Todd Heywood
About That 2013 HIV Report From MDCH...
`Recently, Between The Lines broke down the new 2013 report on HIV in the state of Michigan. One the things that stuck out was the fact that 31 percent of the new infections had no known risk. Reading the report, one of the definitions stuck [...]
New AIDS Partnership Michigan Coordinator To Tackle HIV, MSM Stigma For Detroit Agency
AIDS Partnership Michigans Akilah Benton. Photo by Charsha Olumba DETROIT – As a teen, Akilah Benton volunteered with the city of Detroit Health Department. The experience of what she witnessed in the early 2000s, she says, launched her on a [...]
Baird To The Bone
Richard Baird, a top advisor to Gov. Rick Snyder, is tossing his weight around the capitol these days. Baird, who was at the center of a property tax and voting scandal just before the GOP's Aug. 23 convention, has taken to threatening some of his [...]
Bureaucratic Follies
Secretary of State Agrees to Stop Enforcing Constitutionally Vague Vanity Plate Law Keep an eye out in Ann Arbor for a Michigan issued vanity plate reading WAR SUX. The Secretary of State has agreed to allow the plate as part of a federal court [...]
Introduction: Political Hors D'oeuvre
What Is Political Hors D'oeuvre? This series will bring you bite size nuggets from the political and governmental world and contextualize it within LGBT equality issues and the broader progressive agenda. The name comes from the literal meaning of [...]
Speaker Bolger Accepts Gay Money, Ticks Off Rep. Jack Hoognedyk
Jack Hoogendyk doesn't live or work in Michigan anymore – he runs a "crisis pregnancy" organization in Wisconsin – but he's keeping his nose in state politics. The uber conservative activist sent an email to his contact list on Aug. 21 attacking [...]
Good News And Bad News In Michigan's 2013 HIV Report
The final 2013 report from the Michigan Department of Community Health on the HIV epidemic in Michigan is out. And while there are glimmers of hope in the report, there are also concerning trends appearing. First, the good news. The state reported [...]
Love Trumps Hate' Counters Anti-Gay Verbal Assault Caught On Video
Montrell Delicious Jackson and Isiah Tweedie filed a video on YouTube after they experienced anti-gay verbal harassment last month. They are currently planning a fundraiser for the The Trevor Project that will take place on Sept. 7 BLT photo: Todd [...]
Michigan: A Brief Timeline of LGBT Milestones In the Capital City
1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829 1972 – In March, East Lansing becomes the first municipality in the United States to adopt a nondiscrimination ordinance which protected people based on sexual [...]
Antigay Verbal Assault Caught On Video
A Lansing area business owner, caught on video hurling a series of antigay invectives against three gay men, says his actions were not motivated by hate. "I don't hate faggots," Victor Sadet told Between The Lines in a phone interview. He preceded [...]
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly For LGBT Michigan
With the polls closed, and the votes counted, Michigan's general election ballot is a mishmash of the good, the bad and the truly ugly for November. The Good Arch-conservative and antigay state lawmaker Tom McMillin lost his primary race for the [...]
Feds Give Spring Arbor University Permission To Discriminate Against LGBT Community
MICHIGAN – The U.S. Department of Education has given Michigan based Spring Arbor University permission to discriminate against LGBT students and employees. In a letter dated June 2, 2014, Spring Arbor University President Brent Ellis requested [...]