Posts Tagged ‘lesbian visibility’
Here’s a message from Marlee and Tully:
“Our new album “Not Deserted” has just been released worldwide!
To hear our online CD release and interview with the lovely Len Rogers in Virginia, USA, go to http://www.rainbowworldradio.com (till Sept 15)
Get yourself a cuppa (Aussie for a cup of tea) and settle in. You’ll hear the first half of the CD, then a nice long interview, then the second half of the CD.
“Not Deserted” can also be heard at:
www.sugarbeachmusic.com & www.myspace.com/sugarbeach
You can also see videos and photos and other info on these 2 sites.
To purchase “Not Deserted” either in disc form or digital, go to: www.cdbaby.com/sugarbeach1 You’ll be able to download the individual songs from iTunes in a few weeks.
Thanks
Marlee & Tully
OXOX”
Sugarbeach's new album cover
Excerpts from : Subjects of the Visual Arts: Bicycles by Carla Williams / Taisau
“Bicycles, introduced in Europe around 1863, were the first democratic means of transportation. In practical terms, bicycles eliminated the reliance on the horse and buggy.
The “Golden Age” of bicycles came in the 1890s and they were particularly fashionable in cosmopolitan cities such as New York, London, and Paris.”
“During this Golden Age campaigns were waged to encourage women to ride and, as a result, the bicycle became both a symbol and a means of women’s liberation.
With the new transportation came a “rational dress” movement for women, who could not reasonably be expected to ride in full skirts, wearing the average of thirty-seven pounds of clothing that was common before the advent of the cycle. As a result of the cycling craze bloomers in the 1880s at last became a viable fashion option for women, although feminists had pushed for years for their acceptance.
Another direct result of cycling’s popularity was a rise in female athletes–cycle riding had proved that exercise was not detrimental to women as was commonly believed. However, women cyclists were criticized for abandoning their femininity and becoming “mannish” or “manly women.”
In the United States, an image of singer Katie Lawrence appeared in men’s clothing on the sheet music for the 1892 popular song Daisy Bell, a love song to a cycling woman about a bicycle built for two. ”
“In France, Art Nouveau advertisements for bicycles often included nude or otherwise liberated women; one ad from around 1899 for Liberator Cycles depicted a bare-breasted helmeted Amazonian warrior alongside her wheels, while another from around 1895 for Cottereau Cycles showed a woman astride her cycle while breast-feeding.
In Staten Island, New York, lesbian photographer Alice Austen often pictured her bloomer-wearing women friends astride their bikes. In what would be some of her only commercial work, Austen made the illustrations for Violet Ward’s book Bicycling for Ladies (1896).”
- Rainbows for Beginners
Pride season is in the air. Last year I wrote a post-pride advice guide for straight people hosting floats in the parade. It seems like time to bring it to the surface again, in the hopes that companies wishing to market to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people by having a float in the ‘gay pride parade’ will have a successful time of it.
Yay for cultural sensitivity.
Here’s the link to that article: Pride Parade Entry Basics for Straight People
Review by Jeanette Nelson
I was intrigued by our lesbian heroine, Maggy Gale, and her qualifications. At the age of 37 she has acquired and accomplished so much. She has an arts degree and then rose to the rank of leiutenant in the police department. She owns her own apartment building and had the expertise to do the renovations in that building herself. She earned a black belt in Karate.”
“This”, I said to myself “is a single woman. And she’s been single for a long time.” Who else would have time for all that? On some levels I can relate to our heroine. After all, isn’t that what we are trying to do when we read these books? But then it starts to sink in that she achieves so much more that me and seems devoid of any faults so I stop relating to her. I become confused as to why I haven’t been able to accomplish half of this stuff myself, after all I have something in common with the our heroine: I like root beer too.
Then I realize, “Oh, I’m busy reading about this and she’s busy living this”. Even so, Maggy’s ability to jump over a piano and do handstand push ups is a bit over the top. Despite her perfection, the character and story are engaging, making for a fun read.
Needless to say, our heroine is well qualified for her job as a private detective. She’s a retired (by choice) police lieutenant with all the contacts a private detective needs to ply her trade. In Angel Food and Devil Dog, she investigates the death of a professor at the local college, and finds herself attempting to find the killer before she herself or her lover is the next target. Will she solve this case before another life and her love are taken from her?
This mystery can be ordered from Amazon
[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
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
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.
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
SATURDAY MARCH 8 CELEBRATE !!! ‘INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY’ with the fabulous … KIM KUZMA and guests …
SUGARBEACH (The band) special installment … featuring 3 dusted off and better than ever!! former MISTRESS members … the outstanding/powerhouse vocals of Marlee Walchuk the beautiful harmonies and keyboard stylings of Tully Callender the serious rocker chick guitar licks of Rona Goodman rounded off by the always stellar drumming of Lisa Lambert and a very special…
MELISSA ETHERIDGE TRIBUTE by yet another former ‘MISTRESS’ member … JANIS MULLAN opening set with … BONNIE STE-CROIX an incomprable evening of outstanding women’s music and merriment!!! The Fairview Pub … 898 West Broadway Doors: 8:30pm Show: 9:30pm advance tix $15 available @ Little Sisters 1238 Davie St. *get tix early!! always a sell out! http://www.kimkuzma.com/ http://www.sugarbeachmusic.com/
(Girlgigs productions – girlgigs@yahoo.com)
Most of this content takes you off of the Lesbian Quarterly site, where we’re not responsible for it.
More on Sugarbeach
Featured in Lesbian Quarterly #5 in March 1st 2005
“Parenthood does not have a cookie-cutter definition.”
The documentary film Mommy, Mommy is scheduled to air this December on CBC Newsworld on “The Lens”:
- Tuesday, December 4th at 7pm and 10pm Pacific Standard Time (PST)
- Saturday, December 8th at 8pm PST and 11pmPST
This documentary film focuses on the quest for a loving lesbian couple to fulfill their dream of becoming parents, and persevering against the homophobic bureaucracy that stands in their way.
Please tune in and show your support for the right of gay and lesbian couples to be adoptive parents!
To check out an online feature about Mommy, Mommy on the CBC Newsworld website please visit the updated url:
http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/program_041207.html
Mommy, Mommy was directed by Sylvie Rosenthal and produced by Ernest Webb, Catherine Bainbridge and Christina Fon of Rezolution Pictures International (Montreal).
For a sneak peek at the film, check out the preview now available on Youtube! http://youtube.com/watch?v=KslF-275wGc
Please tell friends, family, coworkers, community organizations and anyone else you think might be interested in this topic to watch the film and support the important cause of same-sex couples having the right to become loving adoptive parents in Quebec and the rest of Canada.
This is a story very close to my heart, and once you get to know the people this film is about, I’m sure you will feel the same way.
Thanks for watching and spreading the word!
Séri Jacobs
Project Manager,
Viral Marketing Manager
I was recently at one of my favourite holiday events, the Women’s Winter Craft Faire hosted by Pat Hogan of Sounds and Furies Productions. This yearly fair, held at the Heritage Hall on Main Street brings a great assortment of quality women artisans together in one place, and is held on one weekend in November and one in December. It’s a great place to browse and meet up with people I haven’t seen in awhile, much like the East Vancouver Farmers market. I bought some earings for my mother, and got my cards read along with getting some snacking and visiting done.
What’s your favourite lesbian-owned business in BC or lesbian-run event? Who is your favourite lesbian artisan?
Tell all in the comments below…
For more on lesbian-owned busineses, please see this link to our archives.
For more information on how your business can support Lesbian Quarterly, please see our advertisers page.
LQ Current Supporters
The End Result Projects – home renos, furniture, exterior, interior – Janet Weigelt 604-649-9121 (I’ve hired her for renos on my house, and she’s excellent. -editor)
LQ Past and In-Kind Supporters
Planning a wedding? Wondering where to go that will treat you like the blushing bride you are? After a year and a half long engagement, my partner Jeanette and I are getting married this fall and we’re in the midst of planning everything. Here’s my pick list (by no means exhaustive) of the best of the bridal we’ve found in Vancouver so far. For other services the Gay & Lesbian Business Association (http://www.glba.org) is a safe bet. Not all GLBA members are LGTB but all agree to behave respectfully towards us.
Wedding Planners—Our budget being on the skinny side, we opted not to go with a wedding planner. However, there is a (reportedly) lesbian-owned planning company for those who can afford this service, which typically takes up 20% of your budget for the entire wedding. You have to search hard on the Belles and Balls website to find their information on same sex weddings. Once I found the page, I realized why. The belles offer a special discreet service for couples who may not be out to work or family (www.bellesandballs.com/weddings.same.cfm). They also work with gay and lesbian vendors.
Venues—The Greater Vancouver Regional District has inexpensive, private and beautiful heritage buildings in regional parks for rent. Unlike halls owned by religious organizations, they are not allowed to discriminate against us. We rented Inverholme Schoolhouse, a hall that holds 65 people, for $400 for an entire day and evening (add $100 for liquor permit). http://www.gvrd.bc.ca/parks/facility-reservations.htm
Attire—After a day of hearing skinny straight gals in bridal and formal clothing stores tell me and my mom I’d have to get something custom made to fit my tall curvy frame, it was a great relief to enter Tiffany Plus NY Bridal. I was zipped into my gowns by Chelsea, a friendly and slightly punk looking gal with a lip piercing. Goddess bless East Vancouver. They had lots of dresses in my size, and I’m told this is the only plus sized bridal store in the lower mainland.
Watch out, wedding and bridesmaid dresses are about two sizes up from your normal size. Most of us won’t be wearing the white dress with the big train & veil (you go girl if you want to!), but for fancy formal dresses in a wide choice of colour, the bridesmaid dresses gave me some swank options for the occasion for $250-400. It’s apparently not unusual even for het brides to opt for a simpler and non-white bridesmaid dress. I also learned that these stores only stock dresses in one size and colour, so you may be trying on something way too big or small (they use pins and panels to make it fit you when you try it on) and then ordering it in the size and colour you need. Once it comes in, they alter it to fit close to your wedding date. Tiffany has a standard-size store a couple of doors west as well with the same good staff.
For a renaissance look, (but definitely not plus or tall size), the House Gallery had dresses, capes, beautiful accessories and some lovely and butch friendly handmade shirts, brocade vests and coats that can be made in coordinating fabrics. She was willing to make something for me in my size (most bridal is custom anyways), but I would have liked to have been able to try on at least one dress in each style before committing to that. This woman-owned business was pagan friendly and lesbian friendly. She was respectful to Jeanette and I when we were there, and had pictures of lesbian couples in her change room.
Caterers—Potluck Catering is a social enterprise benefiting a café that serves low-cost meals and trains and employs residents of the downtown eastside of Vancouver. They are members of the GLBA and have done the food at the lesbian ball league tournaments. They also were the only catering site found that specifically mentioned they catered same-sex weddings. Typical cost for a fully catered reception is $25 a person, plus rental of dishes and servers. Too steep? If your venue has a kitchen try catering only a main course and asking guests to bring a potluck item.
Officiants—For the religious, the Unitarian Church (a blend of Christianity, secular humanism Buddhism and earth-based spirituality), Metropolitan Community Church (gay evangelical Christian) and United Church (liberal Christian) will happily perform same sex weddings. Unitarian officiants are also happy to marry interfaith couples. The Unity Church in North Vancouver (liberal Christian) has a lesbian minister who will also perform same-sex weddings. Selected Anglican priests in the Diocese of New Westminster (lower mainland) will perform same-sex blessings but not marriages. This Diocese and it’s Bishop are known world-wide for taking a stand in favour of performing these blessings, and have suffered a lot of censure within it’s own church and broader conservative Christianity for doing so. Quaker meetings are largely self-governing and some unstructured meetings will also perform same-sex weddings. Wiccans can have legally recognized handfastings/weddings performed by priests and priestesses of the Congregationalist Wiccan Association of BC in Vancouver and the Okanagan, and the Aquarian Tabernacle Church on the island. Reform Jewish Rabbis are permitted to bless same-sex Jewish couples and some, like Rabbi Justin Lewis in Kingston, will perform marriages. Some Buddhist priests will perform same-sex marriages as well, and Thich Nhat Hanh, a noted Buddhist monk and author has written a Buddhist wedding ceremony designed to be adapted for same sex couples.All BC Marriage Commissioners are required to perform secular same-sex weddings, and like Unitarians, will let you design most of your own ceremony. Unfortunately, there’s no listing of which ones are lesbian or truly supportive so it’s best to do your own screening. Information on getting married in BC and contact info for marriage commissioners is at: http://www.vs.gov.bc.ca/marriage/howto.html
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