Archive for the 'News Reports' Category

Jodie Comes Out

December 13, 2007 | News Reports, Pop Culture

Finally! After yeeeeears of rampant speculation - and the recent cover of Out magazine - she has finally spoken out for herself. Obviously “everybody has known” for years that she’s gay, but I don’t like to speculate until somebody says it for themselves. According to the AfterEllen article about it, Jodie has been dropping little hints for a few months now - wearing an “eternity ring” and referring to her “partner” - but she finally said it on a public stage, specifically in Los Angeles at the “Women in Entertainment Power 100″ breakfast. Of course this is not news to most people (and, ahem, I only just found out today, but she came out last week), simply because it’s so popular to speculate, and now those people are shrugging their shoulders and saying “see, we knew.” But still, I’m jazzed about it. Very cool. Yay Jodie!

Idiot Bouncer!

July 2, 2007 | News Reports

This story almost slipped through my radar. I get lesbian news in my e-mail, and I read down a list of stories and hit delete - then I realized the last one looked interesting. I retrieved the e-mail and took a look.

Lesbian says restaurant ejected her from women’s bathroom for …
AP NEW YORK: A bouncer at a popular restaurant in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood ejected a lesbian customer from the women’s bathroom after last …

Oh hell no. It turns out this took place at Caliente Cab Co., a decent restaurant in Manhattan. I’ve been there before, and every time I drive to New York, Caliente is my landmark for turning onto the street that gets me out of the city.

Apparently the woman looks rather masculine, but isn’t transgender. Usually, when she says “I’m female,” people say “oh I’m sorry!” But this time, the bouncer escorted her back to her table, and forced her party to pay their check and leave the restaurant.

People, this was in Greenwich Village, the home of Stonewall. This was the same day as the Pride parade. I hope this bouncer gets fired, and if not I will not be returning to Caliente. If you need good margaritas and tasty food in Greenwich Village, allow me to recommend Tortilla Flats instead.

Contribute Your Stories

May 29, 2007 | Literature, News Reports, Pop Culture, Uncategorized

Whew, okay, now I’m back and posting. According to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, the LGBT Archives at Western Reserve Historical Society have stepped up their efforts to improve their collections. The LGBT Archives, which were established in 1991, are looking for personal stories, oral histories, documents, photographs, and publications. If you have anything to contribute I hope you will consider doing so! Just a note, if you have anything of interest to the leather community, please contribute that to the Leather Archives & Museum. The LGBT Archives are in Ohio, and LA&M is in Chicago.

Write to the Library

April 26, 2007 | News Reports

A follow up to my last post, about the father who’s overreacting that his teenage boys found Felice Newman’s Whole Lesbian Sex Book on the shelves. Felice herself sent an e-mail to her mailing list encouraging us to e-mail the local librarian and voice our support for keeping the book on the shelves!

Overreacting?

April 20, 2007 | Literature, News Reports

I hadn’t known this before, but apparently The Whole Lesbian Sex Book is suitable for public libraries. It was written by Felice Newman, and it appeared on the shelves of a public library in Arkansas, at least until recently. It seems that some guy is outraged that his teenage sons came across a lesbian sex book while researching military academies - the book was obviously put back in the wrong place by somebody who didn’t want to check it out after all. But the guy was so offended that he’s demanding $20,000 as payback. Am I the only one who thinks two teenage boys would like that kind of thing?

The Saga Continues

April 10, 2007 | News Reports

Unbelievable. The Lisa Miller-Jenkins and Janet Miller-Jenkins trial is still going on. This article from ChristianPost.com says that Vermont has decided Lisa does have visitation rights. That article is rather revolting, though - the spin is dizzying - so here’s another one from a Vermont newspaper instead. Meanwhile, Isabella is almost five years old and she hasn’t seen one of her mommies in years. It’s just horrible how animosity between two adults ends up affecting the child. Keep it to yourselves, ladies!

Meanwhile, there’s also the case of Sarah Wheeler, which is equally or even more appalling.

Lesbian Palestinians

April 3, 2007 | Around the World, News Reports

Brenda Gazzar has written an article about Palestinian lesbians in Israel, including an interview with the founder of Aswat, which is the only group of its kind there. I was surprised to read that an Arab community leader said “we do not oppose their personal choice” - I had thought lesbianism was a punishable offense in Islamic culture. He went on to add that what he opposes is the publicizing of the issue, and I guess that makes sense. But really I was just surprised that he wasn’t supporting punishment for being lesbian.

I noticed a line in the article that mentioned the group started as an online forum, but I can’t find it - I suppose I don’t know how to search for Arabic or Hebrew sites!

Sisters

September 6, 2006 | Around the World, News Reports

An interesting twist from Great Britain: Sisters demand same-sex couple rights. Two elderly sisters are taking the British government to the European Court of Human Rights, saying that they are being discriminated against because they are single. They’ve been trying since 1976 to get inheritance law changed, because as of now if either of them dies the other will have to pay taxes.

My instinctive response is “no way” - benefits like these are for married/domestic partnerships, not just anybody. It’s unfortunate, but that’s the way it is. If the sisters get what they want, the whole of inheritance law can basically be written off because relatives will just say to the court that they deserve the same thing. Unless a system is established to prove a symbiotic relationship (call it co-dependent if you will), I don’t think this is going to fly.

LGBT Degree

August 15, 2006 | News Reports

According to this story from Gay.com, Antioch University Los Angeles is offering a first-ever Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in LGBT counseling.

And if you haven’t checked out our front page recently, go look, because the switch to WordPress and the redesign is done!

Isabella Still Contested

August 4, 2006 | News Reports

Back in November 2004, I wrote in this blog about the saga surrounding two-year-old Isabella Miller-Jenkins. To my amazement, the story continues. A Vermont TV station reports that the same issue is still at hand - the Vermont courts are saying “we have jurisdiction” and the Virginia courts are saying “we don’t care.” Meanwhile, Isabella is still separated from one of her mothers, who is missing her little girl growing up.