Northampton, MA: a parallel universe

by Alicia

A question for some of our female readers: let’s say that you meet the woman of your dreams, fall in love, and want to raise a family together.  Where is the best place to raise a lesbian family? Perhaps where you currently live is a queer family friendly place, but perhaps it is not.

I recently visited high school friends in New England. We took a day trip to Northampton, Massachusetts to see a famous comedian and also to visit a very charming family. Visiting Northampton felt like walking into a parallel universe, one where lesbian parents are the norm.  This town of about 30,000 apparently has over 5 times more LGBT residents than a typical American town. Though not very ethnically diverse, this was still quite refreshing to me as someone who grew up in the Bible Belt. I’ll admit, I was enchanted by all that I observed in Northampton.We spent much of the day at the lovely home of Kirsten and Elizabeth, parents of twin toddler boys.

Quintessential Queer History

by Angela

I thought about blogging about the Slut Walk that is taking place in Dallas tomorrow because it’s important. And because I know how to be a feminist. I know the chants, I have the t-shirts, I am on all of the email lists, and most importantly I am passionate about ALL human rights, but especially the ones that pertain to me specifically.  Writing about and being a feminist is easy for me because I was given a simple and direct path to becoming one. You read Manifesta (and many, many other books),  join the Feminist Majority Leadership group at your University, participate for 4 (ahem, 6 for me) years and when you graduate the FMF will keep tabs on you informed until you tell them not to.

But writing about the SW would be taking the easy road for me. When I started blogging for Queerious last week I found myself struggling to come up with something to write about from my queer perspective. Because I don’t feel like I have one. Other than being physically and emotionally attracted to women I have no idea how to be gay. 

Keep Dykes Marching!

by Tin

If you are a San Francisco resident and cool, you’d probably have heard of the fabulous Dolores Park conveniently located between Castro and Mission Dolores neighborhoods. Apart from its usual park-related amenities such as tennis courts and slides, the small park has served as a refugee camp for more than 1600 families made homeless by the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and fire and hippie hangout and now as a haven for hipsters and families who flock to the park with a six-pack of PBR and/or picnic baskets on those unwonted sunny days in the bay.

Every weekend you can find muscled gay and stylish lesbian sun worshippers at the park. On some occasions, as if drunk swinging or hula-hooping is not fun enough, you can seek out inconspicuous vendors selling various “herbs-enhanced” baked goods.

Signs of Pride in Jakarta

by Steven

a circuit party in Nirvana of Jakarta

I may have to recant some of what I wrote about Indonesia on my post about Lady Gaga being censored in Malaysia.  Yours truly is currently on a 2 week hiatus in Jakarta, Indonesia.  It’s been 8 years since my last visit and I’ve been noticing quite a few changes in this densely populated city I call my birthplace.  Aside from the noticeably worse traffic, I’m sensing a positive change especially in the lives of LGBT people. 

Sex and Education

by Tin

"Lost And Delirious"-the quintessential LUG movie

Listen up ladies! Here is another reason your parents would probably tell you why you should go to college: you are less likely to be sleeping with another woman. As The New York Times reported in the article “Study Undercuts View of College as a Place of Same-Sex Experimentation“, a new study by the Centers for Disease Control, based on 13,500 responses, reveals that “almost 10 percent of women ages 22 to 44 with a bachelor’s degree said they had had a same-sex experience, compared with 15 percent of those with no high school diploma. Women with a high school diploma or some college, but no degree, fell in between.”

Say what?! Whatever happened to the absolute truth wide belief that women generally tend to have their first same-sex experience (and more afterwards if they like it of course!) in upstanding educational establishments? They don’t call it LUG (Lesbian Until Graduation) for no reasons.

Censoring Gaga

by Steven

Lady Gaga seems to be a favorite topic of mine.  This entry will be the third post from me concerning her.  Because she’s such a champion for gay rights, how can I not talk about her?  Well it seems in Malaysia radio stations are censoring her single Born This Way by garbling: “No matter gay, straight or bi, lesbian, transgendered life, I’m on the right track, baby.”  This action is taken as a precaution to avoid fines and penalties imposed by the government for playing songs that violate “good taste or decency or are offensive to public feeling.” 

Adam and Steve, Dragon Slayers

by Steven

So I recently just bought this game called Dragon Age 2 the day it came out.  While I’m a fan of role-playing games, the Dragon Age franchise offers us gaymers a bit more than other games of this genre in that it features gay/lesbian sex and romance should you desire to play the game in this manner.

It’s good to see video game companies including gay/lesbian plot lines.  This seems to be the trend lately although this is certainly not a new phenomenon.  The earliest inclusion of a gay/lesbian plot line that I can remember happened in the classic RPG Ultima VII from the early 90’s.  In this game you, the Avatar, encounters a bath house and are given the choice of either a male or female character to have some fun with.  While you don’t see any sort of lascivious act being done on the screen, the fact that you can engage in homosexual activities in a game was practically unheard of during that time.  Imagine how intrigued and excited I was to be given this option as a young teenager just starting to discover my sexuality.  I must have visited that bath house multiple times in the game…  Although a bath house isn’t the most positive way to introduce a gay aspect into the plot, I did feel some comfort knowing that there are others out there who recognize who I am as a person and was gracious enough to include it in the game.  This meant a lot to someone who has not come out of the closet yet.

Seriously When Will There Be a Lesbian Brokeback Mountain?

by Tin

There was a time when I had watched almost every lesbian film ever released to the public when I was still living in Hong Kong. And by lesbian film I mean its central plot line involves lesbians who are the primary characters in the film, and the major conflict revolves around them. So no Wild Things and Cruel Intentions, even though they feature some of the most popular lesbian moments in mainstream media, do not count.

NOT lesbians!

I did watch them, along with many others with pseudo lesbian characters like Who’s the Woman, Who’s the Man and Swordsman III-The East Is Red from Hong Kong and Heavenly Creatures from New Zealand.

Proudmoore, or less?

by Tin

I WoW. Like 12 million other people from around world, I am addicted to the hugely popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft. Some clever people also came up with the name “gaymers”, queers who play video games on a regular basis.

If you don’t know what World of Warcraft is, what is wrong with you?

Androgyny is the Future

by Tin

I am not a fashionable person. Nor am I particularly style-conscious. But my brawny friend and I sometimes quibble about the limited choices when it comes to clothing for our respective gender. He believes that women have a wider variety in clothing and accessories while men are restricted to shirts and trousers. He is undoubtedly straight. But, as he puts it, once in a while he just wants to put on a dress because it is pretty and fun. Alas, he doesn’t think he should considering the scrutiny that will be brought upon him. But he does don a handsome kilt here and there.

I, on the other hand, think men are blessed with the cool gear. It is quite a strenuous task for a woman like me, who prefers a more androgynous approach in her attire, to find a jacket that is not adorned by “princess-cut” shoulders or glitters. Buy a man’s jacket then, you might suggest. No, they mostly don’t come in my size. And don’t even get me started on shoes. That’s why there are sites like FiTTiD Tomboi.

I know that this little debate of ours seems puerile. However, I believe the issue of cross-dressing and androgyny demands more dialogue not just in queer culture but culture in general, particularly when androgyny has slowly seeped its way through mainstream culture.

Meet Andrej Pejic, the most sought-after  male model in the fashion world at the moment.

Let’s Move to Nepal!

by Tin

Still from Other Nature: Transgender identity, same-sex marriage and equal rights in Nepal through the lens of sex workers, runaway couples, discharged army cadets, openly-gay politicians, artists and nuns.

Last month Bikash Bista, the director of Nepal’s Central Bureau of Statistics, announced that they are going to include a “third gender” category in their upcoming census in May. Transgender and gender non-conforming Nepalese rejoice and welcome the fact that they are now being recognized by their government.

The rights of transgender Nepalese are also one of the topics discussed in my friend Nani Walker’s documentary Other Nature.

Race + Dates

by Alicia

Have you ever heard of the free online dating site, OKCupid?  One of the Harvard math nerds behind it is an acquaintance of mine, so I’ve followed its growth over the years. Recently they started blogging about the data they’ve amassed on people’s dating habits. A post about how your race affects the rate of replies you receive caught my eye. Their initial post was on heterosexuals, but they took a close look at the same-sex numbers as well.

Going Sticky

by Doris

Michelle Krusiec and Lynn Chen in Alice Wu's Saving Face

My friend Quentin invited me to Queerious and explained that the blog could be anything from queer identity to what a lesbian usually eats for breakfast. For my first blog, I thought about my most recent and new experiences in my queer life. It’s been quite a queerious journey since I first opened myself up to the same sex in my early twenties. Since then, I have been happily exploring my limits and tastes in my ever richer sexual identity now well into my early thirties.