Lyme Time 4 on Saturday September 11th, Fundraiser

It is time for the fundraiser that put the FUN in Fundraiser, Lyme Time 4.  Randy Andy will preform again with a wonderful cast of community notables. The mere act of purchasing tickets will help Randy Andy and her devoted partner Rachel deal with the financial drain of Randy Andy having Chronic Lyme Disease.  As with any chronic illness, many areas of life can be affected and costly treatments can be a burden.  This event is a great evening out and can help a friend too!  Ms T.


Lyme Time 4 Show Details

Saturday, September 11th 7:30 PM (doors open at 6:30)
Theatre Off Jackson (of course!)
409 7th Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98125
Price: $12.00 advance.  $15.00 VIP.  $20 at the door
must be 21+ to attend
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/118415
If you can't make it, or live out of town and want to support us, as always we accept donations both directly (contact me at choreoray@yahoo.com) or via buying tickets on Brown Paper Ticket (and  let me know via email choreoray@yahoo.com that you are buying tickets in support but are unable to attend the show).  
Please tell the people in your life about this show.  We need all the help we can get!

On Seattle Announcements Calendar.

Much anticipated Butch Voices Conference

The Butch Voices Conferences is at the end of the month over the first weekend in October.  The full press release provides details on what looks to be a wonderful weekend.  This surely spells ROADTRIP!  Ms T.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Butches Convene in Portland for BUTCH Voices Regional Conference 

Date: September 3, 2010                                                                                  

Contact: Joe LeBlanc, BUTCH Voices Portland Regional Conference Chair

Email: butchvoices@gmail.com

Butch Voices, a grassroots organization dedicated to all self identified Butches, Studs, Aggressives, other similar identities, and their Allies is holding a Regional Conference on September 30th – October 3rd, 2010 in Portland, Oregon.

The BUTCH Voices Portland Regional Conference kicks off with their opening night art exhibition 6pm, September 30th at Q Center located at 4115 N Mississippi Ave.  Artists from all over the Pacific Northwest region will be highlighted in a month long art exhibit, Flavors of BUTCH Taste, curated by Jay Walls.  There will be a meet and greet event on Friday evening at Scandals Lounge located at 1125 Southwest Stark St. Following the meet and greet will be special performance by the queer interdisciplinary performance troupe, SweLL, composed of Ivan E. Coyote, Lyndell Montgomery, and Anna Camilleri.  

On Saturday, October 2nd there will be workshops and panels covering topics such as: Dismantling Racism in the LGBT Communities, Butch Porn, Two Spirits, Genderqueer, and Healthcare Advocacy from 9am to 6pm on campus at Portland State University located in four different rooms in the Smith Memorial Student Union.  This event, co-sponsored by the Queer Resource Center at PSU will include lunch and feature a Keynote Speech given by Kathleen Saadat, who hosts a long list of achievements including the Woman of Achievement Award from Oregon State University.

Saturday night BUTCH Voices will host the variety showcase BUTCH BUFFET at the Hawthorne Theatre located at 1507 SE 39th Ave.  The showcase will include live theater, drag, live music, and other talents including a segment from the SweLL performers, Bruce T.D. King as emcee, and from "America's Got Talent" butch hand-whistling sensation Sally Cohn.  Doors open at 8pm and showtime is 9pm.  The evening continues with Butch Dessert, the dance party at the Egyptian Club located at 3701 Southeast Division St.

Sunday, October 3rd there will be a spoken word and artists showcase, Gender/Queer, at In Other Words Women’s Bookstore from 2pm to 5pm.  BUTCH Voices will wind down their conference weekend with a Costume Contest and Karaoke Night to close things out at the Egyptian Club.

BUTCH Voices Portland Regional Conference Chair Joe LeBlanc states, "With our Regional Conferences, BUTCH Voices hopes to capture the differences among us within each region as a broad based community at large.  Each conference will have its own flavor and will bring to the table issues that are pertinent and specific towards our goal of empowering each other.”

ASL interpretation will be provided by DHOR. Tickets for SweLL are $12 in advance, and $15 at the door.  Conference registration is $10 for limited income and students, and $20 regularly which covers the other conference events and Saturday night performance. 

Registration is available online and more details on the BUTCH Voices website:  http://www.butchvoices.com/regional-conferences-portland/

~~~

Mission Statement:

The mission of BUTCH Voices is to enhance and sustain the well-being of all women, female-bodied, and trans-identified individuals who are masculine of center*.  We achieve this by providing programs that build community, positive visibility and empower us to advocate for our whole selves inclusive of and beyond our gender identity and sexual orientation.

Our community is vast and growing and we have many identifications that resemble what the world knows as our “butchness.” We recognize our diversity as having a foundation rooted in butch heritage. We welcome the on-going development of movements intentionally and critically inclusive of our gender variant community. BUTCH Voices is a social justice organization that is race and gender inclusive, pro-womanist and feminist.

For more information on BUTCH Voices, visit http://www.butchvoices.com. 

BUTCH Voices, PO Box 40532 San Diego, CA 92164-0532

On Seattle Announcements Calendar.

Hot Flash IS THE ONLY place to be this Saturday 21st -

     This Saturday (21st) it may feel like old home week at Hot Flash as you enjoy greeting friends you have not seen out for a while.  THIS is the Hot Flash to go to as Pauline is rolling out the red carpets and throwing a party that will have us wanting more!  I know I am excited to dress up, see women peeps that haven't been out as much lately and make a fabulous night of it.  It is time to party from 6 - 10pm at Neighbours!     
     boi Di will be ensuring that we are entertained at the dance and will be warming us up for the Leather and Lace Talent Show on October 2nd (see next post).  Come on out and support the LGBT Elder Fund by hanging with friends, getting your boots shined, testing your luck at the raffle and shaking your sexy groove thing.  Now, let's see what fun and debauchery Ms Pauline has in store for us!   Ms T.


That's right, Ladies.  Hot Flash has a NEW ATTITUDE!

Di King, WA State Leather Woman 2010, is bringing in the women of Seattle's Leather Community to fundraise for LGBT Elders. 
Be ready:  2 beautiful femme boot blacks to shine your shoes;

Leather Raffle featuring cool gear;
Toilet Paper Bondage Contest; Fan and Flag Dancing by Corky;



1/2 Price for Dykes Who Bring Their Bikes (Motorcycles Only)!  Register your bike for a reserved parking spot in the alley at Neighbours - email (*Pauline at hotflash dot com ) with your name and bike style for 1/2 price coupon; limited space so register early.  You'll be cruising all night without even having to turn on your engines!


Burlesque by our own Happy Hour Hooptinis, Ms. Popeye and Ms. Birdie!


DJ WILDFIRE amps the night with a combination of party anthems, old skool, R&B, disco, hip hop & the best dance music of today.

You know her from our Pride Dances at the War Room (HG) and you've been asking for her at Hot Flash Seattle.  She's the bomb, ladies!

PHOTOS OF YOUR TATTS by our photographer, Jennifer Durham, so wear fetish clothing that shows off your best assets . . .  You will ID by your tattoos in our photos. 

Gina, Garland, Tracy and Wendy are REAL LIVE LESBIAN GO-GO DANCERS dancing for the women they truly LOVE!

And More to be Announced Next Week When Finalized!

On Seattle Announcements Calendar.

1st Annual Leather and Lace (No Contest) FundRaiser - Save the Date

Now that you know where you will be this Saturday the 21st (Hot Flash), let me tell you about the event that we are preparing for!  boi Di who is the current title holder of Washington State Ms. Leather is putting on a show that will be reminiscent of some old school entertainment!  We hope to raise money and have a spanking good time.  Save the date of October 2nd and let's make a great evening of it!

1st Annual Leather & Lace No Contest Fundraiser 

will directly benefit the 

newly established 

LGBT Elders' Fund.  

October 2nd, 2010

6:30 -  8:30
MC'd by the one and only Lamar Van Dyke
Featuring Fabulous Community Entertainers

The Cuff

1533 13th Ave, Seattle,
Suggested Donation $10
Raffle to benefit LGBT Elders' Fund
email: boi Di wastatemsleather2010@gmail.com with any questions
www.wsmlo.org
WSMLO is a federally recognized 501(c) (3) organization.

On Seattle Announcements Calendar.

2 articles on The Kids Are All Right, our voices can be heard and should be

You will find two posts on the newly released film The Kids Are All Right.  For those of you with children in your lives this may effect you in one way and for those that have been fighting for equality this may be seen as another stepping stone.  After I had created my first posting GLAAD posted another article regarding a negative review of the film that took 'offensive' a bit beyond the film.  There is an opportunity for your voice to be heard and I hope you will read the contents of both articles.  Ms T.

Make our voices heard to The 'New York Post' offensive critique of The Kids Are All Right

As a follow up to my previous post on the newly released moving The Kids Are All Right, GLAAD has posted an important article regarding New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser's biased and nasty review of The Kids Are All Right.  Using terms as 'gay agenda' and asking movie goers to 'choose their lifestyles wisely' Andrea Peyser is offensive and seems to have an anti - gay bias with her film review.

We have the opportunity to write to the New York Post and to Andrea Peyser.  All information is contained in the article I have posted in it's entirety.  I thank GLAAD for their great coverage and for this post.  Ms T.

This week New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser wrote a highly offensive critique of the newly released movie, The Kids Are All Right, a movie starring Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo.

As we told you in a previous blog, in the film, by out filmmaker Lisa Cholodenko, Bening and Moore play a longtime couple who began a family through donor insemination, with each mother bearing a child. As teenagers, the couple’s children decide to track down their donor (Ruffalo) without telling their mothers. The film deals with how the family copes once the donor enters their lives.

The Kids Are All Right has received rave reviews from well-established newspapers like the  New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. While it is nearly impossible to create a film that pleases every critic, NY Post writer Andrea Peyser expressed her dislike for the film while simultaneously disparaging gay and lesbian families. It’s clear that Peyser’s objection to the film goes far beyond fair criticism and reflects her own personal anti-gay bias.

Peyser is certainly entitled to her opinion but her cheap shots at gay families were over the top and unacceptable.  Here’s an extended excerpt from the column, illustrating the offensive tone. Peyser describes 'The Kids Are All Right as:

sort of a cross between 'Leave it to Beaver' and 'Kittens With Whips.' Choose your lifestyle wisely, moviegoers. For this film is set to go down in history as the first major motion picture to make a family led by gay women — A-lister Annette Bening, as the control-freak doctor Nic, 'wed' to A-lister Julianne Moore, as the weepy, infantilized Jules — seem not just normal, but close to godly.

It reaches further than the gay-cowboy romp 'Brokeback Mountain,' whose characters maintained a sense of otherness while shielding the kids from their shenanigans. In this movie, exposing kids is the entire point.

And this is how Hollywood does an end run around morality.

'Hollywood has set the stage for the gay agenda, nothing new,' said Laura Bailey, Brooklyn mom of two boys. 'Why do you think they did propaganda films in the 1940s? They’re setting the new norm.'
 
'The movie industry is doing its best to undermine the American family, said Patricia Whitehead, Connecticut mom of two girls. 'Hollywood — we don’t care about the sick lives you lead behind closed doors. Just don’t bring children into it.'

This brazen attempt at trend-setting comes as national polls show Americans oppose gay marriage, half of us strongly. Support for it was at 47 percent in this year’s Washington Post/ABC News poll — but fully two-thirds favored civil unions, in which gay couples enjoy most rights of marrieds without having to stand under the chuppah.

It doesn’t take a genius to glean the truth: Folks are happy with gays living together. But bringing children into the equation is a deal-breaker.
The column fails to include any gay parents, any adults who were raised by gay parents or anyone supportive of LGBT people. It also leaves out a very important fact: Nearly every credible authority on child health and social services (including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Child Welfare League of America) has determined that a parent’s sexual orientation has nothing to do with the ability to be a good parent.

Peyser also uses the offensive term 'lifestyle' to describe gay and lesbian lives, and concludes her piece with yet another viewpoint against gay parents:

I went to see it in Chelsea, where the crowd was generally smitten. But therapist Karen Kopitz saw through the gay proselytizing.

'I’m not anti-gay,' she said. 'But I don’t think you can compensate for the male-female role model.'
Please write to Andrea Peyser and the New York Post and voice your concerns about this offensive column.  Tell them to stop using this media platform to denigrate loving gay families.

Contact:  letters@nypost.com

We also urge journalists covering this film to consult GLAAD’s resource guide on The Kids Are All Right. The guide is intended as a tool for journalists and bloggers who want to learn more about the topics covered in the movie and includes talking points on donor insemination, how to discuss gay families and information on real life stories. To view the guide, please visit: http://www.glaad.org/kidsareallright

The Kids Are All Right came with a resouce guide but my kid did not

On July 12th, GLAAD issued a resource guide for the new film The Kids Are All Right.  I admit I feel a bit of a personal pull with this film's topic having lived some parts of this story in my own life.  I do watch these type of Hollywood flicks to see how they turn out, if they insist on the crappy Hollywood endings we have all become so nauseatingly accustomed to seeing or if they take the bold smart right risk and actually dare to represent our lives fairly and perhaps with compassion.

In my own life I knew that I had wanted to give birth to a child if possible but in the 19 dark hundred 70's when I came out it was not politically very correct to want to have a child in some politically queer circles.  One was thought of having some subversive straight gene and if you looked like I did then you were definitely suspect (femme).  I still held the desire close to my heart but did not believe it would come to fruition.

In the very early 80's I was at the home birth of a dear friend who was indeed a trail blazer by having a child and raising her mainly as a single parent with great determination.  She even fostered children when her daughter was a bit older as an out lesbian foster mother.  It did show me that it was possible and also was an example of how much work parenting was.

Many of us know both of them as they are still in our community today but visiting a far away land (Hi M & L).  It was fabulous to see the grown up baby come to my birthday party at the Timberline in 2004 as an adult woman - oh my god, that is enough to make one feel their age.  She has turned out to be a beautiful young woman with her mothers' love of travel very much a part of her.  The apple and the tree is a true story there.

By the early 90's I was in a stable relationship and felt very blessed that my partner wanted to have a child too.  It was not like it is today where there are tons of queer folk having children, we were still the exception.  There were not resources readily available regarding donor insemination, what the options were, how to make the best choice for your own situation or how to live with it after wards so I started a group for lesbians that wanted to have children.

Several of us in the group became pregnant and were grateful that we had each other to sort through what felt was the 'right way' for our lives.  We each utilized different choices in donor options.  It was still not the most conventional or popular thing to do - you had to search a bit to find others like you, so much of my support once I became pregnant started to become from straight counterparts pregnant and having children.  This was not too unusual I soon found out by talking with other gay families I met.


In a few short years things started to change dramatically.  Many more queer people started having children by birth or adopting.  Now there are tons of groups and support available if you are queer and want to be a parent.  We made the decision for our family that worked for us and have a known donor who our daughter knows as her dad.  She is grateful that she has this relationship with him and I feel that we made the right decision for our family.  I believe strongly that every situation is different and people have to do what they believe will work for them.

My life has been enriched by my relationship with my daughter and I feel so fortunate that I was able to have a child.  She has brought joy to my life and also to the other adults that round out her family.  A couple years ago I overheard her saying 'After I get permission from the 'lesbian brady bunch' I will call you back'.  Unbeknown to me that is how she referred to her family AND she had nicknamed each of us, her biggest fans and bleacher warmers.  I will spare you the nicknames.

As I was writing I reflected on truly how far things have come in a relatively short period of time.  I certainly do believe in continuing to strive and push until we are treated 100% equally.  Sometimes it is easy to think of how far we have to go to gain total equality but when I look at my daughter it tells me how truly far we have come.  Ms T.

Today, GLAAD released a resource guide for the new film The Kids Are All Right, starring Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo. The guide is intended as a tool for journalists and bloggers who want to learn more about the topics covered in the film and includes talking points on donor insemination, how to discuss alternative families and information on real life stories. To view the guide, please visit: http://www.glaad.org/kidsareallright

In the film by out filmmaker Lisa Cholodenko, Bening and Moore play a longtime couple who began a family through donor insemination, each mother bearing a child. As teenagers, the couple’s children decide to track down their donor (Ruffalo) without telling their mothers. The film deals with how the family copes once the donor enters their lives.

“What’s so interesting about this movie is that it really highlights how important a family is. What a long-term relationship is,” said Moore in an interview with AfterEllen.com. “What it means to stick it out with somebody; to forgive people’s mistakes; to punish people within your family; to guide them toward growing up and leaving after you’ve been so attached — all of these things. The film is a really interesting exploration of that.”

According to Deadline.com, The Kids Are All Right opened on seven screens this past Friday and scored the highest per screen gross this year so far with $72,127 per screen. If its box office performance is any indication, The Kids Are All Right underscores the desire among American audiences to see lesbian stories reflected on screen. The film will be expanding into 11 new markets this week. For more information, please visit the film’s official website.

Thanks to GLAAD for this article.