Steve Who?: Lesbian

Showing posts with label Lesbian. Show all posts

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Study: Lesbian Moms Don't Abuse Their Kids, Like EVER

A twenty four year study of families led by lesbian moms reveals that the kids in those families are never, ever, physically or sexually abused by their parents or care givers. The ongoing study has followed the lives of these families to determine how the lives of these children are impacted by being raised by lesbian moms.

Researchers at UCLA's Williams Institute questioned a group of 78 17-year-olds as part of the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study and found that none of them reported ever being physically or sexually abused, compared to 26% of kids raised by straight parents reporting physical abuse and 8.3% reporting sexual abuse.

The report goes on to bust another right-wing myth about gay parents indoctrinating their kinds into "the homosexual lifestyle". Only 2.7% of boys and 0.0% of girls in the study reported being exclusively homosexual in orientation, for a statistical average of 1.4%.

The same group released a study earlier this year which concluded that these same kids do better in school, are more emotionally well adjusted and have better coping skills than their hetero-raised counterparts.
The message is clear. If the U.S. wants to be more competitive in the global market, wants to reduce crime and violence against women and children and become a force for peace in the world, all of our children should be raised by lesbians.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Happy National Coming Out Day! (video)

Image via Wikipedia

Today is the 22nd annual National Coming Out Day. LGBTQIA people all over the country are being asked to celebrate the occasion by coming out to at least one person today. If you're already out, break out your pride wear to show the world that you're here, you're queer and you're not going to go away.

Here to explain the importance of National Coming Out Day is Lizzy the Lezzy. Possibly NSFW due to language.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Watch as Jane Lynch Thanks her Wife in Her Emmy Acceptance Speech (video)

Out lesbian and all-around funny girl, Jane Lynch took home the Best Supporting Actress Emmy last night for her over-the-top role as Coach Sue Sylvester on the Fox breakaway hit Glee.

Here's her very funny acceptance speech where she does like everyone else and thanks everybody, including her wife and daughter. This is just one of those "So what?" moments that is remarkable only because it shouldn't be.

One other thing, Jane totally rocked the red carpet last night. She looked better than most of the hetero, fashionista bitches in the house. Bravo, Jane!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Dear GLAAD, Enough with the mock outrage, already!

GLAAD is up in arms with mock outrage over a lesbian couple in Texas whose daughter was booted out of her church school. Jill and Tracy Harrison are kicking up a fuss because they enrolled their child in an Episcopal Church school only to have that child thrown out once the church realized on Parents' Night that the mom named Tracy was in fact a mom, not a dad.

St. Vincent's Church of Bedford, Tx. is one of those that split from the Episcopal mother ship in 2008 over the ordination of openly gay Bishop Eugene Robinson. Even the slightest bit of research would have turned this up. Now these women are subjecting their daughter to a media shit-storm over this case of highly predictable bigotry. Honestly folks, even Helen Keller would have seen this coming. This is so irresponsible that I just don't have the words to express my disgust with these two.

Tag this one "GLAAD FAIL!"

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Watch: Neighbors drive away anti-gay Christians from their street (video)

This video comes to us from Canada, where you'd expect a little more respect for diversity than here in the states. Members of Highfield Road Gospel Hall have been harassing gays and lesbians on this street for seven years, staging protests in front of their homes and shouting biblical verses and prayers at their houses. According to a post on Slog the Stranger, these people have even driven out a lesbian couple who couldn't stand the weekly harassment. Although the church is on this street, none of these members live there.

In a show of support and solidarity, these non-gay residents stand up to and drive away the sanctimonious street preachers, who claim to have the right to make life miserable for tax-paying, law-abiding citizens. I'm no expert on Canadian law, but that can't be right.

Here's what the videographer posted on his YouTube page:

"This is a group from a church at the end of my street. Apparently they have been grouping in front of a couple's house and reading their bible loudly for the past 7 years. They may have also driven another couple from the area as well by doing the same thing. Tonight most of our neighbours came out and were successful in getting them to leave. The people who go to that church don't even live in our area! Police came by shortly thereafter."

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Family Research Council Targets Amtrak for Targeting the Gays (video)

Amtrak, the government-owned passenger rail system that almost nobody uses, has announced a $250,000 ad campaign targeting gay and lesbian travelers in an effort to boost business. Why? According to legend, we're all filthy rich because we have so much disposable income since we don't have kids.

"We are always looking for new ways to reach potential passengers and this community travels a lot." Karina Romero, Amtrak Spokesperson, said in an interview with The Daily Caller.

Rachel Maddow Show contributor Kent Jones reports that Family Research Council, the hate-spewing, fear mongering, Christian family values organization dedicated to stopping "the gay agenda", has had enough of all these %$#@! gays on these %$#@! trains! (Gotta love Samuel L. Jackson!)

I guess the FRC doesn't like moving targets. They want us all to stay put so they can keep an eye on all the destruction of western civilization that we've been up to.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Friday, July 30, 2010

90% of Recipients Ignoring DADT Survey

An article in Stars and Stripes, the official newspaper of the Unites States armed forces, reports that with just two weeks left, only 10% of the 400,000 recipients of the Pentagon's controversial Don't Ask, Don't Tell survey have bothered to respond. Military leaders are scrambling to communicate to the troops the importance of the survey and the need for their input. The survey deadline is August 15th.

The problem for the Pentagon is that it appears all the findings from all the previous polls on the subject are true: the majority of today's military personnel just don't care about whether or not they serve with gays and lesbians.

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and Servicemembers United have both called the survey biased, slanted and anti-gay and warned closeted gays and lesbians in the military not to answer the survey out of concerns over anonymity. Is it possible that 90% of US military personnel are queer? Not likely, but we can dream, can't we?

It's much more likely that the 100-question survey is just too long and most of the troops who got it just can't be bothered. I've read the survey. It's long and boring and would probably take at least a half an hour to answer all the questions. Who has that kind of time to devote to something they really don't care about one way or the other, especially when you're so busy fighting two wars?

Arguably the most important factor is that it has been made abundantly clear by President Obama, the Pentagon and the House and Senate that repeal is going to happen, regardless of the survey results. I've never served in the military, but I do know that I wouldn't be likely to take part in a survey if I knew that my input was not going to have any effect.

What this story really underscores for me is the generation gap between the military's top brass, who are mostly over 60 and the grunts serving in the field, who are in their 20's and 30's. Younger people, both in and out of the military, are less homophobic than senior citizens. Maybe it's time to retire these old codgers and let some younger minds start calling the shots.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Constance McMillen wins $35k from school system over canceled prom

Lesbian teen Constance McMillen who fought for and won the right to attend her senior prom with her girlfriend, only to be duped into attending a fake prom by the bigoted rednecks in her home town, has won a settlement of $35,000 in her discrimination lawsuit against the Itawamba County School District.

The Huffington Post reports:
The district also agreed to follow a non-discrimination policy as part of the settlement, though it argues such a policy was already in place. Constance McMillen, 18, said the victory came at the price of her being shunned in her small hometown of Fulton. "I knew it was a good cause, but sometimes it really got to me. I knew it would change things for others in the future and I kept going and I kept pushing," McMillen said in an interview Tuesday.

The Mississippi teen received worldwide attention for her battle against bigotry in her small southern home town. She also became an inspiration and rallying point for a community battered by defeats in marriage equality and who have been continually thrown under the bus by Democrats in general and President Obama in particular.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Doctor Treating Pregnant Women to Prevent Lesbian and Unfeminine Babies

The Bio-Ethics Forum at the Hastings Institute is reporting about the use of a controversial drug to prevent lesbian babies and little girls who display an "abnormal" disinterest in babies, don't want to play with girls' toys or become mothers, and whose "career preferences" are deemed too "masculine."

Dr. Maria New, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Florida International University has drawn fire for overstepping in her use of the drug, dexamethasone (dex), a hormone used to treat female fetuses for a condition called Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH), a gestational condition resulting in the "masculinization" of female genitalia. This is the first time the drug has been used for the purpose of changing sexual orientation or the degree of femininity in little girls. There have been no clinical trials to support the use of dex in this manner.

Alice Dreger, Ellen K. Feder, Anne Tamar-Mattis of The Hastings Center write on the Bioethiocs Forum:

While everyone has been busy watching geneticists at the frontier of the brave new world, none of us seem to have noticed what some pediatricians are up to. Perhaps it is because so many people are fascinated by the idea of a “gay gene” that prenatal “lesbian hormones” have slipped past public scrutiny. In any case, we think Nimkarn and New’s “paradigm for prenatal diagnosis and treatment” suggests a reason why activists for gay and lesbian rights should be wary of believing that claims for the innateness of homosexuality will lead to liberation. Evidence that homosexual orientation is inborn could, instead, very well lead to new means of pathologization and prevention, as it seems to be in the case we’ve been tracking.

Needless to say, we do not think it reasonable or just to use medicine to try to prevent homosexual and bisexual orientations. Nor do we think it reasonable to use medicine to prevent uppity women, like the sort who might raise just these kinds of alarms. Consider that our declaration of our conflict of interest.

Wow! Now reparative therapy can happen in vitro without all the pesky psychological damage. What part of "we don't need to be fixed" do they not understand?

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Study: Gay Men are Skinnier, Lesbians are Heavier than Heteros

The women I work with are always teasing me about being skinny. At 5'8", I currently weigh in at 162 lbs., up from my more comfortable 155 lbs. I gained a few after I quit smoking in January and it's been difficult to get back down to my fighting weight.

Most of the women I work with are "curvy". They're constantly trying new diets and bemoaning their weight and have no sympathy for my excess 7 vanity pounds. I've tried to explain that there's "fat" and then there's "gay fat", but I don't think they get it. While I may not be shopping at the big and tall stores, the pants are a little tighter. But my girls turn a deaf ear as they thumb through the newest sales fliers from Lane Bryant.

The lone person at work who stays out of the debate and just stands back and laughs at all of us, is my lesbian supervisor. While she's not skinny, she's not exactly fat either. In her head, she's just right and doesn't sweat it one way or the other.

The results of a Massachusetts study shows that gay men are 50% less likely than their straight counterparts to be overweight and lesbians are twice as likely to be overweight than straight women. The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health this month, raises some interesting questions about body image and suggests some interesting answers.

Researchers suggest that people (straight women and gay men) who are sexually involved with men tend to feel more pressure to stay thin. Conversely, people (straight men and lesbians) who are involved with women tend to care less about their own size. This may help to prove what we've always known on some level, that men are superficial pigs and women care more about what's on the inside.

MSNBC reports:

After scrutinizing a health survey of more than 67,000 Massachusetts residents between the ages of 18 and 64, the researchers found that 14 percent of gay men were obese versus 21 percent of straight men. The opposite was true of gay women: 26 percent were found to be obese, as compared with 17 percent of the straight women.

The researchers also found that both gay men and gay women were more likely to be current smokers compared to their heterosexual counterparts. And gay women were more likely to have multiple heart disease risk factors than straight women.

Earlier studies that looked at health in the gay community focused mostly on sexually transmitted diseases and mental health, rather than on chronic illnesses like obesity and heart disease, says the study’s lead author Kerith Conron, an associate research scientist at Northeastern University and a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. “This may mean that we in the public health community need to come up with more tailored messages to reach these groups, just as car dealers do when they want to reach a specific target audience,” she said.

Conron suspects that cultural differences might at least partly explain the weight divide. It may be more acceptable in the lesbian community for women to be full-sized, she said.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Lesbian Couple Weds in Portugal

The Associated Press reports that Portugal's first same-sex wedding took place this morning.

LISBON, Portugal — A lesbian couple wed Monday in Portugal's first same-sex ceremony since the predominantly Catholic country introduced a law allowing gay marriage last month.

Teresa Pires and Helena Paixao, divorced Portuguese mothers in their 30s who have been together since 2003, married in a 15-minute ceremony at a Lisbon registry office.

"This is a great victory, a dream come true," Pires said as the couple kissed and hugged.

"Now we're a family, that's the important thing," Pires said, adding they would continue to fight for equal rights for homosexuals, including adoption.

The ceremony came less than a month after Portugal's conservative president ratified a gay marriage law passed by Parliament in January. His approval made Portugal the sixth in Europe to let same-sex couples wed.

The center-left Socialist government said the law is part of its effort to modernize Portugal, where homosexuality was a crime until 1982. Three years ago the same government lifted Portugal's ban on abortion, despite church opposition.

Pires and Paixao, the lesbian couple, had campaigned for a change in the law since a registry office turned them away when they first tried to marry in 2006.

Officials argued the law stipulated that marriage was between people of different sexes. The women appealed to Portugal's Constitutional Court because the constitution forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The court rejected their appeal, but left-of-center parties in Parliament supported the government bill which removed the reference to marriage being between different sexes.

Study Shows Kids of Lesbian Moms Do Better

Time Magazine reports this week that a just-released study on same-sex parenting shows that kids raised by lesbian moms are better adjusted than kids in hetero homes. Researchers have known for some time that children raised by gay parents are no worse off psychologically than their peers raised in traditionally parented homes, but this is the first time that a study has shown that kids raised by lesbians do better. Time reports:

The authors found that children raised by lesbian mothers — whether the mother was partnered or single — scored very similarly to children raised by heterosexual parents on measures of development and social behavior. These findings were expected, the authors said; however, they were surprised to discover that children in lesbian homes scored higher than kids in straight families on some psychological measures of self-esteem and confidence, did better academically and were less likely to have behavioral problems, such as rule-breaking and aggression.

"We simply expected to find no difference in psychological adjustment between adolescents reared in lesbian families and the normative sample of age-matched controls," says Gartrell. "I was surprised to find that on some measures we found higher levels of [psychological] competency and lower levels of behavioral problems. It wasn't something I anticipated."

In addition, children in same-sex-parent families whose mothers ended up separating, did as well as children in lesbian families in which the moms stayed together.

Poll: Teabaggers think Gays too powerful

I seem to have missed something. When the Tea Party movement started a couple of years ago, it was out of frustration over high taxes, record-breaking government spending and anger at Washington's inability to get things done. Since the beginning the Fox "News" network has fanned the flames of discontent into an irrational wildfire of homophobia and racism, qualifying their actions by claiming over and over that "Americans are angry!"

A new University of Washington poll shows just how irrational and off message the Teabaggers have become since their unfocused, leaderless movement took off. The Huffington Post reports:

According to the survey, 74% of Tea Party supporters say they agree with the following statement: "While equal opportunity for blacks and minorities to succeed is important, it's not really the government's job to guarantee it."

Fifty-two percent of respondents also said that "compared to the size of their group, lesbians and gays have too much political power."

The latest data on the Tea Party reveals that the anger coming from the movement isn't unilaterally directed at government spending -- one of the group's core issues.

According to University of Washington professor Matt Barreto, who directed the poll, the Tea Party's frustration with Washington "is going hand in hand with a frustration and opposition to racial and ethnic minorities and gays and lesbians."

Other noteworthy findings from the University of Washington poll include:

    * 88% of Tea Party supporters approve of the controversial immigration law recently enacted in Arizona.

    * Only 18% of those surveyed say gay and lesbian couples should have the legal right to marry.

    * 73% of Tea Party backers disapprove of President Obama's policy of engaging with Muslim countries.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Remembering Those who Fought and Died: Leonard Matlovich

In 1975, eighteen years before Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Sgt. Leonard Matlovich appeared on the cover of Time Magazine with the headline, "I Am a Homosexual". Although there had been other challenges to the military ban on gays and lesbians serving, Sgt. Matlovich was the first to draw national attention.

Time followed the story of Matlovich's legal challenge to the ban on gays and lesbians serving in the armed forces. Matlovich lost, but the case did prompt a change in the classification of discharges under the policy from dishonorable to honorable discharge.

Matlovich was an early AIDS activist and died of complications on June 22, 1988. The marker at his grave site says, "When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one."

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Constance McMillen Tricked with Fake Prom

Some people just don't get it. Lesbian teen Constance McMillen, who sued her school district and won the right to attend her senior prom with her girlfriend, was the target of an elaborate scheme that sent her to a fake prom. What kind of parents allow their kids to do this to another student? What kind of lessons are being taught to kids in Mississippi? That bigotry is perfectly okay and that you can ignore a court order, break the law and humiliate an innocent kid who never did you any harm.

I think it's safe to say that Constance is a lot tougher than these rednecks give her credit for.

The Advocate reports: To avoid Constance McMillen bringing a female date to her prom, the teen was sent to a "fake prom" while the rest of her class partied at a secret location at an event organized by parents.

McMillen tells The Advocate that a parent-organized prom happened behind her back — she and her date were sent to a Friday night event at a country club in Fulton, Miss., that attracted only five other students. Her school principal and teachers served as chaperones, but clearly there wasn't much to keep an eye on.

"They had two proms and I was only invited to one of them," McMillen says. "The one that I went to had seven people there, and everyone went to the other one I wasn’t invited to."

Monday, April 5, 2010

General says Air Force lesbian won't be kicked out.

In a bizarre twist, an Air Force general is refusing to discharge a female officer who revealed that she is in a civil union with another woman because he alleges she is using Don't Ask, Don't Tell to avoid military service. I can't help but be reminded of Cpl. Klinger, played by Jamie Farr, in the 70's sitcom M*A*S*H, who wore women's clothes in order to get kicked out of the army. Everyone knew it was a dodge and refused to kick him out, but he kept at it.

But that was when we had a draft in this country. It was not unheard of for people to make up such stories to avoid military service back then. Those individuals were usually subjected to a battery of psychological tests for days on end to prove they were lying. For the last 35 years, we've had an all volunteer military and to my knowledge, no such testing has been required of anyone who has been discharged under DADT in the 17 years since it became law.

The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday that Lt. Robin R. Caurasiya revealed to her commanding officer, General Robert R. Allardice, that she is a lesbian, but the general claims that she's only doing it to get out of the service.

The Times reports:

At the very least, said Nathaniel Frank, an expert on "don't ask, don't tell," the Chaurasiya case appears to turn the rationale behind the gay ban on its head.

"If commanders are ignoring or rejecting credible evidence of homosexuality because of the alleged motive of the person who makes the statement, the bottom line is they are keeping gay people in the service," said Frank, a senior research fellow at UC Santa Barbara's Palm Center. "That gives the lie that known gay people undercut the military."

Thursday, April 1, 2010

GOP Sex Club Scandal: Gay for Pay is A-Okay! (video)

Is the party of "No!" becoming the party of "Maybe"? The Republican Party, who has spent the better part of the last four decades railing against same-sex sex may be moving closer to the middle than they'd like to admit, the middle of a very pricey lap dance. GOP chairman Michael Steele has some 'splainin' to do as he finds himself in the middle of a sex scandal involving members of his staff requesting reimbursement for a $2000 tab at the bondage-themed West Hollywood sex club, Voyeur.

According to the Washington Post, the night was part of a lavish wining and dining gesture of gratitude for the RNC's Young Eagles program which targets donors under the age of 45.

So, in case you're keeping track, the Republicans are against homosexual acts between actual homosexuals, but they are so much in favor of two heterosexual women pretending to have lesbian sex on stage for the sexual gratification of straight men, that they'll happily pay for it.

This sounds like a winning strategy to me. We've been doing it all wrong. Forget marching, protesting, lobbying and chaining ourselves to the White House fence. If we really want to win over hearts and minds, we have to aim for the crotch. We have to pretend to be straight, then pretend to be gay while we pretend to have sex in front of them. Not only will we have a better chance at winning full equality, we'll have a wad of cash in our g-strings to show for it at the end of the night. It's a little like "Victor-Victoria", but with better tips. It's so simple, why didn't we think of it sooner?

Here's Jon Stewart's take on the developing scandal:

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Friday, March 12, 2010

"Telephone", Starring Beyonce and Lady Gaga (music video)

I can't think of better way to cap off a week of douche bag Virginia politicians getting smacked down by thousands of angry LGBT college students and their supporters rallying on college campuses and marching through the streets of Richmond, than with a new music video featuring the fiercest diva duet since Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer teamed up for "Enough is Enough." three decades ago. (How's that for a run-on sentence?)

The Pairing of Beyonce and Lady Gaga for "Telephone" has been the most talked about and anticipated project since Britney grew her hair back.

This is a surreal combination of Thelma and Louise and 1950's lesbian prison pulp novels, with Beyonce going for an over the top Bettie Page look and Gaga, well, being Gaga. Possibly not suitable for work, due to some small flashes of flesh and Virgin Mobile product placement, but what else would you expect with these two. Enjoy!

Friday, February 26, 2010

Kathy Griffin - Mariska Hargitay "Law & Order" Lip-Lock: FAIL! (video)

In an upcoming episode of Law and Order: SVU, scheduled for March 3rd, Kathy Griffin plays a lesbian activist, named Babs Duffy, involved in the investigation of the death of one of her group's members. As the investigation moves along, Griffin's character works closely with Detective Olivia Bensen, played by lesbian icon, Miriska Hargitay. Naturally, Babs gets "mixed messages" from Bensen and plants one on her.
It looks like the "mixed-messages" tradition continues in Hollywood. SVU has done a really good job over the years in portraying LGBT stories in a fairly realistic manner without resorting to stereotyping. Why then are they now falling back to the tired old scenario where the only way a lead character could have a same-sex encounter is through a misunderstanding? Why is the gay character once again portrayed as the predatory aggressor? The fact that Kathy Griffin reportedly had some creative input in the story is the really confusing part.

When are we going to see some really bold moves in prime time TV when it comes to telling our stories? We all know people who came out later in life after years of marriage and raising kids.

Why not have Detective Eliot Stabler (played by hottie Chris Meloni) realize that he can't live a lie any more? It would certainly fit his brooding, moody character who can't seem to manage a happy home life for more than a few weeks at a time. Melonie has already played gay in the HBO series "Oz", so it wouldn't effect his career in any way. It would certainly be a breath of fresh air to TV franchise that is beginning to show its age.

Here's a clip of the kissing scene between Kathy and Mariska that could have been written by anybody anywhere that had never met a gay or lesbian person. Sure, Kathy is her usual sarcastic self, but this was not worthy of her efforts, especially with Olivia's slightly (?) homophobic parting remark to a coworker at the end of the scene.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

This Queer Little Planet: British Prime Minister Honors Gay Service Members

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown played host to gay and lesbian military personnel at 10 Downing St. last night at a reception marking the tenth anniversary of the repeal of the prohibition of gays and lesbians serving in the British armed forces.

According to Pink News, Brown told the audience that the British people owe gay and lesbian soldiers a "debt of gratitude we can never fully repay". He added, "I promise you that no one need walk the road to equality alone again."

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