From the category archives:

queer

Sexuality in Modernism: The (Partial) History (NYT)

by Viviane on 12/16/2010

in art,gay,queer

Holland Cotter:

WASHINGTON — With the exhibition “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” one of our federally funded museums, the National Portrait Gallery, here in the city of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” has gone where our big private museums apparently dare not tread, deep into the history of art by and about gay artists.

Over the last few years there has been plenty of speculation as to how this show would shape up, and when a copy of the catalog arrived, I felt a bit let down. All the artists were well known — stars — as was most of the work. The whole enterprise looked like an exercise in Hall of Fame-building, rather than like an effort to chip away at the very idea of hierarchy and exclusion. We were getting a “pride” display, an old model, very multicultural 1980s.

Then, when the Catholic League and several members of Congress demanded the removal of a piece — a video by David Wojnarowicz (pronounced voy-nah-ROH-vitch) that included an image of ants crawling on a crucifix — and the gallery, which is part of the Smithsonian, said O.K., we really were in the 1980s, back in the culture wars. Which led me to understand the show in a somewhat different way.

On reconsideration, it seems more purposeful, as if specifically designed to avoid any controversy that might distract from the major point it was trying to make: namely, that work of gay artists was fundamental to the invention of American modernism. Or, put another way, difference had created the mainstream.

But how was the presence of difference defined in art? By subject matter? By style? By the sexual orientation of the artist? And isn’t gayness, the most familiar form of such difference, a period concept, inapplicable to life and art of a century ago? Today the very word is used for convenience rather than categorically, with “queer” often used. (One way to think of it: gay is something you are; queer is something you choose to be outside of the heterosexual norm.)

Clearly the exhibition covers a lot of ground and raises many questions. It also has wonderful art, and the art stays wonderful whether you ask the questions or not. Again this seems part of the plan devised by the curators, David. C. Ward, a historian at the National Portrait Gallery, and Jonathan D. Katz, director of the doctoral program in visual studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo. They have assembled a historical show with a very specific slant, but with rewards for everyone.

Link

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Sideshow: The Queer Literary Carnival: Erotica

by Viviane on 08/09/2010

in Events,nyc,queer

08/10/2010
8:00 PM

august10 Sideshow: The Queer Literary Carnival: Erotica

Sideshow: The Queer Literary Carnival
Hosted by Cheryl B. & Sinclair Sexsmith

Location: Phoenix, 447 East 13th Street @ Avenue A, NYC
Cost: Free
More info: http://www.queerliterarycarnival.com/
Twitter: @sideshowseries

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Sideshow: The Queer Literary Carnival

by Viviane on 04/03/2010

in Events,queer,sex

04/13/2010
8:00 PMto10:00 PM

sideshow april13 500x259 Sideshow: The Queer Literary Carnival

Hosted by Cheryl B. & Sinclair Sexsmith

Location:  The Phoenix, 447 East 13th Street (Avenue A), East Village
Doors open at 7pm. Reading: 8pm.
Cost: Free. $4 drink specials
Blog: http://sideshowreadingseries.wordpress.com
Twitter: @sideshowseries

This month’s theme is Secrets, starring:

  • Kate Bornstein (Hello, Cruel World)
  • Sam J. Miller (The Rumpus)
  • Seth Clark Silberman aka PhDJ (Fresh Men: New Voices in Gay Fiction)
  • Kathleen Warnock (Drunken! Careening! Writers!)

The Readers

Kate Bornstein is an author, playwright and performance artist whose work to date has been in service to sex positivity, gender anarchy, and the building a coalition of those who live on cultural margins. Her work recently earned her an award from the Stonewall Democrats of New York City, and two citations from New York City Council members. Her latest book, “Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives To Suicide For Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws,” is an underground best-seller. Other published works include the books “Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us”; and My Gender Workbook. Her books are taught in over 150 colleges around the world.

Sam J. Miller is a writer and a community organizer. His work has appeared in places like The Minnesota Review, Washington Square, Fiction International, and The Rumpus. For more info check out samjmiller.com or facebook.com/samjmiller

Seth Clark Silberman aka PhDJ is a fantastical NYC DJ Writer Photographer. He was the first junior faculty to teach lesbian and gay studies at Yale University, where he coordinated the first academic conference on Michael Jackson. His academic work has been included in the journals GLQ: A Journal for Lesbian and Gay Studies and Social Semiotics. His fiction has been included in the Lambda Award-winning anthology Fresh Men: New Voices in Gay Fiction, edited by Edmund White and Don Weise, and in Quickies: Short Short Fiction on Gay Male Desire, edited by James C. Johnstone.

Kathleen Warnock is a playwright and editor. Her plays have been seen in New York, Ireland, London and regionally. She is Playwrights Company manager of Emerging Artists Theatre, and director of the Robert Chesley/Jane Chambers Playwrights Series for TOSOS Theatre. She is also editor of Best Lesbian Erotica. She is tired.

The Curators

Cheryl B. (cherylb.com) is an award-winning writer, poet and performer. Her work appears in dozens of print and online publications, including; Ping Pong, Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution (Seal Press, 2007) and BLOOM, among many others. She has appeared at most major New York City literary evenings and toured throughout the U.S, Canada and the U.K.

Sinclair Sexsmith runs the award-winning personal online writing project Sugarbutch Chronicles: The Sex, Gender, and Relationship Adventures of a Kinky Queer Butch Top at sugarbutch.net. With work published in various anthologies, including the Best Lesbian Erotica series, Sometimes She Lets Me: Butch/Femme Erotica, and Visible: A Femmethology volume 2, Mr. Sexsmith enjoys whiskey, topping, the serial comma, political activism, and has been known to get on her knees in order to fix the strappy sandals of a queer femme. Sugarbutch Star chapbooks are available, if you ask nicely (and have ten bucks).

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Body Heat: queer femme tour in NYC

by Viviane on 03/13/2010

in Events,queer

03/14/2010
7:00 PM

Location: Bluestockings Bookstore
Street: 172 Allen St., NYC

Body Heat is a fierce, sassy, irreverent Femme artist collective setting performance art communities ablaze and smashing Femme stereotypes. They’ll challenge your assumptions, entertain the hell out of you, and leave you panting and begging for more!

Armed with an arsenal of erotic song, dance, camp, poetry, smut, and prose Body Heat was hailed by the Center for Sex Positive Culture (Seattle, WA.) as “The best Femme porn writers in the country.” These `pull no punches,’ `it’s never too nasty,’ power femmes are touring to support and promote queer femmes and their contributions to erotica, the sex industry and the sex-positive movement. Thru the use of art and performance they are literally, visually, emotionally, psychologically and socially revealing a more complex sexual identity for queer femmes.

The line-up will feature :

  • Kathleen Delaney (Atlanta, GA.)–Body Heat founder and spoken-word performer
  • Meliza Bañales (San Francisco, CA)–Sister Spit vet, former slam champion, filmmaker, writer
  • Jen Cross (San Francisco, CA)–published author and sex-workshop facilitator
  • Nicky Click (Durham, NH)–Nationally renowned singer / performer
  • Alex Cafarelli (Oakland, CA.)–martial artist, writer, versatile performer, and Psycick Slutz co-founder
  • Vagina Jenkins (Atlanta, GA)–The Queen of Queer burlesque
  • with special guests:
  • Diana Cage (NYC)–former On Our Backs editor, radio personality, and acclaimed author
  • Gigi Frost (Boston, MA)–The Femme Show founder & performer
  • J. Dellecave (Riverside, CA)–dancer and performance artist extraordinaire

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LSM presents: Taboo Play, and Working Through Extremes with Mollena Williams

by Viviane on 03/08/2010

in Events,lesbian,queer

03/19/2010
8:00 PMto10:00 PM

mollenawilliams LSM presents: Taboo Play, and Working Through Extremes with Mollena Williams

Location: LGBT Center, 208 West 13th Street (bet 7th and 8th Ave.)
Cost: $5/LSM members, $10/Non members

If you have ever had a scene that lured you with the promise of edgy intensity, but wondered if you could handle the situation before, during or afterward, this discussion is for you! We will explore the reasons some people enjoy play that is VERY edgy psychologically, emotionally and physically, and how you can go about making that fantasy a reality. Inherent in this discussion is the level of responsibility of both / all partners, how to manage risk, and how you can support your partner in the aftermath. Edgy play can be hot, and we will look at ways to avoid some common pitfalls, as well as how to recover with grace and honor when things go off of the planned path.

*Please be advised: Some highly controversial scenes (i.e. racial or incest play, weaponry, etc.) will be discussed. Please do not attend if these are outside of your comfort zone.

About Mollena Williams

Mollena Williams is a NYC born and raised writer, actress, solo-performer, BDSM Educator and Executive Pervert. She travels hither and yon speaking on a broad spectrum of subjects within the Leather Lifestyle. She’s a founding member of the Crowded Fire Theater Company, lives in San Francisco and blogs at The Perverted Negress. She is also proud to have been awarded the title Ms. San Francisco Leather 2009.

With over 12 years of experience in the BDSM and Alternative community she frequently travels nationally, teaching Leather Lifestyle Classes. Her work has been published by the Society Of Janus Newsletter, The Eulenspiegel Society’s magazine, Prometheus, as well as the online magazine at ALT.COM and Bondage.com. She was interviewed for The Bottoming Book, ColorLines Magazine, and the award winning documentary “Vice & Consent”. She also get all tied up in the instructional video, Jay Wiseman Teaches Rope Bondage. Her essay entitled “BDSM and Race Play” will be appearing in the upcoming Best Sex Writing 2010.

About LSM

LSM is a support and information group for all women 18 years of age or older, including transexual and intersexed women who live their daily lives as women and all female-born transgender people who feel they have a connection with and respect for the women’s community. And, who are interested in fantasy and role playing, bondage, discipline, S/M, fetishes, costumes, alternate gender identities and uninhibited sexual expression in a safe, sane, consensual and confidential way.

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Nostalgia

by Domina Doll on 01/21/2010

in lesbian,lesbians,movies,porn,pornography,queer

nostalgia cover Nostalgia

Nostalgia (2009)
Studio- Reel Queer Productions / Good Releasing
Director- Courtney Trouble
Cast- April Flores, Kimberly Kane, Jiz Lee, Syd Blakovich, Madison Young, Trouble, Pepper Sox, Sealu Sideshow, Destiny Prince, Selena Raven, Tina Horn, Kimberlee Cline, Carson, Sadie Lune, and Carol Queen

In case you haven’t heard, GoodVibes.com now has its own adult porn production studio, GoodReleasing.com and I am overjoyed.  Two of my favorite girl-girl directors—Courtney Trouble (NoFauxxx.com) and Madison Young (MadisonBound.com)—are producing woman-made queer porn under Reel Queer Productions and were nominated at this years AVN Awards.  I have reviewed quite a few of both their films on PopMyCherryReview.com and also her on SexCarnival that you can also check out.

Nostalgia (2009) is a super-cool porno by up-and-cumming director, Courtney Trouble.  As the tile indicates, it has a nostalgic feel and pays homage to the late great Marilyn Chambers who sadly died of an aneurysm in April last year.  Marilyn Chambers was best known for her portrayal in Behind the Green Door (1972) in which her character Gloria gets kidnapped and “raped” before a live sleazy circus-like audience.

Scene 1- (Homage to Behind the Green Door) All girl three-way starring Jiz Lee

Two women are making out on a couch, one in a feather mask who is “warming” the other girl up (Gloria) to get her ready for the circus-rape orgy scene.  Killer tunes play in the background.  “Gloria” is then lead blindfolded into a dungeon scene where several spectators await including Carol Queen with a crazy voyeuristic smile on her face. “Gloria” is then “ravished” upon a stage by one the feathered girl, when in walks Jiz Lee, likewise feather-masked sporting a big strap-on.  The audience claps as both feather-masked women play with her, while Jiz mounts her, first slowly, then hard and fast.  She orgasms? Then both masked ladies squirt fem ejaculate over her.  This scene doesn’t have the impact that my memory has of the original film, but then I was probably pretty impressionable back then, and I can remember it being pretty “Wow!”  What may have lacked during this scene for me was the “rape” element.  In this film the scene is very “consensual” and doesn’t have the scary rape-fantasy scenario that many women fantasize about.  And, while I don’t agree with nonconsensual sex in real life, in fantasy having rough sex and being taken is hot.  Also, I remember the audience being more involved in the original than they are here. It was way more like a circus freak show, and being a freak, I loved the edgy atmosphere of the Behind the Green Door much better.  Of course, this is Courtney’s own take on it, but it just didn’t work for me as well as the original.

Interlude- Courtney & Pepper

Meanwhile, to begin the film and in between each episode, Courtney and real-life lover Pepper are making out as they watch the films via a computer screen. These are just short interludes until the end of the film.

Scene 2- (Homage to Deep Throat) All girl three-way with Jiz Lee, Syd Blakovich and Madison Young.

In this homage to Deep Throat Madison plays a patient who can’t orgasm, or even feel any arousal what-so-ever from sex.  She comes to Dr. Syd for help as Jiz plays the trusty nurse in a blonde wig.  Sid is amazing in her geek glasses as the doctor, very hot and funny.  Got some great lines and definitely doesn’t fuck them up.  Madison does a pretty good job, but is very melodramatic.  Given that it is comedic she was most likely supposed to ham it up a bit.  Dr. Sid tries several methods to arouse Madison: bondage, a hitachi, strap-on; each to no avail.  Dr. Sid then discovers that Madison’s clit is in her throat.  “Ah ha!  I zink we’ve found it!”  Madison then hungrily gobbles down Sid’s strap-on and is a pro at it.  You would really think she is getting off by it and perhaps she is.  Once the cock squirts silver glitter and fireworks ensue, the three get it on and Sid fucks Madison with a golf club, which is very cool and has quite a technique.  “I do believe you’re cured”, says Dr. Sid.  Fucking awesome scene!  Very fun, hot and funny!

Scene 3- (Homage to Babylon Pink) with Tina Horn

I never saw Babylon Pink, so can’t refer to it for comparison.  But, this scene was really kind of boring and didn’t seem to have much focus or built-up progression.  It features Tina Horn (who was awesome in Seven Minutes in Heaven).  Here, you can barely hear them over the music, and I never get into it.  The scenario is three gals sitting down to lunch in this weird room that looks like an empty stage.  One is a vegan and is uninterested in the other two women’s discussion about meat.  Turned off I guess is more appropriate.  So she fantasizes about having sex, first as the bottom, then turning the tables and topping the other two.  Like I said, press FF and skip it.

Scene 4- (Homage to the Devil in Miss Jones) with April Flores, Kimberly Kane, Courtney Trouble and Pepper

I didn’t see the original Devil in Miss Jones, but saw 3 & 4 with Amber Lynn and Vanessa Del Rio which was uber hot.  This scene stars April Flores as a lonely woman who commits suicide and then finds herself in purgatory.  I really love the beginning atmosphere of the scene as April stares at herself in the mirror and then runs the bathtub where she will slit her wrist (which is hinted at with red glitter running down the side of the tub and her floating in the bathtub full of blood).  It could have been more alt, edgy horror-show, but was very artistic and April is fantastic.  So, she is transported to purgatory (which is a lot like hell) and the scene becomes more comical.  Kimberly Kane (the Devil’s assistant) meets her at the door to hell and tells her she has a chance to go back if she engages in one of the deadly sins, which she of course picks lust.  Kane then brings April into a room where Courtney and Pepper are making out.  A fuck-fest ensues, but mainly the couples stay together until the end.  Kane and April are seriously hot and I wish the scene wasn’t as cut up as it was, and focused longer on them.  Not that I didn’t get into Courtney and Pepper, I just wanted more of Kane and April.  By the end they are all having sex together in a massive orgy and assume a very cool position with April and Courtney are facing each other as they boink tits and their partners lay under them eating them out.  Great scene!  But give me more April & Kimberly!

nostalgia1 Nostalgia

The END credits are dedicated to Marilyn Chambers and then there is an inserted vignette that goes back to Dr. Sid talking into a recorder about his last patient Madison, as Jiz fucks her from behind.  Dr. Sid talks about discovering a pleasure spot in her throat and calls it the Blakovich spot.  Again, pretty funny and unexpected.  It left me smiling and wanting more, more, more!

This film also has killer glitter-trash tunes featuring The Need, Veronica Lipgloss, TWIN, and Two Ton Boa, and was nominated for an AVN for the music.

Overall, Nostalgia was very good despite the third scene which didn’t cut it and the first which could have been much more edgy.  A great attempt at honoring these classics, which are big shoes to fit into.  I really love that Courtney Trouble is trying to do something radically different with porn and take it into a new, or even retro direction.

Get your copy of Nostalgia at GoodVibes.com

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Seven Minutes in Heaven: Coming Out

by Domina Doll on 10/22/2009

in lesbian,lesbians,lgbt,movies,porn,porno,queer

SevenMinsHeavenComingOut HR Seven Minutes in Heaven: Coming Out

Seven Minutes in Heaven: Coming Out (2009)
Director- Courtney Trouble
Studio- Reel Queer Productions / Good Releasing
Cast- Carson, Puck Goodfellow, Joline Parton, Sophia, Tina Horn, Sarah Lee Sinful, Jae

Courtney Trouble (Reel Queer Productions) recently joined forces with GoodVibes.com and their new adult film production company Good Releasing, directing and producing four films already this year including Roulette, Nostalgia, Speak Easy and Seven Minutes in Heaven: Coming Out.  In case you don’t know who Courtney Trouble is, she is the creator of NoFauxxx.com “the longest running queer porn site on the web” and her film Roulette won the Feminist Porn Award for “Most Deliciously Diverse Cast” just this year.  Her film company, Real Queer Productions “documents authentic, edgy, queer sex and culture with relevant, intelligent films inclusive of the many sexualities that identify as queer.”

Seven Minutes in Heaven: Coming Out

And, the timing couldn’t be better.  Queer Porn is the new alt-porn of the adult industry, an up-and-coming genre that is making waves across the pornosphere with directors like Shine Louise Houston, Courtney Trouble and Madison Young, and queer adult film actors like Jiz Lee, Syd Blakovich, Dylan Ryan and many more.

Seven Minutes in Heaven: Coming Out

“Seven Minutes in Heaven: Coming Out” is Trouble’s answer to reality porn, in which she gathers a amateur cast of diverse queer women and a transman Puck Goodfellow, puts them in a slumber party environment to play spin-the-bottle and Truth or Dare, and films the sexy frolicking that transpires.  With no script, no rules and no limits, the cast are free to explore their fantasies and desires with whomever they choose, a few of which part-take in every experience and scene they can get themselves into like sex-starved, greedy little hedonists.  Two of the cast have never participated in an adult before and talk about their experience in behind-the-scenes interludes.

As you may imagine, what emerges is a fantastic fuck-fest featuring strap-ons and gang-bangs, spanking, role-play and power exchanges, fisting and fingering, lessons in cock sucking, kissing, fondling and playful teasing.  Where one scene ends, the other begins and the sex and play seems to go on forever, with bodies changing places, a new strap-on here, a new twosome, threesome or foursome reveling in hot, sexy, authentic, queer, smoldering, diverse, inter-racial hardcore sex.  There is never a dull moment, and the chemistry between the cast and their enthusiasm is evident in their sparkling eyes, laughs and smiles, and orgasmic moans.

This film is every queer girl’s wet dream, and certainly one of my all-time fantasies.  I won’t go into a scene-by-scene, as you really have to see this film for yourself.  So, if you are a fan of queer porn and Courtney Trouble’s work, or if you are curious to what it’s all about and want a great jill’in off experience, go buy “Seven Minutes in Heaven: Coming Out” now from GoodVibes.com.

See the Trailer at CourtneyTrouble.com

truthordare 300x246 Seven Minutes in Heaven: Coming Out

And… if you have aspirations of fulfilling your own sexual fantasies (or all-girl gang bangs) but are not sure how to get the party started, check out Truth Or Dare: A Game Of Passion at GoodVibes.com as well, a naughty game of role-playing and daring romancing to help you get rid of inhibitions. Includes 100 game cards, one die, and instructions.

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‘Chris And Don’: An Extraordinary Couple (Fresh Air)

by Viviane on 07/27/2008

in gay,queer

Artist Don Bachardy met British ex-pat author Christopher Isherwood on a Santa Monica beach in 1952. Bachardy was 18; Isherwood was 49. Given their age difference and Hollywood’s then-repressive attitude toward homosexuality, their relationship came as a shock to many. Few expected their romance to last for years, let alone decades.

Their relationship is now the subject of the new documentary Chris and Don: A Love Story. The film traces their union from their first meeting to Isherwood’s death from cancer in 1986.

Bachardy speaks with Terry Gross about his career as an artist and his relationship with Isherwood, who penned the Berlin Stories, which served as the basis for the musical and film Cabaret.

(more. . .)

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Get Dressed Up (or Down) and Come to Queer Fetish!

by Viviane on 05/27/2008

in Events, Fetish & Kink,queer

New York’s newest and sexiest queer fetish night makes its debut on Sunday, June 22, 2008 at Nowhere in the East Village. As the kickoff to Nowhere’s “Freak Week” pride countdown, we will be celebrating our rebirth—and your hopeful attendance—with no door cover! Nowhere is located at 322 E 14th Street, between 1st/2nd Avenues.

Queer Fetish has always prided itself on providing a safe environment for the younger generation of kinky queers to explore their curiosities and for continually producing some of the best entertainment and fetish installations. (Please contact us if you’re interested in participating, as we’re about the community)—and that means you! Expect clowns, comediennes, DJs and fetish demos. Don’t expect: a night of just industrial-goth music, single gender participants, or overpriced drinks.

Sexy, un-dress attire is encouraged, of course, but you don’t have to go buy a $500 outfit just to attend. Be creative. Have fun with us and be sure to join our Yahoogroup for future announcements (it’s on our website below)!

Info and mailing list: www.queerfetishnyc.com

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Call for Workshops, Papers, Performance, and Art: Femme2008: The Architecture of Femme

by Viviane on 02/25/2008

in queer

Call for Workshops, Papers, Performance, and Art
Femme2008: The Architecture of Femme
Chicago Wyndham O’Hare
August 15th – 17th, 2008

Femme2008: The Architecture of Femme is a multi-threaded conference and forum for those who think about, talk about, and create Femme as a queer gender and identity.

Following our Femme2006 conference in San Francisco, where over 400 femmes and allies gathered for three days of workshops, panels, and performances, we again invite community members, artists, academics, homemakers, geeks, techies, activists, femmes of all kinds, and their allies to continue the conversation by participating in Femme 2008 as presenters and participants.

We are invested in having Femme2008 continue to reflect the diversity and complexity of femme gender, identity and
contributions. We hope for this conference to be a community building event, as well as an exploration and celebration of what it means to build and live queer femme identities.

Submissions of all kinds are welcome, particularly submissions by femmes. We encourage proposals by and for people of color, working-class people, fat folks, and people with disabilities. We encourage submissions that work outside and alongside identity and gender, as well as those reflecting directly upon identity and gender. Femme2008 will continue the community dialogue begun at Femme2006. In particular, we hope that the intersections of femme with race, region, class, access, ability, privilege, and marginalization will be talked about, given space, meditated upon, constructed, and deconstructed.

We began this conference in 2006 out of a desire to see femme explored and discussed from a variety of perspectives. We wanted a conference that held the complexities of Queer Femme as its central focus, while building community. We feel we accomplished that in 2006, and in 2008, we want to continue to build femme community and bridges, supporting each other across borders and differences.

We hope to draw participants from across disciplinary, medium, and social boundaries. We encourage submissions from anyone interested, regardless of gender or sexual identity. We do ask that you read our mission statement before submitting.

We are are soliciting contributions from anyone interested, including (but not limited to):

> workshops
> performances
> research presentations
> skill shares
> activist & organizational topics
> visual art
> video or film

Submission deadline is May 1, 2008.

To submit a proposal, please submit here.

*For research presentations, send a 300 word abstract
*For workshop and skillshare proposals, send a 300 word description of
your workshop or skillshare ideas
*Visual artists should send samples of work and a 300 word description
of their artistic vision
*Performers, filmmakers and other creative artists should contact us
for more information

To learn more about us, our mission and to contact us with any uestions, comments or concerns, please find us at our website.

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“Kicked Out” a Call For Submissions

by Viviane on 01/22/2008

in publishing,queer,radio

Edited by: Sassafras Lowreyt Kicked Out a Call For Submissions**
Publisher: Homofactus Presst Kicked Out a Call For Submissions
Deadline: March 1, 2008

Kicked Out is an anthology, which chronicles the experiences of former queer youth and current queer youth who were forced to leave home as minors because of their sexuality and/or gender identity.

Kicked Out tells our collective stories of survival, weaving together descriptions of abuse, and homelessness with poignant accounts of the ways in which the queer community offered sanctuary, and the power and importance of creating our own chosen families etc.

Kicked Out offers advice and wisdom to the queer youth of today from former queer youth who have survived. Additionally, it provides the opportunity for readers to get a glimpse into the world of those queer youth who as a result of circumstance have had to leave home, while simultaneously shattering the stereotypes of who queer youth are, and what they have the potential to become.

Kicked Out showcases stories of overcoming obstacles, and not simply surviving but thriving in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversity. Kicked Out will explore the diversity of our experiences across lines of race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, and geographic region celebrating our differences, and showcases the ways in which they have contributed to our unique experiences.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:
• How being forced to leave home as a minor continues to impact your adult life
• What happened to you when you left home and how you survived
• Words of wisdom for today’s homeless queer youth—what you wished someone had told you
• Survival through the creation of “chosen family”
• Challenges of dealing with CPS or other agencies
• Success through adversity- overcoming a troubled past

Submissions should be between 1,500 and 2,500 words in length and previously unpublished. Submit your piece via e-mail in .doc format to KickedOutAnthology@gmail.com. Multiple submissions per contributor are welcome. Please include a short biography and contact information with your submission. Submissions must be received no later than March 1, 2008; contributors are encouraged to submit early. Rights revert to the authors upon publication. Contributors whose work appears in the anthology will receive TBA free copy(ies) as well as ongoing royalties. for more information check us out online at: www.myspace.com/kickedoutanthologyt Kicked Out a Call For Submissions

**Sassafras Lowrey is a high femme writer, artist, and activist. Ze was forced to leave home as a teenager after suffering physical violence after coming out as queer. Sassafras found hir way to queer youth organizations and movements, which quite literally saved hir life. As an adult ze has never forgotten the impact those groups had on hir life and has volunteered regularly with the queer youth of today. Sassafras lives with hir partner, two cats and a dog in New York City. Hir first book “GSA to Marriage: Stories of a Life Lived Queerly” is scheduled for release Summer 2008.

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Sugarbutch Star: Bad Bad Girl (Sugarbutch Chronicles)

by Viviane on 10/29/2007

in erotica,queer,sex blogs

Hardening my glance, I moved toward her, thick, keeping distance between us, and she stumbled back, her low heels catching on the uneven pavement, thrusting her hands out behind her but I kept her eyes, kept two fingers on her waist and led her back, back, until she was against the dumpster. She swallowed. It was wider at the top than the bottom, slanting out; she cowered under it a little.I lifted my chin, once. “Hold that.”She did. Lifted her arms to grip the edge of the dumpster. Made a face. “It feels gross.”

“Mmm.” You’re getting fucked in an alley behind a dive bar. What do you expect? I thrust my hand between her legs. She wore a tight skirt – I pulled at it, shoved it up her thighs to expose her. Pulled tight against the lacy fabric of her panties and pressed two fingers inside. Smooth. She inhaled, moaned.

(more . . . )

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Conservative Jewish Seminary Will Accept Gay Students to Train as Rabbis

by Viviane on 03/27/2007

in education,gay,Jewish,lesbian,nyc,queer

By THOMAS BARTLETT

The Jewish Theological Seminary, considered the flagship institution for Conservative Judaism, will begin accepting gay and lesbian students into its rabbinical and cantorial schools, effective immediately, the institution’s chancellor-elect announced on Monday.

The decision followed a ruling in December by the movement’s highest legal body that allowed the ordination of gay rabbis but left it up to the seminaries to decide whether to do so. While that ruling paved the way for the change, discussion of the issue had been going on for a quite a while at the seminary, according to Arnold M. Eisen, the chancellor-elect. “It was a very long, deliberate, and thoughtful process of consultation,” he said.

(more…)

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5 Questions about Blogging: Zed Sinclair

by Viviane on 03/21/2007

in bloggers,Blogging,gay,queer,sexbloggers,sugarbutch

pic DominicCooper2 5 Questions about Blogging: Zed SinclairThe introductory post for this series.

Chivalrous kinky writer, queer butch top, sex educator Zed Sinclair writes at Sugarbutch Chronicles.

When did you start blogging?
in 1998 I started the only feminist blog there was called Feminist Media Watch. it was collaborative, and got extremely popular, at one point we had about twenty-five authors and had very high traffic. I’ve had a personal blog here or there since about then too, which has moved around.

What do you like about blogging?
my most successful blog projects have always been deeply personal, semi-anonymous explorations of my relationships, sexuality, and personal dramas. I’ve met some fantasic and wonderful people through my blogs, many of which have stayed in my life for many years.

Is blogging a major or minor way of connecting to other people for you?
Both, I suppose; it is a major source of deep connection for me, in that I am often sharing serious and intimate information about myself, but I do a lot of socializing in my peer groups in person too. So though it is major, it is not my only source.

Where’s your blog? Do you use a free hosted service (Blogger,Wordpress, Livejournal, AOL, Google Pages, etc.) or do you have your own domain and web server?
Both; I have four domains, and accounts at blogger and wordpress. I primarily blog at a blogger account at the moment, the others are more stagnant.

What do you do to promote your blog or your writing (using tags in your post, blog roll, del.icio.us, Digg, Pingoat)?
very little, actually. I always visit my commenter’s websites and try to link to them, to encourage them to come back and comment/write more, and I go to their sites and comment on their writing too. so I guess I’m more into individual advertising than any sort of major site promotion. Every once in a while I get on a kick and try to make my profile on technorati or feedburner fancy, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference. I contribute to sugasm sometimes, that always enhances my traffic. Other than that? I try to write every day, so people will visit every day, but that’s about it.

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Garrison Keillor apologizes (Prairie Home Companion)

by Viviane on 03/19/2007

in Garrison Keillor,gay,gay marriage,lesbian,queer

Garrison Keillor writes:

Ordinarily I don’t like to use this space to talk about my newspaper column but the most recent column aroused such angry reactions that I thought I should reply. The column was done tongue-in-cheek, always a risky thing, and was meant to be funny, another risky thing these days, and two sentences about gay people lit a fire in some readers and sent them racing to their computers to fire off some jagged e-mails. That’s okay. But the underlying cause of the trouble is rather simple.

I live in a small world — the world of entertainment, musicians, writers — in which gayness is as common as having brown eyes. Ever since I was in college, gay men and women have been friends, associates, heroes, adversaries, and in that small world, we talk openly and we kid each other and think nothing of it. But in the larger world, gayness is controversial. In almost every state, gay marriage would be voted down if put on a ballot. Gay men and women have been targeted by the right wing as a hot-button issue. And so gay people out in the larger world feel besieged to some degree. In the small world I live in, they feel accepted and cherished as individuals, but in the larger world they may feel like Types. My column spoke as we would speak in my small world and it was read by people in the larger world and thus the misunderstanding. And for that, I am sorry. Gay people who set out to be parents can be just as good parents as anybody else, and they know that, and so do I.

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