BOLD beautiful lesbian

BOLD beautiful Lesbian
holding my hand
walking sprightly with me
down the Drive 

we
unfettered by the stares we usually
garner in the Kit’s Area, enjoy each other

like minded
women
walk as well hand in hand
women “from the club” laugh
and live normally
like everyone else
here
on the Drive.

baby dykes so cute you wanna
hug ‘em

 (c)2008 Cherilyn Fry

Lesbian Traveling

Tania Zulkoskey

by Tania Zulkoskey

When you are lesbian and traveling with your partner outside of a Pride Weekend celebration, even if you manage to locate a LGBT friendly venue, whether it be a bed and breakfast or café, chances are, you are on your own taking on whatever homophobic or internalized homophobic situation arises. Making the decision to travel taxes every aspect of your relationship. Romances are born and killed as easily as finding out that the once quirky personality trait now seems like an obsessive compulsive disorder.

Backpacking around the world is a mystical adventure full of awe and wonder only to those who don’t do it. Backpacking around the world with a partner in a lesbian relationship is full of breathless moments, electrifying connection and at times, a real struggle not to hand-in your toaster and return to the Monastery.

Traveling and living abroad challenges, changes and magnifies every part of your relationship. What is unique to same-sex couples though, are the opportunities to not only establish how ‘out’ you are when in strange and unfamiliar territory, but how enriching and validating experiences can be when you meet gay and gay-friendly people in the most historically patriarchal and anti-homo places.

Tango’d Relationships

In Argentina, specifically Buenos Aires, there is a mecca of LGBT clubs, okay, maybe similar to Vancouver, but they exist and if you’re a boy, you are in luck, the opportunities double. For women, there is a really good salad at the Pride Café. No, there is more than that, but the clubs are only on the weekends and open after 1am which, for two nearly-weds, was impossible to get to after a full day of sight-seeing. Queer Tango, on the other hand, in public allowed us to see the boys show up in double again, but in private, it comes highly recommended. A teacher who can instruct how to lead and follow and how to switch it up in the middle ranks high on my list of relationship enhancers.

In Córdoba, the Catholic Capital where we lived for 4 months, I immediately began my search for the undercurrent of oppressed and aching queers to liberalize – what else is a newly defined housewife to do? Trying to keep my hair short to use all possible tactics, I explained to the hairdresser with sign language and the sound of a razor how I wanted my hair to look. Soon, I was walking around with an 80’s mini-mullet suitable only for the beginning of the Stanley Cup finals.

There must be dykes somewhere!? But everywhere I turned, long-haired, anorexic womyn in heels and skirts walked the streets. In a city with seven Universities and a gazillion people, I wasn’t about to give up hope yet and went through every possible search engine on the net. Luck found me when I walked into my first Spanish class and met my gay teacher.

The night we went to Zen, a gay-friendly club, was the night we saw behind the masks: their hair was tucked inside of ball caps and the fashion was straight out of the L-word. In my tight black tank-top and cargo shorts, I wondered if the gay-boy thought I was a guy as he hit on me, regardless, with my she-hips it was a complement. My partner, on the other hand, practiced her Spanish and instead of asking why he handed me a beer, she accidentally asked them to kiss, which they did – either way, resulting in some heavy gender-bending flirting.

Learning the language

In Argentina, womyn meet each other at marches for womyn’s rights, there is no LGBT Centre, at least outside of the district of San Telmo in Buenos Aires. The lesbians online are also pretty much only in Buenos Aires, leaving the rest of the country hanging out near the clothes. But in the middle of the country, unbeknownst to foreigners on the tourist circuit, there is an underground lesbian club in a barrio of Córdoba. It is here I learn about “tortas,” (cakes), used as a slur against lesbians. And that “bizarre” translates to “trucker” which is equal to being called a butch. They tell me there is no concept in Spanish that means “gay-friendly” so, in fact, they use the English words. When I ask about reclaiming “tortas” as the word “queer” has been reclaimed, they tell me that it is not an important issue right now, there are other more pressing rights at stake. Aware of my naïvety and feelings of gratefulness for living in Canada, I gave them the website for Womyns Ware.

In Buenos Aires, there is Civil Union for gays, similar but not equal to marriage, but for the rest of the country the acceptance varies from outright religious rejection to wonderful and truly sweet people, straight and gay, who will do anything to celebrate your happiness as a couple. However, the true test begins during times of missed buses, being lost in the city, late for a flight, cancelled tickets, or starving all day and then being unable to communicate in a restaurant with no menu. Add to this, being in an area of high-theft and armed robbery, and you might as well either pack it in, or produce the ring, because together the two of you will survive it or not.

Building Communication

In Brazil, particularly in Rio de Janeiro and Sãn Paulo, the gay scene is lively and inviting, but you might want to hold off walking around with that ring. Theft and mugging is more of a worry than homophobia here. Whether it is open affection on the many beaches or intimately leaning in while talking over dinner, nobody really cares about your business. Where some couples may have more difficulty is deciding whether it feels safe -or not- to be open, to be out, and to be comfortable with public affection. On occasion, you may not equally have the same vibes. When it appears to you that you are surrounded by friendly straight folks and you attempt to hold your partners hand but she pulls away, this is the time to wonder how each others history and experience impacts one another. On the surface, it might not be clear to either of you what message is being sent and what is really happening inside.

Being careful not to judge, nor to become impatient or to feel rejected, it’s important to slooow down how the interaction is perceived – both given and received. Internalized homophobia or not, this isn’t the time to express resentment, and it isn’t the time to accuse your partner of insensitivity and to shut-down. In any situation that involves charged feelings you are at the highest risk of communication breakdown. And, on the other hand, you have the greatest opportunity to understand and build upon foundations of life-enhancing connectedness. Rehearsing in your head what you want to say that will promote the greatest possibility of empathy for your partner will go much further than to accuse your partner of not understanding you. If we do this more often, we will breakdown the walls so inherent in the stories we’ve been told about ourselves and have healthy same-sex relationships.

Power Dynamics

Traveling in countries that don’t speak your native tongue adds another dimension, especially if only one of you can speak the other language. How is it possible to maintain independence, a healthy “you are you and I am I” balance, and feel equal in your relationship when she does all the talking? By being aware of how this change in power and autonomy impacts your relationship, you can both benefit from identifying unwanted feelings of dependency and feelings of overwhelming responsibility or resentment. Sensitivity to how decisions are made when one person must translate for the other requires a commitment of patience on both parts.

Talking yourself through how to show compassion to your partner will increase the likelihood that she will respond in the same fashion – opening lines of communication and glimmers of connection. Feeling like you want to blame each other because there is no one else around to complain to in English isn’t uncommon. Frustrations can build easily and when you are together 24-7 passionate playfulness isn’t probably the first thing that crosses your mind when you get back to your bedroom. But in these moments, it’s time to remind yourself that relationships are not lost in fleeting times of stress and discouragement. Nor are they necessarily built – let’s be real – but in that second, for that night, remind your self to give the gift of space. Space to be miserable, space to feel fatigue and space to recover from the day.

If you have the opportunity to travel, even to go camping in the rain, do it. Relationships are to be full of movement, discovery and growth. Adventures can take place in your living room, and when you can risk more, they can take place anywhere.

Tania Zulkoskey is a therapist in private practice, located in East Vancouver and the Tri-Cities. As a feminist lesbian social worker, she works with both individuals and families often on relationship and trauma issues. She has just returned from traveling the world for a year with her partner climbing many mountains and exploring all the valleys. www.tzcounselling.ca Tel: 604-771-8647

September Editorial

Well, here we are at the 19th edition of Lesbian Quarterly. Fall, well yes, it does feel like fall, now. We’ve got elections coming up here in Canada, and I can’t be the only one waiting to see if the US claws itself out of the grip of homophobes and war mongers and starts looking after her own people. Wait a minute, I guess I could say the same for Canada too. May both countries best selves prevail.

Lesbian Ellen Woodsworth is seeking COPE nomination to run for the post of Vancouver City Counsellor. Vancouverites will remember that Ellen served Vancouver as city councilor recently, and LQ interviewed her for LQ 7 near the end of that term of office.

Do you run a lesbian-owned business you’d like to profile?

Beginning in September Lesbian Quarterly now hosts a map of lesbian owned businesses in BC. If you’d like your business to participate, send to
a short description of the business, name of the owners (at least one of whom who must self-identify as lesbian) public contact info for the business (phone, email, web) and a street address in British Columbia. The address can be a nearby street-corner (eg: Hastings @ Commercial) for home based businesses.View  Map

Fall’s Topics:

• Lesbian Traveling - guest writer and therapist Tania Zulkoskey provides a lesbian travelogue of Argentina along with some travel relationship advice.
• New: Map of Lesbian Events in BC – our Lesbian Agenda now has a map of all the luscious lesbian event locations.
• Looking For Lesbians – Online Survey about our Work Lives - help these folks out with some information about our lives. If we’re going to stop being invisible we have to let people know who we are. The survey itself is anonymous, however.
• If Obama Wins I might just visit the US Again Video footage of an American presidential candidate claiming lesbian and gay rights as a civil rights issue.
• Xtra West Stories with the word ‘lesbian’, ‘woman’ or ‘dyke’ in them this week. This is an older post, but keeps on giving, with new stories updated weekly.
• Lesbian Agenda Calendar
• More lesbian love poetry
• Or scroll down for even more lesbian tidbits…

If Obama wins I might visit the US again

I received a link to this video recently, which gives excerpts from speeches given by Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama. Now, I’m always keen to have women in political power, so was hopeful Hilary Clinton would be nominated, but after viewing this video, I was pretty impressed with Obama’s support for lesbians and gay people. That was until I heard he’s still one of those who think that marriage is only for hets. How a black person would not know better than to think that ’separate but equal’ is a legitimate response to discrimination is beyond me.  He does however, seem to oppose employment and housing discrimination, which would be a good start.  I’m thinking, as charitably as I can, that saying openly that you support gays and lesbians, as he’s done in the video, is about as far as an American politician can go without committing political suicide at this point.

I’ve been girlcotting the US and US products as much as possible, given their governments’ abyssmal human rights record regarding us (not to mention their shameful lack of public health care). This is not to say I blame the American people. If we Canadians can’t get rid of anti-equality bigots like the Stephen Harper conservatives and Gordon Campbell’s Liberals, we’ve got no call to criticize the US for taking so long to oust the Bush dynasty. If Obama is elected, I may visit the US again, but I will still think that the US has a lot of maturing to do as a country before they’re up to Canada’s higher human rights standards.

Pride Parade Entry Basics for Straight People

Some friends and I went early to the Vancouver pride parade on Sunday to get a good seat to watch the parade. Sitting there for what seemed like 6 hours, I had lots of time to reflect on the most common mistakes straight-run companies and organizations make when trying to be supportive or market to LGTB folks. I thought I’d pass on some advice here, in hopes that some will Google for advice before next years parade.

If you’re going in the pride parade, go gay for the day. Is it a little scary? Worried it might offend your other customers/stakeholders? Good. This is what being a real ally is about.

Flying the colours is important

1) Mistake number one – no Rainbows:

Not having  having any rainbows or other explicitly gay community markers is almost an insult. The pride rainbow is the main symbol that goes with the Pride Festival,  Make sure you use all 6 colours – red, orange, yellow, green, blue and lilac.

The police motorcycle drill team went first in the pride parade this year. I won’t even go into the sacrilege of having first of all straight people, and second of all NOT dykes on bikes go first in the pride parade, which was bad enough, but would it have killed them to have shelled out $5 each to have a rainbow flag flying proudly on each bike? They had Canadian flag holders on some of the motorcyles, which could have easily been switched to rainbow ones.

Not flying the flag when you’re leading the parade says “we’re only here because our boss made us” when it could so easily have said “LGTB people are our people too”.

2) Mistake number two - Flaunting your Heterosexuality:

If you are dancing with someone or holding hands with someone or walking arm in arm with someone in the parade, make sure they’re the same sex/gender as you. Yes, I know, you’re straight, but isn’t it a little homophobic to need to advertize it all through a parade celebrating same-sex relationships and queer culture? Take take a risk that someone might think you’re lesbian/gay, and walk a mile (or a few blocks) in our shoes.

If you’re walking with your sig other, holding hands is okay, but compensate by going out of your way to proclaim your support. A great example was the straight couple and kid walking near the back of the  ‘Family Pride’ group. They had written in nice big rainbow letters on their backs – “Breeders Supporting All Families” – Nice touch, or the PFLAG folks slapping big pink “I am loved by PFLAG” stickers on us.

Jack Layton with a pink bandana is showing support for pride.

3) Mistake number 3 - Wearing the Wrong Costume

Note for straight women (yes, this is for you, Hedy Fry). Walking around in a fancy dress with a bunch of hot guys makes you look straight, not gay.  It’s a brave thing for a man to break the boy dress code rules and wear a smashing gold lame number. On a straight woman, it’s more boring hetero flaunting unless you dyke it up by pairing it with army boots, a lot of cleavage and a smashing rainbow boa.

Straight ladies, if you really want to show how unhomophobic you are try wearing a man’s tux or walking arm in arm with some dykes.  Much as I’m peeved at former Mayor Larry Campbell for supporting the Olympics and for taking campaign money from one party and then switching to another one once elected, he did great at the pride festival a few years ago showing up in his skirt/kilt. Straight federal NDP leader Jack Layton did him one better by wearing a pink bandana, and showing relaxed comfort walking with gay men.

Priding up your company car doesn't have to be hard - think flamboyant!

4) Mistake number 4 - No Effort:

Driving your company van underadorned or wearing only your company colours in the parade does not qualify as a float and is worse than not showing up at all. It screams insincerity – “I want your money, but I don’t care enough to deck out my ‘float’ appropriately for your special day”. The exception to this is in parades in very homophobic towns, where just showing up is a big deal.

In uban areas, if you’re trying to show you care, gay up your corporate image for the day. Reward your homo employees if you have them, for bringing their partners and kids to walk together hand in hand (it tells us you are a friendly place to work), and spring for a few bunches of rainbow balloons to tie on. Add a big readable sign saying “We love our GLBT customers – mention this float for 30% off” and you’re done. That didn’t hurt, did it?

A good (positive) example of this was Air New Zealand, whose float had same sex couples in the graphics and explicitly said they specifically welcomed same sex couples as travellers.

5) Mistake number 5 - Being closeted:

Use your words.

Lesbian.    Gay.

Make sure your straight customers realize you’re an ally too. It matters.

CTV was a pride sponsor and took out an TV ad to indicate their support without using words or images that might tip off any homophobic viewers that they were LGTB-friendly.  Vancity did something similar a year or so ago. This is cheating and we know it.

Although we know that the wholesome ‘friends’ with arms about one another are really couples and the subtle rainbow flags in the background are there for us, it’s still closeted not to use words that ‘come out’ and make it clear to people who aren’t in on the codes. It’s entirely possible that a straight person viewing the ad might miss out that you support GLBT people, and I suspect that’s the point.

Straight gals + gay men = ignoring lesbians

6) Mistake number 6 - Focusing only on the Boys:

Gay Women exist too.

Yes, I know the boys have all the money, and two guys making 125% of a woman’s wage each make for desirable customers. However, if you market only to the boys (unless you make jock straps or something)  you’re showing you’re only in this pride thing for the money.

Having a few straight women on your float with the gay men doesn’t count (see item 3, above). Yes, I know not all lesbians are androgynous looking, but really, we can tell. If the women on your float all look like models and are touching the guys rather than each other, it’s a dead give-away.

We love our Straight Allies

Heterosexual allies are important. LGTB people make up over 10% of the population (higher in urban areas) and we have less children and therefore more discretionary income per capita. We vastly prefer to buy from companies who prove they are not homophobic, so marketing to us in sincere ways is a great idea.

70% of Canadians supported gay marriage, which not only makes Canada look great internationally, it makes Canadian homos the envy of much of the world. It also means that most of your customers are good with you being part of the pride parade.

We value our straight allies, but need real ones who will take a stand for us, rather than just chasing the mighty gay dollar.

Lesbian Couple Marry in Bountiful – Both brides are Winston Blackmore ex-wives

Well how’s that for bucking the patriarchy in it’s own backyard. Two women who were forced by their families to be ‘celestially married’ to Bountiful polygamist community leader Winston Blackmore, have chosen to legally marry one another.

The Vancouver Sun reported in June of last year that “One bride is Lorraine Johnson, an American, sent by her family to “marry” Blackmore, who was then the powerful bishop. She was his 18th wife. It’s not clear whether Johnson immigrated legally to Canada or simply came across the border and stayed. The other bride is Shelina Palmer, a Canadian born into a polygamous family in Bountiful and assigned to Blackmore. She is wife number 22.”

With Johnson under a deportation order at the time of the wedding, it is not clear whether the couple chose to marry out of convenience or love. Both will be required to renounce any other relationships in order to establish to immigration that they are an authentic same-sex couple.

Neither have been legally married before. The women have been living together for several years.

Well, ladies, welcome to the team. May you win control of your lives and bodies successfully.

(Bio) Diesel Dykes

The Vancouver Biodiesel Coop Cardlock Pump at 360 Industrial Ave, Vancouver

This week, the wife and I upgraded from our 50% biodiesel blend to 100%. Our car is now 100% carbon neutral. We bought an old (1983) Mercedes diesel a year ago, specifically to run it on biodiesel.

A lot of people aren’t aware about biodiesel. Here’s the skinny for aspiring biodiesel dykes.

The diesel engine was invented by Rudolph Diesel in 1892. His prototype ran on peanut oil and he envisioned running it on veggie oil or coal dust. The engine was later modified to run on what we now think of as diesel fuel. Diesel fuel is less viscous (thinner) than vegetable oil, so modern strategies to run diesel engines on vegetable fuel involve some way to thin the oil down so modern diesel engines can handle it.

There are two ways to thin vegetable oil for diesel engines. The first is to heat the oil before introducing it to the engine. In hot climates, people often don’t need to do anything to get the diesel oil warm enough to use, if the engine is in good shape. Older Mercedes engines are often used for this purpose. In cooler climes, people who choose this strategy have their diesel engine modified to allow for a second veggie oil tank and a heated fuel line to feed the engine. The conversion costs aproximately $1500. (Here’s some technical information from Agriculture Alberta) Once converted, the car can run on filtered recycled fryer fat from restaurants, which can normally be obtained for free, since restaurants normally have to pay for disposal. This is gradually changing, as biodiesel becomes more popular, with restaurants selling the oil to biodiesel refineries. The less labour-intensive method our family has chosen is to buy biodiesel. Biodiesel can be put into any diesel engine without modifying it, and can be mixed with regular diesel if desired. People commonly run their engines on anywhere to 5-100% biodiesel. If you run out of fuel and there’s no biodiesel available, no problem, you can still use regular diesel any time you need to. Biodiesel costs about the same or slightly less than regular diesel per litre. Biodiesel is normally made from iether virgin vegetable oil or recycled waste vegetable oil. The virgin oil route has justifiably come under criticism as being unsustainable, as has ethanol when it is made from food crops rather than waste. The second criticism is about whether it is possible to grow enough plants to make enough biofuel to completely replace fossil fuels. I say at the very least it’s a good intermediate technology until plug-in electric cars are more widely available.

The process to make biodiesel reduces the thickness of the oil, and produces glycerine as a by-product. Up until recently, we’ve been purchasing a 50% blend (half biodiesel, half regular diesel) from United Petroleum Products, who have a cardlock fueling station in North Vancouver.

The Biodiesel Coop, which sells 100% recycled veggie oil biodiesel, now has a fueling station near Terminal and Main in Vancouver, and we had our first 100% fuel-up earlier this week. The station operates using a keypad where you enter your member number and password, and is available 24 hours. You need to become a member before fueling up, and then the fuel cost is billed to your credit card.

We noticed a few things when we started running 100% biodiesel. Firstly, the motor runs quieter. Biodiesel is a stronger solvent (gunk dissolver) than regular diesel, so it cleans out your engine. Expect to change your fuel filter a few months after you convert to biodiesel, as this gunk will end up there. Secondly, the black smoke created when starting the engine on regular diesel or even 50% blend has disappeared.

Biofuels (when made from recycled or wasted materials) are generally ‘carbon neutral’, which means that even though they produce some CO2 when burned, they ’stored’ C02 when growing as plants, so it all evens out. By fueling your diesel vehicle with biodiesel, you can therefore save 8 tonnes or more of greenhouse gas emissions per year.  Biofuels also are more likely to be produced near where they are burned, reducing transportation fuel use and carbon production. Use of locally produced biofuels also avoids fueling the ongoing conflict and conquest in the Middle East and elsewhere, reducing the possibility of wars for control over oil. Biofuels are also more likely to be produced by small, local companies than petroleum multinationals, creating better quality, local jobs.

All in all, Jeanette and I are very happy to now be 100% Biodiesel Dykes.

Here are some links to information on biodiesel and it’s gasoline equivalent, ethanol.

• Ethanol from Switchgrass – David Suzuki Founation
• Vancouver Biodiesel Coop
• Ethanol Information – CNN Money

Local Lesbian Duo Writes Pride Song for Vancouver and 7 other Cities

[Editor Note: I received this email from Marlee and Tully of Sugarbeach, who have some great news to announce. Congratulations! - Editor]

Hey Sophia!
Hope you gals are doing well!

We thought we’d send you this as it might interesting to you.
We have just written and recorded this years’ theme song for Vancouver Pride 2008, “Living Out Proud”. Vancouver will be using it for the kick off of events and media liaisons as well as in the parade. So far 7 other major cities around the world have also decided to use it…some have put it on their website already. The cities include, Seattle, Ottawa, Charlotte, North Carolina (where we will be performing at their pride in July), Toronto (it looks like Proud FM may be playing it as well) , Kentucky and Cornwall, UK. We are totally jazzed by the great response we have gotten.

We have given it to them for free to use however they need it and it is also downloadable for free on our myspace page.

“Living Out Proud” is a celebration of Pride as well as an encouragement for LGBT people to come out in every aspect of their lives and we’re hoping it also reaches the ears and the hearts of those in prominent positions whose coming out, we feel, could make such a positive impact on the lives and rights of LGBT people everywhere.

So there you go!
Chat soon…thanks,

Marlee and Tully
from SUGARBEACH

Tech Corner – Web Marketing Tips: What is RSS Syndication?

One of the newer technologies in the area of web publishing is the use of RSS or ‘Really Simple Syndication”.  An RSS ‘feed’ is like a mini database stored on your site, that provides a list of what information is on your site in a format that can be easily searched or exported for use by news aggregators.  RSS ‘feeds’ are created by webmasters or blogging or web content software as a way of promoting the information on the site. Here’s an example of what an RSS feed looks like for the Lesbian Quarterly website.

How does this bring more people to my website? Well, news aggregators use the RSS feeds to help you promote the information on your site, and bring people to you to read more.

News aggregators are part of services like iGoogle and ‘My Yahoo’, where people using these customized web pages (known as portals) can select the topics they’d like to read about. The service then goes out and searches the available RSS feeds to find information on those topics and display it on the page. Typically the person can read the title and a short excerpt, and then click on a link to go to the original site for the rest. If you provide useful information on your site and in your RSS feed, it can be a good way to draw additional readers to your site.

The LQ website contains a number of features that get their information from aggregated news. Below is an example. The linked articles below are from several websites including xtra.ca and lesbian events in canada from Yahoo upcoming events (unfortunately, most are in Ontario).

-Sophia Kelly is a website, database and business consultant based in Vancouver www.sophiakelly.ca

FirstRSS ERROR: "http://feedjumbler.com/c962d978/rss.xml?datestyle=1&addfeedtitle=1" NOT FOUND!

Lesbian Politicians

	Canada: Ellen Woodsworth – Municipal, Vancouver City Council www.ellenwoodsworth.com Libby Davies – Federal Member of Parliament www.libbydavies.ca
	Japan: Kanako Otsuji – Elected Osaka Assembly member, National Diet candidate. http://gayjapannews.com/news_english/news3.htm
	US: Barbara Jordan: Texas Senator. First African American to preside over a legislative body in the United States, Congresswoman.  Closeted for her entire life, her female partner of 20 years was acknowledged in her obituary as her ‘long time companion’. http://lesbianlife.about.com/cs/woc/p/barbarajordan.htm
	Australia: Penelope Ying-yen “Penny” Wong – Member of the Australian Senate – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Wong

More lesbian politicians: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lesbian_politicians

Letter to the Editor – Help prevent anti-gay religious group from blocking teaching of tolerance in schools

Letter to LQ’s Editor from Corea Ladner:

Hello:

Perhaps you are already aware that an education guide that encourages tolerance for gay/lesbian/transgendered diversity in the schools is being compaigned against being available in BC schools.

The article states that ‘This week the Catholic Civil Rights League, a lay group, urged parents to protest against the guide over its inclusion of gay issues including same-sex marriage.’

Please see the following link for the full article. http://www.365gay.com/Newscon08/03/032608school.htm

I would suggest that, since the CCRL is working to kill the guide, It would be helpful for us to send an email to the Education Minister to ensure the guide is used. Perhaps you could distribute this information if you have an elist and/or like minded friends and encourage everyone to send an email.

I’ve included below the email letter that I sent to Shirley if you would simply like to forward it with your own name.
Ms. Bond’s email address and website are as follows. Thank you for yor help.

http://www.leg.bc.ca/mla/38thparl/bond.htm

shirley.bond.mla.@leg.bc.ca

Dear Shirley Bond,

Public schools must be inclusive of all minorities. Gay and lesbian people make up 10 % of the population, including school children. Particularly in high school, gays. lesbians, bisexuals, and trnasgendered teens feel as if the whole system is created by and for people unlike them. Moreover, they are likely to suffer violence simply because they are gay – or are perceived to be gay.

Positive role models and an understanding of how gay culture has influenced and contributed to mainstream culture will help eliminate the discrimination suffered by GLBT youth in school. As Education Minister, I feel that you have a golden opportunity to help eliminate violence and discrimination in school – and in society by releasing the Education Guide, “Making Space, Giving Voice.”

Please help be part of the solution that brings compassion, knowledge and understanding into a culture that has suffered immeasurably by the ignorance of centuries of religious oppression and ignorance.

Please do so immediately and give it your full support. Thank you for your time.

Corea Ladner, Human Service Worker, BA

Xtra West Stories with the word ‘lesbian’, ‘woman’ or ‘dyke’ in them this week.

Xtra west is a good newspaper. Robin Perelle, editor of Xtra west and a lesbian herself, does her best, I know, but has to conform to some advertizing realities by publishing mostly content about the guys. However, if you’re like me, if and when you read Xtra west, you mostly scan it for the lesbian content – the Dykes to watch out for cartoon, stories about women, etc… and go blind to all the naked guys (yawn…).

Well, here I’ve done that filtering for you. The list below is derived from a RSS feed provided by the Xtra website, which shows you only stories that have the word ’she’, lesbian, woman or women in them. Xtra west is responsible for the content below, not Lesbian Quarterly. (PS, if the space below is blank this week, it means there weren’t any ‘qualified’ stories in their feed. )

To read the Dykes to Watch Out For, I suggest going directly to Allison Bechdel’s site.

Here’s a direct link to the ‘feed’ to view the full list of storieshttp://www.feedrinse.com/services/channel/?chanurl=573850cf40c40f54203509cc38e50c49

Why young queer women artists are passing for straight

This weeks’ Xtra west did an excellent cover story about queer women in music, and why so many of them aren’t publicly self identifying as queer or lesbian or putting queer/lesbian content in their music.

Young lesbian and queer women artists are quoted as saying they don’t want to be ‘pidgeonholed’ as queer by representing themselves in the media as lesbian or writing about lesbian experience. While not exactly closeted, if the majority of their fans have no reason to know they’re not straight, they will be assumed to be straight. 

Musicians and other public figures passing for straight is nothing new. Queer artists like KD Lang, the Nylons, George Michaels and Elton John also passed for straight in their early careers.  While not needing the deep closet of gay actor Rock Hudson or US Congresswomen Barbara Jordan, who were outed only after their deaths, many young lesbian and queer artists are choosing to represent themselves as straight by not declaring otherwise. Would kd or the Nylons have been as successful as they have been if they had come out early in their careers? We’ll know that gay and lesbian people have reached full equality when creating art about our own experiences no longer reduces our career success.

But why are musicians looking for less mainstream audiences not out and proud? Lesbian musical matriarch Cris Williamson is quoted as saying that it’s all just a part of an artistic pendulum, and that much younger women, currently 12 or 13 have swung back towards being more political, and that gives her hope.  I think she’s got a point here. Cris’ words put me in mind of an 80’s TV show starring Michael J Fox as the Republican teenage son of progressive activist parents. His parents were so political, there was no way to differentiate himself from them without embracing the conservative values they’d fought. Perhaps the current generation of lesbian and queer women artists are reacting to their musical foremothers in a similar way, choosing to be apolitical or pass for straight in order to be nothing like the lesbian musicians who preceeded them. One can only hope that their musical daughters will feel an equal need to do something different.

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Herstory: the Gazebo Connection

The Gazebo Connection organizes social and cultural events of particular interest to lesbians over the age of 40 (in Vancouver). Visiting their site recently, they have a relatively new piece up on how the organization got formed.  For the remainder of the story, or a listing of Gazebo events, please visit their site at: http://www.gazeboconnection.com

In the early nineteen eighties if you were a lesbian woman and wanted to meet other lesbian women your option was limited to the few gay bars or clubs that were operating at that time. They were dirty, dark establishments in rough areas of the city; the bathrooms had stalls where doors where non-existent. These were hardly places where lesbian women could have a quiet drink, pleasant conversation and feel good about themselves. These were also “Anita Bryant” times, where some women were fearful of being outed and worried about the ramifications of being labeled a lesbian in their workplace. It was for many of these reasons that Marsha Trew believed that there was a great need for a lesbian organization as an alternative to the club scene. As Marsha was new to the city, and knew very few other lesbians, she related her ideas to Paulette Thomson. Paulette, like Marsha, felt a place was needed where gay women could meet, socialize, and feel good about their surroundings. Paulette asked some of her friends to a meeting with Marsha. The group, consisting of Marsha and Paulette, Sharyn Collis, Judith Shaver, and Val Fortey, spent the next few months organizing a first event. More at: http://www.gazeboconnection.com/history.html