Anne Stockwell

Barely over a year since transgender activists labeled Barney Frank a turncoat, he’s hired the first openly transgender legislative staff member on Capitol Hill.

As Dr. Niles
Crane on the hit sitcom Frasier, David Hyde
Pierce had a great deadpan. That also extended to his own
life: For years he wouldn’t confirm or deny being
gay. Since then he thawed enough to thank his longtime
partner, Brian Hargrove, in his 2007 Tony Award
acceptance speech. And on Saturday, Pierce was one
baseball-capped protester among maybe 20,000 others marching
for equality in Los Angeles.

As marriage
equality opponents galvanized in the Crenshaw area of Los
Angeles to target African-American voters, clergy members
and other activists gathered just miles away to fight
against California's upcoming ballot measure that
would ban same-sex marriage.

You could say
GLSEN is getting a new principal. On Wednesday the Gay,
Lesbian, and Straight Education Network announced that Eliza
Byard will become its new executive director,
replacing founder and longtime executive director
Kevin Jennings. Byard, who takes the reins on November
1, spoke to The Advocate about the task ahead
for LGBT students and all of us who want to see them thrive.

As one of TV’s most successful producer-directors, Paris Barclay knows all about opening minds through entertainment. That’s one reason for the lavish wedding he threw with Christopher Mason, his partner of 10 years.

“A mind is
a terrible thing to waste.” “Friends
don’t let friends drive drunk.”
“Only you can prevent forest fires.” Since the
1940s the Ad Council has been impacting the culture
with slogans like these. Now the venerable
nonprofit organization is out to educate teens that antigay
slang doesn’t cut it anymore -- and to kick-start the
effort, it's recruited Hilary Duff. 

The first meeting
of performance artist Joan Spitler and filmmaker Leigh
Grode was right out of a romantic comedy. It was 1993,
during the Los Angeles gay and lesbian film festival
Out on the Screen. Spitler, a lissome redhead, was
sitting alone in the festival’s café when a
tall, butch, and handsome stranger walked in.