Curve's Executive Editor, Diane Anderson-Minshall, has a hot new novel hitting the streets and is willing to come to you for a reading if you can rally the troops.
Do you know a bunch of lesbians who want to hear her read from her juicy new erotic thriller Punishment with Kisses? If so, contact Annabella Chin at annabellapr@gmail.com.
Beyond the amazing work she does at Curve, Diane is also an award-winning author who pens the Blind Eye Mystery series with her co-pilot in life Jacob Anderson-Minshall.
Well, technically, Maxwell actually "grooved" the house, who was on their feet for many of his sexy soulful ballads. I surprised Patty with tickets to our favorite neo-soul lyrical love hound earlier this week.
Born Maxwell Rivera, "Maxwell" was awesome Wed night as he old favorites like "Til the Cops Come Knockin'" and "Sumthin Sumthin", while also mixing it up with new tunes from his new trilogy of music, set to drop 7/7/09.
For years, rumors have swirled about Maxwell's sexuality. He has been MIA from the music scene for the last seven years and--again the rumor mill reports--it's because his new songs were loaded with gay lovin' and his primary fan base is women, and very straight women who want to tear his clothes off. I can report, now after seeing him in person, that I do in fact believe he plays for our team. Gaydar a dingin'.
Another fantastic part of the night was his opening act: Laura Izibor. I'd never heard of her and damn was she amazing. I took the little video before getting busted by the security, but it wasn't very good, so head to her website to see one. If you like Alicia Keys, be sure to check out her out on iTunes. I did manage to snap a shot at he end of the band. I also tried to sneak one of Maxwell while he sang "Til the Cops Come Knockin'" but it was awful, too, and only seven seconds. I embedded his video of that song below.
To find tour dates in the US, check Maxwell's MySpace.
My friend, lezzilicious Bonnie Ste. Croix, will be touring Canada this month and into July, so I wanted to give peeps a heads up for her upcoming shows. If you're in eastern Canada, check her out!
Thursday, June 24th, 2009 OTTAWA @ the RAINBOW BISTRO. 9PM to 1AM 76 Murray St. Ottawa. (Murray St. & Parent St. in The Byward Market) PH:(613) 241-5123
Sunday June 28th, 2009 MONTREAL CASA BELLA. 7PM to 10PM 602-A Boul. Cure Labelle, Chomedy (Laval) PH:450-686-8388 Please try your best to CALL AHEAD and reserve for this one!!! The owner's are requesting this so they can be prepared for meals etc.
July 9 Fredericton, NB Crumbs Café. 551 King St. PH: (506) 472-8106
July 10 St-Andrews, NB Kennedy Inn. 218 Water St. PH: (506) 529-8844
July 11 Rothesay, NB Sessions Café. 8PM. 140G Hampton Road. PH: (506)-847-1321
July 14 Tyne Valley, PEI Britannia Hall. 7:30 PM Opening for "Lazy Jacks"
July 15 Breadalbane. PEI The Dunk. 3864 Dixon Road.
July 16 Charlottetown. PEI Summer Concert Series at Peakes Quay.
July 17 Halifax. NS The Company House. 2202 Gottingen St.
July 18 Penobsquis. NB Timberland. Route 114 (just outside of Sussex)
July 24 Gaspe JacquesCartier Commemoration Show.
July 26 Gaspe La Petite Eglize, 8 PM, 208 Montee Wakeham
Missy Giove, the wild out-lesbian mountain biking legend, was busted this week and charged with conspiracy and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. Apparently, she had 9 cell phones, 400 pounds of marijuana and $2 million in cash when cops busted her! Holy smokes! (Literally.) Read the Chicago Times article.
Missy was part of my first big break as a writer. She was my first cover feature. Back when Girlfriends Magazine was still afloat in 2003.
I didn't talk to her again until she landed in my inbox a couple years ago. She'd heard Dipstick and I were going to be hosting an event in Whistler for Winter Pride and wanted to grab a drink (we did the Girlfriends interview over the phone). I've included that photo from Winter Pride here, too. Too bad for Missy. We are all a byproduct of our thoughts and choices, eh?
This whole story is somewhat shocking to me (and sad); when we met her face-to-face at Winter Pride she was in a long term relationship with a really nice woman who had kids. She seemed all domesticated. Hope they all didn't get caught up in this, too.
Here is the 2003 article for those who are curious:
Coming Out, Going Pro
By Gina Daggett
The Indian poet Rumi once said, "Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious."
If there's a woman who has heeded his advice, it's Missy Giove. One of the most colorful competitors in professional sports, Giove's name may be a one you've not run across--yet. But if you're lucky, you've seen her flying down a rugged mountain, earning her nickname "The Missile." In her pursuit of greatness, Giove has snapped thirty-seven bones. Over her career, she's pedaled her way to three national championships and the most record wins in the nation for women's downhill.
Giove's not the only lesbian on the mountain biking circuit. But she's the only one who's out to the world. "You can't make people do something they don't want to do or don't have in their heart to do. Who knows why people don't come out? It could be for good reasons, but who am I to judge? I don't have their parents, their life or their job. If [coming out] is the least I can do while I'm here, then that's my purpose," says Giove.
When asked if being out of the closet has enhanced her performance and fearlessness, Giove says, "I think that anytime you are more in-tune with yourself and accept what's going on in your life, you're more focused and centered."
Many other professional out-athletes echo Giove's sentiments: coming out of the closet enhanced their performance as an athlete. Pat Griffin, author of Strong Women, Deep Closets, says that for many professional athletes, staying in the closet has become an "unplayable lie," a strategy of deception they're unwilling to live. Or, as lesbian columnist Deb Price puts it, "It's hard to swing a golf club in the closet."
Some professional athletes have chosen to come out of the closet; others have been thrown out, usually (as in Martina Navratilova's case) by bitter ex-lovers. Others are known widely to be gay, but prefer not to say. In the meantime, our sisters in the rainbow jerseys are, one-by-one, changing the face of women's sports.
Trajectory of the Missile
When I caught up with Missy Giove, she was at her coastal home in San Diego that she shares with Cynthia, her girlfriend of two and half years. Over the phone, we chatted about her injuries, her lack of inhibitions, her passions, and her life as a high-profile lesbian athlete — a title she wears with no excuses.
Giove began biking in New York City delivering Chinese food. At the time, she was a top-level ski racer who'd already won the Junior National Championships in 1990. She was always looking for ways to improve her skiing. Cross training and ultimately biking became an important component of her exercise routine.
Before too long, though, Giove realized she was no longer "mountain biking to ski, but instead, skiing to mountain bike." So she traded in her skis and poles for shocks and treaded tires.
Now, as Giove rides into a wooded area at 45 mph, she's very aware that she could be killed, or worse yet, get maimed. But she surrenders to the mountain by acknowledging that it's much bigger than she is. "The trick," Giove shares, "is to pick places where I'm going to back off — usually places you could die — and the places I'm going to give 110 percent."
In addition to biking regularly, Giove works out in the gym and sprinkles cardiovascular into eight-to-ten-hour daily workout schedule. This not only makes her a stronger mountain biker, but it helps her avoid injuries. Throughout her career, Giove has shattered her pelvis in six places, a biking injury from which doctors said she would never recover. Soon after, she broke both her legs. In 2001, she suffered a brain hemorrhage in another biking accident.
But these injuries won't slow Missy Giove down. She's still as extreme as ever, and attributes part of her mojo to Gonzo, the dried piranha she wears around her neck as a reminder to be aggressive. She also carries with her down the trail the ashes of deceased animals — and even some friends. On some days, in addition to tucking a small vial of ashes into her sports bra, she sprinkles them around the mountain so they're always with her.
Giove came out to a reporter in 1995, although she says she never intentionally dodged questions about her sexuality. "I choose to be myself every fucking day and people can either love me or hate me," says Giove. It's no surprise that Giove's candid personality has become one of her trademarks.
Even though the thirty-one-year-old has faced homophobia in her career as a professional mountain biker, she says the positive experiences have outnumbered the negative in spades. "There are always those instances where you're called the 'son of Satan' that scare you, but there are thousands and thousands that are positive," says Giove. "Like when people thank me for being a positive role model in their kid's life. There are going to be the occasional one or two [homophobic instances], but it's so minimal."
"It's an education process for people," says Giove about how she tries to combat homophobia. "So, I try to be really approachable." In fact, the biker gets more shocked responses to her rad clothes and multicolored hair than she does to her sexuality. "Seeing that gives me extra incentive to be even more out," laughs Giove.
For Giove, being an out athlete does have its price. "I make less money because I'm an out lesbian, but you know, hey, that's okay," says Giove. "I think it's important to represent who you are because it gives other people strength." And Giove trusts that if her example helps even one person that would be enough.
Sink or Swim: Diana Nyad
There's no doubt that the inner turmoil had a huge impact on my performance as an athlete," says Diana Nyad, the world-record swimmer and host of National Public Radio's "Savvy Traveler." Before she came out of the closet, Nyad immersed herself in the pool to escape. Yet once she found the courage at age twenty-one to come up for air and out to the world, she says, "It showed in my athletic career immediately. I shed so many layers of restraint and confusion."
But, says Nyad, this was her experience, and it wouldn't necessarily be the same for others. "It's easy for me to say this sitting here; I'm not the basketball player struggling to make a living," says Nyad. "But I truly believe in this day and age in America that if a young athlete is authentic, if she lives her life with honor, pride and confidence, then she will receive the respect she commands from her public."
Professional football player Alissa Wykes seconds Nyad's experience. "It takes a lot of wasted energy away to cover up stories, remembering who and what you told," says Wykes, who plays for the Philadelphia Liberty Belles. "You live in a paranoid world." The decision to come out was the best thing Wykes has done in her career. Aside from the mental and emotional benefits, she's met many wonderful people in organizations whose purpose is to back the LGBT community up. "I was secure in my little world, but I had no idea there was such a big network of support out there."
Many speculate on the root of homophobia in sports. Griffin thinks that if you go deep enough, it's tied up in sexism. "The lesbian label serves a social control function to make women self conscious about their athleticism," notes Griffin, who lectures widely about homophobia. "It's important to maintain a particular gender order in which men have privilege and women don't."
One of the biggest problems with homophobia in women's sports, Griffin contends, is that "it drives such a wedge between heterosexual women and lesbians." She cites the derogatory comments from tennis player Martina Hingis directed at Amelie Mauresmo, who is openly gay, in which Hingis said playing Amelie was "like playing a man." Similarly, because of Mauresmo's cut physique, unsubstantiated rumors of steroid use have leaked out of the locker room. Yet no one is talking about the chiseled muscles of the seemingly-straight Williams sisters.
What enflames the situation even more for these out lesbians, Griffin says, is that "women's professional sports are still marginal — and I think they don't want to take a stand on anything that's controversial that might affect their status of survival."
"I'd like to think that things are changing and that having out players isn't going to make a big difference," Griffin adds on an optimistic note. "You look at who is out in the WNBA and Sue Wicks is the only player who's ever come out. I mean, come on."
"Maybe [we've had some] progress, because certainly when Billie Jean and Martina came out, it was a giant scandal," says Griffin. She also cites as a positive development the fact that Mauresmo, Wykes, Giove, Wicks, and Karrie Webb, are all coming out while they're still actively playing. And even though a lot of athletes find support in unexpected places when they come out, Griffin believes, "we need a lot more heterosexual athletes to step up and be allies instead of giving private support."
"I've never heard an athlete who's come out say they regretted it," says Griffin. Yet, when it comes to team sports versus individual sports, it is an additional component for athletes to weigh; trying to balance what's right for them with what's in the team's best interest. "You do have a responsibility to other people," adds Griffin.
Going into Overtime
"There's not one champion I can think of that ended up being a champion by accident," says Giove. By refusing to play the unplayable lie, Giove wasn't going to leave anything to chance. But professional athletes have to choose their battles wisely, and until the sports climate warms up, many lesbians are trying to keep their eye on the ball instead of the door handle.
While Lipstick is in Montana, I'm vacationing on the Oregon Coast with my Alaskan Malamute puppy Olive. We didn't see any brown bears, but we did see brown pelicans. And some other scary things. Or at least Olive thought they were scary:
We've finally hit our stride for summer and isn't it fantastic? The BBQs are burning, the tanktops are out and there just aren't enough hours in the day to do all the fun that is summertime. For this last week, I've been visiting my parental units in Montana. During my time there, I blazed some hiking trails with my dad, enjoyed my mom's chocolate chip cookies, road ATVs, fished, grilled some steaks and saw a ton of little critters (grizzly bears, black bears, deer, skunks and turkeys), including my folks' dog Trapper. I've included a few pics here. One of Trapper where he looks like a vicious dog (he's so not so I thought it was funny), the path where the hammocks await and another of the river they get to enjoy--Flathead River--each and every day.
It's so hard to find time to blog when the sun's out and there are frisbees to throw, parties to host, runs to run and trips to take, so please forgive Dip and I when we vanish from the grid. When we do, just smile and know we're somewhere having fun and most likely you'll hear about it after we return.
Hope everyone is enjoying their summer months so far!
Portland's Gay Pride was this weekend. As you can imagine, I'm exhausted. The Dyke March was a blast. Because Lipstick & I are usually working the Curve booth, we've missed the Dyke March in the past few years. This year Curve wasn't able to make it to Portland Pride, so I was free to march with the Dykes. I sure did miss it! Check out my photo gallery.
It seems some of you did not watch the Pride vlog, or you chose to ignore our advice. Or rather, you took Lipstick's advice. I saw one woman limping home, barefoot and pregnant because she decided to wear cute, instead of comfortable shoes. And you know what she sacrificed? A night of dancing with bunches of hot ladies. All because she didn't take Dipstick's advice and wear sensible shoes.
I'm lucky enough that I don't have any exes that live in Portland, so I don't have to worry about running into them. But two friends did. How could it not happen? For one it was simply awkward. For the other it was kind of traumatic. Ah lesbians, we're either best friends with our exes or spend our existence avoiding them. At least these dykes didn't stay home, just to avoid the inevitable run-in.
No matter where and when your pride is, I hope you have tons of fun, few protesters and no traumatic ex run-ins.
My name is Dee Rees and I'm reaching out to you because I'm currently writing/directing a coming-of-age film about a black, lesbian teenager called PARIAH. PARIAH seeks to personalize the struggles of gay/lesbian youth of color in such a way that evokes empathy, opens doors to communication, and promotes dialogue within families. The short film of the same title screened at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and has won numerous festival awards both domestically and abroad.
PARIAH is a semi-finalist in the Netflix FIND Your Voice Competition, but it's a very close race and I could really use your support in order to raise awareness for the project. PARIAH is the only African-American, gay project in the running and we really need voices across all communities to show the film industry that we want to see this story and more stories like this represented onscreen.
Please support us by visiting http://www.netflixfindyourvoice.com to view and vote for our trailer. Only the top 5 projects in this round move on, and we're currently in 6th place and hanging on by a thread... Our goal is to get 10,000 stars, so any support you could lend us in getting this out to the broader LGBT community would be amazing.
In case you're in need of advice for this Pride season, Lipstick & Dipstick have compiled some tips to help you navigate the rainbow waters.
You can watch it at www.curvemag.com or get a looksy loo here. That reminds me, I never posted Part Two of Carla's Hunt for a Girlfriend. It's below, too.
Normally I avoid anything having to do with Rose Festival. But once every five years or so, I get it in my head that I should ride my bike down to the Rose Quarter and check out the parade. Each time I do, I am reminded why I stay away. The parade is really boring. It's nothing at all like Gay Pride, where people are outrageous and flamboyant and disco music is pumping.
Instead, it's just a bunch of teenage blonde rodeo clones on horses, perky high school girls in gowns practicing their princess wave and creepy clown posses scaring the little children. Sure, some of the floats are pretty, but all I can think about is the wasted resources.
This year I took my camera and thought I'd take a few shots for the blog. The most interesting thing was when this car, carrying a 1959 Rose Princess, broke down and people had to jump in from the sidelines to push it out of the way. As you can see, they got it fixed and eventually pulled back into the parade route.
Other than the broken down car, the only other thing that really caught my eye was the cute female cops. I hope you enjoy looking at them. Maybe they'll be around next weekend for gay pride too.
I recently found out about this very cool website. It was started by a 21-year-old college student who wanted to show the faces of all the people out there - gay and straight - who support LGBT equality.
People are encouraged to hold up signs with different messages. Here are a few from the site.
A measured blend of guidance, wit and sincerity from the femme and the butch perspective, Lipstick & Dipstick is a punchy advice column in CURVE Magazine, the nation's best-selling lesbian magazine.
"Finally! What we've been missing from Oprah and Dr Phil!! Lip and Dip bring unflinching truth to gay gals who are in, near or want a relationship. And they drench it all with great gobs of humor. Irresistible."
Honey Labrador said:
"Get ready to learn all you ever wanted to know (and more that you never wanted to know) about that girl you are SURE is 'the one' in Lipstick & Dipstick's Essential Guide to Lesbian Relationships. A real page turner and eye opener...but most of all, with a sense of humor! If we can't laugh at ourselves ladies, than who will? Thanks for the insights...better late than never!"
Diane Anderson-Minshall said:
"Move over Dan Savage and out of the way Ann Landers. There's a new guru in town (two of them!) and they're dishing out sexy, saucy, ribald and totally irreverent advice for girls who can't say no, aren't in the know, or are still on the down low. Lipstick & Dipstick's Essential Guide to Lesbian Relationships from Alyson Books tackles everything from titillating first dates to vengeful ex lovers, bisexual babes, and the top five wedding no-nos (only a couple of dykes would put strippers and Styrofoam on the same list). Want to know when to take the plunge? Dipstick's quiz will have you down on your knees or running for cover. Does your girlfriend talk to her softball coach 17 times a day? Apparently Lipstick knows just the answer. Though you may disagree with the sometimes incisive, sometimes flippant recommendations-heck, they disagree with each other-you can bet that what you're reading is a well tested, hard-to-find, how-to guide to life as a lesbian in the '00s. No lesbian should be without it."
