LesbianPrideNewsletter_v8.no6.2003.06.pdf
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- LesbianPrideNewsletter_v8.no6.2003.06.pdf
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tivities offered by a variety of GLBTorganizations.
San Francisco s celebration is also fairly famous (and is
also June 28-29),and is considered by many to be the most
outlandish and flamboyant, if not the largest. This city also
offers a variety of activities and celebrations, including reunions, band concerts, films and plays, music and art.
But we celebrants here in the United States are not
alone. Canada, our gentle neighbor to the north of us, has
plenty to offer as well. Montreal, the capital of Quebec,
throws a giant party that officially lasts from July 28August 3. Vancouver does the same thing, the same week,
and offers such unique experiences as adventure camping
and pride cruises (take that any way you want) on the
Sound.
Zurich, Switz.erland and Vienna, Austria and Paris,
France have celebrations on June 28; Rome, Italy's Gay Pride
Celebration is June 16-17.In Prague, in the Czech Republic,
the celebration is July 26-27;Reykjavik, Iceland, celebrates in
August on the 8th and 9th.
German gays and lesbians party in Munich on July 1112; in Perth, Australia, they celebrate in October. Phuket,
Thailand is looking ahead to a festival and parade in February of next year.
All over the world, people like you and me will be honoring who they are this summer, finding joy in the celebrations and strength and validation in the numbers. It is somehow always comforting to know that we are not alone, that
we share something so significant with so many people in
so many different countries, people of all religions and all
ethnicities, of all races and classes and socioeconomic
statuses.
We've come a long way from what was once thought of
as a well ofloneliness," haven't we?
I hope you all enjoy your celebrations this summer,
where ever you happen to be, however you choose to celebrate. And as you're marching, or dancing or singing, or
watching a movie or play, or as you're waving a flag or just
taking in all the sights and sounds, I hope you smile at little
at the thought of how many other people the world over are
doing the exact same thing. ©
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VOLUMN VIII, ISSUE 6, May2003
©2003MAKAW
We are not alone
by Marilda Mel White
In June of 1969, police in New York City were making
their usual rousting rounds among the gay bars on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, when the gay and lesbian
patrons of the Stonewall Inn decided they werent going to
put up with that any more. They fought back, in what has
become known as the Christopher Street Riots, or the Stonewall Uprising.
That event is considered by most people to be the beginning of our modem gay pride movement, thanks to the
Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee, which organized a day of celebration - including a march and rally one year later.
Now there are gay pride celebrations all over the world
in June (or May, or July ...or any other month of the year),
commemorating the fortitude of our forerunners who first
suggested that we have a right to be who we are openly and
publicly, and rejuvenating our gay old souls and affirming
our lifestyles in many different ways.
New York had the first gay pride parade, and they still
have the most famous and biggest celebration on the planet.
This years parade and festival are on June 29, but special
gay-oriented events are happening in the city all month and
into July. Film festivals, garden parties, art exhibits, wedding parties, and musical concerts are some of the extra ac-
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is a worldwide network designed to end londin,,._.
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e-mail • wildiril@amcrica.net
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Sample copy mailed discreetly $5 US and Canada
ADother countrirl $10 l' S funds or International
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as I emerge from pain
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HAPPILYEVERAFl'ER
a book by Stacy Chuu:ller
FREE to good lesblan bome•I
$2 for postage to Bpec:alaton, Inc:.
A 60-pagebooklet
chockfull of good
thoughts,positive remindersand
inspirational
Messages;
only $5 postpaid,
sucha deal!
Mel White,
PO Box 130,
Tehachapi,CA 93561
PO Box 99038, Troy, Ml 48099
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:: GAYELLOW PAGES informing the lesbian, gay, bisexual & transIt gender community since 1973, Includes Women~ Section and Eth11nic/Mult/cultural section "You won't find a more complete guide cov11erlng literally all aspects of Gay and Lesbian I/fen Our World
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LAVENDERREFLECTIONS
by Eleanor Ruth Wagner,
A book of affirmations for
lesbians and IJIIYmen;
Meditations & quotations;
photos & holiday entries
$10.95 (post paid)
from author.
5529 Vernon Ave s,
Minneapolis, MN 55436
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fl.ememberingsqfl4 Celebt;ftions,
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www.fotthelittleonesinsicfe.comI
Ask futA Cmlog of Tteq5Ute5
I have develope,dsensitivi.tyfrom my experienre of being
di.fferent and oppressed by my culture. I am thankful for
what I have 1eame.d,in spite of the pai.n. Some people are
hardened by their suffering or try to repress it, but I kn.aw I
oon alsofoster softness in me.
'What oon I do that will help me grow more sensitive instead of bitter? I need to acknowledge my
pain and be honest about my feelings. If I
deny the hurt, it will oome out in destructive
ways. My tears bring heali.ng.I need to share
what I am feeang with others and encourage
others to oome to me with thei.rpain.
The mutual support and understanding
let me know that I am not alone and help me
to see how simi.lar my experiences are to
those of others, despite di.fferencedrcumstances. I also need
to gi.ve mysel,f some time away from the problems of my life,
finding joy in small pleasures and letting laughter bring its
heali.ngtouch
Today I use the memory of what I have experienred to
heighten my awareness of other people's pain. I work far a
rrwre acrepting world that does not i.njacthurl on those who
are lesbian and gay, and I affirm the sped.al person I have
become because of my same-sex orien:tation.
- Eleanor Ruth Wagner
in Lavender Reflections
············································~
Reminder:
You are never anywhere
until the slowest part of you gets there ...
you can leap forward and slide back
as many times as you need to ...
and you can also choose to advance
by taking smaller steps!
-Robyn
Posin
Remembering• and Celebrations
www.forthelittleonesinside.com
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
5
by and © Lee Lynch
My New Glasses
I resent being defined by my preference in intimate partners.
When I come ·out to some people, non-gay men in particular, I can
see slight - or broad - changes in their expressions. Superimposed over my loose cargo jeans, oversized denim shirt, sack-like
jacket and a New York Yankees/pink triangle/rainbow baseball
cap - superimposed over this butch armor, their peep-show
minds are running a 15-second continuous loop faux-lesbian porn
ftlm.
This I find a tad unsettling. If accused they would deny it, of
course. I suspect it's one of those involuntary reflexive things, like
the way a dog will bark at the sight of strangers ambling down the
street. And non-gay women aren't much better. With them, it's:
"You're gay? Oh, how nice. My best's friend's 3l' t cousin on her
step-mother's side once worked in a beauty parlor."
And I'm like, "And your point is?" But I don't say it out loud,
probably in an attempt to make meeting-the-lesbian a positive
experience for the new co-worker so she won't implicitly teach
her sons to beat up queers.
Something along these lines happened just the other day. My
librarian friend and I were out walking - and I do mean out. She
was wearing her navy baseball cap, comfy-looking pants and a
well-worn leather jacket. I was in my cargo jeans, nylon jacket
and red baseball cap.
As we approached, a woman who lives around the corner was
outside her house trying to quiet her dog. "Scruffy!" she admonished over and over. The week before I'd made a neighborly conversational breakthrough when I'd admired her snowdrops and
she'd launched into a long complaint about how she'd planted
both bluebells and white bells and only these white bells had come
up, except for a few blue bells across the street. So this time, on
my habitual evening walk with the Librarian, I made some
friendly remark about Scruffy the dog. That apparently was all the
encouragement the neighbor needed to get personal.
"You two live over there?" she asked, gesturing in the general
direction of the home of a lesbian couple one street west. I called
out a no while the Librarian pointed helpfully south. We walked
on. There bad been a world of nuance in the neighbor's five
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words, I thought She didn't ask where the Librarian had gotten
her cool jacket or ask me if I had managed to grow blue bells in
my garden. She didn't introduce herself or ask our names. She was
telling us that she thought we were gay, and was asking us to confirm said assumption based on neighborhood scuttlebutt that lesbians lived around the corner. Wrong lesbians, lady, but obviously if
two lesbians are walking together, we must do whatever lesbians
do in bed and live together so we can do it 24/7 except when we
take walks to keep in shape.
The neighbor might have been reaching out in acknowledgement and acceptance, or freaking that lesbians were taking over
the neighborhood, or she could be a married lesbian longing to
step out on her man (my first take on her). It doesn't matter. The
Librarian and I are not girlfriends and don't live together, but the
neighbor needed to pigeonhole us.
Maybe this isn't a gay thing at all. How do straight people
think of one another? Isn't it all about mating for them? Don't
straight men automatically reduce women to the lowest common
denominator of secondary sex characteristics and bed-ability? Isn't this what feminists have been objecting to for over a century?
And if it is, what does that say about the human race? Straight
women are just the same, automatically looking at men as potential mates, sexual partners, flirtations.
I have to wonder ifmy neighbor's need to know is some basic
facet of human nature. Maybe we all define ourselves by our sexuality? Is this why straights get so upset when they can't tell if I'm
a boy or a girl -they don't know where to place me on the mating scale?
But don't I do it too? I scorn women who smear on make up
and dress to interest men. I laugh at male poseurs and he-men
showoffs who are trying to attract women just as they laugh at
drag queens and at me. What do lesbians talk about when a new
girl comes to town? Is she or isn't she? And if she is, who does
she sleep with? If that answer is no one, then let the matchmaking
begin.
My gosh, could my butch armor be the equivalent of a
straight girl's revealing dress? When I decided that I wanted new
glasses like Harty Potter's, I thought I was getting them so I
would look like an androgynous, radically queer fifty-something.
What if I'm not dressing only to confuse the straights, but also to
make a statement to radically queer fifty-something femmes?
If accused, I would deny it, of course.
©Lee Lynch 2003
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0n 5Dcred groun
by zind (C:)
Joy Pnrk:i
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ToKiss and Tell
Memoirsaboutloveaffairsare writtenfor a lot of reasons.Sometimes
it's to givethe authora senseof closure;a wayof dealingwithtre lossand
griefthat wasn't dealtwith at the end of the relationship.If one (or both)
partieshappento be fairlywellknownliteracy,artisticor politicalfigures,
then the authormay trulybelievethat a peek at the intimatedetailswill
provideanotherdimensionto their beloved's accomplishments.
Sometimes it's a way of braggingabout one's conquests.And occasionally,
somememoirsare merelyan act of spite,a way of gettingrevengeon a
brokenheart
P.eadingHighsmith:
A Romanceof the 1950s,it's hardto determine
what combinationof these factorsmotivatedauthorMarijaneMeakerto
writeof her longago loveaffairwithPatriciaHighsmith.There'sa lot of
timedevotedto whatwas saidor done,but littlediscussionof whyandthe
reader to left to decipherwhat really happenedfrom the vast details
Meakeroffersup. Whatis importantaboutthis bookis not onlythe story
of two womenin love (whichis alwaysa fascinatingstoryin itself)but
alsothe factthattheywerebothwriters,bothcomplicated,
talentedwoman
andhowtheirrelationshipaffectedtheirdayto daywork.
Whenthe twowomenmet,PatriciaHighsmithwasalreadyknownfor
her "Mr.Ripley"novels.In 1952,she wrote The Price of Salt underthe
nameOaire Morganand becamea celebrityin the thenundergroundlesbian community.Meakerwas writinglesbianpulpnovelsWlderthe name
Ann Aldrichand had recentlypublishedSpringFire underthe name Vm
Packer.Shewouldlaterbecomeknownfor her youngadultfiction,written
underthepseudonymM.E.Kerr.
As a fan ofHighsmith'swork,Meakerwas alreadyhalf in lovewith
herbeforetheymet.This,plusher respectforHighsmithas a writingmentor and her relativeyouthand lack of experiencemadeMeakerextremely
vulnerable.Throughher descriptionsof the earlypassionatedaysof their
relationship,it's hard not to wonderif her judgmentwas cloudedby her
prideat havingbeenableto attractthe affectionsof a womanlikePatricia
Highsmith.Or her awe at the kind of life sucha connectionwouldbring.
Despiteher obviousfaults, Highsmithis presentedas both an amazing
intellectualcompanionand a tremendouslycapablelover,an irresistible
forcein Meaker'slife.But there'sa definiteimbalanceof power,Meaker
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spendsfar more time concernedaboutPatriciahavingthe right environment in whichto work,whileher ownwritingis jeopardizedby their late
night drinkingsessionsand the constantdevotionHighsmithrequiresof
her. Whatalso surfacesis howHighsmithat times reliedon Meaker'salmostnaivedevotionto buoyup her egoas shedesperatelytriedto recreate
her originalliterarysuccesses.
For all the similaritiesthey shared,one wouldthink that thesetwo
womenwere made for each other.But there were so manyotherfactors
that drove them aimt; unreasonablejealousies, career competition,
Highsmith'sruthlessemotionalbaggage,a shareddependencyon alcohol
and too, the need to deny and keep their relationshipsecretin the early
1950s,despitethe factthattheybothwroteopenlyaboutlesbianism.
Like many intenserelationshipsthat demandboth intellectualand emotionalintimacy,theirpassionseemedto burn too hot to last Throughout
the book,there is a sensethat the womenfailedat the task of taminga
restlesscreativeand sexualenergythat was nevermeantto be domesticated.But, whileher chapterson the end of the affairare genuinelysad,
Meaker'svoiceholdslittleregret.In fact, it's clearthat Highsmith'sinfluence on her life wentfar beyondtheirpersonalintimacies,and no matter
whatthe outcome,it wasa relationshiptheybothneededto have.Through
her honestlyand willingnessto showher vulnerability,Meakerhas given
us insightintotwobrilliant,fascinatingwomenand offersvaluablelessons
from ~ passionthey shared.(Highsmith:
A Romanceof the1950s,A Memoir
byMariJaneMeakfr, Clei.s~
I
$14.95)
Sacred Classic:The Autobiographyof Alice B. Tok/as,by Gertrude
Stein Don't expect any tell-allshere;GertrudeSteinusedthe guiseof an
autobiography
of her lifelongcompanionAliceto writeabouther ownlife
duringthe earlydecadesof the 20thcentmy.Despitethe audacityof such
an act (no shrinkingviolet, that GertrudeStein)and the arroganceof
Stein'sreferencesto herselfas a genius,this definiteclassicis still one of
the mostamazingexplorations
of lesbiandomesticlife everwritten.While
muchof it dealswiththe other"geniuses"(thelegendaryfiguresthat that
would influencegenerationsof writersand artists,includingHemmingway, Fitzgerald,l\1atisse,Picasso,Cocteau,Ezra Potmdand T.S. Eliot)
whogatheredin the Stein-Toklas
pu-lor,thereis plentyof gossipandanecdotesaboutthe relationshipthe two womensharedfor decades.Whileit's
impossiblenot to get a senseof who Steinwasthroughthiswork,a careful
readingalsorevealsthe morereticentAlice.Whatalso comesthroughare
hintsas to what madetheirmutualattractionso strongand enduring.Its
conversationalstylemakes this bookan accessibleintroductionto Stein's
wordplayand demonstrates
that her senseof rerself as geniuswas in fact
justifieddue to her amazinggift withlanguage.(I'heAutobiography
<fAlice
B. Tok/as,by~
~ (N~us
repints, lx>thPenguin and Vmtagehave
trade-~k
siz.ededitions.Availablein mostusoo
bookstores,pices vary)
9
Call 1~
M 001 111 527
or wo......,.,.....--~--~------
Sappho'sSolutioJ'.JS
uccessfuJ.Living
Dear Savvy Sappho, How can I be more productive in my daily
life? - Non-Achiever
Dear Savvy Sappho, How do I instill in my kids the type of respect and caring I want them to show others? - Concerned
l ..
j
DearConcerned,
By example.Whatyou do and say shows
your kidswhatyou expectfrom themandJwwto treatothers.Keepgoodcompanythatsharesyourvaluesandcanbe
goodexamples
for yourchildren
aswell.- SS
~00@@~@00@@00@©@@@@@
~~~&.~,_,,~
--tt.,;r.
by and © Stacy Chandler
·~~JJ.
~
GEMINI
May 21 - lune 20
It's hard to pick between ylng and yang,
black and white, day or night;
too many choices, much to be seen ...
slow down and study - your mind Is st/II keen/*
*BEWARNED- THE VIEWS EXPRESSEDABOVEDO NOT
tli~ .
l
it will reincarnate into a series of LesbianPride
Readers,and you
are all invited to submit your works to the new venture.
Writers, photographers, poets, artists, cartoonists - all
works are welcome as submissions. The only criteria is that the
works be positive, upbeat, or inspirational, focusing on the
brighter side of being a lesbian.
Your work must be your own original work (don't send
interesting things you've read that somebody else wrote); previously published works are acceptable as long as you own the
rights and grant one-time use rights to Makaw Press.
Fiction should be 5,000words or less; essays 1000words or
less (shorter is always better!). Poems should be limited to 40
lines or less. Drawings, photos and cartoons should reproduce
well in black and white (color is not in the plans at this time).
Also welcome are quotes, thoughts, paragraphs - any
form of writing as long as you are the creator and own the
rights to your work. One-time rights are requested by Makaw
Press (the publisher of this newsletter and the upcoming Readers);all rights revert back to you upon publication
Don't send your work if you are not willing for it to be edited. Compensation will be in the form of complimentary copies of the Readerin which your work appears.
Don't send originals - send a copy; your wotk will not be
retumed to you unless you have included a self-addressed
stamped envelope. Work may be submitted by mail or email:
Makaw, PO Box 130, Tehachapi, CA 93561 or Momingland@msn.com.
Remember,
thiswillnotbeaforumfor you to expressyouranger
or yourangst,unlessyou havefound a greatwayto wercomeit or
C<:-£Jt
6,..
_the
get throughit thatyou'dliketo share.!~t like~his newslef!er,
Readers willfocuson goodnews,positiveremindersand inspiraby,for andaboutlesbians.~
tionalmessages
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>'or
When this newsletter ceases publication at the end of 2003,
y and C StacyChandler
DearNon,Setattainable
goalsanddoyourverybestto meet
them.You'llbeginto haveanideaofJwwproductive
youcan
be whenyoufocuson a smallgoalat hand.Slowlyyou can
workyourwayup to largergoals.- SS
1111111111111111111111111111111111111ll111111111111111111111
V/jf:.'/-f
Le.tb£a,nprlde,M~
MelWhlte/MAKAWPress,owner/publisher
C 2003All RightsReserved
For permissionto reprintor useanyof the content,contact:
MelWhite, PO Box 130,Tehachapi,California 93561
momingland@msn.com
www.momingland.net
..............................................
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