Friday, September 08, 2006

The Lesbian Google

I'm being swamped by lesbian news! I subscribed to Google news alerts for news containing the subject "lesbian" - its amazing! Here just a few headlines from the news alerts I've been sent:

Surrey school board settles with lesbian mothers
Lesbian mums win fight for more respect

Lipstick Lesbian Take Over!
Marketplace finds lesbians an attractive, but elusive, niche

Angelina Jolie and her former lesbian lover visited dominatrix


I've received 25 news in only 2 days! I also checked out German Google News for the Word "Lesben" and even that produced 187 headlines for the last two weeks. "Schwul" (German for gay) produced 319 news and "homosexuell" another 56...

Welcome to the L-News - we've been discovered by the media and unlike (not so) many years ago, it's not all about scandals, murder and deviated sex in the closet anymore. I remember when I was a kid in the 70s the first thing I ever read about dykes in a newspaper was a series in the German yellow press newspaper "Bild" called "The crimes of the lesbian women"... It was horrorfying, but obviously it didn't keep me away from the girls!

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Sunday, September 03, 2006

Not so Gay in Ghana

Ghana bans gay and lesbian conference.... While we're watching the L-Word and being our free lesbian selves, millions of GLTBs in many countries still have to hide and are being oppressed to say the least. Homophobia is obviously widespread on the African continent, or as a South African lesbian puts it: "It's kind of the spirit of the times in Africa". I actually know a dyke from an influential family in Ghana, in fact she is a Princess, and it took many many years for her family to accept her lifestyle - but eventually they did, so there's hope that the "spirit of the times" will change one day. I wish the gays and lesbians in those African countries that promote homophobia, a lot of strength, courage and worldwide support - after all the African saying (from Zaire) is so true: Tsa ifotekya loolo - FIRE can soften iron.
For more infos on GLBT Africa check out the Behind the Mask Website.

Photo: Camouflage (©) by South African photographer and gender & sexual rights activist Zanele Muholi.

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