Transphobia: The Hate Anyone can Exercise including Feminists like those on A Room of Our Own

Autumn Sandeen pointed out the following on Pam’s House Blend.

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/14246/thanksgiving-week-thankfulness-for-pam

As a left wing anarcha-feminist I tend to not spend much time in cultural feminist land as I really do not like hanging out where I am considered down by birth. Feminism, even Lesbian as in LGBT/T Feminism offers me enough space where my very humanity is not held up to abuse or the very legitimacy of my existence questioned.

I have barred certain people of the HBS political identity from posting here as they are abusive of people with transgenderism. Racists, homophobes, religious ideologues and right wingers are not welcome here. So if you are a follower of A Room of Our Own and think you will be able to turn this post into a forum for your bigotry… Think again..

My take on things may be a bit different than the sisters who run Questioning Transphobia as our experiences are different and so is our language. But, even if I put things differently from them or for that matter from Julia Serano, I’m fairly certain that we are seeing the same bigotry standing in opposition to it.

The piece of verbal diarrhea I am referring to may be found at:

http://aroomofourown.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/no-such-thing-as-a-transsexual/

It is by Margaret Jamison.

I have been out for over 40 years and an activist longer than that. I have watched the history of the movements from within those movements. I have seen their rise and fall, the internal wars that often destroyed them.

The loudest and most vicious forms of anti-transsexual bigotry have often been reflective of what I see as the worst tendencies within the various movements. Julia Serano titled her book “Whipping Girl” and put forth the proposition that transphobia is misogyny directed towards a convenient scapegoat.

Within the early feminist movement there was another tendency. Women who worked the hardest and were among the most dedicated as well as talented were seen as trying to rise above the other women. Some of us who were in the feminist/lesbian movements in those early days did what people with transsexualism have always done. We threw ourselves into that movement whole heartedly, working harder than anyone else. This was because we were raised thinking ourselves to be inferior and never good enough therefore we felt we had to prove our worth by working harder than anyone else.

Over compensation for poor self image. No matter how it gets directed. In one sister it might mean thousands of dollars worth of plastic surgery, another constant schooling and the pursuit of the Ph.D. Or being the best feminist one could possibly be.

There was a sister named Beth Elliott, in the Bay Area. She was a member of Daughters of Bilitis. She had the honor of being the first sister I know of who was publicly trashed first in “It Ain’t Me Babe” and later by Robin Morgan.

I didn’t understand it at first. But over the years I learned how Cointelpro worked and sowed seeds of destruction within various progressive groups by attacking people who were dedicated hard workers. Take down one and destroy her or him and you have not only destroyed an individual but any who share a common trait with the person destroyed.

Turn the attacking and defending of the individual into a factional split and the organization is destroyed. It doesn’t matter if the individual was innocent of every charge, fictitious charges; lies told loudly enough in a practice called “bad jacketing” can tear an organization, indeed a movement apart.

I can’t say for sure that what happened to Beth was Cointelpro. It doesn’t matter because even if it wasn’t, the result was the same. One more element in the destruction of the first Lesbian Organization promoting lesbian liberation..

Oddly the charges leveled against Beth and outlined in her book Mirrors: Portrait of a Lesbian Transsexual became the script for every bit of filth that could be leveled at women of a transsexual history by self proclaimed radical feminists and lesbian feminists.

A few years later Sandy Stone, recording engineer for Olivia Records, a lesbian music collective was hit with similar if somewhat different charges setting off a back and forth war of words within the feminist and lesbian feminist press regarding the legitimacy of women of a transsexual history.

Then Janice Raymond dropped her bigoted polemic, The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male. Previous attacks had often been directed at those sisters who were closest to the socially acceptable feminine stereotypes or who were in touch with their sexiness and embraced their sexy female side leaving those of us who were good feminists in our jeans and movement t-shirts feeling safe. Raymond changed all that.

Now those of us who were good feminists, working doing leaflet layout and production, petition signature collecting and all the grunt work of the feminist movement were suddenly as bad as our sisters who were enjoying being sex positive heterosexual women during an era far less uptight than the present.

Things I wish we knew or thought about then that we know now. Raymond was a former Catholic nun and her mentor Mary Daly was originally a professor of theology who became involved in some pretty weird cult like magical thinking regarding theories of hidden matriarchal cultures.

The reactionary cultural feminism that had first stirred with Jane Alpert’s “Mother Right” and was embraced by Robin Morgan, who coincidentally led the lynch mob attack on Beth Elliott. (Morgan’s side of it can be found in Going too Far). Alpert laid out a form of binary gender essentialism that posited the same sort of black and white binary innateness one found in the traditional patriarchal bullshit that ordained the role of women as inferior to men.

It was seriously reactionary at a time when so much of feminism was based on the overlapping abilities and traits of men and women.

Long before GID and the million post-modern word games transsexual and transgender people play now people with transsexualism and transgenderism used that overlapping of traits to argue that maleness and femaleness were a continuum rather than a binary and that we were simply more predominately at the end not indicated by our at birth sex assignment.

But back to Daly and Raymond. Their Catholicism is the source of their ideology not feminism. I may blend anarchism and Marxist class consciousness with my feminism but they had to do an even bigger trick, that is to say they had to build their feminism on a foundation of misogyny.

Raymond’s position reflects that form of Christo-fascism that I first saw at 14 when the priest my mother sent me to for counseling basically told me that I would have to live my life in total denial of what I was or face an eternity in hell. That I couldn’t even think or fantasize about something so intrinsic to my being that I would discard family and risk a life of social ostracism to be. I was born with transsexualism. That was something I can not change.

Yet both the priests and the Ramondites would have me commit suicide either physically or by repression by denying me the legitimacy of my being. This is a denial of my humanity, a form of abuse so severe as to be unacceptable when directed at groups based on race or ethnicity or for that matter when directed at gays or lesbians.

It becomes far more egregious when a lesbian or gay man or for that matter someone claiming to be feminist starts attacking transsexual or transgender people. It is almost as though those doing the attacking are unaware of the real basis for those attacks and how it can be traced back to a chapter in the Bible that is filled with widely ignored rules.

I am speaking of Deuteronomy 22: 5 (King James Bible)

“The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.”

Now most gay and lesbian people as well as most feminists have questioned the manner in which these ancient books of mythology have been used as tools of oppression. One does not have to look very hard to see the Bible as the source of both homophobia and misogyny.

However, the label of abomination is particularly harsh and is followed if memory serves me correctly with the part about how our blood should be upon us suggesting that any manner of violence including murder is justified.

When one listens to the vile and often contradictory slander that is laid upon transsexual and transgender people by bigots like the woman at AROOO one has to ask exactly what TS/TG folks are supposed to do?

We are attacked if we manage to get an education and develop a career. We are attacked if our educational opportunities in childhood were destroyed and we only managed to do sex work.

We are attacked for getting breast implants even though they were not developed specifically for us and the majority of women getting them were assigned female at birth. The excuse for not attacking natal females is that they get them due to having a flawed body image since male dominated media regularly shows ample breasted women as sexy and glamorous.

Ahh, but that is different. Actually it is not. TS/TG people are immersed in the same cultural soup as normborns.

TS/TG people both T to F and T to M can be either straight or gay/lesbian. Some are bisexual yet it often seems that the only form of sex that is acceptable to the bigots is asexuality and even that is probably reason for condemnation. Even self pleasuring is suspect in spite of there being feminist run businesses merchandising sex toys for women including Smitten Kitten and Good Vibrations.

If we get SRS we are mutilated men (or women as the case may be). If not we are men in dresses of which there is no T to M equivalent.

One of the nastiest rejoinders is the one that directs us to remain as we were assigned no matter how miserable we are and to fight sexism and the gender binary from our originally assigned sex. Now I opposed the draft back in the 1960s and as an anarcha-feminist I find the very idea that someone else should be required to fight a war for someone else’s cause questionable at best.

At worst it is like demanding that gay and lesbian people have reparative therapy and live as straight working to end the tyranny of the patriarchal oppression of women in marriage by changing it in a way so that gays and lesbians will no longer have to be gay or lesbian to find relationships where they are equally respected partners. Oh and BTW erase homosexuality.

We have progressed far beyond that, besides Audre Lorde gave us the tagline about how the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.

Anarchists do not demand others sacrifice their lives and pursuit of happiness to fight ill defined quixotic battles. Existentially that form of behavior is ethically questionable. It is more characteristic of hate groups than liberation movements.

I saw the purity purges on the left. In the 1970s I actually had someone tell me that in spite of her misogyny Phyllis Schlafly was her sister because of birth and in spite of my being a hard working feminist because of my birth I could never be. That for the same reasons the homophobic Anita Bryant was her sister but no matter how hard I worked at The Lesbian Tide, I was not.

It has always escaped me how people who demand autonomy for themselves when it comes to intimate matters on issues like abortion access and birth control can not see the contradiction in denying TS/TG folks the same self determination and autonomy regarding decisions they might make regarding their own bodies.

Perhaps it is time for those resurrecting the anti-transsexual/anti-transgender rhetoric to engage in what we in Weather called criticism/self-criticism because their bigoted politics suck and are in contradiction with both feminism and gay/lesbian liberation.

Perhaps the people exercising this anti-TS/TG bigotry would be happier among the right wing racist and homophobic hate groups that share the same sorts of bigoted language that show class hatred towards entire classes of people based on fictitious stereotype, even when some in that group may actually exhibit that stereotype.

No gods, No masters

[Via http://womenborntranssexual.com]

I hate you, why don't you love me?

by Stirling.

Rage and Loneliness often seem two sides of the same dirty little coin.  I got a free subscription to a adult web cam service.  That old hatred of woman comes up sometimes, and I fear this is the time.  There are about a thousand dudes on, and about 50 women.  A woman can get 500 views just by looking into the webcam and licking her lips.  Do you know what a man can do to get female attention? Neither do I.  I’ve studied feminism some, and I like what it says for the most part.  I know I don’t have any right to a woman.  But its so frustrating.  When I first studied feminism it made me so angry because I thought “The Patriarchy? Bullshit, women run everything.”

I’m sure that to women it is really sad and unfair that they have to sexualize themselves to be successful.  You know what’s unfair to me? That I can’t sexualize myself to be successful.  A woman can rub her breasts through her shirt, showing nothing, and 750 viewers will show up to watch, to compliment, to encourage.  There is nothing, absolutely nothing have that can motivate women to  affirm me the same way men can be motivated to affirm a woman.

So much power! A woman can get her desired sex to pay for her, compete for her, fight for her, steal for her, even kill for her.  I couldn’t get a woman to even look at me.  One woman actually talked to me.  She was 20 years older then I am, and as soon as she found out I was not available to service her that evening, she lost all interest in talking to me.  A man having the same standards under the same circumstances is laughable.  Woman can do it because whatever power the lack politically they have sexually if they chose to.  Women are competed for by men, men are not competed for by women.  Go to any place where men go to meet women, and you will find predominately men looking for women, and a handful of woman turning down man, after man, after man.

The unfairness of it all hurts sometimes.  Supposedly, as a white male I am the center of privilege and authority on earth.  I would give it up to live as man in a matriarchal society.  Imagine going into a bar, and its 80% women.  As you walk in with your buddies, every eye in the place turns to you.  Other then a few drunks and married gals, every woman there wants you naked and pressed inside her a she rides you hard into the mattress. You go up to the bar, and someone offers to buy you a drink.  You flirt for drinks, and go play pool with the best looking one woman.  She lets you win, and she takes you home to a messy apartment and fucks you.  They all want to fuck you.  Any woman you offered yourself too would fuck you, you just have to chose the good ones.

My,  it must be a rough life.

I know in my head this wrong.  I know that when a woman walks into a bar and everyone stares at her she feels like meat, and probably a bit unsafe.  The constant “I’m willing to fuck you” would get really old after awhile because at some point you would feel like “Yes, I know you want to fuck me, everyone one wants to fuck me.  But do you like me? Do you think I am a cool person? Do I make you laugh? ”   Money has value based on scarcity, and I suppose when everyone who has the opposite genitals you do would nip off behind the shed with you, sexual desire ceases to have relationship scarcity and your coin becomes something more esoteric.  It makes perfect sense, really.

And if forces me to confront the real truth.  I don’t want women to want to fuck me.  I get all the sex I need from my wife. But I am a black hole of need for approval and affirmation.

A lot of guys have fantasies about ménage à trois.  You know what my 2 woman fantasy is?  I want to sit between two women on a couch. I want their luscious hips pressed up against me. I want them to slide arms against mine as we watch a chick flick.  I want to feel them cry a bit and know that they trust me enough with their emotions to do so in front of me.  I want shinning eyes, long glances, accidental contact.  I kisses on the cheek and playful slaps on the ass.  My two woman fantasy is being the housekeeper for a lovely lesbian couple?

I don’t feel like much of real man writing this.  Doesn’t a real man want to fuck lots of women? Isn’t a real man complete in himself? Doesn’t he have sex purely for pleasure and without emotional complications?  But I know that I don’t want to see naked women who want to be fucked anymore.   I don’t want to see a woman strip to get me off.  I want a woman to reveal her self to me.  If I woman wants to be naked for me, I want it to be for the real me, not the me male stereotypes tell her I am supposed to be.

I want to be loved.  I’m sick of  the presto, ready-made, just-add-lust, kind of bliss that online relationships have.  It never tastes as good as the home made stuff.  I want to be special, approved off, sought after.

And nobody gives a shit.  So the loneliness turns to rage. I hate the whole world right now, but mostly the women.  I hate every Jimmy Cricket bullshit line I’ve ever been told about how being yourself is the real path to friends.  Myself is an straight but artistic and sensitive guy who is profoundly well read, in good shape and in a relationally (rather then sexually) open relationship.  Nobody cares what my opinion is, what I think, what book I’ve read today.  I’ married and I don’t fuck for sport so I priced myself out of the market.

Fuck you all.

[Via http://rageomatic.wordpress.com]

The Catholic Church and Gay Marriage

So, I was reading this boring Catholic newspaper that we get every week. I got really pissed off because the archbishops are trying to defend marriage. The definition of marriage is the union of a man and a woman. On the front cover they can’t even say same-sex marriage in that article, because they probably think it’s some kind of taboo!

Sunday, November 29th, is supposed to be a day of prayer for the vocation and sacrament of marriage. That is horrible… the church is using prayer against something. That is so sacreligious. Pray against gay marriage? Well I hope we don’t have to when I go to mass to sing on Sunday! On November 29th (tomorrow), I am going to pray for the gay community, that the Catholic church will stop rejecting them and that they may be able to have their marriage. It’s all about love not gender! I think Jesus would accept everyone for who they are. These are our short lived years on Earth, so we need to make them last. Life is just a moment, so we should try to spend it accepting and respecting others so we will still be happy after our time on Earth is complete.

So I bet you are all thinking I’m gay now. Well I’m not. I’m just like, the anti-homophobia Nazi. Back to the main topic now. These silly bishops think that people are focused on satisfaction and not the Gospel. WTF!!! It’s love, you can’t mess with that. I am so angry. I feel like sometimes we just need to take out the things we don’t like about our religion and use what works for us.

So… War, poverty, and what is the church so focused on rebelling against? Gay marriage.

It’s about love, not gender.

[Via http://thehappyemo.wordpress.com]

کتاب هم جنس من(لزبین) زن با زن شماره 4

کتاب هم جنس من(لزبین) زن با زن شماره 4

موضوعات:

زنان نویسنده وشاعر,ریشه رمانهای لزبینی ,اتو کردن پستان, همجنس گرایی مد شده ,لزبین ,ایدئولوزی ازدواج , و…

دانلود کتاب هم جنس من(لزبین) زن با زن شماره 4

[Via http://kheradgar.wordpress.com]

Copenhagen Fertility Center

Our Chief Embryologist got this years award for best scientific presentation i Geneva

Copenhagen Fertility Center is one of the largest fertility Clinics in Scandinavia. It is situated in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The founder, Professor dr. med. Svend Lindenberg has been active in artificial reproductive technologies and treatment since 1980, and was one of the team members producing the first IVF baby in Denmark 1983.

The clinic offers the all forms of fertility treatments for both national patientens and international patients. It  is allowed in Denmark to treat couples as well as single women and lesbian with insemination and in vitro fertilisation up to women being 45 years of age.

Read more here

[Via http://copenhagenfertilitycenter.wordpress.com]

Sex On The Set

Title Sex On The Set Genres All Sex, Feature, Lesbian Actors Alektra Blue, Jennifer Dark, Mikayla Mendez, Sativa Rose, Tiffany Taylor Studio Wicked Pictures Review Lights! Camera! Action! And when Wicked points the camera, there’s bound to be plenty of action! Mikayla Mendez lights up the screen as she seduces the camera, her man, and even sultry Sativa Rose. And when Mikayla isn’t on set, it’s time for fellow Wicked girl Alektra Blue to shine. Sit back and prepare to be seduced by Sex on Set!

[Via http://mypornmovies.wordpress.com]

fur

for my G

mother cat
let me crawl inside your
stealthy quiet
leather urgency
calling to me
from across the
shifting earth

mother cat
let me crawl inside
through this ancient winding
Broadway trail
of tears and remembrance
where cities fade—
grass to rocks
to these cliffs we climb naked
by the sea,
locking waves and moon
in our starlit tongues
eternally—

_______

she
who carries me in
her teeth
licks
me clean
and growls on her haunches
at the shadow songs of dogs:

whose fur surrounds me
whose scent confounds me
with the mysteries of
streetlights and
infrared vision
and homing missiles of
similitude

night prowling mystic
who hunts me
so bluntly,
cunt into socket
into heart into
lotus flower crowns
that surround our bodies
like overturned urns

queen mother
whose kitten-speak whispers
flutter my ears,
as my limbs curl softly
around her furry continent—

glorious felis
with baptismal lips
and these paws that she licks
as she grows so large
and bright around me
I think she might
explode inside me
she almost choked me
by the scruff of my neck
but my eyes rolled back
in the safety of their sockets
as she tucked me so safely
inside her heart’s pocket

my sun
my dawn
my velvet-lined hard-on—
I need her here near me
I need her at home
I need her fur song
arching on my horizon,
I need her soft purr
and her phosphorus vision
I need her warm tongue
like the first morning sun
to come
into the light
and bathe off my night
to scare off my chill
like the butterflies
who scatter
at the whisper
of her felted footfalls
on the underbrush—

lady queen
of my life
with a mind
like a knife
I don’t need any church
to declare her my wife
she’s always been mine
long before I discovered her
we’ve always belonged
my kisses uncover her
I miss her tonight
I wish she could live here
I want to wake up tomorrow
with her breath in my ear
I’ve never been much
for shared domesticity
but with her, there’s just peace
and such strange synchronicity
I asked the angels
for a perfect companion
and they opened the gate
they scaled the wide canyon
between heaven and earth
and carried her to me
through storms and intentions
when I’d finished with gloomy
to offer this love
of epic dimensions
as I opened my heart
to the odd possibility
that someone could love me
unconditionally
and be my cat lover
my wild fur mother
who’ll never abandon me
in the cold for another

______

graceful cat lady
come home to your kitten
it’s cold outside
let your paws be my mittens
let your fur be my coat
with your kiss on my throat
and my skin
so tenderly bitten—

mother cat
it’s snowing tonight
and I’m climbing the walls
and flicking my tail
at the sounds of cars—
beautiful friend
this city is ours
so where are you hiding
when we have these dark hours
I’m feeling so black
I’m feeling so blue
I’d scratch down the curtains
if it helped me find you
wild cat mother
this night’s just begun
and I just need
to crawl
inside you.

© Sarah Noack 2008

Promises In The Dark...

Never again, isn’t that what you said? You’ve been through this before. And you swore this time you’d think with your head. No one, would ever have you again. And if takin’ was gonna get done you’d decide where and when. Just when you think you got it down, Your heart securely tied and bound…They whisper, Promises In The Dark

Armed and ready, you fought love battles in the night. But too many opponents made you weary of the fight. Blinded by passion, you foolishly let someone in…All the warnings went off in your head, still you had to give in. Just when you think you got it down, resistance nowhere to be found…They whisper, Promises In The Dark

But promises, you know what they’re for it sounds so convincing, but you heard it before. Cause talk is cheap and you gotta be sure, and so you put up your guard, and you try to be hard…But your heart says try again…

You desperately search for a way to conquer the fear. No line of attack has been planned to fight back the tears. Where brave and restless dreams are both won and lost. On the edge is where it seems it’s well worth the cost. Just when you think you got it down Your heart in pieces on the ground…They whisper, Promises In The Dark…

Commission of Human Rights, Commission on Election, Ang Ladlad

Yesterday, Jocelyn Uy of Philippine Daily Inquirer reported about the Commission of Human Rights’ support of the Ang Ladlad’s bid to to join the partylist. She quoted, the CHR Chair Leila De Lima who said:

Homosexuality is not a counterculture… Homosexuals are part of the Filipino family and unavoidably must be part of our politics.

I hope that the Holier than Thou Comelec decision will soon be reconsidered.

Charmageddon Time (is Here Again)

Lesbian bars probably exist down at the end of some shady little rip in the space-time continuum.  The decor might change, the clientele rarely does.  Well OK that’s a given if you’re only thinking as far as “lesbian” as a descriptor, but within any subculture are still more subcultures.  Think yoghurt flavours.  Or yeast-based irritations.  The flavours hadn’t changed much since Scar’s last visit to the place and nor had the decor.  Same old tired looking bar counter, with some tired old regulars propping it up.  Same kind of hustle going on around the pool tables.  A babydyke feeding chips into the jukebox, making it howl along to her own heartbreak.  Vagina music, Scar’s mates used to call it, back in the day.  Oestrogen soaked heartstrung folkie country pop ballads galore.  It drove Scar demented, but she grinned wryly and thought Helen would feel right at home.  It was probably a good thing there were some dyke stereotypes Scar didn’t fit, anyway.

Scar ordered a Tiger beer, hunched over it and unwittingly, habitually, began to destroy its label.  By the time’s she’s nearing the lees, the lager’s warm and so’s Scar and by the third beer, she’s officially pissed.  By beer number five, she’s in deep conversation with Blue, who evidently wandered in at some stage of the evening.  It’s going the way inebriated conversations tend to go – Scar pontificating, with all the solutions to all of the world’s problems in her hip pocket, Blue nodding and saying, “Hmmm,” from time to time.  From time to time, Scar lurched off to piss like a horse and play, yet again, one of three male vocals she’d managed to find on the jukebox.  Blue probably hauled her sorry arse out of there and back dockside before she got booted out.  It was one of those maudlin nights.

You might be surprised to learn that I have some Hetero friends out there too.  Two of them asked me to send them this story, so with heavy misgivings, I did.  This was the first reaction: “Thanks for sending this – I am only 2 pages into it and it makes me so sad, I have tears in my eyes.  Is that good or bad for a writer, I suppose its good to have strong reactions to writing?”  I reply, “It’s good, it’s good.”  What I want to say is, right now I am too damn emo to write anyway and part of it is, I suppose, this poxy story.

Scar woke up wondering just how many parrots had shat into her mouth and why demons were chipping away at her cranium with tiny axes.  Milliseconds later, the whole experience took its proper shape and form as a fully-fledged hangover – at which point, Scar felt even worse.  She was definitely too old for this kak.  She cleaned off the previous night’s stale aura under a tap outside and hoped like hell somebody had scavenged some decent food recently, she definitely wasn’t up to grazing and browsing the dump herself just then.  And if she had to chew her way through one lukewarm McJunk burger, her liver would probably reach out and throttle her to death.  Right at that moment, Scar would have welcomed the oblivion, but it was a painful route to get it.

That was the blissful moment when the archest of archangels, Helen the hero walked in, bearing seriously potent coffee and the fluffiest muffins from the coffee shop.

I Don’t…

I don’t wanna be a reason to feel guilty.
The reason she cries.
The need for privacy.
A muse for your lies.

I execute vibrant emotions
But fail to realize…                           I should be ashamed.
I don’t wanna be second hand devotion.
A need for you to find philosophical excuses to make us ok.

I’ve become your tat for her tit
That extra little bit of lip in every argument.
That extra push for the end.
The secret arrangement.

The letters in your diary,
Just,
Acronyms that equal you and me.
You know she can’t put it together, but the picture’s clear for her to see.

Beating our dreams of one another senseless.
Innocently naughty so no one can really blame us.
Becoming like, a high school love affair, but just a tad bit better.
So, in the end, will we risk us being together?

Controversial Art Openings for Clive Barker and John Santerineross

Downtown LA is always hopping and tonight isn’t any exception. A pair of art openings on the same block are sure to stir up a few hornets in the not too distant future.

John Santerineross has been at the center of heated discussion and condemnation from religious groups for some time. His previous shows have been met with critical acclaim and conservative lambasting because of his intense erotic subject matter and use of iconographic symbolism.

“John Santerineross is mentioned extensively in Catholic League President Bill Donahue’s newly released (September 2009) book entitled “Secular Sabotage: How Liberals Are Destroying Religion and Culture in America” (ISBN# 978-0446547215) along with several other groundbreaking artists including Andres Serrano and Robert Mapplethorpe in Chapter 4: Artistic Sabotage. Donohue states:

“In 2006 at KFMK Gallery in New York City, an exhibit of the work of John Santerineross featured a photo of a woman with her genitals cut and bleeding; a crucifix was placed below the woman, and the blood from her mutilated genitalia was shown running into a wine glass. Just so we got the point, the photo was dubbed “The Transformation of the Madonna”. These artistic assassins want to artistically assassinate Christianity, especially Catholicism. They are not artists who are simply making a statement. They are nihilists. Not to understand the difference between artists who protest Christianity’s teachings on sexuality, and moral anarchists out to sabotage Christianity altogether, is not only to miss what is at stake, it does an injustice to their work.”[1] ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Santerineross )

Tonight’s works feature nude figures in various stages of discomfort with substantial propping and staging. As I perused the exhibit tonight (a preview soft opening before tomorrow’s art walk) I found myself drawing similarities between Santerineross’ work and that of Joel-Peter Witkin . While stylistically similar and evocative of like-minded mood, the images in tonight’s show don’t take things nearly as far as Witkin’s more salacious work. Todd/Browning gallery on 5th St at Spring, the host of tonight’s show, is known for carrying books and artworks that appeal to the edgier end of the art set. This exhibit will no doubt continue them on that path.

As I was getting ready to leave, I overheard the owner mention something about an even more scandalous opening that was going on. I was surprised to find that it was a Clive Barker show of paintings and photographs at Bert Green and that it was sure to be an outrageous display.
The show is called Imagining Man, but it leaves little to the imagination. Barker’s photographs are highly charged homosexual images of men in body paint, blood, costumes, or nothing at all in bondage and torture scenes. Though artfully lit and composed, they could be very upsetting for the faint of heart. Models seem to have been selected based on the size of their “equipment” among other criteria. The sign on the door stated no minors were allowed without a parent, for obvious reasons.
Barker also exhibited sketches of skulls, props from his photo shoots and some inspired paintings. No doubt he is a talented painter, and pieces were not unreasonably priced. Prints of the photographs were available in signed limited editions for $300 and signed open editions for $50. Paintings ranged from a few hundred to $8000.
Barker embraces a friend at tonight’s opening.

It will be interesting to see what furor ensues as the conservative crowd catches wind of these two shows. With this month’s Art Walk kicking off tomorrow, thousands will have the opportunity to make their own judgments of the work.

Joe Stern-McGovern Announces: www.endhivaids.com

www.endhivaids.com

In the event Joe Stern-McGovern, President of Universal Artists, International, hasn’t made this point clear, in the name of the betterment of mankind, it is his intention to guide UAI into even further ventures of charity through the medium of the arts.

Coming early in 2010, please look for the World Mixtape, brainchild of Joe Stern-McGovern of UAI and Pure-Records of Tokyo fame, as well as various contacts throughout Western Europe. The agency’s coalition of sorts intends to release the mixtape, an American phenomenon which creates not only entertainment for the common man of the streets, but a vehicle for the next generation of hip hop artists to display their wares at an affordable price in the name of world health and the relief of the human condition.

www.myspace.com/blackflockgang

For further clarification of the definition of a mix tape, such as those which helped launch the careers of heavyweights such as Nelly and Ludacris, look for postings which clarify the concept from several of Universal Artists, International’s own top acts such as Mouf Piece of da City, one half of Dem Hardheadz, blood brothers, and the notorious lyricist and frontman, Mr. Hood Shuttlesworth of the FAM Boy$ out of Birmingham, Alabama.

Such concepts, as defined by authentic masters of the game, should help apply validity to Universal Artists, International’s product as one of genuine quality and true to the game. Along with the products defined, our guests to the major charitable site under construction, www.endhivaids.com, will find educational links to help increase awareness of HIV/AIDS, as well as methods of prevention and sites which to donate or participate in the uphill struggle against the disease.

It's all about Ms. Fame

One feature of particular interest to fans of Universal Artists, International and Shaka Production’s lineup of stars such as Black Flock Gang, A-Dub and Lil’ J, Christian Levi, Ms. Kesha Lee, Nya aka Not ya Average, Black and Haze, Casey Rankin, Funk Daddy, Gallas One, JJ Cruz, Dem Hardheadz, FAM Boy$, The Bionic Rapper, Peter Damian, and the dubious and provocative C4 of Houston fame is the availability of downloads, CDs, merchandise such as apparel, posters, etc. with company logos and the names of your favorite Universal Artists, International and Pure-Records’ favorite artists at reasonable prices, with wide selections, and various proceeds going directly to benefit the duo’s favorite charity’s.

Peter Damian: The One and Only

Please make sure to track Universal Artists, International’s progress as we continue to use our funds and your www.paypal.com donations to payments@universalartists.net towards the creation of the www.endhivaids.com site which will lead to global efforts to eradicate a wide array of world maladies and injustice through donations meted out according to need, with special consideration given to our personal choice, pediatric AIDS.

www.universalartists.net

For more information, please visit us at www.universalartists.net, www.myspace.com/universalartists, www.youtube.com/universalartistsintl, www.myspace.com/joesternmcgovern, www.myspace.com/universalshaka, and www.myspace.com/blackflockgang in addition to our global blog, www.universalartists.wordpress.com.

For any opportunities at your own stab at stardom, please direct your A&R queries directly to the form on our contact page of www.universalartists, or for matters of production, shaka@universalartists.net. For domestic bookings, please call 1(619)757-1301 at our San Diego/LA Metro office, or by writing to blackflockgang@myspace.com. For international bookings, matters of retail or wholesale, or any similar kind, please contact Joe Stern-McGovern’s personal assistant at joesternmcgovern@myspace.com.

Gallas One: UK's Finest via Glasgow

If you are another label or corporation interested in sponsoring Universal Artists, International in our efforts, please write to guy@universalartists.net or info@universalartists.net.

Help support Universal Artists, International (www.universalartists.net) and Pure-Records (www.pure-records.com) with  www.endhivaids.com, the first step towards positive global change and awareness, as well as careful consideration for the social conscience of manking and betterment of society.

Pure-Records in conjunction with Universal Artists

Introductory Post

I’ve decided to begin a sister blog to my original, with this one having the focus on what it means to be a lesbian and a mother.  I’ve been trying to find resources that are applicable to my situation, and there just don’t seem to be too many out there.  I’ve run across others looking for the same kinds of materials, and it’s a common frustration we share: we just can’t seem to find enough. 

My situation isn’t a unique one.  I was in a hetero marriage for over 9 years, and had two awesome and beautiful kids.  My husband and I split up, and several months later, I came out as a lesbian.  Not long after that, I fell in love with the most amazing woman, completely unexpectedly – I mean this was *not* in my plans at all, I was fully prepared to be a single mom for a while and take some time out from relationships.  But the Powers That Be (heretofore known as the PTB’s) had other designs in mind, and pulled our little puppet strings every way possible, so that two months into our relationship, we were living together and she was ready to commit to the kids.  We’ve now been together six months, and though it’s been really hard at times, there’s no end in sight. 

At any rate, my partner, whom I will refer to at present as Pickle (though I reserve the right to change that at any point in time), wants to be more of a parent to the kiddos, and they love the hell out of her and can’t get enough of her.  But there are boundary issues, and custody issues, and conflicts with their dad, and it’s been really hard on both of us, not to mention the kids. 

I just got a craving for nachos with jalapenos.  Oh yum.

And try as I might, I can’t find many resources for people in our situation: lesbians who fall in love with kids already in the picture.  I would love to hear from the voice of experience on the subject, and I hope to add my voice to the collective.  I want to put my thoughts out there in the hopes that they can help someone else muddle through their own complicated issues with divorce, parenting, sexual preference, and new relationships.If you’ve stumbled across my blog by chance or by intention, please feel free to friend me.  All entries here will be public, because I want my perspective to be shared.

As a side note: The title of this journal, and the name, is borrowed from the Delerium f/Sarah MacLachlan song “Silence”.  It is one of my all-time favorite songs, and my favorite of Sarah’s.  I also happen to love Delerium tremendously, and have other songs of theirs I like better, but that’s neither here nor there.  The point is, I wanted to point out that what I took from the song was an emphasis on living in the moment, not struggling against the waves that threaten to over come one in life, but sinking into them, thereby liberating oneself from fear.  I want to hold that sentiment true in this journal.  That is ultimately my goal.  To explore these issues, yes, but to do so from a perspective of letting go, and sinking into the waves, being free.

That said, I’m going to so sink into my pillows and catch a little sleep.

Blessings,
A.

Celebrity Seed: Atlas Heche Tupper

Anne Heche must have paid her husband $65k to let her take her son out to the premiere of idk. Anne has publicly said that she pays her husband almost $60k a month for child support of their son, Atlas. It just blows my mind how mothers lose physical custody of their children and then they bitch about paying child support. Then it blows my mind more to wonder, “What did these mothers do to get their physical custody rights stripped from their children?”  Well whatever, Anne’s case is here she is with her son, Atlas.

360-degree look at AC

Our friends at Gawker can’t. stop. talking. about Anderson Cooper’s boyfriend, Benjamin Maisani. They’re flabbergasted that AC is associating with such a handsome fellow when he’s yet to make an official statement that he’s gay as Neil Patrick Harris and Wanda Sykes have.

Once upon a time, saying you were “a friend of Dorothy,” a reference to the Wizard of Oz, was code for “I’m a big homosexual.” The CNN anchor has been seen with Kathy Griffin, perhaps today’s equivalent of Dorothy. Does this mean he’s out? Not so fast.

Since this is a blog about what it means to be gay at work, let’s look at two sides of the dilemma. Staying in the closet ensures that you keep people guessing, and thus, talking about you. That’s good PR. Coming out, however, could mean losing segments of your audience. That’s bad PR. It’s PR nonetheless, and you know what they say about publicity.

I think mostly, it’s scary as hell to come out on the job, even when you’re not the high-profile, good-looking son of Gloria Vanderbilt. Sounds like The Coop may fear the unknown in not publicly acknowledging what his relationship with Mr. Maisani means. (Note to Anderson: Certainty is overrated.) That his show’s ratings were down earlier this year is not unrelated.

What would be the benefits of revealing to his audience his true identity? For one, a huge dollop of relief. He would spend no more energy dodging questions or playing with pronouns, and would focus solely on researching news and hosting his show. His new found openness would influence the nature of his news reporting, and his style on-air may likely become more relaxed, and more watchable. If he made a big declaration in coming out, he’d make headline news, grab the top spots on blogs and land the covers of magazines. How would that be for generating ratings for AC 360?

In an interesting precedent, on the cover of the November 2009 edition of Details, openly gay American Idol Adam Lambert describes how women throw their panties at him during his concerts. The fantasy of bedding him lives on, even after he shared the truth about his sexuality to the world.

While the folks at Gawker behave like your colleagues who won’t shut up about your sexual orientation because you don’t say a word about it, quieting their chatter by coming out with the truth will help all of us think a little more clearly.

Dewi Persik Lesbian

Udah pada lihat gosip video dan foto Dewi Persik lesbian yang sudah beredar dengan seorang cewek yang kedapatan tertangkap kamera, banyak yang beranggapan ini karena stress yang dihadapi sang dewi akibat perceraiannya yang telah terjadi 2 kali. Hal ini semakin menguat Setelah merilis Foto Nikah KUA dengan Aldi Taher ditengah gosip cerai lagi untuk kedua kali, dan ditambah kejadian kedapatan beredarnya Vidio Dewi Persik Ber pelukan Mesra dengan Seorang Wanita.
Foto ini dipetik oleh seseorang lewat pojok sebuah teras loteng gedung mewah yang dikelilingi pepohonan. Ketika itu mama angkat dari anak yang bernama Gabriel ini awalnya melamun seorang diri, selama beberapa saat. dan tak lama kemudian muncul sesosok gadis muda berambut panjang dan berdiri di samping bekas istri Aldiansyah Taher ini.

Pasangan ini melakukan obrolan dan tangan dewi persik terlihat memeluk mesra bahu sang cewek. dan terlihat pada foto di atas dewi persik berpelukan dan saling berpandangn mata kepada teman sejenisnya tersebut. Jadi menurut anda apakah yang dialami DP saat ini memang kenyataan atau hanya gosip belaka??? hanya DP yang tahu bukan? karena sampai saat ini belum ada yang bersangkutan melakukan konfirmasi kejelasan tentang foto dan video yang sedang beredar tersebut….