Bay Windows
MassEquality celebrates marriage victory
The magnitude of winning marriage equality in Massachusetts was best summed up at MassEquality’s Dec. 5 victory gala by Evan Wolfson, the eternally optimistic head of the national organization Freedom to Marry. Standing onstage in the center of the Cyclorama in the South End, Wolfson praised the work of the army of marriage equality activists that surrounded him, raised an arm in victory and proclaimed, "We are one down, forty-nine to go!"
LGBT leaders question Dems on hate crimes
The decision last week by U.S. House and Senate leaders to remove a hate crimes amendment from a Department of Defense authorization bill currently before Congress prompted strong criticism from various quarters ranging from the
HIV/AIDS prevention gets back on track
A year into Gov. Deval Patrick’s tenure in the corner office HIV/AIDS advocates say the administration, bolstered by the appointment of John Auerbach as commissioner of the Department of Public Health (DPH), has begun to reverse the damage done to the state’s HIV prevention efforts under Patrick’s predecessor, Mitt Romney.
CDC won’t release HIV stats showing higher rates of infection
The official focus of the National HIV Prevention Conference, held Dec. 2-5 in Atlanta, was newly published research on HIV prevention, but the data that generated the most buzz at the conference was not anything on the official program.
Lexington parents get their day in court
A three-judge panel heard arguments Dec. 5 in the appeal of Parker v. Lexington, a federal lawsuit brought by four Lexington parents who object to the use of pro-gay materials in the classroom without prior parental notice. U.S. District Court Judge Mark Wolf dismissed the lawsuit in February because he said that parents do not have the right to dictate public school curriculum.
Civic leader appointed to GLAD board
Adrienne R. Benton of Roxbury was appointed to Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders’ (GLAD) Board of Directors at its Sept. 20 board meeting.
’If you are hungry, we will feed you’
Thirty-two years ago, Diane Sidorowicz was a young woman searching for signs of lesbian life beyond the local bar scene. With few resources for gay people available in 1975, she devoured the pages of Gay Community News, a Boston-based weekly.
Still wrecked after all these years
There’s good news and bad news for fans of TraniWreck and Wreckage, the deliciously demented performance art cabarets that have livened up Boston’s drag scene for the last three years. Truth Serum Productions has lost its residency at The Milky Way, and with no home base the future of Wreckage, beyond the next two scheduled shows, is up in the air. The good news is that Aliza Shapiro, the brains and sweat behind Truth Serum (and behind Wreckage’s velour-smooth MC, Heywood Wakefield,) isn’t going anywhere.
Patrick picks two LGBT advocates for domestic violence council
Gov. Deval Patrick last month appointed two LGBT domestic violence advocates, Curt Rogers, executive director of the Gay Men’s Domestic Violence Project, and Sabrina Santiago, chair of the GLBT Domestic Violence Coalition, to the Governor’s Council to Address Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence.
Love Is Wicked
Brick and Lace isn’t an ’80s TV show about female cops, nor is it the new code for butch/femme. (Femme/slightly less femme, maybe.) This fresh duo is a pair of sisters from Jamaica who bring a reggae sensibility to dance music.
Man sues Jordan’s Furniture
Stephen Perry, a Taunton resident and a former routing coordinator and customer service representative for Jordan’s Furniture who worked at the company for more than three years, filed a complaint in October against his former employer with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) alleging that he was fired last month due to anti-gay bias on the part of his department supervisor.
Sound Soldier
"I like to live in a cartoon," whispers Sweetnam in a sultry squeak on the aptly named track "Cartoon." We know, Skye, we know. True, we missed your hit debut album, Noises from the Basement, released in 2004 when you were still a teenager. But silly song titles like "Music Is My Boyfriend" and "Babydoll Gone Wrong" made us suspect you hadn’t put your teens behind you, and the perky pop goodness of Sound Soldier confirmed our suspicions.
Back to Bacharach
I think I have Euro-envy. If Michael Ball, a British musical theater performer with a rich but earnestly straight-up delivery, were American I’d say he was dangerously close to Michael Bolton territory.
AIDS exhibit finds new life on the web
"Above + Beyond: Our Community Responds to HIV/AIDS," The History Project’s acclaimed exhibit documenting the LGBT community’s response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in the Boston area, has been retooled for the web. Its official launch will coincide with World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.
Somerville mayor, state rep investigating police response to alleged gay bashing
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LGBT orgs. recognize discharged LGBT service members on National Mall
As a tribute to the approximately 12,000 service members discharged from the U.S. military under the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy, a coalition of LGBT organizations will place 12,000 American flags on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., from Nov. 30 through Dec. 2.
World AIDS Day events
Here’s a list of events of everything happening in Boston this weekend for World AIDS Day. Get out there and get involved!
Judge mulling dismissal of charges against Barry Scott
Following a Nov. 16 hearing in Orleans District Court, Judge Therese Wright has taken under advisement a motion by attorney Christopher Snow to dismiss criminal charges against oldies DJ Barry Scott stemming from a Provincetown party that Scott deejayed back in July.
MassEquality says ’Thanks’
"How do you thank a whole movement?" asks MassEquality Development Director Scott Gortikov during a recent interview. From intrepid canvassers to phone-banking PFLAG moms, from persuasive people of faith to well-heeled donors who opened their hearts and their wallets, Gortikov notes that during the past four years, "tens and tens of thousands of people" have acted to preserve marriage equality in Massachusetts.
Roslindale church officially welcomes LGBT members
Bethany First United Methodist Church in Roslindale is rolling out the welcome mat to LGBT people. The 88-member congregation voted at its annual meeting to become a Reconciling Congregation, or one that advocates the full inclusion of LGBT people in the life the United Methodist Church and in society.