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Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever. (November 7, 2008)

IT WAS THE BEST OF ELECTIONS, IT WAS THE WORST OF ELECTIONS

Wednesday was a bittersweet morning for gay and lesbian Americans. On the one hand, most of us were overjoyed at the groundbreaking decision we had made as a nation to elect Barack Obama as our first African-American president. On the other hand, we were heartsick by our fellow Americans’ decision to repudiate our equal rights in ballot initiatives across the country.

Out celebrities from Ellen DeGeneres to Melissa Etheridge and Samantha Ronson voiced the duality of their and the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community’s emotions over the election results.

Gay marriage bans were passed in California (Prop. 8), Arizona (Prop. 102) and Florida (Prop. 2) and Arkansas voted to ban gay couples from adopting children or foster children (Act 1).

The one (dimly) bright spot was Connecticut’s decision not to open a constitutional convention with Question 1, which would have cleared the way to ban the state’s recently legalized gay marriages.

In short, Nov. 4 was our Tale of Two Cities. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. While one minority group got to reach the mountaintop, queer Americans were once again ushered to the back of the bus.

As the full impact of the news set in by mid-week, many stars spoke out on the passage of Prop. 8 and other anti-gay initiatives.

DeGeneres issued a statement:

Watching the returns on election night was an amazing experience. Barack Obama is our new president. Change is here. I, like millions of Americans, felt like we had taken a giant step towards equality. We were watching history.

This morning, when it was clear that Proposition 8 had passed in California, I can’t explain the feeling I had. I was saddened beyond belief. Here we just had a giant step towards equality and then on the very next day, we took a giant step away.

I believe one day a “ban on gay marriage” will sound totally ridiculous. In the meantime, I will continue to speak out for equality for all of us.

Etheridge wrote a commentary on The Daily Beast which read, in part:

Okay. So Prop 8 passed. Alright, I get it. 51% of you think that I am a second class citizen. Alright then. So my wife, uh I mean, roommate? Girlfriend? Special lady friend? You are gonna have to help me here because I am not sure what to call her now. Anyways, she and I are not allowed the same right under the state constitution as any other citizen. Okay, so I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen. I mean that would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books….

When did it become okay to legislate morality? I try to envision someone reading that legislation “eliminates the right” and then clicking yes. What goes through their mind? Was it the frightening commercial where the little girl comes home and says, “Hi mom, we learned about gays in class today” and then the mother gets that awful worried look and the scary music plays? Do they not know anyone who is gay? If they do, can they look them in the face and say “I believe you do not deserve the same rights as me”?….

I got news for them, someday your child is going to come home and ask you what a gay person is. Gay people are born everyday. You will never legislate that away.

Celebrity DJ, Obama backer and Lindsay Lohan’s girlfriend Ronson wrote on her MySpace blog about the dichotomy of California’s votes on Prop. 8 and Prop. 2 (which strengthened protection of chickens and other livestock):

I guess people care more about farm animals than they do their fellow man, that’s really sad to me. Yes, I am glad that the chickens will have more room and better conditions as they wait to die, but I just think it’s frightening that people show more compassion for tomorrow’s dinner than for the chef.

Yup, Miss Piggy and Chicken Little may rest easy, but gay people in Florida and California can no longer get married and gay couples in Arkansas can’t adopt children. G-d forbid a loving family (regardless of sexual orientation) give a needy child a home!

Oh well, I guess one out of four ain’t bad!

The rest of the community’s response has been a mix of shock, sadness and determination. In California, which legalized gay marriage in May, the passage of Prop. 8 was met with marches, protests and vigils from Los Angeles to San Francisco and Sacramento. The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed a writ petition before the California Supreme Court urging the court to invalidate the proposition.

On the No on Prop. 8 campaign’s website, the message was clear: We will not give up. And, so, we won’t. As Dr. Martin Luther King said in his final, famous speech, “Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”

by Dorothy Snarker

RACHEL MADDOW COMES OUT ON TOP

Rachel Maddow is the hottest lesbian in America. No, that’s not my crush talking. That’s the Out 100 talking. Out magazine featured the 35-year-old political commentator and TV and radio host first in the sneak peek of its annual list of gay men and women movers and shakers.

Rachel was singled out as “one of the year’s biggest breakouts.”

Thanks to her daily shows on MSNBC and Air America, the former Rhodes Scholar has burst onto the national scene this year with her astute and amusing take on the presidential election. Since its launch in September, The Rachel Maddow Show has doubled the viewership from her predecessor, Dan Abrams, regularly bests timeslot competition Larry King Live and has even outdone her mentor and lead-in, Keith Olbermann, on occasion.

What makes her triumph all the more astounding? The fact that she has been out since she was “old enough to drive” and — well — let’s let Rachel explain the rest:

I’m a big lesbian who looks like a man. I am not, like, Anchor Babe, and I’m never gonna be.

Airhead anchor babe? No. Smart lesbian catnip? You betcha.

On Monday, the magazine started an exclusive preview of its 100 picks for 2008. Of the nearly two dozen honorees revealed so far, besides Rachel less than a handful are out lesbian and bisexual women. They are Australian musician Missy Higgins, Exes & Ohs actress Heather Matarazzo and KCRW radio host Diana Nyad.

For the photo shoot, the magazine looked to the golden age of Hollywood for inspiration. Rachel’s fitted shirt and dress slacks portrait was inspired by another great wearer of pants, Katharine Hepburn. The shot is also, interestingly, one of the more feminine portraits of Rachel we’ve seen so far. It’s certainly a far cry from the outfit she picked to wear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last month.

Speaking of talk show appearances, did anyone else catch Rachel, the political commentator by day, hobbyist bartender by night, on The Martha Stewart Show Tuesday? She taught Martha how to make a Joe Rickey highball. How much you want to bet that Rachel, and maybe even Martha, cheered the night’s election results with a few of those bad boys?

More Out 100 nominees will be posted each day until the award show Nov. 14.

by Dorothy Snarker

BONES BECOMES THE EX-FILES

As we told you Tuesday, Fox aired a Very Special Lesbian Episode of Bones this week.

Having watched it in all of its beetle-flesh-eating glory, I’ve got just one question.

How gay is Angela’s (Michaela Conlin) ex-girlfriend, Roxie (Nichole Hiltz)?

Exhibit A)

Wait, let me give you some background on that scene: Roxie and Angela haven’t seen each other since college, where they spent a year in a “very intense relationship.” When Roxie’s boss gets crunched up inside one of his sculptures (and by “sculptures” I mean “junkyard cars”), the Bones team questions Roxie as a suspect. Angela goes by to visit her ex, and discovers the painting of herself, which brings us to…

Exhibit B) Angela wants to know how long it’s been since Roxie had an art show. Roxie says: “Not since we were together. Is it needy to say you’re my muse, or the entire source of my creative inspiration?”

Exhibit C) When Agent Booth questions Roxie about whether or not she and her former (dead) boss were lovers, she says, “I’m gay, I’m a lesbian, I’ve never been with a man in my life and I never will!”

Verdict: Angela may be bisexual, but Roxie is just super gay.

The story was actually handled pretty well, with nothing titillating even by network standards.

Angela sort of seeks out everyone’s advice about getting back together with Roxie, and asks each one if it’s weird to them that she was once in a relationship with another woman.

Dr. Bones says being a lesbian is not an affliction, and that women often view sexuality in a less rigid way with men.

Booth says that he had a lesbian aunt, which was cool because her girlfriend had box seats to the Phillies.

Only one guy made an inane threesome comment.

Roxie and Angela share a chaste kiss at the end of the episode, and while my network TV cynicism (thanks for reaffirming it, ABC!) originally led me to conclude that we wouldn’t see more any more girls kissing until the next sweeps, AE reader runchaorun tipped us off to an interview that said the “love triangle” has energized the set.

Roxie will be back.

Bones already has a one-up on other crime-solving shows: This time the killer wasn’t a lesbian, and this time she was innocent because she doesn’t like kissing boys.

— by StuntDouble

LINCOLN HEIGHTS MIGHT HAVE TWO LESBIANS IN TOWN

Ah, the old “I have this friend” trick. It works so well, until you actually do have this friend who needs you to intervene on her behalf — a lesson Cassie learned on Lincoln Heights this week.

Cassie and her gay BFF, Stacy, have heard word that Kelly is a lesbian. Cassie thinks Stacy should just ask Kelly to prom, but Stacy doesn’t even know if Kelly is actually gay!

What to do? Send in your wingwoman, of course.

Just watch:

D’oh! That’s not how that was supposed to go.

That guy looking stunned is Cassie’s boyfriend. And that girl walking away happily after kissing another girl in the hall of her high school? That’s not like any girl I knew when I was a teenager.

The accidental kiss leads to a little rift between Cassie and Stacy, but it all works out in the end. Cassie didn’t mean to kiss the only other lesbian at her school.

Sometimes these things just happen.

Next week’s episode of Lincoln Heights is called “Prom Night,” and my DVR describes it like this: “An unlikely couple attends the prom that Jenn and Eddie have agreed to chaperone.”

Will that unlikely couple be two girls? I think so!

How great is it that there are now two teen-based shows that portray lesbians in a positive light?

The only lesbian on TV when I was in high school was Ellen, and my Baptist friends practically boycotted pencils when they found out that’s what she used to write her show.

You can watch full episodes of Lincoln Heights on ABC Family’s website.

I’m going to go on over and leave a comment to warn the characters about a little something I learned from South of Nowhere: When attending prom at a television high school, wear a bullet-proof vest.

— by StuntDouble

CHICAGO GAY AND LESBIAN HALL OF FAME NAMES ITS NEW INDUCTEES

Baseball, football, and even ping pong (okay, table tennis) has a Hall of Fame, as does rock and roll. But did you know that there’s a Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in Chicago? It’s the only “known municipality” to have a Hall of Fame for its LGBT citizens, and this year will mark its 18th anniversary.

On Thursday, Nov. 13, the Chicago Lesbian and Gay Hall of Fame will induct a new round of LGBT Chicagoans, and the lesbian portion of that group includes:

Jane Addams (1860—1935), 1931 Nobel Prize winner (she was the first U.S. woman to win a Nobel), for her pioneering work in founding Hull House in 1890, which created a lasting model for social change and diverse thought.

Suzanne Arnold, 52, for her long-term work in the local and national lesbian and gay sports community, including her terms as co-chair of Team Chicago, female vice co-chair of the Federation of Gay Games, and co-chair and sports co-director of Gay Games VII in Chicago.

Michal Brody, Ph.D., 60, activist and author, for her work as a founding member of the groundbreaking Chicago Gay Liberation group in 1969, a founding member of Chicago Lesbian Liberation in 1970, and in 1985 writing Are We There Yet? a landmark book of Chicago lesbian history.

Artemis Singers, the first women’s singing ensemble in the U.S. to explicitly label itself a “lesbian feminist” chorus, for 29 years dedicated to performing music written or arranged by women and thus highlighting historical, political, and personal events and experiences common to women.

Former lesbian inductees have included Lorraine Hansberry (1999), Billie Jean King (1999), and Jeanette Howard Foster (1998).

The Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame was established in 1991 to recognize the achievements of LGBT Chicagoans, their contributions to the development of the city, and the help they have received from others. The induction ceremony will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 13, 2008, in Sidney R. Yates Gallery at the Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph St. and is free and open to the public. For a full list of the 2008 inductees, go to chicagopride.com.

I plan to conduct a write-in campaign for future inductees and out Chicagoans actress Jane Lynch and AE blog editor Trish Bendix. Care to join me?

by Karman Kregloe

GOODBYE, ERICA, WE HARDLY KNEW YOU

When Brooke Smith departed Grey’s Anatomy this week, without even a proper send-off — Erica just walked out to the parking lot alone, after arguing with her girlfriend Callie (Sara Ramirez) over an ethical issue and proclaiming, “I don’t know you at all” — she took primetime broadcast TV’s only lesbian couple with her.

While it’s still not entirely clear why Smith was fired — anonymous sources say ABC execs didn’t like Smith’s character or her lesbian storyline, ABC insists it was just an issue of bad chemistry — I keep coming back to the very first article I read about the controversy, by L.A. Times critic Mary McNamara.

I suspect what irked whoever made the call … is precisely what made the Erica/Callie relationship worth talking about. Not that they were both women — good heavens, how dull — but that they were, how shall we say, average size. With hips, you know, and actual breasts. Not two girly waifs exchanging a stolen kiss or a grope in the women’s room stall over a line of coke, not an androgynous club kid putting her best moves on some sitcom heroine. But two women of substance, physically and psychologically, falling in love and talking about it way too much, the way women tend to do.

As Dr. Mark Sloan (Eric Dane) might say: “Girl on girl is hot. Woman on woman? Just a downer.”

In other words — homophobia is only one factor in the decision to let Smith go. Sexism and ageism are the others. (Read her entire blog post here.)

After sifting through all the statements, news and rumors from the last week, I think she’s right. Somehow, that doesn’t make me feel much better.

One thing I do know for sure: I’ve lost a lot of respect for Shonda Rhimes in this process. Sometimes you get overruled by the people who pay the bills, and you have to do things you don’t want to do. We’ve all been there. But don’t issue a statement that makes the situation worse — don’t call a bisexual character a lesbian, don’t publicly disrespect your departing actress by not mentioning her in the statement, and don’t try to spin us.

Speaking of news and rumors: Ausiello’s sources are now claiming that Melissa George‘s and Sara Ramirez‘s characters will remain bisexual, which conflicts with what Kristin at E! Online was told by her sources.

But regardless of whether they call Sadie and Callie straight, bisexual, or (in Shonda’s case) “lesbians,” Dara’s Grey’s Anatomy on Monday will be her last, unless or until one of these characters actually does more than kiss a woman once a year during Sweeps.

For those of you who want to communicate your opinion on the recent turn of events to ABC or Rhimes, a Callica fan site has compiled a list of ways you can do that.

ELINA FAILS TO MODEL THROUGH IT

America’s Next Top Model‘s queer contestant Elina was finally eliminated this week, after making it all the way to the final five. Officially, these photos are what finally did her in:

Unofficially? It was her control-freak tendencies, combined with a little attitude, and a fierce tattoo (which sounds like half the lesbians I know).

My favorite photo of Elina’s? This one, where she was given the news of Brooke Smith’s firing on Grey’s and told to imagine these cars are full of ABC execs:

Hell hath no fury like a lesbian scorned.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

Anderson Cooper jokes about “The Ellen effect” on Obama winning the ’08 election.

There were four lesbian kisses in one episode of All My Children – read episode recaps in our forum.

The Simpsons are getting called out for making a “that’s so gay!” joke.

New York magazine reports on “The Secret to Rachel Maddow‘s Success.” (thanks to Kristina for the tip!)

Brazilian soap opera character Stela came out as a lesbian this week on A Favorita.

Openly gay Dutch writer Doeschka Meijsing was awarded the prestigious AKO Prize for Literature in Holland, for her novel Over de Liefde (About Love). (Thanks Jessica!)

Spanish crime drama Cazadores de Hombres (Hunters of Men) recently featured a lesbian criminal couple.

Attention, Chicago-area readers! There’s a 3Way meet-and-greet next Saturday, Nov. 15, during the first part of an L Word-sponsored party at Chicago’s gay and lesbian film festival, The Reeling, now in its 27th year. Go here for info about the party.

by Sarah Warn

That’s it for this week! Got the inside scoop on a hot new lesbian/bi actor/musician/TV show/film? Tell us at [email protected]. Check back next Friday for another edition of Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever.

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