It’s easy for Democrats to hope that Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination because it’s easy to believe he can’t win. For those of us who watched in horror as George W. Bush won (twice), we know otherwise. For those who watched the Michigan state legislature be completely taken over by tea party religious zealots, we know otherwise. Trump, who […]

Saturday morning 20-year old transgender woman Amber Monroe was found dead in her apartment in Detroit, a victim of an apparent shooting. Details are sketchy at the moment but, according to transgender rights activist Julisa Abad, this was not the first time Monroe had been the victim of a shooting. Monroe was a student at Wayne State University but had […]

Presiding Dent County, Missouri Commissioner Darrell Skiles filed a letter with the city commission asking that flags be lowered to less than half staff for one year to protest “the U.S. high court’s stamp of approval of what God speaks of as an abomination”, referring to the recent SCOTUS decision that ruled same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutinal. “[A]ll who see […]

The decision by 75th District Court judge Michael Carpenter to stop ALL marriages in the 75th District Court in Midland to avoid having to marry same-sex couples sent a shockwave of outrage and disbelief throughout the country yesterday. What he did was legal in the technical sense because District Court judges are authorized, not required to perform marriages. However, given […]

Everything LGBT people need to know about signing up for health insurance after getting married. Last week’s historic ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court affirming marriage equality for everyone across the country means there are going to be a lot of weddings this summer. But that’s just the beginning of the good news. Many LGBT people may not realize that […]

This post has been updated several times. See below. It hasn’t been particularly surprising to see marriages being halted in places like Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas. In these states, some government officials are refusing to marry or issue marriage licenses to ANY couple, same-sex or opposite-sex, in order to avoid having to marry same-sex couples. However, this bigotry has now […]

The following images were captured at the Braun Court Decision Day celebration in Ann Arbor on June 26, 2015. The celebrants were joined by SCOTUS marriage equality plaintiffs April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse and their Michigan legal team. It was a day of pure joy. Jayne and April take a break from recording interviews The poetry that concluded SCOTUS Justice […]

The law has delivered great progress, but there’s still more work to be done. With LGBT Pride Month still in full swing, it’s a great time to celebrate the progress made by and for the LGBT community, especially in healthcare access thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). At the same time, there’s a lot at stake this month, between […]

NOTE: This post has been updated to include information about when Michigan abolished common law marriages. Republican Todd Courser took to the internet to defend “attacks” he’s facing over his package of legislation paving the way for “RFRA for Marriage” and making it harder for same-sex couples to get married. In a piece on his website titled “Breaking Courser Answers […]

Both the lawsuit and legislation seek to update gender markers on state identification. Imagine having to share the deepest of personal information about yourself — information that could subject you to discrimination, violence or worse — every time you wanted to cash a check. Imagine being challenged every time you pull out your state-issued identification because you look like a […]

There are an inordinate number of rumors swirling around the state at the moment, all of them unconfirmed. I don’t typically dabble in reporting about rumors but it seems silly to ignore things like this that are being widely talked about in various circles. The first rumor is probably the biggest potential bombshell if it turns out to be true. […]