This page is for the LGBT community in Michigan City and for the Northwest Indiana Region. This is the page for discussion and support issues facing the LGBT community in Northwest Indiana. We live in the shadow of Chicago, we get Chicago television stations, we are on Chicago time, we go to bars and attend PRIDE events in Chicago. We, in essence, are a suburb of Chicago, but we do not live in the
state of Illinois. It is a fact that is easy to forget until something like RFRA happens, then we realize all to well that we live in a state that offers little to no protections to the LGBT community. We live in a state were we can be fired from our jobs for being gay. We live in a state where an evangelical Christian was elected governor. A ‘leader’ that would rather use the Christian Bible to interpret state and federal law, than state or federal constitutions, a ‘leader’ that was directly responsible for the state’s worst ever HIV outbreak that happened in Scott County. This happened all because of the then governor’s ‘moral’ objections to Planned Parenthood and needle exchanges. As I write this, that ‘leader’ is going to be sworn in at vice-president of the United State and despite his claims, he has never been a leader for ‘all people.’
In this political climate it’s all to important that we stay informed. We need real non-biased information. That is why we started OUT in Michigan City and outinmc.com, Michigan City and Northwest Indiana’s own LGBT news magazine. We are going to be offering all original content and OUT in Michigan City and Northwest Indiana will offer shared stories from other legitimate sources. We are going to attempt to fill in the gaps that are left from Chicago news reporting and the information from the Indiana State Legislature that does not get to us in a timely fashion. I invite you to go on this journey with us, I encourage e-mails, story suggestions and constructive criticism. LGBT rights activist, solider, author, and one of my heroes told me as I was interviewing him for a Chicago based LGBT paper I used to write for “Always’s trust the power of your voice.” What we are doing here is not only my voice by it’s your voice too, and we are going to use the power of our collective voices to report on the stories that need to be talked about and that are hard to talk about. Most of all we will use the power of our voices to communicate with each other, to understand each other, and connect with each other. Thanks for dropping by,
John Martin Livelsberger
