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2009 had some redeeming qualities - really

Don’t look back in anger
Let's get serious: For many Portlanders, 2009 was a crap year.
By DEIRDRE FULTON AND JEFF INGLIS | December 22, 2009

How is Obama doing?

Not as well as he thinks
In response to a question from Oprah Winfrey about how he would grade his time in office, President Barack Obama gave himself a "solid B-plus."
By EDITORIAL | December 16, 2009

Crossing the line

Press Releases
When an increasingly conservative newspaper company fires an already publicly conservative employee for apparently offending a liberal interest group, it leaves some people scratching their heads.
By JEFF INGLIS | December 16, 2009

Brown Bagging

Even GOP insiders don't expect Scott Brown to beat Martha Coakley. But they care how he loses.
If you are finding it hard to get enthused about the seemingly preordained drubbing that Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley will give to the GOP nominee, State Senator Scott Brown, in the special election for US Senate, you are not alone.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | December 16, 2009

Time to end tolerance

Letters to the Portland Editor, December 11, 2009
I'd like you to think about something. Ever seen the bumper sticker: "Intolerance will not be tolerated"?
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | December 09, 2009

Questioning the Legality of Straight Marriage

One for the Annuls Dept.
When it comes to supporting gay rights, two straight Boston University grads are putting their marriage where their mouths are.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | December 04, 2009

Unmaking a bad federal law

Justice for Some
It's been a depressing stretch for supporters of marriage equality.
By ADAM REILLY | November 24, 2009

Deep cuts

Kara Walker's emotional film at Bowdoin College Museum of Art
The beauty of Kara Walker's silhouettes lies in their concurrent brutality and daintiness, and in her unabashed exploration cutting to the meat of the black-and-white binary in American contemporary culture.
By ANNIE LARMON | November 24, 2009

Continuing homophobia

Letters to the Portland Editor, November 27, 2009
Deirdre Fulton's and Shay Stewart-Bouley's comments and Seth Berner's letter on the Marriage Equality Act repeal are insightful. I would add another perspective.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | October 27, 2010

Thanks for nothing!

In our first annual list of Rhode Island turkeys, the Phoenix fingers 10 people and institutions that made a bad year even worse
We'd like to be thankful, we really would. Change came to Washington this year and the Mad Men returned.
By PROVIDENCE PHOENIX STAFF | November 22, 2011

Campaign crash

Press Releases
The single biggest factor contributing to the repeal of same-sex marriage in Maine was how pro-marriage forces used — or failed to use — the media to their advantage.
By JEFF INGLIS | November 18, 2009

Governor Ghoul

Sinking to new lows
Phillipe and Jorge are coming late to this fight, as last week’s column was already filed when the announcement was made that Governor Donald Carcieri — Governor Ghoul to you — had vetoed a bill giving domestic partners the right to claim the bodies of and make funeral arrangements for the people with whom they shared their lives.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | November 18, 2009

Objecting to marriage control

Letters to the Portland editor, November 20, 2009
“The Emperor is wearing no clothes” on both sides of the marriage war.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | November 18, 2009

Taking gay rights to Obama

All Politics Is Local
You might have seen Chase Whiteside and Erick Stoll, seniors at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, around town in the days leading up to November 3.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | November 18, 2009

After the Question 1 vote

Regrouping
Last Tuesday, Maine became the 31st state to put same-sex marriage to a public vote — and to have it lose.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | November 11, 2009

Saying their ‘I don’ts’

Diverse City
In case it slipped by one or two of you out there, Maine is a pretty homogenized state overall, even more so than a carton of Oakhurst or Hood milk.
By SHAY STEWART-BOULEY | November 11, 2009

Easy Ed strikes again

More propaganda from Achorn. Plus, legislative musings and more.
It’s always easy for Ed. That’s “Easy Ed” Achorn, the Other Paper’s deputy editorial pages editor who is the equivalent of a right-wing P&J.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | November 11, 2009

Menino, again

Plus: Latino gains, same-sex defeat, and a buzz for pot
At a time when Americans are racked by anxiety about the uncertain future of a weak economy, Boston voters handily returned Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to an unprecedented fifth term.
By EDITORIAL | November 04, 2009

Brave new world

Styxx’s management sets an oddly pleasant menu
How many marriages are born or nursed in our city’s bars?
By BRIAN DUFF | October 28, 2009

Harvard ‘ACT UP’ show gets rise from right-wingers

Tea Baggers Meet the Tea-Baggers Dept.
Taking a detour from directly bashing President Obama, right-wingers are now hot and bothered by a Harvard art exhibit. And they have an Obama administration foil toward whom they can channel their bile.
By GREG COOK | November 02, 2009

Brokeback Jeter

Balls, Pucks, and Monster Trucks
The game was over, and fans were leaving Fenway.
By RICK WORMWOOD | October 28, 2009

Fair Share?

Extending Benefits to Domestic Partners
On September 10, Boston City Councilor David Scondras wrote a letter to the city’s group-health-insurance director. “We have a non-discrimination policy in this city which includes people who are gay and lesbian,” wrote the city’s first openly gay city councilor.
By NEIL MILLER | November 19, 2009

Holding his punches

The pundits think a desperate Michael Flaherty needs to throw haymakers at the mayor, but he insists steady pressure will win the fight
All year, Boston’s political observers have been watching for signs of an anti-Menino tipping point in the mayoral race.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | October 21, 2009

Numbers game

Dead heat over Maine's same-sex marriage referendum
If you take a close look at the latest polls, you will find that supporters and opponents of November's same-sex marriage referendum question are locked in a neck-and-neck battle.
By JEFF INGLIS | October 21, 2009

Road hog

Bulldozing the Maine Better Transportation Association
You probably live on a lousy road.
By AL DIAMON | October 21, 2009

How gay is Southie?

Once unthinkable, Boston’s most notorious neighborhood now sports a welcoming face. How the hell did that happen?
Welcome to the gayborhood.
By ERICA CORSANO | October 19, 2009

Orthodox caveman

Maine’s GOP is suffering from a muddle in the middle
Wanted: a right-wing wacko to run for governor of Maine.
By AL DIAMON | October 14, 2009

Doom predictions

Gays into the crystal ball
Plenty of seemingly unemployable people manage to make decent livings even though they're consistently wrong.
By AL DIAMON | September 30, 2009

Final four?

The City Council preliminary is seldom a preview of the finish. But this time, it just might be.
Some of Boston's savviest political insiders were confident of one thing going into last week's preliminary election: the top four finishers in the at-large City Council race would not be the same quartet to actually win those four seats in November.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | September 30, 2009

Less than equal

State officials, including prejudiced human-rights commissioners, block inmate complaints
This story has a bias. It’s in favor of human rights for all people.
By LANCE TAPLEY | October 02, 2009