Arts & Scraps’
Some jobs are just jobs, but for Stevie Baka, their daily commute brings them to a job that feels more like a personal mission. Baka serves as community store manager at Arts & Scraps, a 35-year-old educational non-profit housed in a nondescript [...]
Community Tributes Pour in for Mary Sappington, Longtime Publisher of Queer Nightlife Magazine Metra
For over 40 years she told us where to find the best in queer nightlife in metro Detroit, Northern Ohio and Windsor. Mary Sappington, who died Jan. 14 at age 75, was perhaps better known as “Mary Metra,” the founding publisher of Metra [...]
Would Martin Luther King, Jr. Have Become an LGBTQ+ Advocate? His Daughter Yolanda King Thought So.
Preserving and recording Black history has always been important to me. In fact, back in 1999, it was a series I did on Black History Month for Wayne State University’s South End that caught the attention of then Pride Source Media and Between [...]
If Madonna Calls, I’m Here
My Dearest Madge,I feel quite confident it’s all right to call you that. You’ve so intimately become a part of my life through the power of your music over these past four-plus decades that you must surely feel that closeness as well. If [...]
The Lonely Season Arrives, Once Again
Well, it’s that time of year again, dear readers. The Lonely Season has arrived. What in the world, you ask, is the Lonely Season? Well, if you have to ask it’s obviously not on your emotional calendar. But for me, and a lot of other [...]
How This Former Heroin Addict Got Sober, Divorced Their Husband and Came Out as Genderqueer
Bree Rowe doesn't just work for a local non-profit, whose name they can’t disclose, providing a desperately needed syringe service for IV drug users. They also go out at night to popular LGBTQ+ nightspots and do anonymous HIV testing. [...]