At Easter, some people hunt for eggs. On Valentine’s Day, gays and lesbians hunt for marriage licenses:
Thank you to the Marriage Equality USA, GetEQUAL, and the Metropolitan Community Churches for this video compilation. (I fell a little bit in love with the clerk in Yolo, CA.)
Posted in LGBT, News Items
Target plans to sell an exclusive edition of Lady Gaga’s forthcoming album, Born This Way, with remixes and three additional studio cuts. The release is scheduled for May.
However, the love between Gaga and Target is dependent on Target’s good behavior.
TheSartorialist.com features women's and men's fashion shot on the street. The photographer has a great eye for androgyny.
Because women, in general, are assailed at every turn with feminine fashion images and opportunities for style consumerism, femme lesbians naturally have more fashion resources than butches do. It’s tough to find good butch fashion advice, and even tougher to find images of butch women in mainstream fashion media. So what’s a fashion-forward, or at least fashion-leaning, butch to do?
Here are six of tips of my own and some of my favorite fashion resources I like to share with the butches I know and love. Please share your own tips and resources in the comments.
Last night I had a conversation with a friend about this whole lesbian anthem thing and she shared her point of view.
Although we’re almost the same age, we hail from different parts of the country. I’m from the west, she’s from the south. I came out later in life, after opposite marriage and a child. She’s known she was a lesbian forever.
Posted in Culture, LGBT, Opinion
Tagged Ferron, Holly Near, Meg Christian, music, Tret Fure
Rebecca Drysdale’s terrific new song for the It Gets Better Project has launched on iTunes. Download a copy and play it loudly everywhere you go! It’s a fantastic contribution to the project.
But this got me thinking. Is there a lesbian anthem? Do we have that one song that makes us want to stand up and cheer? That will inspire us to pump our fists in the air? (Thumbs tucked in, please!)
Rebecca Drysdale, comedian and performer, created this incredible music video in support of the It Gets Better Project. Warning, the language is definitely not safe for work.
Thank you to Dan Savage for sharing this video and to Rebecca Drysdale & crew for making it! The song will be available on iTunes 1/7/11. Yes, that’s day after tomorrow.
Tagged dan savage, it gets better, lbgt, music video, Rebecca Drysdale, trans, youth
Here are calendars from two different sides of the country. Both will enhance your dyke decor, help you get organized, and make great holiday gifts. Plus, each of them supports a good cause. Click through to the publisher’s websites and look through the months.
The Women Motorcycle Riders Calendar is jammed with photos of women surrounded by lots of shiny chrome and black leather. This calendar is especially fun for San Francisco Bay Area residents who will recognize many of the faces (and bikes!). Sales will help defray medical costs for one of the women featured in the calendar who is undergoing cancer treatment. The calendar is $29.50 and you can order it here.
I Heart Brooklyn Girls is a fun, themed calendar with a cult following, and this year’s queer pulp fiction theme is once again pure fun. A portion of the sales will help benefit Sylvia’s Place, an emergency overnight shelter for homeless LGBT youth run by the Metropolitan Community Church of New York. Calendars are available on the IHBG website, and in select stores and bookshops. 2011 calendars are $12, and posters are available, as well as previous years’ calendars, which you might want just for the pictures. (I was a fan of the 2009 calendar!)
Posted in Etcetera, LGBT, Style
Tagged dykes on bikes, i heart brooklyn girls, motorcycles, San Francisco, women
A butch teamed up with a soft fuzzy animal is an overload of sexual energy and cuteness that makes my teeth ache. Check out this new project by Kristen (the lucky she of Sugarbutch fame) and consider it dessert.
My Thanksgiving started early when I listened to this week’s Savage Love podcast.
Dan Savage reported that the It Gets Better Project, which moved off YouTube to its own website, now has 6,000 video contributions which have been viewed an amazing 20 million times. According to Dan, everyone from “the president… to Buck Angel… to drag queens and lesbian dairy farmers in Vermont” have contributed.
The latest touching contribution is from the kind, caring, and creative folks at Pixar:
Visit the It Gets Better Project website and watch some of the videos. Then consider making a donation in the spirit of the holiday. Donations are directed to the Trevor Project and/or GLSEN, two organization working to make the world a better place for queer kids. After all, if just one kid didn’t die as a result of this project, that’s something for which to give thanks.
Note: Check out this blog post about the making of the Pixar video by Pixar staffer and video participant Kate Ranson-Walsh.
Tagged dan savage, GLSEN, it gets better project, kids, pixar, teens, trevor project, youth
There used to be a billboard in my county, sponsored by a helpful non-profit organization that was working to prevent teen pregnancy. In big letters, it said: “Nine out of 10 girls who play high school sports will never experience a teen pregnancy”.
That may well be true, but the billboard was located on a road many of us took to get to the local dyke bar, so it became the source of jokes, and more than once its catch phrase was used as a drinking toast.
Now, according to a post on AfterEllen.com (written by Twitter buddy @thelinster), a Kentucky man claims to have pinpointed basketball as the cause of lesbianism. Jaye Collins, the coach of the Louisville Legends, says on his website that he is “encouraging young girls to be proud and secure in not being part of the lesbian and homosexual lifestyle which is so prevalent in woman’s/girl’s athletics”.
It apparently hasn’t occurred to Mr. Collins that some young lesbians may self-select just by trying out for the team. Many young women are drawn to sports because teams provide a safe place, away from the awkward frenzy of boy-girl interactions, and they may seek this environment before they’re fully aware of their sexual orientation. Lesbians aren’t “converted,” as Mr. Collins alleges, but they eventually find each other – on the court or off – when their sexuality awakens.
Collin’s coaching approach is far from supportive for his closeted or budding lesbian players, and he is actually encouraging prejudice and homophobia. (Read the full story here.)
I don’t have the “ball gene,” as my girlfriend calls it. I was a hapless, hopeless girls softball player who can attest that the grass grows lusher in right field. And I’m still queer. Of course, I like to watch women’s basketball. But, if liking to watch could make a person gay, a whole lot of straight men would be converted to lesbians (or pro ball players). Or so I’ve heard.
(Read G.’s essay on Can I Help You, Sir?, for the perspective of someone who, unlike me, actually played ball.)
Enjoy some lesbian basketball comedy relief with the now-legendary L Word basketball scene in which Helena proves herself to be crispy with the rock. (Some language is not safe for work.)
Tagged Jaye Collins, Louisville Legends, Sheryl Swoopes, The L Word, wnba
A 63-year-old Chinese woman has become a global icon for parents of gay children all over China – and thanks to a CNN story, the entire globe, too.
The woman the Chinese gay community has taken to calling “Mama Wu,” is a outspoken supporter of her son, a 30-year-old gay rights advocate. Mama Wu learned to use a computer at 60 and now publishes a blog read by thousands of people daily. She founded that nation’s first PFLAG chapter, and quotes Harvey Milk.
Click on the image below to watch CNN’s video, or read the story about her, and the state of China’s gay rights movement, here.
The dust has finally settled in the tightly contested race for Alameda County Superior Court with Victoria Kolakowski declaring victory by a two percent margin. Kolakowski is believed to be the nation’s first transgender judge.
The judge-elect said Monday that the election outcome “speaks well of our ability to look past differences and look to the things that matter: our ability and experience.”
Kolakowski, 49, has 21 years of legal experience, including work as a private attorney, corporate attorney and administrative law judge. She transitioned from male to female in 1989 during her last year in law school and had sex reassignment surgery in 1991.
Read more about the race in the SF Gate story. You can read a good, pre-election interview with Kolakowski here, on Change.org.
After the Mormon Church-funded debacle that started California’s continuing Prop. 8 battle, you’d think that the Mormon and gay communities would have nothing in common except a passion for unusual underwear.
However, it turns out that neither Mormons nor gays can lead a Boy Scout troop.
In the ironic cycle of hate, a straight, married Mormon couple in North Carolina has been told they can’t be Cub Scout leaders.
According to NPR, a Presbyterian church was happy to have Jeremy and Jodi Stokes as Cub Scout leaders until officials there found out they are Mormons. They were told they would have to step down because the church does not consider them “real Christians”. (Mormons consider themselves to be Christians.)
The Boy Scouts of America requires its members to swear an oath of duty to God.
Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, NC, about 10 miles from Charlotte, has about 2,350 members according to its website. It is part of the Presbyterian Church in America, a conservative Evangelical denomination. Evangelicals have consistently criticized the LDS church.
The LDS Church has consistently criticized gays, among other minority groups.
The Boy Scouts of America has legally discriminated against gays for a decade. In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the BSA has a constitutional right to exclude openly gay men from serving as troop leaders.
See how this big jamboree of hate works?
The Boy Scouts discriminate against gays and Mormons.
The Mormons discriminate against gays.
But Mormons and grown-up Boy Scouts are all welcomed into the gay community with open arms.
So, tell me. Who’s looking most Christian now?
There is a great movie about one young man’s battle against discrimination in the Boy Scouts called Scout’s Honor. You really should see it.
Tagged Cub Scouts, lds, marriage equality, mormon, NPR, prop 8, prop H8
Thanks to Dan Savage at the Savage Love blog for sharing this with me. Now I’m sharing this with my five (plus) friends. F-bombs abound… (Don’t waste a moment! Go straight to the website & buy the shirt here.)
Tagged dan savage, FCKH8, marriage equality, prop 8, prop H8, Same Sex Marriage, savage love
GroundSpark is a non-profit filmmaking company that makes educational documentaries. Headed by filmmaker Debra Chasnoff, GroundSpark produced the groundbreaking 1999 film It’s Elementary, and the sequel It’s Still Elementary, re-interviewing the original participants. Last year it released the powerful, Straightlaced: How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up, a film aimed at showing kids in grades 9 through 12 how homophobia, stereotypes, and bullying hurt everyone, including straight kids. (You can read my post about the film here.)
In response to the recent rash of suicides by gay teens, GroundSpark is making many of their films available for free, by streaming online. This is the perfect opportunity for teachers and parents to pop some popcorn and talk about really important stuff with the kids they care about.
Click on the video to see a trailer and read the message at GroundSpark.org. While you’re there, consider donating. They do great work filling a significant education gap.
Tagged Debra Chasnoff, documentary, groundspark, hate, Straightlaced, suicides
Today I was moved to write my first-ever letter to Dan Savage. However, you should feel free to copy it, edit it, and send it to any media outlet you’d like.
Dan,
I’m a huge admirer of your work. I’ve read several of your books, and am a faithful follower of your podcast. If I were 30 years younger, I would be aspiring to be one of the Tech-Savvy At-Risk Youth. I’m a lesbian and the mother of a 14-year-old boy. And, while I’m currently back in school, making a mid-life career change to teaching, I originally trained as a journalist and worked in the field at the beginning of my career, in both television and print.
I know I’m preaching to the big gay choir in writing this to you, but you have a platform to be heard by people outside of our community.
Following the youth suicide rash of the past few weeks, and the media attention these deaths have garnered, it has become more clear than ever that violence against the LGBT community is being institutionally perpetrated by the news media, in ways that would be less likely to happen to another minority group.
While the fourth estate likes to claim fair and balanced reporting as a tenet, in matters of race and other discrimination, this just isn’t true. There is no editorial board of a major media outlet that would hide behind the idea of “balance” to give airtime to a bigot spewing hatred about blacks or Jews. For example, if a cross is burned on the lawn of a black Baptist church, media outlets don’t provide “experts” to speak to their perception of the societal unworthiness of all black Americans.
Why not?
Because editors understand that to do so would be perpetrating hatred and, potentially, violence against people of color. Any self-respecting journalist would tell you this.
Yet, this happens daily with issues affecting gays and lesbians. Any discussion of marriage equality or DADT is followed by the “balancing” opinion of someone delivering thinly disguised (or often raw) hate.
These horrific teen suicides are not the result of teen bullying. They are the result of institutionalized and sanctioned hatred.
As long as hateful opponents of LGBT equality are given print and air-time to vent their religious, cultural, or personally paranoid beliefs about us, violence – in the form of attacks and suicide – will continue.
Yes, I believe in fair reporting, but I also believe that media outlets should stop shaking their bobble-heads sadly and clicking their tongues at this rash of deaths. They need to take ownership of their part in these tragedies. Editorial boards across this country need to understand that the blood of many people is on their hands, as long as they continue to hold the LGBT community up as targets of hatred.
Call them on it, Dan. Every time one of these media outlets interviews you, remind them that they are helping to harm our community in very real ways.
Thanks,
S.
Update: The It Gets Better Project now has its own website: www.itgetsbetterproject.com. Check it out & make a donation while you’re there.
Dan Savage is a seemingly tireless dispenser of good advice and proponent of safe, sane, guilt-free sex for all. I am a huge fan of his books, podcast, column, and blog. I appreciate how he reaches outside our community to tweak the noses (or yank the dicks) of the Religious Wrong whenever he can. He speaks out on behalf of lots of other people who don’t have his platform to be heard.
In this past week’s podcast he mourned the suicide of Billy Lucas, a gay Indiana teen plagued, taunted, and bullied by his schoolmates until he took his own life.
Savage’s new It Gets Better Project on YouTube is designed to be a life-raft for teens like Billy Lucas. He is asking members of the LGBT community to reach out with a message of hope, reminding queer teens that their lives will get better but they need to live to see that happen.
This video from San Francisco gave me another reason to be proud to live in the Bay Area:
Baby, let's play court. I'll be Lindsay and you be the bailiff, okay?
I’ve never thought there was anything particularly sexy about Lindsay Lohan. However, there’s something decidedly hot about these courtroom sketches of her recent day in court by Mona Shafer Edwards.
(Even with a pleated skirt and a sweet little hair-bow, handcuffs just make a girl look so bad.)
No cameras were allowed in the courtroom for Lohan’s recent appearance, the result of failing a couple of drug tests while on probation.
Lohan's attorney is on the left. Didn't I already see this on "The L Word"?
The judge refused to set bail and ordered Lohan to remain in custody until Oct. 22. She returned to jail in handcuffs. The wicked red-soled Christian Louboutin pumps are rumored to have stayed behind.
Like all equality-minded individuals, I was delighted to hear of federal judge Vaughn Walker’s decision to overturn California’s Proposition 8, the 2008 voter initiative that banned same-sex marriage in the state.
Judge Walker said, that during the two-and-a-half week trial – which was held in January – he heard no rational basis for discriminating against same-sex couples. Today’s editorial in the New York Times says that instead, Walker “dismantled, brick by crumbling brick, the weak case made by supporters of Proposition 8″.
Read the NYT’s powerful editorial here (you can almost hear the wedding bells ringing as you read!).
Charles Cooper, the attorney defending Proposition 8
Of all the reports on the web today about the closing arguments in the trial contesting California’s Proposition 8 – the 2008 voter initiative that banned same-sex marriage – I really enjoyed this one by Roger Brigham, the San Francisco editor of EDGE.
Brigham did a fine job of conveying the absurdity of the 5-hour marathon of statements, at the peak of which, the attorney defending Proposition 8 actually minced and mimicked the defendants of same-sex marriage, using a falsetto.
This may be my favorite passage from the story:
The threat alluded to repeatedly by Cooper was the idea that by allowing same-sex couples to marry, heterosexual couples who would otherwise marry and breed would not do so. How this would happen Cooper did not explain and he offered no evidence.
Now, that’s showing us.
Take the time to read the rest of the story on EDGE.
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