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Description
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ToC Power Suits for Pride (p36); Shooting for the Stars (p44); Lebsbian Achievers (p47); Out in Oklahoma (p54); Cover: Me and Ms. Jones (p63); Our Favorite Valentines (p69); Florida Fun (p70); Suffragist Sojourn (p73); Dublin Says 'I Do' (p76)
See all items with this value
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Pride Issue
See all items with this value
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issue
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3
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Date Issued
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May-June 2016
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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_Vol26_No3_May-June-2016_OCR_PDFa.pdf
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extracted text
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74470
80539
WE GIVE YOU A BETTER NIGHT
-<-
You put more carpe in the diem
TYLENOL®
For what matters mosr
Use only as directed.
TYLENOL®PM relieves pain while helping
you fall fast asleep and stay asleep.
curve
MAY/JUN
2016
FEATURES
36
POWER SUITS FOR PRIDE
The Tailory brings back
classic blazers and pants with
androgynous flair.
~~
MEAND
MS.JONES
Meet the powerful,
out attorneytu rned-sta r of WE
TV's docuseries
SistersIn Law.
SHOOTING FOR THE STARS
Queer women in TV are finally
taking control behind the
cameras and changing what
and how we view.
~,
LESBIAN ACHIEVERS
Our profiles of powerful
women for Pride.
5~
OUT IN OKLAHOMA
A lesbian cowboy opens up
about her life, love, and work in
the heartland.
69
OUR FAVORITE VALENTINES
Rockers Hunter Valentine lay
down their instruments and
take a break.
70
FLORIDA FUN
The Keys are the place for an
all-girl getaway, not to mention
perfect sunsets.
73
SUFFRAGIST SOJOURN
Head to upstate New York for
a trip down Feminist Lane, and
some fine wine, too.
76
DUBLIN SAYS 'I DO'
The Irish capital is brimming
with Pride since the Yes vote.
MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
1
CONTENTS
MAY/JUN
2016
42
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
IN EVERYISSUE
4
EDITOR'S NOTE
6
CURVETTES
8
FEEDBACK
11
THE GAYDAR
80
STARS
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
TRENDS
REVIEWS
12 LES LOOKS LIKE
Each issue we pick a lucky lez
with a look and a life to match.
24 MUSIC
Ann Wilson from powerful and
iconic rock 'n' roll sister act
Heart. By Dave Steinfeld
13 LESBOFILE
What's new and noteworthy
with our favorite celesbians.
By Jocelyn Voo
18 OUT IN FRONT
Meet the community leaders
who are doing us proud. By
Sheryl Kay
18 IN CASE YOU MISSED
IT ...
LGBT news from across the
country. By Sassafras Lowrey
VIEWS
16 ISSUES
Our in-depth look into a hot
button topic affecting queer
women.
18 POLITICS
Deep thoughts and heartfelt
convictions on a different topic
each issue from our contributing politics editor. By Victoria
A. Brownworth
20 ADVICE
Experts with insider info on all
manner of problems, from love
to money to health.
2
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
26 FILMS
Director Tina Mabry's persistence to tell her personal story
pays off. By Joey Nolfi
30 BOOKS
Sarah Schulman has paved
the road for many lesbians of
literature and activism. Read
her new (and some say best)
book, The Cosmopolitans. By
Marcie Bianco
32 SHORT STORY
"The Light of the World" will
intrigue you with its tale of
a lesbian uncovering her
grandmother's past. By Ellen
Simpson
LAST LOOK
78 CROSSWORD
Can you tame our Queer Quiz?
By Myles Mellor
-
Ticket to Pride
T
here's nothing like an election year to make you
reevaluate the meaning of Pride.
For those of us who live in major U.S. cities with
"gayborhoods" and large Pride parades; for those
of us who work in fields that cater to or embrace the LGBT
demographic, it's possible to live in a rainbow-colored bubblewhere the political vicissitudes of the outside world don't often
intrude. Such a privileged existence can be shaken during the
storm of a federal election, and even by the passage of regressive
state laws (over 85 anti-LGBT bills have been introduced in 28
states, including North Carolina, Mississippi, and Texas).
During the presidential primaries and caucuses, it's been
fascinating for me as an observer (I am not eligible to vote) to
watch people pledge their support to certain candidates. It has
also been troubling in some respects.
It strikes me as curious that there are many lesbians who vote
Republican, even as they enjoy the fruits of marriage equality
and other rights not bestowed upon them by their chosen
representatives. Also curious to me are lesbians who choose to
live in states that consistently deny equal rights to LGBTpeople.
Yet, I understand, because as friends and followers on social
media frequently remind me, we are more than just our gender
identities and sexual preferences.
Sometimes the ties of family and finances drive our voting
preferences. Sometimes our cultural backgrounds and personal
histories do. Where you come from, where you live, how you
were raised, and how much you earn are powerful factors in
voter preference. Feelings also play a role: Who you like, who
you hate, and who you fear can sway you one way or another.
Emotions run high during elections, and fact, reason, and
objectivity fly out the window. Often, so do our LGBT identities.
We are asked to focus on enormous issues such as national
security and international conflict. Suddenly, which bathroom
we are permitted to use, who has access to our vaginas, and
who we get into bed with at night are on the sidelines. But they
shouldn't be. Our elected officials can end up as our bathroom
attendants and gynecologists-just ask North Carolina or Texas!
The civic engagement required to don a rainbow-colored
T-shirt, find some Mardi Gras beads, and go to the parade may
seem very different from the civic responsibility required at the
voting booth. But are they different, and should they be? If we
could really connect the two, what might change for the better
at a national level for lesbians, women, and LGBTpeople?
In this issue, we celebrate many types of Pride-Lesbian Pride,
Black Pride, Feminist Pride, even Cowboy Pride. When you go to
the polls this year, take the rainbow with you. Chances are you'll
need it in the next few years.
!z
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
merryn@curvemag.com
mugs & kisses
Come in-store to get your free stuff and
start your married life together.
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ANITA DOLCE VITA
Anita is a fashion and culture blogger whose work has
been featured in The Huffington Post, Huffington Post
Live, Vice, Nylon, Refinery29, The Daily Beast, Canada's
curve
THE BEST-SELLING
MAY/JUN
2016
LESBIAN
» VOLUME
MAGAZINE
26 NUMBER
3
Globe & Mail, San Francisco Weekly, Curve, The Advocate,
OUT magazine, and Spain's S. Moda, to name a few. She
has produced acclaimed queer fashion shows held at
world-renowned cultural institutions, including Brooklyn
Museum and the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. In
2016, Anita produced and moderated the first ever queer
style panel hosted at SXSW. Visit dapperQ.com.
PUBLISHER Silke Bader
FOUNDINGPUBLISHER Frances Stevens
EDITORIAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Merryn Johns
SENIORCOPY EDITOR Katherine Wright
CONTRIBUTINGEDITORS Melanie Barker, Marcie Bianco,
Victoria A. Brownworth, Lyndsey D'Arcangelo, Anita
Dolce Vita, Sheryl Kay, Gillian Kendall, Dave Steinfeld,
Jocelyn Voo
EDITORIALASSISTANTSAnnalese Davis
OPERATIONS
DIRECTOROF OPERATIONS Jeannie Sotheran
PROOFING
JOEY NOLFI
Joey is an entertainment blogger from Pittsburgh,
Penn. currently residing in New York City. His work has
appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, AFROPUNK,
and East End Fashion Magazine. When he's not writing
film reviews or drafting essays for his website,
ServingCinema.com, he spends his time patiently willing
the Academy to award Julianne Moore another Oscar. His
interview with filmmaker Tina Mabry is on page 24. Follow
Joey @joeynolfi
PROOFREADER lndre McGinn
ADVERTISING
NATIONALSALES
Rivendell Media (908) 232-2021, todd@curvemagazine.com
ART/PRODUCTION
ART DIRECTOR Bruno Cesar Guimaraes
SOCIAL MEDIA
MANAGERAnnalese Davis
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Melany Joy Beck, Jenny Block, Kelsy Chauvin, Mallorie
DeRiggi, Dar Dowling, Jill Goldstein, Kristin Flickinger,
Kim Hoffman, Francesca Lewis, Charlene Lichtenstein,
Sassafras Lowrey, Kelly McCartney, Myles Mellor, Laurie
K. Schenden, Stephanie Schroeder, Janelle Sorenson,
Rosanna Rios-Spicer, Yana Tallon-Hicks, Sarah Toce
CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS & PHOTOGRAPHERS
Steph Brusig, Grace Chu, Meagan Cignoli, Sophy Holland,
Sara Lautman, Syd London, Maggie Parker, Diana Price, B.
Proud, Robin Roemer, Leslie Van Stelten
LAURENLOGIUDICE
Lauren is a writer and performer in television and film, and
also creates original work through solo plays, storytelling,
and sketch comedy characters. Her work has been
featured by The New York Times, BBC, Roma C'e', Bust
Magazine, and NY1,among others. After graduating from
Wesleyan University, she received the William J. Clinton
Fellowship for Service in India to work on HIV education
in queer communities. Lauren currently presents her solo
play Garbo Dreams as a member of the Campus Pride
Speaker's Bureau. Follow her blog at laurenlogi.com.
ELLEN SIMPSON
Ellen graduated from the University of Vermont in 2010,
majoring in political science with an emphasis on media
and its effects on society. She is the story editor and
social media writer for the popular web series Carmilla,
now in its second season. For a taste of her fiction, read
an excerpt from her novel The Light of the World on page
32. She currently resides in North Carolina, but is a
Vermonter at heart. Follow Ellen @anamatics
CONTACT INFO
Curve Magazine
PO Box 467
New York, NY 10034
PHONE(415) 871-0569
SUBSCRIPTIONINQUIRIES(800) 705-0070 (toll-free in
EDITORIALEMAIL editor@curvemag.com
LETTERSTO THE EDITOREMAIL letters@curvemagazine.com
Volume 26 Issue 3 Curve (ISSN 1087-867X) is published 6 times
per year (January/February, March/April, May/June, July/August,
September/October, November/December) by Avalon Media, LLC,
PO Box 467, New York NY 10034. Subscription price: $35/year, $45
Canadian (U.S. funds only) and $55 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, unsolicited 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, Avalon Media LLC., PO Box 467 New
York NY 10034, email jeannie@curvemag.com Canadian Agreement
Number: 40793029. Postmaster: Send address changes to jeannie@
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Printed in the U.S.
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usonly)
ADVERTISINGEMAIL todd@curvemagazine.com
,~.Ir.:i~!!
20H
Im LilBT ~~•li\J
RONT /
FEEDBACK
your great work.
-Evelyne Penfornis-Platel, via
Facebook.
STAY STRONG, AND STAY
LESBIAN
I just received The Body
Issue [Vol. 26#2]. Thank
you for the article on
Bees Cronshaw. I'm very
interested in fitness and
strong women. If they are
lesbians it is even better. So
thank you very much. On
another subject: keep the
[tagline] "lesbian magazine"
written on the cover. I know
the magazine is inclusive
and all but LESBIAN visibility
is very important. Still very
important. Thank you for
we could all learn a thing or
two from the Queen of Rock!
Peace and love, Forever
Melissa's LuckyLauren ...
MELISSA IS OUR ONLY ONE
-Lauren T. Causey-Cox, Fort
Thank you so much for the
highly entertaining and
enlightening interview with
Melissa Etheridge in the
March-April issue [Vol. 26#2,
"Essentially Human" by
Tiffany Ceridwen Lawana]!
The questions you asked
were quite refreshing (and I
read all of her interviews so
I should know), that brought
out genuine answers full of
love. I have the pleasure of
interacting with her often,
and the most incredible part
about her is that I'm pretty
sure most of the time she
forgets she's famous. Just a
genuine, kind, shining soul
who can laugh at herself ...
Smith Ark.
HISTORY'S SISTER
I am writing to share my
personal thoughts with
regards to Curve magazine,
The History Issue .... I had
(she has since passed away)
a sister who died from AIDS
in 1993 and she herself
was bisexual. I really didn't
understand her reasons for
choosing that particular
lifestyle, but I continued
to love her regardless. My
family did what they could
to get her all the proper
medications, but because
she was also an addict she
was unable to heed the
advice of those who loved
her. The end result was that
she died at a young age. For
many years, I suppressed any
thought of her lifestyle, until
I recently saw an issue of
your publication and decided
to read it. I must admit I felt
a personal connection to
those people interviewed. I
truly realized that they had
to endure many difficulties
and overcome them as well. I
was most touched by Patricia
Cornwell's personal story and
shall most definitely read one
of her books. In closing, I
again want to commend you
and your staff for providing
a much-needed publication
for everyone to read and
become more understanding
of each other.
-Domingo Gonzalez,
Berlin N.H.
li•i3■ :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ·.:::::::·.·.·.:·.-.:
·.·.·.·.::·.::·.·.·.·.........
·.·.·.·...................
·....................................................................................................................
r·1
SUMMER
ISHERE
AND
SOISPRIDE.
WHAT
DOES
ITMEAN
TOYOU?
37%
Day drinking and dancing in the street
21%
Time to hang out the rainbow flag
32%
A chance to march in my local Pride parade
10%
We have equality. Who needs Pride anymore?
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................................................
WRITE
Curve magazine, PO Box 467, New York, NY 10034
US!Email: letters@curvemagazine.com
Send to:
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2016
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11 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...
12 THIS IS WHAT A LESBIANLOOKS LIKE
13 LESBOFILE
MEET
JAGUARD
BECKFORD
PROFILE
NEWS
GOSSIP
»
MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
9
TRENDS/
THE GAYDAR
p
~~ THEGAYDAR
Takes one to know one? Let our gaydar help
~ you decide who's hot who's not who's
~ shaking it and who's faking it in lesboland.
~ BY MELANIE BARKER
~
The Rock refers to himself on
Twitter and at the MTV Movie
Awards as looking like "a buff
lesbian." Starts a conversation,
wins new fansl
Guitar heroes Bryan Adams and
Bruce Springsteen cancel concerts
in Mississippi, North Carolina over
anti-LGBT laws
The comic genius
of Broad City's
unabashed Hillary
Clinton crush
Caitlyn Jenner offers
to be Ted Cruz's trans
ambassador. Say what?
What's with
the killing off
of lesbian TV
characters this
year, including
Lexa from The
100?
In spite
of being
engaged,
Miley Cyrus
says she'd
swipe right for
Hilary Duff
Kate
McKinnon's
hilarious Caro/
parody for The
Independent
Spirit Awards
elevates her to
lesbian comic
genius
The world is
an oyster for
LGBTtravel
buddy Ellen
Page in
Gaycation
According to the British
Film Institute, Carol is the
Best Gay Film of All Time.
Told ya sol
Xena finally gets a
lesbian reboot, but
without Lucy Lawless
or Renee O'Connor!
Fashion label Otherwild
launches The Future Is Female
T-shirts and more, inspired by
lesbian-feminist sheroes
10
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2015
Linda Perry and Sarah Gilbert might
have their own reality TV show
VIEWS/
PROFILE
Helen Carroll
>>San Francisco
Sports Reformer
She played basketball in high school, tennis in college,
and then went on to coach college basketball, tennis, and
track and field. There are few memories Helen Carroll has
that don't involve a ball, or a net, or a competition.
Even
when she awoke from a coma, the result of a suicide
attempt when she was 13 years old, the first thing Carroll
heard was the nurse talking about a high-jump competition the youngster had been in.
"Sports was a literal lifeline in those early teen days,
and has been a constant positive force in my life ever
16-YEAR-OLD
LESBIAN
NYRICHARDSON
was recently thrown out of a McDonald's restaurant in Hull,
England, after she tried to use the women's bathroom. When
asked by an employee to produce ID 1norder prove that
she is female, Richardson, who was eating a meal with her
g1rlfr1end,didn't have any ID with her, and was thrown out of
the bathroom by the restaurant manager.
since;' notes Carroll, who is now the director of the Sports
Project for the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR).
"I would say my closest friends were and are formed
through sports, and sports continue to enrich my life."
While the world creeps cautiously forward to becoming more inclusive, Carroll can recall the pain of being
excluded, and says that there is still a great deal to be
accomplished even in the sports world, where sometimes people think (mistakenly) that it's always OK to be
a lesbian. It is a goal of the NCLR to encourage LGBT
sports figures act as role models that negate destructive
stereotypes and benefit participants and observers of the
sports world.
As an example of the degree to which that leadership is
lacking, Carroll points to NCAA Division 1 basketball. There
is not one women's basketball coach in the country who
will speak openly about being queer in the media. "The
silence screams for a head coach to break that trend," she
says. "It will change, but it needs to change now:'
Carroll says her current work extends beyond lesbians
to address widespread inequities in the sports world for
bisexual and transgender athletes, and people of color.
"To move forward now in sports, we must look at the
interconnections of racism and sexism with homophobia,
biphobia, and transphobia in a deeper way," she says.
Carroll says she still receives calls from coaches who
report being fired for being gay, and from student athletes
who are being removed from teams and are losing their
scholarships. "Yes, we have made dramatic strides;' she
says. "However, until there is a sports culture where every individual may fully participate, free from sexual
C>'.
orientation discrimination and gender identity discrimina-
_J
u
z
tion, the work is not done." By Sheryl Kay
11
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
• EIGHT
MARRIED
LESBIAN
couples have argued in court
that the state of Indiana Is
discriminating against their
families by not permitting
both women to be listed on
the birth certificates for their
children conceived via artificial
insemination. In their cases,
the couples argued that the
partner who does not give
birth must go through expensive
adoption procedures to be
legally recognized as the child's
parent, whereas a husband in a
heterosexual marriage is generally
granted those rights automatically.
The state argued that the law is
fair because parental rights are
obtainable through adoption.
• THE
NATIONAL
GAY
& LESBIAN
Chamber of Commerce
(NGLCC) had planned to honor
Massachusetts Governor Charlie
Baker, a Republican, at an event
last spring in Washington, D.C.
They have now dropped Governor
Baker from the list of honorees,
in part because he refused
to endorse a bill to protect
transgender people from public
discrimination.
• AFTER
THE
PASSAGE
OFHOUSE
Bill 2, which overturned all
local LGBT nondiscrimination
ordinances in North Carolina, the
First Baptist Church of Bostic, N.C.,
has "prayerfully asked" that church
member Kelly Toney renounce her
homosexuality by divorcing her
wife of over a year, or she will be
removed from the church. Toney
has been a member of the church
since birth, but hasn't attended for
the past 15 years and hasn't heard
from the church until receiving the
letter demanding she renounce
or leave.
• WOMEN'S
BASKETBALL
head Dawn Brown was fired by
Prairie View A&M University,
located northwest of Houston,
Texas, after she suspended
two of her players for having
a romantic relationship off the
court. The two players, who
have not been named, filed a
Title IX complaint claiming that
Brown discriminated against
them because of their sexual
orientation. Brown justified
her actions by saying that the
couple broke team rules, which
don't allow players, coaches,
or other team staff to date.
Prairie View A&M sided with the
athletes, agreeing that Brown had
discriminated against them.
By Sassafras Lowrey
TRENDS/
LESLOOKSLIKE
THIS
ISWHAT
A
»
LESBIAN
LOOKS
LIKE
Jaguard Beckford
The founder of NYCRainbowFashionWeek
on bringing LGBTPrideto fashion.
I supported myself through law
school, and after about 15 years,
during my mom's last few days on
earth, she said, "Life is short, do
what you love." On April 27, 2013, I
birthed JagandCo, a clothing line for
women who are gender fluid. I had
an epiphany that the fashion show
should be more about all the talent,
those behind the scenes, such as
makeup, hair, styling, as well as the
designer. They were the true artists
that helped my designs come to life.
As an entertainment attorney, I
had a plethora of opportunities to
present my new line at New York
Fashion Week 2013. I also realized
that the established Fashion Weeks
worldwide were somewhat elitist and
therefore the average upcoming
designer didn't have a chance.
I decided to create a platform
to highlight fresh talent as well as
behind the scenes creatives.
We were the first Fashion Week to
present elder LGBT models and
designers in our show Fashion
for the Cure, which addressed
what happens to our aging LGBT
population as they age, lose their
mates and become depressed and
distanced from the community. In
2015 Huffington Post broke our story
as the first Fashion Week to present
two double mastectomy models in
our show Inside the Celebrity Closet,
which presented the theme of body
12
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
dysmorphia and self-image in the
world of modeling.
I would parallel it to the Civil Rights
era. Yes, we have advanced, however,
just as I am a black woman, certain
prejudices exist just because of the
color of my skin. Before I even take
a certain direction, turn a
k, I am first seen as
n. I can't shake that, I
can't w
It is inherently me.
So for m
ful trans people, my
aggressive and handsome studs
my flam
on the runway. We believe that all
representatives of our community
deserve to present themselves
through fashion. While we love the
traditional runway fashion show, we
also create fashion installations as
backdrops to our shows, allowing
our guests to see creative talents up
close and personal.
Make the employment less about
the job and more about the place
of employment. What does that
place feel like? When I used to
interview with law firms I would ask
permission to switch chairs with my
interviewer. Once granted, I turned
the interview around: was this a safe
space for me, a great place for me
to grow, a non-hostile environment
to work in? As much as you want to
know if I fit in, I want to know if you
fit in with my lifestyle.
(rainbowfashionweek.com)
TRENDS/GOSSIP
LESBOFILE
OLD LOVE, NEW LOVE, ANYTHING
BUT TRUE LOVE?
BY JOCELYN V00
• WHEN SOKO MET K-STEW
The modern romantic comedy storyline: fall in love with a man, get engaged, cheat on
him, start allegedly dating your female assistant, then get linked to a new woman. This
happens to be Kristen Stewart's script-and
in a very Hollywood twist, it turns out that
K-Stew's and her current reported flame, French singer and actress Stephanie Sokolinski
(more commonly known as SoKo), may have have already crossed romantic paths. In
an interview with "A Music Blog, Yea?," SoKo mentioned how when she first moved to
Los Angeles from Seattle, she was set up on a blind date with none other than Robert
Pattinson-Kristen
Stewart's ex-fiance. But what's in the past is in the past. While neither
party has confirmed the relationship, SoKo did all but reveal to W magazine that the
photos don't lie. "I'm very, very, very in love and very happy in a relationship," she said.
• ALTARED STATES
They say that third time's the charm, but for Rosie O'Donnell, two will be enough. After
a contentious divorce with her second wife, Michelle Rounds, it looks like O'Donnell
is putting her foot down. O'Donnell and Rounds, who were married for over two years
before separating in 2014, engaged in a nasty custody battle over their 3-year-old
adopted daughter, Dakota. Finally, the pair settled on joint custody, ending that chapter.
"'She'll never marry again.' You can print that!" O'Donnell told a New York Daily News
reporter as she left the courthouse. Famous last words?
• WHO'S YOUR BABY DADDY!
Brad Pitt is already father to six kids with Angelina Jolie, but turns out there was once a
fleeting chance that he might have fathered more ...with Melissa Etheridge. Etheridge
told Australia's Studios 10 that when she and then-partner Julie Cypher were figuring out
a sperm donor, Pitt's name actually came up because the actor was such a good friend
with the singer. "And yet, I looked and I saw how badly he wanted children and I thought,
'I don't want to share this with someone who really, badly wants children because my
children don't need another parent-they have two,"' she said.
• MORE THAN CLOTHES IN HER CLOSET
It seems that fashion icon and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt has always been on-trend.
When discussing her latest memoir, co-authored with son Anderson Cooper, Vanderbilt
revealed a personal queer history to People magazine. "When I was 13, I had a brief
lesbian relationship with a girl in school," she said. "It felt so great." It turns out this bit of
information had been in the vaults for a while, too, surprising even Cooper. "What? Hello!
This is news to me," he said upon hearing it. "You didn't mention this in the book, Mom."
If there's ever been a way to get scooped, that's it.
MAY/JUN
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TRENDstSHE
SAID
"It is unusual that we're
this old, robust democracy
and pluralistic society, and we
haven't gotten ours yet. The gender
achievement at the top in every single
political representation really sucks. I mean,
we're super-psyched that we have 20 women
senators. Yay, 20! Um, there are 100. I can
do that math."
Rachel Maddow to Playboy magazine
on why America hasn't yet had
a female president
"It
is with great
sadness, that after 17
years, a tremendous amount
work, careful consideration
and heavy hearts, my wife and
I have mutually decided to no
longer remain married."
Cat Cora to People
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18POLITICSWITH PRIDE
20ESTATEPLANNING ESSENTIALS
MAY/JUN
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"Hey, Miss? Do you have a husband?"
Teresa, a senior in my composition class,
has dropped by my classroom at lunch to
make up some missing work.
I could lie. Learning that I'm a lesbian
may alienate Teresa, who is a Mexican
immigrant and a Catholic. The truth may
erode the rapport I've worked carefully to
build with her.
"Miss, I noticed you have a ring."
"No, I don't have a husband:' I take a
breath and then-decide. "I have a wife.
See that picture of us with our daughter?"
Teresa examines the photograph, and
then, to my relief, nods, "Cool. Very cool."
I realized I was gay in my second year
as a teacher. Now, 12 years later, coming
out to students still feels like an enormous
risk. But I've come to believe that it's my
responsibility to live as openly as I can.
When I discovered I was a lesbian, it was
2005, I was in Alaska, and coming out at
work never even occurred to me. When a
student submitted a short story with a gay
protagonist to the school's literary journal,
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and I was the advisor, my principal told me,
"Absolutely not. We don't keep Hustler in
our library, so we're not going to publish
that:' I never told her I was gay.
In 2011, I moved to Fort Collins, Colo.,
to raise my daughter Mitike closer to my
family. In this new state, I wanted to live
more openly at work. But I was scared. In
my first month at my new high school, I
introduced Walt Whitman as "a famous gay
American poet;' and a huge, tough-looking
junior slammed his book shut and stood.
"I'm not gonna read this shit;' he said. Two
of his friends stood with him, and the three
barged out of my class. It was all I could do
to control the waver in my voice as I started
reading "Song of Myself" aloud to the class.
I came out to a few colleagues in that
Fort Collins high school, but I couldn't
figure out how to safely come out to my
students. One day, I complained about
it to my colleague Annie, who is AfricanAmerican. She laughed bitterly. "Nice to
have a choice whether to tell people you're
a minority, isn't it?"
Yes and no. Maybe if my identity were
obvious to everyone, in the way that skin
color or an accent is, I could have more
bravely claimed it. With my long hair and
skirts, people never guessed I was gay. I
could have hidden forever, if I'd wanted to.
It's safer to hide. Even though the
Supreme Court affirmed our right to samesex marriage in 2015, most states still do
not protect teachers from discrimination
based on their sexual orientation or
gender identity. Stories about teachers
who have been fired for being openly
gay still abound. In California in 2013, a
school district allegedly fired a lesbian
teacher because she attempted to start a
Gay-Straight Alliance group. Last year, a
Catholic school fired a young teacher when
he posted photos of his engagement to his
partner on Facebook.
So when I fell in love with Meredith and
moved to Denver to live with her, I resigned
myself to continuing to live a closeted life at
work, assuming it would be too dangerous
to be out in the high school where I'd
WITH MY LONG HAIR ANO
Sl<IRTS/PEOPLENEVER
GUESSEDI WAS GAY.I
COULD HAVE HIDDEN
FOREVER/IF ! 0 WANTED TO.
1
''
gotten a job teaching English.
But Meredith challenged me. "Why
hide?"
"Because I could be fired:'
"And you want to work in a place that
could fire you?"
"OK . . . because the kids might be
homophobic, and I might alienate them:'
"And you want to encourage them to
think that way?"
I accepted her challenge. I set a large
framed photograph of my wife and
daughter on the corner of my desk. I came
out to my colleagues (and discovered my
supervisor is gay and one of my other
colleagues is a lesbian). And when the
school year started and students asked, I
answered truthfully. "Yes, I'm married. Yes,
Mitike has two moms."
Over 100 cultures feed into my current
high school. Some of my students come
from African or Middle Eastern countries
where homosexuality is still criminalized.
Some harbor strong religious opposition
to same-sex marriage. But the culture
of my school is tolerance: With so much
difference, we have to accept one another
or else become hopelessly fragmented.
It is as safe for me to be out about being
a lesbian as it is for my Karen student to
talk about the Thai refugee camps, or for
my Congolese student to talk about the
civil war there, or for my Eritrean student
to admit that he and his family fled their
country in the dark cover of night. The
students who can't be open and out are
the ones whose families crossed into this
country illegally, but even they talk, in
guarded whispers.
It's still challenging for me to be
out. In class the other day, a student
exclaimed that a book we were reading
was "so gay!" I asked him not to say
that, explaining that what he'd said was
offensive to all LGBT people. He scoffed
and addressed the class: "Who'd I
offend? Are any of you gay?" My chest
tightened. I couldn't speak. Then, the
girl sitting next to him said, "Haven't
you seen the picture of her family on
her desk? She~ gay: That boy has
never used "gay" as an insult since.
The real purpose of a high school
education is to make students think
critically about the world. Every time
I am brave enough to come out about
who I am, I challenge their assumptions
and their misunderstandings.
Every
time I model living openly with pride, I
teach them more than I ever will about
punctuation,
or the structure of a
composition.
And someday, I hope it won't feel
like a risk. Someday, I hope a student
will ask, "Miss, do you have a wife
or a husband?" And I'll say, "I have a
wife," and then we'll move on to learn
about writing.•
Do we vote in our own best interest?
What constitutes Pride?
As part of the first post-Stonewall
generation of out lesbians, I ask myself that
question every year. Does the concept of
Rride still have meaning nearly 50 years
after Stonewall?
For me, because we are the victims of so
many forms of lesbian erasure-reparative
therapies, corrective rape, honor killingsPride is more essential than ever. Pride is
what defines us as lesbians, what separates
us from the tyranny of the closet, what
empowers us as gender-non-conforming
women who love other women.
Perhaps because of the very real and
increasingly dangerous threats to lesbians
posed by male-dominated society-threats
that have become exponentially worse in
recent years-I have looked to mainstream
politics for some help.
It's clear that lesbians need more than
just one another. We need politicians in
our corner. It's now 22 years since ENDA
(the Employment Non-Discrimination Act)
18
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av v1ctoR1A
A. eRowNwoRTH
was first proposed in Congress. It's been
resubmitted every year since, but has yet
to pass. President Obama has refused
to sign it into law as an executive order,
claiming that Congress must decide.
Clinton suggested she might sign it, but
that certainly couldn't happen in her first
year, or maybe even in her first term, were
she president.
But it's not just ENDA-although
statistically, lesbians are the most likely
among LGBT people to be fired from jobs,
and over the last 12 years since lesbians
have begun marrying legally, this has been
happening more frequently. Teachers have
been under the most consistent threat.
And then there's child custody. As
recently as March, I reported on a lesbian
custody case that had gone to the U.S.
Supreme
Court
(SCOTUS)-because
lesbians are still seen as a threat to
heteronormative society. That Alabama
custody case (V.L. v. E.L.) came just
weeks after the sudden death of Justice
Antonin Scalia. I was thinking about who
would replace him, and who among the
other justices might leave during the next
president's first term. What would happen
then?
What about the LGBT issues that have
yet to reach SCOTUS?
When President Obama announced the
nomination of Merrick Garland, chief judge
of the United States Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia Circuit, to replace
Scalia, those concerns became paramount.
The Republicans immediately said no,
and the politics of that-Garland is prochoice, pro-LGBT-really hit me.
What happens now?
I spent some years covering SCOTUS,
which is a full-time beat because there's
limited press. I have always thought that
appointing
justices-most
presidents
get to appoint at least one-was the
most influential aspect of the presidency,
because it's an appointment for life and
lasts well beyond any president's tenure.
VIEWS/
Which means that the choice we make
when we vote for the next president could
impact us for way more than one or two
presidential terms. Every GOP candidate
wants to vitiate marriage equality and
make sure no other "special privileges"
(also known as civil rights)-to quote Ted
Cruz-accrue to us.
In the shadow of the presidential
election, with both the Republican and
Democratic conventions being held in
July in Cleveland and Philadelphia, what
constitutes the politics of Pride?
Is there an intersection between our
lesbianism and how we vote?
Certainly there should be. When LPAC
was formed in July 2012, the first PAC to
elect pro-lesbian, pro-women candidates
to public office, I was thrilled. Finally, there
was a group specifically geared toward
getting women elected who would stand
up for lesbians. I immediately made a
donation (albeit small) to solidify my
support of the organization.
But this year, when I was promoting
LPAC on Twitter, my political social media
of choice, I was shocked to discover that
many lesbians I knew online were not only
disinterested, they actually disapproved.
And they disapproved of Emily's List, which
I also support.
"What's gender got to do with politics?"
women said to me-me, the woman who
created the #VoteYourVagina hashtag to
get women to think about how men vote
against our bodies all the time.
Gender has everything to do with
politics. Look around. Women barely
have a voice. America has yet to elect
a woman president. There are only six
female governors. Of the 535 members
of the current Congress, 19.4 percent are
women-84 members of the House and 20
senators.
In state governments, women fare
slightly better: 1,814, or 24.6 percent of
the 7,383 state legislators are women.
Yet women are 52 percent of the U.S.
population.
In a year that saw unprecedented
attacks on women's reproductive rights,
including two abortion clinic shootings, it's
difficult to fathom how women-especially
lesbians, who are so at risk-could dismiss
the importance of groups like LPAC and
Emily's List.
Shouldn't we be voting our interest as
women first? One Southern lesbian feminist
I know insists that party is meaningless and
what matters is the individual candidate.
She votes Republican and Democrat, but
is anti-Obama and anti-Hillary. She's progun and anti-immigration. She thinks that
Sandra Bland deserved to be arrested and
that the police weren't responsible for her
alleged suicide while she was in jail. When
I suggested to my friend that she should
have been on the side of the vulnerable
woman and not the police, she disagreed
vehemently.
And I argued recently with another
lesbian I know who is an avowed leftist
over what counts as "real" discrimination
against lesbians. When Kim Davis denied
lesbians a marriage license, that was not
discriminatory, she feels, because Davis
should have a right to exercise her religious
beliefs. This friend also believes that it was
OK for a bakery to discriminate against
a lesbian couple who wanted to buy a
wedding cake. When I told her about the
Oregon statute that was being violated,
she didn't care. Religious beliefs should
override any action by lesbians against
perceived discrimination, she argued.
And what could I say to the newly-minted
Bernie Sanders supporter who told me that
Planned Parenthood's endorsement of
Hillary put her right off Clinton? She told
me that she immediately made a large
donation to Sanders. I was gobsmacked.
Why? I asked. She told me she didn't like
the idea of a "tool of the Establishment"
telling her what to do and who to vote for.
But the Establishment is against
Planned Parenthood. Sanders's assertion
that Planned Parenthood represents the
Establishment is absurd. Especially since
he made this assertion on the anniversary
of Roe v. Wade and a week after, three
people were murdered and nine wounded
in a shooting at a Colorado Springs clinic.
But the friend who really stunned me
was the one who told me that she would
vote for Trump if Sanders did not win the
Democratic nomination. How could any
lesbian vote for Trump? And how could
anyone go from Sanders to Trump? Her
argument: It would send a message to
the Establishment and the DNC. (In 2008,
POLITI
I heard similar arguments from Hillary
supporters who insisted they would vote
for John McCain if Barack Obama became
the nominee.)
I've been sorting through these various
exchanges, trying to understand the
rationale for statements and beliefs that
I frankly find irrational. Why wouldn't you
support the left-leaning female candidate
for president when we've never had
a woman president? Why would you
support a public official or business that
discriminates
against lesbians? Why
would you ever vote Republican when the
platform of that party is misogynist and
homophobic? And why would you vote for
Trump, who is one of the worst haters in our
recent political memory?
When I think about Pride, I think
about being out, about embracing our
lesbianism in the face of lesbian erasure
and lesbophobia. Pride is about loving
who we are-and about valuing women,
because we are so devalued in the
society in which we live.
In a democracy, we can vote for
whomever we choose. But shouldn't
we consider what is in our own best
interest-as
lesbians, as women-first?
And not just our interest, but that of
other lesbians, other women, especially
those with less privilege than we might
have (because there is always someone
with less privilege than you)? What
about butch lesbians, who are most at
risk of being jobless? Or aging lesbians,
who are most at risk of poverty? What
about lesbians with disabilities?
The list goes on.
As the primary season hits its apex
at the conventions, and the general
election begins in earnest in August,
we need to think about these issues.
Not just in terms of our presidential
vote, but in terms of all that comes with
it-like SCOTUS, like the down ticket of
representatives and senators and even
state legislators.
With Pride comes responsibility-to
ourselves as lesbians and to our lesbian
community. We simply can't separate
ourselves from the politics of what it
means to be a lesbian in a straight,
male-dominated world.
Nor should we.•
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Take Pride in Planning
Single, married or starting a family, it's time for estate planning.
BY ANGELA GIAMPOLO
The financial and legal impacts of
being married are significant. There are
1,138 identified federal statutes in which
marital status is a factor in receiving
federal benefits, rights, and privileges.
While it is absolutely advisable for
married people or those with children to
work with a wills and trusts lawyer, it is
just as important for single adults.
If you were to suddenly become
incapacitated, who would make your
medical decisions for you? Who would
continue to pay your mortgage, or
file your taxes? If you haven't worked
with an estate-planning attorney, the
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answer to this question becomes quite
complicated.
If you
prepared
estate-planning
documents prior to the Supreme Court's
ruling on marriage equality, the firm with
whom you executed them understood
the unique needs of LGBT individuals and
likely drafted your documents in light
of the fact that you were not married.
Married couples have always enjoyed
impactful and robust privileges and
benefits in estate planning, so your "premarriage equality" estate plan needs an
overhaul.
If you do nothing else, I recommend
you re-execute your estate-planning
documents, so that the definition used
in the documents reflects your legal
relationship-spouse, or wife/wife.
Under state law, assets held in the
sole and separate name of an unmarried
person who has no written plan in place
will pass through the public proceedings
known as probate and will pass in the
following order:
• Descendants (that is, children or
grandchildren)
• Parents
• The descendants of your parents
(siblings, nieces, nephews, etc.)
• Lineal descendants of maternal
and paternal grandparents (that is,
uncles, aunts, and cousins)
• The state
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER WHEN
PLANNING YOUR ESTATE
• Who should help me manage my
affairs in the event of my short-term
or long-term incapacity?
• Who should make medical decisions
for me if I cannot speak for myself?
• What will happen to my property?
• If I am in a relationship, how should
my partner and I organize our
financial affairs?
• How can I leave a legacy for my
community?
ESSENTIAL DOCUMENTS FOR LGBTS
Powers of Attorney: A health-care power
of attorney is critically important if you
want your partner to act for you, should
you become incapacitated. You also need
a durable power of attorney. This gives
someone power over your affairs, such as
businesses, finances, and real estate.
Advance Directive: In some states known
as a living will, this document enables
you to provide instructions to physicians
relating to prolonged life support, in
the event that you are stricken with an
incurable illness.
HIPAA Authorization: Under the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act of 1996, specific authorization is now
required to permit medical personnel
to release "protected
health care
information." If you do not designate this
authorization, it could create a problem
in the event that a physician needs to
release medical information to activate a
health-care power of attorney.
Hospital Visitation Authorization Form:
This short document allows you to visit
your partner in any medical or treatment
facility, and, depending on the couple's
wishes, can also grant you the power
to dictate who is allowed in the hospital
room to visit your partner.
Pet Care Directive: These directives
became much more popular after
Hurricane Katrina. It is a document that
designates who will take care of your pet,
should anything happen to you.
Last Will & Testament: If you are
unmarried and without a will, you are
subject to the intestacy laws of your state.
These laws adversely affect LGBT couples
because they define "heirs at law" as
blood relatives or adopted children.
You cannot "opt out" of estate planning.
Whether you know it or not, you have an
estate plan right now.
If you don't have a drafted estate
plan, you have already made decisions
regarding what will happen to your
estate. If you are without a will, state
law "writes" your estate plan for you.
This means it decides who is in charge
and who gets what through its intestacy
laws-and no one wants that!
Make an appointment with an estateplanning attorney today, and take your
legacy into your own hands.•
**
Tickets
A COMEDY
BENEFIT
$250, $ I 00 & $60 are available
The Town Hall
Contact
Patricia
•
FOR
at
LPAC
teamlpac.com/levity
NYC • 6. I 6. I 6
at patricia@teamlpac.com
**
for sponsorship
& benefit
•
tickets
7:30 pm
26 TINA MABRYMAKES HERWAY
30 A LESBIANLITERARYLIFE
MAY/JUN
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THE
HEART
OF
THE
MATTER
Ann Wilson, lead singer of legendary rock band Heart, reflects.
BY DAVE STEINFELD
hough they definitely had their
fair share of hits in the 1970s and
'80s-and though Ann and Nancy
Wilson of Heart are certainly loved
by legions of female musicians and
fans alike-it feels like they've never quite
gotten their due.
In some ways, Heart was the right band
at the wrong time. Coming out of Seattle
in the mid-1970s, they were too late for
the female singer-songwriter era (think
Carole King, Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell)
and too early for the New Wave explosion
that spawned Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, and the Go-Go's. But it was to Heart's
credit that, more than any of those other
great artists, they were capable of rocking
with a vengeance and recording some of
the loveliest folk-tinged rock ballads of
T
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2016
their day.
Incredibly, 2016 marks 40 years (no,
that's not a typo!) since the Wilson sisters
and their male cohorts released their debut album, Dreamboat Annie. That disc
produced two hits-"Magic
Man" and
"Crazy on You"-and made them staples
of classic rock radio when there really
weren't a lot of popular bands fronted by
women. Heart released three more studio
efforts before the end of the decade and
scored hits like "Straight On," "Barracuda,"
and the more delicate "Dog and Butterfly."
Admittedly, the first half of the 1980s was
not as kind to Heart. They did manage a
couple more hits (including a great rendition of Aaron Neville's "Tell It Like It Is"),
but their LPsweren't selling as well. Trends
within the music industry were changing;
tensions within the band were mounting.
In addition, as Ann Wilson is the first to
admit, not all their albums during that
period were up to the usual standard. "I
don't think Passionworks was very pulled
together," she says of their 1983 release.
"We were really off balance then."
That's why what happened two years
later was even more surprising. The Wilsons returned in 1985 with an MTV makeover, a new rhythm section (bassist Mark
Andes and drummer Denny Carmassi),
and a batch of tight, commercial songs.
Their self-titled album produced an unprecedented five hits: "What About Love,"
"Never," "If Looks Could Kill," "Nothin' at
All," and their first No. 1, "These Dreams"
(which featured a rare lead vocal from
Nancy). The success of Heart was all the
REVIEWS/
more impressive because many people
had counted them out. Instead, Heart had
another string of hits that lasted into the
'90s-including
their second chart-topper, "Alone," which remains not only one
of their most popular songs but a lesbian karaoke favorite. Over the past two
decades and chang~ Heart has been
somewhat less prolific, but they've never
broken up. Ann and Nancy Wilson have released albums periodically as both Heart
and Lovemongers and, belatedly, they've
received more of the respect they deserve for being trailblazers. In 2013, they
were even inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame.
If all goes according to plan, there will
be a new studio album from Heart before
2016 is through. In the meantime, Ann
has launched a side project called The
Ann Wilson Thing. The band-led by Ann
and guitarist-producer Craig Bartock-unveiled its first EP last fall, with plans for
more to follow. The four tracks on this
inaugural Ann Wilson Thing EP have a
bluesy vibe and include not only originals
but a drastically reworked cover of the
Buffalo Springfield classic "For What It's
Worth."
"We really love [that song]," says Ann
when I ask her about it. "I had just done
a benefit for the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation that [Pearl Jam guitarist] Mike Mccreedy has in Seattle. That night, we had
played "Sympathy for the Devil." So when
we started to do "For What It's Worth" for
The Ann Wilson Thing, I remembered that
real evil groove. And I thought, How cool
would it be to play "For What It's Worth"
with a devil feel, just to underscore the
evilness of what's going on in the world
[right now]." Other tracks on the EP include "Fool No More," a five-minute-plus
blues ballad that Ann says is about "waking [up and] stepping out of the wasted
space, into the light," and the shorter
"Danger Zone," which sounds to these
ears like a mix between cabaret music
and Led Zeppelin.
I also had a chance to ask Ann about
some Heart classics. Of "Alone," she says,
"It's just one of those special songs that
everyone can relate to. Now, it's kind of a
standard, you know? There's such a thing
as the perfect marriage of voice and song.
The same thing happened with Nancy
and "These Dreams." It's when you find a
song that is perfect for the character of
the singer, and it [all] just comes together." Incidentally, legend has it that "These
Dreams" was offered first to Stevie Nicks.
She turned it down and it became Heart's
biggest hit to date. "You know, Stevie
writes her own stuff," says Ann. "She
doesn't cover songs very often at all-so
that was one time we really lucked out!"
Of "Magic Man," she explains, "That's a
love song about my first boyfriend, [band
manager] Mike Fisher. I was head over
heels in love, [but] I was still young, and
my mother didn't believe that I knew what
I was doing sexually. It was before Roe v.
Wade [and] she was scared I was gonna
end up having babies and all this kind of
stuff!" she laughs. "So 'Magic Man' has
that in it, you know? It has the mother
thing: 'You better get back here now, girl,
you don't know what you're doing!' "
Though she herself is straight (and recently remarried), Ann clearly values her
queer following and is a big supporter of
marriage equality. "I don't know what took
us so long," she exclaims when I bring up
the subject. "What if you've been with
someone for 20 years and something
happens to them, and your natural partner
isn't allowed to see you because they're
not a quote-unquote family member?
Well, now we don't have to worry about
that kind of stuff. People should be able to
marry who they love. There's no two ways
MUSIC
about that. People who are against gay
marriage are stuck in the Stone Age."
This year is proving to be busy for Ann.
On March 31, Ann was part of a very special concert: the Davie Bowie memorial
at New York's Carnegie Hall. The second
Ann Wilson Thing EP will be unveiled this
spring, accompanied by a quick run of
shows in the Northeast. Heart has more
than 80 shows planned for 2016, including their first ever appearance at London's
most prestigious concert venue, the Royal
Albert Hall, on June 29.
Talking to Ann Wilson, a couple of things
are clear. One is that she's down to earth
and surprisingly soft-spoken, considering
her incredible vocal range and status as a
hard rocker. The other is that she and Nancy still get along after all these years-no
mean feat for any siblings, let alone those
in the business of rock and roll.
"Nancy and I have our moments," she
admits. "We wouldn't be human if we
didn't. But because we love each other,
we've figured out a way not to bang each
other in the face. We're not brothers, we're
sisters. We both have lives [and] we both
have [other] people who we can go to and
cry on the shoulders of when things get
hard. Basically, we're a close-knit family.
And that's helped throughout the years
to keep it on an understanding level and
respect each other. There's that word
again: 'respect.' We have it for each other."
(heart-music.com)•
PtOPlt
SHOUlD
BtABlt
TOMARRY
WHO
THtY
lOVt.
THtRt'S
NO
1WO
WAYS
ABOUT
THAT.
MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
25
hough she's been making short
films and writing screenplays since
2005, Tina Mabry has but one
feature credit to her directorial
name: her highly personal drama
Mississippi Damned, a story about one
family's struggle to cope with abuse,
addiction, and death (all very real parts
of Mabry's experience growing up in the
South). It took an astonishing six years
to find a proper distributor for the film,
though it premiered to warm reviews
from critics and audiences at the 2009
Slamdance Film Festival.
"We were told that you couldn't have two
T
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African American dramas on the market
at the same time, because the market
couldn't bear it. That hurt," Mabry said.
Studios passed over Mississippi Damned
to avoid putting it into competition
with Lee Daniels's Precious, which also
performed quite well on the festival circuit
(and went on to win two Oscars) in 2009.
Mississippi Damned finally
made
its way into the expert hands of Ava
DuVernay and ARRAY,her film distribution
collective, which seeks to find, foster,
and release movies by and about women
and people of color. Mabry's relationship
with DuVernay (who directed Se/ma) is
still in its early stages, but it's been fruitful
even in its brevity. Mabry chatted with me
from her new staffer's chair in the writers'
room of DuVernay's upcoming TV series,
Queen Sugar, which is set to premiere
later this year on Oprah's OWN Network.
The screenplay for Mississippi Damned
is inspired in part by your experiences
growing up in the South. Why did you
choose to go to so many dark places with
the material?
After I graduated from USC, I didn't
have a job, so I had a lot of time on my
hands. I've always been someone who's
drawn to writing, especially when I was
growing up. If I experienced any kind of
traumatic event, writing was always my
go-to therapy place, a place where I could
express myself. So I thought, "OK, here
are some things that happened to my
family," and I started to put them together
in a screenplay, but I didn't really know if it
was going to go anywhere. But, my wifeand the eventual editor and producer of
Mississippi Damned-Morgan
Stiff, read
them and said, "Why don't you make this
into a feature? Put it together. Tell your
story."
I don't think I set out in the beginning
to even tell anyone that Mississippi
Damned was autobiographical, because
I harbored shame about my background
and the things that happened to me. I
found out that, through writing, I learned
to live with things. It was very cathartic
in that way. The actual production of the
film was a healing process for me. It was
a healing process for a lot of people in the
cast and crew as well, because they had
experienced at least one of the things
that occurs in the film. We tackle a lot of
deep subjects, which we tend to push to
the back of our minds because they're
hard to deal with, but I felt like we never
get a chance to talk about them. If you're
ever going to heal, you have to stop being
ashamed of the things that happened to
you, because you're not alone and it's not
your fault.
Once we put the film together, I really
struggled with whether to put the words
"based on a true story" at the beginning.
We started having test screenings, and
people started saying, "All of these
negative things can't happen to just one
family," and I'm sitting in the back going,
"Oh yes they did:' Once I talked to my
family-the ones who were still living-to
see if they were OK with [me releasing
the film], the question then became, Are
you going to say that this is your personal
experience based on your family, or are
you going to say that this represents
some collective experience of people in
Mississippi?
I decided that I was going to have to
speak out on issues-expose alcoholism,
poverty, and abuse, and then I was going
to have to own up to the fact that these
things are part of my life and my tapestry.
They're part of my story. As fearful as I
was, I owned up to them. At every single
screening, I've had people say something
about their experiences. I'm sad that there
are so many people who can relate to the
sexual abuse aspect. I'm sad about that
number. But I am happy that Mississippi
Damned opened up a discussion and that
this film allows them to feel safe.
One thing that really moved me was,
when we were screening at the DGA
[Directors Guild of America], this older
woman stood up and said, "I never told
anybody, but I was molested when I was
growing up. Thank you for making this
film, because I finally feel safe enough
to talk about it." She confessed this in
front of 700 strangers, and I was about
to cry. I was so moved. This is what
cinema is supposed to do. It's supposed
to change things. It's supposed to
highlight things. It's supposed to have
a meaning. Of course, it's supposed
to entertain as well-and to know that
the film functioned on multiple levels,
I feel like we were extremely fortunate
to have so many things go our way in
that regard, from a creative standpoint.
Mississippi Damned is a personal story,
but an expensive therapy for me. Yeah,
make a film. That's how you get over it!
Mississippi Damned premiered seven
years ago at the 2009 Slamdance Film
Festival, but it didn't receive a theatrical
distribution deal despite being well
received by critics and audiences. What
did that feel like?
It was emotionally devastating for me
because we make films, but if you don't
have an audience to show them to, then
why do you do it? That's why I'm really
appreciative to have been picked up by
Showtime and to have this Netflix deal
that Ava DuVernay put together. That's
the reason why we make films. Finally, we
can share [Mississippi Damned] with an
audience.
It happened to be a very difficult time
when we came out [at Slamdance]. It was
the recession, and that year [the Park City
festivals were] half the size that [they are]
normally. At the same time, Precious came
out. Naturally, [Precious director] Lee
Daniels had a bigger cast [and is a bigger
filmmaker]. People on the marketing side
loved both of our films. They're different
films, they just happen to both have
African American leads. We were told that
you couldn't have two African American
RACHAEL
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CHOREOGR:APH
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·GAYCITY NEWS
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RACHAELSAGE.COM
dramas on the market at the same time,
because the market couldn't bear it. That
hurt. That was completely crazy to me,
knowing that it was not true. That's why I'm
so happy now that new distribution models
are coming out. It's being shown that, yes,
you can have two black films that are out
there at the same time. [One isn't] going
to take away from the other. You're doing
the whole industry a disservice by holding
back two films because studios don't think
one will make money, because the market
can only bear one [with a black cast]. We
all know that it makes no sense, so actually
those are the things that hurt most ...
cinema transcends gender, race, sexual
orientation, and socioeconomic status,
and we saw on the road that this was true.
Did you feel a certain sense of validation,
then, when Ava DuVernay picked up
Mississippi Damned for distribution?
We have to remember that, as a film
community, we're in this together. Those
are the times that I do admire people
like Ava DuVernay, people who don't
necessarily wait to be invited to your table.
They say, "To hell with it-I'm going to build
my own table." I think that is a beautiful
thing and a very brave thing to do. I think
more people should have that mentality.
You can't just wait for acceptance or an
invitation. What are you going to do in the
meantime? You can't wait for someone to
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2016
value your work or bless it by saying that
it's worthy to be seen. No. Go after it. Do it.
Keep doing it. Don't wait on someone else.
Their validation is not what's important.
Do you feel good about the work that
you created? Do you believe in it? If you
don't believe in it, no one else is going to.
You're going to have to live with that baby
for a long time, and I've been living with
Mississippi Damned for a very long time.
A lot of people are pushing for greater
visibility in terms of race and gender
and sexuality in the film industry. What is
mainstream cinema to you right now, and
how do you think you'd like to approach
changing it?
I want to take stories that are on
the outside, that people have either
silenced or ignored, and give a voice
to the disenfranchised. I want to give
them a vehicle for their voice to speak.
Sometimes, growing up, I was like,
"Where's my story? I don't see my
community or my geographical area on
screen:' I personally waited for years for
that movie to come out before I realized,
"You can be the filmmaker to do that. You
can help bring attention to the stories that
you think have no visibility. You can be the
one to tell those stories:' What I mean by
bringing these stories into the mainstream
is doing exactly what we're doing with
Mississippi Damned now on Netflix-that's
the mainstream ... For me, it's just about
taking the silenced voices and putting
them into an arena where a vast variety
of people can consume that product.
Your voice is being heard now with the
release of Mississippi Damned, but
who are some of the other independent
women filmmakers people should be
paying attention to right now?
There are so many. We should continue
to support Ava DuVernay, especially as
she's moving to television now [with
Queen Sugar]. Dee Rees, too. These
are all the voices that were coming up
together on the independent film circuit.
I want to see what Cheryl Dunye is doing
next.
Gina
Prince-Bythewood-that
woman is the reason I'm even doing films.
Without Love & Basketball, I would be in
law school. Before I saw her film, I didn't
realize it was possible for a woman to
direct a movie, and that's a shame. I also
look up to Julie Dash.
I know [these women have] been doing
stuff for so long and not getting a chance
to really get it out to the mainstream, but
to even have a woman directing theatrical
films [isan accomplishment]. And so many
more are here. We're moderately moving
ahead. We can't do this by ourselveswe're moving forward as a huge unit.
Find out more at mississippidamned.com.
FRf WOM TO Bf,
TOBACCO-FRff.
v1s1Tus
@ThisFreeLife
I
~ 11 a
rs
IT'S
AQUEER
LIFE
Sarah Schulman's long-term lesbian commitment.
BY MARCIE BIANCO
'm sitting in Sarah Schulman's Lower
East Side apartment, talking about her
latest book The Cosmopolitans. What
can I tell you?" she says. As it turns out,
plenty. Born on 10th Street in New York
City, Schulman, 57, has lived nearly all her
adult life around the corner on 9th. A lesbian writer and activist for four decades, she
pulls no punches about wanting it to be
"her time" now. It's the kind of unrepentant
ego that, according to the New York Times,
has contributed to her "reputation for difficulty:' As an iconoclast with standards,
and as a writer marginalized for producing
lesbian content, Schulman begs to differ.
She's penned 17 books, both fiction and
nonfiction, as well as a number of plays,
and she has been a fixture in New York
City's downtown arts scene since 1979.
I
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Schulman has been an inspiration to
many in the queer community, both in
the U.S. and internationally, because of
her work with younger queer writers-including as my mentor at the 2013 Lambda Literary Writers Nonfiction Workshop.
As a leading community activist, she has
worked with ACT UP (she is the co-coordinator and co-founder of its Oral History Project, along with Jim Hubbard, with
whom she co-produced the documentary
film United in Anger), and the BDS(Boycott,
Divestment, and Sanctions) Movement.
She was the first person to bring the leaders of queer Palestine to America.
Activism aside, her gritty and oftentimes
violent works of lesbian fiction-like The
Sophie Horowitz Story (1984), After Dolores (1988), and Rat Bohemia (1995)-have
attained cult status, while her nonfiction
books, particularly The Gentrification of the
Mind and Ties that Bind: Familial Homophobia & /ts Consequences, have challenged
both heteronormative and homonormative
ways of thinking about queer community
and queer relationships. Quite simply, as
she likes to put it, she is interested in "why
people do what they do:'
Kirkus, in its starred review, called The
Cosmopolitans a "modern classic:' The
novel is a contemporary interpretation of
Balzac's Cousin Bette and tells the story
of a friendship between two middle-aged
neighbors, Bette and Earl, who live in a
building on 10th Street in Greenwich Village in 1958. This is the building where
Schulman herself was born and lives
around the corner from today. Besides explicitly inserting herself-as a crying babynear the conclusion of the novel, Schulman
says that the characters are true to life in
other ways. Bette, a queer white woman,
and Earl, a gay black man, are modeled
on her childhood next-door neighbors,
Leon and Grace. When Schulman's mother
forced her to stand outside in the hallway
as a punishment, it was Grace, an older
Midwestern women "mysteriously living
alone;' who offered kindness. "She gave
me milk and cookies," Schulman reminisces, just as Bette serves the young Hortense
milk and cookies in the novel. "She [Grace]
was 'American; and my parents didn't socialize with people who were not Jewish or
black," Schulman remarks.
There was a "queerness" to Grace that
Schulman perceived at an early age. That
queerness has found its way into the novel, and it's a difference that Schulman also
perceived in herself from an early age. "I
consider my 'coming out' to be something
that happened when I was 4;' she reveals.
"One day in 1962 I went into kindergarten
and my teacher was getting married. She
requested all the students get into couples
and march down the aisle, and I refused
and insisted I was the photographer. So, I
ran around [snapping photos]-I was going
to be the artist in the scene:'
And this sense of "looking"-of
witnessing and feeling queerness even when
unspoken-is precisely what Schulman
explores in The Cosmopolitans. The novel
begins with Bette observing the city below
REVIEWS/
her from the window of her apartment.
"How can one story unfold the same way
under so many circumstances;' Bette wonders as she studies the diverse characters
of pre-gentrified Greenwich Village, traversing the streets, buying smoked fish
from the local deli, and chomping on burgers next door at the burger joint. Bette's
thought about the simultaneity of thingsabout how events can be understood from
multiple vantage points, therefore establishing more than one truth for every single thing-is the overarching theme of the
novel. Schulman calls it her "intellectual
need to show things in their state of contradiction"-what she jokingly refers to as her
"structural Freudian" side. "I'm not a New
York Jew for nothing!" she quips.
Bette and Earl's friendship, steadfast
in the beginning, fractures when Bette's
young cousin Hortense arrives in New York
and takes up a relationship with Earl-who
is a closet gay. Feeling betrayed by Earl,and
knowing that Earl feels extreme guilt in facing her because she knows his truth, Bette
schemes to get Earl to realize his wrongs.
She wants him to reveal his truth, and agree
to repair their friendship. "Everything that
Bette does is to reveal what's true;' Schulman explains. "When you're lying, your
greatest enemy is the person who reveals
what's true;' she says of Earl. "When people
are not allowed to live-when they are dehumanized, oppressed, constantly humiliated, and have a trauma-they take it out
on the person in front of them, even if the
person didn't cause it."
She's gained this realization by choosing
to live as an openly lesbian woman for most
of her life, though she was shunned by her
family; it has resulted in her professional
marginalization, which she incisively wrote
about in Ties That Bind, as well as in Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of
Gay America.
The Cosmopolitans, arguably Schulman's greatest piece of fiction to date, took
13 years to get published. She originally began the project as a play in 2003-one that
never got produced because "there was a
queerness in the play," says Schulman, "in
the type of New York relationship between
Bette and Earl that made people uncomfortable, so it never got produced."
It was at the University of Chicago in the
1970s that Schulman had the idea for The
Cosmopolitans. She was enrolled in four
French literature courses with Franc;oise
Meltzer-"really the only female intellectual
that I studied with, except when I studied
with Audre Lorde at Hunter [College];' says
Schulman. She first encountered Balzac's
Cousin Bette in Meltzer's 19th Century Realism class, where several things occurred
that would inform Schulman's life and literary endeavors.
"One thing that happened was that
when we were having a discussion about
Colette, for some reason and at some point
I think I said, 'Wasn't Colette a lesbian?' And
[Meltzer] said, 'If a writer is a lesbian or not
is as important as if they're right-handed or
left-handed.'
"From her point of view;' Schulman
continues, "that's a progressive comment.
But I'm sitting there-a future lesbian writer-thinking, I don't think that. Is that right?
I don't think that's right!" She laughs upon
the realization.
"So, the other thing in this class is that
we read Cousin Bette ... and at one point
the professor said, 'Well, maybe she is gay;
and it was an interesting question, because
in Balzac there are these queer characters
who hover. So, there was a queer thing,
but at the time there was no such thing as
queer studies, or queer theory, or queer literature, or out professors. So, this entered
my mind-it was a feeling, not a fact-that
there was a queer life in these books. I
thought about that book for 30 years.''
This is the plight of the lesbian artist. Her
success, if it ever comes at all, is overdue,
but terribly desired-of course, she wants it
herself, but so does her community, those
who see her commercial validation as a
sign of their own cultural worth.
Would she already have achieved mainstream success if she were a man? Schulman roars in disbelief: "Of course! Is that a
joke? If I were a man, or if I were straight,
or if I had no lesbian content, I'd be more
successful. Without a doubt.''
This year may very well turn out to be
Schulman's year. In addition to The Cosmopolitans, released in March, she has a new
nonfiction book coming out in the fall that
will certainly prove controversial. In Conflict /s Not Abuse, Schulman examines the
culture of victimization, which simultane-
BOOKS
ously informs and dictates human interaction and how we treat one another. "People
feel that they have to be 100 percent victimized in order to be eligible for compassion;' she contends. As an example of how
iconoclastic she is, Schulman unpacks the
psychology that structures personal relationships, as well as geopolitical ones-including Palestine.
While she admits not knowing "where
lesbian culture is going;' Schulman has
definitely helped to influence it over the
last four decades, in everything from art
to politics. She has found a way to connect intensely with queer youth-largely
because of her activism, but also because
of books like The Gentrification of the Mind,
which she specifically points to as the book
young people "really connected to." As for
her fiction, she may leave her mark with
The Cosmopolitans. However, she actually
believes The Child, a thrilling murder mystery, "is one of my best books. But hardly
anyone has read it, and that's because the
publisher went out of business the week it
was printed.'' For Schulman, the dream of
mainstream recognition and success is tantamount to making the community visible.
"Huge numbers of people have supported me, and yet until today-this may be
changing as we're talking-they don't matter. They matter to me, because they keep
me in print and keep me going. But none of
this has been visible, so here I am. I've never been in the New Yorker, I've never been
in New York magazine-they've never reviewed a book of mine. But I am New York.
I am 'New York, New York.' And yet there's
thousands of people, maybe generations,
now, that have been supporting me. So,
what is that? Are those people now going
to matter? Or are they going to continue
not to matter? I mean, they matter to me.''•
MAY/JUN
2016
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REV1Ews1SHORT
STORY
THE
LIGHT
OF
THE
WORLD
After her grandmother's
death, Eva discovers a
photo that holds a secret.
BY ELLEN SIMPSON
va slid her hands over the soft,
worn cardboard
boxes and
carefully penned their contents
along the sides in black Sharpie.
It was midsummer. The apartment was
sold. She was moving out.
"What are you going to do with these?"
Eva looked up, a fond smile on her
lips. Liv was standing on tiptoes, pulling
down framed photographs from a high
shelf. They belonged to the previous occupant, Eva's recently deceased grandmother, Mary. Eva liked them and had
left them up after Mary's death because
they were reminders of Christmases and
birthdays, mementos of the lives of those
who loved her grandmother just as much
as Eva did. They were memories that she
E
32
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2016
was not ready to let go of just yet.
"Wrap 'em up, I guess," Eva said.
Eva watched Liv stack the frames one
by one. Dust particles filled the air-a
soft, wispy rain. A small expanse of Liv's
stomach was showing, a sliver of skin beneath her battered Schultz's Booksellers
and Antiquities T-shirt. Eva swallowed
and looked away, fiddling with the Sharpie in her hands.
The bruises on Liv's stomach were
long gone. Eva, too, had fully recovered
from their ordeal beneath the city. Yet
the memories of the dark place persisted
like the shadows beyond the seal: ever
lurking, ever hungry. She and Liv had survived, but at what cost? Was it worth the
persistent nightmares? Was it worth the
secrets they now kept?
"Hey Eva, look at this." The edge to
Liv's voice pulled Eva from her thoughts.
"What is it?" She scrambled to her feet.
Liv held a pewter photo frame. It was
small and flimsy, with Art Deco detailing
and covered in dust. She stood staring at
it a moment before holding it out to Eva.
"Look."
Eva took the frame. It was a black and
white picture of two girls, their heads
close together, not looking at the camera. They looked almost asleep, entwined
as they were in a beam of sunlight, the
blanket beneath them seeming to fade
away into the grass.
"Mary and Wren." Eva looked up at Liv,
her cheeks a little flushed. Her grand-
mother's diaries, the cause of so much
upheaval in Eva's life, had never mentioned them being this intimate. "Who
would take a picture like this?"
"Crack open the back. See if there's a
name or anything," Liv suggested. Eva
turned the frame over and twisted the
small black tab that held the hardboard
backing in place. It had become swollen
and warped over the years but pulled
away with a little effort. Eva didn't dare
pull the photograph out. It was stuck to
the glass after so long in the frame. A
folded sheet of paper, its top edge frayed
and yellowed with age, fell out into Eva's
hands.
"There's a note," she said, carefully setting aside the photograph and frame.
Liv slipped her arm around Eva and
pressed her lips to Eva's cheek. "Read it."
she urged.
Unfolding the paper with care, Eva
raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know lined
paper was around back then."
"It's loose-leaf," Liv explained. "It
was just coming into vogue when your
grandmother was working for that lawyer doing steno work." She leaned closer,
peering at the paper. "It isn't her handwriting, though."
"We'd know it, wouldn't we?" Eva
laughed. They'd spent the better part of
six months reading and rereading her
grandmother's diaries, trying to figure
out what had happened to Wren.
"Yeah. For sure," Liv said.
Eva ducked her head and started to
read.
opportunity to document us. She's got a
nose for portraits, that one.
I don't remember her taking this photograph. However, when she gave it to me,
I was struck. I still am, at how akin to puzzle pieces we are. We fit together, Mary.
We are two halves of the same sou/, set
to drift across the seas of time together
always. I wish I could find the words to tell
you all of the secrets I've kept from you.
I wish I could find a way to tell you how
much I care while standing before you.
When you find this, I may be gone.
There are things I must do to protect
you-to protect this city.
Do not weep for me, darling. Move on
with your life.
I love you.
w.
Tears pricked at the corners of Eva's
eyes. In a way, it was the answer she
had always been looking for. The goodbye her grandmother never received,
hidden away behind a photograph. She
handed the paper to Liv and wiped her
stinging eyes. "We always wondered if
Gran knew. She never got Wren's other
letter-the
one that explained everything."
Liv scanned the letter again, her expression somber. A sigh escaped her
lips. She set it aside and gathered Eva
into her arms. "Wren got to say her
goodbye, Eva."
Eva buried her face in Liv's neck. 'Tm
glad," she said, her words half-choked
with tears. Their embrace grew tighter.
"They deserved their goodbye."•
Ml know you will be cross with me for this
photograph. Your neighbor took this
photo over the Fourth of July celebration
when we all went to the park and picnicked. I remember you devouring the
cookies I made. You were like a woman
starved, with a smear of chocolate on
your nose and sticky sweet on your fingers. I so wanted to kiss the chocolate
from your nose, but I didn't dare, not with
Elise and the others joining us.
We fell asleep that day, after you told
me of your father's shell shock. You needed comfort and I held you. We must have
dozed off right before Elise and her ever-present Kodak No. 2 came to find us.
I should have known she'd not miss the
The Light of the World is available from
Ylva Publishing.
40STRIKEOIL WITH NATSGETTY
41LUXECANDLES BYALAINA YOUNG
42FACEUP TO PRIDE
36
WEAR THE
PANTS
FASHION
INFLUENCERS
BEAU
TY
,=-------..
»
MAY/JUN
2016
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MODELS:
ALI MEDINA
CRIS DOMINGO
ARIAM GEFFRARD
DANIELLE COOPER
36
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2016
Toda'½'s queer style has its own
revolutionary
roots.
But it's also
part of a rich legacy of fashion as
empowerment and political resistance.
A new generation of lesbians, queer
women, and genderqueer advocates
carries the torch passed to them by
their trailblazing forebears who dared to
wear the pants and fight the patriarchy.
Photographer Debbie-Jean Lemonte hit
the Hamptons this spring to capture
some of today's leading "menswear"
influencers
who
proudly
donned
bespoke power suits designed by The
Tailory (TheTailoryNYC.com), a femaleowned and operated custom clothing
company. The all-star model roster
included androgynous model and artist
Ali Medina (alimedinaart.com), and style
bloggers and menswear influencers Cris
Domingo (La-Garconniere-.tumblr.com),
Ariam Geffrard (ADapperChick.com),
and Danielle Cooper (ShesAGent.com).
MAY/JUN
2015
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/ 1s
• a 23-year-o Id
NataIia "Nats" Getty
model, artist, activibt, and heir to the
Getty oil fortune wHo is shaping her own
vision of w at a successful out-andproud socialite he·ress looks like. When
she's not working closely with GLAAD or
collaborating with her mom and brother
to provide new infrastructure for the Los
Angeles LGBT Center, she is designing
custom leathe jackets for Strike Oil, her
clothing and lifestyle brand. Each artfullydesigned Strike Oil jacket is a one-of-a-kind
collectible that celebrates the individual,
the different, and the "out there."
A self-described tomboy, Nats was born
in Los Angeles and spent her childhood
in Santa Monica tree climbing and
skateboarding, until the age of eight, when
she moved to England for boarding school
and to be with her family. Today, she is
back in the U.S., residing mostly in West
Hollywood, but also jet-setting across the
globe. Photographer Molly Adams spent
the day shooting Nats' sexy andro style and
unique Strike Oil designs. The sizzling Cali
desert was the perfect location to capture
all of this Getty heat! Follow Nats's next
move @natsgetty. •
laina Young spent her formative years in
Vien a. Tall for her age and sporting a '90s
bowl cut, she was often mistaken for a boy.
"I knew I was attracted to girls, but didn't
necessarily know what that meant... I felt I
needed to be secretive about my feelings:'
Her first crush? Belle from Beauty and the
Beast. "I was obsessed with her, and I think
my family knew what that meant;' she says.
In New York City, Young attended a girls
school, and found self-expression through
basketball and hip-hop. "I loved sneakers
and wore my father's pants. I was better at
sports than all the boys, but the older kids
always picked on me. My reaction was to be
the best version of myself, regardless of the
bullying:'
Young found support in a tight group
of friends and family. "My mom used to
bring me basketball clothes to change into
immediately after school. She knew I hated
the dress. She bought me JNCO jeans and
got it when I shed a tear over misplacing one
of my Jordan Vllls:'
When Young officially came out after
college, her family was supportive and
Alaina started a business with her mom-Q
Squared NYC, a trendy dinnerware brand.
What does the 'Q' stand for? Queen! "We are
both strong proponents of treating yourself
well, and we love the idea of bringing luxury
to everyone. Sometimes people forget to be
kind to themselves, and we want to remind
them:'
Young's own project is Bijou-scented
candles of distinction. Surprising for a
tomboy? Not really, says Young, who
harbors a love of nostalgia. "I studied art
history because I love learning about the
past through the eyes of creators;' she says.
Even if you're a streetwise lesbian, you
can add a touch of opulence to your abode
with a Bijou candle. "Scent can really make
the difference when you're trying to create a
certain ambience. What's a relaxing bubble
bath without the soothing smell of lavender?
Scented candles take it to that next level:'
Each Bijou scent is subtle and carefully
selected. Young's personal favorite is Ambre
Tubereuse, inspired by her wife's preferred
fragrance (they live in Harlem with their
dogs Molly and Oliver). The resin containers
are reusable and can be cleaned out and
refilled.
During Pride, Young celebrates her
birthday and her wedding anniversary, as
well as the community. "I love Pride in the
city because it's my favorite thing to see
such a huge gathering of LGTBQ and our
supporters being completely free and open.
It's just an enormous family celebrating
each other's truths and experiences:'
(bijoucandles.com) •
MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
41
LOVELY LIP SYNC
LIPPY by Butter London is a lipstick
and a lip-gloss in one. Choose from
a range of longwearing statement
colors that shine, moisturize, and
protect with shea butter and Vitamin
E. Powerfully pigmented but without
parabens or phthalates, pop this
in your pocket and put your pride
where your pout is.
($18, butterlondon.com)
TRlTE
COT-10RS
POPS OF COLOR PERFECT
FOR YOUR PRIDE PARADE.
•
STREETWISE SCENT
Snap is an all-new, compact,
contemporary
style of perfume
available in a variety of inspirational
scents for both him and her. The
sleek packaging looks like a mini cell
phone and is made from 100 percent
recyclable environmentally-friendly
materials. Play with the genderspecific looks, ranging from cool and
metallic finishes to fun and feminine.
($15, snapperfume.com)
PERFECT PUCKER UP
Nourishing Lip Color by Bobbi
Brown blends five deeply emollient
natural oils and Vitamin C and E to
give lacklustre lips a silky feel and a
luminous, sophisticated finish. The
nourishing formula delivers 24-hour
sustained moisturization,
hydration
and conditioning
for softer,
smoother and plumper lips.
($28, everythingbobbi.com)
BUTTER HER UP
With saucy names such as Pink
Knickers, Come to Bed, and All Hail
The Queen, there's a Butter London
nail varnish for even the most
royal queer femme. These heavily
pigmented lacquers are designed
to smooth and strengthen nails with
their long-wearing and chip-resistant
shine. ($15, butterlondon.com)
•
42
CURVE
•
MAY/JUN
2016
BE A SMOOTHIE
This new BB Tinted Face Cream is all
about bringing down your color and
evening out your skin tone, taking
your parade-flushed face from day
to night or outdoors to indoors with
effortless ease. Specially formulated
to smooth skin, this unique BB also
contains marshmallow to soften skin
and reduce inflammation.
($45, karinherzog.com)
46QUEERWOMEN IN TV
54COWBOY PRIDE
60HUNTERVALENTINEUNPLUGS
MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
43
CAll
NG
THtSHOTS
Queer women and the
struggle for realness in
TV, both behind and in
front of the camera.
BY LAUREN LOGIUDICE
Maria Maggenti
My agent's assistant once told me that my agent "thinks that you
can only play lesbian characters:' Even though my agent was a gay
man, he assumed that because I had short, spiky hair I would be seen
as lesbian, and therefore more easily cast in lesbian roles.
According to GLAAD's most recent "Where Are We on TV" report,
only 33 percent of the 4 percent of LGBTcharacters in primetime programming on broadcast networks are actually queer women. So to
be typecast would mean even fewer jobs for me. At that stage in my
acting career I didn't fully understand how conventional mainstream
entertainment was.
Cornell Professor of Performing and Media Arts, Amy Villarejo explains that even now, "I still see the forces as really, really conservative
within the industry:'
Shortly after that meeting I confided to trans activist-author Kate
Bornstein that I wanted to alter my appearance to gain access to
more opportunities. "DO IT;'she responded. So, I got to work. I grew
my hair out to chin length and I was immediately rewarded for passing straight. I started booking commercials, got into SAG, and was
finally able to live as an actor. The dividing line between work and no
work was five inches of hair.
Today, with the explosion of cable programming and video on
demand, which has brought us queer shows like Orange Is the New
Black and Transparent, mainstream TV has undergone a visible and
necessary change. "Television is still the most important technology for reproducing gender and sexuality in the modern world;'
says Villarejo. "It's not that the people that are making the decisions
are sitting in their offices saying, 'I don't want any gay people in my
show: Some of course, maybe, but it's more like, 'Show me how that
makes money:"
44
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MAY/JUN
2016
WHO'S
TOBLAME
FOR
LACK
OFDIVERSITY
ONSCREEN?
Every time a queer or lesbian character appears on screen, our
community turns critic: Is she real enough? Is she diverse enough?
Fair questions. The pot shots at the creators, however, are often
misaimed, due to the collaborative nature of TV projects. "You
never know, there's not one person to blame for something;' says
Nisha Ganatra, consulting producer and director of Transparent.
"It's like a whole team of decisions that needed to happen, that
should be held accountable:'
The main decision makers are the showrunner, the studio, and
the network. The level of control the executives have on the creative process varies. It's clear by looking at the programming on
each network what general aesthetic they support, for better or
for worse. Ganatra confesses, "You do have to have those conversations with certain networks where you're like, two black people
can talk to each other and it's going to be okay:'
Even directors have limited authority. Lynn Shelton (Your Sister's
Sister, Fresh Off the Boat) says, "It's not really something where
you can roll up your sleeves and say, 'Let's completely overhaul the
script."' The impact that a television director has is subtler. "Performance wise, that's where you really have more influence as a
director;' Shelton says.
Rose Troche, director and co-executive producer of The L Word
(she also directed episodes of Law and Order and Ugly Betty) says
that "where you put the camera or how you look at someone" are
choices made by the director, and it is at this level that an episode
can be 'queered:
When the director is involved in the pilot, they have more input.
Troche recalls having more creative contribution in The L Word as
H •
11119
NishaGanatra
opposed to her later work in episodic television. "When I did an
episode called 'Liquid Heat' in Season 5 and all the characters just
had sex and I was like, how am I going to change this up or should
I make a bold choice and make them all just do the same thing?! I
was like, I'm running out of things in my repertoire!"
Staff writers also have limited power, and are essentially carrying out the vision of the showrunner. Writer and director Maria
Maggenti (The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love,
Finding Carter) says, "If you want to keep your job, you don't refuse to write a script." All scripts go past the showrunner who often rewrites them from their own point of view and from network
or studio notes. Many people I spoke with felt that if an offensive
character or scene gets past the showrunner it's never a simple
mistake. Maggenti was adamant, "It's not an oversight. ... You do it
because you don't understand:'
Terry Lawler, executive director of New York Women in Film
and Television talked about the larger forces at play: "It's definitely
much harder for women, gay people, people of color, to get their
stories in front of the right person. To get agents. To get agents
to even read their work. There is a lack of opportunity all the way
along, so if you can't get an agent, you can't get seen, and if you
can't get seen, you can't get your show on the air:'
CREATING
AUTHENTICITY
INAFANTASY
WORLD
If TV is always one part make believe, how can we be assured
of authenticity? "There's nothing really authentic about that house
and all the SUVsthat they're driving around Los Angeles;' says Villarejo about Transparent. "It's a very particular fantasy that grabs
us, and it's okay to be grabbed by fantasy."
Numerous industry studies indicate that a disproportionate
amount of white men create the fantasies on screen. This is problematic for the queer community because we are left to create an
awareness of ourselves in other people's fantasies. Shari Frilot, curator of New Frontier at Sundance Institute reflects, "Culture is a
way for us to see ourselves and to understand our humanity:' And
this is where 'diversity' comes in. The term, which is bandied about
today, "is so much richer than bringing people from different races
together .... When you think about it and embrace that value in a
much deeper way, it really shows in the program. And it affects
how you think about films. It's not a job or a quota that you have to
fulfill, it's a quality of life [and art] you are trying to achieve:'
Being a queer content creator is not necessarily career suicide.
Determination is key. "I used to struggle with it a lot more when
I was younger and now I'm just like, There's no getting out of it;'
says Troche. Some queer people in the industry feel that they are
offered television jobs because of their 'unique' perspective. Others think it's held them back. A lot comes down to connecting with
people or projects committed to diversity. Increasingly, there are
more of those shows out there.
For actors, the game is to position yourself to fit as many roles
as possible. Catherine Curtin, who plays Wanda Bell on Orange Is
the New Black, remembers being told early in her career that she
couldn't play a prosecutor because she didn't have high cheekbones and wasn't a brunette. She's a larger, heterosexual woman
with a raspy voice, so plays a lot of blue-collar characters, including angry revolutionaries and lesbians (and is proud to do so).
For Curtin, working on OITNB is refreshing. It's filled with sexual-
MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
45
Judy Bowman
ly and racially diverse women with varying body shapes-which is
not what we usually see on screen. "Film and television are predicated on female beauty in many ways and everybody knows that;'
says Maggenti. That subjective judgment call is based on hetereonormative standards of allure.
Maggenti remembers an incident in one writer's room: "We really wanted a cute dyke character. A little butch, cute dyke character
and [the supposedly progressive network] didn't go for it, they just
didn't understand what that was.... They want cute, pretty girls."
This puts visibly queer actors in a tight spot. Judy Bowman, a
New York City casting director and out lesbian, admits that including visually readable queer people for most casting isn't even a
consideration, and those actors tend to end up playing eccentrics. Others "don't know what to do, when to do it, and how it
will impact their career," she says. I certainly understand that dilemma. Visibly queer characters are the hardest to cast "because
it's self-selecting and very few dyke women are going to act;' says
Maggenti. That is in itself a cultural loss.
Almost everyone I spoke to for this article cited Transparent as
inspiring because of the way the show is run. "I would go back
to TV if I could be involved with something like Transparent;' says
Troche. "[I'm] not talking about the content, although that is undeniably groundbreaking, but the mode of storytelling:'
Transparent isn't run like a traditional television show. Ganatra explained that it's shot like a 5-hour movie and storyboarded
beforehand. Rather than use guest directors, most creatives are
onboard for the entire season. Showrunner Jill Soloway sets up a
working environment that is collaborative, supportive, and freeing,
using what she called in her AFI keynote speech "feminine energy:' Ganatra, whose first job in TV was Transparent, was thrilled.
"That was always a big concern, like, why am I trying to get in this
industry that's ultimately going to be not fulfilling creatively? You're
there every single day ... until the end of production. That was sort
of like the biggest difference:'
Having so many queer people invested in the production
46
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MAY/JUN
2016
changes what you ultimately see on screen, says Ganatra. "Are we
representing in a way that is truthful? Absolutely, 100 percent. Andrea Sperling [co-executive producer] and I talked about it every
single day.... So much nuance, down to what she would wear or
should her nails be short because now she's with a woman:'
WILL
THERE
BEMORE
QUEER
TV?
The proliferation of networks and programming present a great
opportunity for more queer stories because-other factors asidenetworks are running out of ideas. Shelton says, "For you to have
a show that is not going to be like 20 other shows, you really have
to diversify."
The on-demand media industry has challenged TV norms. "The
advantage now is that you don't need as many people to watch
the show for it to be a success in certain places;' says Lawler. Also,
more non-network shows mean less accountability to advertisers,
which leads to more risk taking. When diverse shows are successful, that signals to the networks that it's okay to branch out. "That
makes a huge difference in what decisions get made. It's really
about the money;' says Lawler.
The model has changed, and so has the nature of the stories
we see. "These new distribution commitments for seasons rather
than pilots allow writers and directors to develop these visions that
we're clearly responding to as viewers;' says Villarejo. "They are
very exciting visions, but they wouldn't have worked in the network environment. A pilot can't do it:'
Open-minded industry allies with decision-making authority are
important, too. Ganatra recalls working with Amy Poehler. "When
I was trying to make Chutney Popcorn it was, 'Can you change the
gay to straight?' Amy Poehler said, 'No, they absolutely have to be
Indian and I think she should be gay, too: It's a dream:'
While the mainstream film industry still struggles with issues of
diversity, TV is leading by example. "This is a very good moment
for television," says Maggenti. So good, in fact, that I recently
shaved the back of my head to reclaim my edgy queer dignity.•
STAND
UP
WTH
PR
Dt
Comic Dana Goldberg
headlines this year's
Seattle Women's Pride.
BY MARCIE BIANCO
a comedian's wet dream-when it's not
scaring the shit out of me as a voting
member of society. I really don't want to
hear about the size of Donald Trump's penis. And let's just be honest: every woman reading this has a bigger penis than
Trump. It just happens to be in the nightstand next to the bed.
ANY
PERSONAL
PLANS
FOR
PRIDE
THIS
YEAR?
with no pants wearing a rainbow
EXACTLY
HOW
MANY
PRIDES
HAVE
YOU
GRACED
WITH
YOUR
PRESENCE?
6-inch heels and I'm like, "Is that
I've definitely attended more Prides than
I've performed at. When I was younger, I
would travel with friends to any city we
could to go celebrate our gayness with
10,000 to a million strangers. Over the
course of my career, I've probably only
performed at a dozen or so. I can't wait
to headline Seattle Women's Pride. I have
no doubt it will go down as one of my
favorites.
WHAT
DOES
PRIDE
MEAN
TOYOU?
When I was younger, Pride was a huge
party to go day drink with my friends,
people watch, and hang with my friends.
Over the years, it has evolved. I had the
pleasure of marching in San Francisco's
Pride parade a couple of years ago and
there was a sweet male couple in front
of me holding hands with a sign that
read "47 years together ... and finally legally married." Unfortunately, that couple
is never the one who is featured on the
front page of the newspaper the next
day. It's always someone in ass chaps
boa in
my English professor?!" I've always been out in
my career so there is a sense of personal pride for me in my sexual orientation
that comes across in my material. I'm not
afraid to talk about it publicly. I think the
more the conversation becomes normalized, the less it will be used as an issue.
We still have so much to do in the LGBT
community for full equality, but I'm grateful I have a voice and have been able to
use it on a larger scale to help the movement move forward.
WHAT
ARE
SEATTLE
LESBIANS
GITTING
INTO
WITH
YOU
THIS
PRIDE?
I think the question is more, "What am I
getting in to!?" Seattle is one of my favorite
cities to perform in and something ridiculously crazy always happens at a show. The
audience is rowdy and smart. They have no
problem participating in some banter with
me during the show and it usually turns into
comedy magic. As far as material, you'll get
some old favorites, mixed with some new
ones. The political climate right now is
I will definitely take an extra day in Seattle
to play and to take advantage of the warmer weather. I'll try and bring the sunshine
with me from Southern California and
maybe we'll get a couple of rain free days
for Pride.
LOOKING
BACK
ATYOUR
COMEDY
CAREER,
WHAT
ARE
YOU
MOST
PROUD
OF?
I think one of the biggest things is the
amount of money and awareness I've
helped to raise for non-profits around
the country through my comedy and
live auctions. I've helped to raise over 4
million dollars for organizations that focus on LGBT rights and equality, women's health and reproductive
rights,
AIDS education and prevention, and
keeping our children safe from predators. I have the ability to bring levity to
very serious subjects and have been
able to incorporate that into larger
events and black tie affairs to help balance a program and truly touch people
with some of my material while making
them laugh. That's a good night at work.
(seattlewomenspride.com) •
MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
47
Just when you think being queer is becoming all roses and
rainbows, stuff gets real. The inaugural year of American marriage equality has served as a joyous time of civil-rights achievement that's infused our LGBT community with dignity and
renewed hope. With it, however, has come a flood of backlash of
the most treacherous kind: The kind that rises slowly from defiant counties and courthouses, threatening to swell to an obstinate tidal wave.
It's moments of struggle like these that embolden the best
leaders. And Kate Kendell, executive director of the National
Center for Lesbian Rights, is rising to fight a galvanized opposi-
48
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2016
tion that seems more devious than ever before.
"There is no doubt in my mind that we are in the middle of a
backlash," Kendell says. "Because we won this big huge thing,
so much of the narrative has been, 'What else is there to do?'
[The backlash] is not garnering headlines. But if we don't pay
attention to it, we may not lose our freedom to marry, but we will
see it eroded significantly."
Kendell is a lawyer by trade who has helmed the NCLR since
1996, following stints at a private law firm in Utah-her home
state-and the ACLU. Both jobs added to her breadth of legal
savvy and life experience. But it is her intrinsic devotion to both
HOTEL
the NCLR and the community it serves that's apparent in her
every word. Few people have such clarity about their life's mission.
Luckily for the queer community, Kendell also possesses an
instinct about those keen to degrade equal human rights, and
how best to combat their dark, sly tactics.
"Our opposition is conceding marriage, but blurring the line
around every other way that we might be able to participate in
civic society," she says. "It's all the religious-refusal laws we'll
see pop up again and again, [and other] laws that will be introduced-where we may be able to get married, but in every
other way our full participation in civic life is going to be impacted and diminished. Like public-accommodations protection; people who don't want to serve you because you're LGBT;
denial of services from an adoption agency ... We're going to
have to really respond to that."
During Kendell's NCLR tenure, her team has played pivotal roles in monumental LGBT-rights cases. The organization's
"Timeline & Victories" web page reads like a year-by-year tally of every significant court case affecting homosexuals and
transgender individuals since its 1977 founding as the Lesbian
Rights Project. The present moniker was instituted in 1989, and
remains a point of conversation since the NCLR serves lesbians and the broader community.
She says the name exists to "elevate lesbian leadership even
as we are fierce, dedicated, tireless advocates for our entire
community." It will stay that way, she says, as long as the gender imbalance keeps lesbians outnumbered in boardrooms,
donor pools, and other key decision-making posts.
"We were founded as an explicitly feminist organization,"
she says. "And even as women have greater power within the
community, we feel like there is still a place for an explicitly
feminist voice ... We do not think it's at all necessary for us to
only be focused on lesbian issues. Because lesbian issues are
transgendered issues are gay issues. Gender and sexism and
homophobia impact all of us."
The most familiar community gatherings, like Pride events,
remain important rallying points. Kendell still joins them with
her wife Sandy Holmes and their teenage kids. At their hometown of San Francisco's Pride and in other cities, she sees
LGBT-rights progress reflected everywhere, in an array of
forms.
"Now it's families marching alongside the leather daddies,"
she says. "Our true diversity is really on display." She admits ,
however, that the marches have less of a "radical edge," especially as corporations turn out to show their support and,
simply, to advertise.
Nevertheless, the overriding purpose of Pride prevails,
bringing together queers and other individuals for commemoration, protest, and visibility. Pride is a time to remember, she
says, "how lucky we are to live in a time and place where we
can be fully who we are. It helps to remind us that our work is
not done until everyone, everywhere can live fully and freely."
(nclrights.org) •
zetta
SAN FRANCl SCO
1
55 5th Street San Francisco California 94103
RESERVATIONS415 543 8555 Ii el t J,..,1.,111
"Lesbian political power" may be an unfamiliar phrase, but
thanks to LPAC-the political action committee by and for lesbians and queer women-it is one we should expect to hear
more often, not just in this election cycle but in the years to
come. LPAC was founded in 2012 by "a group of activist lesbians who were at the forefront of pretty much every political
battle out there," says Beth Shipp, LPAC's executive director.
These women, some of whom now sit on the board of directors, were exasperated by walking into rooms where decisions
about lesbians and queer women were being made by men.
"We love our straight men, we love our lesbros and the gay
guys who are involved in the fight. But we've been on the frontlines and there's never been an organization that represents us
and that builds our power," Shipp explains.
Shipp is the PAC's first executive director, and just celebrated her one-year anniversary with the organization. She grew
up as a child of two faculty members on the campus of a
women's college, William Woods (now co-ed), in the 1970s and
early '80s. Her feminist upbringing led to a foray into politics
when she met two women who were trying to open a Planned
50
CURVE
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2016
Parenthood health center in the notoriously conservative city
of Lynchburg, Va. From there, she worked on political campaigns. Beginning by knocking on doors, she worked her
way all the way up to managing state and gubernatorial campaigns. In 2002, she joined NARAL (the National Association
for the Repeal of Abortion Laws) as its political director, and
was hired by LPAC in 2015.
When asked what lesbian political power looks like, Shipp
cites the first campaign that LPAC focused on-Tammy Baldwin's run for the Senate in 2012. "The women of LPAC came
together in an unprecedented way to help make sure that
Tammy Baldwin was the first out gay person who happened
to be lesbian in the U.S. Senate." Of course, lesbian political
power is primarily generated by money. The purpose of LPAC
is to collect money and donate it to a candidate on behalf of
the lesbian community. The collective donation is a powerful
signifier to politicians to keep lesbians in mind when drafting,
sponsoring, and voting on policies that affect our community.
"When you give $25 to LPAC," Shipp says, "and we combine that with the $25 from the person in Florida, and the $25
/
U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services
Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention
www.cdc.gov/tips
/
from the person in California, and so on ... when you bundle it
all together and send that to Hillary's campaign, you can say
'This is lesbian money that is supporting your campaign,' that
is huge." The difference between donating directly to a campaign such as Hillary's and donating to LPAC is that the latter
is a donation on behalf of your identity. "If your self-identity is
important to you in the political realm and you want people to
know that you are proud, and proudly donating this money as
a lesbian," Shipp maintains, "you should give to LPAC, so that
all that money combined goes in as lesbian money."
"Instead of one lesbian giving $25, it's 1,000 lesbians giving
$25,000-and for some people, that's the definition of power."
Still in its nascent years, LPAC is focusing on building community city by city. This is in addition to endorsing and directly
contributing to candidates, and working on ballot initiatives,
which are of particularly vital importance, Shipp says, because
of the anticipated blowback after 2015's Supreme Court ruling
that overturned the federal ban on same-sex marriage.
LPAC endorses the rights of both men and women, gay and
straight. The requisite for its support is a candidate's advocacy
of the PAC's three pillars: LGBT rights, women's equality, and
social justice. These, Shipp notes, "include the core components of racial justice and economic justice." All lesbians live
an intersectional life-we have a sexuality, a gender, a race,
and an economic status. Shipp uses this example: "If a lesbian
and her partner are a mixed-race couple, and they are living
together and working real hard and doing well for themselves,
but they make $1.50 to every $2 that the gay male couple
down the street makes, that's not just an LGBT issue, that's a
women's issue, and a racial issue, and an economic equality
issue."
This election cycle, LPAC is going all in for Hillary. "We were
the first national LGBTorganization to endorse her," Shipp says.
"For our board, who made the
decision early on to endorse
her, it was a combination of
her experience as Secretary
of State, and the fact that she
traveled worldwide on behalf
of the country and spoke eloquently about LGBT rights in
places where that was not always accepted." As well, Shipp
continues, "a lot of us remember the days of her fighting
for healthcare, and making
sure that women are part of
the discussion, and part of the
equation, when talking about
healthcare in this country. She
took it on before anyone else
thought to do it. If you look
at her whole record and what
she has done for women, and
for lesbians and for the LGBT
52
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
community writ large, it's just no question for us.
"For an organization like LPAC that works at the intersection of all of these issues-LGBT rights, women's equality, and
social justice-I don't think we've ever seen a candidate for
president who represents those values and our mission more
than Hillary Clinton."
LPAC celebrates Pride this summer with a lesbian comedy
show that will benefit the PAC and help to get Hillary elected. Called Levity and Justice for All, the event will be held
in New York City on June 16 and will feature an all-star lineup of our community's favorite lesbian and genderqueer
comics, including Kate Clinton, Lea DeLaria, Marsha Warfield, Karen Williams, Cameron Esposito, Rosie O'Donnell,
Judy Gold, and Jes Tom-who will surely bring much-needed
levity to an election where the stakes for lesbians run high.
(teamlpac.com) •
"
THtWOMtN
0~lPAC
CAMt
TOGtTHtR
INAN
UNPRtCtOtNTtO
WAY
TO
HtlPMAKt
SU
Rt
THAT
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Key West Pride
June 8-12, 2016
keywestpride.org
TheFloridaKeys
Key\\1/est
Close To Perfect - Far From Normal
essica Fettke, 29, spends her
days in the pastures of a 10,000acre cattle ranch, tending to
1,000 "momma cows" and their
calves. She works on a commercial
beef operation in the biggest county in
Oklahoma, Osage County, which was
the setting for a play and a movie. "The
house from that movie is literally two
miles from our home," says Fettke, who
was born in Wichita, Kan., and raised in
western Oklahoma.
"Osage County is named after the
Osage Nation-the
Indian tribe that
had this land originally. They're still
J
54
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MAY/JUN
2015
a very prominent culture, they have
some government.
So it's literally
cowboys and Indians," says Fettke.
Fettke refers to herself modestly
as "just a ranch hand." But her wifeto-be, also named Jessica, calls her a
cowboy, and Fettke, while shy about
her cowboy pride, is clearly enamored
of the culture. "I could go on forever
about that," she says, describing the
long days, the competitive
riding,
the requisite etiquette. "There's a lot
of people who consider themselves
cowboys,
but they don't
actually
embody the cowboy culture. They say
they are, but they're not." I ask her if,
deep down, she identifies as a cowboy:
"Yes, ma'am, I absolutely do."
Fettke looks the part, too. She wears
a cowboy hat, "to keep the sun off of
me," blue jeans, a button-down longsleeve shirt, and 18-inch-tall boots,
because she works in high grass where
there are rattlesnakes. In this kind of
environment,
more than your attire
matters.
"In the summertime especially, to
beat the heat you've gotta be there
before the daylight. Otherwise, the
cattle are stressed and hot, and you
FEATURES/
can't have that. It's not good for
anybody. And then, in the winter
months it's sunup till sundown as well,
because the daylight is so short. And
you've got so many cows that need to
be fed."
"A lot of it depends on the cattle.
You just don't know until you get out
there what's actually going to happen.
You have chores you have to take care
of and things you just have to get
done. You're at the mercy of nature,
basically."
Of her mostly male colleagues, Fettke
says, "There are some I don't care for,
obviously, and I don't associate with
them. The ones I do associate with, I
think the world of them. They're great.
I've been really blessed to work with
some really excellent cowboys, and I'm
thankful for that. They're respectful,
they're polite, they're hardworking,
they're good horsemen. It's really a
treat to be able to work with them."
Fettke feels part of the rural
community and is not interested in
acting as if she is a minority. "Out in the
country, it makes an impact if you stir
up trouble or act like a jerk. Honestly,
it can cost your livelihood. That's part
of the cowboy culture: There's little
tolerance for disrespectful behavior."
"There are codes of respect, even
with the way you are out in the pasture,
or the way you are around your elders.
You don't cut somebody off when
you're gathering cattle, or when you're
going through the gate. You show
general respect for the person who's
next to you. And if you can't do that,
then don't come back."
But Fettke is gay, and that must have
an impact in her community. "I'm as
out as I can be. I don't hide that from
anybody. Everyone I work with knows
who my partner is, and they know
we're together, including my employer
and all the cowboys I work with. I
respect them and their opinion, and
they respect me and mine. We agree
to disagree on things. But I don't feel
like they do ever discriminate against
me. And some of them are pro gay
marriage."
Fettke recently popped the question
to Jessica Jo Jantzen, 27, who was
raised in a Southern Baptist home
and went to a Bible academy for high
school. Before they met, Fettke heard
Jantzen was a "Bible thumper" who
attended the academy where Fettke's
dad was a football coach. Fettke's
father would chat with the spirited
teen about politics and religion, and
he had a feeling she'd get on well with
his daughter. He didn't anticipate how
well.
"When I met Jess, I was intrigued by
her and very interested in her views of
the world," recalls Jantzen. "She was so
kind and open-minded.
People loved
her and she was so proud of who she
~
1
"I CAN T IMAGINEA
BETTERCOMMUNITY
TO RAISEMY CHILDREN
IN I CAN T IMAGINEA
BETTERCULTURETHIS
ISWHO WE ARE."
1
was: 'How could this [gay] lifestyle be
wrong?' Growing up, my family always
said that being gay was a choice.
Once I asked Jess if she thought it
was a choice, and I will never forget
her answer. She said, 'Do you think
I would choose to see my mom cry
over the fact that I am gay? Don't you
think I would change if I could?' That
resonated with me."
Jantzen says she began falling in
love with Fettke when she was just
18. "I felt comfort around her, and
a connection
that I had never felt
before. Jess knew I was not ready for
a same-sex relationship at that point,
so she pretty much stopped talking to
me and began dating a girl I went to
high school with. It broke my heart. A
few years later, after not seeing each
other, we bumped into each other at a
CARE
college concert. Like a movie, our eyes
locked and we both knew. I broke up
with the person I was dating, but it took
Jess another two years."
When Jantzen entered grad school
in Stillwater,
Okla., Fettke looked
her up again. "She had taken a large
hay operation job in a town close to
Stillwater. She asked to see me, so we
went out one night and it is history from
there! It may have taken us four years
to reach each other, but the timing
was right. I was strong enough by then
and a lot more mature. No matter what
we went through, I loved her and she
had always loved me. There were some
really hard times during those years,
but I would do it again to get to where
we are now. It's bliss."
Jantzen is still a Christian
but
views the Bible differently than she
did growing up. "I believe that God
created us in his image and would not
discriminate
against love," she says.
"I think it is very important for young
people to know that people are scared
of what they don't understand. I was.
That was what made me close-minded.
I believe God puts certain people in
our lives to help us grow, mentally and
spi ritua Ily."
While Fettke's parents have come
to terms with her sexuality, Jantzen's
family has not been accepting. "They
still deny it to this day," Jantzen says,
even though she and Fettke will wed in
November. "We will be surrounded by
friends, and some family," says Jantzen.
"Jess's family will be in attendance with
all of her friends. My dad decided not to
walk me down the aisle, but my second
father, my stepdad, has stepped up
and will do the honors."
Meanwhile, Fettke and Jantzen live
together on their secluded property.
The closest city is Tulsa, which boasts
the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center,
where the couple has gone for Pride
celebrations. But generally, Pride and
LGBT community are not high on the
list of what Fettke and Jantzen need
to live their lives. "I feel a sense of
pride for people who have endured
discrimination and have come through
that," says Fettke. "I feel pride for the
rights we have gained recently. But I
MAY/JUN
2015
CURVE
55
TUREstCAREERS
just am who I am, and I don't know how
to be anything else."
Mostly, these women's lives revolve
around work-Fettke's as a cowboy, and
Jantzen's at Oklahoma State University
where she works in youth development.
Jantzen is also a photographer,
and
took the photos for this article. ("I'm
mighty proud of her," says Fettke.)
Date night might involve driving
to a little bar and grill just across
the Kansas state line, but their usual
evening routine is that of country folk
everywhere: "We come home, we like
to sit on our porch. We've got chickens
and a turkey and four head of horses,
five cats, five dogs-it's a mess around
here," laughs Fettke. "By the time we
get home, we've got plenty of work
that we've got to do here after we're
done with our work for the day. So we
pretty much relax, gather our animals,
and prepare for the next day," she says.
If Fettke prides herself on anything,
it's her professionalism as a cowboy, and
her tenderness toward her animals. "I'm
nothing without my horse, and there's
a lot of mutual respect there. You don't
mistreat something that you expect to
be your partner. There are some people
who mistreat their horse, but they are
not considered good cowboys. Yankin'
or kickin' on his horse is a weakness in
a cowboy. There's better ways of going
about that. Firmness. You can't just let a
horse do what it wants to do, because
all it wants to do is eat and be merry."
Fettke is aware of the many lesbian
and queer vegetarians and vegans who
disapprove of her work, but she says, "If
they actually knew what it was like to
work on a ranch, if they actually could
live this life, they would understand that
more than anybody, we care for cattle."
Fettke has gone out in snowstorms
to retrieve baby cows. "You're gonna
pick that calf up and make sure he
makes it through.
You sacrifice a
lot of your comfort for their care. In
actuality, we're providing cattle with
a better lifestyle, making them more
productive, practising animal husbandry
to provide for our culture, for people in
general. I guess if we were all still in
hunter-gatherer mode, people wouldn't
be so critical."
56
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
When it comes to other lesbians,
Fettke and Jantzen are friendly with
a local couple who are foster parents
for
Child
Welfare
Services.
This
couple somehow balances work on
a ranch with full-time social work in
Tulsa, as well as caring for as many
as seven children at home. It seems
unimaginable that anyone would object
to such upstanding lesbian citizens,
and I ask Fettke how she thinks her own
family will be accepted by the Osage
County community.
"I think some people are going to be
OK with it and other people are going
to scoff. So I don't really care. If that's
what they want to do, that's theirs to
do. I can't imagine a better community
to raise my children in. I can't imagine
a better culture. This is who we are."
Over the phone, I tell her that who
they are will soon be in the pages of a
national lesbian magazine for all to see,
and that I'll be sending her copiessomething
to show the grandkids,
perhaps. There is a pause, and then she
drawls, "You can't see me, but I got a
big ol' grin on my face."•
EVERT
YOUCANHELPTHEM
DONATENOW
IFAW.ORG/CURVE
QIFAW
International Fund for Animal Welfare
HOWTHEYMET
BRITTNEY:I actually found Amber on
Tinder. I really liked her look, and I
contacted her to inquire about shooting
her.
AMBER:We matched on Tinder. I didn't
even believe she was real. I thought I was
for sure getting catfished.
it was in the 90s, so when I picked her
up I was drenched in sweat. We went to
grab pizza at a local bar. I got spinach and,
unfortunately, the entire date I actually
had a piece perfectly covering one of my
front teeth, so she thought it was missing.
Luckily, she kept in touch.
THEIR
FIRST
IMPRESSIONS
OF
EACH
OTHER
THEIR
FIRST
DATE
BRITTNEY:We arranged to meet up for
pizza. I remember her texting me right
before she got to my house, saying she
had no AC in her car so she was going to
be really sweaty. She was. I remember her
being really nervous-she ran into the curb
while parking, and she spilled some of her
drink. It was cute.
BRITTNEY:She looked so young! She also
had spinach stuck in her teeth. She was a
bit all over the place, but so was I.
AMBER:At first, I wasn't sure if she was
lying about everything in her life-she
seemed too interesting.
WHO
MADE
THE
FIRST
MOVE
AMBER:When I drove out to meet her, my
windows in my car weren't working, and
58
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
BRITTNEY:It was our first date-oops!and we were having drinks, chatting and
doing a photo shoot. It started getting late
and I didn't want her to leave, so I asked
her to cuddle. Is that even making the first
move?
AMBER:Oh boy. Well after we were
nervously lying next to each other for like an
hour, she asked if she could "snug" me. Does
that count?
WHEN
THEY
OFFICIALLY
BECAME
ACOUPLE
AMBER:I'm not 100 percent, but I'm pretty
sure she was calling me her girlfriend after
Day 1.
BRITTNEY:I don't really have a specific date
or time. Amber lived almost two hours from
me and would drive over almost every night,
so we decided to get her a better job close
by, and she just moved in. This was pretty
early on-I would say, after a month.
HOW
AND
WHY
THEY
WORK
SO
WELL
TOGETHER
BRITTNEY:We are both artists and we
excel in different mediums, so we just
decided to collaborate, to see if we could
make anything of it.
AMBER: I started using her photography as
inspiration for my paintings.
BRITTNEY:Amber takes my finished
photograph and creates painted pieces
that resemble the photos, but they always
reflect her personal view of the photo.
They always turn out amazing. She is with
me for every shoot. We work really well
as a team, plus she is willing to do crazy
things that a model might not be-for
example, being wrapped head to toe in
Caution tape, or wearing this black leather
suit I like to use for my shoots. The suit is
tough to wear because you cannot see or
breathe in it!
really admire how honest she is. I value
feedback, even if it's not what I want to
hear, and she has no problem telling
me what she thinks. She brings a whole
different creative element to my photos.
I really love that she takes the time to do
things the right way, as I am the absolute
opposite. She is very patient and would do
anything for anyone. I got lucky.
AMBER: Aside from her talent, I admire
her mind. That might sound crazy, but
you would have to just watch her when
she's thinking! Her passion and her drive,
when she loves something, are incredibly
inspiring. I've never been so intrigued by
another human in my life.
IFTHEY
EVER
FIGHT
AMBER: "Fight" might be a stretch, but we
do disagree from time to time. We are very
different, as far as our personalities go.
HOW
THEY
RESOLVE
CONFLICTS
AMBER: We both try to keep each other
inspired.
THE
QUALITIES
THEY
MOST
ADMIRE
INEACH
OTHER
BRITTNEY:Amber is very genuine. I
BRITTNEY:At this point in my life, I
feel I have learned so much from past
relationships, and I have grown so much.
If we get into a fight, we usually just agree
to disagree and move on. I can appreciate
opinions that differ from mine, and I don't
easily get jealous or offended, but it has
taken years to get to this point.
ADVICE
FOR
COUPLES
WHO
WANT
TO
LIVE
AND
WORK
TOGETHER
BRITTNEY:Never go to bed angry, and
make sure to give each other enough
space. It's good to spend time apart.
Otherwise, you never experience the
feeling of missing each other and really
appreciating each other's company.
AMBER: Make sure to take time away from
working. Don't ever take your partner for
granted.
WHAT'S
NEXT:
PETS,
WEDDING
BELLS,
MAYBE
KIDS?
AMBER: Hopefully, all of the above, right?
But we actually have six pets already.
BRITTNEY:No more pets! Just kidding, but
I am sure that is what Amber is going to
say. We really want to just have fun and live
in the now. We aren't finished being kids
ourselves!•
Followon lnstagram@DetroitBird
-1hef-lc-,ri,J,,
t;.,,.~
Key\\1/est
..
Oo1of9[~
F.,F...,.N,,,,,.,l
gaykeywestfl.com
Ii
(305 294-4603
facebook.com/gaykeywestfl
MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
59
Lesbian rockers
Hunter Valentine
bid us farewell.
BY KELLY MCCARTNEY
60
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
l
ast year, when the members of
Palm Springs, Ca., marked a slightly
Hunter
more definitive
Valentine
~ they were going
announced
on hiatus, their
"amazing and supportive" fans took the
end for the rockers,
like an unfinished
sentence, followed
by an ellipsis rather than a period ...
news in stride, according to founding
"We will definitely play one-off festivals
members
throughout the year," Petracca explains.
Kiyomi
Mccloskey
(guitar,
vocals) and Laura Petracca (drums).
Noting
This year, the band's performance
at
Pledge as enough reason to not to call
the annual Dinah Shore Weekend in
it quits completely, she adds, "We want
the
February
release of The
THE L-LI
FEATURES/
to be able to play it live as many times
as we can."
After this year, though,
the Hunter
Valentine era may really be coming to
a close. The band-which
bassist
also includes
Leanne Bowes and guitarist/
keyboardist
Toronto,
Lisa
Bianco-started
Ontario,
in
2004
in
with
an
eponymous EP,along with a bit of vision
and a lot of vigor. Though you might
expect the all-female foursome to cite
the
similarly
gendered-and
equally
rocking-Runaways,
or
the
Bangles,
as their inspiration,
Mccloskey
notes,
"We didn't really model ourselves after
a particular
band, but we always have
admired bands that work really hard and
are consistent. I think a good example of
that would be Tegan and Sara. They have
put in the work and are always growing
No matter
came
from,
calibrated
Indeed, that spirit and spunk have
served
and expanding."
where
their
keeping
influences
their
compass
to their own true north was
Hunter
Valentine
have made four
well.
albums,
They
toured
It was definitely
character
building, to
say the least."
the
"I thought that filming The Real L Word
world, and appeared on two reality TV
opened
shows (Showtime's
base increased, more people came out
The Real L Word
a new door for us-our
fan
and VH1's The Linda Perry Project).
to shows, we made new connections
"We always stayed true to ourselves
Mission
and friendships,"
and
always
imperative
tried
Petracca
doing
notes.
some amazing
to
their
"I think
so,"
way,"
McCloskey says. "I'm happy with what
have
been
we've achieved."
bands out there that
gave us inspiration
accomplished?
our
things
"There
mission.
and ideas, for sure.
us, individually.
Petracca expands on that thought:
"I feel as though Hunter Valentine has
But our main goal has always been to
accomplished
do it the way we want." That is clearly
so many places, were on two reality
so much. We have toured
Petracca says. "The
Linda Perry Project was very hard on
It was a challenging
show and kind of changed
on
the
industry
and
on
my view
L.A. Both
experiences were eye-opening and had
their rewards."
shows, opened for some iconic bands
Looking back, the ladies agree that
Romantic and 2010's lessons From the
and musicians. Who else can say they
absolutely the best experience of their
Late Night. Both sets pull no punches
shared a Thanksgiving feast with Cyndi
entire run was opening for Lauper at
and put Hunter Valentine
Lauper (on Cyndi Lauper & Friends:
Toronto's Massey Hall in front of the
in evidence
on 2007's The Impatient
smack dab
in the middle of the rock 'n' roll circus,
Home
right there with dude groups like Sum
change any of it. It has shaped me as an
for
the Holidays)?
I wouldn't
crowd.
Petracca
says,
concert
at, and it's a legendary
place
41 and pretty much every other band
individual
on the Vans Warped Tour.
when times are tough and joy when shit
to play. Needless to say, I will always
is fun."
feel accomplished
During the decade since they began,
McCloskey thinks the music industry has
and has shown me strength
hometown
"It was the first venue I ever saw a
That balanced perspective
has also
made more room for women to be taken
served the band well, particularly
seriously-"but
the case of the TV shows, which, in
we still fight for equality,
with Laura. Playing in our hometown, in
that venue, was so memorable."
So, with Palm Springs in their rearview
in that regard," she adds. That's because,
retrospect,
blessing and a curse. "There were some
mirror, what
included Hunter Valentine in their 2012
very hard, emotional times when those
Hunter Valentine? "We are all a bit sad to
"Hottest Chicks in Metal" issue, rocker
shows came out," McCloskey admits. "It's
slow things down," Petracca confesses.
chicks are still not the norm. But that
hard to watch yourself on the screen and
"However, we all have individual
doesn't
"Without
relive some of the tough moments that
ahead to look forward to. Kiyomi and
too philosophical. ..what is the
you went through. On a positive note, we
Lisa will be continuing in music together.
getting
these
gals.
out to be both a
in my music career."
concurs. "I'd have to agree
despite the fact that Revolver magazine
bother
turned
in
Mccloskey
now for the women
of
plans
Petracca asks, then
made some of our most dedicated fans
Leanne is a badass bassist-she
answers: "I think, if you feel good doing
from our music being exposed on these
working
it and people love what you do, then
shows. I am extremely grateful for the
going to focus on food, another passion
you're doing something right."
experience, despite the ups and downs.
of mine. Maybe open a restaurant?" •
norm,
anyway?"
will be
with other bands. And I am
MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
61
es
o\anda Jon
th,
de\ivers tru
d B\
iustice, an
.
1exas-st \e
he's not a Mob Wife
Grandma Jones reinforced those rules.
was going to die that night, and if she didn't
and she's not a Real
Trained to be a straight-A student, Jones
do what she did, it was going to be her. So
Housewife. But she is
was grounded all summer when she got
he's exactly where he needs to be:'
a Survivor-an
alumna
her first B. "I could not go outside and play.
Due to her legal expertise on domestic
of the TV reality show
For a tomboy, that's the worst punishment
violence, Jones has been asked to comment
and
ever. I'd look out the window that summer
on it on TV, most recently after the Ray Rice
also a graduate of the
every day and cry:' Two more Bs earned her
scandal. "A lot of people don't know they're
School of Hard Knocks. With everything
"whoopings:' But the outcome was positive.
being abused. They don't know the signs.
real life has thrown at her, it's a miracle that
'There was never a doubt in my mind
When I first started dating my ex-husband,
Jolanda Jones, a Houston-based criminal
that I was going to be successful;' says
he was controlling and I didn't realize it.
defense attorney and LGBTactivist, is with
Jones. "I think I had cousins and friends who
He would pick at what I wore and make
us at all, let alone the trailblazing success
may have doubted, but I never doubted.
comments and tell me I was fat, he would
she is today. Currently, she's showcased as
In fact, there was a guy I dated who was
tell me I was ugly, he would tell me I wasn't
one of six dynamic women of color in WE
from my same neighborhood, and when
smart. After I had my son, I had stretch
TV's new docuseries Sisters In Law.
I got to college first he broke up with me,
marks and my breasts weren't as perky,
because he thought I was going to think
and my ex-husband would tell me that no
Survivor:
Palau,
Jones, with her distinctive shaved head,
her athletic but elegant 6-foot frame, her
I was better than him. All these years later,
one would want me, that I was used goods.
streetwise smarts and powerful voice, is
people tell me that he wishes he had had
That is abuse. I would cry and then he would
star material. But life might have turned
faith in me, but it's hard, when you're from
rape me.
out quite differently for her. Jones was born
the hood, to believe that there's something
into Houston's Third Ward, considered to
bigger,
be one of the most economically diverse
can achieve:'
black neighborhoods in the country. Some
What
something
the
greater
that
you
"I
got
accused
of
cheating
with
everybody, trying to flirt with everybody,
to the point that I never went out in public
disbelieving
ex-boyfriend
because I was fearful that he would think I
people refer to Third Ward as a ghetto;
thought of Jones hardly matters now: She's
was making contact with somebody ...
others note that Beyonce grew up there-in
recently come out as a lesbian and is happily
ended up getting my head slapped really
a more upscale section of the hood. In fact,
partnered with businesswoman and trainer
hard in a club full of people, and he ended
the childhoods of Bey and Jolanda were
Cherisse Traylor.The two women, both from
up apologizing and saying it would never
worlds apart. Growing up, Jones stared
Houston, have known about each other
happen again, and then it did happen again,
into the maw of poverty, violence, and self-
since 1982; they're BFFs, but only became
a few more times. I got out, and I am very
destructiveness, and struggled to break a
romantic partners last year.
lucky to be alive:'
cycle that claimed the lives of many of her
family members.
Prior to that, Jones, while forging genuine
I
But before it turned this ugly, there were
and lifelong connections with the LGBT
signs, she says: "Jealousy is bad-not good.
"My dad blew his brains out;' she reveals.
community, dated men, and was married to
When I was 24, I thought jealousy meant
'Two of my uncles killed themselves. My
a man-who beat her. She has gone on to
that somebody really loved you. Well, I now
grandmother
advocate for survivors of domestic abuse,
understand that jealousy is insecurity, and
and has raised a son, Jiovanni.
you'd better get out as fast as you can and
literally lost two sons to
suicide. My brother was murdered. My aunt
was murdered. I have cousins who were
murdered. I've been shot at:'
As a criminal defense lawyer, Jones
now defends battered women. One of her
run away as far as you can, because you can
never please them:'
On top of witnessing the street violence
clients, who is featured on the show Sisters
Today, Jones wants to help other women
that characterizes many black working-
In Law, is a middle-aged working-class white
identify the warning signs of an abusive
class lives, Jones faced grinding financial
woman who murdered her abusive male
relationship, and to make men aware of
worry, too. "We were always afraid of getting
partner in what Jones believes was an act of
what abuse is as well. To this day, her ex-
evicted because my mom couldn't afford to
self-defense. "I felt this pressure to represent
husband maintains that they had a perfect
pay the rent;' she recalls. "Our house burned
Linda and help the courts see that it was self-
marriage. But Jones's son, Jio, who is
down when I was in the fifth grade because
defense;' says Jones. "There's tremendous
now a university graduate and an activist,
we couldn't afford electricity and we used
pressure when you know she's been abused
remembers the times that his mother was
candles. The one thing my mom was
and raped by her abuser, and then the law
beaten and strangled as though they were
insistent upon was that she couldn't afford
charges her with a crime. First he victimized
everyday domestic events.
to put me through college-but
that my
her, and now she'svictimized by the system.
For Jones, the key to survival is self-
brain could. So my mother was extremely
It's my hope and my prayer-though I can't
reliance, but she also understands the
hard on me academically:'
tell you what happens in the future-that
I
importance of having a support network. "I
Mrs. Jones bought her daughter books
can make the world see the truth, and that
did not make it out by myself. Some people
and assigned her extra homework, and
is that somebody needed to die, somebody
always threw it at me that I was gonna kill
bliss in the love department. After many
years of leaning on each other for support
and sharing confidences, Jones and Traylor
finally got together when they were both
single at the same time for the first time in
21 years. "Cherisse said, 'If you like Empire,
you should see this show Power. You can
watch it on my TV. So I would come over to
her place every week and watch Power. And
one night I was really tired, and I didn't feel
like it was a really big deal to sleep there on
the couch:'
Traylor thought that Jones was sending
her a signal. Jones wondered if Traylor
was flirting. Once they realized that their
compatibility could be mutual attraction,
they decided to try dating. "My biggest fear
was screwing up a friendship with my best
friend;' says Jones. To everyone else, this
seemed like a match made in heaven, and
friends had long assumed that something
was going on between them. "It was really
interesting that everyone else knew we
should be together except us:'
The couple has plenty in common: Both
have been full-scholarship college athletes
(and started
competing
against each
other in 1982), both have been TV reality
contestants (Jones on Survivor, Traylor
on American Gladiator), both have been
businesswomen for the past 20 years, and
both are strong black women committed to
myself like my daddy did, because I was
just like him. At some point, I just had to
lean on people, so my grandmother was
my life support sometimes, my aunt, my
coach, sometimes my teammates, even
though they didn't know it. If my teammates
had dinner at their house and I was there,
it meant I would have food that night. So I
used my support system, because without
them I'm sure I could be on welfare, in
prison, or dead, like very many people
in my family:'
Today, life is good for Jones, and all is
that she would be sending to other women
of color, whether successful or struggling.
Once she was reassuredthat there would be
no over-the-top bitchiness, no hair-pulling or
kicking, she was in. Producers wanted some
drama, but mostly they wanted to focus
on the legal practices of the six successful
women: Jones, Juanita Jackson, Vivian King,
Rhonda Wills, Monique Sparks, and Tiye
Foley.
"I thought that was very good, very
important. Because whenever you look
at any of those legal shows, you always
see it from the police perspective, or the
prosecutor's perspective, or the objective
perspective. They always make it seem like
the person who did it is a bad person.
"The truth is, sometimes people are
wrongly identified and stay in prison forever.
Sometimes we
have innocent
people
who the system believes are guilty and
the system goes to any means necessary
to convict them. And it's just not right.
Sometimes we have people who are bad
people and I think [the show] shows our
struggle to deal with those cases, how
hard we fight-and
I think we should fight
regardless. Sometimes people have a really
bad impression of criminal defense lawyers.
They think we're slimeballs. They think we're
the scum of the earth, and they don't realize
our moral and ethical struggles. I think the
show personalizes us-and sometimes you
have good people who do bad things and
sometimes you have good people who do
stupid things. I think it just adds a dimension
achieving their personal best.
But Jones's athletic power and ambition
were not enough to help her win Survivor:
Jones making a tourniquet for an injured
competitor; they also edited out footage of
in the legal arena that we never see:'
And Sisters In Law makes an important
her swimming like an Olympian-because
class distinction that precious few other
reality TV shows make: While Jones and
Palau in 2004. "I remember making it to
black people can't swim, can they? "I literally
the round where they're deciding on the
swam a half-mile, but they didn't show me
her "sisters in law" look like a million bucks
finalists, and one of the producers asked
swimming. And I swam it faster than white
today, all of them "grew up really poor;' says
me point blank: 'Black women on TV are
people. I realized the power of editing on
Jones. "All of us worked really hard, and
portrayed as bitches, how would you feel
Survivor:'
now we're successful-as opposed to most
reality TV shows where if the woman is rich
if we portrayed you as a bitch?' And my
So when the offer to join the lineup
answer was, 'Well, I think that any woman
of Sisters In Law came along, Jones was
it's because she married money or she was
under the right circumstances can be a
cautious: Would this be another black-
already wealthy. And so that's just another
reason why I agreed to do it:'
bitch. I think all women can also be caring
women-as-bitches spectacle? Jones was a
or helpful or mean or nice or maternal or
natural for the show: a community pillar in
When the show began filming, Jones
whatever. I hope you show a well-rounded
Houston, a city councilwoman, an attorney,
identified as bisexual. "I've dated more men
view of me: And of course they showed
an activist since the 1980s, and "as close to a
than I have women. I was going through that
me as a bitch:'
local celebrity here as anybody:' But she had
process where I was trying to figure me out.
to consider her reputation and the message
So when they were interviewing me, they
The producers edited out footage of
community does not judge you, and very
kept asking me, What kind of guy do you
money. I don't chase the dollar. Rhonda's
like?' And finally I said, 'Dude, I'm bisexual,
probably going to have designer clothes
many other communities judge you. People
I'm dating a woman: Well, I now consider
and I will not. I will go to whatever store I
are just free to be who they are. I love that
myself lesbian, because I believe I've met
want to and throw it all together and that is
about the community:'
my soul mate. I've known her forever, we've
what I'll wear because that is me. If you look
been friends forever, so I believe I'm lesbian
at me on social media, you'll see that I often
now because I can't imagine dating a man
post without makeup, so I'm OK with me,
engaged in her own civil rights activism
anymore:'
but if I go to [an event] I'm going to walk in
for years. "I'm glad to see that the world is
with my own style:'
catching up and that people are talking
Jones sees her heterosexual past as the
While
Jones
applauds
the
#BlacklivesMatter movement, she's been
about it, because I recognize in my law
product of socialization, and feels that the
Part of her own style is her shaved
scales tipped in favor of heteronormative
head. "I'm bald by choice. I don't have
practice that the police stop black kids for
representations
cancer-some people have asked me if I've
stuff that they never stop white kids for. For
"I'm hopeful that they'll show my healthy
had chemo. No, I just think that people's
example, in Houston they stop black kids for
relationship with
my very smart, self-
definition of beauty probably looks like
walking in the street when there is a sidewalk
professional, businesswoman
Rhonda, but I challenge the notion that
provided, but they don't stop whites for
girlfriend. We'll see if they show it! They
in order to be beautiful you have to look
jaywalking in a white neighborhood. A black
employed,
need to
be
adjusted.
their
European. I embrace my African. I embrace
kid and a white kid can be accused of the
significant others, so I am hopeful that
my blackness. I think it's important, and
same thing and the white kid is going to get
they will do the same with us, because
not enough black women embrace their
a really good deal and the black kid is not. I
we have a happy, healthy, productive,
blackness:' When you look at Jones, what
noticed my clients were hurting themselves
and positive relationship. We're not the
you see is real. 'Tm all natural, everything
because they didn't know their rights, so I
stereotypical
you see on me. I haven't had any work
started giving know-your-rights advice. I've
done;' says the 50-year-old.
been [on TV] talking about Michael Brown,
followed
the other women
hard
thug,
with
gold-teeth-
wearing people that they generally portray
"My aunt told me a long time ago, 'Hair
but I've been doing this stuff since 1999.This
Not that there's anything wrong with that,
is like panties. You can change it: I got my
is not new to me. This is new to everybody
else, but it's not to new to me:'
black lesbians as:'
but again, it's a mater of balance. Jones
hair cut off on December 11of 2007, and the
wishes to address the prejudice outside
reason I know that is because the election
Her own son, Jio, has been stopped
the black community, and inside as well.
[for City Council] was Saturday, December
countless times by the police. In one
incident, he was using his mother's car,
It's one of the reasons she's so protective of
8, and I won. I actually wanted to cut my hair
and particular about her self-image. "I was
off before that, but my advisors told me that
unlocking it with her keys, when the police
a very awkward young girl;' she says. "I got
I would scare the shit out of white people
assumed he was breaking into the car and
called a bunch of names: I got called Little
and I could not cut my hair. The barber
pulled a gun on him. "He's always getting
Black African, I got called 'cuckabugs' 'cause
said, 'You're pretty with hair; and I said, 'I'll
stopped and arrested because he's a 6'5"
my hair is so coarse, and that's like self-
be pretty without hair: " Armed with a bold
black man, and of course he's got to be a
hate within the black community:' If Jones
new look and an attitude to match, Jones
seems to act like a diva now (as criminal
continued fighting for her community.
attorney Monique implies in one scene in
In her role as city councilwoman, Jones
which the women all wait for Jones, who
came to the aid of transgender Nikki Araguz,
is late, to arrive for dinner), she does so to
after her firefighter husband, Thomas, died
embrace her blackness. At other times it
on duty, and she became embroiled in a
seems genuine, such as when Jones is late
legal battle over her rights. Jones says she
for her own fundraiser, which is being held
was also the first elected official to visit
in corporate lawyer Rhonda's palatial house,
Houston's Transgender Center. "The people
because Jones'sson is sick.
there were hugging me and crying because
"Rhonda's very coquettish;' says Jones of
no one had ever touched them as if they
her impeccably groomed, rich, femme cast
were human. I pushed for an executive
mate. 'Tm very from-the-streets, I embrace
order, I actually wrote the executive order
the streets. I don't think there's anything
to include transgender people. So even
wrong with being from the ghetto. If you
though I am new to understanding I am
are not OK with people who are from the
lesbian, I was always the gayest person on
ghetto, then you're probably not going to
the City Council. I actually always felt more
be OK with me, and I'm fine with that. I don't
comfortable in the GLBT community than
drive a Bentley because I'm not driven by
in other communities. Because the GLBT
thug because that's what 6'5" black men are.
But of course you can also be a 12-year-old
black boy, because that's what happened
to Tamir Rice. Because all you have to do is
exist while black:'
The continued racial profiling and racism
in this country concern Jones, as does
the hate mongering that Donald Trump
perpetuated in his election bid. It makes
for a colorful episode on the show when
Katrina Pierson, the national spokesperson
for the Trump campaign, attends Rhonda's
fundraiser for Jones, who is campaigning
to win a place on the board of the Houston
Independent School District. Rhonda and
Katrina get into a heated political debate
over Katrina'sconservative beliefs as Jolanda
watches, amused-and
surprised. ''I'm on
the Democratic Executive Committee for
the state of Texas, but this was a fundraiser
for my school board race. And I thought
that I probably shouldn't be yelling and
screaming at a fundraiser where I should
have a cool head if I'm going to be elected.
But I was cracking up that Rhonda was a
Democrat. If I had money to bet, I would've
bet that Rhonda was a Republican. That's
why I was laughing:'
It's levity well earned by a woman who
started her legal practice in 1992, drafting
wills for people with full-blown AIDS or T-cell
counts of 200 or less for free. One of the
many reasons she wants to get involved
in education at the school board level is
to effect a better outcome for black and
LGBTyouth. "I have spoken to local school
districts about their obligations to protect
GLBT people. I've worked with the parents
of Asher Brown [the 13-year-old Houston
boy who was driven by bullies to kill himself]
to help pass an anti-bullying bill through
the Texas legislature. Prior to Asher killing
himself, we had been unable to pass a
comprehensive anti-bullying bill in Texas,
and we now have Asher's Law in Texas to
protect LGBTkids:'
It's a treat to see Jones and these strong
women of color band together and fight
for justice, especially in a white, maledominated profession. That's a lot to be
proud of. (jolandajones.com) •
Watch SistersIn Law on wetv.com
73 FEMINISTFINGERLAKES
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Getting there is not often the fun part
of any trip. In the case of the Florida Keys,
the easy drive along the Overseas Highway
(U.S. Route 1),which stretches for 113miles
from Miami to Key West, is one of the many
reasons to visit. This miracle of engineering
spans endless aquamarine water-the
Atlantic on one side, the Gulf of Mexico
on the other-and cuts through tropical
savannah. It's a little vacation in itself. Just
put some road trip music on your sound
system and keep your camera at the ready.
From Key Largo to Key West, this far-flung
coral archipelago of 800 islands has the
advantage of being not only scenic, but
also queer-friendly.
On your drive down, and to rid yourself
of any lingering stress, stop at Bahia Honda
State Park (at Mile Marker 36), with its
beautiful white sand beach. It's perfectly
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placed for a quick swim or snorkel, or
maybe just a pause to marvel at the
endless horizon. You can also fuel up at
the snack bar and use the park's facilities.
Then it's onward to that errant brushstroke
that arcs off the tip of Florida. These are
the Keys-the coral reefs and islands that
form the visible edge of the submerged
Florida Plateau. This is a haven for artists
and fisher-folk, drinkers and dropouts, and
anybody who wants to get away from the
cares and concerns of the continental U.S.
ISLAMORADA
At Mile Marker 88, an hour and a half
south of Miami, is lslamorada, or the Village
of Islands. This is a delightful place to break
FEATURES/
your journey if you're headed to Key West,
since it's almost halfway. But lslamorada
is well worth stopping at, if for no other
reason than to experience Amara Cay
Resort (amaracayresort.com).
Forget the shell-ridden Florida kitsch of
the many roadside motels you'll pass along
the way. Amara Cay Resort is upscale,
contemporary, and will please the most
discerning LGBT traveler. Amara Cay's
suites were recently renovated-sparing
no expense-and now showcase the latest
trends in tropical design. Many suites
feature their own living areas, with bigscreen TVs and balconies that offer pool
or ocean views. The resort is spacious and
boasts its own palm-fringed waterfront. I
was content to laze on a lounge chair and
watch the pelicans frolic-that is, when I
myself wasn't frolicking in the huge pool.
Enjoy a tropical cocktail at Sparrow's Rum
Bar, poolside, and for lunch sup on Florida
favorites such as fresh fish tacos, grilled
jumbo shrimp, and Key lime pie. In season,
an outdoor massage is also available.
This resort has it all, but it's fun to
take the complimentary Mercedes-Benz
Sprinter to nearby Pelican Cove, which has
a private beach and floating dive platform.
(The use of the facilities and amenities
such as paddle boards and peddle boats
is included in the Amara Cay resort fee. )
Or you can be lazy, like I was, and have a
snooze in the giant hammock. When you
are ready to depart, just call
the front desk at Amara Cay
and the Sprinter will pick you
up and bring you back.
At sunset, cocktails at
Pierre's at Morada Bay is a
must. From the comfort of
the white sand beach outside
this stately plantation-style
restaurant (moradabay.com/
pierres), you'll see locals and
visitors alike converging to
witness the stunning sunsets
across the Gulf. It's tempting
to stay on for dinner, and why
not-the food is good! But you
do have other options. Chef
Michael's is a local favorite
(foodtotalkabout.com), and if
you've already satisfied your
seafood cravings, check out
MEAT Eatery and Taproom
(meateatery.com).
But it's really hard to look past
Amara Cay Resort's Oltremare, a finedining restaurant with a hip vibe, lively
atmosphere, friendly and knowledgeable
staff (some of whom are LGBT!), and
trendy cocktails, too. The food here is
delicious and the menu has been created
with great care by Chef Dario. It is fresh
local seafood with a Mediterranean twist,
but also flatbread, pasta, braised short
ribs, duck breast, and Veal Saltimbocca.
It's definitely the place to tuck into a deluxe
and freshly prepared breakfast before you
check out and head on your way.
KEY WEST
A two-hour drive south of lslamorada, at
the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys,
is Key West. The attitude of secession
in this tropical frontier town earned the
island its nickname, the Conch Republic,
and even today people seem to do just
as they please here. My fascination with
Key West began when I discovered that
it was the adopted home of three of my
favorite
writers-Tennessee
Williams,
Ernest Hemingway, and Elizabeth Bishop.
Both Bishop and Williams were gay, and
Hemingway was a master of simple and
unadorned prose who conjured some
feisty female characters.
Bishop, who lived in Key West for over
a decade, wrote to Marianne Moore, "I
have one Key West story that I must tell
TRA
you. It is more like the place than anything
I can think of. The other day I went to the
china closet to get a little white bowl to put
some flowers in and when I was rinsing it I
noticed some little black specks. I said to
Mrs. Almyda, 'I think we must have mice'but she took the bowl over to the light and
studied it and after a while she said, 'No,
them's lizard.' "
There will be no reptiles in your room
at the Silver Palms Inn on Truman Avenue
(silverpalmsinn.com)-not
unless you
invite them! Situated in Old Town Key
West, the Silver Palms is an affordable, fun,
modern boutique hotel with an outdoor
saltwater pool, and it's a manageable walk
from all the action of Duval Street. You're in
good lesbian hands here-Mey Espinoza,
formerly the manager of Pearl's, is the
general manager and welcomes women
all year round, but especially in September
during WomenFest.
WomenFest is September 7 to 11 this
year, and judging from past years there'll
be plenty to see and do. There's a drag
king pageant, karaoke, wine tasting, art
exhibitions, sunset sails, watersports,
concerts, dance parties, tea dances, pool
parties, football, and more. Presented by
the Key West Business Guild, a nonprofit
organization devoted to promoting Key
West to LGBTA travelers, WomenFest is
worth going south for! (womenfest.com)
But your first bite of the queer cherry
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ought to be Key West Pride, June 8 to 12
(keywestpride.org). Key West has a lot to
be proud of. Gay men and their lesbian
friends were in large part responsible for
the island's gentrification in the 1970s and
'80s, and today there are still numerous
gay-owned guesthouses (gaykeywestfl.
com). For women, I recommend The
Gardens Hotel (gardenshotel.com), a
tropical oasis and a lovely spot for a glass
of fine wine at the d'vine Wine Gallery,
even if you're not staying there. Another
charming place is Alexander's Guesthouse,
a restored conch-style house on a quiet
street in Old Town. It is exclusively LGBT
(alexanderskeywest.com).
While you're gadding about, it's
important to fuel up on food. Breakfast at
Blue Heaven (blueheavenkw.com) in the
historic Bahama Village neighborhood is a
local pastime, but I love The Banana Cafe,
a classic French bistro with a Josephine
Baker motif, overlooking upper Duval
Street
(bananacafekw.com). Azur Key
West presents delicious, Mediterraneaninspired plates and often features daily
or seasonal discounts. Try the eggplant
chips drizzled with infused honey
(azurkeywest.com). Deuce's Off The Hook
(offthehookkeywest.com), located in a
quintessential island shop front and tucked
away on a side street off Duval, serves
hearty, fresh, bistro-style grilled seafood
and is owned by two local lesbians.
Whenever I'm in town, I take a Wind and
Wine Sunset Sail with Danger Charters
(dangercharters.com). It's an upscale,
intimate sunset experience where you
can enjoy fine international wines and
antipasto on a sailboat with a mediumsize group of likeminded sailors and winelovers. It's a lot of fun and a chance to meet
new friends, too. Don't forget to tip the
enthusiastic crew.
SUNSET KEY
It turns out that Key West isn't the end
after all! Sunset Key is a short boat ride
across Key West Harbour from the Westin
Key West Resort & Marina. The Sunset Key
Guest Cottages, part of the Westin Resort
(sunsetkeycottages.com), is a secluded
and luxe vacation community featuring
40 impeccably decorated two-, three-,
and four-bedroom cottages (wedding
party, anyone?), plus a boutique spa with
private treatment suites, an exclusive and
sheltered beach, waterfront dining, a
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tropical swimming pool, and
tennis courts.
If these luxury cottages
and their surrounds are out
of your price range this time,
make a note to save up and
come back. There really is
nowhere like it! Simply have a
drink at Latitudes Outside bar
or dine at Latitudes restaurant
while watching the sunset.
At one of the outdoor tables,
underneath the swaying palm
trees, you'll feel as though
you're sIttIng ringside at
paradise. The extraordinary,
fresh fare you can sample
by the light of the flaming
tiki torches includes locallysourced fish such as grilled
Florida lobster tail and saffroncrusted black grouper. This is
special occasion material, and
there's no better way to end
your trip in the Florida Keys
than in a sunset-like blaze of
glory. (fla-keys.com) •
FEATURES/
TRA
On the road to women's history
in New York's beautiful Finger
Lakes. Bv MARCIE BIANco
ights movement, women
rth, to the Finger Lakes
ork State. Lady Liberty may
freedom was imagined and cultivated in
upstate New York.
In the mid-19th century, the Finger
Lakes became a crucible of civil rights
movements: Harriet Tubman and Frederick
Douglass led the abolitionist movement
from their homes in Auburn and Rochester,
N.Y., as Tubman would lead "freedom
takers"
through
the
Underground
Railroad to the homes of abolitionists and
suffragists, where they could find refuge.
Inspired by activists like Matilda Joslyn
Gage, other women in the abolitionist
movement began to question their own
place in American society. From the
first Women's Rights Convention held in
Seneca Falls in 1848, through the passage
of the 19th Amendment in 1919, women
suffragists congregated in the region,
holding conventions and meetings at the
homes of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Susan B. Anthony. And both abolitionists
and suffragists benefited tremendously
from the Haudenosaunee-also known as
the Iroquois-when it came to lessons in
civility and the treatment of women.
Whether you take the New York State
Underground Railroad Heritage Trail or
the state's Votes for Women History Trail,
the Finger Lakes offers a rich and inspiring
history lesson for travelers wanting to feel
connected to the country's revolutionary
spirit. And if researching all those decades
of activism leaves you thirsty, you're in
luck: The Finger Lakes region is known
for its burgeoning wine industry. There
are over 100 wineries in the Finger Lakes,
with over 30 along the Seneca Lake Wine
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Trail alone. Deliciously dry, crisp Riesling or
barrel select Petite Sirah can be sampled
at the woman-owned Long Point Winery
(longpointwinery.com)
in Aurora. This
winery is part of the Cayuga Lake Wine
Trail (cayugawinetrail.com), speckled with
16 wineries and adorned with rustic, locally
sourced restaurants and farmers' markets.
HOME OF WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE
In Seneca Falls, you can visit the
Elizabeth Cady Stanton House on a tour led
by a member of the National Park Service.
Stanton was a rabble-rouser who drifted
slightly from the movement in the late-19th
century, when it created a coalition with
the temperance movement. The result
meant the inclusion of Christianity in the
movement. Stanton, however, believed
that there should be a firm separation
between church and state, and that
religion was a central cause of women's
oppression. Needless to say, her friendship
with Susan B. Anthony-some say it was
quite intimate-figured prominently in the
movement for many years. Not only did
Stanton write the speeches that Anthony
delivered to the public, it was Stanton who
also wrote the Declaration of Sentimentsthe women's declaration of rights-which
was signed by 300 people at the first
convention in Seneca Falls.
In town, you should visit the Women's
Right's National Historical Park, a center
that has a huge collection of historical
materials from the women's rights
movement, from the mid-19th century until
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today. Adjacent is the Wesleyan Chapel,
where the first women's rights convention
was held in 1848. Just down the street,
in the heart of the historic district, is the
National Women's Hall of Fame, the oldest
membership
organization
dedicated
to recognizing the achievements of
American women. Every year, the Hall of
Fame inducts women from the humanities,
the sciences, the arts, and athletics,
among others. Read the biographies of
some of your heroes, from Ida B. Wells
to Bella Abzug; Barbara Jordan to Gloria
Steinem.
If you're hungry, there's no other place
to stop for refreshment than Cafe XIX
(xixcafe.com), perfect for lunch, and
dedicated to the women behind the 19th
Amendment.
Not far from Seneca Falls is a surprising
women's history must-see: the Iroquois
White Corn and Seneca Art & Culture
Center at Ganondagan State Historic Site
(ganondagan.org/sacc). The home of the
Seneca people, one of the six nations
of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy,
Ganondagan, means "town of peace." The
Haudenosaunee is a matrilineal society;
you are a member of your tribe by virtue
of your mother. Suffragists learned many
things from the Senecas. The Center is an
incredible 3,000-square-foot interactive
gallery and multimedia cultural space
where you can learn about the history
of the Seneca nation. Outside, there is
a historic longhouse still used by the
Senecas today.
If you'd prefer to start your women's
history tour at the border, then the first
stop should be the Susan B. Anthony
House in Rochester. Anthony, one of the
major contenders to be the first woman
featured on U.S. paper currency, lived
at this house from 1866 until her death
in 1906 (susanbanthonyhouse.org). She
wrote, planned, and organized there, and
hosted numerous suffragists. She was
also notoriously arrested at home in 1872
for attempting to vote. Today, the home
is filled with memorabilia, photographs,
and family furnishings. In all, there are
5,000 artifacts related to her life and work.
Complete your education on this suffragist
by visiting her grave, located at the Mount
Hope Cemetery (FMOH.org). Frederick
Douglass is also buried there.
Less than two hours southeast of
Anthony's House you'll find the Matilda
Joslyn Gage House (matildajoslyngage.
org), in Syracuse. Gage was the most
radical of all the suffragists because
she firmly believed there was no place
for religion in the U.S. Constitution. She
entered the women's rights movement
in 1852 after giving an unscheduled
speech at the National Women's Rights
Convention. Unfortunately, she was largely
written out of women's history-some say,
thanks to Anthony, some say, because
of her atheism, which she espouses in
her incendiary text Woman, Church and
State. Gage's house was a station on the
Underground Railroad, and served as a
respite for travelers. Today's visitors are
encouraged to interact with the historical
materials, from trying on a contemporary
corset to taking a seat at the desk where
Gage did her writing. Interestingly, Gage
was the mother-in-law of L. Frank Baum,
the creator of The Wizard of Oz. Gage
was the one who encouraged Baum to
write down his tales. Some say Dorothy's
personality has a touch of Gage's bite.
Also in Syracuse, if you have time, is
the house of Harriet May Mills, who was a
prominent suffragist and the first woman
to run for statewide office. But if you'd
like to visit the house, you'll need to call
in advance to make an appointment
(harrietmaymills.org).
WHERE TO STAY
In Seneca Falls, check out the Gould
Hotel in the town's historic district.
The hotel's restaurant serves the best
dinner in town-make sure to have the
scallops, either as an appetizer or as the
main course, and prepare to be wowed
(thegouldhotel.com).
In Rochester, there is no better place
to enjoy all your creature comforts than
the Strathallan Rochester, a DoubleTree
by Hilton hotel; it has a pool and a gym
for visitors (strathallan.com). Char, the
Strathallan's fine restaurant, is populated
with locals on a nightly basis. While it is
known for its steaks, I heartily recommend
the rabbit dish for dinner. And the
deconstructed Meyer Lemon Semifreddo
for dessert is a sweet and refreshing way
to cap off a fine meal.
In Syracuse, stay where Oprah has
stayed, at the Jefferson-Clinton Hotel.
The spacious suites are fitted with
kitchens, so you can prepare your own
meals (jeffersonclintonhotel.com). While
the hotel does serve a complimentary
breakfast, it has no restaurant, so for
a fun dinner, support your sisters and
check out lesbian-owned-and-operated
Laci's tapas bar in Syracuse's gay district
(lacistapasbar.com). Laura and her partner
Cindy make it a point to employ local
women and give back to the community.
If you're trekking around Cayuga Lake
and enjoying the local fare and wine, the
Inns of Aurora offers luxurious boutique
guest rooms on the shores of the lake
(innsofaurora.com). Close by is the artisan
home furnishings giant MacKenzie-Childs.
On its 65-acre farm overlooking Cayuga
Lake, you'll find the LLC production studio,
where they mold, decorate, and fire the
clay used to create their famous ceramics,
in addition to the farmhouse and shop
(mackenzie-childs.com).
GETTING THERE
You can fly into Rochester and Syracuse,
but for East Coast travelers, Amtrak is the
best option for casual and carefree service
(amtrak.com).
The Votes for Women History Trail is not
walkable; public transportation is spotty
and often unavailable in the countryside.
If you plan to travel around the Trail and
check out wine country at your own
leisurely pace, driving is your best option.
Car rentals are available at local airports
and at some train stations.
WHEN TO VISIT
To take advantage of the natural
splendour of the Finger Lakes, including
the locally grown produce, the region is
best visited in summer, spring, and fall.
(iloveny.com/lgbt/) •
The big gay future has arrived
in the Irish capital.
BY KELSY CHAUVIN
gray, drizzly afternoon in Dublin,
overheard someone say, "We carry our
sunshine on the inside." I buy that. People
are so warm in this humble, historic city
that travelers come to feel less like tourists
and more like they're just home for a visit.
Maybe it's that combination of rain and
sunshine that's put Ireland's capital city on
a long-term blooming streak. Eversince the
1990s tech boom, Dublin has undergone
an economic and cultural upswing that's
helped to preserve its heritage, improve
its infrastructure (public transit and roads),
and solidify its place as a world capital.
Plus there's marriage equality-in a big
way. In May 2015, Ireland became the
first (and so far the only) country ever to
win same-sex marriage rights by popular
vote, with nearly two-thirds of the total
electorate famously voting "yes." Signed
into law by President Michael Higgins as
the 34th Amendment to the Constitution
76
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
of Ireland on August 29, 2015, marriage
equality added these egalitarian words
to the constitution: "Marriage may be
contracted in accordance with law by two
persons without distinction as to their sex."
That triumph was a long time coming.
Ireland's
conservative
streak
kept
homosexuality illegal until 1993, and
marriage equality hasn't magically led
to full LGBT acceptance countrywide, or
even citywide. Yet Irish queers take pride
in the legacy of Dublin's own: Oscar Wilde,
Kate O'Brien, and other dandies have
helped pave the way for today's modern,
open-minded metropolis.
Locals like DJ-performer Vickey Curtis
say that marriage equality marks a political
pivot point, and heralds more good stuff to
come. "Ireland is growing up-it's opening
up-and that is always a great thing," says
Curtis. "I don't necessarily think that we'll
see all the positive changes from the 'yes'
vote immediately. I think we have lots of
changes coming to us over the next few
years."
Dublin has loads of LGBT appeal on a
day-to-day level. While there's no official
gayborhood, there are enough regular
hangouts to keep travelers busy any night
of the week. The most famous is The
George (thegeorge.ie), the South Great
George Street fave that's expanded over
the years and now has two floors, a big
outdoor patio, zany live shows, and plenty
of nooks for flirting with smiling Irish ladies.
PantiBar (pantibar.com) on Capel Street
just across the River Liffey is another goto, and while it's huge with gay boys, lots
of lasses head there too for weeknight
mingling, and to catch the legendary drag
diva Panti Bliss in action most Sundays.
Hacienda is another friendly pub, and
while it's not officially queer, its two pool
tables have proven to be a dyke draw.
Curtis says no lesbian should miss a
visit to the monthly girl party Spinster
(facebook.com/spinstergurl) at Bad Bobs
on Sycamore Street, in the busy nightlife
cluster known as Temple Bar.
While you're donning your drinking
hat-the only hat you really need in
Ireland-there
are two classic tourist
attractions that invite you to imbibe the
city's best. The Guinness Storehouse
(guinness-storehouse.com) is a multi-story
former brew house that's now one of the
world's best brew-tour experiences. View
its famously wild ad series, learn about the
beer's unique brewing process, and pour
yourself a perfect pint to sip at the seventhfloor Gravity Bar-Dublin's only panoramic
high-rise watering hole. The Old Jameson
Distillery is another centrally located tourworthy museum, with a bar serving its
impeccable Irish whiskey, cocktails, and
special Caskmates distillations.
If you think Dublin cuisine is all pubs and
"chippers"-fish-and-chip
joints, like oldschool Leo Burdock (leoburdock.com)it's time to sample the new guard. Fallon &
Byrne (fallonandbyrne.com) is homey yet
chic, with a fine-foods grocery and wine
cellar below, and an atmospheric brasserie
serving craft cocktails on its top floor.
On the Liffey's north shore, beside the
famous Ha'penny Bridge, is the Winding
Stair (winding-stair.com), home to an
inviting bookshop at street level, and
upstairs a simple, charming restaurant
serving traditional Irish dishes made from
local farmer's ingredients.
One of Dublin's biggest selling points
is its walkable size. You can find yourself
perusing the Book of Kells (tcd.ie/Library/
bookofkells) at Trinity College's picturesque
campus; grabbing a coffee in the beautiful
central atrium of Powerscourt Centre
(powerscourtcentre.ie); and soaking up
amazing music history at the Irish Rock 'n'
Roll Museum (irishrocknrollmuseum.com)
all by foot. Or even faster, via the local bikesharing system, Dublinbikes (dublinbikes.
ie).
Hotels are easy to come by, but The
Merrion
(merrionhotel.com)
is top
accommodation priced within reason.
It occupies a row of historic Georgian
townhouses
now unified
into one
property, with a big courtyard, a gorgeous
underground pool and spa, the homey
Cellar Bar and Restaurant, and Ireland's only
two-star Michelin restaurant, Restaurant
Patrick Guilbaud.
The Merrion takes its name from nearby
Merrion Square, a lush park that's home
to one of the city's ultimate attractions: a
multicolored, polished-stone sculpture of
Oscar Wilde, who reclines with a knowing
grin atop a quartz boulder. It makes
perfect sense that the park is now the
end point of Dublin Pride (dublinpride.
ie) each June. The city, like Wilde himself,
passed through turbulent times, but now
both of them can relax and anticipate a
fabulous future. Dublin-based Brendan
Vacations (brendanvacations.com) offers
LGBTtravelers customizable tours and selfdrive journeys, including gay-owned and
gay-friendly hotels, restaurants, and other
points of interest.•
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MAY/JUN
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CURVE
77
LAST LOOK/
II
II
II
I
II
II THE
II L-OUIZ
II
Test your
lesbian knowledge
with our queer crossword.
BY MYLES MELLOR
ACROSS
1.
The L in LGBT
38. Dominatrix perhaps
19. Abby Wambach, e.g.
6.
Job assisting the LGBT cause,
goes with 6 down
39. Flying machine
21. Military rank, abbr.
9.
Adjust into graceful folds
11. _ Fund and Institute,
promoting change at
governmental level, often
offering jobs
40. Pride month honors the
memory of these riots
22. Have some sushi
41. Say it isn't so!
23. While
43. See 22 across
25. Community_,
44. Self-_,
pride in oneself
one who
assists with counseling and
education
12. In secret, 2 words
DOWN
14. An Oscar Wilde type
26. Jobs are often available
15. Fair treatment, expected in
the workplace
1.
Main squeeze
assisting people victimized
2.
Juicy
by domestic _
20. Be indebted to
3.
Ellen is one, for many
22. Position organizing LGBT
get-togethers, goes with 43
across
4.
Airport abbreviation
5.
Thumbs down
6.
See 6 across
7.
Prattle
8.
It takes _ to tango
23. Serving like Billie Jean
24. Portland's state
25. Gray shade
30. Clairvoyance, e.g.
10. Networking events held for
the LGBT community to assist
in finding jobs, often held in
San Francisco, 2 words
32. Fund for later years
13. Nonsense!
33. Commotion
16. Barrister in the UK, abbr.
35. You might include a picture
like this in your resume
17. Road trip stopover
27. Taught in a one-on-one
setting
78
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
18. Hello!
28. Get some good out of
29. The kind of friends that go
way back
31. LGBT celebrations often
looking for volunteer help
34. Hill on a beach
35. Stockings
36. Waikiki welcome
37. Informal farewell, 2 words
39. Paper towel layer
42. Before noon
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LAST LOOK/
STARS
Mere rv Risina
If the upcoming summer feels hotter than usual,chalk it up to sensualVenus in
earthy Taurus,and Mars in feisty Sagittarius. By Charlene Lichtenstein
(March 21-April 20)
Astronaut Sally Ride would have
turned 65 on May 26 .
..
I 1r
• •-
(April 21-May 21)
(April 21-May 21)
Amazon Bulls are perhaps the
best money managers of the
zodiac. If you have some funds
to invest, she will not put your
life savings in derivatives or
other crazy high-risk money
schemes. More than likely,she
will carefully place your nest egg
in a conservative money market
or annuity. It may not triple in
a year, but you are practically
guaranteed to feast on fluffy
omelets in your old age.
/
;
While you mellow out,
dramatic things may be
happening behind the
scenes. But these shouldn't
be a source of stress for you,
Gemini. In fact, you may have a
guardian angel grappling with
all of those loose lips running
rampant. Discover a few loose
lips yourself and use them for
other purposes.
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
(Aug 24-Sep 23)
(Nov 23-Dec 22)
While Sagittarians are not
naturally graceful, your
errant ways now make you
adorably adept at twisting
the hearts of unsuspecting
admirers. You make an
amazing, if overwhelming,
first impression. So spread
yourself thin and see who you
can meet, greet and sweep off
her feet.
(Dec23-Jan20)
Virgos may feel pulled in two
directions. On the one hand,
they may be happy to just
hang around the house and
cocoon with a select few.
On the other hand, they may
want to break out of their
daily routine and see exotic
places. Why not combine the
two? Invite a hot and spicy
enchilada home and feast.
Capricorns will find ways of
churning the gossip mill as
they sprinkle their scandals all
over town. Good! Sometimes
you need to break out of your
conventions and goodie-twoshoes tendencies. See how
much you can ratchet up the
romance. Your sizzly summer
heat wave starts early.
(Sep 24-Oct 23)
Gal pals get into your act and
vice versa. They may want
to do things that are not that
interesting to you. Decide
how much you are willing to
conform to the group dynamic
and how much you want to do
your own thing. Independent
Aqueerians may not want to
be so tied down .... But some
of them like it that way.
Speak the words of love and
she will be compelled to
follow you anywhere, Libra.
You are not only charming,
sexy and cajoling, you seem
to know just what to say to
sweep a girl off her feet. Go
with the sensual flow and see
which shore you wash up on
before summer gets started.
This is your quest with May.
Then add June.
(June 22-July 23)
Use these merry months to
cement friendships and find
new bosom buddies. It is time
to freshen your style with your
very stylish (and growing)
entourage. And who knows
what summer love affair can
Charlene
Lichtenstein
istheauthor
brew in this frothy company.
A Guide
to Astrology
of HerScopes:
Of course, all of this will require
ForLesbians
(Simon
& Schuster)
a move up and out from your
nowavailable
asanebook
(tinyurl.com/HerScopes).comfy chair, Cancer.
80
(July 24-Aug 23)
They love you around the
office, and why not? You are
an eager beaver ready to
handle any task, no matter
how tedious. You impress
the big bosses and may be
envisioning a reward for your
efforts. Yawn. Life is too short
to kowtow to the powerful
few. Get into some mischief
and polish some other apples.
(Jan 21-Feb 19)
I'
(May 22-June 21)
Taureans have a certain special
charismatic quality to them
now and they can use their
irresistible charm to sweep any
woman they see off their feet.
Get your plans together and
make a strategic move that is
guaranteed to get her exactly
where you want her. Hmmm,
are we talking figuratively or
metaphorically?
(May 22-June 21)
/
Twins are always "on" because
they yearn to be popular and "in
the know." Expect your Gemini to
be surrounded by gal pals who air
kiss and chitchat all at the same
time. If you feel jealous seeing her
interact with so many attractive
babes, don't beat yourself up
over it. They are known for
their flirtatious behavior and
wandering eye. They have also
been known to tell a fib or two, so
be warned!
What do you really value
Aries? And even more
importantly, who do you really
value? Your tastes can run
to the very spicy and highly
exotic now. But this may be a
passing taste of wanderlust.
So use the time to see who
really winds your clock and is
truly worth your time. You like
regularly moving hands!
(Oct 24-Nov 22)
Treat your lovergrrl to
anything her heart desires.
Chances are her heart only
desires you. But if her tastes
tend to much more expensive
trinkets, try to find a way of
keeping her yearnings in your
budget. They say that the best
things in life are free but really,
what do they know?
(Feb 20-March 20)
Guppies may feel that they
need to give bosses a little
extra push to be sure they
heard you the first time.
Believe me, they heard you
the first time. Relax and
spend a more productive
time kanoodling with a
certain lovely. Give her your
spiel and you may advance
further up her ladder into her
executive starchamber.
(.§1 "It
will give you
goosebu m PS'' - AfterEUen.com
PACKED~A
ri;~lM,<;When writer-director JaneAnderson(HBO'sNormal,If TheseWalls
DITH LA.KE
WILKINSON
Could Talk2) learns her great-aunt Edith was put in an asylum for being
Tl
a lesbian, she set out to learn about the woman whose beautiful
paintings (rescuedfrom a dusty trunk) had inspired her
own career,and to have Edith's work recognized fn
the art world.
"Genuinely moving ...
tells an eye-opening story."
- The Hollywood Reporter
start to finish this film takes you on a
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"From
Indian writer/director Shonali Bose
beautifully portrays the story of a
luminous Indian teenager with oerebral
palsy who leaves her homeland to study
in New York, falls 1n love with a young
blind woman, ancf begins a remarkable
journey to self~discovery and
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- Screen
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smart, successtul, and charmIng, Elsie is
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conflicting advice from friends, and the
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11
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FFICIA1SELECTIO)".
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MAY/JUN
2016
FEATURES
36
POWER SUITS FOR PRIDE
The Tailory brings back
classic blazers and pants with
androgynous flair.
~~
MEAND
MS.JONES
Meet the powerful,
out attorneytu rned-sta r of WE
TV's docuseries
SistersIn Law.
SHOOTING FOR THE STARS
Queer women in TV are finally
taking control behind the
cameras and changing what
and how we view.
~,
LESBIAN ACHIEVERS
Our profiles of powerful
women for Pride.
5~
OUT IN OKLAHOMA
A lesbian cowboy opens up
about her life, love, and work in
the heartland.
69
OUR FAVORITE VALENTINES
Rockers Hunter Valentine lay
down their instruments and
take a break.
70
FLORIDA FUN
The Keys are the place for an
all-girl getaway, not to mention
perfect sunsets.
73
SUFFRAGIST SOJOURN
Head to upstate New York for
a trip down Feminist Lane, and
some fine wine, too.
76
DUBLIN SAYS 'I DO'
The Irish capital is brimming
with Pride since the Yes vote.
MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
1
CONTENTS
MAY/JUN
2016
42
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
IN EVERYISSUE
4
EDITOR'S NOTE
6
CURVETTES
8
FEEDBACK
11
THE GAYDAR
80
STARS
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
TRENDS
REVIEWS
12 LES LOOKS LIKE
Each issue we pick a lucky lez
with a look and a life to match.
24 MUSIC
Ann Wilson from powerful and
iconic rock 'n' roll sister act
Heart. By Dave Steinfeld
13 LESBOFILE
What's new and noteworthy
with our favorite celesbians.
By Jocelyn Voo
18 OUT IN FRONT
Meet the community leaders
who are doing us proud. By
Sheryl Kay
18 IN CASE YOU MISSED
IT ...
LGBT news from across the
country. By Sassafras Lowrey
VIEWS
16 ISSUES
Our in-depth look into a hot
button topic affecting queer
women.
18 POLITICS
Deep thoughts and heartfelt
convictions on a different topic
each issue from our contributing politics editor. By Victoria
A. Brownworth
20 ADVICE
Experts with insider info on all
manner of problems, from love
to money to health.
2
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
26 FILMS
Director Tina Mabry's persistence to tell her personal story
pays off. By Joey Nolfi
30 BOOKS
Sarah Schulman has paved
the road for many lesbians of
literature and activism. Read
her new (and some say best)
book, The Cosmopolitans. By
Marcie Bianco
32 SHORT STORY
"The Light of the World" will
intrigue you with its tale of
a lesbian uncovering her
grandmother's past. By Ellen
Simpson
LAST LOOK
78 CROSSWORD
Can you tame our Queer Quiz?
By Myles Mellor
-
Ticket to Pride
T
here's nothing like an election year to make you
reevaluate the meaning of Pride.
For those of us who live in major U.S. cities with
"gayborhoods" and large Pride parades; for those
of us who work in fields that cater to or embrace the LGBT
demographic, it's possible to live in a rainbow-colored bubblewhere the political vicissitudes of the outside world don't often
intrude. Such a privileged existence can be shaken during the
storm of a federal election, and even by the passage of regressive
state laws (over 85 anti-LGBT bills have been introduced in 28
states, including North Carolina, Mississippi, and Texas).
During the presidential primaries and caucuses, it's been
fascinating for me as an observer (I am not eligible to vote) to
watch people pledge their support to certain candidates. It has
also been troubling in some respects.
It strikes me as curious that there are many lesbians who vote
Republican, even as they enjoy the fruits of marriage equality
and other rights not bestowed upon them by their chosen
representatives. Also curious to me are lesbians who choose to
live in states that consistently deny equal rights to LGBTpeople.
Yet, I understand, because as friends and followers on social
media frequently remind me, we are more than just our gender
identities and sexual preferences.
Sometimes the ties of family and finances drive our voting
preferences. Sometimes our cultural backgrounds and personal
histories do. Where you come from, where you live, how you
were raised, and how much you earn are powerful factors in
voter preference. Feelings also play a role: Who you like, who
you hate, and who you fear can sway you one way or another.
Emotions run high during elections, and fact, reason, and
objectivity fly out the window. Often, so do our LGBT identities.
We are asked to focus on enormous issues such as national
security and international conflict. Suddenly, which bathroom
we are permitted to use, who has access to our vaginas, and
who we get into bed with at night are on the sidelines. But they
shouldn't be. Our elected officials can end up as our bathroom
attendants and gynecologists-just ask North Carolina or Texas!
The civic engagement required to don a rainbow-colored
T-shirt, find some Mardi Gras beads, and go to the parade may
seem very different from the civic responsibility required at the
voting booth. But are they different, and should they be? If we
could really connect the two, what might change for the better
at a national level for lesbians, women, and LGBTpeople?
In this issue, we celebrate many types of Pride-Lesbian Pride,
Black Pride, Feminist Pride, even Cowboy Pride. When you go to
the polls this year, take the rainbow with you. Chances are you'll
need it in the next few years.
!z
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
merryn@curvemag.com
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ANITA DOLCE VITA
Anita is a fashion and culture blogger whose work has
been featured in The Huffington Post, Huffington Post
Live, Vice, Nylon, Refinery29, The Daily Beast, Canada's
curve
THE BEST-SELLING
MAY/JUN
2016
LESBIAN
» VOLUME
MAGAZINE
26 NUMBER
3
Globe & Mail, San Francisco Weekly, Curve, The Advocate,
OUT magazine, and Spain's S. Moda, to name a few. She
has produced acclaimed queer fashion shows held at
world-renowned cultural institutions, including Brooklyn
Museum and the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. In
2016, Anita produced and moderated the first ever queer
style panel hosted at SXSW. Visit dapperQ.com.
PUBLISHER Silke Bader
FOUNDINGPUBLISHER Frances Stevens
EDITORIAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Merryn Johns
SENIORCOPY EDITOR Katherine Wright
CONTRIBUTINGEDITORS Melanie Barker, Marcie Bianco,
Victoria A. Brownworth, Lyndsey D'Arcangelo, Anita
Dolce Vita, Sheryl Kay, Gillian Kendall, Dave Steinfeld,
Jocelyn Voo
EDITORIALASSISTANTSAnnalese Davis
OPERATIONS
DIRECTOROF OPERATIONS Jeannie Sotheran
PROOFING
JOEY NOLFI
Joey is an entertainment blogger from Pittsburgh,
Penn. currently residing in New York City. His work has
appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, AFROPUNK,
and East End Fashion Magazine. When he's not writing
film reviews or drafting essays for his website,
ServingCinema.com, he spends his time patiently willing
the Academy to award Julianne Moore another Oscar. His
interview with filmmaker Tina Mabry is on page 24. Follow
Joey @joeynolfi
PROOFREADER lndre McGinn
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ART/PRODUCTION
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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
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LAURENLOGIUDICE
Lauren is a writer and performer in television and film, and
also creates original work through solo plays, storytelling,
and sketch comedy characters. Her work has been
featured by The New York Times, BBC, Roma C'e', Bust
Magazine, and NY1,among others. After graduating from
Wesleyan University, she received the William J. Clinton
Fellowship for Service in India to work on HIV education
in queer communities. Lauren currently presents her solo
play Garbo Dreams as a member of the Campus Pride
Speaker's Bureau. Follow her blog at laurenlogi.com.
ELLEN SIMPSON
Ellen graduated from the University of Vermont in 2010,
majoring in political science with an emphasis on media
and its effects on society. She is the story editor and
social media writer for the popular web series Carmilla,
now in its second season. For a taste of her fiction, read
an excerpt from her novel The Light of the World on page
32. She currently resides in North Carolina, but is a
Vermonter at heart. Follow Ellen @anamatics
CONTACT INFO
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Volume 26 Issue 3 Curve (ISSN 1087-867X) is published 6 times
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RONT /
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your great work.
-Evelyne Penfornis-Platel, via
Facebook.
STAY STRONG, AND STAY
LESBIAN
I just received The Body
Issue [Vol. 26#2]. Thank
you for the article on
Bees Cronshaw. I'm very
interested in fitness and
strong women. If they are
lesbians it is even better. So
thank you very much. On
another subject: keep the
[tagline] "lesbian magazine"
written on the cover. I know
the magazine is inclusive
and all but LESBIAN visibility
is very important. Still very
important. Thank you for
we could all learn a thing or
two from the Queen of Rock!
Peace and love, Forever
Melissa's LuckyLauren ...
MELISSA IS OUR ONLY ONE
-Lauren T. Causey-Cox, Fort
Thank you so much for the
highly entertaining and
enlightening interview with
Melissa Etheridge in the
March-April issue [Vol. 26#2,
"Essentially Human" by
Tiffany Ceridwen Lawana]!
The questions you asked
were quite refreshing (and I
read all of her interviews so
I should know), that brought
out genuine answers full of
love. I have the pleasure of
interacting with her often,
and the most incredible part
about her is that I'm pretty
sure most of the time she
forgets she's famous. Just a
genuine, kind, shining soul
who can laugh at herself ...
Smith Ark.
HISTORY'S SISTER
I am writing to share my
personal thoughts with
regards to Curve magazine,
The History Issue .... I had
(she has since passed away)
a sister who died from AIDS
in 1993 and she herself
was bisexual. I really didn't
understand her reasons for
choosing that particular
lifestyle, but I continued
to love her regardless. My
family did what they could
to get her all the proper
medications, but because
she was also an addict she
was unable to heed the
advice of those who loved
her. The end result was that
she died at a young age. For
many years, I suppressed any
thought of her lifestyle, until
I recently saw an issue of
your publication and decided
to read it. I must admit I felt
a personal connection to
those people interviewed. I
truly realized that they had
to endure many difficulties
and overcome them as well. I
was most touched by Patricia
Cornwell's personal story and
shall most definitely read one
of her books. In closing, I
again want to commend you
and your staff for providing
a much-needed publication
for everyone to read and
become more understanding
of each other.
-Domingo Gonzalez,
Berlin N.H.
li•i3■ :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ·.:::::::·.·.·.:·.-.:
·.·.·.·.::·.::·.·.·.·.........
·.·.·.·...................
·....................................................................................................................
r·1
SUMMER
ISHERE
AND
SOISPRIDE.
WHAT
DOES
ITMEAN
TOYOU?
37%
Day drinking and dancing in the street
21%
Time to hang out the rainbow flag
32%
A chance to march in my local Pride parade
10%
We have equality. Who needs Pride anymore?
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................................................
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US!Email: letters@curvemagazine.com
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11 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...
12 THIS IS WHAT A LESBIANLOOKS LIKE
13 LESBOFILE
MEET
JAGUARD
BECKFORD
PROFILE
NEWS
GOSSIP
»
MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
9
TRENDS/
THE GAYDAR
p
~~ THEGAYDAR
Takes one to know one? Let our gaydar help
~ you decide who's hot who's not who's
~ shaking it and who's faking it in lesboland.
~ BY MELANIE BARKER
~
The Rock refers to himself on
Twitter and at the MTV Movie
Awards as looking like "a buff
lesbian." Starts a conversation,
wins new fansl
Guitar heroes Bryan Adams and
Bruce Springsteen cancel concerts
in Mississippi, North Carolina over
anti-LGBT laws
The comic genius
of Broad City's
unabashed Hillary
Clinton crush
Caitlyn Jenner offers
to be Ted Cruz's trans
ambassador. Say what?
What's with
the killing off
of lesbian TV
characters this
year, including
Lexa from The
100?
In spite
of being
engaged,
Miley Cyrus
says she'd
swipe right for
Hilary Duff
Kate
McKinnon's
hilarious Caro/
parody for The
Independent
Spirit Awards
elevates her to
lesbian comic
genius
The world is
an oyster for
LGBTtravel
buddy Ellen
Page in
Gaycation
According to the British
Film Institute, Carol is the
Best Gay Film of All Time.
Told ya sol
Xena finally gets a
lesbian reboot, but
without Lucy Lawless
or Renee O'Connor!
Fashion label Otherwild
launches The Future Is Female
T-shirts and more, inspired by
lesbian-feminist sheroes
10
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2015
Linda Perry and Sarah Gilbert might
have their own reality TV show
VIEWS/
PROFILE
Helen Carroll
>>San Francisco
Sports Reformer
She played basketball in high school, tennis in college,
and then went on to coach college basketball, tennis, and
track and field. There are few memories Helen Carroll has
that don't involve a ball, or a net, or a competition.
Even
when she awoke from a coma, the result of a suicide
attempt when she was 13 years old, the first thing Carroll
heard was the nurse talking about a high-jump competition the youngster had been in.
"Sports was a literal lifeline in those early teen days,
and has been a constant positive force in my life ever
16-YEAR-OLD
LESBIAN
NYRICHARDSON
was recently thrown out of a McDonald's restaurant in Hull,
England, after she tried to use the women's bathroom. When
asked by an employee to produce ID 1norder prove that
she is female, Richardson, who was eating a meal with her
g1rlfr1end,didn't have any ID with her, and was thrown out of
the bathroom by the restaurant manager.
since;' notes Carroll, who is now the director of the Sports
Project for the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR).
"I would say my closest friends were and are formed
through sports, and sports continue to enrich my life."
While the world creeps cautiously forward to becoming more inclusive, Carroll can recall the pain of being
excluded, and says that there is still a great deal to be
accomplished even in the sports world, where sometimes people think (mistakenly) that it's always OK to be
a lesbian. It is a goal of the NCLR to encourage LGBT
sports figures act as role models that negate destructive
stereotypes and benefit participants and observers of the
sports world.
As an example of the degree to which that leadership is
lacking, Carroll points to NCAA Division 1 basketball. There
is not one women's basketball coach in the country who
will speak openly about being queer in the media. "The
silence screams for a head coach to break that trend," she
says. "It will change, but it needs to change now:'
Carroll says her current work extends beyond lesbians
to address widespread inequities in the sports world for
bisexual and transgender athletes, and people of color.
"To move forward now in sports, we must look at the
interconnections of racism and sexism with homophobia,
biphobia, and transphobia in a deeper way," she says.
Carroll says she still receives calls from coaches who
report being fired for being gay, and from student athletes
who are being removed from teams and are losing their
scholarships. "Yes, we have made dramatic strides;' she
says. "However, until there is a sports culture where every individual may fully participate, free from sexual
C>'.
orientation discrimination and gender identity discrimina-
_J
u
z
tion, the work is not done." By Sheryl Kay
11
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
• EIGHT
MARRIED
LESBIAN
couples have argued in court
that the state of Indiana Is
discriminating against their
families by not permitting
both women to be listed on
the birth certificates for their
children conceived via artificial
insemination. In their cases,
the couples argued that the
partner who does not give
birth must go through expensive
adoption procedures to be
legally recognized as the child's
parent, whereas a husband in a
heterosexual marriage is generally
granted those rights automatically.
The state argued that the law is
fair because parental rights are
obtainable through adoption.
• THE
NATIONAL
GAY
& LESBIAN
Chamber of Commerce
(NGLCC) had planned to honor
Massachusetts Governor Charlie
Baker, a Republican, at an event
last spring in Washington, D.C.
They have now dropped Governor
Baker from the list of honorees,
in part because he refused
to endorse a bill to protect
transgender people from public
discrimination.
• AFTER
THE
PASSAGE
OFHOUSE
Bill 2, which overturned all
local LGBT nondiscrimination
ordinances in North Carolina, the
First Baptist Church of Bostic, N.C.,
has "prayerfully asked" that church
member Kelly Toney renounce her
homosexuality by divorcing her
wife of over a year, or she will be
removed from the church. Toney
has been a member of the church
since birth, but hasn't attended for
the past 15 years and hasn't heard
from the church until receiving the
letter demanding she renounce
or leave.
• WOMEN'S
BASKETBALL
head Dawn Brown was fired by
Prairie View A&M University,
located northwest of Houston,
Texas, after she suspended
two of her players for having
a romantic relationship off the
court. The two players, who
have not been named, filed a
Title IX complaint claiming that
Brown discriminated against
them because of their sexual
orientation. Brown justified
her actions by saying that the
couple broke team rules, which
don't allow players, coaches,
or other team staff to date.
Prairie View A&M sided with the
athletes, agreeing that Brown had
discriminated against them.
By Sassafras Lowrey
TRENDS/
LESLOOKSLIKE
THIS
ISWHAT
A
»
LESBIAN
LOOKS
LIKE
Jaguard Beckford
The founder of NYCRainbowFashionWeek
on bringing LGBTPrideto fashion.
I supported myself through law
school, and after about 15 years,
during my mom's last few days on
earth, she said, "Life is short, do
what you love." On April 27, 2013, I
birthed JagandCo, a clothing line for
women who are gender fluid. I had
an epiphany that the fashion show
should be more about all the talent,
those behind the scenes, such as
makeup, hair, styling, as well as the
designer. They were the true artists
that helped my designs come to life.
As an entertainment attorney, I
had a plethora of opportunities to
present my new line at New York
Fashion Week 2013. I also realized
that the established Fashion Weeks
worldwide were somewhat elitist and
therefore the average upcoming
designer didn't have a chance.
I decided to create a platform
to highlight fresh talent as well as
behind the scenes creatives.
We were the first Fashion Week to
present elder LGBT models and
designers in our show Fashion
for the Cure, which addressed
what happens to our aging LGBT
population as they age, lose their
mates and become depressed and
distanced from the community. In
2015 Huffington Post broke our story
as the first Fashion Week to present
two double mastectomy models in
our show Inside the Celebrity Closet,
which presented the theme of body
12
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
dysmorphia and self-image in the
world of modeling.
I would parallel it to the Civil Rights
era. Yes, we have advanced, however,
just as I am a black woman, certain
prejudices exist just because of the
color of my skin. Before I even take
a certain direction, turn a
k, I am first seen as
n. I can't shake that, I
can't w
It is inherently me.
So for m
ful trans people, my
aggressive and handsome studs
my flam
on the runway. We believe that all
representatives of our community
deserve to present themselves
through fashion. While we love the
traditional runway fashion show, we
also create fashion installations as
backdrops to our shows, allowing
our guests to see creative talents up
close and personal.
Make the employment less about
the job and more about the place
of employment. What does that
place feel like? When I used to
interview with law firms I would ask
permission to switch chairs with my
interviewer. Once granted, I turned
the interview around: was this a safe
space for me, a great place for me
to grow, a non-hostile environment
to work in? As much as you want to
know if I fit in, I want to know if you
fit in with my lifestyle.
(rainbowfashionweek.com)
TRENDS/GOSSIP
LESBOFILE
OLD LOVE, NEW LOVE, ANYTHING
BUT TRUE LOVE?
BY JOCELYN V00
• WHEN SOKO MET K-STEW
The modern romantic comedy storyline: fall in love with a man, get engaged, cheat on
him, start allegedly dating your female assistant, then get linked to a new woman. This
happens to be Kristen Stewart's script-and
in a very Hollywood twist, it turns out that
K-Stew's and her current reported flame, French singer and actress Stephanie Sokolinski
(more commonly known as SoKo), may have have already crossed romantic paths. In
an interview with "A Music Blog, Yea?," SoKo mentioned how when she first moved to
Los Angeles from Seattle, she was set up on a blind date with none other than Robert
Pattinson-Kristen
Stewart's ex-fiance. But what's in the past is in the past. While neither
party has confirmed the relationship, SoKo did all but reveal to W magazine that the
photos don't lie. "I'm very, very, very in love and very happy in a relationship," she said.
• ALTARED STATES
They say that third time's the charm, but for Rosie O'Donnell, two will be enough. After
a contentious divorce with her second wife, Michelle Rounds, it looks like O'Donnell
is putting her foot down. O'Donnell and Rounds, who were married for over two years
before separating in 2014, engaged in a nasty custody battle over their 3-year-old
adopted daughter, Dakota. Finally, the pair settled on joint custody, ending that chapter.
"'She'll never marry again.' You can print that!" O'Donnell told a New York Daily News
reporter as she left the courthouse. Famous last words?
• WHO'S YOUR BABY DADDY!
Brad Pitt is already father to six kids with Angelina Jolie, but turns out there was once a
fleeting chance that he might have fathered more ...with Melissa Etheridge. Etheridge
told Australia's Studios 10 that when she and then-partner Julie Cypher were figuring out
a sperm donor, Pitt's name actually came up because the actor was such a good friend
with the singer. "And yet, I looked and I saw how badly he wanted children and I thought,
'I don't want to share this with someone who really, badly wants children because my
children don't need another parent-they have two,"' she said.
• MORE THAN CLOTHES IN HER CLOSET
It seems that fashion icon and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt has always been on-trend.
When discussing her latest memoir, co-authored with son Anderson Cooper, Vanderbilt
revealed a personal queer history to People magazine. "When I was 13, I had a brief
lesbian relationship with a girl in school," she said. "It felt so great." It turns out this bit of
information had been in the vaults for a while, too, surprising even Cooper. "What? Hello!
This is news to me," he said upon hearing it. "You didn't mention this in the book, Mom."
If there's ever been a way to get scooped, that's it.
MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
13
TRENDstSHE
SAID
"It is unusual that we're
this old, robust democracy
and pluralistic society, and we
haven't gotten ours yet. The gender
achievement at the top in every single
political representation really sucks. I mean,
we're super-psyched that we have 20 women
senators. Yay, 20! Um, there are 100. I can
do that math."
Rachel Maddow to Playboy magazine
on why America hasn't yet had
a female president
"It
is with great
sadness, that after 17
years, a tremendous amount
work, careful consideration
and heavy hearts, my wife and
I have mutually decided to no
longer remain married."
Cat Cora to People
14
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
18POLITICSWITH PRIDE
20ESTATEPLANNING ESSENTIALS
MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
15
"Hey, Miss? Do you have a husband?"
Teresa, a senior in my composition class,
has dropped by my classroom at lunch to
make up some missing work.
I could lie. Learning that I'm a lesbian
may alienate Teresa, who is a Mexican
immigrant and a Catholic. The truth may
erode the rapport I've worked carefully to
build with her.
"Miss, I noticed you have a ring."
"No, I don't have a husband:' I take a
breath and then-decide. "I have a wife.
See that picture of us with our daughter?"
Teresa examines the photograph, and
then, to my relief, nods, "Cool. Very cool."
I realized I was gay in my second year
as a teacher. Now, 12 years later, coming
out to students still feels like an enormous
risk. But I've come to believe that it's my
responsibility to live as openly as I can.
When I discovered I was a lesbian, it was
2005, I was in Alaska, and coming out at
work never even occurred to me. When a
student submitted a short story with a gay
protagonist to the school's literary journal,
16
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
and I was the advisor, my principal told me,
"Absolutely not. We don't keep Hustler in
our library, so we're not going to publish
that:' I never told her I was gay.
In 2011, I moved to Fort Collins, Colo.,
to raise my daughter Mitike closer to my
family. In this new state, I wanted to live
more openly at work. But I was scared. In
my first month at my new high school, I
introduced Walt Whitman as "a famous gay
American poet;' and a huge, tough-looking
junior slammed his book shut and stood.
"I'm not gonna read this shit;' he said. Two
of his friends stood with him, and the three
barged out of my class. It was all I could do
to control the waver in my voice as I started
reading "Song of Myself" aloud to the class.
I came out to a few colleagues in that
Fort Collins high school, but I couldn't
figure out how to safely come out to my
students. One day, I complained about
it to my colleague Annie, who is AfricanAmerican. She laughed bitterly. "Nice to
have a choice whether to tell people you're
a minority, isn't it?"
Yes and no. Maybe if my identity were
obvious to everyone, in the way that skin
color or an accent is, I could have more
bravely claimed it. With my long hair and
skirts, people never guessed I was gay. I
could have hidden forever, if I'd wanted to.
It's safer to hide. Even though the
Supreme Court affirmed our right to samesex marriage in 2015, most states still do
not protect teachers from discrimination
based on their sexual orientation or
gender identity. Stories about teachers
who have been fired for being openly
gay still abound. In California in 2013, a
school district allegedly fired a lesbian
teacher because she attempted to start a
Gay-Straight Alliance group. Last year, a
Catholic school fired a young teacher when
he posted photos of his engagement to his
partner on Facebook.
So when I fell in love with Meredith and
moved to Denver to live with her, I resigned
myself to continuing to live a closeted life at
work, assuming it would be too dangerous
to be out in the high school where I'd
WITH MY LONG HAIR ANO
Sl<IRTS/PEOPLENEVER
GUESSEDI WAS GAY.I
COULD HAVE HIDDEN
FOREVER/IF ! 0 WANTED TO.
1
''
gotten a job teaching English.
But Meredith challenged me. "Why
hide?"
"Because I could be fired:'
"And you want to work in a place that
could fire you?"
"OK . . . because the kids might be
homophobic, and I might alienate them:'
"And you want to encourage them to
think that way?"
I accepted her challenge. I set a large
framed photograph of my wife and
daughter on the corner of my desk. I came
out to my colleagues (and discovered my
supervisor is gay and one of my other
colleagues is a lesbian). And when the
school year started and students asked, I
answered truthfully. "Yes, I'm married. Yes,
Mitike has two moms."
Over 100 cultures feed into my current
high school. Some of my students come
from African or Middle Eastern countries
where homosexuality is still criminalized.
Some harbor strong religious opposition
to same-sex marriage. But the culture
of my school is tolerance: With so much
difference, we have to accept one another
or else become hopelessly fragmented.
It is as safe for me to be out about being
a lesbian as it is for my Karen student to
talk about the Thai refugee camps, or for
my Congolese student to talk about the
civil war there, or for my Eritrean student
to admit that he and his family fled their
country in the dark cover of night. The
students who can't be open and out are
the ones whose families crossed into this
country illegally, but even they talk, in
guarded whispers.
It's still challenging for me to be
out. In class the other day, a student
exclaimed that a book we were reading
was "so gay!" I asked him not to say
that, explaining that what he'd said was
offensive to all LGBT people. He scoffed
and addressed the class: "Who'd I
offend? Are any of you gay?" My chest
tightened. I couldn't speak. Then, the
girl sitting next to him said, "Haven't
you seen the picture of her family on
her desk? She~ gay: That boy has
never used "gay" as an insult since.
The real purpose of a high school
education is to make students think
critically about the world. Every time
I am brave enough to come out about
who I am, I challenge their assumptions
and their misunderstandings.
Every
time I model living openly with pride, I
teach them more than I ever will about
punctuation,
or the structure of a
composition.
And someday, I hope it won't feel
like a risk. Someday, I hope a student
will ask, "Miss, do you have a wife
or a husband?" And I'll say, "I have a
wife," and then we'll move on to learn
about writing.•
Do we vote in our own best interest?
What constitutes Pride?
As part of the first post-Stonewall
generation of out lesbians, I ask myself that
question every year. Does the concept of
Rride still have meaning nearly 50 years
after Stonewall?
For me, because we are the victims of so
many forms of lesbian erasure-reparative
therapies, corrective rape, honor killingsPride is more essential than ever. Pride is
what defines us as lesbians, what separates
us from the tyranny of the closet, what
empowers us as gender-non-conforming
women who love other women.
Perhaps because of the very real and
increasingly dangerous threats to lesbians
posed by male-dominated society-threats
that have become exponentially worse in
recent years-I have looked to mainstream
politics for some help.
It's clear that lesbians need more than
just one another. We need politicians in
our corner. It's now 22 years since ENDA
(the Employment Non-Discrimination Act)
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av v1ctoR1A
A. eRowNwoRTH
was first proposed in Congress. It's been
resubmitted every year since, but has yet
to pass. President Obama has refused
to sign it into law as an executive order,
claiming that Congress must decide.
Clinton suggested she might sign it, but
that certainly couldn't happen in her first
year, or maybe even in her first term, were
she president.
But it's not just ENDA-although
statistically, lesbians are the most likely
among LGBT people to be fired from jobs,
and over the last 12 years since lesbians
have begun marrying legally, this has been
happening more frequently. Teachers have
been under the most consistent threat.
And then there's child custody. As
recently as March, I reported on a lesbian
custody case that had gone to the U.S.
Supreme
Court
(SCOTUS)-because
lesbians are still seen as a threat to
heteronormative society. That Alabama
custody case (V.L. v. E.L.) came just
weeks after the sudden death of Justice
Antonin Scalia. I was thinking about who
would replace him, and who among the
other justices might leave during the next
president's first term. What would happen
then?
What about the LGBT issues that have
yet to reach SCOTUS?
When President Obama announced the
nomination of Merrick Garland, chief judge
of the United States Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia Circuit, to replace
Scalia, those concerns became paramount.
The Republicans immediately said no,
and the politics of that-Garland is prochoice, pro-LGBT-really hit me.
What happens now?
I spent some years covering SCOTUS,
which is a full-time beat because there's
limited press. I have always thought that
appointing
justices-most
presidents
get to appoint at least one-was the
most influential aspect of the presidency,
because it's an appointment for life and
lasts well beyond any president's tenure.
VIEWS/
Which means that the choice we make
when we vote for the next president could
impact us for way more than one or two
presidential terms. Every GOP candidate
wants to vitiate marriage equality and
make sure no other "special privileges"
(also known as civil rights)-to quote Ted
Cruz-accrue to us.
In the shadow of the presidential
election, with both the Republican and
Democratic conventions being held in
July in Cleveland and Philadelphia, what
constitutes the politics of Pride?
Is there an intersection between our
lesbianism and how we vote?
Certainly there should be. When LPAC
was formed in July 2012, the first PAC to
elect pro-lesbian, pro-women candidates
to public office, I was thrilled. Finally, there
was a group specifically geared toward
getting women elected who would stand
up for lesbians. I immediately made a
donation (albeit small) to solidify my
support of the organization.
But this year, when I was promoting
LPAC on Twitter, my political social media
of choice, I was shocked to discover that
many lesbians I knew online were not only
disinterested, they actually disapproved.
And they disapproved of Emily's List, which
I also support.
"What's gender got to do with politics?"
women said to me-me, the woman who
created the #VoteYourVagina hashtag to
get women to think about how men vote
against our bodies all the time.
Gender has everything to do with
politics. Look around. Women barely
have a voice. America has yet to elect
a woman president. There are only six
female governors. Of the 535 members
of the current Congress, 19.4 percent are
women-84 members of the House and 20
senators.
In state governments, women fare
slightly better: 1,814, or 24.6 percent of
the 7,383 state legislators are women.
Yet women are 52 percent of the U.S.
population.
In a year that saw unprecedented
attacks on women's reproductive rights,
including two abortion clinic shootings, it's
difficult to fathom how women-especially
lesbians, who are so at risk-could dismiss
the importance of groups like LPAC and
Emily's List.
Shouldn't we be voting our interest as
women first? One Southern lesbian feminist
I know insists that party is meaningless and
what matters is the individual candidate.
She votes Republican and Democrat, but
is anti-Obama and anti-Hillary. She's progun and anti-immigration. She thinks that
Sandra Bland deserved to be arrested and
that the police weren't responsible for her
alleged suicide while she was in jail. When
I suggested to my friend that she should
have been on the side of the vulnerable
woman and not the police, she disagreed
vehemently.
And I argued recently with another
lesbian I know who is an avowed leftist
over what counts as "real" discrimination
against lesbians. When Kim Davis denied
lesbians a marriage license, that was not
discriminatory, she feels, because Davis
should have a right to exercise her religious
beliefs. This friend also believes that it was
OK for a bakery to discriminate against
a lesbian couple who wanted to buy a
wedding cake. When I told her about the
Oregon statute that was being violated,
she didn't care. Religious beliefs should
override any action by lesbians against
perceived discrimination, she argued.
And what could I say to the newly-minted
Bernie Sanders supporter who told me that
Planned Parenthood's endorsement of
Hillary put her right off Clinton? She told
me that she immediately made a large
donation to Sanders. I was gobsmacked.
Why? I asked. She told me she didn't like
the idea of a "tool of the Establishment"
telling her what to do and who to vote for.
But the Establishment is against
Planned Parenthood. Sanders's assertion
that Planned Parenthood represents the
Establishment is absurd. Especially since
he made this assertion on the anniversary
of Roe v. Wade and a week after, three
people were murdered and nine wounded
in a shooting at a Colorado Springs clinic.
But the friend who really stunned me
was the one who told me that she would
vote for Trump if Sanders did not win the
Democratic nomination. How could any
lesbian vote for Trump? And how could
anyone go from Sanders to Trump? Her
argument: It would send a message to
the Establishment and the DNC. (In 2008,
POLITI
I heard similar arguments from Hillary
supporters who insisted they would vote
for John McCain if Barack Obama became
the nominee.)
I've been sorting through these various
exchanges, trying to understand the
rationale for statements and beliefs that
I frankly find irrational. Why wouldn't you
support the left-leaning female candidate
for president when we've never had
a woman president? Why would you
support a public official or business that
discriminates
against lesbians? Why
would you ever vote Republican when the
platform of that party is misogynist and
homophobic? And why would you vote for
Trump, who is one of the worst haters in our
recent political memory?
When I think about Pride, I think
about being out, about embracing our
lesbianism in the face of lesbian erasure
and lesbophobia. Pride is about loving
who we are-and about valuing women,
because we are so devalued in the
society in which we live.
In a democracy, we can vote for
whomever we choose. But shouldn't
we consider what is in our own best
interest-as
lesbians, as women-first?
And not just our interest, but that of
other lesbians, other women, especially
those with less privilege than we might
have (because there is always someone
with less privilege than you)? What
about butch lesbians, who are most at
risk of being jobless? Or aging lesbians,
who are most at risk of poverty? What
about lesbians with disabilities?
The list goes on.
As the primary season hits its apex
at the conventions, and the general
election begins in earnest in August,
we need to think about these issues.
Not just in terms of our presidential
vote, but in terms of all that comes with
it-like SCOTUS, like the down ticket of
representatives and senators and even
state legislators.
With Pride comes responsibility-to
ourselves as lesbians and to our lesbian
community. We simply can't separate
ourselves from the politics of what it
means to be a lesbian in a straight,
male-dominated world.
Nor should we.•
MAY/JUN
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Take Pride in Planning
Single, married or starting a family, it's time for estate planning.
BY ANGELA GIAMPOLO
The financial and legal impacts of
being married are significant. There are
1,138 identified federal statutes in which
marital status is a factor in receiving
federal benefits, rights, and privileges.
While it is absolutely advisable for
married people or those with children to
work with a wills and trusts lawyer, it is
just as important for single adults.
If you were to suddenly become
incapacitated, who would make your
medical decisions for you? Who would
continue to pay your mortgage, or
file your taxes? If you haven't worked
with an estate-planning attorney, the
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answer to this question becomes quite
complicated.
If you
prepared
estate-planning
documents prior to the Supreme Court's
ruling on marriage equality, the firm with
whom you executed them understood
the unique needs of LGBT individuals and
likely drafted your documents in light
of the fact that you were not married.
Married couples have always enjoyed
impactful and robust privileges and
benefits in estate planning, so your "premarriage equality" estate plan needs an
overhaul.
If you do nothing else, I recommend
you re-execute your estate-planning
documents, so that the definition used
in the documents reflects your legal
relationship-spouse, or wife/wife.
Under state law, assets held in the
sole and separate name of an unmarried
person who has no written plan in place
will pass through the public proceedings
known as probate and will pass in the
following order:
• Descendants (that is, children or
grandchildren)
• Parents
• The descendants of your parents
(siblings, nieces, nephews, etc.)
• Lineal descendants of maternal
and paternal grandparents (that is,
uncles, aunts, and cousins)
• The state
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER WHEN
PLANNING YOUR ESTATE
• Who should help me manage my
affairs in the event of my short-term
or long-term incapacity?
• Who should make medical decisions
for me if I cannot speak for myself?
• What will happen to my property?
• If I am in a relationship, how should
my partner and I organize our
financial affairs?
• How can I leave a legacy for my
community?
ESSENTIAL DOCUMENTS FOR LGBTS
Powers of Attorney: A health-care power
of attorney is critically important if you
want your partner to act for you, should
you become incapacitated. You also need
a durable power of attorney. This gives
someone power over your affairs, such as
businesses, finances, and real estate.
Advance Directive: In some states known
as a living will, this document enables
you to provide instructions to physicians
relating to prolonged life support, in
the event that you are stricken with an
incurable illness.
HIPAA Authorization: Under the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act of 1996, specific authorization is now
required to permit medical personnel
to release "protected
health care
information." If you do not designate this
authorization, it could create a problem
in the event that a physician needs to
release medical information to activate a
health-care power of attorney.
Hospital Visitation Authorization Form:
This short document allows you to visit
your partner in any medical or treatment
facility, and, depending on the couple's
wishes, can also grant you the power
to dictate who is allowed in the hospital
room to visit your partner.
Pet Care Directive: These directives
became much more popular after
Hurricane Katrina. It is a document that
designates who will take care of your pet,
should anything happen to you.
Last Will & Testament: If you are
unmarried and without a will, you are
subject to the intestacy laws of your state.
These laws adversely affect LGBT couples
because they define "heirs at law" as
blood relatives or adopted children.
You cannot "opt out" of estate planning.
Whether you know it or not, you have an
estate plan right now.
If you don't have a drafted estate
plan, you have already made decisions
regarding what will happen to your
estate. If you are without a will, state
law "writes" your estate plan for you.
This means it decides who is in charge
and who gets what through its intestacy
laws-and no one wants that!
Make an appointment with an estateplanning attorney today, and take your
legacy into your own hands.•
**
Tickets
A COMEDY
BENEFIT
$250, $ I 00 & $60 are available
The Town Hall
Contact
Patricia
•
FOR
at
LPAC
teamlpac.com/levity
NYC • 6. I 6. I 6
at patricia@teamlpac.com
**
for sponsorship
& benefit
•
tickets
7:30 pm
26 TINA MABRYMAKES HERWAY
30 A LESBIANLITERARYLIFE
MAY/JUN
2016
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23
THE
HEART
OF
THE
MATTER
Ann Wilson, lead singer of legendary rock band Heart, reflects.
BY DAVE STEINFELD
hough they definitely had their
fair share of hits in the 1970s and
'80s-and though Ann and Nancy
Wilson of Heart are certainly loved
by legions of female musicians and
fans alike-it feels like they've never quite
gotten their due.
In some ways, Heart was the right band
at the wrong time. Coming out of Seattle
in the mid-1970s, they were too late for
the female singer-songwriter era (think
Carole King, Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell)
and too early for the New Wave explosion
that spawned Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, and the Go-Go's. But it was to Heart's
credit that, more than any of those other
great artists, they were capable of rocking
with a vengeance and recording some of
the loveliest folk-tinged rock ballads of
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2016
their day.
Incredibly, 2016 marks 40 years (no,
that's not a typo!) since the Wilson sisters
and their male cohorts released their debut album, Dreamboat Annie. That disc
produced two hits-"Magic
Man" and
"Crazy on You"-and made them staples
of classic rock radio when there really
weren't a lot of popular bands fronted by
women. Heart released three more studio
efforts before the end of the decade and
scored hits like "Straight On," "Barracuda,"
and the more delicate "Dog and Butterfly."
Admittedly, the first half of the 1980s was
not as kind to Heart. They did manage a
couple more hits (including a great rendition of Aaron Neville's "Tell It Like It Is"),
but their LPsweren't selling as well. Trends
within the music industry were changing;
tensions within the band were mounting.
In addition, as Ann Wilson is the first to
admit, not all their albums during that
period were up to the usual standard. "I
don't think Passionworks was very pulled
together," she says of their 1983 release.
"We were really off balance then."
That's why what happened two years
later was even more surprising. The Wilsons returned in 1985 with an MTV makeover, a new rhythm section (bassist Mark
Andes and drummer Denny Carmassi),
and a batch of tight, commercial songs.
Their self-titled album produced an unprecedented five hits: "What About Love,"
"Never," "If Looks Could Kill," "Nothin' at
All," and their first No. 1, "These Dreams"
(which featured a rare lead vocal from
Nancy). The success of Heart was all the
REVIEWS/
more impressive because many people
had counted them out. Instead, Heart had
another string of hits that lasted into the
'90s-including
their second chart-topper, "Alone," which remains not only one
of their most popular songs but a lesbian karaoke favorite. Over the past two
decades and chang~ Heart has been
somewhat less prolific, but they've never
broken up. Ann and Nancy Wilson have released albums periodically as both Heart
and Lovemongers and, belatedly, they've
received more of the respect they deserve for being trailblazers. In 2013, they
were even inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame.
If all goes according to plan, there will
be a new studio album from Heart before
2016 is through. In the meantime, Ann
has launched a side project called The
Ann Wilson Thing. The band-led by Ann
and guitarist-producer Craig Bartock-unveiled its first EP last fall, with plans for
more to follow. The four tracks on this
inaugural Ann Wilson Thing EP have a
bluesy vibe and include not only originals
but a drastically reworked cover of the
Buffalo Springfield classic "For What It's
Worth."
"We really love [that song]," says Ann
when I ask her about it. "I had just done
a benefit for the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation that [Pearl Jam guitarist] Mike Mccreedy has in Seattle. That night, we had
played "Sympathy for the Devil." So when
we started to do "For What It's Worth" for
The Ann Wilson Thing, I remembered that
real evil groove. And I thought, How cool
would it be to play "For What It's Worth"
with a devil feel, just to underscore the
evilness of what's going on in the world
[right now]." Other tracks on the EP include "Fool No More," a five-minute-plus
blues ballad that Ann says is about "waking [up and] stepping out of the wasted
space, into the light," and the shorter
"Danger Zone," which sounds to these
ears like a mix between cabaret music
and Led Zeppelin.
I also had a chance to ask Ann about
some Heart classics. Of "Alone," she says,
"It's just one of those special songs that
everyone can relate to. Now, it's kind of a
standard, you know? There's such a thing
as the perfect marriage of voice and song.
The same thing happened with Nancy
and "These Dreams." It's when you find a
song that is perfect for the character of
the singer, and it [all] just comes together." Incidentally, legend has it that "These
Dreams" was offered first to Stevie Nicks.
She turned it down and it became Heart's
biggest hit to date. "You know, Stevie
writes her own stuff," says Ann. "She
doesn't cover songs very often at all-so
that was one time we really lucked out!"
Of "Magic Man," she explains, "That's a
love song about my first boyfriend, [band
manager] Mike Fisher. I was head over
heels in love, [but] I was still young, and
my mother didn't believe that I knew what
I was doing sexually. It was before Roe v.
Wade [and] she was scared I was gonna
end up having babies and all this kind of
stuff!" she laughs. "So 'Magic Man' has
that in it, you know? It has the mother
thing: 'You better get back here now, girl,
you don't know what you're doing!' "
Though she herself is straight (and recently remarried), Ann clearly values her
queer following and is a big supporter of
marriage equality. "I don't know what took
us so long," she exclaims when I bring up
the subject. "What if you've been with
someone for 20 years and something
happens to them, and your natural partner
isn't allowed to see you because they're
not a quote-unquote family member?
Well, now we don't have to worry about
that kind of stuff. People should be able to
marry who they love. There's no two ways
MUSIC
about that. People who are against gay
marriage are stuck in the Stone Age."
This year is proving to be busy for Ann.
On March 31, Ann was part of a very special concert: the Davie Bowie memorial
at New York's Carnegie Hall. The second
Ann Wilson Thing EP will be unveiled this
spring, accompanied by a quick run of
shows in the Northeast. Heart has more
than 80 shows planned for 2016, including their first ever appearance at London's
most prestigious concert venue, the Royal
Albert Hall, on June 29.
Talking to Ann Wilson, a couple of things
are clear. One is that she's down to earth
and surprisingly soft-spoken, considering
her incredible vocal range and status as a
hard rocker. The other is that she and Nancy still get along after all these years-no
mean feat for any siblings, let alone those
in the business of rock and roll.
"Nancy and I have our moments," she
admits. "We wouldn't be human if we
didn't. But because we love each other,
we've figured out a way not to bang each
other in the face. We're not brothers, we're
sisters. We both have lives [and] we both
have [other] people who we can go to and
cry on the shoulders of when things get
hard. Basically, we're a close-knit family.
And that's helped throughout the years
to keep it on an understanding level and
respect each other. There's that word
again: 'respect.' We have it for each other."
(heart-music.com)•
PtOPlt
SHOUlD
BtABlt
TOMARRY
WHO
THtY
lOVt.
THtRt'S
NO
1WO
WAYS
ABOUT
THAT.
MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
25
hough she's been making short
films and writing screenplays since
2005, Tina Mabry has but one
feature credit to her directorial
name: her highly personal drama
Mississippi Damned, a story about one
family's struggle to cope with abuse,
addiction, and death (all very real parts
of Mabry's experience growing up in the
South). It took an astonishing six years
to find a proper distributor for the film,
though it premiered to warm reviews
from critics and audiences at the 2009
Slamdance Film Festival.
"We were told that you couldn't have two
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MAY/JUN
2016
African American dramas on the market
at the same time, because the market
couldn't bear it. That hurt," Mabry said.
Studios passed over Mississippi Damned
to avoid putting it into competition
with Lee Daniels's Precious, which also
performed quite well on the festival circuit
(and went on to win two Oscars) in 2009.
Mississippi Damned finally
made
its way into the expert hands of Ava
DuVernay and ARRAY,her film distribution
collective, which seeks to find, foster,
and release movies by and about women
and people of color. Mabry's relationship
with DuVernay (who directed Se/ma) is
still in its early stages, but it's been fruitful
even in its brevity. Mabry chatted with me
from her new staffer's chair in the writers'
room of DuVernay's upcoming TV series,
Queen Sugar, which is set to premiere
later this year on Oprah's OWN Network.
The screenplay for Mississippi Damned
is inspired in part by your experiences
growing up in the South. Why did you
choose to go to so many dark places with
the material?
After I graduated from USC, I didn't
have a job, so I had a lot of time on my
hands. I've always been someone who's
drawn to writing, especially when I was
growing up. If I experienced any kind of
traumatic event, writing was always my
go-to therapy place, a place where I could
express myself. So I thought, "OK, here
are some things that happened to my
family," and I started to put them together
in a screenplay, but I didn't really know if it
was going to go anywhere. But, my wifeand the eventual editor and producer of
Mississippi Damned-Morgan
Stiff, read
them and said, "Why don't you make this
into a feature? Put it together. Tell your
story."
I don't think I set out in the beginning
to even tell anyone that Mississippi
Damned was autobiographical, because
I harbored shame about my background
and the things that happened to me. I
found out that, through writing, I learned
to live with things. It was very cathartic
in that way. The actual production of the
film was a healing process for me. It was
a healing process for a lot of people in the
cast and crew as well, because they had
experienced at least one of the things
that occurs in the film. We tackle a lot of
deep subjects, which we tend to push to
the back of our minds because they're
hard to deal with, but I felt like we never
get a chance to talk about them. If you're
ever going to heal, you have to stop being
ashamed of the things that happened to
you, because you're not alone and it's not
your fault.
Once we put the film together, I really
struggled with whether to put the words
"based on a true story" at the beginning.
We started having test screenings, and
people started saying, "All of these
negative things can't happen to just one
family," and I'm sitting in the back going,
"Oh yes they did:' Once I talked to my
family-the ones who were still living-to
see if they were OK with [me releasing
the film], the question then became, Are
you going to say that this is your personal
experience based on your family, or are
you going to say that this represents
some collective experience of people in
Mississippi?
I decided that I was going to have to
speak out on issues-expose alcoholism,
poverty, and abuse, and then I was going
to have to own up to the fact that these
things are part of my life and my tapestry.
They're part of my story. As fearful as I
was, I owned up to them. At every single
screening, I've had people say something
about their experiences. I'm sad that there
are so many people who can relate to the
sexual abuse aspect. I'm sad about that
number. But I am happy that Mississippi
Damned opened up a discussion and that
this film allows them to feel safe.
One thing that really moved me was,
when we were screening at the DGA
[Directors Guild of America], this older
woman stood up and said, "I never told
anybody, but I was molested when I was
growing up. Thank you for making this
film, because I finally feel safe enough
to talk about it." She confessed this in
front of 700 strangers, and I was about
to cry. I was so moved. This is what
cinema is supposed to do. It's supposed
to change things. It's supposed to
highlight things. It's supposed to have
a meaning. Of course, it's supposed
to entertain as well-and to know that
the film functioned on multiple levels,
I feel like we were extremely fortunate
to have so many things go our way in
that regard, from a creative standpoint.
Mississippi Damned is a personal story,
but an expensive therapy for me. Yeah,
make a film. That's how you get over it!
Mississippi Damned premiered seven
years ago at the 2009 Slamdance Film
Festival, but it didn't receive a theatrical
distribution deal despite being well
received by critics and audiences. What
did that feel like?
It was emotionally devastating for me
because we make films, but if you don't
have an audience to show them to, then
why do you do it? That's why I'm really
appreciative to have been picked up by
Showtime and to have this Netflix deal
that Ava DuVernay put together. That's
the reason why we make films. Finally, we
can share [Mississippi Damned] with an
audience.
It happened to be a very difficult time
when we came out [at Slamdance]. It was
the recession, and that year [the Park City
festivals were] half the size that [they are]
normally. At the same time, Precious came
out. Naturally, [Precious director] Lee
Daniels had a bigger cast [and is a bigger
filmmaker]. People on the marketing side
loved both of our films. They're different
films, they just happen to both have
African American leads. We were told that
you couldn't have two African American
RACHAEL
SAGE
CHOREOGR:APH
..
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E
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E
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"lush melodies,
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·GAYCITY NEWS
NEWALBUM
OUTNOW!
RACHAELSAGE.COM
dramas on the market at the same time,
because the market couldn't bear it. That
hurt. That was completely crazy to me,
knowing that it was not true. That's why I'm
so happy now that new distribution models
are coming out. It's being shown that, yes,
you can have two black films that are out
there at the same time. [One isn't] going
to take away from the other. You're doing
the whole industry a disservice by holding
back two films because studios don't think
one will make money, because the market
can only bear one [with a black cast]. We
all know that it makes no sense, so actually
those are the things that hurt most ...
cinema transcends gender, race, sexual
orientation, and socioeconomic status,
and we saw on the road that this was true.
Did you feel a certain sense of validation,
then, when Ava DuVernay picked up
Mississippi Damned for distribution?
We have to remember that, as a film
community, we're in this together. Those
are the times that I do admire people
like Ava DuVernay, people who don't
necessarily wait to be invited to your table.
They say, "To hell with it-I'm going to build
my own table." I think that is a beautiful
thing and a very brave thing to do. I think
more people should have that mentality.
You can't just wait for acceptance or an
invitation. What are you going to do in the
meantime? You can't wait for someone to
28
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MAY/JUN
2016
value your work or bless it by saying that
it's worthy to be seen. No. Go after it. Do it.
Keep doing it. Don't wait on someone else.
Their validation is not what's important.
Do you feel good about the work that
you created? Do you believe in it? If you
don't believe in it, no one else is going to.
You're going to have to live with that baby
for a long time, and I've been living with
Mississippi Damned for a very long time.
A lot of people are pushing for greater
visibility in terms of race and gender
and sexuality in the film industry. What is
mainstream cinema to you right now, and
how do you think you'd like to approach
changing it?
I want to take stories that are on
the outside, that people have either
silenced or ignored, and give a voice
to the disenfranchised. I want to give
them a vehicle for their voice to speak.
Sometimes, growing up, I was like,
"Where's my story? I don't see my
community or my geographical area on
screen:' I personally waited for years for
that movie to come out before I realized,
"You can be the filmmaker to do that. You
can help bring attention to the stories that
you think have no visibility. You can be the
one to tell those stories:' What I mean by
bringing these stories into the mainstream
is doing exactly what we're doing with
Mississippi Damned now on Netflix-that's
the mainstream ... For me, it's just about
taking the silenced voices and putting
them into an arena where a vast variety
of people can consume that product.
Your voice is being heard now with the
release of Mississippi Damned, but
who are some of the other independent
women filmmakers people should be
paying attention to right now?
There are so many. We should continue
to support Ava DuVernay, especially as
she's moving to television now [with
Queen Sugar]. Dee Rees, too. These
are all the voices that were coming up
together on the independent film circuit.
I want to see what Cheryl Dunye is doing
next.
Gina
Prince-Bythewood-that
woman is the reason I'm even doing films.
Without Love & Basketball, I would be in
law school. Before I saw her film, I didn't
realize it was possible for a woman to
direct a movie, and that's a shame. I also
look up to Julie Dash.
I know [these women have] been doing
stuff for so long and not getting a chance
to really get it out to the mainstream, but
to even have a woman directing theatrical
films [isan accomplishment]. And so many
more are here. We're moderately moving
ahead. We can't do this by ourselveswe're moving forward as a huge unit.
Find out more at mississippidamned.com.
FRf WOM TO Bf,
TOBACCO-FRff.
v1s1Tus
@ThisFreeLife
I
~ 11 a
rs
IT'S
AQUEER
LIFE
Sarah Schulman's long-term lesbian commitment.
BY MARCIE BIANCO
'm sitting in Sarah Schulman's Lower
East Side apartment, talking about her
latest book The Cosmopolitans. What
can I tell you?" she says. As it turns out,
plenty. Born on 10th Street in New York
City, Schulman, 57, has lived nearly all her
adult life around the corner on 9th. A lesbian writer and activist for four decades, she
pulls no punches about wanting it to be
"her time" now. It's the kind of unrepentant
ego that, according to the New York Times,
has contributed to her "reputation for difficulty:' As an iconoclast with standards,
and as a writer marginalized for producing
lesbian content, Schulman begs to differ.
She's penned 17 books, both fiction and
nonfiction, as well as a number of plays,
and she has been a fixture in New York
City's downtown arts scene since 1979.
I
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MAY/JUN
2016
Schulman has been an inspiration to
many in the queer community, both in
the U.S. and internationally, because of
her work with younger queer writers-including as my mentor at the 2013 Lambda Literary Writers Nonfiction Workshop.
As a leading community activist, she has
worked with ACT UP (she is the co-coordinator and co-founder of its Oral History Project, along with Jim Hubbard, with
whom she co-produced the documentary
film United in Anger), and the BDS(Boycott,
Divestment, and Sanctions) Movement.
She was the first person to bring the leaders of queer Palestine to America.
Activism aside, her gritty and oftentimes
violent works of lesbian fiction-like The
Sophie Horowitz Story (1984), After Dolores (1988), and Rat Bohemia (1995)-have
attained cult status, while her nonfiction
books, particularly The Gentrification of the
Mind and Ties that Bind: Familial Homophobia & /ts Consequences, have challenged
both heteronormative and homonormative
ways of thinking about queer community
and queer relationships. Quite simply, as
she likes to put it, she is interested in "why
people do what they do:'
Kirkus, in its starred review, called The
Cosmopolitans a "modern classic:' The
novel is a contemporary interpretation of
Balzac's Cousin Bette and tells the story
of a friendship between two middle-aged
neighbors, Bette and Earl, who live in a
building on 10th Street in Greenwich Village in 1958. This is the building where
Schulman herself was born and lives
around the corner from today. Besides explicitly inserting herself-as a crying babynear the conclusion of the novel, Schulman
says that the characters are true to life in
other ways. Bette, a queer white woman,
and Earl, a gay black man, are modeled
on her childhood next-door neighbors,
Leon and Grace. When Schulman's mother
forced her to stand outside in the hallway
as a punishment, it was Grace, an older
Midwestern women "mysteriously living
alone;' who offered kindness. "She gave
me milk and cookies," Schulman reminisces, just as Bette serves the young Hortense
milk and cookies in the novel. "She [Grace]
was 'American; and my parents didn't socialize with people who were not Jewish or
black," Schulman remarks.
There was a "queerness" to Grace that
Schulman perceived at an early age. That
queerness has found its way into the novel, and it's a difference that Schulman also
perceived in herself from an early age. "I
consider my 'coming out' to be something
that happened when I was 4;' she reveals.
"One day in 1962 I went into kindergarten
and my teacher was getting married. She
requested all the students get into couples
and march down the aisle, and I refused
and insisted I was the photographer. So, I
ran around [snapping photos]-I was going
to be the artist in the scene:'
And this sense of "looking"-of
witnessing and feeling queerness even when
unspoken-is precisely what Schulman
explores in The Cosmopolitans. The novel
begins with Bette observing the city below
REVIEWS/
her from the window of her apartment.
"How can one story unfold the same way
under so many circumstances;' Bette wonders as she studies the diverse characters
of pre-gentrified Greenwich Village, traversing the streets, buying smoked fish
from the local deli, and chomping on burgers next door at the burger joint. Bette's
thought about the simultaneity of thingsabout how events can be understood from
multiple vantage points, therefore establishing more than one truth for every single thing-is the overarching theme of the
novel. Schulman calls it her "intellectual
need to show things in their state of contradiction"-what she jokingly refers to as her
"structural Freudian" side. "I'm not a New
York Jew for nothing!" she quips.
Bette and Earl's friendship, steadfast
in the beginning, fractures when Bette's
young cousin Hortense arrives in New York
and takes up a relationship with Earl-who
is a closet gay. Feeling betrayed by Earl,and
knowing that Earl feels extreme guilt in facing her because she knows his truth, Bette
schemes to get Earl to realize his wrongs.
She wants him to reveal his truth, and agree
to repair their friendship. "Everything that
Bette does is to reveal what's true;' Schulman explains. "When you're lying, your
greatest enemy is the person who reveals
what's true;' she says of Earl. "When people
are not allowed to live-when they are dehumanized, oppressed, constantly humiliated, and have a trauma-they take it out
on the person in front of them, even if the
person didn't cause it."
She's gained this realization by choosing
to live as an openly lesbian woman for most
of her life, though she was shunned by her
family; it has resulted in her professional
marginalization, which she incisively wrote
about in Ties That Bind, as well as in Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of
Gay America.
The Cosmopolitans, arguably Schulman's greatest piece of fiction to date, took
13 years to get published. She originally began the project as a play in 2003-one that
never got produced because "there was a
queerness in the play," says Schulman, "in
the type of New York relationship between
Bette and Earl that made people uncomfortable, so it never got produced."
It was at the University of Chicago in the
1970s that Schulman had the idea for The
Cosmopolitans. She was enrolled in four
French literature courses with Franc;oise
Meltzer-"really the only female intellectual
that I studied with, except when I studied
with Audre Lorde at Hunter [College];' says
Schulman. She first encountered Balzac's
Cousin Bette in Meltzer's 19th Century Realism class, where several things occurred
that would inform Schulman's life and literary endeavors.
"One thing that happened was that
when we were having a discussion about
Colette, for some reason and at some point
I think I said, 'Wasn't Colette a lesbian?' And
[Meltzer] said, 'If a writer is a lesbian or not
is as important as if they're right-handed or
left-handed.'
"From her point of view;' Schulman
continues, "that's a progressive comment.
But I'm sitting there-a future lesbian writer-thinking, I don't think that. Is that right?
I don't think that's right!" She laughs upon
the realization.
"So, the other thing in this class is that
we read Cousin Bette ... and at one point
the professor said, 'Well, maybe she is gay;
and it was an interesting question, because
in Balzac there are these queer characters
who hover. So, there was a queer thing,
but at the time there was no such thing as
queer studies, or queer theory, or queer literature, or out professors. So, this entered
my mind-it was a feeling, not a fact-that
there was a queer life in these books. I
thought about that book for 30 years.''
This is the plight of the lesbian artist. Her
success, if it ever comes at all, is overdue,
but terribly desired-of course, she wants it
herself, but so does her community, those
who see her commercial validation as a
sign of their own cultural worth.
Would she already have achieved mainstream success if she were a man? Schulman roars in disbelief: "Of course! Is that a
joke? If I were a man, or if I were straight,
or if I had no lesbian content, I'd be more
successful. Without a doubt.''
This year may very well turn out to be
Schulman's year. In addition to The Cosmopolitans, released in March, she has a new
nonfiction book coming out in the fall that
will certainly prove controversial. In Conflict /s Not Abuse, Schulman examines the
culture of victimization, which simultane-
BOOKS
ously informs and dictates human interaction and how we treat one another. "People
feel that they have to be 100 percent victimized in order to be eligible for compassion;' she contends. As an example of how
iconoclastic she is, Schulman unpacks the
psychology that structures personal relationships, as well as geopolitical ones-including Palestine.
While she admits not knowing "where
lesbian culture is going;' Schulman has
definitely helped to influence it over the
last four decades, in everything from art
to politics. She has found a way to connect intensely with queer youth-largely
because of her activism, but also because
of books like The Gentrification of the Mind,
which she specifically points to as the book
young people "really connected to." As for
her fiction, she may leave her mark with
The Cosmopolitans. However, she actually
believes The Child, a thrilling murder mystery, "is one of my best books. But hardly
anyone has read it, and that's because the
publisher went out of business the week it
was printed.'' For Schulman, the dream of
mainstream recognition and success is tantamount to making the community visible.
"Huge numbers of people have supported me, and yet until today-this may be
changing as we're talking-they don't matter. They matter to me, because they keep
me in print and keep me going. But none of
this has been visible, so here I am. I've never been in the New Yorker, I've never been
in New York magazine-they've never reviewed a book of mine. But I am New York.
I am 'New York, New York.' And yet there's
thousands of people, maybe generations,
now, that have been supporting me. So,
what is that? Are those people now going
to matter? Or are they going to continue
not to matter? I mean, they matter to me.''•
MAY/JUN
2016
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REV1Ews1SHORT
STORY
THE
LIGHT
OF
THE
WORLD
After her grandmother's
death, Eva discovers a
photo that holds a secret.
BY ELLEN SIMPSON
va slid her hands over the soft,
worn cardboard
boxes and
carefully penned their contents
along the sides in black Sharpie.
It was midsummer. The apartment was
sold. She was moving out.
"What are you going to do with these?"
Eva looked up, a fond smile on her
lips. Liv was standing on tiptoes, pulling
down framed photographs from a high
shelf. They belonged to the previous occupant, Eva's recently deceased grandmother, Mary. Eva liked them and had
left them up after Mary's death because
they were reminders of Christmases and
birthdays, mementos of the lives of those
who loved her grandmother just as much
as Eva did. They were memories that she
E
32
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MAY/JUN
2016
was not ready to let go of just yet.
"Wrap 'em up, I guess," Eva said.
Eva watched Liv stack the frames one
by one. Dust particles filled the air-a
soft, wispy rain. A small expanse of Liv's
stomach was showing, a sliver of skin beneath her battered Schultz's Booksellers
and Antiquities T-shirt. Eva swallowed
and looked away, fiddling with the Sharpie in her hands.
The bruises on Liv's stomach were
long gone. Eva, too, had fully recovered
from their ordeal beneath the city. Yet
the memories of the dark place persisted
like the shadows beyond the seal: ever
lurking, ever hungry. She and Liv had survived, but at what cost? Was it worth the
persistent nightmares? Was it worth the
secrets they now kept?
"Hey Eva, look at this." The edge to
Liv's voice pulled Eva from her thoughts.
"What is it?" She scrambled to her feet.
Liv held a pewter photo frame. It was
small and flimsy, with Art Deco detailing
and covered in dust. She stood staring at
it a moment before holding it out to Eva.
"Look."
Eva took the frame. It was a black and
white picture of two girls, their heads
close together, not looking at the camera. They looked almost asleep, entwined
as they were in a beam of sunlight, the
blanket beneath them seeming to fade
away into the grass.
"Mary and Wren." Eva looked up at Liv,
her cheeks a little flushed. Her grand-
mother's diaries, the cause of so much
upheaval in Eva's life, had never mentioned them being this intimate. "Who
would take a picture like this?"
"Crack open the back. See if there's a
name or anything," Liv suggested. Eva
turned the frame over and twisted the
small black tab that held the hardboard
backing in place. It had become swollen
and warped over the years but pulled
away with a little effort. Eva didn't dare
pull the photograph out. It was stuck to
the glass after so long in the frame. A
folded sheet of paper, its top edge frayed
and yellowed with age, fell out into Eva's
hands.
"There's a note," she said, carefully setting aside the photograph and frame.
Liv slipped her arm around Eva and
pressed her lips to Eva's cheek. "Read it."
she urged.
Unfolding the paper with care, Eva
raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know lined
paper was around back then."
"It's loose-leaf," Liv explained. "It
was just coming into vogue when your
grandmother was working for that lawyer doing steno work." She leaned closer,
peering at the paper. "It isn't her handwriting, though."
"We'd know it, wouldn't we?" Eva
laughed. They'd spent the better part of
six months reading and rereading her
grandmother's diaries, trying to figure
out what had happened to Wren.
"Yeah. For sure," Liv said.
Eva ducked her head and started to
read.
opportunity to document us. She's got a
nose for portraits, that one.
I don't remember her taking this photograph. However, when she gave it to me,
I was struck. I still am, at how akin to puzzle pieces we are. We fit together, Mary.
We are two halves of the same sou/, set
to drift across the seas of time together
always. I wish I could find the words to tell
you all of the secrets I've kept from you.
I wish I could find a way to tell you how
much I care while standing before you.
When you find this, I may be gone.
There are things I must do to protect
you-to protect this city.
Do not weep for me, darling. Move on
with your life.
I love you.
w.
Tears pricked at the corners of Eva's
eyes. In a way, it was the answer she
had always been looking for. The goodbye her grandmother never received,
hidden away behind a photograph. She
handed the paper to Liv and wiped her
stinging eyes. "We always wondered if
Gran knew. She never got Wren's other
letter-the
one that explained everything."
Liv scanned the letter again, her expression somber. A sigh escaped her
lips. She set it aside and gathered Eva
into her arms. "Wren got to say her
goodbye, Eva."
Eva buried her face in Liv's neck. 'Tm
glad," she said, her words half-choked
with tears. Their embrace grew tighter.
"They deserved their goodbye."•
Ml know you will be cross with me for this
photograph. Your neighbor took this
photo over the Fourth of July celebration
when we all went to the park and picnicked. I remember you devouring the
cookies I made. You were like a woman
starved, with a smear of chocolate on
your nose and sticky sweet on your fingers. I so wanted to kiss the chocolate
from your nose, but I didn't dare, not with
Elise and the others joining us.
We fell asleep that day, after you told
me of your father's shell shock. You needed comfort and I held you. We must have
dozed off right before Elise and her ever-present Kodak No. 2 came to find us.
I should have known she'd not miss the
The Light of the World is available from
Ylva Publishing.
40STRIKEOIL WITH NATSGETTY
41LUXECANDLES BYALAINA YOUNG
42FACEUP TO PRIDE
36
WEAR THE
PANTS
FASHION
INFLUENCERS
BEAU
TY
,=-------..
»
MAY/JUN
2016
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t
MODELS:
ALI MEDINA
CRIS DOMINGO
ARIAM GEFFRARD
DANIELLE COOPER
36
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
Toda'½'s queer style has its own
revolutionary
roots.
But it's also
part of a rich legacy of fashion as
empowerment and political resistance.
A new generation of lesbians, queer
women, and genderqueer advocates
carries the torch passed to them by
their trailblazing forebears who dared to
wear the pants and fight the patriarchy.
Photographer Debbie-Jean Lemonte hit
the Hamptons this spring to capture
some of today's leading "menswear"
influencers
who
proudly
donned
bespoke power suits designed by The
Tailory (TheTailoryNYC.com), a femaleowned and operated custom clothing
company. The all-star model roster
included androgynous model and artist
Ali Medina (alimedinaart.com), and style
bloggers and menswear influencers Cris
Domingo (La-Garconniere-.tumblr.com),
Ariam Geffrard (ADapperChick.com),
and Danielle Cooper (ShesAGent.com).
MAY/JUN
2015
CURVE
37
/ 1s
• a 23-year-o Id
NataIia "Nats" Getty
model, artist, activibt, and heir to the
Getty oil fortune wHo is shaping her own
vision of w at a successful out-andproud socialite he·ress looks like. When
she's not working closely with GLAAD or
collaborating with her mom and brother
to provide new infrastructure for the Los
Angeles LGBT Center, she is designing
custom leathe jackets for Strike Oil, her
clothing and lifestyle brand. Each artfullydesigned Strike Oil jacket is a one-of-a-kind
collectible that celebrates the individual,
the different, and the "out there."
A self-described tomboy, Nats was born
in Los Angeles and spent her childhood
in Santa Monica tree climbing and
skateboarding, until the age of eight, when
she moved to England for boarding school
and to be with her family. Today, she is
back in the U.S., residing mostly in West
Hollywood, but also jet-setting across the
globe. Photographer Molly Adams spent
the day shooting Nats' sexy andro style and
unique Strike Oil designs. The sizzling Cali
desert was the perfect location to capture
all of this Getty heat! Follow Nats's next
move @natsgetty. •
laina Young spent her formative years in
Vien a. Tall for her age and sporting a '90s
bowl cut, she was often mistaken for a boy.
"I knew I was attracted to girls, but didn't
necessarily know what that meant... I felt I
needed to be secretive about my feelings:'
Her first crush? Belle from Beauty and the
Beast. "I was obsessed with her, and I think
my family knew what that meant;' she says.
In New York City, Young attended a girls
school, and found self-expression through
basketball and hip-hop. "I loved sneakers
and wore my father's pants. I was better at
sports than all the boys, but the older kids
always picked on me. My reaction was to be
the best version of myself, regardless of the
bullying:'
Young found support in a tight group
of friends and family. "My mom used to
bring me basketball clothes to change into
immediately after school. She knew I hated
the dress. She bought me JNCO jeans and
got it when I shed a tear over misplacing one
of my Jordan Vllls:'
When Young officially came out after
college, her family was supportive and
Alaina started a business with her mom-Q
Squared NYC, a trendy dinnerware brand.
What does the 'Q' stand for? Queen! "We are
both strong proponents of treating yourself
well, and we love the idea of bringing luxury
to everyone. Sometimes people forget to be
kind to themselves, and we want to remind
them:'
Young's own project is Bijou-scented
candles of distinction. Surprising for a
tomboy? Not really, says Young, who
harbors a love of nostalgia. "I studied art
history because I love learning about the
past through the eyes of creators;' she says.
Even if you're a streetwise lesbian, you
can add a touch of opulence to your abode
with a Bijou candle. "Scent can really make
the difference when you're trying to create a
certain ambience. What's a relaxing bubble
bath without the soothing smell of lavender?
Scented candles take it to that next level:'
Each Bijou scent is subtle and carefully
selected. Young's personal favorite is Ambre
Tubereuse, inspired by her wife's preferred
fragrance (they live in Harlem with their
dogs Molly and Oliver). The resin containers
are reusable and can be cleaned out and
refilled.
During Pride, Young celebrates her
birthday and her wedding anniversary, as
well as the community. "I love Pride in the
city because it's my favorite thing to see
such a huge gathering of LGTBQ and our
supporters being completely free and open.
It's just an enormous family celebrating
each other's truths and experiences:'
(bijoucandles.com) •
MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
41
LOVELY LIP SYNC
LIPPY by Butter London is a lipstick
and a lip-gloss in one. Choose from
a range of longwearing statement
colors that shine, moisturize, and
protect with shea butter and Vitamin
E. Powerfully pigmented but without
parabens or phthalates, pop this
in your pocket and put your pride
where your pout is.
($18, butterlondon.com)
TRlTE
COT-10RS
POPS OF COLOR PERFECT
FOR YOUR PRIDE PARADE.
•
STREETWISE SCENT
Snap is an all-new, compact,
contemporary
style of perfume
available in a variety of inspirational
scents for both him and her. The
sleek packaging looks like a mini cell
phone and is made from 100 percent
recyclable environmentally-friendly
materials. Play with the genderspecific looks, ranging from cool and
metallic finishes to fun and feminine.
($15, snapperfume.com)
PERFECT PUCKER UP
Nourishing Lip Color by Bobbi
Brown blends five deeply emollient
natural oils and Vitamin C and E to
give lacklustre lips a silky feel and a
luminous, sophisticated finish. The
nourishing formula delivers 24-hour
sustained moisturization,
hydration
and conditioning
for softer,
smoother and plumper lips.
($28, everythingbobbi.com)
BUTTER HER UP
With saucy names such as Pink
Knickers, Come to Bed, and All Hail
The Queen, there's a Butter London
nail varnish for even the most
royal queer femme. These heavily
pigmented lacquers are designed
to smooth and strengthen nails with
their long-wearing and chip-resistant
shine. ($15, butterlondon.com)
•
42
CURVE
•
MAY/JUN
2016
BE A SMOOTHIE
This new BB Tinted Face Cream is all
about bringing down your color and
evening out your skin tone, taking
your parade-flushed face from day
to night or outdoors to indoors with
effortless ease. Specially formulated
to smooth skin, this unique BB also
contains marshmallow to soften skin
and reduce inflammation.
($45, karinherzog.com)
46QUEERWOMEN IN TV
54COWBOY PRIDE
60HUNTERVALENTINEUNPLUGS
MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
43
CAll
NG
THtSHOTS
Queer women and the
struggle for realness in
TV, both behind and in
front of the camera.
BY LAUREN LOGIUDICE
Maria Maggenti
My agent's assistant once told me that my agent "thinks that you
can only play lesbian characters:' Even though my agent was a gay
man, he assumed that because I had short, spiky hair I would be seen
as lesbian, and therefore more easily cast in lesbian roles.
According to GLAAD's most recent "Where Are We on TV" report,
only 33 percent of the 4 percent of LGBTcharacters in primetime programming on broadcast networks are actually queer women. So to
be typecast would mean even fewer jobs for me. At that stage in my
acting career I didn't fully understand how conventional mainstream
entertainment was.
Cornell Professor of Performing and Media Arts, Amy Villarejo explains that even now, "I still see the forces as really, really conservative
within the industry:'
Shortly after that meeting I confided to trans activist-author Kate
Bornstein that I wanted to alter my appearance to gain access to
more opportunities. "DO IT;'she responded. So, I got to work. I grew
my hair out to chin length and I was immediately rewarded for passing straight. I started booking commercials, got into SAG, and was
finally able to live as an actor. The dividing line between work and no
work was five inches of hair.
Today, with the explosion of cable programming and video on
demand, which has brought us queer shows like Orange Is the New
Black and Transparent, mainstream TV has undergone a visible and
necessary change. "Television is still the most important technology for reproducing gender and sexuality in the modern world;'
says Villarejo. "It's not that the people that are making the decisions
are sitting in their offices saying, 'I don't want any gay people in my
show: Some of course, maybe, but it's more like, 'Show me how that
makes money:"
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2016
WHO'S
TOBLAME
FOR
LACK
OFDIVERSITY
ONSCREEN?
Every time a queer or lesbian character appears on screen, our
community turns critic: Is she real enough? Is she diverse enough?
Fair questions. The pot shots at the creators, however, are often
misaimed, due to the collaborative nature of TV projects. "You
never know, there's not one person to blame for something;' says
Nisha Ganatra, consulting producer and director of Transparent.
"It's like a whole team of decisions that needed to happen, that
should be held accountable:'
The main decision makers are the showrunner, the studio, and
the network. The level of control the executives have on the creative process varies. It's clear by looking at the programming on
each network what general aesthetic they support, for better or
for worse. Ganatra confesses, "You do have to have those conversations with certain networks where you're like, two black people
can talk to each other and it's going to be okay:'
Even directors have limited authority. Lynn Shelton (Your Sister's
Sister, Fresh Off the Boat) says, "It's not really something where
you can roll up your sleeves and say, 'Let's completely overhaul the
script."' The impact that a television director has is subtler. "Performance wise, that's where you really have more influence as a
director;' Shelton says.
Rose Troche, director and co-executive producer of The L Word
(she also directed episodes of Law and Order and Ugly Betty) says
that "where you put the camera or how you look at someone" are
choices made by the director, and it is at this level that an episode
can be 'queered:
When the director is involved in the pilot, they have more input.
Troche recalls having more creative contribution in The L Word as
H •
11119
NishaGanatra
opposed to her later work in episodic television. "When I did an
episode called 'Liquid Heat' in Season 5 and all the characters just
had sex and I was like, how am I going to change this up or should
I make a bold choice and make them all just do the same thing?! I
was like, I'm running out of things in my repertoire!"
Staff writers also have limited power, and are essentially carrying out the vision of the showrunner. Writer and director Maria
Maggenti (The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love,
Finding Carter) says, "If you want to keep your job, you don't refuse to write a script." All scripts go past the showrunner who often rewrites them from their own point of view and from network
or studio notes. Many people I spoke with felt that if an offensive
character or scene gets past the showrunner it's never a simple
mistake. Maggenti was adamant, "It's not an oversight. ... You do it
because you don't understand:'
Terry Lawler, executive director of New York Women in Film
and Television talked about the larger forces at play: "It's definitely
much harder for women, gay people, people of color, to get their
stories in front of the right person. To get agents. To get agents
to even read their work. There is a lack of opportunity all the way
along, so if you can't get an agent, you can't get seen, and if you
can't get seen, you can't get your show on the air:'
CREATING
AUTHENTICITY
INAFANTASY
WORLD
If TV is always one part make believe, how can we be assured
of authenticity? "There's nothing really authentic about that house
and all the SUVsthat they're driving around Los Angeles;' says Villarejo about Transparent. "It's a very particular fantasy that grabs
us, and it's okay to be grabbed by fantasy."
Numerous industry studies indicate that a disproportionate
amount of white men create the fantasies on screen. This is problematic for the queer community because we are left to create an
awareness of ourselves in other people's fantasies. Shari Frilot, curator of New Frontier at Sundance Institute reflects, "Culture is a
way for us to see ourselves and to understand our humanity:' And
this is where 'diversity' comes in. The term, which is bandied about
today, "is so much richer than bringing people from different races
together .... When you think about it and embrace that value in a
much deeper way, it really shows in the program. And it affects
how you think about films. It's not a job or a quota that you have to
fulfill, it's a quality of life [and art] you are trying to achieve:'
Being a queer content creator is not necessarily career suicide.
Determination is key. "I used to struggle with it a lot more when
I was younger and now I'm just like, There's no getting out of it;'
says Troche. Some queer people in the industry feel that they are
offered television jobs because of their 'unique' perspective. Others think it's held them back. A lot comes down to connecting with
people or projects committed to diversity. Increasingly, there are
more of those shows out there.
For actors, the game is to position yourself to fit as many roles
as possible. Catherine Curtin, who plays Wanda Bell on Orange Is
the New Black, remembers being told early in her career that she
couldn't play a prosecutor because she didn't have high cheekbones and wasn't a brunette. She's a larger, heterosexual woman
with a raspy voice, so plays a lot of blue-collar characters, including angry revolutionaries and lesbians (and is proud to do so).
For Curtin, working on OITNB is refreshing. It's filled with sexual-
MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
45
Judy Bowman
ly and racially diverse women with varying body shapes-which is
not what we usually see on screen. "Film and television are predicated on female beauty in many ways and everybody knows that;'
says Maggenti. That subjective judgment call is based on hetereonormative standards of allure.
Maggenti remembers an incident in one writer's room: "We really wanted a cute dyke character. A little butch, cute dyke character
and [the supposedly progressive network] didn't go for it, they just
didn't understand what that was.... They want cute, pretty girls."
This puts visibly queer actors in a tight spot. Judy Bowman, a
New York City casting director and out lesbian, admits that including visually readable queer people for most casting isn't even a
consideration, and those actors tend to end up playing eccentrics. Others "don't know what to do, when to do it, and how it
will impact their career," she says. I certainly understand that dilemma. Visibly queer characters are the hardest to cast "because
it's self-selecting and very few dyke women are going to act;' says
Maggenti. That is in itself a cultural loss.
Almost everyone I spoke to for this article cited Transparent as
inspiring because of the way the show is run. "I would go back
to TV if I could be involved with something like Transparent;' says
Troche. "[I'm] not talking about the content, although that is undeniably groundbreaking, but the mode of storytelling:'
Transparent isn't run like a traditional television show. Ganatra explained that it's shot like a 5-hour movie and storyboarded
beforehand. Rather than use guest directors, most creatives are
onboard for the entire season. Showrunner Jill Soloway sets up a
working environment that is collaborative, supportive, and freeing,
using what she called in her AFI keynote speech "feminine energy:' Ganatra, whose first job in TV was Transparent, was thrilled.
"That was always a big concern, like, why am I trying to get in this
industry that's ultimately going to be not fulfilling creatively? You're
there every single day ... until the end of production. That was sort
of like the biggest difference:'
Having so many queer people invested in the production
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2016
changes what you ultimately see on screen, says Ganatra. "Are we
representing in a way that is truthful? Absolutely, 100 percent. Andrea Sperling [co-executive producer] and I talked about it every
single day.... So much nuance, down to what she would wear or
should her nails be short because now she's with a woman:'
WILL
THERE
BEMORE
QUEER
TV?
The proliferation of networks and programming present a great
opportunity for more queer stories because-other factors asidenetworks are running out of ideas. Shelton says, "For you to have
a show that is not going to be like 20 other shows, you really have
to diversify."
The on-demand media industry has challenged TV norms. "The
advantage now is that you don't need as many people to watch
the show for it to be a success in certain places;' says Lawler. Also,
more non-network shows mean less accountability to advertisers,
which leads to more risk taking. When diverse shows are successful, that signals to the networks that it's okay to branch out. "That
makes a huge difference in what decisions get made. It's really
about the money;' says Lawler.
The model has changed, and so has the nature of the stories
we see. "These new distribution commitments for seasons rather
than pilots allow writers and directors to develop these visions that
we're clearly responding to as viewers;' says Villarejo. "They are
very exciting visions, but they wouldn't have worked in the network environment. A pilot can't do it:'
Open-minded industry allies with decision-making authority are
important, too. Ganatra recalls working with Amy Poehler. "When
I was trying to make Chutney Popcorn it was, 'Can you change the
gay to straight?' Amy Poehler said, 'No, they absolutely have to be
Indian and I think she should be gay, too: It's a dream:'
While the mainstream film industry still struggles with issues of
diversity, TV is leading by example. "This is a very good moment
for television," says Maggenti. So good, in fact, that I recently
shaved the back of my head to reclaim my edgy queer dignity.•
STAND
UP
WTH
PR
Dt
Comic Dana Goldberg
headlines this year's
Seattle Women's Pride.
BY MARCIE BIANCO
a comedian's wet dream-when it's not
scaring the shit out of me as a voting
member of society. I really don't want to
hear about the size of Donald Trump's penis. And let's just be honest: every woman reading this has a bigger penis than
Trump. It just happens to be in the nightstand next to the bed.
ANY
PERSONAL
PLANS
FOR
PRIDE
THIS
YEAR?
with no pants wearing a rainbow
EXACTLY
HOW
MANY
PRIDES
HAVE
YOU
GRACED
WITH
YOUR
PRESENCE?
6-inch heels and I'm like, "Is that
I've definitely attended more Prides than
I've performed at. When I was younger, I
would travel with friends to any city we
could to go celebrate our gayness with
10,000 to a million strangers. Over the
course of my career, I've probably only
performed at a dozen or so. I can't wait
to headline Seattle Women's Pride. I have
no doubt it will go down as one of my
favorites.
WHAT
DOES
PRIDE
MEAN
TOYOU?
When I was younger, Pride was a huge
party to go day drink with my friends,
people watch, and hang with my friends.
Over the years, it has evolved. I had the
pleasure of marching in San Francisco's
Pride parade a couple of years ago and
there was a sweet male couple in front
of me holding hands with a sign that
read "47 years together ... and finally legally married." Unfortunately, that couple
is never the one who is featured on the
front page of the newspaper the next
day. It's always someone in ass chaps
boa in
my English professor?!" I've always been out in
my career so there is a sense of personal pride for me in my sexual orientation
that comes across in my material. I'm not
afraid to talk about it publicly. I think the
more the conversation becomes normalized, the less it will be used as an issue.
We still have so much to do in the LGBT
community for full equality, but I'm grateful I have a voice and have been able to
use it on a larger scale to help the movement move forward.
WHAT
ARE
SEATTLE
LESBIANS
GITTING
INTO
WITH
YOU
THIS
PRIDE?
I think the question is more, "What am I
getting in to!?" Seattle is one of my favorite
cities to perform in and something ridiculously crazy always happens at a show. The
audience is rowdy and smart. They have no
problem participating in some banter with
me during the show and it usually turns into
comedy magic. As far as material, you'll get
some old favorites, mixed with some new
ones. The political climate right now is
I will definitely take an extra day in Seattle
to play and to take advantage of the warmer weather. I'll try and bring the sunshine
with me from Southern California and
maybe we'll get a couple of rain free days
for Pride.
LOOKING
BACK
ATYOUR
COMEDY
CAREER,
WHAT
ARE
YOU
MOST
PROUD
OF?
I think one of the biggest things is the
amount of money and awareness I've
helped to raise for non-profits around
the country through my comedy and
live auctions. I've helped to raise over 4
million dollars for organizations that focus on LGBT rights and equality, women's health and reproductive
rights,
AIDS education and prevention, and
keeping our children safe from predators. I have the ability to bring levity to
very serious subjects and have been
able to incorporate that into larger
events and black tie affairs to help balance a program and truly touch people
with some of my material while making
them laugh. That's a good night at work.
(seattlewomenspride.com) •
MAY/JUN
2016
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47
Just when you think being queer is becoming all roses and
rainbows, stuff gets real. The inaugural year of American marriage equality has served as a joyous time of civil-rights achievement that's infused our LGBT community with dignity and
renewed hope. With it, however, has come a flood of backlash of
the most treacherous kind: The kind that rises slowly from defiant counties and courthouses, threatening to swell to an obstinate tidal wave.
It's moments of struggle like these that embolden the best
leaders. And Kate Kendell, executive director of the National
Center for Lesbian Rights, is rising to fight a galvanized opposi-
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2016
tion that seems more devious than ever before.
"There is no doubt in my mind that we are in the middle of a
backlash," Kendell says. "Because we won this big huge thing,
so much of the narrative has been, 'What else is there to do?'
[The backlash] is not garnering headlines. But if we don't pay
attention to it, we may not lose our freedom to marry, but we will
see it eroded significantly."
Kendell is a lawyer by trade who has helmed the NCLR since
1996, following stints at a private law firm in Utah-her home
state-and the ACLU. Both jobs added to her breadth of legal
savvy and life experience. But it is her intrinsic devotion to both
HOTEL
the NCLR and the community it serves that's apparent in her
every word. Few people have such clarity about their life's mission.
Luckily for the queer community, Kendell also possesses an
instinct about those keen to degrade equal human rights, and
how best to combat their dark, sly tactics.
"Our opposition is conceding marriage, but blurring the line
around every other way that we might be able to participate in
civic society," she says. "It's all the religious-refusal laws we'll
see pop up again and again, [and other] laws that will be introduced-where we may be able to get married, but in every
other way our full participation in civic life is going to be impacted and diminished. Like public-accommodations protection; people who don't want to serve you because you're LGBT;
denial of services from an adoption agency ... We're going to
have to really respond to that."
During Kendell's NCLR tenure, her team has played pivotal roles in monumental LGBT-rights cases. The organization's
"Timeline & Victories" web page reads like a year-by-year tally of every significant court case affecting homosexuals and
transgender individuals since its 1977 founding as the Lesbian
Rights Project. The present moniker was instituted in 1989, and
remains a point of conversation since the NCLR serves lesbians and the broader community.
She says the name exists to "elevate lesbian leadership even
as we are fierce, dedicated, tireless advocates for our entire
community." It will stay that way, she says, as long as the gender imbalance keeps lesbians outnumbered in boardrooms,
donor pools, and other key decision-making posts.
"We were founded as an explicitly feminist organization,"
she says. "And even as women have greater power within the
community, we feel like there is still a place for an explicitly
feminist voice ... We do not think it's at all necessary for us to
only be focused on lesbian issues. Because lesbian issues are
transgendered issues are gay issues. Gender and sexism and
homophobia impact all of us."
The most familiar community gatherings, like Pride events,
remain important rallying points. Kendell still joins them with
her wife Sandy Holmes and their teenage kids. At their hometown of San Francisco's Pride and in other cities, she sees
LGBT-rights progress reflected everywhere, in an array of
forms.
"Now it's families marching alongside the leather daddies,"
she says. "Our true diversity is really on display." She admits ,
however, that the marches have less of a "radical edge," especially as corporations turn out to show their support and,
simply, to advertise.
Nevertheless, the overriding purpose of Pride prevails,
bringing together queers and other individuals for commemoration, protest, and visibility. Pride is a time to remember, she
says, "how lucky we are to live in a time and place where we
can be fully who we are. It helps to remind us that our work is
not done until everyone, everywhere can live fully and freely."
(nclrights.org) •
zetta
SAN FRANCl SCO
1
55 5th Street San Francisco California 94103
RESERVATIONS415 543 8555 Ii el t J,..,1.,111
"Lesbian political power" may be an unfamiliar phrase, but
thanks to LPAC-the political action committee by and for lesbians and queer women-it is one we should expect to hear
more often, not just in this election cycle but in the years to
come. LPAC was founded in 2012 by "a group of activist lesbians who were at the forefront of pretty much every political
battle out there," says Beth Shipp, LPAC's executive director.
These women, some of whom now sit on the board of directors, were exasperated by walking into rooms where decisions
about lesbians and queer women were being made by men.
"We love our straight men, we love our lesbros and the gay
guys who are involved in the fight. But we've been on the frontlines and there's never been an organization that represents us
and that builds our power," Shipp explains.
Shipp is the PAC's first executive director, and just celebrated her one-year anniversary with the organization. She grew
up as a child of two faculty members on the campus of a
women's college, William Woods (now co-ed), in the 1970s and
early '80s. Her feminist upbringing led to a foray into politics
when she met two women who were trying to open a Planned
50
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
Parenthood health center in the notoriously conservative city
of Lynchburg, Va. From there, she worked on political campaigns. Beginning by knocking on doors, she worked her
way all the way up to managing state and gubernatorial campaigns. In 2002, she joined NARAL (the National Association
for the Repeal of Abortion Laws) as its political director, and
was hired by LPAC in 2015.
When asked what lesbian political power looks like, Shipp
cites the first campaign that LPAC focused on-Tammy Baldwin's run for the Senate in 2012. "The women of LPAC came
together in an unprecedented way to help make sure that
Tammy Baldwin was the first out gay person who happened
to be lesbian in the U.S. Senate." Of course, lesbian political
power is primarily generated by money. The purpose of LPAC
is to collect money and donate it to a candidate on behalf of
the lesbian community. The collective donation is a powerful
signifier to politicians to keep lesbians in mind when drafting,
sponsoring, and voting on policies that affect our community.
"When you give $25 to LPAC," Shipp says, "and we combine that with the $25 from the person in Florida, and the $25
/
U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services
Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention
www.cdc.gov/tips
/
from the person in California, and so on ... when you bundle it
all together and send that to Hillary's campaign, you can say
'This is lesbian money that is supporting your campaign,' that
is huge." The difference between donating directly to a campaign such as Hillary's and donating to LPAC is that the latter
is a donation on behalf of your identity. "If your self-identity is
important to you in the political realm and you want people to
know that you are proud, and proudly donating this money as
a lesbian," Shipp maintains, "you should give to LPAC, so that
all that money combined goes in as lesbian money."
"Instead of one lesbian giving $25, it's 1,000 lesbians giving
$25,000-and for some people, that's the definition of power."
Still in its nascent years, LPAC is focusing on building community city by city. This is in addition to endorsing and directly
contributing to candidates, and working on ballot initiatives,
which are of particularly vital importance, Shipp says, because
of the anticipated blowback after 2015's Supreme Court ruling
that overturned the federal ban on same-sex marriage.
LPAC endorses the rights of both men and women, gay and
straight. The requisite for its support is a candidate's advocacy
of the PAC's three pillars: LGBT rights, women's equality, and
social justice. These, Shipp notes, "include the core components of racial justice and economic justice." All lesbians live
an intersectional life-we have a sexuality, a gender, a race,
and an economic status. Shipp uses this example: "If a lesbian
and her partner are a mixed-race couple, and they are living
together and working real hard and doing well for themselves,
but they make $1.50 to every $2 that the gay male couple
down the street makes, that's not just an LGBT issue, that's a
women's issue, and a racial issue, and an economic equality
issue."
This election cycle, LPAC is going all in for Hillary. "We were
the first national LGBTorganization to endorse her," Shipp says.
"For our board, who made the
decision early on to endorse
her, it was a combination of
her experience as Secretary
of State, and the fact that she
traveled worldwide on behalf
of the country and spoke eloquently about LGBT rights in
places where that was not always accepted." As well, Shipp
continues, "a lot of us remember the days of her fighting
for healthcare, and making
sure that women are part of
the discussion, and part of the
equation, when talking about
healthcare in this country. She
took it on before anyone else
thought to do it. If you look
at her whole record and what
she has done for women, and
for lesbians and for the LGBT
52
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
community writ large, it's just no question for us.
"For an organization like LPAC that works at the intersection of all of these issues-LGBT rights, women's equality, and
social justice-I don't think we've ever seen a candidate for
president who represents those values and our mission more
than Hillary Clinton."
LPAC celebrates Pride this summer with a lesbian comedy
show that will benefit the PAC and help to get Hillary elected. Called Levity and Justice for All, the event will be held
in New York City on June 16 and will feature an all-star lineup of our community's favorite lesbian and genderqueer
comics, including Kate Clinton, Lea DeLaria, Marsha Warfield, Karen Williams, Cameron Esposito, Rosie O'Donnell,
Judy Gold, and Jes Tom-who will surely bring much-needed
levity to an election where the stakes for lesbians run high.
(teamlpac.com) •
"
THtWOMtN
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CAMt
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INAN
UNPRtCtOtNTtO
WAY
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HtlPMAKt
SU
Rt
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TAMMY
BAlDWIN
WAS
THt~IRST
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PtRSON
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■
Key West Pride
June 8-12, 2016
keywestpride.org
TheFloridaKeys
Key\\1/est
Close To Perfect - Far From Normal
essica Fettke, 29, spends her
days in the pastures of a 10,000acre cattle ranch, tending to
1,000 "momma cows" and their
calves. She works on a commercial
beef operation in the biggest county in
Oklahoma, Osage County, which was
the setting for a play and a movie. "The
house from that movie is literally two
miles from our home," says Fettke, who
was born in Wichita, Kan., and raised in
western Oklahoma.
"Osage County is named after the
Osage Nation-the
Indian tribe that
had this land originally. They're still
J
54
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MAY/JUN
2015
a very prominent culture, they have
some government.
So it's literally
cowboys and Indians," says Fettke.
Fettke refers to herself modestly
as "just a ranch hand." But her wifeto-be, also named Jessica, calls her a
cowboy, and Fettke, while shy about
her cowboy pride, is clearly enamored
of the culture. "I could go on forever
about that," she says, describing the
long days, the competitive
riding,
the requisite etiquette. "There's a lot
of people who consider themselves
cowboys,
but they don't
actually
embody the cowboy culture. They say
they are, but they're not." I ask her if,
deep down, she identifies as a cowboy:
"Yes, ma'am, I absolutely do."
Fettke looks the part, too. She wears
a cowboy hat, "to keep the sun off of
me," blue jeans, a button-down longsleeve shirt, and 18-inch-tall boots,
because she works in high grass where
there are rattlesnakes. In this kind of
environment,
more than your attire
matters.
"In the summertime especially, to
beat the heat you've gotta be there
before the daylight. Otherwise, the
cattle are stressed and hot, and you
FEATURES/
can't have that. It's not good for
anybody. And then, in the winter
months it's sunup till sundown as well,
because the daylight is so short. And
you've got so many cows that need to
be fed."
"A lot of it depends on the cattle.
You just don't know until you get out
there what's actually going to happen.
You have chores you have to take care
of and things you just have to get
done. You're at the mercy of nature,
basically."
Of her mostly male colleagues, Fettke
says, "There are some I don't care for,
obviously, and I don't associate with
them. The ones I do associate with, I
think the world of them. They're great.
I've been really blessed to work with
some really excellent cowboys, and I'm
thankful for that. They're respectful,
they're polite, they're hardworking,
they're good horsemen. It's really a
treat to be able to work with them."
Fettke feels part of the rural
community and is not interested in
acting as if she is a minority. "Out in the
country, it makes an impact if you stir
up trouble or act like a jerk. Honestly,
it can cost your livelihood. That's part
of the cowboy culture: There's little
tolerance for disrespectful behavior."
"There are codes of respect, even
with the way you are out in the pasture,
or the way you are around your elders.
You don't cut somebody off when
you're gathering cattle, or when you're
going through the gate. You show
general respect for the person who's
next to you. And if you can't do that,
then don't come back."
But Fettke is gay, and that must have
an impact in her community. "I'm as
out as I can be. I don't hide that from
anybody. Everyone I work with knows
who my partner is, and they know
we're together, including my employer
and all the cowboys I work with. I
respect them and their opinion, and
they respect me and mine. We agree
to disagree on things. But I don't feel
like they do ever discriminate against
me. And some of them are pro gay
marriage."
Fettke recently popped the question
to Jessica Jo Jantzen, 27, who was
raised in a Southern Baptist home
and went to a Bible academy for high
school. Before they met, Fettke heard
Jantzen was a "Bible thumper" who
attended the academy where Fettke's
dad was a football coach. Fettke's
father would chat with the spirited
teen about politics and religion, and
he had a feeling she'd get on well with
his daughter. He didn't anticipate how
well.
"When I met Jess, I was intrigued by
her and very interested in her views of
the world," recalls Jantzen. "She was so
kind and open-minded.
People loved
her and she was so proud of who she
~
1
"I CAN T IMAGINEA
BETTERCOMMUNITY
TO RAISEMY CHILDREN
IN I CAN T IMAGINEA
BETTERCULTURETHIS
ISWHO WE ARE."
1
was: 'How could this [gay] lifestyle be
wrong?' Growing up, my family always
said that being gay was a choice.
Once I asked Jess if she thought it
was a choice, and I will never forget
her answer. She said, 'Do you think
I would choose to see my mom cry
over the fact that I am gay? Don't you
think I would change if I could?' That
resonated with me."
Jantzen says she began falling in
love with Fettke when she was just
18. "I felt comfort around her, and
a connection
that I had never felt
before. Jess knew I was not ready for
a same-sex relationship at that point,
so she pretty much stopped talking to
me and began dating a girl I went to
high school with. It broke my heart. A
few years later, after not seeing each
other, we bumped into each other at a
CARE
college concert. Like a movie, our eyes
locked and we both knew. I broke up
with the person I was dating, but it took
Jess another two years."
When Jantzen entered grad school
in Stillwater,
Okla., Fettke looked
her up again. "She had taken a large
hay operation job in a town close to
Stillwater. She asked to see me, so we
went out one night and it is history from
there! It may have taken us four years
to reach each other, but the timing
was right. I was strong enough by then
and a lot more mature. No matter what
we went through, I loved her and she
had always loved me. There were some
really hard times during those years,
but I would do it again to get to where
we are now. It's bliss."
Jantzen is still a Christian
but
views the Bible differently than she
did growing up. "I believe that God
created us in his image and would not
discriminate
against love," she says.
"I think it is very important for young
people to know that people are scared
of what they don't understand. I was.
That was what made me close-minded.
I believe God puts certain people in
our lives to help us grow, mentally and
spi ritua Ily."
While Fettke's parents have come
to terms with her sexuality, Jantzen's
family has not been accepting. "They
still deny it to this day," Jantzen says,
even though she and Fettke will wed in
November. "We will be surrounded by
friends, and some family," says Jantzen.
"Jess's family will be in attendance with
all of her friends. My dad decided not to
walk me down the aisle, but my second
father, my stepdad, has stepped up
and will do the honors."
Meanwhile, Fettke and Jantzen live
together on their secluded property.
The closest city is Tulsa, which boasts
the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center,
where the couple has gone for Pride
celebrations. But generally, Pride and
LGBT community are not high on the
list of what Fettke and Jantzen need
to live their lives. "I feel a sense of
pride for people who have endured
discrimination and have come through
that," says Fettke. "I feel pride for the
rights we have gained recently. But I
MAY/JUN
2015
CURVE
55
TUREstCAREERS
just am who I am, and I don't know how
to be anything else."
Mostly, these women's lives revolve
around work-Fettke's as a cowboy, and
Jantzen's at Oklahoma State University
where she works in youth development.
Jantzen is also a photographer,
and
took the photos for this article. ("I'm
mighty proud of her," says Fettke.)
Date night might involve driving
to a little bar and grill just across
the Kansas state line, but their usual
evening routine is that of country folk
everywhere: "We come home, we like
to sit on our porch. We've got chickens
and a turkey and four head of horses,
five cats, five dogs-it's a mess around
here," laughs Fettke. "By the time we
get home, we've got plenty of work
that we've got to do here after we're
done with our work for the day. So we
pretty much relax, gather our animals,
and prepare for the next day," she says.
If Fettke prides herself on anything,
it's her professionalism as a cowboy, and
her tenderness toward her animals. "I'm
nothing without my horse, and there's
a lot of mutual respect there. You don't
mistreat something that you expect to
be your partner. There are some people
who mistreat their horse, but they are
not considered good cowboys. Yankin'
or kickin' on his horse is a weakness in
a cowboy. There's better ways of going
about that. Firmness. You can't just let a
horse do what it wants to do, because
all it wants to do is eat and be merry."
Fettke is aware of the many lesbian
and queer vegetarians and vegans who
disapprove of her work, but she says, "If
they actually knew what it was like to
work on a ranch, if they actually could
live this life, they would understand that
more than anybody, we care for cattle."
Fettke has gone out in snowstorms
to retrieve baby cows. "You're gonna
pick that calf up and make sure he
makes it through.
You sacrifice a
lot of your comfort for their care. In
actuality, we're providing cattle with
a better lifestyle, making them more
productive, practising animal husbandry
to provide for our culture, for people in
general. I guess if we were all still in
hunter-gatherer mode, people wouldn't
be so critical."
56
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
When it comes to other lesbians,
Fettke and Jantzen are friendly with
a local couple who are foster parents
for
Child
Welfare
Services.
This
couple somehow balances work on
a ranch with full-time social work in
Tulsa, as well as caring for as many
as seven children at home. It seems
unimaginable that anyone would object
to such upstanding lesbian citizens,
and I ask Fettke how she thinks her own
family will be accepted by the Osage
County community.
"I think some people are going to be
OK with it and other people are going
to scoff. So I don't really care. If that's
what they want to do, that's theirs to
do. I can't imagine a better community
to raise my children in. I can't imagine
a better culture. This is who we are."
Over the phone, I tell her that who
they are will soon be in the pages of a
national lesbian magazine for all to see,
and that I'll be sending her copiessomething
to show the grandkids,
perhaps. There is a pause, and then she
drawls, "You can't see me, but I got a
big ol' grin on my face."•
EVERT
YOUCANHELPTHEM
DONATENOW
IFAW.ORG/CURVE
QIFAW
International Fund for Animal Welfare
HOWTHEYMET
BRITTNEY:I actually found Amber on
Tinder. I really liked her look, and I
contacted her to inquire about shooting
her.
AMBER:We matched on Tinder. I didn't
even believe she was real. I thought I was
for sure getting catfished.
it was in the 90s, so when I picked her
up I was drenched in sweat. We went to
grab pizza at a local bar. I got spinach and,
unfortunately, the entire date I actually
had a piece perfectly covering one of my
front teeth, so she thought it was missing.
Luckily, she kept in touch.
THEIR
FIRST
IMPRESSIONS
OF
EACH
OTHER
THEIR
FIRST
DATE
BRITTNEY:We arranged to meet up for
pizza. I remember her texting me right
before she got to my house, saying she
had no AC in her car so she was going to
be really sweaty. She was. I remember her
being really nervous-she ran into the curb
while parking, and she spilled some of her
drink. It was cute.
BRITTNEY:She looked so young! She also
had spinach stuck in her teeth. She was a
bit all over the place, but so was I.
AMBER:At first, I wasn't sure if she was
lying about everything in her life-she
seemed too interesting.
WHO
MADE
THE
FIRST
MOVE
AMBER:When I drove out to meet her, my
windows in my car weren't working, and
58
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
BRITTNEY:It was our first date-oops!and we were having drinks, chatting and
doing a photo shoot. It started getting late
and I didn't want her to leave, so I asked
her to cuddle. Is that even making the first
move?
AMBER:Oh boy. Well after we were
nervously lying next to each other for like an
hour, she asked if she could "snug" me. Does
that count?
WHEN
THEY
OFFICIALLY
BECAME
ACOUPLE
AMBER:I'm not 100 percent, but I'm pretty
sure she was calling me her girlfriend after
Day 1.
BRITTNEY:I don't really have a specific date
or time. Amber lived almost two hours from
me and would drive over almost every night,
so we decided to get her a better job close
by, and she just moved in. This was pretty
early on-I would say, after a month.
HOW
AND
WHY
THEY
WORK
SO
WELL
TOGETHER
BRITTNEY:We are both artists and we
excel in different mediums, so we just
decided to collaborate, to see if we could
make anything of it.
AMBER: I started using her photography as
inspiration for my paintings.
BRITTNEY:Amber takes my finished
photograph and creates painted pieces
that resemble the photos, but they always
reflect her personal view of the photo.
They always turn out amazing. She is with
me for every shoot. We work really well
as a team, plus she is willing to do crazy
things that a model might not be-for
example, being wrapped head to toe in
Caution tape, or wearing this black leather
suit I like to use for my shoots. The suit is
tough to wear because you cannot see or
breathe in it!
really admire how honest she is. I value
feedback, even if it's not what I want to
hear, and she has no problem telling
me what she thinks. She brings a whole
different creative element to my photos.
I really love that she takes the time to do
things the right way, as I am the absolute
opposite. She is very patient and would do
anything for anyone. I got lucky.
AMBER: Aside from her talent, I admire
her mind. That might sound crazy, but
you would have to just watch her when
she's thinking! Her passion and her drive,
when she loves something, are incredibly
inspiring. I've never been so intrigued by
another human in my life.
IFTHEY
EVER
FIGHT
AMBER: "Fight" might be a stretch, but we
do disagree from time to time. We are very
different, as far as our personalities go.
HOW
THEY
RESOLVE
CONFLICTS
AMBER: We both try to keep each other
inspired.
THE
QUALITIES
THEY
MOST
ADMIRE
INEACH
OTHER
BRITTNEY:Amber is very genuine. I
BRITTNEY:At this point in my life, I
feel I have learned so much from past
relationships, and I have grown so much.
If we get into a fight, we usually just agree
to disagree and move on. I can appreciate
opinions that differ from mine, and I don't
easily get jealous or offended, but it has
taken years to get to this point.
ADVICE
FOR
COUPLES
WHO
WANT
TO
LIVE
AND
WORK
TOGETHER
BRITTNEY:Never go to bed angry, and
make sure to give each other enough
space. It's good to spend time apart.
Otherwise, you never experience the
feeling of missing each other and really
appreciating each other's company.
AMBER: Make sure to take time away from
working. Don't ever take your partner for
granted.
WHAT'S
NEXT:
PETS,
WEDDING
BELLS,
MAYBE
KIDS?
AMBER: Hopefully, all of the above, right?
But we actually have six pets already.
BRITTNEY:No more pets! Just kidding, but
I am sure that is what Amber is going to
say. We really want to just have fun and live
in the now. We aren't finished being kids
ourselves!•
Followon lnstagram@DetroitBird
-1hef-lc-,ri,J,,
t;.,,.~
Key\\1/est
..
Oo1of9[~
F.,F...,.N,,,,,.,l
gaykeywestfl.com
Ii
(305 294-4603
facebook.com/gaykeywestfl
MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
59
Lesbian rockers
Hunter Valentine
bid us farewell.
BY KELLY MCCARTNEY
60
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
l
ast year, when the members of
Palm Springs, Ca., marked a slightly
Hunter
more definitive
Valentine
~ they were going
announced
on hiatus, their
"amazing and supportive" fans took the
end for the rockers,
like an unfinished
sentence, followed
by an ellipsis rather than a period ...
news in stride, according to founding
"We will definitely play one-off festivals
members
throughout the year," Petracca explains.
Kiyomi
Mccloskey
(guitar,
vocals) and Laura Petracca (drums).
Noting
This year, the band's performance
at
Pledge as enough reason to not to call
the annual Dinah Shore Weekend in
it quits completely, she adds, "We want
the
February
release of The
THE L-LI
FEATURES/
to be able to play it live as many times
as we can."
After this year, though,
the Hunter
Valentine era may really be coming to
a close. The band-which
bassist
also includes
Leanne Bowes and guitarist/
keyboardist
Toronto,
Lisa
Bianco-started
Ontario,
in
2004
in
with
an
eponymous EP,along with a bit of vision
and a lot of vigor. Though you might
expect the all-female foursome to cite
the
similarly
gendered-and
equally
rocking-Runaways,
or
the
Bangles,
as their inspiration,
Mccloskey
notes,
"We didn't really model ourselves after
a particular
band, but we always have
admired bands that work really hard and
are consistent. I think a good example of
that would be Tegan and Sara. They have
put in the work and are always growing
No matter
came
from,
calibrated
Indeed, that spirit and spunk have
served
and expanding."
where
their
keeping
influences
their
compass
to their own true north was
Hunter
Valentine
have made four
well.
albums,
They
toured
It was definitely
character
building, to
say the least."
the
"I thought that filming The Real L Word
world, and appeared on two reality TV
opened
shows (Showtime's
base increased, more people came out
The Real L Word
a new door for us-our
fan
and VH1's The Linda Perry Project).
to shows, we made new connections
"We always stayed true to ourselves
Mission
and friendships,"
and
always
imperative
tried
Petracca
doing
notes.
some amazing
to
their
"I think
so,"
way,"
McCloskey says. "I'm happy with what
have
been
we've achieved."
bands out there that
gave us inspiration
accomplished?
our
things
"There
mission.
and ideas, for sure.
us, individually.
Petracca expands on that thought:
"I feel as though Hunter Valentine has
But our main goal has always been to
accomplished
do it the way we want." That is clearly
so many places, were on two reality
so much. We have toured
Petracca says. "The
Linda Perry Project was very hard on
It was a challenging
show and kind of changed
on
the
industry
and
on
my view
L.A. Both
experiences were eye-opening and had
their rewards."
shows, opened for some iconic bands
Looking back, the ladies agree that
Romantic and 2010's lessons From the
and musicians. Who else can say they
absolutely the best experience of their
Late Night. Both sets pull no punches
shared a Thanksgiving feast with Cyndi
entire run was opening for Lauper at
and put Hunter Valentine
Lauper (on Cyndi Lauper & Friends:
Toronto's Massey Hall in front of the
in evidence
on 2007's The Impatient
smack dab
in the middle of the rock 'n' roll circus,
Home
right there with dude groups like Sum
change any of it. It has shaped me as an
for
the Holidays)?
I wouldn't
crowd.
Petracca
says,
concert
at, and it's a legendary
place
41 and pretty much every other band
individual
on the Vans Warped Tour.
when times are tough and joy when shit
to play. Needless to say, I will always
is fun."
feel accomplished
During the decade since they began,
McCloskey thinks the music industry has
and has shown me strength
hometown
"It was the first venue I ever saw a
That balanced perspective
has also
made more room for women to be taken
served the band well, particularly
seriously-"but
the case of the TV shows, which, in
we still fight for equality,
with Laura. Playing in our hometown, in
that venue, was so memorable."
So, with Palm Springs in their rearview
in that regard," she adds. That's because,
retrospect,
blessing and a curse. "There were some
mirror, what
included Hunter Valentine in their 2012
very hard, emotional times when those
Hunter Valentine? "We are all a bit sad to
"Hottest Chicks in Metal" issue, rocker
shows came out," McCloskey admits. "It's
slow things down," Petracca confesses.
chicks are still not the norm. But that
hard to watch yourself on the screen and
"However, we all have individual
doesn't
"Without
relive some of the tough moments that
ahead to look forward to. Kiyomi and
too philosophical. ..what is the
you went through. On a positive note, we
Lisa will be continuing in music together.
getting
these
gals.
out to be both a
in my music career."
concurs. "I'd have to agree
despite the fact that Revolver magazine
bother
turned
in
Mccloskey
now for the women
of
plans
Petracca asks, then
made some of our most dedicated fans
Leanne is a badass bassist-she
answers: "I think, if you feel good doing
from our music being exposed on these
working
it and people love what you do, then
shows. I am extremely grateful for the
going to focus on food, another passion
you're doing something right."
experience, despite the ups and downs.
of mine. Maybe open a restaurant?" •
norm,
anyway?"
will be
with other bands. And I am
MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
61
es
o\anda Jon
th,
de\ivers tru
d B\
iustice, an
.
1exas-st \e
he's not a Mob Wife
Grandma Jones reinforced those rules.
was going to die that night, and if she didn't
and she's not a Real
Trained to be a straight-A student, Jones
do what she did, it was going to be her. So
Housewife. But she is
was grounded all summer when she got
he's exactly where he needs to be:'
a Survivor-an
alumna
her first B. "I could not go outside and play.
Due to her legal expertise on domestic
of the TV reality show
For a tomboy, that's the worst punishment
violence, Jones has been asked to comment
and
ever. I'd look out the window that summer
on it on TV, most recently after the Ray Rice
also a graduate of the
every day and cry:' Two more Bs earned her
scandal. "A lot of people don't know they're
School of Hard Knocks. With everything
"whoopings:' But the outcome was positive.
being abused. They don't know the signs.
real life has thrown at her, it's a miracle that
'There was never a doubt in my mind
When I first started dating my ex-husband,
Jolanda Jones, a Houston-based criminal
that I was going to be successful;' says
he was controlling and I didn't realize it.
defense attorney and LGBTactivist, is with
Jones. "I think I had cousins and friends who
He would pick at what I wore and make
us at all, let alone the trailblazing success
may have doubted, but I never doubted.
comments and tell me I was fat, he would
she is today. Currently, she's showcased as
In fact, there was a guy I dated who was
tell me I was ugly, he would tell me I wasn't
one of six dynamic women of color in WE
from my same neighborhood, and when
smart. After I had my son, I had stretch
TV's new docuseries Sisters In Law.
I got to college first he broke up with me,
marks and my breasts weren't as perky,
because he thought I was going to think
and my ex-husband would tell me that no
Survivor:
Palau,
Jones, with her distinctive shaved head,
her athletic but elegant 6-foot frame, her
I was better than him. All these years later,
one would want me, that I was used goods.
streetwise smarts and powerful voice, is
people tell me that he wishes he had had
That is abuse. I would cry and then he would
star material. But life might have turned
faith in me, but it's hard, when you're from
rape me.
out quite differently for her. Jones was born
the hood, to believe that there's something
into Houston's Third Ward, considered to
bigger,
be one of the most economically diverse
can achieve:'
black neighborhoods in the country. Some
What
something
the
greater
that
you
"I
got
accused
of
cheating
with
everybody, trying to flirt with everybody,
to the point that I never went out in public
disbelieving
ex-boyfriend
because I was fearful that he would think I
people refer to Third Ward as a ghetto;
thought of Jones hardly matters now: She's
was making contact with somebody ...
others note that Beyonce grew up there-in
recently come out as a lesbian and is happily
ended up getting my head slapped really
a more upscale section of the hood. In fact,
partnered with businesswoman and trainer
hard in a club full of people, and he ended
the childhoods of Bey and Jolanda were
Cherisse Traylor.The two women, both from
up apologizing and saying it would never
worlds apart. Growing up, Jones stared
Houston, have known about each other
happen again, and then it did happen again,
into the maw of poverty, violence, and self-
since 1982; they're BFFs, but only became
a few more times. I got out, and I am very
destructiveness, and struggled to break a
romantic partners last year.
lucky to be alive:'
cycle that claimed the lives of many of her
family members.
Prior to that, Jones, while forging genuine
I
But before it turned this ugly, there were
and lifelong connections with the LGBT
signs, she says: "Jealousy is bad-not good.
"My dad blew his brains out;' she reveals.
community, dated men, and was married to
When I was 24, I thought jealousy meant
'Two of my uncles killed themselves. My
a man-who beat her. She has gone on to
that somebody really loved you. Well, I now
grandmother
advocate for survivors of domestic abuse,
understand that jealousy is insecurity, and
and has raised a son, Jiovanni.
you'd better get out as fast as you can and
literally lost two sons to
suicide. My brother was murdered. My aunt
was murdered. I have cousins who were
murdered. I've been shot at:'
As a criminal defense lawyer, Jones
now defends battered women. One of her
run away as far as you can, because you can
never please them:'
On top of witnessing the street violence
clients, who is featured on the show Sisters
Today, Jones wants to help other women
that characterizes many black working-
In Law, is a middle-aged working-class white
identify the warning signs of an abusive
class lives, Jones faced grinding financial
woman who murdered her abusive male
relationship, and to make men aware of
worry, too. "We were always afraid of getting
partner in what Jones believes was an act of
what abuse is as well. To this day, her ex-
evicted because my mom couldn't afford to
self-defense. "I felt this pressure to represent
husband maintains that they had a perfect
pay the rent;' she recalls. "Our house burned
Linda and help the courts see that it was self-
marriage. But Jones's son, Jio, who is
down when I was in the fifth grade because
defense;' says Jones. "There's tremendous
now a university graduate and an activist,
we couldn't afford electricity and we used
pressure when you know she's been abused
remembers the times that his mother was
candles. The one thing my mom was
and raped by her abuser, and then the law
beaten and strangled as though they were
insistent upon was that she couldn't afford
charges her with a crime. First he victimized
everyday domestic events.
to put me through college-but
that my
her, and now she'svictimized by the system.
For Jones, the key to survival is self-
brain could. So my mother was extremely
It's my hope and my prayer-though I can't
reliance, but she also understands the
hard on me academically:'
tell you what happens in the future-that
I
importance of having a support network. "I
Mrs. Jones bought her daughter books
can make the world see the truth, and that
did not make it out by myself. Some people
and assigned her extra homework, and
is that somebody needed to die, somebody
always threw it at me that I was gonna kill
bliss in the love department. After many
years of leaning on each other for support
and sharing confidences, Jones and Traylor
finally got together when they were both
single at the same time for the first time in
21 years. "Cherisse said, 'If you like Empire,
you should see this show Power. You can
watch it on my TV. So I would come over to
her place every week and watch Power. And
one night I was really tired, and I didn't feel
like it was a really big deal to sleep there on
the couch:'
Traylor thought that Jones was sending
her a signal. Jones wondered if Traylor
was flirting. Once they realized that their
compatibility could be mutual attraction,
they decided to try dating. "My biggest fear
was screwing up a friendship with my best
friend;' says Jones. To everyone else, this
seemed like a match made in heaven, and
friends had long assumed that something
was going on between them. "It was really
interesting that everyone else knew we
should be together except us:'
The couple has plenty in common: Both
have been full-scholarship college athletes
(and started
competing
against each
other in 1982), both have been TV reality
contestants (Jones on Survivor, Traylor
on American Gladiator), both have been
businesswomen for the past 20 years, and
both are strong black women committed to
myself like my daddy did, because I was
just like him. At some point, I just had to
lean on people, so my grandmother was
my life support sometimes, my aunt, my
coach, sometimes my teammates, even
though they didn't know it. If my teammates
had dinner at their house and I was there,
it meant I would have food that night. So I
used my support system, because without
them I'm sure I could be on welfare, in
prison, or dead, like very many people
in my family:'
Today, life is good for Jones, and all is
that she would be sending to other women
of color, whether successful or struggling.
Once she was reassuredthat there would be
no over-the-top bitchiness, no hair-pulling or
kicking, she was in. Producers wanted some
drama, but mostly they wanted to focus
on the legal practices of the six successful
women: Jones, Juanita Jackson, Vivian King,
Rhonda Wills, Monique Sparks, and Tiye
Foley.
"I thought that was very good, very
important. Because whenever you look
at any of those legal shows, you always
see it from the police perspective, or the
prosecutor's perspective, or the objective
perspective. They always make it seem like
the person who did it is a bad person.
"The truth is, sometimes people are
wrongly identified and stay in prison forever.
Sometimes we
have innocent
people
who the system believes are guilty and
the system goes to any means necessary
to convict them. And it's just not right.
Sometimes we have people who are bad
people and I think [the show] shows our
struggle to deal with those cases, how
hard we fight-and
I think we should fight
regardless. Sometimes people have a really
bad impression of criminal defense lawyers.
They think we're slimeballs. They think we're
the scum of the earth, and they don't realize
our moral and ethical struggles. I think the
show personalizes us-and sometimes you
have good people who do bad things and
sometimes you have good people who do
stupid things. I think it just adds a dimension
achieving their personal best.
But Jones's athletic power and ambition
were not enough to help her win Survivor:
Jones making a tourniquet for an injured
competitor; they also edited out footage of
in the legal arena that we never see:'
And Sisters In Law makes an important
her swimming like an Olympian-because
class distinction that precious few other
reality TV shows make: While Jones and
Palau in 2004. "I remember making it to
black people can't swim, can they? "I literally
the round where they're deciding on the
swam a half-mile, but they didn't show me
her "sisters in law" look like a million bucks
finalists, and one of the producers asked
swimming. And I swam it faster than white
today, all of them "grew up really poor;' says
me point blank: 'Black women on TV are
people. I realized the power of editing on
Jones. "All of us worked really hard, and
portrayed as bitches, how would you feel
Survivor:'
now we're successful-as opposed to most
reality TV shows where if the woman is rich
if we portrayed you as a bitch?' And my
So when the offer to join the lineup
answer was, 'Well, I think that any woman
of Sisters In Law came along, Jones was
it's because she married money or she was
under the right circumstances can be a
cautious: Would this be another black-
already wealthy. And so that's just another
reason why I agreed to do it:'
bitch. I think all women can also be caring
women-as-bitches spectacle? Jones was a
or helpful or mean or nice or maternal or
natural for the show: a community pillar in
When the show began filming, Jones
whatever. I hope you show a well-rounded
Houston, a city councilwoman, an attorney,
identified as bisexual. "I've dated more men
view of me: And of course they showed
an activist since the 1980s, and "as close to a
than I have women. I was going through that
me as a bitch:'
local celebrity here as anybody:' But she had
process where I was trying to figure me out.
to consider her reputation and the message
So when they were interviewing me, they
The producers edited out footage of
community does not judge you, and very
kept asking me, What kind of guy do you
money. I don't chase the dollar. Rhonda's
like?' And finally I said, 'Dude, I'm bisexual,
probably going to have designer clothes
many other communities judge you. People
I'm dating a woman: Well, I now consider
and I will not. I will go to whatever store I
are just free to be who they are. I love that
myself lesbian, because I believe I've met
want to and throw it all together and that is
about the community:'
my soul mate. I've known her forever, we've
what I'll wear because that is me. If you look
been friends forever, so I believe I'm lesbian
at me on social media, you'll see that I often
now because I can't imagine dating a man
post without makeup, so I'm OK with me,
engaged in her own civil rights activism
anymore:'
but if I go to [an event] I'm going to walk in
for years. "I'm glad to see that the world is
with my own style:'
catching up and that people are talking
Jones sees her heterosexual past as the
While
Jones
applauds
the
#BlacklivesMatter movement, she's been
about it, because I recognize in my law
product of socialization, and feels that the
Part of her own style is her shaved
scales tipped in favor of heteronormative
head. "I'm bald by choice. I don't have
practice that the police stop black kids for
representations
cancer-some people have asked me if I've
stuff that they never stop white kids for. For
"I'm hopeful that they'll show my healthy
had chemo. No, I just think that people's
example, in Houston they stop black kids for
relationship with
my very smart, self-
definition of beauty probably looks like
walking in the street when there is a sidewalk
professional, businesswoman
Rhonda, but I challenge the notion that
provided, but they don't stop whites for
girlfriend. We'll see if they show it! They
in order to be beautiful you have to look
jaywalking in a white neighborhood. A black
employed,
need to
be
adjusted.
their
European. I embrace my African. I embrace
kid and a white kid can be accused of the
significant others, so I am hopeful that
my blackness. I think it's important, and
same thing and the white kid is going to get
they will do the same with us, because
not enough black women embrace their
a really good deal and the black kid is not. I
we have a happy, healthy, productive,
blackness:' When you look at Jones, what
noticed my clients were hurting themselves
and positive relationship. We're not the
you see is real. 'Tm all natural, everything
because they didn't know their rights, so I
stereotypical
you see on me. I haven't had any work
started giving know-your-rights advice. I've
done;' says the 50-year-old.
been [on TV] talking about Michael Brown,
followed
the other women
hard
thug,
with
gold-teeth-
wearing people that they generally portray
"My aunt told me a long time ago, 'Hair
but I've been doing this stuff since 1999.This
Not that there's anything wrong with that,
is like panties. You can change it: I got my
is not new to me. This is new to everybody
else, but it's not to new to me:'
black lesbians as:'
but again, it's a mater of balance. Jones
hair cut off on December 11of 2007, and the
wishes to address the prejudice outside
reason I know that is because the election
Her own son, Jio, has been stopped
the black community, and inside as well.
[for City Council] was Saturday, December
countless times by the police. In one
incident, he was using his mother's car,
It's one of the reasons she's so protective of
8, and I won. I actually wanted to cut my hair
and particular about her self-image. "I was
off before that, but my advisors told me that
unlocking it with her keys, when the police
a very awkward young girl;' she says. "I got
I would scare the shit out of white people
assumed he was breaking into the car and
called a bunch of names: I got called Little
and I could not cut my hair. The barber
pulled a gun on him. "He's always getting
Black African, I got called 'cuckabugs' 'cause
said, 'You're pretty with hair; and I said, 'I'll
stopped and arrested because he's a 6'5"
my hair is so coarse, and that's like self-
be pretty without hair: " Armed with a bold
black man, and of course he's got to be a
hate within the black community:' If Jones
new look and an attitude to match, Jones
seems to act like a diva now (as criminal
continued fighting for her community.
attorney Monique implies in one scene in
In her role as city councilwoman, Jones
which the women all wait for Jones, who
came to the aid of transgender Nikki Araguz,
is late, to arrive for dinner), she does so to
after her firefighter husband, Thomas, died
embrace her blackness. At other times it
on duty, and she became embroiled in a
seems genuine, such as when Jones is late
legal battle over her rights. Jones says she
for her own fundraiser, which is being held
was also the first elected official to visit
in corporate lawyer Rhonda's palatial house,
Houston's Transgender Center. "The people
because Jones'sson is sick.
there were hugging me and crying because
"Rhonda's very coquettish;' says Jones of
no one had ever touched them as if they
her impeccably groomed, rich, femme cast
were human. I pushed for an executive
mate. 'Tm very from-the-streets, I embrace
order, I actually wrote the executive order
the streets. I don't think there's anything
to include transgender people. So even
wrong with being from the ghetto. If you
though I am new to understanding I am
are not OK with people who are from the
lesbian, I was always the gayest person on
ghetto, then you're probably not going to
the City Council. I actually always felt more
be OK with me, and I'm fine with that. I don't
comfortable in the GLBT community than
drive a Bentley because I'm not driven by
in other communities. Because the GLBT
thug because that's what 6'5" black men are.
But of course you can also be a 12-year-old
black boy, because that's what happened
to Tamir Rice. Because all you have to do is
exist while black:'
The continued racial profiling and racism
in this country concern Jones, as does
the hate mongering that Donald Trump
perpetuated in his election bid. It makes
for a colorful episode on the show when
Katrina Pierson, the national spokesperson
for the Trump campaign, attends Rhonda's
fundraiser for Jones, who is campaigning
to win a place on the board of the Houston
Independent School District. Rhonda and
Katrina get into a heated political debate
over Katrina'sconservative beliefs as Jolanda
watches, amused-and
surprised. ''I'm on
the Democratic Executive Committee for
the state of Texas, but this was a fundraiser
for my school board race. And I thought
that I probably shouldn't be yelling and
screaming at a fundraiser where I should
have a cool head if I'm going to be elected.
But I was cracking up that Rhonda was a
Democrat. If I had money to bet, I would've
bet that Rhonda was a Republican. That's
why I was laughing:'
It's levity well earned by a woman who
started her legal practice in 1992, drafting
wills for people with full-blown AIDS or T-cell
counts of 200 or less for free. One of the
many reasons she wants to get involved
in education at the school board level is
to effect a better outcome for black and
LGBTyouth. "I have spoken to local school
districts about their obligations to protect
GLBT people. I've worked with the parents
of Asher Brown [the 13-year-old Houston
boy who was driven by bullies to kill himself]
to help pass an anti-bullying bill through
the Texas legislature. Prior to Asher killing
himself, we had been unable to pass a
comprehensive anti-bullying bill in Texas,
and we now have Asher's Law in Texas to
protect LGBTkids:'
It's a treat to see Jones and these strong
women of color band together and fight
for justice, especially in a white, maledominated profession. That's a lot to be
proud of. (jolandajones.com) •
Watch SistersIn Law on wetv.com
73 FEMINISTFINGERLAKES
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Getting there is not often the fun part
of any trip. In the case of the Florida Keys,
the easy drive along the Overseas Highway
(U.S. Route 1),which stretches for 113miles
from Miami to Key West, is one of the many
reasons to visit. This miracle of engineering
spans endless aquamarine water-the
Atlantic on one side, the Gulf of Mexico
on the other-and cuts through tropical
savannah. It's a little vacation in itself. Just
put some road trip music on your sound
system and keep your camera at the ready.
From Key Largo to Key West, this far-flung
coral archipelago of 800 islands has the
advantage of being not only scenic, but
also queer-friendly.
On your drive down, and to rid yourself
of any lingering stress, stop at Bahia Honda
State Park (at Mile Marker 36), with its
beautiful white sand beach. It's perfectly
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placed for a quick swim or snorkel, or
maybe just a pause to marvel at the
endless horizon. You can also fuel up at
the snack bar and use the park's facilities.
Then it's onward to that errant brushstroke
that arcs off the tip of Florida. These are
the Keys-the coral reefs and islands that
form the visible edge of the submerged
Florida Plateau. This is a haven for artists
and fisher-folk, drinkers and dropouts, and
anybody who wants to get away from the
cares and concerns of the continental U.S.
ISLAMORADA
At Mile Marker 88, an hour and a half
south of Miami, is lslamorada, or the Village
of Islands. This is a delightful place to break
FEATURES/
your journey if you're headed to Key West,
since it's almost halfway. But lslamorada
is well worth stopping at, if for no other
reason than to experience Amara Cay
Resort (amaracayresort.com).
Forget the shell-ridden Florida kitsch of
the many roadside motels you'll pass along
the way. Amara Cay Resort is upscale,
contemporary, and will please the most
discerning LGBT traveler. Amara Cay's
suites were recently renovated-sparing
no expense-and now showcase the latest
trends in tropical design. Many suites
feature their own living areas, with bigscreen TVs and balconies that offer pool
or ocean views. The resort is spacious and
boasts its own palm-fringed waterfront. I
was content to laze on a lounge chair and
watch the pelicans frolic-that is, when I
myself wasn't frolicking in the huge pool.
Enjoy a tropical cocktail at Sparrow's Rum
Bar, poolside, and for lunch sup on Florida
favorites such as fresh fish tacos, grilled
jumbo shrimp, and Key lime pie. In season,
an outdoor massage is also available.
This resort has it all, but it's fun to
take the complimentary Mercedes-Benz
Sprinter to nearby Pelican Cove, which has
a private beach and floating dive platform.
(The use of the facilities and amenities
such as paddle boards and peddle boats
is included in the Amara Cay resort fee. )
Or you can be lazy, like I was, and have a
snooze in the giant hammock. When you
are ready to depart, just call
the front desk at Amara Cay
and the Sprinter will pick you
up and bring you back.
At sunset, cocktails at
Pierre's at Morada Bay is a
must. From the comfort of
the white sand beach outside
this stately plantation-style
restaurant (moradabay.com/
pierres), you'll see locals and
visitors alike converging to
witness the stunning sunsets
across the Gulf. It's tempting
to stay on for dinner, and why
not-the food is good! But you
do have other options. Chef
Michael's is a local favorite
(foodtotalkabout.com), and if
you've already satisfied your
seafood cravings, check out
MEAT Eatery and Taproom
(meateatery.com).
But it's really hard to look past
Amara Cay Resort's Oltremare, a finedining restaurant with a hip vibe, lively
atmosphere, friendly and knowledgeable
staff (some of whom are LGBT!), and
trendy cocktails, too. The food here is
delicious and the menu has been created
with great care by Chef Dario. It is fresh
local seafood with a Mediterranean twist,
but also flatbread, pasta, braised short
ribs, duck breast, and Veal Saltimbocca.
It's definitely the place to tuck into a deluxe
and freshly prepared breakfast before you
check out and head on your way.
KEY WEST
A two-hour drive south of lslamorada, at
the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys,
is Key West. The attitude of secession
in this tropical frontier town earned the
island its nickname, the Conch Republic,
and even today people seem to do just
as they please here. My fascination with
Key West began when I discovered that
it was the adopted home of three of my
favorite
writers-Tennessee
Williams,
Ernest Hemingway, and Elizabeth Bishop.
Both Bishop and Williams were gay, and
Hemingway was a master of simple and
unadorned prose who conjured some
feisty female characters.
Bishop, who lived in Key West for over
a decade, wrote to Marianne Moore, "I
have one Key West story that I must tell
TRA
you. It is more like the place than anything
I can think of. The other day I went to the
china closet to get a little white bowl to put
some flowers in and when I was rinsing it I
noticed some little black specks. I said to
Mrs. Almyda, 'I think we must have mice'but she took the bowl over to the light and
studied it and after a while she said, 'No,
them's lizard.' "
There will be no reptiles in your room
at the Silver Palms Inn on Truman Avenue
(silverpalmsinn.com)-not
unless you
invite them! Situated in Old Town Key
West, the Silver Palms is an affordable, fun,
modern boutique hotel with an outdoor
saltwater pool, and it's a manageable walk
from all the action of Duval Street. You're in
good lesbian hands here-Mey Espinoza,
formerly the manager of Pearl's, is the
general manager and welcomes women
all year round, but especially in September
during WomenFest.
WomenFest is September 7 to 11 this
year, and judging from past years there'll
be plenty to see and do. There's a drag
king pageant, karaoke, wine tasting, art
exhibitions, sunset sails, watersports,
concerts, dance parties, tea dances, pool
parties, football, and more. Presented by
the Key West Business Guild, a nonprofit
organization devoted to promoting Key
West to LGBTA travelers, WomenFest is
worth going south for! (womenfest.com)
But your first bite of the queer cherry
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ought to be Key West Pride, June 8 to 12
(keywestpride.org). Key West has a lot to
be proud of. Gay men and their lesbian
friends were in large part responsible for
the island's gentrification in the 1970s and
'80s, and today there are still numerous
gay-owned guesthouses (gaykeywestfl.
com). For women, I recommend The
Gardens Hotel (gardenshotel.com), a
tropical oasis and a lovely spot for a glass
of fine wine at the d'vine Wine Gallery,
even if you're not staying there. Another
charming place is Alexander's Guesthouse,
a restored conch-style house on a quiet
street in Old Town. It is exclusively LGBT
(alexanderskeywest.com).
While you're gadding about, it's
important to fuel up on food. Breakfast at
Blue Heaven (blueheavenkw.com) in the
historic Bahama Village neighborhood is a
local pastime, but I love The Banana Cafe,
a classic French bistro with a Josephine
Baker motif, overlooking upper Duval
Street
(bananacafekw.com). Azur Key
West presents delicious, Mediterraneaninspired plates and often features daily
or seasonal discounts. Try the eggplant
chips drizzled with infused honey
(azurkeywest.com). Deuce's Off The Hook
(offthehookkeywest.com), located in a
quintessential island shop front and tucked
away on a side street off Duval, serves
hearty, fresh, bistro-style grilled seafood
and is owned by two local lesbians.
Whenever I'm in town, I take a Wind and
Wine Sunset Sail with Danger Charters
(dangercharters.com). It's an upscale,
intimate sunset experience where you
can enjoy fine international wines and
antipasto on a sailboat with a mediumsize group of likeminded sailors and winelovers. It's a lot of fun and a chance to meet
new friends, too. Don't forget to tip the
enthusiastic crew.
SUNSET KEY
It turns out that Key West isn't the end
after all! Sunset Key is a short boat ride
across Key West Harbour from the Westin
Key West Resort & Marina. The Sunset Key
Guest Cottages, part of the Westin Resort
(sunsetkeycottages.com), is a secluded
and luxe vacation community featuring
40 impeccably decorated two-, three-,
and four-bedroom cottages (wedding
party, anyone?), plus a boutique spa with
private treatment suites, an exclusive and
sheltered beach, waterfront dining, a
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tropical swimming pool, and
tennis courts.
If these luxury cottages
and their surrounds are out
of your price range this time,
make a note to save up and
come back. There really is
nowhere like it! Simply have a
drink at Latitudes Outside bar
or dine at Latitudes restaurant
while watching the sunset.
At one of the outdoor tables,
underneath the swaying palm
trees, you'll feel as though
you're sIttIng ringside at
paradise. The extraordinary,
fresh fare you can sample
by the light of the flaming
tiki torches includes locallysourced fish such as grilled
Florida lobster tail and saffroncrusted black grouper. This is
special occasion material, and
there's no better way to end
your trip in the Florida Keys
than in a sunset-like blaze of
glory. (fla-keys.com) •
FEATURES/
TRA
On the road to women's history
in New York's beautiful Finger
Lakes. Bv MARCIE BIANco
ights movement, women
rth, to the Finger Lakes
ork State. Lady Liberty may
freedom was imagined and cultivated in
upstate New York.
In the mid-19th century, the Finger
Lakes became a crucible of civil rights
movements: Harriet Tubman and Frederick
Douglass led the abolitionist movement
from their homes in Auburn and Rochester,
N.Y., as Tubman would lead "freedom
takers"
through
the
Underground
Railroad to the homes of abolitionists and
suffragists, where they could find refuge.
Inspired by activists like Matilda Joslyn
Gage, other women in the abolitionist
movement began to question their own
place in American society. From the
first Women's Rights Convention held in
Seneca Falls in 1848, through the passage
of the 19th Amendment in 1919, women
suffragists congregated in the region,
holding conventions and meetings at the
homes of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Susan B. Anthony. And both abolitionists
and suffragists benefited tremendously
from the Haudenosaunee-also known as
the Iroquois-when it came to lessons in
civility and the treatment of women.
Whether you take the New York State
Underground Railroad Heritage Trail or
the state's Votes for Women History Trail,
the Finger Lakes offers a rich and inspiring
history lesson for travelers wanting to feel
connected to the country's revolutionary
spirit. And if researching all those decades
of activism leaves you thirsty, you're in
luck: The Finger Lakes region is known
for its burgeoning wine industry. There
are over 100 wineries in the Finger Lakes,
with over 30 along the Seneca Lake Wine
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Trail alone. Deliciously dry, crisp Riesling or
barrel select Petite Sirah can be sampled
at the woman-owned Long Point Winery
(longpointwinery.com)
in Aurora. This
winery is part of the Cayuga Lake Wine
Trail (cayugawinetrail.com), speckled with
16 wineries and adorned with rustic, locally
sourced restaurants and farmers' markets.
HOME OF WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE
In Seneca Falls, you can visit the
Elizabeth Cady Stanton House on a tour led
by a member of the National Park Service.
Stanton was a rabble-rouser who drifted
slightly from the movement in the late-19th
century, when it created a coalition with
the temperance movement. The result
meant the inclusion of Christianity in the
movement. Stanton, however, believed
that there should be a firm separation
between church and state, and that
religion was a central cause of women's
oppression. Needless to say, her friendship
with Susan B. Anthony-some say it was
quite intimate-figured prominently in the
movement for many years. Not only did
Stanton write the speeches that Anthony
delivered to the public, it was Stanton who
also wrote the Declaration of Sentimentsthe women's declaration of rights-which
was signed by 300 people at the first
convention in Seneca Falls.
In town, you should visit the Women's
Right's National Historical Park, a center
that has a huge collection of historical
materials from the women's rights
movement, from the mid-19th century until
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today. Adjacent is the Wesleyan Chapel,
where the first women's rights convention
was held in 1848. Just down the street,
in the heart of the historic district, is the
National Women's Hall of Fame, the oldest
membership
organization
dedicated
to recognizing the achievements of
American women. Every year, the Hall of
Fame inducts women from the humanities,
the sciences, the arts, and athletics,
among others. Read the biographies of
some of your heroes, from Ida B. Wells
to Bella Abzug; Barbara Jordan to Gloria
Steinem.
If you're hungry, there's no other place
to stop for refreshment than Cafe XIX
(xixcafe.com), perfect for lunch, and
dedicated to the women behind the 19th
Amendment.
Not far from Seneca Falls is a surprising
women's history must-see: the Iroquois
White Corn and Seneca Art & Culture
Center at Ganondagan State Historic Site
(ganondagan.org/sacc). The home of the
Seneca people, one of the six nations
of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy,
Ganondagan, means "town of peace." The
Haudenosaunee is a matrilineal society;
you are a member of your tribe by virtue
of your mother. Suffragists learned many
things from the Senecas. The Center is an
incredible 3,000-square-foot interactive
gallery and multimedia cultural space
where you can learn about the history
of the Seneca nation. Outside, there is
a historic longhouse still used by the
Senecas today.
If you'd prefer to start your women's
history tour at the border, then the first
stop should be the Susan B. Anthony
House in Rochester. Anthony, one of the
major contenders to be the first woman
featured on U.S. paper currency, lived
at this house from 1866 until her death
in 1906 (susanbanthonyhouse.org). She
wrote, planned, and organized there, and
hosted numerous suffragists. She was
also notoriously arrested at home in 1872
for attempting to vote. Today, the home
is filled with memorabilia, photographs,
and family furnishings. In all, there are
5,000 artifacts related to her life and work.
Complete your education on this suffragist
by visiting her grave, located at the Mount
Hope Cemetery (FMOH.org). Frederick
Douglass is also buried there.
Less than two hours southeast of
Anthony's House you'll find the Matilda
Joslyn Gage House (matildajoslyngage.
org), in Syracuse. Gage was the most
radical of all the suffragists because
she firmly believed there was no place
for religion in the U.S. Constitution. She
entered the women's rights movement
in 1852 after giving an unscheduled
speech at the National Women's Rights
Convention. Unfortunately, she was largely
written out of women's history-some say,
thanks to Anthony, some say, because
of her atheism, which she espouses in
her incendiary text Woman, Church and
State. Gage's house was a station on the
Underground Railroad, and served as a
respite for travelers. Today's visitors are
encouraged to interact with the historical
materials, from trying on a contemporary
corset to taking a seat at the desk where
Gage did her writing. Interestingly, Gage
was the mother-in-law of L. Frank Baum,
the creator of The Wizard of Oz. Gage
was the one who encouraged Baum to
write down his tales. Some say Dorothy's
personality has a touch of Gage's bite.
Also in Syracuse, if you have time, is
the house of Harriet May Mills, who was a
prominent suffragist and the first woman
to run for statewide office. But if you'd
like to visit the house, you'll need to call
in advance to make an appointment
(harrietmaymills.org).
WHERE TO STAY
In Seneca Falls, check out the Gould
Hotel in the town's historic district.
The hotel's restaurant serves the best
dinner in town-make sure to have the
scallops, either as an appetizer or as the
main course, and prepare to be wowed
(thegouldhotel.com).
In Rochester, there is no better place
to enjoy all your creature comforts than
the Strathallan Rochester, a DoubleTree
by Hilton hotel; it has a pool and a gym
for visitors (strathallan.com). Char, the
Strathallan's fine restaurant, is populated
with locals on a nightly basis. While it is
known for its steaks, I heartily recommend
the rabbit dish for dinner. And the
deconstructed Meyer Lemon Semifreddo
for dessert is a sweet and refreshing way
to cap off a fine meal.
In Syracuse, stay where Oprah has
stayed, at the Jefferson-Clinton Hotel.
The spacious suites are fitted with
kitchens, so you can prepare your own
meals (jeffersonclintonhotel.com). While
the hotel does serve a complimentary
breakfast, it has no restaurant, so for
a fun dinner, support your sisters and
check out lesbian-owned-and-operated
Laci's tapas bar in Syracuse's gay district
(lacistapasbar.com). Laura and her partner
Cindy make it a point to employ local
women and give back to the community.
If you're trekking around Cayuga Lake
and enjoying the local fare and wine, the
Inns of Aurora offers luxurious boutique
guest rooms on the shores of the lake
(innsofaurora.com). Close by is the artisan
home furnishings giant MacKenzie-Childs.
On its 65-acre farm overlooking Cayuga
Lake, you'll find the LLC production studio,
where they mold, decorate, and fire the
clay used to create their famous ceramics,
in addition to the farmhouse and shop
(mackenzie-childs.com).
GETTING THERE
You can fly into Rochester and Syracuse,
but for East Coast travelers, Amtrak is the
best option for casual and carefree service
(amtrak.com).
The Votes for Women History Trail is not
walkable; public transportation is spotty
and often unavailable in the countryside.
If you plan to travel around the Trail and
check out wine country at your own
leisurely pace, driving is your best option.
Car rentals are available at local airports
and at some train stations.
WHEN TO VISIT
To take advantage of the natural
splendour of the Finger Lakes, including
the locally grown produce, the region is
best visited in summer, spring, and fall.
(iloveny.com/lgbt/) •
The big gay future has arrived
in the Irish capital.
BY KELSY CHAUVIN
gray, drizzly afternoon in Dublin,
overheard someone say, "We carry our
sunshine on the inside." I buy that. People
are so warm in this humble, historic city
that travelers come to feel less like tourists
and more like they're just home for a visit.
Maybe it's that combination of rain and
sunshine that's put Ireland's capital city on
a long-term blooming streak. Eversince the
1990s tech boom, Dublin has undergone
an economic and cultural upswing that's
helped to preserve its heritage, improve
its infrastructure (public transit and roads),
and solidify its place as a world capital.
Plus there's marriage equality-in a big
way. In May 2015, Ireland became the
first (and so far the only) country ever to
win same-sex marriage rights by popular
vote, with nearly two-thirds of the total
electorate famously voting "yes." Signed
into law by President Michael Higgins as
the 34th Amendment to the Constitution
76
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
of Ireland on August 29, 2015, marriage
equality added these egalitarian words
to the constitution: "Marriage may be
contracted in accordance with law by two
persons without distinction as to their sex."
That triumph was a long time coming.
Ireland's
conservative
streak
kept
homosexuality illegal until 1993, and
marriage equality hasn't magically led
to full LGBT acceptance countrywide, or
even citywide. Yet Irish queers take pride
in the legacy of Dublin's own: Oscar Wilde,
Kate O'Brien, and other dandies have
helped pave the way for today's modern,
open-minded metropolis.
Locals like DJ-performer Vickey Curtis
say that marriage equality marks a political
pivot point, and heralds more good stuff to
come. "Ireland is growing up-it's opening
up-and that is always a great thing," says
Curtis. "I don't necessarily think that we'll
see all the positive changes from the 'yes'
vote immediately. I think we have lots of
changes coming to us over the next few
years."
Dublin has loads of LGBT appeal on a
day-to-day level. While there's no official
gayborhood, there are enough regular
hangouts to keep travelers busy any night
of the week. The most famous is The
George (thegeorge.ie), the South Great
George Street fave that's expanded over
the years and now has two floors, a big
outdoor patio, zany live shows, and plenty
of nooks for flirting with smiling Irish ladies.
PantiBar (pantibar.com) on Capel Street
just across the River Liffey is another goto, and while it's huge with gay boys, lots
of lasses head there too for weeknight
mingling, and to catch the legendary drag
diva Panti Bliss in action most Sundays.
Hacienda is another friendly pub, and
while it's not officially queer, its two pool
tables have proven to be a dyke draw.
Curtis says no lesbian should miss a
visit to the monthly girl party Spinster
(facebook.com/spinstergurl) at Bad Bobs
on Sycamore Street, in the busy nightlife
cluster known as Temple Bar.
While you're donning your drinking
hat-the only hat you really need in
Ireland-there
are two classic tourist
attractions that invite you to imbibe the
city's best. The Guinness Storehouse
(guinness-storehouse.com) is a multi-story
former brew house that's now one of the
world's best brew-tour experiences. View
its famously wild ad series, learn about the
beer's unique brewing process, and pour
yourself a perfect pint to sip at the seventhfloor Gravity Bar-Dublin's only panoramic
high-rise watering hole. The Old Jameson
Distillery is another centrally located tourworthy museum, with a bar serving its
impeccable Irish whiskey, cocktails, and
special Caskmates distillations.
If you think Dublin cuisine is all pubs and
"chippers"-fish-and-chip
joints, like oldschool Leo Burdock (leoburdock.com)it's time to sample the new guard. Fallon &
Byrne (fallonandbyrne.com) is homey yet
chic, with a fine-foods grocery and wine
cellar below, and an atmospheric brasserie
serving craft cocktails on its top floor.
On the Liffey's north shore, beside the
famous Ha'penny Bridge, is the Winding
Stair (winding-stair.com), home to an
inviting bookshop at street level, and
upstairs a simple, charming restaurant
serving traditional Irish dishes made from
local farmer's ingredients.
One of Dublin's biggest selling points
is its walkable size. You can find yourself
perusing the Book of Kells (tcd.ie/Library/
bookofkells) at Trinity College's picturesque
campus; grabbing a coffee in the beautiful
central atrium of Powerscourt Centre
(powerscourtcentre.ie); and soaking up
amazing music history at the Irish Rock 'n'
Roll Museum (irishrocknrollmuseum.com)
all by foot. Or even faster, via the local bikesharing system, Dublinbikes (dublinbikes.
ie).
Hotels are easy to come by, but The
Merrion
(merrionhotel.com)
is top
accommodation priced within reason.
It occupies a row of historic Georgian
townhouses
now unified
into one
property, with a big courtyard, a gorgeous
underground pool and spa, the homey
Cellar Bar and Restaurant, and Ireland's only
two-star Michelin restaurant, Restaurant
Patrick Guilbaud.
The Merrion takes its name from nearby
Merrion Square, a lush park that's home
to one of the city's ultimate attractions: a
multicolored, polished-stone sculpture of
Oscar Wilde, who reclines with a knowing
grin atop a quartz boulder. It makes
perfect sense that the park is now the
end point of Dublin Pride (dublinpride.
ie) each June. The city, like Wilde himself,
passed through turbulent times, but now
both of them can relax and anticipate a
fabulous future. Dublin-based Brendan
Vacations (brendanvacations.com) offers
LGBTtravelers customizable tours and selfdrive journeys, including gay-owned and
gay-friendly hotels, restaurants, and other
points of interest.•
MARKtTP
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MAY/JUN
2016
CURVE
77
LAST LOOK/
II
II
II
I
II
II THE
II L-OUIZ
II
Test your
lesbian knowledge
with our queer crossword.
BY MYLES MELLOR
ACROSS
1.
The L in LGBT
38. Dominatrix perhaps
19. Abby Wambach, e.g.
6.
Job assisting the LGBT cause,
goes with 6 down
39. Flying machine
21. Military rank, abbr.
9.
Adjust into graceful folds
11. _ Fund and Institute,
promoting change at
governmental level, often
offering jobs
40. Pride month honors the
memory of these riots
22. Have some sushi
41. Say it isn't so!
23. While
43. See 22 across
25. Community_,
44. Self-_,
pride in oneself
one who
assists with counseling and
education
12. In secret, 2 words
DOWN
14. An Oscar Wilde type
26. Jobs are often available
15. Fair treatment, expected in
the workplace
1.
Main squeeze
assisting people victimized
2.
Juicy
by domestic _
20. Be indebted to
3.
Ellen is one, for many
22. Position organizing LGBT
get-togethers, goes with 43
across
4.
Airport abbreviation
5.
Thumbs down
6.
See 6 across
7.
Prattle
8.
It takes _ to tango
23. Serving like Billie Jean
24. Portland's state
25. Gray shade
30. Clairvoyance, e.g.
10. Networking events held for
the LGBT community to assist
in finding jobs, often held in
San Francisco, 2 words
32. Fund for later years
13. Nonsense!
33. Commotion
16. Barrister in the UK, abbr.
35. You might include a picture
like this in your resume
17. Road trip stopover
27. Taught in a one-on-one
setting
78
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
18. Hello!
28. Get some good out of
29. The kind of friends that go
way back
31. LGBT celebrations often
looking for volunteer help
34. Hill on a beach
35. Stockings
36. Waikiki welcome
37. Informal farewell, 2 words
39. Paper towel layer
42. Before noon
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LAST LOOK/
STARS
Mere rv Risina
If the upcoming summer feels hotter than usual,chalk it up to sensualVenus in
earthy Taurus,and Mars in feisty Sagittarius. By Charlene Lichtenstein
(March 21-April 20)
Astronaut Sally Ride would have
turned 65 on May 26 .
..
I 1r
• •-
(April 21-May 21)
(April 21-May 21)
Amazon Bulls are perhaps the
best money managers of the
zodiac. If you have some funds
to invest, she will not put your
life savings in derivatives or
other crazy high-risk money
schemes. More than likely,she
will carefully place your nest egg
in a conservative money market
or annuity. It may not triple in
a year, but you are practically
guaranteed to feast on fluffy
omelets in your old age.
/
;
While you mellow out,
dramatic things may be
happening behind the
scenes. But these shouldn't
be a source of stress for you,
Gemini. In fact, you may have a
guardian angel grappling with
all of those loose lips running
rampant. Discover a few loose
lips yourself and use them for
other purposes.
CURVE
MAY/JUN
2016
(Aug 24-Sep 23)
(Nov 23-Dec 22)
While Sagittarians are not
naturally graceful, your
errant ways now make you
adorably adept at twisting
the hearts of unsuspecting
admirers. You make an
amazing, if overwhelming,
first impression. So spread
yourself thin and see who you
can meet, greet and sweep off
her feet.
(Dec23-Jan20)
Virgos may feel pulled in two
directions. On the one hand,
they may be happy to just
hang around the house and
cocoon with a select few.
On the other hand, they may
want to break out of their
daily routine and see exotic
places. Why not combine the
two? Invite a hot and spicy
enchilada home and feast.
Capricorns will find ways of
churning the gossip mill as
they sprinkle their scandals all
over town. Good! Sometimes
you need to break out of your
conventions and goodie-twoshoes tendencies. See how
much you can ratchet up the
romance. Your sizzly summer
heat wave starts early.
(Sep 24-Oct 23)
Gal pals get into your act and
vice versa. They may want
to do things that are not that
interesting to you. Decide
how much you are willing to
conform to the group dynamic
and how much you want to do
your own thing. Independent
Aqueerians may not want to
be so tied down .... But some
of them like it that way.
Speak the words of love and
she will be compelled to
follow you anywhere, Libra.
You are not only charming,
sexy and cajoling, you seem
to know just what to say to
sweep a girl off her feet. Go
with the sensual flow and see
which shore you wash up on
before summer gets started.
This is your quest with May.
Then add June.
(June 22-July 23)
Use these merry months to
cement friendships and find
new bosom buddies. It is time
to freshen your style with your
very stylish (and growing)
entourage. And who knows
what summer love affair can
Charlene
Lichtenstein
istheauthor
brew in this frothy company.
A Guide
to Astrology
of HerScopes:
Of course, all of this will require
ForLesbians
(Simon
& Schuster)
a move up and out from your
nowavailable
asanebook
(tinyurl.com/HerScopes).comfy chair, Cancer.
80
(July 24-Aug 23)
They love you around the
office, and why not? You are
an eager beaver ready to
handle any task, no matter
how tedious. You impress
the big bosses and may be
envisioning a reward for your
efforts. Yawn. Life is too short
to kowtow to the powerful
few. Get into some mischief
and polish some other apples.
(Jan 21-Feb 19)
I'
(May 22-June 21)
Taureans have a certain special
charismatic quality to them
now and they can use their
irresistible charm to sweep any
woman they see off their feet.
Get your plans together and
make a strategic move that is
guaranteed to get her exactly
where you want her. Hmmm,
are we talking figuratively or
metaphorically?
(May 22-June 21)
/
Twins are always "on" because
they yearn to be popular and "in
the know." Expect your Gemini to
be surrounded by gal pals who air
kiss and chitchat all at the same
time. If you feel jealous seeing her
interact with so many attractive
babes, don't beat yourself up
over it. They are known for
their flirtatious behavior and
wandering eye. They have also
been known to tell a fib or two, so
be warned!
What do you really value
Aries? And even more
importantly, who do you really
value? Your tastes can run
to the very spicy and highly
exotic now. But this may be a
passing taste of wanderlust.
So use the time to see who
really winds your clock and is
truly worth your time. You like
regularly moving hands!
(Oct 24-Nov 22)
Treat your lovergrrl to
anything her heart desires.
Chances are her heart only
desires you. But if her tastes
tend to much more expensive
trinkets, try to find a way of
keeping her yearnings in your
budget. They say that the best
things in life are free but really,
what do they know?
(Feb 20-March 20)
Guppies may feel that they
need to give bosses a little
extra push to be sure they
heard you the first time.
Believe me, they heard you
the first time. Relax and
spend a more productive
time kanoodling with a
certain lovely. Give her your
spiel and you may advance
further up her ladder into her
executive starchamber.
(.§1 "It
will give you
goosebu m PS'' - AfterEUen.com
PACKED~A
ri;~lM,<;When writer-director JaneAnderson(HBO'sNormal,If TheseWalls
DITH LA.KE
WILKINSON
Could Talk2) learns her great-aunt Edith was put in an asylum for being
Tl
a lesbian, she set out to learn about the woman whose beautiful
paintings (rescuedfrom a dusty trunk) had inspired her
own career,and to have Edith's work recognized fn
the art world.
"Genuinely moving ...
tells an eye-opening story."
- The Hollywood Reporter
start to finish this film takes you on a
unique voyage of self-acceptance."-AtterEllen.com
"From
Indian writer/director Shonali Bose
beautifully portrays the story of a
luminous Indian teenager with oerebral
palsy who leaves her homeland to study
in New York, falls 1n love with a young
blind woman, ancf begins a remarkable
journey to self~discovery and
independence. Hindie Eng
Ifshwithsubtitles.
11
lntrlgulng
and enjoyable."
- Screen
International
tiff
toronto
1
international
• mm festival
BEST FILM- NETPAC
"WINNER~''
AUDIENCE
AWARD
BEST
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ll'
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el
HA
charming and romantic dramedy.''
-outtest
smart, successtul, and charmIng, Elsie is
the perfect girlfriend; she also happens to
be a serial monogamrst.When Elsie breaks
up with her long-standing girlfriend Robin,
she faces her mother's disapproval
conflicting advice from friends, and the
nagging suspicion that she may have
made a oig mistake.
11
,
FFICIA1SELECTIO)".
·.
High Fidelity for lesbians"
-AfterEJl'en.corn
OUTFES .
LOS
ANGELES
I.GBT
FllM
FESTIUAL
,, RAMSELIN~E
...
SAN
FRANCISCO
LGBT
•l.MFESTIVAL
~
Wolfe
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Yourtrustedcommunitysourcefor LGBTmovies
*
Join Macy's as we
Celebrate Family + Friends + Love + Life + Equality + Respect
We are proud to join the parade across America in honor of National Pride Month.
We think it's really something to celebrate.
Plus, join us in our continued support of The Trevor Project!
The Trevor Project provides life-saving crisis
intervention for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,
and questioning (LGBTQ) youth.
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