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Old 05-26-2014, 07:48 PM   #61
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Old 06-01-2014, 02:17 PM   #62
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Default Armed forces ‘spied on suspected lesbians in WRAF’

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/arm...wraf-1-3429359
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Old 07-02-2014, 02:40 PM   #63
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Default Puerto Rico Senate confirms first openly lesbian justice to Supreme Court


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
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Old 07-02-2014, 02:42 PM   #64
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Default Nancy Garden, a lesbian pioneer in the young adult fiction genre and author of Annie on My Mind

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
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Old 07-03-2014, 06:36 AM   #65
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Old 07-14-2014, 03:11 PM   #66
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Default Jodie Foster Talks Best Director Emmy Nom

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
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Old 08-23-2014, 08:39 AM   #67
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Default Chalk one up for the bold femme in love!

MISS SPAIN COMES OUT ON INSTAGRAM!


http://nypost.com/2014/08/22/miss-sp...-on-instagram/
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Old 08-24-2014, 07:56 PM   #68
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Default And another beautiful femme with a familiar name...

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

I am digging the boldness in the fierce femme lesbians! Yeah baby!
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Old 08-30-2014, 01:23 PM   #69
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Default Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir: The gender pay gap is now the most important equality issue



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.
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Old 09-08-2014, 04:23 AM   #70
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Default Vivian Boyack, 91, left, and Alice "Nonie" Dubes, 90,


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/weddin...092f7ec3f.html
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Old 09-08-2014, 04:25 AM   #71
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Default Catholic Schools Are Brazenly Firing Pregnant Lesbian Teachers And they're using morality as a defense

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/1...descrimination
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Old 09-08-2014, 04:57 AM   #72
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Default Martina Navratilova and Julia Lemigova celebrate engagement


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/...wpmm=AG0003326
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Old 09-09-2014, 02:21 PM   #73
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Default Lily Tomlin to be first out Lesbian recipient of Kennedy Center Award

http://www.advocate.com/arts-enterta...dy-center-hono
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Old 09-11-2014, 08:11 AM   #74
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Default Orgasms

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.
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Old 09-11-2014, 09:44 AM   #75
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Default

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Originally Posted by Happy_Go_Lucky View Post
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.

Adds shattering that ceiling to my bucket list.
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Old 09-16-2014, 06:17 AM   #76
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Default The Problem With the '75 Percent of Lesbians Are Fat' Statistic

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-s...hp_ref=lesbian
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"...I'm deeply concerned by recently adopted policies which punish children for their parents’ actions ... The thought that any State would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable."

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Old 09-17-2014, 06:31 AM   #77
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Default MacArthur Fellow, Alison Bechdel

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/jacketc...916-story.html
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Old 09-17-2014, 11:42 AM   #78
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Default Yes Kobi, this is amazing, two MacArthur Genius Awards

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.
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Old 09-17-2014, 05:39 PM   #79
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Default Boston civil rights lawyer Mary Bonauto recepient of MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant


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/mas...vKO/story.html
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Old 09-17-2014, 11:18 PM   #80
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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/c...17-10i3oq.html
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