Owner: Lez Keep it Real URL:www.lezkeepitreal.com Join Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2007 10:23:18 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: There’s no reason to beat around the bush, so to speak. Let’s get it all out in the open, basically - Lez keep it real. Real opinions, real discussion, real stories. Writer and professional people watcher, Lyndsey D’Arcangelo, will keep you up to speed wi Site statistics:Click here
Hooray for gay corporate America 2007-09-19 09:12:57 I’m a fan of good news. There’s a reason why I don’t watch the news before I go to bed. The news likes to report mostly on bad news, and who needs to go to sleep with bad news on their mind? Not me. I wish there was a channel that only reported good news. But it wouldn’t get any ratings. Let’s face it. Most people like reading bad news. It’s gives them something to harp on, something to talk about and maybe even makes them feel better knowing that the incident they are reading about isn’t happening to them. Damn, that sounded cynical … Adri over at Darkside Rainbow must be rubbing off on me!
Because I am such a fan of good news, I’m going to institute a new weekly feature here at Lez Keep it Real. Introducing the Good News Moment …
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, America
My conversation with Mia Michaels 2007-09-18 09:56:05 Some of you may not know, but I have written an article about Mia Michaels
for Curve Magazine. The article will publish sometime soon (still waiting to hear when) so I can’t reveal what she and I spoke about. All I can say is that she’s incredibly candid and a true free spirit.
But … for those of you who don’t want to wait until the Curve article publishes, I have some exciting news! I was restricted with a word limit and since the conversation I had with Mia lasted about 40 minutes, I have some left over material that wasn’t used for the article. So to all you Mia Michaels fans … here you go. This is part of the conversation I had with her.
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The ethics of outing 2007-09-17 09:49:42 I listen to podcasts at work sometimes. A friend of mine told me to listen to one in particular this morning. It was a discussion on NPR about the ethics of outing
. Meaning, is it right to out someone for political or personal agendas?
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Come Out & Play: Chicken Soup Book 2007-09-14 09:13:23 I know when you read the title of this post, you were probably like … huh?
Let me explain.
Today’s Come Out & Play post spotlights Chicken
Soup for the Soul: Celebrating Brothers and Sisters!
Why you ask? Well, because the book comes out in stores tomorrow and yours truly has a short story published in it!
It’s a great book if you have a sibling or multiple siblings. The Chicken Soup
for the Soul series may be corny at times, but it all depends on the book. It’s a pretty popular series and while over 10,000 stories are submitted to each book, only 100 actually make it in to publication. I’m happy to say that I was one of those 100 stories chosen.
So, get to your local bookstore or purchase a copy here.
Also: Keep an eye out for the anthology Best Lesbian Love Stories: Summer Flings, published by Alyson Books. I have a story being published in that as well. And, to be honest, that’s more our cup of tea!
Tune in every Friday for the Come Out &
Notable Lesbians 2007-09-13 12:06:01 This week’s Notable Lesbian is:
Ann Bancroft
September 29, 1955 -
Ann Bancroft is a United States author, teacher, and adventurer. She was the first woman to successfully finish a number of arduous expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. She was also the first woman to ski across Greenland. In 1992 and 1993 Bancroft led a four woman expedition to the South Pole on skis. This expedition was the first group of women to reach the South Pole on skis. Her achievements led to her induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame for the United States. Bancroft currently co-owns an exploration company, Bancroft Arnesen Explore, with Liv Arnesen. In March of 2007, Bancroft and Arnesen were taking part in a trek across the Arctic Ocean to draw attention to the problem of global warming. However, according to The Washington Post, the expedition was called off “after Arnesen suffered frostbite in three of her toes, and extreme cold temperatures drained the batteries in some of t
The gayest thing on television 2007-09-12 09:29:00 And no, it’s not the Singing Bee.
When I was in North Carolina over Labor Day, I spent time catching up on my celebrity gossip. My friend, Allison, gets all of the juicy magazines - US Weekly, People, Rolling Stone, etc.
I bypassed a cover of US Weekly speculating that Brit was a bad parent (the girl is a train wreck, ’nuff said) and picked up the issue of Rolling Stone with Zac Efron on the cover. He is quite beautiful, for a guy. He has such delicate features, an engaging singing voice and JT-esque abs. It’s hard not to stare at him, even for a lesbian like me. I was intrigued by the article for two reasons:
1) What’s up with this whole High School Musical thing and why are billions of gay people obsessed with it.
2) Is Zac efron gay?
Neither question was answered upon reading the article, though I did learn that Zac Efron is as squeaky clean an individual as he is a pretty boy. The enigma that is High School Musical continued to haunt me until today. I stumbl
Recognizing the day … 2007-09-11 11:56:16 As most of you know, today is September 11th. I didn’t want to rehash the horror or sadness, but as I made my way into work this morning I couldn’t help but remember. This day, six years ago I was walking to work at Wheelock College (my first “real job” out of school was a web writer for a college in Boston, MA). As soon as I got in, I turned on the radio. The disc jockey was saying something about a plane hitting the World Trade Center. I thought it was a joke until a coworker came in to tell me that I needed to follow her quick. We jogged to the campus center where students, professors and administrative workers alike had gathered to watch the horrific story unfold on a big screen television. It was as if we were watching some morbid movie, only it was real. The day was so surreal. It made everything else seem so trivial. Even now, when I think about writing day to day on this blog I wonder - does it really matter? Does it really matter if we are black, whit
Gray Matters 2007-09-10 09:29:07 I’m not a movie critic. In fact, I’ve only reviewed one movie in my writing career and that was Brokeback Mountain for obvious reasons. Last night, I watched Gray Matters
with Heather Graham, Tom Cavanaugh and Bridget Moynahan - not your average cast for a GLBT themed movie.
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Come Out & Play: An adult leap of faith 2007-09-28 09:31:33 Today’s Come Out & Play post spotlights coming out as an adult, taking a leap of faith during the middle ages of your life. It’s hard to come out, period. But it’s even harder to come out when your life has already taken another path, when you have already gone down the road for miles only to realize that maybe you should have turned off at a previous exit some time ago. But, even if the road gets bumpy, it’s never too late to come out of the closet.
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Notable Lesbians 2007-09-27 09:12:40 This week’s Notable Lesbian is:
Renée Vivien, born Pauline Mary Tarn
June 11, 1877-November 10, 1909
Renée Vivien was a British poet who wrote in the French language. She took to heart all the mannerisms of symbolism, as one of the last poets to claim allegiance to the school. Her compositions include sonnets, hendecasyllabic verse, and prose poetry. Vivien was born in London, England to a wealthy British father and an American mother from Jackson, Michigan. She grew up in Paris and London. Upon inheriting her father’s fortune at 21, she emigrated permanently to France. Vivien was cultivated and very well-traveled, especially for a woman of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. She wintered in Egypt, visited China, and explored much of the Middle East, as well as Europe and America. Contemporaries considered her beautiful and elegant, with blonde hair, brown eyes flecked with gold, and a soft-spoken androgynous presence. Before the manifestations of illness, Vivien wa
Good News Moment of the Week 2007-09-26 09:50:30 As I was skimming through headlines this morning, I found it hard to find some good news. It was terribly depressing. But I unearthed this little ditty. Reading it made me feel good, which is he whole point of the Good NewsMoment
. I hope it has the same affect on you.
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A lesson in GLBT history 2007-09-25 09:28:44 I’ve decided to take you all to school … well, I’ve decided to let the Advocate take you all to school actually. It’s time to brush up on your GLBT history. And the Advocate has taken the liberty of outlining the past 40 years for us. I’ve already gone through some of the key time periods … and even I’m a little wet behind the ears. I’m beginning to think that GLBT history should be a course taught in schools. I think it’s available as a college course, but some of this stuff is not only noteworthy, but essential in the teaching of tolerance.
I’ve taken the liberty of posting time periods below, linking you to the Advocate’s website on 40 years of gay history. Each time period discusses key events covered by the magazine with articles, video clips and more. Please take a moment to read, watch, and more importantly, learn.
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Gay characters on television 2007-09-24 12:05:02 Studies crack me up sometimes. You can basically do a study on anything these days. So when I came across this article this morning in USA Today, I knew I had to take it with a grain of salt.
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Good News Moment of the Week 2007-10-03 09:19:22 Are you ready for the Good NewsMoment
of the week? I know that you are titillating with excitement! We all need a little good news now and then …
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The, “but I’m gay too,” defense 2007-10-02 09:47:30 It seems that people who commit hate crimes will do just about anything to get out of them … from saying, “he or she hit on me,” or “he or she tried to molest me” to “well, it wasn’t a hate crime because I’m gay too.”
This latest excuse was used by a man who testified for the defense in the death of Michael Sandy, a gay man who ran into on-coming traffic after being chased by three attackers. He was hit by a car and killed.
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Coming Out … continued from Friday 2007-10-01 09:18:50 Friday’s Come Out & Play post touched a few people. Here’s one response I received through e-mail:
I just read your article on Coming out later in life. It was in the Come Out and Play section. I am 46 and in the process of coming out. I was married for 18 years and finally accepted the fact that I love women right before I left my husband. Then I said I was bisexual and dated men and women. But recently, I finally accepted the fact that I am lesbian. I have known it since I was in my early teens but there wasn’t a lot of information on it except how wrong it was. I can’t wait to read more about others coming out to inspire my own story.
Thanks! ~ M
It’s nice to know that people are affected by the topics I choose to write about and the points I discuss. Coming Out is such a confusing process - if there were a handbook that could be handed out to everyone embarking on their Coming Out journey it would be extremely beneficial. There’s no rig Read more:Friday
Come Out & Play: National Coming Out Day 2007-10-12 09:28:57 Today’s Come Out & Play post spotlights National
Coming Out Day
National Coming Out Day is an international event which gives gay, lesbian and bisexual people the opportunity to “come out” to others about their sexuality. It also provides a means of increasing the visibility of gay people.
The first National Coming Out Day was held on October 11, 1988. This date was chosen for the annual event in commemoration of the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. It also marks the anniversary of the first visit of the AIDS Memorial Quilt to Washington, DC.
Many communities and college campuses sponsor programs such as dances, film festivals, workshops, literature booths, and rallies to mark the day.
Yesterday was the “official” National Coming Out Day, but since Friday’s are reserved for Come Out & Play, I thought I do a little reminiscing today instead.
The first time I was made aware of National Coming Out Day was in 2002, when I was
Notable Lesbians 2007-10-11 09:29:40 First, let me say “HAPPY COMING OUT DAY!” Tomorrow, I will write a special Come Out & Play post to celebrate today’s day. On to the task at hand …
This week’s Notable Lesbian is:
Felice Rahel Schragenheim
March 9, 1922 - December 31, 1944
Felice Schragenheim was a Jewish resistance fighter during WWII. She is known for her tragic love story with Lilly Wust and death during a march from Gross-Rosen concentration camp in Poland to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. Her relationship with Wust is a story for the ages, as Wust was married to a German soldier and the mother of four children. Wust fell in love with Schragenheim’s strength and charisma. They exchanged many poems with one another, expressing their deep affection. In one of the poems, the nicknames they chose to call one another emerged as Aimee & Jaguar. Lilly Wust lived in Berlin till the day of her death on March 31, 2006.
Interesting tid bit:
The story of the relationsh
Good News Moment of the Week 2007-10-10 09:28:39 Are you ready for the Good NewsMoment
of the week? Looks as though there’s a lot to be happy about! Tomorrow is National Coming Out Day! Dear Abby supports gays and lesbians! And the Best Lesbian Love Stories 2007 anthology is in stores!
But wait! There’s more good news on the horizon …
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Best Lesbian Love Stories 2007: Summer Flings 2007-10-09 11:32:28 First, let me apologize for my lateness. I was a bit slow moving this morning. The Buffalo Bills lost a heartbreaker last night and I stayed up only to watch them blow it in the end. (What do we have to do to win a game?!)
I woke up this a.m. feeling a little under the weather. For some reason, I haven’t been sleeping well lately so I decided to stay in bed and refresh a bit. I don’t want to make it worse or get myself sicker. Holy tangent. Now that you know all of that I can get to the real meat of this post!
The truth is that I have some exciting news for all of you …
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, Summer
, Love Stories
Bestselling author gives back to the gay community 2007-10-08 09:05:11 New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Brockmann has given every penny of her earnings from her upcoming novel, All Through the Night, to MassEquality, an organization dedicated to preserving equal marriage rights in Massachusetts. The mother of a gay son, Brockmann takes equal marriage rights very seriously.
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Come Out & Play: Your top five 2007-10-05 09:25:05 Today’s Come Out & Play post spotlights your top five. Confused? That’s OK. I can explain …
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Notable Lesbians 2007-10-04 09:24:53 This week’s Notable Lesbian is:
Melissa Lou Etheridge
May 29, 1961 -
Melissa Etheridge is is an Academy Award-winning and two-time Grammy Award-winning American rock musician and singer. If you don’t know who she is and you are a lesbian … then you must live under a rock. Seriously, how can I have a Notable Lesbian series without her? I can’t. So here she is.
Melissa Etheridge has released nine albums since signing her first major recording contract in 1987. Three of them have gone multi-platinum: Melissa Etheridge (1988), Yes I Am (1993) and Your Little Secret (1995). Two others went platinum and two more gold. Etheridge is famous as a gay rights activist, having publicly come out as a lesbian in January 1993 at the Triangle Ball, a gay/lesbian celebration of President Bill Clinton’s first inauguration. She is also a committed advocate for environmental issues and in 2006, she toured the US and Canada using biodiesel. In April 2006, Etheridge and Tammy
Come Out & Play: telling your fraternity 2007-10-19 09:19:30 Today’s Come Out & Play post spotlights Telling your fraternity
When I think of fraternities, I think of a collection of preppy, cargo-short wearing boys with polo shirts who drink far too much and bond over endless games of bear pong and video games. This, of course, is a stereotype. But it is, for the most part, what I saw frequently on my former college campus.
I went to a small school in the south in which the campus was five minutes long as it was wide. Our main source of entertainment were the frats and sororities. There’s a street dubbed “fraternity row” in fact, where you can stumble from one house to the other on any given Friday or Saturday night. In my four years at Randolph-Macon College, I never met one fraternity brother who was gay. I never met anyone who was gay for that matter, at least anyone who would be brave enough to admit it out loud (including myself).
The small, conservative methodist campus was not the place for us to come out. I
Notable Lesbians 2007-10-18 09:21:34 This week’s Notable Lesbian is:
Jane Vance Rule
March 28, 1931 -
Jane Rule a Canadian writer of lesbian-themed novels and non-fiction. Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Rule studied at Mills College in California. She graduated in 1952, and moved to Canada four years later. Teacher, author, and out lesbian, Rule is best known as a fiction writer. Her awards include the Canadian Authors’ Association Award for Best Novel (1978), the Benson and Hedges Award for Best Short Stories (1978), the Literary Award of the Gay Academic Union (1978), and the Fund for Human Dignity’s Award of Merit (1983). She served on the executive of the Writers’ Union of Canada, and has been an outspoken advocate of both free speech and gay rights, including in the various controversies surrounding the gay magazine The Body Politic. Rule was inducted into the Order of British Columbia in 1998.
(Information provided by GLBTQ.com)
Interesting tid bit:
Her first book, Desert of the Heart (1964
Dog•gone•it 2007-10-17 09:20:06 Lame title?
Yeah, I know. Just trying to be creative. Anyway, the title says it all. Ellen’s dog is gone. And she made a big stink about it on the Ellen Degeneres show yesterday. It caused such a stir in fact that the pet adoption agency which took the dog back is now receiving death and arson threats as well as numerous calls for a boycott.
OK. So. We all know Ellen’s primary audience, right? Who are these people making death threats? The stay at home mom? The gay couple with two Chihuahuas dressed in matching argyle sweaters? Oh wait, I got it. It’s the 70-year-old, busy knitting a pair of booties for her grandchild while watching Ellen plead for the return of her puppy, who was so upset that she bought a couple of cases of kerosene and placed a call from an undisclosed phone booth around the corner of said target. Seriously, this is crazy!
I admit that I got a little teary-eyed from watching Ellen beg for the release of her former dog. It was a heartfelt plea. You
GLB without the T? 2007-10-16 09:27:10 Being gay isn’t the easiest thing in the world. It’s confusing and tormenting, yet at the same time it’s both beautiful and wonderful. It’s a mixture of things really, a blender filled with endless thoughts and emotions all thrown together to form one, whole individual. That’s the best way I can describe it.
As hard as being gay is sometimes, or was since it really hasn’t been hard for me lately, I know that it wasn’t as close or as hard I guess, to being transgender.
I’ve always been enamored with the transgender aspect. For a time being, I thought I wanted to be a boy. I remember even pretending that I was a boy to other kids I met in the neighborhood who didn’t know any better. I, and don’t ever repeat this, even stood up in front of the toilet to try and pee like a boy! I don’t know why, all I know is that I wanted to be one. It could be because I had two brothers and no sisters, so that’s all I knew. Or it cou
Animal instincts 2007-10-15 09:36:32 It has often been argued that there is no existence of homosexuality in the animal kingdom. And because of this, many religious proponents like to say that homosexuality isn’t natural, that God didn’t intend for humans to be that way.
They say, “Do you see animals doing that? No! It’s not natural. It’s not normal. It’s blah blah blah.”
Well … now I say, “On the contrary, my friend!” ( I didn’t know how to spell the French version … say la vie!)
Celebrities aren’t the only ones coming out of the closet!
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Best gay pals on television 2007-10-23 09:32:27 I came across this article this morning. While it’s not thought-provoking by any means, it’s one of those fun articles that’s amusing to read. I figure, hey it’s Tuesday. Why throw something heavy on the table at the beginning of the week? Let’s keep it light and fairy, oops, I mean light and airy.
According to the LA Times, these are the best gay pals on television …
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Lez Keep it Real Contest Announcement 2007-10-22 09:15:02 Hear ye’, Hear ye’ … it’s contest time at Lez Keep it Real! This is the first contest to be held on this blog (aside from the network wide contests that 451 hosts from time to time) because, well … I haven’t had anything really cool to give away.
Guess what? I do now!
Lyndsey, what could this wonderful, amazing, unbelievably special prize possibly be?
Why it’s …
(more…) Read more:Contest
, Announcement
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