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Description
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ToC The Way We Were (p34); Patricia Cornwell From Darkness to Light (p42); Sister in Arms by Barbara Smith (p43); Dyke Is a Four-Letter Word by Poet Eileen Myles (p51); A Lesbian Short Story (p54); Life Is a Bowl for Cherry (p60); The Betty Effect (p64); Hit the Road, Jill (p73). Cover photo by Erin Schaff; Inside photo by Francesca Galliani.
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issue
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1
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Date Issued
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Jan-Feb 2016
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Format
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PDF/A
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Publisher
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Frances Stevens
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Curve_Vol26_No1_January-February-2016_OCR_PDFa.pdf
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extracted text
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JAN/FEB 2016 VOLUME 26#1
JAN/FEB
2016
FEATURES
3~
THE WAY WE WERE
Our special tribute to unsung
lesbian sheroes and their
herstory.
~2
FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT
Patricia Cornwell, the
bestselling master of forensic
fiction on love, life, and getting
better with age.
~5
SISTER IN ARMS
Black lesbian-feminist Barbara
Smith reflects on 40 years of
activism.
51
DYKE IS A FOURLETTER WORD
Meet poet Eileen Myles, whose
late-in-life success is long
overdue.
5~
A LESBIAN SHORT STORY
Lois C. Hart's "Animarum"
examines long-lived lesbian
love in an elder care setting.
60
LIFE IS A BOWL
FOR CHERRY
Award-winning stage and TV
actor Cherry Jones discusses
her hot new role in Jill
Soloway's hit, Transparent.
73
HIT THE ROAD, JILL
Take a Rust Belt road trip with
your girl and see some things
that made America great.
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
1
JAN/FEB
2016
12
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
IN EVERYISSUE
4
EDITOR'S NOTE
6
CURVETTES
8
FEEDBACK
11
THE GAYDAR
80
STARS
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
TRENDS
REVIEWS
10 LES LOOKS LIKE
Each issue we pick a lesbian
with a look and a life to match.
24 BOOKS
The best books of 2015 were
compelling, powerful, and
historic records of LGBT rights
milestones written by and
about lesbian activists. By
Merryn Johns & Victoria A.
Brownworth
12 BEAUTY
The best cruelty-free products
for your face and body.
14 LESBOFILE
What's new and noteworthy
with our favorite celesbians.
By Jocelyn Voo
VIEWS
16 POLITICS
Deep thoughts and heartfelt
convictions on a different topic
each issue from our contributing politics editor. By Victoria
A. Brownworth
18 OUT IN FRONT
Meet the community leaders
who are doing us proud. By
Sheryl Kay
18 IN CASE YOU MISSED
IT ...
LGBT news from across the
country. By Sassafras Lowrey
22 LIPSTICK & DIPSTICK
Relationship advice from our
trusted butch-femme duo.
2
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
28 FILMS
Two cinematic treats this issue:
a moving exploration of an
aging expat finding island love
in Sand Dollars; and a historic
redux of Sweden's Sapphic
head of state, Queen Kristina in
The Girl King. By Lisa Tedesco
& Merryn Johns
30 MUSIC
Let your hair down and get
wild, with the original rock
chick and one of America's
undisputed guitar greats, June
Millington. By Kelly McCartney
LAST LOOK
79 CROSSWORD
Can you tame our Queer Quiz?
By Myles Mellor
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I
n my 15 years in lesbian publishing I have heard two things
consistently: that the lesbian community is being erased, and that
older lesbians do not receive their due.
I think both statements are true, but only partly. They're true because ever since the word "lesbian" entered the lexicon, gay women
have fought for visibility and for equal rights, but gained them largely
by being attached to the activism of other groups, such as feminists or
gay men. On their own, lesbians are one of the most overlooked and
underprivileged minority groups of all-possibly because they are
women who do not wish to be reliant on or have traditional relationships with the most powerful group, men. Following this logic, older
lesbians are therefore as maligned as older women, maybe more so.
But, to keep emphasizing these disadvantages perpetuates them.
After all, the solution to invisibility lies in becoming visible. Visibility
leads to discrimination, which also must be fought. Our work is never
done, but at least it lies in our own hands. We lesbians, especially older lesbians, must record our histories so that the younger generations
have a point of reference for their own lives, and have something to
build upon. For they will also one day be older. The smartest and most
successful Millennials I know look up to, respect, and work with the
older lesbians that paved the way before them.
This is our History issue, and I am pleased to report that older lesbians will get their due-at least within these pages. The median age
of our main subjects is a little over 70 years of age-from the whippersnappers of BETTY, who will enjoy 30 years together as a band
this year, to long-lived athlete Dot Wilkinson, 95, the subject of a new
book and a documentary.
When I thought about putting this issue together, it was important to shine a spotlight on some of the most significant lesbians who
have done, and are still doing, amazing things. In addition to our cover
girls, and to Wilkinson, you'll also marvel at the lifetime achievements
of Edie Windsor and Roberta Kaplan, Lillian Faderman, June Millington, Eileen Myles, Cherry Jones, Patricia Cornwell, Barbara Smith,
Honey Lee Cottrell, Lesley Gore and Lois Sasson, and many others.
I had the pleasure of personally speaking with Jones and Cornwell,
and both were interested in discussing the advantages and surprises
of getting older-such as the joy of legal marriage and the power of
insight, to name just two.
In 2015, a significant number oflesbian activists and artists passed
away, and we respectfully mourn their loss in Victoria Brownworth's
column, "In Memoriam;' on page 16. But it is also an opportunity to
remember and to celebrate. To do what Brownworth urges and to record our lives.And while I'm on the subject of records, remember that
in 2015, Curve celebrated 25 years of lesbian publishing. We thank
you for reading, and hope you continue for the next 25 years!
Please enjoy this issue as proof positive of just a few of the wonderful women who have made our culture so vibrant and valuable, and as
a tribute to lesbian visibility.
Here's to a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!
!z
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
merryn@curvemag.com
APRIL 2, 2016
THE BEVERLY HILTON
LOS ANGELES
MAY14,2016
WALDORF ASTORIA
NEW YORK
RONT /
cu RVETTES
SUSAN MILLER
Susan Miller is the recipient of two Obies, a Guggenheim
Fellowship, and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for her plays
A Map Of Doubt And Rescue and My Left Breast. Miller is also
executive producer/writer of the hit lndie lesbian webseries,
Anyone But Me, for which she (and creative partner Tina Cesa
Ward) received the Writers Guild of America Award as well as
Streamy & Webby Nominations. Miller was a consulting producer/
writer on Showtime's The L Word and ABC's Thirtysomething. Her
articles have appeared in 0, The Oprah Magazine, Ms. Magazine,
American Theatre, Bark, and Girlfriends.
curve
THE BEST-SELLING
JAN/FEB
2016
LESBIAN
» VOLUME
MAGAZINE
26 NUMBER
1
PUBLISHERSilke Bader
FOUNDINGPUBLISHER Frances Stevens
EDITORIAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEFMerryn Johns
SENIORCOPY EDITOR Katherine Wright
CONTRIBUTINGEDITORS Melanie Barker, Kathy Beige,
Marcie Bianco, Victoria A. Brownworth, Gina Daggett,
Lyndsey D'Arcangelo, Sheryl Kay, Gillian Kendall, Dave
Steinfeld, Jocelyn Voo
EDITORIAL
ASSISTANTSLisa Tedesco, Annalese Davis
OPERATIONS
DIRECTOROF OPERATIONSJeannie Sotheran
ADVERTISING
NATIONALSALES
Rivendell Media (908) 232-2021, todd@curvemagazine.com
SHEENAC. HOWARD
By the age of 26, Sheena C. Howard was already a Doctor of
Philosophy, focusing on racial and gendered representations
as well as sexual minority research in the new millennium.
Howard is an award winning author, producer, blogger and
social justice leader. She became the first Black female to win
an Eisner Award in 2014 for her book, Black Comics: Politics of
Race and Representation. She is also the author of Black Queer
Identity Matrix and Critical Articulations of Race, Gender and
Sexual Orientation and she is the Chair of the Black Caucus
and Assistant Professor of Communication at Rider University.
ART/PRODUCTION
ART DIRECTORBruno Cesar Guimaraes
SOCAL MEDIA
MANAGERAnnalese
Davis
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Melany Joy Beck, Jenny Block, Kelsy Chauvin, Dar Dowling,
Jill Goldstein, Kristin Flickinger, Kim Hoffman, Francesca
Lewis, Charlene Lichtenstein, Tiffany Ceridwen Lowana,
Sassafras Lowrey, Kelly McCartney, Myles Mellor, Emelina
Minero, Laurie K. Schenden, Stephanie Schroeder, Janelle
Sorenson, Rosanna Rios-Spicer, Yana Tallon-Hicks, Sarah
Toce
CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS & PHOTOGRAPHERS
Steph Brusig, Grace Chu, Meagan Cignoli, Sophy Holland,
Sara Lautman, Syd London, Maggie Parker, Diana Price, B.
Proud, Robin Roemer, Leslie Van Stelten
LOIS CLOARECHART
Born and raised in British Columbia, Canada, Lois Cloarec Hart
grew up as an avid reader but didn't begin writing until much later
in life. Several years after joining the Canadian Armed Forces, she
received a degree in Honours History from Royal Military College
and on graduation switched occupations from air traffic control
to military intelligence. She began writing while caring for her
husband in his final years and her first book, Coming Home, was
published in 2001. It was through that publishing process that Lois
met the woman she would marry in April 2007. She commutes
annually between her home in Calgary and her wife's in Atlanta.
GILLIAN KENDALL
Gillian Kendall has been writing for Curve since 1989, before
some current readers were born. Having no other legitimate
employment, she has become a full-time writer and writing
coach, living frugally but well in Florida. Her first book, the coauthored How I Became a Human Being, was the subject of the
Oscar-nominated film, The Sessions. Her second book, Mr. Ding's
Chicken Feet, was a New York Times Notable Book. Currently she's
re-revising an unlikely memoir, Notes from the Stranger's Corridor:
A story of editing, insomnia, and minor mental illness, and seeking
artistic representation like mad. Visit gilliankendall.org.
-!
s
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CONTACT INFO
Curve Magazine
PO Box 467
New York, NY 10034
PHONE(415) 871-0569
FAX (510) 380-7487
SUBSCRIPTIONINQUIRIES(800) 705-0070 (toll-free in us only)
(818) 286-3102 (outside US)
ADVERTISINGEMAIL todd@curvemagazine.com
EDITORIALEMAIL editor@curvemag.com
LETTERSTO THE EDITOREMAIL letters@curvemagazine.com
Volume 26 Issue 1 Curve (ISSN 1087-867X) is published 6 times
per year (January/February, March/April, May/June, July/August,
September/October,
November/December)
by Avalon Media,
LLC, PO Box 467, New York NY 10034. Subscription price:
$19.95/year, $25.95 Canadian (U.S. funds only) and $35.95
international (U.S. funds only). Returned checks will be assessed
a $25 surcharge. Periodicals postage paid at San Francisco, CA
94114 and at additional mailing offices (USPS 0010-355). Contents
of Curve Magazine may not be reproduced in any manner, either
whole or in part, without written permission from the publisher.
Publication of the name or photograph of any persons or
organizations appearing, advertising or listing in Curve may not be
taken as an indication of the sexual orientation of that individual or
group unless specifically stated. Curve welcomes letters, queries,
unsolicited manuscripts and artwork. Include SASE for response.
Lack of any representation only signifies insufficient materials.
Submissions cannot be returned unless a self-addressed stamped
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Subscription Inquiries: Please write to Curve, Avalon Media LLC.,
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Canadian Agreement Number: 40793029. Postmaster: Send
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Curve, PO Box 17138, N. Hollywood,
CA 91615-7138.Printed in the U.S.
curvemag.com
6
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
RONT /
FEEDBACK
to Curve. I've been a subscrib~
er since your earliest incarna~
tion as Deneuve, and I owe
so many thanks for so many
wonderful columns and articles
over so many years. The latest
wide~ranging Culture Issue
surely ranks as one of your all~
time best. Victoria is a national
treasure, her presence in your
pages a gift in every issue. Her
columns seem to become richer
and deeper with the passing of
time and with all the history
she and all of us have been a
part of creating together. It's
good to see in the pages of your
current issue the invaluable
Julie Enszer, herself an astute
commentator and gifted editor
of an equally long running,
irreplaceable publication,
Sinister Wisdom. The irrepress~
PART OF HISTORY
Victoria Brownworth's cele~
bration of house and home
and family, with its evocation
of the challenging passages
in our own LGBT lives [''A
Home for the Holidays;'
V.25#6], moved me to write
my own letter of appreciation
ible Lipstick and Dipstick are
always a delight. There have
been so many features, profiles,
reviews, editorials, gossip,
letters to the editor, marvelous
photos, so many cultural links
to our remarkable community
in every issue that have made
me feel in touch with our sis~
terhood nationally and globally
throughout the years.
Many thanks to you and to all
the wonderful contributors to
your vibrant pages, and to all
my sister readers who've helped
to keep Curve a part of our
community and our history.
- Katherine V. Forrest, via
email.
Gore in the Culture Issue
[V.25#6]. I'd been wonder~
ing if and hoping that Curve
would run something on this
legendary singer, since she
was such a huge part of my
generation's culture and con~
sciousness. I wasn't sure if you
would do a story, given that
only people over 50 seem to
know who she was. So thank
you for including her. I would
like to read more about her
life, especially her later years,
since she was taken from us so
suddenly.
- M. L. Ebner, Chesapeake
Beach MD.
MORE LESLEY GORE
Editor's Note: I hope you enjoy
the additional article in this issue
on page 38.
I was both pleased and relieved
to see your tribute to Lesley
WHAT
WAS
THE
MOST
IMPORTANT
MOMENT
INLESBIAN
HISTORY?
4,1%
1997,when Ellen DeGeneres
came out.
I 0% 2004, when Ilene Chaiken
created TheL Word.
35%
2013, when Edie Windsor
brought down DOMA.
I , % The best is yet to come.
WRITE
Curve magazine, PO Box 467, New York, NY 10034
letters@curvemagazine.com
US! 510.380.7487
curvemag.com/letters
Send to:
Email:
Fax:
8
CURVE
JAN/FEB
Online:
2016
Subscriber Services are now available at
curvemag.com/customerservice
subscribe
pay your bill
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renew
get missing issues
give a gift
Curve's online selection of must-do, must-try, must-have extras.
THREEEASYSTEPSTO GETTINGONLINE
BY GILLIAN KENDALL
You're reading this. So I'm guessing that you, like me, enjoy magazines-the kind made of paper, that you can lay on your lap or a
table and flip through. I like magazines with pages bound between
covers, that I can throw in a beach bag or leave on my bedside table
with never a thought about batteries.
The sorry truth is that I have a Kindle, but I've only ever had one
book on it, which I've never finished, partly because I don't like having to swipe the screen to turn the page. Even on overseas flights,
I end up tucking a paperback into my carryon and reading that
instead of my Kindle. And with a real book, the batteries never die
and I don't have to use an adapter.
But the era of e-reading is here, despite my efforts to prevent it.
Let's get this terminology (ahem) straight. Online edition? Digital
magazine? Website? What's the difference? According to Merryn
Johns, who is Curve's Editor-in-Chief, there are three main platforms-not
counting social media-for
the magazine: The hard
copy, which you may have in your hands; the digital edition, which
is a digital replica of the hard copy but with interactive features; and
the website, curvemag.com, which offers extra free content and a
weekly e-Newsletter you can sign up for.
Have you been to Curve's website? Just type this into your web
browser: http://www.curvemag.com. One click, and you're on one
of the world's best lesbian home pages. Make yourself at home I
On the website you can get easy, free access to a digital issue, too.
Here's how: Near the top right corner you'll see a box called WEEKLY
E-NEWSLETTER.Inside that is a red rectangle labelled "Sign Up Now."
Click it, and fill in your email address in the box that appears.
A day or two after you do that, you'll get an email from Curve with
a link. Click on that link, enter your email address (the same one you
used earlier) and voilal You'll have an issue of the digital magazine
open on your screen.
Here's the fun part. Look at that Curve cover, and decide what
you want to see more of. Want to read a cover story? Click on the
headline, and you'll be zapped to the article! Want to leaf through it?
Click near the middle of the right side of the page, and a little arrow
will appear. Click it, and you'll be "turning the page." Click on the left,
and you'll be "turning backwards." It's not difficult, it's fun.
Navigate via the table of contents on the left. Find the name of an
article you want to see, and click it. When you're done reading there,
click again on the table of contents, which stays visible on the left of
the screen. To make any page larger, use the magnifying-glass icons
to control the zoom. Zoom in. Zoom out. In' Out! Hey, you're good
at this.
We at Curve want readers to enjoy all of our platforms, and the
varied content on each. And we want it to be easy. If the above steps
seem too time-consuming, too complicated, or too techy, just send
an email directly to Curve's Operations Manager Jeannie Sotheran:
jeannie@curvemag.com and she'll set up your free subscription.
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
9
PICKS
»
PRODUCTS
»;
PEOPt»
nJan
mi DJ,life is a circuit
t up and dance!
1\-\\S \S W\-\A1
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LOOKS UKE
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THE GAYDAR
Let our gaydar help
you decide who's hot, who's not, who's
shaking it and who's faking it in lesboland.
BY MELANIE BARKER
Johnny Depp is the world's
coolest dad, supporting
his daughter Lily-Rose who
identifies as "sexually fluid"
Bisexual Rep. Kyrsten
Sinema of Ariz. votes for
the American Security
Against Foreign Enemies
(SAFE)Act, further
restricting the already
severe vetting process of
refugees
Missy Elliott releases "WTF,"her
first music video in 7 years and
makes us stop mooning over
Adele's "Hello" for five minutes
Chloe Sevigny to play
alleged murderess Lizzie
Borden and Kristen
Stewart her maid and
lover in a new movie
Michelle
Rodriguez plays
a transgender
hitwoman in
action flick
Tomboy, shows
no knowledge
of trans issues,
calling Caitlyn
Jenner "Kris
Jenner"
Former Bond Girl
and Avengers star
Dame Diana Rigg
suggests that the
next James Bond
could/should be a
lesbian
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f-
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Legendary
photographer
Peter Lindbergh
gives Kate
Winslet the
ultimate
androgynous
makeover for
L'UOMO Vogue
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CD
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Salt Lake
City elects its
first lesbian
mayor, Jackie
Biskupski
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72-year-old actor
Holland Taylor
announces out on
WNYC, says "I am
out. I live out"
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Marve/'s Jessica Jones features
lesbian entanglements galore, in
case you haven't already binged!
Abby Wambach retires
from pro soccer, pledges to
tackle gender inequality in
sport and beyond
Lady Gaga,
Taylor Kinney
and bisexual star
of Chicago Fire
Monica Raymund.
Cuddle buddies or
Tinseltown's latest
menage trois?
a
;:;:
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
11
TRENDS/
BEAUTY
In Fine Form
ITS NOT ABOUT ANTI-AGING.ITS ABOUT BRINGINGOUT YOUR BESTAS YOU AGE.
UpperLipWrinkles
Treatment
IMPACT. l4 • female
Define Your Beauty
,vhere Science Meets Skincare
Created by out lesbian entrepreneur Tag Ceder, Definitions Skincare
is a complete line of premium skin products that improves the health
and appearance of your skin. Using a unique blend of top ingredients
and the latest technology, the cleansers, toners, exfoliants, eye creams,
masks, serums, and moisturizers are allfree of parabens, synthetic
fragrances, and dyes. To create a blank and receptive canvas, start with
the Fruit Acid Cleansing Creme, which removes impurities and dead
skin cells. Follow with the Gene Therapy Moisturizer, a light firming
cream, and target worry lines with the Line Fighter and Filler, which has
an instantly rejuvenating effect. (definitionsskincare.com)
Bionova is the product of 25 years of human physiology and biochemistry
research, resulting in the Hyper-Natural™ line of skincare which uses
ingredients that occur naturally within the body Miraculously, no plants,
botanicals, animal extracts, minerals or oils are used. Just lipids, amino
acids, carbohydrates, antioxidants and polypeptides, which you produce
inherently This is good news for those with sensitive skin and concerns
about the environment. Plus, Bionova replaces anti-aging with self-healing
by boosting your cells and metabolism. We loved the super-gentle Cleanser,
and the rich creams targeting upper lip and neck proved to be immediately
effective. (bionovalab.com)
U)
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JUNETICS
12
r
Show Us Some Skimt!
~lore Pmver to You
If you can't be bothered with morning moisturizing rituals, let
an overnight leave-on treatment do the work for you Take the
Weekend Off by Skinn Cosmetics is a rich, delicately fragrant,
mousse-like moisturizer that purifies and hydrates your skin as you
sleep. Cool and soothing, with its main ingredient aloe vera, this
is a wonder salve for dry and tired skin, and left us feeling supple,
smooth, and as though we'd just left the spa. Skinn's moisturizer
mantra is that the ultimate skin cream isn't just a treatment-it's an
experience. The entire Skinn Cosmetics line is innovative, fun and
effective. (skinn.com)
The world's first Energy Powered Skincare line, Junetics boldly declares
that any skin can look ageless. That's because the appearance of aging
is caused by decreased energy and communication within the cells.
Enter Junetic's proprietary E24 Complex, a combination of science and
nature that aims to trigger the skin's inherent regenerative powers. The
E24 Complex consists of good things like plant stem cells and amino
acids, and stimulates intercellular communication, which helps fight
daily skin saboteurs like UV rays, pollution, stress, and dehydration. Pair
the weightless Pure Energy Day Serum with the light yet nourishing Pure
Energy Night Cream for maximum results. (junetics.com)
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
ACKS
FL
OIAME
FA
"An assured, breezy romantic comedy ...
CAROLYNTAYLOR
VAMESSADUNN
SABRIMAJALEES
pitch pert ect.,, -San Francisco Chronicle
1ST
"Flacks proves a sexy and magnetic leading lady
charming and romantic dramedy." - outfest
throughout this
Smart, successful, and charming, Elsie is the perfect girlfriend. She also
happens to be a serial monogamist with a long history of broken hearts.
When Elsie breaks up with her long-standing girlfriend Robin to pursue
another woman, she faces her mother's disapproval, conflicting advice from
friends, and the nagging suspicion that she may have made a big mistake.
OFFICIAL
SELECTION)
OUTFEST
LOS
ANGELES
LGBT
FILM
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{
I/ OFFICIAL
SELECTION
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High Fidelity
for lesbians"
11
SAN
FRANCISCO
LGBT
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FESTIVAL
- AfterEllen.com
~L-------:-__:;;..-------:---
The story of one of the world's
most famous and controversial women
"The Girl King is a traditional epic ... What breaks the
eJ
mold is the character of Kristina." - La Presse
The epic story of Queen Kristina, an enigmatic, flamboyant woman
centuries ahead of her time who ascended the Swedish throne at age
six, was raised as a prince, and strived to bring peace and education to
her country - while pursuing an illicit romance with her female royal
attendant. tn English.
"The Girl King is beautiful... the chemistry
between the two women is spot on."
- AfterEllen.com
(
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"Featuring laughs, suspense, a deliriously good sex scene,
and a rousing finale, All About E has something for everyone."
- San FranciscoChronicle
When E, a beautiful and sexy DJ at Sydney's hottest nightclub,
stumbles on a stash of cash, she and her friend Matt are forced to run to
the outback and appeal to her lost love Trish to hide them. Can E keep
the money, conquer her demons, AND get the girl?
"A
breath of fresh air
for lesbian cinema"
- Gay News Network
Wolfe·
WolfeVideo.com/WolfeOnDemand.com
Yourtrusted communitysourcefor LGBTmovies
TRENDS/GOSSIP
LESBOFILE
CELEBRITY KIDS. THEY'RE JUST LIKE US!
opens a detective agency after her sav-
BY JOCELYN VOO
ing-the-world career burns out Alongside
Ritter is Carrie-Anne Moss (Jeri Hogarth,
Jessica's boss) and Rachael Taylor (Trish,
Jessica's best friend), and all play strong,
smart, motivated women. Despite both
of them having boyfriends in the series,
Jessica and Trish's friendship is so strong
that some have speculated foreshadowing of a romance that might come to light
down the line. Jeri, however, is the power
lesbian character we've all been waiting for.
Originally a male in the comic book, Jeri is
a powerful female in the TV version, and
Carrie-Anne Moss plays the whip-smart
battle-axe like nobody's business. Brace
yourselves, ladies. This show is worth the
binge.
Paulsonand Taylorbridge the gap
• MAY-DECEMBER DELIGHT
If you aren't convinced
that age
is
• EVERY LITTLE THING SHE
DOES IS MAGIC
• NOTHING QUITE COMPARES
2 THIS ...
just a number when it comes to love,
Add Eliot Sumner, daughter of Sting,
bear witness to Sarah Paulson and
to the list of A-list progeny who pre-
sometimes
Holland
fer the ladies. Despite flying relatively
and Sinead
under the media radar until now, the
for help is a loud one. "I'm invisible.
Taylor-the
cutest
lesbian
couple with a 30+ year age difference
Even with millions of adoring
loneliness
takes
O'Connor's
fans,
ahold ..
abrupt
cry
that you ever did see. Just look at their
singer, 25, tells Evening Standard that
I don't matter a shred to anyone. No
Twitter banter, which is technological
she never had the classic coming out
one has come near me. I've died a
flirting at its finest "I love your mind@
moment ("they knew already," she says
million times already with the pain of
HollandTaylor," Paulson, 40, tweeted in
of close family and friends), and that
it," the Irish singer-songwriter
November, to which Taylor, 72, replied,
she's been in a committed
on her Facebook
"I love your appreciation.
It's you with
the fine (and beautiful) head ..."
Paulson,
who
stars
in
American
relationship
wrote
page. "So yeah ...
with Austrian model Lucie Von Alten
Strangers like me ... But my family don't
for the past two years. "I think forever I
value me at all. They wouldn't
was trying to figure out maybe ... what
I was dead until weeks from now if I
know if
Horror Story: Hotel, is no stranger
I am," says Sumner, who also claims to
wasn't fucking
to dating older women. In 2009 she
not identify with either gender. "But I
O'Connor's detailed note alleged "ap-
ended her five-year
with
don't think anyone should feel pres-
palling cruelty" from her husband and
Jones.
sured to have any kind of label or tag
four children, aged 9 to 28, and sug-
She's also dated men in the past-and
on them." Instead, with her sophomore
gested her taking an overdose of pills.
she's not
album releasing in January, she's fo-
The singer was later found
what that makes her. Regarding bat-
cusing on defining
Dublin police, and was sent for med-
ting for both teams sge says, "all I can
than her sexuality. Consider us all ears.
59-year-old
relationship
Cherry
actress
particularly
ruffled
about
her music rather
ical attention.
informing
them now."
safe by
After she was released
say is, I've done both, and I don't let
from treatment,
either experience define me."
older posts related to the overdose
In fact, both are taking their relationship quite
bells
seriously.
be on the
Could
way? "She's men-
tioned it because just from a spiritual
point of view, from a heart point of
view," Holland told
replaced
forward-looking
•
U
D
SAPPHIC
NTURES
O/TNB, move over: Jessica Jones is the
with
decidedly
updates:
more
"I will rise,
and I will return; the Phoenix from the
flame ... I have learned," she wrote in
one, using lyrics from her song "Troy,"
radio sta-
new hot lesbian must-see TV Based on the
and used another
tion WNYC. "As a deed that has a very
Marvel comic book series, the show is dark
credibly lovely people who have been
and noir-ish, starring Krysten Ritter as the
so supportive
title character, a gritty ex-superhero who
couraging messages."
rich symbolic
public
and
wedding
O'Connor deleted her
gesture to it, it has its
attraction."
14
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
to thank "the in-
and have sent such en-
TRENDS/
SHESAiD
"Growing up, my mom
had a lot of gay friends, and so
people in the gay community were big
brothers and sisters to me all my life. I never
even thought twice about it until I got older
and realized that that wasn't the norm-it
wasn't
everyone's experience to have an open-hearted
and accepting family unit toward a community
they weren't necessarily a part of. To me, it's about
being accepting of an idea that we're all the same
community; it's almost like, I can't believe we're still
having the conversation ... l'm like, 'Everybody
fuckin' get on board already! Relax!' "
Sara Bareilles to pridesource.com
know about your
reputation, Scotty. When
you get a chance, do you think
you can find a nice young darkhaired girl for me? Someone that's
not too heavily made-up."
Katharine Hepburn to Scott Bowers
in Full Service: My Adventures in
Hollywood and the Secret
Sex Life of the Stars
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
15
POLITICS»
Remembering the lives and achievements of those we lost in 2015.
BY VICTORIA
A. BROWNWORTH
The best thing about 2015 was that I
didn't die. If that sounds melodramatic, it's
not. I spent nearly two months in the hospital
in 2015, much of it in the ICU I survived a
heart attack in January, a pulmonary embo~
lism in May, a lung crisis in October. It was
a traumatic year that left me contemplating
mortality and legacy.While I battled for sur~
vival, other lesbians I knew or knew of were
dying-a dozen or more writers, artists, film~
makers, and activists.
In September, Jeanne Cordova sent out a
letter to friends, colleagues,sister activists, and
the lesbian media saying that she was dying of
metastatic colon cancer, which had reached
her brain. As her final act of generosity to the
lesbian community, to which she has already
given decades of her activism, she is leaving
half her estate-$2 million-to the Astraea
Lesbian Foundation for Justice. As I write this,
Cordova, 67, is still alive. In 2011, she wrote
her compelling memoir, When We Were
16
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
Outlaws:A Memoir of Love and Revolution, only obituary was mine-never mind that she
which won the Lambda Literary Award. But
obituaries and tributes will still be necessary
when she dies. Cordova did groundbreaking
work in the 1980s and '90s, including found~
ing the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Press
Association, creating the Gay and Lesbian
YellowPages, and founding The LesbianTide,
the first publication in America with "lesbian''
in the title. She entered the convent in 1966
and left a year later, becoming a social work~
er in inner~city Los Angeles. But mostly she
served the lesbian community. Cordova's let~
ter focused me on why it's so essential that we
collect our herstory while there's still time.
For several years now I have been the unof~
ficial obituary writer for the Lambda Literary
Review.The pieces I write are for those who
knew the deceased and for those who did not.
They are, as much as I can make them, both
historical texts and loving memorials.
In 2014, when Nancy Garden died, her
was the best~known LGBT writer of young
adult books in our collectivehistory. The New
York Times was finally shamed into writing
about her, but only because Garden had gay
male literary friends who were appalled that
her death hadn't been noted by the newspaper
of record. In the interim, thousands of people
read my tribute, sharing it on social media,
proving how much people needed to see her
memorialized, New York Times or no.
Obituary is history. So many of the lesbi~
ans who have died over the years of my lesbian
life were never noted when they passed. In the
years before the Internet, when those women
were gone, no footprint was left behind. They
disappeared from our community and our
consciousness. We cannot let that continue.
With only one exception, the lesbian writ~
ers and activists I knew who died in 2015
weren't elderly. They were women in their
late 40s to 60s. They were women who, like
VIEWS/POLI
mysel£ were the first generation of lesbians
to come out post-Stonewall. Women whose
passing is the closingof a chapter in our collective herstory. Lesbian writers, artists, activists.
Women whose names we shouldn't forget.
Sidney Abbott was a founding member of
the Lavender Menace in the 1970s and co-author, with her then-partner, Barbara Love, of
Sappho Was a Right-On Woman: A Liberated
View of Lesbianism. At the 1976 convention
for the National Organization of Women
(NOW), a time when NOW was determined to exciselesbians from its rolls, Abbott
staged a coup by getting a resolution passed
to have the organization give 1 percent of its
funds to lesbian issues. It may not seem like
much, 1 percent, but it was a lot. A monumental achievement in an organization pledged to
erasing lesbians. Abbott came out pre-Stonewall. The Lavender Menace was founded the
year afrer Stonewall. As a college student attending that NOW conference where Abbott
made her mark, I was awed when I met her.
lct discovered her book in one of my Women's
Studies courses at a time when lesbian books
were still very rare. Abbott was herself lesbian
history. She died in a house fire in April 2015.
She was 77.
Laurie Benz opened another door for lesbians. A congenital dwar£ Benz was the first
out lesbian in Little People of America (LPA).
Benz, who died of a stroke in January 2015 at
57, raised consciousness wherever she went.
She was a musician and singer-songwriter
well known on the Chicago coffeehouse circuit and at the Michigan Womyn's Music
Festival, among other venues. She created
workshops on the intersection of Little People and LGBT community and did a kind of
activism that demanded both strength and an
infinite patience with the questions and demands of the rest of us.
Lesbian writer Nene Adams was only 48
when she died in October of a sudden heart
attack. In 2010, she injured her foot. An undocumented immigrant without health insurance, she had hoped the wound would heal on
its own. When it didn't, and she was forced to
seek treatment, she had developed sepsis.The
only way to save her life was to amputate her
leg.Despite this trauma and the long efforts to
raise money for a prosthetic leg,she continued
to write, to share her work, and to fight. She
left behind her partner, her books, her myriad
stories, her blog, her voice.
We all knew Lesley Gore's music. But few
of us knew she was a lesbian when we heard
the songs that made her famous in the 1960s.
A teen idol, she was the only solo female pop
singer of her era. "You Don't Own Me'' became a feminist anthem. Later, Gore would
come out publicly and host the PBS series In
the Life. She continued singing until a year before her death. Gore was 68 when she died of
lung cancer in February 2015. My tribute to
her can be read at curvemag.com.
Honey Lee Cottrell died of pancreatic cancer in September 2015 at 69. Her provocative
photography helped change our perspective
on images of lesbians by shifting the gaze
away from lesbian sexuality in service to male
desire. With her then-partner, Susie Bright,
she co-founded On Our Backs, a lesbian erotic
magazine, and provided the majority of the
visual material for it. Her work was widely
anthologized and her papers-along with
thousands of photographs and some films-
SO MANY OF THE
LESBIANSWHO
DIEDOVERTHE
YEARSOF MY
LIFEWERENEVER
NOTEDWHEN THEY
PASSED
''
will reside at Cornell University. Her work
was transgressive, groundbreaking, beautiful,
unique. Her images of our lesbian bodies
were unlike any others.
Ingrid Sischy was 63 when she died of
breast cancer in June 2015. She and her partner, Sandra Brant, worked together as international editors of the Italian, Spanish, and
German editions of Vanity Fair. Sischy was
also known for her work at Ariforum, the New
Yorker and Andy Warhol's Interview, each of
which she worked at for nearly a decade before she began working at Vanity Fair in 1997.
As editor of Ariforum, Sischy,who had briefly curated at both the Museum of Modern
Art and the Guggenheim, transformed the
previously staid publication into something
dynamic and vibrant. Her work at Interview
was similarly impressive.In 1997, she became
international editor for Conde Nast-a powerful lesbian in a powerful position.
Black lesbian activist and writer Nikki
Rashan Jenkins died of breast cancer in May
2015, leaving a wife and three children. The
author of several books, including the novel
Double Pleasure, Double Pain, the Milwaukee
native came out publicly on an episode of the
Oprah Winfrey Show in 2004, the first black
lesbian to do so.
Sandra Moran, journalist, novelist, and
professor of anthropology, died suddenly in
November 2015-only a month afrer her
stage-IV cancer diagnosis. Moran had spent
years as a journalist and an anthropologist
before turning to writing novels at 40 in what
she termed "the next chapter" of her life. Her
first novel, Letters Never Sent, won several
awards. A native Kansan, she and her wife
had decided to move to North Carolina a
month before her cancer was discovered.
Lesbian activist Niki Quasney died afrer a
five-yearbattle with cancer in February 2015.
She had been a plaintiff in one of the key marriage-equality cases,hers in Indiana. Quasney
had also been profiled with her three sisters
because of a harrowing connection-all four
women shared a gene mutation, BRCAl,
making them highly susceptible to breast
cancer and a related ovarian cancer. All had
double mastectomies, but Quasney eventually
developed ovarian cancer.After her death, her
sisters created the Niki Quasney's FIGHT
HARD Ovarian Cancer Research Endowment at the University of Chicago.
When groundbreaking lesbian filmmaker
Chantal Akerman killed herself at 65, two
days before she was scheduled to premiere
her latest film at the New York Film Festival
in October, I was shaken. I had come of age
watching her films. I had interviewed her
years before for one of my books. I was in
awe of her work, her vision, her intellect. So
many lesbians dying of cancer, yet Akerman
was driven to die by her own hand. Read my
tribute to her and others at curvemag.com
These are snapshots of dynamic women
who impacted our community forever by
living out, proud lesbian lives.We must insist
that their obituaries stand alongside those of
straight people. We must refuse erasure and
leave our legacy for the women who come after us, so that the trail we blazed for them becomes their path forward as they make their
own way through lesbian history and leave
their own mark on it.•
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
17
s1PROFILE
Carolyn Weathers
>>From Texas to L.A.
Literature and Gay Liberation
You might recognizeCarolynWeathersfrom her participation in lastsummer's10-part TV documentaryseriescalled
THE
DISNEY
ANIMATED
FILM
'FROZEN'
Fearless:How 10 LGBTActivistsMade It Better.The MSNBC
program,geared toward LGBTyoung folks,offersstoriesof
contains hidden messages that indoctrinate little girls into
lesbianism, according to conservative talk radio host and pastor, Kevin Swanson. Swanson was the organizer of a National
Rel1g1onsL1bert1esConference 1nIowa last November where
then-pres1dent1al candidates Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, and Mike
Huckabee spoke, their appearance at the conference indicates that they agree with Swanson's ludicrous statements.
courage and wisdom from those who are consideredto be
early pioneersin the gay liberationmovement.
Then again, some may be familiarwith Weathersfrom the
time she emceed a drag show in a gay bar in San Antonio,
Texas,in 1963. Or you might just know her from everything
she'sbeen a part of in between the two (and that is one big everything).Weatherscame out after her older sisterdid, which
she saysmade the processa lot easier,especiallyback in
the early 1960s. But her determinationto enjoy life,as is, was
• THE
UNIVERSITY
OFESSEX
In
just as critical.Often, ingenuityhelped. She recallsthat her
introductionto livinga fearlesslife began when she started
hangingout at a gay bar back then.
"Everytime the police were pullingup outsideto raid us,
the bar'sowner, a crustyold bucket named Maybelle,would
give us the warningsign,and by the time the police got
inside,we had switchedfrom woman-womanand man-man
dancing partnersinto happy heterosexualcouplesdancing
the bossanova;'she says."The policejust hated that:'
Over the years,while working primarilyas a librarian,
Weatherslent her supportto numerouscauses,including
the LosAngelesGay LiberationFront,the LosAngelesGay
Women'sGuerillaTheater,pre-Roe vs. Wade abortion reform,
fighting Anita Bryant,and the Civil RightsMovement.She also
co-foundeda small lesbianpublishingcompany,wrote books,
organizedthe first reading by LGBTwritersat the LosAngeles
PublicLibrary,and servedas the L.A. GLFdelegate to the
RevolutionaryPeople'sConstitutionalConvention,convened
by the BlackPantherPartyin Washington,D.C.,in 1970.
I
While a half-centuryof progressin LGBTrightshas been
enormous,Weatherssays,the battle is hardlyover,thanksin
part to right-wingreligiousand politicalextremists."When
Reaganbecame presidentis when the RepublicanPartystarted giving supportto the rabid right in exchangefor votes,and W
the Republicansand the Evangelicalswent to bed together
and started such a backlashthat none of us could ever have
dreamed of;' she says."They'relikea zombie horde:'
Weathersrecommendsvigilance-and strategicadjustmentsas needed. "Don'tever think it'sOK for us to get
complacent;'she advises."Supportorganizations,vote,
advocate,and, yeah, rally."By Sheryl Kay
18
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
W
the UK has released a new study that
shows women are primarily lesbian
or bisexual, but rarely straight The
researchers studied the arousal
1nd1catorsand sexual responses of
345 women who were shown video
images of both naked men and
women The researchers found that
women who 1dent1f1edas lesbian
responded to the videos of naked
women, but not to the naked men
However, women who 1dent1f1edas
straight responded to videos of both
naked women and naked men
• AFTER
FIVE
YEARS
OF
separation, and a failed attempt to
separate legally, Lauren CzekalaChatham and Dana Ann Melancon
have been granted a divorce In the
state of M1ss1ss1pp1
In 2013, the
ex-couple were denied a divorce
because M1ss1ss1pp1
law banned
same-sex marriage The divorce was
awarded through a close (5-4) State
Supreme Court vote which reversed
the 2013 ruling The ex-couple,
who were married In 2008 In San
Francisco separated In 2010 and
had been seeking a divorce since
that time
• LONDON
WOMAN
Samantha
Watt faces Jailtime after admitting
to charges of "disclosing private
sexual photographs with the intent
to cause distress" She posted
sexually expl1c1tphotographs of
her ex-girlfriend on Facebook after
they divorced The court deemed
this a public disclosure The photos
were taking consensually during
the couple's relat1onsh1pbut were
intended for personal use, not to
be made public The prosecutor Is
calling this a case of "revenge porn"
Watt, the mother of four children,
was sentenced to 18 weeks In Jail
She will serve half that time
• ALESBIAN
COUPLE
were
vacationing In HawaII last winter,
grocery shopping, and being
affectionate, when they were
stopped by off-duty police officer
Bobby Hamson who said, "Hey, you
girls can't do that In here" Courtney
Wilson and her g1rlfr1end,Taylor
Guerrero, vIsItIng from Los Angeles,
were holding hands and k1ss1ng
when the 1nc1dentoccurred The
sItuatIon escalated when Wilson
called 911about the harassment
and the altercation turned physical
Wilson and Guerrero were arrested
for assault on the officer, held for
several days, and required to spend
months on Oahu without housing or
income while they waited to appear
in court They have sued the City
of Honolulu and the police officer
they say harassed and wrongfully
arrested them By SassafrasLowrey
VIEWS/
()nLesbian
Invisibility
Who, or what, is erasing our spaces?
A Millennial's view of community.
BY SHEENA C. HOWARD
B
orn in 1983, I was in grade school
when I first turned to America On~
line for help with a math problem.
I was in high school when AOL chat rooms
reached their peak. I began college in 2001,
when biogs got their start (which led to the
launch of sites like Myspace.com and Black~
planet.com). I was a junior in college when
Massachusetts became the first state in
America to legalize same~sex marriage and
when Facebook launched as an online so~
cial networking site for college students. In
addition, during my formative years, queer
culture became visible in the media: Prime~
time sitcoms portrayed women kissing
(Roseanne), real~life lesbian women "came
out" on television (Ellen), and The L Word
premiered on HBO (I remember the parties
in my dorm room).
These technological and cultural shifts
have affected my entire generation (those
born between 1980 to 2000) and, by exten~
sion, our notion of community and connect~
edness. Baby Boomers (those born between
1946 and 1964) instilled in Millennials
the importance of higher education; thus,
Millennials are a more educated generation
(about 60 percent of adult Millennials have
attended college, compared with 46 percent
of Baby Boomers). Large numbers of young
queer women have found lifelong friends
during their college years, used the Internet
to extend their network of queer friends,
and enjoyed more public acceptance than
any generation before them. Institution~
al support on college campuses (LGBTQ
youth centers, straight~gay alliances) has in~
creased as well over the last 15 years. These
facts have impacted and continue to impact
the need for dedicated lesbian spaces across
the United States.
It goes without saying that lesbian bars are
COMMUNI
disappearing, even in big cities such as New
York and San Francisco, cities known for
their LGBTQ community. But lesbian bars
are no longer the only places for women to
meet and connect with other women. With
young people coming out earlier and earlier,
it is becoming easier for people to find and
connect with others like them-even before
they're of legal drinking age. Young people
can utilize LGBTQ and straight alliances at
the high school level, as well as community
centers that cater to LGBTQ youth.
Adult Millennials are beginning to settle
down and start families, and lesbian couples
are no different, especially as legal and health
practitioners make forming a family more
accessible. At the same time, young lesbians
are enjoying the benefits of being able to
come out earlier, and now they have instant
access to women their own age. With apps
and websites like Okcupid.com and Tinder,
young people do not need to confine them~
selves to lesbian bars. Therefore, lesbian bars
need to function differently and serve a different purpose to attract and keep patrons.
Dedicated lesbian spaces were neces~
sary during the mid to late 20th century
because, with the onset of the Women's
Liberation Movement, women were be~
ginning to freely explore their sexuality in
safe spaces and craved places where they
could feel comfortable loving other women.
There were literally no other ways to con~
nect with other queer women. Women of
color, largely on the margins of the Women's
Liberation Movement, created their own
collective spaces to meet other women who
loved women, such as The Combahee River
Collective and SALSA Soul Sisters. These
organizations felt like cohesive, active com~
munities only when women came together
in dedicated spaces. This has never been the
case for Millennials.
When I began college, I soon formed
a family of LGBTQ friends on campus.
These same friends continue to be a part
of my immediate and extended network.
We infiltrate spaces that are not dedicated
lesbian spaces because we feel comfortable
together in all spaces, especially on the East
Coast of the United States.
When I relocate, to places both suburban
and urban, each time I immediately log on
to Downelink.com or Okcupid.com to find
queer women in close proximity to me. I
have made lifelong friends through meeting
people on social networking sites. Today,
even when I travel from city to city, I almost
always post on Facebook, asking friends if
they know anyone in the city to which I am
traveling. It isn't necessary to seek out ales~
bian bar.
The Millennial generation is also the
most racially diverse. This fact cannot be
disentangled from how lesbian and gay
bars feel-they are often racially homoge~
nous, classist, and transphobic. Owners of
the lesbian dedicated spaces (and events)
20
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
that remain viable or are successful are se~
rious about reaching the young and pow~
erful demographic of 18~ to 34~year~olds,
offering themed parties on dedicated days,
using their spaces to host parties from dif
ferent organizers, encouraging events that
integrate social media and networking, and
ensuring a space where everyone feels com~
LESBIAN BARS ARE
DISAPPEAR!NG
ALL ACROSS THE
COUNTRY EVEN IN
BIG CITIES SUCH
AS NEW YORI<AND
SAN FRANCISCO,
CITIES l<NOWN
FOR THEIR LGBTQ
COMMUNITY
''
fortable, particularly along the lines of race
and gender identity. But increasingly, lesbi~
an clubs in gayborhoods that have become
gentrified cannot sustain a clientele: Outra~
geous rents result in cover charges and over~
priced drinks that deter many young queers.
While queer Millennials prefer to live
in dense, diverse areas where social inter~
action is just outside their front door, they
are creating this territory outside the down~
town areas that have traditionally been 'gay
ghettos:' And because Millennials are so
well educated, they also boast the largest
amount of student loan debt, and secure the
lowest paying first jobs of any generation so
far. Therefore, you can find dense numbers
of queer women in Philadelphia, but not
in the gayborhood. They are in West Phil~
adelphia, and from that area the dedicated
gayborhood that the city created downtown
is somewhat inaccessible. In Detroit, there
is a large queer community 15 minutes out~
side of downtown, in a neighboring suburb.
In New York, it is Brooklyn-not Manhat~
tan-that is known for its queer scene. This
trend can be seen across several other cities,
including Washington, D.C.
This is not to say that Millennials are
not melancholy about the disappearance of
lesbian spaces and 'gayborhoods:' But while
some may argue that the lesbian commu~
nity is vanishing, it has really just changed
based on technological, economic, political,
and demographic shifts. Queers of all ages
need community. But how we create, find,
and sustain it is not the same as it once was.
Viva Ilenrielta Iludson!
Why one of New York City's last lesbian bars is thriving.
BY MELANIE BARKER
O
ne day in 1990, lesbian entrepreneur
Minnie Rivera was having a drink
at New York lesbian watering hole
Crazy Nanny's (since dosed). The bartender
was "funny and witty and she knew how to
mix a good drink;' recalls Rivera. Later, when
she thought of opening a lesbian bar, Rivera
approached that witty bartender, Lisa Cannistraci. By 1991, Henrietta Hudson was born.
Unlike other dyke bars, often with names inspired by lesbian sex, Henrietta's was intended
to evoke a long-lived lesbian bar, historic even.
The name feminizes the famous river, named
after Henry Hudson, which lies two blocks
West of Hudson Street. "I wanted something
that was timeless, that could have been from a
hundred years ago, or a hundred years in the
future;' says Cannistraci. Still, the women are
frequently asked, 'Which one of you two is
Henriettar'
Since opening, there have been many challenges, one of which was lesbian chic and the
numerous Manhattan bars it spawned. "We
opened in 1991 when
the Clit Club was on fire;'
remembers Cannistraci.
Instead of fearing competition, Cannistraci and
Rivera became more creative. Over the years they
reinvented the bar to keep
up with the times. "Were
known as the Madonna of
lesbian bars;' laughs Cannistraci. But perhaps the
biggest change has been
marriage equality. "Lesbians can now go make out
at an Applebees and stay
local;' notes Cannistraci.
"So you have to give them
a reason to come into the
West Village and go to
Henrietta Hudson:'
But who, really, wants
to make out in Applebees-potentially in front
of homophobes? "I like to
be around women;' says
Rivera, who is in her late 60s. "Even if times
change and we can get married and go to
straight places and hang out, being amongst
women is a special thing for me, and Henrietta Hudson provides that:'
A lesbian bar provides community, and
Cannastraci reveals that the bar has not
only helped keep its neighborhood safe; it
gets behind local causes, such as social services, sports leagues, at risk LGBTQ youth,
not-for-profits, and animal rescue."We are a
bar with a conscience;' she says."Our reach
is much further than our little corner of the
West Village:'
As for Millennials: they seem to be the
backbone of Henrietta Hudson's current clientele."28 years of age, educated, out to their
families, confident, got their act together;'
says Cannistraci. They want excitement and
she delivers: decent drinks, good DJs, good
music, karaoke, clever hosts, burlesque, drag
kings, speed dating parties, bachelor( ette)
parties, The L Wordtrivia, and coming up, a
BEINGAMONGST
WOMEN IS A SPECIAL
THING FOR ME, AND
HENRIETTAHUDSON
PROVIDESTHAT
''
big Valentines Day party. "We create an experience that's interactive, where you don't just go
order a drink and stand around;' says Cannistraci. "We provide a stage;' adds Rivera.
About fiveyears ago, Rivera and Cannistraci realized that Henrietta's status as an iconic
bar was hurting business so they revamped the
space, the website, the nights, even the logo,
brought on some new enthusiastic staff, and
called it the All New Henrietta Hudson. "It
took about a year but now it'sjust really magnificent, like it was when it first opened. It's
that exciting again. It's electric. I love it. I love
young people;' says Cannistraci, who collaborates with the women behind popular lesbian
nights Hot Rabbit, Miss Mugshot, and Siren.
"They're a lot of fun;' agrees Rivera. "It's really nice because they are young and have their
own style,but we have the experience:' Cannistraci adds, "They teach us, we teach them. It's
really based on mutual respect. If I don't have
what you want, and theres a really good party
that night, I'll send you to that party. We don't
hold our customers hostage:'
With the blessing of the managing agent
and the co-op board, Henrietta's has renewed
its lease for another 15 years. After that, Rivera
notes proudly, the bar will be nearly 40 years
old. And as for that supposedly unbridgeable
generation gap? Not at Henrietta's. "I see a lot
of camaraderie between older and younger
lesbians at the bar. They go to dinner together, they go to the movies together, they totally
hang out together;' says Cannistraci. "It's really
about building relationships and maintaining
them:' (henriettahudson.com)
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
21
Lesbian Leanings
Can I make the leap from bi to lez?
BY LIPSTICK
& DIPSTICK
Dear Lipstick & Dipstick:
I am really confused. I have been defining myself as bi until
now because I like both men and women, but I'm starting
to think I'm just a lesbian. The truth is, I am attracted to
men romantically, but not so much sexually. I like men and I
feel attracted to some, even sexually aroused, but, to put it
bluntly, I don't really like penises-whereas I like women both
romantically and sexually, and I have no problem with any
part of the female body. So, am I bi, lesbian, bi-romantic, or
what? - Lilly Label
BE OPEN, RATHER
THAN BOXING
YOURSELF IN
THESE ARE
AMAZING TIMES
WE LIVE IN
''
you'll find a hot trans guy with everything you
love about men, but no penis. Maybe you'll fall
for a woman and have great sex every day until
you die. Be open, rather than boxing yourself in.
These are amazing times we live in. Be the one
and only you and your perfect match will find
his, her, or hir way to your heart.
Dipstick: Lipstick, remember that old T-shirt I
about Lilly's label, I, frankly, don't. I say, just be
used to wear, "Labels are for jars, not people"?
you. Maybe I'm old and have seen too many
Lipstick: Why yes, Dipstick, I do have a strong
people struggle with their identity, but we've
opinion about Lilly's label. Your orientation is
Lipstick: Yes! I think it saw its demise at the
made so many gains in the past few years
simple, LL, but you can't see the forest for the
2006 Boise Gay Pride Parade, when someone
that I don't think these little nuances matter.
trees. Dip brushed upon it, my dear-you
bumped into you with a rainbow snow cone.
Love who you love-that's the whole point,
OPEN. You're totally in touch with your delicious
are
right? You can't know what your future will
sexuality and that's cause for celebration! Pop
Dipstick: I never could get that green stain
bring. Maybe you'll fall in love with a won-
the bubbly. Forget calling yourself bisexual or
out. While I'm sure Lipstick has a strong opinion
derful man whose penis you enjoy. Maybe
gay or straight or bi-romantic (that's a new one!).
22
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
VIEWS/
The only box you should be trying to get into
connection remains tenuous. You're still reeling
is the hot babe you spotted at the coffee shop.
from the unexpected consequences of what
Forget labels. That shit doesn't matter. What
was supposed to be a fun and innocent ex-
matters is what you feel in your heart (and
ploration. Of course you're nervous. What will
betwixt your legs, of course-we're
happen this time when a third person comes
not talking
about friendship here). To commemorate your
into your room? You're probably wondering,
new, all-encompassing, OPEN identity, close
Why is she so willing to let the monster back
your eyes and repeat after me: ''I'm a sexy ba-
into your bed, when you've barely recovered
dass and I'm right where I need to be. I will not
from the last tryst. Brittney, I hate to break this
worry about being anything but open. Labels
to you but, despite all that you and Shannon
shmabels. Sexuality is alive, a river of fluidity, so
have going for you, I am not convinced that
I will flow with it and be open to the individual.
the two of you are compatible in the long run.
Forever and ever, until the day I die. Amen."
It's not about your jealousy or wanting to be
the only one to please her. It's about what you
Dear Lipstick & Dipstick: My name is Brittney
ultimately want in a partner-someone
and I'm 25 years old. My girlfriend, Shannon,
happy with what she has at home, or someone
who is
and I have been together for five years. We
who continually wants to introduce new lovers
work really well together and our sex is out of
into the mix. One of you needs to choose,
this world! A few months ago, we tried bringing
TC-either she gives up this fancy lifestyle, or
another woman into our relationship and it
you walk.
did not go well. We ended up taking a break
because I couldn't handle them being in love.
Lipstick: Oh Brittney, how in the world has
I give every ounce of myself to Shannon, and
your heart survived this long? You deserve
there's no way I could have feelings for this
some sort of emotional resilience award.
other woman. We've had threesomes in the
I've got more tough truth to dish out: Not all
past, but it was just sex, no feelings! Feelings
human beings-in this physical manifesta-
suck! Shannon and I are back together and
tion-are
things are going great, except now she keeps
people, like you and me, embrace the idea of
meant to be monogamous. Some
bringing up the fact that she wants to sleep
monogamy. It beats with the rhythm of our
with other people. I get so anxious and angry.
heart. We find an amazing connection, fall in
This sounds stupid, but I was the only one to
love, and we don't want to share. Hallelujah,
ever make her orgasm and then that other
sisterl Some people, however, like Shannon,
woman came right in and conquered I I was
are not programmed that way. Variety is the
pissed! Why am I so jealous and selfish that I
spice of their life, and I have to give Shannon
want to be the only one to please her? Do you
props for owning her non-monogamous
think there is a way to make things work out
blood and not simply cheating on you behind
without one of us being miserable or missing
your back. Unfortunately, because Shannon's
out on something she needs? I am so lost. If we
been so forthright about her desires, and has
both agree that our sex is great, then why does
communicated this clearly, as Dip said-and
she want other people? - Three's Company
I think she hit the nail on the head-it comes
down to you deciding if this is the person you
Dipstick: TC, TC, TC. I can feel your heart-
want to be in a relationship with. The decision
ache and pain through the lines of this
is yours. Women, in general, have a really hard
letter. Relationships are fucking hard work.
time keeping "feelings" out of the bedroom, so
Sometimes, and maybe even daily, we need to
be mindful of this in the future and be a little
negotiate and renegotiate what we want, what
gentler with yourself, OK? Opening up a rela-
we're comfortable with, what our deal breakers
tionship is super-dangerous territory for souls
are. I get that you love Shannon. You've been
like yours. This is a teachable moment. Listen
together quite a long time, and it sounds
carefully to your heart and make different
like you two have something special going
choices in the future. As Oprah says:
on-most
When you know better,
of the time. But then there is this
one thing. It's not a little thing, like whether she
you do better.
picks up her socks or puts the lid back on the
toothpaste. This is a big thing. Might I say, the
biggest? You find yourself in a position where
Do you have a burning
you need to decide-is
question for Lipstick
this a deal breaker?
Not all relationships could have survived what
& Dipstick? Write to
you two seem to have weathered, but your
ask@lipstickdipstick.com
LIPSTICK+DI
PS
HJislory in the Making
The best reads of 2015 celebrate lesbian heroes and their legacies.
• 'fl1e11Co111eslJa,~ri,1ge: U11itedStales
t-,. ll 7i11dso1~
,111dtl1e Def eat of DO~lI~\
By Roberta Kaplan with Lisa Dickey (Norton)
and of course Windsor, who wrote the
foreword and contributed to the chap~
ters about her life. It was when Kaplan
started outlining the chapters that it be~
came apparent to her that she "couldn't
tell the story of the 'incredibly dramatic
seachange' (as Justice Scalia put it) that
we've all experienced without explaining
that in the context of my own life:'
Recently, Kaplan told a radio host that
she believed God, or at least destiny, had
played a hand in winning the case. The
book reveals that as a young woman
struggling to come to terms with her sex~
uality, Kaplan had sought treatment from
Windsor's wife, Thea Spyer, a respected
therapist. The help Spyer gave Kaplan
E
die Windsor
and her New
York attorney
Roberta
Ka~
plan became lesbian household
names when they joined forces to defeat
DOMA and effectively made marriage
equality a reality in the U.S. In doing so
they changed countless people's lives, in~
eluding my own. Then Comes Marriage
is a well written and compelling behind~
the~scenes account of exactly what went
into building the historic argument that
went before the Supreme Court to be~
come the winning case-and what went
into building the personalities of the key
players in this drama.
''I'd always thought that it was im~
portant to 'set the record straight' and for
people to know what really happened and
how we did it;' Kaplan tells me about why
she agreed to write the book. "I wanted it
to be an honest account for the historical
record:' She was assisted by Lisa Dickey,
24
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
was both essential and fateful. Later, Ka~
plan repaid Spyer's kindness by taking
on the Windsor case. "One of the things
that made coming out so hard for me
was my Jewish background and faith and
the incredible fear I remember having as
a young person about losing that com~
munity should I ever come out and live
openly as a gay person;' Kaplan reveals.
This fear was justified. She describes in
the book how she inadvertently came
out to her parents while they were visit~
ing from Ohio during New York Pride.
At the news of her daughter's sexuality,
Kaplan's mother started beating her own
head against a wall. This was precisely the
disapproval and alienation that Kaplan
REVIEWS/
had feared, and "was a very big factor in
my early life and in terms of being the late
bloomer that I was in terms of coming
out;' Kaplan tells me.
Nevertheless, Kaplan's Jewish upbring~
ing was instructive, particularly the idea
of tikkun olam, "this real sense that we're
here on this planet not just to love peo~
ple, enjoy life, and enjoy the passage of
time, but also to try to repair the world
in whatever way we can while we're here;'
she says. In defeating DOMA, Kaplan
and Windsor (and Spyer, in absentia)
have healed many thousands of gay lives.
Kaplan won't take all the credit: she be~
lieves that America would have one day
have had marriage equality with or with~
out the Windsor case, but she concedes
that "there was no way we were going
to get marriage equality nationwide un~
til we successfully destroyed DOMA. I
think Edie had a huge impact in helping
to change the dialogue and the dynamic
nationwide, both legally and culturally:'
Then Comes Marriage unfolds like
a thriller, complete with compelling
'characters; intrigue and high stakes as
Kaplan, Windsor, and other important
players such as Mary Bonauto bring their
A~game. It places the reader at the heart
of the action: You'll be enthralled at how
quickly the clock ticks, and yet how time
drags on for the plaintiff; how close we
come to not winning, and yet how fitting
it is that we win-an especially sweet vie~
tory for Kaplan who has a wife and child.
Kaplan tells me she has "little patience"
for the people in our community who
were arguing that marriage equality was
not the cause we should be fighting for. "I
understand that being married is difficult
and I would never presume to tell any
human being that they should or should
not get married. I also understand, par~
ticularly among feminists, the cultural
resistance-marriage
has been seen as
a sexist, gendered institution. However,
putting that all aside, the fact of the mat~
ter is, that for better or for worse, the way
that our society recognizes long~term
commitment between two people and as~
signs rights, responsibilities, and benefits
based on that long~term commitment, is
through marriage. You could never have
had full equality for gay people under the
law until you had gay marriage. Our so~
ciety would not be able to recognize the
true equality of gay people as who we are,
BO
which is who we love, without recogniz~
ing equality in marriage:'
Then Comes Marriage privileges us
with insights into the workings of Ka~
plan's heart and mind, both as a lawyer
and as a member of the LGBT commu~
nity; she battles the technicalities of the
U.S. court system, navigating its blind
spots and its loopholes, while parsing her
own role in history. Each chapter builds
to the climactic ruling in which Justice
Kennedy's 26~page opinion argues for the
"equal dignity" of same~sex marriages. It's
a narrative that, in the end, elevates us all.
We won marriage equality, but is the
fight for equal rights also won:1 Kaplan
knows there is more work to do, partic~
ularly for LGBT homeless youth, and
the LGBT elderly. But that advocacy,
she says, will be built on the baseline of
equality under the law that legal marriage
afforded us. Now, Kaplan is intent on
knocking down another piece of discrim~
inative legislation: Mississippi is the only
state left that doesn't allow gay couples
to adopt children. "The case is before the
judge, we're waiting on a decision, fingers
crossed;' she says. Somehow, I think the
case is in good hands. [MerrynJohns]
Gitti11gs:<l,1y J,io11ee,~
• IJa,~1,,,,~,1,
By Tracy Baim (Create Space)
I
•
1$f!tlAtS
was a teenager when I first met
Barbara Gittings. She was already
an iconic figure in Philadelphia
m the years post~Stonewall. Meeting
her changed my life. She was my intro~
duction to lesbian activism: Because of
her, I never knew any other lesbian life.
Gittings was a contemporary of my par~
ents, but felt like a peer. She was tall and
sturdy and always looked serious, but
she had a ready laugh and was quick to
express outrage about anything that op~
pressed those she called "my people:' She
favored embroidered blouses and cordu~
roy pants, and she was devoted, utterly
and implicitly, to lesbians and gay men
and the cause of our equality. While
my parents were activists in the Civil
Rights Movement, Gittings was one of
the leaders of something new and very
different-the
( then) Gay Liberation
Movement. I had no idea that she'd been
an activist in the decades before I met
her.
In her latest in a series of biographies
of leaders of the gay and lesbian civil
rights movement, Windy City Times ed~
itor and writer Tracy Baim focuses on
the groundbreaking work Gittings did
for early lesbian and gay rights organiza~
tions such as Daughters of Bili tis and the
Homophile Action League. Gittings also
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
25
MEETING
BARBARA
GITTINGS
CHANGED MY
LIFE SHE WAS MY
INTRODUCTION
TO ACTIVISM.
''
played a pivotal role in getting the Amer~
ican Psychiatric Association (APA) to
delete homosexuality from its Diagnos~
tic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders (DSM).
Born in 1932 in Vienna, the daugh~
ter of a diplomat in the Foreign Service,
Gittings asserted there was never a time
when she was not a lesbian. By the time
she was 23, she was working with Daugh~
ters of Bilitis (DOB) and pressing for
lesbians to come out of the closet and de~
dare themselves, even though it was the
height of McCarthyism and there was a
strong push to have homosexuals impris~
oned. Gittings believed that DOB's mag~
azine, The Ladder, which was founded in
1956 and of which she became editor in
1963, should have been used to challenge
the "experts" who defined homosexuality
as a mental illness and who Gittings as~
serted were the foundation for anti~gay
attitudes in society.
For her part, Gittings was always out,
which made her a logical choice to be
mother of a movement. But in its weak~
est moment, DOB shoved Gittings out.
Her efforts to get the country's only les~
bian organization to address the target~
ing of homosexuals by the government
26
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
and the psychiatric community was seen
as moving too far, too fast. Gittings took
her passion elsewhere.
When I first met Barbara I was 15
and she'd already been protesting pub~
licly for the rights of "homosexuals" for
two decades. In the 1950s, she'd been out
in front of the Liberty Bell at Indepen~
dence Hall-a
national landmark and
one of the most public of spaces in Phil~
adelphia, swarmed with tourists every
day of the week-in her sleeveless dress
and short hair. She looked like some~
body's car~pooling mom, except her sign
read "Homosexuals Should Be Judged
as Individuals:' Gittings also partnered
with gay activist and Homophile Action
League co~founder Frank Kameny to
lead actions against the Defense Depart~
ment and the Civil Service Commission,
which had banned "homosexuals" from
jobs.
In those days, the world viewed "ho~
mosexuals" as "sick" and "dangerous:'
Gittings was looking for a way to change
that perception. The way in, she believed,
was to get the APA to stop using such
terms. A 1964 report from the New York
Academy of Medicine had called homo~
sexuality a "preventable and treatable
illness:• Gittings queried that presump~
tion, writing, "It's a reminder of the sly,
desperate trend to enforce conformity by
a 'sick' label for anything deviant:'
The APA was having a conference in
Philadelphia. Gittings raised money for
a booth with a banner that read "Gay,
Proud, and Healthy: The Homosexual
Community Speaks;' where homosex~
uals would kiss and where she would
hand out literature; she arranged a pan~
el on which she, Kameny, two straight
psychiatrists, and a gay psychiatrist who
appeared masked, spoke about homosex~
uality.
After Gittings's actions, "homosexual~
ity" was removed from the DSM. A coup
for Gittings that impacted every lesbian
and gay man in America, and for which
we all owe her a debt of gratitude.
Barbara Gittings: Gay Pioneer details
all of her activism and its import from
the 1950s until her death in 2007, from
breast cancer, at the age of 74. The book
also contains a chapter on Gittings's 46~
year relationship with the photojournal~
ist Kay Tobin Lahusen, who participated
in Bairn's biography and provided doz~
ens of incredible photographs, many of
which are now archived in the Manu~
scripts and Archives Division at the New
York Public Library. We are so fortunate
that Lahusen never went anywhere with
Gittings without her camera-her
pho~
tographs are a history in and of them~
selves.
In 1999, in an interview, Gittings said,
"As a teenager, I had to struggle alone to
learn about myself and what it meant
to be gay. Now, for 48 years, I've had
the satisfaction of working with other
gay people all across the country to get
the bigots off our backs, to oil the closet
door hinges, to change prejudiced hearts
and minds, and to show that gay love is
good for us and for the rest of the world,
too. It's hard work-but
it's vital, and it's
gratifying, and it's often fun!"
Kameny called Gittings the mother of
the movement. To those of us who knew
her, she was that and more-an
indom~
itable force determined that straight so~
ciety should recognize lesbians and gay
men as their sisters and brothers-as
we
so often quite literally are. Bairn's book
explains and explores just how much this
one lesbian did for an entire community
and how much more rich and full all our
lives are as a consequence. [Victoria A.
Brown worth]
• 1 1te(~ay Reiiolutio11:'fl1e Sto,~y of tl1e sr,~uggle
7
By Lillian Faderman (Simon & Schuster)
L
illian Faderman
is one of
America's major historians and
she is the historian of lesbian
lives in America. Her books include To
Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have
Done for America-A
History; Chloe
Plus Olivia: An Anthology of Lesbian
Literature from the 17th Century to the
Present; Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers:
A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America; and Surpassing the
Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and
Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present.
Faderman's latest book, The Gay
Revolution: The Story of the Struggle, is
perhaps her most prodigious effort yet,
but this time she focuses not just on
lesbians-this
is a massive history of
the gay movement in America, which
covers our collective gay and lesbian
history from the pre-Stonewall
days
through to now. Faderman approaches
it with diligence, tenacity, and just the
right touch of awe.
This is material we should all be familiar with, but since lesbian and gay
history isn't taught anywhere but the
random college gender studies course,
how could wer Even assiduous students
and writers of LGBT history will find
new information in The Gay Revolution.
Faderman combines years of research
and scholarship with brisk, colloquial,
and highly readable prose, luring the
reader in with stories about everything
from blackmail and blackballing in the
1940s to a post-DADT
military honor
for a lesbian-replete
with her partner
and parents.
Over the course of this 800-page
book, Faderman details specific points
in the evolution of the gay and lesbian
civil rights movement. The battle, as
Faderman lays it out, is almost a class
struggle-"the
people" (lesbians and
gay men) versus society's hierarchy,
those with the power to keep us closeted forever with threats of incarceration,
medicalization,
discrimination,
and
more. Lesbians and gay men are pitted
against every major network in America: The press demonizes us in service
to the courts, the military, the schools,
and the psychiatric community.
In over 100 interviews and countless
bits and pieces of archival material, Faderman details how lesbians and gay
men were treated as pariahs-pathologized and psychiatrically profiled as
dangerous, unstable, even treasonous.
Lesbians and gay men were committed
to psychiatric hospitals against their
will ( as I was by my parents when I was
a teenager). The FBI could keep fat files
on "known homosexuals:'
Bars were
raided and the patrons arrested and
charged; lawyers and police would then
blackmail these same people. Literally thousands of lesbians and gay men
were arrested just for being themselves.
Being homosexual was itself a crime.
As Faderman lays out lesbian and gay
history in America, we were and are in
a battle for our very lives, and she explains how and elicits testimony from
the victims, the survivors, the activists,
names lost to history and rediscov-
LITERALLY
THOUSANDS
OF LESBIANS
AND GAY MEN
WEREARRESTED
JUSTFOR BEING
THEMSELVES.
''
ered by her. One comes away from this
book knowing so much more about "the
struggle," how it all started, who did the
work, and what still needs to be done
to make us equal citizens of our own
world. A valuable and worthy addition
to lesbian and gay history and an immensely compelling and engaging read.
[Victoria A. Brownworth]
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
27
S
weden. 1632. The Thirty
Years' War rages on between
Catholics
and Protestants,
between the nation~states of
the north and the Holy Roman Em~
pire. The Swedish king has fallen in
battle, leaving his mentally deranged
wife to care for their daughter, Kristi~
na, who is to take the throne upon her
18th birthday.
Sound intriguing? Well, it should.
Based on the true story of Queen
Kristina of Sweden, The Girl King
28
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
explores the life of the beautiful royal
girl who was raised as a boy, and was
adored by her kingdom-until
she ab~
dicated the throne and lived as a Cath~
olic in Rome. Played to great acclaim
by screen legend Greta Garbo in 1933,
this biopic is very different, and offers
a fresh and fascinating face in Swedish
actor Malin Buska.
"Queen Kristina was, and still is,
one of the most inspiring and con~
troversial women in time," Buska tells
Curve. "So, of course, I was very excit~
ed to play the part."
After her coronation, Kristina takes
the throne and tries to negotiate a
peace, not only for the good of her
people but also for their foes. As Swe~
den's first female sovereign, Kristina
embodies a modern sensibility in her
longing to bring the war between the
religions to an end. For this, she is rid~
iculed by the men of the High Court,
who are skeptical of the new queen's
aspirations.
Preparing for such a role took Buska
on quite a journey. "I read her diaries
and almost everything I could find
on her," says the actor. "I travelled to
Rome and spent almost half a year on
my own, living in a little cottage, just
reading. I didn't use the Internet or a
cell phone. The most important part
of my preparation
was to try to take
Kristina and place her in my heart and
soul." Buska is a natural for the role
of the queen. She gives off an intense
beauty, compelling as well as fearsome,
in some way.
Kristina responds to her awaken~
ing sexual desire for Countess Ebba
Sparre (Sarah Gadon) by making her a
Lady~in~Waiting, then elevates her to
the position of Personal Bed Warmer.
I'm sure you can all figure out Count~
ess Ebba's proper job description!
The tensions
between the High
Court and the queen begin to ig~
REVIEWS/
nite when Kristina decides to invade
Prague, a bold move on her part since
she has already announced a plan for
peace. Although
highly dubious of
the queen's ideas, the High Court fol~
lows her orders and the army advanc~
es on Prague. These tensions grow to
a raging blaze when Kristina and the
countess are caught in the throes of
passion on the night the soldiers re~
turn from war. Ultimately, the love
these two women share is repudiated
as ludicrous in the kingdom.
The Girl King is best described as
a film for the ages, replete with histo~
ry, it is also a portrait of a fascinating
woman. "I felt very connected to her
character," says Buska. "Kristina
is
both strong and vulnerable at the same
time, which feels so human:'
The film emphasizes the need for
self discovery, not just in love but in
life as well. Kristina, from a young age,
was given a country and the power to
run it, without much guidance from
the men of the High Court. Through~
out, we see her grow into a beautiful
and strong woman as she begins to
embrace her yearning for love and
The Girl King portrays
knowledge.
one of the most powerful women of
her era, but also shows us that she is
a modern woman-full
of questions
and curiosities that she so desperately
wants to explore.
Director
Mika Kaurismaki
takes
us on an epic journey back in time to
relive the moments that made Kristi~
na who she was. Along with beautiful
cinematography
of the countryside
and settings that replicate the Swedish
kingdom, I must point out the opulent
and authentic 17th century costuming,
designed by Marjatta Nissinen.
If period pieces ( with a touch of
swordplay and bodice~ripping action)
Fl
tickle your fancy, look no further.
"I think Kristina is one of the most
insp1rmg,
extravagant
personalities
of all time," says Buska. "Love is not
defined by gender or sexuality; it is
about the soul. Queen Kristina didn't
care what others thought of her-she
was a true free spirit. I wish all of us
had even an ounce of the same courage
she had."•
The Girl King is available from
Wolfe Video.com.
Sand
Dollars
HOT
FLICKS»
BYMERRYNJOHNS(B,
e;,,.
nh
Jr~s)
C
"u
•
1ct
The coastal town of Las Terrenas in the Dominican Republic is the setting
for the most unlikely lesbian romance of the year. Noeli (Yanet Mojica), a young
Dominican girl, relies on tourists and friends with benefits to support her and her
boyfriend, who poses as her brother. One of her benefactors is Anne (Geraldine
Chaplin), a much older European expat spending her retirement on the island.
She is as enchanted with Noeli as she is with the island. They meet in Anne's
luxe tropical bungalow. Together they swim, dance, play, touch. Their relationship
is physical, and Anne seems besotted with Noeli, lost in the sensuality of their
connection. She wants it to work, otherwise she will, reluctantly, return to
Europe. But sometimes Anne looks tortured by Noeli, her face like a wizened
Pierrot-especially when Noeli asks for money, and expects gifts. We see the
heartbreak and bewilderment on Anne's face as she understands she's being
made a convenience of. And it's clear that Noeli's interest in "the old lady" seems purely financial. However, as time goes on, and her relationship
with her boyfriend goes awry, her feelings for Anne intensify. This intriguing film is about crossing borders: physical, geographical, cultural, and
emotional. It's also an unconventional portrayal of May-December same-sex love. It's stunning to see Chaplin's Anne so expressive with her aging
body, every wrinkle and freckle visible on her fair skin in the Caribbean sunlight. She's relishing her physicality in the last chapter of her life-and
the physicality of another woman who may hurt her. Or will she? The film asks, is love an illusion if it's one-sided? When does an arrangement
become an attachment? Who's on top-age or youth? Sand Dollars presents a side of the Dominican Republic-and of women-that we don't
often get to see on screen. Enjoy the beautiful scenery, the soundtrack featuring merengue and bachata, and two remarkable performances.
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
29
W
hen the topic of all~female bands
comes up, most people remember
the Bangles, the Go~Gos, the Runaways.
Rarely do they trace history's footsteps all
the way back to Fanny (or its predecessor,
the Svelts), overlooking a key moment in
the history of rock chicks. So, it's a story
guitarist/ songwriter-and
Fanny found~
30
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
50s and 60s, I keenly felt the responsibility
to pass these stories on. This is our virtu~
al campfire;' she continues. "I know it will
help women remember what good work so
many have done, and I spend the first half
of the book talking about how we did it ...
these naYveand innocent girls in the mid
'60s. How did girls born into those restric~
tive times learn to play electric guitar, bass,
keyboards, and drums, do it well, and do it
together? To have the 'eggs' to actually start
a band? That was a big deal! Who were all
these girls?"
Who, indeed? The Svelts began in
1965, with Millington, her sister Jean,
Kathy Terry, and Cathy Carter forming
the core. Numerous lineup changes fol~
lowed, as did other changes. As Millington
explains, "The Svelts became an amalgam
of other all~girl bands: the Women, the
California Girls, the Freudian Slips, and
Wild Honey:' By the end of 1969, the
Svelts had become Wild Honey, which
morphed into Fanny. Millington was such
a force that Guitar Playermagazine named
her the "hottest female guitar player" in the
business. Knowing full well that she was
more than that, how did Millington take
a large grain
that so~called praise-with
of salt, or some healthy feminist outrage?
"I was kind of embarrassed, actually;'
she recalls. "The goal, actually, is to disap~
pear. I had a conversation with Amy Ray
about that once: What was your best mo~
ment onstage? I said, 'I don't remember,
because I always disappeared: We both
just looked at each other and laughed.
Because it's true. Bottom line, I don't have
the luxury of being outraged about being
called 'hottest female guitar player: If I
can't get with that, I better get off the bus!"
After Fanny ended in 1974, Milling~
ton carved out a place for herself in the
Women's Music Movement. "I got intro~
duced to the milieu of women's music
through Cris Williamson when I played
on Changer and the Changed in late '75,
and couldn't help but plunge right into
er-June Millington set out to tell in her
new memoir, Land of a Thousand Bridges. it;' Millington says. "That particular vor~
tex-and
that's how I seriously experi~
"Simply, I wanted to set the record straight;'
enced it-had
a lot of similarities with
Millington says. 'Tm the only one who can
rock and roll. It was wild! We were all
do it from the inside. As far as I know, I'm
calling up an energy that was ours from
the only one who was in at the beginning
long ago, and it was powerful:'
of Women in Rock [as we know it now].
As potent as the energy was, though,
That's a unique perspective, and as I hit my
REVIEWS/MU
I DON T HAVETHE
LUXURYOF BEING
OUTRAGEDABOUT
BEINGCALLED
THE HOTTEST
FEMALEGUITAR
PLAYER./
IF I CAN T GET WITH
THAT I BETTER
GET OFF THE BUS
1
1
1
the boundaries were equally restrictive. "I
couldn't help but notice that when I first
played drums live onstage with Cris in
'76, women complained, viewing it as a
'man's instrument: What? So that's where
I have to start, with something as primal
as that;' Millington notes. "So I've seen
a lot of reactions, changes, morphing ...
When I did the album Heartsong, Judy
Dlugacz [at Olivia Records] asked me
not to have any men play on the record:'
Millington and her longtime partner,
Ann Hackler, founded the Institute of
Musical Arts in 1986 to break down
some of those barriers, and to support
women and girls in their musical pur~
suits. The program continues to thrive
and expand, even as it marks its 30th
anniversary this year. IMA, more than
anything, is Millington's legacy, and be~
cause of its success she sees herself as
more than just an overlooked part of
rock history.
'Tm making my peace with it;' the
Buddhist
pract1t10ner
says, adding,
"IMA is the big'You're welcome' the uni~
verse has given back to me, and I so ap~
preciate it. I mean, thank you for giving
me hearing in at least one ear. For allow~
ing me to live through all the hardships
that being in an early all~girl band pre~
''
sented. For having my sister Jean in the
band from the very beginning, starting
with ukuleles. For allowing me to receive
Teachings, so I can pass on what I know
to the girls with at least a little wisdom.
For allowing me to breathe and live an~
other day, so I can give what, for me, is a
direct transmission:'
Those transmissions fill the pages of
Land of a Thousand Bridges, but the mem~
oir only takes the reader up to 1975, so
Millington is planning a sequel. Across
all those years and stories, what does
she think has been the biggest, best
highlight of a life very well lived? "Dis~
appearing
onstage, when everything
got electric ... But I knew, somewhere in
me, that people were watching. And we
were doin' it. Take that, world!"
(junemillington.com)
•
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
31
HOT
LICKS
))BYKELLYMCCARTNEY
2015 STATEMENT
OF OWNERSHIP
Publication Title: Curve.
Sara
Bareilles
Wnat
s nsde·Songs
from
Waitress
(f :)
Publication No. 0010-355.
Filing Date: Oct 1, 2015
Owner(s): Avalon Media LLC Po Box 467 New York
NY10034
SiIke Bader PO Box 467 New York NY 10034
It'snot oftenthat a popalbumopenswith the
singercooingaboutsugarandbutter,Thenagain,
it'snot oftenthat a popalbumcontainsthe songs
destinedfor a Broadwaymusical.Suchis the
case,though,with SaraBareilles'What'.s
Inside:
Songsfrom Waitress.Earlierthis year,Bareilles
was askedto composethetunesfor the musical
Waitressandshedelivereda collectionthat works
just as wellas a stand-alone,pseudoconcept
album.., bakingingredientlyricsandall.As shepoundsit allout on piano,Bareilles
stepsintothe variouscharacterswhichinhabitthe story,with a littlehelpfrom
JasonMrazontwo tunes.It'slongbeenevidentthat Bareilleshasa greatmelodic
popsensibility,so it'snowondershewas recruitedfor this particulartask.Andit'sa
testamentto hertalentthat sheso ablybridgedthe forms.
Publication Title: Curve.
Issue Date for Circulation Data: Nov 24.
Extent and Nature of Circulation: Average No
Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months:
A) Total No. Copies Net Press Run: 48,569. B) Paid
Patty
Griffin
(PrT ML0ir)
Ser ntofLove
Issue Frequency: Bi-monthly
Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/Jun, July/Aug, Sep/Oct, Nov/Dec
Number of Issues Published Annually: 6
Annual Subscription Price: $19.90
Complete Mailing Address: PO Box 467 New York NY 10034.
Contact Person: Silke Bader
Telephone: (415) 871-0569
Publisher: Silke Bader PO Box 467 New York NY 10034
Editor: Merryn Johns PO Box 467 New York NY 10034
Circulation. (By Mail and Outside the Mail) (1)
Mailed Outside-County Paid Subscriptions Stated
on Form 354110954; (2) Mailed In-County Paid
Subscriptions Stated on Form 3541: 0; (3) Paid
Distribution Outside the Mails Including Sales
rough Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors,
Counter Sales, and Other Paid Distribution outside
USPS:23,458; (4) Paid Distribution by Other
Classes of Mail_ rough the USPS:2,015 C) Total
Paid Distribution: 36,427. D) Free or Nominal
Rate Distribution by Mail and Outside the Mail:
(1) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies
included on Form 3541: 0; (2) Free or Nominal
Rate In-County Copies included on Form 3541: 0;
(3) Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other
Classes Mailed_ rough the USPS:59; (4) Free
or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail·
10,998. E) Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution:
11,057 F) Total Distribution: 47,484 G) Copies
Not Distributed: 897 H) Total 48,381 I) Percent
Paid 76%. Extent and Nature of Circulation/No.
Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing
Date A) Total No. Copies Net Press Run: 45,879. B)
Paid Circulation. (By Mail and Outside the Mail) (1)
Mailed Outside-County Paid Subscriptions Stated
on Form 3541: 9857; (2) Mailed In-County Paid
Subscriptions Stated on Form 3541: 0; (3) Paid
Distribution Outside the Mails Including Sales
_ rough Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors,
Counter Sales, and Other Non-USPS: 21,871;(4)
Paid Distribution by Other Classes of Mail_ rough
the USPS 1015. C) Total Paid Distribution 32,743.
D) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution (by Mail
and Outside the Mail): (1) Free or Nominal Rate
Outside-County as Stated on Form 3541: 0; (2)
Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies included on
Form 3541: 0; (3) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution
Mailed at Other Classes_ rough the USPS:35; (4)
Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail:
10,912.E) Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution·
10,947 F) Total Distribution: 43,690. G) Copies
Not Distributed: 1009. H) Total 44,699. I) Percent
Paid: 74.9%. Publication of Statement of
Ownership: Nov/Dec 2015
32
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
PattyGriffinhasneverbeenoneto colorinsidethe
musicallines.Jumpingfromherstark,acoustic
LivingwithGhostsdebutto herdense,rocking
Flaming
Redsophomoreset madethatclearfrom
theget-go.Onrecordssince,shehascarvedout
a soulfulsoundthat blendsGreenwich
Villagefolk,
centralTexascountry,Mississippi
Deltablues,and
NewOrleans
jazz.Servantof Lovebringsallof that
andmoreto bearinanincrediblysophisticated
song
cyclethat,whileperhapsnotimmediately
exoteric,isworththeextraeffort. Insome
ways,Servantof Lovefeelslikea bitof anartisticculmination
for Griffin.Despitethe
complexity
andaloofnessthataskthe listenerto work a littleharder,she'snotstretching
or straininghere.Rather,sheseemsrightat home,whetherinthedirtychugof
"Gunpowder,"
theslowburnof "Hurta LittleWhile,"or thewinsomeliltof "Riderof Days."
Robyn
&LaBagatelle
Magique
Love
s eer
.C 81. m.D1re1
Whilemost fans of Robyn'sBody Talkalbum
gravitatedtoward "Dancingon My Own"and "Call
YourGirlfriend,"one of the brightestlightsof that
2010effort was "U ShouldKnowBetter,"the
Swedishpop diva'senergeticcollaborationwith
SnoopDagg.Indeed,in collaborationis where
Robyndoes someof her best work. Perhaps
that's why last year's Do It AgainEPfound her
teamingup with Norwegianelectro-popmasters
Royksopp,whilethis latest EPpartners her with
keyboardistMarkusJagerstedtand producerChristianFalk,who passedaway
last year.Thefive songscontainedhereinwere built for the dancefloor. Their
pulsingbeatsand digitalbangshave"club"written all over them.All that's left to
do is turn on the disco ballandturn up the volume.
Lesley was a recurring guest
on The Mike Douglas Show
GET IT ON
Google play
CELEBRATING
A LIFETIME OF
WOME
ACHIEVE
O
ut of darkness comes light. It's
an old adage but one that might
apply to the life and art of Pa~
tricia Cornwell, America's most
successfulcontemporary crime writer.
Life these days sparkles for Cornwell:
Her books have sold more than 100 million
copies; she is happily married to Staci Ann
Gruber, an associate professor of psychiatry at
Harvard Medical School; her work takes her
around the nation and into the arms of ad~
venture. But it wasn't always so. Life has been
quite dark for this master of crime fiction.
Patricia Carroll Daniels, born in Miami
42
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
and raised in North Carolina, came from
a family fractured by emotional abuse and
mental illness. She ended up in the foster care
system, but went to college and worked hard
to establish hersel£ at times struggling with
her body image and her sexuality. She mar~
ried one of her English professors, Charles L.
Cornwell, who was 17 years her senior; they
separated in 1989. She was misdiagnosed
with bipolar disorder. She has been besieged
by legal problems, battling everything from
a DUI to a tangled accusation of plagiarism
launched by a lesser~known writer, Leslie
Sachs. (When the court found his claims to
be baseless, Sachs created a slanderous web~
site accusing Cornwell of many things, includ~
ing being a "neo~Nazi" lesbian with high~level
connections!) Add to this having to sue her
accountants for financial mismanagement
(Cornwell won the case), plus being the sub~
ject of a "tell~all"book, TwistedTriangle,
about
her affair with a married female FBI agent in
the 1990s (the tagline is ''A Famous Crime
Writer, a Lesbian Love Affair, and the FBI
Husband's Violent Revenge"),not to mention
disapproval from the British press for positing
her own theory about Jack the Ripper, and it's
clear that Cornwell has been a victim in her
lifetime, not unlike one of her own characters.
Her success, while making her rich and famous, has deepened the darkness with which
she engages during the course of her research.
When I speak to Cornwell, she sounds almost surprised that my line of questioning is
so sunny. But I don't wish to rattle skeletons.
There's plenty of scuttlebutt about Cornwell
online, if you want that. I want to know how
Cornwell-a
lesbian Southerner-became
incomparably successful in her field, and
what, in her heart, made it possible.
It was while working as a reporter for the
Charlotte Observerthat Cornwell, who always loved language, began covering crime.
Through her friendship with the evangelist
Billy Graham and his wife, Ruth Bell, Cornwell wrote her first published book, A Time
for Remembering:TheStory of Ruth Bell Graham, in 1983. After taking a job at the Office
of the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia,
where she worked for six years, first as a technical writer and computer analyst, Cornwell
churned out three detective novels-all of
which were rejected by publishers. But she
did not give up.
"The one secret that really helped me when
I started writing these books is that by the
time I realized my last book was going to be
totally rejected by everybody, I was well into
the next one. So I just kept going. And if I
hadn't done it that way, if I had waited to be
judged by the opinion of a handful of people, I
probably would've quit:'
Looking back, she acknowledges, 'Those
books should not have been published. I was
still trying to figure out what I was doing.
They were contrived stories, because I didn't
understand the real world of crime and violence. I take that back: It's not that I didn't
understand those things, it's that I didn't want
to write about them:'
Working with the byproducts of violence,
day after day-why would she also want to
write about it? "I didn't want to show you
what I was actually seeing, experiencing-not
only in my life,but in the work at the medical
examiner's office. It was so harsh and graphic and vivid and scary. I didn't want to write
about the monsters:'
And then she called up a female editor
who had rejected her books, and asked her if
she should just quit. The editor told her no,
and offered some advice that would serve
Cornwell well: "First of all, the lady medical
examiner is a minor character, but she's your
most interesting. Why don't you make her the
main character? And two, the stories you're
telling-is that what you see in the morgue2
I want to see what you see:' After that conversation, Cornwell got off the phone and asked
herself if she could go there-walk around in
Dr. Kay Scarpetta's bloodstained shoes and
show the world exactly what she sees in the
gruesome world of forensics.
'J\nd that was Postmortem,and that is what
I've done ever since, and that is why it works;'
says Cornwell. "Here's the thing: Whether it's
about social issues, human nature, crimewhatever you want to talk about-just try to
tell it like it is:'
A Scarpetta book is graphic and gory and
also fun to read because it hooks the reader
and lingers on the nitty-gritty: not just the
unexpected forensic details but also the characters, the way they talk, move, and think.
Cornwell lays bare their fears and deeds and
motives, no matter how horrible. Her latest
Scarpetta book, DepravedHeart,is no exception. I read the entire volume in two sittings.
Inspired by the Gothic novelist Wilkie Collins, Cornwell knows how to leave readers
craving the next installment. But the form and
the technique have become addictive for her,
too, and changed her as a person.
"In terms of how I live my life,how I think,
how I adapt to certain situations, yes, my experiences have absolutely changed me. For
one thing, when you see enough trauma ... I'm
extremely sensitive to violence and cruelty and
very aware of my surroundings because of the
thousands of cases that I've seen. I mean, I
know what kills people, both things that are
random and things that are really horrible,
and if you've seen that in the flesh enough, it
does change you:'
She won't let you in her car unless you wear
a seatbelt. It's not OCD, rather a touch of
PTSD. "Your brain gets programmed differently if you've been through certain experiences;' she says. But perhaps the most fascinating
result of Cornwell's on-the-job training is her
female characters: Dr. Kay Scarpetta, her
lesbian niece Lucy, and the hyper-villainous
Carrie Grethen.
"I don't know where they came fromnot any of em. I created them or channeled
them, or whatever you want to say, but they
also have created me. These characters have
helped me discover so much about mysel£ So
they make me better and I make them better.
It's very reciprocal:'
Before becoming a crime writer, Cornwell
was averse to science,dropping chemistry and
computer science in college.Now she reads up
on chemistry, flies a helicopter, studies surveillance, ballistics, and weaponry. "It's amazing
what you decide you can do, if you need it:'
When I think about Lucy and Carrieboth lesbians, both razor-smart, both FBItrained, both athletic-it's hard not to see the
similarities between them and Cornwell hersel£ Is she sure she doesn't know where they
come from2"1 really don't. There's not any one
character who is based on any one person
that I've ever even met, much less known. I'm
sure, ifl really thought about it, there must be
certain traits of people I knew along the way,
but no, that's what's so magical about fiction.
Sometimes these characters are like walk-on
actors-they just show up in your mind. And
some of them hang around for a long time
and some of them disappear. It's a magical
process that I really don't understand. But
the more you open yourself up to it and don't
try to control it, the better off you are and the
more it works for you:'
The Scarpetta books are visual, cinematic
almost, and it pains Cornwell that they have
not yet been adapted to the screen. "It's been
really,really frustrating. And it's not for lack of
trying, that's what a lot of people don't know:'
Cornwell reveals that the first Scarpetta option actually happened before the first book
even came out, in 1989. Since then, the project has 'gone from one production company
to another and it's become a mountain nobody can climb:'
I throw around casting ideas-Jodie Foster as Scarpetta, Kristen Stewart as Lucy.
Cornwell approves. She's keen to get across
the symbolic value of Lucy for lesbian readers.
"You have to look at Lucy as a little bit of a
metaphor for a young, modern femalewe've kind of gone from Nancy Drew to The
Hunger Games,so who are we, as immortally young women? There's a lot more going
on with women that age-20s and early
30s-than there was when I was at that age.
In terms of options and confusions-even
gender or sexual orientation-we're open to
think about these things in a way that-when
I was coming along you weren't gay,you were
simply a spinster. There was no such thing as
a gay woman. I'd never heard of such a thing
in the little town I grew up in. So we'vecome a
very long way in terms of what we can discover about ourselves and we can discuss:'
Lucy is strong, intelligent, and willful,
with the same ambiguity one might read into
Cornwell's biography, and she acknowledges
that Lucy 'can potentially be a bad, bad person, but part of embracing our power as human beings-I say this about women-part
of that is embracing the potential for evil and
the destruction that you can do.
"I mean, some of my worst characters are
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
43
women, and absolutely my best ones are. I've
always said Ia watch Charlize Theron play
anything, and one of the reasons that Char~
lize Theron is so powerful in Monster is that
you see a highly attractive, intelligent human
being reach into the deepest abyss in the soul
and pull out something that's ugly,something
that's just in them. But maybe we all have that
in us somewhere. And so I say that to women,
because we are striving very hard to be good,
to excel,to be the best in the world at what we
do, but part of understanding that is to look at
all the facets of who and what we are.
"Look for the monster in you, if you have
one. That's what Lucy represents. She is a bold
and unflinching look at what we are capable
of as women, and the difference between Lucy
and Scarpetta is Scarpetta has more of an in~
built sort of control system where she's not
going to cross certain boundaries that Lucy
would. But maybe if Scarpetta were born
20 years later, she would be crossing some of
those, too. It's hard to know:'
While Cornwell denies that her charac~
ters are avatars for hersel£ they are ways with
which to explore "stuff about me, too. What
am I capable of 2 And it's really important to
me, because I don't want to do harm. I've al~
ways been very self~scrutinizingabout, 'Is this
story OK for me to tell, or am I making prob~
lems worse?' And a couple of my books, like
Predator and Book of the Dead, where I went
to the third~person point of view,I started to
get a little wobbly in terms of not feeling com~
fortable. 'Maybe I went a little too far here,
these are too violent: So I know that I'm ca~
pable of doing things that are damaging, and
at the same time I don't want to, either. I guess
what I'm trying to say is it's a different way of
looking at empowerment. Women can be the
hero, but you can also be the worst person
that we'veever seen in literature:'
The narrative drive of Depraved Heart is
nothing if not a battle between good and evil,
and a battle of wills among its trio of female
protagonists. The author shares her charac~
ters' strong will. "That's one of the things that
I would particularly say to women: Do not be
passive, go out and do something, even if you
think it is tiny and small. But stay in motion,
be active,be fullof wonder, explore the world,
and ask questions that no one else ever has.
That's what I try to do:'
Though in the libelous mind of Leslie
Sachs, Cornwell remains a dark and danger~
ous figure, certainly on the phone, she is gen~
erous and open, speaking happily about the
sources of light in her life, especially love. She
''could not be more pleased" at the advent of
44
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
marriage equality in this country, even though
she married Staci Ann Gruber in Massachu~
setts back in 2005. Like many lesbians her age,
she didn't see the current advances in LGBT
rights coming. "I spend a lot of my time in
very rough~and~tumble worlds where they
don't really hang out rainbow flags.Very con~
servative areas where I'm doing firearms and
weapons research, hanging around mostly
very macho men. And I don't have any trou~
ble at all, never have, because we've alwaysjust
known each other as people. The rest of it
doesn't enter into it. Who they're married to
or who I'm married to-we're alljust people:'
But in Gruber she found the love people
IF NOTHING
ELSE HAPPENS
AS WE GET
OLDER, FOR
GOD'S SAKE,
TELL THE
TRUTH.
hope for."I certainly did. Aren't I lucky? And
it had nothing to do with gender, in terms of
beingjust lucky that you've found somebody
who is your soul mate. And that's the whole
thing with relationships-at the end of the
day, the two of you should make each of you
better and that is absolutely true with us:'
She and Gruber share similar beliefs, in~
terests, and causes, says Cornwell, who ap~
proves of Gruber's agenda to "leave the world
better than she found it" through psychiatry.
Even though the couple is rich, they priori~
tize non~materialistic goals. (Cornwell funds
scholarships and donates to several educa~
tional institutions.) And while she's enjoyed
a friendship with the Bush family and donat~
ed to the Republican Party, she's supported
Democratic candidates, too. Currently, she
thinks that Hillary Clinton is the most qual~
ified presidential candidate. "I think it's time
to have a woman president, for God's sake. It
can't be just any woman, but we need one. We
need a different perspective. Hello, it's time:'
When Cornwell turned 50, she had an
epiphany: It was time to come out of the
closet. "One of the best things I learned from
BillieJean King, probably 20 years ago-we
were sitting in a restaurant in New York City,
and we had this very discussion. I said, 'But
you know I don't really talk about it much, I
really don't want to discuss my private life like
that in public: She said, 'Wait till you turn 50,
you will feel very differently about everything,
including what you stand up and are count~
ed for: And you know what? She was right.
If nothing else happens as we get older, for
God's sake, tell the truth:'
With her 60th birthday around the corner,
I ask her if she expects another epiphany. "I
hope there's always going to be epiphanies. I
think the best gifr about getting older, is you
get insights. You're given little treasures you
wish you'd had a long time ago. The aging pro~
cess is not fun, and anyone who says it doesn't
bother them, it's hard for me to believe that's
true. I don't like it when my car gets dings and
dents and the tires wear out. So why should I
like getting older?
"But I do like the insights, the moments
where you have realizations that are just a
richness that you feel for knowing that, and
wishing you had known that a long time ago.
I always say I don't want to go back to being
in my 30s. I really don't. I don't want to live all
that again. I like who I am today. But I sure
wish I'd known back then what I know now.
But everybody says that ... I'm kind of glad we
can't edit our lives,because I don't think they'd
be what they should've been if we could edit
everything we did, like a film:'
We'd never have had Scarpetta if Cornwell
hadn't agreed to get her shoes a little bloody.
And neither of them shows signs of stopping,
in fiction or in real life."I plan when I'm 80
years old to drag my carcass off in my helicop~
ter flight helmet and wish everybody a good
day,"laughs Cornwell. "Women have got to
stop believing we lose our power as we get old~
er.There are other ways to have it. To adapt, to
take care of your health. There are certain re~
alities we need to take care 0£ particularly due
to the weather system known as hormones.
They usually pack up and walk off the job,
which is not very fair,but we don't have to take
this sitting down. We don't have to decide that
we have nothing to offer anymore because we
can't have children. We need to get reminded
that older women are sexy too, and part of it
is power and experience. So what, if you have
some lines on your facer Older men are sexy.
How come they are and we're notr It's the way
we're conditioned. I think we have to figure
out a way to rewrite that memo:'
And afrer 23 Scarpetta books, and a dozen
or so others, perhaps Cornwell isjust the per~
son to do it. (patriciacornwell.com)
Barbara Smith has fought oppression for 40 years.
BY MARCIE BIANCO
B
arbara Smith is the first to admit
she knows nothing about lesbian
culture, or celesbians, although
she's quick to add, "I find Rob~
in Roberts so charming!" The black lesbian
activist and scholar has been in the trenches
fighting for intersectional feminist justice
for over 40 years. Politics, not pop, resides in
Smith's heart.
"Cultural visibility and popularity in the
mainstream consciousness is not going to get
us where we need to go;' she explains. "We
need to look at the structural barriers at the
root of our oppressions:'
Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around,
a collection of essays documenting Smith's
years of activism, teaching, and learning, was
published by SUNY Press last year and won
the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for lesbian
memoir/ autobiography. The book's title is
taken from a Civil Rights Movement freedom
song. For Smith, the award was particularly
resonant, given the current racial tensions in
America. While giving a nod to black feminist
legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw, who coined
the term "intersectionality" in 1989, Smith
contends that the Combahee River Collective
Statement, written in 1977 by lesbian fem~
inists and feminists of color, was the first to
"talk about interlocking oppressions and the
simultaneity of oppressions, so that, today,'in~
tersectionality' rolls off the tongue of so many
people:'
She is pleased to see that the intersection~
al politics of the Combahee River Collective,
and of the lesbian~feminist movement of the
1970s, is alive today in the Black Lives Mat~
ter movement-the three founders of which
are Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal
Tometi. The first two of these women identify
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
45
as queer. Smith is appreciative of the women
behind the greatest social justice movement
of the 21st century. "While we are not living
under state-sanctioned segregation;' she notes
about the rise of BLM, "we're still living in a
segregated society.'
She points out that the contemporary cultural prevalence of identity politics also originated in the Combahee statement, but she
sees a difference in how the term was used
then and how it's wielded today. "We wanted
to legitimately look at the various elements of
our identity and forge a politics and a praxis
out of those intertwining identities-that's
what we meant about identity politics. We
didn't want to see people beat each other over
the head:'
"The thing is;' Smith continues, 'everyone
has an identity-historically, culturally, politically, and economically based-and you
can't get rid of that. You can't run away from
it. What we meant as feminists of color in the
Combahee was not that the only people who
are important are people like ourselves. The
reason why we asserted identity politics so
strongly at that time-at the time black women were so devalued and so marginalized that
nobody thought we counted for anythingwas that no one thought it was legitimate
for us to have our own political perspectives,
or that there was even a political perspective
to begin with. Where were black women to
stand? That was the point we were making:'
Smith's activism began in the 1960s when
she joined the Civil Rights Movement, and
has continued into the 2010s; most recently,
she was a member of the Albany, N.Y., Common Council from 2006 to 2013. Her passion for socialjustice has also transformed the
classroom-Smith is credited as being one of
the founders of black women's studies, and
she has solidified her status as an academic
rock star with the publication of All theWom-
three. Oppression is primarily rooted in class
distinctions-a politics held by many lesbian-feminists and lesbian-feminists of color,
most notably Angela Davis. Poverty does not
discriminate, and people of all races, genders,
and sexualities are, in today's America, feeling
impoverished and exploited in their jobs.
"We need a broader consciousness about
how both class and economic oppression
affect people in this country," Smith asserts.
"Our economy is not moving. People are basicallytreading water and staying in place-and
just barely getting by. But the One Percent is
doing incredibly well, and their riches continue to skyrocket and grow:'
Having worked in many social justice
movements for over four decades, Smith
believes the key to these movements is their
diversity and politics of inclusion. She hopes
her lesbian sisters, both young and old, "also
en Are White, All the BlacksAre Men, But identify as feminists and are committed to
Someof Us Are Brave:BlackWomens Studies organizing [the fight against] multiple op(co-edited with Gloria T. Hull and Patricia
pressions, so that they and everybody else will
Bell Scott) in 1982, and Home Girls:A Black one day get the freedom that they all deserve:'
This also means, Smith stresses, an
FeministAnthologyin 1983. She is also the
inclusion of trans women in our moveco-founder (and publisher until 1995) of
Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the
ment: "Nowadays, I really feel that there's
first U S. publisher for women of color. (Fasroom for everybody."She finds it ironic, and
cinating side note: Smith's twin sister, Beverly disheartening, that many lesbians are critical
Smith, is also a lesbian, an activist, and a scholof trans women-when not so long ago lesar-now there are some great genes!)
bians' gender identity as women was interroAt the epicenter of Smith's politics is class gated by straight women. "Back in the good
analysis. America's wealth disparity tranold days of '70s lesbian-feminism, lesbians
scends categories of race, gender, and sex- were understood to be outlaws, and we were
uality, and, in fact, unites and intersects all outlaws in relation to the gender paradigm of
46
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
BACK IN THE
'70S, LESBIANS
WERE UNDERSTOOD TO BE
OUTLAWS IN
RELATION TO
GENDER.
nuclear families and very constrictive roles for
women. And some of us still are, because we're
not conforming to conventional gender expectations, so the question then is are lesbians
actual women, when lesbians by definition
don't fit the normative category of woman'?
"People spend a lot of time debating and
arguing when what we should actually be
doing is making radical change and working
for justice and freedom;' Smith says about
the divisiveness plaguing the fight for gender
equality."That's a better use of our time:'
Amen to that.
For lesbian image-maker Kathleen Brennan,
an historic drought has a silver lining.
BY GILLIAN KENDALL
P
eople in Australia and in the
U.S. Pacific Northwest have
a personal understanding
of
global climate change. For
the majority of Americans and Canadi~
ans, though, drought is still an abstrac~
tion and a distant worry. But it's getting
closer.
Kathleen
Brennan's
documentary
work brings the reality of drought to the
screen-and
to the rest of the world.
Brennan, a photographer
best known
for her breast cancer documentary In
Praise of What Persists, began filming
evidence of the drought in spring 2013
and has continued through the farming
and ranching seasons of 2015. She has
produced a short documentary, Drought
in New Mexico, and will release a longer
version with the same title in 2016.
The
subject
she'd expected
to
document-the
devastation
of the
drought-changed
dramatically when
rains came to New Mexico in 2015.
"This year, we've had a lot of rain, so
it has switched up," Brennan says. "At
first I thought, Oh my God! There goes
my movie! Damn! But of course we
were all rejoicing to have moisture, be~
cause it's been really hard on the whole
state:' The break in the drought, Bren~
nan says, makes for a more realistic and
therefore better story. The film will be
not so much a record of depleted rain
levels as a depiction of the people living
on the land.
"The comeback has been extreme,"
Brennan notes. "During the drought,
people talked about how it was the
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
47
worst they'd seen in their whole lives,
the worst since the 1930s, worse than
the 1950s. And this year they're saying
it's the best they've ever seen!"
The farmers and ranchers Brennan
has been working with are less interest~
ed in what's causing the weather than
they are in how to cope with it. "They
don't really believe in climate change
out there," she says. "I think part of it
is because they've always seen these
ups and downs. That has always been
the way of life for these ranchers and
farmers in this northeast corner of New
Mexico. Life, Mother Nature, throws
you things, and when you've got good
times, try to save back, so when the bad
times come you've got some resources:'
Brennan keeps her own opinions
out of the documentary. ''I've read a
lot about climate change, and I've been
working on Fires of Change, a big prof
ect that has scientists and artists work~
ing together to educate people about
fire. I've seen many different stories,
but as a documentarian,
I'm coming
48
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
from a place of witnessing. I'm not try~
ing to deny anyone's thinking or change
their thinking or set them straight. I'm
just here to hear their story and get an
understanding
of their beliefs, and try
to express their beliefs, not so much my
own."
Brennan also has political differenc~
es with some of her subjects. "A lot of
them hate the government out there,"
she says. "They are so anti~government!
Everything is the government's fault! At
first, I was sort of appalled by that, but
then I thought, Well, it makes sense.
In some ways they've been living that
American dream out in the West, in
the wide~open land, living off the land,
doing for themselves, helping with the
neighbors and being pretty much left
alone. Then big government comes in,
telling them to do this and that, and it
does not sit well:'
According to Brennan, the social
conservatism in the area does not in~
elude homophobia. "Most of the peo~
ple have not asked anything about my
life. There is one farming family and
one ranching family that I have become
close to. They both know I'm a lesbi~
an. It's not a problem for them at all,
although if I went parading it around
town it would probably be a different
story.
"One of the wonderful things about
the people out there is they're a close~
knit community. They depend very
much on family and on their neighbors,
and then they depend on the communi~
ty at large. So even though they may not
like their neighbor, if their neighbor is
lying in the ditch, or their equipment
is down, they will help them out. They
might say, 'I can't stand you, but here's
my tractor, do what you've got to do:"
Among the dozens of farmers and
ranchers she's met in New Mexico,
Brennan has found one out lesbian,
Mary Lou Kern. "As a little girl, her dad
told her she was better than the guys
who had been in the business 40 years.
She's very well educated, with two de~
grees, and she has a medium~size ranch,
about 25,000 acres. At one time, her
dad had 3,000 cows, but she has re~
duced that down to about 700 or 800
because of the drought."
Other ranchers
share Kern's ap~
proach, says Brennan. "They say that
the land will only produce so much.
You can only ask so much from it. You
can ask more than it can give a couple of
times, but sooner or later the land says
no. If you take advantage of the country
and beat the hell out of it, you pay the
price. Those are the farmers or ranchers
who went out of business because they
overdid it: They overpopulated,
over~
grazed, and were not good stewards to
the country. So that weeded out some
of those people. The ones who aren't so
greedy are starting to bring it back a lit~
de bit, but they say they still want the
country to heal."
Brennan feels a similar commitment
to the land. Although she grew up in
Springfield, N.J., a short drive from
Manhattan, she went to the University
of Mexico in Albuquerque. "I left New
Jersey when I was 19 and now I'm 60,
so I'm really kind of from New Mex~
ico. I moved to the hot, dry desert 40
years ago, when everything was about
xeriscaping and being water~wise. Then
they were talking about how the South~
west was going to be running out of wa~
ter:'
She has lived in Taos for 23 years.
"Here in Taos we collect water. We've
got big holding tanks so every time it
rains we're collecting everything we
can, and we use that to water our gar~
den. And [Brennan's partner] Kat and
I are big vegetable gardeners. But these
last few years I let some of my trees die,
because I was so scared to use as much
water as we had been using."
Brennan recalls that in early 2013, "It
suddenly became OK to talk about it in
the newspaper. Practically every day in
the Albuquerque Journal there would be
something about the drought. Then the
Sunday paper ran a story about the lit~
de village of Maxwell and how its wells
were going dry, which was a big concern
for a small village of 255 people. I had
to go and see what was going on out
there, and go photograph it. I went out
and went to the wildlife refuge to talk
to them and they said, 'What are you
doing?' and I said, 'I have no idea. I'm
a fine~art photographer, but I just want
to see what's going on:"
The mayor drove Brennan around
for three hours. "She showed me all
the farms that are now nothing but
dirt parking lots. They were completely
dead. I stayed overnight, and then when
I came back the next day, I said, 'I think
this is my next project:"
Brennan hopes that the longer doc~
umentary due in 2016 will educate
people about the environment. "As a
documentarian,
my job is to preserve
the cultural and environmental history
of New Mexico. So at least I hope the
film will go down in history as showing
what this period has been about. More
largely, it will educate people about the
land and our limited resources here in
New Mexico, and how it's important to
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
49
be good stewards to our land:'
She also hopes the film will educate
people about the ranching and farming
industry. "It's getting harder and harder for small businesses to survive," she
says. "Farming and ranching is getting
more corporate, becoming bigger and
bigger, with half-million-acre
ranches.
It's like the Walmart effect: It gets more
and more expensive for the little people
to diversify and to make a profit:'
Also, Brennan hopes the film will
show viewers about the "incredible people" living in the area. "One thing that
kind of surprised me when I went out
there was to learn that, although there
is a big Hispanic population, the majority of them I would say are of European
descent. Their parents and grandparents came from Poland, Yugoslavia,
Czechoslovakia, Russia, Germany, Italy. They came to mine in the hills. So,
historically, there's a fascinating, rich
culture. Environmentally, too, it's really
fascinating country. There are several
volcanic fields out there. It used to be
50
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
ACCORDING
TO BRENNAN,
THE SOCIAL
CONSERVATISM
IN THE AREA
DOESN'T
INCLUDE
HOMOPHOBIA.
an inland sea. It's where the dinosaurs
roamed:'
Though Brennan is clear that she
wants to educate people, she's less sure
about the long-term effects of her work.
"The older I get, the more I abandon
hope. If the documentary effects social
change, it would make me very happy.
Do I hope for it:1 I don't hope for it. All
I can say is, 'Here's the story. Here's what
I've learned. I'm sharing it with you, do
with it what you will: It would be great
if people said, 'Wow, I have more respect
for those people; or 'I have more respect
for the land:"
But Brennan does assume that the film
will effect some kind of change. "I know
from the breast cancer project that I may
not have made social change with it, but
it has affected individuals. Still, to this
day, 11 years later, people come up to me
and say it meant a lot to them. It changed
their lives. So whether the drought documentary will effect big social change, I
don't know. But if it affects individuals,
that's terrific:' (brennanstudio.com)
E
(/)
>ca
ca
::::;
ileen Myles is really fucking
funny, which you might not
expect from a poet. "The only
real cure for homosexuality is
fame;' she jokes to me, referring to her
recent string of successes and the main~
stream adoration of her newest volume
of poetry, I Must Be Living Twice: New
and Selected Poems, which was published
concurrently with the reissue of her
groundbreaking
1994 autobiographical
novel, Chelsea Girls.
"It used to be that the brighter you
got, the less gay you got ... both because
it matters less in a certain way-you're
going to do what you fucking do-but
you're also not fighting to be seen, so
you're not naming it as much:'
For Myles, who is 66, last year could
be deemed the Year of Fame and Mala~
propism: She's become a cultural avatar
on TV and at the movies-the
inspira~
tion for Cherry Jones's character on sea~
son 2 of Transparent, and Lily Tomlin's
character in Grandma. She's won count~
less accolades and awards, including the
2015 Clark Prize for Excellence in Arts
Writing. I Must Be Living Twice sold
out in its first three printings-baffling
mainstream
publisher
HarperCollins,
which assigned her an agent to handle
the wave of publicity. The media has
heralded her success as everything from
a "renaissance" to a "retrospective," with
the New York Times saying she's "earned"
it and New York magazine running a
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
51
CHELSEA
GIRLS
A
/JOVf..L-
EILEEN
MYLES
piece headlined "Eileen Myles Gets
Her Due" -which amuses Myles. "That
writer is so great," she confides. "I don't
blame her for that line. I've done enough
journalism to know that you write a
piece and then they put some shit on top
of it .. .'Gets her due' is like trying to, like,
extract something from the culture!"
Myles finds the attention both odd
and comical. Male journalists, she para~
phrases, describe her as "the used to be
obscure, punk poet dyke;' which, she re~
sponds, "is very strange [and also] funny,
because it sounds like I was wandering
through the darkness for hundreds of
years and Ecco [an imprint of publisher
HarperCollins] found me:'
She takes slight issue with the use
of the term "punk," which more appro~
priately describes, she explains, "the art
form of [her] generation," rather than
52
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
her own work. She says the misnomer
reflects a deep~seated homophobia: "Ev~
ery time I get called a punk poet, I think,
[the media doesn't] want to talk about
class, vernacular, queerness, or dykes. A
lot of things would have to be there, and
because they don't want to talk about
those things, they say 'punk:"
Myles views these labels with the eye
of a poet: "Any word that covers what
I do, I'm not unwilling to claim. I just
feel like I don't want to be phobic about
my own kind. I have to include what I
am-lesbian
is part of what I am. I pre~
fer 'dyke: It's a better word! It's an An~
glo~Saxon word. We deserve that. It has
more linguistic power. I think it carries
a whole heavy load of thud. It's got a real
in~your~face thing:'
Her voice crescendos with excitement.
"I just do think the dyke is back!"
It is perhaps out of humility that Myl~
es explains in scientific terms the fame
that eluded her for years. "I think that
it's geological-I
simply have done so
much that it simply would be impossible
not to publish me in the mainstream:'
To elaborate, she offers the example of
a surging, endless water source: "I think
sometimes it's like the little boy putting
his finger in the hole of the dyke, and
eventually he can't stay there and the
water comes. I just feel like I've done so
much that at a certain point in time it's
like, How can you keep this person out,
when she's all over the place? ... Every~
body who is important in the generation
before me ... knew I was good, [and] they
published me:'
Like many queer artists who have
been marginalized,
Myles was called
"too downtown;' or "too East Village," or
"too niche:' Her work was continuously
rejected. "It's so weird," she conjectures,
"because in so many other areas 'niche'
is so exciting. Just look at that piece of
shit Blue Is the Warmest Color:' Myles
acknowledges that her "sexuality needs a
big home;' and she emphasizes that she
writes for a mixed collective of people.
"I don't want to live on a lesbian island.
I don't, and I never have. And I think
that's the best treatment for these fears
of being niched away:'
She recounts how no agent, let alone
publisher, would consider Chelsea Girls
when she first wrote it, in her 40s. "To
be young, female, full of talent, to be
writing about sex, to be having sex, to
not be owing anybody anything, and not
paying your dues but simply living your
life in this frontal way is like something
that needs to be hidden," she says. She
reminisces about rejection. "It was too
much that I was using my own name
and writing pretty close to the time of
these events-that
would be interesting
if I was a man, but it's almost terrorism
on a cultural level for a woman:'
I Must Be Living Twice was also re~
jeered more than once before being
picked up by HarperCollins. One pub~
lishing giant even turned the book down
by claiming that it" 'couldn't do such a
large collection' -which," she interprets,
I PREFER 'DYKE.'
IT'S A BETTER
WORD!
IT HAS MORE
LINGUISTIC
POWER.
I THINK IT
CARRIES A
WHOLE HEAVY
LOAD OF THUD.
IT'S GOT A REAL
IN-YOUR-FACE
THING.
"means female!"
"When I say my work 20 years ago
would've been celebrated exactly the
way it's getting celebrated today if I was
a guy, that's just a fucking fact:'
Her fans know this is a fucking fact,
too, which is why Myles feels grateful
for the recent support and enthusiasm:
"People are acting like this is one for
the team. It's really weirdly great. I'm
not getting people who are resentfulthere's nobody thinking, Fuck Eileen
Myles ... I think everyone is fucking
happy that my work is out there in a
bigger waY:'
The year is also marked by personal
celebration: Myles is dating the creator
of Transparent, Jill Soloway, whom she
met on a panel last spring. "Immediately,
we were excited by each other and what
each other did;' she says. Myles becomes
animated when detailing Cherry Jones's
I MUST
BELIVING
EILEEitMY
TWICE
character on Transparent, who is based
on her. "Wait till you see Cherry Jones
[getting together] with someone who
looks like she's in her teens. I think
Cherry was so happy-I
don't think
she's ever played a lesbian!" (Note to
the reader: She hasn't, and if you want
to learn more, read the interview with
Jones on page 60!)
Myles, whose own romantic history
is lined with intergenerational
rela~
tionships with younger women, appre~
ciates both Transparent and Grandma
for portraying these relationships on
screen. "I think that the thing that's
really important is that they are there
at all:'
For Myles, intergenerational
rela~
tionships have been a source of edu~
cation, power, and exchange.'Tve been
with many women younger than me,
and ... sometimes you bring a person
to the world they want to be connect~
ed to. My own attitude to it is that my
world changes because someone else is
in it with me now, and nobody I dated
didn't bring me music and books and
perspective. It's really rich. It's sort of
like, again, we're just human, so dating
someone from a completely different
frame just yields ... tension and difficulty,
and it's exciting and aggravating, but it's
been a real driving force in my life.
"I gotta say, my often mostly young~
er girlfriends have parented me in a big,
big way. Every woman I've ever been
with has shown me some way to take
care of myself. It's never been that I'm
the sugar daddy or the hook~up, pure~
ly. I am those things in some ways-it's
unescapable-but
I've been so nurtured.
I've been so supported and so seen by all
my girlfriends, who, even including Jill,
are younger than me:' ( eileenmyles.com)
JAN/FEB
2016
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53
ANIMARUM
In aged care, a lesbian and her wife
fight to stay together.
BY LOIS CLOAREC HART
I
never noticed how thin my wife's
hair has grown. When we first met,
it was as soft and enticing as a rose
petal. I nearly scandalized our neigh~
bors in the next box at a long~ago concert
because I could not stop my fingers from
an instinctive caress. She, always more con~
scious of my social position than I, subtly
eased away from my touch. For that night
at least, the secret of our love was kept.
My gaze drifts from her bowed head to
the thin, wrinkled hand wrapped tightly
around mine. In the semi~twilight of this
room, it's hard to know where her hand
ends and mine begins. How fitting. From
the beginning we have completed each oth~
er, though it took a long time to convince
her of that. She thought herself far beneath
the class I was born into. In truth, the depth
of her love, loyalty, and kindness left me
breathless in her wake. My education, my
profession, and my social standing were
nothing in comparison. She laughed when
54
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
I
L
animarum
noun
animarum (Latin, fem.)
1. souls, spirits, lives
I insisted that it was so. She said legal schol~
ars would debate my rulings in court and
classroom for a century, but none would
even recall her name. I assured her that her
name was already etched in the Book of
Ages in recognition of the grace with which
she lived her life.
At least I think I told her that. It's some~
times hard to know what words I have ut~
tered and what words remain trapped in
the prison of my brain. I hope I said it. I
hope that even without words I still told
her how much I love her, how much I ap~
7
_J
preciated the way she stood by me as the
dementia stole me from her, and how deep~
ly it touched my soul to see her advocate on
mybehal£
A thousand lifetimes from now I will
still remember how my shy, reserved wife
took Laurel Woods Manor to court and
fought for the right to be by my side-liter~
ally. She had researched our final residence
so carefully, looking for a place that would
accommodate our needs and allow us to
be together. Thinking she had found it, we
gave up our home of forty~two years. But
with all her care, she could not have anticipated an administrator who hated us and
did everything possible to keep us apart.
I wonder how that woman came to be so
filled with bile. What had twisted her heart
and mind into ugly, angry knots? Would
she have fought so hard to separate us if we
had entered the facility merely as friends
wanting to share a room for financial reasons? I unwittingly aided her nasty quest.
I did not react well when my beloved was
kept from my side. I may not have known
my own name by then, but I always knew
my partner's loving touch. And when that
touch was gone for so-called medical reasons, I grew agitated and troublesome. The
administrator used that behaviour as an
excuse to commit me to the locked ward,
where my wife could not be with me.
So my sweet and gentle warrior went
into battle in the arena I once ruled. She
was fortunate that the times and culture
had changed radically from when we first
met, and the judge who heard the case had
clerked for me decades earlier. He gave my
love a fair hearing. But I think her success
was also due to the ferocity with which she
pleaded our plight. This time I aided our
cause. I resisted the orderly who brought
me into the courtroom and kicked at him
feebly in an effort to get away. As soon as
my wife's voice called over the spectators'
heads, I ceased my struggles and turned toward her. She led me to a chair and settled
me next to her. Later that night, she whispered that I had sealed the deal when I immediately rested my head on her shoulder
and closed my eyes peacefully.
Now her name, too, would be written
in law books as the plaintiff who won the
decision that required nursing homes to
not only accommodate same-sex couples,
but to provide double beds for all residents
who desired them. It was only a lower court
ruling, but it was an immeasurable gift to
those who cherish their loved one's touch.
No longer did they have to lose that small
joy due to age and infirmity. My lady in
shining armour had paved the way for
many others. And the administrator who
made our lives hell? She could not bear the
thought of us slumbering peacefully in each
other's arms. The manor's residents gave
us three lusty cheers when we entered the
dining room the day that miserable woman
quit in disgust.
Someone is coming into view behind
my wife's shoulder. Ah ... her mother. How
that woman hated me. She was utterly convinced that I had seduced her daughter and
set her on the path to perdition. Every year,
she made a maternal visit to our city. And
somehow every year her visit coincided
with legal conferences I had to attend or a
huge stack of paperwork which entailed extended hours at the office. It wasn't until after her mother passed on that my love told
me how much it hurt when I abandoned
her so. I had never considered her side. I assumed, as I had done so often, that because
she didn't complain, she had no complaints.
It was foolish and unkind, and though I
couldn't do anything about my earlier lack
of support, I did try to improve. Whether I
succeeded or not is not for me to say. That
is for my wife to judge.
It must have shocked my reluctant mother-in-law that her sweet, pliable daughter
resisted every tirade, every sob, and every enticement that her mother wielded
in order to wrench us asunder. When my
mother-in-law finally and melodramatically
insisted that her daughter make a choiceher or me-my love calmly opened our
door and ushered her out. Then she began
to cry, and although at the time I considered
the noxious woman a small loss, I knew her
mother's rejection wounded my wife deeply. Still, she never wavered, not even when
we attended her father's funeral. That was
the day her mother refused to permit us to
sit with the family. My wife and I sat at the
back of the church, listening in silence while
others eulogized the father she had adored.
My beloved grieved her losses for such
a long time. With each tear she shed, my
loathing for her mother grew. But as I lost
my memory ... and myself, I also lost my
hatred. Perhaps that was a silver lining,
though for a long time I could think of no
others. There was a time when I regretted
not killing myself and thus sparing my love
the agony of my decline. I came to know
better. I saw the strength she'd always hidden come roaring to the fore. I know that
our trials polished the facets of her soul,
and I glory in her brilliance.
Now her mother stands opposite me
with an apologetic expression on her face. I
nod and she turns her gaze on her daughter.
When I look down, I notice the silver cord
that has held me this past week is frayed.
I regard it with curiosity and then understanding. I look up and smile in compassionate concert with the woman who was
my unwilling mother-in-law. My beloved's
head droops, and she slumps wearily in her
chair. Then with a great effort, she pulls
herself erect and wrestles momentarily with
the bed railing. She lowers it and slides in
next to me. It is close quarters, but that's
the way we've always preferred it. She rests
her head against my shoulder, and her hand
finds its usual spot on my chest.
Her mother watches us both with an
expression of profound love. She's come a
long way in the years since her passing. A
soft knock at the door sounds, and one of
the hospice nurses slips in. They've been
so kind to us here. I am deeply grateful for
the consideration they have shown me and
my wife. The nurse smiles at the sight of
us snuggled together and quietly drapes a
nearby afghan around our peaceful forms.
Without disturbing my beloved, the nurse
leaves as silently as she came in and closes
the door after her. She knows we have arrived at a time for serenity, not intervention.
I hear something-a soft, familiar voice.
Not many would term it melodic, but it is
the sweetest sound in the world to me. Her
head next to mine, my wife sings quietly
in my ear, an old tune we danced to many
times. Her mother and I listen as she catches her breath before beginning another
verse. Then, as my beloved's voice breaks
and falters, her mother smiles. She bows
her head to me and begins to fade. I comprehend her gift, and I'm grateful for it. We
will meet again soon, but this last little time
is for me and my wife.
The silver cord is only a single thin strand
now, and I feel a great surge of joy throughout my essence. The wait is almost over. On
our pillow, my love has grown silent, but
her hand slides slowly up my body until it
cups my cheek. There was a time that her
slightest touch would wake me, but it's been
many days since I opened my eyes, even for
her. A tiny part of me wishes I could still
feel the softness of her fingers as they caress
me and slide over my eyelids. But the greater part of me has already left that world
behind and awaits our future with eager
anticipation.
As her hand stills, the last silver strand
parts. I look across the two old bodies entwined, and I am thrilled to see my wife
standing opposite me with a dazzling smile
on her face. Her hair is lustrous, and her
eyes sparkle with delight. She grins and extends her hand. I take it and together we
whirl away, dancing once again and forever
to our hearts' music.
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
55
AUTHOR
INTERVIEW:
LOISC.HART
Exploring a mature writer's life and art.
BY ASTRID OHLETZ
er, and a large, loving group of family and
friends-to
populate the story. With my
friend's coaching and encouragement, in a
year I had the first draft of ComingHome.
Why do you write?
After Coming Home, I continued to
write, in part because it was an excellent
way to take my mind off a complicated and
occasionally stressful life. I'd been an avid
reader for as long as I could remember, and
every night I would put myself to sleep by
composing a story. I never stayed awake
long enough to make much plot progress,
but I was accustomed to characters speak~
ing to me. It wasn't difficult to let them
speak through my fingers on a keyboard,
and I delighted in creating complete stories.
As for what it means to me, it's no longer
the escape that it once was. I'm in a really
good place in my life and have no need to
escape. It is, however, deeply satisfying to
begin a project and carry it through to a
conclusion. My greatest flaw is procrasti~
nation, and when I can overcome that flaw
enough to finish a story or a novel, I feel like
I'm making progress.
When did you begin writing?
I started writing in the fall of 1999. For
eight months, I'd resisted a dear friend's
urging to give it a try. I insisted that I was
a reader, not a writer, but because she and
I wrote to each other daily, and I beta read
her stories, she was convinced I could do
it. By that fall, my husband's chronic~pro~
gressive multiple sclerosis had taken most
of his physical and cognitive abilities. He
was a quadriplegic with severe MS~related
dementia. Family and friends who'd been in
Calgary when we first came there in '93 had
56
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
moved to other cities, so we were mostly
alone together on a daily basis. The Inter~
net and my friend's letters were the keys to
my sanity as, except for medical appoint~
ments, we were housebound. Additionally,
at that time, we had a very attractive postal
carrier, and I used to enjoy interacting with
her for a few moments when she brought
the mail each day. When I finally gave in to
my friend's urging and began to compose a
story, it felt natural to involve elements of
my life-a disabled husband, his outwardly
"straight" wife, the attractive postal carri~
How long does it take you to write a
novel?
It's taken me anywhere from five yearsKicker'sJourney is a good example of the
way I can procrastinate-to
three weeks,
for the first draft of Walking the Labyrinth.
It really depends on whether I can keep my
focus and take time away from pursuits
that interest me as much as writing.
Coffee or tea?
Diet Coke. It's my daily staple. In par~
ticular, I love fountain Diet Coke, which I
I
WHEN I GAVE IN TO MY FRIEND'S 7
URGING AND BEGAN TO COMPOSE
ASTORY,ITFELTNATURALTO
INVOLVE ELEMENTS OF MY LIFE-A
DISABLED HUSBAND, HIS
OUTWARDLY"STRAIGHT 11 WIFE _J
L
prefer to canned Coke. I don't drink either
coffee or tea, not for any particular health
or religious reason, but just because I never
cared for the taste. My wife and best friends
are all tea drinkers, and my mom and siblings are huge coffee drinkers, but I've found
my beverage niche and I'm happy with it.
When and where do you like to
write the most?
When I write, I need absolute silence
in the house. As much as I love music, I
don't even want the radio on when I'm
writing. The one sound that is conducive
to my productivity is that of running water, so when it's warm enough, I keep my
front window open to hear my fountain.
For that reason, my most prolific writing
takes place when I'm in my Canadian
home, from April to October, and more
specifically, when I'm in my rocker-recliner overlooking my gardens and fountain.
Time of day doesn't really matter, though
I probably get most of my work done in
the afternoon.
How would you prefer to describe
yourself?
Easygoing, amiable, reasonably intelligent and well-read, occasionally driven
to the point of near mania-if
I have a
paintbrush in my hand and a project on
the go, you probably shouldn't stand still
in my vicinity! And most importantly to
me, spiritually aware and evolving. My
circle of loved ones loves me back in full
measure, and that's always a good sign
that there's balance in your life.
How much of yourself do you put
into your characters?
It depends on the character and the
story. For example, while I based the
character of Jan in Coming Home on my
own experiences, Terry's loving relationships with her family in that novel were
much closer to my reality. When I originally wrote Broken Faith, I put some of
my surface attributes into Lee-physical
build, military background, etc.-but by
the time Lee reappears in Walking the
Labyrinth, there is less of me in her, and
far more of me in Gaelle.In fact, I'd have
to say that of all the characters I've ever
written, Gaelle most closely reflects my
beliefs, experiences, and outlook on life.
What part of the writing process
do you find the most challenging?
The act of actually sitting down to
write. It's the procrastination thing again.
Once I do start, it's a very easy, natural
process for me. That said, I always need
to have the opening line of a new story
before I begin to create. For me, everything seems to Bow from a good first line.
What themes have you included in
your novels?
The underlying theme in all my writing
is that love can endure almost everything,
including separation and death. In Coming Home,Jan and Terry fall in love under
impossible circumstances in which Jan is
never going to leave Rob, who is not the
bad guy by any means. In Broken Faith,
Marika and Rhiannon rise above horrendous childhoods and some nasty villains
to find love together. In Kicker'sJourney,
Kicker and Madelyn fall in love easily, but
then have to battle the era and environment of early-20th-century Canada, not
to mention each other, to find their happy
ending. Most poignant to me, in Walking
the Labyrinth, Lee has to endure the loss
of her beloved wife and find a way back to
where she can love again.
What advice would you give to
new authors?
Find a great editor. You don't have to
marry your first editor, the way I did, but
good editing and honest input are crucial
to a polished final product. A skilled editor will gently redirect you when you've
gone off in the wrong direction, guide
you to shore up the weak points in your
plot, polish your prose, and generally
make you look far better as an author
than you'd ever look on your own. I've
been extremely fortunate in the editors
I've had, beginning with my first. I fell
head over heels in love with her, and to
this day she edits every word I write. I
trust and respect her abilities, and she
never steers me wrong. I also benefit
from having other editorial eyes on my
writing, and I'm grateful for their professionalism and skill, as well. When I view
a completed story and feel pride in its
creation, I'm deeply aware that I did not
do it by myself.
What future writing projects can
we look forward to?
My latest novel, published in November 2015, is called Stone Gardens. As
most of my books are, this one will be
about the power of love. It is available
as an ebook and a paperback through
Ylva Publishing, a publisher of women's
literature with a focus on lesbian fiction.
(ylva-publishing.co.uk)
JAN/FEB
2016
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•
The queer comics of ·sara Lautman.
.. •
BY MARCIE'BIANCO
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2016
T\\E
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FEATURES/
S
ara Lautman's first cartoon
was an illustration of an upside-down pineapple and the
caption "Why won't anyone take me seriously?"she wondered.
In some ways it's curious that such a
young lesbian embraced such a traditional
and often male-dominated art form. "I didn't
draw seriously or with an awareness of skill
until my twenties;' she says. "Before that it
was a consistent but low stakes option for an
activity to do besides talk to other people or
go to the bathroom:'
Nevertheless, Lautman, who is based in
New York and Baltimore, drew every day
for five years straight and in 2012 decided
she wanted to get serious about being an illustrator. She joined the Illustration Practice
program at Maryland Institute College of
Art and "never stopped working" at her craft.
"The physical act of drawing makes me feel
calm and happy;' she says.
The first full-page comic she sold was to
Bitch magazine-it was a condensed biography of Ann Bannon, the lesbian pulp novelist.
Generally, Lautman doesn't do caricatures. "I
tend not to single out religious or political
world leaders, or even local public figures. It's
just not an important part of my cartooning
vocabulary, really:' Condensing information
in a humorous way is her goal. Those New
Yorker illustrations aren't as irrelevant as you
might think in this 140-character world we
now live in. "Humor is necessary. If it ever
became unnecessary, it would be a sci-fi situation where everyone's mind had fused into
one organism that agreed with itself about
everything;' says Lautman. "I think that
funny people are adaptable. More adaptable
than everyone else. As long as there are new
platforms for media, there will be funny people subverting them:'
And Lautman is subversive, too, her work
representing "a fringe point of view" and always "at max capacity queerness:' She cites
Fun Home author Alison Bechdel as one of
her influences. "Queering mainstream culture is harder than contributing to queer
culture within its own bounds (and which is
certainly in no famine right now);' she says.
But she does feel committed to "showing
and discussing gayness and gender nonconformity in non-queer contexts-that
means spaces, institutions and publications.
The comics I make [are] going to be gay no
OPENSTU
matter what. That's the subtext, that's the authorship. I hope that wherever my comics go,
that area will be queerer for it, or the same
amount of queer, depending on how queer
things were before the comic arrived:'
(saralautman.com) •
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JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
59
CURVE
PRINT
MAG
ONLY
$29.95
FOR
9ISSUES
Delivered in a plain envelope
to ensure your privacy
60
CU
VE
JAN/FEB
2016
FEATURES/
n a recent piece for the New Yorker,
writer Ariel Levy nails Jill Soloway's
Transparent as "post-patriarchal television:' She describes Soloway as creating a radical, freeing work environment
for her actors. She is a feminist director and
a "doer:' She doesn't let obstacles defeat her.
She uses them to create a new aesthetic, a
new commentary on sexuality, gender, and
intimacy. Last year, Soloway won an Emmy
for Best Directing in a Comedy Series for
Transparent, and in season two she continues to spin out unique and unprecedented
storylines, hiring who she wants to hirewhich means actual talented female actors
with non-television faces and bodies. What
she has referred to as 'a.ick candy" is not welcome on her show. It's such a relief to women
everywhere, and to great actors like Cherry
Jones, who never in her career fit that bill.
Jones, who is to the stage what Meryl
Streep is to film, is best known in American
households as U.S. President Allison Taylor in the TV series 24-a head of state in
perpetual crisis, yet in possession of a moral,
ethical, and emotional backbone. Jones
won an Emmy for her portrayal, and she's
since dabbled in small film roles and more
TV, but to see Jones at her transcendent
best, you must go to Broadway. Thus far,
her stage roles form a fascinating pantheon of fierce females: aviatrix, teacher,
spinster, Southern belle, madam, saint,
and nun-from
Tennessee Williams
to George Bernard Shaw to the best of
contemporary feminist and lesbian playwrights. Throughout her illustrious career, Jones has picked up five Best Actress
Tony Award nominations and two wins.
While she has not played an actual lesbian (until now), she has always been out
and proud. When accepting her awards,
she has thanked her partners: Mary
O'Connor in 1995, when she won for
The Heiress (which made Jones the first
lesbian actor to thank her partner from
the stage); and Sarah Paulson in 2005, when
she won for Doubt. I've been longing for the
moment when Jones would truly blaze her
way into the lesbian zeitgeist. Perhaps that
moment has arrived with her role as a womanizing lesbian poetry professor in season
two of Transparent. It's all happened"at a very
unexpected point in my life;' Jones tells me
about a week before her 59th birthday.
"Never did I think that I'd be playing a
dude dyke lesbian poetry professor and having all my scenes with Gaby Hoffman, with
Jill Soloway;' she enthuses in a slightly Southern drawl.Jones, a Bible Belt gay hailing from
Paris, Tenn., who miraculously transcended
her small-town beginnings to become one
of America's treasured thespians, says she
has "so much respect" for Soloway's vision,
work, and methodology, which is helping to
revolutionize the role of women in TV, both
behind and in front of the camera.
"There is an episode that takes place at a
fictional Michigan women's music festival;'
says Jones, "and you have never seen so many
different nude body types in your life. That's
the thing about Jill. Usually, if it's a beautiful
television-looking person, they don't make
the cut. She wants real people and real bodies and real women of all ages. And she really
allows a great deal of freedom on set;' says
Jones. "There's a fair amount of ad-libbing
around a very structured plot, but it feels in
a way more like being in rehearsal for a new
play with a company that's creating the script
AN
AMAZON
ORIGINAL
SERI
RANSPAR
themselves. It is so creative and so freeing:'
It was also freeing for Jones to play Lesley
Mackinaw, a sexy, swaggering older butch
based loosely on Eileen Myles (also profiled
in this issue). Myles, notes Jones, is finally
receiving mainstream acclaim. "She seems to
be everywhere right now. So this is a particularly thrilling time to be playing Eileen:' At
the time of writing, Myles was everywhere
THE L-LIST
indeed, both in the press, and dating Transparent creator Jill Soloway. Jones adds, re-
flecting on how she tailored her appearance
to reflect Myles' own unique style,"! even had
a haircut, which is as close as my hair would
get to Eileen's. I think the greatest thrill for
me is that I get to wear the most comfortable
clothes I've ever worn in my career:'
A little less thrilling to Jones was the inevitability that she'd have to get naked and
participate in frank on-screen sex. As an
admirer of Transparent, Jones had watched
the show with her wife, Sophie Huber, and
wished she could nab a role on it. 'J\nd then
lo and behold, several months later I got a
call that Jill wanted me to do this. And so
we Skyped, and she sort of gave me the arc
of the character, and I said, 'Let me think
about this and I'll get right back to you: And
I thought about it and I knew I had to do
it. And then my second thought was, I have
to ask Jill if I have to do any on-camera sex
scenes. Because I knew that would be a real
problem for me. I'm 59, from a small town in
Tennessee, and I just-I'm from that quaint
generation where if I have sex, that's with
my partner;' she laughs. 'J\s an actress,
there's only so much one can preserve
that's sacred.
"I called Jill and I basically said, 'Will
I be required to do any pussy licking or
finger fucking on-screen?' And there was
a pause and she said, 'Yeah: And I said,
'Really?' And she said, 'Yeah!' And I said,
'Well, I cannot do that: And there was
another pause and she said, 'Really?'And I
said, 'Really: And she said, 'Neither giving
nor receiving?'And I said, 'Neither giving
nor receiving!'"
While Jones knew that-in Soloway's
hands-even
explicit sex scenes would
further the plot and our understanding
of the characters, they were just not in
her scope. Perhaps this dream role would
elude her after all. "Will you make out?"
asked Soloway. "Oh, I'll make out all day
and all night;' agreed Jones.
In the end, the compromise might even
have strengthened the storyline, says Jones,
but elsewhere the show is as bold as ever.
"I tell you, this season ... there was a sexual
revolution in the '60s, and Jill is now including everyone who was left out of that sexual
revolution, in terms of being present and accounted for:'
JAN/FEB
2016
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61
periencing directly in
OUR405 YOU
her lifetime. "It blows
my mind. Never did I
STARTTO FREAKOUT
think-no
one my age
BECAUSE
YOUSEE YOUR ever thought-it would
happen in our lifetime:'
YOUTHENDING,BUT
In August last year,
Jones unexpectedly wed
BY YOUR505 YOU'VE
her film director girl~
friend, Sophie Huber.
SORTOF MADEPEACE
They had met a few
earlier through
WITHTHAT, ANDTHAT'S years
a shared house in Los
Angeles. "We joke that I
A WONDERFUL
THING
found Sophie on Craig~
MOSTWOMEN
DON
slist;' laughs Jones. Pri~
or to this relationship,
ANTICIPATE.
Jones had never wanted
It delights Jones that Soloway is adminis~
tering T ransgender 101, "so that America can
see what transgender people are up against.
And that's what she explores, along with 50
other things, in this season. Even the plac~
es you'd think a transgender person should
experience sympathy or empathy-it's not
there. Everybody views them in a harsh or
foreign light. And we're all in the same boat.
Unless you have a parent or a sibling who is
transgender or somebody who is in the com~
munity who has been transgender for a long
time and is part of the community ... unless
that's the case, I just think transgender peo~
ple have to be the ballsiest people-pardon
the pun-in the world. I can't imagine what
they're dealing with:'
And as Jones discovered, Soloway uses sex
as a lens through which to view difference as
not really different at all. 'Jill is pushing a lot
of buttons about sex. What she is saying at
the end of the day is: These are people hav~
ing consensual sex, living their lives, trying to
be good neighbors, citizens, and it's not these
people who are the problem. It's those with
intolerance who fuel violence and hatred.
That's the danger, not transgender people.
It's been very moving watching them craft
this season so that one has to question what
is dangerous. It's not sex between consenting
adults. That is not what's dangerous:'
The transgender rights movement and
marriage equality are LGBT milestones that
Jones is astonished and delighted to be ex~
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to marry. "I didn't want
to do what heterosex~
uals did. That was part of the freedom and
joy [of being gay]: You didn't have to get
married, you couldn't get married:' But a few
things had changed for Jones. She was older,
and she'd lost both of her beloved parents in
2010, leaving her with only one real blood
relation-her sister, Susan.
'Tm at that point in my life now where I
guess, I hope, I'm more the person that I'll
be 10 years from now. And I was ready to
give my life fully to Sophie, and she was to
me. And we both thought nothing would
change, really, but of course it does-in~
stantly. The moment you make that decision
and you look at each other and you say,'Let's
do this; and you do, it drops down into this
deeper more comforting place where you're
just there for one another. You were not, the
day before you married. I've had three won~
derful and very distinct acts in my life with
loves, and they've each enriched my life, and I
hope and pray I have theirs, as well:'
For Jones, getting older has meant getting
better and truer, and this might also be a
theme of Transparent. After all, retired col~
lege professor Maura Pfefferman is in her
late 60s when she comes to terms with her
gender and her sexuality. And Jones is not
the only seasoned actor to grace the new
installment of the show; she is joined by
the wonderful Anjelica Huston, who is 64.
Soloway is determined to defy the industry
standard that makes work hard to come by
after a woman reaches a certain age. ''After
The Glass Menagerie, I had one more stage
role and then nothing;' says Jones. "I had an
offer here and there, but they weren't good
fits. What I understand, however, is that in
television, not film, older women are being
offered any number of fabulous roles. In
the past, if you were an actress over 50, you
could play the psychiatrist, or the judge, or
the granny. And now you have Christine
Baranski on The Good Wife, any number of
fabulous roles that are popping up:'
Outside of TV, Jones also thinks life gets
better. "Talk to any woman over 50, no mat~
ter what the stresses in their lives, they're able
to deal with them in a way that they never
could before. So many of the insecurities fall
away, and you even get to that point with
your body. In your 40s, you start to freak
out because you see your youth ending, but
by the time you're in your 50s you've sort of
made peace with that, and that's a wonderful
thing most women don't anticipate. I think
for most women there just comes a point in
your 50s and 60s where you feel so much
more comfortable in your loose skin:'
But when I speak with Jones, she sounds
like a giddy teenager in love. We compare
notes on how we-two
mature lesbians
firmly opposed to marriage-finally gave
way to our younger partners. "Lucky, lucky
us;' she says. Coincidentally, both our wives
are 15 years our junior. "Sophie is 15 years
younger, and she's one of those people who
have always loved older people and fallen in
love with older people:' The same is true for
my wife, and it took me some time to accept
it. "I think people are just wired differently;'
offers Jones, "and everyone has a different at~
traction:'
Jones is rapturous about Huber's physical
beauty (Google her to see), her complexity,
and her creative ability. She and Huber had
"flirted around with the idea'' of marriage,
and then once they decided, on a Friday, they
were married on a Sunday. "We thought,
Let's just do it, let'sjust get the paperwork. It
wasn't so much about a ceremony and vows.
We just sort of wanted to make it legal be~
tween us, in a way. And my sister in Tennes~
see was very upset that this was happening
so suddenly, so at the last minute, Sunday
morning, we got her a plane ticket and she
FEATURES/
was at LAX by 11 AM.
"We had agreed to meet the officiant
somewhere down in the [San Fernando]
Valley, and we were almost there and real~
ized we had forgotten the marriage license!
And so she followed us back up the hill to
the house where I had moved into and where
Sophie and I met. So we married literally on
the spot where we first shook hands, under
a lemon tree, with those we love around us,
and before we knew it we were saying vows.
And then we just had a wonderful all~night
party with about 12 of my dearest friends
who were in town, and it was gorgeous, it
really was:'
I tell Jones that I still have moments when
I refer to my wife as my partner or my girl~
friend. Old habits are hard to break. "Sophie
and I both have the same sort of knee~jerk
reaction to the word 'wife;,, says Jones. "She's
Swiss~German, and, she'll be the first to tell
you, slightly homophobic. And being an old
lesbian, the word 'wife' is bizarre to me, but
I've used it myself because it's a shortcut
to say exactly who Sophie is to me. But we
were joking, as all of us do who have trouble
with the word 'wife; about coming up with
another term. And I randomly just made up
the word 'hamet'-a made~up word-and
Sophie said, 'What did you say:>'And I said,
'You're my 'hamet: And she said, 'In my di~
alect, that means 'home: It means the place
where you are from:Isn't that extraordinaryt
It is. And it's also extraordinary that worn~
en of a certain age are finding new homes in
themselves and in others, even after less sue~
cessful habitations-whether it be Jill Solo~
way with her culture~changing TV show,
Maura Pfefferman making a late~in~lifetran~
sition, Eileen Myles finding fame as a rock~
star poet, or Cherry Jones enjoying a moment
as a "blushing bride:' At any age, women can
make discoveriesabout love,work, and life.
Jones adds that a benefit of getting older is
clarity about all that has gone before, including
the role of past loves."They were absolutely
necessary;' she says of her two previous rela~
tionships. "I would not have been the person
I am today, and I surely never would have met
Soph, if things had been different in any way:'
While in culture, older women are expe~
riencing a second corning of age, it's time for
politics to catch up. Jones may have played a
female president, but the U.S. has yet to actu~
ally see one take her place in the Oval Office.
"It's always amazed me that in the countries
THE L-LIST
that you'd think of as the most chauvinistic
in the world, they've all had women leaders,
from Indira Gandhi to Golda Meir, Benazir
Bhutto to Margaret Thatcher. But we are still
a country of puritans in a way,"she says.
Nevertheless, Jones feels a 'groundswell"
in America now. "Seeing the word 'feminist'
come back is such a thrill. This unapologetic
use of the word 'feminist-in this country, it
was the kiss of death if you were a feminist. I
do think that it came from the fact that it was
identified as a cause oflesbians and somehow
promoting lesbianism. So no heterosexual
woman wanted to be labeled a feminist. I do
think part of the reason feminism is coming
back into the culture is because of gay rights,
and because people now are loving and appre~
ciating their gay family members and neigh~
bors, and we'vejust taken a light~yearkind of
jaunt. We've taken these huge strides so quick~
ly,and I think this has affected why feminism
has taken off. You've got 'transgender' and
'feminism' right now on everyone'slips:'
And after this season of Transparent, with
its unwavering female gaze, its post~patri~
archal aesthetic, and its liberal community, I
hope Cherry Jones will finally be the name on
every lesbian'slips.•
64
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2016
FEATUREstC
B
ETTY is a love bomb that keeps finding more exciting
ways to detonate.
Band members Alyson Palmer and Elizabeth and
Amy Ziff create music that inspires. Take their new
song, "Sticky Rice:' The dance beat, the positive lyrics, and an up~
lifting sound transform the song's subject-sticky rice and man~
go-into an expression of self~love.
Their live shows do very much the same: You go for the music,
you leave feeling refreshed and connected. This is not an accident.
Individually and collectively, the three women are activists who
seek to make the world a safer and more equitable place.
Most lesbians know BETTY from the L Word theme song,
which they composed and performed. That tune, and their in~
volvement in the show, gave the band-as Alyson Palmer says"a lot of great visibility:' No doubt, that experience launched
BETTY's popularity with the lesbian crowd. "Before that, we
had a very large gay male audience, from the work we did in the
AIDS crisis, and then all of a sudden the lezzies got it;' says Eliz~
abeth Ziff. As Amy Ziff remembers, ''Afterward, when we played
in Europe ... people were singing our songs:' Even today, when the
band plays the L Word theme, "everyone loves it and sings along;'
says Elizabeth.
BETTY is more than "girls in tight dresses" who rock great
tunes. The band has a long personal history- 30 years and
counting-and
a commitment to social justice that makes them
a part of lesbian history-past, present, and future. While we all
sat and had lunch recently, I got to learn how they do it.
The LGBT community-and
the world-has
seen a lot of
history since BETTY first got together. Think about it. BETTY
has been dosing out a hopeful message through the fight against
apartheid; the AIDS epidemic; the fall of the Berlin Wall; Ellen
DeGeneres' coming out on national TV; Don't Ask, Don't Tell
(and its repeal); 9/11, and the marriage equality movement.
Sadly, women's rights haven't come as far as the women of BET~
TY had hoped. "Misogyny is the great equalizer;' says Amy. "No
matter what culture you come from, no matter what country
you live in, when you are a misogynist, you are empowered, you
are vocal, you are supported. And that has never changed:'
Nevertheless, BETTY has always pushed for social changeeven before the band was BETTY. They played at Gay Pride in
Washington, D.C., in 1984 (as On Beyond Zebra). They played
in Russia right after the country criminalized homosexuality,
and they played at Baltic Gay Pride amid anti~gay protestors.
And they were there at the March for Women's Lives on the
National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 2004.
Social inequity galvanizes the band and drives them to ex~
pand their work beyond the stage. Through the BETTY Effect,
the group's advocacy arm, the band works with local NGOs
around the world and occasionally with the State Department
to teach people to use their voices and to self~advocate through
"playshops" (BETTY~speak for workshops) and performance.
For each of the band members, this is part of their mission. "We
are reaching people who are trying to effect change;' says Alyson.
"It's so rewarding to be performing on another level. I can see
doing this until the end of my life:'
This zeal for activist work has helped them stay together for 30
years, which is an accomplishment for any relationship, especially
one that involves making music. "Without any shared passions,
I don't know how any relationship exists longer than 23 days;'
says Alyson.
They won't lie-staying
together hasn't always been easy.
There have been moments of tension when they thought they
would break up. "I think of it as a Venn diagram between the
three of us;' explains Alyson. "It's three congruent circles that
when they overlap together it's brilliant and amazing and phe~
nomenaL Every once in a while, one circle will peel out. The worst
times are when all three circles peel out, but most times we are
at least touching. And when things are going really well, we are
overlapping:'
Other factors that have helped them they stay together include
"perseverance and like~mindedness;' says Elizabeth. Then there's
the music itself. "When we create together, it works things out;'
she reflects. A sense of humor cannot be underestimated. "Gold~
en handcuffs;' says Amy, bond the three. This provokes laughter,
and they then turn their attention to discussing the best way to
combine the selection of breads and spreads on the table. Eliza~
beth looks up. "That's one other thing that BETTY does really
66
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2016
FEATURES
well together-eat!"
Alyson adds playfully, "When there is no
other communication, there's always the communication of cal~
ories:'
The members of BETTY share a fellowship with women in
other bands that have been around for a long time, like the B~52s
and the Indigo Girls. "There's a shared vocabulary about what
triggers fights and what issues there are;' Amy says. But there
is also something organic about BETTY's longevity. During the
time I spent with them, I was amazed at how their dynamic was
much the same onstage and off: They overlap, they joke, they
challenge one another. When we spoke about their projects and
talents outside the band, each of them was the others' best advo~
cate. The trick seems to be the three~part harmony that naturally
exists between them.
Others have noticed it too. When the band reached the 18~
year mark, director Michael Greif (Rent, Next to Normal) saw
them perform and encouraged them to create a show about what
it's like to be in essentially a polygamous relationship. What re~
suited was BETTY Rules, an off Broadway and touring show.
Elizabeth, Amy, and Alyson have been there for each other in
sickness and in health, through marriage and personal tragedy.
BETTY performed at Alyson's mother's and father's funerals.
Amy and Elizabeth are "goddess mothers" to the two children Al~
yson is raising with Tony Salvatore, their lead guitarist and Aly~
JC
68
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2016
•
\
•
..
....
. ""'·
•
.
-..
son's partner of 30 years. ''I've never wanted
children, but it's fun to be a peripheral parent;' says Elizabeth. But by far their biggest
challenge has been Elizabeth's fight with
breast cancer, which was first diagnosed
in 2007. Her three-year battle, including
chemotherapy and a mastectomy, was "long
and brutal;' she says.'Tm fine now, clear and
healthy. But I couldn't have done it without
insurance, my cousin Pond Kelemen at the
Ashikari Breast Center, and the huge family
of women who stood by me. And Amy and
Alyson were the rocks underneath me:'
Amy recently married Kristi Ambrosetti,
and the band put its stamp on the celebration, which was officiated by feminist friend
Gloria Steinem (pictured at right).
"Alyson made a whole show for us, and
Elizabeth did the music. It was something
that people will talk about for the rest of
their lives;' says Amy. The wedding was
another turning point for them. Alyson
remembers, "My favorite BETTY picture
ever is Elizabeth and me walking Amy down the aisle. Instinctively,
we held hands and were like, 'Here's the next adventure:"
Anyone who follows the band knows that Steinem, 81, is a fan.
So much so that she even appears at their gigs, either in the audience
or onstage as a special guest. For those curious about how Steinem,
arguably the world's greatest living feminist, came into BETTY's orbit, the connection came through BETTY's lawyer for the past 28
years, Nancy Rose, who is friends with Susan Levine, a founder of
Ms. magazine. "We had a gig at the Bottom Line [a club in New
York that no longer exists]. Susan brought Gloria to the show-this
was like 27 years ago;' shares Elizabeth.''She came running backstage
after the show, and we met and all fell in love. Many protests and prochoice and women's events later, we are still wonderful deep feminist
friends. We all love to laugh and have so much respect for each other.
We love Gloria and know we would not be who we are if she hadn't
existed. The one thing the three of us agree on is how truly amazing,
smart, and important Gloria Steinem is:'
Last December, Steinem took to the stage at City Winery in New
York City during BETTY's holiday show, and shared her Top Ten
Things I Want for Christmas, partly as an endorsement of the BETTY Effect. Number two on Steinem'slist was:"I want the three magicalwomen of
BETTY to have everything they need to spread the BETTY Effect around
the world. They are such a gift. They organize with music and by their
own irresistible examples:'
No matter what BETTY does next, rest assured it will be inspiring, empowering,and damned entertaining. BETTY Rules
was the name of their first stage show.If they do a second,
a fitting tide would be BETTY Reigns.(hellobetty.com)
STOCKHOLM OFTHE STARS
Ingrid Bergman, Lisbeth Salander, and other fabulous femmes.
.illlllllllllll
BY MERRYN JOHNS
tockholm-synonymous
with excellence and
tolerance, the home of the Nobel Prize and of
Scandinavia's largest Pride festival, the birthplace
of lesbian icon Greta Garbo, and a rare example of
how to have socialism without giving up your beloved royal
family. Most recently, Sweden doubled its already generous
number of Syrian refugees and asylum seekers as other
European nations closed their doors. You can experience all
these admirable aspects of the Swedish sensibility on your
visit to Stockholm. Consisting of 14 islands, all of which
can be accessed on foot, the city enables you to roam at your
own rhythm and discover little treasures around each corner,
over each bridge, on a cobblestone street, in old squares and
verdant parks, or at the harbor's edge, and fueled by a fika or
two-good
strong coffee with rich pastries.
WHERETO STAY
Sodermalm, or the South island, is the area of Stockholm favored
by gays and hipsters. The Hotel Rival is modern, quirky, and intimate,
a charming boutique property located on a picturesque street opposite
a pretty park. Unwind in your room, which may be decorated with a
mural of a star of the Swedish screen or pop music. Enjoy a soak in the
tub or walk~inshower; indulge in the free (and excellent)coffeeand com~
plimentary Blu~Ray DVD collection, and sleep off your jetlag on fine
Egyptian cotton linens. Hang out at the three bars, the bistro, or the cafe,
and enjoy the fact that the property, owned by Benny from ABBA, was
designed to please even the most jaded traveler.(rival.se)
For lodgings befitting a queen (and located near the Royal Palace),
the Hotel Diplomat is a traditional and time~honored place to stay,
with views over the harbor. Located on the Strandvagen, a grand bou~
levard deigned by King Oscar II, the Diplomat, like its sister property
the Grand Hotel, makes the most of its prime position in the wealthiest
island neighborhood, Ostermalm. It gaily shows off its Art Nouveau
fa;:ade,Juliette balconies with orange awnings, and outdoor cafe. This
one's a splurge but definitely something special. It's also an easy walk
to the beautiful Royal Dramatic Theater, the very place where Garbo
trained to be a thespian. (diplomathoteLcom)
If you're the kind of traveler who likes to know exactlywhat you're get~
ting when you check in, the Hilton Slussen is for you. Located in the city
center and a manageable walk to sightseeing (not to mention some good
gay nightclubs and wine bars), the property offers smartly decorated ex~
ecutive~stylerooms with city views, an executive lounge, a lavish buffet
breakfast, complimentary WiFi, and a fitness center. It has an upscale
business~yvibe, reassuring when you're far from home.
70
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WHERETO EAT
Everywhere! Taverna Brillo, in the shopping district, offers
lovelyfresh fish such as perch and cod, served with contemporary
flair, and a terrific Eurocentric wine list to match. It's a fun place
to eat-hip vibe, friendly and attractive servers, open kitchen,
and everyone'sfluent in English, as are most of the city's Swedes
(tavernabrillo.se).There are many lovelyrestaurants in Stockholm
that serve stunning food at prices comparable to New York's,but
if you want to eat for a little less in a casual environment-and eat
gay-choose Urban Deli. There are three Urban Delis in Stock~
holm, and the one in Nytorget is almost completely staffed by
lesbians, because Anna Ungh, the restaurant manager, personally
hires dykes. The restaurant recently won a local award for best gay
restaurant. "We take a stand for all minorities;' Ungh tells me. In
fact, "We like differences''is the English translation of the restau~
rant's tagline. It was at the Urban Deli in Sickla that we attended
lesbian nightclub collectiveMoxy's summer crawfish party with a
group of friendly queer girls. More on Moxy later! (urbandeli.org)
WHATTODO
I am a self~confessedABBA nut and there was no better way to
revisit my childhood music crush than go to ABBA the Museum.
This is fun for everyone, including non~fans. The interactive experience allows you to
sing, dance, and be photographed with Agnetha, Benny, Bjorn, and Frida. Peruse a
ton of memorabilia, from kitschy costumes to countless gold records. Record a track,
perform onstage, and even sit in the helicopter from the cover of ABBA's Arrival!
(abbathemuseum.com).
To really get under the skin of the city,take a walking tour with the very erudite
Elisabeth Daude. Her Millennium Tour is based around the landmarks and geogra~
phy of Stieg Larsson's novels, including the haunts of fearless, feisty,fictional Lisbeth
Salander."Larsson was a feminist;' Daude tells me."He was an egalitarian, and could
not stand violence against women:' He particularly had an interest in lesbians as a
revolutionary group, says Daude, and researched Salander's character with empathy
and enthusiasm. But my guides considerable knowledge isn't limited to the Girl with
the Dragon Tattoo. She shared interesting facts about Viking women (who were left
in charge of large homesteads while their husbands were away on adventures, often
for years) and their feminist, possibly lesbian tendencies.
When I told Daude I was a Garbo fan, she amended our walk through Soder~
malm to visit Garbo's home at Blekingegaten 32. This used to be a nondescript
neighborhood, and is somewhat more gentrified now than when Garbo grew up
there, in borderline poverty. If you're a fan of this screen legend (long rumored by
biographers to be bisexual, others claiming her to be gay), stroll around her neigh~
borhood to the little square named after her, Greta Garbo's Torg, and drop in for a
fika at the women~run Garbo Cafe. Up one particularly steep Sodermalm street is
the Mosebacke Theater, where young Greta would wait by the stage door to catch a
glimpse of her favorite performers.
If you're a fan of cinema's golden age, it's worth taking the short subway ride to
Solna, where the Filmstaden (literally "film city") still stands. Yes, Stockholm was
once as important as Hollywood in producing movies. Walk under the entrance
portal into this tiny village and tread the hallowed ground where some of cinema's
brightest stars rehearsed and filmed. Garbo made her first feature film here, as Greta
Gustafsson, and would eventually attract the attention of Hollywood and the rest of
the movie~going world. Ingmar Bergman honed his skills in writing and directing
and went on to work with some of the most highly regarded actresses in Sweden:
MARKtTP
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71
Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson, and Ingrid Thulin. The Filmstaden also
celebrates three-time Oscar winner Ingrid Bergman, a Stockholm native.You may need another fika, so indulge yourself at the quaint cafe in
what was the doorkeeper's lodge, where the walls are lined with memorabilia, your coffee is served in antique china, and you can marvel over
the faces of yesteryear. (filmstadenskultur.se)
While Sodermalm has many wonderful and quirky gift stores, to
really go shopping head to NK, or Nordiska Kompaniet department
store. Like a Bloomingdales or a Harrods, this is a shopping experience, but one with a feminist history. It was the first place in Sweden
where women could walk around without male chaperones, even
before women gained the right to vote in 1921, so it has always been
viewed as a safe zone and a free space for women. Today, the womenswear department at NK bountifully showcases female designers such
as Carin Rodebjer, Anne Bing, Filippa K, Dagmar, Ida Sjostedt, and
lingerie by Katarina Nyman. It also favors edgy androgyny, done very
well by the labels Hunkydory, Acne, and HOPE. Swedish fashion can
be classic, formal, and sexy,but the streetwear tends to favor comfort
and quality: Think flat shoes, long shirts, oversize sweaters, and lots of
textures. Top off your purchase with a Swedish fragrance from ecoluxe
beauty brand Bjork & Berries, inspired by winter forests. (nk.se)
EVAOAHLGP.E
A'U\A
'Endjuptrorandefilr,:i o~,
eninsp1rerande
manniska
,,
"Mycketgr1pande
,_
••
WHERE TO PARTY
Anna Ungh and Anna Hogkil run Moxy, a lesbian nightclub collective that Hogkil started in 2006 to address the lack of a lesbian presence in Stockholm's nightlife. Originally, lesbian nights were held at
Momma Restaurant, but they quickly outgrew the space."There were
lesbians queuing up to go to the first lesbian dub night we ran;' says
Hogkil, who is happily married and lives on a small island in the Stockholm Archipelago, but nevertheless wants a visible lesbian community
in the city.
To achieve this, she put some pressure on the gay Swedish press,
QX, to "givewomen more exposure. I decided to claim a space in the
city for lesbians, to create more girls' nights, more sports days. I was
inspired by Olivia cruises and resorts to do more than just dubbing
and DJs. Moxy Sports is fun, it's a good way to meet each other, and we
offer rookie tennis matches, semi-pro gol£' Hogkil believes that lesbians need a special space."Not everyone welcomes us, and we do need
to communicate to lesbians who are coming out where they can go.
When I go out, I prefer to meet my friends, and my friends are gay:'
Moxy attracts lesbians anywhere between 20 and 50 years old, and
indusivity is a policy: "Friends of Moxy are welcome;' including trans
and genderqueer. In fact, if you are unsure of someone's gender, there
is a Swedish non-gender-specific pronoun for that: "hen;' which means
neither a him nor a her. As well as Moxy nights there is a permanent
lesbian-owned bar called Bitter Pills, which attracts a mixed crowd.
(klubbmoxy.se, bitterpills.se)
HOW TO GET THERE
Norwegian, the second-largest airline in Scandinavia, is not only
very gay-friendly, it's a low-cost carrier offering incredible value for the
money on nonstop flights from the U.S. to Scandinavia. It may be a
budget airline, but I found it to be on a par with more costly carriers
(norwegian.com). Once you've landed at Arlanda Airport, the best way
into the city is via the Arlanda Express, a high-speed, comfortable, and
affordable rail service. (arlandaexpress.com) •
FEATURES/
TRA
TWO WOMEN ON A RUST
BELT ROAD TRIP
Motoring around Lake Erie for a fresh take on a trio of all-American cities.
BY KELSY CHAUVIN
We launched from Brooklyn, N.Y., bound for Buffalo, and
quickly realized we'd forgotten to build in time for an important
stop in our own incredible state. We remedied that with day~one
detour to Seneca Falls, the home of the Women's Rights Nation~
al Historic Park. In 1848, this little town in the Finger Lakes
region hosted one of the country's monumental events: the first
Women's Rights Convention. Absorbing some of the history of
this landmark turned out to be the perfect start for two ladies
treading a path around Lake Erie.
FIND YOUR WINGS IN BUFFALO
There's something very cool about Buffalo. It's got the charm of
a city built on history and some trailblazing architecture ( thank
you, Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan)-plus,
it's got die~
hard locals who wouldn't trade their hometown for anywhere
else. It's a great city to cruise around, just seeing where the road
will lead you, but Canalside, on the Buffalo River, is the place
to pause for quality people~watching, thanks to its Saturday
market, live music and events, Naval Park, and shopping, plus
a nice encapsulation of the city's historic waterfront.
Buffalo's gay scene is centered in Allentown and Elm~
wood Village ( the "Fruit Loop"), home to the Pride Center
of Western New York and several friendly gay spots, like the
martini bar Fugazi, and Cathode Ray, a funky neighborhood
hangout. (Find loads more LGBT hot tips in Buffalo's Loop
Magazine.)
Among the many cool eateries in this area, Merge stands
out for its fresh local ingredients, happy hour and brunch
specials, and live (but mellow) music. Betty's is another local
go~to for tasty comfort food. This being Buffalo, there's no
shortage of wings to sample. But rather than hitting the tour~
isty Anchor Bar, we headed to Cole's on Elmwood Avenue
for zingy wings and delicious Beef on Weck, Buffalo's favorite
roast beef sandwich on a salty kummelweck bun. (visitbuffa~
loniagra.com)
JUMPSTART YOUR MOTOR IN DETROIT
After a whirlwind jaunt to Niagara Falls and back down
Lake Erie's western shore (hello, Canada!), we finally got to
Detroit, a city whose extreme wealth and poverty turned it
into a bit of a mystery destination for us. From our hotel-a
group of converted mansions called the Inn on Ferry Streetwe could tell right away that whatever brilliant architecture
remained from Detroit's early~20th~century heyday would
alone be worth the trip.
Woodward Avenue, near the inn, is currently under con~
struction to restore the streetcar line along its corridor, but
is likely to open in 2017. Woodward is one of the city's main
thoroughfares and part of the Cass Corridor, a big commer~
cial strip in central Detroit.
Around Cass, don't miss two amazing museums: the De~
troit Institute of Arts, one of the country's most impressive
art institutions, and the Detroit Historical Museum, where
we could finally process much of the city's storied history (in~
eluding its automotive heritage and its fascinating economic
rise and fall). Of course, the Motown Museum, about a mile
over on Grand Boulevard, is another one not to miss. Just
remember to reserve your tickets in advance.
Forearmed by some research, Denise and I grabbed our
first meal in Detroit at the truly delicious, affordable, worn~
en~owned super diner that is Rose's Fine Foods, on East
Jefferson Avenue. Practically everything here is homemade,
and the staff are recruited from local neighborhoods for on~
the~job training. Downtown, we found Wright & Company,
with its tantalizing, splurge~worthy small plates. But it was
not to be outdone by the authentic Spanish tapas at La Feria
on Cass, owned by a gay former schoolteacher and his sister,
both Detroit natives.
Pridesource is Detroit's go~to LGBT paper, and it pointed
us to the gay scene in Ferndale. The lesbians, it turns out,
74
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
FEATURES/
TRA
invade local pub Rosie O'Grady's on Wednesdays, but a
couple of cute queer spots like the stylish Soho bar and Affirmations, Metro Detroit's LGBT community center, help
make Nine Mile Road the backbone of the gayborhood.
(visitdetroit.com)
CLEVELAND, AN AMERICAN CLASSIC
Rounding the southern tip of Lake Erie via Toledo went
fast, and soon we arrived in Cleveland. Inspired by the Motown hits we'd become addicted to on this road trip, our
first stop was the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a surprisingly manageable and maybe a bit underwhelming museum in
the North Coast Harbor District.
It dawned on us that we were due for a driving break, so
we parked the Rogue and hopped on Lolly the Trolley for a
sightseeing tour, where we got the story of all things Cleveland in a nutshell, past through thriving present.
Back to our own devices, we considered a couple of
stops mandatory. One was a drive-by of the house used in
the movie A Christmas Story-it was totally touristy and
completely worth it. Nearby, also in Tremont, we followed
a great local tip to have lunch at Lucky's Cafe, an Ohioproud, woman-owned bakery and restaurant. We even
came back to Tremont for dinner at Sokolowski's University Inn, a trapped-in-time cafeteria serving classic Polish
fare like cabbage rolls, paprikash, and absolutely divine
pierogis.
The other C-town must was a drink at Happy Dog, a
local hangout in the gay-ish area known as Detroit-Shoreway, also home to the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland. Happy Dog is a two-story, queer-friendly
joint with live music nightly, plus hot dogs that come with a
choice of 50 different toppings-from
traditional to wacky.
(Care for more Froot Loops on your frank?)
Cleveland still has corners with gritty appeal, though
neighborhoods like the Flats and the Warehouse District
are fast becoming gentrified, inviting an influx of entertainment and dining options. Meanwhile, in downtown, not far
from Playhouse Square, there's even a bustling restaurant
row on East Fourth Street, where you can feast on a rather amazing selection of both familiar and daring dishes at
hotspots like the Greenhouse Tavern.
As we roamed the area, Denise and I wound up inside
the 1890 Cleveland Arcade, a stunning, pink marble-dad
landmark that we somehow felt we had discovered all for
ourselves. Its five-story-tall central atrium is lined with ornate balconies and balustrades, and is topped by a glassand-steel skylight.
Suddenly, this gorgeous remnant of high times pastnow preserved for the future, too-became
the clearest
snapshot of the whole trip. We realized that America's Rust
Belt may have rough edges, but its character is as strong as
steel. ( thisiscleveland.com) •
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
75
DEEP IN THE HEART
OF DALLAS
Grab your Stetson and "scoot a boot" to one of the gayest cities in Texas!
BY LISA TEDESCO
f you ever get a chance to tour every state in this nation
of ours and find yourself"deep in the heart of Texas;'
be sure to stop in Dallas for a day-or three. Most of us
who never venture to the South (guilty) would think,
What the hell is so gay in Dallas? Well, Curve readers, I'm
here to tell you: a lot!
Dallas is quickly becoming one of the gayest cities in that big
ol' red state. It's a blue~friendly city inside a mostly conservative
little nation. But Texas as a whole, and especially in or near the
cities, is seeing a spike in liberal and forward~thinking attitudes.
Now, ever since I was a teenager I've had a weird obsession
with cowgirls, a fascination with the horseback riding and the
six~shooter shooting. So when I was invited to get a taste of
Dallas~style Southern charm, I just couldn't resist.
If you're looking for a hotel in Dallas that won't break the
bank, a hotel that offers you exquisite amenities such as a roor
top pool, a world~class spa, a decadent restaurant and cocktail
lounge, then the W Dallas-Victory Hotel (wdallasvictory.com)
is for you. There's no better place to rest your head. In keeping
with that well~known Texas hospitality, their motto is "What~
ever /Whenever;' which I could certainly get used to. From the
moment you step through the doors, graciously held open for
you by a strapping young curbside attendant, then check in
with the smiling front desk personnel, you are treated like the
only person on the planet. Not to mention that the decor in the
place is incredibly chic and modern. The hotel is also incredibly
LGBT~friendly and nestled downtown in the heart of some of
Dallas's top tourist destinations! (The Sixth Floor Museum, for
one, is an excellent site, if you're a history nut like me (jfk.org).
While you're in town, you need to have breakfast ( or brunch)
at Lucky's, where they serve up~to~date diner fare along with
some old~school cafe charm. Have the mimosa! It's amazing!
The menu features the freshest ingredients from locally owned
76
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
farms, because they leave the best taste on your tongue! As
you take a seat inside, have a look at the walls all around
you. Since Lucky's opened in 1996, it has been known for
its charity work. It has been selling its wall space, so people
could sign their names, decorate the place, and help raise
money for the AIDS Resource Center. Oh, and the Garden
Hash is to die for!
To experience a true Texas smokehouse, try Lockhart in
the Bishops Arts District (lockhartsmokehouse.com).
No
one else in Dallas can compare with the kings who run the
pit over at Lockhart. Bring a big appetite and prepare to get
good and dirty, because Lockhart serves gigantic portions of
tender meats. No forks or sauces needed! It has everything
you could imagine, from brisket to chicken to shoulder to
sausage, from ribs to chops and turkey. Lockhart also has a
plethora of home~style sides, like the Blue Cole Slaw-made
with blue cheese and jalapeno-that'll
make your mouth
water, literally. Don't leave without a great souvenir T~shirt
from the lads behind the bar!
When it's time to prepare for an evening out, start at
Komali, where Leann Berry will serve you a great margar~
ita (komalirestaurant.com).
This lady knows her tequila!
To accompany your cocktail, try the guacamole, served with
house~made chips and salsa. As Leann would say, "scoot a
boot" to Komali!
The best place in town for dinner, no question, would
have to be Stampede 66 (stampede66.com). This Dallas gem
is owned and operated by chef Stephan Pyles, who creates
an eclectic and extravagant menu with hometown flare. The
atmosphere is very modern, and the decor undeniably Tex~
an, which allows you to relax and feel right at home. Wood~
en street signs line the back wall, and a giant tree holds
steadfast in the middle of the dining room. Don't forget to
take a gander at the giant pig made out of pork rinds! The
Freeto~Chili Pie is a must. You can't go wrong when chili
is served in a vintage Frito's bag with the deliciousness of
those deep~fried chips on top! If you're feeling a little ad~
venturous, like I was, take a walk on the wild side and order
the Chicken~ Fried Buffalo Steak with mashed potatoes and
pea salad. It's a take on the classic chicken~fried steak, but
features yummy buffalo.
Dallas has a giant strip of LGBT nightlife that will accom~
modate whatever tickles your fancy. Sue Ellen's, the bi~level
lesbian nightclub, is a staple in this town. Opening in 1989,
it moved to a new location on Throckmorton Street in 2008.
"There's always a nice crowd, and it's part of the community,"
says lesbian local Avril Stacy. "They're classy ladies. They're
all nice ladies here. It's Texas, after all:'
Sue Ellen's is the premiere lesbian hot spot of the South,
attracting ladies from all over for the drink specials-and
the dancing. The bar has a dance floor for a little two~step~
pin' and bands play on a nightly basis. Sue Ellen's also has
a wrap~around patio on both floors so guests can enjoy the
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
77
lovely Texas weather in the evening (sueellensdallas.com).
While you're in Dallas, or anywhere in Texas for that mat~
ter, you will need to learn the two~step. Everyone, and I mean
EVERYONE, knows how to do the basic two~step, and on
the dance floor in your gay clubs they don't bump n' grind.
There seems to be a stylistic, choreographed dance for every
song and song genre. What better place to throw on some
boots and hit the floor than the Round~Up Saloon. Here you
can learn how to dance on Thursday nights (when I gallant~
ly attempted), or for you more experienced folk, Friday and
Saturday nights bring in a packed house of Stetson~wearing
heartthrobs ready to give you a spin underneath the giant lit~
up Texas sign. The Round~ Up also has a karaoke room, a bil~
liard room, four or five bars (I seriously lost count after the
fifth) with an abundance of local beers and well drinks, free
peanuts, and a genuinely warm smile everywhere you turn
( roundupsaloon.com).
A good night being'out' should be accompanied by the best
cocktail, made with outstanding vodka. While at a soiree at
Dallas premier LGBT luxury living condominiums known
as Ilume on Cedar Springs Road, the co~founder of Equality
Vodka (equalityvodka.com), Bert Gallagher Jr., came by to
mix us specialty drinks with this amazingly smooth vodka
that comes with a very special message. For every bottle pur~
chased the company gives a donation to a recognized non~
profit leading the way towards better equality."For if we don't
have equality, truly we have nothing:' And if we don't have
a good cocktail with excellent vodka that doesn't break the
bank, truly we have nothing.
So whether you're in Dallas for a few days or you're just
passing through, I implore you to take a look around at all
the wonderful sights and say hi to the nice people around
every bend. When you're in Dallas, you have to take it all in.
They say "Everything's Bigger in Texas;' and I can honestly
tell you it was true of the hearts of everyone there. The gener~
osity and friendliness of the people I came across will forever
leave a Texas brand in my mind. Whether you're LGBT or
straight, you are a visitor to their city and they want to make
you feel welcome and happy.
If you're considering a trip, you'd do well to consult the
Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau. The helpful and
knowledgeable staff and website will guide you to whatever it
is that you seek in a true Texas adventure. (visitdallas.com) •
LASTLOOK/
CROSSW
Test your
lesbian knowledge
with our queer crossword.
BY MYLES MELLOR
ACROSS
1.
6.
9.
Ancient Code which first
mentioned marriages between women
Network airing For Justice in
which Phylicia Rashad plays a
lesbian FBI agent
Lesbian pop folk duo, Indigo
10. Offbeat phrase, such as
'lipstick lesbian'
DOWN
26. Don't ask, don't _, no longer
applicable military slogan
28. Modern bodily evidence
31. Ancient poet who was born
on Lesbos in Greece
1.
Holds close
24. Give a confidence boost to
2.
National_
on Washington
for Lesbian and Gay Rights
27. Imp
3.
Package deliverer
30. "
4.
"Lavender Jane Love Women"
singer, _ Dobkin
32. Throws
5.
Caesar's 3
6.
Web follower
7.
The 1969 riots that began the
LGBT rights movement
Stuck on
33. Goal
34. She wrote, The Politics of
Reality: Essays in Feminist
Theory, Marilyn_
11. Orange juices, for short
12. Girls in this country get very
heavy pressure to marry a
man after 25
39. Forwards
8.
40. She cofounded Justice for
Women, Julie __
12. Curved letter
17. Aspen or Tahoe
18. Make a joke
20. American feminist author and
philosopher, early member of
the National Organization for
Women,_
Atkinson
41. Zodiac sign
42. Beginner instruction in a
subject
43. Lesbian music pioneer who
released the album, The
Changer and the Changed_
Williamson
22. Stocking fabric
44. An early member of The
Furies, Charlotte __
23. Colors
45. Superior to young
25. Where forbidden fruit was
eaten
13. Canadian province initials
with a kiss"
35. Part of NPR
37. Tell_
36. Russian mountains
15. Author of Love Your Enemy?
Sheila
29. Before noon
story, 2 words
38. Lesbian who wrote "A
Change of World" Adrienne
40. UK TV network where Lip
Service was shown
42. Indefinite article
14. Caribbean-American writer
who described herself as
"black, lesbian, mother,
warrior, poet," 2 words
16. Struggle
18. Author of Lesbian Nation, Jill
19. Where you can watch shows
20. Billy Jean King's sport
21. 'The coast
clear'
22. Olympic gold for example
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
79
LAST LOOK/STARS
WintPr Wisrl m
Mars in Scorpio increases our passion while Venus
in Sagittarius knows no bounds. By Charlene Lichtenstein
(March 21-April 20)
You are especially sexy and
(Dec 23-Jan 20)
Lesbian Caps are the most
successful in the zodiac
when it comes to winning
corporate tussles. They are
best suited for suit jobs:
senior administration in major
corporations, finance, and
banking. But the ultimate job
for a Sapphic Cap is politics.
She is adept at forging
alliances with just about
anyone, no matter how vile
and loathsome.
alluring now and can attract any
who are ready, willing and able
times for all Sags who yearn to
to be domesticated, Lioness. But
stretch the limits of their personal
sights on. It's arguably the main
before you send out the invites,
power. It could mean a sudden
thought in your mind all winter.
survey your surroundings and
revelation that gives you all the
Not only do you roar to score,
see if they're up to your exacting
answers you need. It could mean
you seek to scratch your sexy
standards. If not, spruce it up
with an early spring cleaning in
a secret admirer who makes
itch in faraway lands. So plan a
fun vacation ...or be satisfied with
all nooks and crannies.
(April 21-May 21)
trouble this winter, Virgo. Lucky
you! Say what is on your mind
and see how you can change
your world, so be prepared
Taurus, and plan sensual antics
the social dynamic. You could
to be swept into the center of
that will help cement the bonds
become a mover and shaker in
a community effort or political
the female frenzy. Get yourself
between the two of you. Bulls
who are roaming the fields for
movement. Do good deeds and
organizations. Your ability to
impress is impressive. But
(Dec 23-Jan 20)
Gal pals shake, rattle and roll
into new associations and
a different graze can expand
before you know it, you will be
their usual range and find fresh
the one to know. And I might
if you yearn for quiet time,
fodder. The fresher the better.
mean that in the biblical sense.
fuggetaboutit, Capricorn. Unless
(Sept 24-Oct 23)
more action. Ahem.
If you're on the prowl for a
Libras can corral their finances
lovergrrl, this may be the season
this winter. Your business
for a successful conquest. And
acumen is sharp and, with
Your corporate ascent will be
you may find her right in your
planning, you can start your
swift and sure, depending on
place of work. Will she perk
year in the pink. But life is not
who you schmooze, Aqueerius.
up your thoughts at the coffee
all calculated dollars and cents.
As much as you hate corporate
maker? Will she rub by you on
Divert your eye to a different
politics, you're good at it
the way to the conference room?
bottom line and survey other
when you try. And now you
Keep your eyes open and your
assets. Your dough can create a
rise in a certain special lady. How
try because you see tangible
about a luxurious champagne
the winter to fine tool your ploy
(June 22-July 23)
Fun and work will not easily mix
this winter, Cancer. It requires
bath for two?
(Oct24-Nov22)
balance and finesse. Everyone
You are a spitfire this winter,
wants a piece of you and you
Scorpio, and that means that
(Jan 21-Feb 19)
opportunities within reach. Use
and, once you get to the top,
turn the screws on all those tools.
(Feb 20-March 20)
Is this the winter of your
have only so much time and
not only can you meet and greet
discontent, Guppie? If so, travel
energy. Charm your colleagues
the powerful few, you can also
far and seek adventure. It will
to see how much they can help
increase your personal influence
reduce your workload. Then you
and shake the scene all by
your boring, lonely routine. Open
will have time to decide how
yourself. Grease the wheels with
yourself to possibilities, and
much party you can handle.
your considerable charm and
expect heady romance along the
charisma to get who you want,
way. You never know who you
where and when you want. Will
will meet or sweep off her feet.
it be lonely at the top? Well, it's
Or perhaps you'll be swept. Let's
Charlene
Lichtenstein
istheauthor
of HerScopes:
AGuide
toAstrology
(July 24-Aug 23)
ForLesbians
(Simon
& Schuster)
Your home life livens up this
nowavailable
asanebook
winter and you play the happy
(tinyurl.com/HerScopes).
2016
in the Star Chamber, sister.
Your mouth can get you into
dash of romance to a humdrum
relationship. Get off your pillow,
lips apart, Gemini. Or something.
%
JAN/FEB
time off your feet with your head
by quiet you mean less talk and
Expect your Aqueerian to
be surrounded by unusual
and unorthodox girlfriends
from all walks of life who they
attract through their various
groups and causes. Blending
in is not in her game plan. In
fact, she may go out of her
way to dress to distress. Who
is that momma with enough
body piercings to set off
airport security? Chances are
she is an Aqueerian.
CURVE
(Aug 24-Sept 23)
herself known and knocks you off
your feet. Be prepared for a lot of
This is a great time to add a
(May 22-June 21)
(Jan 21-Feb 19)
80
(Nov 23-Dec 22)
This winter delivers interesting
woman you set your lascivious
just your roaming hands.
Susan Sontag, feminist critic and writer,
would have turned 83 on January 16.
homemaker. Plan some intimate
soirees with a bevy of beauties
never lonely on top.
refresh you and get you out of
see where you wash ashore.
2016 GLC300 and GLC300 4MATIC®shown with optional equipment. ©2015 Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC For more information, call 1-800-FOR-MERCEDES, or visit MBUSA.com.
See all items with this value
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JAN/FEB 2016 VOLUME 26#1
JAN/FEB
2016
FEATURES
3~
THE WAY WE WERE
Our special tribute to unsung
lesbian sheroes and their
herstory.
~2
FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT
Patricia Cornwell, the
bestselling master of forensic
fiction on love, life, and getting
better with age.
~5
SISTER IN ARMS
Black lesbian-feminist Barbara
Smith reflects on 40 years of
activism.
51
DYKE IS A FOURLETTER WORD
Meet poet Eileen Myles, whose
late-in-life success is long
overdue.
5~
A LESBIAN SHORT STORY
Lois C. Hart's "Animarum"
examines long-lived lesbian
love in an elder care setting.
60
LIFE IS A BOWL
FOR CHERRY
Award-winning stage and TV
actor Cherry Jones discusses
her hot new role in Jill
Soloway's hit, Transparent.
73
HIT THE ROAD, JILL
Take a Rust Belt road trip with
your girl and see some things
that made America great.
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
1
JAN/FEB
2016
12
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
IN EVERYISSUE
4
EDITOR'S NOTE
6
CURVETTES
8
FEEDBACK
11
THE GAYDAR
80
STARS
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
TRENDS
REVIEWS
10 LES LOOKS LIKE
Each issue we pick a lesbian
with a look and a life to match.
24 BOOKS
The best books of 2015 were
compelling, powerful, and
historic records of LGBT rights
milestones written by and
about lesbian activists. By
Merryn Johns & Victoria A.
Brownworth
12 BEAUTY
The best cruelty-free products
for your face and body.
14 LESBOFILE
What's new and noteworthy
with our favorite celesbians.
By Jocelyn Voo
VIEWS
16 POLITICS
Deep thoughts and heartfelt
convictions on a different topic
each issue from our contributing politics editor. By Victoria
A. Brownworth
18 OUT IN FRONT
Meet the community leaders
who are doing us proud. By
Sheryl Kay
18 IN CASE YOU MISSED
IT ...
LGBT news from across the
country. By Sassafras Lowrey
22 LIPSTICK & DIPSTICK
Relationship advice from our
trusted butch-femme duo.
2
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
28 FILMS
Two cinematic treats this issue:
a moving exploration of an
aging expat finding island love
in Sand Dollars; and a historic
redux of Sweden's Sapphic
head of state, Queen Kristina in
The Girl King. By Lisa Tedesco
& Merryn Johns
30 MUSIC
Let your hair down and get
wild, with the original rock
chick and one of America's
undisputed guitar greats, June
Millington. By Kelly McCartney
LAST LOOK
79 CROSSWORD
Can you tame our Queer Quiz?
By Myles Mellor
CANCUN, MEXICO RESORT
May 7-14,2016
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I
n my 15 years in lesbian publishing I have heard two things
consistently: that the lesbian community is being erased, and that
older lesbians do not receive their due.
I think both statements are true, but only partly. They're true because ever since the word "lesbian" entered the lexicon, gay women
have fought for visibility and for equal rights, but gained them largely
by being attached to the activism of other groups, such as feminists or
gay men. On their own, lesbians are one of the most overlooked and
underprivileged minority groups of all-possibly because they are
women who do not wish to be reliant on or have traditional relationships with the most powerful group, men. Following this logic, older
lesbians are therefore as maligned as older women, maybe more so.
But, to keep emphasizing these disadvantages perpetuates them.
After all, the solution to invisibility lies in becoming visible. Visibility
leads to discrimination, which also must be fought. Our work is never
done, but at least it lies in our own hands. We lesbians, especially older lesbians, must record our histories so that the younger generations
have a point of reference for their own lives, and have something to
build upon. For they will also one day be older. The smartest and most
successful Millennials I know look up to, respect, and work with the
older lesbians that paved the way before them.
This is our History issue, and I am pleased to report that older lesbians will get their due-at least within these pages. The median age
of our main subjects is a little over 70 years of age-from the whippersnappers of BETTY, who will enjoy 30 years together as a band
this year, to long-lived athlete Dot Wilkinson, 95, the subject of a new
book and a documentary.
When I thought about putting this issue together, it was important to shine a spotlight on some of the most significant lesbians who
have done, and are still doing, amazing things. In addition to our cover
girls, and to Wilkinson, you'll also marvel at the lifetime achievements
of Edie Windsor and Roberta Kaplan, Lillian Faderman, June Millington, Eileen Myles, Cherry Jones, Patricia Cornwell, Barbara Smith,
Honey Lee Cottrell, Lesley Gore and Lois Sasson, and many others.
I had the pleasure of personally speaking with Jones and Cornwell,
and both were interested in discussing the advantages and surprises
of getting older-such as the joy of legal marriage and the power of
insight, to name just two.
In 2015, a significant number oflesbian activists and artists passed
away, and we respectfully mourn their loss in Victoria Brownworth's
column, "In Memoriam;' on page 16. But it is also an opportunity to
remember and to celebrate. To do what Brownworth urges and to record our lives.And while I'm on the subject of records, remember that
in 2015, Curve celebrated 25 years of lesbian publishing. We thank
you for reading, and hope you continue for the next 25 years!
Please enjoy this issue as proof positive of just a few of the wonderful women who have made our culture so vibrant and valuable, and as
a tribute to lesbian visibility.
Here's to a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!
!z
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
merryn@curvemag.com
APRIL 2, 2016
THE BEVERLY HILTON
LOS ANGELES
MAY14,2016
WALDORF ASTORIA
NEW YORK
RONT /
cu RVETTES
SUSAN MILLER
Susan Miller is the recipient of two Obies, a Guggenheim
Fellowship, and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for her plays
A Map Of Doubt And Rescue and My Left Breast. Miller is also
executive producer/writer of the hit lndie lesbian webseries,
Anyone But Me, for which she (and creative partner Tina Cesa
Ward) received the Writers Guild of America Award as well as
Streamy & Webby Nominations. Miller was a consulting producer/
writer on Showtime's The L Word and ABC's Thirtysomething. Her
articles have appeared in 0, The Oprah Magazine, Ms. Magazine,
American Theatre, Bark, and Girlfriends.
curve
THE BEST-SELLING
JAN/FEB
2016
LESBIAN
» VOLUME
MAGAZINE
26 NUMBER
1
PUBLISHERSilke Bader
FOUNDINGPUBLISHER Frances Stevens
EDITORIAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEFMerryn Johns
SENIORCOPY EDITOR Katherine Wright
CONTRIBUTINGEDITORS Melanie Barker, Kathy Beige,
Marcie Bianco, Victoria A. Brownworth, Gina Daggett,
Lyndsey D'Arcangelo, Sheryl Kay, Gillian Kendall, Dave
Steinfeld, Jocelyn Voo
EDITORIAL
ASSISTANTSLisa Tedesco, Annalese Davis
OPERATIONS
DIRECTOROF OPERATIONSJeannie Sotheran
ADVERTISING
NATIONALSALES
Rivendell Media (908) 232-2021, todd@curvemagazine.com
SHEENAC. HOWARD
By the age of 26, Sheena C. Howard was already a Doctor of
Philosophy, focusing on racial and gendered representations
as well as sexual minority research in the new millennium.
Howard is an award winning author, producer, blogger and
social justice leader. She became the first Black female to win
an Eisner Award in 2014 for her book, Black Comics: Politics of
Race and Representation. She is also the author of Black Queer
Identity Matrix and Critical Articulations of Race, Gender and
Sexual Orientation and she is the Chair of the Black Caucus
and Assistant Professor of Communication at Rider University.
ART/PRODUCTION
ART DIRECTORBruno Cesar Guimaraes
SOCAL MEDIA
MANAGERAnnalese
Davis
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Melany Joy Beck, Jenny Block, Kelsy Chauvin, Dar Dowling,
Jill Goldstein, Kristin Flickinger, Kim Hoffman, Francesca
Lewis, Charlene Lichtenstein, Tiffany Ceridwen Lowana,
Sassafras Lowrey, Kelly McCartney, Myles Mellor, Emelina
Minero, Laurie K. Schenden, Stephanie Schroeder, Janelle
Sorenson, Rosanna Rios-Spicer, Yana Tallon-Hicks, Sarah
Toce
CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS & PHOTOGRAPHERS
Steph Brusig, Grace Chu, Meagan Cignoli, Sophy Holland,
Sara Lautman, Syd London, Maggie Parker, Diana Price, B.
Proud, Robin Roemer, Leslie Van Stelten
LOIS CLOARECHART
Born and raised in British Columbia, Canada, Lois Cloarec Hart
grew up as an avid reader but didn't begin writing until much later
in life. Several years after joining the Canadian Armed Forces, she
received a degree in Honours History from Royal Military College
and on graduation switched occupations from air traffic control
to military intelligence. She began writing while caring for her
husband in his final years and her first book, Coming Home, was
published in 2001. It was through that publishing process that Lois
met the woman she would marry in April 2007. She commutes
annually between her home in Calgary and her wife's in Atlanta.
GILLIAN KENDALL
Gillian Kendall has been writing for Curve since 1989, before
some current readers were born. Having no other legitimate
employment, she has become a full-time writer and writing
coach, living frugally but well in Florida. Her first book, the coauthored How I Became a Human Being, was the subject of the
Oscar-nominated film, The Sessions. Her second book, Mr. Ding's
Chicken Feet, was a New York Times Notable Book. Currently she's
re-revising an unlikely memoir, Notes from the Stranger's Corridor:
A story of editing, insomnia, and minor mental illness, and seeking
artistic representation like mad. Visit gilliankendall.org.
-!
s
<lJ
C
(lJ
w
CONTACT INFO
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Volume 26 Issue 1 Curve (ISSN 1087-867X) is published 6 times
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6
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
RONT /
FEEDBACK
to Curve. I've been a subscrib~
er since your earliest incarna~
tion as Deneuve, and I owe
so many thanks for so many
wonderful columns and articles
over so many years. The latest
wide~ranging Culture Issue
surely ranks as one of your all~
time best. Victoria is a national
treasure, her presence in your
pages a gift in every issue. Her
columns seem to become richer
and deeper with the passing of
time and with all the history
she and all of us have been a
part of creating together. It's
good to see in the pages of your
current issue the invaluable
Julie Enszer, herself an astute
commentator and gifted editor
of an equally long running,
irreplaceable publication,
Sinister Wisdom. The irrepress~
PART OF HISTORY
Victoria Brownworth's cele~
bration of house and home
and family, with its evocation
of the challenging passages
in our own LGBT lives [''A
Home for the Holidays;'
V.25#6], moved me to write
my own letter of appreciation
ible Lipstick and Dipstick are
always a delight. There have
been so many features, profiles,
reviews, editorials, gossip,
letters to the editor, marvelous
photos, so many cultural links
to our remarkable community
in every issue that have made
me feel in touch with our sis~
terhood nationally and globally
throughout the years.
Many thanks to you and to all
the wonderful contributors to
your vibrant pages, and to all
my sister readers who've helped
to keep Curve a part of our
community and our history.
- Katherine V. Forrest, via
email.
Gore in the Culture Issue
[V.25#6]. I'd been wonder~
ing if and hoping that Curve
would run something on this
legendary singer, since she
was such a huge part of my
generation's culture and con~
sciousness. I wasn't sure if you
would do a story, given that
only people over 50 seem to
know who she was. So thank
you for including her. I would
like to read more about her
life, especially her later years,
since she was taken from us so
suddenly.
- M. L. Ebner, Chesapeake
Beach MD.
MORE LESLEY GORE
Editor's Note: I hope you enjoy
the additional article in this issue
on page 38.
I was both pleased and relieved
to see your tribute to Lesley
WHAT
WAS
THE
MOST
IMPORTANT
MOMENT
INLESBIAN
HISTORY?
4,1%
1997,when Ellen DeGeneres
came out.
I 0% 2004, when Ilene Chaiken
created TheL Word.
35%
2013, when Edie Windsor
brought down DOMA.
I , % The best is yet to come.
WRITE
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THREEEASYSTEPSTO GETTINGONLINE
BY GILLIAN KENDALL
You're reading this. So I'm guessing that you, like me, enjoy magazines-the kind made of paper, that you can lay on your lap or a
table and flip through. I like magazines with pages bound between
covers, that I can throw in a beach bag or leave on my bedside table
with never a thought about batteries.
The sorry truth is that I have a Kindle, but I've only ever had one
book on it, which I've never finished, partly because I don't like having to swipe the screen to turn the page. Even on overseas flights,
I end up tucking a paperback into my carryon and reading that
instead of my Kindle. And with a real book, the batteries never die
and I don't have to use an adapter.
But the era of e-reading is here, despite my efforts to prevent it.
Let's get this terminology (ahem) straight. Online edition? Digital
magazine? Website? What's the difference? According to Merryn
Johns, who is Curve's Editor-in-Chief, there are three main platforms-not
counting social media-for
the magazine: The hard
copy, which you may have in your hands; the digital edition, which
is a digital replica of the hard copy but with interactive features; and
the website, curvemag.com, which offers extra free content and a
weekly e-Newsletter you can sign up for.
Have you been to Curve's website? Just type this into your web
browser: http://www.curvemag.com. One click, and you're on one
of the world's best lesbian home pages. Make yourself at home I
On the website you can get easy, free access to a digital issue, too.
Here's how: Near the top right corner you'll see a box called WEEKLY
E-NEWSLETTER.Inside that is a red rectangle labelled "Sign Up Now."
Click it, and fill in your email address in the box that appears.
A day or two after you do that, you'll get an email from Curve with
a link. Click on that link, enter your email address (the same one you
used earlier) and voilal You'll have an issue of the digital magazine
open on your screen.
Here's the fun part. Look at that Curve cover, and decide what
you want to see more of. Want to read a cover story? Click on the
headline, and you'll be zapped to the article! Want to leaf through it?
Click near the middle of the right side of the page, and a little arrow
will appear. Click it, and you'll be "turning the page." Click on the left,
and you'll be "turning backwards." It's not difficult, it's fun.
Navigate via the table of contents on the left. Find the name of an
article you want to see, and click it. When you're done reading there,
click again on the table of contents, which stays visible on the left of
the screen. To make any page larger, use the magnifying-glass icons
to control the zoom. Zoom in. Zoom out. In' Out! Hey, you're good
at this.
We at Curve want readers to enjoy all of our platforms, and the
varied content on each. And we want it to be easy. If the above steps
seem too time-consuming, too complicated, or too techy, just send
an email directly to Curve's Operations Manager Jeannie Sotheran:
jeannie@curvemag.com and she'll set up your free subscription.
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
9
PICKS
»
PRODUCTS
»;
PEOPt»
nJan
mi DJ,life is a circuit
t up and dance!
1\-\\S \S W\-\A1
A LESB\AN
LOOKS UKE
TRENDS/
p
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!~e~ o~~!~~~one?
THE GAYDAR
Let our gaydar help
you decide who's hot, who's not, who's
shaking it and who's faking it in lesboland.
BY MELANIE BARKER
Johnny Depp is the world's
coolest dad, supporting
his daughter Lily-Rose who
identifies as "sexually fluid"
Bisexual Rep. Kyrsten
Sinema of Ariz. votes for
the American Security
Against Foreign Enemies
(SAFE)Act, further
restricting the already
severe vetting process of
refugees
Missy Elliott releases "WTF,"her
first music video in 7 years and
makes us stop mooning over
Adele's "Hello" for five minutes
Chloe Sevigny to play
alleged murderess Lizzie
Borden and Kristen
Stewart her maid and
lover in a new movie
Michelle
Rodriguez plays
a transgender
hitwoman in
action flick
Tomboy, shows
no knowledge
of trans issues,
calling Caitlyn
Jenner "Kris
Jenner"
Former Bond Girl
and Avengers star
Dame Diana Rigg
suggests that the
next James Bond
could/should be a
lesbian
z
i
s
0
w
"'
f-
w
Legendary
photographer
Peter Lindbergh
gives Kate
Winslet the
ultimate
androgynous
makeover for
L'UOMO Vogue
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CD
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::::,
Salt Lake
City elects its
first lesbian
mayor, Jackie
Biskupski
'o:'
Q
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:5
72-year-old actor
Holland Taylor
announces out on
WNYC, says "I am
out. I live out"
>-
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Marve/'s Jessica Jones features
lesbian entanglements galore, in
case you haven't already binged!
Abby Wambach retires
from pro soccer, pledges to
tackle gender inequality in
sport and beyond
Lady Gaga,
Taylor Kinney
and bisexual star
of Chicago Fire
Monica Raymund.
Cuddle buddies or
Tinseltown's latest
menage trois?
a
;:;:
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
11
TRENDS/
BEAUTY
In Fine Form
ITS NOT ABOUT ANTI-AGING.ITS ABOUT BRINGINGOUT YOUR BESTAS YOU AGE.
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Created by out lesbian entrepreneur Tag Ceder, Definitions Skincare
is a complete line of premium skin products that improves the health
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and the latest technology, the cleansers, toners, exfoliants, eye creams,
masks, serums, and moisturizers are allfree of parabens, synthetic
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the Fruit Acid Cleansing Creme, which removes impurities and dead
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an instantly rejuvenating effect. (definitionsskincare.com)
Bionova is the product of 25 years of human physiology and biochemistry
research, resulting in the Hyper-Natural™ line of skincare which uses
ingredients that occur naturally within the body Miraculously, no plants,
botanicals, animal extracts, minerals or oils are used. Just lipids, amino
acids, carbohydrates, antioxidants and polypeptides, which you produce
inherently This is good news for those with sensitive skin and concerns
about the environment. Plus, Bionova replaces anti-aging with self-healing
by boosting your cells and metabolism. We loved the super-gentle Cleanser,
and the rich creams targeting upper lip and neck proved to be immediately
effective. (bionovalab.com)
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If you can't be bothered with morning moisturizing rituals, let
an overnight leave-on treatment do the work for you Take the
Weekend Off by Skinn Cosmetics is a rich, delicately fragrant,
mousse-like moisturizer that purifies and hydrates your skin as you
sleep. Cool and soothing, with its main ingredient aloe vera, this
is a wonder salve for dry and tired skin, and left us feeling supple,
smooth, and as though we'd just left the spa. Skinn's moisturizer
mantra is that the ultimate skin cream isn't just a treatment-it's an
experience. The entire Skinn Cosmetics line is innovative, fun and
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The world's first Energy Powered Skincare line, Junetics boldly declares
that any skin can look ageless. That's because the appearance of aging
is caused by decreased energy and communication within the cells.
Enter Junetic's proprietary E24 Complex, a combination of science and
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E24 Complex consists of good things like plant stem cells and amino
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daily skin saboteurs like UV rays, pollution, stress, and dehydration. Pair
the weightless Pure Energy Day Serum with the light yet nourishing Pure
Energy Night Cream for maximum results. (junetics.com)
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
ACKS
FL
OIAME
FA
"An assured, breezy romantic comedy ...
CAROLYNTAYLOR
VAMESSADUNN
SABRIMAJALEES
pitch pert ect.,, -San Francisco Chronicle
1ST
"Flacks proves a sexy and magnetic leading lady
charming and romantic dramedy." - outfest
throughout this
Smart, successful, and charming, Elsie is the perfect girlfriend. She also
happens to be a serial monogamist with a long history of broken hearts.
When Elsie breaks up with her long-standing girlfriend Robin to pursue
another woman, she faces her mother's disapproval, conflicting advice from
friends, and the nagging suspicion that she may have made a big mistake.
OFFICIAL
SELECTION)
OUTFEST
LOS
ANGELES
LGBT
FILM
FESTIVAL
{
I/ OFFICIAL
SELECTION
)
FRAMELINE
High Fidelity
for lesbians"
11
SAN
FRANCISCO
LGBT
FILM
FESTIVAL
- AfterEllen.com
~L-------:-__:;;..-------:---
The story of one of the world's
most famous and controversial women
"The Girl King is a traditional epic ... What breaks the
eJ
mold is the character of Kristina." - La Presse
The epic story of Queen Kristina, an enigmatic, flamboyant woman
centuries ahead of her time who ascended the Swedish throne at age
six, was raised as a prince, and strived to bring peace and education to
her country - while pursuing an illicit romance with her female royal
attendant. tn English.
"The Girl King is beautiful... the chemistry
between the two women is spot on."
- AfterEllen.com
(
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"Featuring laughs, suspense, a deliriously good sex scene,
and a rousing finale, All About E has something for everyone."
- San FranciscoChronicle
When E, a beautiful and sexy DJ at Sydney's hottest nightclub,
stumbles on a stash of cash, she and her friend Matt are forced to run to
the outback and appeal to her lost love Trish to hide them. Can E keep
the money, conquer her demons, AND get the girl?
"A
breath of fresh air
for lesbian cinema"
- Gay News Network
Wolfe·
WolfeVideo.com/WolfeOnDemand.com
Yourtrusted communitysourcefor LGBTmovies
TRENDS/GOSSIP
LESBOFILE
CELEBRITY KIDS. THEY'RE JUST LIKE US!
opens a detective agency after her sav-
BY JOCELYN VOO
ing-the-world career burns out Alongside
Ritter is Carrie-Anne Moss (Jeri Hogarth,
Jessica's boss) and Rachael Taylor (Trish,
Jessica's best friend), and all play strong,
smart, motivated women. Despite both
of them having boyfriends in the series,
Jessica and Trish's friendship is so strong
that some have speculated foreshadowing of a romance that might come to light
down the line. Jeri, however, is the power
lesbian character we've all been waiting for.
Originally a male in the comic book, Jeri is
a powerful female in the TV version, and
Carrie-Anne Moss plays the whip-smart
battle-axe like nobody's business. Brace
yourselves, ladies. This show is worth the
binge.
Paulsonand Taylorbridge the gap
• MAY-DECEMBER DELIGHT
If you aren't convinced
that age
is
• EVERY LITTLE THING SHE
DOES IS MAGIC
• NOTHING QUITE COMPARES
2 THIS ...
just a number when it comes to love,
Add Eliot Sumner, daughter of Sting,
bear witness to Sarah Paulson and
to the list of A-list progeny who pre-
sometimes
Holland
fer the ladies. Despite flying relatively
and Sinead
under the media radar until now, the
for help is a loud one. "I'm invisible.
Taylor-the
cutest
lesbian
couple with a 30+ year age difference
Even with millions of adoring
loneliness
takes
O'Connor's
fans,
ahold ..
abrupt
cry
that you ever did see. Just look at their
singer, 25, tells Evening Standard that
I don't matter a shred to anyone. No
Twitter banter, which is technological
she never had the classic coming out
one has come near me. I've died a
flirting at its finest "I love your mind@
moment ("they knew already," she says
million times already with the pain of
HollandTaylor," Paulson, 40, tweeted in
of close family and friends), and that
it," the Irish singer-songwriter
November, to which Taylor, 72, replied,
she's been in a committed
on her Facebook
"I love your appreciation.
It's you with
the fine (and beautiful) head ..."
Paulson,
who
stars
in
American
relationship
wrote
page. "So yeah ...
with Austrian model Lucie Von Alten
Strangers like me ... But my family don't
for the past two years. "I think forever I
value me at all. They wouldn't
was trying to figure out maybe ... what
I was dead until weeks from now if I
know if
Horror Story: Hotel, is no stranger
I am," says Sumner, who also claims to
wasn't fucking
to dating older women. In 2009 she
not identify with either gender. "But I
O'Connor's detailed note alleged "ap-
ended her five-year
with
don't think anyone should feel pres-
palling cruelty" from her husband and
Jones.
sured to have any kind of label or tag
four children, aged 9 to 28, and sug-
She's also dated men in the past-and
on them." Instead, with her sophomore
gested her taking an overdose of pills.
she's not
album releasing in January, she's fo-
The singer was later found
what that makes her. Regarding bat-
cusing on defining
Dublin police, and was sent for med-
ting for both teams sge says, "all I can
than her sexuality. Consider us all ears.
59-year-old
relationship
Cherry
actress
particularly
ruffled
about
her music rather
ical attention.
informing
them now."
safe by
After she was released
say is, I've done both, and I don't let
from treatment,
either experience define me."
older posts related to the overdose
In fact, both are taking their relationship quite
bells
seriously.
be on the
Could
way? "She's men-
tioned it because just from a spiritual
point of view, from a heart point of
view," Holland told
replaced
forward-looking
•
U
D
SAPPHIC
NTURES
O/TNB, move over: Jessica Jones is the
with
decidedly
updates:
more
"I will rise,
and I will return; the Phoenix from the
flame ... I have learned," she wrote in
one, using lyrics from her song "Troy,"
radio sta-
new hot lesbian must-see TV Based on the
and used another
tion WNYC. "As a deed that has a very
Marvel comic book series, the show is dark
credibly lovely people who have been
and noir-ish, starring Krysten Ritter as the
so supportive
title character, a gritty ex-superhero who
couraging messages."
rich symbolic
public
and
wedding
O'Connor deleted her
gesture to it, it has its
attraction."
14
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
to thank "the in-
and have sent such en-
TRENDS/
SHESAiD
"Growing up, my mom
had a lot of gay friends, and so
people in the gay community were big
brothers and sisters to me all my life. I never
even thought twice about it until I got older
and realized that that wasn't the norm-it
wasn't
everyone's experience to have an open-hearted
and accepting family unit toward a community
they weren't necessarily a part of. To me, it's about
being accepting of an idea that we're all the same
community; it's almost like, I can't believe we're still
having the conversation ... l'm like, 'Everybody
fuckin' get on board already! Relax!' "
Sara Bareilles to pridesource.com
know about your
reputation, Scotty. When
you get a chance, do you think
you can find a nice young darkhaired girl for me? Someone that's
not too heavily made-up."
Katharine Hepburn to Scott Bowers
in Full Service: My Adventures in
Hollywood and the Secret
Sex Life of the Stars
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
15
POLITICS»
Remembering the lives and achievements of those we lost in 2015.
BY VICTORIA
A. BROWNWORTH
The best thing about 2015 was that I
didn't die. If that sounds melodramatic, it's
not. I spent nearly two months in the hospital
in 2015, much of it in the ICU I survived a
heart attack in January, a pulmonary embo~
lism in May, a lung crisis in October. It was
a traumatic year that left me contemplating
mortality and legacy.While I battled for sur~
vival, other lesbians I knew or knew of were
dying-a dozen or more writers, artists, film~
makers, and activists.
In September, Jeanne Cordova sent out a
letter to friends, colleagues,sister activists, and
the lesbian media saying that she was dying of
metastatic colon cancer, which had reached
her brain. As her final act of generosity to the
lesbian community, to which she has already
given decades of her activism, she is leaving
half her estate-$2 million-to the Astraea
Lesbian Foundation for Justice. As I write this,
Cordova, 67, is still alive. In 2011, she wrote
her compelling memoir, When We Were
16
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
Outlaws:A Memoir of Love and Revolution, only obituary was mine-never mind that she
which won the Lambda Literary Award. But
obituaries and tributes will still be necessary
when she dies. Cordova did groundbreaking
work in the 1980s and '90s, including found~
ing the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Press
Association, creating the Gay and Lesbian
YellowPages, and founding The LesbianTide,
the first publication in America with "lesbian''
in the title. She entered the convent in 1966
and left a year later, becoming a social work~
er in inner~city Los Angeles. But mostly she
served the lesbian community. Cordova's let~
ter focused me on why it's so essential that we
collect our herstory while there's still time.
For several years now I have been the unof~
ficial obituary writer for the Lambda Literary
Review.The pieces I write are for those who
knew the deceased and for those who did not.
They are, as much as I can make them, both
historical texts and loving memorials.
In 2014, when Nancy Garden died, her
was the best~known LGBT writer of young
adult books in our collectivehistory. The New
York Times was finally shamed into writing
about her, but only because Garden had gay
male literary friends who were appalled that
her death hadn't been noted by the newspaper
of record. In the interim, thousands of people
read my tribute, sharing it on social media,
proving how much people needed to see her
memorialized, New York Times or no.
Obituary is history. So many of the lesbi~
ans who have died over the years of my lesbian
life were never noted when they passed. In the
years before the Internet, when those women
were gone, no footprint was left behind. They
disappeared from our community and our
consciousness. We cannot let that continue.
With only one exception, the lesbian writ~
ers and activists I knew who died in 2015
weren't elderly. They were women in their
late 40s to 60s. They were women who, like
VIEWS/POLI
mysel£ were the first generation of lesbians
to come out post-Stonewall. Women whose
passing is the closingof a chapter in our collective herstory. Lesbian writers, artists, activists.
Women whose names we shouldn't forget.
Sidney Abbott was a founding member of
the Lavender Menace in the 1970s and co-author, with her then-partner, Barbara Love, of
Sappho Was a Right-On Woman: A Liberated
View of Lesbianism. At the 1976 convention
for the National Organization of Women
(NOW), a time when NOW was determined to exciselesbians from its rolls, Abbott
staged a coup by getting a resolution passed
to have the organization give 1 percent of its
funds to lesbian issues. It may not seem like
much, 1 percent, but it was a lot. A monumental achievement in an organization pledged to
erasing lesbians. Abbott came out pre-Stonewall. The Lavender Menace was founded the
year afrer Stonewall. As a college student attending that NOW conference where Abbott
made her mark, I was awed when I met her.
lct discovered her book in one of my Women's
Studies courses at a time when lesbian books
were still very rare. Abbott was herself lesbian
history. She died in a house fire in April 2015.
She was 77.
Laurie Benz opened another door for lesbians. A congenital dwar£ Benz was the first
out lesbian in Little People of America (LPA).
Benz, who died of a stroke in January 2015 at
57, raised consciousness wherever she went.
She was a musician and singer-songwriter
well known on the Chicago coffeehouse circuit and at the Michigan Womyn's Music
Festival, among other venues. She created
workshops on the intersection of Little People and LGBT community and did a kind of
activism that demanded both strength and an
infinite patience with the questions and demands of the rest of us.
Lesbian writer Nene Adams was only 48
when she died in October of a sudden heart
attack. In 2010, she injured her foot. An undocumented immigrant without health insurance, she had hoped the wound would heal on
its own. When it didn't, and she was forced to
seek treatment, she had developed sepsis.The
only way to save her life was to amputate her
leg.Despite this trauma and the long efforts to
raise money for a prosthetic leg,she continued
to write, to share her work, and to fight. She
left behind her partner, her books, her myriad
stories, her blog, her voice.
We all knew Lesley Gore's music. But few
of us knew she was a lesbian when we heard
the songs that made her famous in the 1960s.
A teen idol, she was the only solo female pop
singer of her era. "You Don't Own Me'' became a feminist anthem. Later, Gore would
come out publicly and host the PBS series In
the Life. She continued singing until a year before her death. Gore was 68 when she died of
lung cancer in February 2015. My tribute to
her can be read at curvemag.com.
Honey Lee Cottrell died of pancreatic cancer in September 2015 at 69. Her provocative
photography helped change our perspective
on images of lesbians by shifting the gaze
away from lesbian sexuality in service to male
desire. With her then-partner, Susie Bright,
she co-founded On Our Backs, a lesbian erotic
magazine, and provided the majority of the
visual material for it. Her work was widely
anthologized and her papers-along with
thousands of photographs and some films-
SO MANY OF THE
LESBIANSWHO
DIEDOVERTHE
YEARSOF MY
LIFEWERENEVER
NOTEDWHEN THEY
PASSED
''
will reside at Cornell University. Her work
was transgressive, groundbreaking, beautiful,
unique. Her images of our lesbian bodies
were unlike any others.
Ingrid Sischy was 63 when she died of
breast cancer in June 2015. She and her partner, Sandra Brant, worked together as international editors of the Italian, Spanish, and
German editions of Vanity Fair. Sischy was
also known for her work at Ariforum, the New
Yorker and Andy Warhol's Interview, each of
which she worked at for nearly a decade before she began working at Vanity Fair in 1997.
As editor of Ariforum, Sischy,who had briefly curated at both the Museum of Modern
Art and the Guggenheim, transformed the
previously staid publication into something
dynamic and vibrant. Her work at Interview
was similarly impressive.In 1997, she became
international editor for Conde Nast-a powerful lesbian in a powerful position.
Black lesbian activist and writer Nikki
Rashan Jenkins died of breast cancer in May
2015, leaving a wife and three children. The
author of several books, including the novel
Double Pleasure, Double Pain, the Milwaukee
native came out publicly on an episode of the
Oprah Winfrey Show in 2004, the first black
lesbian to do so.
Sandra Moran, journalist, novelist, and
professor of anthropology, died suddenly in
November 2015-only a month afrer her
stage-IV cancer diagnosis. Moran had spent
years as a journalist and an anthropologist
before turning to writing novels at 40 in what
she termed "the next chapter" of her life. Her
first novel, Letters Never Sent, won several
awards. A native Kansan, she and her wife
had decided to move to North Carolina a
month before her cancer was discovered.
Lesbian activist Niki Quasney died afrer a
five-yearbattle with cancer in February 2015.
She had been a plaintiff in one of the key marriage-equality cases,hers in Indiana. Quasney
had also been profiled with her three sisters
because of a harrowing connection-all four
women shared a gene mutation, BRCAl,
making them highly susceptible to breast
cancer and a related ovarian cancer. All had
double mastectomies, but Quasney eventually
developed ovarian cancer.After her death, her
sisters created the Niki Quasney's FIGHT
HARD Ovarian Cancer Research Endowment at the University of Chicago.
When groundbreaking lesbian filmmaker
Chantal Akerman killed herself at 65, two
days before she was scheduled to premiere
her latest film at the New York Film Festival
in October, I was shaken. I had come of age
watching her films. I had interviewed her
years before for one of my books. I was in
awe of her work, her vision, her intellect. So
many lesbians dying of cancer, yet Akerman
was driven to die by her own hand. Read my
tribute to her and others at curvemag.com
These are snapshots of dynamic women
who impacted our community forever by
living out, proud lesbian lives.We must insist
that their obituaries stand alongside those of
straight people. We must refuse erasure and
leave our legacy for the women who come after us, so that the trail we blazed for them becomes their path forward as they make their
own way through lesbian history and leave
their own mark on it.•
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
17
s1PROFILE
Carolyn Weathers
>>From Texas to L.A.
Literature and Gay Liberation
You might recognizeCarolynWeathersfrom her participation in lastsummer's10-part TV documentaryseriescalled
THE
DISNEY
ANIMATED
FILM
'FROZEN'
Fearless:How 10 LGBTActivistsMade It Better.The MSNBC
program,geared toward LGBTyoung folks,offersstoriesof
contains hidden messages that indoctrinate little girls into
lesbianism, according to conservative talk radio host and pastor, Kevin Swanson. Swanson was the organizer of a National
Rel1g1onsL1bert1esConference 1nIowa last November where
then-pres1dent1al candidates Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, and Mike
Huckabee spoke, their appearance at the conference indicates that they agree with Swanson's ludicrous statements.
courage and wisdom from those who are consideredto be
early pioneersin the gay liberationmovement.
Then again, some may be familiarwith Weathersfrom the
time she emceed a drag show in a gay bar in San Antonio,
Texas,in 1963. Or you might just know her from everything
she'sbeen a part of in between the two (and that is one big everything).Weatherscame out after her older sisterdid, which
she saysmade the processa lot easier,especiallyback in
the early 1960s. But her determinationto enjoy life,as is, was
• THE
UNIVERSITY
OFESSEX
In
just as critical.Often, ingenuityhelped. She recallsthat her
introductionto livinga fearlesslife began when she started
hangingout at a gay bar back then.
"Everytime the police were pullingup outsideto raid us,
the bar'sowner, a crustyold bucket named Maybelle,would
give us the warningsign,and by the time the police got
inside,we had switchedfrom woman-womanand man-man
dancing partnersinto happy heterosexualcouplesdancing
the bossanova;'she says."The policejust hated that:'
Over the years,while working primarilyas a librarian,
Weatherslent her supportto numerouscauses,including
the LosAngelesGay LiberationFront,the LosAngelesGay
Women'sGuerillaTheater,pre-Roe vs. Wade abortion reform,
fighting Anita Bryant,and the Civil RightsMovement.She also
co-foundeda small lesbianpublishingcompany,wrote books,
organizedthe first reading by LGBTwritersat the LosAngeles
PublicLibrary,and servedas the L.A. GLFdelegate to the
RevolutionaryPeople'sConstitutionalConvention,convened
by the BlackPantherPartyin Washington,D.C.,in 1970.
I
While a half-centuryof progressin LGBTrightshas been
enormous,Weatherssays,the battle is hardlyover,thanksin
part to right-wingreligiousand politicalextremists."When
Reaganbecame presidentis when the RepublicanPartystarted giving supportto the rabid right in exchangefor votes,and W
the Republicansand the Evangelicalswent to bed together
and started such a backlashthat none of us could ever have
dreamed of;' she says."They'relikea zombie horde:'
Weathersrecommendsvigilance-and strategicadjustmentsas needed. "Don'tever think it'sOK for us to get
complacent;'she advises."Supportorganizations,vote,
advocate,and, yeah, rally."By Sheryl Kay
18
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
W
the UK has released a new study that
shows women are primarily lesbian
or bisexual, but rarely straight The
researchers studied the arousal
1nd1catorsand sexual responses of
345 women who were shown video
images of both naked men and
women The researchers found that
women who 1dent1f1edas lesbian
responded to the videos of naked
women, but not to the naked men
However, women who 1dent1f1edas
straight responded to videos of both
naked women and naked men
• AFTER
FIVE
YEARS
OF
separation, and a failed attempt to
separate legally, Lauren CzekalaChatham and Dana Ann Melancon
have been granted a divorce In the
state of M1ss1ss1pp1
In 2013, the
ex-couple were denied a divorce
because M1ss1ss1pp1
law banned
same-sex marriage The divorce was
awarded through a close (5-4) State
Supreme Court vote which reversed
the 2013 ruling The ex-couple,
who were married In 2008 In San
Francisco separated In 2010 and
had been seeking a divorce since
that time
• LONDON
WOMAN
Samantha
Watt faces Jailtime after admitting
to charges of "disclosing private
sexual photographs with the intent
to cause distress" She posted
sexually expl1c1tphotographs of
her ex-girlfriend on Facebook after
they divorced The court deemed
this a public disclosure The photos
were taking consensually during
the couple's relat1onsh1pbut were
intended for personal use, not to
be made public The prosecutor Is
calling this a case of "revenge porn"
Watt, the mother of four children,
was sentenced to 18 weeks In Jail
She will serve half that time
• ALESBIAN
COUPLE
were
vacationing In HawaII last winter,
grocery shopping, and being
affectionate, when they were
stopped by off-duty police officer
Bobby Hamson who said, "Hey, you
girls can't do that In here" Courtney
Wilson and her g1rlfr1end,Taylor
Guerrero, vIsItIng from Los Angeles,
were holding hands and k1ss1ng
when the 1nc1dentoccurred The
sItuatIon escalated when Wilson
called 911about the harassment
and the altercation turned physical
Wilson and Guerrero were arrested
for assault on the officer, held for
several days, and required to spend
months on Oahu without housing or
income while they waited to appear
in court They have sued the City
of Honolulu and the police officer
they say harassed and wrongfully
arrested them By SassafrasLowrey
VIEWS/
()nLesbian
Invisibility
Who, or what, is erasing our spaces?
A Millennial's view of community.
BY SHEENA C. HOWARD
B
orn in 1983, I was in grade school
when I first turned to America On~
line for help with a math problem.
I was in high school when AOL chat rooms
reached their peak. I began college in 2001,
when biogs got their start (which led to the
launch of sites like Myspace.com and Black~
planet.com). I was a junior in college when
Massachusetts became the first state in
America to legalize same~sex marriage and
when Facebook launched as an online so~
cial networking site for college students. In
addition, during my formative years, queer
culture became visible in the media: Prime~
time sitcoms portrayed women kissing
(Roseanne), real~life lesbian women "came
out" on television (Ellen), and The L Word
premiered on HBO (I remember the parties
in my dorm room).
These technological and cultural shifts
have affected my entire generation (those
born between 1980 to 2000) and, by exten~
sion, our notion of community and connect~
edness. Baby Boomers (those born between
1946 and 1964) instilled in Millennials
the importance of higher education; thus,
Millennials are a more educated generation
(about 60 percent of adult Millennials have
attended college, compared with 46 percent
of Baby Boomers). Large numbers of young
queer women have found lifelong friends
during their college years, used the Internet
to extend their network of queer friends,
and enjoyed more public acceptance than
any generation before them. Institution~
al support on college campuses (LGBTQ
youth centers, straight~gay alliances) has in~
creased as well over the last 15 years. These
facts have impacted and continue to impact
the need for dedicated lesbian spaces across
the United States.
It goes without saying that lesbian bars are
COMMUNI
disappearing, even in big cities such as New
York and San Francisco, cities known for
their LGBTQ community. But lesbian bars
are no longer the only places for women to
meet and connect with other women. With
young people coming out earlier and earlier,
it is becoming easier for people to find and
connect with others like them-even before
they're of legal drinking age. Young people
can utilize LGBTQ and straight alliances at
the high school level, as well as community
centers that cater to LGBTQ youth.
Adult Millennials are beginning to settle
down and start families, and lesbian couples
are no different, especially as legal and health
practitioners make forming a family more
accessible. At the same time, young lesbians
are enjoying the benefits of being able to
come out earlier, and now they have instant
access to women their own age. With apps
and websites like Okcupid.com and Tinder,
young people do not need to confine them~
selves to lesbian bars. Therefore, lesbian bars
need to function differently and serve a different purpose to attract and keep patrons.
Dedicated lesbian spaces were neces~
sary during the mid to late 20th century
because, with the onset of the Women's
Liberation Movement, women were be~
ginning to freely explore their sexuality in
safe spaces and craved places where they
could feel comfortable loving other women.
There were literally no other ways to con~
nect with other queer women. Women of
color, largely on the margins of the Women's
Liberation Movement, created their own
collective spaces to meet other women who
loved women, such as The Combahee River
Collective and SALSA Soul Sisters. These
organizations felt like cohesive, active com~
munities only when women came together
in dedicated spaces. This has never been the
case for Millennials.
When I began college, I soon formed
a family of LGBTQ friends on campus.
These same friends continue to be a part
of my immediate and extended network.
We infiltrate spaces that are not dedicated
lesbian spaces because we feel comfortable
together in all spaces, especially on the East
Coast of the United States.
When I relocate, to places both suburban
and urban, each time I immediately log on
to Downelink.com or Okcupid.com to find
queer women in close proximity to me. I
have made lifelong friends through meeting
people on social networking sites. Today,
even when I travel from city to city, I almost
always post on Facebook, asking friends if
they know anyone in the city to which I am
traveling. It isn't necessary to seek out ales~
bian bar.
The Millennial generation is also the
most racially diverse. This fact cannot be
disentangled from how lesbian and gay
bars feel-they are often racially homoge~
nous, classist, and transphobic. Owners of
the lesbian dedicated spaces (and events)
20
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
that remain viable or are successful are se~
rious about reaching the young and pow~
erful demographic of 18~ to 34~year~olds,
offering themed parties on dedicated days,
using their spaces to host parties from dif
ferent organizers, encouraging events that
integrate social media and networking, and
ensuring a space where everyone feels com~
LESBIAN BARS ARE
DISAPPEAR!NG
ALL ACROSS THE
COUNTRY EVEN IN
BIG CITIES SUCH
AS NEW YORI<AND
SAN FRANCISCO,
CITIES l<NOWN
FOR THEIR LGBTQ
COMMUNITY
''
fortable, particularly along the lines of race
and gender identity. But increasingly, lesbi~
an clubs in gayborhoods that have become
gentrified cannot sustain a clientele: Outra~
geous rents result in cover charges and over~
priced drinks that deter many young queers.
While queer Millennials prefer to live
in dense, diverse areas where social inter~
action is just outside their front door, they
are creating this territory outside the down~
town areas that have traditionally been 'gay
ghettos:' And because Millennials are so
well educated, they also boast the largest
amount of student loan debt, and secure the
lowest paying first jobs of any generation so
far. Therefore, you can find dense numbers
of queer women in Philadelphia, but not
in the gayborhood. They are in West Phil~
adelphia, and from that area the dedicated
gayborhood that the city created downtown
is somewhat inaccessible. In Detroit, there
is a large queer community 15 minutes out~
side of downtown, in a neighboring suburb.
In New York, it is Brooklyn-not Manhat~
tan-that is known for its queer scene. This
trend can be seen across several other cities,
including Washington, D.C.
This is not to say that Millennials are
not melancholy about the disappearance of
lesbian spaces and 'gayborhoods:' But while
some may argue that the lesbian commu~
nity is vanishing, it has really just changed
based on technological, economic, political,
and demographic shifts. Queers of all ages
need community. But how we create, find,
and sustain it is not the same as it once was.
Viva Ilenrielta Iludson!
Why one of New York City's last lesbian bars is thriving.
BY MELANIE BARKER
O
ne day in 1990, lesbian entrepreneur
Minnie Rivera was having a drink
at New York lesbian watering hole
Crazy Nanny's (since dosed). The bartender
was "funny and witty and she knew how to
mix a good drink;' recalls Rivera. Later, when
she thought of opening a lesbian bar, Rivera
approached that witty bartender, Lisa Cannistraci. By 1991, Henrietta Hudson was born.
Unlike other dyke bars, often with names inspired by lesbian sex, Henrietta's was intended
to evoke a long-lived lesbian bar, historic even.
The name feminizes the famous river, named
after Henry Hudson, which lies two blocks
West of Hudson Street. "I wanted something
that was timeless, that could have been from a
hundred years ago, or a hundred years in the
future;' says Cannistraci. Still, the women are
frequently asked, 'Which one of you two is
Henriettar'
Since opening, there have been many challenges, one of which was lesbian chic and the
numerous Manhattan bars it spawned. "We
opened in 1991 when
the Clit Club was on fire;'
remembers Cannistraci.
Instead of fearing competition, Cannistraci and
Rivera became more creative. Over the years they
reinvented the bar to keep
up with the times. "Were
known as the Madonna of
lesbian bars;' laughs Cannistraci. But perhaps the
biggest change has been
marriage equality. "Lesbians can now go make out
at an Applebees and stay
local;' notes Cannistraci.
"So you have to give them
a reason to come into the
West Village and go to
Henrietta Hudson:'
But who, really, wants
to make out in Applebees-potentially in front
of homophobes? "I like to
be around women;' says
Rivera, who is in her late 60s. "Even if times
change and we can get married and go to
straight places and hang out, being amongst
women is a special thing for me, and Henrietta Hudson provides that:'
A lesbian bar provides community, and
Cannastraci reveals that the bar has not
only helped keep its neighborhood safe; it
gets behind local causes, such as social services, sports leagues, at risk LGBTQ youth,
not-for-profits, and animal rescue."We are a
bar with a conscience;' she says."Our reach
is much further than our little corner of the
West Village:'
As for Millennials: they seem to be the
backbone of Henrietta Hudson's current clientele."28 years of age, educated, out to their
families, confident, got their act together;'
says Cannistraci. They want excitement and
she delivers: decent drinks, good DJs, good
music, karaoke, clever hosts, burlesque, drag
kings, speed dating parties, bachelor( ette)
parties, The L Wordtrivia, and coming up, a
BEINGAMONGST
WOMEN IS A SPECIAL
THING FOR ME, AND
HENRIETTAHUDSON
PROVIDESTHAT
''
big Valentines Day party. "We create an experience that's interactive, where you don't just go
order a drink and stand around;' says Cannistraci. "We provide a stage;' adds Rivera.
About fiveyears ago, Rivera and Cannistraci realized that Henrietta's status as an iconic
bar was hurting business so they revamped the
space, the website, the nights, even the logo,
brought on some new enthusiastic staff, and
called it the All New Henrietta Hudson. "It
took about a year but now it'sjust really magnificent, like it was when it first opened. It's
that exciting again. It's electric. I love it. I love
young people;' says Cannistraci, who collaborates with the women behind popular lesbian
nights Hot Rabbit, Miss Mugshot, and Siren.
"They're a lot of fun;' agrees Rivera. "It's really nice because they are young and have their
own style,but we have the experience:' Cannistraci adds, "They teach us, we teach them. It's
really based on mutual respect. If I don't have
what you want, and theres a really good party
that night, I'll send you to that party. We don't
hold our customers hostage:'
With the blessing of the managing agent
and the co-op board, Henrietta's has renewed
its lease for another 15 years. After that, Rivera
notes proudly, the bar will be nearly 40 years
old. And as for that supposedly unbridgeable
generation gap? Not at Henrietta's. "I see a lot
of camaraderie between older and younger
lesbians at the bar. They go to dinner together, they go to the movies together, they totally
hang out together;' says Cannistraci. "It's really
about building relationships and maintaining
them:' (henriettahudson.com)
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
21
Lesbian Leanings
Can I make the leap from bi to lez?
BY LIPSTICK
& DIPSTICK
Dear Lipstick & Dipstick:
I am really confused. I have been defining myself as bi until
now because I like both men and women, but I'm starting
to think I'm just a lesbian. The truth is, I am attracted to
men romantically, but not so much sexually. I like men and I
feel attracted to some, even sexually aroused, but, to put it
bluntly, I don't really like penises-whereas I like women both
romantically and sexually, and I have no problem with any
part of the female body. So, am I bi, lesbian, bi-romantic, or
what? - Lilly Label
BE OPEN, RATHER
THAN BOXING
YOURSELF IN
THESE ARE
AMAZING TIMES
WE LIVE IN
''
you'll find a hot trans guy with everything you
love about men, but no penis. Maybe you'll fall
for a woman and have great sex every day until
you die. Be open, rather than boxing yourself in.
These are amazing times we live in. Be the one
and only you and your perfect match will find
his, her, or hir way to your heart.
Dipstick: Lipstick, remember that old T-shirt I
about Lilly's label, I, frankly, don't. I say, just be
used to wear, "Labels are for jars, not people"?
you. Maybe I'm old and have seen too many
Lipstick: Why yes, Dipstick, I do have a strong
people struggle with their identity, but we've
opinion about Lilly's label. Your orientation is
Lipstick: Yes! I think it saw its demise at the
made so many gains in the past few years
simple, LL, but you can't see the forest for the
2006 Boise Gay Pride Parade, when someone
that I don't think these little nuances matter.
trees. Dip brushed upon it, my dear-you
bumped into you with a rainbow snow cone.
Love who you love-that's the whole point,
OPEN. You're totally in touch with your delicious
are
right? You can't know what your future will
sexuality and that's cause for celebration! Pop
Dipstick: I never could get that green stain
bring. Maybe you'll fall in love with a won-
the bubbly. Forget calling yourself bisexual or
out. While I'm sure Lipstick has a strong opinion
derful man whose penis you enjoy. Maybe
gay or straight or bi-romantic (that's a new one!).
22
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
VIEWS/
The only box you should be trying to get into
connection remains tenuous. You're still reeling
is the hot babe you spotted at the coffee shop.
from the unexpected consequences of what
Forget labels. That shit doesn't matter. What
was supposed to be a fun and innocent ex-
matters is what you feel in your heart (and
ploration. Of course you're nervous. What will
betwixt your legs, of course-we're
happen this time when a third person comes
not talking
about friendship here). To commemorate your
into your room? You're probably wondering,
new, all-encompassing, OPEN identity, close
Why is she so willing to let the monster back
your eyes and repeat after me: ''I'm a sexy ba-
into your bed, when you've barely recovered
dass and I'm right where I need to be. I will not
from the last tryst. Brittney, I hate to break this
worry about being anything but open. Labels
to you but, despite all that you and Shannon
shmabels. Sexuality is alive, a river of fluidity, so
have going for you, I am not convinced that
I will flow with it and be open to the individual.
the two of you are compatible in the long run.
Forever and ever, until the day I die. Amen."
It's not about your jealousy or wanting to be
the only one to please her. It's about what you
Dear Lipstick & Dipstick: My name is Brittney
ultimately want in a partner-someone
and I'm 25 years old. My girlfriend, Shannon,
happy with what she has at home, or someone
who is
and I have been together for five years. We
who continually wants to introduce new lovers
work really well together and our sex is out of
into the mix. One of you needs to choose,
this world! A few months ago, we tried bringing
TC-either she gives up this fancy lifestyle, or
another woman into our relationship and it
you walk.
did not go well. We ended up taking a break
because I couldn't handle them being in love.
Lipstick: Oh Brittney, how in the world has
I give every ounce of myself to Shannon, and
your heart survived this long? You deserve
there's no way I could have feelings for this
some sort of emotional resilience award.
other woman. We've had threesomes in the
I've got more tough truth to dish out: Not all
past, but it was just sex, no feelings! Feelings
human beings-in this physical manifesta-
suck! Shannon and I are back together and
tion-are
things are going great, except now she keeps
people, like you and me, embrace the idea of
meant to be monogamous. Some
bringing up the fact that she wants to sleep
monogamy. It beats with the rhythm of our
with other people. I get so anxious and angry.
heart. We find an amazing connection, fall in
This sounds stupid, but I was the only one to
love, and we don't want to share. Hallelujah,
ever make her orgasm and then that other
sisterl Some people, however, like Shannon,
woman came right in and conquered I I was
are not programmed that way. Variety is the
pissed! Why am I so jealous and selfish that I
spice of their life, and I have to give Shannon
want to be the only one to please her? Do you
props for owning her non-monogamous
think there is a way to make things work out
blood and not simply cheating on you behind
without one of us being miserable or missing
your back. Unfortunately, because Shannon's
out on something she needs? I am so lost. If we
been so forthright about her desires, and has
both agree that our sex is great, then why does
communicated this clearly, as Dip said-and
she want other people? - Three's Company
I think she hit the nail on the head-it comes
down to you deciding if this is the person you
Dipstick: TC, TC, TC. I can feel your heart-
want to be in a relationship with. The decision
ache and pain through the lines of this
is yours. Women, in general, have a really hard
letter. Relationships are fucking hard work.
time keeping "feelings" out of the bedroom, so
Sometimes, and maybe even daily, we need to
be mindful of this in the future and be a little
negotiate and renegotiate what we want, what
gentler with yourself, OK? Opening up a rela-
we're comfortable with, what our deal breakers
tionship is super-dangerous territory for souls
are. I get that you love Shannon. You've been
like yours. This is a teachable moment. Listen
together quite a long time, and it sounds
carefully to your heart and make different
like you two have something special going
choices in the future. As Oprah says:
on-most
When you know better,
of the time. But then there is this
one thing. It's not a little thing, like whether she
you do better.
picks up her socks or puts the lid back on the
toothpaste. This is a big thing. Might I say, the
biggest? You find yourself in a position where
Do you have a burning
you need to decide-is
question for Lipstick
this a deal breaker?
Not all relationships could have survived what
& Dipstick? Write to
you two seem to have weathered, but your
ask@lipstickdipstick.com
LIPSTICK+DI
PS
HJislory in the Making
The best reads of 2015 celebrate lesbian heroes and their legacies.
• 'fl1e11Co111eslJa,~ri,1ge: U11itedStales
t-,. ll 7i11dso1~
,111dtl1e Def eat of DO~lI~\
By Roberta Kaplan with Lisa Dickey (Norton)
and of course Windsor, who wrote the
foreword and contributed to the chap~
ters about her life. It was when Kaplan
started outlining the chapters that it be~
came apparent to her that she "couldn't
tell the story of the 'incredibly dramatic
seachange' (as Justice Scalia put it) that
we've all experienced without explaining
that in the context of my own life:'
Recently, Kaplan told a radio host that
she believed God, or at least destiny, had
played a hand in winning the case. The
book reveals that as a young woman
struggling to come to terms with her sex~
uality, Kaplan had sought treatment from
Windsor's wife, Thea Spyer, a respected
therapist. The help Spyer gave Kaplan
E
die Windsor
and her New
York attorney
Roberta
Ka~
plan became lesbian household
names when they joined forces to defeat
DOMA and effectively made marriage
equality a reality in the U.S. In doing so
they changed countless people's lives, in~
eluding my own. Then Comes Marriage
is a well written and compelling behind~
the~scenes account of exactly what went
into building the historic argument that
went before the Supreme Court to be~
come the winning case-and what went
into building the personalities of the key
players in this drama.
''I'd always thought that it was im~
portant to 'set the record straight' and for
people to know what really happened and
how we did it;' Kaplan tells me about why
she agreed to write the book. "I wanted it
to be an honest account for the historical
record:' She was assisted by Lisa Dickey,
24
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
was both essential and fateful. Later, Ka~
plan repaid Spyer's kindness by taking
on the Windsor case. "One of the things
that made coming out so hard for me
was my Jewish background and faith and
the incredible fear I remember having as
a young person about losing that com~
munity should I ever come out and live
openly as a gay person;' Kaplan reveals.
This fear was justified. She describes in
the book how she inadvertently came
out to her parents while they were visit~
ing from Ohio during New York Pride.
At the news of her daughter's sexuality,
Kaplan's mother started beating her own
head against a wall. This was precisely the
disapproval and alienation that Kaplan
REVIEWS/
had feared, and "was a very big factor in
my early life and in terms of being the late
bloomer that I was in terms of coming
out;' Kaplan tells me.
Nevertheless, Kaplan's Jewish upbring~
ing was instructive, particularly the idea
of tikkun olam, "this real sense that we're
here on this planet not just to love peo~
ple, enjoy life, and enjoy the passage of
time, but also to try to repair the world
in whatever way we can while we're here;'
she says. In defeating DOMA, Kaplan
and Windsor (and Spyer, in absentia)
have healed many thousands of gay lives.
Kaplan won't take all the credit: she be~
lieves that America would have one day
have had marriage equality with or with~
out the Windsor case, but she concedes
that "there was no way we were going
to get marriage equality nationwide un~
til we successfully destroyed DOMA. I
think Edie had a huge impact in helping
to change the dialogue and the dynamic
nationwide, both legally and culturally:'
Then Comes Marriage unfolds like
a thriller, complete with compelling
'characters; intrigue and high stakes as
Kaplan, Windsor, and other important
players such as Mary Bonauto bring their
A~game. It places the reader at the heart
of the action: You'll be enthralled at how
quickly the clock ticks, and yet how time
drags on for the plaintiff; how close we
come to not winning, and yet how fitting
it is that we win-an especially sweet vie~
tory for Kaplan who has a wife and child.
Kaplan tells me she has "little patience"
for the people in our community who
were arguing that marriage equality was
not the cause we should be fighting for. "I
understand that being married is difficult
and I would never presume to tell any
human being that they should or should
not get married. I also understand, par~
ticularly among feminists, the cultural
resistance-marriage
has been seen as
a sexist, gendered institution. However,
putting that all aside, the fact of the mat~
ter is, that for better or for worse, the way
that our society recognizes long~term
commitment between two people and as~
signs rights, responsibilities, and benefits
based on that long~term commitment, is
through marriage. You could never have
had full equality for gay people under the
law until you had gay marriage. Our so~
ciety would not be able to recognize the
true equality of gay people as who we are,
BO
which is who we love, without recogniz~
ing equality in marriage:'
Then Comes Marriage privileges us
with insights into the workings of Ka~
plan's heart and mind, both as a lawyer
and as a member of the LGBT commu~
nity; she battles the technicalities of the
U.S. court system, navigating its blind
spots and its loopholes, while parsing her
own role in history. Each chapter builds
to the climactic ruling in which Justice
Kennedy's 26~page opinion argues for the
"equal dignity" of same~sex marriages. It's
a narrative that, in the end, elevates us all.
We won marriage equality, but is the
fight for equal rights also won:1 Kaplan
knows there is more work to do, partic~
ularly for LGBT homeless youth, and
the LGBT elderly. But that advocacy,
she says, will be built on the baseline of
equality under the law that legal marriage
afforded us. Now, Kaplan is intent on
knocking down another piece of discrim~
inative legislation: Mississippi is the only
state left that doesn't allow gay couples
to adopt children. "The case is before the
judge, we're waiting on a decision, fingers
crossed;' she says. Somehow, I think the
case is in good hands. [MerrynJohns]
Gitti11gs:<l,1y J,io11ee,~
• IJa,~1,,,,~,1,
By Tracy Baim (Create Space)
I
•
1$f!tlAtS
was a teenager when I first met
Barbara Gittings. She was already
an iconic figure in Philadelphia
m the years post~Stonewall. Meeting
her changed my life. She was my intro~
duction to lesbian activism: Because of
her, I never knew any other lesbian life.
Gittings was a contemporary of my par~
ents, but felt like a peer. She was tall and
sturdy and always looked serious, but
she had a ready laugh and was quick to
express outrage about anything that op~
pressed those she called "my people:' She
favored embroidered blouses and cordu~
roy pants, and she was devoted, utterly
and implicitly, to lesbians and gay men
and the cause of our equality. While
my parents were activists in the Civil
Rights Movement, Gittings was one of
the leaders of something new and very
different-the
( then) Gay Liberation
Movement. I had no idea that she'd been
an activist in the decades before I met
her.
In her latest in a series of biographies
of leaders of the gay and lesbian civil
rights movement, Windy City Times ed~
itor and writer Tracy Baim focuses on
the groundbreaking work Gittings did
for early lesbian and gay rights organiza~
tions such as Daughters of Bili tis and the
Homophile Action League. Gittings also
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
25
MEETING
BARBARA
GITTINGS
CHANGED MY
LIFE SHE WAS MY
INTRODUCTION
TO ACTIVISM.
''
played a pivotal role in getting the Amer~
ican Psychiatric Association (APA) to
delete homosexuality from its Diagnos~
tic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders (DSM).
Born in 1932 in Vienna, the daugh~
ter of a diplomat in the Foreign Service,
Gittings asserted there was never a time
when she was not a lesbian. By the time
she was 23, she was working with Daugh~
ters of Bilitis (DOB) and pressing for
lesbians to come out of the closet and de~
dare themselves, even though it was the
height of McCarthyism and there was a
strong push to have homosexuals impris~
oned. Gittings believed that DOB's mag~
azine, The Ladder, which was founded in
1956 and of which she became editor in
1963, should have been used to challenge
the "experts" who defined homosexuality
as a mental illness and who Gittings as~
serted were the foundation for anti~gay
attitudes in society.
For her part, Gittings was always out,
which made her a logical choice to be
mother of a movement. But in its weak~
est moment, DOB shoved Gittings out.
Her efforts to get the country's only les~
bian organization to address the target~
ing of homosexuals by the government
26
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
and the psychiatric community was seen
as moving too far, too fast. Gittings took
her passion elsewhere.
When I first met Barbara I was 15
and she'd already been protesting pub~
licly for the rights of "homosexuals" for
two decades. In the 1950s, she'd been out
in front of the Liberty Bell at Indepen~
dence Hall-a
national landmark and
one of the most public of spaces in Phil~
adelphia, swarmed with tourists every
day of the week-in her sleeveless dress
and short hair. She looked like some~
body's car~pooling mom, except her sign
read "Homosexuals Should Be Judged
as Individuals:' Gittings also partnered
with gay activist and Homophile Action
League co~founder Frank Kameny to
lead actions against the Defense Depart~
ment and the Civil Service Commission,
which had banned "homosexuals" from
jobs.
In those days, the world viewed "ho~
mosexuals" as "sick" and "dangerous:'
Gittings was looking for a way to change
that perception. The way in, she believed,
was to get the APA to stop using such
terms. A 1964 report from the New York
Academy of Medicine had called homo~
sexuality a "preventable and treatable
illness:• Gittings queried that presump~
tion, writing, "It's a reminder of the sly,
desperate trend to enforce conformity by
a 'sick' label for anything deviant:'
The APA was having a conference in
Philadelphia. Gittings raised money for
a booth with a banner that read "Gay,
Proud, and Healthy: The Homosexual
Community Speaks;' where homosex~
uals would kiss and where she would
hand out literature; she arranged a pan~
el on which she, Kameny, two straight
psychiatrists, and a gay psychiatrist who
appeared masked, spoke about homosex~
uality.
After Gittings's actions, "homosexual~
ity" was removed from the DSM. A coup
for Gittings that impacted every lesbian
and gay man in America, and for which
we all owe her a debt of gratitude.
Barbara Gittings: Gay Pioneer details
all of her activism and its import from
the 1950s until her death in 2007, from
breast cancer, at the age of 74. The book
also contains a chapter on Gittings's 46~
year relationship with the photojournal~
ist Kay Tobin Lahusen, who participated
in Bairn's biography and provided doz~
ens of incredible photographs, many of
which are now archived in the Manu~
scripts and Archives Division at the New
York Public Library. We are so fortunate
that Lahusen never went anywhere with
Gittings without her camera-her
pho~
tographs are a history in and of them~
selves.
In 1999, in an interview, Gittings said,
"As a teenager, I had to struggle alone to
learn about myself and what it meant
to be gay. Now, for 48 years, I've had
the satisfaction of working with other
gay people all across the country to get
the bigots off our backs, to oil the closet
door hinges, to change prejudiced hearts
and minds, and to show that gay love is
good for us and for the rest of the world,
too. It's hard work-but
it's vital, and it's
gratifying, and it's often fun!"
Kameny called Gittings the mother of
the movement. To those of us who knew
her, she was that and more-an
indom~
itable force determined that straight so~
ciety should recognize lesbians and gay
men as their sisters and brothers-as
we
so often quite literally are. Bairn's book
explains and explores just how much this
one lesbian did for an entire community
and how much more rich and full all our
lives are as a consequence. [Victoria A.
Brown worth]
• 1 1te(~ay Reiiolutio11:'fl1e Sto,~y of tl1e sr,~uggle
7
By Lillian Faderman (Simon & Schuster)
L
illian Faderman
is one of
America's major historians and
she is the historian of lesbian
lives in America. Her books include To
Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have
Done for America-A
History; Chloe
Plus Olivia: An Anthology of Lesbian
Literature from the 17th Century to the
Present; Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers:
A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America; and Surpassing the
Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and
Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present.
Faderman's latest book, The Gay
Revolution: The Story of the Struggle, is
perhaps her most prodigious effort yet,
but this time she focuses not just on
lesbians-this
is a massive history of
the gay movement in America, which
covers our collective gay and lesbian
history from the pre-Stonewall
days
through to now. Faderman approaches
it with diligence, tenacity, and just the
right touch of awe.
This is material we should all be familiar with, but since lesbian and gay
history isn't taught anywhere but the
random college gender studies course,
how could wer Even assiduous students
and writers of LGBT history will find
new information in The Gay Revolution.
Faderman combines years of research
and scholarship with brisk, colloquial,
and highly readable prose, luring the
reader in with stories about everything
from blackmail and blackballing in the
1940s to a post-DADT
military honor
for a lesbian-replete
with her partner
and parents.
Over the course of this 800-page
book, Faderman details specific points
in the evolution of the gay and lesbian
civil rights movement. The battle, as
Faderman lays it out, is almost a class
struggle-"the
people" (lesbians and
gay men) versus society's hierarchy,
those with the power to keep us closeted forever with threats of incarceration,
medicalization,
discrimination,
and
more. Lesbians and gay men are pitted
against every major network in America: The press demonizes us in service
to the courts, the military, the schools,
and the psychiatric community.
In over 100 interviews and countless
bits and pieces of archival material, Faderman details how lesbians and gay
men were treated as pariahs-pathologized and psychiatrically profiled as
dangerous, unstable, even treasonous.
Lesbians and gay men were committed
to psychiatric hospitals against their
will ( as I was by my parents when I was
a teenager). The FBI could keep fat files
on "known homosexuals:'
Bars were
raided and the patrons arrested and
charged; lawyers and police would then
blackmail these same people. Literally thousands of lesbians and gay men
were arrested just for being themselves.
Being homosexual was itself a crime.
As Faderman lays out lesbian and gay
history in America, we were and are in
a battle for our very lives, and she explains how and elicits testimony from
the victims, the survivors, the activists,
names lost to history and rediscov-
LITERALLY
THOUSANDS
OF LESBIANS
AND GAY MEN
WEREARRESTED
JUSTFOR BEING
THEMSELVES.
''
ered by her. One comes away from this
book knowing so much more about "the
struggle," how it all started, who did the
work, and what still needs to be done
to make us equal citizens of our own
world. A valuable and worthy addition
to lesbian and gay history and an immensely compelling and engaging read.
[Victoria A. Brownworth]
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
27
S
weden. 1632. The Thirty
Years' War rages on between
Catholics
and Protestants,
between the nation~states of
the north and the Holy Roman Em~
pire. The Swedish king has fallen in
battle, leaving his mentally deranged
wife to care for their daughter, Kristi~
na, who is to take the throne upon her
18th birthday.
Sound intriguing? Well, it should.
Based on the true story of Queen
Kristina of Sweden, The Girl King
28
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
explores the life of the beautiful royal
girl who was raised as a boy, and was
adored by her kingdom-until
she ab~
dicated the throne and lived as a Cath~
olic in Rome. Played to great acclaim
by screen legend Greta Garbo in 1933,
this biopic is very different, and offers
a fresh and fascinating face in Swedish
actor Malin Buska.
"Queen Kristina was, and still is,
one of the most inspiring and con~
troversial women in time," Buska tells
Curve. "So, of course, I was very excit~
ed to play the part."
After her coronation, Kristina takes
the throne and tries to negotiate a
peace, not only for the good of her
people but also for their foes. As Swe~
den's first female sovereign, Kristina
embodies a modern sensibility in her
longing to bring the war between the
religions to an end. For this, she is rid~
iculed by the men of the High Court,
who are skeptical of the new queen's
aspirations.
Preparing for such a role took Buska
on quite a journey. "I read her diaries
and almost everything I could find
on her," says the actor. "I travelled to
Rome and spent almost half a year on
my own, living in a little cottage, just
reading. I didn't use the Internet or a
cell phone. The most important part
of my preparation
was to try to take
Kristina and place her in my heart and
soul." Buska is a natural for the role
of the queen. She gives off an intense
beauty, compelling as well as fearsome,
in some way.
Kristina responds to her awaken~
ing sexual desire for Countess Ebba
Sparre (Sarah Gadon) by making her a
Lady~in~Waiting, then elevates her to
the position of Personal Bed Warmer.
I'm sure you can all figure out Count~
ess Ebba's proper job description!
The tensions
between the High
Court and the queen begin to ig~
REVIEWS/
nite when Kristina decides to invade
Prague, a bold move on her part since
she has already announced a plan for
peace. Although
highly dubious of
the queen's ideas, the High Court fol~
lows her orders and the army advanc~
es on Prague. These tensions grow to
a raging blaze when Kristina and the
countess are caught in the throes of
passion on the night the soldiers re~
turn from war. Ultimately, the love
these two women share is repudiated
as ludicrous in the kingdom.
The Girl King is best described as
a film for the ages, replete with histo~
ry, it is also a portrait of a fascinating
woman. "I felt very connected to her
character," says Buska. "Kristina
is
both strong and vulnerable at the same
time, which feels so human:'
The film emphasizes the need for
self discovery, not just in love but in
life as well. Kristina, from a young age,
was given a country and the power to
run it, without much guidance from
the men of the High Court. Through~
out, we see her grow into a beautiful
and strong woman as she begins to
embrace her yearning for love and
The Girl King portrays
knowledge.
one of the most powerful women of
her era, but also shows us that she is
a modern woman-full
of questions
and curiosities that she so desperately
wants to explore.
Director
Mika Kaurismaki
takes
us on an epic journey back in time to
relive the moments that made Kristi~
na who she was. Along with beautiful
cinematography
of the countryside
and settings that replicate the Swedish
kingdom, I must point out the opulent
and authentic 17th century costuming,
designed by Marjatta Nissinen.
If period pieces ( with a touch of
swordplay and bodice~ripping action)
Fl
tickle your fancy, look no further.
"I think Kristina is one of the most
insp1rmg,
extravagant
personalities
of all time," says Buska. "Love is not
defined by gender or sexuality; it is
about the soul. Queen Kristina didn't
care what others thought of her-she
was a true free spirit. I wish all of us
had even an ounce of the same courage
she had."•
The Girl King is available from
Wolfe Video.com.
Sand
Dollars
HOT
FLICKS»
BYMERRYNJOHNS(B,
e;,,.
nh
Jr~s)
C
"u
•
1ct
The coastal town of Las Terrenas in the Dominican Republic is the setting
for the most unlikely lesbian romance of the year. Noeli (Yanet Mojica), a young
Dominican girl, relies on tourists and friends with benefits to support her and her
boyfriend, who poses as her brother. One of her benefactors is Anne (Geraldine
Chaplin), a much older European expat spending her retirement on the island.
She is as enchanted with Noeli as she is with the island. They meet in Anne's
luxe tropical bungalow. Together they swim, dance, play, touch. Their relationship
is physical, and Anne seems besotted with Noeli, lost in the sensuality of their
connection. She wants it to work, otherwise she will, reluctantly, return to
Europe. But sometimes Anne looks tortured by Noeli, her face like a wizened
Pierrot-especially when Noeli asks for money, and expects gifts. We see the
heartbreak and bewilderment on Anne's face as she understands she's being
made a convenience of. And it's clear that Noeli's interest in "the old lady" seems purely financial. However, as time goes on, and her relationship
with her boyfriend goes awry, her feelings for Anne intensify. This intriguing film is about crossing borders: physical, geographical, cultural, and
emotional. It's also an unconventional portrayal of May-December same-sex love. It's stunning to see Chaplin's Anne so expressive with her aging
body, every wrinkle and freckle visible on her fair skin in the Caribbean sunlight. She's relishing her physicality in the last chapter of her life-and
the physicality of another woman who may hurt her. Or will she? The film asks, is love an illusion if it's one-sided? When does an arrangement
become an attachment? Who's on top-age or youth? Sand Dollars presents a side of the Dominican Republic-and of women-that we don't
often get to see on screen. Enjoy the beautiful scenery, the soundtrack featuring merengue and bachata, and two remarkable performances.
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
29
W
hen the topic of all~female bands
comes up, most people remember
the Bangles, the Go~Gos, the Runaways.
Rarely do they trace history's footsteps all
the way back to Fanny (or its predecessor,
the Svelts), overlooking a key moment in
the history of rock chicks. So, it's a story
guitarist/ songwriter-and
Fanny found~
30
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
50s and 60s, I keenly felt the responsibility
to pass these stories on. This is our virtu~
al campfire;' she continues. "I know it will
help women remember what good work so
many have done, and I spend the first half
of the book talking about how we did it ...
these naYveand innocent girls in the mid
'60s. How did girls born into those restric~
tive times learn to play electric guitar, bass,
keyboards, and drums, do it well, and do it
together? To have the 'eggs' to actually start
a band? That was a big deal! Who were all
these girls?"
Who, indeed? The Svelts began in
1965, with Millington, her sister Jean,
Kathy Terry, and Cathy Carter forming
the core. Numerous lineup changes fol~
lowed, as did other changes. As Millington
explains, "The Svelts became an amalgam
of other all~girl bands: the Women, the
California Girls, the Freudian Slips, and
Wild Honey:' By the end of 1969, the
Svelts had become Wild Honey, which
morphed into Fanny. Millington was such
a force that Guitar Playermagazine named
her the "hottest female guitar player" in the
business. Knowing full well that she was
more than that, how did Millington take
a large grain
that so~called praise-with
of salt, or some healthy feminist outrage?
"I was kind of embarrassed, actually;'
she recalls. "The goal, actually, is to disap~
pear. I had a conversation with Amy Ray
about that once: What was your best mo~
ment onstage? I said, 'I don't remember,
because I always disappeared: We both
just looked at each other and laughed.
Because it's true. Bottom line, I don't have
the luxury of being outraged about being
called 'hottest female guitar player: If I
can't get with that, I better get off the bus!"
After Fanny ended in 1974, Milling~
ton carved out a place for herself in the
Women's Music Movement. "I got intro~
duced to the milieu of women's music
through Cris Williamson when I played
on Changer and the Changed in late '75,
and couldn't help but plunge right into
er-June Millington set out to tell in her
new memoir, Land of a Thousand Bridges. it;' Millington says. "That particular vor~
tex-and
that's how I seriously experi~
"Simply, I wanted to set the record straight;'
enced it-had
a lot of similarities with
Millington says. 'Tm the only one who can
rock and roll. It was wild! We were all
do it from the inside. As far as I know, I'm
calling up an energy that was ours from
the only one who was in at the beginning
long ago, and it was powerful:'
of Women in Rock [as we know it now].
As potent as the energy was, though,
That's a unique perspective, and as I hit my
REVIEWS/MU
I DON T HAVETHE
LUXURYOF BEING
OUTRAGEDABOUT
BEINGCALLED
THE HOTTEST
FEMALEGUITAR
PLAYER./
IF I CAN T GET WITH
THAT I BETTER
GET OFF THE BUS
1
1
1
the boundaries were equally restrictive. "I
couldn't help but notice that when I first
played drums live onstage with Cris in
'76, women complained, viewing it as a
'man's instrument: What? So that's where
I have to start, with something as primal
as that;' Millington notes. "So I've seen
a lot of reactions, changes, morphing ...
When I did the album Heartsong, Judy
Dlugacz [at Olivia Records] asked me
not to have any men play on the record:'
Millington and her longtime partner,
Ann Hackler, founded the Institute of
Musical Arts in 1986 to break down
some of those barriers, and to support
women and girls in their musical pur~
suits. The program continues to thrive
and expand, even as it marks its 30th
anniversary this year. IMA, more than
anything, is Millington's legacy, and be~
cause of its success she sees herself as
more than just an overlooked part of
rock history.
'Tm making my peace with it;' the
Buddhist
pract1t10ner
says, adding,
"IMA is the big'You're welcome' the uni~
verse has given back to me, and I so ap~
preciate it. I mean, thank you for giving
me hearing in at least one ear. For allow~
ing me to live through all the hardships
that being in an early all~girl band pre~
''
sented. For having my sister Jean in the
band from the very beginning, starting
with ukuleles. For allowing me to receive
Teachings, so I can pass on what I know
to the girls with at least a little wisdom.
For allowing me to breathe and live an~
other day, so I can give what, for me, is a
direct transmission:'
Those transmissions fill the pages of
Land of a Thousand Bridges, but the mem~
oir only takes the reader up to 1975, so
Millington is planning a sequel. Across
all those years and stories, what does
she think has been the biggest, best
highlight of a life very well lived? "Dis~
appearing
onstage, when everything
got electric ... But I knew, somewhere in
me, that people were watching. And we
were doin' it. Take that, world!"
(junemillington.com)
•
JAN/FEB
2016
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31
HOT
LICKS
))BYKELLYMCCARTNEY
2015 STATEMENT
OF OWNERSHIP
Publication Title: Curve.
Sara
Bareilles
Wnat
s nsde·Songs
from
Waitress
(f :)
Publication No. 0010-355.
Filing Date: Oct 1, 2015
Owner(s): Avalon Media LLC Po Box 467 New York
NY10034
SiIke Bader PO Box 467 New York NY 10034
It'snot oftenthat a popalbumopenswith the
singercooingaboutsugarandbutter,Thenagain,
it'snot oftenthat a popalbumcontainsthe songs
destinedfor a Broadwaymusical.Suchis the
case,though,with SaraBareilles'What'.s
Inside:
Songsfrom Waitress.Earlierthis year,Bareilles
was askedto composethetunesfor the musical
Waitressandshedelivereda collectionthat works
just as wellas a stand-alone,pseudoconcept
album.., bakingingredientlyricsandall.As shepoundsit allout on piano,Bareilles
stepsintothe variouscharacterswhichinhabitthe story,with a littlehelpfrom
JasonMrazontwo tunes.It'slongbeenevidentthat Bareilleshasa greatmelodic
popsensibility,so it'snowondershewas recruitedfor this particulartask.Andit'sa
testamentto hertalentthat sheso ablybridgedthe forms.
Publication Title: Curve.
Issue Date for Circulation Data: Nov 24.
Extent and Nature of Circulation: Average No
Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months:
A) Total No. Copies Net Press Run: 48,569. B) Paid
Patty
Griffin
(PrT ML0ir)
Ser ntofLove
Issue Frequency: Bi-monthly
Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/Jun, July/Aug, Sep/Oct, Nov/Dec
Number of Issues Published Annually: 6
Annual Subscription Price: $19.90
Complete Mailing Address: PO Box 467 New York NY 10034.
Contact Person: Silke Bader
Telephone: (415) 871-0569
Publisher: Silke Bader PO Box 467 New York NY 10034
Editor: Merryn Johns PO Box 467 New York NY 10034
Circulation. (By Mail and Outside the Mail) (1)
Mailed Outside-County Paid Subscriptions Stated
on Form 354110954; (2) Mailed In-County Paid
Subscriptions Stated on Form 3541: 0; (3) Paid
Distribution Outside the Mails Including Sales
rough Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors,
Counter Sales, and Other Paid Distribution outside
USPS:23,458; (4) Paid Distribution by Other
Classes of Mail_ rough the USPS:2,015 C) Total
Paid Distribution: 36,427. D) Free or Nominal
Rate Distribution by Mail and Outside the Mail:
(1) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies
included on Form 3541: 0; (2) Free or Nominal
Rate In-County Copies included on Form 3541: 0;
(3) Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other
Classes Mailed_ rough the USPS:59; (4) Free
or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail·
10,998. E) Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution:
11,057 F) Total Distribution: 47,484 G) Copies
Not Distributed: 897 H) Total 48,381 I) Percent
Paid 76%. Extent and Nature of Circulation/No.
Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing
Date A) Total No. Copies Net Press Run: 45,879. B)
Paid Circulation. (By Mail and Outside the Mail) (1)
Mailed Outside-County Paid Subscriptions Stated
on Form 3541: 9857; (2) Mailed In-County Paid
Subscriptions Stated on Form 3541: 0; (3) Paid
Distribution Outside the Mails Including Sales
_ rough Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors,
Counter Sales, and Other Non-USPS: 21,871;(4)
Paid Distribution by Other Classes of Mail_ rough
the USPS 1015. C) Total Paid Distribution 32,743.
D) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution (by Mail
and Outside the Mail): (1) Free or Nominal Rate
Outside-County as Stated on Form 3541: 0; (2)
Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies included on
Form 3541: 0; (3) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution
Mailed at Other Classes_ rough the USPS:35; (4)
Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail:
10,912.E) Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution·
10,947 F) Total Distribution: 43,690. G) Copies
Not Distributed: 1009. H) Total 44,699. I) Percent
Paid: 74.9%. Publication of Statement of
Ownership: Nov/Dec 2015
32
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
PattyGriffinhasneverbeenoneto colorinsidethe
musicallines.Jumpingfromherstark,acoustic
LivingwithGhostsdebutto herdense,rocking
Flaming
Redsophomoreset madethatclearfrom
theget-go.Onrecordssince,shehascarvedout
a soulfulsoundthat blendsGreenwich
Villagefolk,
centralTexascountry,Mississippi
Deltablues,and
NewOrleans
jazz.Servantof Lovebringsallof that
andmoreto bearinanincrediblysophisticated
song
cyclethat,whileperhapsnotimmediately
exoteric,isworththeextraeffort. Insome
ways,Servantof Lovefeelslikea bitof anartisticculmination
for Griffin.Despitethe
complexity
andaloofnessthataskthe listenerto work a littleharder,she'snotstretching
or straininghere.Rather,sheseemsrightat home,whetherinthedirtychugof
"Gunpowder,"
theslowburnof "Hurta LittleWhile,"or thewinsomeliltof "Riderof Days."
Robyn
&LaBagatelle
Magique
Love
s eer
.C 81. m.D1re1
Whilemost fans of Robyn'sBody Talkalbum
gravitatedtoward "Dancingon My Own"and "Call
YourGirlfriend,"one of the brightestlightsof that
2010effort was "U ShouldKnowBetter,"the
Swedishpop diva'senergeticcollaborationwith
SnoopDagg.Indeed,in collaborationis where
Robyndoes someof her best work. Perhaps
that's why last year's Do It AgainEPfound her
teamingup with Norwegianelectro-popmasters
Royksopp,whilethis latest EPpartners her with
keyboardistMarkusJagerstedtand producerChristianFalk,who passedaway
last year.Thefive songscontainedhereinwere built for the dancefloor. Their
pulsingbeatsand digitalbangshave"club"written all over them.All that's left to
do is turn on the disco ballandturn up the volume.
Lesley was a recurring guest
on The Mike Douglas Show
GET IT ON
Google play
CELEBRATING
A LIFETIME OF
WOME
ACHIEVE
O
ut of darkness comes light. It's
an old adage but one that might
apply to the life and art of Pa~
tricia Cornwell, America's most
successfulcontemporary crime writer.
Life these days sparkles for Cornwell:
Her books have sold more than 100 million
copies; she is happily married to Staci Ann
Gruber, an associate professor of psychiatry at
Harvard Medical School; her work takes her
around the nation and into the arms of ad~
venture. But it wasn't always so. Life has been
quite dark for this master of crime fiction.
Patricia Carroll Daniels, born in Miami
42
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
and raised in North Carolina, came from
a family fractured by emotional abuse and
mental illness. She ended up in the foster care
system, but went to college and worked hard
to establish hersel£ at times struggling with
her body image and her sexuality. She mar~
ried one of her English professors, Charles L.
Cornwell, who was 17 years her senior; they
separated in 1989. She was misdiagnosed
with bipolar disorder. She has been besieged
by legal problems, battling everything from
a DUI to a tangled accusation of plagiarism
launched by a lesser~known writer, Leslie
Sachs. (When the court found his claims to
be baseless, Sachs created a slanderous web~
site accusing Cornwell of many things, includ~
ing being a "neo~Nazi" lesbian with high~level
connections!) Add to this having to sue her
accountants for financial mismanagement
(Cornwell won the case), plus being the sub~
ject of a "tell~all"book, TwistedTriangle,
about
her affair with a married female FBI agent in
the 1990s (the tagline is ''A Famous Crime
Writer, a Lesbian Love Affair, and the FBI
Husband's Violent Revenge"),not to mention
disapproval from the British press for positing
her own theory about Jack the Ripper, and it's
clear that Cornwell has been a victim in her
lifetime, not unlike one of her own characters.
Her success, while making her rich and famous, has deepened the darkness with which
she engages during the course of her research.
When I speak to Cornwell, she sounds almost surprised that my line of questioning is
so sunny. But I don't wish to rattle skeletons.
There's plenty of scuttlebutt about Cornwell
online, if you want that. I want to know how
Cornwell-a
lesbian Southerner-became
incomparably successful in her field, and
what, in her heart, made it possible.
It was while working as a reporter for the
Charlotte Observerthat Cornwell, who always loved language, began covering crime.
Through her friendship with the evangelist
Billy Graham and his wife, Ruth Bell, Cornwell wrote her first published book, A Time
for Remembering:TheStory of Ruth Bell Graham, in 1983. After taking a job at the Office
of the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia,
where she worked for six years, first as a technical writer and computer analyst, Cornwell
churned out three detective novels-all of
which were rejected by publishers. But she
did not give up.
"The one secret that really helped me when
I started writing these books is that by the
time I realized my last book was going to be
totally rejected by everybody, I was well into
the next one. So I just kept going. And if I
hadn't done it that way, if I had waited to be
judged by the opinion of a handful of people, I
probably would've quit:'
Looking back, she acknowledges, 'Those
books should not have been published. I was
still trying to figure out what I was doing.
They were contrived stories, because I didn't
understand the real world of crime and violence. I take that back: It's not that I didn't
understand those things, it's that I didn't want
to write about them:'
Working with the byproducts of violence,
day after day-why would she also want to
write about it? "I didn't want to show you
what I was actually seeing, experiencing-not
only in my life,but in the work at the medical
examiner's office. It was so harsh and graphic and vivid and scary. I didn't want to write
about the monsters:'
And then she called up a female editor
who had rejected her books, and asked her if
she should just quit. The editor told her no,
and offered some advice that would serve
Cornwell well: "First of all, the lady medical
examiner is a minor character, but she's your
most interesting. Why don't you make her the
main character? And two, the stories you're
telling-is that what you see in the morgue2
I want to see what you see:' After that conversation, Cornwell got off the phone and asked
herself if she could go there-walk around in
Dr. Kay Scarpetta's bloodstained shoes and
show the world exactly what she sees in the
gruesome world of forensics.
'J\nd that was Postmortem,and that is what
I've done ever since, and that is why it works;'
says Cornwell. "Here's the thing: Whether it's
about social issues, human nature, crimewhatever you want to talk about-just try to
tell it like it is:'
A Scarpetta book is graphic and gory and
also fun to read because it hooks the reader
and lingers on the nitty-gritty: not just the
unexpected forensic details but also the characters, the way they talk, move, and think.
Cornwell lays bare their fears and deeds and
motives, no matter how horrible. Her latest
Scarpetta book, DepravedHeart,is no exception. I read the entire volume in two sittings.
Inspired by the Gothic novelist Wilkie Collins, Cornwell knows how to leave readers
craving the next installment. But the form and
the technique have become addictive for her,
too, and changed her as a person.
"In terms of how I live my life,how I think,
how I adapt to certain situations, yes, my experiences have absolutely changed me. For
one thing, when you see enough trauma ... I'm
extremely sensitive to violence and cruelty and
very aware of my surroundings because of the
thousands of cases that I've seen. I mean, I
know what kills people, both things that are
random and things that are really horrible,
and if you've seen that in the flesh enough, it
does change you:'
She won't let you in her car unless you wear
a seatbelt. It's not OCD, rather a touch of
PTSD. "Your brain gets programmed differently if you've been through certain experiences;' she says. But perhaps the most fascinating
result of Cornwell's on-the-job training is her
female characters: Dr. Kay Scarpetta, her
lesbian niece Lucy, and the hyper-villainous
Carrie Grethen.
"I don't know where they came fromnot any of em. I created them or channeled
them, or whatever you want to say, but they
also have created me. These characters have
helped me discover so much about mysel£ So
they make me better and I make them better.
It's very reciprocal:'
Before becoming a crime writer, Cornwell
was averse to science,dropping chemistry and
computer science in college.Now she reads up
on chemistry, flies a helicopter, studies surveillance, ballistics, and weaponry. "It's amazing
what you decide you can do, if you need it:'
When I think about Lucy and Carrieboth lesbians, both razor-smart, both FBItrained, both athletic-it's hard not to see the
similarities between them and Cornwell hersel£ Is she sure she doesn't know where they
come from2"1 really don't. There's not any one
character who is based on any one person
that I've ever even met, much less known. I'm
sure, ifl really thought about it, there must be
certain traits of people I knew along the way,
but no, that's what's so magical about fiction.
Sometimes these characters are like walk-on
actors-they just show up in your mind. And
some of them hang around for a long time
and some of them disappear. It's a magical
process that I really don't understand. But
the more you open yourself up to it and don't
try to control it, the better off you are and the
more it works for you:'
The Scarpetta books are visual, cinematic
almost, and it pains Cornwell that they have
not yet been adapted to the screen. "It's been
really,really frustrating. And it's not for lack of
trying, that's what a lot of people don't know:'
Cornwell reveals that the first Scarpetta option actually happened before the first book
even came out, in 1989. Since then, the project has 'gone from one production company
to another and it's become a mountain nobody can climb:'
I throw around casting ideas-Jodie Foster as Scarpetta, Kristen Stewart as Lucy.
Cornwell approves. She's keen to get across
the symbolic value of Lucy for lesbian readers.
"You have to look at Lucy as a little bit of a
metaphor for a young, modern femalewe've kind of gone from Nancy Drew to The
Hunger Games,so who are we, as immortally young women? There's a lot more going
on with women that age-20s and early
30s-than there was when I was at that age.
In terms of options and confusions-even
gender or sexual orientation-we're open to
think about these things in a way that-when
I was coming along you weren't gay,you were
simply a spinster. There was no such thing as
a gay woman. I'd never heard of such a thing
in the little town I grew up in. So we'vecome a
very long way in terms of what we can discover about ourselves and we can discuss:'
Lucy is strong, intelligent, and willful,
with the same ambiguity one might read into
Cornwell's biography, and she acknowledges
that Lucy 'can potentially be a bad, bad person, but part of embracing our power as human beings-I say this about women-part
of that is embracing the potential for evil and
the destruction that you can do.
"I mean, some of my worst characters are
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
43
women, and absolutely my best ones are. I've
always said Ia watch Charlize Theron play
anything, and one of the reasons that Char~
lize Theron is so powerful in Monster is that
you see a highly attractive, intelligent human
being reach into the deepest abyss in the soul
and pull out something that's ugly,something
that's just in them. But maybe we all have that
in us somewhere. And so I say that to women,
because we are striving very hard to be good,
to excel,to be the best in the world at what we
do, but part of understanding that is to look at
all the facets of who and what we are.
"Look for the monster in you, if you have
one. That's what Lucy represents. She is a bold
and unflinching look at what we are capable
of as women, and the difference between Lucy
and Scarpetta is Scarpetta has more of an in~
built sort of control system where she's not
going to cross certain boundaries that Lucy
would. But maybe if Scarpetta were born
20 years later, she would be crossing some of
those, too. It's hard to know:'
While Cornwell denies that her charac~
ters are avatars for hersel£ they are ways with
which to explore "stuff about me, too. What
am I capable of 2 And it's really important to
me, because I don't want to do harm. I've al~
ways been very self~scrutinizingabout, 'Is this
story OK for me to tell, or am I making prob~
lems worse?' And a couple of my books, like
Predator and Book of the Dead, where I went
to the third~person point of view,I started to
get a little wobbly in terms of not feeling com~
fortable. 'Maybe I went a little too far here,
these are too violent: So I know that I'm ca~
pable of doing things that are damaging, and
at the same time I don't want to, either. I guess
what I'm trying to say is it's a different way of
looking at empowerment. Women can be the
hero, but you can also be the worst person
that we'veever seen in literature:'
The narrative drive of Depraved Heart is
nothing if not a battle between good and evil,
and a battle of wills among its trio of female
protagonists. The author shares her charac~
ters' strong will. "That's one of the things that
I would particularly say to women: Do not be
passive, go out and do something, even if you
think it is tiny and small. But stay in motion,
be active,be fullof wonder, explore the world,
and ask questions that no one else ever has.
That's what I try to do:'
Though in the libelous mind of Leslie
Sachs, Cornwell remains a dark and danger~
ous figure, certainly on the phone, she is gen~
erous and open, speaking happily about the
sources of light in her life, especially love. She
''could not be more pleased" at the advent of
44
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
marriage equality in this country, even though
she married Staci Ann Gruber in Massachu~
setts back in 2005. Like many lesbians her age,
she didn't see the current advances in LGBT
rights coming. "I spend a lot of my time in
very rough~and~tumble worlds where they
don't really hang out rainbow flags.Very con~
servative areas where I'm doing firearms and
weapons research, hanging around mostly
very macho men. And I don't have any trou~
ble at all, never have, because we've alwaysjust
known each other as people. The rest of it
doesn't enter into it. Who they're married to
or who I'm married to-we're alljust people:'
But in Gruber she found the love people
IF NOTHING
ELSE HAPPENS
AS WE GET
OLDER, FOR
GOD'S SAKE,
TELL THE
TRUTH.
hope for."I certainly did. Aren't I lucky? And
it had nothing to do with gender, in terms of
beingjust lucky that you've found somebody
who is your soul mate. And that's the whole
thing with relationships-at the end of the
day, the two of you should make each of you
better and that is absolutely true with us:'
She and Gruber share similar beliefs, in~
terests, and causes, says Cornwell, who ap~
proves of Gruber's agenda to "leave the world
better than she found it" through psychiatry.
Even though the couple is rich, they priori~
tize non~materialistic goals. (Cornwell funds
scholarships and donates to several educa~
tional institutions.) And while she's enjoyed
a friendship with the Bush family and donat~
ed to the Republican Party, she's supported
Democratic candidates, too. Currently, she
thinks that Hillary Clinton is the most qual~
ified presidential candidate. "I think it's time
to have a woman president, for God's sake. It
can't be just any woman, but we need one. We
need a different perspective. Hello, it's time:'
When Cornwell turned 50, she had an
epiphany: It was time to come out of the
closet. "One of the best things I learned from
BillieJean King, probably 20 years ago-we
were sitting in a restaurant in New York City,
and we had this very discussion. I said, 'But
you know I don't really talk about it much, I
really don't want to discuss my private life like
that in public: She said, 'Wait till you turn 50,
you will feel very differently about everything,
including what you stand up and are count~
ed for: And you know what? She was right.
If nothing else happens as we get older, for
God's sake, tell the truth:'
With her 60th birthday around the corner,
I ask her if she expects another epiphany. "I
hope there's always going to be epiphanies. I
think the best gifr about getting older, is you
get insights. You're given little treasures you
wish you'd had a long time ago. The aging pro~
cess is not fun, and anyone who says it doesn't
bother them, it's hard for me to believe that's
true. I don't like it when my car gets dings and
dents and the tires wear out. So why should I
like getting older?
"But I do like the insights, the moments
where you have realizations that are just a
richness that you feel for knowing that, and
wishing you had known that a long time ago.
I always say I don't want to go back to being
in my 30s. I really don't. I don't want to live all
that again. I like who I am today. But I sure
wish I'd known back then what I know now.
But everybody says that ... I'm kind of glad we
can't edit our lives,because I don't think they'd
be what they should've been if we could edit
everything we did, like a film:'
We'd never have had Scarpetta if Cornwell
hadn't agreed to get her shoes a little bloody.
And neither of them shows signs of stopping,
in fiction or in real life."I plan when I'm 80
years old to drag my carcass off in my helicop~
ter flight helmet and wish everybody a good
day,"laughs Cornwell. "Women have got to
stop believing we lose our power as we get old~
er.There are other ways to have it. To adapt, to
take care of your health. There are certain re~
alities we need to take care 0£ particularly due
to the weather system known as hormones.
They usually pack up and walk off the job,
which is not very fair,but we don't have to take
this sitting down. We don't have to decide that
we have nothing to offer anymore because we
can't have children. We need to get reminded
that older women are sexy too, and part of it
is power and experience. So what, if you have
some lines on your facer Older men are sexy.
How come they are and we're notr It's the way
we're conditioned. I think we have to figure
out a way to rewrite that memo:'
And afrer 23 Scarpetta books, and a dozen
or so others, perhaps Cornwell isjust the per~
son to do it. (patriciacornwell.com)
Barbara Smith has fought oppression for 40 years.
BY MARCIE BIANCO
B
arbara Smith is the first to admit
she knows nothing about lesbian
culture, or celesbians, although
she's quick to add, "I find Rob~
in Roberts so charming!" The black lesbian
activist and scholar has been in the trenches
fighting for intersectional feminist justice
for over 40 years. Politics, not pop, resides in
Smith's heart.
"Cultural visibility and popularity in the
mainstream consciousness is not going to get
us where we need to go;' she explains. "We
need to look at the structural barriers at the
root of our oppressions:'
Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around,
a collection of essays documenting Smith's
years of activism, teaching, and learning, was
published by SUNY Press last year and won
the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for lesbian
memoir/ autobiography. The book's title is
taken from a Civil Rights Movement freedom
song. For Smith, the award was particularly
resonant, given the current racial tensions in
America. While giving a nod to black feminist
legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw, who coined
the term "intersectionality" in 1989, Smith
contends that the Combahee River Collective
Statement, written in 1977 by lesbian fem~
inists and feminists of color, was the first to
"talk about interlocking oppressions and the
simultaneity of oppressions, so that, today,'in~
tersectionality' rolls off the tongue of so many
people:'
She is pleased to see that the intersection~
al politics of the Combahee River Collective,
and of the lesbian~feminist movement of the
1970s, is alive today in the Black Lives Mat~
ter movement-the three founders of which
are Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal
Tometi. The first two of these women identify
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
45
as queer. Smith is appreciative of the women
behind the greatest social justice movement
of the 21st century. "While we are not living
under state-sanctioned segregation;' she notes
about the rise of BLM, "we're still living in a
segregated society.'
She points out that the contemporary cultural prevalence of identity politics also originated in the Combahee statement, but she
sees a difference in how the term was used
then and how it's wielded today. "We wanted
to legitimately look at the various elements of
our identity and forge a politics and a praxis
out of those intertwining identities-that's
what we meant about identity politics. We
didn't want to see people beat each other over
the head:'
"The thing is;' Smith continues, 'everyone
has an identity-historically, culturally, politically, and economically based-and you
can't get rid of that. You can't run away from
it. What we meant as feminists of color in the
Combahee was not that the only people who
are important are people like ourselves. The
reason why we asserted identity politics so
strongly at that time-at the time black women were so devalued and so marginalized that
nobody thought we counted for anythingwas that no one thought it was legitimate
for us to have our own political perspectives,
or that there was even a political perspective
to begin with. Where were black women to
stand? That was the point we were making:'
Smith's activism began in the 1960s when
she joined the Civil Rights Movement, and
has continued into the 2010s; most recently,
she was a member of the Albany, N.Y., Common Council from 2006 to 2013. Her passion for socialjustice has also transformed the
classroom-Smith is credited as being one of
the founders of black women's studies, and
she has solidified her status as an academic
rock star with the publication of All theWom-
three. Oppression is primarily rooted in class
distinctions-a politics held by many lesbian-feminists and lesbian-feminists of color,
most notably Angela Davis. Poverty does not
discriminate, and people of all races, genders,
and sexualities are, in today's America, feeling
impoverished and exploited in their jobs.
"We need a broader consciousness about
how both class and economic oppression
affect people in this country," Smith asserts.
"Our economy is not moving. People are basicallytreading water and staying in place-and
just barely getting by. But the One Percent is
doing incredibly well, and their riches continue to skyrocket and grow:'
Having worked in many social justice
movements for over four decades, Smith
believes the key to these movements is their
diversity and politics of inclusion. She hopes
her lesbian sisters, both young and old, "also
en Are White, All the BlacksAre Men, But identify as feminists and are committed to
Someof Us Are Brave:BlackWomens Studies organizing [the fight against] multiple op(co-edited with Gloria T. Hull and Patricia
pressions, so that they and everybody else will
Bell Scott) in 1982, and Home Girls:A Black one day get the freedom that they all deserve:'
This also means, Smith stresses, an
FeministAnthologyin 1983. She is also the
inclusion of trans women in our moveco-founder (and publisher until 1995) of
Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the
ment: "Nowadays, I really feel that there's
first U S. publisher for women of color. (Fasroom for everybody."She finds it ironic, and
cinating side note: Smith's twin sister, Beverly disheartening, that many lesbians are critical
Smith, is also a lesbian, an activist, and a scholof trans women-when not so long ago lesar-now there are some great genes!)
bians' gender identity as women was interroAt the epicenter of Smith's politics is class gated by straight women. "Back in the good
analysis. America's wealth disparity tranold days of '70s lesbian-feminism, lesbians
scends categories of race, gender, and sex- were understood to be outlaws, and we were
uality, and, in fact, unites and intersects all outlaws in relation to the gender paradigm of
46
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
BACK IN THE
'70S, LESBIANS
WERE UNDERSTOOD TO BE
OUTLAWS IN
RELATION TO
GENDER.
nuclear families and very constrictive roles for
women. And some of us still are, because we're
not conforming to conventional gender expectations, so the question then is are lesbians
actual women, when lesbians by definition
don't fit the normative category of woman'?
"People spend a lot of time debating and
arguing when what we should actually be
doing is making radical change and working
for justice and freedom;' Smith says about
the divisiveness plaguing the fight for gender
equality."That's a better use of our time:'
Amen to that.
For lesbian image-maker Kathleen Brennan,
an historic drought has a silver lining.
BY GILLIAN KENDALL
P
eople in Australia and in the
U.S. Pacific Northwest have
a personal understanding
of
global climate change. For
the majority of Americans and Canadi~
ans, though, drought is still an abstrac~
tion and a distant worry. But it's getting
closer.
Kathleen
Brennan's
documentary
work brings the reality of drought to the
screen-and
to the rest of the world.
Brennan, a photographer
best known
for her breast cancer documentary In
Praise of What Persists, began filming
evidence of the drought in spring 2013
and has continued through the farming
and ranching seasons of 2015. She has
produced a short documentary, Drought
in New Mexico, and will release a longer
version with the same title in 2016.
The
subject
she'd expected
to
document-the
devastation
of the
drought-changed
dramatically when
rains came to New Mexico in 2015.
"This year, we've had a lot of rain, so
it has switched up," Brennan says. "At
first I thought, Oh my God! There goes
my movie! Damn! But of course we
were all rejoicing to have moisture, be~
cause it's been really hard on the whole
state:' The break in the drought, Bren~
nan says, makes for a more realistic and
therefore better story. The film will be
not so much a record of depleted rain
levels as a depiction of the people living
on the land.
"The comeback has been extreme,"
Brennan notes. "During the drought,
people talked about how it was the
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
47
worst they'd seen in their whole lives,
the worst since the 1930s, worse than
the 1950s. And this year they're saying
it's the best they've ever seen!"
The farmers and ranchers Brennan
has been working with are less interest~
ed in what's causing the weather than
they are in how to cope with it. "They
don't really believe in climate change
out there," she says. "I think part of it
is because they've always seen these
ups and downs. That has always been
the way of life for these ranchers and
farmers in this northeast corner of New
Mexico. Life, Mother Nature, throws
you things, and when you've got good
times, try to save back, so when the bad
times come you've got some resources:'
Brennan keeps her own opinions
out of the documentary. ''I've read a
lot about climate change, and I've been
working on Fires of Change, a big prof
ect that has scientists and artists work~
ing together to educate people about
fire. I've seen many different stories,
but as a documentarian,
I'm coming
48
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
from a place of witnessing. I'm not try~
ing to deny anyone's thinking or change
their thinking or set them straight. I'm
just here to hear their story and get an
understanding
of their beliefs, and try
to express their beliefs, not so much my
own."
Brennan also has political differenc~
es with some of her subjects. "A lot of
them hate the government out there,"
she says. "They are so anti~government!
Everything is the government's fault! At
first, I was sort of appalled by that, but
then I thought, Well, it makes sense.
In some ways they've been living that
American dream out in the West, in
the wide~open land, living off the land,
doing for themselves, helping with the
neighbors and being pretty much left
alone. Then big government comes in,
telling them to do this and that, and it
does not sit well:'
According to Brennan, the social
conservatism in the area does not in~
elude homophobia. "Most of the peo~
ple have not asked anything about my
life. There is one farming family and
one ranching family that I have become
close to. They both know I'm a lesbi~
an. It's not a problem for them at all,
although if I went parading it around
town it would probably be a different
story.
"One of the wonderful things about
the people out there is they're a close~
knit community. They depend very
much on family and on their neighbors,
and then they depend on the communi~
ty at large. So even though they may not
like their neighbor, if their neighbor is
lying in the ditch, or their equipment
is down, they will help them out. They
might say, 'I can't stand you, but here's
my tractor, do what you've got to do:"
Among the dozens of farmers and
ranchers she's met in New Mexico,
Brennan has found one out lesbian,
Mary Lou Kern. "As a little girl, her dad
told her she was better than the guys
who had been in the business 40 years.
She's very well educated, with two de~
grees, and she has a medium~size ranch,
about 25,000 acres. At one time, her
dad had 3,000 cows, but she has re~
duced that down to about 700 or 800
because of the drought."
Other ranchers
share Kern's ap~
proach, says Brennan. "They say that
the land will only produce so much.
You can only ask so much from it. You
can ask more than it can give a couple of
times, but sooner or later the land says
no. If you take advantage of the country
and beat the hell out of it, you pay the
price. Those are the farmers or ranchers
who went out of business because they
overdid it: They overpopulated,
over~
grazed, and were not good stewards to
the country. So that weeded out some
of those people. The ones who aren't so
greedy are starting to bring it back a lit~
de bit, but they say they still want the
country to heal."
Brennan feels a similar commitment
to the land. Although she grew up in
Springfield, N.J., a short drive from
Manhattan, she went to the University
of Mexico in Albuquerque. "I left New
Jersey when I was 19 and now I'm 60,
so I'm really kind of from New Mex~
ico. I moved to the hot, dry desert 40
years ago, when everything was about
xeriscaping and being water~wise. Then
they were talking about how the South~
west was going to be running out of wa~
ter:'
She has lived in Taos for 23 years.
"Here in Taos we collect water. We've
got big holding tanks so every time it
rains we're collecting everything we
can, and we use that to water our gar~
den. And [Brennan's partner] Kat and
I are big vegetable gardeners. But these
last few years I let some of my trees die,
because I was so scared to use as much
water as we had been using."
Brennan recalls that in early 2013, "It
suddenly became OK to talk about it in
the newspaper. Practically every day in
the Albuquerque Journal there would be
something about the drought. Then the
Sunday paper ran a story about the lit~
de village of Maxwell and how its wells
were going dry, which was a big concern
for a small village of 255 people. I had
to go and see what was going on out
there, and go photograph it. I went out
and went to the wildlife refuge to talk
to them and they said, 'What are you
doing?' and I said, 'I have no idea. I'm
a fine~art photographer, but I just want
to see what's going on:"
The mayor drove Brennan around
for three hours. "She showed me all
the farms that are now nothing but
dirt parking lots. They were completely
dead. I stayed overnight, and then when
I came back the next day, I said, 'I think
this is my next project:"
Brennan hopes that the longer doc~
umentary due in 2016 will educate
people about the environment. "As a
documentarian,
my job is to preserve
the cultural and environmental history
of New Mexico. So at least I hope the
film will go down in history as showing
what this period has been about. More
largely, it will educate people about the
land and our limited resources here in
New Mexico, and how it's important to
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
49
be good stewards to our land:'
She also hopes the film will educate
people about the ranching and farming
industry. "It's getting harder and harder for small businesses to survive," she
says. "Farming and ranching is getting
more corporate, becoming bigger and
bigger, with half-million-acre
ranches.
It's like the Walmart effect: It gets more
and more expensive for the little people
to diversify and to make a profit:'
Also, Brennan hopes the film will
show viewers about the "incredible people" living in the area. "One thing that
kind of surprised me when I went out
there was to learn that, although there
is a big Hispanic population, the majority of them I would say are of European
descent. Their parents and grandparents came from Poland, Yugoslavia,
Czechoslovakia, Russia, Germany, Italy. They came to mine in the hills. So,
historically, there's a fascinating, rich
culture. Environmentally, too, it's really
fascinating country. There are several
volcanic fields out there. It used to be
50
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
ACCORDING
TO BRENNAN,
THE SOCIAL
CONSERVATISM
IN THE AREA
DOESN'T
INCLUDE
HOMOPHOBIA.
an inland sea. It's where the dinosaurs
roamed:'
Though Brennan is clear that she
wants to educate people, she's less sure
about the long-term effects of her work.
"The older I get, the more I abandon
hope. If the documentary effects social
change, it would make me very happy.
Do I hope for it:1 I don't hope for it. All
I can say is, 'Here's the story. Here's what
I've learned. I'm sharing it with you, do
with it what you will: It would be great
if people said, 'Wow, I have more respect
for those people; or 'I have more respect
for the land:"
But Brennan does assume that the film
will effect some kind of change. "I know
from the breast cancer project that I may
not have made social change with it, but
it has affected individuals. Still, to this
day, 11 years later, people come up to me
and say it meant a lot to them. It changed
their lives. So whether the drought documentary will effect big social change, I
don't know. But if it affects individuals,
that's terrific:' (brennanstudio.com)
E
(/)
>ca
ca
::::;
ileen Myles is really fucking
funny, which you might not
expect from a poet. "The only
real cure for homosexuality is
fame;' she jokes to me, referring to her
recent string of successes and the main~
stream adoration of her newest volume
of poetry, I Must Be Living Twice: New
and Selected Poems, which was published
concurrently with the reissue of her
groundbreaking
1994 autobiographical
novel, Chelsea Girls.
"It used to be that the brighter you
got, the less gay you got ... both because
it matters less in a certain way-you're
going to do what you fucking do-but
you're also not fighting to be seen, so
you're not naming it as much:'
For Myles, who is 66, last year could
be deemed the Year of Fame and Mala~
propism: She's become a cultural avatar
on TV and at the movies-the
inspira~
tion for Cherry Jones's character on sea~
son 2 of Transparent, and Lily Tomlin's
character in Grandma. She's won count~
less accolades and awards, including the
2015 Clark Prize for Excellence in Arts
Writing. I Must Be Living Twice sold
out in its first three printings-baffling
mainstream
publisher
HarperCollins,
which assigned her an agent to handle
the wave of publicity. The media has
heralded her success as everything from
a "renaissance" to a "retrospective," with
the New York Times saying she's "earned"
it and New York magazine running a
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
51
CHELSEA
GIRLS
A
/JOVf..L-
EILEEN
MYLES
piece headlined "Eileen Myles Gets
Her Due" -which amuses Myles. "That
writer is so great," she confides. "I don't
blame her for that line. I've done enough
journalism to know that you write a
piece and then they put some shit on top
of it .. .'Gets her due' is like trying to, like,
extract something from the culture!"
Myles finds the attention both odd
and comical. Male journalists, she para~
phrases, describe her as "the used to be
obscure, punk poet dyke;' which, she re~
sponds, "is very strange [and also] funny,
because it sounds like I was wandering
through the darkness for hundreds of
years and Ecco [an imprint of publisher
HarperCollins] found me:'
She takes slight issue with the use
of the term "punk," which more appro~
priately describes, she explains, "the art
form of [her] generation," rather than
52
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
her own work. She says the misnomer
reflects a deep~seated homophobia: "Ev~
ery time I get called a punk poet, I think,
[the media doesn't] want to talk about
class, vernacular, queerness, or dykes. A
lot of things would have to be there, and
because they don't want to talk about
those things, they say 'punk:"
Myles views these labels with the eye
of a poet: "Any word that covers what
I do, I'm not unwilling to claim. I just
feel like I don't want to be phobic about
my own kind. I have to include what I
am-lesbian
is part of what I am. I pre~
fer 'dyke: It's a better word! It's an An~
glo~Saxon word. We deserve that. It has
more linguistic power. I think it carries
a whole heavy load of thud. It's got a real
in~your~face thing:'
Her voice crescendos with excitement.
"I just do think the dyke is back!"
It is perhaps out of humility that Myl~
es explains in scientific terms the fame
that eluded her for years. "I think that
it's geological-I
simply have done so
much that it simply would be impossible
not to publish me in the mainstream:'
To elaborate, she offers the example of
a surging, endless water source: "I think
sometimes it's like the little boy putting
his finger in the hole of the dyke, and
eventually he can't stay there and the
water comes. I just feel like I've done so
much that at a certain point in time it's
like, How can you keep this person out,
when she's all over the place? ... Every~
body who is important in the generation
before me ... knew I was good, [and] they
published me:'
Like many queer artists who have
been marginalized,
Myles was called
"too downtown;' or "too East Village," or
"too niche:' Her work was continuously
rejected. "It's so weird," she conjectures,
"because in so many other areas 'niche'
is so exciting. Just look at that piece of
shit Blue Is the Warmest Color:' Myles
acknowledges that her "sexuality needs a
big home;' and she emphasizes that she
writes for a mixed collective of people.
"I don't want to live on a lesbian island.
I don't, and I never have. And I think
that's the best treatment for these fears
of being niched away:'
She recounts how no agent, let alone
publisher, would consider Chelsea Girls
when she first wrote it, in her 40s. "To
be young, female, full of talent, to be
writing about sex, to be having sex, to
not be owing anybody anything, and not
paying your dues but simply living your
life in this frontal way is like something
that needs to be hidden," she says. She
reminisces about rejection. "It was too
much that I was using my own name
and writing pretty close to the time of
these events-that
would be interesting
if I was a man, but it's almost terrorism
on a cultural level for a woman:'
I Must Be Living Twice was also re~
jeered more than once before being
picked up by HarperCollins. One pub~
lishing giant even turned the book down
by claiming that it" 'couldn't do such a
large collection' -which," she interprets,
I PREFER 'DYKE.'
IT'S A BETTER
WORD!
IT HAS MORE
LINGUISTIC
POWER.
I THINK IT
CARRIES A
WHOLE HEAVY
LOAD OF THUD.
IT'S GOT A REAL
IN-YOUR-FACE
THING.
"means female!"
"When I say my work 20 years ago
would've been celebrated exactly the
way it's getting celebrated today if I was
a guy, that's just a fucking fact:'
Her fans know this is a fucking fact,
too, which is why Myles feels grateful
for the recent support and enthusiasm:
"People are acting like this is one for
the team. It's really weirdly great. I'm
not getting people who are resentfulthere's nobody thinking, Fuck Eileen
Myles ... I think everyone is fucking
happy that my work is out there in a
bigger waY:'
The year is also marked by personal
celebration: Myles is dating the creator
of Transparent, Jill Soloway, whom she
met on a panel last spring. "Immediately,
we were excited by each other and what
each other did;' she says. Myles becomes
animated when detailing Cherry Jones's
I MUST
BELIVING
EILEEitMY
TWICE
character on Transparent, who is based
on her. "Wait till you see Cherry Jones
[getting together] with someone who
looks like she's in her teens. I think
Cherry was so happy-I
don't think
she's ever played a lesbian!" (Note to
the reader: She hasn't, and if you want
to learn more, read the interview with
Jones on page 60!)
Myles, whose own romantic history
is lined with intergenerational
rela~
tionships with younger women, appre~
ciates both Transparent and Grandma
for portraying these relationships on
screen. "I think that the thing that's
really important is that they are there
at all:'
For Myles, intergenerational
rela~
tionships have been a source of edu~
cation, power, and exchange.'Tve been
with many women younger than me,
and ... sometimes you bring a person
to the world they want to be connect~
ed to. My own attitude to it is that my
world changes because someone else is
in it with me now, and nobody I dated
didn't bring me music and books and
perspective. It's really rich. It's sort of
like, again, we're just human, so dating
someone from a completely different
frame just yields ... tension and difficulty,
and it's exciting and aggravating, but it's
been a real driving force in my life.
"I gotta say, my often mostly young~
er girlfriends have parented me in a big,
big way. Every woman I've ever been
with has shown me some way to take
care of myself. It's never been that I'm
the sugar daddy or the hook~up, pure~
ly. I am those things in some ways-it's
unescapable-but
I've been so nurtured.
I've been so supported and so seen by all
my girlfriends, who, even including Jill,
are younger than me:' ( eileenmyles.com)
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
53
ANIMARUM
In aged care, a lesbian and her wife
fight to stay together.
BY LOIS CLOAREC HART
I
never noticed how thin my wife's
hair has grown. When we first met,
it was as soft and enticing as a rose
petal. I nearly scandalized our neigh~
bors in the next box at a long~ago concert
because I could not stop my fingers from
an instinctive caress. She, always more con~
scious of my social position than I, subtly
eased away from my touch. For that night
at least, the secret of our love was kept.
My gaze drifts from her bowed head to
the thin, wrinkled hand wrapped tightly
around mine. In the semi~twilight of this
room, it's hard to know where her hand
ends and mine begins. How fitting. From
the beginning we have completed each oth~
er, though it took a long time to convince
her of that. She thought herself far beneath
the class I was born into. In truth, the depth
of her love, loyalty, and kindness left me
breathless in her wake. My education, my
profession, and my social standing were
nothing in comparison. She laughed when
54
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
I
L
animarum
noun
animarum (Latin, fem.)
1. souls, spirits, lives
I insisted that it was so. She said legal schol~
ars would debate my rulings in court and
classroom for a century, but none would
even recall her name. I assured her that her
name was already etched in the Book of
Ages in recognition of the grace with which
she lived her life.
At least I think I told her that. It's some~
times hard to know what words I have ut~
tered and what words remain trapped in
the prison of my brain. I hope I said it. I
hope that even without words I still told
her how much I love her, how much I ap~
7
_J
preciated the way she stood by me as the
dementia stole me from her, and how deep~
ly it touched my soul to see her advocate on
mybehal£
A thousand lifetimes from now I will
still remember how my shy, reserved wife
took Laurel Woods Manor to court and
fought for the right to be by my side-liter~
ally. She had researched our final residence
so carefully, looking for a place that would
accommodate our needs and allow us to
be together. Thinking she had found it, we
gave up our home of forty~two years. But
with all her care, she could not have anticipated an administrator who hated us and
did everything possible to keep us apart.
I wonder how that woman came to be so
filled with bile. What had twisted her heart
and mind into ugly, angry knots? Would
she have fought so hard to separate us if we
had entered the facility merely as friends
wanting to share a room for financial reasons? I unwittingly aided her nasty quest.
I did not react well when my beloved was
kept from my side. I may not have known
my own name by then, but I always knew
my partner's loving touch. And when that
touch was gone for so-called medical reasons, I grew agitated and troublesome. The
administrator used that behaviour as an
excuse to commit me to the locked ward,
where my wife could not be with me.
So my sweet and gentle warrior went
into battle in the arena I once ruled. She
was fortunate that the times and culture
had changed radically from when we first
met, and the judge who heard the case had
clerked for me decades earlier. He gave my
love a fair hearing. But I think her success
was also due to the ferocity with which she
pleaded our plight. This time I aided our
cause. I resisted the orderly who brought
me into the courtroom and kicked at him
feebly in an effort to get away. As soon as
my wife's voice called over the spectators'
heads, I ceased my struggles and turned toward her. She led me to a chair and settled
me next to her. Later that night, she whispered that I had sealed the deal when I immediately rested my head on her shoulder
and closed my eyes peacefully.
Now her name, too, would be written
in law books as the plaintiff who won the
decision that required nursing homes to
not only accommodate same-sex couples,
but to provide double beds for all residents
who desired them. It was only a lower court
ruling, but it was an immeasurable gift to
those who cherish their loved one's touch.
No longer did they have to lose that small
joy due to age and infirmity. My lady in
shining armour had paved the way for
many others. And the administrator who
made our lives hell? She could not bear the
thought of us slumbering peacefully in each
other's arms. The manor's residents gave
us three lusty cheers when we entered the
dining room the day that miserable woman
quit in disgust.
Someone is coming into view behind
my wife's shoulder. Ah ... her mother. How
that woman hated me. She was utterly convinced that I had seduced her daughter and
set her on the path to perdition. Every year,
she made a maternal visit to our city. And
somehow every year her visit coincided
with legal conferences I had to attend or a
huge stack of paperwork which entailed extended hours at the office. It wasn't until after her mother passed on that my love told
me how much it hurt when I abandoned
her so. I had never considered her side. I assumed, as I had done so often, that because
she didn't complain, she had no complaints.
It was foolish and unkind, and though I
couldn't do anything about my earlier lack
of support, I did try to improve. Whether I
succeeded or not is not for me to say. That
is for my wife to judge.
It must have shocked my reluctant mother-in-law that her sweet, pliable daughter
resisted every tirade, every sob, and every enticement that her mother wielded
in order to wrench us asunder. When my
mother-in-law finally and melodramatically
insisted that her daughter make a choiceher or me-my love calmly opened our
door and ushered her out. Then she began
to cry, and although at the time I considered
the noxious woman a small loss, I knew her
mother's rejection wounded my wife deeply. Still, she never wavered, not even when
we attended her father's funeral. That was
the day her mother refused to permit us to
sit with the family. My wife and I sat at the
back of the church, listening in silence while
others eulogized the father she had adored.
My beloved grieved her losses for such
a long time. With each tear she shed, my
loathing for her mother grew. But as I lost
my memory ... and myself, I also lost my
hatred. Perhaps that was a silver lining,
though for a long time I could think of no
others. There was a time when I regretted
not killing myself and thus sparing my love
the agony of my decline. I came to know
better. I saw the strength she'd always hidden come roaring to the fore. I know that
our trials polished the facets of her soul,
and I glory in her brilliance.
Now her mother stands opposite me
with an apologetic expression on her face. I
nod and she turns her gaze on her daughter.
When I look down, I notice the silver cord
that has held me this past week is frayed.
I regard it with curiosity and then understanding. I look up and smile in compassionate concert with the woman who was
my unwilling mother-in-law. My beloved's
head droops, and she slumps wearily in her
chair. Then with a great effort, she pulls
herself erect and wrestles momentarily with
the bed railing. She lowers it and slides in
next to me. It is close quarters, but that's
the way we've always preferred it. She rests
her head against my shoulder, and her hand
finds its usual spot on my chest.
Her mother watches us both with an
expression of profound love. She's come a
long way in the years since her passing. A
soft knock at the door sounds, and one of
the hospice nurses slips in. They've been
so kind to us here. I am deeply grateful for
the consideration they have shown me and
my wife. The nurse smiles at the sight of
us snuggled together and quietly drapes a
nearby afghan around our peaceful forms.
Without disturbing my beloved, the nurse
leaves as silently as she came in and closes
the door after her. She knows we have arrived at a time for serenity, not intervention.
I hear something-a soft, familiar voice.
Not many would term it melodic, but it is
the sweetest sound in the world to me. Her
head next to mine, my wife sings quietly
in my ear, an old tune we danced to many
times. Her mother and I listen as she catches her breath before beginning another
verse. Then, as my beloved's voice breaks
and falters, her mother smiles. She bows
her head to me and begins to fade. I comprehend her gift, and I'm grateful for it. We
will meet again soon, but this last little time
is for me and my wife.
The silver cord is only a single thin strand
now, and I feel a great surge of joy throughout my essence. The wait is almost over. On
our pillow, my love has grown silent, but
her hand slides slowly up my body until it
cups my cheek. There was a time that her
slightest touch would wake me, but it's been
many days since I opened my eyes, even for
her. A tiny part of me wishes I could still
feel the softness of her fingers as they caress
me and slide over my eyelids. But the greater part of me has already left that world
behind and awaits our future with eager
anticipation.
As her hand stills, the last silver strand
parts. I look across the two old bodies entwined, and I am thrilled to see my wife
standing opposite me with a dazzling smile
on her face. Her hair is lustrous, and her
eyes sparkle with delight. She grins and extends her hand. I take it and together we
whirl away, dancing once again and forever
to our hearts' music.
JAN/FEB
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55
AUTHOR
INTERVIEW:
LOISC.HART
Exploring a mature writer's life and art.
BY ASTRID OHLETZ
er, and a large, loving group of family and
friends-to
populate the story. With my
friend's coaching and encouragement, in a
year I had the first draft of ComingHome.
Why do you write?
After Coming Home, I continued to
write, in part because it was an excellent
way to take my mind off a complicated and
occasionally stressful life. I'd been an avid
reader for as long as I could remember, and
every night I would put myself to sleep by
composing a story. I never stayed awake
long enough to make much plot progress,
but I was accustomed to characters speak~
ing to me. It wasn't difficult to let them
speak through my fingers on a keyboard,
and I delighted in creating complete stories.
As for what it means to me, it's no longer
the escape that it once was. I'm in a really
good place in my life and have no need to
escape. It is, however, deeply satisfying to
begin a project and carry it through to a
conclusion. My greatest flaw is procrasti~
nation, and when I can overcome that flaw
enough to finish a story or a novel, I feel like
I'm making progress.
When did you begin writing?
I started writing in the fall of 1999. For
eight months, I'd resisted a dear friend's
urging to give it a try. I insisted that I was
a reader, not a writer, but because she and
I wrote to each other daily, and I beta read
her stories, she was convinced I could do
it. By that fall, my husband's chronic~pro~
gressive multiple sclerosis had taken most
of his physical and cognitive abilities. He
was a quadriplegic with severe MS~related
dementia. Family and friends who'd been in
Calgary when we first came there in '93 had
56
CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
moved to other cities, so we were mostly
alone together on a daily basis. The Inter~
net and my friend's letters were the keys to
my sanity as, except for medical appoint~
ments, we were housebound. Additionally,
at that time, we had a very attractive postal
carrier, and I used to enjoy interacting with
her for a few moments when she brought
the mail each day. When I finally gave in to
my friend's urging and began to compose a
story, it felt natural to involve elements of
my life-a disabled husband, his outwardly
"straight" wife, the attractive postal carri~
How long does it take you to write a
novel?
It's taken me anywhere from five yearsKicker'sJourney is a good example of the
way I can procrastinate-to
three weeks,
for the first draft of Walking the Labyrinth.
It really depends on whether I can keep my
focus and take time away from pursuits
that interest me as much as writing.
Coffee or tea?
Diet Coke. It's my daily staple. In par~
ticular, I love fountain Diet Coke, which I
I
WHEN I GAVE IN TO MY FRIEND'S 7
URGING AND BEGAN TO COMPOSE
ASTORY,ITFELTNATURALTO
INVOLVE ELEMENTS OF MY LIFE-A
DISABLED HUSBAND, HIS
OUTWARDLY"STRAIGHT 11 WIFE _J
L
prefer to canned Coke. I don't drink either
coffee or tea, not for any particular health
or religious reason, but just because I never
cared for the taste. My wife and best friends
are all tea drinkers, and my mom and siblings are huge coffee drinkers, but I've found
my beverage niche and I'm happy with it.
When and where do you like to
write the most?
When I write, I need absolute silence
in the house. As much as I love music, I
don't even want the radio on when I'm
writing. The one sound that is conducive
to my productivity is that of running water, so when it's warm enough, I keep my
front window open to hear my fountain.
For that reason, my most prolific writing
takes place when I'm in my Canadian
home, from April to October, and more
specifically, when I'm in my rocker-recliner overlooking my gardens and fountain.
Time of day doesn't really matter, though
I probably get most of my work done in
the afternoon.
How would you prefer to describe
yourself?
Easygoing, amiable, reasonably intelligent and well-read, occasionally driven
to the point of near mania-if
I have a
paintbrush in my hand and a project on
the go, you probably shouldn't stand still
in my vicinity! And most importantly to
me, spiritually aware and evolving. My
circle of loved ones loves me back in full
measure, and that's always a good sign
that there's balance in your life.
How much of yourself do you put
into your characters?
It depends on the character and the
story. For example, while I based the
character of Jan in Coming Home on my
own experiences, Terry's loving relationships with her family in that novel were
much closer to my reality. When I originally wrote Broken Faith, I put some of
my surface attributes into Lee-physical
build, military background, etc.-but by
the time Lee reappears in Walking the
Labyrinth, there is less of me in her, and
far more of me in Gaelle.In fact, I'd have
to say that of all the characters I've ever
written, Gaelle most closely reflects my
beliefs, experiences, and outlook on life.
What part of the writing process
do you find the most challenging?
The act of actually sitting down to
write. It's the procrastination thing again.
Once I do start, it's a very easy, natural
process for me. That said, I always need
to have the opening line of a new story
before I begin to create. For me, everything seems to Bow from a good first line.
What themes have you included in
your novels?
The underlying theme in all my writing
is that love can endure almost everything,
including separation and death. In Coming Home,Jan and Terry fall in love under
impossible circumstances in which Jan is
never going to leave Rob, who is not the
bad guy by any means. In Broken Faith,
Marika and Rhiannon rise above horrendous childhoods and some nasty villains
to find love together. In Kicker'sJourney,
Kicker and Madelyn fall in love easily, but
then have to battle the era and environment of early-20th-century Canada, not
to mention each other, to find their happy
ending. Most poignant to me, in Walking
the Labyrinth, Lee has to endure the loss
of her beloved wife and find a way back to
where she can love again.
What advice would you give to
new authors?
Find a great editor. You don't have to
marry your first editor, the way I did, but
good editing and honest input are crucial
to a polished final product. A skilled editor will gently redirect you when you've
gone off in the wrong direction, guide
you to shore up the weak points in your
plot, polish your prose, and generally
make you look far better as an author
than you'd ever look on your own. I've
been extremely fortunate in the editors
I've had, beginning with my first. I fell
head over heels in love with her, and to
this day she edits every word I write. I
trust and respect her abilities, and she
never steers me wrong. I also benefit
from having other editorial eyes on my
writing, and I'm grateful for their professionalism and skill, as well. When I view
a completed story and feel pride in its
creation, I'm deeply aware that I did not
do it by myself.
What future writing projects can
we look forward to?
My latest novel, published in November 2015, is called Stone Gardens. As
most of my books are, this one will be
about the power of love. It is available
as an ebook and a paperback through
Ylva Publishing, a publisher of women's
literature with a focus on lesbian fiction.
(ylva-publishing.co.uk)
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
57
•
The queer comics of ·sara Lautman.
.. •
BY MARCIE'BIANCO
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CURVE
JAN/FEB
2016
T\\E
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,•
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FEATURES/
S
ara Lautman's first cartoon
was an illustration of an upside-down pineapple and the
caption "Why won't anyone take me seriously?"she wondered.
In some ways it's curious that such a
young lesbian embraced such a traditional
and often male-dominated art form. "I didn't
draw seriously or with an awareness of skill
until my twenties;' she says. "Before that it
was a consistent but low stakes option for an
activity to do besides talk to other people or
go to the bathroom:'
Nevertheless, Lautman, who is based in
New York and Baltimore, drew every day
for five years straight and in 2012 decided
she wanted to get serious about being an illustrator. She joined the Illustration Practice
program at Maryland Institute College of
Art and "never stopped working" at her craft.
"The physical act of drawing makes me feel
calm and happy;' she says.
The first full-page comic she sold was to
Bitch magazine-it was a condensed biography of Ann Bannon, the lesbian pulp novelist.
Generally, Lautman doesn't do caricatures. "I
tend not to single out religious or political
world leaders, or even local public figures. It's
just not an important part of my cartooning
vocabulary, really:' Condensing information
in a humorous way is her goal. Those New
Yorker illustrations aren't as irrelevant as you
might think in this 140-character world we
now live in. "Humor is necessary. If it ever
became unnecessary, it would be a sci-fi situation where everyone's mind had fused into
one organism that agreed with itself about
everything;' says Lautman. "I think that
funny people are adaptable. More adaptable
than everyone else. As long as there are new
platforms for media, there will be funny people subverting them:'
And Lautman is subversive, too, her work
representing "a fringe point of view" and always "at max capacity queerness:' She cites
Fun Home author Alison Bechdel as one of
her influences. "Queering mainstream culture is harder than contributing to queer
culture within its own bounds (and which is
certainly in no famine right now);' she says.
But she does feel committed to "showing
and discussing gayness and gender nonconformity in non-queer contexts-that
means spaces, institutions and publications.
The comics I make [are] going to be gay no
OPENSTU
matter what. That's the subtext, that's the authorship. I hope that wherever my comics go,
that area will be queerer for it, or the same
amount of queer, depending on how queer
things were before the comic arrived:'
(saralautman.com) •
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JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
59
CURVE
PRINT
MAG
ONLY
$29.95
FOR
9ISSUES
Delivered in a plain envelope
to ensure your privacy
60
CU
VE
JAN/FEB
2016
FEATURES/
n a recent piece for the New Yorker,
writer Ariel Levy nails Jill Soloway's
Transparent as "post-patriarchal television:' She describes Soloway as creating a radical, freeing work environment
for her actors. She is a feminist director and
a "doer:' She doesn't let obstacles defeat her.
She uses them to create a new aesthetic, a
new commentary on sexuality, gender, and
intimacy. Last year, Soloway won an Emmy
for Best Directing in a Comedy Series for
Transparent, and in season two she continues to spin out unique and unprecedented
storylines, hiring who she wants to hirewhich means actual talented female actors
with non-television faces and bodies. What
she has referred to as 'a.ick candy" is not welcome on her show. It's such a relief to women
everywhere, and to great actors like Cherry
Jones, who never in her career fit that bill.
Jones, who is to the stage what Meryl
Streep is to film, is best known in American
households as U.S. President Allison Taylor in the TV series 24-a head of state in
perpetual crisis, yet in possession of a moral,
ethical, and emotional backbone. Jones
won an Emmy for her portrayal, and she's
since dabbled in small film roles and more
TV, but to see Jones at her transcendent
best, you must go to Broadway. Thus far,
her stage roles form a fascinating pantheon of fierce females: aviatrix, teacher,
spinster, Southern belle, madam, saint,
and nun-from
Tennessee Williams
to George Bernard Shaw to the best of
contemporary feminist and lesbian playwrights. Throughout her illustrious career, Jones has picked up five Best Actress
Tony Award nominations and two wins.
While she has not played an actual lesbian (until now), she has always been out
and proud. When accepting her awards,
she has thanked her partners: Mary
O'Connor in 1995, when she won for
The Heiress (which made Jones the first
lesbian actor to thank her partner from
the stage); and Sarah Paulson in 2005, when
she won for Doubt. I've been longing for the
moment when Jones would truly blaze her
way into the lesbian zeitgeist. Perhaps that
moment has arrived with her role as a womanizing lesbian poetry professor in season
two of Transparent. It's all happened"at a very
unexpected point in my life;' Jones tells me
about a week before her 59th birthday.
"Never did I think that I'd be playing a
dude dyke lesbian poetry professor and having all my scenes with Gaby Hoffman, with
Jill Soloway;' she enthuses in a slightly Southern drawl.Jones, a Bible Belt gay hailing from
Paris, Tenn., who miraculously transcended
her small-town beginnings to become one
of America's treasured thespians, says she
has "so much respect" for Soloway's vision,
work, and methodology, which is helping to
revolutionize the role of women in TV, both
behind and in front of the camera.
"There is an episode that takes place at a
fictional Michigan women's music festival;'
says Jones, "and you have never seen so many
different nude body types in your life. That's
the thing about Jill. Usually, if it's a beautiful
television-looking person, they don't make
the cut. She wants real people and real bodies and real women of all ages. And she really
allows a great deal of freedom on set;' says
Jones. "There's a fair amount of ad-libbing
around a very structured plot, but it feels in
a way more like being in rehearsal for a new
play with a company that's creating the script
AN
AMAZON
ORIGINAL
SERI
RANSPAR
themselves. It is so creative and so freeing:'
It was also freeing for Jones to play Lesley
Mackinaw, a sexy, swaggering older butch
based loosely on Eileen Myles (also profiled
in this issue). Myles, notes Jones, is finally
receiving mainstream acclaim. "She seems to
be everywhere right now. So this is a particularly thrilling time to be playing Eileen:' At
the time of writing, Myles was everywhere
THE L-LIST
indeed, both in the press, and dating Transparent creator Jill Soloway. Jones adds, re-
flecting on how she tailored her appearance
to reflect Myles' own unique style,"! even had
a haircut, which is as close as my hair would
get to Eileen's. I think the greatest thrill for
me is that I get to wear the most comfortable
clothes I've ever worn in my career:'
A little less thrilling to Jones was the inevitability that she'd have to get naked and
participate in frank on-screen sex. As an
admirer of Transparent, Jones had watched
the show with her wife, Sophie Huber, and
wished she could nab a role on it. 'J\nd then
lo and behold, several months later I got a
call that Jill wanted me to do this. And so
we Skyped, and she sort of gave me the arc
of the character, and I said, 'Let me think
about this and I'll get right back to you: And
I thought about it and I knew I had to do
it. And then my second thought was, I have
to ask Jill if I have to do any on-camera sex
scenes. Because I knew that would be a real
problem for me. I'm 59, from a small town in
Tennessee, and I just-I'm from that quaint
generation where if I have sex, that's with
my partner;' she laughs. 'J\s an actress,
there's only so much one can preserve
that's sacred.
"I called Jill and I basically said, 'Will
I be required to do any pussy licking or
finger fucking on-screen?' And there was
a pause and she said, 'Yeah: And I said,
'Really?' And she said, 'Yeah!' And I said,
'Well, I cannot do that: And there was
another pause and she said, 'Really?'And I
said, 'Really: And she said, 'Neither giving
nor receiving?'And I said, 'Neither giving
nor receiving!'"
While Jones knew that-in Soloway's
hands-even
explicit sex scenes would
further the plot and our understanding
of the characters, they were just not in
her scope. Perhaps this dream role would
elude her after all. "Will you make out?"
asked Soloway. "Oh, I'll make out all day
and all night;' agreed Jones.
In the end, the compromise might even
have strengthened the storyline, says Jones,
but elsewhere the show is as bold as ever.
"I tell you, this season ... there was a sexual
revolution in the '60s, and Jill is now including everyone who was left out of that sexual
revolution, in terms of being present and accounted for:'
JAN/FEB
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CURVE
61
periencing directly in
OUR405 YOU
her lifetime. "It blows
my mind. Never did I
STARTTO FREAKOUT
think-no
one my age
BECAUSE
YOUSEE YOUR ever thought-it would
happen in our lifetime:'
YOUTHENDING,BUT
In August last year,
Jones unexpectedly wed
BY YOUR505 YOU'VE
her film director girl~
friend, Sophie Huber.
SORTOF MADEPEACE
They had met a few
earlier through
WITHTHAT, ANDTHAT'S years
a shared house in Los
Angeles. "We joke that I
A WONDERFUL
THING
found Sophie on Craig~
MOSTWOMEN
DON
slist;' laughs Jones. Pri~
or to this relationship,
ANTICIPATE.
Jones had never wanted
It delights Jones that Soloway is adminis~
tering T ransgender 101, "so that America can
see what transgender people are up against.
And that's what she explores, along with 50
other things, in this season. Even the plac~
es you'd think a transgender person should
experience sympathy or empathy-it's not
there. Everybody views them in a harsh or
foreign light. And we're all in the same boat.
Unless you have a parent or a sibling who is
transgender or somebody who is in the com~
munity who has been transgender for a long
time and is part of the community ... unless
that's the case, I just think transgender peo~
ple have to be the ballsiest people-pardon
the pun-in the world. I can't imagine what
they're dealing with:'
And as Jones discovered, Soloway uses sex
as a lens through which to view difference as
not really different at all. 'Jill is pushing a lot
of buttons about sex. What she is saying at
the end of the day is: These are people hav~
ing consensual sex, living their lives, trying to
be good neighbors, citizens, and it's not these
people who are the problem. It's those with
intolerance who fuel violence and hatred.
That's the danger, not transgender people.
It's been very moving watching them craft
this season so that one has to question what
is dangerous. It's not sex between consenting
adults. That is not what's dangerous:'
The transgender rights movement and
marriage equality are LGBT milestones that
Jones is astonished and delighted to be ex~
62
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JAN/FEB
2016
to marry. "I didn't want
to do what heterosex~
uals did. That was part of the freedom and
joy [of being gay]: You didn't have to get
married, you couldn't get married:' But a few
things had changed for Jones. She was older,
and she'd lost both of her beloved parents in
2010, leaving her with only one real blood
relation-her sister, Susan.
'Tm at that point in my life now where I
guess, I hope, I'm more the person that I'll
be 10 years from now. And I was ready to
give my life fully to Sophie, and she was to
me. And we both thought nothing would
change, really, but of course it does-in~
stantly. The moment you make that decision
and you look at each other and you say,'Let's
do this; and you do, it drops down into this
deeper more comforting place where you're
just there for one another. You were not, the
day before you married. I've had three won~
derful and very distinct acts in my life with
loves, and they've each enriched my life, and I
hope and pray I have theirs, as well:'
For Jones, getting older has meant getting
better and truer, and this might also be a
theme of Transparent. After all, retired col~
lege professor Maura Pfefferman is in her
late 60s when she comes to terms with her
gender and her sexuality. And Jones is not
the only seasoned actor to grace the new
installment of the show; she is joined by
the wonderful Anjelica Huston, who is 64.
Soloway is determined to defy the industry
standard that makes work hard to come by
after a woman reaches a certain age. ''After
The Glass Menagerie, I had one more stage
role and then nothing;' says Jones. "I had an
offer here and there, but they weren't good
fits. What I understand, however, is that in
television, not film, older women are being
offered any number of fabulous roles. In
the past, if you were an actress over 50, you
could play the psychiatrist, or the judge, or
the granny. And now you have Christine
Baranski on The Good Wife, any number of
fabulous roles that are popping up:'
Outside of TV, Jones also thinks life gets
better. "Talk to any woman over 50, no mat~
ter what the stresses in their lives, they're able
to deal with them in a way that they never
could before. So many of the insecurities fall
away, and you even get to that point with
your body. In your 40s, you start to freak
out because you see your youth ending, but
by the time you're in your 50s you've sort of
made peace with that, and that's a wonderful
thing most women don't anticipate. I think
for most women there just comes a point in
your 50s and 60s where you feel so much
more comfortable in your loose skin:'
But when I speak with Jones, she sounds
like a giddy teenager in love. We compare
notes on how we-two
mature lesbians
firmly opposed to marriage-finally gave
way to our younger partners. "Lucky, lucky
us;' she says. Coincidentally, both our wives
are 15 years our junior. "Sophie is 15 years
younger, and she's one of those people who
have always loved older people and fallen in
love with older people:' The same is true for
my wife, and it took me some time to accept
it. "I think people are just wired differently;'
offers Jones, "and everyone has a different at~
traction:'
Jones is rapturous about Huber's physical
beauty (Google her to see), her complexity,
and her creative ability. She and Huber had
"flirted around with the idea'' of marriage,
and then once they decided, on a Friday, they
were married on a Sunday. "We thought,
Let's just do it, let'sjust get the paperwork. It
wasn't so much about a ceremony and vows.
We just sort of wanted to make it legal be~
tween us, in a way. And my sister in Tennes~
see was very upset that this was happening
so suddenly, so at the last minute, Sunday
morning, we got her a plane ticket and she
FEATURES/
was at LAX by 11 AM.
"We had agreed to meet the officiant
somewhere down in the [San Fernando]
Valley, and we were almost there and real~
ized we had forgotten the marriage license!
And so she followed us back up the hill to
the house where I had moved into and where
Sophie and I met. So we married literally on
the spot where we first shook hands, under
a lemon tree, with those we love around us,
and before we knew it we were saying vows.
And then we just had a wonderful all~night
party with about 12 of my dearest friends
who were in town, and it was gorgeous, it
really was:'
I tell Jones that I still have moments when
I refer to my wife as my partner or my girl~
friend. Old habits are hard to break. "Sophie
and I both have the same sort of knee~jerk
reaction to the word 'wife;,, says Jones. "She's
Swiss~German, and, she'll be the first to tell
you, slightly homophobic. And being an old
lesbian, the word 'wife' is bizarre to me, but
I've used it myself because it's a shortcut
to say exactly who Sophie is to me. But we
were joking, as all of us do who have trouble
with the word 'wife; about coming up with
another term. And I randomly just made up
the word 'hamet'-a made~up word-and
Sophie said, 'What did you say:>'And I said,
'You're my 'hamet: And she said, 'In my di~
alect, that means 'home: It means the place
where you are from:Isn't that extraordinaryt
It is. And it's also extraordinary that worn~
en of a certain age are finding new homes in
themselves and in others, even after less sue~
cessful habitations-whether it be Jill Solo~
way with her culture~changing TV show,
Maura Pfefferman making a late~in~lifetran~
sition, Eileen Myles finding fame as a rock~
star poet, or Cherry Jones enjoying a moment
as a "blushing bride:' At any age, women can
make discoveriesabout love,work, and life.
Jones adds that a benefit of getting older is
clarity about all that has gone before, including
the role of past loves."They were absolutely
necessary;' she says of her two previous rela~
tionships. "I would not have been the person
I am today, and I surely never would have met
Soph, if things had been different in any way:'
While in culture, older women are expe~
riencing a second corning of age, it's time for
politics to catch up. Jones may have played a
female president, but the U.S. has yet to actu~
ally see one take her place in the Oval Office.
"It's always amazed me that in the countries
THE L-LIST
that you'd think of as the most chauvinistic
in the world, they've all had women leaders,
from Indira Gandhi to Golda Meir, Benazir
Bhutto to Margaret Thatcher. But we are still
a country of puritans in a way,"she says.
Nevertheless, Jones feels a 'groundswell"
in America now. "Seeing the word 'feminist'
come back is such a thrill. This unapologetic
use of the word 'feminist-in this country, it
was the kiss of death if you were a feminist. I
do think that it came from the fact that it was
identified as a cause oflesbians and somehow
promoting lesbianism. So no heterosexual
woman wanted to be labeled a feminist. I do
think part of the reason feminism is coming
back into the culture is because of gay rights,
and because people now are loving and appre~
ciating their gay family members and neigh~
bors, and we'vejust taken a light~yearkind of
jaunt. We've taken these huge strides so quick~
ly,and I think this has affected why feminism
has taken off. You've got 'transgender' and
'feminism' right now on everyone'slips:'
And after this season of Transparent, with
its unwavering female gaze, its post~patri~
archal aesthetic, and its liberal community, I
hope Cherry Jones will finally be the name on
every lesbian'slips.•
64
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JAN/FEB
2016
FEATUREstC
B
ETTY is a love bomb that keeps finding more exciting
ways to detonate.
Band members Alyson Palmer and Elizabeth and
Amy Ziff create music that inspires. Take their new
song, "Sticky Rice:' The dance beat, the positive lyrics, and an up~
lifting sound transform the song's subject-sticky rice and man~
go-into an expression of self~love.
Their live shows do very much the same: You go for the music,
you leave feeling refreshed and connected. This is not an accident.
Individually and collectively, the three women are activists who
seek to make the world a safer and more equitable place.
Most lesbians know BETTY from the L Word theme song,
which they composed and performed. That tune, and their in~
volvement in the show, gave the band-as Alyson Palmer says"a lot of great visibility:' No doubt, that experience launched
BETTY's popularity with the lesbian crowd. "Before that, we
had a very large gay male audience, from the work we did in the
AIDS crisis, and then all of a sudden the lezzies got it;' says Eliz~
abeth Ziff. As Amy Ziff remembers, ''Afterward, when we played
in Europe ... people were singing our songs:' Even today, when the
band plays the L Word theme, "everyone loves it and sings along;'
says Elizabeth.
BETTY is more than "girls in tight dresses" who rock great
tunes. The band has a long personal history- 30 years and
counting-and
a commitment to social justice that makes them
a part of lesbian history-past, present, and future. While we all
sat and had lunch recently, I got to learn how they do it.
The LGBT community-and
the world-has
seen a lot of
history since BETTY first got together. Think about it. BETTY
has been dosing out a hopeful message through the fight against
apartheid; the AIDS epidemic; the fall of the Berlin Wall; Ellen
DeGeneres' coming out on national TV; Don't Ask, Don't Tell
(and its repeal); 9/11, and the marriage equality movement.
Sadly, women's rights haven't come as far as the women of BET~
TY had hoped. "Misogyny is the great equalizer;' says Amy. "No
matter what culture you come from, no matter what country
you live in, when you are a misogynist, you are empowered, you
are vocal, you are supported. And that has never changed:'
Nevertheless, BETTY has always pushed for social changeeven before the band was BETTY. They played at Gay Pride in
Washington, D.C., in 1984 (as On Beyond Zebra). They played
in Russia right after the country criminalized homosexuality,
and they played at Baltic Gay Pride amid anti~gay protestors.
And they were there at the March for Women's Lives on the
National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 2004.
Social inequity galvanizes the band and drives them to ex~
pand their work beyond the stage. Through the BETTY Effect,
the group's advocacy arm, the band works with local NGOs
around the world and occasionally with the State Department
to teach people to use their voices and to self~advocate through
"playshops" (BETTY~speak for workshops) and performance.
For each of the band members, this is part of their mission. "We
are reaching people who are trying to effect change;' says Alyson.
"It's so rewarding to be performing on another level. I can see
doing this until the end of my life:'
This zeal for activist work has helped them stay together for 30
years, which is an accomplishment for any relationship, especially
one that involves making music. "Without any shared passions,
I don't know how any relationship exists longer than 23 days;'
says Alyson.
They won't lie-staying
together hasn't always been easy.
There have been moments of tension when they thought they
would break up. "I think of it as a Venn diagram between the
three of us;' explains Alyson. "It's three congruent circles that
when they overlap together it's brilliant and amazing and phe~
nomenaL Every once in a while, one circle will peel out. The worst
times are when all three circles peel out, but most times we are
at least touching. And when things are going really well, we are
overlapping:'
Other factors that have helped them they stay together include
"perseverance and like~mindedness;' says Elizabeth. Then there's
the music itself. "When we create together, it works things out;'
she reflects. A sense of humor cannot be underestimated. "Gold~
en handcuffs;' says Amy, bond the three. This provokes laughter,
and they then turn their attention to discussing the best way to
combine the selection of breads and spreads on the table. Eliza~
beth looks up. "That's one other thing that BETTY does really
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FEATURES
well together-eat!"
Alyson adds playfully, "When there is no
other communication, there's always the communication of cal~
ories:'
The members of BETTY share a fellowship with women in
other bands that have been around for a long time, like the B~52s
and the Indigo Girls. "There's a shared vocabulary about what
triggers fights and what issues there are;' Amy says. But there
is also something organic about BETTY's longevity. During the
time I spent with them, I was amazed at how their dynamic was
much the same onstage and off: They overlap, they joke, they
challenge one another. When we spoke about their projects and
talents outside the band, each of them was the others' best advo~
cate. The trick seems to be the three~part harmony that naturally
exists between them.
Others have noticed it too. When the band reached the 18~
year mark, director Michael Greif (Rent, Next to Normal) saw
them perform and encouraged them to create a show about what
it's like to be in essentially a polygamous relationship. What re~
suited was BETTY Rules, an off Broadway and touring show.
Elizabeth, Amy, and Alyson have been there for each other in
sickness and in health, through marriage and personal tragedy.
BETTY performed at Alyson's mother's and father's funerals.
Amy and Elizabeth are "goddess mothers" to the two children Al~
yson is raising with Tony Salvatore, their lead guitarist and Aly~
JC
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•
\
•
..
....
. ""'·
•
.
-..
son's partner of 30 years. ''I've never wanted
children, but it's fun to be a peripheral parent;' says Elizabeth. But by far their biggest
challenge has been Elizabeth's fight with
breast cancer, which was first diagnosed
in 2007. Her three-year battle, including
chemotherapy and a mastectomy, was "long
and brutal;' she says.'Tm fine now, clear and
healthy. But I couldn't have done it without
insurance, my cousin Pond Kelemen at the
Ashikari Breast Center, and the huge family
of women who stood by me. And Amy and
Alyson were the rocks underneath me:'
Amy recently married Kristi Ambrosetti,
and the band put its stamp on the celebration, which was officiated by feminist friend
Gloria Steinem (pictured at right).
"Alyson made a whole show for us, and
Elizabeth did the music. It was something
that people will talk about for the rest of
their lives;' says Amy. The wedding was
another turning point for them. Alyson
remembers, "My favorite BETTY picture
ever is Elizabeth and me walking Amy down the aisle. Instinctively,
we held hands and were like, 'Here's the next adventure:"
Anyone who follows the band knows that Steinem, 81, is a fan.
So much so that she even appears at their gigs, either in the audience
or onstage as a special guest. For those curious about how Steinem,
arguably the world's greatest living feminist, came into BETTY's orbit, the connection came through BETTY's lawyer for the past 28
years, Nancy Rose, who is friends with Susan Levine, a founder of
Ms. magazine. "We had a gig at the Bottom Line [a club in New
York that no longer exists]. Susan brought Gloria to the show-this
was like 27 years ago;' shares Elizabeth.''She came running backstage
after the show, and we met and all fell in love. Many protests and prochoice and women's events later, we are still wonderful deep feminist
friends. We all love to laugh and have so much respect for each other.
We love Gloria and know we would not be who we are if she hadn't
existed. The one thing the three of us agree on is how truly amazing,
smart, and important Gloria Steinem is:'
Last December, Steinem took to the stage at City Winery in New
York City during BETTY's holiday show, and shared her Top Ten
Things I Want for Christmas, partly as an endorsement of the BETTY Effect. Number two on Steinem'slist was:"I want the three magicalwomen of
BETTY to have everything they need to spread the BETTY Effect around
the world. They are such a gift. They organize with music and by their
own irresistible examples:'
No matter what BETTY does next, rest assured it will be inspiring, empowering,and damned entertaining. BETTY Rules
was the name of their first stage show.If they do a second,
a fitting tide would be BETTY Reigns.(hellobetty.com)
STOCKHOLM OFTHE STARS
Ingrid Bergman, Lisbeth Salander, and other fabulous femmes.
.illlllllllllll
BY MERRYN JOHNS
tockholm-synonymous
with excellence and
tolerance, the home of the Nobel Prize and of
Scandinavia's largest Pride festival, the birthplace
of lesbian icon Greta Garbo, and a rare example of
how to have socialism without giving up your beloved royal
family. Most recently, Sweden doubled its already generous
number of Syrian refugees and asylum seekers as other
European nations closed their doors. You can experience all
these admirable aspects of the Swedish sensibility on your
visit to Stockholm. Consisting of 14 islands, all of which
can be accessed on foot, the city enables you to roam at your
own rhythm and discover little treasures around each corner,
over each bridge, on a cobblestone street, in old squares and
verdant parks, or at the harbor's edge, and fueled by a fika or
two-good
strong coffee with rich pastries.
WHERETO STAY
Sodermalm, or the South island, is the area of Stockholm favored
by gays and hipsters. The Hotel Rival is modern, quirky, and intimate,
a charming boutique property located on a picturesque street opposite
a pretty park. Unwind in your room, which may be decorated with a
mural of a star of the Swedish screen or pop music. Enjoy a soak in the
tub or walk~inshower; indulge in the free (and excellent)coffeeand com~
plimentary Blu~Ray DVD collection, and sleep off your jetlag on fine
Egyptian cotton linens. Hang out at the three bars, the bistro, or the cafe,
and enjoy the fact that the property, owned by Benny from ABBA, was
designed to please even the most jaded traveler.(rival.se)
For lodgings befitting a queen (and located near the Royal Palace),
the Hotel Diplomat is a traditional and time~honored place to stay,
with views over the harbor. Located on the Strandvagen, a grand bou~
levard deigned by King Oscar II, the Diplomat, like its sister property
the Grand Hotel, makes the most of its prime position in the wealthiest
island neighborhood, Ostermalm. It gaily shows off its Art Nouveau
fa;:ade,Juliette balconies with orange awnings, and outdoor cafe. This
one's a splurge but definitely something special. It's also an easy walk
to the beautiful Royal Dramatic Theater, the very place where Garbo
trained to be a thespian. (diplomathoteLcom)
If you're the kind of traveler who likes to know exactlywhat you're get~
ting when you check in, the Hilton Slussen is for you. Located in the city
center and a manageable walk to sightseeing (not to mention some good
gay nightclubs and wine bars), the property offers smartly decorated ex~
ecutive~stylerooms with city views, an executive lounge, a lavish buffet
breakfast, complimentary WiFi, and a fitness center. It has an upscale
business~yvibe, reassuring when you're far from home.
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WHERETO EAT
Everywhere! Taverna Brillo, in the shopping district, offers
lovelyfresh fish such as perch and cod, served with contemporary
flair, and a terrific Eurocentric wine list to match. It's a fun place
to eat-hip vibe, friendly and attractive servers, open kitchen,
and everyone'sfluent in English, as are most of the city's Swedes
(tavernabrillo.se).There are many lovelyrestaurants in Stockholm
that serve stunning food at prices comparable to New York's,but
if you want to eat for a little less in a casual environment-and eat
gay-choose Urban Deli. There are three Urban Delis in Stock~
holm, and the one in Nytorget is almost completely staffed by
lesbians, because Anna Ungh, the restaurant manager, personally
hires dykes. The restaurant recently won a local award for best gay
restaurant. "We take a stand for all minorities;' Ungh tells me. In
fact, "We like differences''is the English translation of the restau~
rant's tagline. It was at the Urban Deli in Sickla that we attended
lesbian nightclub collectiveMoxy's summer crawfish party with a
group of friendly queer girls. More on Moxy later! (urbandeli.org)
WHATTODO
I am a self~confessedABBA nut and there was no better way to
revisit my childhood music crush than go to ABBA the Museum.
This is fun for everyone, including non~fans. The interactive experience allows you to
sing, dance, and be photographed with Agnetha, Benny, Bjorn, and Frida. Peruse a
ton of memorabilia, from kitschy costumes to countless gold records. Record a track,
perform onstage, and even sit in the helicopter from the cover of ABBA's Arrival!
(abbathemuseum.com).
To really get under the skin of the city,take a walking tour with the very erudite
Elisabeth Daude. Her Millennium Tour is based around the landmarks and geogra~
phy of Stieg Larsson's novels, including the haunts of fearless, feisty,fictional Lisbeth
Salander."Larsson was a feminist;' Daude tells me."He was an egalitarian, and could
not stand violence against women:' He particularly had an interest in lesbians as a
revolutionary group, says Daude, and researched Salander's character with empathy
and enthusiasm. But my guides considerable knowledge isn't limited to the Girl with
the Dragon Tattoo. She shared interesting facts about Viking women (who were left
in charge of large homesteads while their husbands were away on adventures, often
for years) and their feminist, possibly lesbian tendencies.
When I told Daude I was a Garbo fan, she amended our walk through Soder~
malm to visit Garbo's home at Blekingegaten 32. This used to be a nondescript
neighborhood, and is somewhat more gentrified now than when Garbo grew up
there, in borderline poverty. If you're a fan of this screen legend (long rumored by
biographers to be bisexual, others claiming her to be gay), stroll around her neigh~
borhood to the little square named after her, Greta Garbo's Torg, and drop in for a
fika at the women~run Garbo Cafe. Up one particularly steep Sodermalm street is
the Mosebacke Theater, where young Greta would wait by the stage door to catch a
glimpse of her favorite performers.
If you're a fan of cinema's golden age, it's worth taking the short subway ride to
Solna, where the Filmstaden (literally "film city") still stands. Yes, Stockholm was
once as important as Hollywood in producing movies. Walk under the entrance
portal into this tiny village and tread the hallowed ground where some of cinema's
brightest stars rehearsed and filmed. Garbo made her first feature film here, as Greta
Gustafsson, and would eventually attract the attention of Hollywood and the rest of
the movie~going world. Ingmar Bergman honed his skills in writing and directing
and went on to work with some of the most highly regarded actresses in Sweden:
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Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson, and Ingrid Thulin. The Filmstaden also
celebrates three-time Oscar winner Ingrid Bergman, a Stockholm native.You may need another fika, so indulge yourself at the quaint cafe in
what was the doorkeeper's lodge, where the walls are lined with memorabilia, your coffee is served in antique china, and you can marvel over
the faces of yesteryear. (filmstadenskultur.se)
While Sodermalm has many wonderful and quirky gift stores, to
really go shopping head to NK, or Nordiska Kompaniet department
store. Like a Bloomingdales or a Harrods, this is a shopping experience, but one with a feminist history. It was the first place in Sweden
where women could walk around without male chaperones, even
before women gained the right to vote in 1921, so it has always been
viewed as a safe zone and a free space for women. Today, the womenswear department at NK bountifully showcases female designers such
as Carin Rodebjer, Anne Bing, Filippa K, Dagmar, Ida Sjostedt, and
lingerie by Katarina Nyman. It also favors edgy androgyny, done very
well by the labels Hunkydory, Acne, and HOPE. Swedish fashion can
be classic, formal, and sexy,but the streetwear tends to favor comfort
and quality: Think flat shoes, long shirts, oversize sweaters, and lots of
textures. Top off your purchase with a Swedish fragrance from ecoluxe
beauty brand Bjork & Berries, inspired by winter forests. (nk.se)
EVAOAHLGP.E
A'U\A
'Endjuptrorandefilr,:i o~,
eninsp1rerande
manniska
,,
"Mycketgr1pande
,_
••
WHERE TO PARTY
Anna Ungh and Anna Hogkil run Moxy, a lesbian nightclub collective that Hogkil started in 2006 to address the lack of a lesbian presence in Stockholm's nightlife. Originally, lesbian nights were held at
Momma Restaurant, but they quickly outgrew the space."There were
lesbians queuing up to go to the first lesbian dub night we ran;' says
Hogkil, who is happily married and lives on a small island in the Stockholm Archipelago, but nevertheless wants a visible lesbian community
in the city.
To achieve this, she put some pressure on the gay Swedish press,
QX, to "givewomen more exposure. I decided to claim a space in the
city for lesbians, to create more girls' nights, more sports days. I was
inspired by Olivia cruises and resorts to do more than just dubbing
and DJs. Moxy Sports is fun, it's a good way to meet each other, and we
offer rookie tennis matches, semi-pro gol£' Hogkil believes that lesbians need a special space."Not everyone welcomes us, and we do need
to communicate to lesbians who are coming out where they can go.
When I go out, I prefer to meet my friends, and my friends are gay:'
Moxy attracts lesbians anywhere between 20 and 50 years old, and
indusivity is a policy: "Friends of Moxy are welcome;' including trans
and genderqueer. In fact, if you are unsure of someone's gender, there
is a Swedish non-gender-specific pronoun for that: "hen;' which means
neither a him nor a her. As well as Moxy nights there is a permanent
lesbian-owned bar called Bitter Pills, which attracts a mixed crowd.
(klubbmoxy.se, bitterpills.se)
HOW TO GET THERE
Norwegian, the second-largest airline in Scandinavia, is not only
very gay-friendly, it's a low-cost carrier offering incredible value for the
money on nonstop flights from the U.S. to Scandinavia. It may be a
budget airline, but I found it to be on a par with more costly carriers
(norwegian.com). Once you've landed at Arlanda Airport, the best way
into the city is via the Arlanda Express, a high-speed, comfortable, and
affordable rail service. (arlandaexpress.com) •
FEATURES/
TRA
TWO WOMEN ON A RUST
BELT ROAD TRIP
Motoring around Lake Erie for a fresh take on a trio of all-American cities.
BY KELSY CHAUVIN
We launched from Brooklyn, N.Y., bound for Buffalo, and
quickly realized we'd forgotten to build in time for an important
stop in our own incredible state. We remedied that with day~one
detour to Seneca Falls, the home of the Women's Rights Nation~
al Historic Park. In 1848, this little town in the Finger Lakes
region hosted one of the country's monumental events: the first
Women's Rights Convention. Absorbing some of the history of
this landmark turned out to be the perfect start for two ladies
treading a path around Lake Erie.
FIND YOUR WINGS IN BUFFALO
There's something very cool about Buffalo. It's got the charm of
a city built on history and some trailblazing architecture ( thank
you, Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan)-plus,
it's got die~
hard locals who wouldn't trade their hometown for anywhere
else. It's a great city to cruise around, just seeing where the road
will lead you, but Canalside, on the Buffalo River, is the place
to pause for quality people~watching, thanks to its Saturday
market, live music and events, Naval Park, and shopping, plus
a nice encapsulation of the city's historic waterfront.
Buffalo's gay scene is centered in Allentown and Elm~
wood Village ( the "Fruit Loop"), home to the Pride Center
of Western New York and several friendly gay spots, like the
martini bar Fugazi, and Cathode Ray, a funky neighborhood
hangout. (Find loads more LGBT hot tips in Buffalo's Loop
Magazine.)
Among the many cool eateries in this area, Merge stands
out for its fresh local ingredients, happy hour and brunch
specials, and live (but mellow) music. Betty's is another local
go~to for tasty comfort food. This being Buffalo, there's no
shortage of wings to sample. But rather than hitting the tour~
isty Anchor Bar, we headed to Cole's on Elmwood Avenue
for zingy wings and delicious Beef on Weck, Buffalo's favorite
roast beef sandwich on a salty kummelweck bun. (visitbuffa~
loniagra.com)
JUMPSTART YOUR MOTOR IN DETROIT
After a whirlwind jaunt to Niagara Falls and back down
Lake Erie's western shore (hello, Canada!), we finally got to
Detroit, a city whose extreme wealth and poverty turned it
into a bit of a mystery destination for us. From our hotel-a
group of converted mansions called the Inn on Ferry Streetwe could tell right away that whatever brilliant architecture
remained from Detroit's early~20th~century heyday would
alone be worth the trip.
Woodward Avenue, near the inn, is currently under con~
struction to restore the streetcar line along its corridor, but
is likely to open in 2017. Woodward is one of the city's main
thoroughfares and part of the Cass Corridor, a big commer~
cial strip in central Detroit.
Around Cass, don't miss two amazing museums: the De~
troit Institute of Arts, one of the country's most impressive
art institutions, and the Detroit Historical Museum, where
we could finally process much of the city's storied history (in~
eluding its automotive heritage and its fascinating economic
rise and fall). Of course, the Motown Museum, about a mile
over on Grand Boulevard, is another one not to miss. Just
remember to reserve your tickets in advance.
Forearmed by some research, Denise and I grabbed our
first meal in Detroit at the truly delicious, affordable, worn~
en~owned super diner that is Rose's Fine Foods, on East
Jefferson Avenue. Practically everything here is homemade,
and the staff are recruited from local neighborhoods for on~
the~job training. Downtown, we found Wright & Company,
with its tantalizing, splurge~worthy small plates. But it was
not to be outdone by the authentic Spanish tapas at La Feria
on Cass, owned by a gay former schoolteacher and his sister,
both Detroit natives.
Pridesource is Detroit's go~to LGBT paper, and it pointed
us to the gay scene in Ferndale. The lesbians, it turns out,
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TRA
invade local pub Rosie O'Grady's on Wednesdays, but a
couple of cute queer spots like the stylish Soho bar and Affirmations, Metro Detroit's LGBT community center, help
make Nine Mile Road the backbone of the gayborhood.
(visitdetroit.com)
CLEVELAND, AN AMERICAN CLASSIC
Rounding the southern tip of Lake Erie via Toledo went
fast, and soon we arrived in Cleveland. Inspired by the Motown hits we'd become addicted to on this road trip, our
first stop was the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a surprisingly manageable and maybe a bit underwhelming museum in
the North Coast Harbor District.
It dawned on us that we were due for a driving break, so
we parked the Rogue and hopped on Lolly the Trolley for a
sightseeing tour, where we got the story of all things Cleveland in a nutshell, past through thriving present.
Back to our own devices, we considered a couple of
stops mandatory. One was a drive-by of the house used in
the movie A Christmas Story-it was totally touristy and
completely worth it. Nearby, also in Tremont, we followed
a great local tip to have lunch at Lucky's Cafe, an Ohioproud, woman-owned bakery and restaurant. We even
came back to Tremont for dinner at Sokolowski's University Inn, a trapped-in-time cafeteria serving classic Polish
fare like cabbage rolls, paprikash, and absolutely divine
pierogis.
The other C-town must was a drink at Happy Dog, a
local hangout in the gay-ish area known as Detroit-Shoreway, also home to the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland. Happy Dog is a two-story, queer-friendly
joint with live music nightly, plus hot dogs that come with a
choice of 50 different toppings-from
traditional to wacky.
(Care for more Froot Loops on your frank?)
Cleveland still has corners with gritty appeal, though
neighborhoods like the Flats and the Warehouse District
are fast becoming gentrified, inviting an influx of entertainment and dining options. Meanwhile, in downtown, not far
from Playhouse Square, there's even a bustling restaurant
row on East Fourth Street, where you can feast on a rather amazing selection of both familiar and daring dishes at
hotspots like the Greenhouse Tavern.
As we roamed the area, Denise and I wound up inside
the 1890 Cleveland Arcade, a stunning, pink marble-dad
landmark that we somehow felt we had discovered all for
ourselves. Its five-story-tall central atrium is lined with ornate balconies and balustrades, and is topped by a glassand-steel skylight.
Suddenly, this gorgeous remnant of high times pastnow preserved for the future, too-became
the clearest
snapshot of the whole trip. We realized that America's Rust
Belt may have rough edges, but its character is as strong as
steel. ( thisiscleveland.com) •
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DEEP IN THE HEART
OF DALLAS
Grab your Stetson and "scoot a boot" to one of the gayest cities in Texas!
BY LISA TEDESCO
f you ever get a chance to tour every state in this nation
of ours and find yourself"deep in the heart of Texas;'
be sure to stop in Dallas for a day-or three. Most of us
who never venture to the South (guilty) would think,
What the hell is so gay in Dallas? Well, Curve readers, I'm
here to tell you: a lot!
Dallas is quickly becoming one of the gayest cities in that big
ol' red state. It's a blue~friendly city inside a mostly conservative
little nation. But Texas as a whole, and especially in or near the
cities, is seeing a spike in liberal and forward~thinking attitudes.
Now, ever since I was a teenager I've had a weird obsession
with cowgirls, a fascination with the horseback riding and the
six~shooter shooting. So when I was invited to get a taste of
Dallas~style Southern charm, I just couldn't resist.
If you're looking for a hotel in Dallas that won't break the
bank, a hotel that offers you exquisite amenities such as a roor
top pool, a world~class spa, a decadent restaurant and cocktail
lounge, then the W Dallas-Victory Hotel (wdallasvictory.com)
is for you. There's no better place to rest your head. In keeping
with that well~known Texas hospitality, their motto is "What~
ever /Whenever;' which I could certainly get used to. From the
moment you step through the doors, graciously held open for
you by a strapping young curbside attendant, then check in
with the smiling front desk personnel, you are treated like the
only person on the planet. Not to mention that the decor in the
place is incredibly chic and modern. The hotel is also incredibly
LGBT~friendly and nestled downtown in the heart of some of
Dallas's top tourist destinations! (The Sixth Floor Museum, for
one, is an excellent site, if you're a history nut like me (jfk.org).
While you're in town, you need to have breakfast ( or brunch)
at Lucky's, where they serve up~to~date diner fare along with
some old~school cafe charm. Have the mimosa! It's amazing!
The menu features the freshest ingredients from locally owned
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2016
farms, because they leave the best taste on your tongue! As
you take a seat inside, have a look at the walls all around
you. Since Lucky's opened in 1996, it has been known for
its charity work. It has been selling its wall space, so people
could sign their names, decorate the place, and help raise
money for the AIDS Resource Center. Oh, and the Garden
Hash is to die for!
To experience a true Texas smokehouse, try Lockhart in
the Bishops Arts District (lockhartsmokehouse.com).
No
one else in Dallas can compare with the kings who run the
pit over at Lockhart. Bring a big appetite and prepare to get
good and dirty, because Lockhart serves gigantic portions of
tender meats. No forks or sauces needed! It has everything
you could imagine, from brisket to chicken to shoulder to
sausage, from ribs to chops and turkey. Lockhart also has a
plethora of home~style sides, like the Blue Cole Slaw-made
with blue cheese and jalapeno-that'll
make your mouth
water, literally. Don't leave without a great souvenir T~shirt
from the lads behind the bar!
When it's time to prepare for an evening out, start at
Komali, where Leann Berry will serve you a great margar~
ita (komalirestaurant.com).
This lady knows her tequila!
To accompany your cocktail, try the guacamole, served with
house~made chips and salsa. As Leann would say, "scoot a
boot" to Komali!
The best place in town for dinner, no question, would
have to be Stampede 66 (stampede66.com). This Dallas gem
is owned and operated by chef Stephan Pyles, who creates
an eclectic and extravagant menu with hometown flare. The
atmosphere is very modern, and the decor undeniably Tex~
an, which allows you to relax and feel right at home. Wood~
en street signs line the back wall, and a giant tree holds
steadfast in the middle of the dining room. Don't forget to
take a gander at the giant pig made out of pork rinds! The
Freeto~Chili Pie is a must. You can't go wrong when chili
is served in a vintage Frito's bag with the deliciousness of
those deep~fried chips on top! If you're feeling a little ad~
venturous, like I was, take a walk on the wild side and order
the Chicken~ Fried Buffalo Steak with mashed potatoes and
pea salad. It's a take on the classic chicken~fried steak, but
features yummy buffalo.
Dallas has a giant strip of LGBT nightlife that will accom~
modate whatever tickles your fancy. Sue Ellen's, the bi~level
lesbian nightclub, is a staple in this town. Opening in 1989,
it moved to a new location on Throckmorton Street in 2008.
"There's always a nice crowd, and it's part of the community,"
says lesbian local Avril Stacy. "They're classy ladies. They're
all nice ladies here. It's Texas, after all:'
Sue Ellen's is the premiere lesbian hot spot of the South,
attracting ladies from all over for the drink specials-and
the dancing. The bar has a dance floor for a little two~step~
pin' and bands play on a nightly basis. Sue Ellen's also has
a wrap~around patio on both floors so guests can enjoy the
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
77
lovely Texas weather in the evening (sueellensdallas.com).
While you're in Dallas, or anywhere in Texas for that mat~
ter, you will need to learn the two~step. Everyone, and I mean
EVERYONE, knows how to do the basic two~step, and on
the dance floor in your gay clubs they don't bump n' grind.
There seems to be a stylistic, choreographed dance for every
song and song genre. What better place to throw on some
boots and hit the floor than the Round~Up Saloon. Here you
can learn how to dance on Thursday nights (when I gallant~
ly attempted), or for you more experienced folk, Friday and
Saturday nights bring in a packed house of Stetson~wearing
heartthrobs ready to give you a spin underneath the giant lit~
up Texas sign. The Round~ Up also has a karaoke room, a bil~
liard room, four or five bars (I seriously lost count after the
fifth) with an abundance of local beers and well drinks, free
peanuts, and a genuinely warm smile everywhere you turn
( roundupsaloon.com).
A good night being'out' should be accompanied by the best
cocktail, made with outstanding vodka. While at a soiree at
Dallas premier LGBT luxury living condominiums known
as Ilume on Cedar Springs Road, the co~founder of Equality
Vodka (equalityvodka.com), Bert Gallagher Jr., came by to
mix us specialty drinks with this amazingly smooth vodka
that comes with a very special message. For every bottle pur~
chased the company gives a donation to a recognized non~
profit leading the way towards better equality."For if we don't
have equality, truly we have nothing:' And if we don't have
a good cocktail with excellent vodka that doesn't break the
bank, truly we have nothing.
So whether you're in Dallas for a few days or you're just
passing through, I implore you to take a look around at all
the wonderful sights and say hi to the nice people around
every bend. When you're in Dallas, you have to take it all in.
They say "Everything's Bigger in Texas;' and I can honestly
tell you it was true of the hearts of everyone there. The gener~
osity and friendliness of the people I came across will forever
leave a Texas brand in my mind. Whether you're LGBT or
straight, you are a visitor to their city and they want to make
you feel welcome and happy.
If you're considering a trip, you'd do well to consult the
Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau. The helpful and
knowledgeable staff and website will guide you to whatever it
is that you seek in a true Texas adventure. (visitdallas.com) •
LASTLOOK/
CROSSW
Test your
lesbian knowledge
with our queer crossword.
BY MYLES MELLOR
ACROSS
1.
6.
9.
Ancient Code which first
mentioned marriages between women
Network airing For Justice in
which Phylicia Rashad plays a
lesbian FBI agent
Lesbian pop folk duo, Indigo
10. Offbeat phrase, such as
'lipstick lesbian'
DOWN
26. Don't ask, don't _, no longer
applicable military slogan
28. Modern bodily evidence
31. Ancient poet who was born
on Lesbos in Greece
1.
Holds close
24. Give a confidence boost to
2.
National_
on Washington
for Lesbian and Gay Rights
27. Imp
3.
Package deliverer
30. "
4.
"Lavender Jane Love Women"
singer, _ Dobkin
32. Throws
5.
Caesar's 3
6.
Web follower
7.
The 1969 riots that began the
LGBT rights movement
Stuck on
33. Goal
34. She wrote, The Politics of
Reality: Essays in Feminist
Theory, Marilyn_
11. Orange juices, for short
12. Girls in this country get very
heavy pressure to marry a
man after 25
39. Forwards
8.
40. She cofounded Justice for
Women, Julie __
12. Curved letter
17. Aspen or Tahoe
18. Make a joke
20. American feminist author and
philosopher, early member of
the National Organization for
Women,_
Atkinson
41. Zodiac sign
42. Beginner instruction in a
subject
43. Lesbian music pioneer who
released the album, The
Changer and the Changed_
Williamson
22. Stocking fabric
44. An early member of The
Furies, Charlotte __
23. Colors
45. Superior to young
25. Where forbidden fruit was
eaten
13. Canadian province initials
with a kiss"
35. Part of NPR
37. Tell_
36. Russian mountains
15. Author of Love Your Enemy?
Sheila
29. Before noon
story, 2 words
38. Lesbian who wrote "A
Change of World" Adrienne
40. UK TV network where Lip
Service was shown
42. Indefinite article
14. Caribbean-American writer
who described herself as
"black, lesbian, mother,
warrior, poet," 2 words
16. Struggle
18. Author of Lesbian Nation, Jill
19. Where you can watch shows
20. Billy Jean King's sport
21. 'The coast
clear'
22. Olympic gold for example
JAN/FEB
2016
CURVE
79
LAST LOOK/STARS
WintPr Wisrl m
Mars in Scorpio increases our passion while Venus
in Sagittarius knows no bounds. By Charlene Lichtenstein
(March 21-April 20)
You are especially sexy and
(Dec 23-Jan 20)
Lesbian Caps are the most
successful in the zodiac
when it comes to winning
corporate tussles. They are
best suited for suit jobs:
senior administration in major
corporations, finance, and
banking. But the ultimate job
for a Sapphic Cap is politics.
She is adept at forging
alliances with just about
anyone, no matter how vile
and loathsome.
alluring now and can attract any
who are ready, willing and able
times for all Sags who yearn to
to be domesticated, Lioness. But
stretch the limits of their personal
sights on. It's arguably the main
before you send out the invites,
power. It could mean a sudden
thought in your mind all winter.
survey your surroundings and
revelation that gives you all the
Not only do you roar to score,
see if they're up to your exacting
answers you need. It could mean
you seek to scratch your sexy
standards. If not, spruce it up
with an early spring cleaning in
a secret admirer who makes
itch in faraway lands. So plan a
fun vacation ...or be satisfied with
all nooks and crannies.
(April 21-May 21)
trouble this winter, Virgo. Lucky
you! Say what is on your mind
and see how you can change
your world, so be prepared
Taurus, and plan sensual antics
the social dynamic. You could
to be swept into the center of
that will help cement the bonds
become a mover and shaker in
a community effort or political
the female frenzy. Get yourself
between the two of you. Bulls
who are roaming the fields for
movement. Do good deeds and
organizations. Your ability to
impress is impressive. But
(Dec 23-Jan 20)
Gal pals shake, rattle and roll
into new associations and
a different graze can expand
before you know it, you will be
their usual range and find fresh
the one to know. And I might
if you yearn for quiet time,
fodder. The fresher the better.
mean that in the biblical sense.
fuggetaboutit, Capricorn. Unless
(Sept 24-Oct 23)
more action. Ahem.
If you're on the prowl for a
Libras can corral their finances
lovergrrl, this may be the season
this winter. Your business
for a successful conquest. And
acumen is sharp and, with
Your corporate ascent will be
you may find her right in your
planning, you can start your
swift and sure, depending on
place of work. Will she perk
year in the pink. But life is not
who you schmooze, Aqueerius.
up your thoughts at the coffee
all calculated dollars and cents.
As much as you hate corporate
maker? Will she rub by you on
Divert your eye to a different
politics, you're good at it
the way to the conference room?
bottom line and survey other
when you try. And now you
Keep your eyes open and your
assets. Your dough can create a
rise in a certain special lady. How
try because you see tangible
about a luxurious champagne
the winter to fine tool your ploy
(June 22-July 23)
Fun and work will not easily mix
this winter, Cancer. It requires
bath for two?
(Oct24-Nov22)
balance and finesse. Everyone
You are a spitfire this winter,
wants a piece of you and you
Scorpio, and that means that
(Jan 21-Feb 19)
opportunities within reach. Use
and, once you get to the top,
turn the screws on all those tools.
(Feb 20-March 20)
Is this the winter of your
have only so much time and
not only can you meet and greet
discontent, Guppie? If so, travel
energy. Charm your colleagues
the powerful few, you can also
far and seek adventure. It will
to see how much they can help
increase your personal influence
reduce your workload. Then you
and shake the scene all by
your boring, lonely routine. Open
will have time to decide how
yourself. Grease the wheels with
yourself to possibilities, and
much party you can handle.
your considerable charm and
expect heady romance along the
charisma to get who you want,
way. You never know who you
where and when you want. Will
will meet or sweep off her feet.
it be lonely at the top? Well, it's
Or perhaps you'll be swept. Let's
Charlene
Lichtenstein
istheauthor
of HerScopes:
AGuide
toAstrology
(July 24-Aug 23)
ForLesbians
(Simon
& Schuster)
Your home life livens up this
nowavailable
asanebook
winter and you play the happy
(tinyurl.com/HerScopes).
2016
in the Star Chamber, sister.
Your mouth can get you into
dash of romance to a humdrum
relationship. Get off your pillow,
lips apart, Gemini. Or something.
%
JAN/FEB
time off your feet with your head
by quiet you mean less talk and
Expect your Aqueerian to
be surrounded by unusual
and unorthodox girlfriends
from all walks of life who they
attract through their various
groups and causes. Blending
in is not in her game plan. In
fact, she may go out of her
way to dress to distress. Who
is that momma with enough
body piercings to set off
airport security? Chances are
she is an Aqueerian.
CURVE
(Aug 24-Sept 23)
herself known and knocks you off
your feet. Be prepared for a lot of
This is a great time to add a
(May 22-June 21)
(Jan 21-Feb 19)
80
(Nov 23-Dec 22)
This winter delivers interesting
woman you set your lascivious
just your roaming hands.
Susan Sontag, feminist critic and writer,
would have turned 83 on January 16.
homemaker. Plan some intimate
soirees with a bevy of beauties
never lonely on top.
refresh you and get you out of
see where you wash ashore.
2016 GLC300 and GLC300 4MATIC®shown with optional equipment. ©2015 Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC For more information, call 1-800-FOR-MERCEDES, or visit MBUSA.com.
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