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Lesbians In The News
Lily Tomlin Marries Jane Wagner After 42 Years Together
Show-stopping actress and comedian Lily Tomlin and her partner of 42 years, Jane Wagner, were married in a private ceremony in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve, Tomlin's rep confirmed to PEOPLE on Tuesday. "They're very happy," says the spokesperson, Jennifer Allen. Besides their relationship, the couple's many celebrated collaborations, written by Wagner, include Tomlin's Tony-winning one-woman show The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, which played on Broadway, toured and was filmed for the screen, as well as the movie The Incredible Shrinking Woman. Wagner, 78, was born and raised in Morristown, Tennessee. Tomlin, 74, is from Detroit. It has been reported that the two met when Tomlin was looking for a collaborator to help her develop the character of the wicked child Edith Ann. As profiled in PEOPLE in 1976, just as Tomlin was branching out from TV's Laugh-In into an impressive film career, "Lily put in time as a premed student at Detroit's Wayne State University but she never lost her childhood zest for showing off in front of an audience. That led to club dates in New York, a spectacular stretch on Laugh-In, more TV specials and an Oscar nomination for her role in the film Nashville." Ten years later, in 1988, PEOPLE, in another love letter to Tomlin, wrote: "Real is the word for Lily. … Usually she collaborates with her best friend … writer Jane Wagner. When they're not on the road, Lily says, home is 'a big old pink stucco house in L.A. that used to belong to W.C. Fields. It's casual, airy, light, very feminine, a soft house.' " The story also said, "Lily speaks about Jane with great warmth. 'We share similar feelings about people and about the world. She's able to verbalize it and I'm able to physicalize it. She writes satirically but tenderly, and she loves farce and black comedy and broad slapstick. When you put all this together and make an audience laugh and be moved, it's just glorious.' " News of their marriage was first reported by the veteran columnist Liz Smith, who wrote, "[M]y longtime friends, Lily Tomlin and her love, the writer Jane Wagner, got married on the eve of 2014. ... My wish is that their happiness will be as great as their combined talents." http://www.people.com/people/article...ntent=My+Yahoo |
Older Lesbians Reunite, Focused Now on Ageism
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...m#.Us0miZ0o63Y |
Who the F Is … Author Emma Donoghue?
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/2014/0...-emma-donoghue |
Billie Jean King Says She's Not Aftraid to Be Gay in Sochi
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: |
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.
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Out Comic Fortune Feimster to Costar in Tina Fey Produced Women's College Comedy
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! |
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/...ro-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.” |
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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. |
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. |
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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. |
What does she actually do except invest money she did not earn in movies she does not make? I don't get it.
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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:
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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. |
Houston Mayor Annise Parker Marries Her Partner of 23 Years in Palm Springs
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/201...s-palm-springs |
A few more please.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...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 |
Tennis
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=...electedIndex=0 http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...electedIndex=2 |
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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!!" |
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Of those 35, 17 were films she financed. |
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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-...t-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 -- Quote:
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To Kobi re: lesbian tennis players
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 |
RE: Vanity Fair
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: |
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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. |
Happy Birthday Pat Parker
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. |
Cheers!
http://www.buzzfeed.com/skarlan/the-...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. |
New Internet show Old Black Dykes
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.
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Bristol Barman Rapes Drunk Lesbian, Gets 9 Years in Prison
******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/inter...ears_in_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". |
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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. |
Lesbian Toni Atkins Elected California Assembly Speaker
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...sembly-speaker |
Heather Mizeur - Maryland
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-quie...UrCLJs.twitter |
Andrea J. Ritchie
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/f...ndrea-ritchie/ |
Lesbian Moms Named to “Sexiest Rabbis of 2013″ List
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/le....2HHVMvpy.dpuf |
Further to Megan Ellison.
http://homes.yahoo.com/news/american...184606871.htmlhttp://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/QL...ome-107d05.jpg Looks very nice! |
Frank Goldberg
Frank is missing. Here's a news clip with some details.
http://www.wgrz.com/story/news/local...pport/4229507/ |
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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). |
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/2014/0...ef=mostpopular |
RCMP woman says she was respected as a lesbian
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/...d-as-a-lesbian |
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-heir...130-hvae1.html http://i.cbc.ca/1.2515052.1390970612...bian-dowry.jpg |
Gigi Chao, my s/hero
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: |
Cecil Chao Withdraws Million-Dollar Offer to Suitors of Lesbian Daughter Gigi
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/cec...hter-gigi.html |
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