Lez Keep It Real

My official last post for Lez Keep it Real. It’s a doozie!

A few weeks ago, when the NCAA tournament was wrapping up its 2008 run, ESPN aired a six-minute segment called “the whispers” about negative recruiting tactics in women’s college basketball on their investigative reporting show, Outside the Lines. Two days later, the segment was nowhere to be found.

The six-minute bit was filler, if not a less important part, of a longer, more in-depth look at the rivalry between legendary coaches Pat Summit and Geno Auriemma. Aired on Sunday with the segment intact, the powers that be at EPSN decidedly removed “the whispers” as if it never even existed. The video clip could no longer be found on the website and subsequent airings of the Geno and Pat feud ran without it included.
“The whispers” simply became just that — whispers.

What I don’t understand about this is the fact that ESPN took a brave step in initiating a conversation about a practice that is prevalent in women’s basketball only to sweep it under the rug a day or two later. Why even bother? Why open Pandora’s box if you are just going to close it.

Well, the answer is as good as any I suppose. It seems that any conversation in sports that centers on homosexuality is taboo. A big no, no. An elephant in the room. Whatever cliché you prefer, it doesn’t matter.

For those of you who didn’t see the segment or weren’t able to look it up online, I’ll gladly fill you in. “The whispers” made the blatant link between homophobia and the decline in the number of women coaches. Ever since the Pokey Chapman incident in March 2007, parents and athletes alike are more wary of attending any basketball program headed by a woman who is not married or has not yet developed a solid, wholesome reputation. If there are “whispers” surrounding her sexuality, well, that’s enough of a reason to play for some other school. Some colleges and universities use this to their advantage. They steer top recruits away from other programs by claiming their team and staff is free and clear of homosexuality. The “climate” is wholesome, the coach is a family-oriented and no, you will not be exposed to any lesbian predators at our school.

Like it or not, this is what happens day in and day out in the world of women’s college basketball recruiting. Gone are the days of saying, “Our program is better because of academics and discipline.” Now it comes down to this — “Our program is better because we don’t believe in homosexuality.”

When I first saw the segment, my first thought “it’s about time.” I applauded ESPN for putting it out there, for trying to turn “whispers” into full on conversations, for opening a dialogue that is long overdo. And then, the titan of the sports media world crumbled in the face of adversity and cowered to whatever public outrage the segment must have produced. Why else would they have removed it? Someone must have complained. A sponsor perhaps? A university spokesman? Whoever it was must have surely had the upper hand. I mean, come on. This is ESPN, the most-watched sports network of the century! They wouldn’t just bow down to anybody, would they?

Imagine if every one of us who has come out of the closet decided to suddenly go back in. That’s exactly what this feels like. The conversation was started, the closet door opened and we were finally going to discuss the existence of homosexuality in women’s basketball instead of ignoring as we have done for years. Then the closet door abruptly closed and it’s as if the conversation never even existed.
ESPN aptly titled the segment “the whispers,” because now that’s all that exists — whispers. There are whispers about Pokey Chapman. There are whispers about lesbian coaches and players. And there are whispers about homosexuality in the WNBA and college basketball. Unfortunately, until we full address these whispers, that’s all they will remain. Whispers.

espn, the whispers, pokey chatman, pokey chapman

Well, this is it folks. I’ve decided to end my run here at 451 Press. I had so much fun writing and ranting about life and all its complexities. But when you feel the impending urge to move on, you can’t ignore it.

I’ll be around as I have some exciting projects in the works. You may see me on the bookshelves relatively soon. Also, I’m starting a forum/site for aspiring writers called “I Wanna Write” or “Learning the Write Way.” I haven’t decided which one yet. It’s still in the works but I plan for to be chalk full of tips, advice, resources and other wonderful writing tid bits.

Fare thee well my lesbian friends. Be well. Spread the love. Adios.

tags can kiss my ass on the way out!

This week’s Notable Lesbian is:
Erika Julia Hedwig Mann
November 9, 1905 – August 27, 1969

Erika Mann was the eldest child of novelist Thomas Mann. She was born in Munich and had what was considered to be a “privileged” childhood. In 1932 she published the first of many children’s books. Shortly thereafter she became involved in several lesbian affairs in her private life. Her first noted affair was with actress Pamela Wedekind, whom she met in Berlin, and was engaged with her brother Klaus. She later became involved with director Therese Giehse, and journalists Betty Cox and Annemarie Schwarzenbach, whom she served with as a war correspondent during World War II. As was later written, her relationships were both sexually passionate and intellectually stimulating. Mann enjoyed being in the company of women who were intelligent, and with whom she could converse with on any number of international topics.

Interesting tid bit:
In 1938, she and her brother Klaus reported on the Spanish Civil War, and her book School for Barbarians about Nazi Germany educational system has been published. The following year, they published Escape to Life, a book about famous German exiles. During the war, she was active as a journalist in England. After World War II, Mann was one of the few women who covered the Nuremberg Trials. Following the war, both Klaus and Erika came under an FBI investigation into their political views and rumored homosexuality. In 1949, becoming increasingly depressed and disillusioned over post-war torn Germany, Klaus Mann committed suicide. This event devastated Erika.

Don’t forget about the Lez Keep it Real Contest! It’s still going on people because I haven’t had enough submissions. Submit and you can win!

More Notable Lesbians

If you have a suggestion for a Notable Lesbian, e-maill me at lyndsey.darcangelo@451press.net or use the contact form above and I’ll highlight her in an upcoming post.

*Some information provided by Wikipedia.com

notable lesbians, famous lesbians, Thomas Mann, Erika Mann

I’m a sucker for songs from the 80s. That and this little mantra is ultimately true. Everybody is working for the weekend, including me. I have plans to do nothing but relax on Sunday with my girlfriend. But today, I have a lot going on. I have so much going on in fact, that I won’t be writing a Come Out & Play post.

My apologies. I have my reasons.

Reason #1:
I’ve picked up some more freelance gigs.

Reason #2:
I have to edit down the latest edition of a novel I have finished for the agent I’ve been conversing with. We have exchanged numerous e-mails regarding The Crabapple Tree, and I think she’s going to pick it up. Therefore, I want it to be in the best shape it can possibly be.

Enjoy your Friday. More importantly, enjoy your weekend! I’ll see you on Monday.

too busy to even write tags

So … it’s lights out here in Buffalo, NY. The storm that was pounding the Midwest has moved east and is now pounding us. Wind gusts are up 60 mph and my two Chihuahuas (Layla and Greta) refuse to even go outside and pee.

Really, can you blame them?

Anyhoo, my power is out and it may be out for a while. I’m having all sorts of issues involving things like a sump pump, shivering doggies and getting dressed in the dark.

I don’t really have the time (or patience, honestly) to write something profound, witty or even remotely interesting. If you’re bored, check out the post I wrote about Rose Rollins. Or scroll through the Notable Lesbians category.

In the mean time, here’s a little something for amusement’s sake.

(more…)

When I was away on vacation, I asked a couple of fellow bloggers to fill in for me. Beth over at Astrology Explored had volunteered but unfortunately I had already left for New Hampshire before she had a chance to get back to me. She did, however, send me the blog post she wrote and I decided to post it today.

So enjoy!

The Perfect Intent to Experience An Alternate Lifestyle
We all have heard stories of medical student given cursory instruction
on subjects that impact their future patient’s lives, like diet and
nutrition. In a page that sounds like it ripped out a medical
student’s diary, my astrologer teacher, towards the end of my time with
her, went through with the class what to look for different situations.

“In a gay(meaning gay and lesbian) chart,” she said, “You look for
Uranus in the eighth house, Aquarius (ruled by Uranus) as the sign on
the eighth house or Mars in the eighth square or opposed to Uranus”.

It was only last year that a gay and a lesbian crossed my path for
consultations, so this information pretty well sat on the shelf until
then. But it worked pretty well, so I had no reason to question it.

Then I started doing some research on the internet in preparation for
this post. Guess what I found? Nada, zip, and a couple articles that
proclaimed vehemently that you can not tell whether someone is
attracted to their own sex from their birth charts.

Let’s be clear. From a
spiritual astrologer’s perspective, all situations are marked in
the chart. People who come to earth and experience an alternate
lifestyle, any alternate lifestyle, do so with perfect intent to
experience that life style and all the ramifications attached to it. It
makes no sense that there is no “astro signature”, especially for a
situation where the individual must face significant challenges in
living that life.

It may be that we don’t know exactly what that “astro signature” is. Or
maybe we do, it just hasn’t been distributed to the astrological
community at large. In my case, my teacher’s teacher was Isabel
Hickey, a well known practicing astrologer and astrology teacher.
Though I have no proof of this, it just may be that Isabel passed this
information along to her students, which was passed down in turn to me
through my teacher.

Mars is about agressiveness and the sexual drive. It makes sense that
anything having to do with sexual matters is going to be involved with
a subject like sexual orientation.

Uranus in the eighth house of sex talks about “unusual sexual
preferences.” In a broader view, Uranus is about the individuation
process, to stand apart from the community. It speaks of a sense of
being disenfranchized in regards to matters of sex. Isabel Hickey says
“That sexual drives need to be controlled.” At the time her work was
written and released this was pretty much the attitude relating to gay
and lesbian sex. Maybe you felt that way, but you shouldn’t do it!

Same goes for aspects, squares (challenges) and oppositions (tension)
coming from the eighth house, especially if they relate to Uranus in
some way. These lines of energy that need resolution in a constructive
way.

So it looks like we need to do some more research into this area. I
invite any of you who wish to share your birth date, birth place and
birth time (this is essential for this study) to send this information
to starrrynightastro@aol.com.

astrology explored, lez keep it real, gay astrology, astrology for lesbians

“Vacation, have to get away …”

What a great song. Do you remember what all-girl band from the 80’s sang it? I’ll give you a special, little prize if you get the answer right!

Anyway, it’s true. I have to get away. I haven’t taken a “real” vacation since September - and that was just a long weekend. This time I am taking consecutive days off, hitting the slopes on the upper east coast and snuggling by the fire with my girlfriend.

I’ll be gone the rest of the week, but I just might have some guest bloggers fill in for me while I’m away. So check back because you’ll never know what you might find. I am giving the guest bloggers the option to discuss anything they want, as long as they A. Keep it real, and B. cater the post to my wonderful GLBT audience.

Sound good? Good.

See you next week!

vacation, upper east coast, lez keep it real

Today’s Come Out & Play post spotlights Stories on Logo.

We all enjoy a good coming out story. Which is why I post them every Friday. If you have one, send it to me! Of course, I’m not the only coming out pit stop on the web. For more coming out stories, particularly of the video variety, I’ve got just the place. Head over to Logo. What better place to find coming out stories than an all-gay programming television station?

For those of you who have Itunes, you can download Coming Out Stories episodes to watch on your Ipod. Or just watch clips directly from Logo’s website.

In other news, yesterday was caucus day. You know, that political thingy in Iowa where all the presidential candidates get together and try to win over the Iowinians or something. And until I actually read something about it, I had no idea what a caucus was. Well, if you’re into that sort of thing, or if you are like me and aren’t quite sure what a caucus is, then head over to OurChart. Writer Elizabeth Birch not only informs you of the goings on at said caucus, but also shows you how to caucus like a lesbian.

As a side note, we seem to be in a little bit of a comment drought here. What’s up with that? I know you’re out there reading, so feel free to sound off below. There’s no prize for doing so. But really, the reward is the freedom of being able to voice your opinion. Even if you’re gay. Take advantage of it while you can! If Huckabee wins … this site just might be shut down.

Tune in every Friday for the Come Out & Play series, featuring coming out stories of celebrities, every day people, personal reflections, advice, tid bits and everything else concerning the complicated world of coming out!

Got an interesting coming out story to tell? Contact me and I will feature it in an upcoming post of Come Out & Play.

coming out, come out and play, coming out stories, logo, iowa caucus,

This is just a quick post to say Happy New Year to all of you.

I hope 2008 is as rewarding and as wonderful as 2007 was. I also hope it’s a year full of intriguing stories in which I get to ponder and write opinions about.

Have a safe and joyous evening. And I’ll see you all next year.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Kwanzaa!

Joyeuz Noel!

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Did I leave anyone out? I swear, everything has to be so “PC” these days … I’m a fan of Christmas. I celebrate it. I love this time of year for many reasons.

Playing in the snow. Buying the gifts. (Speaking of gifts … is all your Christmas shopping done?) Trimming the tree. Hanging the stockings. Putting up the lights. Watching holiday movies. I pretty much enjoy anything and everything that has to do with the holidays. There’s something special about this time of year, and I’m not afraid to say so. These days you can offend people simply by saying, “Merry Christmas.” Lighten up. We can all rejoice in the spirit of the holiday season, no matter what our religion may be. There isn’t a better time, or reason for that matter, to put aside our differences and enjoy just being a kid again. When you tap into that magic, everything else seems trivial.

On that note, I’ll be back on December 26th. In the mean time, here’s one of my favorite holiday skits of all time courtesy of Saturday Night Live, and featuring Ellen Degeneres. It makes fun of the kind of “PC” rhetoric I’m referring to.

Enjoy it. Laugh. Play. Just be a kid. I promise you, it’s okay to do so.

saturday night live, christmas, ellen degeneres, kwanzaa, hanukkah!

If any of you pay attention to the weather channel, you’d know that I’m up to my ears in snow here in Buffalo. Mother Nature bestowed a generous amount of the fluffy white stuff yesterday – about a foot and a half to be exact.

Snow doesn’t bother me much. I enjoy it, especially at this time of year. Part of the reason is because I like to ski. The other part? I don’t know. There’s something about snow that makes me feel like a kid again.

People ask all of the time if I’d like to move down south to where my parents live. Of course not, I tell them. I like where I live. The thing about Buffalo is that we get a taste of all the seasons.

Winter. Summer. Spring. And fall. It’s the best of all worlds. Why would I want to move some place else?

Here’s another question. This one posed by ABC. It’s a fair question, just like the one about living some place else. Only this question digs a little deeper. It’s not so much about where you live, but who you decide to live as.

(more…)

The holidays are upon us. It’s officially 12 days before Christmas. Have you gotten all of your shopping done? Or are you the type of person who waits until the 23rd to get out to the mall? I like to do a little at a time, so that I don’t feel too overwhelmed. This year has gone quite smoothly actually. All I have left to do is get the rest of the gifts I have on my list for my girlfriend.

I don’t know about you, but my girlfriend is annoyingly picky. I like for her to give me certain “hints” about what she wants. (And by “hints” I mean, she tells me exactly what she wants). That way I save us both the aggravation of having to return something. Additionally, I save her from utter disappointment and save myself from looking like a schmuck for getting my girlfriend something she would A., never wear, or B., never buy in the first place.

If your girlfriend, or friend for that matter, is like mine and you have absolutely no idea what to get her for Christmas – I’ve got some ideas.

Following is a list of 12 things (in honor of the 12 days of Christmas) that any lesbian would love to find under her tree.

(Click on any of the gifts mentioned for direct links to purchase them!)

(more…)

Before I get into the nitty gritty of this post, I would just like to take a quick moment to apologize for my absence over the past couple of days. When holiday time comes around, everything seems out of sorts. It always takes me a few days to get my groove back … even as I type this sentence, my fingers aren’t going where I tell them to go! I was on vacation for about a week, so bear with me. I hope you all had as good of a Thanksgiving as I had.

Onto the point of this post, in which I came across a column where someone finally said something poignant about the “gay lifestyle” and said it right.

(more…)

Well … I’ve been parked at this web address for six months now. I have to say that of everything I write on a consistent basis (short stories, novels, columns, articles, etc.) this blog is definitely one of my favorite things to write. I have the space and time to cover and speak on a variety of topics. There’s no censorship. No limits. And that’s one thing I LOVE about 451Press.

I’m going to highlight some of my favorite posts from the past six months. One from each on the category list. If you’ve read them already, read them again. If you haven’t, well … enjoy them for the first time.

(more…)

OK. So. Many of you are Mia Michaels fans. I didn’t realize this until after I posted about my interview with her and the upcoming article in Curve.

I apologize for the wait. I may have posted about it too soon, but I was just so damn excited to get to talk with her.

Curve puts together their issues a couple months in advance. For instance, I am currently writing an article about Lauren Collins (of Degrassi fame) but it won’t publish until March 2008. I have my interview with Lauren tomorrow, and I plan on posting the excess material on this blog.

As for Mia – her article will appear in the December issue.

I know. I know. The anticipation is killing all of you. Would it make any difference if I said that it will be well worth the wait?

Update of an Update - the Curve issue for December is out. Get it. Read it. Enjoy!

degrassi, lauren collins, mia michaels, curve, mia michaels curve article