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Description
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ToC Cover: The Real L Word by Rachel Shatto (p28); Do Ask, Do Tell by Laurie K. Schenden (p39); Farm Grrrls by Lauren Marie Fleming (p32); Crafty Queers by Erin Gilday (p34); Thirteen recycling Mistakes by Bree Clarke (p36); A Greener Detroit by Rachel Shatto (p38); The B is Back (p42); Stripped Down Sarah Bettens (p44); Move over Melissa (p45); Cover Girls (p46); The Raincoats (p48); Ladies Sing the Blues (p50); Whoa, Aimee Mann (p51); The Gospel According to Ruthie Foster (p52); Dimestore Dame (p54); Meshell Ndegeocello (p55).
See all items with this value
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issue
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6
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Date Issued
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July-Aug 2010
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Format
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PDF/A
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Publisher
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Frances Stevens
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Identifier
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Curve_Vol20_No6_July-August-2010_0CR_PDFa.pdf
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extracted text
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JULY/AUG 2010 VOLUME 20#6
Olivia
celebrates
20 years - call for
PRIDE
SPECIALS!
·_,-,
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----------
Features JULY/AUGUST
2010
28
The Real L Word
Ilene Chaiken turns her lens on the real lesbians
of Los Angeles. Meet the inspiration for Papi
and get a glimpse into the fabulous and dramafilled lives of these sexy dykes. By RachelShatto
39
Do Ask, Do Tell
Behind the scenes with A M_arine
Story.
By Laurie K. Schenden
32
GreenandGay
Farm Grrrls
From urban plots to big farms, lesbians are
digging in the dirt. By Lauren Marie Fleming
34
Crafty Queers
Gay artisans who stitch, felt and forge for
a living. By Erin Gilday
36
Thirteen Recycling Mistakes
Ziploc bags, pizza boxes-what you can and
can't recycle may surprise you. By Bree Clarke
38
A Greener Detroit
The new ultra-green LGBT center in the
heart of Motor City. By Rachel Shatto
42
35 SexyLesbianMusicians
The Bis Back
A look at the icon, minus her dreads.
44
Stripped Down Sarah Bettens
A new, unplugged version of the heartthrob.
45
Move over Melissa
Meet the young singer, Blair Hansen.
46
Cover Girls
From Lez Zeppelin to Hell's Bellesa look at all-girl rock cover bands.
48
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The Raincoats
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50
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Ladies Sing The Blues
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Gaye Adegbalola and other blues women.
51
Whoa, Aimee Mann
Her voice still carries us.
52
The Gospel According To Ruthie
Ruthie Foster's honest album.
54
Dimestore Dame
Julie Neumark's new, out record.
55
Meshell Ndegeocello
Twenty years of ml:Jsic,politics and love.
21
curve
page
18
We're all·in this together
~BEST
::~.~.:: PLACESTO WORK
2010 for LGBT Equality
100% CORPORATE EQUALITY INDEX
Com~unity is important. It becomes your family, your friends and your
home. That's why Wells Fargo is committed to working with communities to
support their financial stability and growth. fo fact, we have made signifi.cant
contributions to LGBT organizations over the past 20 years and encourage
our team members to volunteer. When communities prosper, we all succeed.
Together we'll go far
1
wellsf argo.com/lgbt
© 2010 Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. Member FDIC.
Departments JULY/AUGUST
2010
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IN EVERY ISSUE
Frankly Speaking
9
Contributors and Scene
Letters
This Is What a Lesbian Looks Like
22
24
AstroGrrl
Lipstick & Dipstick
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Money: Calculating the cost of online dating.
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Vamp lover Anna Paquin comes out
as-bi. Martina's new opponent. And
can you guess which supermodel is
getting hitched-to a girl?
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Victoria Brownworth 's very personal
account of living and dying lesbian.
0
. .
Books: How the government created a
Music: Sweet songs by Sia and why you' II
Film: Sport docs to make you sweat. Annette
Bening and Julianne Moore as lesbian moms.
And meet Lady Gaga's jail yard girl.
Celebrity Gossip
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fall in love with k.d. lang all over again. Plus,
we check up on Tegan and Sarah.
60
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second-class citizenship of gays and the
award-winning novel Another LifeAltogether.
Curvatures
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Politics
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Out in Front
Hot tees abound, the sport of samesex ballroom dancing leads the way.
Plus, more from Ellen and Constance.
15
tell if her orgasms are real. Plus, five sexy
products to make your night.
From stone butches to pillow queens, now
you can find your type.
56
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8
10
14
16
21
20
Relationships: Is she faking it? How to
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CAMPVEGAS'"
FOR GROWNUPS
.FRANKLY
SPEAKING
curve
THE '13EST-SELLING
JULY/AUGUST
2010
I
LESBIAN
MAGAZINE
VOLUME 20 NUMBER 6
Publisher and Founder Frances Stevens
EDITORIAL
Editor in Chief Diane Anderson-Minshall
Managing Editor Kristin A. Smith
Associate Editor Rachel Shatto
Book Review Editor Rachel Pepper
Music Review Editor Margaret Coble
Contributing Editors Julia Bloch, Victoria A. Brownworth,
Gina Daggett, Sheryl Kay, Gretchen Lee, Stephanie Schroeder
Copy Editor Katherine Wright
EditorialAssistants Lisa Gunther, Liska Koenig
PUBLISHING
Director of Operations Flo Enriquez
Senior Advertising Executive Diana L Berry
Advertising Sales Rivendell Media
Marketing Assistant Rose Tachis, Sarah C. Jimenez
Rock On, Ladies!
Every year when the music issue rolls around, I marvel at how our editorial
team is able to narrow down the barrage of truly talented women out there
to pick this year's bumper crop. What's the impetus to pick the women we
feature? How do we make a case·for choosing one artist over another?
While, like in years past, the editors tried to combine younger and older
artists, from multiple genres and from a range of unknown to overexposed.
This year we let the readers do the driving.
Many of you sent in recommendations, spurred in part by awards and
popular lesbian films (you'll notice a few performers this issue were featured
on the award-winning film Hannah Freesoundtrack and a few are OutMusic
award winners themselves). There were letters and emails throughout the year
(encouraged by our coverage of the band The Runaways last year) to cover
more historically-pivotal all-girl bands like The Raincoats and Lez Zeppelin.
Other women, like Julie Neumark, were just delightful discoveries by
our editors. You may have seen her on TV in Mad About You and Gilmore
Girls or in a variety of commercials from KFC, Gap and Xbox to Charmin
and Pµffs tissues. But, like a lot of girls with guitars, music beckoned. She
was a hit at South by Southwest, one of the key music events in the country.
Speaking of music fests, we're all excited about the buzz on Lilith Fair, and
two of our featured musicians (Bitch and Sia) will be at Michigan Womyn's
Fest this year.
•
The other big buzz is over our cover girls. Associate editor Rachel Shatto
talked to each castmate from Showtime's new hit, TheRealL Word.She says her
goal was to intrigue people who might be skeptics. When editorial assistant Lisa
Gunther, a true skeptic indeed, read the cover story, she was hooked and Rachel
did a big hoorah! (Hopefully you'll agree with Lisa.) The show is supposed to be
more of a documentary than a traditional reality show, and we're hoping it really
does break new ground in showing the lives of lesbians. Only time (and TiVo)
will tell. If all goes well, I'm hoping for The RealL Word:San Francisco.
P.S. Look close, at least two of the musicians in this issue are former
curve cover girls!
ART
/PRODUCTION
Art Director Stefanie Liang
Photo Editor Hayley McMillen
Production Manager Ondine Kilker
Production Artist Kelly Nuti
Web Producer Nikki Woelk
Photo Assistant Brittany Jeffers
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
Jamie Anderson, Melany Joy Beck, Rachel Beebe, Kathy Beige,
Stacy Bias, Kelsy Chauvin, Bree Clarke, Jennifer Corday, Lyndsey
D'Arcangelo, Beren deMotier, Ainsley Drew, Michele Fisher,
Lauren Marie Fleming, Katrina Fox, Serena Freewomyn Tania
Hammidi, Kathi lsserman, Gillian Kendall, Kate Lacey, Sheela
Lambert, Charlene Lichtenstein, Karen Loftus, Sassafras Lowrey,
Ariel Messman-Rucker, Candace Moore, Alison Peters, Catherine
Plato, Aimsel L. Ponti, Heather Robinson, Laurie K. Schenden, Lori
Selke, Dave Steinfeld, Edie Stull, Robin Miner-Swartz, Yana TallonHicks, Kyra Thomson, Jocelyn Voo, Jamie Wetherbe
CONTRIBUTING
ILLUSTRATORS
& PHOTOGRAPHERS
Paul Michael Aguilar, Erica Beckman, Brie Childers, Meagan
Cignoli, Cheryl Craig, JD Disalvatore, Tony Donaldson, Sophia
Hantzes, Cheryl Mazak, Maggie Parker, Elisa Shebaro, Leslie Van
Stelten, Katherine Streeter, Kina Williams, Misty Winter
1550 Bryant Street, Suite 510
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone (415) 863-6538 Fax (415) 863-1609
Advertising Sales (415) 863-6538 ext. 15
Subscription Inquiries (800) 705-0070 International (818) 286-3102
Advertising Email advertising@curvemag.com
Editorial Email editor@curvemag.com
Letters to the Editor Email letters@curvemag.com
Volume 20 Issue 6 Curve (ISSN 1087-867)() Is published monthly (except for bimonthly
January/February arid July/August) by Outspoken Enterprises, Inc., 1550 Bryant St.,
Ste. 510, San Francisco, CA 94103. Subscription price: $49.95/year, $62.95 Canadian
(U.S. funds only) and $71.95 international (U.S. funds only). Returned checks will be
assessed a $25 surcharge. Periodicals postage paid at San Francisco, CA 94114 and
at additional mailing offices (USPS 0010-355). Contents of Curve Magazine may not be
reproduced in any manner, either whole or in part, without written permission from the
publisher. Publication of the name or photograph of any persons or organizations appearing,
advertising or listing in Curve may not be taken as an indication of the sexual orientation
of that individual or group unless specifically stated. Curve welcomes letters, queries,
unsoliclted manuscripts and artwork. Include SASE for response. Lack of any representation
only signifies insufficient materials. Submissions cannot be returned unless a self-addressed
stamped envelope is included. No responsibility is assumed for loss or damages. The
contents do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editor, unless specifically stated. All
magazines sent discreetly. Subscription Inquiries: Please write to Curve, 1550 Bryant Street,
Suite 510, San Francisco, CA 94103, email shop@curvemag.com. Canadian Agreement
Number: 40793029. Posbnaster:Send Canadian
addresschangesto shop@curvemag.com,
Curve,
PO Box 122, Niagara Falls, ON L2E 688. Send U.S. addresschangesto shop@curvemag.com,
Curve,POBox 17138,N. Hollywood,
CA 91615-7138.Printedin the U.S.
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Jennifer Knapp Confesses
Christian rocker Jennifer Knapp shocked the conservative
Christian right when she came out as a lesbian earlier this year.
Now Knapp talks life after the closet with curve.
The Return of The Slits
The Slits stand out from the '70s punk crowd, not only because
of their all-female lineup but for thier unique sound-a mixture of
punk rock and reggae. Nearly three decades later, the trailblazing
rockers are back with a new album, TrappedAnimal. Read our
interview with lead vocalist Ari Up at curvemag.com.
Miss Anne
Lister has
a secret
Looking Back with Fanny
We'll always have a special place in our hearts for the groundbreaking all-women rock band Fanny. Starting in the '60s, they
recorded five albums and shared stages with Tina Turner and
David Bowie, rocking their way into music history.
The new Lisa (
Cholodenko
joint is better
than All Right
The Courageous Julie Clark
In our one-one-one interview with Julie Clark-the OutMusic
Award winning singer-songwriter and the woman
behind last October's National Equality Walk's theme
song- she talks frankly about shame, love and
sticking to the courage of her convictions. Plus,
watch her new music video at curvemag.com.
Eco-product guide
Check out our list of the hottest green products
in beauty, fashion, travel and home, including
fierce eco-friendly and socially-conscious
grocery bags from lt's-las-tik (pictured left).
8
Cinema Lesbonica
Check out our full reviews of The Kids Are All Right and
The Secret Diariesof Miss Anne Lister at curvemag.com.
Spoiler Alert-we loved them!
8
Lesbos, Take a Trip to Where It All Began
Soak up some sun and some ancient Sapphic history
with a trip to none other than Lesvos Island, Greece, for
their annual International Women's Festival.
July/August 201017
LmERS
Dueling Cover Girls
We asked you which May [Vol. 20#4] cover you would have preferred-funny gir1
Sarah Silverman or TV mom Meredith Baxter. Even with Silverman's admission that
she loves lesbians and description of the kind of gir1who could make her gay, the
flood of emails made it clear that Baxter was your first choice. Still, there were a few
die-hard Silverman supporters in the mix. Here's a sampling of the comments:
f +l,;.,.,k 5.r.l,
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Meredith Baxter, of course! She's sexy, intelligent, just an
all-around hottie! Not the Sarah one. Argh!
Silverman is a funny lady, but with her news of coming out,
Baxter would be the No. 1 choice.
i,..,.
I am a Gen Xer and the obvious vote for me would be Sarah
Silverman, but I love Meredith Baxter. So, my vote is for her.
Scooter Girls
As usual, I enjoyed this issue
of curve. It was refreshing
to see information and eye
• candy pertaining to motorcycles and
cars. My only complaint? The "Which Car Is
Right For You" spread [Vol. 20#4] encom,
passed every sort of vehicle (bikes to trailers)
but not (gasp!) scooters. I didn't have to look
at a pie chart to know that my vehicle of
choice is a trusty Vespa ET2 50. Not only
is it efficient on gas, it's a creampuff to drive,
and in the city of Philadelphia it's safe for me
to take out on the streets. And believe me, it
gets me more attention than anything; girls
always want to go for a ride.
- StaceyBorden,Philadelphia,Pa.
lf's so ._\IW'So,,i,,e
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Sarah Silverman is very funny, but Meredith Baxter is an actual
lesbian! And it's your 20th-anniversary issue year!
How could you not have the still-hot former Mrs. Keaton on your cover? Perhaps you
can make it up to us by featuring Chely Wright on the next cover.
Bull's Eye with Gaydar
Loved, loved, loved the Gaydar spot m
the May 2010 [Vol 20#4] issue. We were
married by E. Denise Simmons here in
Massachusetts. She actually came to my
friend's home to perform the ceremony. So
thanks, it was really cool to see her in curve.
Hopefully she will be elected to the State
Senate seat.
- Kim Cromidas,Danvers,Mass.
will be a great magazine to be able to do just
that. Thank you.
- Debra Phelps, Tucson,Ariz.
Back in the Scene
I finally got my first issue of curve magazine
today and just couldn't wait to read it. I just
wanted you to know that I think you have a
great variety for all of us and I thank you for
it. I have just ended a long relationship and
am finding myself again, and I think curve
How Green
Are You?
of green.I requestpaperbags
39% Sort
insteadof plastic
34% Prettygreen.I drivea Priusand
recyclemyemptywinebottles
13% Very.I recycle,compostand
ridemybiketo work
14'¾ Notsogreen.I donatedmyex's
O clothesto theGoodwill
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1550BryantSt.,Ste.510SanFrancisco,
CA94103
EMAIL:
letters@curvemag.com
FAX:415-863-1609
GOTO:curvemag.com/letters
Subscriber
Services
arenowavailable
at
curvemag.com/customerservice:
• subscribe
• renew
• payyourbill
• getmissingissues
• changeaddress
• givea gift
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CONTRIBUTORS
When she isn't writing or eating copious amounts of chocolate, Jamie
Anderson
plays her guitar and mandolin. She's toured nationally,
playing in 47 states and four countries. Anderson wrote many of
the music pieces in this issue, including "Queer Women Blues" on
pg. 50 and her list of the best lesbian love songs, which runs along
the bottom of the music section. Anderson just released her ninth
album, Better Than Chocolate. When she's home from touring she
teaches guitar, songwriting af).d belly dance, but not at the same
time. She can play "Stairway to Heaven'' and, for a large bribe, will
do it at her next women's music festival gig.
From the Editor
My dad's not a
demonstrative
guy and, though
he didn't exactly
holler hooray
when I came
out, he's always
'Td live off only music if I could, but I'll settle for pommes frites and a
quality IPA;' says contributing writer AshGoddard.
When she's not busy
riding mountain bikes, snowboarding, hiking or wielding her acupuncture
needles, she's attending live shows or spending quiet nights at home with
her cross-eyed cat, Pedal. Together she and Pedal embark on a never-ending
Internet quest for new music. Her most recent pick can be found on pg. 58.
With whatever time she has left Goddard volunteers for Girls Rock! Seattle, an organization
dedicated to building positive self-esteem in girls through music.
been supportive
of me. He's on
my mind a lot,
not just because "Cat's in the
Cradle" is on my iPod this month
but because three Curvettes
have fathers who are in failing
health. Production manager
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fun of by friends for bringing home cardboard coffee sleeves to recycle;' says
contributing writer BreeClarke,who wrote "Thirteen Recycling Blunders" on
pg. 36. "What drives me nuts is the lack of recycling savvy of my neighbors,
who leave half-full jars of peanut butter, cheesy pizza boxes and furniture in
the recycling bin. This article is what I've wanted to post on their doors for years:' But for the
well-intentioned, this article will help clear things up. Clarke herself even realized she was doing
a few things wrong. "I didn't know you couldn't recycle frozen food boxes or that Ziploc bags
are recyclable:' In addition to writing for curve, Clarke is a marketing and communications
consultant in New York City and has recorded three records as a singer/ songwriter.
~
Ondine Kilker is working
production while squeezing in
long talks with her pops after
his recent heart attack, while
production artist Kelly Nuti and
photo editor Hayley McMillan
·each rush back and forth from
respective hospitals to visit
their own fathers, who are both
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1 And ThenCameLolafilm releaseparty
(left to right):WolfevideopresidentMaria
Lynn,Directorof ConsumerMarketing
JenniOlsonandco-directorMeganSiler,
curve directorof operationsFlo Enriquez
2 JaneLynch(center)with curve's senior
advertisingexecutiveDianaBerry(left) and
marketingassistantRoseTachis.3 Revelers
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Skirts'TheDinah,PalmSprings,Calif.5, 6
Minnesotasame-sexmarriagesupporters
nothing keeping us away
from our hospitalized parents,
because the Curvettes wouldn't
have survived spring.
Diane Anderson-Minshall
Editor in Chief
July/August 2010
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A Brady Bunch of Tees
Face it, for many lesbians the word "fashion" means which ~-shirt to pair
with jeans that day. Here are a few of this summer's faves from Threadless,
DykeTees, SnorgTees and Cupcake and Cuddlebunny.
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Forget reality TV shows: same-sex ballroom
dancers across the country have their sights
set on an even bigger prize-this month's
Gay Games VIII in Cologne, Germany. Zoe
Balfour and Citabria Phillips, founders of
the San Francisco Bay Area's only exclusively
same-sex dance studio, Dancing With the
Queers, are busily preparing themselves and
their students for the competition. North
American champions for the past four years,
and international competitors for seven,
Balfour and Phillips gain their inspiration
from the "wonderful experience of dancing
with queer people from all over the world':
While Balfour and Phillips (below) are
unable to compete in straight competitions
due to the same-sex
couples ban imposed
by the National Dance
Council of America
(NDCA), both agree
that the world of
same-sex dancing is
"way ahead of the
heterosexual world in
classifying dance as a sport:' Events like the
Gay Games are "incredibly inclusive;' offering
five different levels of competition based
upon the skill levels of the dancers.
Shows like Dancing with the Stars and the
growing number of inclusive dance studios
have "reawakened people's interest" in the
sport, according to Balfour. Keeping with this
spirit, Dancing with the Queers welcomes
dancing beginners, encourages non-traditional
roles, teach female leads and male follows in
addition to queer and transgender couples
Don't let a few gray hairs stop you either,
Balfour never danced competitively until she
was 44 and affirms that "it's never too late" to
scare. [Rachel
Cullen]
OutontheFloor,
NYC(gregryzio.com)
Outto Dance,
WestRoxbury,
Mass.
Champion
Ballroom,
SanDiego
(outtodance.com)
(championballroom.com)
TheBallroom
Dance
Company,
Tigard,Ore.
KPDanceHouse,
SanDiego
(theballroomcompany.com)
(kpdancehouse.com)
QueerJitterBugs,
SanFrancisco
(queerjitterbugs.com)
CenturyBallroom,
Seattle
(centuryballroom.com)
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CopShenanigansBisexual
copLori Dutrasuesfour
lesbiancopsin SanFrancisco
for harassment.Saysonly
lesbiansacceptedin S.F.
policeforce.(p.s.noneof
thesehot "cops"are real but
they'recertainlysexy)
Cheyenne
Williams,
an out lesbian teenager
( in Kentucky, was kidnapped by classmates
and taken to a remote area where
she was beaten before they
attempted to push her off a cliff.
Despite the attack occurring on
National
DayofSilence,
police
say they don't have evidence to
substantiate a qualification of a hate crime.
... "Fags don't belong" and a swastika
were spray painted on the fence near the
entrance of the CampitOutdoor
Resortin
Michigan. For 40 years the campground
has catered to LGBT people and families.
Police found and charged the teenage
culprits, who were charged with "malicious
damage to property:' ... Dogs and cats and
Ellen! TheUnitedStatesPostalService
has
partnered with EllenDeGeneres
and Halo:
Purely For Pets to create
Adopt a Shelter Pet stamps.
The campaign hopes to
raise awareness about the
millions of pets in American
shelters who need homes. The stamps
themselves feature the adorable
faces of shelter critters from Milford,
Conn .... out lesbian LaurieJinkinsis ~
running for a seat in the Washington State 't
House of Representatives.
If elected, she would be the
first out lesbian to serve in
a Washington state office...
Mississippi
lesbian teen
Constance
McMillen
had to
face protesters during her graduation from
Itawamba Agricultural High. TheWestboro
BaptistChurch's
website claimed, "The
parents of Fulton, Miss. feign outrage that
a filthy dyke wants to parade her girlfriend'
around at their night of fornication called
a prom. They had a duty to teach their
children what the Lord requires of chem:: ..
Turns out company offered health insurance for straight couples is less expensive
because of federal tax laws that work in
their favor. When a straight employee's
insurance is paid by their employer, federal
law requires anything paid on behalf of
the person's spouse is exempt from the
employee's gross income. Same-sex couples
don't get the same tax break and so the
money paid out for health insurance ends
up being considered as income.
[Sassafras
Lowrey]
July/August 2010
I 13
ASTRO
GRRL
Heating Things Up Summer sizzles with astrological anticipation.
By Charlene Lichtenstein
Cancer(June22-July 23)
Sex:You seem to know just what to say to get what
you want. The thing is, do you really know what you
really want? Career:Find any excuse to work from
home as much as possible this summer. If all else fails
plan a poolside staff meeting or two.
Leo(July24-Aug.23)
Sex: Find a well-endowed benefactress to cushion
your life. Or become one yourself. Money acts like a
lubricant so start sliding around. Career:
Ask and you
shall receive. Ask again and the powers that be think
that you really mean it. Ask a third time and they
might stop listening. Pacing is everything.
Virgo(Aug.24-Sept.23)
Sex:You will have to work for your love but this is
CANCER
(JUNE22-JULY23) not a bad thing. The best fruit is usually at the top
Youcanrecognize
a typical. of the tree. Start social climbing and shake, shake,
Cancermommabyherdemeanor. shake. Career:You may get an unexpected raise. But
Ina roomfull of radicaldykes since you have worked so hard for it, you should not
wearingnothingbutbellybutton be all that surprised. You have been working hard,
studsandlastnight'sspaghetti haven't you?
sauce,she'stheonein theskirt
andsensible
shoes.Genetics Libra(Sept.24-0ct. 23)
alwaysplaysa rolein Sex:Keep your love affair secretive and under wraps
appearance,
butgenerally
for now. Big displays of affection behind closed doors
speaking,
shewill beonthepale
capture her heart. Big displays on the public stage
sidewitha moonshapedface
might drive her away. Is that the plan? Career:Your
andlargeeyes.Whenyoulook
up"femme"in thedictionary, career plans progress through the summer. Glad hand
chances
arethatyou'llseea the powerful and influential and see how far you can
Cancergalpeeringbackat you go. How high is too high?
withmoisteyesandlips.Likea
lion,shecarriesherselfregally. Scorpio(Oct.24-Nov.22)
Howeyer,
despiteherneedto out- Sex: Gal pals can become bosom buddies this
shineothers,shetendsto spend summer,. if you are lucky. But don't spoil a perfectly
relativelylittletimeonherphysical good friendship on a quick fling. Be sure that you
appearance.
That'sbecause
she mean it before you go for it. Career:Move behind the
knowsthatsheis debonair,
sexy scenes at work and see who is a friend and who is a
andmagnanimous.
Herpriorityis
foe. Ah, but what about your frenemies?
to beadoredandadmired.Barring
that,sheacceptssimplybeing
.enviously
noticed. Sagittarius(Nov.23-Dec.22)
Sex:Your career can take off more than just professionally now. Is there someone in the corporate suite
who you think is sweet? See what is under her suit.
Career:Girlfriends in high places make sure that you
are prqtected, at least through the summer. But what
will the winter bring? Let's hope that it's not all a
snow job.
14
I curve
•
Gapricorn
(Dec.23-Jan.20)
Sex:Travel will have its many pleasures, including the
possibility of romance. Expand your tasting menu
to include someone spicy. Save the sweets for later.
Career:You are a corporate powerhouse all through
the summer. Will you steamroll the competition or
use your finesse. Oh let's guess!
Aquarius(Jan.21-Feb.19)
Sex:You have a certain je ne sais quois.Will you know
what to do with it? Just get creative and be very bold.
Career:You may find yourself traveling for business.
This is good if your travel plans take you to worthy
locales-especially if they are·full of wealthy locals.
Pisces(Feb.20-March20)
Sex:Relationships heat up and you may find yourself
planning a long-term arrangement. Is that what you
really want? If so, then dive in! Career:Be the power
behind the professional throne this summer. You can
influence the influencers. Will you use this power for
good or evil? Uh oh.
Aries(March21-April20)
Sex:Someone stirs some sugar in your morning coffee
at work. Will she be to your taste? You never know
until you take a sip. Career:
Business relationships heat
up and encourage you to make a big move. As long as
you are moving, why not shake it too?
Taurus(April21-May 21)
Sex: Don't waste your time hoping that love finds
you. Get out of your rut, move your butt and start to
strut. Romance is everywhere you seek it. Career:
Job
responsibilities start to pile up just as the hot summer
beckons. Find ways to show that you are working
hard-without really doing so.
Gemini(May22-June21)
Sex: Your little plan to lure her to your sultry lair
appears to be working. That is until you begin to talk
about home decor. Talk less and show more. Career:
Your creative juices start flowing. Make good use of
this time by creating your corporate masterpiece ■
Astrologer
Charlene
Lichtenstein
is theauthor
of Herscopes:
A Guide
toAstrology
forLesbians.
Getmoreat thestarryeye.com
or readherblog
at thestarryeye.-typepad.com.
LESBOFILE
Romance and Rumors
A new lezzie DJ, celesbian rumors and an Academy Award winner comes out. By Jocelyn Voo
Annual Reader's Choice Nightlife Awards
(from NYC-based lesbian magazine, GO)
had MichelleRodriguez
spinning. Thankfully
the notoriously fight-prone super sexy actor
stuck to hitting the decks rather than the
other guests.
ShePuta RingOnIt-Maybe
It's a match made in bombshell heaven:
model Catherine
McNeiland MTV Australia
host RubyRoseare reportedly engaged!
Womans Day magazine report~d that
Rose said, "We never talk about our relationship, because it is so sacred. But one thing
everybody knows is I am lucky and I am
happy
and if it wasn't for her I wouldn't do
w
what I do now:' But Rose denies that she
0
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ever even spoke to the magazine. Either way,
w
a.
a.
we'
re pretty sure the giant engagement rings
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a
sapphire
and diamond ring for Catherine,
w
a.
=>
an
emerald-cut
diamond for Rose) would've
Anna
Paquin
Comes
Out
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The
vampire
trend
swings
both
ways:
Anna
tipped
people
off
anyway.
uJ
z(.)
Paquin,a.k.a. Sookie Stackhouse in HBO's
6
w
True Blood,has come out as bisexual.
Rumors
I
Zoe Saldana,the sexy blue babe from the
The Academy Award winning Paquin,
~Cl
billion-dollar CGI sci-fi blockbuster Avatar,
who
is
engaged
in
real
life
to
her
vampire
w
:t
seems to be busier dodging lezzie rumors
series
beau
Stephen
Moyer,
participated
z
c3
alongside lesbian faves CyndiLauper,Wanda than profiteering human predators. Despite
...J
~ Sykes,WhoopiGoldbergand other celebs being in a long-term relationship with a man,
(.)
co
§ in the True Colors Fund's "Give a Damn" the actor says she has long been a tomboy,
tn
with a self-described "masculine" energy.
public service announcement promoting
z
zw
And Saldana herself is A-O K with all the
equality
for
those
identifying
as
LGBT.
0:
~
'Tm Anna Paquin, and I give a damn;' she Sapphic speculation.
fir
"If you want to punish me, send me to get a
=> says in the PSA. Amen, sister.
('.)
1i:
manicure
or dress me in a skirt or shorts, and I
Cl
0
would die;' she told SiempreMajer."But if you
Hey,Ms.DJ
!;,
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Looks like Sam Ronsonisn't the only hot dress me in jeans and a button-down blouse, I
~w girl DJ in demand. This year's GO 4th feel very sexy,feminine and powerful:'
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Martina'sBattle
Tennis great MartinaNavratilova
has crushed
many opponents in her long ·career and
now she has a new one: breast cancer. The
cancer, a non-invasive form of breast cancer
called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), was
detected early, so the prognosis looks good.
After a lumpectomy, Navratilova will be
undergoing six months of radiation therapy.
In the meantime, she's already back in action,
Navratilova played in the senior doubles
event at the French Open. Here's to a speedy
recovery, champ! ■
Is Ruby Rose
getting married
to supermodel
Catherine
McNeil?
More Zing for Your Zang
Spicing things up-literally.
By Lipstick and Dipstick
Dear Lipstick and Dipstick: Are there any foods
a woman can eat to affect her, um, flavor? If so,·
what are they? - Boxing Champ
sation out of the way, explore all the wonderfulness that is you and your sexuality (safely,
I might add). Kiss, smell, lick, poke,joke-do
whatever your heart tells you to do. If you're
supposed to end up with this Jim, your heart
will eventually lead you back to his barracks.
Dipstick:
You know, I never thought about it,
but since I got your letter, I've been experimenting. Garlic and onions make you taste like
an Italian super model; feta and black olives,
like a Greek goddess. Coffee makes you taste
like the cute coffee girl at Dunkin' Donuts.
Then I took it even further with fruit-flavored
lubes too. Grape soda reminded me of my first
girlfriend in high school. I had a hot night
on an Olivia Cruise with a Caribbean queen
and the piiia colada-flavored lube. And the
chocolate, well, let's just say, Willy Wonka's
factory will never be the same.
Dipstick:No, Lipstick, she shouldn't send a
"Dear Jim, I'm gay" letter. She's just a straight
girl who kissed her best friend when she was
drunk. It happens all the time. Apparently
their boyfriends don't mind it. That is until
they fall in love with said girl and leave their
sorry asses. But that's not what's going on
here. What we have here isjust one of the few,
the proud and the lonely enjoying the doting
lesbian friend. MG, don't mess around with
Lori. You'll only break her heart, then Jim's
and probably your own, too. No matter how
much you care for your friend, you can't make
up for the fact that you're straighter than
straight. It's just a phase.
Lipstick:
Oompa Loompa Doopadeedoo, I've
got a tasty treat for you. I hear there are a
lot of things that affect how a vajayjay tastes.
Not only can changes in your cycle affect
flavor but arousal and sweat adds a zing to
your zang. I've found· that citrus improves
the situation south of the border and eating
pineapple actually candy coats your "special
lady:' No wonder so many lezzies honeymoon in Hawaii!
DearLipstick& Dipstick:I'm so confused.
I've
alwaysbeenin lovewiththis guynamedJim.
We'vebeentogetherfor six years,planto get
marriedandallthatsweetheterostuff.I thought
hewastheone.Heis in theMarinesandI don't
seehim thatoftenanymore.
However,
I metthis
gay girl in school.She'sbeena lesbiansince
shewasa kid,whileI'vealwaysbeenstraighter
than straight.Recently,we've becomebest
friends.I sayfriends,butthetruthis I'm falling
in lovewith her.I eventoldher,andturnsout
thatshe'sin lovewithme.I stayedat herhouse
the othernightbecauseher parentswereout
of town.We got drunk,madeout and I loved
16
Icurve
it. Help,I'm so stuck! Part of me wants to be
with Jim becauseof everythingwe had and
could haveoncehe gets back from Japan,but
anotherpart wants to take risks andto be with
Lori.WhatshouldI do?-Marine's Girl
Lipstick:How old are you little chicken? 18?
Did you and Jim Dog get togethe~ in junior
high? Your feelings for this girl may well be
real, but it might also be that you've got some
oats to sew. Here's what you should do: Tell
Jim you need a break. Explain to him why.
Tell him that even though you love him,
you need to do this for your emotional and
mental health. Once you get that big conver-
Lipstick & Dipstick ADVICE
you? I'll bet you've been in this predicament
before, letting a woman play you this way.Are
you ready for the truth? Marley is keeping
you around for selfish reasons-to boost her
own confidence-not because she's unsure of
her feelings. Like many dykes, Marley enjoys
knowing you're in the wings, pining for her.
It's gluttonous and self-serving,but apparently
how she rolls. My advice would be to quit
playing the fool and take back control here.
That means: no more phone calls, no more
texts and no more Marley.
Evenif you nevermeetthe
girlof your dreams,you'll
most likelybe happier
than waiting around for
a girl who is probably
never going to call.
DearLipstick
& Dipstick:
I datedthisgirl,Marley,
fora couplemonthsuntilshebrokeupwithme Dipstick:Lipstick, how many more letters will
to dateherex-girlfriend.
Marleydecidedherex we have to answer before lesbians stand up
wasstraightandthatshemissedme,sowe got for themselves? Wait until she calls you? Hell
backtogetherrecently.
Theproblem
is,afterwe no. The best thing to do is to forget about
reunited,Marleywouldn'teventouchme and Marley and get on with your life. She sounds
startedactingdifferently.
Shefinallyadmitted like the type who's afraid to be alone, so she
she wasn'treadyfor a "seriousrelationship" keeps you hanging on until someone better
and wants me to slow thingsdown.This is comes along. It's time for you to dismiss Ms.
confusing
becauseMarley'sthe onewhosped Not Ready and find someone who does want
thingsup in the first place.I agreed,but now to touch you. Get out there and meet someshe won't respondto my phonecalls or text one who is sure she wants to be with you, who
messages.
The last thing she said was that would fight to be with you, who re.turns your
she'dlet me knowwhenshefiguresoutwhat calls and sends you sexy text messages and
shewants.AmI supposed
tojustsitaroundand flowers just because. Even if you never meet
waitfor herto decideif shewantsme or not? the girl of your dreams (unlikely), you'll most
WhatdoI doif sheendsupwantingto be with likely be happier than waiting around for a
me?HowcanI besureshe'snotjustscrewing girl who is probably never going to call. ■
with my headagainandwill eventually
dump
meoutin thecold?-Waitingto Wait
s texting cheating? What do you do
with your old sex toys? Watch new
Lipstick:Waitfng to Wait-wake up! You're
episodes of TheLipstick& Dipstick
a passionate pushover with a big heart, aren't
Showat curvemag.com.
®
5 SEXY SECRETWEAPONS
everything
is yum.
Bestbets:TheElysian
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Massage
Candle
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Personal
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GoAll-Natural:
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Body'sproductsare
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madewithhempseed with carrageenan
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ingredients.
Fromthe
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ediblemassage
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Plus,theirproducts
to the3-in-1Fireside containnophthalates,
Frankincense
Candle, parabens
or petroleum,
andareveganandnot
animaltested.That
makesmehornyand
ethical.($15andup,
earth/ybody.com)
Remember,
Hairis So
1984:Face
it,asidefrom
DemiMoore's
famousbush
(thankgodfor
theInternet),
almosteveryone
else
is shedding
thedown
therehair,at leasta
little.Youcanprevent
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andingrownhairs
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ADVICERelationships
Orgasmic Confessions
Seven ways
to tell if she's faking. By Emily Wilcox
We live in a world where lying has
become second nature and truth holds
a close third to deceit. It seems as if the
only honesty we can count on these
days is in our sexual relationships. But
what if you suddenly realize that your
partner-that
deviant goddess that
dispels all lies-has secretly been faking
her unearthly orgasms?
We gasp at the thought. Not my girl!
But lots of women do fake orgasms.
Some do so because they are eager
to impress. Others just to end a long,
drawn-out romp session and get some
much-needed sleep.
Scientific studies show that certain
areas of the brain are affected during
orgasm and those areas are unaffected
when women fake it. But for those of us
who want to know how to detect a faker
without the medical equipment, we must
rely on our instinct. If you suspect you
may be the unwitting audience of her
special one-woman show, here are a few
tips to offer help you spot the faker.
THE FALSETTO BUILD
The faker knows that she must choose
her timing wisely. She cannot suddenly
orgasm and think you will buy it. She
must produce the build. The bogus build
sounds more like a methodical panting,
gradually getting louder without missing a beat. The real
deal is more unplanned, more
spontaneous and more
revealing. The actual sound will
leave you with a tingle in your
lower belly that is unmistakable.
THE ABDOMINAL MANEUVER
The faker knows just how to move her
pelvis and abdominal area, giving you
the impression of muscle spasm at the
point of reaching orgasm. Involuntary
and pleasurable muscular contractions
can be felt in the vagina and the uterus.
However, the muscles that spasm during
actual orgas~ are not the same ones
we can move with our thoughts. They
contract at such a rapid pace that we
cannot reproduce the same response
when attempting it ourselves.
THE TOUCH TEST
Immediately following an orgasm, the
clitoris and vagina becomes extremely
sensitive. A good truth serum is to touch
the area directly, but gently to see if she
pulls back. If she does, she likely experienced the real deal.
DRY PALMS?
Grab her hands in the heat of passion.
Are they moist? Sweaty
palms are a reaction of
the autonomic nervous
system that can be
triggered during orgasm.
SKIN TONE
You might want to keep the lights on,
because it is proven that women look
more flushed, red and splotchy during
the Big 0. When a woman experiences
an orgasm, her cheeks tend to change
color due to the increase in blood flow.
THE AFTERMATH
Performance anxiety is rough on anyone.
Usually stress takes a backseat to
relaxation after an orgasm is achieved.
So, check to see if she isn't a bit anxious
afterwards instead of calm.
HER LYINGWAYS
Insecurities about impressing a lover can
be heightened when lying naked and
vulnerable. But if you consistently find
yourself with a natural faker, it could be
a red flag. If she's lying in the bedroom,
what else might she be lying about? ■
EmilyWilcoxis a sexuality
counselor
andthe voice
behindthe onlinesex advicecolumn,Ask Emily
(askemi/yanything.com).
5 SEXY SECRETWEAPONS continued
free, manufactured
in a wind powered
facility using recycle
bottles.(Alsosnag
Whish'sShaveSavor,
the first "after shave"
for women.)($22,
whishbody.cont,
GetWetandWild:
Long beforeTori
Spelling gave her
girlfriends WETlubes
on ToriandDean,
lesbianswere on
to the best-selling
lube on the planet
. (especiallythe
Naturalsline). The
1s1curve
company's new
products are worth a
gander:the Forbidden
Fruit RashFree Kitty
and Total BodyShave
Kremeare great for
the nappy dugout.
Plus,try the Wet
SynergyWater +
Silicone Lubricant,
their new hybrid
that cleans like a
water-basedgel.
($7, amazon.com)
DoH Anytime,
Anywhere:
With
Jade & Pearl's
ReadyForLove
Kit you can have
sex during that time
of the month with
zero mess. Comes
with two sea sponge
tampons(which, when
inside you, replicate
your natural lady
parts) with reusable
cotton bag, bodacious
body butter that's
lube andmassageoil,
tea tree oil (a natural
ArousalGelis a tiny
antiseptic for the
lipstick-sizedtube of
sponges)and a dark
chocolatebar with
gel that, when dabbed
a love poem inside.
down there,increases
($28,jadeandpeart.cont,the sensationin the
clitoris. How?Turns
out, your little kitty
KickH Upa Notch:
clitty has about8,000
KYis probablythe
nerveendingsand
best-knownoverwhen KYIntensethe-counterlube.But
whose main ingredient
make no mistake,
is Niacin(akavitamin
their newestproduct
B3)-is applied,it inis definitely not meant
to replaceyourlube.
creasesbloodflow to
the clitoris.A second
That doesn't mean
ingredientcausesa
moist-maker, warming sensation,
though.
as well, and it's that
combinationthat helps
KYIntense
women reachqrgasm
sooner.In anecdotal
reports,womenwho
aren't 20 and ready
to pop at the site of
an AmandaSeyfriend
posteralready-say
peri-menopausal
women or lesbians
with disabilities,
for example-are
especiallythrilled
<(
(!)
with the resultsof KY a:
Q.
Intense.Andthe cost? ~
C)
0
Well,at about$1 per
~
application,it's still
z0
cheaperthan Viagra.
!:J
($25,drugstore.com) ~
1
[DAM]
z<(
0
ADVICE Money
Can Buy Me Love
How to get the most bang for your virtual dating buck.
By Serena Freewomyn
If you're on the prowl for a partner, there are
many ways to meet women. Many of us have
turned to online dating as a way to streamline the process. According to Online Dating
Magazine, over 20 million people visit online
dating services each month. In fact, online
dating is expected to be a $932 million
industry in 2011.
Internet dating is one of the best inventions
of our time. You can cruise for hotties when
you're supposed to be working. And you can
scan dozens of profiles in less time, and with
less effort, than it takes to go out to the bar.
Some dating services are better than
others. Several, like CurvePersonals.com or
Match.com, allow you to join for free. Paid
membership lets you have online chats or
post videos. But, is it worth the money?
Sure, you can "hook up" for free with
Craigslist. However, investing in a daring
membership is a sign that you are serious about
having a relationship. Think of the search for
Ms. Right in the same way you approach a job
search and you'll see how online dating can be
worth the investment.
the best candidate. You should use a similar
list when you are looking for a partner. Does
your ideal woman need to be a good cook?
Does she have to be able to fix a busted
radiator cap? Is she college-educated? Don't
be afraid to be detailed-this is your list.
Be very clear about your non-negotiables.
Maybe your bottom line is income level or
the job. However, the candidate might turn
down the offer. The same is true of dating.
You might meet someone and feel that you're
really clicking after a few dates. If they don't
return your interest, don't get broken up
about it. You'll eventually find a fabulous lady
who is on the same page as you-but first
you might have to broaden your search.
YourDatingProfileIs LikeYourResume
When you're hunting for a job, you might
have different versions of your resume.
You should also tailor a dating profile
to the type of website that you're using.
Highlight different aspects about yourself
in each profile, and see which one gets the
most traction.
Many profile descriptions are boring. If
you can't find something more interesting
to say than "I like spending time with my
friends;' what are you going to talk about for
an entire first date? Try to be creative. Here
are some examples:
"I amstudyingmeteorology.
Mygoalin lifeis
•to bethatreporterstandingin a trenchcoatin
themiddleof a hurricane."
"I havea blackbeltin karate.I'll try most
thingsonce,which,coincidentally,
is the
numberof timesI'vebeento BurningMan."
Whois YourPerfectWoman?
If you were conducting a job interview, you
would have specific criteria in order to find
20
Icurve
religious background. Whatever it is, have
a strong sense of your deal breakers, and be
firm about it.
WhatDoestheJobEntail?
Are you looking for a wife? Or are you looking
for something casual? Be specific about what
you want, because you' re not going to find
your match if you don't.
KnowWhento Compromise
While it is important to have a bottom line,
there is also a time to compromise. I had a
hard time finding a college-educated, nonsmoker without children in Phoenix. I had
to expand my search to include the entire
state of Arizona. I'm glad I did, because I
found the perfect partner. But that never
would have happened ifl hadn't been willing
to drive to Tucson.
li'eatthe FirstDateas a JobInterview
The beauty of online dating is that you can
send a few e-mails back and forth before
you actually meet in person. If someone is a
dud on the first date, don't waste time on a
second. Move it along. There are plenty of
other women waiting to meet you.
Sometimes a job interview goes great, and
an applicant is invited for a second round of
interviews. If the next interview goes well, the
employer may decide to offer the applicant
Don'tGiveUp
Even though online dating has many
advantages, it still takes time to find the
right person. You wouldn't give up your job
search after sending out only a few resumes,
so why would you give up your search for a
partner after sending out only a few emails?
Be persistent, and remember that if a skeptic
like me can land herself a partner, anybody
can do it. ■
:.::
~
cc
1'5
g
§
8
OUTINFRONT
Behind the
Curtain
These lesbians bring equality
center stage. By Sheryl Kay
~
i
i
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~
5
cE
interested in same-sex marriage, don't work
on it. But find something to which you: can
deeply commit. We are all responsible for
creating the society in which we wish to live:'
she asks."Our needs cannot fully be met by the
mainstream. We need our own separate space
to find and support each other:'
Success
intheSouth
Championing
theUnderrepresented
Performance
Activism
Her resume reads like a civics lesson-the
NAACP, Prisoners With Children, National
Women's Law Center, the ACLU and the
Asian Law Caucus.
For the past decade DoreenaWonghas
served as staff attorney at the National Health
Law Program, a public interest legal group
that seeks to improve access to health care for
low-income populations, including people
of color, women, children, the elderly, people
with special needs and immigrants.
"The current economic crisis has impacted
low-income people more than any other, but
poor people have no effective lobby or corps
of advocates to represent their concerns;' says
Wong. "So our work is badly needed, as well
as badly underfunded:'
In her off hours, Wong co-founded and
For Joan Lipkin,all theater is inherently
political in that it either reinforces or challenges the status quo. Her love affair with it
began at an early age, as both an audience
member and a performer. "To this day, I get
excited when I go into a theater, especially if
it is empty. Within its emptiness, it feels very
full of possibilities:'
Lipkin is the producing artistic director of
That Uppity Theatre Company in St. Louis,
which she founded in 1989 to put the
principles of cultural diversity into innovative
theatrical practice and to promote arts-based
civic dialogue. She works on a range of issues
that intersect categories of race, ethnicity
and sexual orientation, including literacy,
reproductive choice and cancer as it relates to
environmental issues and politics.
One of the oldest groups in the country
to create original material about the culture
of disability, Lipkin's DisAbility Project
focuses on topics such as employment,
transportation and a multitude of barriers
(both architectural and attitudinal). Lipkin
recently directed a new piece called TheState
of Marriage, a multigenre performance that
cracks open the history of marriage and the
rights and privileges it provides.
"Nobody is going to hand us our rights,
painful as that may be;' she says."If you're not
cochairs API Equality-LA, a coalition
of Los Angeles-based organizations and
individuals who work in the Asian Pacific
Islander (API) communities for equal
marriage rights and respectful recognition
and fair treatment of LGBT people and their
families through community education and
advocacy. She also cofounded the Asian
Pacific Islander Lesbian, Bisexual Women
and Transgender Network (APLBTN,
pronounced "apple-button''), a coalition of
individuals and groups at the local and
national levels.
"Many people assume that we do not
exist. There are few images of us. Even in the
TheL Word, did you ever see any images, any
characters, from the APLBTN community?"
While there's been backward movement for
LGBT civil rights in Virginia, things are
different in the city of Alexandria, where
hate crimes are extremely rare, there's an
active human rights commission and city
officials are open-minded.
No accident there, says Karen Gautney,
who has been a visible community activist
in the Alexandria chapters of organizations
like HIV/ AIDS Commission, the Gay
and Lesbian Comml,lnity Association, The
Women's Domestic Violence and Sexual
Assault Advisory Board, the Human Rights
Commission and the Office on Women
LGBT Taskforce.
"Over time, the thought of embracing
diversity stops being controversial, and
becomes part of the culture;' says Gautney,
who serves as the deputy executive director
of the American Association for Marriage
and Family Therapy. "When we are seen as
positive contributors, part of the fabric of the
community, it is harder to marginalize us and
discriminate against us:'
Gautney has initiated a scholarship for
local Alexandria youth, developed positive
relationships ,with city leaders and launched
an annual appreciation dinner for the city's
first responders. With the support· of the
police chief and sheriff, she's also developed
and taught classes to both departments on
methods for working with LGBT victims of
domestic violence and sexual assault, and she's
developed a presentation for school personnel
in the city's public school system that aims
to curb bullying and harassment based on
sexual orientation and gender identity. ■
July/August 2010
I 21
DYKE
DRAMA
L~sbian Typeography
Sapphic seeks soulmate in the age of the Internet. By Michele Fisher
I was discussing curve's 20th birthday
with a baby dyke co-worker of mine, and
she asked me what I thought the difference
was between being a dyke 20 years ago and
being one today.
"You are;' I told her.
Her lunch break was over, or at least that
is what she told me. She couldn't wait for
the rest of my pithy answer, so she left my
purposely cryptic comment hanging in the
22
Icurve
air. "Text me your answer later;' she said. "Buy
a magazine;' I told her.
Since you bought this magazine, I will
explain it to you. My coworker is an Italian
American butch pillow princess who is
attracted to older femme Latina tops.
If she were a dyke 20 years ago, her chances
of finding a match would have been slim,
like running into someone you haven't slept
with at an ex-girlfriend's birthday party. But
today, she has her pick of suitors who are
only too willing to give and not receive oral
gratification, and some of them are even
willing to cook breakfast for her. (Double oral
gratification!)
When I look back at the women
I've dated over the last few decades, I see
a huge· variety of personalities, physical
characteristics and demographics. They had
only one thing in common: They were willing
to date me. Some only once, while others took
years to learn their lesson.
Just like today, everybody had a "type;' but
for most of us back then, your "type" was the
woman you pictured in your head while you
were having sex with a woman who was not
your type.
"Type" is all about animal attraction.
When you ask a woman what her type is,
you are asking he·r to draw a picture for you
of a girl who would not have to do a thing
except stand there in order to make mush
of her heart and set fire to her bed. Megan
Fox and Rihanna are hot, but it is not just
about looks. (Well, only about 99 percent of
it is about looks-ideally they would also be
independently wealthy and talented beyond
belie£) You also want somebody who laughs
at your bad celebrity impressions and knows
how to make killer garlic noodles.
.
A "type" was something to shoot for, but
not somebody you ever really expected
to meet-until
now. Theoretically, dykes
today can truly find and date their "type"
exclusively. Thanks to dating ~ites, the
Internet, phones with stalking capabilities
and more equality for gays than ever, it is
easier to meet women. We used to have to
go to lame parties and stinky bars, but now
you can surf the Web in your jammies and
meet women around the world.
Are you an African American scientist who
is looking for a Korean American woman
with whom to share travelling experiences and
Pilates classes? Guess what? There are several
hundred women waiting to meet you. Perhaps
you are an atheist vegetarian looking to meet
a:
~
UJ
~
~
ii:
UJ
I
~
someone with whom you could attend opera
and engage in tantric sex. Not to worry, there
are plenty of lasses to choose from like that,
as well.
When I was on the market, the playing
field was narrow enough. I didn't want to
make a bowling alley out of it by adding too
many restrictions-OK,
any restrictions.
So I dated Catholic girls, an anorexic, a
Pakistani waitress on an expired student visa,
a stone butch who looked like Scott Baio
on .steroids, an Austrian alcoholic, a sex
worker, a big~boned cartoonist and a massage
therapist who always had tired hands after
work. Then I turned 20. You get the idea.
My "type" was only something I thought
about when-I was single.
The real long shot used to be that you
were going to meet someone who was your
type and that you were going to be her type
as well. I do not think that happened to me
even once-when I was sober. But it didn't
stop me from having a good time. Sometimes
not~my~type was a blast. I certainly hope that
over the years, I was able to entertain all those
women who were looking for something else,
but found me convenient instead.
Being a single lezzie back in the day was
like being a patient on an organ donor list.
You were just waiting for someone else's
misfortune in order to make your particular
situation better. You would eagerly await
word of a breakup and then start sniffing
around the carcass of the dead relation~
ship, waiting to pounce on one or both· of
the divorcees. OK, so it wasn't quite that
desperate, but I, I mean we, often acted like
it was. It always felt like there was a dyke
shortage, no matter where you went.
It is now raining women. You don't have to
hang around waiting for your friends to get
divorced. No matter how picky you are, there
are bazillions of women out there just waiting
to make you happy.
Now that none of us need to date outside
our "type;' I expect to see ridiculously high
success rates among our couples. Our relation~
ships ought to be lasting our whole lives. We
get to pick whomever we want, so there really
should never be a problem. Every dyke in
the world who wants to be married, should be
married to her perfect soulmate by 2015.
But I predict that by 2015 there will be
no significant drop in dyke drama. All of
the technology in the world cannot change
human nature. Having access to every
woman on Earth does not make it any easier
to find love. Straight folks have always had
unfettered access to each other, and yet
Hollywood releases tales of tortured, twisted
and unrequited love each year.
We are on the cusp of discovering what
the rest of the world already knows-that
we don't always know what is good for us.
Women who meet our every requirementon paper or monitor-may
not be what we
need in real life. Your "type" might actually be
kryptonite to your happiness.
So, somebody text the Sicilian pillow
princess and let her know the biggest
difference between being a dyke twenty years
ago and now is that although it will be just as
difficult for her to find a wife as it was for me,
she will always have plenty of women to sleep
with. Lucky bitch ... I mean butch. ■
July/August 2010 j 23
POLITICS·
A Kiss Before Dying
Illustrating the importance of hospital visitation rights.
By Victoria A. Brownworth
On March 25, 2010, I almost died.
I didn't know I was dying the night
before, or even that morning. But I was.
For six months I had been ·struggling
with lung problems for which neither my
primary care physician nor my pulmonologist had been able to find a source or a fix.
I had been on numerous medications and had
had several courses of body- and mindaltering steroids infused into my system.
Despite these attempts at fixing wpat
was wrong, I was still spending my days
exhausted, wheezing like a 90-year-old and
coughing like a two-pack-a-day smoker
(even though I have never smoked).
Twelve hours before I nearly died, I was
sitting on my bed struggling to breathe. This
part wasn't new, unfortunately. But it somehow felt worse than usual. Much worse.
At 5 a.m. I awoke, after having slept for
about an hour. I was gasping for breath. At 7
a.m., I called my physician's office and made
an appointment. That appointment wasn't
until 4 p.m. I tried to work, but the struggle
24
Icurve
to breathe was so intense, I began to cry. I
was frightened.
At 9:30 a.m. I called the doctor's office
again and asked if I could speak to my doctor.
The receptionist, hearing the panic in my
voice, put me through. When my doctor got
on the phone, she was succinct: "You need to
go to the hospital, now:'
I hate hospitals. I fear hospitals. Yet I
have spent an inordinate amount of time
in hospitals due to cancer, a serious heart
condition, multiple sclerosis and 18 surgeries.
As bad as I felt, I really did not want to go
to the emergency room. Nevertheless, I knew
something was really wrong.
My partner got me into the car. It was
raining lightly. The hospital is about 20
minutes from the house. I waited at triage for
about 10 minutes before the nurse brought
me in. le was obvious I was in bad shape-it
was less clear why.
When you go to an ER, they check your
vital signs: blood pressure, heart rate,
temperature and the amount Qf oxygen
m your blood-the
saturation level chat
sends oxygen through your blood stream
to your brain. The normal oxygen level
is 100 percent, but 95 and above is the
average range. Between 94 and 91, you are
having trouble getting enough oxygen to
your brain. Between 88 and 90, you are in
danger. At 86 or below, you are on your way
to dying-it's the same as going down for
the third time when you are drowning. My
level was 86 percent.
Within a few minutes after the triage
nurse took my vitals, my partner and I were
in a private room. I was being hooked up
to the highest level of oxygen they can give
you without making your lungs pop like a
balloon, and the doctor was preparing an IV
drug cocktail to "smooth out the lung tissue"
so I was no longer, as he put it, "breathing
through a straw:'
For hours and hours my partner and I were
in that room while I was hooked up to various
machines chat were either monitoring me or
pulling me back from the brink of death.
Thanks to my partner, my doctor and a host
of medical personnel at the hospital-not to
mention the science chat makes it possible to
know when someone doesn't have enough
oxygen going to her brain to live without
having a stroke and dying-I am still alive.
(I have a little tank I travel with when I go
out and tanks chat look like nuclear missiles
in my house.) On oxygen daily, but alive.
Battling cancer, but alive. Throughout the
many hours I was in the hospital, my partner
was by my side, so chat while I was fighting
for my life, I wasn't alone.
Three weeks after I nearly died, as Tea Party
activists were protesting taxes in Washington
D.C., President Obama signed a presidential
memorandum for the secretary of Health
and Human Services requiring hospitals chat
accept federal monies, including Medicare
and Medicaid, to recognize a patient's
"designated partner" in terms of visitation and
health consultation rights. In short, Obama
ordered hospitals to stop denying the civil
rights of lesbians and gay men once they
cross the threshold to a hospital.
It seems basic, doesn't it-having the person
you love with you when you are in the hospital,
sick, frightened, possibly dying?
While I was waiting to be triaged,
a young girl came in with her arm in a
f
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8
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Alone Again, Unnaturally
makeshift sling. Since it wasn't quite noon
on a Thursday, she had obviously had an
accident at school. "It hurts. I'm scared;' the
girl told her mother, crying.
When it hurts and we're scared, we want
someone to comfort us, to make us feel safe.
We all need someone with us at the hospital,
no matter what age we are.
I live in a big city. My doctor is a lesbian.
The other doctors in her practice are queerfriendly. My hospital has always seemed
"Don't leave me. Don't
let them separate us.
I want you with me in
case I die. Be sure
you tell them you are
my wife."
queer-friendly. But when you are gasping for
breath, when you are hours or minutes away
from a possible stroke or death, you shouldn't
have to explain who the woman holding your
hand is, or defend why she must be with you
in the ER.
Yet that is what every lesbian and gay man
in America has to do every time they go to a
hospital with their partner: explain-which
involves coming out to strangers when you're
sick or traumatized and then defending your
relationship when all you really want to do
is get better.
On the way to the hospital I kept telling
my partner, "Don't leave me. Don't let them
separate us. I want you with me in case
I die. Be sure you tell them you are my
wife:' Over and over again, as I gasped for
each breath, my throat constricted, my
chest heaving.
It seems basic, doesn't it? Simply wanting
your partner to be with you when you are
sick and afraid? So why did it take a presidential decree to make hospitals comply?
~
As lesbian couples, we deserve the same
~ treatment heterosexual couples enjoy. But
-....
g while the President's decree may be a first
step toward recognizing our relationships,
~ it is only a first step, with many more yet
§ needed before we can live-and die-as
~
o equal members of this society. ■
!
AsHaroldSculllaydyingin a nursinghome
in Sebastopol,
Calif.,hispartnerof 25years,
ClayGreene,
wasprevented
fromseeing
himfor threemonthsleadingupto his
death,eventhoughthesame-sex
couple
hadcarefullycrafteda networkof legal
documents
thatweremeantto protect
themfromjustsuchegregious
treatment.
ScullandGreene
livedtogetherfor over .
two anda halfdecadesuntilScull,who
wasin poorhealth,fell downthefront
stepsof theirhouseandwastakento the
hospitalin April2008.Duringthis period,
Greene
himselfwasplacedona conservatorshipandforciblyconfinedin anassisted
livingfacilitybySonoma
County.
Addinginsultto injury,all of their
belongings,
accumulated
duringtheirlife
together,
wereseizedbythecountyand
soldoff byanauctionhousewithouttheir
authorization,
includingHollywood
memorabilia,artworkandfamilyheirlooms.
AfterdiligentworkbyattorneyAnne
Dennis,Greene
wasfinallyreleased
from
thefacility,onlyto find hispartnerdead
andeverytraceof theirlifetogethergone.
Greene
wasneverallowedto beby his
partner'ssideor directhiscare.
Thisprofoundviolationshockedmany
humanrightsadvocates,
includingthe
NationalCenterfor LesbianRightswhich
hastakenonGreene's
caseasco-counsel.
"Themorewe learnedaboutthecase,
the moreupsetwe wereaboutwhat
happened.
Therewasjust noquestion•
thatabsolutely
thiswasa casewhere
we wouldwantto pitchin andhelp,"said
Shannon
Minter,legaldirectorfor NCLR.
A majorlawsuitis beingfiledin the
hopesof gettingjusticefor Greene.
"We
wantto senda verystrongmessage,
not
justto Sonoma
Countybutto all counties
in California
andnationally
aswell,thatthe
timehaspassedwhenpeoplecanmistreat
LBGT
eldersandgetawaywith it," Minter
said."Therearelegalgroups... [that]will
goafterpeoplewhoengagein thistype
of abuse."
Themistreatment
of thisdevotedcouple
shedlightonthe hiddensufferingfacedby
gaycouplesnationwide
whoareplunged
intoa medicalcrisisonlyto findtheylack
protections
offeredto heterosexual
couples.
"It is absolutely
criticalto havethose
documents
... butwhatwe'relearningis
thattheyarenotenough,"Mintersaid.
Sadly,thisstory,whilehorrifying,
is
nottheonlyexampleof howtherightsof
thequeercommunity
arebeingignored
by medicalinstitutions.
In2007,Janice
Langbehn
andLisaPondmadeheadlines
afterhospitalofficialskeptLangbehn
and
thecouple'sthreechildrenfromseeingPond
asshelaycomatose
in a Miamihospital.
Theytoo hadlegalpapersin place,but
aftereighthoursof fightingwiththe
hospital,Langbehn
wasonlyableto see
herpartnerof nearlytwo decadesfor a
few minutesbeforeshedied,according
to LambdaLegal,whichhastakenup
the case.
President
BarackObamainstructedthe
secretaryof HealthandHumanServices
recentlyto createnewrulesto force
all hospitalsthatacceptMedicareand
Medicaid
to allowpatientsto designate
whocanvisitthemandmakecritical
medicaldecisions
forthem.Obama
said
lesbians
andgaysare"uniquelyaffected"
andthatfortheLGBT
community,
a hospital
visit"meansthatall toooften,peopleare
madeto sufferor evento passawayalone,
deniedthecomfortof companionship
in
theirfinalmoments,
whilea lovedoneis
left worryingandpacingdownthe hall."
WhileObama's
memorandum
doesn't
havetheforceof law,NCLR
Executive
DirectorKateKendellwashopefulthat it
will helpto protectthe LGBTcommunity.
"I dothinkit will goa longwayto assuring
thatsame-sex
couplesarepermittedto
visiteachother,"Kendellsaid.
However,
bothKendellandMinterfeel
stronglythatit is toolittle,toolatefrom
Obama.
"Hehasbeenverycautiousand
veryslowto embraceourfamilies,"Minter
said."Thatis wrongandpainfulanda
betrayalof whathepromiseduswhenhe
wasrunningfor president."
ThoughKendellsaysyoushouldnot
haveto bemarriedto berespected,
Greene's
casealsounderscores
the need
for marriageequalityandthe hopethat
Obama's
memorandum
canbea turning
pointin thestruggleto protectLGBTrights
anda reminderthatsweepingreformis
needed.[ArielMessman-Rucker]
July/August 2010
I25
PROGREIIIVE.
PROMOTION
PROGRESSIVE IS
PUTTING A FACE ON
PROGRESS - YOURS.
A tolerant world is a work in progress. That's why
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WORKS OF ART. Progressive's awareness campaign
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BECOME A
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EVENT,PROGRESSIVE
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Over a century later, life finally started to imitate art.
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Progres5ive Casualty Ins. Co. and its affiliates, Mayfield Village, OH. 10D00056 (04/10)
PROGR£II/V£•
Truth is stranger than fiction
on Showtime's new
lesbian smash,
The Real L Word.
By Rachel Shatto
Photography by Ondrea Barbe/Showtime
0
Love it or hate it, The L Word was a groundbreaking show,
unlike anything before, and its departure has created a massive
lesbian vacuum on television. It seems only fitting that the
ake on the task of bringing more dyke drama to
the mai
earn would be L Word svengali Ilene Chaiken, in
atio with Magical Elves, the people behind such sleek,
stylish reality series as ProjectRunway and Top Chef Masters.
This time out, on a new documentary~style series, The Real
L Word, the dyke drama promises to be the real deal. The
show follows six lesbians as they play,work and live their iiber~
fabulous lives in the fast lane of Los Angeles. Unlike in the
previous scripted series, where you had to play 'guess which
cast member is the lesbo:"' all of the Real Ls are openly queer,
loving ladies and la vida loca all for our viewing pleasure.
Meet the Real Papi
Further blurring the lines between the
new show and its scripted predecessor
is Rose Garcia, a sexy real estate advisor whose love 'em and
leave 'em exploits have become legend in the L.A. lesbian
scene-so much so that she caught the attention of Chaiken,
who made Garcia the inspiration for Papi, the Latina lothario
who seduced her way through half The L Word cast in season
four. "I was a little bit of a quote, unquote player, so it was a lot
of truth, and they built the character around a few things they
took from my personal life. It was more the dynamic of me
being a womanizer at that time;' Garcia explains. (No word
yet on whether she is the originator of the infamous "circles"
maneuver that made her so popular with Alice Pieszecki.)
In the reality series, we pick up with Garcia, who has since
shrugged off her heartbreaker ways, fallen for new girlfriend,
Natalie, and is learning how to be in a relationship. Along with
Natalie, Garcia's family is ready to see this former bad girl settle
down. "I came out when I was 19;' Garcia says. "My sexuality
wasn't a problem for them. [They said] 'This is who you are,
were happy, we love you. The crossroads
was at, 'Now you're 35-stop, settle
down, like, do something:'
But just because shes said good~
bye to the single life,it doesn't mean
she isn't excited about the atten~
tion the show will garner with the
ladies. "Are you kidding:' I've been
waiting for this for 35 years. Every
morning when I wake up, instead
of saying thank God, I say thank
you, Ilene Chaiken;' jokes Garcia.
"I mean obviously I would be BSing
you if I didn't say attention from the
ladies would be welcome:'
All-American Romance
No lesbian ensemble would be
complete without a power couple,
and in the case of The RealL Word
that couple is Nikki Weiss and
,' ~
Jill Sloane Goldstein.
/,:,. ~.,
Film and TV development executive Nikki Weiss first
entered audiences' living rooms when she was featured in
an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show ~ith then-girlfriend
Carol in a 2006 GLAAD Award-winning episode titled
"Wives Confess They Are Gay:' She is a producer and
manager who represents a number of Hollywood players,
includingJason Reitman Uuno) and Bryan Singer (X-Men),
and she consulted on the Greys Anatomy lesbian storyline.
After working successfully in advertising for over a decade,
Weiss' fiancee Jill Sloane Goldstein, followed her passion and
began writing, focusing on commercial treatments and award
shows, including the 2010 American Music Awards and the
Independent Spirit Awards.
The way the two met and fell in love sounds more like the
plot of a romantic comedy than real life. Both women grew
up on the East Coast and when Weiss was 12 and Goldstein
was 8 they met at summer camp. But it was Goldstein's
older brother who caught Weiss' preadolescent eye, and their
teen romance lasted three summers. Twenty-five years later,
Goldstein tracked Weiss down via the camp website. Soon
the two were thinking in terms of a very different kind of
sleepaway."We knew there was a connection between us but
we didn't know what that connection was, and so when we
decided to meet-because Jill was living in San Francisco at
the time and I was in L.A.-when we decided to meet, I go,
'Look, no pressure, we'll either braid each others hair and play
jacks or we won't;" laughs Weiss. "I was destined to be in the
Goldstein family in some semblance of a way:'
The two are now in the process of planning
their wedding, and they couldn't be more excited
to share their story with the world. "I think what was really
important for the two of us, what was very meaningful about
the opportunity, was the chance to show our very healthy
relationship to the world;' explains Goldstein. "To further
debunk stereotypes about these types of relationships. Our
lives are as normal and as healthy as anybody else's; we have
the same highs and lows in our relationship. We have the same
life struggles and successes and hardships. It was really to just
take the fear out of it:'
Goldstein agrees that their story will be one that the mainstream can easily identify with: "I keep saying 'Were the
sleeper story, that we're going to get Tupperware endorsements
because we're like, the straightest gay couple you're ever going
to meet: Like, everybody's at Dinah Shore and were having
dinner around our dinner table;' she jokes.
TV or not, the two face the same challenges that
lesbian couples face in most states, trying to achieve equality
for their relationship. "Weve had to take a ton of legal steps
that a normal heterosexual couple wouldn't have to do, like
healthcare, powers of attorney and legal contracts ... unfortunately, we are not allowed to get married. So, yes, I hope
this will even help the cause;' says Weiss. "Marriage is such
a sacred union, gay people can't get married, but yet we have
these game shows on television, they shall remain nameless,
where you're vying to get married to 25 women. It's such a
sacred union, but we can make it into a game show? And I'm
really truly in love with my fiancee and I'm not allowed to get
married. It's very frustrating:'
From Choppers to Couture
For castmate Mikey Koffman-a successful fashion producer who now runs L.A. Fashion Week-her cause is
the environment. Three years ago, Koffman began
the Green Initiative Humanitarian
Fashion Show, which focuses on
sustainability and reducing
our carbon footprint. But
it wasn't always runways and top models
for this SoCal native.
Koffman grew up in a
rough neighborhood
in Culver City. "When
I lived there, it was a
really violent area. There
was literally one road that
went through the projects, and
there were Crips on one side and
Bloods on the other, literally shooting each other, every night. We were the
only white family that lived in the whole
area ... it was reallyjust a rough life,like,
fighting every day just to get in and
out and just to walk to school:'
Living this way forced
Koffman to become self-
sufficient. She started living on her own when she was only
16 years old. Always a tomboy, Koffman spent her summers
working at her stepdad's garage, developing a special affinity
for motorcycles which lead to work at West Coast Choppers
and, eventually her own garage in Long Beach. "I used to work
on all the girls that rode on bikes-dykes on bikes;' laughs
Koffman. ''.Allthose girls would be rolling up to my shop,
and we'd be having parties-it was really cool. And then we
started doing bikes for celebrities and stuff. And it just kind of
progressed that way. And then one day I was like, Oh, let me
make some T-shirts. I literally accidentally started a clothing
line that went international within a year:'
Despite quick success, Koffman soon struggled. "I was in
New York at the time of the bombings, and I was actually
on the last flight that landed in Los Angeles on 9/11. I was
actually supposed to be on the Pittsburgh- LAX flight that was
hijacked. So my bags, and all my stuff for my clothing line-
I'd taken all the money from my motorcycle shop and invested
it in my clothing line, and I literally lost everything in a day:'
The combination of the loss of her livelihood and a bad
breakup sent ~offman into a personal spiral that lead to substance abuse. If it weren't for another tragedy-her aunt being
diagnosed with cancer-she might never have recovered.
Instead, she was forced to pull herself up by her bootstraps
and help in raising her cousin. "She had this brand-new baby...
So I took a year of my life and I stayed with my aunt and my
grandmother and helped my aunt go through her process of
cancer, and literally, at this time, had to take care of a brandnew baby. It was the best thing I werit through at that time of
my life. I was really depressed about losing my business, and a
couple people in my family had died, and I started doing drugs
and I would isolate. So basically, having to show up and be
there for my aunt and this brand new baby kind of just pulled
me right out of it ... It really made me realize-not to live my
life through fear and make my choices through
love. And that really turned my life around:'
America's Sapphic Sweetheart
For Tracy Reyerson, a film and TV executive, the
reasons to join the cast were two fold. "I did the
show for a couple of reasons. One would be to
challenge stereotypes. I'm not here to break them,
but I'm here to sort of debate a lot of things that
are said. And also, to have an amazing experience
out of my comfort zone-I like to live that way.
Something I can cross off my bucket list:'
When production on the series began, Reyerson
had just begun dating her partner, stand-up comic
and mother of three Stamie Karakasidis. The two
started out as friends and gradually realized it was
something more.
"I went to a few of her stand-up shows;' recalls
Reyerson. 'i\.nd we would talk, we would meet
up in group settings and eventually it sort of just
clicked for us, both at the same moment ... ! don't
think we had ever both looked at each other in
that way. We were both dating people and we
were just friends first, but it just clicked one day. A
light bulb went off and I realized, Wow, I'm really
attracted to her. So, it was a pretty fun reveal.And it
happened for us at the same time, which is nice:'
Adapting to that life of a ready-made family is a
unique journey for her, and one that she does not
take lightly. "I think most people would run the
other way when they realized someone has three
kids. For some reason, I was actually excited about
it. I ran to her:'
Is Reyerson prepared for the added pressure of
the camera."This is the first time I'm dating someone with kids ... So, we were really worried about
the stress that it does put on your relationship, and
it's going to force us to talk about certain things
that you'd normally talk out in a year and a half ...
it actually made us grow closer together:'
There was another relationship that Reyerson hoped the
show would help mend: the one between her and her mother.
"I think subconsciously one of the reasons I did it was hoping
that my mom would come around to the whole gay issue. Before
the show she couldn't mutter the word gay... I don't think she
has a problem against anybody [else] being gay-it's just her
daughter. And it's her hopes and dreams that were crushed,
because now her daughter is never going to marry, you know,
the prince. So, she just has to get used to the princess:'
The New Lezzie Heartbreaker
_Special effects artist Whitney Mixter is swingin' single, looking·
to fall in love but frequently falling back to her bad-girl ways.
Even before the series aired, Mixter was drawing comparisons
to the consummate lesbian heartbreaker. "Obviously, I'm
not blind to the fact that I'm getting compared to Shane;'.
she laughs. 'Tm not going to deny that we have had similar
patterns and story lines. However, honestly, I'm myself'
Mixter's casting was happenstance. "I kind of stumbl~d into
the whole casting process. A friend of mine was going and she
asked me to come. I ended up doing an on-camera audition
and basically it went from there. I was a huge fan of The L
Word initially, so, to be part of showing America that lesbians
like this do exist ... it was definitely an honor for me:'
'
I
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.
Working Their Magic
If this disparate group of women seems like an unlikely
collection of friends, that's because they weren't prior to taping.
Rather than casting a forcing together a group of women, ala
The RealHousewives,the creators of The RealL Wordfollowed
each subject with her own separate story and allowed them to
cross paths organically-or not, as the case may be.
This less-sensationalized format is, in no small part, thanks
to the work of the extraordinary production company Magical
Elves. While The Real L Word was originally conceived
as a show about a group of friends, the decision to follow
the women as individual story arcs came as a result of the
challenges faced in casting. Magical Elves cofounder Jane
L_ipsitzexplains, "We originally were trying to find a group of
friends. People who knew each other or people whose lives
intersected. That's definitely a harder bill to fill:'
They discovered that by taking this tack they were finding
a lack of diversity in the stories and characters. "Because your
friends or your partner-there's a sameness that draws you
all together;' said Lipsitz. "Whereas if we have five different
stories, six different women, there's a lot more diversity in the
storytelling.We like authentic voices and we like tracking what
reallyhappened ... we tend to gravitate toward the documentary
style of telling as much as possible:'
According to the cast, this style paid off."I appreciated that
they allowed us just to be ourselves and do our thing;" says
Garcia. "I appreciated that because it allowed me to be me,
whether it was ... cussing like a sailor or hanging out with my.
family.Who you're going to see on camera is who you're going
to see when you're hanging out with me:'
A Question of Diversity
When the first cast photo hit the web, it barely had time to
render before talk of a lack of diversity was making its way
around the blogoshere. One look at this attractive, youthful
cast and the lesbian masses were crying foul. However, the
lack of diversity is an issue the cast wholeheartedly disputes.
"People probably look at that picture and go, 'Oh, it's
six white girls' -and it's absolutely not;' says Kaufman.
"Ilene Chaiken handpicked each one of us because we are
all charismatic people. She took a
glimpse into each of our lives to
see who we surround ourselves
with, so, you know, the lesbian
community far supersedes six
girls, but it's really interesting.
When you watch the show, you'll
see how our lives are surrounded,
individually, by all races, shapes,
size, colors, gay, straight, black,
white ... There's so much diversity
that's on the show, but you won't
know until you see it:'
Reyerson-who,
incidentally,
is Puerto Rican and Jewishthinks naysayers are missing the
bigger picture. "You have to start -Rose Garcia
somewhere and I just want people
to know that this is just Chapter One of hopefully many ...
maybe in season two they'll include oth~r ethnicities ... but
I think people should just tune in and sort of, you know,
celebrate the fact that this has made it to Showtime, for God's
sake. It's huge. We should all celebrate and acknowledge the
fact that this is the first gay-themed reality show on premium
cable. That's groundbreaking in itsel£ It's hard to get
anything on television right now. It also defines sexuality in
an uncensored way. It just kind of pushes boundaries, pushes
buttons a bit. And mostly it's going to get people talking:'
Reyerson is correct: Having another lesbian-centric series
on a mainstream cable network is a big deal. For the third time,
Showtime will offer audiences a glimpse into a queer world. As
to what they're going to see, the cast promises it will be honest,
raw and-most of all-real. Or as Garcia explains it, "They'll
see a genuine depiction of six women who are just being themselves. Some you're going to love, some you're going to hate.
Some you're going to want to hook up with, some you're going
to want to slap-like with any show. Ill probably be the one
with all of those. Depending on the episode:'
While The RealL Word can't speak to every lesbian demographic, its presence on mainstream media is a boon for
visibility and-let's face it-the show promises to be a fascinating (and titillating) ride."The L Wordwas a show, a scripted
show. This is real;'Garcia says."Everybody watched that show
for entertainment and was like, Does that really happen? Is
that really true? Do girls really look that way? You're going to
see us in our real clothes, in our real life, our real jobs, our real
stories, real parents, real girlfriends, real fights-it's real:' ■
"They'll see a
genuine depiction
of six women who
are just being
themselves ... Some
you're going to
hate. Some you're
going to want to
hook up with."
LesbianLocalvores
Queer farmers put down roots throughout the country. By Lauren Marie Fleming
Dykesin the dirt
(fromleft):Liza
Rencountre(right)
and FrankieCohen
at homewith their
flock; Chelsea
Cleveland'surban
garden;Dana
Gentile(top
left), partnerAbbi
Jutowitzand their
"kids";farmer
LindaPerrine
(bottomleft),
partnerCatherine
Konrathand dog
Maddie; Margo
Fernandez-Burgos
digs her hands
in the soil in The
Queer Farmer
Film Project
Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, from April to
December, local farmers line up in my town square to sell the
fruits of their labor. In the midst of the kale, carrots and cauliflower, lesbian localvores flourish, providing fresh produce and
eye candy to all who walk by.
Queer people have always been at the forefront of ecological
movements, so it's no surprise that farmer's markets everywhere are populated by queer and trans people looking to grow,
sell and shop locally. From growing chard in San Francisco,
to raising alpacas in Austin, to farming community plots in
New York City, queers across· the country are getting back to
their roots.
In New London, Conn.-a town of fewer than 25,000
people-over 60 local teens from various ethnic and cultural
backgrounds have worked approximately 15,000 hours in the
F.R.E.S.H. community garden (freshnewlondon.org). Chelsea
Cleveland, a self-identified "brown queer;' works over 20 plots
of land for the community education program and with keeps
up with her own two plots as well.
Cleveland says the diversity at F.R.E.S.H. makes it different
from the other places where she's worked. "I thrive off areas
that are as varied as the things I am growing;' she says."I want
to learn what an old Puerto Rican woman does with her
tomatoes when she's done growing them. I want to know
what that teenager is going to do with that big old squash
he just grew:'
That kinship is apparent in many farm communities. In
the Pacific Northwest, the queer farming society is particularly
strong, spanning an area from San Francisco to Seattle.
Eugene, Ore., a town known for its commitment to local,
organic food is right in the middle.
Honor Earth Farms lies 10 miles outside Eugene, Ore.
and is run by Linda Perrine, her partner Catherine Konrath
and their trusty farm dog Maddie. The farm, which used to
cultivate a variety of crops, now specalizes in growing
certified organic hazelnuts.
During her sophomore year at the University of Oregon,
Alisha Babb got a job through a fellow lesbian working with
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dairy goats to prepare them for shows. By the time she left that
same farm last December, Babb was responsible for everything
from vaccines to blood draws; from breeding to helping tough
labors, for nearly 300 goats.
"I could name every goat;' she says, 'Just by looking at their
faces, and even their udders!" Babb loves goats so much she
even has a goat tattoo.
Babb made friends with Frankie Cohen and Liza Rencountre
while working on the same goat farm. Cohen and Rencountre
now live on 38 acres and have chickens, horses, goats and a
medium-size garden. However, most of their time is spent
cleaning up the over 60 years of garbage dumped previously
on their land and returning the area to a nurturing place for
themselves and the native plants, animals and peoples.
"We want our farm to serve as an educational opportunity
for people;' Cohen said. "Eventually, we would like to see it
made available to, or returned to, the indigenous peoples of
this area:'
Across the country, fellow goat farmer Dana Gentile runs
the 50-acre Darlin' Doe Farms with her partner Abbi Jutowitz
in Mt. Saugerties, N.Y. (darlindoefarm.com). The farm focuses
on healthy lean meats, and Gentile hopes to get into raising
rabbits and bison farming eventually.
Growing up on suburban Long Island, Gentile dreamed
of farm life and helped her Italian immigrant father in their
backyard garden. Later, when she decided to leave a successful
position in the art world to start a goat farm in the Hudson
Valley,her family, especially her father, was shocked.
"He left Italy for a better life in America and is a little
surprised that his daughter is now a farmer;' Gentile says."It's
kind of amazing that our parents tried so hard to get away
from farming and food production, and now myself and the
y.oungfarming generation are reclaiming local food production
as our livelihood:'
The reclamation of food production is a fast-growing movement, and queers young and old seem to be setting the trend.
The Queer Farmer Film Project, directed by Jonah Mossberg,
has been documenting this rapid growth in queer farmers
(queerfarmer.blogspot.com). The project seeks to 'explore the
dynamic relationships between gender, sexuality and agriculture, with a particular focus on the hearts and hard work of
America's queer farmers:' Mossberg's blog has links to various
queer farms, a_ctivistsites and workshop info for uniquel queer
endeavors like "fagriculture;' and and is a great place to start a
search for your own lesbian localvore community. ■
ltty Bitty Farming
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■
"There is gigantic artistic
talent within our community, yet
very little support for queer art
and crafts and queer artists and
craftspeople specifically;' says
Mii::helley QueenofQueens,
the founder of the Queer Etsy
Street Team, an online community for queers who sell their
handmade goods on Etsy.com. "I started the Queer Etsy
Street Team because I noticed a need for representation:'
The Queer Crafter Collective (QCC) has a similar mission.
It's about "identifying <;mrselvesand letting people know that
it's not just the hipsters and housewives who are creating," says
QCC member and recycled T-shirt artist, Michelle Scism.
"It wouldbe impossiblefor
me to createwithoutsprinklingshardsof my big gay
storyuponeverythingI do."
Making Things
Perfectly Queer
Saving green by getting their craft on.
By Erin Gilday
Queer crafts
(clockwise from
top): Oh Honey
necklaces and
Queer cuff
by Meaghan
O'Malley;
Special Different
by Michelley
QueenofQueens;
a collection of
pendants by
Sarah Bober
Handmade commitment rings? Hand-printed Dyke Pride
patches, panties and T-shirts? You may be hard-pressed to
find the makers of these queer handicrafts at your average
crafts bazaar, but more and more Sapphic seamstresses
(and knitters, headers and cross-stitchers) are coming out
of the proverbial woodwork. They are coming together for
economic, social and artistic support with groups like the
Queer Etsy Street Team (etsyqueers.blogspot.com) and
Washington D.C:s Queer Crafter Collective (queercraftercollective.com) as well as girl-powered craft mafias from New
Orleans to Baltimore.
Banding together to share support for one another's creative
endeavors is a powerful act for many queer crafters. Crafts
fairs are intimidating, competitive places for new crafters, says
Scism. To ease some of that pressure, the QCC sets up a
community booth where members can vend together."Having
the support of other queer crafters makes you realize you're
not the only one out there;' says Etsy jeweler Sarah Bober.
Though the Queer Etsy street team functions solely online,
the support its members enjoy is no less tangible. Members
promote one another's Etsy shops, swap selling tips
and provide a place to vent about the stresses of running
a handmade business. For QueenofQ_ueens, connecting
with the team is like 'coming home ... going to your room,
locking the door, stripping nude and lying on clean sheets in
air-conditioned bliss. Being able to relate to one another's
creativity and identities forges a deep sense of kinship that is
simply irreplaceable:'
So just what exactly makes queer crafts "different" from
other crafts? For many, the answer is obvious. "It would be
impossible for me to create without sprinkling shards of my
big gay story upon everything I do;' says QueenofQ_ueens, who
remembers crafting a portrait of Melody from Josie and the
Pussycats out of shaving cream as a young girl. For many,
queer crafting is just what happens when homos pick up
the hot glue gun. Fellow Queer Etsian Brian Kenny agrees:
"Crafting is crafting. It has no sexual orientation. What
makes it queer is our unique view and unbelievably wide
frame of reference:'
For others, the answer is more complex."! think that there's
a misunderstanding with mainstream, heteronormative
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crafters that queer craft must consist
rainbows ... and that our craft is just a
means through which we express our Pride,"
says QCC jeweler Meaghan O'Malley. She
worries that labeling her crafts as 'queer" will
cause them to be regarded as a novelty or,
worse, ignored altogether.
Rainbows or no, many crafters feel that
the act of creation-the
act of craftingis always political. Mainstream media
depictions of the Handmade Revolution
frequently imply a global female battalion
of artsy~craftsy hipsters, housewives and
post~third~wave feminists all stitching away
and bitching as they craft a new, sparkle~
felted vision of neo~retro~domesticity. "Not
your granny's crafts!" the headlines declare.
It's true that in the age of mass~market
sweatshop goods, doing for oneself has a
revolutionary edge. Many crafters argue
that choosing to practice skills that are
traditionally labeled feminine (like sewing,
knitting, needlework, etc.) is, in part, an
iron1c subversion of gender stereotypes.
Perhaps this is doubly true when the
crafter is queer. 'i\ll the cues socially and
culturally tell me that I should be focusing
on other things, but here I am embroidering
and playing with beads;' O'Malley says.
However, pushing the boundaries of
gender and sexuality through handicraft is
only one part of the queer crafter agenda.
Both the QCC and the Queer Etsy Street
Team hope to create an alternative hand~
made marketplace where queers can offer
support to one another artistically, socially
and economically. Part of queer crafting,
for QueenofQueens, is "keeping our money
circulating amongst ourselves as much as we
can:' She argues that this new twist on "buying
local" is one of the driving principles that
makes the queer crafting community special.
While crafting is a business for all queer
crafters we spoke with, ultimately, the bottom
line for many crafters cannot be expressed in
dollars and cents.
"It's always a fun experience at art fairs
when queer people notice my rainbow resin
pieces;' explains Bober. "Most people don't
think I'm queer when they look at me, but
when they see the pendants, it makes them
do a double take. Often they will smile or
start talking with me. I feel like I've made
Thirteen Recycling Blunders
You think you're green, but do you make any of these mistakes? By Bree Clarke
· Our desire to recycle is well~intentioned, but even curbside
activists are often misguided about how recycling actually
works. Part of the problem is that recyclingrules are different in
every community and can change because of funding, laws or
a host of other reasons, which is why it's important to check
the guidelines and rules for your individual community
perio.dically. Earth911.com offers information on what items
your local municipality will recycle, along with places you can
take items they won't. Some of the most common recycling
mistakes are easy to remedy.
1,.Puttinggreasypizzaboxesin the recyclebin.This is a very
common mistake and it can cause big problems at the recycling
plant. Greasy or dirty cardboard (or food~saturated paper of
any type) cannot be recycled. If the box is greasy, cut out the
affected area and recycle the rest. Then compost the greasy bit.
2. Accepting
junk mail as a fact of life, thenjust tossingit
in the recyclingbin. Spend a few minutes and precycle.
Stop the majority of it from arriving by registering with
OptOutPreScreen.com, DoNotMail.org, CatalogChoice.org
and DmaChoice.org. For the stuff that does still trickle in,
don't just blindly toss it in the recycling bin. Some, such as
credit card offers, include plastic~coated cardboard pieces that
aren't recyclable and can foul up the recycling machine. Look
through the envelope, remove these items and toss them in the
trash before you recycle the rest.
3. Not removingcaps from plasticbottlesand jugs before
recycling.
The bottle caps are made from a different kind of
plastic and, as a result, cannot be recycled with the Type 1
Polyethylene Terephthalate (PETE) and Type 2 High Density
Polyethylene (HPDE) plastics that bottles and jugs are made
from. Throw the caps in the trash and recycle the bottles.
4. Putting
yourChristmas
treeatthecurbwiththegarbage.
Most
communities pick up trees to be recycled into mulch and wood
chips. Or, in some areas, for marsh restoration. Do not use
regular curbside garbage pickup or your tree will end up in
the landfill with the other garbage, where it can take up to 30
years to decompose.
5. Puttingrecyclables
in plasticgrocery
bags.This is a horrible
mistake. Most curbside recycling programs require you tf:>
put your recyclables in clear or blue recycling bins or bags.
Many people put their recyclables in a plastic grocery bag
and then dump it in the recycling container. This causes
trouble on the recycling sorting line, as workers have to
manually remove the bags or the bags get tangled up in the
sorting equipment, which leads to costly shutdowns and
repairs. Just don't do it.
6. Reusing
grocerybagsto pickup dogpoop.Usually, reusing
is good. But, when you do this, you are taking your dog's
completely biodegradable dog poop and throwing it away in
a plastic bag to sit in a landfill for up to 100 years. Buy 100
percent biodegradable dog bags that will decompose along
with Fido's excess. (Biobagusa.com
or flushdoggy.com)
7. Throwingout Ziplocbaggies,grocerybagsand othersoft
plasticbags. Soft pliable bags made from Type 4 Low
Density Polyethlyne plastic (such as Ziploc bags-with
the zipper part cut off-sandwich bags, bread bags, newspaper bags and dry cleaning bags) can all be recycled at your
local grocery store along with your plastic grocery and other
store bags. Just make sure they are clean and dry first.
8. Throwing
outfoilandaluminum
take-outcontainers.
In many
cities, foil and the aluminum bottoms of take-out containers
are recyclable. Rinse them off before recycling. Better yet,
bring your own. Mygreensupply.com or vegware.com have
biodegradable to-go containers.
9. Not rinsingout plasticand glassbottlesbeforerecycling.
You've got to rinse your bottles and jars out well, especially
when they contain items like peanut butter, before recycling or
else it hinders the recycling process. Soap and shampoo must
be rinsed until the residue is gone.
10.Putting
frozenfoodcontainers
inthepaperrecycling.
Frozen
food boxes are coated with a plastic coating called polymer to
protect food from moisture in the freezer. This coating makes
it almost impossible to recycle frozen food boxes.
11.Attempting
torecycle
Styrofoam.
Styrofoam is not recyclable,
so throw it in the trash. Ideally, the best solution is not to use
it at all, as scientists estimate it can take a million years to
decompose.
12.Youaren'tsurehowto recycle
anitem,soyoujustthrowit in
therecycle
binanyway.
When in doubt, it's better to just throw
~ it in the trash, because otherwise it can mean shutdowns and
!!l. escalated costs at the recycling center, which surely, in some
way will get passed along to you or the planet.
~
iai
:.::
a:
~ 13. Tossingcurve magazinein the trash.Everyone knows
0:g you should hang on to curve for posterity. If you do ditch
~ it though, and don't have any lesbian friends to pass it on to
~ (hint) be sure to toss it into the recycling. In the past glossy
~ mags were not recyclable, things have changed. Now, virtually
~
o all curbside recycling programs are magazine-friendly. ■
Changesin MotorCity
Motown's eco-forward LGBT center needs your green, too. By Rachel Shatto
Detroit (aka Motor City USA) may not be the first place that
comes to mind when you think "green;' but for Affirmations,
the LGBT center located in nearby Ferndale (a queer-friendly
enclave known to locals as Fabulous Ferndale), going green is
a top priority.
"I think going green [is] really about being good citizens;'
explained Kathleen LaTosch, Affirmations' chief administrative
officer.'J\s LGBT people, we are stigmatized and I think it was
.important for us to role model what LGBT people are: good
neighbors, everyday people. It's an important kind of message
to the community at large:'
Affirmations moved to its new, greener LEED-certified
digs three years ago. "LEED is Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design. It's a rating system that was designed to
encourage and facilitate the development of more sustainable
buildings;' explains LaTosch. The three-story center is beautiful,
and, with its wide-open spaces, colorful murals and flood of
natural light, appears more like an art gallery or a yoga studio
than a queer community center.
"We did pretty much gut the original structure that was
here before us ... but 80 percent of the project is construction
waste was diverted from landfills and into recycling. And,
additionally, 31 percent [of what we] used in new construction
[materials] were recycled content, so we were really excited to
be able to do that as well;' says LaTosch.
This eco-forward philosophy has carried over into the daily
operation of the center: With the exception of their youth
room, there are no garbage cans to be found in the building.
In an effort to actively encourage visitors to recycle, they have
installed recycling bins on all three floors.
But their green efforts don't end there. By installing low
water-consumption fixtures in the bathrooms, they were
able to reduce their water usage by 40 percent, exceeding the
LEED standard and earning the center an "innovation" credit.
But the center, says LaTosch, could use a little more green
these days. Like the rest of the Detroit metro area, Affirmations
(goaffirmations.org) is feeling the financial pinch. The center
has ongoing educational programs in the works, but is facing
a shortage of funding, especially since the auto industry has
historically been their largest corporate sponsor.
"We have two grants for $50,000 from General Motors
that have been put on hold ... that combined with Chrysler
Corporation, which also was not able to come forward with a
$25,000 grant, which they always do every year, were operating
with 10 percent less of our budget this year already. And we
have had to lay off two full-time and six part-time staff.'
This is a serious problem for a center that connects with
nearly 50,000 people a year. It provides social services for both
youth and adults, including everything from health services
to coming-out support. ';\bout 68 percent of our youth come
from low-income homes and many are homeless;' LaTosch
said. "Many are transgender. Many youth just don't feel safe
living on the streets as their gender identity, but when they
come here they can change and be themselves and store their
possessions in a safe place:'
Once back on firmer financial ground, LaTosch hopes to •
start an outreach campaign to educate anyone who comes into
the center about all the different ways that the building has
successfully gone green. The campaign will also reflect both
the people of Affirmations and the rest of Michigan's feelings
about environmentalism and conservation. "We're the Great
Lake Stare;' said LaTosch. "We love our water, we love our
trees-and we wan~ to protect them:'
But, the question remains: With local industry suffering,
will donations from residents be able to keep the LGBT
community center in the green? ■
Do Ask,
Do Tell
Nothing against big, hog,riding, beer,drinking straight guys,
but warning bells sound upon my arrival at the Hideaway Bar
and Grill. To get there, I had to navigate a desolate, winding
canyon road. Now, about 45 minutes north of Los Angeles,
the place I find myself in is figuratively a thousand miles from
the perhaps better known liberal, culturally diverse, gayfriendly haunts of West Hollywood.
Then I spot a woman whose beaming face is framed by a
striking helmet of silver curls. She is wearing boots and men's
clothes. "Let me point out the lesbians;' she tells me before I
manage a proper hello. The silver-haired butch is famed film
producer JD Disalvatore, on location at the Hideway. She's
already been briefed on my mission to do behind-the-scenes
reconnaissance on the set of A Marine Story, a feature film
that centers on the story of a lesbian soldier.
Disalvatore and filmmakers Dreya Weber and Ned Farr
were able to interest an impressive group of gay and lesbian
a~tors and crew because the film tackles Don't Ask, Don't Tell
(DADT), the discriminatory policy that gives the military
power to kick queers out of the service. As the film opens,
Alex, a marine played by Weber (The Gymnast, Everything
Relative), returns to her small hometown after leaving the
military she loves.
"She comes back, and no one knows why;•explains Weber.
Most of the guys she grew up
with "don't happen to think
women should be in the military,
much less in combat positions;'
she says. Wait until they get a
load of her deep, dark secret.
Meanwhile, she finds purpose
when she is asked to help a troubled young woman (Paris
Pickard) prepare for a stint in the Marines.
"[Since the film] is about DADT, we got the support of
our community. It's so wonderful working with a large group
ofLGBT people on this set;' says Disalvatore, adding," I don't·
want to discriminate. The straight people are really nice, too:'
I almost don't recognize the distinguished actor playing the
bartender, pulling brews beneath the stuffed trophy heads.
Lisa Wolpe is the founder and artistic director of the respected
Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company.
"Dreya was in one of my plays;' explains Wolpe, while
waiting for a bar fight scene. "She played a singing cowboy in
a Western version of As You Like It:'
Weber and her husband, director Ned Farr, developed the
idea for A Marine Story while on the gay and lesbian film
festival circuit with The Gymnast, which Farr also directed.
"I saw the absurdity of it;' says Weber of DADT. "They kept
A behind-the-scenes
lookat A MarineStory
By Laurie K.
Schenden
July/August 2010
I39
throwing out gay interpreters [from the military]. It's a civil
rights issue and a safety issue. The stupidity needs to be
addressed:' The film's showings, at Frameline and Outfest this
summer, is perfectly timed with current congressional efforts
to repeal DADT as the civil rights issue is on the forefront of
people's minds.
Weber, with her long
blond hair, appears petite
among the burly guys
I who play her hometown
friends, but she's one of
the most athletic women
you'll ever see onscreen.
She's most noted as an
aerial choreographer for
Pink, Cher, Madonna and
Britney Spears, but all her
-expertise is on display in
The Gymnast, which chronicles a love story about two lesbian
acrobats( does it get better than that?).
"Thismovieis about the
effectsof the Don't Ask,
Don't Tell policy...
considerit to be one of the
most importantcivilrights
issuesof my lifetime.I am
honoredto portraya lesbian
servicewoman."
40
Icurve
Weber, who also played gay in Everything Relative, explains
that she is drawn to lesbian characters because her brother is
gay, her sister is bisexual and she hates discrimination. From
an acting perspective, "the under~represented people in the
world have extremely complicated challenges-for an actor,
the more complication the better. This movie is about the
effects of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy;' she says."I consider
it to be one of the most important civil rights issues of my life~
time. I am honored to portray a lesbian servicewoman:'
A week later, we're at Moon Shadow, a real lesbian bar
in North Hollywood. In this scene, the previously closeted
Alex discovers life out of her fatigues. Crew members,
including Janelle Eagle, Tracy Weatherby and Carson
LaBella, get drafted as extras. Putting down walkie~talkies
and other tools of the trade, they are transformed into femme
lesbian bar patrons, which incites some good~natured teasing
w
a:
from fellow crew members.
0
On the set, with a thumping dance beat in the background, ~
I strike up a conversation with an alluring lesbian stranger. So ~
what if we're standing in the parking lot in the middle of the ~
day? Paris Pickard plays Saffron, the young
recruit whom Alex puts through a grueling
basic training. She's not in the bar scene, so
today she's on set as co-producer (this real-life
lesbian doesn't play a lesbian).
Tall, model-beautiful and sharp as a Marine
Corps sword, Pickard attended the prestigious
Emerson College for film directing,
and upon moving to the West Coast
landed production assistant jobs on
Frost/Nixon and Angels & Demons.
While directing is her passion, she
keeps getting nudged into the spotlight. In 2008, it was for a rumored
romance (and breakup over fidelity)
with Paris Hilton. Pickard is coy
about it.
"She and I are friends;• says
Pickard, who's in a relationship. "She's a sweet girl, but no,
we are not romantically involved:'
Pickard was among the first to sign on for Marine, once
again looking for a production job but getting tapped by
Weber and Farr for the role of Saffron. But a year later,
Pickard was working in the art department at Screen Gems
and still waiting for production to start. Because it was a labor
of love, which Farr and Weber decided to finance themselves,
~ there were lots of potential catastrophes to avert.
~
"I kept in contact with Dreya: 'Hey, what's the delay, what's
~ going on?' She would say they needed this, they needed that;' says
~ Pickard. 'J\nd I said,'Oh, I could help with that. I can do this:"
Ultimately, Pickard got her
production job, becoming
co-producer."! think I've been
a good producer;' she says
proudly, but also credits her
fellowScreen Gems co-workers
saying, "Our art department
is very gay.They chipped in to
help us make this movie'
Pickard has always been interested
in the military (both her father and her
grandfather served in the Navy) and the
topic, DADT, got her attention, as it did
for most others connected with the film.
Her military initiation was "a little workout program" (huge understatement) that
Weber created to help Pickard prepare.
"She was sore as hell;' said Weber.
"But she's tough:' Disalvatore offers another descriptor for
Pickard: "You're such a punk;' she jokes.
"Yes, I'm a punk;' concedes Pickard with a smile, apparently knowing better than to verbally spar with the producer
of Shelter, Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds and the upcoming
Road to Dinah, who keeps costs down and morale up on the
Marine set.
After shooting finished at the Moon Shadow, the cast
and crew were off to another location-Ned
and Dreya's
house to shoot the sexy lesbian love scene. To get a glimpse
of what transpires there, of course, you'll have to go to the
theater and see A Marine Story. ■
Themakingofa
lesbian
classic
(clockwise from
far left): Weber
(center) with crew;
Pickard (left) with
Weber; wardrobe
prep; super-buff
Weber training
another recruit;
hotties relaxing
on set; cast and
crew reading
the world's best
lesbian magazine
(ahem) in between
takes. Scenes
from A Marine
Story (along the
bottom): Pickard
and Weber fonn
an emomtional
pa de deux in the
American military
July/ August 2010
I41
BACKSTAGE
2010
Ir can be argued that the new feminism is a more experiential one, where
power among women is more fully realized through gender or sexual
freedom. Ir's less about identity labels and more about identity from the core.
And it is brimming with confidence.
111e musician and performer Birch is one of the icons of this new feminism.
Her music supplies anthems for a generation of fans who Ry outside of the
radar. Her name itself is a "feminist reclaiming" of identity and language, she
says. And in her view, many feminist women, both queer and straight, have
come to own their bitchness sans apologies. She, like many of us, hopes someday the world will catch up.
One day early this year, Birch was taking a pre-tour break in Colorado,
opting to stay warm indoors while her band hit the slopes. For her, quiet time
is best for writing music-and her latest and first self-produced album, Blasted,
is an example of that.
Released in March, Blasted, she says, "was born our of total solitude." She
had just wrapped up her tour with her musical hero Ferron, and the two were
recuperating at Ferron's home in the snowy backwoods of Michigan. 111cn,
Bitch says, rhe songs began to fly our of her. 1hree months later she was back
in New York collaborating with her band 111e Exciting Conclusion, letting the
album branch out and laying down the first tracks of what some critics have
deemed her best work yet.
Blasted is a body of songs ripe with emotion, tempered by wisdom. Birch's
voice straddles the line between gravelly and velvety, one moment swinging way
our like a left hook, another moment rolling forth like a consoling hug.
When Bitch describes how she arrived at chis assemblage of songs, it sounds
similar to the primal instinct that sparked her musical career in the first placewhen she asked her mom for a violin after an episode of Sesmne Street. She was
3 years old.
Now, 33 years since wailing
on that starter violin, she's
With a new album, new
gained an artistic mastery that
lookand even more clarity,
only comes through practice.
Bitchlaysout her planto
Her passion is as clear and
dominatethe universe.
sure as her voice, which is why
By Kelsy Chauvin
she calls Blasted her most
confident album yet.
"I think as we spend a little
more time on the earth we grow into our own skin," she says, not shy to
admit that on chis record she was more comfortable raking or leaving other
people's opinions.
"Because chis is my first self-produced record of my own work, I spent a lot
of time thinking how I wanted to sound and how I wanted to approach it in the
studio. Ir was a really fun adventure for me that I haven't gotten to have with
my own songs before:'
Newness abounds for Birch lately. She has split with her girlfriend and
collaborator, Daniela Sea (who many will recognize for her time as Max on
The L Wcmi)-rhough they remain friends and still find ways to cocreate. She
is also overflowing with new music and performance pla11sand in the looks
department, the girl's chopped off her trademark dreadlocks.
BEHOLD
THENEW
BITCH-THE
SAMESULTRY
SWEETHEART
NOW
SPORTING
BODY
ARMOR
ANDBARING
THEWELLSCULPTED
LEGS
OFHER
6-FOOT
FRAME.
Behold the new Birch-the
same sultry
sweetheart now sporting body armor (for
fashion purposes only) and baring the wellsculpted legs of her 6-foot frame. Like her
songs, her work has also branched out.
Among her endeavors are a songwriting
collaboration for Margaret Cho's new album,
and a new series of "sound bites;· orchestral
interludes and spoken-word whimsies that
she calls "10 seconds of Bitchncss squished
between your Beyonce and Bach" (and made
for the art of song shuffiing).
She's also itching to produce her own new
record. Like an unstoppable ride of song ideas
that arrive in Rashes. "Music is something
that's just coursing through me;' she says. "I
think it's a mission that I'm on to empower
people-everybody
who wants to live a
little outside society's boxes and boring new
construction paradigms."
For Birch, the new feminism is a living
thing built on community and conscience. "I
think the world has been enhanced and totally
made by artists, and I think all people rely on
artists to elevate them, or to inspire them or
to comfort them. And our system tries to shut
that down ar any point;' says Bitch." Bur I feel
very strongly about keeping rhar tradition [of
music and art] alive, and nor being one of the
people who gets talked our of ir."
Birch's power is intrinsic in her music and
a lyric from rhe song "Open Up;' off Blcisted,
simply and lucidly explains the power. She
sings, "1l1c whole sky's about to open up, and
so am I."Count on the artist to [wo ]man the
helm during the corning storm. ■
July/August 2010 j 43
H
Betten
album.
ore intimate in
nnifer Corday
lwgged
THE
LINE
This subversive young rocker isn't easily defined.
By Lina Swislocki
At only 24 years old, Blair Hansen has had remarkable success. The San
Hansen also finds herself in the middle of
Francisco Bay Area~based singer has won two OutMusic Awards, one for Best multiple musical styles. She is a self~taught
Country /Folk Song and another for Humanitarian Songwriter of the Year. guitarist but a classically trained vocalist, and
Additionally, her song"Break Away" was recently featured in the film Hannah
both influences are apparent in her songs
Free, starring Sharon Gless.
(her soaring vocals hit just right, and her
Hansen belongs to the baby dyke generation of artists who came out young rocking riffs are not strained at all). And she's
and have never kept their private lives private. Hansen says it was not hard to a woman who likes women, but her band is
come out in high school because she was comfortable with her sexuality and all men. Hansen explains that she likes the
just assumed others would be too. One thing she is not comfortable with, dynamic of working with men, "because I can
however, is the word "lesbian:' Hansen calls herself gay and refers to herself boss them around. Kidding. I like to be the
as a "stem'' (her term for someone who's both stud and femme) since she likes only power chick:'
Yet, despite all these pulls in seemingly
to wear men's clothes along with makeup and nail polish. And on this edgy
opposite directions, Hansen seems well~
musician, the -hybrid look works.
Hansen sees herself as someone who is in the middle of a lot of things. grounded. She exudes calm and confidence.
She's a lesbian rocker who's not quite lesbian enough for some and not quite She is excited when she talks about her award,
rocker enough for the mainstream. She tries not to let those classifications get and you can see the stars in her eyes when she
inside her head, though. She makes music from personal experiences, and she mentions performers with whom she'd like to
hopes that her songs will help others through similar experience. Breakups, of share a stage. "Melissa Etheridge. Of course,
course, rank high on her list of inspirations, but not all of her songs are sad. Melissa. I mean, how could you not want to
Currently, she's in a relationship with a woman 22 years her senior and finds perform with her? She's iconic:' Other female
musicians make the list too, like the Indigo
lyrical fodder in the relationship. "For me, she is very inspirational;' Hansen
~ says of her girlfriend. "She has lived her life very full and well, and I learn a Girls, Brandi Carlisle, Sarah McLachlan and
ID
Garrison Starr. Hansen has already released
~ lot from her. Now I don't so much experience super~high or low emotional
:J
~ states as I did in past relationships, which helped create my music then. Now
three albums and likely ha~ decades of playing
UJ
music ahead of her. She'll no doubt share the
~ I can write love songs in the truest, rawest form, because I actually understand
:i:
it now:'
stage with some of her idols. ■
>) 1 ■
2
I Kisseda Girl(Jill Sobule)
l
:iss that Counted (Catie Curtis)
>>
THEGODDESS
Some little girls want to grow up to be ballerinas. Some want to be zoologists.
Steph Paynes, guitarist and mastermind behind the scorching Led Zeppelin
tribute band Lez Zeppelin, just wanted to rock out.
"I must have been 5 or 6 years old and I knew what I wanted to do;' Paynes
recalls, sipping a glass of ice water in an upscale Chicago eatery. "I wanted to
be a young, male, English rock star. That is what I wanted. I wanted to be like
Eric Clapton. I wanted to be like Jimmy Page. I wanted to be primarily
British;' she laughs heartily at the kid-size version of herself dreaming of
rock superstardom.
As anyone who has ever seen a Lez Zeppelin performance knows, Paynes'
childhood dream has come true. Tours throughout the United States and
Europe, television appearances, prime slots at major rock festivals, not to
mention the opportunity to record with the original Zeppelin engineer, Eddie
Kramer, for their debut album are just a few of the band's accomplishments to
date. Paynes and the gang are constantly challenged by the material and the
legacy of one of rock's greatest and possibly least understood bands.
"Led Zeppelin is very complex;' Paynes assures me in defense of Zep
naysayers who have often criticized the group for being just another loud,
debaucherous rip-off of American blues. "They were often shrugged off
as being this bombastic, heavy metal, cock rock band, which is completely
and utterly not true. I find that when the musicianship gets more able to really
take in the nuance of Led Zeppelin, that's when it starts to get heavy and
really great. You need very sophisticated musicians to pull that off:'
To help with this herculean task, early in 2009 Paynes enlisted new
members Shannon Conley, Megan Thomas and Leesa Harrington-Squyres
to put on the dynamic stage show for which
the original band was famous. Particularly
memorable is the theremin solo in the
1970 hit !'Whole Lotta Love," which pits
Paynes and Conley against each other in
a mesmerizing on-stage duel that conjures
some of the most theatrical moments of
the Jimmy Page and Robert Plant era. The
band has painstakingly recreated much of
the pomp and swagger that made Zeppelin
a blistering show stopper and rocketed
them to their iconic status in the minds
and hearts of teenage boys everywherean irony not at all lost on Paynes.
"People understand Led Zeppelin and they
understand what it means to play Led Zeppelin;' Paynes explains. "It takes the
gender out of it. I have young boys saying, 'You're my guitar hero: That is so
incredible. We didn't start this thing with a political intention, but that is one
of the beautiful little byproducts:'
Being a guitar hero obviously also requires a certain mastery of the
instrument that goes further than the usual four chords. And the six~string,
with its gentle curves and relative difficulty to play, has always been a metaphor
for more physical pursuits. "Whatever your sexual preference is, it's irrelevant;'
Paynes says, smiling. "The guitar is lik~ a woman's body. There's no question it's
beautiful. It's the most beautiful thing in the world. It's a very sensuous thing to
play the guitar and it's all part of playing live:'
Despite their television appearances, interviews and studio album, Lez
Zeppelin remains the kind of band that must be experienced live to be fully
appreciated. "It's not like were trying to change the world;' Paynes shrugs. "But
some young girl who loves the sound of the guitar can come to a show and she
doesn't have to feel like, I need to be a young, British, hot~looking male rock
st~r-and I'm not that:' Steph Paynes looks out into the glare of a streetlight
and for a moment seems to grasp the immensity of the legacy.
"She can think, I want to be like that girl who played the guitar. Look at her.
Let me steal her licks. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"■
FOUR
BITCHIN'
BABES
In 1990, folk performer Christine Lavin put
together a short tour with several of her female
musician friends, and Four Bitchin' Babes
was born. Eight albums and 20 years later, the
line-up has changed but they're still putting
out great songs about boob fairies, hot flashes
and why your kids should hide their Halloween
candy, all in gorgeous four part harmony. Their
latest release, Diva Nation, is about letting go
and not apologizing anymore.
Do people assume they are lesbians because
they're an all-women's group? "I don't know
and it doesn't matter to us-people know we're
gay and lesbian supportive and friendly," says
Sally Fingerett, a current member who wrote
"Home is Where the Heart Is," a beautiful ballad
where she explains to her daug er about Deb
and Tricia who live next door.
Over the years, members have included
Patty Larkin and Julie Gold (writer of Bette
Midler's "From A Distance"), both lesbians. And
although "Hot Flash" sounds like a goofy song
about that time of life, it's really a feminist
anthem about being proud, laugh lines and all.
Their shows make for a great girls night out.
"It's almost like a sporting event for womenwomen wanl to come. If men want to come
they do." Most of them are middle-aged. In a
youth-obsessed culture it's refreshing to hear
songs about losing your car keys and glasses
yet again, but still being able to order pizza and
slump in front of the TV. Included in Bitching
Babes shows are serious songs like Nancy
Moran's beautiful "Unconditional Love" and
Debi Smith's inspirational "Pass It On." And
while they all have their funny side, Deirdre Flint
is the true comedic princess of the group.
Each performer has a separate career, too,
with over 20 solo albums between them. Their
music has been featured on TLC's A Dating
Story, on CMT and recorded by Holly Near and
Peter, Paul and Mary.
"I wanna be doing this when I'm 80 years
old," Fingerett says. "If we're writing songs
about being wheeled in and the audience is all
being wheeled in then it works." Wheel me in,
ladies. I'll order the pizza. [JamieAnderson]
More than 30 years later, The
Raincoats are still tearing it up.
By lphgenia Baal
completing a college degree, she worked
several jobs, then moved into teaching.
A teacher's salary didn't stretch far enough
for this single mom, so she turned to singing
,for a living. "I'd been playing in my bedroom
long enough. It was either moonlighting in a
bar three nights a week or flipping burgers:'
In 1984, she co,founded Saffire with
pianist Ann Rabson and bass player Earlene
Lewis. (Lewis was later replaced by Audra
Faye.) "Once I went on the road with Saffire
in '88 I could've been anything I wanted to be.
One of my big songs was 'Middle Aged Blues
Boogie'-'! need a young young man to drive
away my middle age blues: Well, I couldn't
back off of that one because it was my bread
and butter at the time. Now it's rare that I
would ever sing a song like that, because it's
not true to me:'
With songs like "Silver Beaver" and "Bitch
With A Bad Attitude;' Saffire'sovaries,ro,the,
wall reputation and sharp musical instincts
put the group on hundreds of stages, from
concert halls to festivals (including the
Michigan Womyn's Music Festival), some,
times sharing the bill with artists like B.B.
King and Ray Charles.
People were still not sure about an
all,women's band. Adegbalola chuckles when
she says, "We'd get to gigs and the sound tech
would ask, 'Where's the band?'"
In 1999, Adegbalola released her first solo
effort, Bitter Sweet Blues. From the leather
jacket she wore for the cover, to songs like "Big
Ovaries;' there was no doubt that she was not
only out of the room, but out of the house.
"When I met my former partner in'91 and
I knew real love had no shame to it-it was
at that point I just said, 'This is who I am: "
She adds, "Once you get to be my age you can
say anything you damn well feel like saying.
What could anyone do to mer Put me in jail?
Cut off my clit? No one can do anything to
me that would make me live a lie:'
You can't get much more out than Gaye
Without Shame. Produced by Bob Margolin
(guitarist for blues god Muddy Waters), it
has a wide variety of styles, from acoustic
Piedmont blues to an electrified R&B. "With
this CD, I wanted to let queer listeners know
about the blues. A lot of them think that the
blues is sad. I wanted to present the different
flavors:• She touches on transgender issues
too, and was sure to include duets with
women. "C'mon;' she exclaims. "Let's have a
woman sing to a woman!" ■
QUEER
WOMEN
BLUES
GayeAdegbalolais out of the closetand onto the stage.
By Jamie Anderson
"The lesbians that I know who play blues right now aren't really out. I wish you
luck finding them;' says Gaye Adegbalola (Ah,deg,ba,lo,la), blues singer,
guitarist and writer who admits that at one time, she was no different. "For
a long time I was out of the closet but not out of the room:' Her latest solo
release, Gaye Without Shame, isn't just a clever use of her name, it's a great
descriptor for this award,winning blues powerhouse, who lights up the stage
both solo and, for 25 years, with the band Saffire, The Uppity Blues Women.
Adegbalola's career stands on the shoulders of blues women like Ma Rainey,
popular in the 1920s, who sang the classic "Prove It On Me Blues:' However,
as Adegbalola points out, "She was basically saying,'You don't even know any,
thing about me. She was still closeted and you really couldn't prove it on her:'
Alberta Hunter, a gutsy blues singer whose career spanned 73 years, was an
inspiration to Adegbalola. Hunter was married to a man but probably never
consummated it; she claimed she didn't want to have sex in a house she shared
with her mother. She and her female partner were together for many years.
Growing up in segregated Fredericksburg, Va., Adegbalola loved going
to jazz concerts. She turned toward the blues after hearing Nina Simone
refer to blues singer Bessie Smith, and after being blown away by blues icons
Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee (who opened for Ella Fitzgerald). After
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Texas songstress Ruthie Foster tackles the truth.
By Jamie Anderson
The opening cut of her newest album, The Truth According to Ruthie Foster,
starts with a simmering keyboard, drums and then a burst of horns in a
Memphis sound just like the old Stax Records, and by the time she wraps her
soulful alto around the chorus and sings, "Everybody oughta have a stone love;'
you might want to shout hallelujah and kiss the woman next to you. Foster's
been shouting that kind of hallelujah for a while.
"That song means a lot to me right now. I've been through it relationship~
wise and musically,just kind of jumping around:' She adds, "You know you're
alive if you keep moving-not running, just moving. That's been a lesson for
me. Yeah. I'm not running from mysel£ I guess that comes back to being out.
I'm not running from anything:'
Singing about her relationships never seemed important. "I traveled with
a woman for years-didn't think it was that much of a big deal, really:' Even
though none of the songs on her new release specifically talk about being with
a woman, the theme is about speaking your truth, whatever that is.
Foster's been speaking the truth for many years, starting as a kid singing in
church. Her mother had a huge gospel record collection, including those of
guitarist/ singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe. (Tharpe played secular music, too, and
was an inspiration to everyone from Elvis to Dylan.) Her mother would put
Thorpe on and tell Ruthie, "Here's a woman, baby, she plays guitar and sings
gospel. I thought that was just the coolest thing;' Foster comments. "My mom
wanted me to stay in gospel. I was okay with that as long as I could play guitar
or piano whenever I wanted:'
Influenced by •her dad's taste in blues
artists like Lightening Hopkins, and Beatles
songs introduced by a guitar teacher, Foster
explored many genres. She idolized Stevie
Wonder and loved listening to Phoebe
Snow. Later on she joined the military,
performing in a funk band. "It was really really
fun, with keyboards, horns, dance stepsa real show:' At the same time, she was the
vocalist for a big band. She locked herself in
the music library and immersed herself in Ella
Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson and even Frank
Sinatra. "When you've got 15 or more pieces
of brass behind you, you will never out sing
that-it's really about phrasing:'
It was also in those bands where she
learned to work an audience, a skill that came
in handy when she starting gigging solo and
in a duo at folk venues. So did her talent in
telling stories. "I didn't have a lot of songs
so I just talked about the way I grew up,
my relatives and my hometown:' She laughs
when she says, "You have to find ways to get
their attention, even if you have to throw in a Carpenters song every now and
then:' And no, she doesn't cover the Carpenters now except during a sound
check, just to get the jaded sound techs laughing.
Her first big folk gig was in her home state, Texas, at the popular
Kerrville Folk Festival. Her solo career took off from there. "I would get
into these festivals because of my blues background and I could pick a
little bit. Eventually I'd have a blues workshop, as well:'
Four albums later~she's still touring like crazy, playing in all kinds of
venues, from blues clubs to the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. "It's
great that they have all women running this huge festival:' She had a little
trouble with a member of her staff, though. "I had a guy tour manager
who thought he was going to be able to invite himself and I kept telling
him, 'No baby, it's not going to work:' She laughs. "He didn't believe me
so he brought himself on the trip and he found out that he couldn't get
in the gate at all:' Foster had a great time both years she was booked, hanging
out with Melissa Ferrick and others. "It really made me proud to be invited:'
Her newest release, The Truth, with roots-music producer Chris Goldsmith,
features an impressive roster of musicians who've worked with everyone from
Aretha Franklin to Tracy Chapman. Add to that the legendary Memphis
Horns and you've got soul-dripping goodness that'll slide down your throat
like great coffee. At first glance, it may seem like a huge departure from her
earlier work but really, it's an extension of her last album, The Phenomenal
Ruthie Foster.And, as Foster notes, "So many folk fans don't just listen to folk.
They heard the blues, reggae and gospel I throw in and (they) really wanted
more of those things:' Besides, it's fun. "It's like so barbeque:'
While most of her newest release is distinctly soul/rock, there's also bodyswaying reggae with "I Really Love You" and heart-busting blues on "Tears of
Pain:' She wrote or co-wrote about half the songs as well as covering tunes by
Patty Griffin and others.
She still tours solo but performs with her band-Tanya Richardson on
bass and Samantha Banks-on drums, whenever she can. "I love playing
with my band because it gives me a little bit more freedom to· be a singer and
entertainer. These ladies have my back, no matter what, on stage or off.'
In addition to commanding her own shows, she's opened for blues legend
Derek Trucks, sometimes getting to sit in with his band. "It's a high point of
my night:' Remembering one night, she exchiims, "There were notes coming
out of my mouth that I didn't know I had:' She's also shared the stage with
gospel icons Blind Boys of Alabama, a group she's followed for years.
Foster is turning 45. "There's someth1ng about that-you get close to
a certain age and you really have something to say:' She was 19 when she
started singing the blues and s·aysthat older performers would advise,"You're
a good singer and all but wait until you have something to say and that's
going to make the difference. Blues performers who are looked up to have
stayed in it so long. It really is about livin' it, whatever that is, whether it's
being a woman in the blues, being gay, being out:' At a recent blues awards
show, she heard Gaye Adegbalola (See pg 50) make a big statement about
being out. "It was fun to watch;' she states, laughing warmly.
Foster continues to be inspired by other musicians. On her iPod now is
T-Bone Walker, Bob Marley and a box set of that early fave Rosetta Tharpe.
She's also passionate about India Aire. "I love it when you see, feel and can
almost taste the growth in an artist like her. I also like my Texas songwritersGuy Clark, Lyle Lovett-writers who can write about who they are and it's
tastefully done without a lot of chords. It's just telling the story:'
You could say that about Foster, too-that
she's just telling her story.
Whether she's armed with only an acoustic guitar or the Memphis Horns, it's
all about telling the truth and Ruthie Foster does it very well. ■
FINDING
HER
MUS
Julie Neumark talks life, loss and musical inspiration.
By Laurie Herbert
Los Angeles-based singer Julie Neumark's debut album, DimestoreHalo, will
be released on Lonesome Day Records this summer. In March, she brought
her blues- and country-tinged brand of roots rock to Austin for the South by
Southwest Music Festival.
Is thisyourfirsttimeat SouthbySouthwest?
Yes it is. This was actually my first .festival. It's totally overwhelming. I've
toured a lot-been
to Europe twice and I'm planning on going back this
summer. Both times I've gone in the past, I've supported Beth Hart, who I'm
a huge fan of, and that was really, really cool. And I've toured the Midwest a
lot, because I'm from Cincinnati, and that was a good place to start, but, yeah,
this is my first festival. It's so great to just have music everywhere.
Doyouenjoytouring?
I do. It's such a different lifestyle. One of the best parts of it is coming home
again. There's just a freedom, and your only responsibility is to go out and do
your job that night. The rest of it is so much not like my life at home. It's ...
just about the music.
Youwroteon yourwebsiteaboutthe anniversary
of yourfather'sdeath,and
thatyou'reveryvulnerable
andcreativeasa result.Someone
oncesaidthatto
bevulnerable
is alsoto bepotent.Doyouagree?
Oh yeah, definitely! I think some of my best work-my
deepest, most
personal material-was
written when I was most vulnerable. Certainly
anything around the time of my father's passing. It just brought up so
much in my life. That's such a huge, huge event that I don't feel like
you can even grasp the kind of effect it's going to have on you
until it happens. For me, it made me re-evaluate my life-who I
I wanted to be-and
re-examine relationships in my
life. So yeah, it's a very vulnerable place to
be, and I'd say most songs on the album
were inspired in one way or another by
his passing.
• You'reperforming
soonfor LibertyHouse,a
NewHampshire
transitional
housing
projectfor
homeless
veterans.
Howdoesthatfeel?
Very, very cool. It's funny, because I had
been inspired by a homeless vet, and I ended
up writing a song, "Spare Change:' On this
route that I used to travel home every day,
there was this man right by t~e VA hospital
and he had a sign that said "Homeless Vet:'
I would always give him whatever change
I had and there was this one day that it
just really hit me. Who is this guy? What's
his story? It just frustrated me about our
society. We send these heroes off to war and
Curvemag.com
alternative
musicblogger
MelanyJoyBeckspendsmostof hertime
creeping
theclubsfor hotnewbands,getting
herhandsdirtyin thetrenchesof indiegirlrock
to bringyouthelatestandgreatest.Hereare
hertoppicksforSummer201o.Rubonsome
HawaiianTropic,slipontheearbudsandjam
out,sister.
SICKOFSARAH
Minneapolis
quintetSickofSarahis anestrofueledpop-punkblastof pureoctane.With
a slewof recentdateswith '80srockersThe
Bangles,
they'vejust raisedtheirprofile.
Lineupchanges,including
a newdrummer,
havehonedtheirliveshowto a razor'sedge
andtheyare hardat workonthe follow-upto
lastyear'sself-titleddebut.Dropa coupleof
bucksnexttimetheypassthroughyourneck
of the woods.They'recute.There'sfiveof
them.Andtheylike girls.'Nuffsaid.
they come back and there's so much damageeven if it's not physical, a lot of times,
they're not able to come back into society
and often, they're just left (behind). To be
actually approached by an organization-and
they didn't even know about my song-was
so cool. The cool thing about them is that
they actually will take these people in for
two years and help them find work.
Tellmeaboutthethemesongyoucontributed
forthewebseriesRosebyAnyOtherName.
I got contacted by a producer, Kyle Schickner.
He produced a film called Steam, starring Ally
Sheedy and Ruby Dee, and there was a
montage scene in the middle [that) he needed
some music for, and he totally dug my song
"Uncharted Waters," and that's how I
met him. In getting to know him, he said,
"Hey, I've got this web series coming up;'
and he basically just gave me the title and
said, "Can you write a song?" It was so fun
because I'd never been in a position where
someone was like, "Here's a title-Go! And
here's the deadline!" It was a little scary
because usually it just kind of organically
comes from me about what's going on in
my life.
Whatwouldyouliketo seehappennext?
For the past couple of years, things have
been really moving along how I have hoped
them to. My real true goal as a musician is
to be able to fully support myself in a very
comfortable lifestyle. Nothing extravagant,
not fame, just as a musician-as
a touring
musician. ■
KATIE
TODD
Another
Midwest
artistsureto settheladies'
heartsaflutterisChicago
nativeKatieTodd,
whosenewalbum,Mumbled
Speech,
is likely
tofinditswayontothemixCDsof morethana
fewsummer
romances.
Thebreezy"Love,Love,
LoveYou,"isa sweetodeto newrelationships.
Icecreamandmeaningful
gazesanyone?
VIVIANGIRLS
"We'rea feministband,"growlsVivianGirls.
frontwoman
CassieRamone
froma spinning
barstool.
Formusicloversof an edgier
variety,Brooklyn's
ownVivianGirlsis sureto
please.
Surf-style
licksandthree-part
hannonies
mixit upon"TelltheWorld"and"WildEyes."
Takinga pagefromriotgrrrlforebearers
Sleater-Kinney,
a spoonful
of earlyNirvana
anda dashof GwenStefanifor zest,thisshit
is bananas.Putit in yourboombox
andplay
it at the beach,like,totally.■
egeocello
wasoneofour
Ndegeocello
is stilldoing
T
ASICS
REVIEWSIn The Stacks
Demandin
ace
Searching for legitimacy in fact and fiction. By Rachel Pepper
Unlovable,
EstherPearl
Watson(Fantagraphics
books):Nothinglikea flashbackto the1980sto remind
usof alltheculturaliconsof
thedecadewe'restilltryingto
forget:MacGyver,
Adventures
in Babysitting,
denimjackets,
legwarmersandCabbage
PatchKids(OK,theCabbage
PatchKidswereexceptionally
cute).In its secondvolume,
EstherPearlWatson's
comic
arttakesthereaderthrough
a wild '80srendezvous
with
TammyPierce-a boy-crazy
Our page turners this month include a young
In Congressional and court
sophomore
withmysterious
lesbian's search for authenticity and a look at how the
dandruff(oris it lice?)-and
a momwhojustdoesn't U.S. government constructed a second-class citizenry records, laws and policies
for gay people.
understand
whatit meansto
governing immigration, the
becool.A personal
accountof
dailyactions,thebookreads The Straight State: Sexualityand Citizenshipin
military and welfare ...the lack of
likea peekintosomeone's Twentieth-Century
America,
MargotCanaday
(Princeton
illustrated
diary.Althoughits
University
Press):All those concerned with LGBT
gay citizenship was purposefully
targetaudience
seemsto be
legal rights, including the topic of gay marriage,
womenwho'vesurvived
their
should consider delving into The Straight State: and systematically constructed.
teenageyearsintheageof
feathered
hairandpegged Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century
jeans,anyonewhocan America for background. Author Margot Canaday, makes it clear that in Congressional and court
remember
theawkwardness assistant professor of history at Princeton University, records, laws and policies governing immigration, the
of herownteenageyearswill
has written a compelling account of how the federal military and welfare-three key areas of governmental
identifywithTammy,
a normal government created homosexuality as a "deviant" control-the lack of gay citizenship was purposefully
teenagegirlwhobelieves
she
class of people, worked hard to penalize anyone it and systematically constructed. As the powers of
just mightbeunlovable.
(fantagraphics.com) considered gay (and anyone else who was likewise the federal government expanded, writes Canaday, "it
[SarahC.Jimenez] "perverse;' such as intersex individuals), and increasingly developed conceptual mastery over what
successfully built a second tier of citizenship that
it sought to regulate ... A homosexual-heterosexual
binary, in other words, was being inscribed in federal
we are still living under today. Such discrimination,
even worse when poverty or racism were involved, citizenship policy:' As such, regulation began to make
the dishonorable
has been used to marginalize people and keep out or its mark in earnest-consider
expel "degenerates" &om the U.S., and is still grounds
discharge of soldiers du~ing World War II and the
for exclusion. Canady meticulously researched this resulting lack of benefits and education they faced,
book, combing the National Archives, and by using leading up to Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and it's easy to see
the Freedom of Information Act to gain access to how such policies have created homosexuality as "a
previously unexamined materials. Thus, Canaday
legal category as much as a medical or psychiatric one;'
56
I curve
Canady writes. Despite this, Canaday ends
the book with a belief in positive change,
including the inevitable passage of a bill like
the "Permanent Partners Immigration Act;'
and the day when all LGBT citizens are
able to "share equally in the obligations and
benefits of national citizenship:'
the story stays light, the characters are
colorful, and at times, the book is laugh,aloud
hilarious. For example,the novel begins with the
line,'The day after my mother was admitted
to the mental hospital, I told· everyone at
school that she had entered a competition
on the back of a Corn Flakes
box and won a cruise around
AnotherLifeAltogether,
ElaineBeale
the world:' From this moment
(Spiegel& Grau):The subject of
on, readers will be spellbound by
Elaine Beale's wonderful new
Beale'sstorytelling abilities. Raised
,,/
novel, Another Life Altogether, is
in England but now a California
Jesse Bennett, a young girl growing
resident, Beale captures enough of
up in rural England in the 1970s.
the wind,swept English hillside
ELAINE
/J[ALEand the East Yorkshire dialect of
Amidst the chaos at home wrought
by a mentally ill mother, distant
its inhabitants to make the small
father and a growing awareness of her same,
town setting realistic, but not inaccessible
sex attraction to girls,Jesse, at 13, gets by the
to the average American reader. Also author
best she can. This includes watching over her
of the mystery novel Murder in the Castro,
bipolar mother, working hard to fit in amidst
published in 1997, Beale recently won the
a popular crowd at her new school, weighing Poets& WritersCalifornia Writers Exchange
her moral options in defending a gay boy in competition. For this, she received a book
her class and keeping her sexuality to herself.
contract for Another Life Altogetherand the
The novel gives adequate space to the serious
opportunity to show off her evolving writing
topics of her mother'sillness, rural isolation,
skills. Hopefully a sequel will reveal what
homophobia in schools and the effects of happens to Jesse after the end of Altogether,as
bullying. While this sounds like a recipe for she nudges open the closet door, and emerges
a tension headache, in Beale's capable hands
out into the world. ■
✓
ALfoGHHEP
,....Gia~·;·w
~
Jll)\
Homophobias:
Lust
andLoathing
across
TimeandSpace
Ed.DavidA.B.Murray
(DukeUniversity
Press)
SinnerTakes
All:A
MemoirofLoveandPorn
TeraPatrickand
CarrieBorzilla
(Gotham
Books)
Tracingtheevolution
Tacklingits subject
of a pornstarmaven,
fromanacademic
andglobalangle,this thismemoirfocuses
onPatrick's
struggles
collectionof essays
to overcome
mental
setsoutto define
illnessandsubstance
homophobia
from
abuseandhereventual
political,religious,
of the
culturalandeconomic domination
perspectives.
Thebook pornworld.A fun
readthat espouses
alsotoucheson
of
issuesof genderand the importance
howlesbians
andgay hardwork,endurmenmayexperience anceand,of course,
loveof
discrimination
differently.a shameless
sex.(penguin.com)
(dukeupress.
edli)
[SarahC.Jimenez]
[LisaGunther]
\,,,.,._'-
-'•...,.....,._
SIIF.P\RI>
It'sNotYou,It'sMe:
ThePoetryofBreakup
JerryWilliams
(Overlook
Press)
TheMeaning
ofMatthew
JudyShepard
(Hudson
StreetPress)
EditorJerryWilliams
introduces
this
collection
of poetryby
recounting
fourmajor
heartbreaks,
andthe
aftermath
of despair.
Withlineslike,"It is
hardto understand
howwe couldbe
broughtherebylove,"
thiscollection
is a
catharticreadforthose
experiencing,
contemplating
or
causingheartbreak.
(overlookpress.
com)
[Stephanie
Vernier]
Thisbiography,
as
told by Matthew
Shepard'smother,
givesusa chanceto
knowthe youngman
whosebrutaldeath
starteda movement
that inspiredthe
enactment
of the
MatthewShepard
HateCrimesLaw.
Raw,honestandreal,
with somesurprising
newdetailsnever
beforepublished.
(penguin.com)
[Kathilsserman]
Q+A
Sean Reynolds
Sean Reynolds is a San
Francisco,based writer and
social worker. Her debut
novel Dyingfor a Changepublished by the queer liter,
ary house Suspect Thoughts
Press-is a gender,bending noir that
features Chan Parker, a woman who looks
like a man, and Henrietta Wild Cherry, a
man who looks like a woman.
Youusuallywriteabouthealth.Whatmade
youdecideto write a lesbiannoir?
What better book to write than one I
know? Gay life, particularly African
American gay life in the 1960s. The
inspiration for Chan Parker's character
came from a family friend and I wanted to
remember her.
Is the bookin anywayautobiographical?
Only in that I wrote it. Henrietta Wild
Cherry behaves a bit like my mother who
had a flamboyant flair, but she has a mouth
like my Aunt Agnes.
Whysetyourbookin the summerof 1965?
It was a pivotal period in history for
African Americans. Even if you were not
politically involved, you couldn't escape
hearing about it. I also wanted to write
about the times that were pre,Stonewall
because I don't think the story has ever
been told from an African American
perspective.
Whatdoyouhopethe readerwill take away?
The book has a lot of political history to
appreciate, the way we lived. In that time it
was illegal to impersonate the opposite
sex and anybody who did would regularly
get arrested.
Doessocialworkinfluence
yourwriting?
Social work influences everything I do. I'm
not a do,gooder, but I enjoy holding the
social service delivery system accountable.
Good social workers are also good snoops,
so the book is a natural for me.
Willtherebe moreadventures
with Chan
andHenrietta?
When I was writing it, I knew ... that there
needed to be a sequel. I am currently working
on the second book, but altogether there
are probably three or four books to follow.
[LiskaKoenig]
July/August 2010
I57
REVIEWSMusic Watch
VoicesCarr
Songs that show off each woman's vocal range. By Margaret Coble
MyNeighbor/My
Creator,
WyeOak(MergeRecords):
Brighterandfull of creative
twists,WyeOak'snewEP
MyNeighbor/My
Creatoris
a departure
fromthetypical
• rocksoundof thegirl/boy
duo'stwo previousreleases.
JennWasnerandAndy
Stack'staunting,teasing
rhythmsbeneath
Wasner's
bewitching
altoofferupsome
disarmingly
beautifulmusic- .
withanunmistakable
edge.As
with manyEPs,MyNeighbor/
MyCreatormaybemoreof
a gatheringplacefor songs
thatdidn'tquitefit lastyear's
acclaimed
full-lengthTheKnot
Whether it's Sia's quirky electronica, k.d. lang's
or it couldinsteadindicatean
sensual pop or Lucy Woodward's big band jazz
excitingnewdirectionfor the
sounds, this month's ?utstanding musical selections
band.Additional
production
by
BeatBabiesStudiosin Wye cover a wide swath of the musical spectrum while
Oak'shometown
of Baltimore remaining focused on distinctive vocals.
seemsa clearinfluenceon
thefive-songEP'sdivergent WeAreBorn,Sia{Monkey
Puzzle/Jive):
There are a few
sound,andthe inclusionof
surprises on the bisexual Australian pop star's follow,
producerMickeyFreeland's
up to her 2007 worldwide smash Some PeopleHave
remixof TheKnot's"ThatI
Real
Problems-most notably, her choice to faithfully
Do"is a unexpected
hip-hop
treatandnotto bemissed. cover Madonna's wistful ballad "Oh Father:' But,
Although
WyeOakhasbeen generally speaking, it's more of what weve come to
onthescenefor severalyears expect from the oddball singer with the surprisingly
now,I wouldstillfile thisone soulful voice. There are several rousing dance,pop
underthe "spinit beforeyour
numbers that will likely score big with radio and the
friendsdo"category.
club set, including the deliriously happy lead single
(wyeoakmusic.com)
[AshGoddard] "Clap Your Hands;' jangly "You've Changed;' and
album opener "The Fight;' but there are also more
mellow cuts like the Amy Winehouse conjuring "Be
Good to Me" and trip,hoppy 'Tm In Here;' which
harkens back to her Zero 7 days. There's a lot more
guitar present on this disc-some of which can be
attributed to Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi, who
makes guest appearances-but
it's still pop,heavy
58 j curve
overall, evidenced by guitar,pop gems "Stop Trying"
and "Big Girl, Little Girl:' It's a diverse yet cohesive
set that's sure to please fans and newcomers alike.
(siamusic.net)
recollection,
k.d.lang(Nonesuch):
I recently fell in love
all over again with the legendary dykon after her
stunning Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies
performance in Vancouver this past February, and
this recently released retrospective was just what I was
looking for to enjoy some of the greatest vocals of her
career. It comes in two versions: The standard two,
CD set featuring 22 of her most beloved recordings,
and a deluxe package which adds a third disc of z
fa,
previously unreleased (mostly live) recordings as well iii
as a bonus DVD of music videos and live performance ;
footage. Thankfully, two versions of "Hallelujah;' the
~Leonard Cohen classiclang performed at the Olympics, ~
a
are included-the original version from hymns of
the 49th parallel and a newer version, presumably
the arrangement utilized at the Olympics. It's not so
much a 'greatest hits" collection as it is a real glowing
tribute to her amazing 25,year career and that singular,
goosebump,inducingvoice.A must,have. (kdlang.com)
ci
q
g
~
~
~
~
<(
~
Hooked!,
LucyWoodward
(Verve):From the
zippy opener, a swing-almosMockabilly
number,"He Got Away" to the sexy,breathy
cover of the Peggy Lee classic "Sans Souci''
and the barbershop-acapella rendition of
the Hoagy Carmichael standard "Stardust;'
it's obvious that Woodward's versatile voice
is the centerpiece here on this 11-track
disc. Musically, this third album from the
pop-starlet-turned-serious-vocalist jumps
around from '40s swing-style jazz to '50s
rhumba to '60s-era pop, and Woodward's
sassy yet confident voice leads the way.
There's a little something for everyone
here-from torchy ballad ("Purple Heart;'
"Leave It To You") to more cabaret-style
showstoppers ("Me And This Empty
Room;' "Ragdoll")-but
my
favorite is her fun treatment
of "I Wan'na Be Like You
(Monkey Song);' Richard
Sherman's playful romp
from The Jungle Book.
It's positively delightful.
(lucywoodward.com)■
In the ageof over-the-topsuperstars,
Tegan
andSarahavestoodoutfromthe pack,
provingthemselvesto be morethanjust
anothertrend.
"WhenLadyGaga'smostrecentvideocame
out.. .I thoughtaboutourvideowherewe'rein
snowpantsandI waslike,Arewe ridiculous?"
Saraponders."We'resosweetandnonthreateningandyetfor so muchof ourcareer,
I felt likebeinggayor beingwomen... was
threatening
to peoplesomehow.
"I thinkwe'vealwayshada goodhandleon
whatis appropriate
for ourbandandwhatisn't,"
Teganagrees."Whatyouseeis whatyouget,"
shemuses.Bothwomenseemcomfortable
with
thepaththeircareerhastakenastheyprepare
to hit thethreedecademark.
TeganandSaraareontour nowwith
Paramore.
Theirrecord,Sainthood
andthe
"AlligatorSkin"remixalbumarebothavailable
fromSireRecords.
[MelanyJoyBeck]
edt'nfantasys
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Reviews: real opinions
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facebook@ edenfantasys
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ThatMoves LetTheLightIn
AmyCook
Snow& Voices
(RootHouse)
(ElasticRuby)
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turned
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the L.A.collective
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operathatdepicts
anchored
byLauri
thestoryof Orpheus
KranzandJebinBruni witha kickassset
andEurydice
set
offersatmospheric, of indiefolk,rootsy
in post-apocalyptic
dreamyelectronic
pop rockandAmericana,
Depression-era
produced
byAlejandro
thatwashesoverthe
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butit makes listenerlikea gentle
Escovedo.
Fromthe
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freeandsurprisingly exquisitely
produced to thebluesy-rocking
compelling
listening.
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chilloutmusicwitha
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appearances fewstandouts,
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likethe Marianne,"
byGregBrown,Justin melancholy
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com)
•
REVIEWSSapphic Screen
EnduranceGames
Girls get their jock on in these winning docs. By Candace Moore
TheKidsAreAll Right
(Mandalay
Vision):Thenew
film by HighArtauteurLisa
Cholodenko,
TheKidsAre
All Right,is the sleekindie
dramalesbianaudiences
havebeenwaitingfor.It stars
AnnetteBeningandJulianne
Mooreasa lesbiancouple
whoseteenaged
kidsfindand
bringhometheirbio-father,
playedby MarkRuffalo.
As
always,Mooreis wonderful
in herroleastheawkward
mom,Jules,butit's Bening
whostealstheshow.Herturn
asNie,theoutwardlyuptight
breadwinner,
successfully
mixesskepticism
witha
heartbreaking
vulnerabilityandprovesto bethe most
poignantcharacterin thefilm.
Perhaps
mostimportantly,
thechemistry
between
BeningandMooreis honest,
believable
andremarkably
familiar.Lesbian
audiences
maytakeissuewitha midfilm plottwistthatsteersit
awayfrombeinga quirky
comedy(ala LittleMiss
Sunshine)
andtowardone
thatis morefirmlygrounded
in drama.Ultimately
its
resolution
will leaveviewers
satisfied.
[Rachel
Shatto]
Check out a 'Q&A with Off
and Running
director at
curvemag.com
.~
60
Icurve
Off and Running and Training Rules explore the
complicated lives of young female athletes, and how
their experiences and search for identy affects the
heart they put into winning.
OffandRunning
(FirstRunFeatures):
Nicole Opper's
moving documentary follows Avery, a high school
track star, as she confronts a family identity crisis.
Raised in New York by two Jewish lesbian moms,
Tora and Travis, Avery speaks Hebrew, studies hard,
trains incessantly and knows a thing or two about
love and diversity. A supportive, close-knit family, the
Klein-Clouds are jokingly referred to as the UN.Avery's adopted siblings include big brother Rafi, a
mixed race neuroscience major at Princeton and little
brother Zay-Zay, a Korean orphan. Thankful for her
multi-cultural upbringing, Avery nonetheless longs to
connect with her roots and begins correspondence
with her birth mother, who eventually
stops writing her back. This second
abandonment causes Avery to start
ditching class and detaching from her
moms while seeking to explore her
African American identity and personal
independence. Opper follows Avery's story
for months as the athlete learns to stand up
for who she is and repair her relationships
with those who care about her. This
admirably executed film, co-written by
Avery Klein-Cloud, intimately welcomes audiences
to experience Avery's coming of age alongside her.
(firstrunfeatures.com)
Training
Rules(Wolfe):
Star shooters, Olympics hopefuls,
young athletes on track to make the WNBAwomen with raw talent and dedication to their
game-saw
hoop dreams dashed by one Penn
State University women's basketball coach. Rene
Portland unflinchingly enforced three rules on and
off the court: No drugs, no drinking and no lesbians.
Openly bigoted, Portland reigned as the Lady Lions'
head coach for the last three decades, winning games
and tides such as "Coach of the Year" while quietly
dismissing excellent players or pressuring them
to invent boyfriends. Portland's discriminatory
policies-which denied women athletic scholarships
and the promise of future sports careers based on
suspicion of homosexuality-went
unchallenged
until 2006. After seeing her playtime dwindle game
after game and finally being unreasonably kicked off
the team, Penn State sophomore Jennifer Harris
fought back. Dee Mosbacher and Fawn Yacker's
award-winning doc tells Harris' story and plays
the tape backward through interviews with multiple
victims left in the wake of Portland's longstanding
homophobia. Inspired to share their stories by
Harris' legal victory, these former b-ballers wedge
open the gym locker-room door. (wolfereleasing.com)
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Heather Cassils
you like it, great. If not, n:o
big deal. So; she called me
over and introduced herself
Then she went through this
scenario of wondering what
it would be like for our seduction to occur.
She said, "You have to come to me. I never
go to anybody I want and if someone wants
me they come to me:' It was very similar to
the thought process I had in being in the
video. So it was kind of funny for her to
replicate that.
Whatwereyourinstructions
forthescene?
She wanted me to touch her inappropriately.
She was so made up-she was wearing sun,
glasses, so you can't see her eyes, and all this
makeup. It's almost like the wizard behind
the curtain. I thought something as intimate
as a kiss would be inappropriate. Everyone
was in awe of her. You could cut the tension
on set with a knife. So to kiss her would be to
breech that kind of surface.
Andthekiss?
It was super organic. I felt like the moment
we had was very genuine. She was into it
While Lady Gaga didn't have time to take
the phone call from Beyonce in her recent
chart,busting video "Telephone;' she did have
time to kiss one of the hottest studs in the
yard, Heather Cassils, a Canadian artist and
physical trainer living in Los Angeles.
-
HowdidyougetcastasLadyGaga'sgirlfriend
inthevideo?
My friend Dallas Meloy, who is an actor and
pro body builder, called me one day while I
was at the gym. Some casting agents were
looking for body builders and she had told
them about me. They had me swing a bat and
a few more things. I thought nothing of it.
That night I got a call and the next day I was
on set.
WhydoyouthinkLadyGagachoseyou?
I think one reason had to do with me not
caring. Everyone was star,struck when she
got on set, but I was not. I had the attitude
0£ This is who I am, this is what I can do. If
-
.
I
i
~
L;:.
&Ill
BeingHuman:
Season
One
(BBCWarner)
WHITECOLLAR:
THECOMPLETE
FIRSTSEASON
(foxconnect.com):
USA'snewhit is abouta conartist
andhisFBIhandlerbromance,
yeah,
butthere'shottieTiffaniThiessen
and
better,a sexylesbianFBIagentMarsha
Thomason
in themix.
'
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-
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TinMan8/u-Ray
(Vivendi)
,',
~
~--
~ SAVING
GRACE:
THEFINALSEASON
Re-released
thismonth
ThisBritishimport
onBlu-ray,thishighly
starsLenoraCrichlow stylizedSyfymini(SugarRush)asa
seriesisa contemporary
ghost,whowouldbe
takeonthe Wizardof
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to a lonely,
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anall-star
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Richard
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~ anaddictive
character hotKathleen
Robertson
~ studywitha unique
asAzkadelia,
the
~ supernatural
twist.
WickedWitchof the
~ [Rachel
Shatto]
West.[RS]
a
(foxconnect.com):
AjadedOklahoma
Citypolicedetective
hasto redeemher
life.Oneepisode
worthyof noteis "Looks
Likea Lesbian
Attack"withCleaDuvall.
90210:THESECOND
SEASON
(cbsstore.com):
You'llforgetallabout
DonnaandBrenda
whenyougeta peek
at Rumer
Willis,DemiMoore'sall-grownuplittlegirlasa queergirlin Beverly.
NCIS:LA
(cbsstore.com):
Lesbian
actorLinda
Hunt(right)makes
thisshowa muston
anyactionlover's
lV list.[DAM]
and I was into it too. It
was just what it was: a
suspended moment from
reality.
Didyoufeeluncomfortable
kissing
LadyGagainfrontof people?
While shooting the kiss scene, some people
were making oogling noses and I heard 'girl,
on,girl action:' I got annoyed and said, "What
about boy,on,girl action?" Lady Gaga picked
up on that immediately that and said "Oh,
you identify as trans:' What pronoun should
I use:"'The fact that she knew and thought to
ask impressed me. I don't identify as trans.
Didanything
surprise
youaboutLadyGaga?
She was extremely professional and driven.
Her delivery of the lyrics is really intense and
aggressive.She stopped and asked everyone
where they were from, what they did. She's
only 24 years old, and it felt like she was
managing everyone. After the scene, she told
the edit team immediately: "I want final edit
on everything. I want this to be really genuini'
What she was saying to me was that she was
not taking advantage of me.
Didyoufeelexploited?
No. Anytime you lend yourself to mass
media in any way, shape or form, you set
yourself up for that. But I think that there
are other levels of dialogue that you can have
to contribute to the image. I can create a
voice that goes along
with this image
to open up
discussions of
representation
and gender.
[TaniaHammidij
"It wasjust
whatit was:
a suspended
moment
from
reality."
REVIEWSTech Girl
Get YourGame O.n
Why lesbians love online play. By Shanna Germain
VIRTUAL
SPRING
CLEANING
Withalmosteverything
in life
goingdigital,Western
Digital
hascomeupwitha clever,
andcompactsolutionto the
dwindlingharddrivespace.
TheMyBookWorldEditionis
a network-attached
storage
devicefor all yourdigital
goodieslikepictures,documents,musicandmovies.
Unlikeotherbulkyexternal
harddrives,thecompactMy
Bookcanbeaccessed
by
allthecomputers
onyour
networksimultaneously,
as
wellasyourXbox360
and
PlayStation
3.Theinitialsetup
canbea bittricky,andyou
mayneedto callin yourtechsavvydykegeeksquadfor IT
support,butwith patience
andthe user'smanual(plus
a moderateamountof
cursing)I got mineset up,
andquicklyfoundoutwhyit
wasworthall the fuss.Outof
the boxit's compatiblewith
iTunes,whichmeansyou
canshareyourmusiclibrary
with anycomputeron your
networkinstantly.Andfor
Macusers,it's compatible
withTimeMachine.Butbest
of all, youcanalsofinally
ditchall yourdustyCDsand
DVDsby rippingandsaving
electroniccopiesonthe
drive.Goodbye,
clutter.
($300,wdc.com)
[RachelShatto]
62
Icurve
You know the age~old stereotype of the online gaming
geek-a straight teenage boy frantically leveling his
warrior named YouCnSuckMe in his parents' base~
ment. Well, it's time to blow that outdated image up
and replace it with something much hotter: real~life
lesbians logging on to wield weapons, willpower and
wile-all while conquering virtual worlds and kicking
some serious ass.
For years, lesbians have embraced massively multi~
player online games (MM Os) like World of Warcreft
(Wo W), but haven't talked much about it. Now,
they're coming out about their online obsessions.
And they're not just playing games. They're creating
communities, meeting friends and future lovers and ·
taking a stand-usually
with a sword and shield
in hand.
Angela Simpson, content manager for Lesbian
Gamers, a dedicated lesbian gaming website, says she's
seen the number of lesbian gamers rise since the site's
inceptionin2007 :'Statisticsforworkingoutthe
percentage of gay and lesbian gamers is always
going to be tricky because of closeted gamers,
even with the anonymity aspect;' she says.
"But the response (to the site] has been great.
Our readership is still growing and support
from many in the industry is fantastic:'
Despite this trend, there still isn't much
in the way of lesbian~focused content, especially in
single~player games. "I don't think the female player
is really on game developers' radar much at all in
general, and the lesbian gamer is even farther behind;'
says Barb Dybwad, a longtime gamer and senior editor
at the web and social media blog Mashable.com. "It
seems clear that the core target audience is still the
13~to~24~year~oldmale, for the most part:'
To combat this, lesbians are taking games into their
own hands. Online, players have the power to choose
who they want to be by creating an avatar, whether it's
an out~and~proud elf or a quiet, strong orc."In MM Os,
it's really important to me that there is a choice of body
sizes, physical traits and body language;' explains Kelly
Robson (pictured below, left with her girlfriend Alyx),
an online gamer out of Vancouver, B.C.,who admits
to a deep love for the social aspect of MMOs. "If
games had a lesbian element, that would be brilliant,
but most likely they're still geared toward titillating
straight men:'
Don't forget the many tempting
nonplayer characters who inspire
online greatness, and other things. As
Robson says of Sylvanas Windrunner, ~
Wo W's sexy, dark Queen of the il5
.J
Undercity,"She makes my little undead ~
heart go pitter par:'
~
LesbianLifeOnline
While killing, healing and conquering are
a major part of the appeal, there's also the
draw of online lesbian communities in the
form of guilds and servers (Wo W even has
an unofficial LGBT server, Proudmoore).
Friendships, courtships and erotic roleplay are a huge part of online gaming,
sometimes facilitated by the games themselves in the form of private play spaces
and props (SecondLife features harnesses,
vibrating dildos and same-sex marriages
for its characters).
Often, an online courtship turns into
something more. "My wife seduced me
through gaming," Robson says. Today, the
couple play both together and separately. "I
don't think it detracts from our relationship.
It's a way of getting alone time in a small
apartment:'
Lesbian gamers are even getting married
with their geek status in mind-a couple in
Australia tied the knot last year in a ceremony that included outfits, music and even
a cake inspired by their favorite games.
ONLINEGAMESTO TRY
Worldof Warcraft:
Probably
themostpopulargameoutthere,
anda greatchoicefor beginners.
Players
canbeelves,ores,tauren
(cowlikecreatures)
or eventhe
undead.
Thereis a vibrantcommunityfor role-playing
andmany
smallpocketsof LGBT-positive
activity.(worldofwarcraft.com)
is a strongalternative
community
online,withlotsof opportunities
for eroticrole-play.
(everquest2.
station.sony.com)
SecondLife:Moreanonline
experience
thana game,SL
allowsyouto createanonline
persona
anddojustaboutanythingyouwantwithher.There
Everquest
2: Oneofthelonis a heavyfocusonsexuality,
gest-running
MMOs,
thegame
andmanyof thepropsaresexfeaturesanintelligent,
articulate, focused.
(secondlife.com)
open-minded
community.
There
Photo editor
Hayley Mcmillian
as a blood elf.
GameWithCaution
The online world might seem like a
lesbian paradise, but that's not always
the case. Experienced players cite tales of
men who play female avatars in the hope
of getting some. Hate mongering is still
rampant and gaming companies so far
haven't shown a great deal of support for
their LGBT gamers-it was just last year
that Xbox LIVE and Microsoft were in
the news for suspending a player who
identified as lesbian in her online profile. It
was not until early this year that the Xbox
LIVE code of conduct was changed to allow
lesbian, gay, bi, transgender and straight in
gamer tags, after the banning them caused
the highly publicized controversy.
"You hear stories about the 12-year-old
homophobes in voice chat on Xbox LIVE,
and that stereotype exists for a reason;'
Dybwad says."Those kids are out there and
it definitely turns me off from the console
multiplayer experience-and
I'm sure it
turns away other lesbian gamers as well:'
"On the other hand, I participated in
two different openly gay-inclusive guilds
in WoW ... and had an awesome time,"
Dybwad adds. "If you spend some time
to look for a better, queer-affirming
experience, you can definitely find it:' ■
~
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make your African dreams come true.
Contact us at 1707, 467 9676 or
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July/August 2010 j 63
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JULY/AUG 2010 VOLUME 20#6
Olivia
celebrates
20 years - call for
PRIDE
SPECIALS!
·_,-,
~,.--~
----------
Features JULY/AUGUST
2010
28
The Real L Word
Ilene Chaiken turns her lens on the real lesbians
of Los Angeles. Meet the inspiration for Papi
and get a glimpse into the fabulous and dramafilled lives of these sexy dykes. By RachelShatto
39
Do Ask, Do Tell
Behind the scenes with A M_arine
Story.
By Laurie K. Schenden
32
GreenandGay
Farm Grrrls
From urban plots to big farms, lesbians are
digging in the dirt. By Lauren Marie Fleming
34
Crafty Queers
Gay artisans who stitch, felt and forge for
a living. By Erin Gilday
36
Thirteen Recycling Mistakes
Ziploc bags, pizza boxes-what you can and
can't recycle may surprise you. By Bree Clarke
38
A Greener Detroit
The new ultra-green LGBT center in the
heart of Motor City. By Rachel Shatto
42
35 SexyLesbianMusicians
The Bis Back
A look at the icon, minus her dreads.
44
Stripped Down Sarah Bettens
A new, unplugged version of the heartthrob.
45
Move over Melissa
Meet the young singer, Blair Hansen.
46
Cover Girls
From Lez Zeppelin to Hell's Bellesa look at all-girl rock cover bands.
48
0
!Q.
LU
The Raincoats
0
~
The post-punk girl band 30 years later.
50
LU
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::>
Ladies Sing The Blues
(/)
Gaye Adegbalola and other blues women.
51
Whoa, Aimee Mann
Her voice still carries us.
52
The Gospel According To Ruthie
Ruthie Foster's honest album.
54
Dimestore Dame
Julie Neumark's new, out record.
55
Meshell Ndegeocello
Twenty years of ml:Jsic,politics and love.
21
curve
page
18
We're all·in this together
~BEST
::~.~.:: PLACESTO WORK
2010 for LGBT Equality
100% CORPORATE EQUALITY INDEX
Com~unity is important. It becomes your family, your friends and your
home. That's why Wells Fargo is committed to working with communities to
support their financial stability and growth. fo fact, we have made signifi.cant
contributions to LGBT organizations over the past 20 years and encourage
our team members to volunteer. When communities prosper, we all succeed.
Together we'll go far
1
wellsf argo.com/lgbt
© 2010 Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. Member FDIC.
Departments JULY/AUGUST
2010
in
(.)
CD
§
~
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18
IN EVERY ISSUE
Frankly Speaking
9
Contributors and Scene
Letters
This Is What a Lesbian Looks Like
22
24
AstroGrrl
Lipstick & Dipstick
a§
!9-
Money: Calculating the cost of online dating.
~
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0
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~
Dyke Drama
58
Vamp lover Anna Paquin comes out
as-bi. Martina's new opponent. And
can you guess which supermodel is
getting hitched-to a girl?
62
zUJ
Victoria Brownworth 's very personal
account of living and dying lesbian.
0
. .
Books: How the government created a
Music: Sweet songs by Sia and why you' II
Film: Sport docs to make you sweat. Annette
Bening and Julianne Moore as lesbian moms.
And meet Lady Gaga's jail yard girl.
Celebrity Gossip
0
a:
fall in love with k.d. lang all over again. Plus,
we check up on Tegan and Sarah.
60
cc
<i:
-
~
second-class citizenship of gays and the
award-winning novel Another LifeAltogether.
Curvatures
~
N
Politics
-.
Out in Front
Hot tees abound, the sport of samesex ballroom dancing leads the way.
Plus, more from Ellen and Constance.
15
tell if her orgasms are real. Plus, five sexy
products to make your night.
From stone butches to pillow queens, now
you can find your type.
56
12
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8
10
14
16
21
20
Relationships: Is she faking it? How to
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curve
THE '13EST-SELLING
JULY/AUGUST
2010
I
LESBIAN
MAGAZINE
VOLUME 20 NUMBER 6
Publisher and Founder Frances Stevens
EDITORIAL
Editor in Chief Diane Anderson-Minshall
Managing Editor Kristin A. Smith
Associate Editor Rachel Shatto
Book Review Editor Rachel Pepper
Music Review Editor Margaret Coble
Contributing Editors Julia Bloch, Victoria A. Brownworth,
Gina Daggett, Sheryl Kay, Gretchen Lee, Stephanie Schroeder
Copy Editor Katherine Wright
EditorialAssistants Lisa Gunther, Liska Koenig
PUBLISHING
Director of Operations Flo Enriquez
Senior Advertising Executive Diana L Berry
Advertising Sales Rivendell Media
Marketing Assistant Rose Tachis, Sarah C. Jimenez
Rock On, Ladies!
Every year when the music issue rolls around, I marvel at how our editorial
team is able to narrow down the barrage of truly talented women out there
to pick this year's bumper crop. What's the impetus to pick the women we
feature? How do we make a case·for choosing one artist over another?
While, like in years past, the editors tried to combine younger and older
artists, from multiple genres and from a range of unknown to overexposed.
This year we let the readers do the driving.
Many of you sent in recommendations, spurred in part by awards and
popular lesbian films (you'll notice a few performers this issue were featured
on the award-winning film Hannah Freesoundtrack and a few are OutMusic
award winners themselves). There were letters and emails throughout the year
(encouraged by our coverage of the band The Runaways last year) to cover
more historically-pivotal all-girl bands like The Raincoats and Lez Zeppelin.
Other women, like Julie Neumark, were just delightful discoveries by
our editors. You may have seen her on TV in Mad About You and Gilmore
Girls or in a variety of commercials from KFC, Gap and Xbox to Charmin
and Pµffs tissues. But, like a lot of girls with guitars, music beckoned. She
was a hit at South by Southwest, one of the key music events in the country.
Speaking of music fests, we're all excited about the buzz on Lilith Fair, and
two of our featured musicians (Bitch and Sia) will be at Michigan Womyn's
Fest this year.
•
The other big buzz is over our cover girls. Associate editor Rachel Shatto
talked to each castmate from Showtime's new hit, TheRealL Word.She says her
goal was to intrigue people who might be skeptics. When editorial assistant Lisa
Gunther, a true skeptic indeed, read the cover story, she was hooked and Rachel
did a big hoorah! (Hopefully you'll agree with Lisa.) The show is supposed to be
more of a documentary than a traditional reality show, and we're hoping it really
does break new ground in showing the lives of lesbians. Only time (and TiVo)
will tell. If all goes well, I'm hoping for The RealL Word:San Francisco.
P.S. Look close, at least two of the musicians in this issue are former
curve cover girls!
ART
/PRODUCTION
Art Director Stefanie Liang
Photo Editor Hayley McMillen
Production Manager Ondine Kilker
Production Artist Kelly Nuti
Web Producer Nikki Woelk
Photo Assistant Brittany Jeffers
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
Jamie Anderson, Melany Joy Beck, Rachel Beebe, Kathy Beige,
Stacy Bias, Kelsy Chauvin, Bree Clarke, Jennifer Corday, Lyndsey
D'Arcangelo, Beren deMotier, Ainsley Drew, Michele Fisher,
Lauren Marie Fleming, Katrina Fox, Serena Freewomyn Tania
Hammidi, Kathi lsserman, Gillian Kendall, Kate Lacey, Sheela
Lambert, Charlene Lichtenstein, Karen Loftus, Sassafras Lowrey,
Ariel Messman-Rucker, Candace Moore, Alison Peters, Catherine
Plato, Aimsel L. Ponti, Heather Robinson, Laurie K. Schenden, Lori
Selke, Dave Steinfeld, Edie Stull, Robin Miner-Swartz, Yana TallonHicks, Kyra Thomson, Jocelyn Voo, Jamie Wetherbe
CONTRIBUTING
ILLUSTRATORS
& PHOTOGRAPHERS
Paul Michael Aguilar, Erica Beckman, Brie Childers, Meagan
Cignoli, Cheryl Craig, JD Disalvatore, Tony Donaldson, Sophia
Hantzes, Cheryl Mazak, Maggie Parker, Elisa Shebaro, Leslie Van
Stelten, Katherine Streeter, Kina Williams, Misty Winter
1550 Bryant Street, Suite 510
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone (415) 863-6538 Fax (415) 863-1609
Advertising Sales (415) 863-6538 ext. 15
Subscription Inquiries (800) 705-0070 International (818) 286-3102
Advertising Email advertising@curvemag.com
Editorial Email editor@curvemag.com
Letters to the Editor Email letters@curvemag.com
Volume 20 Issue 6 Curve (ISSN 1087-867)() Is published monthly (except for bimonthly
January/February arid July/August) by Outspoken Enterprises, Inc., 1550 Bryant St.,
Ste. 510, San Francisco, CA 94103. Subscription price: $49.95/year, $62.95 Canadian
(U.S. funds only) and $71.95 international (U.S. funds only). Returned checks will be
assessed a $25 surcharge. Periodicals postage paid at San Francisco, CA 94114 and
at additional mailing offices (USPS 0010-355). Contents of Curve Magazine may not be
reproduced in any manner, either whole or in part, without written permission from the
publisher. Publication of the name or photograph of any persons or organizations appearing,
advertising or listing in Curve may not be taken as an indication of the sexual orientation
of that individual or group unless specifically stated. Curve welcomes letters, queries,
unsoliclted manuscripts and artwork. Include SASE for response. Lack of any representation
only signifies insufficient materials. Submissions cannot be returned unless a self-addressed
stamped envelope is included. No responsibility is assumed for loss or damages. The
contents do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editor, unless specifically stated. All
magazines sent discreetly. Subscription Inquiries: Please write to Curve, 1550 Bryant Street,
Suite 510, San Francisco, CA 94103, email shop@curvemag.com. Canadian Agreement
Number: 40793029. Posbnaster:Send Canadian
addresschangesto shop@curvemag.com,
Curve,
PO Box 122, Niagara Falls, ON L2E 688. Send U.S. addresschangesto shop@curvemag.com,
Curve,POBox 17138,N. Hollywood,
CA 91615-7138.Printedin the U.S.
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Jennifer Knapp Confesses
Christian rocker Jennifer Knapp shocked the conservative
Christian right when she came out as a lesbian earlier this year.
Now Knapp talks life after the closet with curve.
The Return of The Slits
The Slits stand out from the '70s punk crowd, not only because
of their all-female lineup but for thier unique sound-a mixture of
punk rock and reggae. Nearly three decades later, the trailblazing
rockers are back with a new album, TrappedAnimal. Read our
interview with lead vocalist Ari Up at curvemag.com.
Miss Anne
Lister has
a secret
Looking Back with Fanny
We'll always have a special place in our hearts for the groundbreaking all-women rock band Fanny. Starting in the '60s, they
recorded five albums and shared stages with Tina Turner and
David Bowie, rocking their way into music history.
The new Lisa (
Cholodenko
joint is better
than All Right
The Courageous Julie Clark
In our one-one-one interview with Julie Clark-the OutMusic
Award winning singer-songwriter and the woman
behind last October's National Equality Walk's theme
song- she talks frankly about shame, love and
sticking to the courage of her convictions. Plus,
watch her new music video at curvemag.com.
Eco-product guide
Check out our list of the hottest green products
in beauty, fashion, travel and home, including
fierce eco-friendly and socially-conscious
grocery bags from lt's-las-tik (pictured left).
8
Cinema Lesbonica
Check out our full reviews of The Kids Are All Right and
The Secret Diariesof Miss Anne Lister at curvemag.com.
Spoiler Alert-we loved them!
8
Lesbos, Take a Trip to Where It All Began
Soak up some sun and some ancient Sapphic history
with a trip to none other than Lesvos Island, Greece, for
their annual International Women's Festival.
July/August 201017
LmERS
Dueling Cover Girls
We asked you which May [Vol. 20#4] cover you would have preferred-funny gir1
Sarah Silverman or TV mom Meredith Baxter. Even with Silverman's admission that
she loves lesbians and description of the kind of gir1who could make her gay, the
flood of emails made it clear that Baxter was your first choice. Still, there were a few
die-hard Silverman supporters in the mix. Here's a sampling of the comments:
f +l,;.,.,k 5.r.l,
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Meredith Baxter, of course! She's sexy, intelligent, just an
all-around hottie! Not the Sarah one. Argh!
Silverman is a funny lady, but with her news of coming out,
Baxter would be the No. 1 choice.
i,..,.
I am a Gen Xer and the obvious vote for me would be Sarah
Silverman, but I love Meredith Baxter. So, my vote is for her.
Scooter Girls
As usual, I enjoyed this issue
of curve. It was refreshing
to see information and eye
• candy pertaining to motorcycles and
cars. My only complaint? The "Which Car Is
Right For You" spread [Vol. 20#4] encom,
passed every sort of vehicle (bikes to trailers)
but not (gasp!) scooters. I didn't have to look
at a pie chart to know that my vehicle of
choice is a trusty Vespa ET2 50. Not only
is it efficient on gas, it's a creampuff to drive,
and in the city of Philadelphia it's safe for me
to take out on the streets. And believe me, it
gets me more attention than anything; girls
always want to go for a ride.
- StaceyBorden,Philadelphia,Pa.
lf's so ._\IW'So,,i,,e
+o see curve
Love +l.e 5ilvervi,,._.,.,coverl
celehr- ...fi
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ov,- ...llies.
Sarah Silverman is very funny, but Meredith Baxter is an actual
lesbian! And it's your 20th-anniversary issue year!
How could you not have the still-hot former Mrs. Keaton on your cover? Perhaps you
can make it up to us by featuring Chely Wright on the next cover.
Bull's Eye with Gaydar
Loved, loved, loved the Gaydar spot m
the May 2010 [Vol 20#4] issue. We were
married by E. Denise Simmons here in
Massachusetts. She actually came to my
friend's home to perform the ceremony. So
thanks, it was really cool to see her in curve.
Hopefully she will be elected to the State
Senate seat.
- Kim Cromidas,Danvers,Mass.
will be a great magazine to be able to do just
that. Thank you.
- Debra Phelps, Tucson,Ariz.
Back in the Scene
I finally got my first issue of curve magazine
today and just couldn't wait to read it. I just
wanted you to know that I think you have a
great variety for all of us and I thank you for
it. I have just ended a long relationship and
am finding myself again, and I think curve
How Green
Are You?
of green.I requestpaperbags
39% Sort
insteadof plastic
34% Prettygreen.I drivea Priusand
recyclemyemptywinebottles
13% Very.I recycle,compostand
ridemybiketo work
14'¾ Notsogreen.I donatedmyex's
O clothesto theGoodwill
though
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1550BryantSt.,Ste.510SanFrancisco,
CA94103
EMAIL:
letters@curvemag.com
FAX:415-863-1609
GOTO:curvemag.com/letters
Subscriber
Services
arenowavailable
at
curvemag.com/customerservice:
• subscribe
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• payyourbill
• getmissingissues
• changeaddress
• givea gift
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CONTRIBUTORS
When she isn't writing or eating copious amounts of chocolate, Jamie
Anderson
plays her guitar and mandolin. She's toured nationally,
playing in 47 states and four countries. Anderson wrote many of
the music pieces in this issue, including "Queer Women Blues" on
pg. 50 and her list of the best lesbian love songs, which runs along
the bottom of the music section. Anderson just released her ninth
album, Better Than Chocolate. When she's home from touring she
teaches guitar, songwriting af).d belly dance, but not at the same
time. She can play "Stairway to Heaven'' and, for a large bribe, will
do it at her next women's music festival gig.
From the Editor
My dad's not a
demonstrative
guy and, though
he didn't exactly
holler hooray
when I came
out, he's always
'Td live off only music if I could, but I'll settle for pommes frites and a
quality IPA;' says contributing writer AshGoddard.
When she's not busy
riding mountain bikes, snowboarding, hiking or wielding her acupuncture
needles, she's attending live shows or spending quiet nights at home with
her cross-eyed cat, Pedal. Together she and Pedal embark on a never-ending
Internet quest for new music. Her most recent pick can be found on pg. 58.
With whatever time she has left Goddard volunteers for Girls Rock! Seattle, an organization
dedicated to building positive self-esteem in girls through music.
been supportive
of me. He's on
my mind a lot,
not just because "Cat's in the
Cradle" is on my iPod this month
but because three Curvettes
have fathers who are in failing
health. Production manager
(0
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fact I get made
fun of by friends for bringing home cardboard coffee sleeves to recycle;' says
contributing writer BreeClarke,who wrote "Thirteen Recycling Blunders" on
pg. 36. "What drives me nuts is the lack of recycling savvy of my neighbors,
who leave half-full jars of peanut butter, cheesy pizza boxes and furniture in
the recycling bin. This article is what I've wanted to post on their doors for years:' But for the
well-intentioned, this article will help clear things up. Clarke herself even realized she was doing
a few things wrong. "I didn't know you couldn't recycle frozen food boxes or that Ziploc bags
are recyclable:' In addition to writing for curve, Clarke is a marketing and communications
consultant in New York City and has recorded three records as a singer/ songwriter.
~
Ondine Kilker is working
production while squeezing in
long talks with her pops after
his recent heart attack, while
production artist Kelly Nuti and
photo editor Hayley McMillan
·each rush back and forth from
respective hospitals to visit
their own fathers, who are both
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Victoria Brownworth talks about
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1 And ThenCameLolafilm releaseparty
(left to right):WolfevideopresidentMaria
Lynn,Directorof ConsumerMarketing
JenniOlsonandco-directorMeganSiler,
curve directorof operationsFlo Enriquez
2 JaneLynch(center)with curve's senior
advertisingexecutiveDianaBerry(left) and
marketingassistantRoseTachis.3 Revelers
at the openingof PLAY,
a newTampa,Fla.
entertainmentvenue.4, 7 Partiersat Club
Skirts'TheDinah,PalmSprings,Calif.5, 6
Minnesotasame-sexmarriagesupporters
nothing keeping us away
from our hospitalized parents,
because the Curvettes wouldn't
have survived spring.
Diane Anderson-Minshall
Editor in Chief
July/August 2010
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A Brady Bunch of Tees
Face it, for many lesbians the word "fashion" means which ~-shirt to pair
with jeans that day. Here are a few of this summer's faves from Threadless,
DykeTees, SnorgTees and Cupcake and Cuddlebunny.
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the rundown
So You Think You Can Dance?
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Forget reality TV shows: same-sex ballroom
dancers across the country have their sights
set on an even bigger prize-this month's
Gay Games VIII in Cologne, Germany. Zoe
Balfour and Citabria Phillips, founders of
the San Francisco Bay Area's only exclusively
same-sex dance studio, Dancing With the
Queers, are busily preparing themselves and
their students for the competition. North
American champions for the past four years,
and international competitors for seven,
Balfour and Phillips gain their inspiration
from the "wonderful experience of dancing
with queer people from all over the world':
While Balfour and Phillips (below) are
unable to compete in straight competitions
due to the same-sex
couples ban imposed
by the National Dance
Council of America
(NDCA), both agree
that the world of
same-sex dancing is
"way ahead of the
heterosexual world in
classifying dance as a sport:' Events like the
Gay Games are "incredibly inclusive;' offering
five different levels of competition based
upon the skill levels of the dancers.
Shows like Dancing with the Stars and the
growing number of inclusive dance studios
have "reawakened people's interest" in the
sport, according to Balfour. Keeping with this
spirit, Dancing with the Queers welcomes
dancing beginners, encourages non-traditional
roles, teach female leads and male follows in
addition to queer and transgender couples
Don't let a few gray hairs stop you either,
Balfour never danced competitively until she
was 44 and affirms that "it's never too late" to
scare. [Rachel
Cullen]
OutontheFloor,
NYC(gregryzio.com)
Outto Dance,
WestRoxbury,
Mass.
Champion
Ballroom,
SanDiego
(outtodance.com)
(championballroom.com)
TheBallroom
Dance
Company,
Tigard,Ore.
KPDanceHouse,
SanDiego
(theballroomcompany.com)
(kpdancehouse.com)
QueerJitterBugs,
SanFrancisco
(queerjitterbugs.com)
CenturyBallroom,
Seattle
(centuryballroom.com)
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Who missed the mark and who w.as right on target?
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CopShenanigansBisexual
copLori Dutrasuesfour
lesbiancopsin SanFrancisco
for harassment.Saysonly
lesbiansacceptedin S.F.
policeforce.(p.s.noneof
thesehot "cops"are real but
they'recertainlysexy)
Cheyenne
Williams,
an out lesbian teenager
( in Kentucky, was kidnapped by classmates
and taken to a remote area where
she was beaten before they
attempted to push her off a cliff.
Despite the attack occurring on
National
DayofSilence,
police
say they don't have evidence to
substantiate a qualification of a hate crime.
... "Fags don't belong" and a swastika
were spray painted on the fence near the
entrance of the CampitOutdoor
Resortin
Michigan. For 40 years the campground
has catered to LGBT people and families.
Police found and charged the teenage
culprits, who were charged with "malicious
damage to property:' ... Dogs and cats and
Ellen! TheUnitedStatesPostalService
has
partnered with EllenDeGeneres
and Halo:
Purely For Pets to create
Adopt a Shelter Pet stamps.
The campaign hopes to
raise awareness about the
millions of pets in American
shelters who need homes. The stamps
themselves feature the adorable
faces of shelter critters from Milford,
Conn .... out lesbian LaurieJinkinsis ~
running for a seat in the Washington State 't
House of Representatives.
If elected, she would be the
first out lesbian to serve in
a Washington state office...
Mississippi
lesbian teen
Constance
McMillen
had to
face protesters during her graduation from
Itawamba Agricultural High. TheWestboro
BaptistChurch's
website claimed, "The
parents of Fulton, Miss. feign outrage that
a filthy dyke wants to parade her girlfriend'
around at their night of fornication called
a prom. They had a duty to teach their
children what the Lord requires of chem:: ..
Turns out company offered health insurance for straight couples is less expensive
because of federal tax laws that work in
their favor. When a straight employee's
insurance is paid by their employer, federal
law requires anything paid on behalf of
the person's spouse is exempt from the
employee's gross income. Same-sex couples
don't get the same tax break and so the
money paid out for health insurance ends
up being considered as income.
[Sassafras
Lowrey]
July/August 2010
I 13
ASTRO
GRRL
Heating Things Up Summer sizzles with astrological anticipation.
By Charlene Lichtenstein
Cancer(June22-July 23)
Sex:You seem to know just what to say to get what
you want. The thing is, do you really know what you
really want? Career:Find any excuse to work from
home as much as possible this summer. If all else fails
plan a poolside staff meeting or two.
Leo(July24-Aug.23)
Sex: Find a well-endowed benefactress to cushion
your life. Or become one yourself. Money acts like a
lubricant so start sliding around. Career:
Ask and you
shall receive. Ask again and the powers that be think
that you really mean it. Ask a third time and they
might stop listening. Pacing is everything.
Virgo(Aug.24-Sept.23)
Sex:You will have to work for your love but this is
CANCER
(JUNE22-JULY23) not a bad thing. The best fruit is usually at the top
Youcanrecognize
a typical. of the tree. Start social climbing and shake, shake,
Cancermommabyherdemeanor. shake. Career:You may get an unexpected raise. But
Ina roomfull of radicaldykes since you have worked so hard for it, you should not
wearingnothingbutbellybutton be all that surprised. You have been working hard,
studsandlastnight'sspaghetti haven't you?
sauce,she'stheonein theskirt
andsensible
shoes.Genetics Libra(Sept.24-0ct. 23)
alwaysplaysa rolein Sex:Keep your love affair secretive and under wraps
appearance,
butgenerally
for now. Big displays of affection behind closed doors
speaking,
shewill beonthepale
capture her heart. Big displays on the public stage
sidewitha moonshapedface
might drive her away. Is that the plan? Career:Your
andlargeeyes.Whenyoulook
up"femme"in thedictionary, career plans progress through the summer. Glad hand
chances
arethatyou'llseea the powerful and influential and see how far you can
Cancergalpeeringbackat you go. How high is too high?
withmoisteyesandlips.Likea
lion,shecarriesherselfregally. Scorpio(Oct.24-Nov.22)
Howeyer,
despiteherneedto out- Sex: Gal pals can become bosom buddies this
shineothers,shetendsto spend summer,. if you are lucky. But don't spoil a perfectly
relativelylittletimeonherphysical good friendship on a quick fling. Be sure that you
appearance.
That'sbecause
she mean it before you go for it. Career:Move behind the
knowsthatsheis debonair,
sexy scenes at work and see who is a friend and who is a
andmagnanimous.
Herpriorityis
foe. Ah, but what about your frenemies?
to beadoredandadmired.Barring
that,sheacceptssimplybeing
.enviously
noticed. Sagittarius(Nov.23-Dec.22)
Sex:Your career can take off more than just professionally now. Is there someone in the corporate suite
who you think is sweet? See what is under her suit.
Career:Girlfriends in high places make sure that you
are prqtected, at least through the summer. But what
will the winter bring? Let's hope that it's not all a
snow job.
14
I curve
•
Gapricorn
(Dec.23-Jan.20)
Sex:Travel will have its many pleasures, including the
possibility of romance. Expand your tasting menu
to include someone spicy. Save the sweets for later.
Career:You are a corporate powerhouse all through
the summer. Will you steamroll the competition or
use your finesse. Oh let's guess!
Aquarius(Jan.21-Feb.19)
Sex:You have a certain je ne sais quois.Will you know
what to do with it? Just get creative and be very bold.
Career:You may find yourself traveling for business.
This is good if your travel plans take you to worthy
locales-especially if they are·full of wealthy locals.
Pisces(Feb.20-March20)
Sex:Relationships heat up and you may find yourself
planning a long-term arrangement. Is that what you
really want? If so, then dive in! Career:Be the power
behind the professional throne this summer. You can
influence the influencers. Will you use this power for
good or evil? Uh oh.
Aries(March21-April20)
Sex:Someone stirs some sugar in your morning coffee
at work. Will she be to your taste? You never know
until you take a sip. Career:
Business relationships heat
up and encourage you to make a big move. As long as
you are moving, why not shake it too?
Taurus(April21-May 21)
Sex: Don't waste your time hoping that love finds
you. Get out of your rut, move your butt and start to
strut. Romance is everywhere you seek it. Career:
Job
responsibilities start to pile up just as the hot summer
beckons. Find ways to show that you are working
hard-without really doing so.
Gemini(May22-June21)
Sex: Your little plan to lure her to your sultry lair
appears to be working. That is until you begin to talk
about home decor. Talk less and show more. Career:
Your creative juices start flowing. Make good use of
this time by creating your corporate masterpiece ■
Astrologer
Charlene
Lichtenstein
is theauthor
of Herscopes:
A Guide
toAstrology
forLesbians.
Getmoreat thestarryeye.com
or readherblog
at thestarryeye.-typepad.com.
LESBOFILE
Romance and Rumors
A new lezzie DJ, celesbian rumors and an Academy Award winner comes out. By Jocelyn Voo
Annual Reader's Choice Nightlife Awards
(from NYC-based lesbian magazine, GO)
had MichelleRodriguez
spinning. Thankfully
the notoriously fight-prone super sexy actor
stuck to hitting the decks rather than the
other guests.
ShePuta RingOnIt-Maybe
It's a match made in bombshell heaven:
model Catherine
McNeiland MTV Australia
host RubyRoseare reportedly engaged!
Womans Day magazine report~d that
Rose said, "We never talk about our relationship, because it is so sacred. But one thing
everybody knows is I am lucky and I am
happy
and if it wasn't for her I wouldn't do
w
what I do now:' But Rose denies that she
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!;,
0:
ever even spoke to the magazine. Either way,
w
a.
a.
we'
re pretty sure the giant engagement rings
~
tr:
(
a
sapphire
and diamond ring for Catherine,
w
a.
=>
an
emerald-cut
diamond for Rose) would've
Anna
Paquin
Comes
Out
0:
~
The
vampire
trend
swings
both
ways:
Anna
tipped
people
off
anyway.
uJ
z(.)
Paquin,a.k.a. Sookie Stackhouse in HBO's
6
w
True Blood,has come out as bisexual.
Rumors
I
Zoe Saldana,the sexy blue babe from the
The Academy Award winning Paquin,
~Cl
billion-dollar CGI sci-fi blockbuster Avatar,
who
is
engaged
in
real
life
to
her
vampire
w
:t
seems to be busier dodging lezzie rumors
series
beau
Stephen
Moyer,
participated
z
c3
alongside lesbian faves CyndiLauper,Wanda than profiteering human predators. Despite
...J
~ Sykes,WhoopiGoldbergand other celebs being in a long-term relationship with a man,
(.)
co
§ in the True Colors Fund's "Give a Damn" the actor says she has long been a tomboy,
tn
with a self-described "masculine" energy.
public service announcement promoting
z
zw
And Saldana herself is A-O K with all the
equality
for
those
identifying
as
LGBT.
0:
~
'Tm Anna Paquin, and I give a damn;' she Sapphic speculation.
fir
"If you want to punish me, send me to get a
=> says in the PSA. Amen, sister.
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manicure
or dress me in a skirt or shorts, and I
Cl
0
would die;' she told SiempreMajer."But if you
Hey,Ms.DJ
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co
Looks like Sam Ronsonisn't the only hot dress me in jeans and a button-down blouse, I
~w girl DJ in demand. This year's GO 4th feel very sexy,feminine and powerful:'
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Martina'sBattle
Tennis great MartinaNavratilova
has crushed
many opponents in her long ·career and
now she has a new one: breast cancer. The
cancer, a non-invasive form of breast cancer
called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), was
detected early, so the prognosis looks good.
After a lumpectomy, Navratilova will be
undergoing six months of radiation therapy.
In the meantime, she's already back in action,
Navratilova played in the senior doubles
event at the French Open. Here's to a speedy
recovery, champ! ■
Is Ruby Rose
getting married
to supermodel
Catherine
McNeil?
More Zing for Your Zang
Spicing things up-literally.
By Lipstick and Dipstick
Dear Lipstick and Dipstick: Are there any foods
a woman can eat to affect her, um, flavor? If so,·
what are they? - Boxing Champ
sation out of the way, explore all the wonderfulness that is you and your sexuality (safely,
I might add). Kiss, smell, lick, poke,joke-do
whatever your heart tells you to do. If you're
supposed to end up with this Jim, your heart
will eventually lead you back to his barracks.
Dipstick:
You know, I never thought about it,
but since I got your letter, I've been experimenting. Garlic and onions make you taste like
an Italian super model; feta and black olives,
like a Greek goddess. Coffee makes you taste
like the cute coffee girl at Dunkin' Donuts.
Then I took it even further with fruit-flavored
lubes too. Grape soda reminded me of my first
girlfriend in high school. I had a hot night
on an Olivia Cruise with a Caribbean queen
and the piiia colada-flavored lube. And the
chocolate, well, let's just say, Willy Wonka's
factory will never be the same.
Dipstick:No, Lipstick, she shouldn't send a
"Dear Jim, I'm gay" letter. She's just a straight
girl who kissed her best friend when she was
drunk. It happens all the time. Apparently
their boyfriends don't mind it. That is until
they fall in love with said girl and leave their
sorry asses. But that's not what's going on
here. What we have here isjust one of the few,
the proud and the lonely enjoying the doting
lesbian friend. MG, don't mess around with
Lori. You'll only break her heart, then Jim's
and probably your own, too. No matter how
much you care for your friend, you can't make
up for the fact that you're straighter than
straight. It's just a phase.
Lipstick:
Oompa Loompa Doopadeedoo, I've
got a tasty treat for you. I hear there are a
lot of things that affect how a vajayjay tastes.
Not only can changes in your cycle affect
flavor but arousal and sweat adds a zing to
your zang. I've found· that citrus improves
the situation south of the border and eating
pineapple actually candy coats your "special
lady:' No wonder so many lezzies honeymoon in Hawaii!
DearLipstick& Dipstick:I'm so confused.
I've
alwaysbeenin lovewiththis guynamedJim.
We'vebeentogetherfor six years,planto get
marriedandallthatsweetheterostuff.I thought
hewastheone.Heis in theMarinesandI don't
seehim thatoftenanymore.
However,
I metthis
gay girl in school.She'sbeena lesbiansince
shewasa kid,whileI'vealwaysbeenstraighter
than straight.Recently,we've becomebest
friends.I sayfriends,butthetruthis I'm falling
in lovewith her.I eventoldher,andturnsout
thatshe'sin lovewithme.I stayedat herhouse
the othernightbecauseher parentswereout
of town.We got drunk,madeout and I loved
16
Icurve
it. Help,I'm so stuck! Part of me wants to be
with Jim becauseof everythingwe had and
could haveoncehe gets back from Japan,but
anotherpart wants to take risks andto be with
Lori.WhatshouldI do?-Marine's Girl
Lipstick:How old are you little chicken? 18?
Did you and Jim Dog get togethe~ in junior
high? Your feelings for this girl may well be
real, but it might also be that you've got some
oats to sew. Here's what you should do: Tell
Jim you need a break. Explain to him why.
Tell him that even though you love him,
you need to do this for your emotional and
mental health. Once you get that big conver-
Lipstick & Dipstick ADVICE
you? I'll bet you've been in this predicament
before, letting a woman play you this way.Are
you ready for the truth? Marley is keeping
you around for selfish reasons-to boost her
own confidence-not because she's unsure of
her feelings. Like many dykes, Marley enjoys
knowing you're in the wings, pining for her.
It's gluttonous and self-serving,but apparently
how she rolls. My advice would be to quit
playing the fool and take back control here.
That means: no more phone calls, no more
texts and no more Marley.
Evenif you nevermeetthe
girlof your dreams,you'll
most likelybe happier
than waiting around for
a girl who is probably
never going to call.
DearLipstick
& Dipstick:
I datedthisgirl,Marley,
fora couplemonthsuntilshebrokeupwithme Dipstick:Lipstick, how many more letters will
to dateherex-girlfriend.
Marleydecidedherex we have to answer before lesbians stand up
wasstraightandthatshemissedme,sowe got for themselves? Wait until she calls you? Hell
backtogetherrecently.
Theproblem
is,afterwe no. The best thing to do is to forget about
reunited,Marleywouldn'teventouchme and Marley and get on with your life. She sounds
startedactingdifferently.
Shefinallyadmitted like the type who's afraid to be alone, so she
she wasn'treadyfor a "seriousrelationship" keeps you hanging on until someone better
and wants me to slow thingsdown.This is comes along. It's time for you to dismiss Ms.
confusing
becauseMarley'sthe onewhosped Not Ready and find someone who does want
thingsup in the first place.I agreed,but now to touch you. Get out there and meet someshe won't respondto my phonecalls or text one who is sure she wants to be with you, who
messages.
The last thing she said was that would fight to be with you, who re.turns your
she'dlet me knowwhenshefiguresoutwhat calls and sends you sexy text messages and
shewants.AmI supposed
tojustsitaroundand flowers just because. Even if you never meet
waitfor herto decideif shewantsme or not? the girl of your dreams (unlikely), you'll most
WhatdoI doif sheendsupwantingto be with likely be happier than waiting around for a
me?HowcanI besureshe'snotjustscrewing girl who is probably never going to call. ■
with my headagainandwill eventually
dump
meoutin thecold?-Waitingto Wait
s texting cheating? What do you do
with your old sex toys? Watch new
Lipstick:Waitfng to Wait-wake up! You're
episodes of TheLipstick& Dipstick
a passionate pushover with a big heart, aren't
Showat curvemag.com.
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ADVICERelationships
Orgasmic Confessions
Seven ways
to tell if she's faking. By Emily Wilcox
We live in a world where lying has
become second nature and truth holds
a close third to deceit. It seems as if the
only honesty we can count on these
days is in our sexual relationships. But
what if you suddenly realize that your
partner-that
deviant goddess that
dispels all lies-has secretly been faking
her unearthly orgasms?
We gasp at the thought. Not my girl!
But lots of women do fake orgasms.
Some do so because they are eager
to impress. Others just to end a long,
drawn-out romp session and get some
much-needed sleep.
Scientific studies show that certain
areas of the brain are affected during
orgasm and those areas are unaffected
when women fake it. But for those of us
who want to know how to detect a faker
without the medical equipment, we must
rely on our instinct. If you suspect you
may be the unwitting audience of her
special one-woman show, here are a few
tips to offer help you spot the faker.
THE FALSETTO BUILD
The faker knows that she must choose
her timing wisely. She cannot suddenly
orgasm and think you will buy it. She
must produce the build. The bogus build
sounds more like a methodical panting,
gradually getting louder without missing a beat. The real
deal is more unplanned, more
spontaneous and more
revealing. The actual sound will
leave you with a tingle in your
lower belly that is unmistakable.
THE ABDOMINAL MANEUVER
The faker knows just how to move her
pelvis and abdominal area, giving you
the impression of muscle spasm at the
point of reaching orgasm. Involuntary
and pleasurable muscular contractions
can be felt in the vagina and the uterus.
However, the muscles that spasm during
actual orgas~ are not the same ones
we can move with our thoughts. They
contract at such a rapid pace that we
cannot reproduce the same response
when attempting it ourselves.
THE TOUCH TEST
Immediately following an orgasm, the
clitoris and vagina becomes extremely
sensitive. A good truth serum is to touch
the area directly, but gently to see if she
pulls back. If she does, she likely experienced the real deal.
DRY PALMS?
Grab her hands in the heat of passion.
Are they moist? Sweaty
palms are a reaction of
the autonomic nervous
system that can be
triggered during orgasm.
SKIN TONE
You might want to keep the lights on,
because it is proven that women look
more flushed, red and splotchy during
the Big 0. When a woman experiences
an orgasm, her cheeks tend to change
color due to the increase in blood flow.
THE AFTERMATH
Performance anxiety is rough on anyone.
Usually stress takes a backseat to
relaxation after an orgasm is achieved.
So, check to see if she isn't a bit anxious
afterwards instead of calm.
HER LYINGWAYS
Insecurities about impressing a lover can
be heightened when lying naked and
vulnerable. But if you consistently find
yourself with a natural faker, it could be
a red flag. If she's lying in the bedroom,
what else might she be lying about? ■
EmilyWilcoxis a sexuality
counselor
andthe voice
behindthe onlinesex advicecolumn,Ask Emily
(askemi/yanything.com).
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Long beforeTori
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creasesbloodflow to
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ADVICE Money
Can Buy Me Love
How to get the most bang for your virtual dating buck.
By Serena Freewomyn
If you're on the prowl for a partner, there are
many ways to meet women. Many of us have
turned to online dating as a way to streamline the process. According to Online Dating
Magazine, over 20 million people visit online
dating services each month. In fact, online
dating is expected to be a $932 million
industry in 2011.
Internet dating is one of the best inventions
of our time. You can cruise for hotties when
you're supposed to be working. And you can
scan dozens of profiles in less time, and with
less effort, than it takes to go out to the bar.
Some dating services are better than
others. Several, like CurvePersonals.com or
Match.com, allow you to join for free. Paid
membership lets you have online chats or
post videos. But, is it worth the money?
Sure, you can "hook up" for free with
Craigslist. However, investing in a daring
membership is a sign that you are serious about
having a relationship. Think of the search for
Ms. Right in the same way you approach a job
search and you'll see how online dating can be
worth the investment.
the best candidate. You should use a similar
list when you are looking for a partner. Does
your ideal woman need to be a good cook?
Does she have to be able to fix a busted
radiator cap? Is she college-educated? Don't
be afraid to be detailed-this is your list.
Be very clear about your non-negotiables.
Maybe your bottom line is income level or
the job. However, the candidate might turn
down the offer. The same is true of dating.
You might meet someone and feel that you're
really clicking after a few dates. If they don't
return your interest, don't get broken up
about it. You'll eventually find a fabulous lady
who is on the same page as you-but first
you might have to broaden your search.
YourDatingProfileIs LikeYourResume
When you're hunting for a job, you might
have different versions of your resume.
You should also tailor a dating profile
to the type of website that you're using.
Highlight different aspects about yourself
in each profile, and see which one gets the
most traction.
Many profile descriptions are boring. If
you can't find something more interesting
to say than "I like spending time with my
friends;' what are you going to talk about for
an entire first date? Try to be creative. Here
are some examples:
"I amstudyingmeteorology.
Mygoalin lifeis
•to bethatreporterstandingin a trenchcoatin
themiddleof a hurricane."
"I havea blackbeltin karate.I'll try most
thingsonce,which,coincidentally,
is the
numberof timesI'vebeento BurningMan."
Whois YourPerfectWoman?
If you were conducting a job interview, you
would have specific criteria in order to find
20
Icurve
religious background. Whatever it is, have
a strong sense of your deal breakers, and be
firm about it.
WhatDoestheJobEntail?
Are you looking for a wife? Or are you looking
for something casual? Be specific about what
you want, because you' re not going to find
your match if you don't.
KnowWhento Compromise
While it is important to have a bottom line,
there is also a time to compromise. I had a
hard time finding a college-educated, nonsmoker without children in Phoenix. I had
to expand my search to include the entire
state of Arizona. I'm glad I did, because I
found the perfect partner. But that never
would have happened ifl hadn't been willing
to drive to Tucson.
li'eatthe FirstDateas a JobInterview
The beauty of online dating is that you can
send a few e-mails back and forth before
you actually meet in person. If someone is a
dud on the first date, don't waste time on a
second. Move it along. There are plenty of
other women waiting to meet you.
Sometimes a job interview goes great, and
an applicant is invited for a second round of
interviews. If the next interview goes well, the
employer may decide to offer the applicant
Don'tGiveUp
Even though online dating has many
advantages, it still takes time to find the
right person. You wouldn't give up your job
search after sending out only a few resumes,
so why would you give up your search for a
partner after sending out only a few emails?
Be persistent, and remember that if a skeptic
like me can land herself a partner, anybody
can do it. ■
:.::
~
cc
1'5
g
§
8
OUTINFRONT
Behind the
Curtain
These lesbians bring equality
center stage. By Sheryl Kay
~
i
i
u:J
~
5
cE
interested in same-sex marriage, don't work
on it. But find something to which you: can
deeply commit. We are all responsible for
creating the society in which we wish to live:'
she asks."Our needs cannot fully be met by the
mainstream. We need our own separate space
to find and support each other:'
Success
intheSouth
Championing
theUnderrepresented
Performance
Activism
Her resume reads like a civics lesson-the
NAACP, Prisoners With Children, National
Women's Law Center, the ACLU and the
Asian Law Caucus.
For the past decade DoreenaWonghas
served as staff attorney at the National Health
Law Program, a public interest legal group
that seeks to improve access to health care for
low-income populations, including people
of color, women, children, the elderly, people
with special needs and immigrants.
"The current economic crisis has impacted
low-income people more than any other, but
poor people have no effective lobby or corps
of advocates to represent their concerns;' says
Wong. "So our work is badly needed, as well
as badly underfunded:'
In her off hours, Wong co-founded and
For Joan Lipkin,all theater is inherently
political in that it either reinforces or challenges the status quo. Her love affair with it
began at an early age, as both an audience
member and a performer. "To this day, I get
excited when I go into a theater, especially if
it is empty. Within its emptiness, it feels very
full of possibilities:'
Lipkin is the producing artistic director of
That Uppity Theatre Company in St. Louis,
which she founded in 1989 to put the
principles of cultural diversity into innovative
theatrical practice and to promote arts-based
civic dialogue. She works on a range of issues
that intersect categories of race, ethnicity
and sexual orientation, including literacy,
reproductive choice and cancer as it relates to
environmental issues and politics.
One of the oldest groups in the country
to create original material about the culture
of disability, Lipkin's DisAbility Project
focuses on topics such as employment,
transportation and a multitude of barriers
(both architectural and attitudinal). Lipkin
recently directed a new piece called TheState
of Marriage, a multigenre performance that
cracks open the history of marriage and the
rights and privileges it provides.
"Nobody is going to hand us our rights,
painful as that may be;' she says."If you're not
cochairs API Equality-LA, a coalition
of Los Angeles-based organizations and
individuals who work in the Asian Pacific
Islander (API) communities for equal
marriage rights and respectful recognition
and fair treatment of LGBT people and their
families through community education and
advocacy. She also cofounded the Asian
Pacific Islander Lesbian, Bisexual Women
and Transgender Network (APLBTN,
pronounced "apple-button''), a coalition of
individuals and groups at the local and
national levels.
"Many people assume that we do not
exist. There are few images of us. Even in the
TheL Word, did you ever see any images, any
characters, from the APLBTN community?"
While there's been backward movement for
LGBT civil rights in Virginia, things are
different in the city of Alexandria, where
hate crimes are extremely rare, there's an
active human rights commission and city
officials are open-minded.
No accident there, says Karen Gautney,
who has been a visible community activist
in the Alexandria chapters of organizations
like HIV/ AIDS Commission, the Gay
and Lesbian Comml,lnity Association, The
Women's Domestic Violence and Sexual
Assault Advisory Board, the Human Rights
Commission and the Office on Women
LGBT Taskforce.
"Over time, the thought of embracing
diversity stops being controversial, and
becomes part of the culture;' says Gautney,
who serves as the deputy executive director
of the American Association for Marriage
and Family Therapy. "When we are seen as
positive contributors, part of the fabric of the
community, it is harder to marginalize us and
discriminate against us:'
Gautney has initiated a scholarship for
local Alexandria youth, developed positive
relationships ,with city leaders and launched
an annual appreciation dinner for the city's
first responders. With the support· of the
police chief and sheriff, she's also developed
and taught classes to both departments on
methods for working with LGBT victims of
domestic violence and sexual assault, and she's
developed a presentation for school personnel
in the city's public school system that aims
to curb bullying and harassment based on
sexual orientation and gender identity. ■
July/August 2010
I 21
DYKE
DRAMA
L~sbian Typeography
Sapphic seeks soulmate in the age of the Internet. By Michele Fisher
I was discussing curve's 20th birthday
with a baby dyke co-worker of mine, and
she asked me what I thought the difference
was between being a dyke 20 years ago and
being one today.
"You are;' I told her.
Her lunch break was over, or at least that
is what she told me. She couldn't wait for
the rest of my pithy answer, so she left my
purposely cryptic comment hanging in the
22
Icurve
air. "Text me your answer later;' she said. "Buy
a magazine;' I told her.
Since you bought this magazine, I will
explain it to you. My coworker is an Italian
American butch pillow princess who is
attracted to older femme Latina tops.
If she were a dyke 20 years ago, her chances
of finding a match would have been slim,
like running into someone you haven't slept
with at an ex-girlfriend's birthday party. But
today, she has her pick of suitors who are
only too willing to give and not receive oral
gratification, and some of them are even
willing to cook breakfast for her. (Double oral
gratification!)
When I look back at the women
I've dated over the last few decades, I see
a huge· variety of personalities, physical
characteristics and demographics. They had
only one thing in common: They were willing
to date me. Some only once, while others took
years to learn their lesson.
Just like today, everybody had a "type;' but
for most of us back then, your "type" was the
woman you pictured in your head while you
were having sex with a woman who was not
your type.
"Type" is all about animal attraction.
When you ask a woman what her type is,
you are asking he·r to draw a picture for you
of a girl who would not have to do a thing
except stand there in order to make mush
of her heart and set fire to her bed. Megan
Fox and Rihanna are hot, but it is not just
about looks. (Well, only about 99 percent of
it is about looks-ideally they would also be
independently wealthy and talented beyond
belie£) You also want somebody who laughs
at your bad celebrity impressions and knows
how to make killer garlic noodles.
.
A "type" was something to shoot for, but
not somebody you ever really expected
to meet-until
now. Theoretically, dykes
today can truly find and date their "type"
exclusively. Thanks to dating ~ites, the
Internet, phones with stalking capabilities
and more equality for gays than ever, it is
easier to meet women. We used to have to
go to lame parties and stinky bars, but now
you can surf the Web in your jammies and
meet women around the world.
Are you an African American scientist who
is looking for a Korean American woman
with whom to share travelling experiences and
Pilates classes? Guess what? There are several
hundred women waiting to meet you. Perhaps
you are an atheist vegetarian looking to meet
a:
~
UJ
~
~
ii:
UJ
I
~
someone with whom you could attend opera
and engage in tantric sex. Not to worry, there
are plenty of lasses to choose from like that,
as well.
When I was on the market, the playing
field was narrow enough. I didn't want to
make a bowling alley out of it by adding too
many restrictions-OK,
any restrictions.
So I dated Catholic girls, an anorexic, a
Pakistani waitress on an expired student visa,
a stone butch who looked like Scott Baio
on .steroids, an Austrian alcoholic, a sex
worker, a big~boned cartoonist and a massage
therapist who always had tired hands after
work. Then I turned 20. You get the idea.
My "type" was only something I thought
about when-I was single.
The real long shot used to be that you
were going to meet someone who was your
type and that you were going to be her type
as well. I do not think that happened to me
even once-when I was sober. But it didn't
stop me from having a good time. Sometimes
not~my~type was a blast. I certainly hope that
over the years, I was able to entertain all those
women who were looking for something else,
but found me convenient instead.
Being a single lezzie back in the day was
like being a patient on an organ donor list.
You were just waiting for someone else's
misfortune in order to make your particular
situation better. You would eagerly await
word of a breakup and then start sniffing
around the carcass of the dead relation~
ship, waiting to pounce on one or both· of
the divorcees. OK, so it wasn't quite that
desperate, but I, I mean we, often acted like
it was. It always felt like there was a dyke
shortage, no matter where you went.
It is now raining women. You don't have to
hang around waiting for your friends to get
divorced. No matter how picky you are, there
are bazillions of women out there just waiting
to make you happy.
Now that none of us need to date outside
our "type;' I expect to see ridiculously high
success rates among our couples. Our relation~
ships ought to be lasting our whole lives. We
get to pick whomever we want, so there really
should never be a problem. Every dyke in
the world who wants to be married, should be
married to her perfect soulmate by 2015.
But I predict that by 2015 there will be
no significant drop in dyke drama. All of
the technology in the world cannot change
human nature. Having access to every
woman on Earth does not make it any easier
to find love. Straight folks have always had
unfettered access to each other, and yet
Hollywood releases tales of tortured, twisted
and unrequited love each year.
We are on the cusp of discovering what
the rest of the world already knows-that
we don't always know what is good for us.
Women who meet our every requirementon paper or monitor-may
not be what we
need in real life. Your "type" might actually be
kryptonite to your happiness.
So, somebody text the Sicilian pillow
princess and let her know the biggest
difference between being a dyke twenty years
ago and now is that although it will be just as
difficult for her to find a wife as it was for me,
she will always have plenty of women to sleep
with. Lucky bitch ... I mean butch. ■
July/August 2010 j 23
POLITICS·
A Kiss Before Dying
Illustrating the importance of hospital visitation rights.
By Victoria A. Brownworth
On March 25, 2010, I almost died.
I didn't know I was dying the night
before, or even that morning. But I was.
For six months I had been ·struggling
with lung problems for which neither my
primary care physician nor my pulmonologist had been able to find a source or a fix.
I had been on numerous medications and had
had several courses of body- and mindaltering steroids infused into my system.
Despite these attempts at fixing wpat
was wrong, I was still spending my days
exhausted, wheezing like a 90-year-old and
coughing like a two-pack-a-day smoker
(even though I have never smoked).
Twelve hours before I nearly died, I was
sitting on my bed struggling to breathe. This
part wasn't new, unfortunately. But it somehow felt worse than usual. Much worse.
At 5 a.m. I awoke, after having slept for
about an hour. I was gasping for breath. At 7
a.m., I called my physician's office and made
an appointment. That appointment wasn't
until 4 p.m. I tried to work, but the struggle
24
Icurve
to breathe was so intense, I began to cry. I
was frightened.
At 9:30 a.m. I called the doctor's office
again and asked if I could speak to my doctor.
The receptionist, hearing the panic in my
voice, put me through. When my doctor got
on the phone, she was succinct: "You need to
go to the hospital, now:'
I hate hospitals. I fear hospitals. Yet I
have spent an inordinate amount of time
in hospitals due to cancer, a serious heart
condition, multiple sclerosis and 18 surgeries.
As bad as I felt, I really did not want to go
to the emergency room. Nevertheless, I knew
something was really wrong.
My partner got me into the car. It was
raining lightly. The hospital is about 20
minutes from the house. I waited at triage for
about 10 minutes before the nurse brought
me in. le was obvious I was in bad shape-it
was less clear why.
When you go to an ER, they check your
vital signs: blood pressure, heart rate,
temperature and the amount Qf oxygen
m your blood-the
saturation level chat
sends oxygen through your blood stream
to your brain. The normal oxygen level
is 100 percent, but 95 and above is the
average range. Between 94 and 91, you are
having trouble getting enough oxygen to
your brain. Between 88 and 90, you are in
danger. At 86 or below, you are on your way
to dying-it's the same as going down for
the third time when you are drowning. My
level was 86 percent.
Within a few minutes after the triage
nurse took my vitals, my partner and I were
in a private room. I was being hooked up
to the highest level of oxygen they can give
you without making your lungs pop like a
balloon, and the doctor was preparing an IV
drug cocktail to "smooth out the lung tissue"
so I was no longer, as he put it, "breathing
through a straw:'
For hours and hours my partner and I were
in that room while I was hooked up to various
machines chat were either monitoring me or
pulling me back from the brink of death.
Thanks to my partner, my doctor and a host
of medical personnel at the hospital-not to
mention the science chat makes it possible to
know when someone doesn't have enough
oxygen going to her brain to live without
having a stroke and dying-I am still alive.
(I have a little tank I travel with when I go
out and tanks chat look like nuclear missiles
in my house.) On oxygen daily, but alive.
Battling cancer, but alive. Throughout the
many hours I was in the hospital, my partner
was by my side, so chat while I was fighting
for my life, I wasn't alone.
Three weeks after I nearly died, as Tea Party
activists were protesting taxes in Washington
D.C., President Obama signed a presidential
memorandum for the secretary of Health
and Human Services requiring hospitals chat
accept federal monies, including Medicare
and Medicaid, to recognize a patient's
"designated partner" in terms of visitation and
health consultation rights. In short, Obama
ordered hospitals to stop denying the civil
rights of lesbians and gay men once they
cross the threshold to a hospital.
It seems basic, doesn't it-having the person
you love with you when you are in the hospital,
sick, frightened, possibly dying?
While I was waiting to be triaged,
a young girl came in with her arm in a
f
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makeshift sling. Since it wasn't quite noon
on a Thursday, she had obviously had an
accident at school. "It hurts. I'm scared;' the
girl told her mother, crying.
When it hurts and we're scared, we want
someone to comfort us, to make us feel safe.
We all need someone with us at the hospital,
no matter what age we are.
I live in a big city. My doctor is a lesbian.
The other doctors in her practice are queerfriendly. My hospital has always seemed
"Don't leave me. Don't
let them separate us.
I want you with me in
case I die. Be sure
you tell them you are
my wife."
queer-friendly. But when you are gasping for
breath, when you are hours or minutes away
from a possible stroke or death, you shouldn't
have to explain who the woman holding your
hand is, or defend why she must be with you
in the ER.
Yet that is what every lesbian and gay man
in America has to do every time they go to a
hospital with their partner: explain-which
involves coming out to strangers when you're
sick or traumatized and then defending your
relationship when all you really want to do
is get better.
On the way to the hospital I kept telling
my partner, "Don't leave me. Don't let them
separate us. I want you with me in case
I die. Be sure you tell them you are my
wife:' Over and over again, as I gasped for
each breath, my throat constricted, my
chest heaving.
It seems basic, doesn't it? Simply wanting
your partner to be with you when you are
sick and afraid? So why did it take a presidential decree to make hospitals comply?
~
As lesbian couples, we deserve the same
~ treatment heterosexual couples enjoy. But
-....
g while the President's decree may be a first
step toward recognizing our relationships,
~ it is only a first step, with many more yet
§ needed before we can live-and die-as
~
o equal members of this society. ■
!
AsHaroldSculllaydyingin a nursinghome
in Sebastopol,
Calif.,hispartnerof 25years,
ClayGreene,
wasprevented
fromseeing
himfor threemonthsleadingupto his
death,eventhoughthesame-sex
couple
hadcarefullycrafteda networkof legal
documents
thatweremeantto protect
themfromjustsuchegregious
treatment.
ScullandGreene
livedtogetherfor over .
two anda halfdecadesuntilScull,who
wasin poorhealth,fell downthefront
stepsof theirhouseandwastakento the
hospitalin April2008.Duringthis period,
Greene
himselfwasplacedona conservatorshipandforciblyconfinedin anassisted
livingfacilitybySonoma
County.
Addinginsultto injury,all of their
belongings,
accumulated
duringtheirlife
together,
wereseizedbythecountyand
soldoff byanauctionhousewithouttheir
authorization,
includingHollywood
memorabilia,artworkandfamilyheirlooms.
AfterdiligentworkbyattorneyAnne
Dennis,Greene
wasfinallyreleased
from
thefacility,onlyto find hispartnerdead
andeverytraceof theirlifetogethergone.
Greene
wasneverallowedto beby his
partner'ssideor directhiscare.
Thisprofoundviolationshockedmany
humanrightsadvocates,
includingthe
NationalCenterfor LesbianRightswhich
hastakenonGreene's
caseasco-counsel.
"Themorewe learnedaboutthecase,
the moreupsetwe wereaboutwhat
happened.
Therewasjust noquestion•
thatabsolutely
thiswasa casewhere
we wouldwantto pitchin andhelp,"said
Shannon
Minter,legaldirectorfor NCLR.
A majorlawsuitis beingfiledin the
hopesof gettingjusticefor Greene.
"We
wantto senda verystrongmessage,
not
justto Sonoma
Countybutto all counties
in California
andnationally
aswell,thatthe
timehaspassedwhenpeoplecanmistreat
LBGT
eldersandgetawaywith it," Minter
said."Therearelegalgroups... [that]will
goafterpeoplewhoengagein thistype
of abuse."
Themistreatment
of thisdevotedcouple
shedlightonthe hiddensufferingfacedby
gaycouplesnationwide
whoareplunged
intoa medicalcrisisonlyto findtheylack
protections
offeredto heterosexual
couples.
"It is absolutely
criticalto havethose
documents
... butwhatwe'relearningis
thattheyarenotenough,"Mintersaid.
Sadly,thisstory,whilehorrifying,
is
nottheonlyexampleof howtherightsof
thequeercommunity
arebeingignored
by medicalinstitutions.
In2007,Janice
Langbehn
andLisaPondmadeheadlines
afterhospitalofficialskeptLangbehn
and
thecouple'sthreechildrenfromseeingPond
asshelaycomatose
in a Miamihospital.
Theytoo hadlegalpapersin place,but
aftereighthoursof fightingwiththe
hospital,Langbehn
wasonlyableto see
herpartnerof nearlytwo decadesfor a
few minutesbeforeshedied,according
to LambdaLegal,whichhastakenup
the case.
President
BarackObamainstructedthe
secretaryof HealthandHumanServices
recentlyto createnewrulesto force
all hospitalsthatacceptMedicareand
Medicaid
to allowpatientsto designate
whocanvisitthemandmakecritical
medicaldecisions
forthem.Obama
said
lesbians
andgaysare"uniquelyaffected"
andthatfortheLGBT
community,
a hospital
visit"meansthatall toooften,peopleare
madeto sufferor evento passawayalone,
deniedthecomfortof companionship
in
theirfinalmoments,
whilea lovedoneis
left worryingandpacingdownthe hall."
WhileObama's
memorandum
doesn't
havetheforceof law,NCLR
Executive
DirectorKateKendellwashopefulthat it
will helpto protectthe LGBTcommunity.
"I dothinkit will goa longwayto assuring
thatsame-sex
couplesarepermittedto
visiteachother,"Kendellsaid.
However,
bothKendellandMinterfeel
stronglythatit is toolittle,toolatefrom
Obama.
"Hehasbeenverycautiousand
veryslowto embraceourfamilies,"Minter
said."Thatis wrongandpainfulanda
betrayalof whathepromiseduswhenhe
wasrunningfor president."
ThoughKendellsaysyoushouldnot
haveto bemarriedto berespected,
Greene's
casealsounderscores
the need
for marriageequalityandthe hopethat
Obama's
memorandum
canbea turning
pointin thestruggleto protectLGBTrights
anda reminderthatsweepingreformis
needed.[ArielMessman-Rucker]
July/August 2010
I25
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PROGR£II/V£•
Truth is stranger than fiction
on Showtime's new
lesbian smash,
The Real L Word.
By Rachel Shatto
Photography by Ondrea Barbe/Showtime
0
Love it or hate it, The L Word was a groundbreaking show,
unlike anything before, and its departure has created a massive
lesbian vacuum on television. It seems only fitting that the
ake on the task of bringing more dyke drama to
the mai
earn would be L Word svengali Ilene Chaiken, in
atio with Magical Elves, the people behind such sleek,
stylish reality series as ProjectRunway and Top Chef Masters.
This time out, on a new documentary~style series, The Real
L Word, the dyke drama promises to be the real deal. The
show follows six lesbians as they play,work and live their iiber~
fabulous lives in the fast lane of Los Angeles. Unlike in the
previous scripted series, where you had to play 'guess which
cast member is the lesbo:"' all of the Real Ls are openly queer,
loving ladies and la vida loca all for our viewing pleasure.
Meet the Real Papi
Further blurring the lines between the
new show and its scripted predecessor
is Rose Garcia, a sexy real estate advisor whose love 'em and
leave 'em exploits have become legend in the L.A. lesbian
scene-so much so that she caught the attention of Chaiken,
who made Garcia the inspiration for Papi, the Latina lothario
who seduced her way through half The L Word cast in season
four. "I was a little bit of a quote, unquote player, so it was a lot
of truth, and they built the character around a few things they
took from my personal life. It was more the dynamic of me
being a womanizer at that time;' Garcia explains. (No word
yet on whether she is the originator of the infamous "circles"
maneuver that made her so popular with Alice Pieszecki.)
In the reality series, we pick up with Garcia, who has since
shrugged off her heartbreaker ways, fallen for new girlfriend,
Natalie, and is learning how to be in a relationship. Along with
Natalie, Garcia's family is ready to see this former bad girl settle
down. "I came out when I was 19;' Garcia says. "My sexuality
wasn't a problem for them. [They said] 'This is who you are,
were happy, we love you. The crossroads
was at, 'Now you're 35-stop, settle
down, like, do something:'
But just because shes said good~
bye to the single life,it doesn't mean
she isn't excited about the atten~
tion the show will garner with the
ladies. "Are you kidding:' I've been
waiting for this for 35 years. Every
morning when I wake up, instead
of saying thank God, I say thank
you, Ilene Chaiken;' jokes Garcia.
"I mean obviously I would be BSing
you if I didn't say attention from the
ladies would be welcome:'
All-American Romance
No lesbian ensemble would be
complete without a power couple,
and in the case of The RealL Word
that couple is Nikki Weiss and
,' ~
Jill Sloane Goldstein.
/,:,. ~.,
Film and TV development executive Nikki Weiss first
entered audiences' living rooms when she was featured in
an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show ~ith then-girlfriend
Carol in a 2006 GLAAD Award-winning episode titled
"Wives Confess They Are Gay:' She is a producer and
manager who represents a number of Hollywood players,
includingJason Reitman Uuno) and Bryan Singer (X-Men),
and she consulted on the Greys Anatomy lesbian storyline.
After working successfully in advertising for over a decade,
Weiss' fiancee Jill Sloane Goldstein, followed her passion and
began writing, focusing on commercial treatments and award
shows, including the 2010 American Music Awards and the
Independent Spirit Awards.
The way the two met and fell in love sounds more like the
plot of a romantic comedy than real life. Both women grew
up on the East Coast and when Weiss was 12 and Goldstein
was 8 they met at summer camp. But it was Goldstein's
older brother who caught Weiss' preadolescent eye, and their
teen romance lasted three summers. Twenty-five years later,
Goldstein tracked Weiss down via the camp website. Soon
the two were thinking in terms of a very different kind of
sleepaway."We knew there was a connection between us but
we didn't know what that connection was, and so when we
decided to meet-because Jill was living in San Francisco at
the time and I was in L.A.-when we decided to meet, I go,
'Look, no pressure, we'll either braid each others hair and play
jacks or we won't;" laughs Weiss. "I was destined to be in the
Goldstein family in some semblance of a way:'
The two are now in the process of planning
their wedding, and they couldn't be more excited
to share their story with the world. "I think what was really
important for the two of us, what was very meaningful about
the opportunity, was the chance to show our very healthy
relationship to the world;' explains Goldstein. "To further
debunk stereotypes about these types of relationships. Our
lives are as normal and as healthy as anybody else's; we have
the same highs and lows in our relationship. We have the same
life struggles and successes and hardships. It was really to just
take the fear out of it:'
Goldstein agrees that their story will be one that the mainstream can easily identify with: "I keep saying 'Were the
sleeper story, that we're going to get Tupperware endorsements
because we're like, the straightest gay couple you're ever going
to meet: Like, everybody's at Dinah Shore and were having
dinner around our dinner table;' she jokes.
TV or not, the two face the same challenges that
lesbian couples face in most states, trying to achieve equality
for their relationship. "Weve had to take a ton of legal steps
that a normal heterosexual couple wouldn't have to do, like
healthcare, powers of attorney and legal contracts ... unfortunately, we are not allowed to get married. So, yes, I hope
this will even help the cause;' says Weiss. "Marriage is such
a sacred union, gay people can't get married, but yet we have
these game shows on television, they shall remain nameless,
where you're vying to get married to 25 women. It's such a
sacred union, but we can make it into a game show? And I'm
really truly in love with my fiancee and I'm not allowed to get
married. It's very frustrating:'
From Choppers to Couture
For castmate Mikey Koffman-a successful fashion producer who now runs L.A. Fashion Week-her cause is
the environment. Three years ago, Koffman began
the Green Initiative Humanitarian
Fashion Show, which focuses on
sustainability and reducing
our carbon footprint. But
it wasn't always runways and top models
for this SoCal native.
Koffman grew up in a
rough neighborhood
in Culver City. "When
I lived there, it was a
really violent area. There
was literally one road that
went through the projects, and
there were Crips on one side and
Bloods on the other, literally shooting each other, every night. We were the
only white family that lived in the whole
area ... it was reallyjust a rough life,like,
fighting every day just to get in and
out and just to walk to school:'
Living this way forced
Koffman to become self-
sufficient. She started living on her own when she was only
16 years old. Always a tomboy, Koffman spent her summers
working at her stepdad's garage, developing a special affinity
for motorcycles which lead to work at West Coast Choppers
and, eventually her own garage in Long Beach. "I used to work
on all the girls that rode on bikes-dykes on bikes;' laughs
Koffman. ''.Allthose girls would be rolling up to my shop,
and we'd be having parties-it was really cool. And then we
started doing bikes for celebrities and stuff. And it just kind of
progressed that way. And then one day I was like, Oh, let me
make some T-shirts. I literally accidentally started a clothing
line that went international within a year:'
Despite quick success, Koffman soon struggled. "I was in
New York at the time of the bombings, and I was actually
on the last flight that landed in Los Angeles on 9/11. I was
actually supposed to be on the Pittsburgh- LAX flight that was
hijacked. So my bags, and all my stuff for my clothing line-
I'd taken all the money from my motorcycle shop and invested
it in my clothing line, and I literally lost everything in a day:'
The combination of the loss of her livelihood and a bad
breakup sent ~offman into a personal spiral that lead to substance abuse. If it weren't for another tragedy-her aunt being
diagnosed with cancer-she might never have recovered.
Instead, she was forced to pull herself up by her bootstraps
and help in raising her cousin. "She had this brand-new baby...
So I took a year of my life and I stayed with my aunt and my
grandmother and helped my aunt go through her process of
cancer, and literally, at this time, had to take care of a brandnew baby. It was the best thing I werit through at that time of
my life. I was really depressed about losing my business, and a
couple people in my family had died, and I started doing drugs
and I would isolate. So basically, having to show up and be
there for my aunt and this brand new baby kind of just pulled
me right out of it ... It really made me realize-not to live my
life through fear and make my choices through
love. And that really turned my life around:'
America's Sapphic Sweetheart
For Tracy Reyerson, a film and TV executive, the
reasons to join the cast were two fold. "I did the
show for a couple of reasons. One would be to
challenge stereotypes. I'm not here to break them,
but I'm here to sort of debate a lot of things that
are said. And also, to have an amazing experience
out of my comfort zone-I like to live that way.
Something I can cross off my bucket list:'
When production on the series began, Reyerson
had just begun dating her partner, stand-up comic
and mother of three Stamie Karakasidis. The two
started out as friends and gradually realized it was
something more.
"I went to a few of her stand-up shows;' recalls
Reyerson. 'i\.nd we would talk, we would meet
up in group settings and eventually it sort of just
clicked for us, both at the same moment ... ! don't
think we had ever both looked at each other in
that way. We were both dating people and we
were just friends first, but it just clicked one day. A
light bulb went off and I realized, Wow, I'm really
attracted to her. So, it was a pretty fun reveal.And it
happened for us at the same time, which is nice:'
Adapting to that life of a ready-made family is a
unique journey for her, and one that she does not
take lightly. "I think most people would run the
other way when they realized someone has three
kids. For some reason, I was actually excited about
it. I ran to her:'
Is Reyerson prepared for the added pressure of
the camera."This is the first time I'm dating someone with kids ... So, we were really worried about
the stress that it does put on your relationship, and
it's going to force us to talk about certain things
that you'd normally talk out in a year and a half ...
it actually made us grow closer together:'
There was another relationship that Reyerson hoped the
show would help mend: the one between her and her mother.
"I think subconsciously one of the reasons I did it was hoping
that my mom would come around to the whole gay issue. Before
the show she couldn't mutter the word gay... I don't think she
has a problem against anybody [else] being gay-it's just her
daughter. And it's her hopes and dreams that were crushed,
because now her daughter is never going to marry, you know,
the prince. So, she just has to get used to the princess:'
The New Lezzie Heartbreaker
_Special effects artist Whitney Mixter is swingin' single, looking·
to fall in love but frequently falling back to her bad-girl ways.
Even before the series aired, Mixter was drawing comparisons
to the consummate lesbian heartbreaker. "Obviously, I'm
not blind to the fact that I'm getting compared to Shane;'.
she laughs. 'Tm not going to deny that we have had similar
patterns and story lines. However, honestly, I'm myself'
Mixter's casting was happenstance. "I kind of stumbl~d into
the whole casting process. A friend of mine was going and she
asked me to come. I ended up doing an on-camera audition
and basically it went from there. I was a huge fan of The L
Word initially, so, to be part of showing America that lesbians
like this do exist ... it was definitely an honor for me:'
'
I
!
.
Working Their Magic
If this disparate group of women seems like an unlikely
collection of friends, that's because they weren't prior to taping.
Rather than casting a forcing together a group of women, ala
The RealHousewives,the creators of The RealL Wordfollowed
each subject with her own separate story and allowed them to
cross paths organically-or not, as the case may be.
This less-sensationalized format is, in no small part, thanks
to the work of the extraordinary production company Magical
Elves. While The Real L Word was originally conceived
as a show about a group of friends, the decision to follow
the women as individual story arcs came as a result of the
challenges faced in casting. Magical Elves cofounder Jane
L_ipsitzexplains, "We originally were trying to find a group of
friends. People who knew each other or people whose lives
intersected. That's definitely a harder bill to fill:'
They discovered that by taking this tack they were finding
a lack of diversity in the stories and characters. "Because your
friends or your partner-there's a sameness that draws you
all together;' said Lipsitz. "Whereas if we have five different
stories, six different women, there's a lot more diversity in the
storytelling.We like authentic voices and we like tracking what
reallyhappened ... we tend to gravitate toward the documentary
style of telling as much as possible:'
According to the cast, this style paid off."I appreciated that
they allowed us just to be ourselves and do our thing;" says
Garcia. "I appreciated that because it allowed me to be me,
whether it was ... cussing like a sailor or hanging out with my.
family.Who you're going to see on camera is who you're going
to see when you're hanging out with me:'
A Question of Diversity
When the first cast photo hit the web, it barely had time to
render before talk of a lack of diversity was making its way
around the blogoshere. One look at this attractive, youthful
cast and the lesbian masses were crying foul. However, the
lack of diversity is an issue the cast wholeheartedly disputes.
"People probably look at that picture and go, 'Oh, it's
six white girls' -and it's absolutely not;' says Kaufman.
"Ilene Chaiken handpicked each one of us because we are
all charismatic people. She took a
glimpse into each of our lives to
see who we surround ourselves
with, so, you know, the lesbian
community far supersedes six
girls, but it's really interesting.
When you watch the show, you'll
see how our lives are surrounded,
individually, by all races, shapes,
size, colors, gay, straight, black,
white ... There's so much diversity
that's on the show, but you won't
know until you see it:'
Reyerson-who,
incidentally,
is Puerto Rican and Jewishthinks naysayers are missing the
bigger picture. "You have to start -Rose Garcia
somewhere and I just want people
to know that this is just Chapter One of hopefully many ...
maybe in season two they'll include oth~r ethnicities ... but
I think people should just tune in and sort of, you know,
celebrate the fact that this has made it to Showtime, for God's
sake. It's huge. We should all celebrate and acknowledge the
fact that this is the first gay-themed reality show on premium
cable. That's groundbreaking in itsel£ It's hard to get
anything on television right now. It also defines sexuality in
an uncensored way. It just kind of pushes boundaries, pushes
buttons a bit. And mostly it's going to get people talking:'
Reyerson is correct: Having another lesbian-centric series
on a mainstream cable network is a big deal. For the third time,
Showtime will offer audiences a glimpse into a queer world. As
to what they're going to see, the cast promises it will be honest,
raw and-most of all-real. Or as Garcia explains it, "They'll
see a genuine depiction of six women who are just being themselves. Some you're going to love, some you're going to hate.
Some you're going to want to hook up with, some you're going
to want to slap-like with any show. Ill probably be the one
with all of those. Depending on the episode:'
While The RealL Word can't speak to every lesbian demographic, its presence on mainstream media is a boon for
visibility and-let's face it-the show promises to be a fascinating (and titillating) ride."The L Wordwas a show, a scripted
show. This is real;'Garcia says."Everybody watched that show
for entertainment and was like, Does that really happen? Is
that really true? Do girls really look that way? You're going to
see us in our real clothes, in our real life, our real jobs, our real
stories, real parents, real girlfriends, real fights-it's real:' ■
"They'll see a
genuine depiction
of six women who
are just being
themselves ... Some
you're going to
hate. Some you're
going to want to
hook up with."
LesbianLocalvores
Queer farmers put down roots throughout the country. By Lauren Marie Fleming
Dykesin the dirt
(fromleft):Liza
Rencountre(right)
and FrankieCohen
at homewith their
flock; Chelsea
Cleveland'surban
garden;Dana
Gentile(top
left), partnerAbbi
Jutowitzand their
"kids";farmer
LindaPerrine
(bottomleft),
partnerCatherine
Konrathand dog
Maddie; Margo
Fernandez-Burgos
digs her hands
in the soil in The
Queer Farmer
Film Project
Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, from April to
December, local farmers line up in my town square to sell the
fruits of their labor. In the midst of the kale, carrots and cauliflower, lesbian localvores flourish, providing fresh produce and
eye candy to all who walk by.
Queer people have always been at the forefront of ecological
movements, so it's no surprise that farmer's markets everywhere are populated by queer and trans people looking to grow,
sell and shop locally. From growing chard in San Francisco,
to raising alpacas in Austin, to farming community plots in
New York City, queers across· the country are getting back to
their roots.
In New London, Conn.-a town of fewer than 25,000
people-over 60 local teens from various ethnic and cultural
backgrounds have worked approximately 15,000 hours in the
F.R.E.S.H. community garden (freshnewlondon.org). Chelsea
Cleveland, a self-identified "brown queer;' works over 20 plots
of land for the community education program and with keeps
up with her own two plots as well.
Cleveland says the diversity at F.R.E.S.H. makes it different
from the other places where she's worked. "I thrive off areas
that are as varied as the things I am growing;' she says."I want
to learn what an old Puerto Rican woman does with her
tomatoes when she's done growing them. I want to know
what that teenager is going to do with that big old squash
he just grew:'
That kinship is apparent in many farm communities. In
the Pacific Northwest, the queer farming society is particularly
strong, spanning an area from San Francisco to Seattle.
Eugene, Ore., a town known for its commitment to local,
organic food is right in the middle.
Honor Earth Farms lies 10 miles outside Eugene, Ore.
and is run by Linda Perrine, her partner Catherine Konrath
and their trusty farm dog Maddie. The farm, which used to
cultivate a variety of crops, now specalizes in growing
certified organic hazelnuts.
During her sophomore year at the University of Oregon,
Alisha Babb got a job through a fellow lesbian working with
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dairy goats to prepare them for shows. By the time she left that
same farm last December, Babb was responsible for everything
from vaccines to blood draws; from breeding to helping tough
labors, for nearly 300 goats.
"I could name every goat;' she says, 'Just by looking at their
faces, and even their udders!" Babb loves goats so much she
even has a goat tattoo.
Babb made friends with Frankie Cohen and Liza Rencountre
while working on the same goat farm. Cohen and Rencountre
now live on 38 acres and have chickens, horses, goats and a
medium-size garden. However, most of their time is spent
cleaning up the over 60 years of garbage dumped previously
on their land and returning the area to a nurturing place for
themselves and the native plants, animals and peoples.
"We want our farm to serve as an educational opportunity
for people;' Cohen said. "Eventually, we would like to see it
made available to, or returned to, the indigenous peoples of
this area:'
Across the country, fellow goat farmer Dana Gentile runs
the 50-acre Darlin' Doe Farms with her partner Abbi Jutowitz
in Mt. Saugerties, N.Y. (darlindoefarm.com). The farm focuses
on healthy lean meats, and Gentile hopes to get into raising
rabbits and bison farming eventually.
Growing up on suburban Long Island, Gentile dreamed
of farm life and helped her Italian immigrant father in their
backyard garden. Later, when she decided to leave a successful
position in the art world to start a goat farm in the Hudson
Valley,her family, especially her father, was shocked.
"He left Italy for a better life in America and is a little
surprised that his daughter is now a farmer;' Gentile says."It's
kind of amazing that our parents tried so hard to get away
from farming and food production, and now myself and the
y.oungfarming generation are reclaiming local food production
as our livelihood:'
The reclamation of food production is a fast-growing movement, and queers young and old seem to be setting the trend.
The Queer Farmer Film Project, directed by Jonah Mossberg,
has been documenting this rapid growth in queer farmers
(queerfarmer.blogspot.com). The project seeks to 'explore the
dynamic relationships between gender, sexuality and agriculture, with a particular focus on the hearts and hard work of
America's queer farmers:' Mossberg's blog has links to various
queer farms, a_ctivistsites and workshop info for uniquel queer
endeavors like "fagriculture;' and and is a great place to start a
search for your own lesbian localvore community. ■
ltty Bitty Farming
Wantanediblelandscape
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andalltheseedsyouneedto
growyourownsalad.
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■
"There is gigantic artistic
talent within our community, yet
very little support for queer art
and crafts and queer artists and
craftspeople specifically;' says
Mii::helley QueenofQueens,
the founder of the Queer Etsy
Street Team, an online community for queers who sell their
handmade goods on Etsy.com. "I started the Queer Etsy
Street Team because I noticed a need for representation:'
The Queer Crafter Collective (QCC) has a similar mission.
It's about "identifying <;mrselvesand letting people know that
it's not just the hipsters and housewives who are creating," says
QCC member and recycled T-shirt artist, Michelle Scism.
"It wouldbe impossiblefor
me to createwithoutsprinklingshardsof my big gay
storyuponeverythingI do."
Making Things
Perfectly Queer
Saving green by getting their craft on.
By Erin Gilday
Queer crafts
(clockwise from
top): Oh Honey
necklaces and
Queer cuff
by Meaghan
O'Malley;
Special Different
by Michelley
QueenofQueens;
a collection of
pendants by
Sarah Bober
Handmade commitment rings? Hand-printed Dyke Pride
patches, panties and T-shirts? You may be hard-pressed to
find the makers of these queer handicrafts at your average
crafts bazaar, but more and more Sapphic seamstresses
(and knitters, headers and cross-stitchers) are coming out
of the proverbial woodwork. They are coming together for
economic, social and artistic support with groups like the
Queer Etsy Street Team (etsyqueers.blogspot.com) and
Washington D.C:s Queer Crafter Collective (queercraftercollective.com) as well as girl-powered craft mafias from New
Orleans to Baltimore.
Banding together to share support for one another's creative
endeavors is a powerful act for many queer crafters. Crafts
fairs are intimidating, competitive places for new crafters, says
Scism. To ease some of that pressure, the QCC sets up a
community booth where members can vend together."Having
the support of other queer crafters makes you realize you're
not the only one out there;' says Etsy jeweler Sarah Bober.
Though the Queer Etsy street team functions solely online,
the support its members enjoy is no less tangible. Members
promote one another's Etsy shops, swap selling tips
and provide a place to vent about the stresses of running
a handmade business. For QueenofQ_ueens, connecting
with the team is like 'coming home ... going to your room,
locking the door, stripping nude and lying on clean sheets in
air-conditioned bliss. Being able to relate to one another's
creativity and identities forges a deep sense of kinship that is
simply irreplaceable:'
So just what exactly makes queer crafts "different" from
other crafts? For many, the answer is obvious. "It would be
impossible for me to create without sprinkling shards of my
big gay story upon everything I do;' says QueenofQ_ueens, who
remembers crafting a portrait of Melody from Josie and the
Pussycats out of shaving cream as a young girl. For many,
queer crafting is just what happens when homos pick up
the hot glue gun. Fellow Queer Etsian Brian Kenny agrees:
"Crafting is crafting. It has no sexual orientation. What
makes it queer is our unique view and unbelievably wide
frame of reference:'
For others, the answer is more complex."! think that there's
a misunderstanding with mainstream, heteronormative
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crafters that queer craft must consist
rainbows ... and that our craft is just a
means through which we express our Pride,"
says QCC jeweler Meaghan O'Malley. She
worries that labeling her crafts as 'queer" will
cause them to be regarded as a novelty or,
worse, ignored altogether.
Rainbows or no, many crafters feel that
the act of creation-the
act of craftingis always political. Mainstream media
depictions of the Handmade Revolution
frequently imply a global female battalion
of artsy~craftsy hipsters, housewives and
post~third~wave feminists all stitching away
and bitching as they craft a new, sparkle~
felted vision of neo~retro~domesticity. "Not
your granny's crafts!" the headlines declare.
It's true that in the age of mass~market
sweatshop goods, doing for oneself has a
revolutionary edge. Many crafters argue
that choosing to practice skills that are
traditionally labeled feminine (like sewing,
knitting, needlework, etc.) is, in part, an
iron1c subversion of gender stereotypes.
Perhaps this is doubly true when the
crafter is queer. 'i\ll the cues socially and
culturally tell me that I should be focusing
on other things, but here I am embroidering
and playing with beads;' O'Malley says.
However, pushing the boundaries of
gender and sexuality through handicraft is
only one part of the queer crafter agenda.
Both the QCC and the Queer Etsy Street
Team hope to create an alternative hand~
made marketplace where queers can offer
support to one another artistically, socially
and economically. Part of queer crafting,
for QueenofQueens, is "keeping our money
circulating amongst ourselves as much as we
can:' She argues that this new twist on "buying
local" is one of the driving principles that
makes the queer crafting community special.
While crafting is a business for all queer
crafters we spoke with, ultimately, the bottom
line for many crafters cannot be expressed in
dollars and cents.
"It's always a fun experience at art fairs
when queer people notice my rainbow resin
pieces;' explains Bober. "Most people don't
think I'm queer when they look at me, but
when they see the pendants, it makes them
do a double take. Often they will smile or
start talking with me. I feel like I've made
Thirteen Recycling Blunders
You think you're green, but do you make any of these mistakes? By Bree Clarke
· Our desire to recycle is well~intentioned, but even curbside
activists are often misguided about how recycling actually
works. Part of the problem is that recyclingrules are different in
every community and can change because of funding, laws or
a host of other reasons, which is why it's important to check
the guidelines and rules for your individual community
perio.dically. Earth911.com offers information on what items
your local municipality will recycle, along with places you can
take items they won't. Some of the most common recycling
mistakes are easy to remedy.
1,.Puttinggreasypizzaboxesin the recyclebin.This is a very
common mistake and it can cause big problems at the recycling
plant. Greasy or dirty cardboard (or food~saturated paper of
any type) cannot be recycled. If the box is greasy, cut out the
affected area and recycle the rest. Then compost the greasy bit.
2. Accepting
junk mail as a fact of life, thenjust tossingit
in the recyclingbin. Spend a few minutes and precycle.
Stop the majority of it from arriving by registering with
OptOutPreScreen.com, DoNotMail.org, CatalogChoice.org
and DmaChoice.org. For the stuff that does still trickle in,
don't just blindly toss it in the recycling bin. Some, such as
credit card offers, include plastic~coated cardboard pieces that
aren't recyclable and can foul up the recycling machine. Look
through the envelope, remove these items and toss them in the
trash before you recycle the rest.
3. Not removingcaps from plasticbottlesand jugs before
recycling.
The bottle caps are made from a different kind of
plastic and, as a result, cannot be recycled with the Type 1
Polyethylene Terephthalate (PETE) and Type 2 High Density
Polyethylene (HPDE) plastics that bottles and jugs are made
from. Throw the caps in the trash and recycle the bottles.
4. Putting
yourChristmas
treeatthecurbwiththegarbage.
Most
communities pick up trees to be recycled into mulch and wood
chips. Or, in some areas, for marsh restoration. Do not use
regular curbside garbage pickup or your tree will end up in
the landfill with the other garbage, where it can take up to 30
years to decompose.
5. Puttingrecyclables
in plasticgrocery
bags.This is a horrible
mistake. Most curbside recycling programs require you tf:>
put your recyclables in clear or blue recycling bins or bags.
Many people put their recyclables in a plastic grocery bag
and then dump it in the recycling container. This causes
trouble on the recycling sorting line, as workers have to
manually remove the bags or the bags get tangled up in the
sorting equipment, which leads to costly shutdowns and
repairs. Just don't do it.
6. Reusing
grocerybagsto pickup dogpoop.Usually, reusing
is good. But, when you do this, you are taking your dog's
completely biodegradable dog poop and throwing it away in
a plastic bag to sit in a landfill for up to 100 years. Buy 100
percent biodegradable dog bags that will decompose along
with Fido's excess. (Biobagusa.com
or flushdoggy.com)
7. Throwingout Ziplocbaggies,grocerybagsand othersoft
plasticbags. Soft pliable bags made from Type 4 Low
Density Polyethlyne plastic (such as Ziploc bags-with
the zipper part cut off-sandwich bags, bread bags, newspaper bags and dry cleaning bags) can all be recycled at your
local grocery store along with your plastic grocery and other
store bags. Just make sure they are clean and dry first.
8. Throwing
outfoilandaluminum
take-outcontainers.
In many
cities, foil and the aluminum bottoms of take-out containers
are recyclable. Rinse them off before recycling. Better yet,
bring your own. Mygreensupply.com or vegware.com have
biodegradable to-go containers.
9. Not rinsingout plasticand glassbottlesbeforerecycling.
You've got to rinse your bottles and jars out well, especially
when they contain items like peanut butter, before recycling or
else it hinders the recycling process. Soap and shampoo must
be rinsed until the residue is gone.
10.Putting
frozenfoodcontainers
inthepaperrecycling.
Frozen
food boxes are coated with a plastic coating called polymer to
protect food from moisture in the freezer. This coating makes
it almost impossible to recycle frozen food boxes.
11.Attempting
torecycle
Styrofoam.
Styrofoam is not recyclable,
so throw it in the trash. Ideally, the best solution is not to use
it at all, as scientists estimate it can take a million years to
decompose.
12.Youaren'tsurehowto recycle
anitem,soyoujustthrowit in
therecycle
binanyway.
When in doubt, it's better to just throw
~ it in the trash, because otherwise it can mean shutdowns and
!!l. escalated costs at the recycling center, which surely, in some
way will get passed along to you or the planet.
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~ 13. Tossingcurve magazinein the trash.Everyone knows
0:g you should hang on to curve for posterity. If you do ditch
~ it though, and don't have any lesbian friends to pass it on to
~ (hint) be sure to toss it into the recycling. In the past glossy
~ mags were not recyclable, things have changed. Now, virtually
~
o all curbside recycling programs are magazine-friendly. ■
Changesin MotorCity
Motown's eco-forward LGBT center needs your green, too. By Rachel Shatto
Detroit (aka Motor City USA) may not be the first place that
comes to mind when you think "green;' but for Affirmations,
the LGBT center located in nearby Ferndale (a queer-friendly
enclave known to locals as Fabulous Ferndale), going green is
a top priority.
"I think going green [is] really about being good citizens;'
explained Kathleen LaTosch, Affirmations' chief administrative
officer.'J\s LGBT people, we are stigmatized and I think it was
.important for us to role model what LGBT people are: good
neighbors, everyday people. It's an important kind of message
to the community at large:'
Affirmations moved to its new, greener LEED-certified
digs three years ago. "LEED is Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design. It's a rating system that was designed to
encourage and facilitate the development of more sustainable
buildings;' explains LaTosch. The three-story center is beautiful,
and, with its wide-open spaces, colorful murals and flood of
natural light, appears more like an art gallery or a yoga studio
than a queer community center.
"We did pretty much gut the original structure that was
here before us ... but 80 percent of the project is construction
waste was diverted from landfills and into recycling. And,
additionally, 31 percent [of what we] used in new construction
[materials] were recycled content, so we were really excited to
be able to do that as well;' says LaTosch.
This eco-forward philosophy has carried over into the daily
operation of the center: With the exception of their youth
room, there are no garbage cans to be found in the building.
In an effort to actively encourage visitors to recycle, they have
installed recycling bins on all three floors.
But their green efforts don't end there. By installing low
water-consumption fixtures in the bathrooms, they were
able to reduce their water usage by 40 percent, exceeding the
LEED standard and earning the center an "innovation" credit.
But the center, says LaTosch, could use a little more green
these days. Like the rest of the Detroit metro area, Affirmations
(goaffirmations.org) is feeling the financial pinch. The center
has ongoing educational programs in the works, but is facing
a shortage of funding, especially since the auto industry has
historically been their largest corporate sponsor.
"We have two grants for $50,000 from General Motors
that have been put on hold ... that combined with Chrysler
Corporation, which also was not able to come forward with a
$25,000 grant, which they always do every year, were operating
with 10 percent less of our budget this year already. And we
have had to lay off two full-time and six part-time staff.'
This is a serious problem for a center that connects with
nearly 50,000 people a year. It provides social services for both
youth and adults, including everything from health services
to coming-out support. ';\bout 68 percent of our youth come
from low-income homes and many are homeless;' LaTosch
said. "Many are transgender. Many youth just don't feel safe
living on the streets as their gender identity, but when they
come here they can change and be themselves and store their
possessions in a safe place:'
Once back on firmer financial ground, LaTosch hopes to •
start an outreach campaign to educate anyone who comes into
the center about all the different ways that the building has
successfully gone green. The campaign will also reflect both
the people of Affirmations and the rest of Michigan's feelings
about environmentalism and conservation. "We're the Great
Lake Stare;' said LaTosch. "We love our water, we love our
trees-and we wan~ to protect them:'
But, the question remains: With local industry suffering,
will donations from residents be able to keep the LGBT
community center in the green? ■
Do Ask,
Do Tell
Nothing against big, hog,riding, beer,drinking straight guys,
but warning bells sound upon my arrival at the Hideaway Bar
and Grill. To get there, I had to navigate a desolate, winding
canyon road. Now, about 45 minutes north of Los Angeles,
the place I find myself in is figuratively a thousand miles from
the perhaps better known liberal, culturally diverse, gayfriendly haunts of West Hollywood.
Then I spot a woman whose beaming face is framed by a
striking helmet of silver curls. She is wearing boots and men's
clothes. "Let me point out the lesbians;' she tells me before I
manage a proper hello. The silver-haired butch is famed film
producer JD Disalvatore, on location at the Hideway. She's
already been briefed on my mission to do behind-the-scenes
reconnaissance on the set of A Marine Story, a feature film
that centers on the story of a lesbian soldier.
Disalvatore and filmmakers Dreya Weber and Ned Farr
were able to interest an impressive group of gay and lesbian
a~tors and crew because the film tackles Don't Ask, Don't Tell
(DADT), the discriminatory policy that gives the military
power to kick queers out of the service. As the film opens,
Alex, a marine played by Weber (The Gymnast, Everything
Relative), returns to her small hometown after leaving the
military she loves.
"She comes back, and no one knows why;•explains Weber.
Most of the guys she grew up
with "don't happen to think
women should be in the military,
much less in combat positions;'
she says. Wait until they get a
load of her deep, dark secret.
Meanwhile, she finds purpose
when she is asked to help a troubled young woman (Paris
Pickard) prepare for a stint in the Marines.
"[Since the film] is about DADT, we got the support of
our community. It's so wonderful working with a large group
ofLGBT people on this set;' says Disalvatore, adding," I don't·
want to discriminate. The straight people are really nice, too:'
I almost don't recognize the distinguished actor playing the
bartender, pulling brews beneath the stuffed trophy heads.
Lisa Wolpe is the founder and artistic director of the respected
Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company.
"Dreya was in one of my plays;' explains Wolpe, while
waiting for a bar fight scene. "She played a singing cowboy in
a Western version of As You Like It:'
Weber and her husband, director Ned Farr, developed the
idea for A Marine Story while on the gay and lesbian film
festival circuit with The Gymnast, which Farr also directed.
"I saw the absurdity of it;' says Weber of DADT. "They kept
A behind-the-scenes
lookat A MarineStory
By Laurie K.
Schenden
July/August 2010
I39
throwing out gay interpreters [from the military]. It's a civil
rights issue and a safety issue. The stupidity needs to be
addressed:' The film's showings, at Frameline and Outfest this
summer, is perfectly timed with current congressional efforts
to repeal DADT as the civil rights issue is on the forefront of
people's minds.
Weber, with her long
blond hair, appears petite
among the burly guys
I who play her hometown
friends, but she's one of
the most athletic women
you'll ever see onscreen.
She's most noted as an
aerial choreographer for
Pink, Cher, Madonna and
Britney Spears, but all her
-expertise is on display in
The Gymnast, which chronicles a love story about two lesbian
acrobats( does it get better than that?).
"Thismovieis about the
effectsof the Don't Ask,
Don't Tell policy...
considerit to be one of the
most importantcivilrights
issuesof my lifetime.I am
honoredto portraya lesbian
servicewoman."
40
Icurve
Weber, who also played gay in Everything Relative, explains
that she is drawn to lesbian characters because her brother is
gay, her sister is bisexual and she hates discrimination. From
an acting perspective, "the under~represented people in the
world have extremely complicated challenges-for an actor,
the more complication the better. This movie is about the
effects of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy;' she says."I consider
it to be one of the most important civil rights issues of my life~
time. I am honored to portray a lesbian servicewoman:'
A week later, we're at Moon Shadow, a real lesbian bar
in North Hollywood. In this scene, the previously closeted
Alex discovers life out of her fatigues. Crew members,
including Janelle Eagle, Tracy Weatherby and Carson
LaBella, get drafted as extras. Putting down walkie~talkies
and other tools of the trade, they are transformed into femme
lesbian bar patrons, which incites some good~natured teasing
w
a:
from fellow crew members.
0
On the set, with a thumping dance beat in the background, ~
I strike up a conversation with an alluring lesbian stranger. So ~
what if we're standing in the parking lot in the middle of the ~
day? Paris Pickard plays Saffron, the young
recruit whom Alex puts through a grueling
basic training. She's not in the bar scene, so
today she's on set as co-producer (this real-life
lesbian doesn't play a lesbian).
Tall, model-beautiful and sharp as a Marine
Corps sword, Pickard attended the prestigious
Emerson College for film directing,
and upon moving to the West Coast
landed production assistant jobs on
Frost/Nixon and Angels & Demons.
While directing is her passion, she
keeps getting nudged into the spotlight. In 2008, it was for a rumored
romance (and breakup over fidelity)
with Paris Hilton. Pickard is coy
about it.
"She and I are friends;• says
Pickard, who's in a relationship. "She's a sweet girl, but no,
we are not romantically involved:'
Pickard was among the first to sign on for Marine, once
again looking for a production job but getting tapped by
Weber and Farr for the role of Saffron. But a year later,
Pickard was working in the art department at Screen Gems
and still waiting for production to start. Because it was a labor
of love, which Farr and Weber decided to finance themselves,
~ there were lots of potential catastrophes to avert.
~
"I kept in contact with Dreya: 'Hey, what's the delay, what's
~ going on?' She would say they needed this, they needed that;' says
~ Pickard. 'J\nd I said,'Oh, I could help with that. I can do this:"
Ultimately, Pickard got her
production job, becoming
co-producer."! think I've been
a good producer;' she says
proudly, but also credits her
fellowScreen Gems co-workers
saying, "Our art department
is very gay.They chipped in to
help us make this movie'
Pickard has always been interested
in the military (both her father and her
grandfather served in the Navy) and the
topic, DADT, got her attention, as it did
for most others connected with the film.
Her military initiation was "a little workout program" (huge understatement) that
Weber created to help Pickard prepare.
"She was sore as hell;' said Weber.
"But she's tough:' Disalvatore offers another descriptor for
Pickard: "You're such a punk;' she jokes.
"Yes, I'm a punk;' concedes Pickard with a smile, apparently knowing better than to verbally spar with the producer
of Shelter, Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds and the upcoming
Road to Dinah, who keeps costs down and morale up on the
Marine set.
After shooting finished at the Moon Shadow, the cast
and crew were off to another location-Ned
and Dreya's
house to shoot the sexy lesbian love scene. To get a glimpse
of what transpires there, of course, you'll have to go to the
theater and see A Marine Story. ■
Themakingofa
lesbian
classic
(clockwise from
far left): Weber
(center) with crew;
Pickard (left) with
Weber; wardrobe
prep; super-buff
Weber training
another recruit;
hotties relaxing
on set; cast and
crew reading
the world's best
lesbian magazine
(ahem) in between
takes. Scenes
from A Marine
Story (along the
bottom): Pickard
and Weber fonn
an emomtional
pa de deux in the
American military
July/ August 2010
I41
BACKSTAGE
2010
Ir can be argued that the new feminism is a more experiential one, where
power among women is more fully realized through gender or sexual
freedom. Ir's less about identity labels and more about identity from the core.
And it is brimming with confidence.
111e musician and performer Birch is one of the icons of this new feminism.
Her music supplies anthems for a generation of fans who Ry outside of the
radar. Her name itself is a "feminist reclaiming" of identity and language, she
says. And in her view, many feminist women, both queer and straight, have
come to own their bitchness sans apologies. She, like many of us, hopes someday the world will catch up.
One day early this year, Birch was taking a pre-tour break in Colorado,
opting to stay warm indoors while her band hit the slopes. For her, quiet time
is best for writing music-and her latest and first self-produced album, Blasted,
is an example of that.
Released in March, Blasted, she says, "was born our of total solitude." She
had just wrapped up her tour with her musical hero Ferron, and the two were
recuperating at Ferron's home in the snowy backwoods of Michigan. 111cn,
Bitch says, rhe songs began to fly our of her. 1hree months later she was back
in New York collaborating with her band 111e Exciting Conclusion, letting the
album branch out and laying down the first tracks of what some critics have
deemed her best work yet.
Blasted is a body of songs ripe with emotion, tempered by wisdom. Birch's
voice straddles the line between gravelly and velvety, one moment swinging way
our like a left hook, another moment rolling forth like a consoling hug.
When Bitch describes how she arrived at chis assemblage of songs, it sounds
similar to the primal instinct that sparked her musical career in the first placewhen she asked her mom for a violin after an episode of Sesmne Street. She was
3 years old.
Now, 33 years since wailing
on that starter violin, she's
With a new album, new
gained an artistic mastery that
lookand even more clarity,
only comes through practice.
Bitchlaysout her planto
Her passion is as clear and
dominatethe universe.
sure as her voice, which is why
By Kelsy Chauvin
she calls Blasted her most
confident album yet.
"I think as we spend a little
more time on the earth we grow into our own skin," she says, not shy to
admit that on chis record she was more comfortable raking or leaving other
people's opinions.
"Because chis is my first self-produced record of my own work, I spent a lot
of time thinking how I wanted to sound and how I wanted to approach it in the
studio. Ir was a really fun adventure for me that I haven't gotten to have with
my own songs before:'
Newness abounds for Birch lately. She has split with her girlfriend and
collaborator, Daniela Sea (who many will recognize for her time as Max on
The L Wcmi)-rhough they remain friends and still find ways to cocreate. She
is also overflowing with new music and performance pla11sand in the looks
department, the girl's chopped off her trademark dreadlocks.
BEHOLD
THENEW
BITCH-THE
SAMESULTRY
SWEETHEART
NOW
SPORTING
BODY
ARMOR
ANDBARING
THEWELLSCULPTED
LEGS
OFHER
6-FOOT
FRAME.
Behold the new Birch-the
same sultry
sweetheart now sporting body armor (for
fashion purposes only) and baring the wellsculpted legs of her 6-foot frame. Like her
songs, her work has also branched out.
Among her endeavors are a songwriting
collaboration for Margaret Cho's new album,
and a new series of "sound bites;· orchestral
interludes and spoken-word whimsies that
she calls "10 seconds of Bitchncss squished
between your Beyonce and Bach" (and made
for the art of song shuffiing).
She's also itching to produce her own new
record. Like an unstoppable ride of song ideas
that arrive in Rashes. "Music is something
that's just coursing through me;' she says. "I
think it's a mission that I'm on to empower
people-everybody
who wants to live a
little outside society's boxes and boring new
construction paradigms."
For Birch, the new feminism is a living
thing built on community and conscience. "I
think the world has been enhanced and totally
made by artists, and I think all people rely on
artists to elevate them, or to inspire them or
to comfort them. And our system tries to shut
that down ar any point;' says Bitch." Bur I feel
very strongly about keeping rhar tradition [of
music and art] alive, and nor being one of the
people who gets talked our of ir."
Birch's power is intrinsic in her music and
a lyric from rhe song "Open Up;' off Blcisted,
simply and lucidly explains the power. She
sings, "1l1c whole sky's about to open up, and
so am I."Count on the artist to [wo ]man the
helm during the corning storm. ■
July/August 2010 j 43
H
Betten
album.
ore intimate in
nnifer Corday
lwgged
THE
LINE
This subversive young rocker isn't easily defined.
By Lina Swislocki
At only 24 years old, Blair Hansen has had remarkable success. The San
Hansen also finds herself in the middle of
Francisco Bay Area~based singer has won two OutMusic Awards, one for Best multiple musical styles. She is a self~taught
Country /Folk Song and another for Humanitarian Songwriter of the Year. guitarist but a classically trained vocalist, and
Additionally, her song"Break Away" was recently featured in the film Hannah
both influences are apparent in her songs
Free, starring Sharon Gless.
(her soaring vocals hit just right, and her
Hansen belongs to the baby dyke generation of artists who came out young rocking riffs are not strained at all). And she's
and have never kept their private lives private. Hansen says it was not hard to a woman who likes women, but her band is
come out in high school because she was comfortable with her sexuality and all men. Hansen explains that she likes the
just assumed others would be too. One thing she is not comfortable with, dynamic of working with men, "because I can
however, is the word "lesbian:' Hansen calls herself gay and refers to herself boss them around. Kidding. I like to be the
as a "stem'' (her term for someone who's both stud and femme) since she likes only power chick:'
Yet, despite all these pulls in seemingly
to wear men's clothes along with makeup and nail polish. And on this edgy
opposite directions, Hansen seems well~
musician, the -hybrid look works.
Hansen sees herself as someone who is in the middle of a lot of things. grounded. She exudes calm and confidence.
She's a lesbian rocker who's not quite lesbian enough for some and not quite She is excited when she talks about her award,
rocker enough for the mainstream. She tries not to let those classifications get and you can see the stars in her eyes when she
inside her head, though. She makes music from personal experiences, and she mentions performers with whom she'd like to
hopes that her songs will help others through similar experience. Breakups, of share a stage. "Melissa Etheridge. Of course,
course, rank high on her list of inspirations, but not all of her songs are sad. Melissa. I mean, how could you not want to
Currently, she's in a relationship with a woman 22 years her senior and finds perform with her? She's iconic:' Other female
musicians make the list too, like the Indigo
lyrical fodder in the relationship. "For me, she is very inspirational;' Hansen
~ says of her girlfriend. "She has lived her life very full and well, and I learn a Girls, Brandi Carlisle, Sarah McLachlan and
ID
Garrison Starr. Hansen has already released
~ lot from her. Now I don't so much experience super~high or low emotional
:J
~ states as I did in past relationships, which helped create my music then. Now
three albums and likely ha~ decades of playing
UJ
music ahead of her. She'll no doubt share the
~ I can write love songs in the truest, rawest form, because I actually understand
:i:
it now:'
stage with some of her idols. ■
>) 1 ■
2
I Kisseda Girl(Jill Sobule)
l
:iss that Counted (Catie Curtis)
>>
THEGODDESS
Some little girls want to grow up to be ballerinas. Some want to be zoologists.
Steph Paynes, guitarist and mastermind behind the scorching Led Zeppelin
tribute band Lez Zeppelin, just wanted to rock out.
"I must have been 5 or 6 years old and I knew what I wanted to do;' Paynes
recalls, sipping a glass of ice water in an upscale Chicago eatery. "I wanted to
be a young, male, English rock star. That is what I wanted. I wanted to be like
Eric Clapton. I wanted to be like Jimmy Page. I wanted to be primarily
British;' she laughs heartily at the kid-size version of herself dreaming of
rock superstardom.
As anyone who has ever seen a Lez Zeppelin performance knows, Paynes'
childhood dream has come true. Tours throughout the United States and
Europe, television appearances, prime slots at major rock festivals, not to
mention the opportunity to record with the original Zeppelin engineer, Eddie
Kramer, for their debut album are just a few of the band's accomplishments to
date. Paynes and the gang are constantly challenged by the material and the
legacy of one of rock's greatest and possibly least understood bands.
"Led Zeppelin is very complex;' Paynes assures me in defense of Zep
naysayers who have often criticized the group for being just another loud,
debaucherous rip-off of American blues. "They were often shrugged off
as being this bombastic, heavy metal, cock rock band, which is completely
and utterly not true. I find that when the musicianship gets more able to really
take in the nuance of Led Zeppelin, that's when it starts to get heavy and
really great. You need very sophisticated musicians to pull that off:'
To help with this herculean task, early in 2009 Paynes enlisted new
members Shannon Conley, Megan Thomas and Leesa Harrington-Squyres
to put on the dynamic stage show for which
the original band was famous. Particularly
memorable is the theremin solo in the
1970 hit !'Whole Lotta Love," which pits
Paynes and Conley against each other in
a mesmerizing on-stage duel that conjures
some of the most theatrical moments of
the Jimmy Page and Robert Plant era. The
band has painstakingly recreated much of
the pomp and swagger that made Zeppelin
a blistering show stopper and rocketed
them to their iconic status in the minds
and hearts of teenage boys everywherean irony not at all lost on Paynes.
"People understand Led Zeppelin and they
understand what it means to play Led Zeppelin;' Paynes explains. "It takes the
gender out of it. I have young boys saying, 'You're my guitar hero: That is so
incredible. We didn't start this thing with a political intention, but that is one
of the beautiful little byproducts:'
Being a guitar hero obviously also requires a certain mastery of the
instrument that goes further than the usual four chords. And the six~string,
with its gentle curves and relative difficulty to play, has always been a metaphor
for more physical pursuits. "Whatever your sexual preference is, it's irrelevant;'
Paynes says, smiling. "The guitar is lik~ a woman's body. There's no question it's
beautiful. It's the most beautiful thing in the world. It's a very sensuous thing to
play the guitar and it's all part of playing live:'
Despite their television appearances, interviews and studio album, Lez
Zeppelin remains the kind of band that must be experienced live to be fully
appreciated. "It's not like were trying to change the world;' Paynes shrugs. "But
some young girl who loves the sound of the guitar can come to a show and she
doesn't have to feel like, I need to be a young, British, hot~looking male rock
st~r-and I'm not that:' Steph Paynes looks out into the glare of a streetlight
and for a moment seems to grasp the immensity of the legacy.
"She can think, I want to be like that girl who played the guitar. Look at her.
Let me steal her licks. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"■
FOUR
BITCHIN'
BABES
In 1990, folk performer Christine Lavin put
together a short tour with several of her female
musician friends, and Four Bitchin' Babes
was born. Eight albums and 20 years later, the
line-up has changed but they're still putting
out great songs about boob fairies, hot flashes
and why your kids should hide their Halloween
candy, all in gorgeous four part harmony. Their
latest release, Diva Nation, is about letting go
and not apologizing anymore.
Do people assume they are lesbians because
they're an all-women's group? "I don't know
and it doesn't matter to us-people know we're
gay and lesbian supportive and friendly," says
Sally Fingerett, a current member who wrote
"Home is Where the Heart Is," a beautiful ballad
where she explains to her daug er about Deb
and Tricia who live next door.
Over the years, members have included
Patty Larkin and Julie Gold (writer of Bette
Midler's "From A Distance"), both lesbians. And
although "Hot Flash" sounds like a goofy song
about that time of life, it's really a feminist
anthem about being proud, laugh lines and all.
Their shows make for a great girls night out.
"It's almost like a sporting event for womenwomen wanl to come. If men want to come
they do." Most of them are middle-aged. In a
youth-obsessed culture it's refreshing to hear
songs about losing your car keys and glasses
yet again, but still being able to order pizza and
slump in front of the TV. Included in Bitching
Babes shows are serious songs like Nancy
Moran's beautiful "Unconditional Love" and
Debi Smith's inspirational "Pass It On." And
while they all have their funny side, Deirdre Flint
is the true comedic princess of the group.
Each performer has a separate career, too,
with over 20 solo albums between them. Their
music has been featured on TLC's A Dating
Story, on CMT and recorded by Holly Near and
Peter, Paul and Mary.
"I wanna be doing this when I'm 80 years
old," Fingerett says. "If we're writing songs
about being wheeled in and the audience is all
being wheeled in then it works." Wheel me in,
ladies. I'll order the pizza. [JamieAnderson]
More than 30 years later, The
Raincoats are still tearing it up.
By lphgenia Baal
completing a college degree, she worked
several jobs, then moved into teaching.
A teacher's salary didn't stretch far enough
for this single mom, so she turned to singing
,for a living. "I'd been playing in my bedroom
long enough. It was either moonlighting in a
bar three nights a week or flipping burgers:'
In 1984, she co,founded Saffire with
pianist Ann Rabson and bass player Earlene
Lewis. (Lewis was later replaced by Audra
Faye.) "Once I went on the road with Saffire
in '88 I could've been anything I wanted to be.
One of my big songs was 'Middle Aged Blues
Boogie'-'! need a young young man to drive
away my middle age blues: Well, I couldn't
back off of that one because it was my bread
and butter at the time. Now it's rare that I
would ever sing a song like that, because it's
not true to me:'
With songs like "Silver Beaver" and "Bitch
With A Bad Attitude;' Saffire'sovaries,ro,the,
wall reputation and sharp musical instincts
put the group on hundreds of stages, from
concert halls to festivals (including the
Michigan Womyn's Music Festival), some,
times sharing the bill with artists like B.B.
King and Ray Charles.
People were still not sure about an
all,women's band. Adegbalola chuckles when
she says, "We'd get to gigs and the sound tech
would ask, 'Where's the band?'"
In 1999, Adegbalola released her first solo
effort, Bitter Sweet Blues. From the leather
jacket she wore for the cover, to songs like "Big
Ovaries;' there was no doubt that she was not
only out of the room, but out of the house.
"When I met my former partner in'91 and
I knew real love had no shame to it-it was
at that point I just said, 'This is who I am: "
She adds, "Once you get to be my age you can
say anything you damn well feel like saying.
What could anyone do to mer Put me in jail?
Cut off my clit? No one can do anything to
me that would make me live a lie:'
You can't get much more out than Gaye
Without Shame. Produced by Bob Margolin
(guitarist for blues god Muddy Waters), it
has a wide variety of styles, from acoustic
Piedmont blues to an electrified R&B. "With
this CD, I wanted to let queer listeners know
about the blues. A lot of them think that the
blues is sad. I wanted to present the different
flavors:• She touches on transgender issues
too, and was sure to include duets with
women. "C'mon;' she exclaims. "Let's have a
woman sing to a woman!" ■
QUEER
WOMEN
BLUES
GayeAdegbalolais out of the closetand onto the stage.
By Jamie Anderson
"The lesbians that I know who play blues right now aren't really out. I wish you
luck finding them;' says Gaye Adegbalola (Ah,deg,ba,lo,la), blues singer,
guitarist and writer who admits that at one time, she was no different. "For
a long time I was out of the closet but not out of the room:' Her latest solo
release, Gaye Without Shame, isn't just a clever use of her name, it's a great
descriptor for this award,winning blues powerhouse, who lights up the stage
both solo and, for 25 years, with the band Saffire, The Uppity Blues Women.
Adegbalola's career stands on the shoulders of blues women like Ma Rainey,
popular in the 1920s, who sang the classic "Prove It On Me Blues:' However,
as Adegbalola points out, "She was basically saying,'You don't even know any,
thing about me. She was still closeted and you really couldn't prove it on her:'
Alberta Hunter, a gutsy blues singer whose career spanned 73 years, was an
inspiration to Adegbalola. Hunter was married to a man but probably never
consummated it; she claimed she didn't want to have sex in a house she shared
with her mother. She and her female partner were together for many years.
Growing up in segregated Fredericksburg, Va., Adegbalola loved going
to jazz concerts. She turned toward the blues after hearing Nina Simone
refer to blues singer Bessie Smith, and after being blown away by blues icons
Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee (who opened for Ella Fitzgerald). After
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Texas songstress Ruthie Foster tackles the truth.
By Jamie Anderson
The opening cut of her newest album, The Truth According to Ruthie Foster,
starts with a simmering keyboard, drums and then a burst of horns in a
Memphis sound just like the old Stax Records, and by the time she wraps her
soulful alto around the chorus and sings, "Everybody oughta have a stone love;'
you might want to shout hallelujah and kiss the woman next to you. Foster's
been shouting that kind of hallelujah for a while.
"That song means a lot to me right now. I've been through it relationship~
wise and musically,just kind of jumping around:' She adds, "You know you're
alive if you keep moving-not running, just moving. That's been a lesson for
me. Yeah. I'm not running from mysel£ I guess that comes back to being out.
I'm not running from anything:'
Singing about her relationships never seemed important. "I traveled with
a woman for years-didn't think it was that much of a big deal, really:' Even
though none of the songs on her new release specifically talk about being with
a woman, the theme is about speaking your truth, whatever that is.
Foster's been speaking the truth for many years, starting as a kid singing in
church. Her mother had a huge gospel record collection, including those of
guitarist/ singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe. (Tharpe played secular music, too, and
was an inspiration to everyone from Elvis to Dylan.) Her mother would put
Thorpe on and tell Ruthie, "Here's a woman, baby, she plays guitar and sings
gospel. I thought that was just the coolest thing;' Foster comments. "My mom
wanted me to stay in gospel. I was okay with that as long as I could play guitar
or piano whenever I wanted:'
Influenced by •her dad's taste in blues
artists like Lightening Hopkins, and Beatles
songs introduced by a guitar teacher, Foster
explored many genres. She idolized Stevie
Wonder and loved listening to Phoebe
Snow. Later on she joined the military,
performing in a funk band. "It was really really
fun, with keyboards, horns, dance stepsa real show:' At the same time, she was the
vocalist for a big band. She locked herself in
the music library and immersed herself in Ella
Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson and even Frank
Sinatra. "When you've got 15 or more pieces
of brass behind you, you will never out sing
that-it's really about phrasing:'
It was also in those bands where she
learned to work an audience, a skill that came
in handy when she starting gigging solo and
in a duo at folk venues. So did her talent in
telling stories. "I didn't have a lot of songs
so I just talked about the way I grew up,
my relatives and my hometown:' She laughs
when she says, "You have to find ways to get
their attention, even if you have to throw in a Carpenters song every now and
then:' And no, she doesn't cover the Carpenters now except during a sound
check, just to get the jaded sound techs laughing.
Her first big folk gig was in her home state, Texas, at the popular
Kerrville Folk Festival. Her solo career took off from there. "I would get
into these festivals because of my blues background and I could pick a
little bit. Eventually I'd have a blues workshop, as well:'
Four albums later~she's still touring like crazy, playing in all kinds of
venues, from blues clubs to the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. "It's
great that they have all women running this huge festival:' She had a little
trouble with a member of her staff, though. "I had a guy tour manager
who thought he was going to be able to invite himself and I kept telling
him, 'No baby, it's not going to work:' She laughs. "He didn't believe me
so he brought himself on the trip and he found out that he couldn't get
in the gate at all:' Foster had a great time both years she was booked, hanging
out with Melissa Ferrick and others. "It really made me proud to be invited:'
Her newest release, The Truth, with roots-music producer Chris Goldsmith,
features an impressive roster of musicians who've worked with everyone from
Aretha Franklin to Tracy Chapman. Add to that the legendary Memphis
Horns and you've got soul-dripping goodness that'll slide down your throat
like great coffee. At first glance, it may seem like a huge departure from her
earlier work but really, it's an extension of her last album, The Phenomenal
Ruthie Foster.And, as Foster notes, "So many folk fans don't just listen to folk.
They heard the blues, reggae and gospel I throw in and (they) really wanted
more of those things:' Besides, it's fun. "It's like so barbeque:'
While most of her newest release is distinctly soul/rock, there's also bodyswaying reggae with "I Really Love You" and heart-busting blues on "Tears of
Pain:' She wrote or co-wrote about half the songs as well as covering tunes by
Patty Griffin and others.
She still tours solo but performs with her band-Tanya Richardson on
bass and Samantha Banks-on drums, whenever she can. "I love playing
with my band because it gives me a little bit more freedom to· be a singer and
entertainer. These ladies have my back, no matter what, on stage or off.'
In addition to commanding her own shows, she's opened for blues legend
Derek Trucks, sometimes getting to sit in with his band. "It's a high point of
my night:' Remembering one night, she exchiims, "There were notes coming
out of my mouth that I didn't know I had:' She's also shared the stage with
gospel icons Blind Boys of Alabama, a group she's followed for years.
Foster is turning 45. "There's someth1ng about that-you get close to
a certain age and you really have something to say:' She was 19 when she
started singing the blues and s·aysthat older performers would advise,"You're
a good singer and all but wait until you have something to say and that's
going to make the difference. Blues performers who are looked up to have
stayed in it so long. It really is about livin' it, whatever that is, whether it's
being a woman in the blues, being gay, being out:' At a recent blues awards
show, she heard Gaye Adegbalola (See pg 50) make a big statement about
being out. "It was fun to watch;' she states, laughing warmly.
Foster continues to be inspired by other musicians. On her iPod now is
T-Bone Walker, Bob Marley and a box set of that early fave Rosetta Tharpe.
She's also passionate about India Aire. "I love it when you see, feel and can
almost taste the growth in an artist like her. I also like my Texas songwritersGuy Clark, Lyle Lovett-writers who can write about who they are and it's
tastefully done without a lot of chords. It's just telling the story:'
You could say that about Foster, too-that
she's just telling her story.
Whether she's armed with only an acoustic guitar or the Memphis Horns, it's
all about telling the truth and Ruthie Foster does it very well. ■
FINDING
HER
MUS
Julie Neumark talks life, loss and musical inspiration.
By Laurie Herbert
Los Angeles-based singer Julie Neumark's debut album, DimestoreHalo, will
be released on Lonesome Day Records this summer. In March, she brought
her blues- and country-tinged brand of roots rock to Austin for the South by
Southwest Music Festival.
Is thisyourfirsttimeat SouthbySouthwest?
Yes it is. This was actually my first .festival. It's totally overwhelming. I've
toured a lot-been
to Europe twice and I'm planning on going back this
summer. Both times I've gone in the past, I've supported Beth Hart, who I'm
a huge fan of, and that was really, really cool. And I've toured the Midwest a
lot, because I'm from Cincinnati, and that was a good place to start, but, yeah,
this is my first festival. It's so great to just have music everywhere.
Doyouenjoytouring?
I do. It's such a different lifestyle. One of the best parts of it is coming home
again. There's just a freedom, and your only responsibility is to go out and do
your job that night. The rest of it is so much not like my life at home. It's ...
just about the music.
Youwroteon yourwebsiteaboutthe anniversary
of yourfather'sdeath,and
thatyou'reveryvulnerable
andcreativeasa result.Someone
oncesaidthatto
bevulnerable
is alsoto bepotent.Doyouagree?
Oh yeah, definitely! I think some of my best work-my
deepest, most
personal material-was
written when I was most vulnerable. Certainly
anything around the time of my father's passing. It just brought up so
much in my life. That's such a huge, huge event that I don't feel like
you can even grasp the kind of effect it's going to have on you
until it happens. For me, it made me re-evaluate my life-who I
I wanted to be-and
re-examine relationships in my
life. So yeah, it's a very vulnerable place to
be, and I'd say most songs on the album
were inspired in one way or another by
his passing.
• You'reperforming
soonfor LibertyHouse,a
NewHampshire
transitional
housing
projectfor
homeless
veterans.
Howdoesthatfeel?
Very, very cool. It's funny, because I had
been inspired by a homeless vet, and I ended
up writing a song, "Spare Change:' On this
route that I used to travel home every day,
there was this man right by t~e VA hospital
and he had a sign that said "Homeless Vet:'
I would always give him whatever change
I had and there was this one day that it
just really hit me. Who is this guy? What's
his story? It just frustrated me about our
society. We send these heroes off to war and
Curvemag.com
alternative
musicblogger
MelanyJoyBeckspendsmostof hertime
creeping
theclubsfor hotnewbands,getting
herhandsdirtyin thetrenchesof indiegirlrock
to bringyouthelatestandgreatest.Hereare
hertoppicksforSummer201o.Rubonsome
HawaiianTropic,slipontheearbudsandjam
out,sister.
SICKOFSARAH
Minneapolis
quintetSickofSarahis anestrofueledpop-punkblastof pureoctane.With
a slewof recentdateswith '80srockersThe
Bangles,
they'vejust raisedtheirprofile.
Lineupchanges,including
a newdrummer,
havehonedtheirliveshowto a razor'sedge
andtheyare hardat workonthe follow-upto
lastyear'sself-titleddebut.Dropa coupleof
bucksnexttimetheypassthroughyourneck
of the woods.They'recute.There'sfiveof
them.Andtheylike girls.'Nuffsaid.
they come back and there's so much damageeven if it's not physical, a lot of times,
they're not able to come back into society
and often, they're just left (behind). To be
actually approached by an organization-and
they didn't even know about my song-was
so cool. The cool thing about them is that
they actually will take these people in for
two years and help them find work.
Tellmeaboutthethemesongyoucontributed
forthewebseriesRosebyAnyOtherName.
I got contacted by a producer, Kyle Schickner.
He produced a film called Steam, starring Ally
Sheedy and Ruby Dee, and there was a
montage scene in the middle [that) he needed
some music for, and he totally dug my song
"Uncharted Waters," and that's how I
met him. In getting to know him, he said,
"Hey, I've got this web series coming up;'
and he basically just gave me the title and
said, "Can you write a song?" It was so fun
because I'd never been in a position where
someone was like, "Here's a title-Go! And
here's the deadline!" It was a little scary
because usually it just kind of organically
comes from me about what's going on in
my life.
Whatwouldyouliketo seehappennext?
For the past couple of years, things have
been really moving along how I have hoped
them to. My real true goal as a musician is
to be able to fully support myself in a very
comfortable lifestyle. Nothing extravagant,
not fame, just as a musician-as
a touring
musician. ■
KATIE
TODD
Another
Midwest
artistsureto settheladies'
heartsaflutterisChicago
nativeKatieTodd,
whosenewalbum,Mumbled
Speech,
is likely
tofinditswayontothemixCDsof morethana
fewsummer
romances.
Thebreezy"Love,Love,
LoveYou,"isa sweetodeto newrelationships.
Icecreamandmeaningful
gazesanyone?
VIVIANGIRLS
"We'rea feministband,"growlsVivianGirls.
frontwoman
CassieRamone
froma spinning
barstool.
Formusicloversof an edgier
variety,Brooklyn's
ownVivianGirlsis sureto
please.
Surf-style
licksandthree-part
hannonies
mixit upon"TelltheWorld"and"WildEyes."
Takinga pagefromriotgrrrlforebearers
Sleater-Kinney,
a spoonful
of earlyNirvana
anda dashof GwenStefanifor zest,thisshit
is bananas.Putit in yourboombox
andplay
it at the beach,like,totally.■
egeocello
wasoneofour
Ndegeocello
is stilldoing
T
ASICS
REVIEWSIn The Stacks
Demandin
ace
Searching for legitimacy in fact and fiction. By Rachel Pepper
Unlovable,
EstherPearl
Watson(Fantagraphics
books):Nothinglikea flashbackto the1980sto remind
usof alltheculturaliconsof
thedecadewe'restilltryingto
forget:MacGyver,
Adventures
in Babysitting,
denimjackets,
legwarmersandCabbage
PatchKids(OK,theCabbage
PatchKidswereexceptionally
cute).In its secondvolume,
EstherPearlWatson's
comic
arttakesthereaderthrough
a wild '80srendezvous
with
TammyPierce-a boy-crazy
Our page turners this month include a young
In Congressional and court
sophomore
withmysterious
lesbian's search for authenticity and a look at how the
dandruff(oris it lice?)-and
a momwhojustdoesn't U.S. government constructed a second-class citizenry records, laws and policies
for gay people.
understand
whatit meansto
governing immigration, the
becool.A personal
accountof
dailyactions,thebookreads The Straight State: Sexualityand Citizenshipin
military and welfare ...the lack of
likea peekintosomeone's Twentieth-Century
America,
MargotCanaday
(Princeton
illustrated
diary.Althoughits
University
Press):All those concerned with LGBT
gay citizenship was purposefully
targetaudience
seemsto be
legal rights, including the topic of gay marriage,
womenwho'vesurvived
their
should consider delving into The Straight State: and systematically constructed.
teenageyearsintheageof
feathered
hairandpegged Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century
jeans,anyonewhocan America for background. Author Margot Canaday, makes it clear that in Congressional and court
remember
theawkwardness assistant professor of history at Princeton University, records, laws and policies governing immigration, the
of herownteenageyearswill
has written a compelling account of how the federal military and welfare-three key areas of governmental
identifywithTammy,
a normal government created homosexuality as a "deviant" control-the lack of gay citizenship was purposefully
teenagegirlwhobelieves
she
class of people, worked hard to penalize anyone it and systematically constructed. As the powers of
just mightbeunlovable.
(fantagraphics.com) considered gay (and anyone else who was likewise the federal government expanded, writes Canaday, "it
[SarahC.Jimenez] "perverse;' such as intersex individuals), and increasingly developed conceptual mastery over what
successfully built a second tier of citizenship that
it sought to regulate ... A homosexual-heterosexual
binary, in other words, was being inscribed in federal
we are still living under today. Such discrimination,
even worse when poverty or racism were involved, citizenship policy:' As such, regulation began to make
the dishonorable
has been used to marginalize people and keep out or its mark in earnest-consider
expel "degenerates" &om the U.S., and is still grounds
discharge of soldiers du~ing World War II and the
for exclusion. Canady meticulously researched this resulting lack of benefits and education they faced,
book, combing the National Archives, and by using leading up to Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and it's easy to see
the Freedom of Information Act to gain access to how such policies have created homosexuality as "a
previously unexamined materials. Thus, Canaday
legal category as much as a medical or psychiatric one;'
56
I curve
Canady writes. Despite this, Canaday ends
the book with a belief in positive change,
including the inevitable passage of a bill like
the "Permanent Partners Immigration Act;'
and the day when all LGBT citizens are
able to "share equally in the obligations and
benefits of national citizenship:'
the story stays light, the characters are
colorful, and at times, the book is laugh,aloud
hilarious. For example,the novel begins with the
line,'The day after my mother was admitted
to the mental hospital, I told· everyone at
school that she had entered a competition
on the back of a Corn Flakes
box and won a cruise around
AnotherLifeAltogether,
ElaineBeale
the world:' From this moment
(Spiegel& Grau):The subject of
on, readers will be spellbound by
Elaine Beale's wonderful new
Beale'sstorytelling abilities. Raised
,,/
novel, Another Life Altogether, is
in England but now a California
Jesse Bennett, a young girl growing
resident, Beale captures enough of
up in rural England in the 1970s.
the wind,swept English hillside
ELAINE
/J[ALEand the East Yorkshire dialect of
Amidst the chaos at home wrought
by a mentally ill mother, distant
its inhabitants to make the small
father and a growing awareness of her same,
town setting realistic, but not inaccessible
sex attraction to girls,Jesse, at 13, gets by the
to the average American reader. Also author
best she can. This includes watching over her
of the mystery novel Murder in the Castro,
bipolar mother, working hard to fit in amidst
published in 1997, Beale recently won the
a popular crowd at her new school, weighing Poets& WritersCalifornia Writers Exchange
her moral options in defending a gay boy in competition. For this, she received a book
her class and keeping her sexuality to herself.
contract for Another Life Altogetherand the
The novel gives adequate space to the serious
opportunity to show off her evolving writing
topics of her mother'sillness, rural isolation,
skills. Hopefully a sequel will reveal what
homophobia in schools and the effects of happens to Jesse after the end of Altogether,as
bullying. While this sounds like a recipe for she nudges open the closet door, and emerges
a tension headache, in Beale's capable hands
out into the world. ■
✓
ALfoGHHEP
,....Gia~·;·w
~
Jll)\
Homophobias:
Lust
andLoathing
across
TimeandSpace
Ed.DavidA.B.Murray
(DukeUniversity
Press)
SinnerTakes
All:A
MemoirofLoveandPorn
TeraPatrickand
CarrieBorzilla
(Gotham
Books)
Tracingtheevolution
Tacklingits subject
of a pornstarmaven,
fromanacademic
andglobalangle,this thismemoirfocuses
onPatrick's
struggles
collectionof essays
to overcome
mental
setsoutto define
illnessandsubstance
homophobia
from
abuseandhereventual
political,religious,
of the
culturalandeconomic domination
perspectives.
Thebook pornworld.A fun
readthat espouses
alsotoucheson
of
issuesof genderand the importance
howlesbians
andgay hardwork,endurmenmayexperience anceand,of course,
loveof
discrimination
differently.a shameless
sex.(penguin.com)
(dukeupress.
edli)
[SarahC.Jimenez]
[LisaGunther]
\,,,.,._'-
-'•...,.....,._
SIIF.P\RI>
It'sNotYou,It'sMe:
ThePoetryofBreakup
JerryWilliams
(Overlook
Press)
TheMeaning
ofMatthew
JudyShepard
(Hudson
StreetPress)
EditorJerryWilliams
introduces
this
collection
of poetryby
recounting
fourmajor
heartbreaks,
andthe
aftermath
of despair.
Withlineslike,"It is
hardto understand
howwe couldbe
broughtherebylove,"
thiscollection
is a
catharticreadforthose
experiencing,
contemplating
or
causingheartbreak.
(overlookpress.
com)
[Stephanie
Vernier]
Thisbiography,
as
told by Matthew
Shepard'smother,
givesusa chanceto
knowthe youngman
whosebrutaldeath
starteda movement
that inspiredthe
enactment
of the
MatthewShepard
HateCrimesLaw.
Raw,honestandreal,
with somesurprising
newdetailsnever
beforepublished.
(penguin.com)
[Kathilsserman]
Q+A
Sean Reynolds
Sean Reynolds is a San
Francisco,based writer and
social worker. Her debut
novel Dyingfor a Changepublished by the queer liter,
ary house Suspect Thoughts
Press-is a gender,bending noir that
features Chan Parker, a woman who looks
like a man, and Henrietta Wild Cherry, a
man who looks like a woman.
Youusuallywriteabouthealth.Whatmade
youdecideto write a lesbiannoir?
What better book to write than one I
know? Gay life, particularly African
American gay life in the 1960s. The
inspiration for Chan Parker's character
came from a family friend and I wanted to
remember her.
Is the bookin anywayautobiographical?
Only in that I wrote it. Henrietta Wild
Cherry behaves a bit like my mother who
had a flamboyant flair, but she has a mouth
like my Aunt Agnes.
Whysetyourbookin the summerof 1965?
It was a pivotal period in history for
African Americans. Even if you were not
politically involved, you couldn't escape
hearing about it. I also wanted to write
about the times that were pre,Stonewall
because I don't think the story has ever
been told from an African American
perspective.
Whatdoyouhopethe readerwill take away?
The book has a lot of political history to
appreciate, the way we lived. In that time it
was illegal to impersonate the opposite
sex and anybody who did would regularly
get arrested.
Doessocialworkinfluence
yourwriting?
Social work influences everything I do. I'm
not a do,gooder, but I enjoy holding the
social service delivery system accountable.
Good social workers are also good snoops,
so the book is a natural for me.
Willtherebe moreadventures
with Chan
andHenrietta?
When I was writing it, I knew ... that there
needed to be a sequel. I am currently working
on the second book, but altogether there
are probably three or four books to follow.
[LiskaKoenig]
July/August 2010
I57
REVIEWSMusic Watch
VoicesCarr
Songs that show off each woman's vocal range. By Margaret Coble
MyNeighbor/My
Creator,
WyeOak(MergeRecords):
Brighterandfull of creative
twists,WyeOak'snewEP
MyNeighbor/My
Creatoris
a departure
fromthetypical
• rocksoundof thegirl/boy
duo'stwo previousreleases.
JennWasnerandAndy
Stack'staunting,teasing
rhythmsbeneath
Wasner's
bewitching
altoofferupsome
disarmingly
beautifulmusic- .
withanunmistakable
edge.As
with manyEPs,MyNeighbor/
MyCreatormaybemoreof
a gatheringplacefor songs
thatdidn'tquitefit lastyear's
acclaimed
full-lengthTheKnot
Whether it's Sia's quirky electronica, k.d. lang's
or it couldinsteadindicatean
sensual pop or Lucy Woodward's big band jazz
excitingnewdirectionfor the
sounds, this month's ?utstanding musical selections
band.Additional
production
by
BeatBabiesStudiosin Wye cover a wide swath of the musical spectrum while
Oak'shometown
of Baltimore remaining focused on distinctive vocals.
seemsa clearinfluenceon
thefive-songEP'sdivergent WeAreBorn,Sia{Monkey
Puzzle/Jive):
There are a few
sound,andthe inclusionof
surprises on the bisexual Australian pop star's follow,
producerMickeyFreeland's
up to her 2007 worldwide smash Some PeopleHave
remixof TheKnot's"ThatI
Real
Problems-most notably, her choice to faithfully
Do"is a unexpected
hip-hop
treatandnotto bemissed. cover Madonna's wistful ballad "Oh Father:' But,
Although
WyeOakhasbeen generally speaking, it's more of what weve come to
onthescenefor severalyears expect from the oddball singer with the surprisingly
now,I wouldstillfile thisone soulful voice. There are several rousing dance,pop
underthe "spinit beforeyour
numbers that will likely score big with radio and the
friendsdo"category.
club set, including the deliriously happy lead single
(wyeoakmusic.com)
[AshGoddard] "Clap Your Hands;' jangly "You've Changed;' and
album opener "The Fight;' but there are also more
mellow cuts like the Amy Winehouse conjuring "Be
Good to Me" and trip,hoppy 'Tm In Here;' which
harkens back to her Zero 7 days. There's a lot more
guitar present on this disc-some of which can be
attributed to Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi, who
makes guest appearances-but
it's still pop,heavy
58 j curve
overall, evidenced by guitar,pop gems "Stop Trying"
and "Big Girl, Little Girl:' It's a diverse yet cohesive
set that's sure to please fans and newcomers alike.
(siamusic.net)
recollection,
k.d.lang(Nonesuch):
I recently fell in love
all over again with the legendary dykon after her
stunning Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies
performance in Vancouver this past February, and
this recently released retrospective was just what I was
looking for to enjoy some of the greatest vocals of her
career. It comes in two versions: The standard two,
CD set featuring 22 of her most beloved recordings,
and a deluxe package which adds a third disc of z
fa,
previously unreleased (mostly live) recordings as well iii
as a bonus DVD of music videos and live performance ;
footage. Thankfully, two versions of "Hallelujah;' the
~Leonard Cohen classiclang performed at the Olympics, ~
a
are included-the original version from hymns of
the 49th parallel and a newer version, presumably
the arrangement utilized at the Olympics. It's not so
much a 'greatest hits" collection as it is a real glowing
tribute to her amazing 25,year career and that singular,
goosebump,inducingvoice.A must,have. (kdlang.com)
ci
q
g
~
~
~
~
<(
~
Hooked!,
LucyWoodward
(Verve):From the
zippy opener, a swing-almosMockabilly
number,"He Got Away" to the sexy,breathy
cover of the Peggy Lee classic "Sans Souci''
and the barbershop-acapella rendition of
the Hoagy Carmichael standard "Stardust;'
it's obvious that Woodward's versatile voice
is the centerpiece here on this 11-track
disc. Musically, this third album from the
pop-starlet-turned-serious-vocalist jumps
around from '40s swing-style jazz to '50s
rhumba to '60s-era pop, and Woodward's
sassy yet confident voice leads the way.
There's a little something for everyone
here-from torchy ballad ("Purple Heart;'
"Leave It To You") to more cabaret-style
showstoppers ("Me And This Empty
Room;' "Ragdoll")-but
my
favorite is her fun treatment
of "I Wan'na Be Like You
(Monkey Song);' Richard
Sherman's playful romp
from The Jungle Book.
It's positively delightful.
(lucywoodward.com)■
In the ageof over-the-topsuperstars,
Tegan
andSarahavestoodoutfromthe pack,
provingthemselvesto be morethanjust
anothertrend.
"WhenLadyGaga'smostrecentvideocame
out.. .I thoughtaboutourvideowherewe'rein
snowpantsandI waslike,Arewe ridiculous?"
Saraponders."We'resosweetandnonthreateningandyetfor so muchof ourcareer,
I felt likebeinggayor beingwomen... was
threatening
to peoplesomehow.
"I thinkwe'vealwayshada goodhandleon
whatis appropriate
for ourbandandwhatisn't,"
Teganagrees."Whatyouseeis whatyouget,"
shemuses.Bothwomenseemcomfortable
with
thepaththeircareerhastakenastheyprepare
to hit thethreedecademark.
TeganandSaraareontour nowwith
Paramore.
Theirrecord,Sainthood
andthe
"AlligatorSkin"remixalbumarebothavailable
fromSireRecords.
[MelanyJoyBeck]
edt'nfantasys
~
t.lDiscoverSex ~\l~
r;f>J•
~~
~oJ-
FunShopping
with Friends
•l/
Reviews: real opinions
.....:::(_from real people
X
Speak up:
J forums
and polls
~
w
(/)
JuiceWater
Quitzow
(YoungLove)
Hadestown
Ana'isMitchell
(Righteous
Babe)
-;
ThelatestfromknobtwiddlerEricaQuitzow
't0 isfull of blippy,synthy,
sing-songy
goodness,
~q
a
little
lighter
andmore
~8
, -u
(/)J:
accessible
than2008's
w INewWave
ffi~ ArtCollege.
ffi>
gems
like
"Whatever"
CDZ
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and"CherryBlossom"
. g~ channelthe '80sas
'~ci
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aw
0~
oo Tigreor Peaches,
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whiletheepictwo-part
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"RaceCar"seems
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0 <(
own.(myspace.com/
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(/)-
~..J
Get personal:
interviews
(800) 350-9050 Mon-Fr 8 am-4 pm ET
edenfantasys
facebook@ edenfantasys
Anything
ThatMoves LetTheLightIn
AmyCook
Snow& Voices
(RootHouse)
(ElasticRuby)
0
a:
<(
Fun to follow:
EdenCafe blog
www.edenfantasys.com
Pull up a seat with
Lucy Woodward
z
\I# Connect to toy
~~ makers: Edenlink
Sexis magazine:
discover your own is
@
ci
<(
t
Theout-queer
Los
It is hardto summarize Thisthirddiscfrom
Angelino
turned
a 20-trackindiefolk
the L.A.collective
Austenite
returns
operathatdepicts
anchored
byLauri
thestoryof Orpheus
KranzandJebinBruni witha kickassset
andEurydice
set
offersatmospheric, of indiefolk,rootsy
in post-apocalyptic
dreamyelectronic
pop rockandAmericana,
Depression-era
produced
byAlejandro
thatwashesoverthe
America,
butit makes listenerlikea gentle
Escovedo.
Fromthe
for interesting,
ironysonicwave.Melodic, sublime"HotelLights"
freeandsurprisingly exquisitely
produced to thebluesy-rocking
compelling
listening.
"I WannaBeYour
chilloutmusicwitha
Featuring
appearances fewstandouts,
it's Cook's
likethe Marianne,"
byGregBrown,Justin melancholy
that
"Everything expertsongwriting
Vernon(BonIver)and
standsoutmost."Let's
Coming
Apart"and
originalRightous
Babe danceable
GoDownToTheRiver"
"I AmA
AniDiFranco.
is myfavoritecut.
Storm."(snowand(anaismitche/1.com) voices.
(amycook.com)
com)
•
REVIEWSSapphic Screen
EnduranceGames
Girls get their jock on in these winning docs. By Candace Moore
TheKidsAreAll Right
(Mandalay
Vision):Thenew
film by HighArtauteurLisa
Cholodenko,
TheKidsAre
All Right,is the sleekindie
dramalesbianaudiences
havebeenwaitingfor.It stars
AnnetteBeningandJulianne
Mooreasa lesbiancouple
whoseteenaged
kidsfindand
bringhometheirbio-father,
playedby MarkRuffalo.
As
always,Mooreis wonderful
in herroleastheawkward
mom,Jules,butit's Bening
whostealstheshow.Herturn
asNie,theoutwardlyuptight
breadwinner,
successfully
mixesskepticism
witha
heartbreaking
vulnerabilityandprovesto bethe most
poignantcharacterin thefilm.
Perhaps
mostimportantly,
thechemistry
between
BeningandMooreis honest,
believable
andremarkably
familiar.Lesbian
audiences
maytakeissuewitha midfilm plottwistthatsteersit
awayfrombeinga quirky
comedy(ala LittleMiss
Sunshine)
andtowardone
thatis morefirmlygrounded
in drama.Ultimately
its
resolution
will leaveviewers
satisfied.
[Rachel
Shatto]
Check out a 'Q&A with Off
and Running
director at
curvemag.com
.~
60
Icurve
Off and Running and Training Rules explore the
complicated lives of young female athletes, and how
their experiences and search for identy affects the
heart they put into winning.
OffandRunning
(FirstRunFeatures):
Nicole Opper's
moving documentary follows Avery, a high school
track star, as she confronts a family identity crisis.
Raised in New York by two Jewish lesbian moms,
Tora and Travis, Avery speaks Hebrew, studies hard,
trains incessantly and knows a thing or two about
love and diversity. A supportive, close-knit family, the
Klein-Clouds are jokingly referred to as the UN.Avery's adopted siblings include big brother Rafi, a
mixed race neuroscience major at Princeton and little
brother Zay-Zay, a Korean orphan. Thankful for her
multi-cultural upbringing, Avery nonetheless longs to
connect with her roots and begins correspondence
with her birth mother, who eventually
stops writing her back. This second
abandonment causes Avery to start
ditching class and detaching from her
moms while seeking to explore her
African American identity and personal
independence. Opper follows Avery's story
for months as the athlete learns to stand up
for who she is and repair her relationships
with those who care about her. This
admirably executed film, co-written by
Avery Klein-Cloud, intimately welcomes audiences
to experience Avery's coming of age alongside her.
(firstrunfeatures.com)
Training
Rules(Wolfe):
Star shooters, Olympics hopefuls,
young athletes on track to make the WNBAwomen with raw talent and dedication to their
game-saw
hoop dreams dashed by one Penn
State University women's basketball coach. Rene
Portland unflinchingly enforced three rules on and
off the court: No drugs, no drinking and no lesbians.
Openly bigoted, Portland reigned as the Lady Lions'
head coach for the last three decades, winning games
and tides such as "Coach of the Year" while quietly
dismissing excellent players or pressuring them
to invent boyfriends. Portland's discriminatory
policies-which denied women athletic scholarships
and the promise of future sports careers based on
suspicion of homosexuality-went
unchallenged
until 2006. After seeing her playtime dwindle game
after game and finally being unreasonably kicked off
the team, Penn State sophomore Jennifer Harris
fought back. Dee Mosbacher and Fawn Yacker's
award-winning doc tells Harris' story and plays
the tape backward through interviews with multiple
victims left in the wake of Portland's longstanding
homophobia. Inspired to share their stories by
Harris' legal victory, these former b-ballers wedge
open the gym locker-room door. (wolfereleasing.com)
~
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ci:
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~
~
z
I
Q+A
Heather Cassils
you like it, great. If not, n:o
big deal. So; she called me
over and introduced herself
Then she went through this
scenario of wondering what
it would be like for our seduction to occur.
She said, "You have to come to me. I never
go to anybody I want and if someone wants
me they come to me:' It was very similar to
the thought process I had in being in the
video. So it was kind of funny for her to
replicate that.
Whatwereyourinstructions
forthescene?
She wanted me to touch her inappropriately.
She was so made up-she was wearing sun,
glasses, so you can't see her eyes, and all this
makeup. It's almost like the wizard behind
the curtain. I thought something as intimate
as a kiss would be inappropriate. Everyone
was in awe of her. You could cut the tension
on set with a knife. So to kiss her would be to
breech that kind of surface.
Andthekiss?
It was super organic. I felt like the moment
we had was very genuine. She was into it
While Lady Gaga didn't have time to take
the phone call from Beyonce in her recent
chart,busting video "Telephone;' she did have
time to kiss one of the hottest studs in the
yard, Heather Cassils, a Canadian artist and
physical trainer living in Los Angeles.
-
HowdidyougetcastasLadyGaga'sgirlfriend
inthevideo?
My friend Dallas Meloy, who is an actor and
pro body builder, called me one day while I
was at the gym. Some casting agents were
looking for body builders and she had told
them about me. They had me swing a bat and
a few more things. I thought nothing of it.
That night I got a call and the next day I was
on set.
WhydoyouthinkLadyGagachoseyou?
I think one reason had to do with me not
caring. Everyone was star,struck when she
got on set, but I was not. I had the attitude
0£ This is who I am, this is what I can do. If
-
.
I
i
~
L;:.
&Ill
BeingHuman:
Season
One
(BBCWarner)
WHITECOLLAR:
THECOMPLETE
FIRSTSEASON
(foxconnect.com):
USA'snewhit is abouta conartist
andhisFBIhandlerbromance,
yeah,
butthere'shottieTiffaniThiessen
and
better,a sexylesbianFBIagentMarsha
Thomason
in themix.
'
l
-
..
TinMan8/u-Ray
(Vivendi)
,',
~
~--
~ SAVING
GRACE:
THEFINALSEASON
Re-released
thismonth
ThisBritishimport
onBlu-ray,thishighly
starsLenoraCrichlow stylizedSyfymini(SugarRush)asa
seriesisa contemporary
ghost,whowouldbe
takeonthe Wizardof
~
§' doomed
to a lonely,
Oztale.Takingupthe
hauntedlifeif not
Dorothy
mantleisthe
>- for hertwo new
always-dreamy
dyke
a:
~ flatmates-avampire faveZooey
Deschanel,
ffi anda werewolf
who
whobringsOzto life
>
§ _havetheirownprob- alongside
anall-star
~
i=- lemslivingcloseted
cast,including
Alan
~ livesbyattempting
to
Cumming,
Richard
i passashuman.It's Dreyfussandsmoking
~ anaddictive
character hotKathleen
Robertson
~ studywitha unique
asAzkadelia,
the
~ supernatural
twist.
WickedWitchof the
~ [Rachel
Shatto]
West.[RS]
a
(foxconnect.com):
AjadedOklahoma
Citypolicedetective
hasto redeemher
life.Oneepisode
worthyof noteis "Looks
Likea Lesbian
Attack"withCleaDuvall.
90210:THESECOND
SEASON
(cbsstore.com):
You'llforgetallabout
DonnaandBrenda
whenyougeta peek
at Rumer
Willis,DemiMoore'sall-grownuplittlegirlasa queergirlin Beverly.
NCIS:LA
(cbsstore.com):
Lesbian
actorLinda
Hunt(right)makes
thisshowa muston
anyactionlover's
lV list.[DAM]
and I was into it too. It
was just what it was: a
suspended moment from
reality.
Didyoufeeluncomfortable
kissing
LadyGagainfrontof people?
While shooting the kiss scene, some people
were making oogling noses and I heard 'girl,
on,girl action:' I got annoyed and said, "What
about boy,on,girl action?" Lady Gaga picked
up on that immediately that and said "Oh,
you identify as trans:' What pronoun should
I use:"'The fact that she knew and thought to
ask impressed me. I don't identify as trans.
Didanything
surprise
youaboutLadyGaga?
She was extremely professional and driven.
Her delivery of the lyrics is really intense and
aggressive.She stopped and asked everyone
where they were from, what they did. She's
only 24 years old, and it felt like she was
managing everyone. After the scene, she told
the edit team immediately: "I want final edit
on everything. I want this to be really genuini'
What she was saying to me was that she was
not taking advantage of me.
Didyoufeelexploited?
No. Anytime you lend yourself to mass
media in any way, shape or form, you set
yourself up for that. But I think that there
are other levels of dialogue that you can have
to contribute to the image. I can create a
voice that goes along
with this image
to open up
discussions of
representation
and gender.
[TaniaHammidij
"It wasjust
whatit was:
a suspended
moment
from
reality."
REVIEWSTech Girl
Get YourGame O.n
Why lesbians love online play. By Shanna Germain
VIRTUAL
SPRING
CLEANING
Withalmosteverything
in life
goingdigital,Western
Digital
hascomeupwitha clever,
andcompactsolutionto the
dwindlingharddrivespace.
TheMyBookWorldEditionis
a network-attached
storage
devicefor all yourdigital
goodieslikepictures,documents,musicandmovies.
Unlikeotherbulkyexternal
harddrives,thecompactMy
Bookcanbeaccessed
by
allthecomputers
onyour
networksimultaneously,
as
wellasyourXbox360
and
PlayStation
3.Theinitialsetup
canbea bittricky,andyou
mayneedto callin yourtechsavvydykegeeksquadfor IT
support,butwith patience
andthe user'smanual(plus
a moderateamountof
cursing)I got mineset up,
andquicklyfoundoutwhyit
wasworthall the fuss.Outof
the boxit's compatiblewith
iTunes,whichmeansyou
canshareyourmusiclibrary
with anycomputeron your
networkinstantly.Andfor
Macusers,it's compatible
withTimeMachine.Butbest
of all, youcanalsofinally
ditchall yourdustyCDsand
DVDsby rippingandsaving
electroniccopiesonthe
drive.Goodbye,
clutter.
($300,wdc.com)
[RachelShatto]
62
Icurve
You know the age~old stereotype of the online gaming
geek-a straight teenage boy frantically leveling his
warrior named YouCnSuckMe in his parents' base~
ment. Well, it's time to blow that outdated image up
and replace it with something much hotter: real~life
lesbians logging on to wield weapons, willpower and
wile-all while conquering virtual worlds and kicking
some serious ass.
For years, lesbians have embraced massively multi~
player online games (MM Os) like World of Warcreft
(Wo W), but haven't talked much about it. Now,
they're coming out about their online obsessions.
And they're not just playing games. They're creating
communities, meeting friends and future lovers and ·
taking a stand-usually
with a sword and shield
in hand.
Angela Simpson, content manager for Lesbian
Gamers, a dedicated lesbian gaming website, says she's
seen the number of lesbian gamers rise since the site's
inceptionin2007 :'Statisticsforworkingoutthe
percentage of gay and lesbian gamers is always
going to be tricky because of closeted gamers,
even with the anonymity aspect;' she says.
"But the response (to the site] has been great.
Our readership is still growing and support
from many in the industry is fantastic:'
Despite this trend, there still isn't much
in the way of lesbian~focused content, especially in
single~player games. "I don't think the female player
is really on game developers' radar much at all in
general, and the lesbian gamer is even farther behind;'
says Barb Dybwad, a longtime gamer and senior editor
at the web and social media blog Mashable.com. "It
seems clear that the core target audience is still the
13~to~24~year~oldmale, for the most part:'
To combat this, lesbians are taking games into their
own hands. Online, players have the power to choose
who they want to be by creating an avatar, whether it's
an out~and~proud elf or a quiet, strong orc."In MM Os,
it's really important to me that there is a choice of body
sizes, physical traits and body language;' explains Kelly
Robson (pictured below, left with her girlfriend Alyx),
an online gamer out of Vancouver, B.C.,who admits
to a deep love for the social aspect of MMOs. "If
games had a lesbian element, that would be brilliant,
but most likely they're still geared toward titillating
straight men:'
Don't forget the many tempting
nonplayer characters who inspire
online greatness, and other things. As
Robson says of Sylvanas Windrunner, ~
Wo W's sexy, dark Queen of the il5
.J
Undercity,"She makes my little undead ~
heart go pitter par:'
~
LesbianLifeOnline
While killing, healing and conquering are
a major part of the appeal, there's also the
draw of online lesbian communities in the
form of guilds and servers (Wo W even has
an unofficial LGBT server, Proudmoore).
Friendships, courtships and erotic roleplay are a huge part of online gaming,
sometimes facilitated by the games themselves in the form of private play spaces
and props (SecondLife features harnesses,
vibrating dildos and same-sex marriages
for its characters).
Often, an online courtship turns into
something more. "My wife seduced me
through gaming," Robson says. Today, the
couple play both together and separately. "I
don't think it detracts from our relationship.
It's a way of getting alone time in a small
apartment:'
Lesbian gamers are even getting married
with their geek status in mind-a couple in
Australia tied the knot last year in a ceremony that included outfits, music and even
a cake inspired by their favorite games.
ONLINEGAMESTO TRY
Worldof Warcraft:
Probably
themostpopulargameoutthere,
anda greatchoicefor beginners.
Players
canbeelves,ores,tauren
(cowlikecreatures)
or eventhe
undead.
Thereis a vibrantcommunityfor role-playing
andmany
smallpocketsof LGBT-positive
activity.(worldofwarcraft.com)
is a strongalternative
community
online,withlotsof opportunities
for eroticrole-play.
(everquest2.
station.sony.com)
SecondLife:Moreanonline
experience
thana game,SL
allowsyouto createanonline
persona
anddojustaboutanythingyouwantwithher.There
Everquest
2: Oneofthelonis a heavyfocusonsexuality,
gest-running
MMOs,
thegame
andmanyof thepropsaresexfeaturesanintelligent,
articulate, focused.
(secondlife.com)
open-minded
community.
There
Photo editor
Hayley Mcmillian
as a blood elf.
GameWithCaution
The online world might seem like a
lesbian paradise, but that's not always
the case. Experienced players cite tales of
men who play female avatars in the hope
of getting some. Hate mongering is still
rampant and gaming companies so far
haven't shown a great deal of support for
their LGBT gamers-it was just last year
that Xbox LIVE and Microsoft were in
the news for suspending a player who
identified as lesbian in her online profile. It
was not until early this year that the Xbox
LIVE code of conduct was changed to allow
lesbian, gay, bi, transgender and straight in
gamer tags, after the banning them caused
the highly publicized controversy.
"You hear stories about the 12-year-old
homophobes in voice chat on Xbox LIVE,
and that stereotype exists for a reason;'
Dybwad says."Those kids are out there and
it definitely turns me off from the console
multiplayer experience-and
I'm sure it
turns away other lesbian gamers as well:'
"On the other hand, I participated in
two different openly gay-inclusive guilds
in WoW ... and had an awesome time,"
Dybwad adds. "If you spend some time
to look for a better, queer-affirming
experience, you can definitely find it:' ■
~
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