LesbiansTargeted At Comedy Club

An amateur comedy night at a Commercial Dr restaurant turned ugly May 22 when the host comedian aimed homophobic remarks at a lesbian couple, got water thrown in his face, and broke a pair of sunglasses belonging to one of the women whom he claimed were trying to draw attention to the fact they were lesbians because they were "making out" during his show.
Comedian Guy Earle says the women were outside on the restaurant's patio when he arrived for the regular open mic night, and they only came inside towards the end of the show. "I'm about to bring up the second-to-last act and this couple comes in from outside and they plop themselves directly in front of the stage, and they start sucking face like no tomorrow," Earle alleges.
Xtra West first learned of the incident from Stephanie Frigon, who identified herself as a friend of the couple. Frigon says her friends came inside because Zesty's staff asked them to, since the patio was closing.
The couple refused to comment for this article, on advice from legal counsel. "I can't even give you my name [to be] printed," said one of the women, who would only confirm her first name as Lorna.
Frigon, who was not at Zesty's during the incident, posted a second-hand account of it on myspace.com a few days later. In it, she alleges that Earle uttered anti-gay slurs against her friends and quotes him as telling the women: "You're fat and ugly, no wonder you're lesbians, you can't get a man that's why you're dykes. You must be on the rag, you stupid dykes."
Earle admits he "literally said some offensive things to them." He says he was "pissed off" and "lost his cool," but contends he should not be "in this position of having to defend myself."
Earle says he challenged the women about being "rude" from the stage, but was heckled. "They were doing the standard drunken heckling stuff like 'you're an asshole, you're not funny. Get off the stage,'" Earle alleges. "I was like, 'Who the hell are you guys coming in at the end of the show?' I snapped, and I shouldn't have... and yeah, I unloaded offensively like I do to any heckler.
"People booed me, people were upset with me," he continues. "That's the price I have to pay. That's what happens when you do a comedy show like this."
Following what he calls his on-stage "tirade," Earle says he walked past the table where the women were seated and was doused with a glass of water. After the show, he says he went back to the women's table to make peace with them, but more water was thrown at him.
Frigon's account confirms that the women threw water in Earle's face. It also alleges that the comedian later returned to their table, took one of the women's glasses and broke them.
Earle does not deny it. "I took the sunglasses off her head and broke them in half," he admits.
He says he regrets breaking the glasses, and offered "publicly" to replace them. But he argues that he was "assaulted" twice before reacting.
He says the women's sexual orientation is not an issue. He alleges that they were drunk and obnoxious. "It was disrespectful any way that you cut it. The sexuality has nothing to do with it."
Zesty's manager Sal (who refused to give his last name) says he remembers seeing the women on the patio "drinking from 5 until 12 almost." He says he was out walking on the Drive at the time of the incident, but was told about it when he returned to the restaurant later in the evening.
Sal says no one complained to him on the night, but the following day he received a call from one of the women who told him Earle broke her sunglasses.
"I say, 'Don't worry about how much [the glasses cost], I'll pay for it," Sal recalls.
But when the woman came to see him, Sal says she began "pointing at me."
"I told her, 'Don't point at me. The way you speak to me is not nice.' I said, 'The way you talk to me, maybe it is your fault.'"
Sal says he retracted his offer to replace the sunglasses.
"I told her I am not paying for the sunglasses or whatever, because she threw water in the guy's face, you know. Two times. He got mad."
Accounts of the incident have been making the rounds on the internet, with some calling for a boycott of Zesty's, while others say any action should target the comedian, not the venue which has played long-time host to queer artists like the comedy troupe Laff Riot Girls.
"We're collateral damage," says Lee Ann Keple of the lesbian-run comedy troupe that has held its shows at Zesty's for the past seven years. Keple says she has always had a good relationship with Zesty's management, and does not support the call for a boycott.
Still, she says, Laff Riot Girls is now looking for a new venue.
from Xtra

Lesbian Sues EHarmony for Discrimination

A Northern California woman sued the online dating service eHarmony on Thursday, alleging it discriminates against gays, lesbians and bisexuals.
Linda Carlson said she tried to use the Internet site in February to meet a woman but could not based on her sexual orientation. When Carlson wrote to eHarmony to complain, the company refused to change its policy, according to the lawsuit filed on her behalf in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
The lawsuit claims that by only offering to find a compatible match for men seeking women or women seeking men, the company was violating state law barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
"Such outright discrimination is hurtful and disappointing for a business open to the public in this day and age," Carlson said in a statement.
The lawsuit names Pasadena-based eHarmony.com Inc., company founder Neil Clark Warren and his wife Marylyn, the company's former vice president, as defendants. It seeks class-action status, a jury trial and unspecified damages.
The company, which conducts extensive personality profiling before introducing couples with matching values and interests, denied the allegation.
"The research that eHarmony has developed, through years of research, to match couples has been based on traits and personality patterns of successful heterosexual marriages," a company statement said. "Nothing precludes us from providing same-sex matching in the future, it's just not a service we offer now based upon the research we have conducted."
Warren is a clinical psychologist who has written several books about dating and relationships.
from The Associated Press

Beth Ditto To Strip

'The Gossip' singer Beth Ditto wants to strip off for an erotic gay magazine for a second time.
Beth, who bared her super-sized curves in an X-rated photo shoot for the US publication, admits she is desperate to reveal all again.
Speaking at Radio 1's 'Big Weekend' music festival in Preston, England, she said: "I am not ashamed of those pictures, I'm proud of them. I love my body and I love sex, so what's wrong with that? Doing those shoots was so much fun and I would definitely do them again."
The racy snaps of the 15-stone singer featured openly lesbian Beth naked with her girlfriend, and also depicted Beth performing an oral sex act.
The star, whose celebrity fans include Kate Moss and Keira Knightley, often performs in skimpy pants and bras.
from Monsters And Critics

Lesbian Couple Denied Communion

GILLETTE, WYOMING - Leah Vader and Lynne Huskinson, a lesbian couple who got married in Canada last August, sent a letter recently to their state legislator decrying a Wyoming bill that would deny recognition of same-sex marriages. The lawmaker read the letter on the floor of the Legislature.
Soon after, the local paper interviewed the couple on Ash Wednesday and ran a story and pictures of them with ash on their foreheads, a mark of their Roman Catholic faith.
It wasn't long after that that the couple received a notice from their parish church telling them they have been barred from receiving Communion.
"If all this stuff hadn't hit the newspaper, it wouldn't have been any different than before - nobody would have known about it," said the couple's parish priest at St. Matthew's, the Rev. Cliff Jacobson. "The sin is one thing. It's a very different thing to go public with that sin."
Catholics deemed sinners in the eyes of the church are sometimes taken aside and privately advised not to take Communion. But Cheyenne Bishop David Ricken, gay Catholic organizations and a national church spokeswoman said they could not recall any previous instance of a U.S. bishop denying the sacrament to a gay couple in writing.
Now Huskinson and Vader say they are struggling to reconcile their devotion to the church with their devotion to each other.
"You spend half your time defending your gayness to Catholics," Vader said, "and the other half of your time defending your Catholicism to gays."
The couple, who regularly attended Mass and took Communion, have not been back to St. Matthew's since they received the letter a month and a half ago. Vader said they did not want to make a scene.
The 46-year-old newlyweds - Vader is a supervisor at a recycling center, Huskinson a coal miner - ran afoul of a sort of don't-ask-don't-tell policy on the church's part.
"I told my wife in good conscience that if I had known those ladies, and we'd have been having a beer, I'd have just told them to keep everything to themselves," parish music director John Chick said. He added that once news like this hits the papers, "someone's forced to deal with it now, aren't they?"
The parish priest said that after the couple put their engagement and marriage announcements in the local paper, he ran reminders of the church's teachings in the parish bulletin as a warning.
After the Ash Wednesday story, the priest sent this letter: "It is with a heavy heart, in obedience to the instruction of Bishop David Ricken, that I must inform you that, because of your union and your public advocacy of same-sex unions, that you are unable to receive Communion."
The bishop said the couple's sex life constitutes a grave sin, "and the fact that it became so public, that was their choice."
Last fall, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops overwhelmingly approved new guidelines that say parishes should welcome gays while telling them to be celibate because the church considers their sexuality "disordered." The bishops said that anyone who knowingly persists in sinful behavior, such as gay sex or using artificial contraception, should refrain from taking Communion.
Professor Carl Raschke, chairman of religious studies at the University of Denver, said of the Cheyenne bishop's decision: "It's no more surprising that the Catholic Church would deny Communion to an openly gay couple than a Muslim mosque would deny access to somebody who ate pork."
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the church allows local bishops to handle decisions on who may take Communion, so there is no record of how many have been barred from receiving the sacrament.
Walsh said most cases she has heard of involved public figures. During the 2004 presidential campaign, the St. Louis archbishop Raymond Burke said he would deny Communion to John Kerry, a Catholic who supports abortion rights.
Vader said the couple never made any secret of their relationship. She pointed to statuettes of two kissing Dutch girls in front of their single-wide trailer home. She also said that the couple posed for a church directory family photo with Vader's children from a previous marriage, and that the church has sent mail to both of them at the same address for years.
Huskinson questioned why Catholics having premarital sex and using birth control are not barred from receiving Communion, too. But the parish priest said the difference is this: The other Catholics are "not going around broadcasting, `Hey I'm having sex outside of marriage' or `I'm using birth control.'"
from The Associated Press

IBM Heirs Challenge Lesbian Adoption

PORTLAND, MAINE - In their 14-year relationship, Patricia Spado and Olive Watson spent only five nights apart. They lived in New York, spent summers in Maine, and shared the more practical pieces of a life together - a home, a joint bank account.
But in a time long before civil unions or gay marriage, Watson wanted to ensure that her partner would be taken care of when she was no longer there. So, at a small courthouse in coastal Maine, she adopted Spado.
Fifteen years later, the adoption is being challenged in courts in Connecticut and Maine as Olive Watson's family parcels out the family fortune - and contests their newfound heir.
The case, according to gay activists, is rare and offers an example of how far same-sex couples have gone to attain financial and inheritance protections that married couples take for granted.
"It shows what people are driven to when they don't have access to marriage and the conventional way of forming a family," said Mary Bonauto, an attorney with Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the Boston-based group that won the legal battle that introduced gay marriage to Massachusetts.
At stake is a share in multimillion-dollar trust funds that Olive Watson's father, Thomas Watson, who built International Business Machines into today's IBM computer colossus, set up for his grandchildren. He died in 1993, unaware of the adoption. His wife, who died in 2004, apparently learned of it from her daughter.
With the deaths of both parents, the trusts' beneficiaries - grandchildren, at least 18 of them - became eligible for cash payouts at age 35. But when Spado's lawyer notified the trusts that she was a potential beneficiary as a legal granddaughter, the family challenged the claim in probate court in Greenwich, Conn., where Thomas Watson lived at the time of his death.
Spado and Olive Watson aren't together anymore. They separated in 1992, and while Spado received about $500,000 from Watson, there is nothing in court records to show any arrangement beyond that.
A judge ruled that Thomas Watson did not recognize Spado as his granddaughter and did not intend for her to benefit from the trusts. "It is reasonable to conclude that Watson intended to benefit only those grandchildren who had a typical parent/child relationship with his children," Judge David Hopper wrote.
The size of the estate has not been estimated in court documents, and principals in the case did not respond to requests for comment. Lawyers for Spado and Watson also did not respond to questions about the case.
Spado has appealed. In the meantime, the family trusts are trying to have her adoption annulled in Maine, where they would have to prove deception or fraud.
Briefs filed with the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, which heard an appeal on a technicality, indicate that the judge who approved the adoption never knew that Olive Watson and Spado had a sexual relationship.
New York, where the couple had been living at the time, barred the adoption of a homosexual partner, but Maine had no such restriction. Nor did it have a provision like Connecticut's that prohibits a person from adopting someone older - Spado, 44 at the time, was a year older than her adoptive mother.
However, the Maine adoption law required that the adoptee had to be living in the state, and the two sides are at odds on whether spending part of each summer vacation on Maine's North Haven island met that requirement.
The couple met in 1978 while Spado was working in Los Angeles. Watson rented a residence in California in order to be with her lover, who later abandoned her career and moved with Watson to New York.
They held joint bank accounts, owned real estate together and exchanged durable powers of attorney and health care proxies. Watson amended her will to name Spado as sole beneficiary.
After their breakup, Watson paid Spado the $500,000 settlement in exchange for relinquishing her claim to certain real estate. But the settlement was apparently not intended to terminate Spade's right to her inheritance as a granddaughter.
According to a court brief filed by Spado in Maine, a letter signed by Watson shortly after the breakup confirms "our agreement that I have not and that I shall at no time initiate any action to revoke or annul my adoption of you."
from The Associated Press

Case Tests Handling Of Gay Relationships

RUTLAND, VERMONT - A court has ordered a woman to pay $240 a month to her former lesbian partner for child support in a case that is testing legal questions on how states differ in their recognition of same-sex relationships.
Last month's order by the Rutland Family Court comes amid a continuing custody battle between Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller over a 4-year-old girl, Isabella.
Jenkins said Sunday that she has obeyed the child-support order. She said she has sent a check by certified mail, only to have it returned because Miller did not pick it up.
Miller did not immediately return a call for comment on Sunday.
Miller gave birth to the girl, who was conceived through artificial insemination, after the two women were legally joined in a civil union in 2002.
About a year later, Miller renounced her homosexuality, returned to Virginia and denied Jenkins' demands for visitation rights.
Since then, Vermont courts have ordered visitation rights for Jenkins, who lives in Fair Haven, Vt. However, a Virginia court granted Miller sole parental rights because that state does not recognize same-sex unions.
A Virginia appeals court ruled late last year that Vermont courts have jurisdiction in the case. Lawyers for Miller, who lives in Winchester, Va., have said they will appeal that ruling.
Jenkins said she plans to ask for full custody as part for the final order dissolving the civil union.
from The Associated Press

'L Word' Profiles Lesbians In LA, But Shot Mostly In Canada

WEST HOLLYWOOD - A clutch of stylish-looking women are gathered around a sleek SUV that has pulled up to the curb on a trendy avenue.
Just another location shoot in La-La Land; nothing too unusual about that. So why does a woman passer-by suddenly scream with joy and tear across the street to get a closer look?
Because she's just realized the femme bunch is the cast of "The L Word," which usually doesn't film in Los Angeles.
Showtime's series about a diverse group of L.A. lesbians shoots mainly on soundstages and locations in Vancouver, Canada. But how many palm trees can one show fake?
So production for the series' fourth season, which debuts Sunday, moved to Southern California for several days of shooting at places where the characters live, love, work and play.
Series co-creator Ilene Chaiken hesitates to dub Los Angeles a "character in the story." There are, after all, at least 12 main women characters whose stories she's got to fit into this season's dozen episodes.
But she acknowledges "the cultural dynamics of L.A. are embedded in our show. The characters do have L.A. values and are affected by L.A. values to some extent, so I think the series has the specificity of a unique
culture and environment but it is dominated by universal emotional experiences that everybody can relate to."
Among the series' leading women are Jennifer Beals as Bette Porter, Laurel Holloman as Tina Kennard, Leisha Hailey as Alice Pieszecki and Daniela Sea as Max Sweeney.
Newcomers this season include Cybill Shepherd as Bette's boss, Phyllis, who comes out later in life after a conventional heterosexual marriage; Marlee Matlin as Jodi, a deaf artist who has a relationship with Bette, and Rose Rollins as Tasha, who has served a tour of duty in Iraq.
Serious issues — such as the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, the legality of same-sex marriages and the challenges of transgender transition — underscore story lines, but "Sex and the City" style wit and laughter also hold sway.
"In the sense that we deal with the issues of the moment, we deal with them because they affect all of our lives," says Chaiken, who doesn't presume that her show will necessarily change people's attitudes, but does hope that depicting lesbian stories in all their human variety may shift opinion.
Talking briefly on the West Hollywood location, Chaiken notes that her aim this year was to "slightly notch up the melodrama while trying to keep it real ... and to keep the humor, not get too dark, too heavy." She wants the series to show "happy lesbians" at least a good portion of the time.
In a later phone chat, Chaiken elaborated on the new season and how she works hard to avoid becoming hidebound, which is something she feels too often happens to long-running series.
"Every time I go back to it, I treat it as if I'm doing a new show ... we really do try to shake it up ... and I think that it's much more true to life in that this is a show about a group of friends, and one's friends change all the time, romances change, and where people are in their lives changes," she explains.
To help sort out who has loved or does love whom, the plot line has always included Alice Pieszecki's wall chart, which chronicles all the romantic hookups. This season, the chart goes online and interactive.
That concept also has moved from fiction to reality, as Chaiken has just announced the formation of a company, OurChart.com. It's an online social space for lesbians and their friends. Beals, Moennig and Hailey are among the founding partners.
Chaiken is pleased the series has "a larger audience than we assumed it would have." Much of that audience is, naturally, gay and lesbian, a fan base that she says is "loyal and passionate and watches the show devotedly," but also "rips it to shreds and rants and raves about it."
Chaiken is "amused and intrigued" by such highly charged response. She respects what she hears from those fans, but she knows "there's no way on Earth that we could please everyone."
Women, both gay and straight, are the core audience, but, Chaiken says, "we seem to have more and more men, who watch the show. I love that. And straight men as well as gay — and not just for lascivious reasons."
"Yes, the show has very hot sex scenes in it, but why not!" exclaims Rachel Shelley, who plays heiress Helena Peabody. "But there are a lot of other story lines that are poignant and relevant to all our lives. It's got great scope."
from The Daily News

Nation's Only Lesbian Sperm Bank Records 2,000th Birth

SAN FRANCISCO - Pacific Reproductive Services Fertility Center and Sperm Bank founded here in 1984 with a primary mission to serve the unmet needs of lesbians throughout the country, today announced its 2000th birth through artificial insemination.
According to PRS founder and longtime lesbian health care activist, Sherron Mills, N.P., the actual number of women who have become mothers with the assistance of PRS is probably "significantly higher than the 2,000 figure," which reflects only known births.
Noting the fact that the number of same-sex female couples raising children is estimated by U.S. census figures to have increased by about 50 percent between 1990 and 2000, Mills said that although some percentage of that growth is doubtless related to a greater willingness to reveal sexual orientation, "there is no question that we are in the midst of a lesbian baby boom."
The Need for Lesbian-specific Fertility and Artificial Insemination Services
Today, in marked contrast to the past, lesbians throughout the world are opting to become parents through sperm donor insemination. But despite increased societal openness to alternative lifestyles and family structures - most notably in the United States and Europe - serious barriers remain for a lesbian sperm bank and for any lesbian seeking to become a mother through the services of a sperm bank.
"The biggest problem facing lesbians - and to a lesser but still significant degree for all women who are not married - is lack of access to truly supportive artificial insemination and fertility services outside our major metropolitan areas," Mills says. "The degree of prejudice is still very high among health care providers. That's why we make it a priority to find fertility specialists throughout the country to whom we can comfortably refer the clients of our sperm bank for their insemination procedures."
Internet Increasing Reach of Artificial Insemination
As it has in so many facets of life today, the Internet is also opening communication and breaking down barriers in the field of donor insemination. For lesbians, it is now possible to identify supportive providers via the Web. Pacific Reproductive Services was an early pioneer in shipping sperm to lesbians and other women - and to supportive providers throughout the country - as well as providing any ongoing assistance required until pregnancy is achieved.
More "Willing to be Known" Sperm Donors
Pacific Reproductive Services has also been a pioneer in providing its clients with donors who contractually agree to provide updated contact information and meet a child at least once when he or she reaches 18, should the child wish to do so. Today, PRS offers the country's largest pool of such sperm donors.
from Press Release

Two Mommies Is One Too Many

A number of social conservatives, myself included, have recently been asked to respond to the news that Mary Cheney, the Vice President's daughter, is pregnant with a child she intends to raise with her lesbian partner. Implicit in this issue is an effort to get us to criticize the Bush Administration or the Cheney family. But the concern here has nothing to do with politics. It is about what kind of family environment is best for the health and development of children, and, by extension, the nation at large.
With all due respect to Cheney and her partner, Heather Poe, the majority of more than 30 years of social-science evidence indicates that children do best on every measure of well-being when raised by their married mother and father. That is not to say Cheney and Poe will not love their child. But love alone is not enough to guarantee healthy growth and development. The two most loving women in the world cannot provide a daddy for a little boy—any more than the two most loving men can be complete role models for a little girl.
The voices that argue otherwise tell us more about our politically correct culture than they do about what children really need. The fact remains that gender matters—perhaps nowhere more than in regard to child rearing. The unique value of fathers has been explained by Dr. Kyle Pruett of Yale Medical School in his book Fatherneed: Why Father Care Is as Essential as Mother Care for Your Child. Pruett says dads are critically important simply because "fathers do not mother." Psychology Today explained in 1996 that "fatherhood turns out to be a complex and unique phenomenon with huge consequences for the emotional and intellectual growth of children." A father, as a male parent, makes unique contributions to the task of parenting that a mother cannot emulate, and vice versa.
According to educational psychologist Carol Gilligan, mothers tend to stress sympathy, grace and care to their children, while fathers accent justice, fairness and duty. Moms give a child a sense of hopefulness; dads provide a sense of right and wrong and its consequences. Other researchers have determined that boys are not born with an understanding of "maleness." They have to learn it, ideally from their fathers.
But set aside the scientific findings for a minute. Isn't there something in our hearts that tells us, intuitively, that children need a mother and a father? Admittedly, that ideal is not always possible. Divorce, death, abandonment and unwed pregnancy have resulted in an ever growing number of single-parent families in this culture. We admire the millions of men and women who have risen to the challenge of parenting alone and are meeting their difficult responsibilities with courage and determination. Still, most of them, if asked, would say that raising children is a two-person job best accomplished by a mother and father.
In raising these issues, Focus on the Family does not desire to harm or insult women such as Cheney and Poe. Rather, our conviction is that birth and adoption are the purview of married heterosexual couples. Traditional marriage is God's design for the family and is rooted in biblical truth. When that divine plan is implemented, children have the best opportunity to thrive. That's why public policy as it relates to families must be based not solely on the desires of adults but rather on the needs of children and what is best for society at large.
This is a lesson we should have learned from no-fault divorce. Because adults wanted to dissolve difficult marriages with fewer strings attached, reformers made it easier in the late 1960s to dissolve nuclear families. Though there are exceptions, the legacy of no-fault divorce is countless shattered lives within three generations, adversely affecting children's behavior, academic performance and mental and physical health. No-fault divorce reflected our selfish determination to do what was convenient for adults, and it has been, on balance, a disaster.
We should not enter into yet another untested and far-reaching social experiment, this one driven by the desires of same-sex couples to bear and raise children. The traditional family, supported by more than 5,000 years of human experience, is still the foundation on which the well-being of future generations depends.
from Focus On The Family / James C. Dobson Ph.D.

Cybill Shepherd Makes 'L Word' Work For Her

Cybill Shepherd, who plays a married woman in her 50s who comes out of the closet in the season of Showtime's "The L Word" that debuts Jan. 7, is also at a crossroads in her personal life.
With her daughter Clementine now 26 and 19-year-old twins Ariel and Zack starting college, Cybill is caught up in empty-nest syndrome — and it's hitting her big time.
"It squeezes your heart. You can't believe the silence," she says of home sans family. To cope, she's moved many of her things into the twins' bedrooms, "and I hang out there — it helps," she says.
The role of mother is so important to Shepherd that she refrained from signing on for "The L Word" until her schedule could be adjusted to accommodate her personal obligations.
"They wanted me on location in Vancouver the same day the twins were graduating high school in Los Angeles. I was very torn. I didn't want to miss an extraordinary work opportunity but needed be there for my children. I explained to the producers that I had to be free to help the twins select their colleges, to move them into college, to attend parents' weekends ... It worked out beautifully. The show bent over backward, I bent over backward — I made 14 rounds trips to Vancouver in three months to shoot my 11 segments."
Daughter Clementine plays her daughter in an episode of "The L Word" that brings out the heartache that hits home hard when Cybill's character comes out of the closet. "There's an incredible family struggle," says Shepherd, and her daughter — playing her L Word' daughter — declares, "Mom, you can't just decide one day you're a lesbian."
Actually, Cybill and her children are strong supporters of gay and lesbian causes — her daughters have even taken part in human rights marches in Washington, and she says, "You can't decide that someone is less of a human being because of any leanings.".
from The Long Beach Press Telegram

Gay Fire Chief To Be Fired

MINNEAPOLIS - A city panel recommended Tuesday that officials fire Bonnie Bleskachek, the nation's first openly lesbian big-city fire chief, in the wake of firefighter lawsuits accusing her of harassment and discrimination.
Bleskachek had earlier agreed to step down, but the city's executive council unanimously rejected a negotiated deal after a closed meeting.
"She was pretty stunned, because it was a complete surprise," said Bleskachek's attorney, Jerry Burg.
Mayor R.T. Rybak (D) had announced the agreement in a letter to the city's executive council in which he wrote that he no longer had confidence in Bleskachek as chief. Neither Rybak nor City Council members would immediately explain why the deal was blocked.
Bleskachek, 43, was hailed as a trailblazer when she was promoted to the top job two years ago, but her tenure has been troubled.
Three female firefighters have sued, alleging various acts of discrimination and sexual harassment. Two of the lawsuits were settled. Earlier this month, a male firefighter brought another lawsuit, alleging he was denied advancement because he is male and not gay.
A city investigation is ongoing. This summer, a separate investigation by the city's Department of Civil Rights into a 2003 complaint by a male firefighter found it "likely" that the department gave preferential treatment to lesbians or those who socialized with them.
Bleskachek was ill with the flu Tuesday and unavailable for comment. She has denied wrongdoing in the past.
Burg acknowledged that Bleskachek was ready to step down.
"It's been clear for a long time that the job of chief takes energy from her life that she no longer wanted to give it, all things considered," Burg said.
from The Washington Post

Heterosexual Ex-LAPD Officer Alleges Discrimination By Gay Supervisors

LOS ANGELES - A heterosexual former Los Angeles police officer is suing the department, alleging she was fired after complaining about alleged discrimination by her gay supervisors, according to court papers obtained Monday.
Cindy S. Perez, who alleges wrongful termination, sexual orientation discrimination and retaliation, is asking for unspecified general and punitive damages.
Lt. Paul Vernon, an LAPD spokesman, declined to comment on the lawsuit filed last Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
"Being that this is a court case is in litigation, there is nothing I can really say about it," Vernon said.
Perez, 38, of Buena Park, was hired by the LAPD as an officer in July 1994 and was assigned to the Pacific Division in 2000, according to her court papers.
"(Perez) was aware that LAPD's Pacific Division was and had been a lesbian-friendly environment and had treated non-lesbian females ... differently," her lawsuit states.
Heterosexual female officers at the division were targeted for harassment and negative employment actions and were not given the same opportunities as lesbians, she alleges.
When Perez filed a misconduct complaint against a lesbian sergeant with a history of sex discrimination complaints against her, Perez was "ostracized, harassed and transferred to another assignment," according to her lawsuit.
When Perez asked the same sergeant a question about a sex crime investigation, the sergeant responded with a sexually explicit comment about a woman's private parts, according to her court papers.
The lawsuit also alleges that Perez was falsely accused by a lesbian lieutenant and a male sergeant of pointing her gun at an officer she was training in December 2003. Those allegations ultimately led to Perez's firing by Chief William Bratton in July 2005, according to the lawsuit.
"This termination was discriminatory and was in retaliation for reporting and opposing discrimination and harassment," Perez stated in papers filed with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing last November.
from NBC4 TV

A Divorce That Isn't

As a lesbian who came out in the 1970s, I was never an advocate of gay marriage. It seemed too straight, too assimilative, too much like heterosexuality. But I applaud the recent ruling in my native state of New Jersey that gay couples are entitled to full legal rights and financial benefits.
I have learned the hard way why these rights are necessary.
I just got divorced - at least as far as I am concerned. But in the eyes of New York State, my relationship with a woman was never a legal bond. After devoting 26 years to our relationship, all I've got is a worthless domestic partnership agreement, two boxes full of photos of us together and bundles of cards saying how much she loves me.
We were giddy that day in 1993 when we finally could register our union at the Municipal Building in lower Manhattan, shortly after the city had passed its domestic partnership legislation. This document offered only a few local benefits, but it was as significant to us as a marriage license.
Like anyone getting married, I never thought we'd go the route of the 50 percent of couples who end up divorced. But now that we have, I find that I can't hire a divorce lawyer because I have no legal rights.
As a freelance writer, I never made enough money to save. My partner, "Slim," a photographer, made a lot more than I. Her savings were to be our retirement plan.
I launched her photography career by accident when I asked her to take some pictures to accompany my stories. On our 25th anniversary card, she wrote that her career was forever dedicated to me. But over the next year, Slim had a midlife crisis. She had married her high school sweetheart at 20, and we hooked up not long after that ended. I had led a much more experimental sex life before we met. Now, struck by her mortality, she was curious to do in middle age what I'd done in my younger days - explore what's out there.
After the breakup, my friends rallied, treating me to dinner and inviting me to their beach houses. To them, I was the loyal 57-year-old wife whose spouse had gotten bored and walked out. I tried to find a way to save the relationship; I talked to my shrink, wrote in my journal, cried a lot. I lost sleep and dropped 12 pounds on the breakup diet.
But Slim felt that the only way she could leave me was by going "cold turkey." It feels more like a death than a separation, and without any closure.
If we were married, the ending would have been neater and much less abrupt. We would still have some contact, getting together our affairs during the transition. I could hand my lawyer a list of items I wanted, and he could negotiate for them. Most important, my lawyer could argue for equitable distribution of Slim's IRAs and savings accounts.
My name is listed as beneficiary but, not being married, I have no legal claim to the money until Slim is dead. This six-figure nest egg was earmarked for our retirement, or so she said as she socked it away.
We'd always been opposites. She was a workaholic who did not cultivate friendships. I have many chums and interests. She avoided introspection and did not believe in therapy. I was emotionally open. She was a control freak. I was a nurturer who bent over backward to please her. She felt unable to have a full life and stay in the relationship.
How funny that a Greenwich Village lesbian couple could turn out to be such a middle-American cliche of a heterosexual marriage. I'd played the stereotypical sensitive female role. She was the stoic male.
For more than a quarter century, I was a fool in love with no legal protection other than a will. Now I'm alone and panicked about my future. I was not only dumped emotionally, but left in a fragile economic situation.
How ironic that this personal tragedy has turned me into a champion of a legal convention that I once found far too traditional. Despite our downtown lifestyle, the old-fashioned institution of marriage turns out to provide protection I never expected to need.
from Newsday / Kate Walter

Seattle Ranks Number 2 In Percentage of Gays

Among the 50 largest U.S. cities, Seattle is second only to San Francisco in the percentage of residents identifying themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual, a new study reports.
A researcher used census and other government statistics to offer an estimate of a segment of the population in cities, metropolitan areas and congressional districts nationwide whose size has only been guessed in the past.
The study reports found that 12.9 percent of Seattle residents — roughly 57,900 people — identified themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual. In San Francisco, 15.4 percent of residents identified themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual.
The study's findings are drawn from newly released U.S. census data on same-sex households showing that between 2000 and 2005, the reported number of gay-couple households increased by 30 percent in the United States and by 50 percent in Washington state.
The findings do not necessarily suggest the number of gay people and couples is growing dramatically.
Rather, say the study's author and others, the findings may have more to do with people becoming more comfortable about disclosing their sexual orientation in government surveys.
They also believe the trend holds social and political implications, as civil rights for gays remain a deeply divisive issue across the country.
"Basically, we're looking at the size of America's closet," said Gary Gates, senior research fellow at the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles. The institute focuses on sexual-orientation law and public policy.
While there have been attempts to estimate the gay and lesbian population in specific cities or states, the Williams Institute estimated the population's size across cities, metropolitan areas, states and congressional districts.
Gates used data from the National Survey of Family Growth, a multipurpose survey sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to estimate a gay, lesbian and bisexual population in the United States of 8.8 million people.
He then applied that data to the results of the American Community Survey, a periodic census update, to estimate the number of gay, lesbian and bisexual people in cities, metropolitan areas and congressional districts.
His formula assumed that the percentage of all same-sex coupled households in any area — data provided by the census — reflects the percentage of all gays, lesbians and bisexuals in that same area.
He multiplied the estimated total national gay, lesbian and bisexual population of 8.8 million by the percentage of all same-sex couples in a given area to reach an estimated gay, lesbian or bisexual population for that area.
"There's really no other way to get at this population," he said. "There's not a better source out there."
The findings come in a year the state Supreme Court upheld a ban on same-sex marriage and when Washington became the 17th state in the nation to pass legislation extending housing and workplace protections to gays.
Josh Friedes, advocacy director for the gay-rights group Equal Rights Washington, said the numbers demonstrate why it's important for states such as Washington to address such issues as how best to meet the needs of gay and lesbian couples as they age.
State Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, who is gay, said that while the goal is still same-sex marriage, he plans to introduce legislation in the next session that "extends to gays and lesbians the same benefits of marriage, even if we can't get marriage.
"I know it will be a multiyear process."
Cheryl Haskins, executive director of Allies for Marriage and Children, said her organization is working to ensure it will have a voice in what goes on. The group supports defining marriage as the union between one man and one woman.
from The Seattle Times

Longoria Slams Rumors Of Lesbian Flick With Beyonce

'Desperate Housewives' star Eva Longoria has slammed rumors that she and singer Beyonce Knowles will play a lesbian couple in a 'female Brokeback Mountain' to be directed by 'Lost In Translation' director Sofia Coppola.
“Stop the madness,” Longoria bellowed and then added, “Believe me, I would love to work with Beyonce one day. She's so talented. But this is definitely not something we are doing together. It's completely and absolutely not true.” Rumor mills went into overdrive with assertions that Longoria and Knowles were going to star in the screen adaptation of Tipping the Velvet, a Sarah Waters story of a British girl who falls in love with a female stage performer.
According to 31-year-old Longoria, the rumors began even before she and Knowles had crossed paths. “Beyonce and I just did the L'Oreal event a couple of days ago and we were like: 'What is the deal?' What makes me crazy is that there are quotes out there, quotes from me saying it's true,” said the actress, who plays the catty Gabrielle Solis in the Emmy-winning soap. She continued: “But in fact it's not true. And quotes of Beyonce saying it's about time we had a female Brokeback Mountain. And we're like: 'We never said that'.” Not one to take the rumors lying down, Longoria has put her lawyers on the job to find the source.
Meanwhile, Knowles' camp has also denied the claims. “We've had Brokeback Mountain. So the time is right for this divine novel to get the same treatment,” the singer was quoted as saying. But her publicist said the 25-year-old Crazy in Love crooner has no such plans and hadn't said anything to that effect. “This is not happening. We've never heard of this film,” the spokesperson said. Knowles is busy working on her new film Dreamgirls, which releases in December.
from Earth Times

PM's daughter Slams Lack Of Support For Gay Parade

ISRAEL - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's daughter Dana told Army Radio on Sunday that the struggle of the homosexual community in Israel has just began, charging that the community's rights remain violated.
"There is a continuing history of violence and hatred, there is homophobia. Coming out of the closet is not a one-time struggle," Dana, a lesbian, said.
She said: "I thought it is important to tell those who were not there what those who were there felt. I was happy to be there with the sweetest people there is.
"But on the other hand there is a sad feeling in that they took us into a closed area. It was a feeling of being in jail. At the entrance we were asked to put on a pink ribbon and the feeling was that the event is too sterile."
She claimed that a violent campaign was waged against the community and the event's organizers.
"After what happened I am sure the community's leader should not give up and therefore we have to march. The fear campaign is a problem. The fact that we were distanced from the public teaches us that something in the separation war succeeded, and that's what turned the event into a bitter victory …
"I think that the community was offended in this struggle but there is another side to that. Now, homosexual and lesbian haredim, and there are haredi homosexuals and lesbian, know they are not alone in the world."
Olmert said that the media presented both sides in an equal manner boosted haredim opposing the parade.
"There is on the one hand a group of people who want to march without violence, and their message is not one of hate. And on the other hand there is a group of people who express themselves violently – and the media presents both sides in a politically correct manner. I believe the media should take a stance."
She was asked about her father's silence over the issue and his unwillingness to support the community.
"I would have been happy if, as Eliyahui Yishai called it 'the abomination parade', someone had answered him from the government system … I don't like to speak as the daughter of my father. I don't act in the public sphere as such, but I keep to myself the right to express myself when I think I am right and this is one such time."
from Y Net News

Beyonce And Eva To Play Lesbian Lovers

Hot, scandalous and spicy, just the way they like it. Many men will be sure not to miss this movie when it comes out in the near future.
Beyoncé and Eva Longoria recently revealed they will soon be playing lesbian lovers in a new sexy flick and be the subject of many men's wet dreams.
The gorgeous stars have revealed they are set to star in the sexy Victorian drama "Tipping The Velvet."
Eva, 31, said, "Yes it's true. We are talking about doing the movie together. It's such a wonderful novel, a beautiful love story."
Director Sofia Coppola is hoping to bring Sarah Water's novel about sexual repression to the big screen and is anxious for Beyoncé and Eva to take the roles of 1890s music hall star Kitty Butler, and her lesbian lover Nan Astley.
Beyoncé, 25, thinks it is time the world was treated to a classic lesbian love story.
The singer, who was speaking at a New York benefit for ovarian cancer, said, "We've had 'Brokeback Mountain' so the time is right for this divine novel to get the same treatment."
Beyoncé and Eva are said to be incredibly excited about the steamy love scenes and can't wait for filming to begin.
A source revealed, "They weren't at all coy about the sex scenes. In fact they both seemed to think it would be more fun than doing the same work with a man. It's going to be very hot."
The BBC's TV adaptation of "Tipping The Velvet" caused outrage four years ago with its graphic sex scenes, which included cross-dressing and the use of sex toys.
from All Headline News

Dallas Drawing More Gay Tourists

Dallas' efforts to tap into the gay and lesbian travel market appear to be paying off.
The city, which launched a niche marketing campaign two years ago, has attracted more than 20 meetings and conventions and raised awareness among travelers.
"We've come a long way in a short time, and we have some momentum going," said Phillip Jones, chief executive of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau.
In a survey by Community Marketing Inc. of more than 6,300 gay and lesbian travelers, about 14 percent said they had visited Dallas in the last year, up from 9 percent a year earlier.
The gay and lesbian market has become particularly attractive for tourism marketers in recent years because its members take more trips and spend more than the average traveler. Gay and lesbian travelers take an average of five trips a year, compared with about three trips for the typical U.S. traveler. Spending is also significantly higher, with gay and lesbian travelers spending $6,273 a year on trips, compared with about $2,955 for other travelers.
The city tied with San Diego as the seventh most popular destination for business trips among gay and lesbian travelers.
"Travel is considered to be a right to ... [the gay and lesbian market] rather than a luxury," said Jerry McHugh, manager of market research and development for Community Marketing Inc. in San Francisco.
Mr. Jones said targeting the segment simply makes economic sense, pointing to research by Witeck-Combs Communications and Harris Interactive that the roughly 16 million adult gay consumers in the United States represent $641 billion in buying power.
"The gay market is very loyal," Mr. Jones said. "If there's a perception that you're reaching out to them, then they'll reward you with their business."
Dallas' marketing effort is relatively small. The bureau spends about $50,000 annually marketing to the niche group – less than a third of what it spends courting Latino and African-American visitors.
The city launched a niche Web site aimed at gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender travelers in January, to round out marketing efforts aimed at other key tourism groups.
Dallas has also worked with the local gay community, which is the sixth-largest in the nation.
Steve Jolly, a local marketer who works for the Dallas visitors bureau, said the efforts have helped events like Halloween and Gay Pride week, attracting complementary events that encourage visitors to extend their trips.
Mostly, the bureau has relied on public relations efforts. When travel writers or meeting planners are in town, the bureau tries to have them meet with city leaders, including Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, who is a lesbian.
"It blows them away when they see for themselves what a diverse, progressive and inviting city this is," Mr. Jones said.
The city's appeals won over the Washington-based Family Pride Coalition. The gay family advocacy group conducted its national conference in Dallas last month after the bureau made a presentation at the organization's office.
Though some members were initially reluctant to bring their meeting to Texas – where a gay-marriage ban passed with 76 percent support last year – Dallas was chosen over Minneapolis and Chicago, said the group's executive director Jennifer Chrisler.
"There's a very large and vibrant gay parenting community in Dallas and an even larger gay and lesbian community in Texas – that coupled with the fact that Texas is a place where there is still a lot of work to be done to educate people about gays and lesbians and what their lives are like, what their families are like," she said. "It really made Dallas the right choice at the right time."
With about 250 people attending, Mr. Jones said winning the Family Pride conference was the bureau's biggest success so far. The weekend drew rave reviews.
"I think it was an extraordinarily positive experience in that most of the participants found Dallas to be a warm, receptive inviting place for them," Ms. Chrisler said.
from The Dallas Morning News

"Fat Lesbian" Comment Gets Radio Host Fired

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - A radio talk show host was fired Friday after he made a derogatory comment about the weight and sexuality of the Green-Rainbow party candidate running for Massachusetts governor.
WRKO-AM pulled host John DePetro from the air after he made the comments Thursday. It announced Friday that he had been fired.
"In the context of what he said and the tone with which he said it, the comments were completely inappropriate, derogatory and will not be tolerated," said Jason Wolfe, the vice president of AM programming and operations for station owner Entercom Boston.
DePetro did not immediately return an e-mailed request for comment Friday, however, he told The Boston Globe in a story posted Friday on its Web site that he was "stunned" that he had been fired.
He said he had called the candidate, Grace Ross, to apologize for calling her a "fat lesbian."
The host, who calls himself the "Independent Man," said he made the remark because he was exasperated that Ross and independent candidate Christy Mihos were eating up time during a debate earlier in the week that included Republican candidate Kerry Healey and Democrat Deval Patrick.
He said it was then that he told listeners he wished someone would "tell the fat lesbian to shut up."
"I just think both her and Christy have served their purpose and I had a problem with them still thrusting themselves into the debate," he told the Globe. "I think I vocalized what a lot of people were thinking - will you just shut up and let them go at it. I added a little more."
Ross, who is openly gay, laughed when she heard about it but said the comment was offensive.
"Big, fat? I guess that's supposed to be his way of saying he doesn't like somebody," she said.
After hearing DePetro had been fired, she said: "I think that the comment was offensive in general, so I hope that many people in the state were offended by it and will help set a standard of what political debate is supposed to be about."
DePetro had also been reprimanded by station management in July for using a slur often aimed at gays in reference to Matt Amorello, the former chairman of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.
Wolfe said that after DePetro was suspended in that case, the host was warned that "any further comments of this kind would be dealt with in a severe way."
"I have no doubt that terminating John's employment was the right action to take," he said.
from The Associated Press

'Invisible Man' To Offer Support To Gay Men

INDIANA UNIVERSITY - A new group might provide the answer to the problems of gay men on campus who don't identify with any existing student support networks. Invisible Man, a discussion group created by IU graduate student Matt Baber and supported by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Student Support Services office, plans to be an outlet for gay men who don't necessarily feel they fit into the traditional gay stereotypes.
"The name, Invisible Man, represents the men within the larger homo/bisexual/curious community who might not be obviously nonxheterosexual to each other or to society," Baber said. "These are the guys who might not feel comfortable being gay or bi because they don't identify with, for example, pride parades and some of the values that society has traditionally assigned to homosexuals."
The group is loosely affiliated with the GBLTSSS office but Baber primarily organizes, facilitates and funds it. Baber said the group is geared mainly toward gay men but welcomes all men regardless of sexual orientation.
"It's open to all male students who want to become stronger and more empowered men who want a safe place to find friends, mentors and resources that will help them understand healthy ways to integrate manhood and sexuality," he said.
The GLBTSSS office is working with Baber to get the word on the street about the group and encourage participation within the gay community at IU.
"There are students out there not interested in the traditional groups that we offer," GLBTSSS Director Doug Bauder said. "There are needs not being met and folks who would really enjoy the fellowship of other men with their needs."
Baber created Invisible Man because he said he did not feel that there was a group with the sort of resources and support that he needed to feel comfortable with his sexuality. As part of the School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation graduate studies program, Baber is required to do an internship. He said by applying that requirement to the organization, he saw an opportunity to create the kind of support group that he had always wished existed when he was an undergraduate.
"(The thing) I took away from the coming-out experience was that I had to first be gay and then try to build manhood," he said. "I realized that other guys likely share my struggle to integrate manhood and sexuality in ways that our culture and communities don't often teach us to do when we don't define ourselves by our sexuality."
In weekly meetings, group participants will discuss a range of issues revolving around the topic of what manhood means in their daily life, and they will try to find ways to realize a strong male identity. Sexuality will be discussed but is not the only concern of the group. Rather, the group is more a way for men to become deeply connected to themselves and those around them, Baber said.
While it might resemble other groups on campus, Barber said Invisible Man is unique in that it specifically addresses manhood rather than relationships.
In the past, the GLBTSSS office has sponsored a number of groups tailored to specific needs within the GLBT community. Organizations for transgender and gender-questioning individuals, a group for black students in the GLBT community and a group for lesbian and bisexual women are examples of some of the groups the office has created and supported.
"We find here that students express their needs of the moment," Bauder said. "Matt (Baber) came in and talked about his experiences to us, and when he said he wanted to start Invisible Man, we were more than happy to support him."
from The Indiana Daily Student / Whitney Mitchell