Lesbians In The News [Archive] - Butch Femme Planet

Kobi

01-08-2014, 04:24 AM

NEW YORK (WOMENSENEWS)-- These days, Alix Dobkin passes most of her time taking care of her three young grandchildren, picking up the two oldest from elementary school in Woodstock, N.Y., and playing with the youngest, a 4-year-old, at home.

Every once in a while, though, the 73-year-old renowned folk singer still drives down to New York City to play a concert and temporarily recreate a once thriving underground urban community of lesbians, whose bonds were cemented by folk music and softball games.

Dobkin is at the center of a network of 1970s-era lesbian feminists who still gather regularly. From patriarchy to lesbianism they have plenty to talk about. But it is hard to escape the notion of a heyday now past.

"Well, nothing is like it was, including us," Dobkin said. "We are older and we are tireder and there have also been huge changes in the environment in which we live."

From a 1996 Supreme Court ruling against workplace discrimination to a decision in June 2013 against the Defense of Marriage Act, the legal terrain has been improving in recent years for people who identify as lesbian and gay.

But for Dobkin, co-director of Old Lesbians Organizing for Change, a national network with biannual forums, there are still plenty of reasons to get together. The fight for marriage equality marks a victorious, forward step in "normalizing lesbians and gays in the mainstream," she said, but it is not a key issue that has inspired her.

At meetings members discuss their experiences as older lesbians, plan events and team up with larger national groups, including SAGE, which is focused on LGBT people over the age of 60. In July, Old Lesbians Organizing for Change, which is open to lesbians over 60, will be holding a forum in Oakland, Calif., that is expected to attract several hundred women from across the United States and also abroad.

Old Lesbians Organizing for Change is the only national organization that speaks out against the unique isolation and discrimination old lesbians often encounter, said Jan Griesinger, a co-director of the group. Members of the 15 chapters of the organization walk in annual gay pride parades and tend to elicit surprise when they flash their banners displaying the word "Old."

"Ageism is primarily about one being treated like you are old and old means out of it, clueless, and you can't really remember anything," Griesinger said. "It especially affects women. People pat you on the head and call you honey and sweetie."

25-Year-Old Organization

Old Lesbians Organizing for Change was founded in 1989, six years after the publication of "Look Me in the Eye," an influential series of essays on aging, lesbianism and feminism by the writer Barbara McDonald. It formed on the heels of a waning period of political activism among lesbian feminists, who had begun to exchange sit-ins and collectives for steady jobs and family life.

Elana Dykewomon went to her first meeting of the organization shortly after she turned 60 with her partner, eight years her senior. There she found the cohort she never realized she had been missing.

In the 1970s Dkyewomon came out as a lesbian separatist and established an organizing space called Lesbian Gardens in North Hampton, Mass. She surrounded herself with other lesbians in the center's feminist book store and coffee house, and planned sit-ins and marches such as early "Take Back the Night" demonstrations that have been raising awareness of gender-based violence ever since.

But eventually Dykewomon, an English professor at San Francisco State University, went back to school and started spending less time protesting in the streets.

At Old Lesbians Organizing for Change forums Dykewomon sometimes feels a semblance of the 1970s, a heady time of collective activism and identity formation for lesbian feminists in the United States.

"When I went to that first gathering, it was like, 'Here they are. Here are the women who still want to be activists and kick ass and change the world,'" Dykewomon said.

Griesinger, the 71-year-old co-director of the organization, said that despite a nostalgic tendency among some in her age group, the lesbian feminist movement has remained strong and vital.

"Every day, every decade from the 1970s there was activity," Griesinger said. "The movement has changed and shifted, but there are women's centers and programs and community and meetings and just many, many activities going on all the time."

Fertilized by 1960s Movement

Lesbian feminism of the 1970s was fertilized by the feminist movement in the late 1960s, said Leila Rupp, a professor of feminist studies at University of California, Santa Barbara. At sit-ins across the country, activists challenged injustices affecting all women. But they also flagged the special concerns of lesbians, such as workplace discrimination and court rulings that denied lesbians legal guardianship of their children.

"Lesbians were the backbone of the radical feminist movement," Rupp said. "One of the big issues is that women were losing their children in custody cases and their jobs in the workplace and that was very real. People were making choices about how they were going to be out and where they were going to be."

The women formed a scattered national underground community, with New York City as a nucleus. Regular softball games in New York offered women a chance to be physical and competitive with one another. Folk musicians performed in apartments and at bars. Larger gatherings at university grounds could draw, at their height, up to 1,000 women. Those early years were a whirlwind, a thrill a minute, as old lesbians now remember.

Trying to organize these same women decades later presents particular problems, Dykewomon has found. They tend to be more forgetful and have more health crises.

The upcoming forum, which Dykewomon is helping to stage, will include a memorial for deceased lesbians, as well as workshops and a dance show.

New members can join Old Lesbians Organizing for Change once they exit their 50s, but recruitment is an ongoing struggle.

Arden Eversmeyer, who came out as a lesbian in 1948 when she was 17 years old, is a former co-director of Old Lesbians Organizing for Change. The organization has since provided funding for Eversmeyer's initiative, the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project.

Over the past 16 years Eversmeyer has recorded and collected the oral histories of 350 lesbians. Most of these women -- the oldest one was born in 1916 -- have been closeted for much of their adult lives. Some were married to men for periods of time and had children. Eversmeyer said she is quick to accept when she gets turned down for an oral history interview request.

"That is a generational thing, you know," Eversmeyer said. "Why should they come out now? They spent their lives with this kind of protective cover, and why should they risk losing some friends, or family, or church connections when they are safe the way they are?"

Older Lesbians More Reluctant

Older women seem more reluctant than men to show up at gatherings focused on their sexual orientation.

The SAGE Center in Manhattan, N.Y., the first full-time LGBT senior center in the United States, offers some older lesbian and bisexual women in New York City a chance to meet other LGBT people and participate in free events like writing workshops and meditation classes. But even here, at the open, bright meeting space, far fewer women than men turn out for the evening communal dinners. The seven women who arrived for the weekly group "Our Evolving Lives" one recent Thursday were reluctant to offer their names to a visitor.

"Most of the women are out, but not all, and we have had some women just coming out, even a woman over 70," said Felicia Sobel, a 69-year-old social worker who leads two women's groups.

None of the women in this group had heard of Old Lesbians Organizing for Change. The topic at hand during their two-hour session in a small classroom one floor down from SAGE's busy lobby was monogamy. "It is a very religious way to live if you just stay with one person and I don't think it is workable, frankly," said a woman who identified herself as Raquel Welch.

Some older lesbians say their lives today are not that different from decades ago. Griesinger, for instance, lives on a women's collective in Athens, Ohio, that she founded in the 1980s and said her work has never let up.

Dobkin, meanwhile, is preparing for her next concert on March 8 in Manhattan at People's Voice Cafe, in Midtown East. Dobkin has earned the admiration of such big stars as pop singer Melissa Etheridge and Bob Dylan, who once called her his "favorite female singer."

"The ways we would organize back then just aren't there now," Dobkin said. "But people still come out to my shows and I think about coming together now and what a charge it is. The charge of being connected, of belonging to such a powerful force. Of being together."

http://womensenews.org/story/lesbian-and-transgender/140104/older-lesbians-reunite-focused-now-ageism#.Us0miZ0o63Y

Kobi

01-16-2014, 02:42 AM

Who she is: The acclaimed author of novels including Room and Hood, works of literary history such as Passions Between Women and We Are Michael Field, and short-story collections including Kissing the Witch and The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits.

What she’s accomplished: Emma Donoghue, born in Ireland and now living in Canada, is one of the most esteemed writers working today. Her best-known work is the 2010 novel Room, whose story is told from the viewpoint of a 5-year-old boy who has spent his entire life in a small room with his mother and knows nothing of the outside world except what he gets from television. It may sound harrowing, but on her website, Donoghue emphasizes that “Room is no horror story or tearjerker, but a celebration of resilience and the love between parent and child.” It has sold over a million copies worldwide, been translated into 35 languages, and won numerous awards. A film adaptation is planned, with Donoghue writing the screenplay and Lenny Abrahamson directing.

The fame of Room, however, shouldn’t overshadow the rest of Donoghue’s extensive body of work. The author, who is a lesbian, has often dealt with lesbian themes. Her first novel, Stir-Fry, is a coming-of-age tale about a girl from rural Ireland who moves to Dublin for college and unwittingly moves in with a lesbian couple. Her second, Hood, is a story of love and loss involving two women who began their romance as students in the repressive atmosphere of a Dublin convent school in the late 1970s.

Among her nonfiction work, Inseparable: Desire Between Women in Literature deals with just that, while Passions Between Women: British Lesbian Culture 1668-1801 is a survey of texts on lesbian themes in that setting, encompassing trial records, newspapers, medical tracts, poems, novels, plays, and more. We Are Michael Field is a biography of Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper, aunt and niece as well as lovers, who wrote under the pseudonym Michael Field in the Victorian era.

Donoghue has published many collections of short fiction, such as The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits, with stories based on, as she says on her website, “peculiar incidents in the history of the British Isles” and written “using both scholarly and imaginative methods to resurrect long-forgotten women, queers, troublemakers, freaks and other nobodies.” Kissing the Witch, another collection, reimagines fairy tales from a feminist perspective. Donoghue’s short fiction has appeared in many anthologies, and she has also written plays, articles on literary history, and more.

Her latest book is Frog Music, due out April 1. This is her first venture into crime fiction, and it tells the story of a woman in 1876 San Francisco investigating the murder of a friend. Says an advance review from Publishers Weekly: “Donoghue’s first literary crime novel is a departure from her bestselling Room, but it’s just as dark and just as gripping.”

Donoghue says she moved to Canada for “love of a Canadian” — partner Chris Roulston, a professor of women’s studies and feminist research at the University of Western Ontario. The two women live in London, Ont., with their son and daughter. Another noteworthy fact about Donoghue’s famly is that her father, Denis Donoghue, is a literary critic, New York University professor emeritus, and scholar of the work of T.S. Eliot, William Butler Yeats, and others. Emma, the youngest of Denis and Frances Donoghue’s eight children, is the only one to follow him into a literary career.

Choice quote, on whether she minds being known as a lesbian writer: “I’m not going to object to ‘lesbian writer’ if I don’t object to ‘Irish writer’ or ‘woman writer,’ since these are all equally descriptive of me and where I’m from. And the labels commit me to nothing, of course; my books aren’t and don’t have to be all about Ireland, or women, or lesbians. (And since publishing Room, I’m mostly known as the locked-up-children writer instead…).” — Donoghue in the FAQs section of her website

For more information: The author’s official site, EmmaDonoghue.com, is a treasure trove of info.

http://www.shewired.com/who-f/2014/01/15/who-f-%e2%80%a6-author-emma-donoghue

Kobi

01-16-2014, 03:13 PM

Billie Jean King is a badass lady. President Obama knew it when he selected her to represent the U.S. and LGBT people as a delegate for the Sochi Olympics, and after her appearance Tuesday on The Colbert Report, the rest of America does too.

Despite the fact that her appearance in Russia could be considered "gay propaganda," which is illegal in Russia, King tells Stephen Colbert that she won't stay quiet if questioned. When reminded that she could be thrown in jail for supposedly promoting homosexuality, she responds with "I guess I'll have to take that chance." Game, set, match, Billie Jean King.

Watch the full interview on The Colbert Report here: (http://www.shewired.com/sports/2014/01/16/watch-billie-jean-king-says-shes-not-aftraid-be-gay-sochi-colbert-report)

tapu

01-16-2014, 03:21 PM

Just watched the SF Fire Chief apologize for the way FD approached the Asiana flight. Not too many lesbians in that high of a position let themselves look THAT butch lesbian. Cool.

Kobi

01-16-2014, 04:36 PM

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/fd/74/b9/fd74b95f859c1c15e0b4adcb04427143.jpg

We’re so happy for out comic and Chelsea Lately Roundtable regular Fortune Feimster for landing a an acting gig in Fox’s upcoming comedy Cabot College, produced by none other than Tina Fey (and Matt Hubbard).

Fortune is set to star as Becca, a popular, openly gay student at the fictional women’s college that has just gone co-ed, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “The character is a three-sport varsity athlete who is an outgoing, extremely loud and raucous partier,” THR reports.

Chelsea Lately fans never fear though. While Fortune has stepped away from her regular writing role on the talk show, she will remain a regular on the roundtable.

The comic behind hilarious alter-egos like Darlene Witherspoon the Hooters waitress and her spot-on portrayal of both Honey Boo Boo and Mama June, was slated to write, produce and star in the half-hour comedy Discounted for ABC back in 2012, but it never came to fruition.

Congrats to Fortune for teaming up with Fey!

C0LLETTE

01-16-2014, 05:25 PM

Kobi

01-16-2014, 05:50 PM

Probably the richest, most Hollywood- powerful (young) lesbian on the planet: Megan Elilison. Yes her father is obscenely rich but she is doing interesting things with all that money.

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2013/03/megan-ellison-27-producer-zero-dark-thirty

Also, this year:

"Megan Ellison made history on Thursday, becoming the first woman and only the fourth person to receive two best picture Academy Award nominations in the same year.

The producer earned a trip to the Oscars for her work on “Her” and “American Hustle.” She has previously been nominated for producing 2012′s “Zero Dark Thirty.”

This was an interesting article. I didn't know who Megan Ellison was or what she has accomplished in her young life.

It was also interesting that the author, who was a woman, felt the need to comment on Megan being "a bit overweight" and dresses like a "butch".

It is sad when women have to make digs at other women, using their body and attire, to send a message to other women and to men as well.

It is an example of internalized misogyny and sexism i.e Megan might have done this or that but as a woman, she is overweight and doesn't dress like a woman should.

Very sad.

C0LLETTE

01-16-2014, 06:21 PM

Kobi

01-16-2014, 06:56 PM

Yes. I did notice that. It is all too easy to become inured to that sort of commentary. You rarely see mention of Harvey Weinstein's not so "bit" girth.

Megan Ellison's personal success is probably also hard won in the face of accusations that it is entirely due to her father's money.

I was going to let that go but seeing you brought it up......yes a woman's success must be tempered by the men who made it all possible.

Did you like the story about her parents marriage and how Dad managed to stay involved after the divorce? (Isn't a Dad supposed to do that?)

And, of course no story about a woman's success would be complete without bringing her bro in the picture too.

Did we leave any males figures out i.e. the dog, the gardener, her male teachers, the milkman etc.

Notice their are no female figures who helped in this process - sperm supersedes womb I guess.

Sad, we as women, are socialized to do this from birth. This, too, is an example of internalized misogyny and sexism.

Martina

01-16-2014, 07:20 PM

What does she actually do except invest money she did not earn in movies she does not make? I don't get it.

C0LLETTE

01-16-2014, 07:29 PM

well, I suppose you could say that about anyone who invests money...enough lousy choices and you have no more money to invest (though that might take her longer than most ) or if you choose right, you have even more. Welcome to Capitalism :cigar2:

Kobi

01-16-2014, 07:32 PM

What does she actually do except invest money she did not earn in movies she does not make? I don't get it.

Something else women are taught from birth is to make disparaging remarks about other women....like the gist of this post.

Megan Ellison is a producer. A producer, regardless of their gender, has the job of procuring money for projects i.e. their own cash, from investors etc.

Producers make a shitload of money off successful projects.

Kobi

01-17-2014, 02:05 PM

http://www.shewired.com/sites/shewired.com/files/imce/2014/ANNISEINNER.jpg

Houston’s Mayor Annise Parker married her partner Kathy Hubbard in Palm Springs, Calif. Thursday, according to a press release from her office.

Parker, the first openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city said of her wedding that “This is a very happy day for us. We have had to wait a very long time to formalize our commitment to each other. Kathy has been by my side for more than two decades, helping to raise a family, nurture my political career and all of the other ups and down and life events that come with a committed relationship."

A small group of family and friends attended the sunset wedding, which fell on the same day as Parker and Hubbard’s 23rd anniversary, according to the release.

http://www.shewired.com/marriage/2014/01/17/houston-mayor-annise-parker-marries-her-partner-23-years-palm-springs

Happy_Go_Lucky

01-17-2014, 02:18 PM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/16/obama-black-lesbian-judicial-nominee_n_4612412.html

How about a few dozen more lesbians, and/or women of color?

YeeHaw!! Now we shall see if she receives senate approval. *Crosses fingers

Happy_Go_Lucky

01-17-2014, 03:55 PM

Tennis use to be a huge part of my life. Anyone else following The Australian Open?

Martina Navratilova paved the way for many lesbian tennis players, she was one of my idols when I played in the Juniors. Billie Jean King was also amazing and promoting lesbian causes of which I truly admire. The tennis world still misses Amalie Mauresmo who had the sweetest one handed backhand EVER. Sam Stosur is on her way to meet number1 Serena Williams in one more round. Good Luck Sam! (she has upper arms most men would kill for)>

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=lesbian+tennis+player&id=3D80BD0262709C3C481103B7B7EAF9FDD8D796A8&FORM=IQFRBA#view=detail&id=3D80BD0262709C3C481103B7B7EAF9FDD8D796A8&selectedIndex=0

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=sam+stosur&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=sam+stosur&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=#view=detail&id=7E968199CD0EAAAE9180E39947A8C5278321CC64&selectedIndex=2

CherylNYC

01-18-2014, 02:12 AM

Something else women are taught from birth is to make disparaging remarks about other women....like the gist of this post.

Megan Ellison is a producer. A producer, regardless of their gender, has the job of procuring money for projects i.e. their own cash, from investors etc.

Producers make a shitload of money off successful projects.

Procuring and supplying money for filmmaking is one part of a producer's job. Depending on a producer's personal style, they may be very hands-on over the course of filming. Many producers have personal visions which, for better or worse, may get imposed on a film.

Besides possibly having personal involvement in the artistic end of filmmaking, producers make sh@t happen. They and their staff may be called upon to procure the supposedly unattainable and talk actors and other creative staff into getting on board for a film.

And then they say "No! You can't hVe any more money!!"

firegal

01-18-2014, 02:53 AM

What does she actually do except invest money she did not earn in movies she does not make? I don't get it.

35 oscar nominations for her films, she is a producer also.
Of those 35, 17 were films she financed.

Martina

01-18-2014, 04:54 AM

35 oscar nominations for her films, she is a producer also.
Of those 35, 17 were films she financed.

Did you read the article? She's lost tens of millions of dollars, which she can well afford, but that's her record. She is 27, has one year of college and seems to spend her much of her time hanging out with movies stars. Fine. Good choice. Better than drug addiction or living a Kim Kardashian style life. Some kind of lesbian role model? Well, not for me.

Martina

01-18-2014, 05:03 AM

Let me just add as a resident of Silicon Valley who sees poverty every day, it does not inspire me with admiration to see how the extreme wealth generated here, but kept by the tiniest sliver of the one percent, gets used while the rest of us not only do not share in the wealth we created, but suffer from the consequences of higher cost of living, congestion, and failure of these corporations to pay their fair share of taxes. Today on Facebook, I saw this: http://billmoyers.com/2014/01/17/we-would-have-eliminated-poverty-entirely-by-now-if-inequality-hadnt-skyrocketed/

Poverty would have been eliminated -- eliminated -- if income inequality had not become so exaggerated. So, no, I am not inspired by her story. Give me a break.

Just found this re oracle -- Fast-forward a decade, over which Oracle finalized four more pacts, including two governing foreign tax benefits, generally covering fiscal years 2002 through 2013, excepting 2006. It also consolidated hundreds of offshore subsidiaries into six core affiliates in Ireland, and by this year had amassed $26 billion in cash held overseas -- more than seven times 2003's level. As of May, when its 2013 fiscal year ended, Oracle had nearly halved its tax bill. It paid $2.6 billion in cash income taxes on pre-tax income of nearly $13.9 billion, a rate of just under 19%.

I'd much rather the corporation paid its taxes, so that we had enough beds for homeless people here in the oh so wealthy Silicon Valley. I'd be much more inspired by that.

Happy_Go_Lucky

01-18-2014, 09:16 AM

Yes Kobi, the aforementioned tennis players are out and proud lesbians. They are successful with superior talents all.

Here are some links to introduce a few of them to you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Stosur
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am%C3%A9lie_Mauresmo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennae_Stubbs

Happy_Go_Lucky

01-18-2014, 09:37 AM

Regarding Vanity Fair's article Megan Ellison.

In the space of a year, the young Ellison has become the most talked-about independent financier in Hollywood. Pretty but a bit overweight, with hunched shoulders, she has a slacker vibe. She drives a gray ’89 Aston Martin or rides one of her motorcycles, often has a Camel cigarette in hand, and rarely wears makeup. Partial to butch, grunge chic, she usually wears a uniform of army boots, denim jeans, and a hoodie pulled over the T-shirt of an old-school rock band, like Led Zeppelin or AC/DC. She can come across as well read and shy, but then might say something strangely blunt and uncomfortable and laugh at it. She talks extremely fast, especially when trying to make a point, with her words getting caught up in one another, or slowly and deliberately, especially when she’s upset. “Megan reminds me a little of John Grady Cole,” says director Andrew Dominik, referring to the 16-year-old cowboy who rides into Mexico in Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses. “She is not going to argue with you, but she’s going to do what she wants.”

Look at this very poorly written article! Vanity Fair must hire misogynistic nincompoops with only a modicum of journalistic talent.

Is it necessary to discuss her physical appearance in such a disdainful manner? :sigh::sigh:

Kobi

01-18-2014, 12:19 PM

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][SIZE="2"]Regarding Vanity Fair's article Megan Ellison.

Look at this very poorly written article! Vanity Fair must hire misogynistic nincompoops with only a modicum of journalistic talent.

Is it necessary to discuss her physical appearance in such a disdainful manner? :sigh::sigh:

The author couldn't attack her accomplishments or success, so she resorted to attacking her as a woman. The not so hidden message is Ellison is not a woman who represents what females and males have been taught a woman is supposed to look like and dress like.

It was an attempt to undermine her success by pointing out she is "less than" as a woman.

And, seeing it was a female author, that is an example of internalized misogyny and sexism.

Kobi

01-21-2014, 12:36 PM

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/3b/ea/13/3bea1302a39f06e5a300c9f438ac0ca7.jpg

Pat Parker was born on this day in 1944 (to June 19, 1989) She was an influential African-American lesbian and feminist poet and activist.

Given the name Patricia Cooks at birth, Pat Parker was born in Houston, Texas, the youngest of four daughters in a Black working class family. Her mother, Marie Louise Cooks, was a domestic worker, and her father, Ernest Nathaniel Cooks supported the family by re-treading tires.

Urged by her father to take "the freedom train of education," Parker left home at seventeen and moved to Los Angeles, California, earning her undergraduate degree at Los Angeles City College, and followed that with a graduate degree at San Francisco State College. She married playwright Ed Bullins in 1962, but they separated after four years. Pat Parker settled in Oakland, California, in the early 1970s to pursue work, writing and opportunities for activism. She married a second time, to Berkeley, California writer Robert F. Parker, but decided that the "idea of marriage... wasn't working" for her.

Pat Parker began her service as the medical coordinator at the Oakland Feminist Women's Health Center, which grew from one clinic to six sites during her tenure from 1978 to 1987. Pat Parker also participated in political activism ranging from early involvement with the Black Panther Party and Black Women's Revolutionary Council to formation of the Women's Press Collective. She was involved in wide-ranging activism in gay and lesbian organizations and held positions of national leadership regarding women's health issues, especially concerning domestic and sexual violence. In 1979 she toured with the “Varied Voices of Black Women”, a group of poets and musicians which included Linda Tillery, Mary Watkins & Gwen Avery.

Parker gave her first public reading of her poetry in 1963 while married to playwright Ed Bullins. The challenge of "competing in a male poetry scene" as the wife of a writer, Parker notes, helped develop not only her voice but also her willingness to write about contemporary issues -- about civil rights and Vietnam as well as an emerging African-American lesbian feminist perspective on love and lust. Reading before women's groups beginning in 1968 brought Parker notice and satisfaction, especially as she joined Judy Grahn, a white working class Bay Area poet, to read lesbian poetry in public, arranging readings not only at women's bookstores, but also intermixing poetry with musical performances at local women's bars, coffeehouses and festivals.

Pat Parker and Audre Lorde first met in 1969 and became close friends. They continued to exchange letters and visits for twenty years, until Parker's death in 1989.

The ‘Goat Child’ of “Child of Myself,” Parker's first collection, chafes at the confinement and conformity she's expected to learn in marriage, and then tentatively comes out as a lesbian via several love poems to women. Often a bold speaker, the poet opens “Pit Stop,” a 1974 publication, with the line "My lover is a woman" in a poem that addresses interracial relationships. She also offers readers the sweet "I Kumquat You" and strident "Bitch! / I want to scream" in love poems that line up before the collection's long title poem addressing alcoholism: "a pit is a coward's suicide / a hearty drink to anything. " Pit Stop is also infused with dreams, "not [just] Martin's" or Malcolm's or those of political allies, but "a simple dream" that juxtaposes the dreams of human/racial equality with gay liberation: "In my dream - / I can walk the streets / holding hands with my lover" without fear of retaliation or disdain.

From all these stages of her life, Parker developed a narrative poetry, often taking on a call and response form recognizable in black oral traditions, and speaking of generations of women and men engaged in human rights battles. Parker's poetry generally escapes didacticism because of her deft use of humor, insistence on frank language, presentations of events long silent, and sharp analysis of injustices. The goal, Parker said is to "try to put the poetry in the language that we speak, to use that language, take those simple works and make out of them something that is moving, that is powerful, that is there."

Parker's five collections of poetry take their central images and process of self-creation as well as political analysis from autobiographical moments in Parker's life and from publicized incidents or community discussions related to race, class, gender, sexuality. The Firebrand Books' edition of “Movement in Black” - with its title poem and a collection of poems from three earlier Parker collections - is the only work by Parker that remains consistently in print. A well-crafted compilation, “Movement in Black“ reflects key patterns in Parker's work: "It is the moment of her creative impulse to communicate: the love, the anger, the fear, that powerful sense of justice (and injustice) the cynicism, the humor that she gives us," noted critic Cheryl Clarke notes in a review of this collection.

Pat Parker wrote "Womanslaughter" after the murder of her sister by her husband and places the reader alongside Parker as the poet's older sister is murdered and the sister's soon-to-be ex-husband is put on trial. Convicted not of murder but of "womanslaughter" because "Men cannot kill their wives. / They passion them to death. " For this murder in Texas, Parker’s former brother-in-law served one year in a work-release program; three years after this murder in Texas, Parker vows "I will come to my sisters / not dutiful, / I will come strong. " Parker brought this crime to the International Tribunal on Crimes against Women in 1976 in Brussels.

Finally, “Jonestown and Other Madness”, considers what isn't - what love isn't, what liberation isn't, what justice isn't; and what is - love and alliances, family legacies and strength. This last collection was published before Parker's death in 1989 from breast cancer, and ends both with a desire for more time to write and a legacy to her daughters. At her death, Pat Parker was survived by her long-time partner Marty Dunham and two daughters, Cassidy Brown and Anastasia Dunham Parker. In "Maybe I Should Have Been a Teacher," Parker chronicles her struggles, and writes:

“Take the strength that you may wage a long battle.
Take the pride that you can never stand small.
Take the rage that you can never settle for less.”

The Pat Parker/Vito Russo Center Library at New Yorks LGBT Community Center was named in honor of Parker and fellow writer, Vito Russo. The Pat Parker Poetry Award is awarded each year for a free verse, narrative poem or dramatic monologue by a black lesbian poet.

We remember Pat Parker on this day in celebration of the 70th anniversary of her birth, and in deep appreciation for her thoughtful poetry, her feminist advocacy, and her many contributions to our community.

Happy_Go_Lucky

01-21-2014, 01:40 PM

http://www.buzzfeed.com/skarlan/the-17-most-popular-lesbian-bars-in-the-us-yes-they-exist

Nightclubs, bars for lesbians is a dying breed. I use to party in Key West a few times a year, there was this amazing place that catered to (us). Well...this place has reinvented itself to allow het couples, men couples..... So, now what? You will not catch me staying there. My money and I will go elsewhere.

Kobi

01-22-2014, 09:49 AM

Teaser for new internet show Old Black Dyke, starring Gaye Adegbalola. The show premiers February 24th at 9pm EST on Stageit.com. OBD will air every 4th Monday of the month.

NoWH-hseecc

Kobi

01-22-2014, 04:38 PM

******TRIGGER ALERT******

U.K. man was sentenced to nine years in prison for raping a lesbian in a Bristol bar where he worked. According to an article in Gay Star News, 30-year-old Charles Franklin claimed that he met the woman on the street and invited her into his bar to charge her phone when "one thing led to another."

The woman, who had left a wedding at 1 a.m., said she was drunk and did not remember leaving the wedding. She said that she woke up to find Franklin raping her on the floor of The Somerset House pub in Clifton.

The woman, whose name has not been released for legal reasons, told British newspaper the Daily Mail that she had three times the legal driving limit of alcohol in her system.

"The next thing I remember was being on the floor of this pub with a guy," she told the Daily Mail. "He stripped me. He was trying to force himself on me. I was struggling quite a lot. He told me if I kept struggling he would break my neck, so I let him do what he wanted."

The woman said that after the attack Franklin sat at the bar and watched TV while she lay naked on the floor. She said she then managed to find her coat and pretend to be sleeping. She said Franklin brought her upstairs and tried, but failed, to have sex with her again.

When he fell asleep, the woman put on his jeans and T-shirt before climbing out a window to escape. She borrowed a mobile phone from a kebab stand and called her mother, who came to pick her up.

Prosecutor Tara Wolfe said, "The attack had devastating consequences on the victim’s life. She was forced to take medication after the attack and as a result she was unable to pursue her career for 12 weeks."

Mitigator Edward Burgess said that, "Mr. Franklin is a man of good character, as you heard from several witnesses in the trial."

Franklin pled not guilty, but Gay Star News reports that sentencing Judge Michael Roach sentenced him to nine years in prison, and that he must sign the Sex Offenders’ Register, but also added that, "The sentence I am about to hand you should be in double figures, but your good character has reduced it to just under that."

http://www.edgeboston.com/news/international/News/154480/bristol_barman_rapes_drunk_lesbian,_gets_9_years_i n_prison

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Um the man is found guilty of rape and gets a reduced sentence for "good character"? Kind of makes you wonder what the judge considers "bad character".

Kobi

01-22-2014, 05:54 PM

Did you read the article? She's lost tens of millions of dollars, which she can well afford, but that's her record. She is 27, has one year of college and seems to spend her much of her time hanging out with movies stars. Fine. Good choice. Better than drug addiction or living a Kim Kardashian style life. Some kind of lesbian role model? Well, not for me.

I am really lost as to why you would have such an opinion of this particular woman. I also don't understand what makes you not think she is a good role model for lesbians and women. Are you saying lesbians and therefore women must have a certain level of education, certain friends and certain jobs in order to be considered successful and proper role models?

I think she is a great role model for women and lesbians. Why?

1. She is a female and a lesbian. Period.
2. She is a female and lesbian in the predominately male financial field.
3. Her movies are successful. Per firegal, 35 oscar nominations for her films. Of those 35, 17 were films she financed. She is 27. I am impressed.
4. She has grossed profits from those movies which well exceed losses. Even Ron Howard has made some clunker films.

And the biggest reason of all, seeing you are concerned about poverty and such?

As a producer, she is a job generator in a wonderful thing called trickle down economics. She not only provides the financing for the actors, her money and ability to procure money gives jobs to writers, directors, make up artists, clothing designers, sound people, technical people, scenery people, lighting people, hairdressers......all the way down to the person to makes the coffee.

If the film is shot on location, it provides jobs and income for the local economy in the form of lodging, food, entertainment, transportation, security, even porta potties, electricity, water.

If it is shot in the studio, it supports everyone who is employed there and all the vendors who supply it.

When the film hits the theatres, it provides jobs for the theater owners, managers, ticket folks, concession folks. The concession stands provide for jobs for the vendors who provide their supplies and those who make or grow the products needed.

Sounds like a fricken good role model to me.

Kobi

01-23-2014, 06:33 AM

Wednesday, out lesbian Assembly Majority Floor Leader Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, was elected the next Speaker of the California Assembly. She is the first open lesbian to serve as speaker—and she takes over from the first openly gay man, current Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez. The Speaker of the Assembly has often been described as the second most powerful person in state politics after the governor.

Though Atkins would be the first full-time out lesbian Speaker in history, she would not be the first to bang the gavel. Westside Democrat Sheila James Kuehl—California’s first elected openly gay lawmaker—served as speaker pro tem during the 1997-1998 session, and San Diego legislative heroine Christine Kehoe was elected assembly speaker pro tem during her time in the Assembly from 2000-2004.

Prior to Atkins, two other women held the important statewide position in line for the governorship—Doris Allen held the Assembly Speakership in 1995, and Karen Bass held it from 2008-2010.

http://www.frontiersla.com/frontiers-blog/2014/01/22/breaking-lesbian-toni-atkins-elected-california-assembly-speaker

Kobi

01-23-2014, 06:39 AM

Heather Mizeur, 41, is a state legislator seeking the Democratic nomination for governor of Maryland.

If elected, Mizeur would be many firsts for Maryland: the first woman governor, the first openly gay governor, and the first same-sex married governor. She would also be the first governor elected using the state’s public-financing mechanism for statewide campaigns, an arrangement that constrains campaign spending but opens up a funding level that might otherwise have been elusive, given the well-established money-pumping machines working for her opponents.

http://m.citypaper.com/news/the-quiet-revolution-1.1616351#.UuBpMUrCLJs.twitter

Kobi

01-24-2014, 04:15 PM

Andrea Ritchie is a Black lesbian police misconduct attorney and organizer who has engaged in extensive research, writing, litigation, organizing and advocacy on profiling, policing, and physical and sexual violence by law enforcement agents against women, girls and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people of color in over the past two decades.

She currently coordinates Streetwise & Safe (SAS), www.streetwiseandsafe.org, a leadership development initiative aimed at sharing “know your rights” information, strategies for safety and visions for change among LGBT youth of color who experience of gender, race, sexuality and poverty-based policing and criminalization.

As such, she serves on the steering committee of Communities United for Police Reform (CPR), www.changethenypd.org, a city-wide campaign to challenge discriminatory, unlawful and abusive policing practices in New York City led by grassroots community groups, legal organizations, policy advocates and researchers from all five boroughs.

She is the author of Violence Everyday: Police Brutality and Racial Profiling Against Women, Girls, and Trans People of Color and the co-author (with Joey L. Mogel and Kay Whitlock) of Queer (In)Justice. She lobbied and organized with co-contributor Meron Wondwosen and fellow law students at Howard University School of Law on behalf of Mumia throughout her law school tenure, and has had the privilege of offering pro bono legal research support to Mumia’s legal team.

Andrea is a Feminist We Love because she gives voice to members of our community who are often silenced and rendered invisible by their own families, some activists groups, and the mainstream media. Her groundbreaking work charts new territory in the literature on mass incarceration.

Interview (http://thefeministwire.com/2014/01/feminists-we-love-andrea-ritchie/)

http://thefeministwire.com/2014/01/feminists-we-love-andrea-ritchie/

Kobi

01-28-2014, 06:07 AM

Jewrotica, “a relationship and sex ed resource for the Jewish community,” has released its annual “Sexiest Rabbis” list, and two of the 10 honorees are lesbian moms.

Clearly, the authors of Jewrotica are defining “sexy” to mean more than just physical attractiveness. Rabbi Jill Hammer, Ph.D., made the list for being “an embodiment of sensuality and stimulation. Her written words and teachings stimulate the mind, body and soul, engaging one on a journey to the sacred feminine.” Hammer is also the Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion, a pluralistic rabbinical and cantorial seminary in Yonkers, New York. She and her wife Shoshana Jedwab live in Manhattan and have one daughter.

Rabbi Benay Lappe, a single mom, is founder and Rosh Yeshiva of SVARA, “a traditionally radical yeshiva dedicated to the serious study of Talmud and committed to the Queer experience.” Jewrotica notes that “A former student describes her as a ‘total bad-ass.’”

Jewrotica says their list is meant to be “exceedingly respectful” but also “fun and playful.” I mention it here because I think it’s always good to remind ourselves of our wide range of human possibilities. We can be lesbians, and parents, and people of faith, and sexy, or combinations thereof.

Other queer folks on the list (but not, to the best of my knowledge, parents) is Rabbi David Dunn Bauer, Director for Social Action Programming at Congregation Beth Simchat Torah of New York City, the largest LGBT congregation in the world (whose head rabbi, Sharon Kleinbaum, is also a lesbian mom).

I was also pleased to see that several of the not-obviously LGBT rabbis on the list (and in Jewrotica’s longer People’s Choice section) mention their commitment to LGBT inclusion and equality.

Mazel tov to all!
- See more at: http://www.mombian.com/2014/01/27/lesbian-mom-named-to-sexiest-rabbis-of-2013-list/#sthash.2HHVMvpy.dpuf

C0LLETTE

01-29-2014, 04:08 PM

Further to Megan Ellison.

http://homes.yahoo.com/news/american-hustle-producer-megan-ellison-buys-20-million-184606871.htmlhttp://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/QLXkTapwmYwYGJf56nL7Jg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://yre.zenfs.com/en_us/cms/homes/zillow/Megan-Ellisons-home-107d05.jpg

Looks very nice!

Butterbean

01-29-2014, 04:35 PM

Frank is missing. Here's a news clip with some details.

http://www.wgrz.com/story/news/local/buffalo/2013/12/27/frank-goldberg-still-missing-community-gathers-in-support/4229507/

~baby~doll~

01-29-2014, 05:15 PM

I was going to let that go but seeing you brought it up......yes a woman's success must be tempered by the men who made it all possible.

Did you like the story about her parents marriage and how Dad managed to stay involved after the divorce? (Isn't a Dad supposed to do that?)

And, of course no story about a woman's success would be complete without bringing her bro in the picture too.

Did we leave any males figures out i.e. the dog, the gardener, her male teachers, the milkman etc.

Notice their are no female figures who helped in this process - sperm supersedes womb I guess.

Sad, we as women, are socialized to do this from birth. This, too, is an example of internalized misogyny and sexism.

Most of the world can't believe a woman is capable on her own and needs a male stepping stone. Sick

Also in the earlier post i noticed the women's comment on Megan Ellison weight and garb. It may have been easier for that woman to attack such trivial attributes instead of saying she was against gays (if that is the case).

*Anya*

01-29-2014, 11:24 PM

Disney Channel's 'Good Luck Charlie' Introduces Lesbian Couple (VIDEO)
Posted: 01/27/2014 4:30 pm EST | Updated: 01/27/2014 4:59 pm EST

The Disney Channel just introduced its first-ever lesbian couple on the series "Good Luck Charlie."

As TV Guide pointed out:

In the storyline, parents Amy and Bob Duncan (Leigh-Allyn Baker and Eric Allan Kramer) set up a playdate for preschooler Charlie (Mia Talerico) and one of her new friends. When the kid arrives, the Duncans learn that Charlie's pal has two moms. That's fine, but the potential new friendship is put to the test as one mom chats with Amy, and the other is stuck listening to Bob's dull stories.

A Disney Channel spokesperson told the publication that the episode was "developed to be relevant to kids and families around the world and to reflect themes of diversity and inclusiveness."

News of the planned storyline broke last year. Among those to offer her support was none other than Miley Cyrus herself.

Meanwhile, right-wing group One Million Moms (who are best known for a failed boycott against JCPenney after the retail giant hired Ellen DeGeneres as its spokesperson) condemned the episode.

"Conservative families need to urge Disney to avoid controversial topics that children are far too young to comprehend," organizers wrote at the time, according to Lez Get Real. "This is the last place a parent would expect their children to be confronted with topics that are too difficult for them to understand. Mature issues of this nature are being introduced too early and too soon, and it is extremely unnecessary."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/27/good-luck-charlie-lesbians_n_4675943.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

Kobi

01-30-2014, 10:17 AM

http://www.castanet.net/content/2014/1/CPT123160359_high_p2531388.jpg

Alberta's first top-ranking female RCMP officer says she has always been treated with respect as a gay officer in the force.

While the RCMP have been rocked by allegations of harassment in recent months and face several lawsuits, newly appointed assistant Commissioner Marianne Ryan said she has been treated well.

She choked back tears Wednesday as she thanked her partner during a change-of-command ceremony in Edmonton.

"I think it's important to be who you are and the RCMP is a very diverse and welcoming organization. And after 32 years, I'm very proud to be in the organization because of who we are," she told reporters afterwards.

"I'm very fortunate to be able to say the RCMP has always treated me with a great deal of respect."

An RCMP spokesman said Ryan is the first openly gay officer in charge of Alberta.

Ryan told reporters that it's "nice to know" she's the first in the province.

"I'm very proud of who I am and who my partner is and I'm especially proud to be the commanding officer of Alberta," she said.

In 2012, the RCMP released an emotional video by gay and lesbian officers and civilian employees as part of a campaign to combat anti-gay bullying. Some of them talked about how they were bullied in school but said life got better as they got older.

Ryan grew up on a farm in London, Ont., and joined the force in 1982, after graduating from university. She spent 19 years working her way up the ranks in Manitoba before transferring to Vancouver.

In 2011, she became the officer in charge of criminal operations for Alberta. Last fall, she was appointed commanding officer of the province, taking over for retiring deputy commissioner Dale McGowan.

Ryan believes her new job will encourage other women to sign up. She said some women have approached her to ask about being an officer, and she's happy she can act as a marketing tool.

"If I can make it, anyone can make it," she said.

"There are many, many women in the RCMP now. When I joined, not so many. But behind me and with me there are a lot of women and there will be a lot more coming in."

http://www.castanet.net/news/Canada/107755/Cop-says-she-was-respected-as-a-lesbian

C0LLETTE

01-30-2014, 11:30 AM

Gay heiress Gigi Chao writes open letter to father over $114m husband offer

The lesbian daughter of a Hong Kong tycoon, who offered more than $US100 million ($114.29 million) to find her a male suitor, has issued a heartfelt open letter urging him to accept her sexuality.

In the letter, which starts ‘‘Dear Daddy’’, socialite Gigi Chao asked her father Cecil to treat her partner Sean Eav as ‘‘a normal, dignified human being’’ - the pair have been together for nine years and are reported to have married in 2012 in France

http://www.smh.com.au/world/gay-heiress-gigi-chao-writes-open-letter-to-father-over-114m-husband-offer-20140130-hvae1.html
http://i.cbc.ca/1.2515052.1390970612!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_620/hong-kong-lesbian-dowry.jpg

lamuymuyfem

01-30-2014, 06:52 PM

Gigi Chao, daughter of a Chinese billionaire, has been in conflict with her father since marrying her oh-so-butch partner in 2012.

He has offered any man the equivalent of $114 million if he is able to 'turn his daughter straight.'

Gigi's most recent response is an open letter to her father in which she tells him that she is not simply a 'baby machine.'

You are amazing - thanks for being willing to be so high profile (and high femme)!

La Muy Muy Fem :goodluck:

Kobi

01-30-2014, 07:17 PM

Following the publication of an open letter from his lesbian daughter Gigi yesterday, Hong Kong billionaire Cecil Chao has withdrawn his multi-million dollar offer to any man that can successfully woo her, CNN reports:

ChaoCecil Chao, a wealthy real estate developer, made headlines around the world in 2012 when he offered 500 million Hong Kong dollars (roughly $65 million) to any man who succeeded in marrying his daughter.
$64M to marry my gay daughter

Recent reports that he was willing to double the offer put his family back in the headlines...

..."If Gigi's said that this is what she chooses, then it's all over," Cecil Chao said Thursday an interview with CNN's Monita Rajpal. He said the huge sum he had offered to potential suitors "stays in my pocket."

But the 77-year-old tycoon, who has three children but has never married, is unable to embrace his daughter's love life.

"I can't say I am happy with her choice," he said. "If this is her choice then it's for her."

And he said he wouldn't be welcoming Eav, 46, into his family, despite his daughter's plea.

http://www.towleroad.com/2014/01/cecil-chao-withdraws-million-dollar-offer-to-suitors-of-lesbian-daughter-gigi.html

Kobi

01-30-2014, 07:22 PM

Mathematically, we know there are definitely more LGBT athletes heading to Sochi, Russia, than there are on this list. But after a few weeks of digging, asking around, and Googling, the crop of out athletes heading to Sochi for the Olympics includes, it seems, only five people. All five are women.

Conversely, by the time the 2012 games in London were over, there were about 25 athletes (and a coach) who were out. London is a safer place to be LGBT than Russia, where violence against LGBT people is growing by the day and a law is on the books barring so-called gay propaganda.

We'll be watching Team LGBT as the games play out, and we're hoping the roster grows in the days ahead. In the meantime, here's who we will be watching.

Belle Brockhoff, Australia

When Russia banned LGBT "propaganda," 20-year-old Australian snowboarding prodigy Belle Brockhoff leaped out of the closet.

"I want to be proud of who I am and be proud of all the work I've done to get into the Olympics and not have to deal with this law," Brockhoff said last year.

Since then she said the Australian Olympic Committee has supported her journey to the games, though she said they didn't recommend she wave around a rainbow flag. Even as she's gearing up for Sochi, Brockhoff recently said, "After I compete, I'm willing to rip on [Putin's] ass. I'm not happy and there's a bunch of other Olympians who are not happy either."

Anastasia Bucsis, Canada

Bucsis was out at the last Winter Olympic games in Vancouver, but only a few months after Russia passed its antigay law, she reiterated that she was "proud to be gay."

“I could never promote that message of concealing who you are with all of this going on in Russia. I’m kind of happy that I did it on my own terms,” the long-track speed skater said.

Bucsis, who competed in the 2010 Vancouver Games, grew up in Calgary, the site of the 1988 Winter Olympic games. She said growing up in the wake of the Calgary Olympics inspired her, spurring her parents to get her to begin speed skating. Being closeted and not knowing any other speed skaters affected her performance in 2010, where she competed in the 500-meter event. She came out with the support of teammate Kaylin Irvine and now looks forward to Sochi's Olympic games. She's on the Canadian national team and has set a personal record this year.

Sanne Van Kerkhof, Netherlands

Short track competitor Sanne Van Kerkhof, has been on the Dutch national team, and competed in 2010 in the women's relay. Since Vancouver, Van Kerkhof seems to have hit her stride as a member of the relay team, as the Dutch women have won gold at the European Championships four years in a row since 2011 as well as the World Championships last year. She is part of the Dutch team that will be tackling the 3,000-meter relay.

Barbara Jezeršek, Slovenia

At the 2010 Winter Olympics, cross-country skier Barbara Jezeršek competed in the 10-kilometer and 15-kilometer races, as well as the 4x5-kilometer relay. She will be in Sochi representing Slovenia on the slopes.

Ireen Wüst, Netherlands

Speed skater Ireen Wüst won the gold for the Netherlands in 2010 in the women's 1,500-meter race at age 23, and four years earlier she won her first gold medal in the 3,000-meter speed skating event at the 2006 Olympic games in Torino, Italy. Now she's ready to hit the ice again for Team Orange in five events.

"I’ve skated for a long time now, and I competed in the last two Winter Games, so I know what to expect and I know how to race," she said to the International Olympic Committee recently. "Everyone has their own way, but for me I need to find the balance between being really focused and being relaxed. If I’m too nervous, I won’t be able to achieve my goal as it affects my body. I have to be relaxed, but focused; that’s what I prepare for mentally."

http://www.advocate.com/sports/2014/01/30/very-short-list-who-gay-olympics

~baby~doll~

01-30-2014, 08:13 PM

http://lesbiannews.com/

Many Married Utah Same-Sex Couples Can File Joint State Tax Returns
by Lesbian News • January 16, 2014

According to new guidance issued by the Utah State Tax Commission, all same-sex couples living in Utah that are eligible to file a joint federal tax return for the 2013 tax year are also eligible to file a joint state tax return.

While supporters of the state’s ban on marriage equality have appealed to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to defend the law, the USTC determined that all Utah same-sex marriages performed in 2013 are recognized for the purposes of state income tax filings.

So, if you live in Utah, and got married there in 2013—or, if you got married somewhere else—you may want to speak with a tax professional about your unique needs. You can peruse the state’s guidance here.

Lesbian news is a great site for information.

lamuymuyfem

01-31-2014, 04:32 PM

RE: Pat Parker

i heard her read on more than one occasion. Very powerful!

Kobi

02-09-2014, 09:58 AM

Marguerite H. Griffin (http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/m/APPredirect.php?AID=46103) has long been interested in rituals and ceremonies—and for the past seven years has turned her passion into her part-time profession.

She is a certified celebrant and non-denominational minister who was born and raised in Chicago, and she now calls the Chatham neighborhood home. Her business celebrates meaningful life moments and, naturally, her website is: Article Link Here

Griffin is a certified wedding and funeral celebrant who strives for authentic, meaningful and unique ceremonies to mark important life transitions, including anniversaries, memorials, baby blessings and more.

"We tend to move from one significant moment to another without really taking time to celebrate it, or truly understand how we've been moved by the occasion," Griffin said. "I heard about celebrants on NPR, an opportunity for individuals to create ceremonies—unique, hand-written to that event and the people involved."

Griffin, 47, who is lesbian, is a motivational speaker and writer, able to create the perfect mood for any ceremony—from sophisticated to intimate and sacred, from light and casual to overly flamboyant.

"I can suggest meaningful ways to personalize your ceremony using music, readings from secular, religious, spiritual or mythical traditions, and rituals that reflect your needs, your beliefs, your cultural, and your religious/spiritual background, and your values," she said.

"Your ceremony will express the great expectations and intense emotions that characterize the moments that have changed your life."

Griffin said the celebrant role has its roots in Australia, where it is most common.

"Things are going well," with the business, said Griffin, who, during the day, works at Northern Trust Bank. "This is something I do because I enjoy it. It is not full-time, and I don't ever expect it will be. It's a way for me to create value in the world, a way for me to give back, a way for me to be part of special moments for individuals and families, and use my skills as a creative writer and public speaker. That's what draws me to it."

Griffin has married about 15 couples per year, a total that no doubt will rise this year when gay weddings begin in June. She also has done baby blessings and house-warming celebrations. Plus, she has officiated memorial services for pets.

"I've enjoyed it, and really enjoy marrying gay couples," she said.

"I'm looking forward to what will be, hopefully, a busy wedding season [in 2014], which will include gay and straight couples. Now, gay couples can have a ceremony, mark the occasion, invite family and friends, have them learn more about each other, about their love, their hopes and dreams and more—just like a straight couple."

Griffin once performed a civil-union ceremony for two men who had been together for 40 years—and there was not a dry eye in the place, she said. "It was just so meaningful for them."

"For me, as a gay woman, to be able to marry a gay couple, it's very exciting; it's very hopeful and it just feels right," she said.

Griffin has performed countless memorial services over the years, such as the one she did for a terminally ill woman after being hired by the woman's children.

Griffin spent a couple of afternoons with the ill woman, to hear exactly what she had accomplished in her life, what she regretted, what she had wanted for her children, and much more. The woman passed away about four months later, and Griffin presented a perfect celebration of her life.

"For me, it was special to be a part of her journey, and also very meaningful to me that I was able to assist her children, so they didn't really have to spend the time wondering what their mom would have wanted," Griffin said. "It's wonderful work, a truly meaningful connection I have with the world."

Kobi

02-12-2014, 03:31 PM

Cheryl Dunye has mastered the art of storytelling in a multitude of viewpoints pertaining to the Queer spectrum as it pertains to the African-American lifestyle within the rainbow. Dunye received her BA from Temple University and her MFA from Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts, but it was the school of life that most impacted the Liberia native.

Self-dubbed "director, screenwriter, filmmaker, creative consultant, and educator," Dunye is taking her talk to the streets of Chicago this Valentine's Day to tell her stories of love, loss, discovery and redemption. She participated in an email Q&A with Windy City Times.

Windy City Times: The Watermelon Woman is historically noted as being the first African-American lesbian feature film, and you wrote, directed and starred in it. What was the best part of that experience for you as a filmmaker and visionary?

Cheryl Dunye: For me, the best was and continues to be my ability to build community with my work: from cast to crew to audience.

WCT: There appeared to be a fair amount of investigative reporting on your part in The Watermelon Woman. Why was this real-life story so intriguing to you?

Cheryl Dunye: I am intrigued by the courage and resilience in the lives of marginalized people, in particular women of color. It was important to bring Fae's life to light so that folks could see, connect and empower themselves by knowing that their existence has value.

WCT: In addition to The Watermelon Woman, you've helmed Stranger Inside, The Owl and Mommy is Coming. What messages do you hope the audience will leave with when they walk out of the theater after seeing your films?

Cheryl Dunye: I want audiences to be intrigued, entertained and become better informed about the world. More importantly, I want them to become change agents in their lives and the lives of others. Life is to short not to.

WCT: Is there a specific Chicago-based audience "feel" when you showcase your work in the Windy City?

Cheryl Dunye: I guess it's a Windy City "We love and support your work and come back again" that I hope to receive on my visit.

WCT: What are you most looking forward to with your visit to Chicago in February?

Cheryl Dunye: Investors and collaborators for future projects [will be there]. I am in development on a new feature, launching a screenwriting contest, and have started a nonprofit media think tank called CLEVER.

WCT: Are there parts of Black lesbian life that have not been relayed on film yet that you hope to showcase?

Cheryl Dunye: I can't answer this question.

WCT: Why do you feel it is it taking so long to tell the collective stories we all live as a community? Is it lack of interest, lack of funding?

Cheryl Dunye: Both. But it looks like folks have turned their creative energies to collectively work it out on the small screen by creating web series, YouTube [videos], and a host of other new media storytelling programs and applications.

WCT: You currently serve on the board of directors for the Queer Cultural Center ( QCC ). Can you tell us a little bit about this community resource?

Cheryl Dunye: The QCC continues to be a huge support for both emerging and established Queer artists through our skill building workshops and community based events, which includes the National Queer Arts Festival, a month-long festival of queer arts every June. This year we are looking for work about the body. Check it out. It has been around since 1993 and keeps getting bigger and better every year.

WCT: Who/what aided you most in your own personal coming-out moments?

Cheryl Dunye: When I came out, I was living in Philly at the time. I had no one to turn to in my personal circle so I looked in the phone book and called the L/G hotline. They told me about a weekly youth group meeting. The rest in history ... or herstory.

WCT: What advice might you relay to young LGBT filmmakers of color?

Cheryl Dunye: Don't hesitate—create. Put your work out in the world. We need it.

Catch Cheryl Dunye on Thursday, Feb. 13, 5:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m. at Gallery 400 ( Lecture Room, 400 S. Peoria St. ) and on Friday, Feb. 14, beginning at 7 p.m. at Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted St., with discussion following.

http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Lesbian-filmmaker-Cheryl-Dunye-courting-Chicago-on-V-Day/46201.html

Jess

02-12-2014, 04:15 PM

you know the WCT must have a crappy editor if they let the faux paux in the opening paragraph slide. I never realized that being African-American was a "lifestyle"
But thanks for sharing the interview!

CherylNYC

02-12-2014, 10:45 PM

I spotted what looked like an obvious lesbian in the photo accompanying the below article, and I found the journalist's perspective fascinating. There's very little weight placed on the young lesbian's orientation. In fact, it's ony mentioned matter-of-factly in a quote from her lawyer in the third paragraph; “I felt that if she could escape from that, she could transform her life. She has a wonderful aunt and grandmother and girlfriend who wanted to see her succeed.”

This simple nonchalance is very new in the mainstream press, even here in NYC, and it still gives me goosebumps.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/nyregion/facing-jail-time-until-a-lawyer-with-survival-skills-helped-her-find-her-way.html?ref=nyregion

Facing Jail Time, Until a Lawyer With Survival Skills Helped Her Find Her Way
FEB. 11, 2014

The .22-caliber pistol was in her waistband, not only unlicensed but defaced, its serial number scratched or sanded off. She had not been to school in at least six months. Sitting in a detention cell in December 2010 at age 17, Jessica Williams of East Harlem realized she had been caught cold and was about to be cooked: a year in jail on a Class D felony, and then lifetime membership in the Rikers Island Alumni Association. “Reality didn’t hit me until I was in Rikers Island, and thought, ‘Oh my God, this is not my life,’ ” Ms. Williams said this week.

Turns out she was right.

On Thursday, Ms. Williams, now 20, will take the day off from her job at a CVS drugstore and turn up for graduation from Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day High School. Among the speakers on the commencement program are the lawyer who decided that she was worth another chance and the judge who decided to give it to her. And cheering her on will be school advisers who helped her get a driver’s license and have her poised to start a training program with U.P.S. next month.

“She hadn’t been through the system,” said Eliza Orlins, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society who represented her. “I felt that if she could escape from that, she could transform her life. She has a wonderful aunt and grandmother and girlfriend who wanted to see her succeed.”

For all that, nothing about Ms. Williams’s case is much out of the ordinary, except that enough people made the effort to help her way to redemption. Ms. Orlins, a graduate of private schools in Washington, is dedicated to her work, but that is not a rarity in the Legal Aid Society or in the offices of New York City’s district attorneys. (Though, it should be said, Ms. Orlins apparently is the only public defender in New York to have appeared twice on the reality TV show “Survivor.”)

As a teenager, Ms. Williams had a dreadful record in school — cutting classes, getting suspended, a fib-a-day for her parents — but none whatsoever of violence, or, for that matter, any criminality. She had a clean rap sheet.

She grew up in the Jefferson Houses projects in East Harlem, raised by her mother and stepfather, living with “five other siblings — one brother, one sister, two nephews, one niece,” she said. After attending Bayard Rustin High School for a few years, she effectively dropped out.

“I was hanging out in the projects, partying, running around, doing negative things,” Ms. Williams said. “I was, like, popular.”

One afternoon in December 2010, she said, she and some friends found the gun near a trash can on 119th Street. “I thought it would be cool if we kept it, and that night — I don’t know why — I decided to take it outside,” she said. The police rolled up. She explained that she had thought it might be worth a few dollars by turning it in at a police station house. “The officer said if I was going to take it there, I should never have had it in my waistband,” Ms. Williams recalled.

A minimum of a year in jail is the formula applied by New York State as a hedge against the history of misery associated with guns; when it turned out that the gun was not working, and that its possession was therefore not a felony but a misdemeanor, the Manhattan district attorney’s office stuck by its demand for a year in jail. Even a broken gun is a source of havoc. Then again, so is too much jail.

In Brooklyn, the Red Hook Community Court has taken drastically different approaches and has shown that some problems are better solved by not locking people up. It accepts criminal cases from three police precincts and, under a single roof, manages to steer people into drug treatment, alternative schools, and other places besides jail. Its recidivism rate is lower than that in the rest of the city, and it saves up to $15 million a year in incarceration costs, according to a recent study.

But what is routine in Red Hook demands special agility elsewhere. Ms. Orlins told Ms. Williams to get back into school if she wanted to have any hope of avoiding jail. After getting advice from others at Legal Aid, Ms. Orlins approached Judge Lynn Kotler, who was hearing the case, and asked that Ms. Williams be given a chance to work with Bronx Connect, a mentoring program to help young people stay out of prison. After a few stumbles, Ms. Williams wound up at Manhattan Comprehensive, where Judge Kotler and Ms. Orlins will speak at graduation on Thursday.

Had being on “Survivor” helped Ms. Orlins navigate the court system?

“You mean being starving and miserable and dealing with people who are cranky and miserable?” Ms. Orlins said. “It’s the perfect preparation for criminal court.”

ProfPacker

02-15-2014, 09:16 AM

very touching speech by Ellen Page (Juno)

I was moved by her honesty. Wish I could have been so eloquent when I was her age.

I know that Juno for kids is like a cult film. Hopefully her coming will have an impact on LBGTQ youth.

here's the link

Ellen Page Comes Out As Gay At Human Rights Campaign Time to Thrive Conference - Full Video - YouTube

Kobi

03-14-2014, 12:49 PM

A rare case of female-to-female HIV transmission has been found in Texas, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported on Thursday.

A 46-year-old woman allegedly acquired the virus from her female partner during their six-month sexual relationship. She was infected with a strain that had a 98% genetic match to her partner’s. According to CDC, the HIV-positive woman had not taken medication for two years.

“In this case, the discordant couple [one HIV-infected partner and one uninfected partner] routinely had direct sexual contact – without using barrier methods for protection – that involved the exchange of blood through abrasions received during sexual activity,” the CDC said in a weekly report.

The CDC noted that HIV infections in women who have sex with other women are traced to intravenous drug use or heterosexual sex. The woman newly diagnosed with HIV did not report any other risk factors, such as injection drug use, tattooing, transfusions or transplants, officials said. She did not engage in any heterosexual relationships during the past 10 years.

However not common, the infection was possible since HIV can be present in vaginal fluid and menstrual blood, and the women are said to have engaged in unprotected sex involving oral contact with vaginal fluids or inducing bleeding, and shared sex toys.
--------------------------------------

Good reminder of why lesbians need to play safe too.

Kobi

03-15-2014, 08:00 PM

***** Trigger Warning ****

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/db/c3/93/dbc3934c28935565c238090ac96ff976.jpg

March 13th marked the 50th anniversary of the murder and rape of Kitty Genovese, a 28-year-old lesbian bartender from Queens, New York.

Genovese is one of America’s most famous murder victims because 37 of her neighbors allegedly listened to her screams for help as she was being raped and stabbed to death by Winston Moseley and did nothing.

Her murder was deemed emblematic of urban apathy and the New York Times headlined the story with, "37 Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call Police."

The NYT's headline and story was later proven to be incorrect. Depending on which source you use, the number of people who were aware there was a problem in the street outside there apartments drops dramatically.

Those who did hear her screams for help still were unaware of the attack per se. Some thought it was a lovers quarrel, a woman who was beaten up, or rowdy people leaving a bar.

One of her neighbors did shout out the window for the man to leave her alone, which initially scared off the attacker. Several called the police station. Back then, one had to call the station directly and talk with a desk sargent, who was responsible for determining if police assistance was needed. It is unclear why the police did not respond to the first round of calls.

The attacker, Winston Moseley, who had been cruising the area "looking for a woman to kill", came back to the scene. By then, Genovese had moved herself into the alley way leading to her apartment. She was hidden from the neighbors when Moseley returned to stab her again and sexually assault her.

The attacks spanned a half hour.

The police were called again. When they responded, Kitty was still alive in the arms of her neighbor named Sophia Farrar, who had courageously left her apartment to go to the crime scene, even though she had no way of knowing that [Mosely] had fled.

This case was supposedly responsible for the development of the 911 system which was implemented in 1968.

It was also responsible for the development of the Genovese syndrome or the bystander affect/apathy, a a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases in which individuals do not offer any means of help to a victim when other people are present. The probability of help is inversely related to the number of bystanders. In other words, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help. Several variables help to explain why the bystander effect occurs. These variables include: ambiguity, cohesiveness and diffusion of responsibility.

Fascinating shit. Check it out.

In addition, this case was supposedly the impetus for neighborhood watch programs.

Wikipedia provided the best, least bias account of the events I could find. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese)

Kobi

03-19-2014, 09:50 AM

Legendary gay rights activist Vernita Gray, who made history as one-half of the first same-sex couple legally wed in Illinois, died late Tuesday night after a prolonged battle with cancer. She was 65.

The Windy City Times first reported the news of Ms. Gray’s death. Her wife, Pat Ewert, was by her side and she was visited by family in the weeks leading up to her death.

Ms. Gray’s legacy will reach far beyond her marriage to Ewert last November. She was a pioneering gay rights activist in Chicago starting in 1969 when she organized a gay and lesbian hotline; the phone number spelled out FBI-LIST. She founded Chicago’s first lesbian newspaper, Lavender Woman, and was a victims advocate for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office for over 20 years. Her work to empower African-American gays and lesbians often endangered her among Chicago’s black community. Ms. Gray was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996 which spread to her bones and formed inoperable tumors in her brain. Her last wish was to be wed to Ewert, to whom she proposed in 2009.

Ms. Gray received her wish in November 2013 when U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman ordered the Cook County Clerk's office to immediately issue marriage licenses to all Illinois same-sex couples who, because of a life-threatening illness, cannot wait until next summer to get married. A court ruling last month allowed same-sex couples to be married ahead of Illinois’ marriage equality law taking effect in June.

http://chicagoist.com/2014/03/19/lgbt_activist_vernita_gray_dies.php

Kobi

04-01-2014, 02:10 PM

A new burial area exclusively for lesbians is set to be introduced in a historic Berlin cemetery this weekend.

A 400-square-metre (4,300-square-foot) area of the Lutheran Georgen Parochial cemetery, established in 1814 in central Berlin, will be reserved as a graveyard for up to 80 lesbians, said Usah Zachau, a spokeswoman for the Safia association, a national group primarily for elderly lesbians.

The association said it had created a burial area to be inaugurated Sunday, as a space 'where life and death connect, distinctive forms of cemetery culture can develop and where the lesbian community can live together in the afterlife.'

The group was given use of the cemetery area for 30 years in exchange for cleaning up and landscaping the area, and promising to be responsible for its upkeep.

In Germany is it customary to have long-term, renewable leases on burial plots rather than buy them outright.

'We don't have to pay any rent, but we had to invest a lot of money to turn that part of the cemetery into a usable burial ground again,' Zachau said Tuesday.

The group commissioned a landscaping company to build winding sand paths and has reserved spaces for cremated ashes in urns and for the burial of bodies. The area is framed by oak, birch and yew trees.

Neighboring parts of the Lutheran cemetery, which is located near Alexanderplatz square, are currently not being used. Old, toppled tombstones are overgrown by weeds.

A spokesman for the Berlin Lutheran church said the agreement with the women's group comes as part of the church's efforts to 'revitalize its cemetery grounds by cooperating with other groups.'

'We are also in an ongoing discussion with Muslim groups to see whether they can have their own plots on our cemeteries,' said Volker Jastrzembski.

The Lesbian and Gay Association of Berlin welcomed the creation of the cemetery.

'It increases the diversity of opportunities and is a nice opportunity for those lesbian women who want to be buried among other lesbians,' said spokesman Joerg Steinert.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2594246/Lesbian-cemetery-inaugurated-Berlin.html

vagina

04-08-2014, 09:46 AM

Anyone here a basketball fan? Brittney Griner has been making the news headlines after coming out as a LESBIAN despite being pressured/forced to keep quiet about her homosexuality by her basketball coach and Baptist Univesity.

She is one of the hottest basketball stars these days and an out and proud LESBIAN.

http://www.swishappeal.com/2013/5/21/4349680/brittney-griner-stigma-against-lesbian-athletes-seimone-augustus

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/wnba/2014/04/07/brittney-griners-book-hoops-hardship-hope/7437521/

Kobi

04-09-2014, 12:08 PM

http://media.npr.org/assets/bakertaylor/covers/i/in-my-skin/9780062309334_custom-b89eba2701c20c1c9cd093b725f32fa7b6573b72-s2-c85.jpg

Brittney Griner is 23 years old, 6 feet 8 inches tall and one of the best female basketball players in the world. She was the WNBA top draft pick last year, and in college she set records for the most blocked shots in a season and the most career blocks in history — for male and female players. She's so good that the owner of a men's team — the Dallas Mavericks — has said he'd recruit her.

Now, Griner is also an author. She's co-written a new memoir, In My Skin, in which she describes being bullied and taunted as a kid for her height and athleticism.

She says, "Growing up, I always got 'She's a man,' or 'She plays too hard,' or 'There's just no way that she can be that good because, you know, a girl can't do that.' And I struggle with it a little bit. I'm like: Well, am I going too hard? And then I just realized, like, I'm a competitor. I want to go as hard as I can, and if I look like a guy out there playing ball, well, hey, I feel sorry for the opponent."

Sports writer Dave Zirin likens Griner's talent to that of Wilt Chamberlain or LeBron James. "She plays with a kind of emancipated abandon," he says, and he admires her openness about the sexism and homophobia she's encountered in the not-particularly-progressive world of college athletics. "She represents a break from the sexual McCarthyism in women's sports."

Griner came out as a lesbian while playing at Baylor University in Texas. There, she was a much beloved star, but Griner had no idea her school had a policy against homosexuality until her coach urged her to keep quiet about it. Griner disclosed her sexual orientation in interviews with SI.com and ESPN shortly before leaving college. Now she's made it something of a mission to address closet culture in women's sports.

"I had a girl come up and tell me how her coach basically told them that they could not be gay on their team," she says. "And I've heard stories of some coaches will not recruit you if you are."

Griner brings a defiant gender nonconformity to the court — and to the culture that surrounds it. Her distinctive fashion sense impresses even hard-core sports writers who don't generally care about such things.

"She dresses like a 1920s male dandy," Zirin marvels. "And it's pretty amazing to see. I don't know anybody who pulls off argyle socks quite like Brittney Griner."

She has shoulder-length braids and a ton of tattoos, but she looks to Ellen DeGeneres — known for her sleek, red carpet suits — as a fashion role model, because, she says, "It shows that we're not just big-baggy-clothes butch."

Griner proudly identifies as butch, and that makes her rare among women in the public eye. When Nike endorsed her as its first openly gay athlete, the company asked her to model its menswear line.

"It looks a little bit better on me, honestly, than some of the tighter female clothes," she says grinning.

So when the WNBA recently showed players possible new "sleek and sexy" uniforms — part of a plan to attract more men to the games — Griner was startled.

"The shorts came in short or extra short," she says. "As soon as I heard that — 'sleek and sexy' — I was like, 'Um, excuse me, I play basketball.' "

And it's basketball that brings in Griner's fans. Attendance at Phoenix Mercury home games shot up more than 30 percent since she joined the team, and ESPN2 decided to keep broadcasting WNBA games partly because of her popularity. Griner says all this would have been unimaginable to the middle school kid who once considered suicide because of the constant teasing about her looks and carriage.

"Now I want to stand out," she says. "I want to show off how big I am; I want to show off my long arms, my big hands — just loving myself."

She pauses, then adds: "It's just a place of peace."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/04/08/300516000/coming-out-in-basketball-how-brittney-griner-found-a-place-of-peace

Kobi

04-10-2014, 08:50 PM

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - Last month a baby in Tennessee made history: Emilia Maria Jesty was the first child born in the state to have a woman listed on the birth certificate as her "father."

The marital status of the baby's parents was the subject of a flurry of court filings up to a few days before her birth. Valeria Tanco and Sophy Jesty were wed in New York, a state that recognizes gay marriage, and moved to Tennessee, which does not.

They are among scores of same-sex couples who, working with advocacy groups, have filed lawsuits to expand gay-marriage rights following a major U.S. Supreme Court decision last June allowing federal tax and other benefits for same-sex married couples.

Depending on the pace of rulings, as early as next year Tanco and Jesty's case or a similar challenge could reach the Supreme Court. Since the court's June decision in U.S. v. Windsor, about 50 such cases have been filed, in nearly all 33 states that prohibit gay marriage.

So far, the eight federal judges who have ruled citing Windsor have sided with the same-sex couples, saying the states may not treat same-sex couples differently from opposite-sex ones. All of those cases are on appeal.

On Thursday, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will begin hearing cases involving Utah and Oklahoma. In May, the 4th Circuit will hear a dispute from Virginia.

As Tanco approached her due date, a Nashville federal judge in mid-March issued a preliminary injunction forcing Tennessee to honor their marriage. The state appealed to the 6th Circuit.

It is possible a ruling against the couple could void Emilia's birth certificate and require that it be reissued with only Tanco listed. A spokeswoman for Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper declined to comment, as did a spokesman for the state Health Department, which oversees birth certificates.

But for now, says Jesty, "It gives me strength."

URBAN AND RURAL COUPLES

About half of the cases were brought by gay-rights advocacy groups that do not charge the plaintiffs, and many of the lawyers in the other cases are working for free. As part of their legal and public relations strategy, organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights look for a broad mix: Same-sex couples from both urban and rural America, in an array of vocations and facing problems such as those arising from care of their children or an ill partner.

State attorneys general typically defend the state laws, although private lawyers have become involved too. Lawyers from the Alliance Defending Freedom, an Arizona-based Christian organization, are assisting in the defense of state bans in Oklahoma and Virginia and have submitted "friend of the court" briefs in other cases, including the Tennessee dispute.

Greg Scott, an Alliance spokesman, said his group seeks to counter sympathetic "micro" narratives with a "macro" argument. "What we argue is that marriage has a particular role in society as a whole," and that has historically meant only unions between a man and a woman.

Most new challenges seek a broad constitutional right to same-sex marriage. But a handful, including the Tanco case, take a more incremental approach, arguing only that states must recognize marriages from other states. Gay-rights groups say the narrower argument could sway judges in more conservative states and potentially the Supreme Court, which ruled 5-4 in Windsor.

A VOLUNTEER IN KNOXVILLE

Tanco and Jesty became the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit after they were approached last August by Regina Lambert, a Knoxville lawyer who had been volunteering for the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

The advocacy group relies on a network of lawyers and other volunteers to help find plaintiffs. During a series of conference calls, Lambert and other lawyers decided to bring one of the narrower cases in Tennessee, a largely conservative state. The group separately has filed broader based lawsuits in Idaho, Wyoming and Florida.

Lambert, who teaches at the University of Tennessee law school, thought of Tanco and Jesty. She had met the couple through a friend and knew they presented a good set of facts. Even though they had a legal New York marriage, they were not entitled in Tennessee to spousal benefits.

"You want someone who is in a stable, good relationship," Lambert said. "I liked the fact that they were homeowners, too." She thought the couple would also connect with the public because they were "likeable" and professors of veterinary medicine at the University of Tennessee. At that point she did not even realize Tanco was pregnant.

Lambert learned that when she invited the couple over to her house in August to broach the idea of the lawsuit. Tanco had become pregnant through artificial insemination about two months earlier.

The couple asked for time to think. Tanco was ready to say yes right away, but Jesty hesitated. She was not sure she wanted the attention that would come from a lawsuit. But two days later they called Lambert and agreed to sign on. "This was an opportunity to make a difference," Jesty said. "How do you turn away from something like that?"

In October, they filed suit in federal court in Nashville. Two other couples, gay men, are part of the lawsuit.

The pregnancy turned out to boost their case in court, at least for now. By mid-March, the court had yet to rule, and the couple's lawyers requested a status report. Judge Aleta Trauger issued a preliminary order requiring Tennessee to recognize the marriages of the couples pending a final decision. She noted that under existing Tennessee law, Jesty would not be recognized as a parent to Tanco's child and would be unable to make certain medical decisions.

The state appealed. Two days later, on March 27, just after 4 p.m., Emilia was born, weighing eight pounds, five ounces.

Following the usual routine, a hospital employee visited Tanco's room the next day to fill out the birth certificate. Tanco said Jesty's name should be on it with hers.

At first there was confusion over whether that was possible. Lambert worked the phones. After several hours and many calls between the hospital in Knoxville and the health department in Nashville, hospital officials produced the birth certificate.

A health department spokesman said in an email that officials were not aware of any previous Tennessee case in which the names of same-sex parents were listed on the birth certificate.

The document now sits on a desk in the couple's study. "It might be something that needs to get framed," said Jesty.

http://news.yahoo.com/two-moms-baby-legal-first-u-gay-marriage-124540293--finance.html

Kobi

04-11-2014, 10:36 AM

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02878/JANDJ_2878015c.jpg

In global history, there has only ever been one head of state to have a same-sex spouse. That wasn’t in the progressive Sweden, or the occasionally-progressive America, but in Iceland, which has a population around the size of Croydon.

And this is how my conversation with Jónína Leósdóttir, the only First Lady in the world to be a same-sex spouse, begins (although I am pretty surprised she knows Croydon even exists).

She is married to Iceland’s former Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir. They married in 2010 – just after same-sex marriage was made legal in their country – but have been together since 1985, when they both left their husbands to be together. It means their relationship spans almost 30 years.

It hasn’t been an easy ride. “We lived in a very different time,” explains Jónína . “There were no gay laws or no rights to a civil partnership or anything. It was the stone ages compared to now.”

For almost half of their relationship, they kept it a secret because they were so worried about what it could do to Jóhanna’s career as an MP. “It’s ridiculous looking back,” says Jónína. “We never lived together which made it a little bit more complicated for people to prove. I think it was bad for us because we were a little bit isolated. We didn’t belong anywhere.

“I'm sure we could have started living together before but we got stuck in our ways. It was difficult. I kept making scenes and slamming doors and saying I couldn’t wait any longer but you try and be sensible and think, after the election it will be fine, but then there’s another one in four years time.”

It was only in 2000 that they moved in together and found that there was no real reaction. The media were respectful of the couple’s decision to not do interviews, and nine years later, Jóhanna was elected as Prime Minister. She was well-liked by the country and generally thought of as responsible for leading the country away from bankruptcy and its worst financial crisis.

But, Jónína thinks that the '"non-reaction" was because of who they were: white older women. By the time they ‘came out’, she was a grandmother. “I think it helped being such a mature age with grandchildren,” she says. “I think people see white women grandmas as rather harmless so maybe it’s not so threatening.”

If she had been a man, or even younger, she thinks she might have faced a different reaction. But, on the whole, her relationship with Jóhanna was well-received. Even when the couple went on an official visit to China, where homosexuality is not encouraged, Jónína “wasn’t completely erased”.

“Everyone was completely polite,” she says. “. They must have been briefed before. They never battered an eyelid. People had predicted they’d try to ignore me and I wasn’t mentioned on TV, but I was interviewed once. I wasn’t completely erased. I’m sure they found it strange to welcome a same sex couple.”

It was only on a visit to the nearby Faroe Islands (an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark) that they experienced serious prejudice when an MP refused to sit with them at a dinner. “He made a bit of a fuss about it,” she says. “He seemed to mind that I was there. He would have accepted coming in if Jóhanna hadn’t ‘flaunted’ me there.”

But the problems surrounding their relationship didn’t just stem from being in the public eye. When the two met, back in 1983, they were both married with children. “It was so underground and hard and we were afraid our children would be hurt from this,” says Jónína. “We had to go through a divorce and wondered if it would harm our children.”

Their husbands weren’t exactly pleased either, but both are now re-married. None of the women’s children were ‘harmed’ either, Jónína laughs, as she tells me the three boys are now all married and work in the aluminium, oil and media industries.
'It's not a life choice'

It is partly why Jónína has now written a book about their relationship, (which isn't available in English yet) because the family are no longer in the public eye, and she thinks it might inspire others to accept their sexuality.

“We’re trying to get the message across that it isn’t easy – it’s not a life choice, it’s just something that happens to you,” she says. “It’s not something you particularly go after and if you’d had the choice, you’d have said, no thank you. Life would have been easier but we’re grateful we stuck it out.”

The pair met in politics, where they were both working on the same committee, even though for Jónína – a journalist and writer – it was only a temporary role. Over a year, Jónína found herself falling for Jóhanna. It was the first time she had ever felt any lesbian feelings.

“It just wasn’t something I’d expected to happen to me,” she says. “It’s different when you’re that mature because you’re not an insecure teenager - you know who you are.” She called her emotions “funny feelings” and never really identified as a lesbian.

“It was never a revelation,” she says. “It’s always been about loving that person and it has not been a huge part of my identity because when you’re 30, your identity is already in place. “ In fact, when she was younger, she tells me she was utterly "terrified of lesbians" because she didn’t know any.
Scared of lesbians

When she was at university here in Essex, she once went to a bar that shared its toilets with a gay disco next door. “I didn’t try to go to the loo in case there were lesbians,” she tells me. “It was as if someone had told me to go into the men’s room with all the drunk young boys. It shows my total ignorance and stupidity.”

She thought of lesbians as “a different species” and even when she finally admitted her feelings to Jóhanna, she told her: “If you would spread your arms and say come here and try and kiss me I might run into a toilet and throw up.”

Jóhanna didn’t say anything at all. It was only a few months later that she started to reciprocate those feelings, and in 1986 she divorced her husband. Jónína won’t tell me how long it took for them to have their first kiss, but she does say that it took a long time.

The physical side of things eventually came naturally though. “You fall in love with people, especially women,” she says. “You fall in love with the person. I think about all my friends [they] fall in love with guys who are short or thin or tall. It’s not such an issue with women but maybe I’m prejudiced.”

Prejudice is something she hopes that her story will eventually change. The only way she thinks it will ever disappear is with frequency: the more leaders we see with same-sex spouses, the more it will come to be the norm.

Now she’s just waiting for the UK to join Iceland in having a lesbian leader. “Nick Clegg said the UK is ready for a gay Prime Minister,” she says, “I totally agree.” Watch this space.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/10756847/Icelands-Jonina-Leosdottir-I-was-the-worlds-first-lesbian-First-Lady.html

Kobi

04-18-2014, 09:06 PM

An openly gay chief of police has been fired by a South Carolina mayor who was caught saying he preferred alcoholics to homosexuals.

Crystal Moore, a 20-year veteran with the Latta Police Department, was relieved of her duties as chief of police on Tuesday following seven reprimands handed down by newly elected Earl Bullard.

The chief had recently discovered during an investigation that the town's parks and recreations director Vontray Sellers had operated a city vehicle with a suspended license.

During the probe, Moore found that Bullard failed to conduct a proper background check on Sellers before giving him the job.

On Tuesday, Bullard dismissed Moore, who is the Latta's first female chief of police and has not faced disciplinary action in her two decade career.

Bullard claimed Moore conducted a background check without authorization, questioned the authority of a supervisor and contacted 'news media to help bring about disorder and disruption to the town of Latta,' among other things.

But many in the community, including city officials, are questioning whether the real motive behind the firing was retaliation or the fact he allegedly doesn't like gay people.

Council member, Jared Taylor, provided WBTW with a recording of a phone call in which the mayor makes several anti-gay remarks.

I would much rather have - and I will say this to anybody's face - somebody who drank and drank too much taking care of my child than I had somebody whose lifestyle is questionable around children,' Bullard said on the call.

'I'm not going to let two women stand up there and hold hands and let my child be aware of it, and I'm not going to see them do it with two men neither.'

Another council member, Lutherine Williams told the station of the new mayor: 'We have codes, but this mayor refuses to obey anything in that book he don't want to.'

Williams added that proper protocol would required Bullard to give Moore a verbal warning, then a written warning.

Instead, he gave her seven reprimands in one day.

'Before he was sworn in [as mayor], he said ... Crystal would not have a job,' Williams told WBTW.

Moore said Thursday she now agrees the mayor had a vendetta against her and fired her because of her sexuality.

'I can't believe that we still have no equal rights. That's the biggest issue. I've been harassed, intimidated. This is the first time it's been this public. I'd tried living a quiet decent life and do what I'm supposed to,' she said.

As well as council members, who have refused to acknowledge her termination, Latta residents were furious by the new mayor's move and showed their disapproval by protesting Moore's termination at City Hall.

'This woman has been a veteran of the department and a pillar of this community for years,' Kevin Drawhorn, a Latta resident and supporter of Moore, told WBTW.

Another support rally was planned for the chief Thursday night.

The city council, which says the mayor can only fire a police chief with their prior approval, held a special meeting on the dismissal Thursday night in which they voted for a referendum to weaken the mayor's power.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2607543/Lesbian-police-chief-fired-new-mayor-said-hed-alcoholic-children-gay-couple.html

WildHorses

04-18-2014, 11:53 PM

I read this today and of course i was angry. I have nothing of value to say.
My question is- when will it end and what do WE need to to to end it?

An openly gay chief of police has been fired by a South Carolina mayor who was caught saying he preferred alcoholics to homosexuals.

Crystal Moore, a 20-year veteran with the Latta Police Department, was relieved of her duties as chief of police on Tuesday following seven reprimands handed down by newly elected Earl Bullard.

The chief had recently discovered during an investigation that the town's parks and recreations director Vontray Sellers had operated a city vehicle with a suspended license.

During the probe, Moore found that Bullard failed to conduct a proper background check on Sellers before giving him the job.

On Tuesday, Bullard dismissed Moore, who is the Latta's first female chief of police and has not faced disciplinary action in her two decade career.

Bullard claimed Moore conducted a background check without authorization, questioned the authority of a supervisor and contacted 'news media to help bring about disorder and disruption to the town of Latta,' among other things.

But many in the community, including city officials, are questioning whether the real motive behind the firing was retaliation or the fact he allegedly doesn't like gay people.

Council member, Jared Taylor, provided WBTW with a recording of a phone call in which the mayor makes several anti-gay remarks.

I would much rather have - and I will say this to anybody's face - somebody who drank and drank too much taking care of my child than I had somebody whose lifestyle is questionable around children,' Bullard said on the call.

'I'm not going to let two women stand up there and hold hands and let my child be aware of it, and I'm not going to see them do it with two men neither.'

Another council member, Lutherine Williams told the station of the new mayor: 'We have codes, but this mayor refuses to obey anything in that book he don't want to.'

Williams added that proper protocol would required Bullard to give Moore a verbal warning, then a written warning.

Instead, he gave her seven reprimands in one day.

'Before he was sworn in [as mayor], he said ... Crystal would not have a job,' Williams told WBTW.

Moore said Thursday she now agrees the mayor had a vendetta against her and fired her because of her sexuality.

'I can't believe that we still have no equal rights. That's the biggest issue. I've been harassed, intimidated. This is the first time it's been this public. I'd tried living a quiet decent life and do what I'm supposed to,' she said.

As well as council members, who have refused to acknowledge her termination, Latta residents were furious by the new mayor's move and showed their disapproval by protesting Moore's termination at City Hall.

'This woman has been a veteran of the department and a pillar of this community for years,' Kevin Drawhorn, a Latta resident and supporter of Moore, told WBTW.

Another support rally was planned for the chief Thursday night.

The city council, which says the mayor can only fire a police chief with their prior approval, held a special meeting on the dismissal Thursday night in which they voted for a referendum to weaken the mayor's power.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2607543/Lesbian-police-chief-fired-new-mayor-said-hed-alcoholic-children-gay-couple.html

Kobi

04-23-2014, 04:06 PM

The 51-year-old Oscar winner wed girlfriend Alexandra Hedison over the weekend, Foster's publicist confirmed Wednesday. Jennifer Allen offered no other details.

E! was the first to report that Foster tied the knot with Hedison, a 44-year-old photographer based in Los Angeles.

It's the first marriage for Foster, who came out publicly in a rambling, heartfelt speech at the 2013 Golden Globe Awards, where she accepted lifetime achievement honors.

Foster acknowledged longtime partner Cydney Bernard, with whom she has two sons. The couple ended their 20-year relationship in 2008. While Foster never hid the relationship, she kept her sexuality private until the Globes speech.

E! says Foster and Hedison have been dating since last summer.

Hedison, who was previously linked to Ellen DeGeneres, is also an actress with TV credits including "Nash Bridges" and "The L Word."

http://news.yahoo.com/jodie-foster-weds-artist-alexandra-hedison-195447150.html;_ylt=AwrBTzpvOFhTzXYAms5XNyoA;_ylu= X3oDMTB0dm41YjJ2BHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1NNRT M0M18x

Kobi

05-15-2014, 04:10 PM

When Christine Svendsen’s first book was turned away by publishers, she launched her own publishing company.

Now, four years later, she’s got a stable full of award-winning lesbian authors and her own award-winning books published under the pseudonym Isabella via Sapphire Books.

“Believe in yourself. Rejection isn’t the end of a story, it can be a beginning,” Svendsen said. “Looking back, I didn’t think in terms of what if this doesn’t work? I only thought of the possibilities.”

Sapphire Books is offering anyone who likes their Facebook page a free book. After you like the page, email to Svendsen.

Svendsen took time out of her busy schedule to share the secrets to Sapphire’s success with us.

What do you do and why?

I’m the publisher and an author at Sapphire Books Publishing. I started Sapphire Books Publishing in 2010. We publish lesbian novels, written by lesbians. Our authors include Linda Kay Silva, Kim Pritekel, Beth Burnett, Karelia Stetz-Waters, Linda North, Lynette Mae, Riley Adair Garret, Lorraine Howell, Rhavensfyre and Stephanie Kusiak.

What did you do before you started your company?

I do the same thing now as I did when I started Sapphire Books, I work as a community college instructor in California. My current job affords me the luxury of working remote for most of my work load. The flexibility allows me to set my own hours, which really helps with the publishing company.

How did you come up with the idea for your company?

I had submitted my first manuscript to two publishers and was rejected by both. One said they weren’t looking for my type of story at that time. The other company wanted me to completely rewrite the story and resubmit. I thought long and hard about rewriting it. After talking to my wife, I decided that I’d try and publish it myself.

I researched self-publishing, looked at all the options and decided to start a publishing company. I’d always thought about growing the company at some point, but that was in the future. When Linda Kay Silva, a popular lesbian author, left her publishing company, I sent her an email. We met and discussed writing, publishing and motorcycles. It clicked for us and the company took off from that point. We’ve signed some really awesome writers. I have to say that I’m thrilled to work with some really talented ladies.

What do you find most rewarding about owning your own business?

I get to work with some amazingly talented women. They write books that blow my socks off.

Where do you see yourself / your company in five years? Hopes / dreams / plans?

Sapphire Books isn’t going anywhere. We’re in it for the long haul and plan on adding to our already growing list of fantastic authors.

What resources would you recommend to someone who is contemplating starting her own business?

Research the industry. Do your homework and ask questions. Learn everything you can and even then there will still be things that surprise you, so plan to be surprised. Roll with it, flexibility is important in today’s business world.

Social media is starting to play a huge role in business and it’s important that you treat social media as a tool in the business tool box.

Go to conferences, meet people in your industry and make sure to check out the competition. See what they are doing right and notice what isn’t working. IBPA and SPAN are great resources, if you really want to get into publishing.

Finally, be persistent.

What’s the process for an aspiring author to get published with Sapphire?

First, write your book. Polish the manuscript. Send the best work possible, you only get one chance to make a first impression. Sapphire isn’t the traditional lesbian publisher. We don’t have a formula. I like to think we publish great books that a lot of other publishers wouldn’t touch. For example, we’ve published books that were over 500 pages, most publishers in lesbian fiction won’t publish long manuscripts. We’ve published some truly scary books about serial killers and fetish killers. We also have published erotic books, Sci Fi, paranormal as well as romance. We just signed an author who writes the Happy Lesbian Housewife blogs and she has been referred to as “the love child of Erma Bombeck and Chelsea Handler,” so we are pretty open as long as they have strong lesbian characters, written by lesbians. Writers can contact me at publisher@sapphirebooks.com.

What would you say is the single most important key to sustaining a business long term?

Have a plan and be flexible. I can’t say that enough. The industry is constantly changing and we need to change with it.

What obstacles did you face in establishing your company and how did you overcome them?

I think the biggest obstacle I faced was being taken serious, both as a writer and as a publisher. I won an award for my first book and that started the ball rolling. When we signed Linda Kay Silva, a lot of people started to take notice.

After that, we signed some pretty awesome talent and our authors started winning awards, which moved Sapphire Books up on the list to be noticed.

Follow Sapphire Books on Facebook and Twitter

http://www.lesbian.com/sapphire-books-christine-svendsen/

Kobi

05-26-2014, 07:48 PM

_WsymweUEtQ

Kobi

06-01-2014, 02:17 PM

BRITISH servicewomen who were suspected of being lesbians were routinely spied on by the police, it has emerged.

Previously secret files reveal that recruits in the Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF) who showed signs of same-sex attraction were put under covert surveillance by the military police officers.

Documents seen by Scotland on Sunday show that airwomen who were then judged to be gay or bisexual were offered the choice of immediate dismissal, or being forced to undergo medical treatment to “cure” their homosexuality.

The ban preventing gay men and women from serving in the armed forces was lifted in 2000.

However, the Whitehall files, which have now been opened and placed in the National Archives at Kew, reveal that up until that date women suspected of “abnormal” inclinations were subjected to institutional persecution.

A confidential briefing paper entitled “Homosexual Practices Involving WRAF Airwomen” ordered station commanders to monitor and eliminate “unnatural relationships”.

It states: “In the initial stages of service life strong bonds of friendship develop between contemporaries and it is dangerous to assume that such close friendships between young airwomen involve homosexuality or are the forerunners of lesbian relationships.

“In such cases when the closeness of the friendship causes embarrassment and gives rise to speculative gossip a cautionary word of advice on behaving more maturely and showing more consideration for other members of the community is all that is required.

“However, when an officer has reason to suspect that an airwoman is a lesbian, she is to inform the station commander immediately.

“When he considers the suspicions are well founded he is to request the officer commanding the appropriate RAF police region to initiate an investigation.”

From the 1950s until the 1990s a secret “observation list” of women suspected of harbouring an attraction to other females was maintained.

Those involved were placed under surveillance, interrogated by military police officers, had their letters intercepted, subjected to regular kit searches and blacklisted from being promoted.

When officers concluded “beyond doubt that an airwoman has committed a homosexual act” she was to be confronted with a stark ultimatum,

The file, which dates from 1977, states: “The Ministry of Defence (MoD) will advise the station commander that the airwoman is to be interviewed and asked if she wishes to seek medical advice.

“If she does so wish, the officer in charge of the WRAF section is to arrange for her to be seen by the station medical officer who is immediately to refer the airwoman to the consultant adviser in neuropsychiatry at the Central Medical Establishment.

“If the airwoman declined the offer of medical advice the MoD will authorise the airwoman’s discharge.” Another WRAF document, dating from the early 1980s, gives an insight into the prevailing attitude towards same-sex relations in that era.

The memo, entitled “Guidance on Instruction to Recruits on Homosexuality”, states: “Whilst it should be remembered that some of the recruits from very sheltered backgrounds will be totally ignorant of the subjects, the wide publicity in newspapers, magazines, films and TV indicates that the majority probably are well aware of what the terms ‘homosexuality’ and ‘lesbianism’ mean.”

It also warns female officers that they may be the subject of “crushes” by young recruits.

Defence Minister Anna Soubry claimed huge strides had been made in recent years and said: “The MoD and the three services want to create a workforce that is drawn from the breadth of the society we defend, that gains strength from that society’s range of knowledge, experience and talent and that welcomes, respects and values the unique contribution of every individual.”

http://www.scotsman.com/news/odd/armed-forces-spied-on-suspected-lesbians-in-wraf-1-3429359

Kobi

07-02-2014, 02:40 PM

http://static.lgbtqnation.com/assets/2014/06/Oronoz-Rodriguez-410x277.jpg

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s Senate on June 23rd confirmed Maite Oronoz Rodriguez as an Associate Justice on the U.S. island territory’s Supreme Court, making her the first openly gay person to serve on the Court.

Oronoz Rodriguez, who served as legal director for the capital city of San Juan, was nominated earlier this month by Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla to fill a vacancy on the court.

The chamber voted 16-10 in favor of Oronoz Rodriguez’ nomination.

“I am conscious of the enormous responsibility that has come to me, Oronoz Rodriguez told El Nuevo Día earlier this month.

The confirmation of Oronoz Rodriguez to the court is the latest in a series of advances for the LGBT community in Puerto Rico since García Padilla of the commonwealth’s Popular Democratic Party took office in 2013.

Since then, lawmakers have passed a law banning employment discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation, and approved a separate bill that extends a domestic violence law to same-sex couples.

García Padilla signed both bills into law.

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2014/06/puerto-rico-senate-confirms-first-openly-gay-justice-to-supreme-court/#.U7QQqtDshTg.facebook

Kobi

07-02-2014, 02:42 PM

Garden was best known for the lesbian themed novel Annie on My Mind, about two girls at a New York high school who fall in love with each other.

The book was published in 1982 and drew critical acclaim in its positive depiction of a same-sex relationship but was also attacked by social conservatives and the religious right and was banned by Kansas City schools for two years from 1993 until students brought a First Amendment law suit to put it back on shelves.

Annie On My Mind was awarded the Lee Lynch Classic Award by the Golden Crown Literary Society in 2014, cited as one of the most important classics in lesbian literature.

The book also won Garden the ALA Margaret A. Edwards Award in 2003 which recognizes one writer and a particular body of work ‘for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature.’

Annie on My Mind was number 44 on the American Library Association’s list of most banned books by American libraries during the 1990s and she was awarded the Robert B. Downs Award for Intellectual Freedom in 2001 from the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science.

The book was also ranked in 2000 in School Library Journal among the top 100 books to have shaped the 20th century.

In the 32 years since it was first published the book has never gone out of print and it has also been made into an audio-book.

Annie on My Mind was one of the earliest American novels to depict a lesbian relationship that did not come to a tragic end, with most works with lesbian themes written before it written for the sake of titillation.

Garden told young adult author Cynthia Leitch Smith in 2001 that she had been drawn to write stories for young people with LGBTI themes because of the lack of books depicting their lives when she had been young.

‘When I was growing up as a young lesbian in the ’50s, I looked in vain for books about my people,’ Garden said.

‘I did find some paperbacks with lurid covers in the local bus station, but they ended with the gay character’s committing suicide, dying in a car crash, being sent to a mental hospital or "turning" heterosexual.’

Garden would go on to write more than 30 books – most aimed at teenagers, though some were written with younger children in mind.

Supernatural themes were a recurring theme in her works with many of the stories she wrote involving werewolves and vampires.

Garden is survived by her long term partner Sandy Scott and their golden retriever Loki and their cats.

- See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/pioneering-american-lesbian-young-adult-author-nancy-garden-has-died-aged-76020714#sthash.E9HJTziC.Tj2IWAaT.dpuf

cricket26

07-03-2014, 06:36 AM

qBkAAortU_g

Kobi

07-14-2014, 03:11 PM

Jodie Foster has received a Best Director Emmy nomination for her work on the Netflix original series Orange Is The New Black. Foster directed the third episode of the show’s first season, entitled “Lesbian Request Denied” that focused on the backstory of Laverne Cox’s character Sophia Burset.

“As a director, dramedy is what I do. It’s not who I am as an actor. The genre requires a very specific skill in terms of recognizing what is quirky and perverse, and to be moved by it. The female prisoners on Orange Is The New Black have a very spiritual journey that’s so complex. They’re all soul-searching and they change through each other” said Foster of her experience on OITNB.

Foster has been steadily building her television expertise, this being her second Emmy nomination after being nominated for the 1999 Showtime film The Baby Dance, which she executive produced. She returned to OITNB to direct the season two episode “Thirsty Bird,” and also recently took a turn as director for another popular Netflix series, House of Cards.

“I’m not one for lounging around and having long soliloquies about a character” said Foster when addressing the drastic differences between the preparation process for film versus television. “TV is the biggest team effort and the pace happens so fast.”

To remedy this, Foster met with actors before shooting “Lesbian Request Denied” to delve into their characters, lending her unique perspective of being both an actor and director. “I am an actor’s director, the first of whom signed with Orange. A lot of the actresses on the show are fresh out of Juilliard.”

“Lesbian Request Denied” is one of the most notable episodes of season one, as it addresses in detail the transition process of Sophia, a transgendered woman in prison for credit card fraud. “It’s all about the journey of Laverne’s character and it’s the beginning of the audience really understanding what Orange Is The New Black is really about,” said Foster of the episode. “It’s about identity and struggle.”

Foster’s direction clearly jives with the cast as her nomination is one of many among the OITNB actors, most notably Laverne Cox’s history-making nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series as Cox is the first openly transgendered actor to be nominated for an Emmy.

http://www.webpronews.com/jodie-foster-talks-best-director-emmy-nom-2014-07

Canela

08-23-2014, 08:39 AM

MISS SPAIN COMES OUT ON INSTAGRAM!

http://nypost.com/2014/08/22/miss-spain-comes-out-on-instagram/

Canela

08-24-2014, 07:56 PM

https://celebrity.yahoo.com/news/mtv-vmas-2014-red-carpet-ireland-baldwin-girlfriend-011000875-us-weekly.html

I am digging the boldness in the fierce femme lesbians! Yeah baby!

vagina

08-30-2014, 01:23 PM

http://www.nordiclabourjournal.org/artikler/portrett/portrait-2012/article.2012-03-07.7696496692/image_2columns

http://www.nordiclabourjournal.org/artikler/portrett/portrait-2012/article.2012-03-07.7696496692

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir: The gender pay gap is now the most important equality issue
Iceland’s Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir has managed what many thought near impossible. She has cut public spending in the wake of the market crash without negatively impacting Iceland’s social security system.

Mar 08, 2012 | Text: Guðrún Helga Sigurðardóttir, Photo: Gunnar V. Andrésson
Today Iceland enjoys an economic growth of 2.5 to 3.5 percent. The European average is 0.5 percent. Prime Minister Sigurðardóttir is happy that Iceland has achieved such good economic results. The government has also succeeded on other fronts, notably on gender equality, she says.

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir believes Iceland’s pre-economic crisis society was run according to male considerations. Power was held by only a small elite. The government has worked to change the old power structure in order to create fairer power sharing. This has mainly been done by giving more women access to power.

“It is sometimes said said that things would look different if women had been in power before the crash.

“Women don’t take as many risks as men and are guided by other considerations. I think this can impact on leadership,” she says.

Prime Minister Sigurðardóttir points out that the government’s goal has been that at least half of the ministers should be women. And it has succeeded. The majority of the government posts are held by women. Department and parliamentary committees too boast 40 percent women members.

“We will soon achieve what Norway did a few years ago, which is 40 percent of all company board members being women,” says Prime Minister Sigurðardóttir.

Two-year adjustment
The government has earlier encouraged businesses to appoint women to managerial and other powerful posts. This has been slow work, however, says Prime Minister Sigurðardóttir. As a result, Iceland’s government has been forced to legislate in order to achieve gender equality on company boards, just like Norway did. The law says no more than 60 percent of company board members can be men and women should make up at least 40 percent of the board. It comes into force in 2013 when companies and pension funds must have at least 40 percent of either sex on their boards.

Prime Minister Sigurðardóttir points out that during Norway’s two-year adjustment period the number of female board members rose from less than 10 percent to nearly 32 percent, but so far this has not been the case in Iceland.

“I am sure the new law will give us an equally good result, even thought the transitional period has not provided us with the same quick result as seen in Norway,” she says.

Iceland’s government works on a four-year equality plan led by the Minister for Social Security. The government has also established a ministerial committee which will lead the government’s work on gender equality. It comprises the Minister for Social Security, the Minister for Finance, the Minister of the Interior and the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Sigurðardóttir says the committee’s work will highlight the importance of the equality policy. The four government ministers already work with important issues such as human rights, prostitution and trafficking. Results have already been seen in the work to prevent and fight sexual violence and sexual assault.

“We address these issues on the committee,” she says, and adds that Iceland now has a law banning the purchase of sex similar to the Swedish one.

But what is you most important task right now?

The Prime Minister doesn’t hesitate before answering:

“To fight the pay gap between men and women. The government has a project plan to achieve total wage equality.”

"The pay gap breaks my heart"
The government aims to develop a certification standard to achieve equal pay for equal work. Companies can use the standard and they will be awarded a certificate if they can prove that they are following the standard, paying equal wages for equal work. Sigurðardóttir hopes the certificate standard will become a sought-after tool for individual companies.

“Achieving equal pay for equal work is taking so long it breaks my heart,” says Prime Minister Sigurðardóttir.

“But we keep working and we will further our wage policy through our project plan.”

The public sector will head this development. Prime Minister Sigurðardóttir has so far been disappointed with the large pay gaps within the white-collar sector. Public institution management has a certain freedom to influence local wage moderation but often fails to take into account pay gaps between the sexes when money is being divided up.

“The pay gap between men and women has grown, and we will now take this seriously,” she says.

The Icelandic Prime Minister has high hopes for the certification system. She thinks it will help private businesses and the public sector to focus their work on questions of equality.

Snail-speed progress
Prime Minister Sigurðardóttir is impatient and expects quick results. She is worried because the government has still not managed to achieve the desired result without the process now being forced forward.

“Changes to gender equality happens at snail-speed,” she says.

Iceland has changed its legislation on parental leave to allow men to take paternal leave without loosing out economically. Before the current legislation came into force only a small percentage of fathers took parental leave. Today between 80 and 90 percent of all fathers do.

She believes parental leave is the single most important step forward for Iceland’s gender equality policies in recent years.

“The system means fathers loose their right to take leave if they don’t take a full three month parental leave. Fathers’ rights to parental leave cannot be transferred to the mothers,” she explains.

Parental leave has been reduced during the crisis. The government has been forced to make cuts by introducing a ceiling to parental leave compensation. But Prime Minister Sigurðardóttir says it is important to increase the compensation again as soon as possible.

“Now that our economy is on its way back up we will soon have the chance to increase the compensation for fathers and mothers on parental leave. This is high up on my list of priorities,” she says.

Iceland’s EU membership application is being processed by the EU right now, under the auspices of the Danish presidency. Prime Minister Sigurðardóttir had expected that important questions for Iceland, like fisheries and agriculture, would be negotiated during Denmark’s presidency. But the chances for that happening are slim as the presidency comes to an end this summer.

She has just met Denmark’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who heads Denmark’s current EU presidency.

“I am not sure we will manage to look at fisheries and agriculture in time.”

The two female prime ministers had fruitful talks during their meeting in Copenhagen. They discussed general EU issues but also the block’s economic challenges.

“We discussed Iceland’s application too, of course. I presented my views and she presented her opinions on the issue,” says Prime Minister Sigurðardóttir. She also adds that Iceland has met a great deal of good will from both the Danish people and from the other European countries.

Kobi

09-08-2014, 04:23 AM

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/55/76/d9/5576d995ce88da8bd33ba773029c45e7.jpg

Vivian Boyack and Alice "Nonie" Dubes say it is never too late for people to write new chapters in their lives.

Boyack, 91, and Dubes, 90, began a new chapter in their 72-year relationship Saturday when they exchanged wedding vows at First Christian Church, Davenport.

Surrounded by family and a small group of close friends, the two held hands as the Rev. Linda Hunsaker told the couple that, “This is a celebration of something that should have happened a very long time ago.”

The two met in Yale, Iowa, where they grew up, and moved to Davenport in 1947.

Boyack was a longtime teacher in Davenport, directing the lives of children at Lincoln and Grant elementary schools.

“I always wanted to be a teacher,” Boyack said Saturday after the ceremony. “My plan at an early age was to teach in the school where I was then going, and my teacher would move on to another school.”

Dubes worked for the Times and Democrat for 13 years in payroll. “I signed the paychecks for everybody, including Bill Wundram,” she said. After leaving the news business, she worked for Alter Corp. for 25 years.

Over the years, the two have traveled to all 50 states, all the provinces of Canada, and to England twice.

“We’ve had a good time,” Dubes said. Boyack added it takes a lot of love and work to keep a relationship going for 72 years.

Jerry Yeast, 73, of Davenport, has known the couple since he was an 18-year-old landscaper working in their yard.

“I’ve known these two women all my life, and I can tell you, they are special,” Yeast said. “This is a very special day for all of us.”

http://qctimes.com/news/local/wedding-vows-open-new-chapter-in--year-relationship/article_e350e94e-4eb4-551b-ad6a-d84092f7ec3f.html

Kobi

09-08-2014, 04:25 AM

When Barb Webb was in sixth grade, she thought so highly of her teacher that she decided she wanted to teach, too. After graduating from Eastern Michigan University with a degree in Chemistry she passed up more lucrative private-sector opportunities and instead went on to earn a Master’s in Science Education from Lawrence Technological University. Her first full-time teaching position was at the all-girls Marian High School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. For the past nine years she has taught Advanced Placement and Honors Chemistry and coached various athletic teams at the all-girls’ school. This period brought Barb not just happiness in her professional life but also in her personal life: Two years ago she married her girlfriend, and she is now 14 weeks' pregnant.

But two weeks ago, during a ten-minute meeting with two school administrators, she was told she either needed to resign or be fired from a job she had wanted since she was eleven years old.

According to school administrators, Webb, a Catholic, is not a role model for students. Marian High School, of which I'm a graduate, is a parochial school, and every teacher must sign a contract that contains a very broad “morality clause” that stipulates: “Teacher agrees, in the performance of her/his services hereunder that she/he will not publicly engage in actions, or endorse actions or beliefs contrary to the teachings and standards of the Roman Catholic faith and morality.”

Marian High School, which refused to publicly comment for this article, isn’t the first school whose Catholic institutional identity conflicted with the lived realities of its teachers. Butte Central Catholic Schools in Montana was sued last month by Shaela Evenson, a partnered lesbian and a literature and physical education teacher there for nine years, who was fired in January while pregnant with their first child. In 2010, Christa Dias, also a partnered lesbian, was fired from two schools in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati under similar circumstances. The computer technology teacher was awarded more than $170,000 last year by an Ohio jury that ruled the archdiocese had discriminated against her.

None of these women were ministerial employees, but allegedly lost their jobs for their “out of wedlock” or “nontraditional” pregnancies—in other words, for violating one of the school's morality clauses. According to Ari Waldman, a professor of Law at New York Law School, “These so-called morality clauses are attempts to make end runs around anti-discrimination laws by employing the pretext of religious freedom. Your freedom to worship your religion gives you no more right to discriminate than you having red hair. And when it’s done in schools, it creates an environment where young people learn that is O.K. to discriminate against someone for who they are, something that has nothing to do with an employee’s ability to do her job well.” (As the Archdiocese of Cincinnati learned, though, this isn't a legally infallible approach to getting rid of an employee.)

Hundreds of Marian High School students and young alumnae have rallied around Barb Webb, including those who didn’t have her as a teacher. Many, both heterosexual and homosexual, are concerned about the impact of Webb's firing on young students who are struggling with their sexuality and who may now feel shame when they could have had a positive role model. Some are even reevaluating whether they could send their own daughters to Marian. Mary Mullen Ballard, a 1998 graduate who lives in the area, says, “I have been planning to send my two daughters there, but actions such as these truly cause me to reevaluate Marian, as well as all other parochial schools, as hate and discrimination are not traits I want instilled in my children.”

Mullen’s views are consistent with those held by young Catholics today. Over 70 percent of Catholics ages 18-30 agree or strongly agree that gays and lesbians should have the right to marry, while 74 percent believe same-sex female couples can raise a child as well as a male-female couple can, according to Andrew L. Whitehead, a Clemson University professor who studied General Social Survey data.
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While young Catholics are especially open, American Catholics as a whole have dramatically changed their beliefs in the past 25 years. Based on Whitehead’s analysis, in 1988 only 19.3 percent of American Catholics either agreed or strongly agreed that gays and lesbians should have the right to marry. By 2012, 56.7 percent either agreed or strongly agreed that they should have the right to do so. Across all years, Catholics are more accepting of gay marriage than the general American population.

So how can Catholics, especially the young, advocate for change in a system that seems to disregard their beliefs? Carol Ann MacGregor, an expert on organizational change in Catholic education who teaches at Loyola University–New Orleans, says, “As costs continue to increase, philanthropy is becoming a more and more important source of funding for Catholic schools, some of which are struggling to survive. For progressively minded Catholics, withholding donations could be a very effective strategy for enacting change.” Older, conservative Catholics hold more sway for now, as they can make larger donations.

This is especially true for Marian High School, which receives no money from the Archdiocese of Detroit, instead relying on tuition and donations for its operating budget. The Archdiocese, in its only statement on the issue, distanced itself from the controversy by stating that the school is “sponsored, owned and operated by the Monroe-based religious order of women, Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM). Oversight of Marian’s mission, along with establishment of its policies, is the responsibility of its Board of Directors, which includes representation from the IHM sisters.”

So what of the IHM Sisters? The IHM are part of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represent about 80 percent of American nuns and has famously been under investigation by the Vatican for “radical feminism,” including support for homosexuality and female priests. While Pope Francis’ “Who am I to judge?” attitude has reinvigorated many Catholics worldwide, his message is still slowly trickling down through the Vatican bureaucracy.

The IHM refused to comment on personnel decisions at Marian High School, but consider the IHM motto: “Courageous Spirit. Action for Justice.” With support from the LCWR and young Catholics, the IHM have the opportunity to advance a more catholic—rather than Catholic—education by supporting teachers like Barb Webb.

Webb says charity, social justice, and equality are all principles that have long motivated her as a teacher, telling her students: "You need to be able enter into a world where you will face discrimination as a woman, especially women entering science."

She added, "I never made it an LGBT issue."

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119323/lesbian-catholic-teachers-fired-over-pregnancies-allege-descrimination

Kobi

09-08-2014, 04:57 AM

http://nyppagesix.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/tennis-open_.jpg?w=231

Now, this is how marriage proposals at sporting events should be done.

Of course, it helps the person doing the proposing is Martina Navratilova at the U.S. Open, but still…

Navratilova was in the midst of an interview with Ken Solomon in the Tennis Channel suite Saturday when she turned to Lemigova, said she’d be asking the questions and dropped to one knee. Her longtime companion, Julia Lemigova, said yes and the the moment was shown on the big screen at the stadium.

“I was very nervous. It came off, and she said yes. It was kind of an out-of-body experience,” Navratilova said of the big moment, which came in the Tennis Channel’s suite. “You’ve seen people propose at sporting events before, in movies, in real life, and here it was happening to me. So I was like watching myself do that. It was cool.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2014/09/07/martina-navratilovas-magical-u-s-open-moment-involves-marriage-proposal/?wpmm=AG0003326

ProfPacker

09-09-2014, 02:21 PM

http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/2014/09/09/lily-tomlin-become-first-out-lesbian-recipient-kennedy-center-hono

Happy_Go_Lucky

09-11-2014, 08:11 AM

Quell Surprise! Not so certain about trailing dudes though. ;)

Lesbians Outdo Straight Women on Orgasms

They have notably more, but still trail men, says study

(Newser) – A new study out of the Kinsey Institute finds that lesbians have more orgasms than their straight or bisexual peers, reports the Huffington Post. Study participants were asked to report the percentage of times they climax with a familiar partner, and the differences among women were surprisingly large:

• Heterosexual: 62%
• Bisexual: 58%
• Lesbian: 75%

So what gives? Researchers speculate in the Journal of Sexual Medicine that it could be because lesbian sex tends to last longer, reports the Toronto Sun. Or maybe, they write, it's that "lesbian women are more comfortable and familiar with the female body and thus, on average, are better able to induce orgasm in their female partners." Whatever the reason, the 75% rate for lesbians still trails men of all kinds, with straight guys reporting a rate of 86%, gay men 85%, and bisexual men 78%. "Yet another glass ceiling for womynkind to shatter," observes Callie Beusman at Jezebel.

Kobi

09-11-2014, 09:44 AM

*Anya*

09-16-2014, 06:17 AM

From Huff Post Gay Voices

Posted: 09/15/2014 7:51 pm EDT Updated: 09/15/2014 9:59 pm EDT

By Jodi Savitz

It is 8:15 a.m. on a Saturday morning, and I just spent no less than six hours completely consumed by statistical farce. My head is pounding, my eyes are burning, the air-conditioning seems unconscionably loud, and all I want to do is eat some cereal and go to bed. But alas, I am writing. I know if I stop now, I'll never be able to maneuver my way back through this vortex of numbers, articles, side notes and screenshots to logically prove to you how painfully misleading and downright stigmatizing this "75 percent of lesbians are overweight or obese" media frenzy is.

My bookmark folder on "lesbian obesity and stigmatization" was born in March 2013, when the study purporting to examine the "interplay of gender and sexual orientation in obesity disparities," funded by The National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), only had a million and a half dollars to its name.

Buried in the abstract of the study appears the line, "three-quarters of lesbians are obese," a statistic employed by the lead researcher as evidence to support funding, and subsequently exploited by the news media to critique ludicrous government spending. Several articles surfaced highlighting the latter, first trickling in on my keyword "lesbian" Google News alert, and then flitting about my newsfeed outfitted with the same semantic bait: "The Government Spends Millions on 'Lesbians Are Fat' Study." One second-rate article after another framed the NIH grant as a "disturbing waste of tax dollars," that ignored the "well-being of the nation as a whole," because let's face it, who really cares about lesbians? Especially fatlesbians. It was insufferable.

The first time around, the lesbian blogosphere did not seem to pay the story much heed. I was inundated with work, so rather than rise to the occasion, I decided to do some research, and file my rebuttal into the "stories to write later" folder. Then last week, like déjà vu, the headline resurfaced with a vengeance. They say, "pick your battles," and this time, I was ready with plenty ammo. I watched my newsfeed and waited. I wanted to see if anybody else would pick up on what I had found...

Here was Autostraddle saying that the statistic "missed the point" entirely, and extolling queer culture for being more open to loving ladies of "all shapes and sizes." At XOJane, the author cleverly quipped about quinoa to make the jarring insult seem a little less derisive; "Sure, 75% of lesbians may be overweight or obese, but in my anecdotal experience at least 90% are also vegans, so how are those broads getting so fat on quinoa and nutritional yeast?"

I recognize these writers for their effort to rationalize a highly irrational and condemnatory statistic, and applaud their desire to further extend the message that lesbian culture is more body positive than most other subcultural communities. I do agree with that claim.

But in every post, the same questions remained unasked:
WHAT IF 75 PERCENT OF LESBIANS ARE NOT OVERWEIGHT OR OBESE?
What if the researchers are wrong?
What if the widely quoted statistic that "three-quarters of lesbians are overweight or obese" is based on unsubstantiated data and extremely small sample sizes?
What if the claim is a statistically insignificant pile of garbage that is wholly misleading?
For some odd reason, nobody ever questioned the validity of the statistic itself, when it was established as fact, or what the motivation behind the original research was in the first place. I, on the other hand, was determined to find the proof in the pudding!

My journey through the depths of Google Scholar finally led me to the same article again and again that claimed, "lesbians are more than twice as likely to be overweight or obese than heterosexual women." This one article is cited in nearly every other major academic article on the subject of sexual minorities and BMI (body-mass index).

Here's the kicker: Within the study, there is one specific chart that notes the sample size of lesbians used to calculate the average BMI, used to determine overweight and obesity of the group. I should have selfied my face in the moment because it would've made for a perfectly histrionic Tinder pic -- seriously, nothing says, "Are you F*CKING KIDDING ME?!" like my face did when I realized how much this study ABSOLUTELY DID NOT statistically prove that 75 percent of lesbians are overweight and obese.

Here's the simple reason why the statistic is a sham:

Q. How many straight women were in the sample size?
A. 5,460

Q. How many lesbians were in this sample size?
A. 87

The article is called "Overweight and Obesity in Sexual-Minority Women: Evidence From Population-Based Data" (Boehmer et al.).

YES, I SWEAR. THE SAMPLE SIZE USED IN THIS STUDY IS 87 LESBIANS AND 5,460 STRAIGHT WOMEN. Unless I am missing something MAJOR, this article, along with a whole slew of other articles that go on to cite it, is conclusive of nothing. To base an entire population's average BMI on 87 women is absurd. And I really don't think I missed anything major. The "n" value here is pretty damn clear.

The crux of the issue is this: How can any study, let alone one that intends to make sweeping generalizations about the impact of sexual orientation on an entire populations' BMI, consider 87 people a reasonable and adequate sample size? How can 87 women possibly stand to represent ALL lesbians in the USA?! I just can't figure how in the hell is it considered academically sound, and moreover, deemed legitimate by a peer-review board of scholars, to compare 87 lesbians to 5,460 straight women??!!?!?!

I don't care if there are fewer of us in the general population; no matter how you frame it, or weight it, or manipulate it, the average BMI of 87 lesbians "randomly" selected in 2002 means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to us as a community. And it means nothing to me. For one to claim that this number is a statistically significant sample size large enough to draw conclusions that will have huge implications on a marginalized community's public health perception is not just unethical, it's insulting.

The results section of this study truly pays homage to faulty logic. The author in one sentence admits that their sample size is too small to be precise (understatement of the century!), but in the next paragraph has the audacity to claim that their population-based data are of "great relevance" and that they (the researchers) posses "rigorous evidence" to prove that lesbians are an "at-risk population for overweight and obesity."

"It will be important for future population-based studies that include a bigger sample of lesbian women to improve on the precision of our estimates because the corresponding tests will have better power than we had. Despite these limitations, our use of these population-based data was of great relevance. We provide rigorous evidence that lesbian women are an at-risk population for over-weight and obesity, and thus, for negative health outcomes secondary to obesity."

Just like that, based on 87 women, a statistic that "three-quarters of lesbians are overweight or obese" is born. In the years to follow, it will be successfully morphed into more egregious puns, memes and despicable jokes to mock us and delegitimize our sexuality with than I care to think about. Lesbians are fat. This claim about our community is not a joke, and to believe that the actual motivation behind this study was to benefit our community is not something I can honestly give credit to.

I am not convinced that by proving, and consequently telling, lesbians that, as a population, we're more likely to be or become fat will promote a more positive body image or inspire government-funded public health initiatives to come into fruition. Conversely, I am certain that the publicity around this "75 percent of lesbians are fat" statistic on social media is at present exacerbating the stereotype that "lesbians are just a bunch of ugly, lazy, misguided women with low self-esteem who can't get a husband because they're fat and don't wear make-up, and therefore they're terrible people and don't deserve to be taken seriously!" (Cue double face-palm and a simultaneous slow-head shake.)

Others will argue that this statistic has been defended in many studies other than this study of lesbian obesity. They would be correct. In fact, there are a whole slew of academic articles that employ faulty logic (many of which cite this article to make their own claim on lesbian obesity), small sample sizes, inept research questions, and arguably homophobic and fat-phobic hypotheses, in an attempt to prove that lesbians are an overweight and obese population, and that we have BMIs higher than the average heterosexual woman. But the more you research, the more you realize the myriad analyses are just more of the same inadequate data set, heavily biased by stereotypes and a general ignorance regarding lesbian identity.

The real question we should be challenging these researchers with is this: Why is homosexuality being isolated as the indicative factor of one's failure to thrive? If the National Institute of Health (NIH) is funding studies based on this claim (and it is), it's terrifying to imagine how often baseless statistics are disseminated as truth, and how misleading our public health policies and initiatives most likely are -- especially those that single out, and arguably stigmatize, sexual-minority populations.

It is no mystery that widespread invisibility plagues the lesbian community, but finding us is not impossible. Yet, not one study has taken the steps to access a representative sample size that surveys the lesbian community to make a comprehensive assessment on lesbians' BMI, that is, if there is a statement to be made. Maybe it's more flabbergasting to me because I can call 1,000 lesbians to action in my sleep. Literally. I could write a status now with an embedded link to survey lesbians, go to sleep, and wake up to not only 1,000 lesbians having answered it, but the potential for a network of over 200,000 queer women to have offered up their heights and weights.

That being said, if you are a researcher with good intentions, in need of access to the queer lady demographic, I'd be more than happy to talk to you about your work. You need lesbians. I have lesbians. You have funding. I need funding. It's a win/win. Let's help each other out for the betterment of this community!

The bottom line: This whole thing seems disturbingly Machiavellian. At best, this study (and ones like it) is a lackluster inquiry parading as a progressive public health initiative. At worst, it is a conspiracy; a wholly disingenuous undertaking, biased by ignorance and rooted in compulsory heterosexuality and the pathological policing of gender presentation -- all thanks to society's fear of "fat"-bodied women.

Here's why it all matters: As long as this statistic is being touted as a scientifically proven fact, we have a problem. When flung into the blogosphere, it is daily espousing a condescending correlation between lesbian identity and unhealthy weight. This notion is and will continue to affect the physical and emotional well-being of many a queer girl, both young and old. This is not okay. And you should not be okay with it.

It's time to wake up and realize that lesbian visibility is not only about femme girls wanting to be recognized, but it is also about combating negative stereotypes and ending the institutionalized shaming of lesbian identity by bringing to light the breadth of our community. The only solution to reversing the stigmas attached to being a lesbian is to make visible the positive attributes of who we are, how we live, and what we look like. It's not about emphasizing the average; it's about celebrating the exceptional. It's about coming out every day, and making our presence known, even when it seems awkward or irrelevant. It's a commitment that 100 percent of our community must take on individually.

A final note on research privilege: Though some of the articles I'm sharing via Google Scholar are publicly downloadable, many are only accessible in full via a university's online journal database. In order to access these articles myself, I used my library card from Nova Southeastern University, a university in South Florida that makes its "NovaCat" database available to the public if you live in Broward County. Once logged into NovaCat, I was able to search for and open articles I otherwise could not have accessed via Google Scholar or another engine, like LexisNexis. This, in and of itself, is frustrating, and speaks to the elitism inherent in academia. Limiting the public's access to scholarly journals makes conducting and analyzing research an endeavor that is ostensibly limited to those either enrolled in or associated with a university, or lucky enough to have a university affiliated library card (or a whole lot of money to spend on each individual article!). While some public libraries have access to scholarly journals and articles, most of them limit access to patrons on-site. Therefore, for somebody who only has access to the internet at home, and limited or no access to a physical library from which to access these journals, it is impossible to review articles published by academics. This sort of research privilege is rarely discussed, and is quite disheartening and problematic.

Jodi Savitz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/girlongirlmovie

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jodi-savitz/the-75-of-lesbians-are-fat-statistic_b_5795794.html?utm_hp_ref=lesbian

Kobi

09-17-2014, 06:31 AM

Alison Bechdel, the innovative comic artist known for the graphic memoirs “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” and “Are You My Mother,” is one of 21 MacArthur Fellows named Wednesday.

At first Bechdel, currently at an artist residency in Italy, didn’t pick up the phone. There was no message, and when it rang again, and she figured it must be important.

“It was crazy,” she says. “It was a little garbled, then I heard the person on the other end say the words MacArthur Foundation and the world started spinning.”

Commonly called the “genius” fellowships, the MacArthurs are awarded to exceptionally creative individuals working in the arts, humanities, public issues and the sciences. Bechdel is the second graphic novelist -- alongside 2000 fellow Ben Katchor -- to be presented with the award.

This year’s recipients include National Book Award-winning poet Terrance Hayes, poet and translator Khaled Mattawa and two historians, Pamela O. Long and Tara Zahra. There are no novelists or short fiction writers in the 2014 class.

The fellows receive $625,000 over five years, with no strings attached. “It will give me a lot of security that I don’t have. Pay off some debts, save for retirement -- really boring stuff,” says Bechdel, who lives in Vermont. “I’ve been a cartoonist all my life!”

Of late, Bechdel has become a household name for popularizing the Bechdel Test, a three-part challenge testing whether a film or book a) has at least two women, who b) talk to each other d) about something other than a man. Originally considered “radical, feminist, lesbian” when she wrote it more than 25 years ago, Bechdel now says of its acceptance, “The mainstream has caught up to radical feminist thinking.”

New MacArthur fellows are given the news a few days before the announcement and sworn to secrecy.

Bechdel envisions the MacArthur making a difference. It will, she says, allow her to “take some risks, do something new -- to really plunge into my work. It’s an incredible gift.”

http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-macarthur-fellows-alison-bechdel-terrance-hayes-20140916-story.html

ProfPacker

09-17-2014, 11:42 AM

The MacArthur Foundation awarded lesbian cartoonist Alison Bechdel one of its coveted Genius Grants. The only requirement of the $625,000 award is that Bechdel and the 20 other recipients continue doing the good work they were already doing.

So, hopefully this means Bechdel will continue doing revolutionary work related to film, family and culture. Her name was on everyone’s lips starting last year as her 30-year-old film test re-entered mainstream conversation. The Rule was born from a 1985 strip of her comic Dykes To Watch Out For.

bechdel-rule

The rule, now known as the Bechdel Test, calls for basic inclusion of women in film. The concept shouldn’t be so revolutionary, but when women had only 30 percent of speaking roles and 15 percent of leads in last year’s top films it is clear we have a lot of work left to do. It’s great to see the MacArthur Foundation honoring someone doing that work.

Bechdel has also earned well-deserved praise for graphic novels including 2006′s Fun Home and and 2012′s Are You My Mother. In August, it was announced that the stage production of Fun Home is officially headed to Broadway after years as a beloved Off-Broadway experience.

Some of the other winners are pretty cool too — Mary Bonauto, the director of the Civil Rights Project for Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders also won a grant. Then there’s Pamela Long, the 71-year-old who pursues research on medieval history without a university affiliation, and Terrence Hayes, whose poems on race, politics and love are some of the most powerful words being written today.

The winners are doing their work from around the world — Bechdel, for example, is on an artists’s residency in an Italian castle. Although it took 30 years for Bechdel’s simple, brilliant ideas to reach this level of recognition, with this new recognition and funding she’ll be able to continue moving the conversation and stealing our hearts.

Kobi

09-17-2014, 05:39 PM

http://p.o0bc.com/rf/image_360w/Boston/2011-2020/2014/09/17/Boston.com/BCOM/Images/a4dea4168ba840dfb81946eec2ca2e8d-a4dea4168ba840dfb81946eec2ca2e8d-0.jpg

Bonauto was named a MacArthur fellow for her work “breaking down legal barriers based on sexual orientation,” the MacArthur Foundation writes. In 2003, Bonauto led the court fight for same-sex marriage rights in Massachusetts, and played key roles in expanding gay rights across New England through her work with Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders.

“No gay person in this country would be married without Mary Bonauto,” Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer who argued before the Supreme Court same-sex marriage case, told The New York Times last year.

Bonauto is a graduate of Northeastern University School of Law.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2014/09/17/mary-bonauto-and-harvard-math-professor-win-macarthur-genius-grants/yfTB8gaa5C5TLrZ0NVbvKO/story.html

Happy_Go_Lucky

09-17-2014, 11:18 PM

Orange is the New Black writer leaves her husband for show actor.

Orange is the New Black writer Lauren Morelli leaves husband for show star Samira Wiley

An Orange Is The New Black writer who realised she was gay on the set of the hit prison drama has filed for divorce after falling in love with one of the show's stars.

Lauren Morelli and her husband, Steve Basilone, have jointly filed to end their two-year marriage just three months after she opened up about her sexuality in an essay she wrote for Identities.Mic in May.

Morelli wrote: "I realised I was gay in fall 2012, one of my first days on the set. While Writing for Orange Is the New Black, I realised I am gay.

"Five months after my wedding, I flew to New York to start production on my first episode of Orange, and from that moment on my life fell into a parallel rhythm with (lead characters) Piper's story in a way that went from interesting to terrifying in a matter of months."

http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity/orange-is-the-new-black-writer-lauren-morelli-leaves-husband-for-show-star-samira-wiley-20140917-10i3oq.html

Kobi

11-07-2014, 03:20 AM

http://www.gomag.com/images/article/maura_healey_becomes_the_/gallery/xmaura_healey1.web1.jpg.pagespeed.ic._qTurhEWSR.jp g

Maura Healey was elected Massachusetts attorney general Tuesday night.

Democrat Maura Healey was elected attorney general in Massachusetts on Tuesday, becoming the first openly gay attorney general in the country.

Healey won a competitive primary against former state Sen. Warren Tolman (D) earlier this year. She easily defeated Republican John Miller on Tuesday by a vote of 62 percent to 38 percent, according to an ABC affiliate in Boston.

EMILY's List, a progressive PAC that supports pro-choice Democratic women, helped Healey win her primary against Tolman and celebrated her historic win Tuesday night.

“Tonight, voters in Massachusetts decisively chose to elect progressive champion Maura Healey Attorney General,” said the group's president, Stephanie Schriock. “Maura has spent years fighting to expand rights and freedoms for women and families in Massachusetts. And now with the help of the EMILY’s List community – three million members strong – she can take that leadership to the next level."

"Maura Healey is one of the staunchest advocates for equality we have in this country, and we join her in celebrating her historic victory tonight," added Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin. "As the nation's first openly gay attorney general, she is an inspirational trailblazer and will fight to guarantee civil rights and legal equality for all people of Massachusetts."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/04/maura-healey-attorney-general-massachusetts_n_6104314.html

Kobi

12-18-2014, 02:04 PM

PACKED IN A TRUNK uncovers the story of lesbian artist Edith Lake Wilkinson, committed to an asylum in 1924 and never heard from again. We follow the journey of Edith’s great-niece as she pieces together the mystery of Edith’s life and returns her work to Provincetown.

Packed In A Trunk - Documentary (http://www.packedinatrunk.com/)

Edith Lake Wilkinson (http://www.edithlakewilkinson.com/artwork/paintings)

Kobi

02-03-2015, 05:16 PM

"The Lesbian Caucus of the National Women’s Studies Association invites submissions for a sponsored session on “The Revolutionary Lesbians of the 1970s,” to be held at the annual conference in Milwaukee, WI on November 12-15, 2015.

Panel Title: The Revolutionary Lesbian 1970s
Conference Sub-Theme: Precarity, Distortion/Dispossession

The 1970s is well known as a particularly intense time for radical lesbian activism and new experimental lesbian sexualities, lifestyles, cultural production and living arrangements.

The “Lesbian 70s” is now the object of a growing scholarship which has generated panels at professional meetings as well as some conferences on their own.

However, until now, specifically revolutionary lesbian-positioned analyses, activisms and practices of the 1970s, by lesbians of color and lesbians of all colors, have received less attention. And yet, to remember them and the solidarities they created could be very fruitful for our times.

This panel engages with 1970s revolutionary lesbian analyses of how multiple relations of power such as gender, sexuality, capitalism, colonialism and neo-colonialism, genocide, racism, religion, ethnicity and specism, operate together, inseparably.

It also addresses the revolutionary activisms and transnational solidarities in the 1970s of lesbians – as individuals and in lesbian groups- within and allied with people's liberation and anti-colonial movements in the U.S. and across the globe.

Some keyword topics might include:

*Historical erasures of revolutionary lesbians of color, and of all colors, of the 1970s
*race, class, colonial and sexual politics of (non)citational violence
*production of knowledge, concept-terms and re-languaging by revolutionary lesbians of the 1970s *revolutionary lesbian 1970s modalities of transformative resistance
* 1970s revolutionary lesbians within, out of and allied with people's movements for liberation in the U.S. and transnationally
*1970s revolutionary lesbians' analytics of oppression, repression and the inseparability of multiple relations of power (gender, race, class, capitalism, imperialism, sexuality, colonialism, specism, etc) *coalitions, collaborations, alliances, assemblages
*politics of alter-modalities of inter-subjectivity and community
*politics of 1970s revolutionary lesbians living together
*lesbian issues and actions of revolutionary lesbian 1970s
*1970s revolutionary lesbian re-inventions of sexualities and the erotic
*illegibilities of 1970s revolutionary lesbians today
*new epistemologies and methods for understanding 1970s revolutionary lesbians
*prior and current precarities of revolutionary lesbian theorists and activists of the 1970s
*1970s revolutionary lesbians and the State (State repressions, prison, exile, as well as lesbian analytical and activist responses) *why remember the revolutionary 1970s today?
*the revolutionary lesbian 1970s and feminist, lesbian, queer and transgender inter-generational community and politics

To submit, please send a proposed title and an abstract of no more than 150 words, along with a current CV to the session organizer, Paola Bacchetta at pbacchetta@berkeley.edu and the Lesbian Caucus chair, Jaime Cantrell at jaimec@olemiss.edu no later than 5pm on February 18th, 2015.

*Anya*

02-09-2015, 03:02 AM

Shaye wanted to change the world. Instead she had to change her oral

Sunday, February 08, 2015 by: Carol Martin
Shaye, who is a grade 4 student at Tarentorus Public School, is so passionate about feminism that she decided to do her oral on that topic.

“She first said she wanted to it on something from history,” says her mom, Linsay Ambeault. “So I started telling her about the suffrage movement.”

That captivated Shaye's interest and she poured her energy into writing what she thought would be the best oral she'd ever written, maybe an oral that would take her to the gym – possibly even the city finals.

But, when her teacher, Mike Chudoba, gave it back to her with his notes, Shaye was disappointed to learn she would have to remove a paragraph that talked about rape statistics and Ontario's proposed sex education curriculum from it before she could present it to her class.

The paragraph Mr. Chudoba said had to go follows:

One out of five women and girls will be raped or assaulted by a man, and less than 1% of rapists are held accountable by a court of law. It was not until this year, 2015, that Ontario's curriculum began teaching kids like me the concept of consent, which is the right to say no.

The issue of teaching children about consent is being discussed in Ontario's parliament after Premier Kathleen Wynne directed it to be included in the planned update of the province's sexual education curriculum, so what Shaye was talking about in her second sentence hasn't happened yet.

But she and her mom believe it's important that kids her age understand they have a right to say 'no' to adults and other kids, and that their bodies are their own.

Premier Wynne would probably agree.

"With cases of sexual harassment and sexual violence in the spotlight, Wynne directed the Ministry of Education to include things such as healthy relationships and consent in the new learning documents, which will be used in schools across the province this fall," says a Toronto Star article original published January 7. "Wynne has asked Education Minister Liz Sandals 'to finalize a new health and physical education curriculum that gets at some of the root causes of gender inequality, and starts at the very earliest stages to develop an understanding of healthy relationships and consent.'"

Shaye's mom is proud of her daughter's obvious passion about feminism and about protecting kids from sexual predators.

“She asked me if anyone had ever changed the world with a speech,” said Ambeault.

But, not all parents want their children to know about rape or sex in primary school.

"The updated version [of the curriculum] was first released in 2010, but shelved after complaints from a few religious groups about children learning about homosexuality in Grade 3, discussions of puberty in Grade 6 and, in Grade 7, talk of preventing sexually transmitted diseases and possible discussion about oral or anal sex," says the Star.

When Shaye asked her teacher why she had to remove the paragraph from her oral he sent her to the principal's office to get her answer.

Tarentorus principal, Brent Vallee, told her the subject of rape and the word vagina were not age-appropriate for her classmates.

“He told me it's the first time he's ever had to deal with a student writing an oral on a subject too advanced for them,” said Shaye.

We'd love to tell you first-hand what Mr. Vallee said about it, but he was pretty adamant about not having any comments on it.

Shaye said Mr. Vallee also told her the oral might have been fine as it was in a different school.

“Why can't he make Tarentorus the different school,” she said. “Some children might have been and they shouldn't be afraid to say they were raped.”

She believes her oral would help raise that topic and let kids have a chance to talk to someone about what happened to them but, if they aren't even allowed to say the word they're probably going to feel some shame about it.

Ambeault said she is disappointed in how things went, even though she empathizes with Mr. Vallee's position between parents who might not want their nine-year-old children coming home and asking them what rape is.

Shaye has been kind enough to let us share her oral with our readers.

“More people are going to hear about this through here than would even if I went to zone finals with it,” she said.

Unfortunately, Shaye didn't make it to the gym with her oral this year but she hopes it will make a difference to her classmates who heard it.

“It could be like that pond thing, you know, with the ripples going out,” she said.

The full and unedited text from her oral follows.

*************************DZCZ.
Feminism
By: Shaye Brianna Moran

I am here to talk about the F word. The other F word, Feminism. In order to be considered a feminist you only need to be on board with one idea; that all humans, male and female, should have equal rights under the law. Feminism itself, is the radical idea that women are people.

First-wave feminism originated with the suffrage movement, which recognized that women were voiceless. They could not vote, nor own property. By risking imprisonment and their own lives suffragists gained the right to vote less than 100 years ago in North America, though in some countries women still can't vote in elections.

Women made huge advances during the 20th century. During World War II women proved how strong they were, by filling roles left unoccupied by men who had gone to war. My great-grandmother worked as a brick layer at Algoma Steel during the war. These women were symbolized by the iconic image of Rosie the Riveter. Though society now knew how powerful women were, women still did not have the same rights as men. For example, my grandmother was not allowed to wear pants to school or work and female teachers were barred from teaching while pregnant.

In the early 1960's, the second-wave of feminism or women's liberation movement began. Women were no longer expected to quit their jobs in favour of raising children and staying in the kitchen. Today, women are no longer the property of men, but we still have a long way to go.

Did you know that 603 million women still live in countries where hitting your wife is not considered a crime? In Saudi Arabia, women are still not allowed to have a driver's license. In some countries, women can't go out in public without their face being covered.

{One out of five women and girls will be raped or assaulted by a man, and less than 1% of rapists are held accountable by a court of law. It was not until this year, 2015, that Ontario's curriculum began teaching kids like me the concept of consent, which is the right to say no.}

Did you know that less than a quarter of the world's countries have ever had a female head of state? Only 21% of managers are women and there are currently only 20 women serving in the US senate compared to 80 men. Women get paid 23% less than men, and women who received straight A's in college are paid the same as men who received C's.

Feminists are not aiming to make women stronger, we already know we're strong, we just want society to see that too. Being a feminist doesn't mean that you think women deserve special rights, but that you know we deserve equal ones.

In my lifetime, women are not expected to receive equal pay until 2058, when I am 53 years old and nearing retirement. I put it to you, that is not soon enough! Women, our time is now. As Elsa from Frozen sang, “It's time to see what I can do, to test the limits and break through, no right, no wrong, no rules for me, I'm free!”

************************http://www.sootoday.com/content/news/details.asp?c=86346

*Anya*

02-09-2015, 10:48 AM

Sorry, I meant to post this in feminism, not the lesbian zone. She's in 4th grade.

I should not post on no sleep and with acute asthma....

Shaye wanted to change the world. Instead she had to change her oral

Sunday, February 08, 2015 by: Carol Martin
Shaye, who is a grade 4 student at Tarentorus Public School, is so passionate about feminism that she decided to do her oral on that topic.

“She first said she wanted to it on something from history,” says her mom, Linsay Ambeault. “So I started telling her about the suffrage movement.”

That captivated Shaye's interest and she poured her energy into writing what she thought would be the best oral she'd ever written, maybe an oral that would take her to the gym – possibly even the city finals.

But, when her teacher, Mike Chudoba, gave it back to her with his notes, Shaye was disappointed to learn she would have to remove a paragraph that talked about rape statistics and Ontario's proposed sex education curriculum from it before she could present it to her class.

The paragraph Mr. Chudoba said had to go follows:

One out of five women and girls will be raped or assaulted by a man, and less than 1% of rapists are held accountable by a court of law. It was not until this year, 2015, that Ontario's curriculum began teaching kids like me the concept of consent, which is the right to say no.

The issue of teaching children about consent is being discussed in Ontario's parliament after Premier Kathleen Wynne directed it to be included in the planned update of the province's sexual education curriculum, so what Shaye was talking about in her second sentence hasn't happened yet.

But she and her mom believe it's important that kids her age understand they have a right to say 'no' to adults and other kids, and that their bodies are their own.

Premier Wynne would probably agree.

"With cases of sexual harassment and sexual violence in the spotlight, Wynne directed the Ministry of Education to include things such as healthy relationships and consent in the new learning documents, which will be used in schools across the province this fall," says a Toronto Star article original published January 7. "Wynne has asked Education Minister Liz Sandals 'to finalize a new health and physical education curriculum that gets at some of the root causes of gender inequality, and starts at the very earliest stages to develop an understanding of healthy relationships and consent.'"

Shaye's mom is proud of her daughter's obvious passion about feminism and about protecting kids from sexual predators.

“She asked me if anyone had ever changed the world with a speech,” said Ambeault.

But, not all parents want their children to know about rape or sex in primary school.

"The updated version [of the curriculum] was first released in 2010, but shelved after complaints from a few religious groups about children learning about homosexuality in Grade 3, discussions of puberty in Grade 6 and, in Grade 7, talk of preventing sexually transmitted diseases and possible discussion about oral or anal sex," says the Star.

When Shaye asked her teacher why she had to remove the paragraph from her oral he sent her to the principal's office to get her answer.

Tarentorus principal, Brent Vallee, told her the subject of rape and the word vagina were not age-appropriate for her classmates.

“He told me it's the first time he's ever had to deal with a student writing an oral on a subject too advanced for them,” said Shaye.

We'd love to tell you first-hand what Mr. Vallee said about it, but he was pretty adamant about not having any comments on it.

Shaye said Mr. Vallee also told her the oral might have been fine as it was in a different school.

“Why can't he make Tarentorus the different school,” she said. “Some children might have been and they shouldn't be afraid to say they were raped.”

She believes her oral would help raise that topic and let kids have a chance to talk to someone about what happened to them but, if they aren't even allowed to say the word they're probably going to feel some shame about it.

Ambeault said she is disappointed in how things went, even though she empathizes with Mr. Vallee's position between parents who might not want their nine-year-old children coming home and asking them what rape is.

Shaye has been kind enough to let us share her oral with our readers.

“More people are going to hear about this through here than would even if I went to zone finals with it,” she said.

Unfortunately, Shaye didn't make it to the gym with her oral this year but she hopes it will make a difference to her classmates who heard it.

“It could be like that pond thing, you know, with the ripples going out,” she said.

The full and unedited text from her oral follows.

*************************DZCZ.
Feminism
By: Shaye Brianna Moran

I am here to talk about the F word. The other F word, Feminism. In order to be considered a feminist you only need to be on board with one idea; that all humans, male and female, should have equal rights under the law. Feminism itself, is the radical idea that women are people.

First-wave feminism originated with the suffrage movement, which recognized that women were voiceless. They could not vote, nor own property. By risking imprisonment and their own lives suffragists gained the right to vote less than 100 years ago in North America, though in some countries women still can't vote in elections.

Women made huge advances during the 20th century. During World War II women proved how strong they were, by filling roles left unoccupied by men who had gone to war. My great-grandmother worked as a brick layer at Algoma Steel during the war. These women were symbolized by the iconic image of Rosie the Riveter. Though society now knew how powerful women were, women still did not have the same rights as men. For example, my grandmother was not allowed to wear pants to school or work and female teachers were barred from teaching while pregnant.

In the early 1960's, the second-wave of feminism or women's liberation movement began. Women were no longer expected to quit their jobs in favour of raising children and staying in the kitchen. Today, women are no longer the property of men, but we still have a long way to go.

Did you know that 603 million women still live in countries where hitting your wife is not considered a crime? In Saudi Arabia, women are still not allowed to have a driver's license. In some countries, women can't go out in public without their face being covered.

{One out of five women and girls will be raped or assaulted by a man, and less than 1% of rapists are held accountable by a court of law. It was not until this year, 2015, that Ontario's curriculum began teaching kids like me the concept of consent, which is the right to say no.}

Did you know that less than a quarter of the world's countries have ever had a female head of state? Only 21% of managers are women and there are currently only 20 women serving in the US senate compared to 80 men. Women get paid 23% less than men, and women who received straight A's in college are paid the same as men who received C's.

Feminists are not aiming to make women stronger, we already know we're strong, we just want society to see that too. Being a feminist doesn't mean that you think women deserve special rights, but that you know we deserve equal ones.

In my lifetime, women are not expected to receive equal pay until 2058, when I am 53 years old and nearing retirement. I put it to you, that is not soon enough! Women, our time is now. As Elsa from Frozen sang, “It's time to see what I can do, to test the limits and break through, no right, no wrong, no rules for me, I'm free!”

************************http://www.sootoday.com/content/news/details.asp?c=86346

*Anya*

02-10-2015, 08:12 PM

When Being a Lesbian Makes You a Target

By Trish Bendix on February 9, 2015

In 1988, 28-year old Rebecca Wight and her girlfriend, Claudia Brenner, planned to hike the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania when they encountered a man who would end Rebecca’s life. Stephen Roy Carr watched the women at their campsite, and followed them on their trip, as they set up their tent, kissed and mistakenly thought they were alone. Stephen was 82 feet away with a .22 caliber rifle, and he shot at them eight times, injuring Claudia and killing Rebecca.

Eight years later, in 1996, 24-year-old Julianne Williams and 26-year-old Lollie Winans took their Golden Retriever, Taj, up to Virginia’s Skyline Drive on the Appalachian Trail. The women were found bound and gagged with their throats slit, the case unsolved for years—until Darrell David Rice was indicted in 2002, initially saying he targeted the couple because they were gay, and they “deserved to die because they were lesbian.” Darrell was proved innocent, though, and the murders are still unsolved.

In 2009, Teresa Butz and Jennifer Hopper were sleeping in their Seattle home when Isaiah Kalebu broke inside and brutally raped and stabbed them until Teresa died and Jennifer managed to escape. In court, Isaiah said he’d watched the women for days, and “I was there and I was told by my God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to attack my enemies, and I did so.”

These are only three stories of women in same-sex relationships being targeted by men in the last four decades, and now we have another fatal incident to add to the growing list of violent tragedies. Last Thursday, Coast Guard Petty Officer Lisa Trubnikova was shot and killed after her ex-coworker, Coast Guardsman Adrian Loya, walked into Lisa’s Massachusetts home with her wife, Anna Trubnikova, and opened fire. Anna is alive, but hospitalized with serious injuries.

According to Lisa’s family members, Adrian had been “fixated” on her since they worked together in Alaska. He knew the two women were together, as a couple, and purposefully checked into a nearby motel just prior to the shooting. While this has yet to be considered a hate crime, it is very clear that Adrian’s motive was similar to those of the aforementioned murderers: These lesbians deserve to die.

These and two of the most recent fatal attacks on lesbian couples in Texas (Kristene Chapa and Mollie Olgin in 2012, Britney Cosby and Crystal Jackson in 2013) have been not deemed hate crimes. Claudia Brenner, who survived her attack, has turned her tragedy into activism and spoken out since about violence against gay women, which she certainly considers a hate crime.

I always believed that it was a matter of harassment, not life and death, that it was something that happened to gay men, late at night, outside of seedy bars. I always thought that life-endangering oppression happened to people different than me. To heal, I had to acknowledge the world as a place that includes the possibility of getting shot and killed at any moment.

It wasn’t until 2009 that the United States passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which included sexual orientation in the protections of the federal hate crime law. And sadly, for good reason, as sexual orientation is second to race as perceived motivation listed by the FBI. Considering hate crimes are often under-reported, the number is likely even larger than the 20.2 percent that were victimized in 2013. While hate crimes can vary from hurled slurs from strangers to someone tagging “DYKE” on a lesbian-owned business, it does seem that the highly-violent situations involving deaths of gay women are usually not perceived as such. Despite often being referred to as “hate crimes,” the perpetrators are rarely charged with such. Isiah Kalebu is in prison for life, convicted of aggravated murder. Stephen Roy Carr also received a life sentence for first-degree murder. This past June, David M. Strickland was charged with capital murder, aggravated sexual assault and aggravated assault in the case of Kristene and Mollie, but police decided there was “no evidence that the attack was motivated by their sexual orientation.”

That begs the question, what kind of evidence is necessary to charge and convict someone of a hate crime? In each of these case’s, it would seem their relationships had direct effects on why they were targeted, although surely police or lawyers might argue otherwise: Crimes of jealousy, crimes of passion, crimes against defenseless, easy targets like two women. But hate? Apparently that’s harder to prove, and prosecutors are reluctant because so much bias still exists. For example, it might be easier to have a jury side with your defendant if she’s facing someone who tried to kill her because she’s a woman he wanted to be with, not because she’s a lesbian. That lesbian stuff just really screws things up if you have any conservative gay haters in the town you’re picking your jury members from. In Claudia’s case, she didn’t tell even the cops she and Rebecca were a couple in fear they wouldn’t help her.

Lisa told Adrian several times she was not interested in him, yet he persisted. Lisa wanted to handle the situation herself, and did not go to the Coast Guard during her time spent there being harassed. We now live in a time where Lisa could not be fired for being gay in the Coast Guard, but could still face harassment or other negative repercussions from reporting a male co-worker. We live in a time, still, where going hiking with your girlfriend could mean you have a target on your back if you cross paths with a particularly hateful man. A time when even if you are at home with your partner, sleeping, you might be being stalked by a mad man across the street. A time when that man could be your homophobic father, who would rather see you dead than gay.

As a community, we have made so much progress in the last 27 years since Rebecca and Claudia were shot. We have rights some of us never dreamt of having, ones that Lisa and Anna all-too-briefly enjoyed. But we’re still facing a persistent evil that demands more attention, and our speaking up about it when it happens to us or women we know. No one should have to suffer through the things that start out creepy because we’re conditioned to it. We’re so used to dealing with sexual innuendo and unwanted advances from men that make us uncomfortable, and they continue because we so often roll our eyes and drop it, fearing for our safety if we fight back. We deserve protection and because of survivors like Claudia Brenner and Jennifer Hopper, who so bravely tell their stories and want women like themselves—like us—to use our voices and speak out against these things that happen to us: Verbal abuse, sexual violence and things that you know, in your heart, are wrong. As Jennifer wrote in her Seattle Stranger piece “I Would Like You to Know My Name:”

All I can say is that I think there is tremendous power in testifying, in saying, “This happened to me.” And if you can, showing that you have a name, a voice, and—hey, I know, this is one of the hardest parts because it’s more than I’m ready to do right now—a face.

…sometimes crazy stuff happens and we’re called on to be brave, and I don’t think I’ve done anything different than anyone else would do. Anyway, bravery isn’t always a solitary thing. All these people in my life have helped. You, by listening to my story, have helped.

Look our for yourselves, and each other.

HATE CRIMES TERESA BUTZ

http://www.afterellen.com/people/414081-lesbian-makes-target

homoe

02-10-2015, 08:33 PM

February 10, 2015 at 6:03 AM
Slurs written on woman’s body in Tacoma hate crime attack
Posted by Lisa Cowan
The Associated Press

TACOMA — A woman was choked and stabbed and had homophobic slurs written on her body with a marker in an attack early Sunday in Tacoma.

Police are looking for the man responsible for the hate crime.

The 45-year-old woman was attacked while looking for her dog that had slipped out of her house about 3 a.m. She was followed into an alley by the man who made homophobic slurs during the assault.

Police spokeswoman Loretta Cool says the woman is recovering from stab wounds to her arm, chest and thigh.

The incident will be the subject of a forum Saturday at the Rainbow Center, a support center for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Tacoma

Allison W

02-13-2015, 04:46 PM

In my lifetime, women are not expected to receive equal pay until 2058

Maybe it's kind of sad but part of me is actually happy to hear that it's even on track to happen at all. (Also, the timing actually makes me optimistic for this young woman's future, due to the generational nature of many forms of social change, particularly the wage gap.)

firegal

02-13-2015, 05:26 PM

*Anya*

02-13-2015, 05:54 PM

Kobi

02-16-2015, 04:27 PM

Lesley Gore, a pop singer who first entered the AM airwaves and the American consciousness in 1963, died of cancer Monday morning at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, PEOPLE has confirmed. She was 68.

At 17, the Brooklyn-born, Tenafly, New Jersey-raised former Lesley Sue Goldstein wailed in a hit single produced by Quincy Jones that "It's My Party" and she would cry if she wanted, whining of a rival, "She's a Fool," and declaiming, "You Don't Own Me."

The catchy beat and voice led to four Top 5 singles in 1963 – and a 1965 smash by a then-brand-new composer enjoying his first hit: "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows," by Marvin Hamlisch.

Besides her brother and mother, Gore is survived by her partner of more than three decades, Lois Sasson.

http://www.people.com/article/lesley-gore-singer-its-my-party-dies?xid=rss-topheadlines

*Anya*

02-19-2015, 07:12 AM

By Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press 11:23 p.m. EST February 18, 2015

Sitting in the pediatrician's office with their 6-day-old daughter, the two moms couldn't wait to meet the doctor they had picked out months before.

The Roseville pediatrician — one of many they had interviewed — seemed the perfect fit: She took a holistic approach to treating children. She used natural oils and probiotics. And she knew they were lesbians.

But as Jami and Krista Contreras sat in the exam room, waiting to be seen for their newborn's first checkup, another pediatrician entered the room and delivered a major blow: The doctor they were hoping for had a change of heart. After "much prayer," she decided that she couldn't treat their baby because they are lesbians

"I was completely dumbfounded," recalled Krista Contreras, the baby's biological mother. "We just looked at each other and said, 'Did we hear that correctly?' .... When we tell people about it, they don't believe us. They say, '(Doctors) can't do that. That's not legal.' And we say, 'Yes it is.'"

The Contrerases of Oak Park are going public with their story to raise awareness about the discrimination that the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community continues to face. There is no federal or Michigan law that explicitly prohibits discrimination against LGBT individuals.

For months, the couple kept quiet about what happened to them and their baby — Bay Windsor Contreras — at Eastlake Pediatrics last October.

But the pain and frustration wouldn't go away. So they broke their silence.

"We want people to know that this is happening to families. This is really happening," said Jami Contreras, 30, who was blindsided that fall day in the doctor's office. "It was embarrassing. It was humiliating ... It's just wrong."

Doctor apologizes

The pediatrician at issue is Vesna Roi, 49, who has been practicing pediatric medicine for 19 years.

Roi said that she could not comment on the case, citing the federal HIPPA law, which requires medical providers to protect the privacy of patients. But she did defend her commitment to pediatric medicine and helping children.

"My life is taking care of the babies," Roi told the Free Press on Tuesday. "I love my families, my patients. I love my kids. And I have become very close with all my patients."

Roi, meanwhile, has apologized to Jami and Krista Contreras in a handwritten letter, which was obtained by the Free Press. It states:

"Dear Jami & Krista, I am writing this letter of apology as I feel that it is important and necessary. I never meant to hurt either of you. After much prayer following your prenatal (visit), I felt that I would not be able to develop the personal patient doctor relationship that I normally do with my patients."

The letter, dated Feb. 9, did not explain why Roi felt that way, nor did it mention anything about the two women being lesbians. It did, however, state that the Contrerases were "always welcome in our office" and that they could still get care from another pediatrician who was on staff.

Roi also apologized for not telling the Contrerases about her decision in person.

"I felt that it was an exciting time for the two of you and I felt that if I came in and shared my decision, it would take away much of the excitement. That was my mistake," the letter stated. "I should have spoken with you that day."

The letter concluded:

"Please know that I believe that God gives us free choice and I would never judge anyone based on what they do with that free choice. Again, I am very sorry for the hurt and angry feelings that were created by this. I hope that you can accept my apology."

Decision not illegal

Krista and Jami Contreras are not suing Roi. They concede that Roi did nothing illegal — which is precisely what they have a problem with: There are few laws on the books that protect the LGBT community from discrimination.

"There's no law that prohibits it," Wayne State University Constitutional Law Professor Robert Sedler said of Roi's actions. "It's the same as a florist refusing to sell flowers for a same-sex wedding."

Currently, 22 states have laws that prohibit doctors from discriminating against someone based on their sexual orientation. Michigan is not one of these states.

Michigan does have its own anti-discrimination law known as the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. But it doesn't cover LGBT individuals. Neither do federal employment laws included in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibit hiring or employment discrimination on the basis of a person's"race, color, religion, sex, or national origin," not sexual orientation.

For Jami and Krista Contreras, the medical policies are comforting, but they're not enough. It's time, they said, for the laws to change so that no LGBT person experiences what they did that fall day in the pediatrician's office. Roi, they said, gave no signs that she was opposed to their lifestyle when they met her. She told them to schedule an appointment when the baby was born, they said. And they did just that.

Then came the blow.

"You're discriminating against a baby?" Jami Contreras said. "It's just wrong."

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/macomb/2015/02/18/discrimination-birth/23640315/

Kobi

03-19-2015, 05:06 PM

Lesbian Herstory Archives Daughters of Bilitis Video Project (http://herstories.prattsils.org/omeka/collections/show/36)

Kobi

05-09-2015, 10:19 AM

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/8f/75/65/8f7565c158d713eea67122016df8b319.jpg

On April 17th Grace Mann, an outspoken lesbian feminist at Mary Williams University in Virginia, was killed in her own home. The man accused of her murder is a fellow student and one of her housemates.

The student allegedly killed by her roommate had an altercation with him before her death and received numerous calls and text messages from him, according to a search warrant. He is charged with the murder and abduction. The Medical Examiner's office ruled her death asphyxia due to strangulation.

Grace Rebecca Mann, 20, of McLean, was also threatened with rape by an anonymous poster on the social networking app Yik Yak and she feared for her safety in the month before her slaying, according to a friend who saw the message.

The revelations came Thursday as Mann’s feminist group at Mary Washington announced it was filing a federal complaint accusing the school of doing little to combat a flood of violent and sexual threats against members on Yik Yak this year. School officials denied the charges.

Members said they felt afraid on campus, resorted to carrying rape whistles, walked in groups and one sought counseling. The messages came after Feminists United members came out in opposition to bringing Greek life to campus and commented on a lewd chant at a party by members of the rugby team.

One poster wrote “Gonna tie these feminists to the radiator” and rape them. Another promised to kill “a [expletive] . . . or two” and a third called for euthanizing members, according to the complaint. There were more than 700 messages.

Members said the messages were especially chilling because Yik Yak functions as a virtual community bulletin board, aggregating comments from its anonymous users within a 1.5-mile radius.

“I was terrified,” said Julia Michels, president of Feminists United. “I didn’t know if the person sitting next to me in class was going to rape me.”

Michels said group members met multiple times with top university officials to express their concerns about the messages, including once a little over a week before Mann was slain on April 17. Steven Vander Briel, 30, is accused of killing Mann in the off-campus home they shared with two other students.

Authorities have not revealed a motive, and Feminists United members said they had no evidence connecting Mann’s killing to the Yik Yak threats or her activism on campus. The family said the two did not have a personal relationship and Vander Briel was simply renting a room in the house.

In a statement, university officials said they had been engaging with Feminists United and other students throughout the year to address issues of safety and campus culture. They said they take allegations of gender-based violence very seriously and would cooperate with any investigation that follows the complaint.

“Creating a safe learning and living environment is our first and foremost concern,” said Richard V. Hurley, president of the school.

another statistic in the war on women (http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/before-death-of-student-an-altercation-with-her-roommate/2015/05/07/276ea926-f4f1-11e4-b2f3-af5479e6bbdd_story.html)

Kobi

06-07-2015, 09:41 AM

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/8b/a2/20/8ba220a0a1bd28882a662b181d0093e4.jpg

MILL VALLEY, Calif. (AP) - Singer Ronnie Gilbert, a member of the influential 1950s folk quartet the Weavers, has died. She was 88.

Gilbert died of natural causes Saturday at a retirement community in the San Francisco Bay Area suburb of Mill Valley, said her longtime partner, Donna Korones.

With the Weavers, whose other members were Pete Seeger, Lee Hays and Fred Hellerman, Gilbert helped spark a national folk revival by churning out hit recordings of "Goodnight Irene," ''Tzena Tzena Tzena," ''On Top of Old Smokey," ''If I Had A Hammer," ''Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" and "Wimoweh."

The group was hugely popular before its left-wing activities were targeted by anti-Communists during the McCarthy era. They were blacklisted, unable to record, appear on television or radio and perform in many concert venues, and eventually disbanded.

Gilbert went on to pursue a solo career as a singer, as a stage actor and psychologist.

Gilbert's memoir, "Ronnie Gilbert: A Radical Life in Song," which is the same title of a one-woman show she performed for years, will be published in the fall.

She is survived by her daughter, Lisa, and Korones, her partner of 30 years.

Kobi

06-08-2015, 09:00 AM

"Fun Home,” Broadway's first musical with a lesbian protagonist, made history at Sunday's 69th Annual Tony Awards, winning 5 awards including the night’s top prize, best musical, and an award for leading actor Michael Cerveris.

Its composer, Jeanine Tesori, and book writer/lyricist Lisa Kron also made history as the first female writing team to win a Tony for score and book.

Fun Home is a musical adapted by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori from Alison Bechdel's 2006 graphic memoir of the same name.

Fun Home opens in the present day, narrated by the middle-aged writer Alison Bechdel as she recalls the events of her life and tries to write her memoir. The show covers three time periods, which overlap on stage in a non-linear fashion.

The first is Alison Bechdel's childhood ("Small Alison"), when she struggles against her father Bruce's obsessive demands in the ornate Victorian home he has restored, and begins to identify her inchoate sexuality.

The second is her first year in college ("Medium Alison"), when she "leapt out of the closet", identifying herself as a lesbian and beginning her first relationship; shortly after coming out to her parents, she learns that her father has had relationships with men, and four months later he commits suicide.

The third ("Alison"), when Alison is a successful cartoonist and the same age that Bruce was when he died, shows her attempt to understand her relationship with her father, and the meaning of his life and death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fun_Home_%28musical%29

Kobi

06-12-2015, 11:56 PM

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The freedom to marry feels inevitable in 2015. Nearly 72 percent of Americans live in a state that views same-sex relationships as equal to opposite-sex ones. But how did we get here? For many, including small town Vermont lawyers Beth Robinson and Susan Murray, with Boston-based attorney Mary L. Bonauto, the journey began in the 1980s.

"The State of Marriage," a new documentary, recounts the challenges in gripping detail as the story of Vermont's historic establishment of same-sex marriage unfolds. Not without setbacks, the freedom to marry has since radiated throughout the world. In the film, the pioneering efforts of the men and women who sought to eradicate cultural and legal barriers for same-sex couples come into focus.

"Without the strategic exclamation point on it, I think Vermont was essential to keeping this movement alive," said Bonauto. "The film captures that exciting story."

The film's timely premiere on June 18 at the Provincetown International Film Festival arrives as the United States Supreme Court prepares to rule on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage. "The film is a bookend," said Murray. "[The Supreme Court's ruling] will hopefully, finally put this issue to rest."

In the early '90s, the LGBT community was "under siege," says Freedom to Marry founder Evan Wolfson. Without any legal recognition for same-sex couples in the U.S., people were losing their kids in custody cases, getting fired from their jobs for being gay and discriminated against even after years of military service. The movement for LGBT equality was waiting for an opening and someone to take charge.

As a young law clerk in 1989, Robinson admired Murray's work for lesbian and gay families. Murray described Robinson as a "small, incredible bundle of energy" with an "exquisite legal mind" fueled by Pixy Stix. It was the beginning decadeslong personal and professional relationship. Years before the legal battles began, they engaged in a grassroots movement, traveling to state fairs in Vermont to tell stories of real same-sex couples.

In 1994, Bonauto, the Civil Rights Project director at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), pulled together a group of New England attorneys to discuss marriage equality. Skeptics thought it was "folly" or even "reckless," she recalls, but "Beth and Susan clearly said there's a path forward in Vermont." After a series of hard-won victories, including the override of a gubernatorial veto, Vermont became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage through the legislature.

Working tirelessly, Robinson and Murray fought for the rights they knew their fellow Vermonters deserved. "[Murray and Robinson] are not self promoters. They did it because it was the right thing to do," said "The State of Marriage" co-producer Marcia Ross. "They deserve national recognition for the contribution."

"Both Beth and I were in private practice and not getting paid for this, and it took away from time that we would have spent building up our careers," explained Murray. "We could not have done it but for the support of our law partners who were also willing to sacrifice in so many ways."

Though opponents in the film speak virulently about the "consequences" of legalizing same-sex marriage, those in favor cite the changing tide of public opinion as evidence that equality encourages acceptance.

"The law plays a leading role in helping people understand what's acceptable and what's not," Murray told The Huffington Post. "If the law throughout the land is that gay people are allowed to marry, that in turn is going to help a broader acceptance of gay lives. I've seen that in person in Vermont. It's changed the societal message."

"In the Civil Rights Movement, I saw with my own eyes that it cannot have equality for some and not equality for all. Everyone must be included. Everyone must have a palce at the table," says Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who emerged as a civil rights leader in the 1960s. "What Susan and Beth did was in keeping with what Rosa Parks and others did."

Bonauto has since stepped onto the national stage to argue a pivotal same-sex marriage case that could bring marriage equality to all 50 states. In her opening arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in April, representing more than a dozen gay and lesbian couples in Obergefell v. Hodges, she asked the justices to wipe out the "stain of unworthiness" that marriage bans produce.

"I hope that if we are fortunate enough to have a win in the Supreme Court -- and I am not one of those people who sits around counting on anything, but should we win? In my view, yes -- I'd like to think we'll have the fourth decision in a row that says stop treating gay people differently because they are," Bonauto told The Huffington Post. "And I'd like to think that that would have an effect on things like non-discrimination laws. We have so much work to do from my perspective, like ensuring basic non-discrimination so that young LGBT people can grow up in a world where they are safe and respected. We face an epidemic of homelessness. There are so many systemic issues that haven't received the attention they deserve."

A sense of inevitability worries director Jeff Kaufman as well. "One of the things that we encountered while making the film is that there's a lot of complacency these days," he said. "People don't realize that political gains often slip back."

"I don't think you can totally understand what they had to go through until you understand what they were up against," added Ross. "If we don't have a sense of our past, it gets lost and distorted. So much of the movement started with such humble resources, and it not only took over the country, but the world. When they started this process, people thought they were nuts. It's important to have a sense of that vision to spark further change and inspiration for the future."

Knowing the outcome in Vermont doesn't diminish the power of "The State of Marriage." Instead, with the procedural tedium of momentous legal cases made digestible, the film presents itself as a legal thriller. Audiences will cheer. They'll be reminded of how far we've come, and how far is left to go.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/12/state-of-marriage-vermont-documentary_n_7545936.html?utm_hp_ref=business&ir=Business

Kobi

06-28-2015, 11:56 AM

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Tt was the early 1980s, and Mary Bonauto was a college student in upstate New York, struggling to come out as gay. She turned to a priest for help but left convinced her church would not accept her. Unsure where to turn, she felt her life might “be over.”

“The law was one way of making sure my life wouldn’t be over,” she recently recalled. “I could either just suffer from the system or change the system. I decided to opt on the change-the-system side.”

Over the last 25 years, the diminutive, soft-spoken lawyer with a self-described “underdog mentality” has changed the system, more quickly and dramatically than she could have imagined.

As the lawyer for seven gay and lesbian couples in 2003, she persuaded Massachusetts’ highest court to make the state the first in the nation to allow same-sex couples to wed. Now, 37 states recognize gay marriage, and polls show nearly two out of three Americans support the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry.

Bonauto led the final fight in the battle she began in Massachusetts a dozen years ago, when she delivered oral arguments before the US Supreme Court in a highly charged case that would make gay marriage legal in all 50 states. She tackled the core issue before the court: whether state bans on same-sex marriage violate the US Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.

It was her first time arguing before the nation’s highest court.

In addition to winning the landmark Massachusetts case, she was part of the legal team that made Vermont the first state to legalize civil unions in 1999 and helped win the first federal court rulings against the Defense of Marriage Act, in 2010 and 2012, before the Supreme Court struck down the law in 2013.

“Mary Bonauto’s contributions to the gay rights movement are analogous to those of Thurgood Marshall to the civil rights movement and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the women’s rights movement,” Michael Klarman, a Harvard Law School professor, said in an e-mail.

Evan Wolfson, the president of Freedom to Marry, said Bonauto was chosen from among more than a dozen lawyers to argue the case because of her knowledge and history and because she represents the very issue the court is considering. The mother of 13-year-old twins, Bonauto married Jennifer Wriggins, a University of Maine law professor, in Massachusetts, after she won the case that secured the right for gays and lesbians. “She can not only answer the questions but embody the answer,” said Wolfson, who has known Bonauto since the 1980s. “She represents the movement because she’s lived it.”

Bonauto, 53, who lives in Portland, Maine, grew up in Newburgh, N.Y., and graduated from Hamilton College and Northeastern University Law School. In 1990, she joined Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders in Boston. She represented clients who had been harassed or fired and helped the city of Cambridge draft its domestic partnership ordinance — the first in Massachusetts — in 1992.

In 2003, she gained national attention, when the Supreme Judicial Court agreed with her and ruled that same-sex couples have a right to marry under the Massachusetts Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law. At the time, nearly two out of three Americans opposed gay marriage, and only a handful of countries worldwide recognized such unions.

“People forget that the argument before the SJC was, in many ways, entirely novel,” said Margaret H. Marshall, the former chief justice of the court, who wrote the gay-marriage decision. “The justices hadn’t confronted anything like this before. It would have been very, very difficult to prepare for it, and she was outstanding.”

Despite Bonauto’s legal victories, friends describe her as the antithesis of the showboating trial attorney. She rarely flashes emotion and is more apt to cite case law, or her clients’ struggles, than her own experiences as a gay woman.

“She is a pretty private person,” said Gary Buseck, legal director at GLAD. “She is not particularly comfortable with herself in the spotlight.”

In a briefing with reporters last week, Bonauto credited others with ushering marriage rights for gays and lesbians to the cusp of national recognition. “There are so many people who have been part of bringing this day forward, people who we will never know their names but have worked in their state legislatures, on ballot measures, in court cases, plaintiffs, and so on,” she said. “I’m just so grateful that we’re at a point now where we’re going to get a full and, I expect, fair hearing.”

Bonauto will argue the case with two attorneys with more Supreme Court experience: Doug Hallward-Driemeier, a Washington lawyer who has argued 15 cases before the court, and the US solicitor general, Donald Verrilli Jr.

Still, the pressures will be greater than any she has faced professionally.

Even veteran Supreme Court lawyers said they struggle to control their nerves when they step to the lectern in the center of the courtroom and see the nine justices staring down at them from their mahogany bench. Perhaps her toughest challenge will be to convince the justices that they should wade into the gay-marriage debate when public opinion on the issue is shifting so swiftly.

While Justices Anthony Kennedy, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer, and Ginsburg may privately support same-sex marriage, “it is conceivable — just barely, I think — that not all five of them believe judicial intervention is needed to accomplish it, because the country is so clearly getting there on its own,” Klarman said.

Social conservatives said they respect Bonauto, even as they vigorously oppose her cause. “I’ve always held Mary in very high esteem,” said Kris Mineau, former president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, which opposes same-sex marriage. “She’s very capable and very talented.”

Bonauto said she believes the fight she is waging in the Supreme Court does have its roots in Massachusetts and the victory she won at the state’s high court more than a decade ago.

“There is one thing for certain that is exactly the same, which is that we’re dealing with real people, who truly have committed to one another . . . and yet they’re foreclosed from making that commitment simply because of who they are,” she said last week. “It’s a profound problem for people, and it’s why we’re at the court now.”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/04/27/mary-bonauto-argues-pivotal-same-sex-marriage-case-before-supreme-court/gykuFXcQ2ei0nk2MF41a3K/story.html

Kobi

07-08-2015, 12:37 PM

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Team USA, led by out coach Jill Ellis, beat Japan 5 to 2 victory in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Cyd Zeigler of OutSports reports Japan has no players who are out, German had only one -- Nadine Angerer -- but England has 2 out players on its team, Lianne Sanderson and Casey Stoney.

That's one fewer than the U.S. team’s out roster of Abby Wambach, Ali Krieger and Megan Rapinoe. These five, along with Ellis, are among the 17 women in the world who competed for this year's World Cup who, according to OutSports, are out as lesbian, bisexual or, “otherwise.”

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On Sunday, July 5, star forward Abby Wambach, the two-time Olympic gold medalist, who had never won a World Cup before, immediately ran to her wife of almost two years, Sarah Huffman, who bent over the railing from the stands to kiss Wambach on the field.

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Is it just me or does Wambach bear an uncanny resemblance to our own Jackhammer?

Kobi

10-04-2015, 10:56 AM

Transgressive lesbian photographer addressed the Lesbian Gaze. (http://www.curvemag.com/News/Honey-Lee-Cottrell-Dies-659/)

Kobi

10-04-2015, 11:05 AM

A Letter About Dying, to My LGBT Communities

by Jeanne Cordova, September 23, 2015

This letter is meant as a notification and thank you to the thousands of members of the national lesbian community whose activism, lives, and Ioves have touched my own. Especially those dykes who have become family and siblings of choice over the last 40 years. Yes, the rumors are true, I have metastasized to-the-brain cancer. I am dying from it in my cerebellum.

I have had cancer since 2008. Colon cancer. For the first four years I brushed it off, as I’ve done many times with physical illness or difficulties. I continued my activism with the Lesbian Exploratory project and I finished my third book, When We Were Outlaws. The cancer came back in 2013. Metastasized first to my lungs and then to my cerebellum. Yes, my head. With brain and back-of-the-neck cancer it has been a downhill experience the last three years, with multiple operations, radiation and Chemo. This February I had Chemotherapy. Among a host of side-effects, it’s given me “chemo brain,” which amounts, basically, to “getting stupid.” Just saying. This month’s so-called side effect is peripheral neuropathy. That’s from Chemo, they say, and it makes your feet, fingers and hands feel tingling and numb like when you fall asleep on your leg or hands. Only, it doesn’t go away. I can’t stand up without holding onto a wall or background support. I can’t feel where my feet are. Yeek! I freak myself out talkin’ about it! How about you?

A guru once told me, “We die in increments, one piece at a time.” She meant one part of our body suddenly ceases to work, an elbow or a tongue. Seemingly for no reason, like a worn out knee. This came as a surprise. I thought we get old or die…suddenly, and all at once. Not so!

Many of us have gotten cancer and died. I write publicly to the women who have defined my life because I want to share this last journey, as I have shared so much of my activist life with you. You gave me a life’s cause. It is wonderful to have had a life’s cause: freedom and dignity for lesbians. I believe that’s what lesbian feminism is really about, sharing. We built a movement by telling each other our lives and thoughts about the way life should be. We cut against the grain and re-thought almost everything. With just enough left undone for our daughters to re-invent themselves. Death should be a part of life. Not hidden, not a secret, something we never said out loud.

Being an organizer and journalist in the lesbian, gay, feminist, and women of color communities—and loving it–has been the focal point, of my life. It has been a wild joyous ride. I feel more than adequately thanked by the many awards I have received from all the queer communities, and through all the descriptions and quotes in history books that have documented my role as an organizer, publisher, speaker, and author. Thanks to all of you who have given me a place in our history.

From the age of 18 to 21, I painfully looked everywhere for Lesbian Nation. On October 3, 1970, a day I celebrate as my political birthday, I found Her in a small DOB (Daughters of Bilitis) meeting. That’s when my life’s work became clear. Shortly thereafter I became a core organizer for two national lesbian conferences, one of which re-directed my path to create The Lesbian Tide newsmagazine, a national paper of record, as the historians say, for the lesbian feminist generation. And on it went for multiple decades of marches and later online organizing–this time intersectionally, to include all of me and my Latina identity.

Somewhere in the middle of all that I, somewhat accidentally, invented the Gay & Lesbian Community Yellow Pages, a first for our by-then national tribe. This Los Angeles 400-page guide that helped us still-half-hidden people to connect, politically I thought initially, with businesses and professionals that spoke to us within our own identities. That it did, but this directory and lucky timing in life-long real estate, also enabled me to fulfill an early personal vow to give back half of my estate to our movement. I do this with Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice (out of New York City) and other organizations. I believe it so critical to our transforming movements to leave our estates to our LBGTQ charities, not some errant heterosexual relation we hardly know! More on this political news and views to follow. (*1)

I believe that cancer or any terminal disease is the luck of the draw. As my mother used to say of my Aunt who was also a nun of 90 years, “At that age, you got to die of something.” I have read the obituaries in Lesbian Connection (*2) these last years as they chronicle the passage of my 2nd wave generation. The one message that rings out clearly is that so many, many in these pages were activists who articulated social justice in their local or regional spaces. Many dykes making change. So many of you or loved ones have gone through death rituals these last years. It makes me feel like one-of-the gang … again!

I really don’t know when or if I can write again. Mental competency and all that. The choice appears to be living with chemo forever off and on, or dying. I will make that choice soon enough. In the meantime, please write or speak your own truth in living with dying (*3) to your lesbian newspaper or my blog below(*4).

I want to say THANK YOU to all of you who have loved another woman-identified-woman, who have loved me, or have loved Lesbian Nation. I wish I could still write about this kind of love more eloquently. Lesbians do have a special love for one another. I have felt it many times when women are with each other. I am happy and content to have participated in it for most of my very full and happy life. Least you be too sad, know that I have this kind of love not only with my family of choice, but with a straight arrow spouse with whom I have journeyed these last 26 years.

https://www.frontiersmedia.com/frontiers-blog/2015/09/25/jeanne-cordova-lesbian-pioneer-says-goodbye-photos/3/

*Anya*

10-04-2015, 11:52 AM

Thank you Kobi for posting this:

"A Letter About Dying, to My LGBT Communities

by Jeanne Cordova, September 23, 2015"

As someone that came out in the late 70's and also has read all of her books; I feel as though I know her.

This makes me profoundly sad.

The "old timers" are dying out and the younger lesbians will never know the early days of marches, protests and sisterhood in the same way.

I recently found an old picture of my first women's festival in the early 80's. There were so many bare-breasted women surounding a drumming circle- I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

Jeanne was one of many women that preceded me and made it easier for me to come out as a lesbian. I have never regretted doing so.

If you have not read her third book, "When we were Outlaws", you will love it.

Bye to Jeanne,

from another resident of Lesbian Nation.

Kobi

03-07-2016, 10:59 AM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday overturned an Alabama judicial ruling that had refused to recognize a gay woman's parental rights over three children she adopted with her lesbian partner and raised from birth.

The court took the relatively unusual step of reversing the Alabama Supreme Court without hearing oral arguments in the case. Cases are decided in that fashion when a lower court ruling is considered to be particularly counter to Supreme Court precedents. None of the eight justices dissented.

The adoptive mother, identified in court papers as V.L, said she was overjoyed with the ruling.

"When the Alabama court said my adoption was invalid and I wasn't their mother, I didn't think I could go on. The Supreme Court has done what's right for my family," she said in a statement.

The court said in an unsigned opinion that the Alabama court was required to recognize the woman's parental rights because they had been legally endorsed by a court in Georgia.

The ruling said the Alabama court's interpretation of the law was "not consistent" with prior Supreme Court decisions. Under the U.S. Constitution, state courts are required to recognize judgments issued by courts in other states.

The Alabama Supreme Court, led by outspoken conservative Chief Justice Roy Moore, has a history of hostility to gay rights. For example, it dragged its feet in implementing the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling last June legalizing gay marriage nationwide.

The Supreme Court had already intervened in the case once before. In December, the court ordered that the Alabama ruling be put on hold while the woman filed a formal appeal of Alabama Supreme Court's September ruling.

Lawyers for the woman say the Alabama ruling had "effectively stripped V.L. of parental rights over the children she had raised since they were born."

V.L. was formerly in a relationship with a woman identified as E.L., who is the birth mother of the three children, a 13-year-old and 11-year-old twins.

In 2007, a court in Georgia granted V.L.'s petition to adopt the children in a move that E.L. agreed to at the time. The couple split in 2011 and disagreed over custody arrangements.

V.L. filed papers in Alabama seeking joint custody. Lower courts ruled in her favor before the state's high court ruled in favor of her former partner.

The state appeals court said it did not have to endorse the Georgia court's adoption order. But the Alabama Supreme Court said that the Georgia court did not have jurisdiction to issue the adoption order.

The two women were not married.

story (https://news.yahoo.com/u-supreme-court-sides-lesbian-over-parental-rights-145716904.html)

*Anya*

08-13-2016, 04:37 PM

Lesbians Suing New Jersey Over Law Requiring Heterosexual Sex Before Insurance Covers Medical Procedure

August 12, 2016 By Allen Clifton

A great way to see how utterly ignorant parts of our nation have been (and continue to be) is to look at some older state and local laws – many of which are still, technically, in practice today. Such as a law in New Jersey concerning insurance companies and the legal requirements for covering fertility treatments for couples.

As reported by NJ.com: State law requires large insurance providers to cover costly fertility treatments for patients medically unable to have children. The couples take issue with how the law defines infertility, which includes the inability to become pregnant after one or two years of unprotected sex, depending on a woman’s age.

Basically the law requires any female who wants her health insurance to cover fertility treatments to have sex with a male for one to two years before they will approve paying for the procedure. Which poses a slight problem when you’re a lesbian.

Because for a lesbian to abide by this law means that they would be required to have sex with a gender to which they aren’t sexually attracted. Well, at least if they wanted their health insurance to cover fertility treatments — which is a completely and totally ridiculous requirement.

Well, two lesbian couples are challenging the New Jersey law as unconstitutional for essentially preventing same-sex couples from receiving fertility treatments based on sexual orientation. While the law doesn’t specifically ban health insurance companies from providing fertility treatments to lesbian women, being that lesbians aren’t attracted to men, it sets a “rule” that’s clearly discriminatory toward the LGBT community.

To its credit, Horton Blue Cross Blue Shield released a statement that seemed to be trying to one-up the idiocy of the 2001 New Jersey law: Horizon covers infertility services equally regardless of sexual orientation. We interpret the 2001 New Jersey law defining infertility in a gender and orientation neutral manner and our coverage standard complies with federal non-discrimination requirements.

Members unable to conceive due to medical or biological reasons are covered for the specific infertility benefits included in their policy. Horizon is committed to equality, values our LGBTQ members, and is sensitive to their unique healthcare challenges and needs. We regularly review our standards and procedures to ensure parity and fairness for all of our members. So, the health insurance company is claiming that it is “committed to equality” and “values” its LGBT members — yet doesn’t seem to think that requiring lesbians to have sex with men for one to two years prior to approving fertility treatments is pathetically wrong and a gross violation of their rights.

At what point in any other situation — anywhere — would requiring anyone to have sex with someone they’re not sexually attracted to and/or don’t want to have sex with be an acceptable requirement for approving a medical procedure? What I would like to see is Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield answer is this: If they’re not discriminating against same-sex couples, and they care about equality, then how, exactly, would a lesbian couple be approved for fertility treatments since they don’t have sex with males?

I get that their argument is that they’re simply “interpreting the law,” but by ignoring the reality that lesbians don’t have sex with men, you choose to ignore the fact that this law is highly discriminatory. Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield has the ability to do the right thing here, but they’re simply choosing not to, using this antiquated law as their excuse to discriminate.

This entire situation is simply asinine. In a normal world where reality mattered, New Jersey lawmakers would quickly move to repeal this outdated law which would pave the way for same-sex couples to be treated equally, or Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield would do the right thing by using common sense in these matters. Instead, we’re looking at a state where Governor Chris Christie certainly won’t allow this law to be repealed and the insurance company is hiding behind this law because they simply don’t want to pay for something they don’t have to — even if that means outright discriminating against homosexuals.

This is a great reminder that, even though it’s 2016, we still have a long way to go in the fight for true equality for the LGBT community.

Read more at: http://www.forwardprogressives.com/lesbian-couples-suing-to-overturn-nj-law-requiring-them-to-have-heterosexual-sex-video/

homoe

09-25-2016, 05:25 AM

~ocean

09-25-2016, 06:37 AM

Kristen Stewart, currently promoting her Woody Allen flick Cafe Society and the sci-fi movie Equals opposite Nicholas Hoult, finally spoke about her private life. She is very much in love with her girlfriend and former personal assistant, Alicia Cargile.

I wonder if they got married if she would be Kristen Cargile < too sweater'ish lol Alicia Stewart would be better on a mailbox. lol

homoe

09-25-2016, 07:12 AM

I wonder if they got married if she would be Kristen Cargile < too sweater'ish lol Alicia Stewart would be better on a mailbox. lol

Then I would think of Kitty every time I heard that name..lol

*Anya*

03-10-2017, 09:05 PM

Federal court rules against Georgia lesbian fired for being gay

By Patrick Saunders

March 10, 2017 6:53 pm Atlanta, Georgia, Today in Gay Atlanta

The U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday afternoon affirmed a lower district court’s ruling dismissing the lawsuit of Jameka Evans, a Savannah security guard who was forced to leave her job because she is a lesbian. Attorneys from Lambda Legal, who are representing Evans in the case, say they will now seek a rehearing by the full panel of 11 judges of the Eleventh Circuit.

The case, Evans v. Georgia Regional Hospital, is the latest Title VII case, in which LGBT and progressive legal groups argue that discrimination based on their client’s sexual orientation should be ruled a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which includes a provision that prohibits discrimination based on the sex of an individual. The Eleventh Circuit agreed with Lambda Legal’s argument in 2011 that the Georgia General Assembly violated Title VII when Vandy Beth Glenn was fired for being transgender.

Evans filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District Court of Georgia in April 2015, arguing that Georgia Regional Hospital violated Title VII by discriminating against her because of her sexual orientation and her nonconformity with gender norms of appearance and demeanor. The district court dismissed Evans’ complaint, arguing that Title VII doesn’t protect employees from such discrimination. Lambda Legal filed an appeal with the Eleventh Circuit last January and then argued their case at a hearing before a three-judge panel last December.

Judge William Pryor, concurring with Friday’s majority opinion and disagreeing with the 2011 opinion he joined in the Glenn case, said, “Because a claim of gender nonconformity is a behavior-based claim, not a status-based claim, a plaintiff still ‘must show that the employer actually relied on her gender in making its decision.’”

Judge Robin S. Rosenbaum argued in the dissent, agreeing with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and several district courts that discrimination against a lesbian by an employer because she fails to meet their view of what a woman should look or act like is sex discrimination, and therefore a Title VII violation.

“I also note that logic is on my side,” Judge Rosenbaum said. “Of course, the concurrence is free to ignore my analysis rather than respond to it, but that doesn’t make it go away.”

Lambda Legal said this case is not over yet.

“This is not the end of the road for us and certainly not for Jameka,” said Greg Nevins, employment fairness project director for Lambda Legal in a statement. “Keeping your job shouldn’t depend on whether or not you pass for straight.

There is no way to draw a line between sexual orientation discrimination and discrimination based on gender nonconformity because not being straight is gender-nonconforming, period. 90 percent of Americans believe that LGBT people should be treated equally in the workplace. The public is on the right side of history, and it’s time for the Eleventh Circuit to join us.”

https://thegavoice.com/federal-court-rules-georgia-lesbian-fired-gay/

*Anya*

04-10-2017, 05:18 PM

Lea Delaria announced the breakup of her engagement to girlfriend Chelsea Fairless by posting on Instagram.

Lea wrote that "...our split is amicable. Please exclude us from the tragic and basic celebrity breakup narrative. We were happy together for four years and will remain in each other's lives. In fact, we look forward to finding new ways to torture each other".

BTW, OITNB is back for a new season on Netflix on June 17th.

Thanks to Lesbian Connection, May/June, 2017 edition.

homoe

04-10-2017, 05:51 PM

*Anya*

04-29-2017, 03:05 AM

https://i.redd.it/muw6oakm2auy.jpg

http://www.advocate.com/sites/advocate.com/files/2016/08/24/rush-limbaugh-x750_0.jpg

Rush Limbaugh on the Attack of the Lesbian Farmers

The far-right radio host thinks the Agriculture Department's outreach to rural LGBT people is a conspiracy to destroy conservative communities.

BY TRUDY RING

http://www.advocate.com/media/2016/8/24/rush-limbaugh-attack-lesbian-farmers

Kobi

04-29-2017, 07:47 PM

https://media4.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2017_17/1978226/gay_bishop_2_0e9214f75725f301aef4b4fc777dc664.nbcn ews-ux-600-480.jpg

The first openly lesbian bishop in the United Methodist Church can stay on the job for now, but she is subject to a disciplinary review that could lead to her removal, the top church court ruled Friday.

Bishop Karen Oliveto's civil marriage to another woman violates church law that bars clergy who are "self-avowed practicing homosexuals," the Judicial Council said. However, a decision over whether she can remain in the position must come from a separate disciplinary process, the court ruled.

Oliveto was elected last year to lead a Denver-area church region that is part of the Methodist Western Jurisdiction, which has rejected the denomination's position that "the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching." Within minutes of her election, a challenge was filed by the Oklahoma-based South Central Jurisdiction, leading to Friday's ruling.

The case is the latest chapter in an intensifying fight over LGBTQ recognition that is fracturing the 12.8 million-member denomination — the third-largest faith group in the U.S. Earlier this week, bishops announced a special 2019 meeting of its top legislative body, or General Conference, expressly to address church law on sexuality and find ways the denomination can avoid schism.

LGBTQ advocates in the church have stepped up pressure to lift prohibitions on gay clergy. Bishops have conducted same-sex weddings in defiance of church policy and dozens of LGBTQ clergy have come out, risking being defrocked. Evangelical Methodists, who have gained strength in the denomination in part through growth of Methodist churches overseas, have responded by pushing to enforce church policies. The court said Friday that bishops who consecrate an openly gay bishop were considered in violation of Methodist law and also subject to church discipline.

The Methodist policy making body has upheld the church's stand on same-sex relationships since 1972, even as other mainline Protestant groups, including the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), have approved same-sex marriage.

The ruling Friday was made on a 6-3 vote. Oliveto said she felt "grateful" for the chance to remain as bishop as she and other church leaders study what the decision means for her future. Bruce Ough, president of the Methodist Council of Bishops, said the decision would not ease "the disagreements, impatience and anxiety" in the church, but he appealed to church members to stay unified.

http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/methodist-court-ruling-blow-first-openly-lesbian-bishop-n752831?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma

*Anya*

05-12-2017, 03:49 PM

Leon high-schoolers crowned a gay couple prom king and queen last month, a first in the school’s 185-year-old history.

To the two girls — Lindsey Creel and Brie Grimes, seniors who have been dating for three years — winning prom king and queen was not about the titles, but about helping others and raising awareness about LGBTQ issues.

“It feels good to know some of the things we’ve been a part of can help others going through tough experiences, in a positive way,” Brie said. “I needed someone in my life to show me that it would work out — when I was first going through this years ago. But I didn’t have that.”

“I hope that people will look at this and more will begin to think that it’s okay to be supportive of the LBTQ community,” Lindsey added. “Leon often talks about change… This is a good example for younger students there.”

http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2016/05/02/leon-high-crowns-gay-couple-prom-king-and-queen/83799032/

https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/f9113191ce70d1eb634e30c4e7d51e3bb1c6795a/c=0-57-479-417&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/2016/05/01/Tallahassee/Tallahassee/635977201560930062-Couple2.JPG

*Anya*

05-19-2017, 07:42 PM

LGBT
The Story Behind This "Long Live The Lesbians" Brick That's All Over The Internet

"You never really know the impact that your life has on the world until you hear about things like this."

Posted on May 19, 2017, at 10:16 a.m.

Sarah Karlan

BuzzFeed News Reporter
At Russell Sage College, a women's college in Troy, New York, students often have the opportunity to purchase and engrave a brick which will become a physical part of the campus for years to come.

According to the school's website, bricks can showcase "names, memorable dates, class years, small graphics and more."

Thanks to the internet, one brick in particular has taken on a life of its own. Its message is simple and direct: "Long live the lesbians!"

"I go to a women’s college," the caption of the photo reads. The image was taken and posted to Tumblr by a former student.

"We have a walkway where bricks can be purchased by alumnae. Most just say names or class years/mascots. But this one. This one is special. It speaks to me."

Clearly, the brick spoke to a lot of people. The original photo has now been shared over 300,000 times and has been re-shared in various forms since the first photo of it was posted three years ago.

https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2017-03/20/13/asset/buzzfeed-prod-fastlane-01/sub-buzz-17931-1490030861-4.png

Thanks to the internet (and alumni Facebook pages) the original bricklayer herself, a Russell Sage '00 alum named Rebecca Borello, came forward.

*Anya*

06-15-2017, 06:25 AM

http://i.imgur.com/mqBH5Ej.png

A. Spectre

06-15-2017, 06:45 AM

Meet Crystal Griner, one of the Capitol police officers who stopped the gunman yesterday.

5 facts about Crystal:

1. The 2 Capitol Officers Are Being Hailed as Heroes by President Trump & Others for Stopping the Gunman.

2. Griner Graduated From Hood College, Where She Was a ‘Ferocious Athlete.'

3. Griner Was a National Honor Society Member in High School & a Biology Major in College.

4. The President & First Lady Visited Griner & Griner’s Wife in the Hospital & Brought a Bouquet of Flowers.

5. Griner & Bailey Reacted Rapidly, Confronting the Shooter & Likely Saving Countless Lives.

Here she is in her basketball days. She was doing her job of protecting men who see her as second class, maybe even a third class.

https://heavyeditorial.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/griner-e1497491213814.jpg?quality=65&strip=all&w=780&strip=all

Kobi

08-22-2017, 04:26 PM

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/e0/e0/11/e0e01197a06e0328bd79126bf14781eb.jpg

Niners assistant coach Katie Sowers publicly came out Tuesday, making her the first openly LGBT coach not only in the NFL but all of men's professional sports.

The 31-year-old is also just the second woman to become a full-time coach in the league, after Kathryn Smith was on the Bills' staff last season.

“No matter what you do in life, one of the most important things is to be true to who you are,” Sowers, a lesbian, told Outsports. “There are so many people who identify as LGBT in the NFL, as in any business, that do not feel comfortable being public about their sexual orientation.

“The more we can create an environment that welcomes all types of people, no matter their race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, the more we can help ease the pain and burden that many carry every day.”

Sowers, who played in the Women's Football Alliance, started as a scouting intern for the Falcons in 2016 and built a rapport with then-offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. When Shanahan was hired to become San Francisco's head coach this season, he added Sowers as an intern over the summer and then brought her on full time.

"She did a really good job for us in Atlanta,” Shanahan told the San Jose Mercury News earlier this month. “She’s done a real good job here. She helps [wide receivers coach/passing game specialist] Mike LaFleur out just with some rotations. She helps our quality controls with all the stuff they have to do. She’s a hard worker. You don’t even notice her because she just goes to work and does what’s asked and because of that she’s someone we would like to keep around.”

Sowers also thanked Falcons assistant GM and mentor Scott Pioli on Facebook for giving her a chance last season, for his "passion for equal opportunity" and "opening doors and for breaking down walls in the NFL."

She said she will serve as an offensive assistant this season.

"The most fulfilling aspect is having the ability to impact the lives of these young men chasing their dream of playing in the NFL, as well as serve as a role model for young girls who might happen to see me following my passion," she wrote in an e-mail to Outsports. "I am a strong believer that the more we can expose children to a variety of different opportunities in life, the better chance they have of finding their true calling."

*Anya*

09-09-2017, 02:57 PM

Lesbian mother who lost custody of her three children because of sexuality wins them back after long legal battle

Meka Beresford 6th September 2017, 2:06 PM

A mother who lost her children after coming out as a lesbian has been granted full custody after a lengthy legal battle.

Chavie Weisberger was formerly part of a strict Hasidic community. After she came out and divorced her husband in 2009 she lost custody of her three children.

Weisberger from Brooklyn, New York, was at first given partial custody. However, she lost any custody of her children after her ex-partner, Naftali Weisberger sued her.

The judge ruled that her sexuality meant that she was not complying with a formerly agreed religious upbringing clause.

The two became embroiled in a lengthy legal battle as Naftali accused Chavie of “radically” changing her lifestyle.

The judge said the couple’s divorce agreement made it so he had to “consider the children’s religious upbringing as a paramount factor in any custody agreement”.

The ruling meant that Chavie was only allowed to have supervised visits with her children and she had to keep her sexuality hidden from the two youngest children.

Chavie appealed the ruling last month and the appeals court said the judges original ruling lacked “sound substantial basis”.

She has now been granted full custody but must still practice full religious observance.

Michael Stutma, a top divorce lawyer, said that the complex case “really shines a light on the tensions that exist between the secular world an insular religious community”.

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/09/06/lesbian-mother-custody-of-her-three-children-because-of-sexuality-wins-them-back-after-long-legal-battle/

*Anya*

01-18-2018, 10:36 PM

Lesbian veteran, 90, expelled from Air Force in '55, finally gets her 'honorable discharge'

“I’m still trying to process it,” military veteran Helen Grace James said upon receiving the long-awaited news.

by John Paul Brammer / Jan.18.2018 / 9:57 AM ET

https://media4.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2018_03/2295841/180117-helen-james-ew-323p_3431ad7c35ab4b7cd1ed591a6b3cba80.fit-324w.jpg

A FedEx delivery arrived at Helen Grace James' door on Wednesday. It was a message from the U.S. Air Force. She called two of her closest friends to come be with her before she opened it, and they arrived 20 minutes later.

Once she opened it, she received the good news: The military had upgraded her discharge status to "honorable." James had been waiting for this for more than six decades.

"I'm still trying to process it," she told NBC News. "It was both joy and shock. It was really true. It was really going to be an 'honorable discharge.'"

A FedEx delivery arrived at Helen Grace James' door on Wednesday. It was a message from the U.S. Air Force. She called two of her closest friends to come be with her before she opened it, and they arrived 20 minutes later.

Once she opened it, she received the good news: The military had upgraded her discharge status to "honorable." James had been waiting for this for more than six decades.

"I'm still trying to process it," she told NBC News. "It was both joy and shock. It was really true. It was really going to be an 'honorable discharge.'"

For James, now 90, it has been a long journey to this moment of vindication. "It's hard to take in," she said. "I'm wondering if I'm in a dream or a wish."

On a cold winter night in 1955, light from a flashlight flooded into James’ car just as she was reaching in the backseat for her sandwich. Investigators had followed her vehicle to the wooded area near Hempstead Harbor in New York, where she was eating with a friend.

James, then in the Air Force, had suspected she was being followed that night. She had been subjected to intense scrutiny for weeks by the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), which was investigating service members suspected of being gay. They had even followed her into a lesbian dance club once.

“It was a place called Bagatelles,” James told NBC News. “People were screened as they went in, but the OSI somehow were able to get in and harass me there. They followed me into the latrine. It was scary. It was intense.”

James, who hails from rural Pennsylvania, enlisted in the Air Force in 1952. Her record during her three years of service was impeccable. She’d received positive performance evaluations and had no disciplinary problems. She’d been promoted from radio operator to crew chief and achieved the rank of Airman Second Class.

But while stationed in Roslyn Air Force Base in New York, she came under investigation by the OSI. A few days after that night near Hempstead Harbor, she was arrested in her barracks and interrogated for hours.

She said the OSI threatened to out her to her family if she didn’t sign a document. So she did, without reading it, effectively ending her military career then and there. She was discharged as “undesirable” with no severance pay, insurance or other benefits.

She found herself having to make her own way in life. She hadn’t spoken to her family, who lived in Pennsylvania on the dairy farm where she'd grown up. “I couldn’t face them,” she said. She couldn’t access the benefits of the GI Bill to help her through school. She moved to California, where she resides today, and worked and borrowed money to pay for her education.

James was just one victim of what has come to be known as the “Lavender Scare,” a period of time contemporaneous with the “Red Scare” of the 1950s, when suspected communists were purged from the U.S. government.

Anti-gay sentiment commingled with the panic. During the fever pitch of McCarthyism, homosexuality was associated with communism: a scheme to undermine the American family and American values, an immoral act that left who those participated in it susceptible to blackmail.

In the 1960s, James was able to successfully upgrade her status from “undesirable” to “general discharge under honorable conditions.” She said she tried to move on with her life from there but was still met with obstacles due to her status.

“I tried to get USAA coverage for insurance, and they said 'No, you can’t be a member, because you don’t have an honorable discharge,'” she recalled. “I [couldn't] be buried in a national cemetery either."

James said her less-than-honorable discharge status was always on her mind. "It’s never out of your scope of thought," she said.

That's why on Jan 3, at the age of 90, James decided to sue the Air Force to have her discharge status upgraded to "honorable." Prior to finding out the Air Force had granted her upgrade, James said an "honorable discharge" would hold both tangible and symbolic value for her.

“It will make me feel like I’ve done all I can to prove I am a good person,” she told NBC News on Tuesday, “and that I deserve to be a whole civilian in this country I love.”

Elizabeth Kristen, a senior staff attorney at Legal Aid at Work and the director of its Gender Equity & LGBT Rights Program, represents James. She said getting a veteran's status upgraded can typically be "a pretty lengthy process."

“When 'don’t ask, don’t tell' was repealed, the right thing to do would have been to automatically upgrade the discharge," Kristen explained. But that didn't happen.

Kristen said thousands of LGBTQ people discharged due to their sexual orientation still struggle with the hurdles James has encountered. “There are hundreds of benefits provided to our veterans, but depending on your discharge status, you can be locked out of them,” she said.

These benefits include access to the GI Bill, veteran home loans, health care from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and a burial in a national cemetery.

Matt Thorn, president and CEO of OutServe-SLDN, an advocacy organization for the LGBTQ military community, said the process for having one's discharge status upgraded could certainly be improved, adding "the burden of providing information falls heavily on the veterans themselves."

Over the last three years, Thorn has worked with Lambda Legal to fight President Donald Trump's transgender military ban and with Congressman Mark Pocan, Democrat of Wisconsin, on the Restore Honor to Service Members Act, which would essentially wipe the slate clean for anyone who was discharged from the military due to their sexual orientation.

Thorn said the military is reluctant to embrace this legislation, because there could be people “for whom their sexual orientation was just one thing of a series of things that that qualified them for discharge.”

“They don’t want to wipe the slate clean, because there might be some people who were rightfully discharged,” he said. “That’s why they have the individualized process. But could it be improved upon? Absolutely.”

In a statement provided to NBC News, Air Force spokesperson Kathleen Atanasoff said each case requires the Air Force to convene a group of subject matter experts to conduct a complete historical review of the member's case file, which requires time.

"The volume of applications has increased substantially over the past five years, which can make the 10-18-month administrative timeline challenging," Atanasoff wrote in an email. "The Board of Military Corrections is dedicated to tackling this through increasing efficiencies in their process and finding ways to expedite the process as much as possible."

Following Wednesday's message from the Air Force, James is now awaiting her official discharge paperwork. Kristen said once the paperwork is completed, the likely scenario is that an agreement will be reached between James and the Air Force to dismiss her recently filed lawsuit.

Until then, James plans to savor the good news for which she waited more than six decades.

"The Air Force recognizes me as a full person in the military," she said, having done "my job helping to take care of the country I love."

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/90-year-old-lesbian-expelled-air-force-1955-finally-gets-n838516

DapperButch

01-18-2018, 10:44 PM

How fantastic! Thanks for posting!

Lesbian veteran, 90, expelled from Air Force in '55, finally gets her 'honorable discharge'

“I’m still trying to process it,” military veteran Helen Grace James said upon receiving the long-awaited news.

by John Paul Brammer / Jan.18.2018 / 9:57 AM ET

https://media4.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2018_03/2295841/180117-helen-james-ew-323p_3431ad7c35ab4b7cd1ed591a6b3cba80.fit-324w.jpg

A FedEx delivery arrived at Helen Grace James' door on Wednesday. It was a message from the U.S. Air Force. She called two of her closest friends to come be with her before she opened it, and they arrived 20 minutes later.

Once she opened it, she received the good news: The military had upgraded her discharge status to "honorable." James had been waiting for this for more than six decades.

"I'm still trying to process it," she told NBC News. "It was both joy and shock. It was really true. It was really going to be an 'honorable discharge.'"

A FedEx delivery arrived at Helen Grace James' door on Wednesday. It was a message from the U.S. Air Force. She called two of her closest friends to come be with her before she opened it, and they arrived 20 minutes later.

Once she opened it, she received the good news: The military had upgraded her discharge status to "honorable." James had been waiting for this for more than six decades.

"I'm still trying to process it," she told NBC News. "It was both joy and shock. It was really true. It was really going to be an 'honorable discharge.'"

For James, now 90, it has been a long journey to this moment of vindication. "It's hard to take in," she said. "I'm wondering if I'm in a dream or a wish."

On a cold winter night in 1955, light from a flashlight flooded into James’ car just as she was reaching in the backseat for her sandwich. Investigators had followed her vehicle to the wooded area near Hempstead Harbor in New York, where she was eating with a friend.

James, then in the Air Force, had suspected she was being followed that night. She had been subjected to intense scrutiny for weeks by the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), which was investigating service members suspected of being gay. They had even followed her into a lesbian dance club once.

“It was a place called Bagatelles,” James told NBC News. “People were screened as they went in, but the OSI somehow were able to get in and harass me there. They followed me into the latrine. It was scary. It was intense.”

James, who hails from rural Pennsylvania, enlisted in the Air Force in 1952. Her record during her three years of service was impeccable. She’d received positive performance evaluations and had no disciplinary problems. She’d been promoted from radio operator to crew chief and achieved the rank of Airman Second Class.

But while stationed in Roslyn Air Force Base in New York, she came under investigation by the OSI. A few days after that night near Hempstead Harbor, she was arrested in her barracks and interrogated for hours.

She said the OSI threatened to out her to her family if she didn’t sign a document. So she did, without reading it, effectively ending her military career then and there. She was discharged as “undesirable” with no severance pay, insurance or other benefits.

She found herself having to make her own way in life. She hadn’t spoken to her family, who lived in Pennsylvania on the dairy farm where she'd grown up. “I couldn’t face them,” she said. She couldn’t access the benefits of the GI Bill to help her through school. She moved to California, where she resides today, and worked and borrowed money to pay for her education.

James was just one victim of what has come to be known as the “Lavender Scare,” a period of time contemporaneous with the “Red Scare” of the 1950s, when suspected communists were purged from the U.S. government.

Anti-gay sentiment commingled with the panic. During the fever pitch of McCarthyism, homosexuality was associated with communism: a scheme to undermine the American family and American values, an immoral act that left who those participated in it susceptible to blackmail.

In the 1960s, James was able to successfully upgrade her status from “undesirable” to “general discharge under honorable conditions.” She said she tried to move on with her life from there but was still met with obstacles due to her status.

“I tried to get USAA coverage for insurance, and they said 'No, you can’t be a member, because you don’t have an honorable discharge,'” she recalled. “I [couldn't] be buried in a national cemetery either."

James said her less-than-honorable discharge status was always on her mind. "It’s never out of your scope of thought," she said.

That's why on Jan 3, at the age of 90, James decided to sue the Air Force to have her discharge status upgraded to "honorable." Prior to finding out the Air Force had granted her upgrade, James said an "honorable discharge" would hold both tangible and symbolic value for her.

“It will make me feel like I’ve done all I can to prove I am a good person,” she told NBC News on Tuesday, “and that I deserve to be a whole civilian in this country I love.”

Elizabeth Kristen, a senior staff attorney at Legal Aid at Work and the director of its Gender Equity & LGBT Rights Program, represents James. She said getting a veteran's status upgraded can typically be "a pretty lengthy process."

“When 'don’t ask, don’t tell' was repealed, the right thing to do would have been to automatically upgrade the discharge," Kristen explained. But that didn't happen.

Kristen said thousands of LGBTQ people discharged due to their sexual orientation still struggle with the hurdles James has encountered. “There are hundreds of benefits provided to our veterans, but depending on your discharge status, you can be locked out of them,” she said.

These benefits include access to the GI Bill, veteran home loans, health care from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and a burial in a national cemetery.

Matt Thorn, president and CEO of OutServe-SLDN, an advocacy organization for the LGBTQ military community, said the process for having one's discharge status upgraded could certainly be improved, adding "the burden of providing information falls heavily on the veterans themselves."

Over the last three years, Thorn has worked with Lambda Legal to fight President Donald Trump's transgender military ban and with Congressman Mark Pocan, Democrat of Wisconsin, on the Restore Honor to Service Members Act, which would essentially wipe the slate clean for anyone who was discharged from the military due to their sexual orientation.

Thorn said the military is reluctant to embrace this legislation, because there could be people “for whom their sexual orientation was just one thing of a series of things that that qualified them for discharge.”

“They don’t want to wipe the slate clean, because there might be some people who were rightfully discharged,” he said. “That’s why they have the individualized process. But could it be improved upon? Absolutely.”

In a statement provided to NBC News, Air Force spokesperson Kathleen Atanasoff said each case requires the Air Force to convene a group of subject matter experts to conduct a complete historical review of the member's case file, which requires time.

"The volume of applications has increased substantially over the past five years, which can make the 10-18-month administrative timeline challenging," Atanasoff wrote in an email. "The Board of Military Corrections is dedicated to tackling this through increasing efficiencies in their process and finding ways to expedite the process as much as possible."

Following Wednesday's message from the Air Force, James is now awaiting her official discharge paperwork. Kristen said once the paperwork is completed, the likely scenario is that an agreement will be reached between James and the Air Force to dismiss her recently filed lawsuit.

Until then, James plans to savor the good news for which she waited more than six decades.

"The Air Force recognizes me as a full person in the military," she said, having done "my job helping to take care of the country I love."

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/90-year-old-lesbian-expelled-air-force-1955-finally-gets-n838516

*Anya*

02-06-2018, 04:42 PM

Elderly lesbian told she would ‘burn in hell’ by fellow care home resident Jimmy McCloskey

Tuesday 6 Feb 2018 2:09 pm

https://metrouk2.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/screen-shot-2018-02-06-at-08-15-25.png?w=620&h=331&crop=1

Marsha Wetzel said she has been slapped and taunted since moving to the Glen St. Andrews Living Community in Niles, Il, with staff ignoring her pleas for help.

The widow, who moved there when her partner Judy Kahn died of colon cancer three years ago, has now launched a ground-breaking lawsuit against the home for failing to protect her.

In a YouTube video, Martha spoke of her fear after coming out when she showed a fellow resident a photo of the son she adopted with Judy. She said: ‘It got out and I thought, ‘Oh no, here we go again’ Gay hate.

Marsha Wetzel says she has been abused by fellow residents at her care home – and that staff have ignored her pleas for help ‘There were a handful of residents, I could tell were really going to give me trouble. ‘I tried to avoid them but they would seek me out to taunt me. ‘I’ve heard every negative homosexual term, I’ve been hit more than once. ‘You can get so scared, you can’t sleep, you can’t eat. ‘You don’t want to take a shower, you don’t want to get dressed. You don’t want to go in the hall.’

Marsha has now launched a groundbreaking federal lawsuit against the home for failing to protect her from abuse. Marsha, who was evicted from the home she shared with Judy by her partner’s homphobic relatives, expects to be abused until her death.

She said: ‘I’d look out the window, I’ve got a cemetery out there. ‘That’s when I’ll stop being made fun of because I’m gay. ‘(The) staff don't protect me, I don't feel any safety of going to them. ‘I want to stick with this and get justice, and I want people to know, stop pushing us around.’

The 7th U.S. Court of Appeals will begin hearing oral arguments in Marsha’s case Wednesday. If she wins, it could help establish that Fair Housing Act protections extend to LGBTQ tenants.

Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2018/02/06/elderly-lesbian-told-burn-hell-care-home-resident-7291238/?ito=cbshare

Esme nha Maire

02-06-2018, 06:00 PM

*Anya*

02-06-2018, 07:59 PM

That's apalling! How on earth could any commercial organisation think that it is OK to allow someone in their care to be assaulted, no matter what the excuse for doing so was? That's a failure of care in anyone's book. And as for it needing a court case to get protection 'extended' to LGBTQ folk - doesn't the US constuitition guarantee equality in law for everyone?

Equality under the Constution is selective and then the person would have to pursue it legally.

I don't know if Ms.Wetzel is living in a licensed facility or non-licensed. If licensed, there should have been a remedy but since it is now going to a court of appeals, whatever suit she brought at a lower level, failed.

I don't know why elder abuse laws in Illinois did not protect her but I did not do further digging to find out the timeline of everything involved.

According to HUD.gov:

The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, and familial status (i.e., presence of children under the age of 18 in the household or pregnancy).

The Fair Housing Act does not specifically include sexual orientation and gender identity as prohibited bases. However, discrimination against a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) person may be covered by the Fair Housing Act if it is based on non-conformity with gender stereotypes.

For example, if a housing provider refuses to rent to an LGBT person because he believes the person acts in a manner that does not conform to his notion of how a person of a particular sex should act, the person may pursue the matter as a violation of the Fair Housing Act’s prohibition of sex.

Breathless

02-06-2018, 10:01 PM

Breaks my heart that this has happened to her, and the oh so many others that have not, or will not speak up, and suffered in silence. I am very happy that she is taking a stand for herself, and others. Proof that there is still so much to be done, and I am profoundly thankful to all the women before me for what they have endured and stood up against and fought for, so that we humans have a chance at a better life. I will be following this story. Thank you Anya for sharing!

afemmenatalie

02-07-2018, 02:25 AM

This story just breaks my heart. That poor woman, and I am sure there are plenty more LGBTQ people who have suffered just like her.

I did some research, and see that Marsha Wetzel is receiving legal representation from LAMBDA LEGAL. I also found a GoFundMe page for her, which began in 2016, largely I believe, to defray the cost of her legal counsel/case(s). https://www.gofundme.com/2i0q5tg

I found many links to newspaper articles as well, just by putting her name, Marsha Wetzel, in to the search engine I use.

I am hoping I may somehow be able to help her without giving money to GoFundMe, as they make money by keeping a (small) percentage of the monies donated, and then the remainder she likely will not see as it will go toward her legal fight.

Perhaps an idea would be to write an uplifting card to her at the address provided for her on the GoFundMe page, or to send her a card care of LAMBDA LEGAL. Just a thought.

Gayandgray

02-15-2018, 07:41 PM

*Anya*

02-15-2018, 09:32 PM

Republican Senate candidate’s parents donate as much as they can – to his lesbian Democratic opponent

Josh Jackman 14th February 2018, 6:57 PM

The frontrunner for a Republican US Senate nomination has seen his parents donate the maximum amount allowed – to his potential Democratic opponent.

Kevin Nicholson is running for the Wisconsin Senate seat currently occupied by Tammy Baldwin, who became the first openly gay US Senator in 2013.

But months after he announced his candidacy in the Republican primary, his parents donated as much as they could to Baldwin.

In December, Donna and Michael Nicholson each contributed $2,700 to Baldwin for her re-election campaign, according to CNN.

In response, their 40-year-old son distanced himself from them. “My parents have a different worldview than I do, and it is not surprising that they would support a candidate like Tammy Baldwin who shares their perspective,” he said.

Nicholson was at pains to emphasize that his political outlook should not be in any way associated with his upbringing. “I’m a conservative today not because I was born one, but because of the experience I earned as a Marine in combat, my experience as a husband and father, my choice to be a Christian, the schools I chose to attend and the decision to pursue the career that I have,” he said.

“Regardless of who may disagree with my life decisions, I would not trade these experiences for anything, and they will always guide my views as Wisconsin’s next US Senator.”

Nicholson has previously tweeted his joy over gaining support from Steve Bannon, who left his position as President Donald Trump’s chief strategist in August.

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/02/14/republican-senate-candidates-parents-donate-as-much-as-they-can-to-his-lesbian-democratic-opponent/

homoe

02-20-2018, 10:45 AM

*Anya*

03-07-2018, 04:31 PM

Alison Van Uytvanck comes out: 'Being lesbian or gay is not a disease'

Tennis - The world no. 50 is dating the player Greet Minnen

Another tennis player has announced that she is a lesbian. In September 2017, Johanna Larsson had made it public, then in December 2017, Conny Perrin and Tara Moore announced that they were going to get married.

Now, it has been world no. 50 Alison Van Uytvanck's turn. The 2016 Roland Garros quarter-finalist is involved in a romantic relationship with her colleague and player Greet Minnen, who is outside the top-1000 of the WTA ranking. 'I don’t find it a taboo, [the relationship] makes me happy,' Van Uytvanck said, as quoted by OutSports.

'Soon we are going to live together. We do feel super happy together and that’s what we will show to the world. Nobody has to justify why they are lesbian or gay, it is not a disease. We are very open about our relationship and my parents are proud about it.

That’s important because the support made us feel good.' Van Uytvanck also commented on the other people's prejudices and bullying: 'Now I go to the kids and say "no bullying" and I confront those who made my life so difficult with my success so they can understand the pain I had to go through.

http://www.tennisworldusa.org/tennis/news/Tennis_Stories/52594/alison-van-uytvanck-comes-out-being-lesbian-or-gay-is-not-a-disease-/

homoe

03-13-2018, 08:50 PM

I'm not sure I can help financially, but I will most definitely send her an uplifting card!

Today the card I had mailed out came back! "Not A Resident" was hand written on the envelope. Hopefully some agency has gotten her out of that horrible situation and into someplace much safer.

*Anya*

03-20-2018, 11:55 AM

Introducing a Major New Voice in Comedy (Who Also Attacks Comedy)

By JASON ZINOMAN MARCH 19, 2018

It was only a matter of time before a stand-up comedian channeled the righteous rage of the current feminist moment.

Dave Chappelle released a special about #MeToo, but he didn’t respond to events so much as shoehorn them into his usual preoccupations. Other comics weighed in, but none have produced a show with as much unsettling urgency as Hannah Gadsby’s “Nanette,” a riveting New York debut at SoHo Playhouse that announces a major new voice.

Ms. Gadsby calls out Louis C.K., Harvey Weinstein and Bill Clinton, not to mention Pablo Picasso, in an ingenious indictment of the sexism and sentimentality of our narratives about genius, but her real target is the culture that enables and excuses abuse. That doesn’t sound funny, I realize, but she is that, too. Still, the laughs of her show are a means to an end, which is, at its core, a ferocious attack on comedy itself.

Ms. Gadsby, a 40-year-old Australian comic, is an unknown here, but the way she weaves intellectual arguments into taut jokes makes it clear she’s no novice. After more than a decade of stand-up, she developed a following in Europe and Australia with self-deprecating comedy about her family, her weight and coming out as a lesbian in a homophobic community. “Nanette” — which won awards last year at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and has since been picked up by Netflix for a future release — begins in that quirky vein.

Walking onstage, she is all stammers and fidgets and overly articulate neurosis, adjusting the microphone stand and repeatedly pushing her glasses up her nose, evoking no one so much as Woody Allen. She makes fun of Tasmania, where she grew up and where gay sex was not decriminalized until 1997, and even jokes about how lesbians don’t have a sense of humor. The title “Nanette,” she explains, refers to a barista who was going to be the subject of the show, but she couldn’t make it work. Failure is the theme of her early material.

Her self-mocking nebbish is a familiar persona, but there comes a moment when she drops and deconstructs it, and that turning point makes you re-evaluate everything you saw before. “Do you know what self-deprecation means coming from somebody who exists on the margins?” she asks. “It is not humility; it is humiliation.”

Then she goes on the attack, cheerfully smashing pieties like the one about comedy being the best medicine. “I reckon penicillin might give it a nudge,” she says. “Your baby is sick? Just give it a tickle.”

Breaking down comedy with mathematical precision, she explains that good stories have three parts (beginning, middle and end) while jokes require two (setup and punch line), which means that to end on a laugh, comics often need to cut off the most important and constructive element, where hindsight, perspective and catharsis exist.

“A joke is a question, artificially inseminated with tension,” she says, before explaining the mechanics of her job. “I make you all tense and then I cure it with a laugh. And you say: ‘Thanks for that, I was feeling a bit tense.’” Then in one of many tonal shifts, she raises her voice, irritated at the audience’s hypothetic gratitude: “But I made you tense."

Then she points to the audience and back at her and quips, darkly: “This is an abusive relationship.”

Skepticism about comedy, which dates at least to Plato, is older than the romanticized view that prevails today, undergirding both the comics who champion it as well as critics who suggests the best jokes punch upward and are rooted in truth. Ms. Gadsby is at her most radical pushing back on this idea, explaining that funny comedy isn’t always honest, and in fact rewards deception.

She said that in her homophobic town, she lived with shame that she turned into comedy, but that she paid a price. She never entirely grew out of her own self-hatred. When she retells her story without the jokes, it’s bracing. By stopping at the punch line, she says, she froze “an incredibly formative experience at its trauma point and sealed it off with jokes.”

In explaining how she turned her story of coming out of the closet into a bit, she upends the cliché of the comic who finds salvation by turning pain into laughter.

This is a show where, more than once, the performer makes the crowd laugh and laugh and, suddenly, turn deadly silent. She also nimbly leaps from personal stories to big-picture analysis, including a damning digression about Picasso, whom she calls a misogynist, citing both his own statements and an affair with a 17-year-old.

After drawing attention to the silliness of discussing art history in a stand-up show, she gets serious again, saying comics have been more likely to make dismissive jokes about Monica Lewinsky or “throwaway gags” about Mr. Weinstein. It’s on this subject that her jokes stop and her tone becomes grave, saying we care more about the reputations of artists like Louis C.K. and Bill Cosby than their accusers.

Does that mean that “Nanette” is no longer comedy? I don’t think so.

Comedy is much broader than Ms. Gadsby suggests. It can double down on prejudices or challenge them. Rape jokes have shamed victims and one bit by Hannibal Buress helped kick off the backlash against Mr. Cosby. Despite Ms. Gadsby’s formulaic definitions of comedy, a whole tradition, which includes Andy Kaufman and Tig Notaro and various proponents of cringe comedy, experiments with the tension-release dynamic of the setup and punch line.

“People really only feel safe when men do the angry comedy,” Ms. Gadsby says. “I do it and I’m just an angry lesbian ruining all the fun and banter.”

She’s right that angry stand-up has long been the province of men, and that there’s a double standard at work, but comedy isn’t frozen in time. We’re at a moment when I suspect audiences are not as interested in hearing from angry male comics, and yet the work of Lenny Bruce and Bill Hicks laid the groundwork that allows us to see Ms. Gadsby’s roaring polemic wrapped in jokes as firmly part of a stand-up tradition.

The best defense against Ms. Gadsby’s assault on comedy is her own show — an irony she is clearly aware of, and even perhaps nods to in a tangent about the ridiculousness of gendered parenting. Instead of dressing babies in pink or blue, she proposes they all wear blue, pointing out that the color evokes a cool temperature while also being the shade of the hottest part of a flame. “Blue has the flexibility to accommodate contradiction,” she says.

So does great art, which is why the paradox at the heart of this remarkable show — it’s a comedy arguing against comedy — actually elevates it. How funny is that?

“Nanette” runs through April 15 at the SoHo Playhouse, 15 Vandam Street. See sohoplayhouse.com for more information.

A version of this article appears in print on March 20, 2018, on Page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: Taking On A Culture Of Sexism.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/arts/hannah-gadsby-comedy-nanette.html

*Anya*

03-30-2018, 06:14 PM

Why black lesbians marry — Cal State Fullerton researcher finds new answers

By WENDY FAWTHROP | Orange County Register

PUBLISHED: March 28, 2018 at 1:53 am | UPDATED: March 28, 2018 at 5:04 pm

When gay couples marry, many see it as striking a blow for equality and civil rights.

That’s largely a white, middle-class way of looking at it, says a Cal State Fullerton faculty member.

When black gay couples, especially women, marry, they see something different, said Siobhan Brooks, associate professor and co-chair of African American studies at Cal State Fullerton. She recently published a paper on how black lesbians view marriage.

“Unlike the white mainstream gay and lesbian marriage movement, which in addition to state benefits focuses on political visibility, black lesbian and bisexual women primarily view marriage as giving them community recognition as group members,” said Brooks. “Many black lesbians are fighting for racial community recognition, not state-sanctioned rights.”

Brooks’ study “Black on Black Love: Black Lesbian and Bisexual Women, Marriage, and Symbolic Meaning” was published in the winter issue of The Black Scholar: Journal of Black Studies and Research.

Brooks became interested in the topic because she wasn’t hearing the voices of lesbians who married after the 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage in all the states. She thought it was important to explore the topic of marriage from a demographic that had historically been excluded from it, both as gay and as black.

“Prior to gay marriage many of us felt like our presence was tolerated in mainstream black spaces (i.e. churches, family settings, work), as long as it was not discussed,” Brooks said in an email. “Now we have language to talk about our relationships; when people talk about their spouses at work, we can also say that — it’s a cultural shift.”

What she found in her research and among black, gay people she knew was that marriage for them turned out not to be as much about gaining benefits on par with straight people — stressed by white activists — as about “being seen” within larger black social spaces: their family, their church and the greater black community.

In her previous research, Brooks has explored the intersections of sexuality, race, gender, class and mental health among LGBT, urban-identified black women. She received her doctorate in sociology from New School University and is the author of “Unequal Desires: Race and Erotic Capital in the Stripping Industry.”

For her most recent study, Brooks interviewed 10 black women — nine lesbian and one bisexual — in the Los Angeles/Orange County area, most raised by married parents.

She noticed three common themes:

By choosing a black woman as a partner, the women were reclaiming a black female identity they had been taught to devalue. Many acknowledged growing up with negative stereotypes of black women, especially those raised in predominantly white, middle-class neighborhoods.

As one woman told Brooks: “I was raised by strong black women. My grandmother was a nurse, at a time when not many women were. My mother was a teen when she had me, but I saw her working to support us. I see dating black women as an extension of strong black women.”

Being able to marry also brought the women more legitimacy within their religious communities, though they stressed that lingering homophobia in black churches still limited their sense of acceptance.

Said one woman who is engaged: “We are looking for LGBT churches to have our wedding; it would be great if they are black, but so far we have not found one. I want our union to be recognized in the eyes of my family, the way many of my relatives who are straight had their unions in a church. For us, our marriage means community acceptance.”

Finally, the women saw marriage as helping form stable relationships within their family and workplace.

One woman who had been married for a year said her marriage has granted her more respect from her coworkers: “When I say I am married, my coworkers take me more seriously, especially around discussions of gay and lesbian issues.”

The women viewed marriage as family and societal recognition of their relationships. Said one woman: As black people, we can no longer deny that LGBT people exist in our families, so gay marriage brings it out in the open. They are forced to acknowledge us, and our partners, even if they don’t agree with our marriage choices. This does not happen when LGBT people are only on television, because people still don’t think they are real.”

Brooks concludes that black lesbians’ choice of black women as marriage partners refutes stereotypes of black women as undesirable and supports notions of black racial pride. It also communicates that as lesbians they are still members of the larger black community. Connecting issues of race, class, gender and sexuality between the white mainstream LGBT movement and the race-based social movements of African Americans will make both movements stronger, Brooks writes.

“Black on Black Love: Black Lesbian and Bisexual Women, Marriage, and Symbolic Meaning” was published in the winter issue of The Black Scholar: Journal of Black Studies and Research. “My hope is that the research opens up a dialogue to discuss the needs queer black women have as social issues (i.e. education, housing, decent employment),” Brooks said.

Brooks’ current research examines the family impact of hate crimes against LGBT black and Latino communities.

https://i2.wp.com/scng-dash.digitalfirstmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/0315_nws_csf-l-black-01.jpg?w=620&crop=0%2C0px%2C100%2C9999px&ssl=1
Siobhan Brooks, associate professor and co-chair of African American studies at Cal State Fullerton, recently published a paper on how black lesbians view marriage. (Photo courtesy of Cal State Fullerton)

https://www.ocregister.com/2018/03/28/why-black-lesbians-marry-cal-state-fullerton-researcher-finds-new-answers/

*Anya*

04-18-2018, 08:16 PM

Former Miss Alabama 2004, Miss America, 2005, marries her girl-friend

April 18, 2018

BIRMINGHAM — When Deidre Downs was crowned Miss America more than a decade ago, the idea of legalized gay marriage and Miss America later marrying her same-sex partner in Alabama would have been an unimaginable future.

Times have changed.

Former Miss Alabama 2004 and Miss America 2005 Deidre Downs Gunn married her girlfriend, attorney Abbott Jones, in a ceremony Saturday at the Birmingham Museum of Art. They flew out Sunday night from Atlanta for a honeymoon in Ireland.

By Monday morning, their wedding was the talk of Alabama. About 200 people who attended were sworn to secrecy until after the event, with People magazine having an exclusive agreement to share the news.

Gunn, a UAB obstetrician-gynecologist specializing in reproductive endocrinology and infertility, and Jones shared their joy from their honeymoon in a statement to AL.com on Monday.

“When we turned to recess down the aisle after the ceremony and really took notice of all of the family and friends who had gathered to celebrate our marriage, we felt so blessed to be surrounded by so much love and support,” they wrote in a joint statement.

Their union may have left Alabama surprised and a little stunned, but perhaps also wowed by the boldness and beauty of the ceremony.

“It was beautiful; it was gorgeous,” said Nan Teninbaum, president of the Miss Alabama Pageant, who attended the ceremony. “I love and I support Deidre. I wish her the very best of everything.”

The ceremony was officiated by an openly lesbian minister, the Rev. Jennifer Sanders, pastor of Beloved Community Church in Birmingham.

“It was a beautiful wedding,” Sanders said. “They are a wonderful, happy couple. It was a joy to perform the ceremony.”

Some observers saw it as a breakthrough, a potentially game-changing moment in the fight for gay and lesbian rights in America and in one of the most conservative states in the nation. Gunn is a 2002 graduate of Samford University, a Baptist-affiliated school where she earned her bachelor’s degree in history. Samford was founded by the Alabama Baptist Convention, and Southern Baptists in the state and nationally remain on the record as staunchly opposed to gay marriage.

“I think it has a huge impact because Samford is so proud of her,” said Brit Blalock, founder of SAFE Samford, a gay and lesbian alumni group which has lobbied for fair treatment and representation at the school. “That’s one of their prize graduates. She’s done so much for the community. For the LBGTQ community at Samford, it’s nice to see her being so authentic.”

Gunn, in a statement to AL.com while on her honeymoon, responded.

“One of my favorite quotes is by Coco Chanel,” she said. ”‘Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself.’ It can take courage to be who you are and to realize your worth as a person, but once you do it is such a beautiful and freeing thing. And once you do, that allows you to live with authenticity and compassion — for yourself and for others.”

Blalock noted that Seasons, the alumni magazine at Samford that prints alumni wedding announcements, declined to print a wedding announcement submitted last year for two men who were married. She wonders if the same would hold true if Gunn submitted her same-sex wedding announcement.

A spokesman for Samford University, contacted Monday, said the university did not immediately plan to make a statement about Gunn and her marriage.

Will Gunn’s coming-out affect her perception at Samford?

“I’m sure there are some people who are shocked and may reevaluate how they feel about her,” Blalock said. “That would be a shame, because she has established herself as an outstanding individual. This new information doesn’t change anything about her character, in my opinion.”

Blalock, a 2008 Samford graduate, remembers attending the Miss Alabama ceremony on the Samford campus when Gunn was crowned Miss Alabama in 2004.

“She was very well-beloved on campus, talented, beautiful,” Blalock said. “Samford was very proud to lift her name up. I hope they are still proud because she is a phenomenal person. During her time as Miss America, she was campaigning for cancer research.”

Now, Gunn can be a role model for lesbians unashamed of their sexuality. “It makes me very proud,” Blalock said.

As a teenager and young adult, Gunn was a member of Baptist Church of the Covenant in Birmingham. “She’s a wonderful person and a fabulous doctor,” said the Rev. Sarah Shelton, pastor of Baptist Church of the Covenant the past 16 years. “I want nothing but her happiness. I am very proud of her.”

For the newly married couple, their wedding was not a political statement, but an expression of love.

“Abbott and Deidre’s wedding was a classic Southern fairy tale — a photographer’s dream,” said Kelli Hewett Taylor, owner of Kelli & Daniel Taylor Photography. “We loved being part of it. Every detail was soft, beautiful and elegant. Those two are so in love. There’s an undeniable electricity when they are together. I think you can really see that, in person or in camera.”

Jones said in a statement to AL.com: “Deidre is the most beautiful person I’ve ever met, both inside and out. I have no doubt she will continue to be a role model to so many, especially to young women who can look to her and see that regardless of who they love, they can be beautiful, intelligent, and confident in their own skin.”

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/news/20180418/former-miss-alabama-miss-america-marries-girlfriend