I’d have no problem Beloved Activist Suffers with the Legislature Burns, Loses Home In Fire creating“ a vehicle for same-sex marriage. It’s just Natalie Maines Talks part of modern life. – Former Attorney Gen. Dixie Chicks, Gay Fans Mike Cox, Page 6”

Abigail Stauffer Unfiltered Ann Arbor Musician On New Album, Taylor Swift & Being True To Herself

WWW.PRIDESOURCE.COM MAY 23, 2013 | VOL. 2121 | FREE 2 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com Cover story 20 Abigail Stauffer: Unfiltered

I’d have no problem with“ the Legislature Beloved Activist Suffers creating a vehicle for Burns, Loses Home In Fire same-sex marriage. It’s just We both know how it part of modern life. Natalie Maines Talks – Former Attorney Gen. Mike Cox, Page 6” Dixie Chicks, Gay Fans feels to be hated just for who we are.

Abigail Stauffer Unfiltered – Natalie Maines , pg. 18 Ann Arbor Musician On New Album, Taylor Swift & Being True To Herself MAY 23, 2013 | VOL. 2121 | FREE

WWW.PRIDESOURCE.COM NEWS 4 Beyond The Bar Join The Conversation PrideSource.comCool Cities 4 Beloved activist suffers burns, @ loses home, car in fire 5 West Michigan Pride to celebrate HELP WANTED PRIDE SEASON COOL CITIES 25 years June 15 5 Holland to move outdoors for Pride 6 Is there room for the ‘R’ in LGBT? 9 Obituary: Jo Ellen Ploeger 16 Department of Education announces changes to FAFSA form 17 Online safety a must for community OPINION 9 Viewpoint 14 Cuba, I’m proud of you! 15 Parting Glances 17 Creep of the Week Life Unity Michigan Coalition Pride Season Volunteers Plan Out The June This Week’s Cool City: A2 18 Natalie Maines gets real The Unity Michigan Coalition and BTL are seeking volunteers to assist Pride Season Today 22 Hear Me Out in a community outreach project throughout the June Pride season. June is just around the corner:YOUR Discover NEIGHBORHOOD local LGBT-friendly • YOUR MARKET Volunteers will work with UMC and BTL to collect contact information 26 Happenings plan out your month of festivities businesses,Pinpoint checkyour adout dollarsawesome where 31 Classic musical graces the Baldwin from LGBTQ and allied attendess of Pride festivals who are interested by checking out the Pride calendar events and more on the Ann in furthering nondiscrimination policies throughout the state and would they will do the most good . . . 34 Cool Cities: Ann Arbor on Pridesource.com! Arbor Cool Cities page – online like to keep informed on how they can become involved. and Advertise in print! in the next Cool Cities Rear View Call 734-293-7200 ext. 14 or e-mail [email protected] for more TO PLACE AN AD CALL 734.293.7200 39 Classifieds information or to sign up. 40 Cocktail Chatter 41 Puzzle 42 Deep Inside Hollywood

Vol. 2121 • MAY 23, 2013 • Issue 817 Editorial Creative Advertising & Sales Business Office Editor in Chief Art Director Director of Sales Diane Smith, [email protected] Pride Source Media Group Susan Horowitz, 734.293.7200 x 12 Benjamin Jenkins, [email protected] Jan Stevenson, 734.293.7200 x 22 Circulation & Distribution 11920 Farmington Rd., Livonia, Michigan 48150 [email protected] [email protected] Phone 734.293.7200 Webmaster & MIS Director Diane Smith Entertainment Editor Kevin Bryant, [email protected] Sales Representatives Publishers Chris Azzopardi, 734.293.7200 x 24 Ed Bohach, 734.293.7200 x 15 ONLINE at Susan Horowitz & Jan Stevenson [email protected] Contributing Writers [email protected] Charles Alexander, Michelle E. Brown, Member of Associate Editor Todd Heywood, Jerome Stuart Nichols, Ann Cox, 734.293.7200 x 13 “Between The Lines Newspaper” Michigan Press Assoication Benjamin Jenkins, 734.293.7200 x 14 Kate Opalewski, Anthony Paull, [email protected] National Gay Media Association [email protected] Andrea Poteet, Eric W. Rader, National Advertising Representative Q Syndicate Gwendolyn Ann Smith, Dawn R. Wolfe News Staff Writer Rivendell Media, 212.242.6863 Follow us @YourBTL Crystal Proxmire Cartoonists Our rate cards are available online. All material appearing in Paul Berg, Dave Brousseau Between The Lines is protected by federal copyright law and Email your op–eds to Arts & Theater Editor may not be reproduced in whole or part without the permission [email protected] Since 1995 Donald V. Calamia, [email protected] Contributing Photographers of the publishers. Between The Lines is supported by many Andrew Potter fine advertisers, but we cannot accept responsibility for claims Providing Content and Community to LGBT Media Calendar Editor made by our advertisers, nor can we accept responsibility for Sign up online to receive our E–Digest Copyright 2013 Pride Source Media Group, LLC Shelby Clark, [email protected] materials provided by advertisers or their agents.

3 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com Beloved Activist Beyond The Bar: Motor City Suffers Burns, Pride Kickoff To Showcase Loses Home, Local Graphic Arts And More Car In Fire By Crystal A. Proxmire DETROIT - Don’t you love when By BTL Staff little celebrations make it big? That’s what happened to Beyond the Bar, the OAK PARK - Jay Kaplan, staff attorney at the Michigan premiere Motor City Pride kick-off ACLU LGBT Project, suffered burns and lost his entire event taking place at Start Gallery, house and car in a fire May 18. He was taken from the scene 206 E. Grand River, Detroit on June to Beaumont Hospital by EMS and soon transferred to 6 at 7 p.m. Detroit Receiving Beyond the Bar: An LGBT Art and Hospital’s burn Design showcase started out three years unit where he was ago as a small, one-day showing where treated for first members of the design profession who and second degree happened to be LGBT could come burns, mostly on together and celebrate their work. his legs. He was The title Beyond the Bar comes from released May 20 creator Alexander Harvilla. “I get tired and is currently of people thinking that gay people staying with his are all about going to the bar, and the parents. stereotypes of the work we do. There Mike Steinberg are gay people in every profession. This and Shelli is all about art first, LGBT second,” Alexander Harvilla above founded Beyond The Bar: An LGBT Art and Design showcase three Weisberg of Harvilla said. years ago. This year it will be the premiere kick-off the Michigan This year it’s the opening night event event for Motor City Pride in downtown Detroit ACLU released for Motor City Pride, complete with art, June 6. To left is the ad creatd by GM for BTL Jay Kaplan a statement appetizers, beer and wine and music 2012 Pride edition that took off virally around the detailing the chain of events. “On May 18 at about 3 p.m., by DJ Lena. Art will be auctioned off globe. BTL file photo: Crystal Proxmire. Jay was hooking up a new propane canister to the grill on for the benefit of the Ruth Ellis Center, Metro Detroit Area.” his deck. He heard some hissing coming from the line, so he and entrance to the party is just a Among the exhibits are pieces by well- tightened it up and thought everything was okay. However, recommended donation of $5. known local artists and designers. David when he lit the grill, the flame extended down to the tank The first year featured 14 design Wysocki, creative director at Doner and the deck immediately caught on fire. Jay stepped into projects. This year there are over 70. Advertising, has pieces showcased for fire to try to shut off the canister, but it was too hot and he “This year, thanks to one of our brands that people will likely recognize. went to get a fire extinguisher. It is during this attempt to turn event partners ‘The AdCraft Club of Chris Gorski of Detroit GT started his off the canister that he suffered the burns. The fire spread Detroit,’ some of the local area’s largest own, local Detroit T-shirt company and extremely fast and the flames soon reached 25 feet high. ad agencies are contributing work that has done a lot of graphic design work. The fire department came quickly, but Jay’s house is pretty contained the involvement of an LGBT Harvilla is pleased to recognize the much destroyed, as is his car, which was parked in the garage. individual. Knowing that the local is not immune. Going through school work of Lorenzo King for the third year Fortunately, nobody else was hurt.” advertising community is so supportive and college, I noticed that many people in a row. “During the first showcase, of the growth/relevance with the would stereotype the career choices of Lorenzo had just graduated college and careers of their LGBT employees is LGBT individuals and assume we were displayed his student work. This year, he Fund Created amazing and truly encompasses what all confined to one area of thinking. is displaying many of his professional The LGBT community’s outpouring of support for Kaplan this show is about. I don’t want to ruin There are many different methods to pieces. I think it is amazing to notice how has been impressive. In addition to hundreds of social media the surprise of what larger campaigns debunk stereotypes. With this show, much he has grown as a designer over the posts, cards, and emails, fellow activists at Unity Michigan we may recognize, but it’s pretty we used this simple approach: ‘instead span of this showcase, and have hopes quickly set up a fund online to raise money for Kaplan. In less amazing,” Harvilla said. of telling people we are a diverse that Beyond the Bar had an influence than 24 hours the fund raised over $6,000. “Jay Kaplan gives “My absolute favorite aspect of the community of professionals, let’s show with his growth,” Harvilla said. so much to all of us. It’s our turn to give back. After suffering show is that every year, I hear attendees them,’” said Harvilla. AIGA Detroit and other partners like burns and a loss of property, friends of Jay Kaplan decided to gush over recognizable work. The “What I also love about this showcase The Detroit Design Festival, the AdCraft set up this fund in lieu of sending flowers. Please contribute fact that attendees have these real, is that it debunks the stereotypes behind Club of Detroit, Between The Lines, today to show Jay your support,” reads the statement on the ‘wow’ moments not only illustrate the Metro Detroit as well,” he continued. “So Motor City Pride, Wink Detroit and Ruth front page of the donation site www.gofundme.com/2zhso0. importance of the LGBT community, many think that we live in a depressed, Ellis Center, are making the Beyond the Kaplan is expected to be out of work at least several weeks but also showcase the acceptance, ruined community. Beyond the Bar Bar opening possible. while recovering from the burns. tolerance, diversity and strength of the takes a stand with the local creative Detroit community as a whole. community and showcases an even Learn more at www.detroit.aiga.org/ Visit The Jay Kaplan Wellness Fund site www.gofundme. “We all know that stereotypes exist broader message around the creative beyondthebar. com/2zhso0 everywhere and the LGBT community energy and accomplishments of the

4 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com West Michigan Pride Will Celebrate 25 Years June 15 By Carol Tanis

GRAND RAPIDS – In celebration Volunteer at the 2012 Holland Pride event are looking forward to the of its 25th Anniversary, West Michigan outdoor event. Pride is returning to its roots and also adding a parade this year. Pride will be held on the Calder Plaza, June 15, from 1 Holland To Move p.m. to 10 p.m., and a “Parade of Pride” will take place the following day, June 16 Outdoors For Pride from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. “It all started downtown at Rosa Parks Holland area’s PRIDE Festival will go outside for the Circle and the Calder so we thought it first time ever on June 29, with booths, food and live free would be fitting if we brought the event entertainment at Centennial Park from 1-6 p.m. And then back there for the 25th Anniversary,” the festival will go inside Park Theater, 248 S. River, from said West Michigan Pride President Amy 6-10 p.m., when more free entertainment will be featured. Tabor. “It’s so exciting.” It will be the biggest PRIDE festival ever in Holland, said New this year is a charge of a $1 to organizers from Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians enter the festival. “It’s always been free and Gays (PFLAG) Holland/Lakeshore, who began planning or visitors could drop a donation in a jar, Grand Rapids was represented at the 1993 March on Washington. the expanded festival shortly after the doors were closed on said Tabor. “But we decided to charge one last year’s indoor PRIDE event. dollar because it costs a lot of money to “We wanted to expand this year’s festival to show the put Pride on every year and I don’t think expecting to have approximately 100 with items and souvenirs available for area’s lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual community a dollar is too much. I think most people booths sponsored by local nonprofit, purchase. Sandwiches, snacks and beer that they have broad support and many reasons to celebrate can afford that.” gay-supportive groups, as well booths will be for sale on site. with pride,” said Jim Larkin, chairperson of the Holland Tabor said as in recent years, they’re featuring small businesses and vendors Area PRIDE Festival Board. “And we are very thankful for See Grand Rapids, page 16 those who have lined up to show such support, especially our premier sponsor, Herman Miller.” Brian Walker, president and CEO of Herman Miller, said, “We are proud to be a premier sponsor of this year’s Holland PRIDE Festival. Herman Miller has a long history as an inclusive workplace and we are committed to encouraging and supporting an inclusive community. Welcoming, respecting, and valuing people for their abilities and talents is critical to the future of our company, and the region. We are pleased to be joining with many others in recognizing and celebrating the contributions of the LGBT community in the greater Holland area.” In Centennial Park from 1-6 p.m., numerous organizations and businesses are supporting PRIDE by displaying and making available informational resources for festival participants. Live performances by the West Michigan Gay Men’s Chorus, lesbian folk rocker Liz Snavely and other musicians will be provided at the gazebo in the park. A silent auction will also be held of items donated by merchants, including an Aeron office chair, with a retail value of $999, from Herman Miller. Refreshments from food booths can be purchased by festival participants, as well as alcoholic beverages across River Street at the Park Theater. A happy hour from 6-7 p.m. will kick-off the evening’s fun (18 years of age and older) at the Park Theater and will be followed by nationally known comedian Mimi Gonzales and dancing. “Gay PRIDE month (June) should be a time of celebration and recognition and we didn’t want it to pass in Holland without letting our LGBT youth and adults know they are loved, respected and supported,” said Mary DeRidder, PFLAG member and vice chair of the Holland Area PRIDE Festival Board. “What better way to do that than with a daylong celebration of their talents and contributions.” For more information on the festival, go to www.hollandareapride. com} or email [email protected]. 5 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com Is There Room For The ‘R’ In LGBT? Movement Among Republicans To Support Same Sex Marriage Hopeful Sign For State

By Crystal A. Proxmire Island was one and it had the unanimous Kish grew up in a family of Democrats, and support of all the state’s Republican Senators. spent the Vietnam era in college. “I was very Republicans. Where do they fit in the LGBT Minnesota saw a prominent state Senate idealistic and progressive,” she said. “As I got community and are they needed to achieve full Republican move to a pro-equality stance, into the workforce and felt the union hindered equality? That is an ever-evolving question possibly risking re-election in 2014, and my advancement and rewarded those with as gay Republican groups grow; Republican the third state, Delaware, also saw limited seniority, rather than merit and hard work, officials change their mind on equality policies Republican support from the Delaware State it began to change me. Getting involved in and new polling shows growing support for House. the business side, rather than the labor side same sex marriage among self-identified Back home in Michigan one can find gave me a new perspective. I suppose real Republicans. optimism in a recent poll and from a well life experience changed my political views.” In the first few months of 2013, as debate was known anti-gay foe, former attorney general Kish said that far-right individuals taking place leading up to the U.S. Supreme Mike Cox, that indicates it’s more than like, “the Santorums, Perrys, Palins, and Court cases that took up marriage equality, President Obama “evolving” on same sex Bachmanns need to go away,” but that there a number of prominent U.S Republicans marriage. Cox recently told the Detroit News are conservatives who have more diverse including Ohio Senator Rob Portman (he he supports same sex marriage. worldviews. She said she knows several other became the first sitting Republican Senator LGBT conservatives, some of whom are open to publicly support marriage equality), Illinois about their political beliefs and some who Senator Mark Kirk (the 50th U.S. Senator to A Transgender Conservative keep them hidden. Regardless of the strife support equality) and former Utah Governor Fights For Both Causes her views cause, Kish said she is loyal to the and primary candidate for the Republican Former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox now says LGBT community. Presidential nomination John Huntsman, all As a conservative political independent, he would support marriage equality after leading the “I stress that I fight for equality and Michigander Arlene Kish often takes flack fight to take away domestic partner benefits following declared support for full marriage equality. the passage of the 2004 anti-gay marriage amendment. inclusion with conservative friends and In fact, one of the attorneys in one of the two for supporting right-wing causes. The acquaintances who disagree. To continue to cases before the U.S. Supreme Court this past outspoken transgender activist has helped dialogue only with people who agree is just March, Theodore B. Olson, is a conservative preaching to the choir. Our government is for Republican who served as Solicitor General all the people, not just those who agree with in the second Bush administration. In 2009 he the party in power. The same is true for our teamed up with an unlikely partner, attorney LGBT community. I would like to see more David Boies, to fight the passage of Prop. The tide is not only turning in the Republican Party. acceptance of diverse opinions, so we can 8 in California that sought to ban same sex As more Republicans come out in favor of LGBT equality, continue to fight for those issues that we all marriage. “ believe in,” she said. The two attorneys had been on opposite the gay community also faces a tough choice in how to ends of the 2000 Gore V. Bush battle. Olson respond to those who once stood against equality GOProud Nationwide there are two prominent organizations that serve LGBT conservatives – GOProud and the Log Cabin Republicans. ” GoProud was formed in 2009 in Washington, countless transgender women blossom and national level, and in my opinion, the Obama DC to focus on federal-level political action. has volunteered for many LGBT causes. She administration hasn’t addressed or worked to “Because marriage has been a state issue also worked as a poll volunteer for the Mitt resolve the problems in these area’s that affect since the founding of our country, we have Romney Presidential Campaign, and has lost everyone including LGBT people. There is had no official position on marriage or friends because of it. no question that the Obama administration relationship recognition,” states the group’s “I am ridiculed because of my beliefs has done more for our community than any website. It goes on to say, “We are firmly and called names like ‘republitard’ and other, and although a national policy may set committed to winning hearts and minds, which ‘tea-bagger,’” Kish said. “Although I spend the tone, ultimately these changes happen on is why we understand that not everyone who more time than most advocating for not only the state and local level. doesn’t support marriage for gay couples transgender issues, but issues involving the “I believe that religion should not be a part is automatically a bigot or homophobe. We total LGBT community, I am demonized of government. I believe in a smaller, less understand that there are people of deep for my conservative views when it comes to invasive government. I believe in freedom faith who may have religious objections to limited government and fiscal responsibility. of speech. I personally am pro-life, but understand choice. I vehemently dislike late- marriage. We respect those differences and Arlene Kish identifies as a transgender conservative. I tend to keep my mouth shut on issues I believe that no church or religious institution feel passionate about until I just can’t stand term abortions. I dislike government micro- should ever be forced to solemnize a marriage it anymore. Then, it seems, I get myself in managing our lives. I believe we do need a that is against its teachings.” trouble.” safety net for our citizens. I think healthcare has proven to be a tireless spokesperson GOProud’s founder and Executive Director Though she voted Democratic in the needs to be fixed, but Obamacare is a disaster. for marriage equality and has often been Jimmy LaSalvia did get involved in Michigan Michigan Governor’s race, on a national level I don’t believe we addressed the real issues. I shunned by members of his party because of politics recently when Republican National she could not support President Barack Obama. am a ‘show me’ type of person. I feel we keep his position. Committeeman Dave Agema was under fire “I just felt that our economy and foreign hearing promises from our politicians (I call In April into early May, three more states for sharing inaccurate, anti-gay propaganda policy were more important issues on the them all the ruling elite/people of privilege - moved to approve marriage equality. Rhode both parties) yet never see results.” on his Facebook page. LaSalvia said in a

6 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com Log Cabins in Michigan In Michigan the Log Cabin Republicans have faced some organizational challenges. Joe Sylvester, originally of Bay City, resigned as chair after three years of service and moved to Florida. In a recent BTL interview Sylvester said, “There are only two or three (people) really active” in the group. He said that one board member passed away in an auto accident and another left to become a liberal. When Sylvester moved, former Treasurer Matt Pascoe was elected chair. Pascoe did not return requests for comment. Sylvester said the group had 15-20 members throughout the state, “almost all younger.” He explained the size by Members of the Michigan Log Cabin Republicans sporting anti-Obama T-shirts. emphasizing, “Keep in mind the nature of it. A lot of people have to hide…it’s a statement, “Conservatives in Michigan The re-branding and the changing of delicate balancing act.” get it. They understand that while we political tides seem to be paying off for In spite of the small group size, there can disagree on issues like marriage, the Log Cabin Republicans. “More and was difficulty getting everyone on the our movement and our party cannot more gay Americans are coming to the same page. Sylvester said he would and should not tolerate rank anti-gay realization that you don’t need to be send out surveys on issues and members bigotry.” a Democrat if you’re gay, and they’re would not agree. “There was rarely standing up and making their voices consensus on anything. Everyone had Log Cabin Republicans heard as proud gay Republicans or as different opinions on the issues. Like straight Republican allies who support with gay marriage, the libertarians said Rebrand equality. Our membership continues it should be left to the states.” to grow across the country; since we The group did not endorse anyone for The Log Cabin Republicans formed announced our relaunch I’ve received in 1977 in California when a bill called President in the most recent election, nor messages from people across the U.S. have they done much lobbying, though the Briggs Initiative attempted to ban eager to start up their own chapters gays from teaching in public schools. they did push out an anti-Agema message of Log Cabin Republicans in their to members, calling for the party to This organization has grown and now community,” Angelo said. has a staffed office in Washington, DC, eliminate homophobia. “At the same time, growing Republican In 2011 a couple members went to the plus chapters in over half of the states. support for our issues has bolstered Recently a new Executive Director, Mackinac Conference where Sylvester our membership. Right now there are estimates that about 50 to 100 people Gregory T. Angelo, took over and with two sitting members in the House - him came some new branding and new signed up for more information about the Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen group. When asked how he responded energy. Their new logo incorporates both and Congressman Richard Hanna - and the equality symbol and the red roof of to people giving him a hard time about Senator Rob Portman stating they support being a gay Republican, Sylvester said a log cabin. marriage equality. Congresswoman “Though we’ve existed for decades, matter-of-factly, “I’m combative as hell Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Congressman so it doesn’t bother me.” we’ve never had an iconic image Hanna, and Congressman Dent support associated with our organization. It was the Employment Nondiscrimination Act time to change that. As the new executive (ENDA). And we’ve seen milestones on The Move To Oust Agema director of this organization, and one the local level like every Republican in Steeped in Italian tradition One thing that most gay conservative with a background in marketing and the Rhode Island State Senate supporting with a refreshing modern twist! groups have agreed on is that the communications, I felt this was an ideal marriage equality. Collectively it’s homophobic language of the far-right Casual-fine dining room time to relaunch Log Cabin Republicans buoyed our membership and shown gay is harmful to people and the party. In and create a strong, identifiable brand for Americans around the country that there response to Dave Agema’s Facebook the organization that we could implement are fair-minded Republicans out there post, over 50 self-identified Michigan at the national level and throughout and they deserve our support.” our local chapters around the country,” Republicans signed an online petition Angelo said. calling for his resignation. Of those, the Unity Michigan Coalition found over 20 Republicans who were elected officials or had some recognized position in the party, such as precinct delegates or college Republicans. Unity Michigan For the sake of the LGBT movement and future listed them on their website and sent them Extensive Wine List thank you postcards. Among those on the Free WiFi Internet Access generations I would argue we extend our hand. This will list are Tom Isaacs, chair of the Oakland Located across from Comerica Park “ County Young Republicans, Brian not be easy, but it is absolutely necessary. Szmytke, chair of the Wayne County & Detroit Opera House Teenage Republicans and director of 1565 Broadway, Detroit, MI 48226 313 962 1355 angelinadetroit.com - Executive Director” Affirmations Dave Garcia See Republicans, page 8 7 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com ® Republicans Continued from p. 7 The following shows how Republican voters have changed the 2012 Livonia Republican Victory Center, their views in just a year’s time: Justin Bis, chair of the Northern Michigan University College Republicans, Aliceea Strong Lean Rice, vice chair of the University of Michigan GOP GOP Difference College Republicans and Ted Woodcock, political director of the Michigan Federation Illegal to fire or deny housing 59.5% 72.9% +13.4% of College Republicans. Hate crimes legislation 59.2% 68.8% +9.6% Alicia Ping, a Washtenaw County Commissioner and Republican Precinct Domestic partnership benefits 46.8% 54.2% +7.4% Delegate was among those who signed. “I Hospital visitation 82.0% 89.6% +7.6% think the party is moving in the right direction by openly talking about inclusion,” Ping said. Medical decisions for a partner 79.4% 83.3% +3.9% “To continue having a check list on whether Inheritance rights 62.1% 75.0% +12.9% you can be a ‘real’ Republican is not working. The party needs to remind itself what its core Adoption rights 58.6% 73.0% +14.4% values are and go with that. Limiting party Marriage 33.3% 43.8% +10.5% involvement Civil unions 62.1% 77.1% +15.0% by skin color, race, Recognition of out of state marriages 40.5% 52.1% +11.6% sexual Source: The Glengariff Group of Chicago did a poll of 600 Michigan registered voters earlier this month. orientation, and/or social litmus civil marriage equality in Michigan continues tests have Extension of the Elliot Larsen to surge forward. With the largest increase On other issues included in the poll not been over the last year coming from Republican on marriage equality in Michigan the successful Civil RIghts Act has majority and Independent voters, and support among following was found: ways to support among all thirty Republicans doubling, this poll proves that grow the fundamental fairness is not a partisan issue,” Anti-gay comments on former said Equality Michigan Director Emily Michigan State Rep. Dave party. demographic groups listed in 90.7 percent feel that partners should Dievendorf. Agema’s Facebook page has lead “If the the cross-tabulation report. be guaranteed a right to visit their to an online petition calling for GOP made Two similar polls were conducted in him to be removed as a National partners in the hospital. an open Arizona and Virginia this month as well, Republican Committeman by other with both now showing majority support for Republicans. statement to said. He went on to say about gay marriage, 84.3 percent feel that partners should marriage equality. You can learn more about the effect of “It’s just part of modern life.” be allowed to make end of life medical these polls here www.freedomtomarry.org/ ‘we welcome the LGBT community,’ that in Speaking about Agema, Cox told the Detroit blog/entry/new-polls-demonstrate-majority- decisions. itself is not going to open the flood gates and News on May 13, “I like Dave and I find him support-for-marriage-in-arizona-michigan- immediately grow the party, but it will make entertaining at times, but posting the rants of 75.4 percent want to extend and. it okay for LGBT community members who a white supremacist using 40-year-old data inheritance rights to deceased gay/ hold Republican values to say proudly I am a hurts the party,” and “We’re conservative, lesbian partners. member of the Republican Party.” but that doesn’t always mean we need to be All In This Together Ping does not consider herself an activist, backward thinking.” 74.4 percent favor same legal rights The tide is not only turning in the Republican and has no other involvement with the LGBT for adoption as heterosexual parents. movement, but felt signing the petition was Party. As more Republicans come out in favor important. “I don’t think I can be credited for What The Polls Show of LGBT equality, the gay community also 69.9 percent believe there should faces a tough choice in how to respond to those anything of significance in being a voice for Polls have steadily shown an increase who once stood against equality. be hate crimes protections for LGBT the LGBT community, but I certainly will not in support for equality in Michigan. Most At the Affirmations Spring Bash in April, people. Extension of the Elliot Larsen stand for discrimination of any sort,” she said. recently The Glengariff Group of Chicago Executive Director Dave Garcia provided Civil RIghts Act has majority support The complete list can be found at http:// did a poll of 600 Michigan registered voters some thoughts on the changing tide, giving salsa.dontchangeyourself.com/p/dia/action/ showing unprecedented numbers that now among all thirty demographic groups guidance on how to continue the pattern of public/?action_KEY=10188. indicate a majority of the state’s population listed in the cross-tabulation report growth and acceptance. “Like many others I supports full marriage equality. The poll including 56 percent of Strong get angry when a Republican, who has caused looked at ten areas where LGBT people lack our community great harm, now need only say, Republican voters, 60 percent of lean Mike Cox Comes Around equality, going beyond the much-discussed ‘I have a gay nephew or daughter or neighbor Republican voters, and 64 percent of In April Agema’s comments even provoked topic of marriage. and my views have evolved.’ Part of me wants one of the gay community’s most ardent Support for marriage has gone up 12 percent Independent voters. to see them punished, some sort of reparations opposers to speak against him, and to come overall from last year, with 56.8 percent of or public apology, community service at your 65.5 percent believe in domestic out in support of same sex marriage. Former voters in Michigan now in favor of same-sex local LGBT center - something,” he said. “We partner benefits for university Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox led marriage. Fifty-four percent want to fix the can either behave as Lincoln and forgive our the charge to take away domestic partner state Constitution to reverse the 2004 ban on employees. enemies and welcome them into this more benefits after the passage of the 2004 state recognizing same sex relationships. perfect union or we can pull a Bush/Cheney. constitutional amendment (Prop. 2) defining The results are optimistic and indicate that For the sake of the LGBT movement and marriage as “between a man and a woman or bi-partisan support for marriage equality future generations I would argue we extend similar union for any purpose.” In a Detroit is growing. Those leaning Republican The entire report, which was done our hand. This will not be easy, but it is News interview published April 8, Cox said support 9 of the 10 issues, and among strong independently by the Glengariff Group, can absolutely necessary.” his views had “evolved.” Republicans, 8 of the 10 issues have majority be downloaded at http://eqmi.us/513lgbt. “I’d have no problem with the Legislature support. creating a vehicle for same-sex marriage,” Cox “The tide is clearly turning as support for Additional reporting by Susan Horowitz.

8 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com Obituary Jo Ellen Ploeger, 1944-2013

Jo Ellen Ploeger, group to assist people facing life-threatening 69, died on May 14 illness. after a long struggle “She was Christian in the most positive with cancer. She was sense, with faith as the cornerstone of her born in Huntington, being. Faith was so much a natural part of W. Virginia to the her that she didn’t have to broadcast it,” late Durward and wrote longtime friend Ellen Simmons. “Her Doris Nichols. She Cherokee background added another layer had worked as a to her spiritual makeup. If Jo was part of physical therapy ceremonies such as Holy Unions, she would technician until her include that element of spirituality in a deeply health forced her touching way.” into retirement. Ploeger is survived by Dillaman, children The Metropolitan Community Church Stephen and Richard Ploeger, grandchildren of Detroit in Ferndale was a focal point in Jaqueline and Wyatt and siblings Pam Ploeger’s life. She had served as a deacon Boucher, Robert Nichols and Laura Nichols. in the church and was involved in all church See more Relections on Jo Ellen Ploeger by Ellen activities. She and Karen Dillaman, her life partner of 33 years, founded the Walking Simmons below and view commemorative artwork Together Ministry of MCC Detroit, a support by Charles Alexander, www.PrideSource.com.

Viewpoint: Remembering An Extraordinary Soul: Jo Ellen Ploeger by Ellen Simmons distinctive faith was so much a natural part of her that she didn’t have to broadcast it. If you t is said that for every occasion, there’s talked to Jo for more than a couple of minutes, an appropriate song. One song running you would know she loved and walked with Ithrough my mind is ‘For Good,’ from God every minute of her life. “Wicked”. The refrain goes: “Because I knew Her Cherokee background added another you, I have been changed for good.” layer to her spiritual makeup. If Jo was part of I believe many of us who knew Jo Ellen ceremonies such as Holy Unions, she would Ploeger, who died last week after a long, include that element of spirituality in a deeply determined, courageous struggle against touching, uniquely personal way. Jo spent cancer would agree. And, as I read numerous many years as a MCCD deacon, and as such Facebook tribute posts of friends and Jo truly was the spiritual backbone and heart colleagues of Jo Ellen from all over the of the church. country, I realize just what a quiet difference She made welcome every person who one person can make in the lives of not just walked through the sanctuary doors. other people, but an entire community. Jo Ellen Ploeger touched my life from the Our LGBT rainbow community was moment we met in 1988. In 2004, she and especially blessed by her presence, her steady, Karen Dillaman provided loving strength and prayerful activism. Quiet. Steady. Sustained. personal care when I struggled with breast Encouraging. cancer. They let me stay at their home, and Jo, who passed just one year short of 70, Jo faced the fear with me when we took my was a loving partner to Karen Dillaman for 33 bandage off for the first time to see the surgical years. She was also a loving mom, grandma, scars and empty space. and an energetic sibling. She loved dogs, cats, Jo went through the ‘cancer experience’ sports, handsome women. She had a fantastic three times herself and once with Karen. gift for seeing into and right through a person She knew I needed loving support to handle - a strong, two-spirited, Native American my own personal encounter. These two connection to the spirit world. determined women went on to found Walking We celebrated Jo’s memory at Saturday’s Together Ministry of MCC Detroit, a support crowded memorial service, MCC-Detroit. In group, assisting people facing life-threatening our collective hearts, minds, memories the illness. life of this most extraordinary woman was As loving, committed partners Karen and honored. For me, as a church member and Jo were outstanding at raising money for the a choir member with her, she was the most American Cancer Society and at helping folks deeply spiritual person I’ve ever encountered. get through what is, for many, the darkest Jo was Christian in the most positive sense, hours of their lives. with faith as the cornerstone of her being. This See Remembering Jo, page 14

9 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com

® Remembering Jo Continued from p. 9 Cuba, I’m Proud Of You!

the ‘70s and sending people to labor camps lost count of how many states got same-sex Jo laughed often, loved a good time, for it. Many who fled the island were LGBT marriage this year alone. Full equality isn’t especially if it involved dressing in thinking out loud BY abby dees people escaping brutality and imprisonment. quite around the corner for either of us, but it’s costumes! She and Karen hosted amazing Only in the 1980s did the official in sight. As I sipped my cafe con leche in that gatherings, including their 25th anniversary government line begin to change. Even Castro very different country, talking with Marco, I party at the Detroit Zoo. Jo’s wicked sense has publically apologized for his homophobia, pondered how so many different paths can of humor was legendary, matching her though he stopped short of starting a PFLAG take you to the same place. heart’s capacity for love boundless. It’s happening chapter. You might have heard that Mariela Later during my trip another local said to She resolutely walked her own path and Castro – Fidel’s niece and the daughter me, “The successes of the revolution” – and was more true to herself than anyone else here, it’s of current president, Raul – is a leading there were some, despite great failures – “had I’ve ever known. Jo was a person whom LGBT activist, and fiercely challenging her little to do with communism and everything you never forget. She was the person who father’s own policies (she’s traveling the U.S. to do with the Cuban people.” That is a bigger brought a smile to every face whenever she happening there, speaking on LGBT rights as I write). One statement than he likely meant in the moment. walked into a room. Once you met her, you wonders if, kind of like Republican Senator It made me think about our own LGBT it’s happening Rob Portman, Fidel and Raul’s political revolution – hopefully a more peaceful and Jo was Christian in the most positions softened regardless of when a family member positive sense, with faith told them to get over Despite the supposed social equality that as the cornerstone of her it. Sometimes when it Cuba’s government has espoused since the politics. comes to family, human being. This distinctive faith nature trumps political 1959 communist revolution, until only recently, was so much a natural part In the information packet for my recent ideology. LGBT people have been outright persecuted. trip to Cuba, I immediately noticed this small Marco, our lovely of her that she didn’t have caveat: “While Cuba is becoming more and guide, tells me over coffee that he feels very to broadcast it. If you talked more open-minded with regard to cultural diversity, same-sex partners may not feel as free to sashay through inclusive one than Fidel’s – and how it has to Jo for more than a couple open to express themselves. Havana is quite Remedios. He is famous there, by the way, nothing to do with politics or even national cosmopolitan in this regard, but smaller for designing the elaborate costumes used identities. Instead, it has everything to do of minutes, you would know villages are not as accustomed to open in the town’s famous annual festival, Las with each of us being honest about who we Parrandas, and no one is under any illusions she loved and walked with expression or affection by LGBT community really are, doing it with courage, and standing members.” It must have taken some poor soul that he just hasn’t found the right girl. But together. Happy Pride, everyone, whether God every minute of her life. hours to craft this in a way that didn’t sound he also admitted that Remedios is an artsy you’re in Cuba, the U.S. or anywhere else. like this: “Don’t act too gay in Cuba.” place, and like all artsy places, there’s some Imagine my surprise when I met our guide permission to be a bit queer, so to speak. I asked if he felt he was treated as an Abby is a civil rights attorney-turned-author were affected by her from that moment on. for the day in the town of Remedios, four hours from Havana. With his purse and eye- equal in Cuba, and he proudly replied, “¡Sí!” who has been in the LGBT rights trenches for Jo is a reminder of what the human race And same-sex marriage? I got a terse, “No.” 25+ years. She can be reached through her can be when we are our best selves. Our liner, Marco practically floated along as he pointed out the sights. Though we weren’t However, in five years, “és possible.” website: queerquestionsstraighttalk.com thoughts and sympathies go to Karen, who Same here, I thought, even though I’ve now loved Jo best for so many decades, her sons, on an LGBT-themed tour, Marco had no grandson, siblings. problem stopping regularly to admire the After Jo passed away, Karen wrote: “I male eye-candy (lots of that in Cuba), and spent the last hour going through little answering our questions about LGBT rights slips of paper in Jo’s Bible. This one made as comfortably as he described the lovely me smile. It’s so “her”: ‘Forgiveness is the colonial architecture. I was struck that fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that the tourist office had no problem sending has crushed it - Mark Twain”. I know that someone so – shall we say – fabulous to when Jo walked into heaven, everyone lead a random group of Americans around. smiled. I couldn’t see this happening back home. We have all been blessed and transformed Things have changed a lot in Cuba. by Jo, no matter how long we knew her. Despite the supposed social equality that This one person truly did change our world Cuba’s government has espoused since – for the better. God bless you, Jo. Eternal the 1959 communist revolution, until only peace and presence. recently, LGBT people have been outright persecuted. It’s ironic that just as McCarthy was rooting out gays and lesbians for being (of Ellen Simmons, recently retired from the course) communist sympathizers in the U.S., Detroit Public Library system, formerly head Castro considered homosexuality a decadent of the Music & Performing Arts Main Public product of capitalism. You really couldn’t Library section, is a member of the Metropolitan win. We Americans mellowed out around Community Church of Detroit the pinko/gay thing somewhat, but the Cuban Communist party was calling homosexuality “incompatible with the revolution” well into

14 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com Whose Nose Knows Best? Parting Glances

Opinion BY CHARLES ALEXANDER

n the movie “The Ten Percent Solution” master sleuth Sherlock Holmes visits shrink Sigmund Freud for some Idesperate psychoanalytical advice on how to break a cocaine addiction. (Whether Holmes’ up-the-nosegay 10 Percenter is occasioned by sharing close flatmate quarters with his amanuensis Dr. John H. Watson, at 221B Baker Street, is left up to the viewer’s imagination or wishful thinking.) Although Holmes is fictional – the creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – who actually did believe in the existence of garden fairies – Freud (1856 to 1939), innovator of guilt riddance through free association and dream interpretation, was a bona fide MD. (Ask anyone with an unresolved oedipal complex, presently paying a therapist $150 an hour.) Freud himself used cocaine at a time when its use as a panacea for many human ills was legal. He soon learned that cocaine is addictive, but was fortunately able to stop its usage in time. (Unlike contemporary Dr. William Halstead, famous in the 1880s for introducing life-saving surgical and gowning procedures to hospital operating theaters. Halstead’s use proved to be a lifelong curse.) Time now to blow the nose, so to speak, on Freud. He actually had something of a fixation for the nose and its place in the grand physical, mental, sexual scheme of things. (Break out the Handiwipes! Mary.) Freud borrowed these nasal notions from a neurologist named Wilhelm Fliess, who dabbled in numerology, and believed that men had sexual cycles like women’s menstrual periods. (As for my own sexual cycles: they seem to come and go.) Fliess coined the term bisexual, and said there’s a link between the nose and gonads. Rewiring the nasal passage can cure sexual shortcomings, said Fliess. At first, Freud was taken with Fliess, admitting to something akin to a crush, but was soon embarrassed by his colleague’s, er, wacky post-nasal drip, and dropped him. But Fliess was on to something. There is a connection between the nose and gonads; and getting scent-induced nookie was obvious in gay bars of the 60s and 70s. Walk into any one of these aroma outbacks and it was a contest of the strength of my perfume vs the stamina of your cologne. (Leather bars had other, albeit ruffian, standards of aromatic conflict.) I still wear patchouli, which long ago was once “the scent du jour.” It’s inexpensive and smells like fresh laundry drying in the summer sun. Other popular scents were Polo, Canoe, Pepper, Gravel, with pebbles in the bottom of the bottle. A few butch dykes (no doubt on limited fashion budgets) sported Old Spice. Today’s rage is phenomone spray. It’s designed for male moths that are attracted to other male moths – usually found fluttering about the same busy streetlights. (In 1989, scientists discovered that the nose has a vomeronasal organ that can detect over 200 human scents.) Recently I sprayed myself through three-quarters of a $30 bottle of phenomore content. I stood a lot, smiled a lots, moved about a lot. Flapped a lot. Spreading phenos. Nothing happened. I left alone, followed by an alley cat of unspecified gender and intention. I awoke smelling like an unlaced gym shoe. Its seems everybody’s vomeronasal organ had petered out on me.

15 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com ® West Michigan Pride Department of Education Continued from p. 5 The festival will kick off with an Announces Changes to opening ceremony followed by on- stage entertainment featuring a wide range of music genres including rock, FAFSA Form hip-hop, jazz, blues, folk, Broadway and show tunes. The community By BTL Staff choir In Harmony will also perform. Following tradition, the program will In April, as part of the Obama Administration’s efforts to treat close with drag-show acts and the ever- all families fairly and equally, the U.S. Department of Education popular local group Rev. Charles and announced that beginning with the 2014-2015 federal student aid The PotatoBabies. Grand Rapids celebrates Pride in 1992 form, the Department will – for the first time – collect income Tabor admits some people have been and other information from a dependent student’s legal parents unhappy about returning West Michigan regardless of the parents’ marital status or gender, if those parents Pride downtown to the Calder for this supported West Michigan Pride from carried books and newspapers to shield live together. The 2014-2015 Free Application for Federal year because of its tendency to be hot its beginning. their faces when the media showed Student Aid, or FAFSA, will use terms like “Parent 1 (father/ in summer. Through the years the event Individuals may walk in the parade up,” said Roller. mother/stepparent)” and “Parent 2 (father/mother/stepparent)” has been held in various locations. and a prize will be given for the most Through the years the festival Aside from downtown, Pride has been creative outfit. Men may be shirtless grew and while protestors were held at Ah-Nab-Awen Park, near the and women must at least wear a bikini always present in the early decades John Ball Zoo on Grand Rapids’ west top. Proper bottoms or pants must be holding signs and sometimes heckling side, and in 2010 it moved to Riverside worn at all times. Any outfit deemed speakers, the number of protestors Park by the Grand River. With its ample inappropriate by West Michigan Pride gradually declined while the number All students should be able to apply parking and shade trees, Riverside Park will not be permitted to join the parade. of people attending the Pride steadily for federal student aid within a system that was a favorite of some. “I know some Also new this year will be a pub increased. “ people have said that it will be too crawl starting at 6 p.m. on Friday, June, As one who helped organize the incorporates their unique family dynamics,” hot at Calder Plaza, but many other 14 featuring the gay-friendly bars: first Pride festival, Roller smiles when festivals are held there throughout the Diversions, Rumors, Pub 443 and The he thinks about how far the event has summer and lots of people still come,” Apartment Lounge. come. “It’s probably the proudest thing - U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. said Tabor. Organizers also like the in my life. To think that I was in the right place at the right time, among idea of the festival being more visible instead of gender-specific terms like “mother” and “father.” Rooted In History the right people, and that we were to the community as opposed to being “All students should be able to apply for federal student aid Tabor said with greater acceptance, able to sow a seed that has germinated somewhat hidden. within a system that incorporates their unique family dynamics,” passage of antidiscrimination laws so beautifully. This is completely Visibility, as well as the Anniversary said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “These changes and marriage equality, attendance at unbelievable. I’m proud of what gay celebration are the inspiration for a will allow us to more precisely calculate federal student aid West Michigan Pride has grown over people have done for themselves, and parade this year. Tabor said corporate eligibility based on what a student’s whole family is able to time. In 2009 there were about 2,500 how we’ve reached out and gained our sponsors, in particular, are being contribute and ensure taxpayer dollars are better targeted toward at the festival and in the last two years families and our friends as allies. It’s encouraged to have a float or some those students who have the most need, as well as provide an approximately 11,000 went through pride, that in spite of all the obstacles kind presence in the parade, which will inclusive form that reflects the diversity of American families.” the gate - a huge number compared and barriers, lesbians and gays have make its way around a large city block Equality Matters reported last week, that during a May 10 to the first Pride held in Grand Rapids made these kinds of strides. The times starting from Calder Plaza. “There are edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy criticized the in 1988. are a changing!” so many corporations that sponsor us, change, warning that “the P.C. police are loose in the federal Rev. Bruce Roller says the inspiration In addition to the celebration of the but then they don’t show themselves,” government.” to launch a Pride Festival in West 25th Anniversary of the Pride festival said Tabor. “We’d like them to have As the Fox & Friends crew struggled to think of reasons to Michigan came during a visit he, his in Grand Rapids, West Michigan something in the parade to show that criticize the language change – like co-host Gretchen Carlson’s partner at the time and Dennis Komack Pride Board President Amy Tabor said they’re in support of us. Herman Miller concern that parents will “start fighting over which one is 1 and and Jeff Swanson made to Washington there’s more news. West Michigan will have a truck in the parade.” which one is 2” – Fox displayed several headlines suggesting D.C. for gay pride event in 1987. Pride is proud to announce that it Blaine Ubelhor who’s in charge of that the new language somehow punished heterosexual parents: Inspired by the speakers and thousands is going to merge with the LGBT the parade said the event will be a “Happy Mother’s Day (Not)! Baltimore Schools Ban Words of gays and lesbians gathered on the Network in Grand Rapids. At one historic moment for the community. ‘Mother, Father’” was just one example. mall, they agreed they had “to do point in the past West Michigan Pride “With equal rights, victories in Think Progress website reported that, “This change mimics something like this in Grand Rapids.” separated from The Network, forming marriage equality, benefits for same sex similar changes made at other federal agencies. In 2011, for The following summer they its own board and establishing its couples, the repeal of don’t ask, don’t example, the State Department initiated reforms to give passport and others organized a rally in the own office. “We’re very pleased to let tell, and the election of progressive forms a more gender-neutral parental designation. Doing so amphitheater downtown featuring everyone know that at the conclusion politicians who support our struggle, required minimal changes to federal forms while significantly speakers including ministers from of the festival, Pride will be handled we thought this was the right time to enhancing the accuracy, fairness, effectiveness, and efficiency local churches. He estimates about by the Network in the future. The two celebrate with a parade. We’ve come a of government operations.” 100 people were in the audience. “We operated as one in the past and we long way in this conservative part of Think Progress pointed out that the change first guarantees had about eight or nine members of thought now would be a good time for the country and we’re proud of what that all families are treated fairly and equally in the higher the clergy on stage who spoke wearing Festival operations to be merged into we’ve accomplished,” he said. education financial aid process and second the change advances their collars and showing their support. The Network again,” said Tabor. The The Grand Marshalls of the Pride the efficiency and effectiveness of delivering aid based on need, It was amazing,” said Roller. Network’s office is located at 343 Atlas Parade are Ed Ladner and Milt Lennox, and not allowing irrelevant factors such as sexual orientation to He recalls that local gays and Ave. SE in Grand Rapids’ East Town former owners The Apartment Lounge factor into the application process. lesbians were fired up about the event neighborhood. in Grand Rapids, which is the state’s While anti-gay adoption laws and the Defense of Marriage Act but many were fearful about being oldest continually operating gay (DOMA) continue to present a number of problems for students seen. “I remember there were some and lesbian friendly bar. The couple For more information about West with same-sex parents, this announcement is seen as a big step who showed up wearing big hats or has been together 49 years and has Michigan Pride 2013 visit Pride’s Facebook forward for LGBT equality in higher education.

16 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com Creep of the Week Online Safety A Must For E. W. Jackson Opinion BY D’ANNE WITKOWSKI

h, Virginia, you crazy. “Their minds are perverted, The LGBT Community And if you need proof you they’re frankly very sick people Oneed look no further than, psychologically, mentally and E. W. Jackson, the Republican emotionally and they see everything By Crystal A. Proxmire If you find a site that has something usually pictures/videos. As the candidate for Lieutenant Governor. through the lens of homosexuality,” you don’t like, contact the website predator builds their library on Jackson, along with gubernatorial Jackson said in a 2012 interview The keyboard gives people administrator immediately and ask their victims they blackmail the candidate Ken Cuccinelli “are with LaBarbera. “When they talk courage. It’s easy to fall into a false them to remove or revise the content. victims with the pics/vids they’ve a right wing blog’s comments about love they’re not talking sense of security when the Internet Protecting your personal previously sent. And that’s when the sections personified,” according to about love, they’re talking about seems like just a screen on your desk information is also vital. The guide demands become increasingly more LOLGOP (which you really should homosexual sex. So they can’t see or in the palm of your hand. But recommends taking time to think humiliating and degrading.” follow on Twitter immediately). being connected to the web means before you act and “be wary of One scenario is with male dating And, terrifyingly, they could win. you are connected to the world, and communications that push for your or hook-up sites. “Men targeting gay How bad can it be, you wonder? You know, I’m not a there are certain vulnerabilities that immediate action or ask for person men on online hook-up sites (squirt, Oh, where to start? Well, how about Christian scholar, but LGBT people in particular need to information.” Take caution before adam 4 adam, etc.), sometimes on Jackson’s campaign website keep in mind. downloading apps and unknown hooking up with them and taking where he makes his feelings on can Jackson really The LGBT Technology files. And remember that “once photos or simply getting them to heterosexual marriage clear. Partnership, Stop Think Connect, posted, always posted.” This means send them photos and then using the “I strongly support the only only think of a “very and the National Cyber Security “think twice before sending or photos as blackmail,” is a situation true definition of marriage as a few things” that piss Alliance have teamed up to share posting pictures or comments you that Victims Services has seen over sacred union between one man online safety tips for people in would not want your parents, co- and over again. “I’m going to send and one woman,” he says. “Any God off as much as the LGBT community. “Whether workers or other friends to see.” these photos to your family/boss, other arrangement will never be a homosexuality? you are lesbian, gay, bisexual, Equality Michigan, a statewide etc. unless you give me money,” is ‘marriage’ no matter what anyone advocacy organization with a the example Siferd said. calls it. This has been the definition Beyond the potential for blackmail for thousands of years, and it is clearly.” are hook-up crimes, where someone disappointing that we have come In case Jackson’s feelings about is targeted online and then robbed or to a place where radical activists, homosexuals wasn’t clear, he assaulted upon meeting. Each year politicians, lawyers and judges Targeting young people, closeted people, later said, in the same interview, there are cases of this happening in arrogantly seek to change that “Homosexuality is a horrible sin, it Michigan and elsewhere. Siferd said definition and turn history, biology and those with low self-esteem is the hallmark poisons culture, it destroys families, “ that “there absolutely are dangers in and reality upside down.” it destroys societies; it brings the of these predators because a little bit of flattery meeting strangers online, but there Never mind that the “definition” judgment of God unlike very few are things you can do to minimize of marriage has hardly been can go a long way in building trust. things that we can think of.” the risks.” an unchanging institution for You know, I’m not a Christian She gave the following tips to “thousands of years.” One need scholar, but can Jackson really only have a safer online experience: only comb the Bible for examples. - Yvonne Siferd, director of victims services, Equality Michigan think of a “very few things” that piss 1. Understand that if you are Speaking of upside down reality, ” going to send photos/videos of God off as much as homosexuality? Jackson goes on to say, “I will Off the top of my head I can think yourself to another, you no longer defend the rights of Americans who transgender or straight, how you victim’s services program, also has of a few things that should be higher have any power as to how they will hold to the truth against all efforts to conduct yourself online can reveal advice for LGBTs online. Yvonne on God’s priority list: genocide, be used which means they could end persecute, marginalize and silence a lot about you – perhaps more Siferd, director of victims services slavery (not a thing of the past, up being used to blackmail you, or them.” Because in Jackson’s world, than you’d be comfortable sharing. knows all too well the dangers folks), rich people getting richer all over the internet. it’s the anti-gay Christians who are One of the biggest concerns for of not being careful online. Her while the poor starve to death, rape, 2. Do NOT give out personal discriminated against. LGBT individuals is the amount of organization helps people who have torture, pedophilia. information like your phone number, But wait, it gets worse. information across multiple social not only been hurt by online rumors, Oh, but wait. Jackson thinks that address, financial information, job In a 2012 interview with Peter platforms that could easily expose outings and bullying, but also those homosexuality and pedophilia are address, etc. LaBarbera of Americans For Truth their sexual orientation or gender who have become victims of crime. the same thing. 3. Pay attention to severe mood About Homosexuality, Jackson said identity. As a result, your online “Young people, people in In 2010 he said, “I know there swings/changes in conversation - the kind of thing that makes you conduct from your interactions on the closet, and other vulnerable are people who say it’s unfair pay attention to red flags! If they wonder if he knew his mic was on: social networks to the mobile apps populations are also particularly to associate homosexuality with are pressuring you about anything, “Liberalism and their ideas have you download can lead to real life at risk online - and not just in the pedophilia … but I believe there think twice about their motivations. done more to kill black folks whom unintended consequences,” says LGBT communities,” Siferd said. is a direct connection because 4. Try to verify their identity - do they claim so much to love than the their recently-released guide “What “Predators target vulnerable people, what they really want is absolute, a background check if you can. Ku Klux Klan, lynching and slavery LGBT Communities Should Know and because of the anonymity they complete and total sexual freedom.” 5. If you are going to meet up, and Jim Crow ever did, now that’s About Online Safety.” can pose as anyone. They learn how But, hey, he said that three years ensure that it is in a public place and a fact.” They recommend taking to speak the language of whomever ago. And we all know how quickly that someone knows where you are It really makes you wonder how ownership of your online presence they are targeting. attitudes toward LGBT people and check in with them. Jackson defines “fact.” I suspect it by reviewing your privacy settings “Targeting young people, are evolving, right? Then again, is not reality-based. on social networks, enabling closeted people, and those with If you or anyone you know have been Jackson doesn’t strike me as the There’s also that time when notifications so you can see which low self-esteem is the hallmark of the victim of blackmail, harassment, or type to believe in evolution. Jackson said that gays are blinded posts and photos of you are posted, these predators because a little bit other crimes, contact Equality Michigan Please, Virginia, just say no to by their one-track homo-sex-having and doing a search for yourself to of flattery can go a long way in Victim Services at 313-537-7000. For this guy and his buddy Cuccinelli. minds. make sure nothing comes up that building trust. Once a little trust is immediate help contact the local police. Be better than this. you don’t want the world to know. built, they begin to make demands, Learn more at the Equality Michigan 17 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com COLOR

Natalie Maines

Photo: Danny Clinch Gets Real Dixie Chicks Singer Talks Lesbian Hair, Rachel Maddow Crush & ‘Fake’ Country Music

By Chris Azzopardi President George W. Bush, Maines being disowned – and her new Are you conscious of your look and So maybe. But the lesbians goes her own way for her first-ever short hair – made her feel closer how it represents the music? liked me already! Yeah, this is o quote a Dixie Chicks song, solo album, “Mother.” Parting with to the gay community and whether With two kids, there’s not enough definitely a lesbianish haircut I’ve fearless frontwoman Natalie longstanding bandmates Emily now, a decade after her Bush time in the day to spend on what got going on. I don’t mind. I love Maines has “been a longtime Robison and Martie Maguire for outburst, she’s ready to make nice. T I look like; this is a much easier Rachel Maddow. She would be gone.” the album (don’t worry, she says look. And it fits my personality my lesbian girl crush. Seven years after one of the there’s a “50/50” chance for a You’re sporting that punkish ’do; more. I had short hair growing up, most successful country music acts reunion LP), it’s also decidedly Why Rachel? before, with the Dixie Chicks, it was and it always felt right for me. released “Taking the Long Way,” not country. the long, blond locks. She’s hot! And she’s smart and and its unapologetic single “Not In our recent chat, Maines I know. Well, with the Chicks, I Has the short hair scored you more beautiful … and I like her hair. Ready to Make Nice” in response revealed why she went rock definitely felt like I was playing lesbian cred? to the singer’s political dig at then- (country “seemed so fake”), how I could see it working out between dress up a bit – but I liked it! (Laughs) I barely leave my house.

18 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com you two. cave so quickly to emails and phone calls Yeah, I think that would work. I don’t know they were getting and feed the controversy, if my husband or her girlfriend would think which was so really nothing and ridiculous. so. (Laughs) That did feel like a stabbing in the back, just because I felt like we waved that You’ve always had a really loyal gay fan base, country flag and we had country pride for even before you publicly chastised George all those years. But everyone jumped on W. Bush. How do you explain your connection board. We were fun to hate. with gay fans? That’s because you were ahead of your time. We had some very costume-y, over-the-top looks that the gays do appreciate. (Laughs) Exactly. Always have been. But after the controversy, I feel like there When hardly anyone in country music was was even more of a connection, and that’s speaking out about equal rights and gay just because we both know how it feels to marriage, you were. be hated just for who we are – not for doing anything, bothering anyone, murdering Well, that’s why I was so shocked that people anyone or being arrested. Just for being were so shocked that I was a Democrat us. Apparently, that’s not good in some and wasn’t for the war! I mean, I did not people’s eyes. But also, too, to just continue ever feel like I was hiding something. To being and let other people get used to it – be in country music, I felt like we were learning to be OK with yourself and just accepted because of our differences, really, putting it out there, and people can either and we went beyond your typical country like you or not, but it’s really on them. fan base, and I feel like it was because we were different. It was a real surprise to me Were you noticing more support from the gay that people thought I was something that community at shows after the incident? I wasn’t. I felt disappointed in myself! Yeah. And we would get lots of emails, and How could I let anyone think anything a lot of the community would come right up else?! (Laughs) But we did always answer and say, “I love that you did this. I didn’t questions if we were asked them, and I listen to your music before, but after this, I always supported women’s rights and gay went and bought every record.” However marriage and everything. it was that they showed their support, I Why do you think more country music artists definitely felt it. haven’t taken that step in publicly supporting During the time country radio blacklisted equal rights – even though some of them the Dixie Chicks and country stars stopped might? supporting you, what was it like for you Well, they weren’t speaking out about it behind the scenes? before, either. But I’m sure some do. How At the time, I was just in fight mode I always viewed country music growing up and feeling defiant and ready to take on – why I didn’t really relate to it or why I everything and everybody. Actually, at the wasn’t drawn to it – was because, to me, it time, we were getting such overwhelming seemed so fake. Everyone was putting on support and letters from people in the these fake smiles, nobody had any anger industry – actors and all sorts of people and they were all just happy to be there. I – and that was all really positive. I was just did not relate to that. Shoot. What was always able to separate business from your question again? I get so on a soapbox! personal – and my friends weren’t fellow (Laughs) country artists, so I really didn’t care About the lack of country artists advocating about that. What I cared about was being for equal rights. banned at a corporate level; it felt very un- American and very not OK to me, so that I just think that’s the nature of country was my issue. And that is my issue with music. I don’t know. I just don’t feel like country music. they ever have. I have to think that Faith I don’t have an issue with country music Hill has answered that question, honestly, fans. I don’t have an issue with country and that she’s for gay marriage. I don’t music artists. I was very honest about my know that she is, but I’ve spoken to her influences and the kind of music I came some and I know that she’s a pretty liberal from – and country was not it. I say that person. I don’t keep up with her press so I now and people think, “Ooh, she’s mad at don’t want to assume these people haven’t country,” and I never listened to country. spoken out. I would say that if ever asked, but I was Will there ever be another Dixie Chicks never asked as much as I am now. But … album? I can’t remember what I was talking about. (Laughs) I don’t know. It’s possible. I’d say 50/50. (Laughs) I try to not predict the future or You were talking about not being fond of the project; I just really try to live in the now, country music industry. so I’m open to it. I have no ill feelings Oh, you asked if I felt let down. I mean, about the Dixie Chicks. I think right now, it did suck to see all these radio stations See Natalie, page 24

19 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com Abigail Stauffer: Unfiltered Ann Arbor Musician On New Album, Taylor Swift & Being True To Herself By Andrea Poteet INFO to Detroit nonprofit Rap for Food’s video “We Are Never Ever Eating Bad Abigail Stauffer is having a hard time Abigail Stauffer & Together,” a take on the Taylor Swift concentrating on this interview. Kate Peterson song “We Are Never Ever Getting Back It’s not her fault. As she’s strolling Together,” to promote the organization’s down an Ann Arbor street and talking 8 p.m. May 30 sustainable food message, Stauffer has to me on her cell phone, there’s a lot The Ark been pegged as sort of a dreadlocked contending for her attention. There’s 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor vegan poster girl. That image, though, a street band providing background www.theark.org couldn’t be further from the truth. music, there are friends she runs into Healthy eating is great, she says, but on the street, (“Oh my God! I’d love her second album “No Contradictions” she’s no one’s food role model. to talk to you, but I can’t!” she calls to on May 30, takes the same open- “I’m always going to eat cheesecake one) and there’s the ever-present thought book approach to her confessional and cookies and sugar,” she says. “Even somewhere in the back of her mind that songwriting, with lyrics about love, if someone said that was the absolute maybe she shouldn’t be telling me all relationships and spirituality. worst thing I could do for my body. of this. “It’s just letting people in on exactly You should make that the title of your “It’s more a matter of, ‘Will I regret how I was feeling at the moment or am article!” this later?’” the singer-songwriter feeling,” Stauffer says. “There’s really She said she wasn’t afraid to cover a explains. “Like, ‘Oh, I didn’t want you deeply emotional things I tend to write Taylor Swift song. She enjoys Swift’s to put that!’ In the last Between The Lines about. Sometimes it’s a struggle. I use songwriting. But she was worried that interview I had (in 2011) I was like, ‘Oh, my songwriting a lot to kind of process the song and video would come off as my mom’s gonna read that! OK, no filter my own difficulties and let someone in cheesy or second-rate, concerns she said for a second.’” on what kind of weakness I might have.” subsided when she saw the finished video For Stauffer, the lack of a filter isn’t a One weakness lately seems to be how for the first time. bad thing. The 24-year-old, who releases she’s viewed. After lending her voice See Abigail, page 29

20 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com

Hear Me Out By ChRIS Azzopardi Vampire Weekend, ‘The Great Gatsby’

go Zumba class for the chorus-repeating, LMFAO-esque mess “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)”; and, with Britney-like backup, will.i.am contributes the nearly-as-awful “Bang Bang,” waffling between club trash and brassy jazz like it wants to introduce contemporary beats to the early 20th century. Sia and Florence and the Machine, sad to say, expectedly deliver diva histrionics, though forgettably so. Only Lana Del Rey, with the haunting but lyrically faint languidness of “Young and Beautiful,” truly connects with what’s missing from the rest of this either superficial or super-dramatic soundtrack: passion and heart. Grade: C- Also Out Joshua Radin, ‘Wax Wings’ Joshua Radin’s puppy-sweet serenades have soundtracked CW shows, a J.C. Penney ad and Ellen and Portia’s wedding; no doubt, then, that the Cleveland native’s latest will attract Vampire Weekend, ‘Modern Vampires corruption, war and the future loom as they brides-to-be and “Army Wives” producers. of the City’ confront the end of days and spirituality That means more of the same innocuous Vampire Weekend puts down the horchata with curiosity, style and melodies that mellowness and softie-soul vulnerability and ponders death without religion and will live on long after we do. It’s not just on his delightfully pleasing “Wax Wings,” this misguided generation for their junior their best album; it’s a modern-day classic. Radin’s independently released fifth disc “Modern Vampires of the City.” The Grade: A studio album. “Beautiful Day” charms affable NYC hip-popsters grow out of ‘The Great Gatsby’ with a life-affirming jingle tailored for the youthfully luminous “Contra,” a sun- soundtrack window-down driving, and “When We’re kissed triumph released three years ago, Together” – almost Taylor Swift-sounding The vapid and into this wonderfully warped tribute to – will undoubtedly commemorate a mass soullessness of Manhattan with big-boy ambition, inspired of summer marriages. Baz Luhrmann’s homages and the band’s trademark lyrical polarizing Pistol Annies, mind-benders. “Diane Young,” a slick adaptation of “The ‘Annie Up’ little homophone (“dying young” – get Great Gatsby” it?), has a “baby, baby, baby” chorus that When Miranda extends to the remake’s Jay-Z-produced in theory sounds crushingly ho-hum; in Lambert’s girl soundtrack, on which artists du jour try sound, though, with the pitch-shifting of group Pistol to capture the essence of the Roaring lead singer Ezra Koenig’s winsome singing Annies proclaimed ’20s. Beyoncé teams with André 3000 into near-Chipmunk highs and Elvis lows, themselves “hell for a cinematically lurid take on Amy it’s everything but. Weekend sound-whiz on heels” on their Winehouse’s “Back to Black,” where Bey Rostam Batmanglij (who hooks up with 2011 debut, they weren’t kidding. With a sounds sumptuously delicious despite Ariel Rechtshaid, the first co-producer slow-burn, the trio – more integrated here this being a completely unnecessary to oversee one of their projects) paints as an act – kicks off their follow-up with cover. One of Bey’s biggest hits, “Crazy with the band’s distinguished palette of “I Feel a Sin Comin’ On,” casting them as in Love,” goes to ultra talented British classically influenced world beats – Afro temptresses out on the prowl in this sexy soulstress Emeli Sandé, and poor thing is out, however – but colors outside the desperate-housewives ditty. In the fiery sits in the shadow of its originator; this lines: “Unbelievers” debuts their use of spirit of the Dixie Chicks, “Unhappily swinging big-band version with the a horn section and an accordion, “Ya Married” comically spins a story of a Bryan Ferry Orchestra sucks the life out Hey” works in Björk effects from the miserable couple over a cranked-up of the song. Made for Luhrmann’s flashy “Vespertine” era and “Everlasting Arms” chorus. “Being Pretty Ain’t Pretty” is scenes of party debauchery are the front- resembles Paul Simon like it’s 1986 all a witty reveal of the distress of looking decked cavorts on the disc: Jay-Z’s cheap over again. “Modern Vampires of the City” good. Sounding this good, though – as “100$ Bill” awkwardly shoehorns Leo is the quartet at its most sophisticated; easy as them, it seems. dialogue into the track; Fergie and Q-Tip

22 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com 23 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com If making nice means“ making a country record and going back to that, then no, I’m not ready.”

Why was the distinction between this album ® Natalie and your work with the Dixie Chicks important Continued from p. 19 to you? It’s just bugged me whenever I would see it’s logistics. There are eight kids among lead singers do a solo album that sounded the three of us and, for me, making an exactly like their band. It always seemed to album takes a lot of focus and a lot of be a way to get all the money for yourself. concentration and a lot of time, and I’m not (Laughs) So I did want to be different. But I willing to go to Texas to do that. I wouldn’t didn’t have to be conscious of that; this is just expect Martie and Emily to leave their what I’m naturally drawn to. families and come here to do that, either. I When we went into the studio, we didn’t just think it’s really hard right now. even know we were making a record. I was With the Dixie Chicks, you covered several very upfront about that with Ben (Harper’s) Patty Griffin songs, and “Mother” features band, just because they were basically Griffin’s song “Silver Bell.” What is it about coming (to the studio) for free every day; they enjoyed music and they wanted to experiment Patty and her songwriting that resonates with and see what happens – but I wasn’t telling you so much? The darkness? The realness? my management or my label, so there was no It’s all of that. I’m bad putting into words money coming from anywhere. things like that, but I love her songwriting. It was really like a band starting from And I hate her because, not only has she scratch, everybody putting in the same written a million songs that are out there, amount of time and hard work … and they she’s got all these songs that we’ve never got paid eventually. (Laughs) There just even heard. It’s so hard to write a song for wasn’t a discussion; it was just very organic me! And I’m so jealous that she has, like, in what naturally comes to me musically or back stock. appeals to me. Why was the seven years between “Taking Are you ready to make nice yet? the Long Way” and this new solo album a I don’t sit around stewing over it or necessary break for you? thinking about it at all, but if making nice Basically because kids take a lot of time. means making a country record and going (Laughs) I just decided to dive into back to that, then no, I’m not ready. motherhood and do that 100 percent – just try to enjoy this time and my life and my Has there been a peace agreement between kids’ lives and be, you know, a stable force you and Toby Keith? in their lives. Sure, I’ve got no issues. I don’t even think I definitely felt like I had worked really about any of these people. (Laughs) I hard and been on the road for over 10 wouldn’t have even thought of Toby Keith years, so I did want to slow down and just if he hadn’t put out a picture of me and get real for a while. So there was a lot of Saddam Hussein cuddling. self-realization and a lot of things that went on, but yeah, I needed a long while to just He could’ve at least had you cuddling with … be. Rachel Maddow. Gosh. (Laughs) Exactly!

24 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com 25 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com volunteers. Affirmations, 290 W. Nine Mile Road, Ferndale. 248-398-7105. goaffirmations.org Happenings SWEAT 6 p.m. A weekly support/social group to encourage those of us who need Sunday, May 26 allies. It is professionally facilitated and to achieve wellness and or weight loss. designed to provide a safe, therapeutic, The Network, 343 Atlas Ave. SE, Grand Outings Volleyball 1 p.m. With warm weather. and LGBT-affirming environment for Rapids. 616-458-3511. Grlgbt.org Located north of the Lansing Mall. participants to talk freely and find the Thursday, May 23 Lansing Association for Human Rights, support they need. Transportation may Talk Tuesdays 6 p.m. Free. KICK, 41 Lansing. [email protected] be arranged with advance notice and Burroughs St. 109, Detroit. 313-285- Jinkx Monsoon Jinkx Monsoon from 9733. e-kick.org season five of RuPaul’s Drag Race Conversation Station 5 p.m. Discussion driver availability. OutCenter, 132 Water performing live.18+. Menjo’s, 928 group with facilitator-LGBTQI (and allies) St., Benton Harbor. 269-925-8330. Because We Are Worth It (Sex Addicts McNichols Road W, Detroit. 313-863- 35 and over-join GOAL each week for outcenter.org Anonymous LGBTQ Meeting) 6:30 3934. Menjosbar.com discussion, food and fun. Topic: What One Voice Chorus 7 p.m. LGBT Choral p.m. Jim Toy Community Center, 319 gives you a knot in the pit of your Braun Court, Ann Arbor. 734-995-9867. 5 p.m. Free, anonymous group. Meets every Monday. Affirmations, Free HIV Testing stomach? Get Out And Live!, 714 S. jimtoycenter.org HIV testing is available at S3 Safe Sex 290 W. Nine Mile Road, Ferndale. 248- Washington St., Royal Oak. 248-981- Store every other Thursday until 9 p.m. 398-7105. Goaffirmations.org 4227. [email protected] Euchre at Esquire Club 6:30 p.m. Testing is performed by HARC staff. Call GetOutAndLive.me Sexual Compulsives Anonymous 7 p.m. Lansing Association for Human Rights, to schedule an appointment, but walk-ins A weekly anonymous 12-step group for 1250 Turner St., Lansing. 517-487-5338. are more than welcome. S3 Safe Sex Regardless Of (Narcotics Anonymous those who are facing sexually compulsive lahronline.org Store and HIVAIDS Resource Center, 1209 Meeting) 7 p.m. This is a closed meeting behaviors. Affirmations, 290 W. Nine S. University, Ann Arbor. 734-741-1434. for addicts or those who think they Greater Lansing Gay Men’s Chorus Mile Road, Ferndale. 248-398-7105. Rehearsal 6:45 p.m. Lansing Association [email protected] S3safesexstore.com might have a drug problem. This may GoAffirmations.org be a Common Needs meeting, but any for Human Rights, 510 W. Ottawa St., 5:30 Pride House Community Meeting addict seeking recovery is welcome! The Sistrum, Lansing Women’s Chorus Lansing. [email protected] p.m. Battle Creek Pride, Battle Creek. time has come that any addict seeking 7 p.m. Lansing Association for Human 269-420-8170. battlecreekpride@yahoo. Coming Out Over Coffee 7 p.m. Casual recovery in the Washtenaw area can find Rights, 1020 S. Harrison Road, Lansing. com discussion group about “coming out.” it. The more diverse the fellowship, the [email protected] lahronline.org Welcomes anyone at any point in their Walk, Jog or Running Group 6:30 p.m. more members we are able to reach! The journey. Affirmations, 290 W. Nine goal is to make the message of recovery Writing Group 7 p.m. Different focus for We can walk/run around the park area so each meeting. Meets fourth Monday of Mile Road, Ferndale. 248-398-7105. if we all go at our own paces we will still available to all so that any addict can goaffirmations.org be together. It doesn’t matter what shape you’re in. Just get out and join us! Get Out And Live!, Ferndale. Meetup.com/ GOAL-Get-Out-And-Live-LGBT Editor’s Pick Speak Out 7 p.m. Offers a welcoming environment for LGBT people to improve This Memorial Day weekend, head over to their public speaking and leadership Stoney Creek Metropark for the Sixth Annual skills. Meets the first and fourth Thursday of every month. Jim Toy Community Pedal Paddle Picnic, hosted by Get Out and Live: Center, 319 Braun Court, Ann Arbor. GOAL. Activities will include a potluck, biking, and 734-995-9867. Crystalr@jimtoycenter. kayaking – helmets and PFDs will be required. org JimToyCenter.org Inexpensive kayak rentals are available. Friday, May 24 GOAL is the premiere LGBT social and activity Womyn’s Film Night 7 p.m. Film: Four Minutes-Traude, an elderly music teacher club of Michigan, offering a variety of events to who gives piano lessons to prisoners, finds members of all ages, backgrounds, ethnicities and fitness levels. Beginning with a bicycle club, the an unexpected prodigy in Jenny, a brooding young inmate, and devotes herself to group has evolved to include picnics, dances, online events, concerts, travel and more. developing Jenny’s talent in the little time they have together. Affirmations, 290 W. The picnic will begin at 9 a.m. on Monday, May 27 at 4300 Main Park Road, Shelby Township. Nine Mile Road, Ferndale. 248-398-7105. Potluck will begin at 10 a.m. at the Winter Cove Picnic Area. A day or annual metropark pass will be Goaffirmations.org required to enter the picnic. For more information, visit www.meetup.com/GOAL-get-out-and-live- Saturday, May 25 LGBT/events. Open Meditation Saturdays 9 a.m. A communal, non-hierarchical meditation space open to all. Affirmations, 290 W. come to NA and feel that they too belong every month. Affirmations, 290 W. Nine Women’s Social Group 7 p.m. Women’s Nine Mile Road, Ferndale. 248-398- in this fellowship! Jim Toy Community Mile Road, Ferndale. 248-398-7105. discussion group. Plans a monthly group 7105. Goaffirmations.org Center, 319 Braun Court, Ann Arbor. goaffirmations.org activity such as dinner, movies, and LAHR Breakfast Club 10 a.m. Meet 734-995-9867. jimtoycenter.org games. Meets the second and fourth Bowling Night 8 p.m. Post-bowling at Flap Jack near Frandor. Lansing Tuesday of every month. The Lesbian West Michigan Gay Men’s Chorus cocktails at Woody’s Oasis, East Lansing, Association for Human Rights, Lansing. and Gay Community Network, 343 Atlas Celebrate 7:30 p.m. Fifth anniversary for “Gay Night.” Michigan Pride, 3103 [email protected] lahronline.org Ave. SE, Grand Rapids. 616-458-3511. concert. Tickets: $20. West Michigan Gay East Grand River Ave., Lansing. Grlgbt.org/calendar/ OutCenter Volunteer Orientation & Men’s Chorus, 2948 Blue Star Highway, michiganpride.org Training Session 12 p.m. OutCenter, 132 Douglas. 616-319-1221. wmgmc.org Tea & Talk 8 p.m. Open discussion LGBTA Gender Explorers Group 8 p.m. Water St., Benton Harbor. 269-925- with free tea and treats. Triple Goddess Meets the second and fourth Mondays 8330. Outcenter.org Monday, May 27 New Age Bookstore, 1824 E. Michigan of every month. Spectrum Center, 3200 Ave., Lansing. 517-347-2112. LezRead 4 p.m. Ann Arbors book group Sixth Annual Pedal Paddle Picnic Michigan Union, 530 S. State St., Ann Triplegoddessbookstore.net for Lesbians. Meets the last Saturday of 9 a.m. Winter Cove Picnic Area. Bike Arbor. [email protected] every month. LezReads, 319 Braun Ct., or kayak. Potluck. Helmets and PFDs Wednesday, May 29 Ann Arbor. 734-995-9867. Lezread@ required. Admission: Day or annual metro Tuesday, May 28 yahoo.com LezRead.com park pass. GOAL, 4300 Main Park Road, Senior Koffee Klatch 1 p.m. A lively, Shelby Township. meetup.com/GOAL- Grand River Connection Creative class. discussion and social group for LGBT YEP Night 4 p.m. For LGBT youth, Get-Out-And-Live-LGBT/events Lansing Association for Human Rights, adults over 45. Group covers topics ages 14-24. Affirmations, 290 W. Nine Lansing. grandriverconnection.com pertaining to aging and outside speakers. It’s Not Just Social: Using Social Mile Road, Ferndale. 248-398-7105. Gay Business Networking 8 a.m. Potluck dinners at members homes, Goaffirmations.org Media in the Job Search 1 p.m. Savvy lunches out and holiday parties. Meets job seekers know that social media is a Networking for LGBT business owners Men’s Discussion Group 6 p.m. and professionals. Every fourth Tuesday ever Wednesday on the upper level of powerful tool for the job search. Discover the Affirmations building. Senior Koffee Lighthearted or in-depth discussion on a how you can use your favorite social of the month. Get Out And Live!, 290 W. variety of topics. For gay, bi-affectional, and Nine Mile Road, Ferndale. 248-398- Klatch, 290 W. Nine Mile Road, Ferndale. tools to build a network, promote your 248-398-7105. GoAffirmations.org transgender men 18 and up. Affirmations, personal brand, and get access to great 7105. GetOutAndLive.me 290 W. Nine Mile Road, Ferndale. 248- career opportunities. Affirmations, 290 W. Older Adult and Senior Helpline 4 KGLRC Walk/Jog/Run Group 6 p.m. The 398-7105. Goaffirmations.org Nine Mile Road, Ferndale. 248-398- p.m. Provides peer counseling, empathy Resource Center’s Health and Wellness T-Party 7 p.m. A great opportunity for those 7105. Goaffirmations.org and community resources for LGBT Committee is proud to offer our very in the Transgender community and their adults. Affirmations, 290 W. Nine Mile own group devoted to walking, jogging, Board Meeting 6 p.m. Jim Toy and/or running. Everyone is welcome, allies to get to know each other. Coffee, tea Community Center, 319 Braun Court, Ann Road, Ferndale. 1-800-398-4297. and soft drinks available. Windsor-Essex goaffirmations.org regardless of physical ability and/or Arbor. 734-995-9867. jimtoycenter.org sexual orientation. Kalamazoo Gay and Pride Fest, 422 Pelissier, Windsor. 519-973- Aff Action Night 6 p.m. Educating 4656 windsorpride.com Adult Support Group 7 p.m. Our Whole Lesbian Resource Center, 4143 N. 10th Lives, Healthy Lives support group is free others about how to make Michigan and open to all LGBT adults and their an equality state. Pizza provided for See Happenings, page 30

26 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com

® Abigail or whether it’s about some other aspect of my Continued from p. 20 identity or my music, it all unites in the fact that I’m just being me. It’s all me. It doesn’t “I didn’t want my name and face on something contradict.” that turned out to be mediocre,” Stauffer says. Growing up in a musical family in Dexter, “And it didn’t. The video quality was amazing; Stauffer said she always sang and wrote music, the whole arrangement of everything was to varying degrees of success. As a child, she really high quality. So it makes me look like a idolized Amy Grant and said she wanted to professional, which I’d prefer. I don’t want to be famous, like most kids do, even though she look really amateur.” didn’t quite know what that entailed. As she Stauffer, who will hit the stage at The Ark grew, so did her songwriting, until she was with Nervous but Excited’s Kate Peterson the trading in small local venues for larger ones, same day her record is released (two days later, with the ultimate goal of supporting herself with on June 1, she’ll perform at Ferndale Pride), her music. seeks to correct misconceptions about herself And though she’s developed something of a and her music with “No Contradictions,” which following, beyond just the Ann Arbor locals who features elements of electronica and even rap stop her on the street, she remains leery of what under the guidance of Houston-based producer large-scale fame could mean. Christopher Norman. “I don’t want to be tabloid material,” she says. “That’s why I titled it ‘No Contradictions,’” “I want to be able to just share my music and my she says. “These genres might seem like, ‘Oh, thoughts with people – and I feel like in some you’re playing banjo on one song and you’re sense I’ve already done that. In some sense I’ve rapping on the next one,’ but they really do, to already made it, although it’s not financially me, feel like they tie together.” sustainable quite yet.” While recording, Stauffer said she used the Until it is, Stauffer works part-time jobs. new musical direction she found with Norman She nannied for a while, and now works as a (who became her “gay boyfriend” during the massage therapist and at a local shop called The long-distance recording sessions) to explore Grateful Dread, where she creates dreadlocks new lyrical paths. Where “Sleep to Dream” like the honey-colored ones that are pulled back heavily explored the relationship Stauffer, then from her face. newly out as a bisexual, had with religion, “No She’s passionate about each of her side jobs, Contradictions” delves more into the human she said, because, they help keep her afloat while experience. she focuses on her growing music career. And “I am a spiritual person however I label that above all, they allow her to meet, befriend and spirituality,” she says. “And there can be a share parts of herself with other people. tendency for some spiritual communities and And as she politely ducks into corners to avoid queer communities to clash with each other. street noise and asks almost as many questions of I find that to be a place to be like, ‘It’s not a me as I do of her, it’s easy to see that this people- contradiction to be one and the other.’ Whether loving thing, this open-book thing, it’s not an act. it’s about spirituality and people who are gay, It’s just her. No contradictions.

29 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com and the Church after I Come Out as Gay? 290 W. Nine Mile Road, Ferndale. 248- ® How Can the Church Welcome Gay People 398-7105. Goaffirmations.org/ Happenings in a Way that Honors Scripture and the Continued from p. 26 Message of Christ? The Clark Institute, Drag Queen Bingo 10 p.m. A fun 1130 Wealthy St. SE, Grand Rapids. alternative to your usual weekend hot grcmc.org spots. Shows get out just early enough St., Kalamazoo. KGLRC.org for you to hit the local clubs or bars! Gender Non-Conformists 7 p.m. A social Refreshments from our full coffee bar Beloved Hearts Grief Support Group and discussion group for transgender, (coffees, teas, smoothies), sodas, water, 6:30 p.m. We cannot change what has genderqueer, genderneutral and and more. Tickets: $20.18+. Club Five15, happened, but we can support and gender-exploring individuals. Space also 515 S. Washington Ave., Royal Oak. 248- walk beside you as you grieve. We can available to significant others. Meets 515-2551. five15.net give you hugs, help you cry and be the every Thursday. Affirmations, 290 W. soft place for you to fall when you feel Nine Mile Road, Ferndale. 248-398- like you cannot take another step. For 7105. [email protected] LGBT and allies grieving the death of a GoAffirmations.org Music & More loved one (including pets). GOAL, 515 S. Washington Ave., Royal Oak. 248-515- Weekly Support Group 7 p.m. Weekly Comedy 2551. getoutandlive.me support group for members of the HIV/ Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase “Geoff AIDS community. Wings, 2441 Pinecrest Tate” He’s one of the rising young stars Newly Single Support Group 6:30 Dr., Ferndale. wingsmi.org from the midwest that we’ve kept our eye p.m. Group for all dealing with the end on and he’s earned the spot of headliner of a relationship and want to talk-or Friday, May 31 at the Comedy Showcase. Tickets: $10+. listen-to others who share similar Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase, 314 E. experiences. Affirmations, 290 W. Nine SCA Farmer’s Market 8 a.m. Those Liberty St., Ann Arbor. May 24 - May 25. Mile Road, Ferndale. 248-398-7105. wishing to sell fresh fruits, vegetables, 734-996-9080. aacomedy.com Goaffirmations.org meats, and eggs, including baked goods, cheeses, honey products, flowers, and Caesars Windsor “Wayne Brady” Significant Other Support 7 p.m. related food products made regionally 19 or older. Tickets: $20+ Canadian. Discussion and support group for friends or by the vendor should apply. A limited Caesars Windsor, 377 E. Riverside Dr., and loved ones of LGBT. Affirmations, 290 W. number of handcrafted items can be Windsor. 9 p.m. May 25. 800-991-7777. Nine Mile Road, Ferndale. 248-398-7105. included; goods that relate to the serving caesarswindsor.com goaffirmations.org or enjoyment of food products will be given priority consideration in this Transgender SOS 7 p.m. A safe space category. Saugatuck Center for the Arts, Concerts for spouses, partners, family and 400 Culver St., Saugatuck. 269-857- Blind Pig “Third Annual Nirvana Tribute” friends of transgender people. Ages 2399. Sc4a.org Tickets: $8+. Blind Pig, 208 S. First St., 18 and up. Affirmations, 290 W. Nine Ann Arbor. 9:30 p.m. May 24. 734-996- Mile Road, Ferndale. 248-398-7105. Riot Youth 4 p.m. A youth-led, safe space 8555. Blindpig.com Goaffirmations.org for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning youth and their allies. Detroit Institute of Arts “The Rayse Ferndale Pride-Volunteer Planning Riot Youth also is a space for youth to talk Biggs Quartet” Trumpeter Rayse Biggs Meetings 7:30 p.m. Ferndale Pride, 290 W. and find support about their struggles as leads a group of the hottest jazz players Nine Mile Road, Ferndale. 248-398-7105. LGBTQQA youth. They have workshops on in the Detroit area in his highly charged Karaoke Night 9 p.m. Lansing various issues such as gender identity/ style of Motown jazz, while exploring Association for Human Rights, 1250 expression, intersections of LGBTQQA the music of past trumpet masters Lee Turner St., Lansing. 517-487-5338. identity with race and other social Morgan and Freddie Hubbard. Detroit lahronline.org identities, LGBTQQA history and writing Institute of Arts, Rivera Court, 2100 workshops. They also play theater games, Woodward Ave., Detroit. May 24 - May Thursday, May 30 host movie nights, and have parties. The 24. 313-833-7900. dia.org Neutral Zone, 310 E. Washington, Ann DTE Energy Music Theatre “Eddie Lansing Community College Gay Arbor. 734-214-9995. neutral-zone.org Straight Alliance 5:30 p.m. Bingo Money” Tickets: $10+. DTE Energy Music after at Esquire. Lansing Association for Polyqueer Womens Group 7 p.m. Theatre, 7774 Sashabaw Road, Clarkston. Human Rights, Lansing. spennyj@lcc. Open meeting to lesbian, bisexual 7:30 p.m. May 24. 248-377-0100. edu lahronline.org and transgendered women who are palacenet.com polyamorous or curious about women- Transgender Helpline 6:30 p.m. Elektricity Nightclub “Bass Mission: centered polyamory. Meets the last Team Bayside High” 18+. Elektricity A representative from Transgender Friday of the month. Jim Toy Community Michigan is available to answer questions Nightclub, 15 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac. Center, 319 Braun Ct., Ann Arbor. May 29. 248-599-2212. on helpline. Affirmations, 290 W. Nine 734-995-9867. [email protected] Mile Road, Ferndale. 248-398-7105. JimToyCenter.org Elektricity Nightclub “Mord Fustang” goaffirmations.org 18+. Free with RSVP. Elektricity Nightclub, Second Class Citizen Photo Shoot Gay and Christian: Believers Speak 15 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac. May 24. and Ferndale Pride Kick Off 7 p.m. 248-599-2212. 7 p.m. How Can We Reconcile What Tickets: $25. Ferndale Pride, 290 W. Nine the Bible Says with Who We Are? Mile Road, Ferndale. 248-398-7105. For The Seventh Generation “In What Are the Cultural, Translation, and ferndalepride.org Seventh Heaven 2013” The annual Interpretation Issues of the “Homosexual” fundraising gala for For The Seventh Bible Passages? How Can We Reconcile Womyn’s Film Night 7 p.m. Film: I Can’t Generation, an organization that matches the Fundamental Issues of Faith with the Think Straight. When Tala and Leyla meet donations of goods and services with Fundamental Issues of Being Human? in London and begin to have feelings for What is My Relationship to Christianity each other, it’s a problem. Affirmations, See Happenings, page 32 Editor’s Pick Music legends Sean Blackman and Wayne Gerard as Sin Hielo will perform with metro-Detroit band Emerging Soul at In Seventh Heaven, the annual fundraiser for For The Seventh Generation. The benefit will also include a multiple-course, gourmet strolling supper and beer and wine bar. Last year’s event raised over $30,000 from sponsorship dollars alone. For The Seventh Generation is a charitable organization that provides goods and professional services for foster children in need in the metro-Detroit area. Some of the group’s programs include providing orthodontic treatment for wards of the Wayne County court, and giving free musical instruments and lessons to children in foster care. The annual gala will be held at 7 p.m. on Saturday, June 1 at the Roostertail, 100 Marquette Dr., Detroit. Tickets range from $100-125, with a group discount available for four tickets. For more information, go to www.fortheseventhgeneration.org.

30 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com The von Trapp Family in Stagecrafters’ production of “The Sound of Music,” which runs May 31 – June 23 at the Baldwin Theatre in downtown Royal Oak. Photo: Lance Luce and Colleen Muench Classic Musical Graces The Baldwin’s Stage Stagecrafters Comes Alive With ‘The Sound Of Music’ Beginning May 31

ROYAL OAK – Stagecrafters doesn’t his friend Max (John Nowaczyk). From show’s opening. “The Sounds and Tastes of repeat its productions very often – except here the storyline blossoms when love Music” will be held May 29, with the doors for classics such as “The Sound of Music.” interests are uncovered and the pre-war opening at 6:45 p.m. German foods by The Although Stagecrafters has mounted this tensions heat up. Dakota Inn Rathskeller, Austrian music by beloved musical twice prior in its 56-year- Audiences of all ages will enjoy the the Detroit Symphony Orchestra String history (1981, 1992), this latest production timeless songs that have become so Quartet, a diamond earring raffle, German will runs May 31-June 23 at the Baldwin familiar, such as “Edelweiss,” “Do-Re- libations and a preview performance of Theatre in downtown Royal Oak. Mi,” “My Favorite Things” and the title “The Sound of Music” are all included Created by Richard Rodgers, Oscar song “The Sound of Music.” in the ticket price of $30 general reserved Hammerstein II, Howard Lindsay and Director Randy Wrisinger has a deep- seating or $40 VIP reserved seating. Russel Crouse and based on “The Story rooted fondness for this musical, calling All proceeds will benefit Stagecrafters’ of the Trapp Family Singers” by Maria it one of his “all-time favorites.” This is programming. Augusta Trapp, the story is set in Salzburg, his second time directing the show, the A special sing-along performance Austria, just prior to World War II. The first being at a small community theater in will be held at 2 p.m. June 15. Audience nuns of Nonnberg Abbey are gathered Missouri, and he once played the role of the members will be given song sheets to together to sing – except for one young Captain. “What makes this show so unique accompany the cast on select songs, and postulant, Maria Rainer (Sara Rydzewski) is the bonding of the children,” Wrisinger they are encouraged to come in costume. who has lost track of time while singing said. “From the first rehearsal, they have Advance tickets for performances on a nearby mountainside. When Maria treated each other like family, and that will are $18 on Thursdays, and $20 on explains her absence, the Mother Abbess shine through for the audiences to see.” Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Patrons (Donna Edwards) tells her that she should He has also doubled the number of attending the opening night performance, spend some time outside the abbey to cast in the nuns chorus for a fuller sound May 31, are invited to a 7 p.m. pre-glow decide if this monastic life is right for her. and will be using the Baldwin’s Wurlitzer of complimentary light hors d’oeuvres She has been assigned to act as a governess theater organ during the wedding scene. and beverages. Student, military and to the seven children of widower Captain “Audiences are going to be amazed at the senior discounts are available for specific Georg von Trapp (Mark Jewett). incredible set design by Drew Hall and performances. Tickets may be purchased When Maria arrives at the elaborate costumes by Doris Boris. I hope they all online at www.stagecrafters.org (online villa, she is given her duties by the Captain leave the show humming the tunes and handling fees apply) or by phone at 248- and meets all of the children in a very remember the line, ‘When the Lord closes 541-6430 using Visa or MasterCard. All militaristic manner. While the Captain is a door, somewhere he opens a window,’” seats are reserved. If shows have not sold away on duty, Maria and the children bond. said Wrisinger. out, tickets can be purchased at the box When he returns, he is accompanied by Stagecrafters is hosting a special office one hour prior to the performance with his fiancée Elsa (Caryn Leonard) and Bavarian-themed fundraiser prior to the for an additional $2 per ticket.

31 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com Thursdays at Go Comedy! Go Comedy! ® Happenings Improv Theater, 261 E. Nine Mile Rd., Theater Ferndale. 248-327-0575. www.gocomedy. Continued from p. 30 net Civic/Community Theater My Favorite Year $18-20. Riverwalk Wednesdays at Go Comedy! Go metro Detroit’s foster children in need. Theatre, 228 Museum Dr., Lansing. Comedy! Improv Theater, 261 E. Nine Live music, a several-course gourmet May 30 - June 9. 517-482-5700. www. Mile Rd., Ferndale. 248-327-0575. www. strolling supper, and more.Internationally- riverwalktheatre.com gocomedy.net renowned music legends Sean Blackman and Wayne Gerard’s current project, Sin Robin Hood $7. Kalamazoo Civic Youth What You Won’t Do For Love $15-20. Big Hielo, and the very popular metro-Detroit Theatre at Parish Theatre, 426 S. Park St., Girl Ideas at The International Institute, area band Emerging Soul have agreed Kalamazoo. Through May 25. 269-343- 111 E. Kirby , Detroit. May 25. 313-727- to perform.Tickets: $100-125. The 1313. www.kazoocivic.com 1011. www.brownpapertickets.com Roostertail, 100 Marquette Dr., Detroit. Spamalot $20-22. St. Dunstan’s Theatre 12 a.m. June 1. 313-961-6120. www. Guild at Cranbrook Greek Theatre, 400 Fortheseventhgeneration.org/ Lone Pine Road, Bloomfield Hills. May Art ‘N’ Around 31 - June 15. 877-71-TICKETS. www. Kalamazoo Institute of Arts “Art & Ann Arbor Art Center “The Print” A stdunstanstheatre.com All That Jazz” Don’t miss our Art & All juried exhibition of original and innovative That Jazz event, featuring a great night The Gangster Priest $11-$15. Spotlight works of art showcasing contemporary of music by Steve Kamerling and Barry Still Got It Players at The Village Theater at and traditional printmaking techniques. Ross, tours of the KIA’s exhibitions, Cherry Hill, 50400 Cherry Hill Rd., Canton. Ann Arbor Art Center, 117 W. Liberty St., snacks and a cash bar.Tickets: $0-5. May 22 - 26. 734-394-5300. www. Ann Arbor. May 1 - June 23. 734-994- Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, 314 S. Park spotlightplayersmi.org 8004. annarborartcenter.org St., Kalamazoo. 5:30 p.m. May 24. 269- 349-7775. kiarts.org The Sound of Music $18-$20 in Ariana Gallery “Annual Glass Show” advance. Stagecrafters at Baldwin Ariana Gallery, 119 S. Main St., Royal Kerrytown Concert House Theatre, 415 S. Lafayette Ave., Royal Oak. Oak. April 26 - May 31. 248-546-8810. “Phoenixphest Faculty” Tickets: $15. May 31 - June 23. 248-541-6430. www. arianagallery.com Kerrytown Concert House, 415 N. Fourth stagecrafters.org Ave., Ann Arbor. 8 p.m. May 25. 734-763- Black Arts & Cultural Center 4186. Kerrytownconcerthouse.com “Black Arts & Cultural Center’s Annual College/University Multi-Cultural Exhibit” Gail Sydnor Art Majestic Theater “The Staves & Theater Gallery, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall, Suite Escondido” All ages. Tickets: $10-12. Honk! $7-15. Eastern Michigan 202, Kalamazoo. May 1 - May 31. Majestic Cafe, 4120-4140 Woodward University Theatre at Sponberg Theatre blackartskalamazoo.org Ave., Detroit. 9 p.m. May 24. 313-833- in the Quirk Dramatic Arts Building, East 9700. majesticdetroit.com Circle Dr. and Best Hall, Ypsilanti. May 31 - Chelsea River Gallery “2D3D” Michael June 9. 734-487-2282. www.emutix.com Thoresen and Joan Painter Jones pair The Ark “Gangstagrass & Cabinet” new sculptures and paintings. Chelsea Tickets: $15. The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Professional River Gallery, 120 S. Main St., Chelsea. Ann Arbor. 8 p.m. May 25. 734-761-1800. May 25 - June 28. 734-433-0826. theark.org 10:53 Previews May 23 ($15). $20-25. Williamston Theatre, 122 S. Putnam St., chelsearivergallery.com The Ark “Livingston Taylor & Chelsea Williamston. Through June 16. 517-655- Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Berry” Tickets: $20. The Ark, 316 S. Main 7469. www.williamstontheatre.org Museum “Anders Ruhwald at Saarinen St., Ann Arbor. 8 p.m. May 24. 734-761- House: The Anatomy of a Home” For his 1800. theark.org 33 Variations $18.50-42. The Purple Rose Theatre Company, 137 Park St., first solo exhibition in Michigan, Danish The Ark “Stewart Francke” Tickets: $15. Chelsea. Through June 1. 734-433-7673. ceramist Anders Ruhwald will present The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor. 7 www.PurpleRoseTheatre.org a series of “site-sensitive” installations p.m. May 23. 734-761-1800. TheArk.org in Saarinen House, the “total work of August: Osage County $10-22. The art” designed by the Finnish American The Magic Stick “Matt Pryor & James Ringwald Theatre, 22742 Woodward Ave., architect Eliel Saarinen in 1930. Dewees with Reggie & The Full Effect Ferndale. Through June 3. 248-545-5545. Cranbrook Art Museum, 39221 Woodward and The New Amsterdams” Matt Pryor & www.theringwald.com Ave., Bloomfield Hills. April 28 - Sep. 30. James Dewees (Of The Get Up Kids).All 877-462-7262. cranbrookart.edu ages.Tickets: $12-14. The Magic Stick, Brimstone and Treacle $20; $10 May 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit. 8 p.m. May 28 only. Planet Art Theatre, 2357 Caniff, DAM “Line by Line: Drawing Explored” 24. 313-833-9700 majesticdetroit.com Hamtramck. Through June 1. 313-365- Detroit Artists Market, 4719 Woodward 4948. www.planetant.com Ave., Detroit. April 18 - May 24. 313-832- 8540. detroitartistmarket.org Film & Video Fridays and Saturdays at Go Comedy! Detroit Institute of Arts and Friends Go Comedy! Improv Theater, 261 E. Nine Dennos Museum Center “Larry of the Detroit Film Theatre (FDFT) Mile Rd., Ferndale. 248-327-0575. www. Cressman: Line Work” This exhibition “A Special Preview Event: Monsters gocomedy.net explores line on and off the wall with University” Special benefit screening of installations that incorporate cane, the new Pixar film, “Monsters University.” Jamie and Jordan $7-10. The Children’s twigs, paper, graphite and wire. Dennos Opportunity to meet Clawson native Dan Theatre Network at Performance Network Museum Center, 1701 E. Front St., Scanlon, the director of the film. Detroit Theatre, 120 E. Huron, Ann Arbor. 1 Traverse City. May 1 - June 2. 231-995- Institute of Arts, 2100 Woodward Ave., p.m. May 25. 734-663-0681. www. 1055. dennosmuseum.org Detroit. May 29. 313-833-3237. dia. performancenetwork.org org/dft Detroit Institute of Arts “Papel Picado” My Name is Asher Lev $38-45. The Have fun as you try this Mexican art of The Magic Bag “Wednesday Night Brew Jewish Ensemble Theatre Company at cutting paper.All ages. Detroit Institute of & View: Spring Breakers” 21+.Tickets: Aaron DeRoy Theatre, 6600 W. Maple Arts, 2100 Woodward Ave., Detroit. May $2. The Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Road, West Bloomfield. Through May 25. 4 - May 25. 313-833-7900. dia.org Ave., Ferndale. 8 p.m. May 29. 248-544- 248-788-2900. www.jettheatre.org 3030. themagicbag.com Detroit Institute of Arts “Musical One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest Instruments: Wrist/Ankle Rattles” Use The Magic Bag “Thursday Night Brew & $20; pay-what-you-can May 23. What leather, beads, wire, and markers View: Spring Breakers” 21+.Tickets: $2. A Do Theatre, 4701 W. Dickman Road, to create a whimsical percussion The Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Springfield. Through May 25. 269-282- instrument. All ages. Detroit Institute of Ferndale. 8 p.m. May 23. 248-544-3030. 1953. www.whatado.org Arts, 2100 Woodward Ave., Detroit. May themagicbag.com Roaming Charges $17-20. Detroit 3 - May 31. 313-833-7900. dia.org Repertory Theatre, 13103 Woodrow Other Detroit Institute of Arts “Inside/Out” Wilson, Detroit. May 30 - June 23. 313- Inside/Out, now in its fourth year, brings Grand Rapids Art Museum “Piano 868-1347. www.detroitreptheatre.com nearly 80 reproductions of masterpieces Music” Museum Lobby. Grand Rapids from the DIA’s collection to the streets Art Museum, 101 Monroe Center, Grand Staged Reading Festival By donation. and parks of metro Detroit, pleasantly Rapids. April 5 - Sep. 27. 616-831-1000. Magenta Giraffe Theatre Company at surprising and delighting residents of artmuseumgr.org The Abreact Performance Space, 1301 W. Lafayette, #113, Detroit. May 24 - 26. the participating communities. Where I Love Old Town “Pickin’ in the Park” www.magentagiraffe.org possible, the works are clustered within Weekly social affair and jam session walking or biking distance of each for artists, musicians, and residents in Sundays at Go Comedy! Go Comedy! other in a grand, open-air gallery. The the heart of Old Town. Burchard Park Improv Theater, 261 E. Nine Mile Rd., DIA is working with the communities in Old Town, Lansing. May 7 - Sep. 24. Ferndale. 248-327-0575. www.gocomedy. to plan educational opportunities and iloveoldtown.org net other fun activities, such as bicycle and walking tours. Residents of participating Blind Pig “Super Happy Funtime The Mountaintop $27-41. Performance Network Theatre, 120 E. Huron St., Ann communities will enjoy a designated Burlesque” Blind Pig, 208 S. First St., Ann weekend to visit the museum for free Arbor. 9:30 p.m. May 25. 734-996-8555. Arbor. Through June 2. 734-663-0681. blindpig.com www.performancenetwork.org See Happenings, page 38

32 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com 33 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com Ann Arbor Summer Festival: Cool Cities Ann Arbor Les Ballets, Prairie Home From world music superstars and YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD • YOUR MARKET comic book supervillians to 3-D superhero mapping and a super bouncy Pinpoint your ad dollars where exhibit for kids, the new Ann Arbor they will do the most good . . . Summer Festival season runs from June 14 through July 7, and features an Advertise in the next Cool Cities eclectic mix of music, dance, comedy, TO PLACE AN AD CALL 734.293.7200 film, spoken word, contemporary circus, street arts and family entertainment. Now celebrating its 30th season, the festival’s Mainstage series features the return of several Ann Arbor favorites along with a number of performers making their festival debut. With artists spanning the globe, this year’s lineup includes the nationally beloved radio program “A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor”; British electro The Intergalactic Nemesis performs June 30. art-pop quartet Django Django; the Big Easy’s Preservation Hall Jazz Band with Nemesis; Malian superstars Amadou & Auditorium. The festival’s outdoor Top musical gameshow cabaret New Orleans Mariam; political satirists The Capitol of the Park activities continue at Ingalls Bingo! Show; Montreal’s rebel circus Steps; and the all-male drag ballet corps Mall, located directly in front of the collective Les 7 doigts de la main; lounge Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate mini-orchestra Pink Martini; NPR’s The festival’s ticketed Mainstage Studies on Washington Street near the storytelling show Snap Judgment; live- performances take place in Power action graphic novel The Intergalactic Center for the Performing Arts and Hill See Ann Arbor Summer Festival, page 37

34 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com Cool Cities Ann Arbor YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD • YOUR MARKET Pinpoint your ad dollars where they will do the most good . . . Advertise in the next Cool Cities TO PLACE AN AD CALL 734.293.7200

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35 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com 36 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com classification. The former art-school a Foley artist creating sound effects, and ® Ann Arbor Summer Festival students combine ‘80s pop rhythms a keyboardist playing an original score, Continued from p. 34 with ‘60s Beach Boys-style vocal The Intergalactic Nemesis is a spectacle harmonies, a style that some have labeled unlike any other and a show for the kid Burton Memorial Tower. folktronica. Their self-titled debut album in everyone. Tickets are on sale now and may be earned widespread praise and had the purchased in person at the Michigan critics swooning for their experimental, The Capitol Steps Thursday, 5 and 8 League Ticket Office, by phone at 734- kaleidoscopic songs. p.m. July 4, Power Center ($50, $45, 764-2538 or online at A2SF.org. $40, $30) Pink Martini, 8 p.m. June 25, Power Answering the call for more civil 2013 Schedule of Center ($55, $50, $45, $35) discourse, these former Congressional Somewhere between a 1930s Cuban staffers’ brilliant song parodies and Mainstage Performances dance orchestra, a classical chamber hilarious sketches lampoon up-to-the- A Prairie Home Companion with music ensemble, a Brazilian street band minute issues, events and personalities, Garrison Keillor, 5:45 p.m. June 1, Pre- and Japanese film noir is Pink Martini. poking fun at both sides of the aisle. A Season Event Hill Auditorium ($75, $65, Influenced by Latin music, jazz, cabaret, holiday tradition in Ann Arbor, America’s $55, $45, $35) cinema scores and more, the intoxicating foremost political satirists return to the retro-pop ensemble brings melodies and festival for their annual Fourth of July America’s favorite storyteller Garrison rhythms from different parts of the world performances. Keillor returns to Ann Arbor as part of together to create an eclectic, modern Hill Auditorium’s 100th anniversary sound. Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo celebration. This special live broadcast Friday, 8 p.m. July 5, Power Center ($55, of Keillor’s radio show, “A Prairie Home The Intergalactic Nemesis in “Book $50, $45, $35) Companion,” will feature an ensemble One: Target Earth,” 5 p.m. June 30, cast, comedy sketches, musical interludes, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo Power Center ($35, $30 $25, $20, $10 remains one of the most popular dance special guests and Keillor’s signature Kids) monologue, “The News from Lake troupes in the United States. Performing in Wobegon.” Inspired by Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star tutus, tiaras and tights, this all-male ballet Wars, and the pulp serials of the 1930s, company specializes in hilarious twists on Django Django, 8 p.m. June 18, Power The Intergalactic Nemesis is a one-of-a- the classics such as Swan Lake and Giselle, Center ($25, $20; General Admission) kind theatrical experience that mashes up with equal parts comedy and technical sci-fi radio drama with comic books. With prowess. The talented dancers perform Edinburgh art-pop foursome Django over 1,000 projected graphic novel panels, an impressive repertoire of both classical Django is a band that defies musical three actors voicing dozens of characters, ballet and contemporary dance.

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37 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com Editor’s Pick Eastern Michigan University Theatre is “quacking up” over the 2012-13 season closer, “Honk!” Performances of this lively musical comedy run May 31-June 9. Have you ever felt like the odd man out? Ever been chased by a tomcat who finds you purrfect ... for dinner? Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Ugly Ducking,” “Honk!” is about an optimistic duckling and his adventures in the barnyard and beyond as he searches for his mother and a place to belong. A heart-warming celebration of being different, “Honk!” is sure to delight audiences of all ages with its sparkling wit and memorable score. Ticket prices are $15 adults, $12 for students and seniors, and $7 for children ages 6-12; no further discounts apply. Tickets are available by phone at 734-487-2282. All performances will take place in the Sponberg Theatre in the Quirk Dramatic Arts Building located at the intersection of East Circle Drive and Best Hall on EMU’s Ypsilanti Campus.

Krasl Art Center “Noontime Videos” Sit Pewabic Society “Joe Zajac: New ® Happenings back and enjoy a movie on your lunch Work” Exhibit featuring contemporary break. Different movie each time. Informal ceramic art. Pewabic Pottery, 10125 East Continued from p. 32 discussions follow. Krasl Art Center, 707 Jefferson Ave., Detroit. April 10 - May 26. Lake Blvd., St. Joseph. May 2 - May 30. 313-626-2000. pewabic.org 269-983-0271. krasl.org and see “their” works of art. Visitors will Riverside Arts Center “Y Art: Ypsilanti receive a 10 percent discount in Cafe DIA Krasl Art Center “Philosophy of Art” If School District K-12” Art Classes from and the museum shop, $1 off Detroit Film you have ever wondered why something the seven schools in the Ypsilanti Theatre (DFT) tickets and free admission in a museum was considered art, felt District share their art with the public in to showings of the DFT 101 film series. like you just didn’t understand what community art center gallery. Riverside Detroit Institute of Arts, 2100 Woodward was happening in the art world today, Arts Center, 76 North Huron Street, Ave., Detroit. April 29 - June 23. 313- or wondered why art is the way it is, Ypsilanti. May 3 - May 25. 734-483- 833-7900. dia.org then this class is for you. However, be 7345. riversidearts.org prepared to read, think and critically Flint Institute of Arts “Reflections discuss; this class is run like a graduate Robert Kidd Gallery “Come On Oeuvre” on Water in American Painting” This school seminar. Krasl Art Center, 707 Robert Kidd Gallery, 107 Townsend St., exhibition traces the maritime and Lake Blvd., St. Joseph. May 23 - Sep. 26. Birmingham. May 3 - June 1. 248-642- seaside history of America through 50 269-983-0271. krasl.org 3909. robertkiddgallery.com paintings, beginning with a rare 1828 painting by John S. Blunt of a U.S. Naval Michigan State University Museum The Henry Ford “Designing Tomorrow: frigate. Highlights of the exhibition “Michigan and the Civil War” Exhibit America’s World’s Fairs of the 1930s” are paintings by major American highlights Michigan connections in the Tickets: $17+. Members: Free. The Henry Impressionists, William Merritt Chase, Civil War. Michigan State University Ford, 20900 Oakwood Blvd., Dearborn. Frank W. Benson, and Robert Vonnoh. Museum, 409 W. Circle Drive, East April 27 - Sep. 2. 313-982-6001. Flint Institute of Arts, 1120 E. Kearsley St., Lansing. May 1 - Oct. 31. 517-355-7474. thehenryford.org Flint. April 6 - June 16. Flintarts.org museum.msu.edu The Scarab Club “Blooms, Bugs, Beasts Fourteen East “Abstract Art by Jan Michigan State University Museum Exhibition” The purpose of the Blooms, Brown” Jan Brown’s acrylic paintings, “Evolution in Action” New exhibit Bugs, Beasts exhibition is to recognize done in the past three years, display an explores evolution of biological systems the diversity and achievement of artists emotional excitement that lures viewers and technologies - evolution in living whose work show creativity of concept, into their depths. Fourteen East, 15 E. things, and also in computers and excellence of design and expertise of Kirby, Detroit. April 30 - July 31. engineering. A new exhibit, “50,000” media; to display these works to regional reveals an ongoing experiment where audiences and to be an educational Grand Rapids Art Museum scientists have observed bacteria opportunity for students. The Scarab “Friday Night Conversations” Unique growing, competing, and evolving for Club, 217 Farnsworth, Detroit. May 15 - collaborations with artists and 50,000 generations in only 23 years. June 29. 313-831-1250. scarabclub.org organizations in the community. Programs Michigan State University Museum, University Of Michigan Museum Of Art have included performances, gallery 409 W. Circle Drive, East Lansing. May talks, activities, presentations, and more. “Laurie Anderson: From the Air” Located 1 - Oct. 31. 517-355-7474. museum. between and within performance, visual Grand Rapids Art Museum, 101 Monroe msu.edu Center, Grand Rapids. April 5 - Sep. 27. arts, film, and beyond, Laurie Anderson’s 616-831-1000. artmuseumgr.org Michigan State University Museum unconstrained and multidisciplinary “Adventures in Time and the Third practice is perhaps most enduringly Grand Rapids Art Museum “Saturday Dimension: Through the Stereoscope” rooted in her attention to exceptional All Day with The Arts” Drop-in family Wander through the museum’s rich storytelling. In any genre, she is an activities. Grand Rapids Art Museum, 101 collection of stereo-viewing technology, unquestionably provocative, poignant, Monroe Center, Grand Rapids. April 6 - and see how the world of the late political, and personal teller of tales. June 29. 616-831-1000. artmuseumgr. 19th and early 20th centuries was University Of Michigan Museum Of Art, org transformed into 3D images for fun and 525 S. State St., Ann Arbor. April 6 - Aug. 11. 734-763-4186. Umma.umich.edu Kalamazoo Institute of Arts “Sigh education. Michigan State University and Feeling: Photographs by Ansel Museum, 409 W. Circle Drive, East Urban Institute for Contemporary Adams” Ansel Adams’ skill at creating Lansing. May 1 - Aug. 2. museum.msu. Arts “Intro Class: Clay Planters & Pots” photographs with a remarkable range edu Join local artist, Kate Lewis, for this fun and subtly of tones is legendary. Yet Michigan State University Museum beginners class to learn how to build for all his technical mastery, Adams “Sun-Up to Sundown” Exhibition clay planters and pots for your summer recognized that what made a compelling featuring selections from the Our Daily patio and garden. Students receive two photograph was far more elusive. This Work/Our Daily Lives Collection of the additional weeks of studio access to exhibition of Adams’ photographs from MSU Museum. The collection features complete their work. Tickets: $85-95. the KIA collection and local collectors a wide variety of artistic expressions Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, suggests how his intuitive and emotional of work and worker culture across a Two Fulton West, Grand Rapids. May 19 - response to the landscape resulted in diverse array of media from Michigan, June 9. uica.org powerful and enduring photographs. the U.S., and other nations around the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, 314 S. Park Yourist Studio Gallery “Yourist Studio world. Michigan State University Museum Gallery Grand Opening and Artists’ St., Kalamazoo. April 1 - June 23. 269- Lobby, 409 W. Circle Drive, East Lansing. 349-7775. kiarts.org Reception” We’ve reinvented our gallery. April 23 - June 16. museum.msu.edu Come celebrate with us at our special Kerrytown Concert House “May Gallery MOCAD “Mike Kelley’s Mobile opening event and exhibit. Works on Exhibit” Rita Malone - Painter. Kerrytown Homestead” Museum of Contemporary exhibit May 1 to June 14. Admission: Concert House, 415 N. Fourth Ave., Ann Art Detroit, 4454 Woodward Ave., Detroit. Free. Yourist Studio Gallery, 1133 Arbor. April 30 - May 28. 734-763-4186. May 11 - July 28. 313-832-6622. Broadway, Ann Arbor. May 1 - June 15. kerrytown.com mocadetroit.org 734-662-4914. Youristpottery.com

38 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com To place a classified ad with us,visit pridesource.com/classifieds Classifieds or call us at 888.615.7003 x15

101-Announcemnts 112 LGBT AA Meetings Announcements - Volunteering Ann Arbor-Friday Meet 7:30 pm, St. Andrews Episcopal Unity Michigan Coali- Church Gay AA, 306 N. Division tion Pride Season Merry! St. Closed/Discussion. Volunteers Bloomfield Hills-Thurs- day The Unity Michigan Coalition and BTL is seeking volunteers to 7:00 pm ,Sobriety in The Hills assist in a community outreach Gay AA, Kirk in The Hills Church, project throughout the June Pride 1340 W. Long Lake Rd. Closed/ season. Volunteers will work with Discussion. UMC and BTL to collect contact Meet Merry! This 5-year-old Foxhound is fun and easy-going. Detroit-Tuesday / Friday information from LGBTQ and allied attendess of Pride festivals She’s a smart girl and would love for you to teach her some 8:00 pm, Downtown Gay AA, who are interested in further- new tricks. Merry is very sociable and can’t wait to meet Fort Street Presbyterian Church, ing nondiscrimination policies your entire family. 631 West Fort St. Closed/ throughout the state and would Discussion (Open 1st Friday of like to keep informed on how they The adoption fee includes sterilization, every month). can become involved. age-appropriate vaccinations, the MHS Farmington Hills- Call at 734-293-7200 ext. 14 or Adoption Guarantee and much more. e-mail [email protected] for Monday more information or to sign up. For more information, visit or call the 8:00 pm, Suburban West Gay MHS Detroit Center for Animal Care at AA, Universalist Unitarian Church, 301 Employment - (313) 872-3400 and provide the pet ID 25301 Halstead (Between 10 & 11 number, 747174. Mile Roads) Closed / Discussion. General Ferndale-Monday / Wednesday / Friday Dog Handlers 11:30 a.m., Brown Baggers Gay For Day Care & Boarding located AA, Affirmations, 290 West 9 in Plymouth. Must be mature, Mile Rd. Closed/Discussion. have exp. w/dogs, avail for overnights, have customer service Ferndale-Wednesday exp., be upbeat & have attention 8 p.m., Diversity Wednesday Gay to details. Resumes only to: plym- AA, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, [email protected] 540 W. Lewiston @ Livernois. Closed/Discussion. 428 Prof. Services - Ferndale-Saturday Massage 1 p.m. Brown Baggers Gay AA, Affirmations, 290 West 9 Mile Rd. Closed/Discussion. GROUP MASSAGE 8 p.m. Go After Your Sobriety Gay - For Gay and Bisexual Men. AA, Drayton Ave Presbyterian Learn some massage techniques Church, 2441 Pinecrest. Closed/ and meet others in a safe and Discussion. caring environment. Tuesdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Thursdays at Livonia-Friday 2 p.m. $10 per session. 209 West Kingsley in downtown Ann 8 p.m., West Side Story’s Gay Arbor. (734) 662-6282 or email AA, Providence Medical Center, 7 Mile & Newburgh. Closed/ [email protected]. http:// Discussion. www.trymassage.com Warren-Monday 7:30 p.m., Eastside Serenity Gay AA, Faith-Trinity United Church of Christ, 12221 Martin Rd. East of Hoover. Closed/Discussion. Solution to puzzle from page 41

39 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com Cocktail Chatter without sugar and with lime juice instead of lemon. But like a Collins, a Rickey can be The Gin Rickey made with….” “… various kinds of liquors.” Dan was By Ed Sikov finishing my sentence for me. “Rum, bourbon, even Scotch.” “Whatcha makin’, hot stuff?” I was at the “Very good,” I said with a certain edge to kitchen island mixing an experimental drink; my voice. “Would you like me to throw one I felt the hand slip around my stomach and in your face?” jumped slightly before I heard the coo in “No, thank you, darling dearest,” Dan my ear. Dan never calls me “hot stuff,” so coolly replied. “Just make me a standard Gin I knew it wasn’t him. But whose hand was Rickey, and don’t be stingy with the gin.” suddenly tweaking my right nipple? The nerve of some people! “Chipper! You dog!” I gave a slight shiver and felt a certain stirring. “Seriously, tiger,” Chipper whispered. The Gin Rickey “Can I try it?” 3 Tbsp. Beefeater gin “My nipple or my drink?” I inquired in a 2 Tbsp. lime juice, either bottled or fresh (1 lewd tone. Chipper made a growling noise lime’s worth, if the lime is juicy) and started to work on a hickey on my neck. Seltzer I shook him off, finished making the cocktail Lime wedge garnish (optional) and handed it to him. Wasting no time, he Put some ice in a highball glass (a tumbler); took a sizeable gulp. add the gin, juice and seltzer in that order. “Yikes!” he said. “That’s strong! Strong That’s all, folks! but good! What’s it called?” “Loooo-cyyyyy?!” was my response. “The Ethel?” Ed Sikov is the author of the e-book, “The Boys’ “Good guess, but no. Not ‘The Ethel.’ and Girls’ Little Book of Alcohol,” a novel with Close, though.” recipes based on his Cocktail Chatter column. “Certainly not ‘The Fred.’ Not even you would name a drink ‘The Fred.’” “Indeed not,” I sniffed. “Not ‘The Fred.’” “The Ricky?” “Right!” I cried. “You win the prize,” at which point I whirled around and grabbed his nuts. Of course that was precisely the moment for Dan to make his pointless entrance. “I’m not jealous. You can have him,” he said to Chipper as he continued past the kitchen and into the living room. There is little more deflating than having one’s husband offer you to the nearest mouth. Chipper and I moved away from each other quickly; our illicit fondling had been killed before it got interesting. “Yes,” I said. “It’s a Gin Rickey. What do you think?” “It’s fabulous!” Chipper enthused. “What’s in it?” “Gin and lime juice and seltzer and that’s all, except for the ice.” “Wait a minute,” Chipper said. “I thought that was a Collins.” “Good catch, shortstop!” I said. “A Rickey is a Collins

40 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com He’s Seven Feet Tall, So ... Across 52 End of the comment 27 Leave stranded on a gay ski 56 Look curiously weekend, say 1 Sprint at the Gay Games 58 Diabolical one 28 Talk show host who made the 5 Sucking sound 59 Robert of “The Brady Bunch” comment 10 Places where women might 29 Streisand’s _Prince of Tides_ sweat together 62 Like a fairy tale brother? 63 Peta Wilson’s Nikita, e.g. costar 14 Italian wine city 30 Poet ___ Wu 15 The bottom line 64 Charlotte BrontÎ’s Jane 65 Multitude 32 Art of stuffing animals 16 Antifur org. 33 Active one’s affair on the side? 17 Start of a comment about Jason 66 Top-drawer 67 Peter the Great 34 Collected Collins 35 Top draft level 20 Brian on ice 36 “Gypsy” lyrics writer 21 Audrey Hepburn role Down 39 Superintendents’ masters 22 German Surrealist Max 1 Robin Williams’ Pam of “Mork & 40 King Kong’s kin 23 Penetrate Mindy” 41 Star Turner 24 Musical notes 2 Toward Dinah? 46 Japanese theater 25 Service receivers 3 Members of Gertrude’s family 48 College web address suffix 31 Cold war prog. 4 Dropped hankie and such 50 Fish hooks 32 More of the comment 5 W.W. II gun 51 More queer 34 Leonardo’s thing 6 Nuts 53 Debussy’s deity 37 Boyfriend 7 Hollywood’s Hagen 54 Short term employee 38 Silica stone 8 Butts 55 Round-buyer’s words 42 Strong as ___ 9 Guilty, to Perry Mason 56 Org. of athletes that Sheehan 43 Connect with 10 Blow off doesn’t swing with 44 Biggest of a bear threesome 11 ___ fours (small cakes) 57 Screw up 45 Pinko’s hero 12 Made amends 60 Bill written by Alice Paul 47 U-turn from SSW 13 African outing 61 Aachen article 48 Ruhr industrial center 18 Concoct, as a plot 49 Rabies threat 19 Over the top in the middle Solution on pg. 39 51 Black Sea city 26 Split

41 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com Deep Inside Hollywood

By Romeo San Vicente Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are guys who need dolls A “Guys and Dolls” movie with Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Is it Awesome Ideas Week or something? Because in a world of cringe-inducing announcements about this or that unnecessary remake, the thought of a classic musical getting an update with two of Hollywood’s most appealing younger actors – both of whom know their way around a song and dance – is a welcome shot of good news. Twentieth Century Fox has the rights in place to start development and both Tatum and Gordon-Levitt are reported to be interested in starring in the gangsters-meet-gamblers musical (first a Broadway staple, then a great 1955 film with Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando). Of course, anyone who pays Ross Mathews. Photo: Helga Esteb / Shutterstock. attention to the production process knows com that projects in development can evaporate dyed-in-the-wool, North-of-Massachusetts like a sneeze, but can some Power-Gay make New Englanders. Think less Marky Mark, this happen, please? It’d be a great way for more “Murder She Wrote” and you’re almost Tatum to develop past the “Step Up”/”Magic there. Mike” school of bump-and-grind (something he showed while whisking Charlize Theron literally off her feet at this years Academy Hello Ross, we’re ready to Awards) and needed evidence that Gordon- watch your talk show called Levitt isn’t only good at being a member of the dancing chorus while Seth McFarlane ‘Hello Ross’ sings “We Saw Your Boobs.” Breathless It’s good to be funny and know Chelsea anticipation starting now. Handler. Of course, you might think that in the case of Ross Mathews, who began Ready for four hours with his chat show sidekick career freaking people out with his excellently high-pitched ‘Olive Kitteridge’? speaking voice (he went by “Ross The It might help if you knew what “Olive Intern”) on “The Tonight Show,” that it’d Kitteridge” is first, right? Well, it’s the be good to be funny and know Jay Leno. title of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel But it’s actually Handler who hooks up her by Elizabeth Strout, a title that got the pals. Case in point: Mathews, who guests on attention of Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman the “Chelsea Lately” comics roundtable on of Playtone. That production company will an almost weekly basis, is spinning off into develop it into a four-hour miniseries to be hosting territory thanks to his current boss. directed by Lisa Cholodenko (“The Kids Handler’s production company is behind Are All Right”), and Frances McDormand “Hello Ross,” which will premiere on E! will star as the title character. Kitteridge is later this year. We’re happy for Ross, who’s a witty but abrasive woman who observes both funny and sweet-natured, but sooner (and, presumably, narrates or comments or later his show is bound to bring up the on) all the uncharacteristically scandalous tired old argument about masculine versus activities taking place in her small, feminine gay male representation on TV. seemingly peaceful town on the coast of It’s inevitable. For the record, we don’t care Maine – affairs, crime and other run-of-the- that the author of “Man Up!” is frequently mill human foibles and tragedies. Richard mistaken on the phone for female, as long as Jenkins will play McDormand’s husband, he makes us laugh. So make us laugh, Ross. the town pharmacist. Based on the number of characters and interwoven connections Romeo San Vicente thinks a good sense of humor in the book, four hours might not even be trumps being butch pretty much any day. He quite enough time to include them all, but can be reached care of this publication or at at least it’ll provide work for actors who [email protected]. can nail that specific accent found among

42 BTL | May 23, 2013 www.PrideSource.com