Lesbians In The News

[Kobi]

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/p...DshTg.facebook

[Kobi]

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/p....Tj2IWAaT.dpuf

[cricket26]

[Kobi]

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-fost...my-nom-2014-07

[Canela]

MISS SPAIN COMES OUT ON INSTAGRAM!


http://nypost.com/2014/08/22/miss-sp...-on-instagram/

[Canela]

https://celebrity.yahoo.com/news/mtv...us-weekly.html

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

[vagina]

http://www.nordiclabourjournal.org/a...-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.