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Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever. (December 3, 2010): Lining “Dottie’s Magic Pockets” and making lesbian history in Botswana

The Night Watch gets the BBC treatment. After the success of their adaptations of Sarah WatersTipping the Velvet and Fingersmith, BBC2 is bringing us The Night Watch. Filming begins this week, and our GreatLezBritain correspondents Sarah and Lee are set to interview Waters for us very soon. Stay tuned!

No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. The 2003 film about the lesbian activists and (married!) couple of more than 50 years is now available on DVD via Frameline.

Onkemetse Pule and Lawrence Kwataka. Described as “the first lesbian couple in Botswana to publicly declare their love.” the women were featured in the national tabloid The Voice‘s November 26 cover story “Glad to Be Gay.” The two plan to wed, and told The Voice, “It will be a marriage made in heaven.”

Rachael Hip-Flores. The Anyone But Me star makes an appearance as one-half of a lesbian couple in a new music video for the single “Renegade” from Radio Silence NYC. The band has joined forces with DoSomething.org in hopes of helping to end bullying and discrimination with their song about intolerance and hatred. Yes, it’s for a good cause, but we’re pretty sure that Aster is going to be pissed.

Nadine Angerer. The high-profile German soccer player came out as bisexual this week in an interview with Die Zeit. And who is she dating? Angerer says, “That is not interesting to anyone.” We disagree!

Team Rainbow. Lesbian chef Jamie Lauren from Season 5 and bisexual chef Tiffani Faison from Season 1 both made it through the first round of eliminations on the Bravo reality series Top Chef All-Stars this week.

Freja Beha Erichsen. The out model is featured in Karl Lagerfeld‘s mythologically-themed 2011 Pirelli Calendar (warning: it contains some NSFW photos), posing as Apollo, Pollux and Orpheus.

Illinois. The Illinois House passed a civil unions bill 61-52. The Senate committee has passed it on to the next level of consideration, and Gov. Quinn has pledged to sign it

Grammy nods for out female artists. Lady Gaga is up for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance (and a few other awards as well), Goldfrapp is up for Best Dance Recording and Best Electronic/Dance Album, and Margaret Cho‘s Cho Dependent is up for Best Comedy Album. Brittana is up for a Grammy too, if you count the nod for the Glee Cast cover of “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

Pariah heads for Sundance. The short film (originally a graduate thesis) from out writer/director Dee Rees that captivated festival audiences in 2007 is now a full-length feature and will premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in January.

The Daily Mail. The British paper just noticed that sometimes famous girls kiss other famous girls for attention and have declared that “flexisexual” is a “new word for the women who refuse to play it straight.” We suggest they check out Heather Hogan’s Sexuality Point Maker Decoder and stop trying to make “flexisexual” happen. It is not going to happen.

McKinley High will force students to graduate. Glee creator Ryan Murphy says that some of his teen stars will “graduate” and leave the show at the end of 2012 in order to replicate the authentic high school experience. No word on how many of the Glee kids will also be forced to accrue massive amounts of student loan debt in the interest of keeping it real.

Pearl’s Rainbow. Once a lesbian-only resort, Pearl’s Rainbow in Key West’s is now going “all welcome.” The owners say they can’t afford to be exclusive any longer because of the tough economy. Pearl’s owner says that now there’s only one all-women’s resort left in the U.S., the Highlands Inn in Bethlehem, N.H. (1-877-LES-B-INN).

Another TV lesbian bites the dust. The crooked lesbian ATF agent June Stahl (played by Ally Walker) met her end on the season finale of Sons of Anarchy this week. On the upside, Sarah Jones has scored the lead in the new J.J. Abrams pilot, Alcatraz, penned by out lesbian scribe Elizabeth Sarnoff (Lost).

John McCain. The Arizona Republican Senator said that the recent military study on gays by the Pentagon is “flawed” and that letting gays serve openly would be dangerous in a time of war. Because being forced to lie and being terrified of being outed, discharged and losing one’s benefits are not at all distracting to a soldier at war, right?

Homophobic violence. Pro boxer Christy Taylor was reportedly shot and stabbed by her husband over a “lesbian affair.” Luckily, Taylor escaped her attacker and was treated at a local hospital and her husband has been arrested.

New York City’s Department of Youth and Community Development. Due to budget cuts, Street Outreach Services for Runaway and Homeless Youth in NYC will be reduced by 50% in FY11 and eliminated in FY12. According to the Joe.My.God. blog, some of the hardest hit will be LGBT kids, who make up 40% of the homeless youth in New York City.

Anne Coulter. The conservative pundit’s recent rants about the WikiLeaks story have focused on Bradley Manning‘s sexual orientation. Coulter writes, “Obviously, the vast majority of gays are loyal Americans – and witty and stylish to boot! But a small percentage of gays are going to be narcissistic hothouse flowers like Bradley Manning. Couldn’t they just work for JetBlue? … Look at the disaster one gay created under our punishing “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. What else awaits America with the overturning of a policy that was probably put there for a reason (apart from being the only thing Bill Clinton ever did that I agreed with)?”

John Boehner (OH) and Eric Cantor (VA). The GOP leaders want the National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian exhibit on same-sex attraction, “Hide/Seek,” dismantled. The NPG has already caved to the pressure from conservative groups and removed a video by the late gay artist David Wojnarowicz and the Smithsonian has assured critics that no federal funds were used to pay for the exhibit. Washington Post writer Blake Gopnik says the fuss is really about “Gay love, and images of it.” Agreed.

Hungary. The country banned gay marriage in its new Constitution this week. Fine. We didn’t want to spend millions of tourist dollars there anyway!

THIS JUST IN: HELP LINE DOTTIE’S MAGIC POCKETS AND SUPPORT PROGRAMMING FOR KIDS WITH GAY PARENTS

Dottie’s Magic Pockets is just the sort of clever, playful show that any kid would enjoy watching. What makes it particularly special is that it’s also the “first kids’ show for gay families and their friends.” Tammy Stoner (writer and creator), Andrea Maxwell (director) and Jennifer Plante (the actress who stars as Dottie) have joined forces to make a children’s video for “the gay family, the adopted family, the traditional family — all of today’s families!” Dottie’s Magic Pockets has already appeared in multiple LGBT festivals, is now available in libraries in the U.S. and Canada and has gained national recognition for tackling the under served demographic of gay families.

In an effort to raise funds for the DVD and distribution costs, Stone and company have launched an IndieGoGo fundraising campaign (which wraps up tonight). We chatted with Stoner about how her own son’s desire to see a show with two moms inspired the production and what the future holds for Dottie and company.

AfterEllen.com: When I last saw you, you were hosting The Sugar Daddy Show in Los Angeles. How did you make the change from drag king emcee to LGBT media mogul?

Tammy Stoner:Why, that’s my first time being called a media mogul! [laughs] From “Frankie Roundfirmenhigh” to Mom — I didn’t make a change really, since I am the kind of mom who likes to go out in drag every now and again.

Being an emcee prepared me for public speaking when I introduce Dottie at festivals and for performances, and gave me a great foundation for producing live shows, which we have done with Jen Plante (the actress who plays Dottie).

AE: Please walk us through the story of Dottie’s Magic Pockets, from inception to birth.

TS:When Oliver, my son, was two he asked for a show with two mommies. I looked around and realized that were no shows available. Since I had been involved with producing short films and am a writer, I was lucky enough to be surrounded by a crop of talented friends who also saw how critical it is that our kids see themselves reflected in media they can understand — and, beyond that, how critical it is that their friends see gay families to take the “oddness” out. So they joined in — a director and editor who had been working at Sony, the former Art Director for The Advocate and OUT magazines, a passionate film producer, and a communications expert — and we started Pink Pea productions.

Early on Andrea Maxwell, the director, and I knew we wanted Jen Plante as the star, having worked with her on another short film. Jen is amazing and had a background in children’s entertainment — plus she’s ridiculously creative and fun. After Jen agreed, we were linked to our fantastic composer, Allyson Newman, then dozens of people who volunteered to build the set, work the shoots, take photos, videotape their kids, make costumes, supply food — do all of the multitude of things that needed to be done. So I really think of Dottie’s Magic Pockets as a project-by-community.

Below is an AfterEllen.com exclusive song, “Cheese Picnic,” from the Dottie’s Magic Pockets CD, The Super Secret Seashell Cave:

AE: How much influence does Oliver have production/content? Is his enjoyment of the show the ultimate litmus test for your success?

TS:We did a few tests early on and adults said Uncanny the Singing Can might be too much with her falsetto. But the kids, including Oliver, loved Uncanny. And sure enough, Uncanny — who was created in-house by Wayne DeSelle, our Creative Director — has grown to be one of kids’ most favorite characters.

Oliver’s interests definitely shaped the content of the DVD — especially the theme of “words that sound the same but have different meanings” — and later, the age level of our new sing-along, adventure CD, which we created to reach a slightly older demographic. Dottie’s Magic Pockets was started with him in mind, so for me yes, I measure part of my success by his enjoyment. The other part is the enjoyment I have seen from his friends who watch the show and then say, “Hey, he has two moms, too.”

AE: You took Dottie on the LGBT film festival tour. How was it received?

TS: Fabulously! We played in over 15 festivals, including international film festivals in Melbourne, Toronto, London, and OutFest in LA. Dottie also performed at the Austin Gay Lesbian Film Festival and at Frameline in San Francisco this year.

It is always amazing to see how excited the kids are when Dottie performs. When we did the Rosie R Family cruises, they literally swarmed her like a rock star when she surprised the kids by appearing on the deck in-between show days. They run over yelling “Dottie! Dottie!” — all very proud to tell her about their unique families.

AE: How will the funds for your indiegogo Dottie campaign be used?

TS: We couldn’t include all the footage we had wanted in the original DVD due to some post-production issues — so the traditional family footage had to be removed — and we never liked the opening title sequence very much, but ran out of the funds needed to upgrade. So now, as we get ready to pitch to larger investment so Dottie can be brought to a broader market, a big part of the money will go to improve the DVD.

The rest will support finishing our first music video “Who’s In Your Family,” which is stuck in post-production, and cover our ongoing business expenses. This has been a labor of love that we have supported out-of-pocket. We’ve contributed our time, talent and savings to support the show thus far. We’ve reached the point where we need to call on our fan base and the community to support us while we continue growing Dottie’s Magic Pockets, because we believe it is “the little show that could.”

AE: Do you have any other projects in the works?

TS: Oh, I’m always doing something! I’m also on the board of directors for Gertrude Journal up here in Portland and I’m finishing up a novel and a few scripts to get ready for the gauntlet! I am also in early discussions with a business partner about starting a small press — who knows, maybe we’ll do a Dottie’s Magic Pockets‘ book one of these days…

Here’s the video for Dottie’s Magic Pockets IndieGoGo campaign:

Dottie’s IndieGoGo campaign wraps up tonight, Dec. 3, at midnight, with a fundraising goal of $8,800 (and has raised over $6,200 so far).

– by Karman Kregloe

More “It Gets Better” videos were released this week, including this one from out Iron Chef star Cat Cora:

And this one from actress/singer Janet Jackson:

This Saturday, Dec. 4, Chely Wright will be performing with the Indigo Girls on CBS Saturday Morning. Be sure to tune in!

We talked to Salon Takeover queen Tabatha Coffey about her off-Broadway stint in My Big Fat Italian Gay Wedding! Dec. 2 – 4 at St. Luke’s Theatre, 308 West 46th Street.(ticket info here). By the way, Season 3 of Tabatha’s Salon Takeover premieres Monday, Dec. 6 at 10/9 c on Bravo.

Nancylee Myatt (South of Nowhere) and company have given us a sneak preview of their upcoming Cowgirl Up webseries. It stars Mandy Musgrave (South of Nowhere), Marnie Alton (Exes & Ohs), Bridget McManus and a bunch of other talented women and will debut on tellofilms.com in January 2011.

You can stream every episode of The Cho Show at Logo Online.

The Kids Are All Right and Black Swan are nominated for Indie Spirit Awards.

Want to be creative, funny, terrifying, heartbreaking and/or moving — and also do some good? By entering a :25 second PSA into 365Gay’s Anti-Bullying Contest, you can raise awareness of the tragic effects of bullying — or encourage people to stand up when they seem someone being bullied. Upload your PSA by January 10, 2011 at www.365gay.com/psa-contest, the five best will be posted online at 365gay.com, AfterEllen.com , AfterElton.com and NewNowNext.com on January, 18, 2011 and readers will vote on their favorites until January 25, 2011. Read the official rules and get specifications at www.365gay.com/psa-contest/.

The December issue of EurOut.com magazine is ready and available for your perusal!

Rachel Maddow thinks gay people should come out.

Ladies Home Journal has dedicated a six-page spread in their new issue to gay teen bullying and what parents can do to help stop it.

Some fab new videos debuted this week, including Margaret Cho‘s “Intervention” (featuring Tegan and Sara) and Sia‘s “I’m In Here.”

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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