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Saturday, February 27, 2010

Manifest Equality


Throughout history artists have have lent their creative expression to the ideas and issues that shape life in our communities, our country and our world.

The Gallery gathers together a diverse array of hundreds of the nation’s most talented visual artists under one roof to celebrate that role and join with our gay (LGBT) friends, family members and co-workers to demand full and equal rights for all Americans.

The Gallery, issues an inspiring, visual call-to-action, with hundreds of artists motivating public energy toward true reform on a local, state and national level.

will be open to the public, Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 through Sunday, March 7th, 2010 between the hours of 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM with extended hours Friday - Sunday.

For more information go to www.manifestequality.com

March 3rd – March 7th, 2010
Wed & Thurs - 11:00 am - 6:00 pm
Friday - 11:00 am - 10:00 pm
Sat & Sun - 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

1341 Vine Street
(between Hollywood & Fountain)
Los Angeles, CA 90028-8141

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Lesbian Cruise Company, Olivia, Celebrates 20 Years

Olivia Travel Celebrates 150 Trips and Over 100,000 Guests 20th Anniversary Cruise to Launch February 28th, 2010.

Olivia Cruises, a leader in lesbian travel, celebrates their 20th year of chartering cruises and resort vacations.

Morphing from the groundbreaking record label in the 70's to the largest company catering solely to lesbians today, Olivia has continued to change and grow to meet the needs of the community it has served for almost 4 decades.

“Olivia was created to serve a lesbian market that ranges from women who must live quietly in suburbia, to women who have the freedom to walk the streets holding hands. I am extremely blessed to have been part of this amazing experience. When the company launched 35 years ago, I never dreamed Olivia would become the company that it is today,” says Judy Dlugacz, President and Founder of Olivia.

Olivia chartered its first cruise in 1990, a 600 passenger ship with Dolphin Cruise Lines. “When we first began, no one wanted our business,” said Jill Cruse, Olivia's VP of Guest Experience. “They were afraid of a backlash. Now we are one of the biggest clients of Holland America and Club Med resorts. We have over 2000 passengers on our Caribbean ships and go everywhere from the Galapagos Islands to Africa. ”

Unlike other travel companies which have suffered in this past year’s recession, Olivia is going strong. With 5 trips already sold out in 2010 and many others edging towards 100% occupancy, Olivia enters this celebratory year with great sales. While lowering the prices and adding new trips, Olivia has 14 vacations on the schedule and more to come. They still take nothing for granted and customer service along with appreciation of their guests is the key to their success. According to Dlugacz, “There is a ‘love fest’ between Olivia and the women we serve. That doesn't happen very often between a company and its customers."

Because Olivia serves a niche market they also have a very special connection to their community. They provide something that simply doesn't exist anywhere else –a place where women can see the world and feel free to be themselves. Says Cruse, “It’s amazing to see what happens when a happy, fun-loving, appreciative group gets together and experiences this level of freedom...its nirvana! Some take for granted being able to dance together or hold hands in public. But for our clientele it remains special.”

Olivia also helps the communities it visits for example, founding the LGBT Haiti Relief Fund of the Red Cross, for which they raised over $200,000 in the first two weeks following the earthquake. "We visit the Caribbean all the time and our friends in Haiti are suffering in unimaginable ways,” added Dlugacz. “As a community, we believe showing our support through this effort will help strengthen the bonds we have created in the region as LGBT people. We may not always be welcomed on some islands and we hope that by bundling together our resources and using our gay dollars, we will show the compassion and love we have for the people of the region."

After 20 years, Olivia’s mission remains the same: service, connection, community and celebration. In 2010, every trip will be about celebrating loyal guests and the community they created. From the Amazon to the Mexican Riviera, from Europe and Istanbul, this is Olivia's year to celebrate.

Olivia’s 20th Anniversary cruise will set sail to the Western Caribbean on February 28th, 2010. The line-up includes The Indigo Girls, Meg Christian, L Word sensation Leisha Hailey and New York Times’ bestselling author Nicole Schapiro (Negotiating for Your Life). Olivia favorites, like musicians Julie Wolf and Suede and comedians Vickie Shaw, Julie Goldman, Karen Williams, and Dana Goldberg, are also slated to appear.

For more about Olivia’s Anniversary vacation, visit www.olivia.com.

Source: PRWEB

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

New Hampshire House Rejects Gay Marriage Ban

The advocate reports: The New Hampshire house of representatives rejected a proposed ballot initiative to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

House members voted against the initiative by a margin of 201-135 Wednesday afternoon. Supporters needed the votes of 60% of house members to get the initiative on the ballot, according to the Associated Press. The state legislature last year passed a marriage equality bill, which went into effect January 1.

According to the Union-Leader newspaper, sponsors of the initiative attempted to delay the vote until March 17, but that move was also rejected.

If the initiative had ended up on the ballot in November, it would have needed the approval of two thirds of voters to pass.

Malawi launches operation against high-profile gay and lesbian people

Article from guardian.co.uk

Fears of backlash across Africa as US evangelists accused of spreading religious zeal behind homophobic campaigns.

Police in Malawi have launched an operation to hunt down and arrest high-profile gays and lesbians in the southern African state.

Fears of an anti-gay backlash across Africa are intensifying after the prosecution of the first gay couple to seek marriage in Malawi, and thousands of Ugandans demonstrated this week in support of a bill proposing the death penalty for some offences involving homosexual acts. Last week five men were arrested at an alleged gay wedding in Kenya.

Dave Chingwalu, a spokesman for police in Malawi, said a 60-year-old man was arrested yesterday and charged with sodomy. Chingwalu said he received a complaint from a young man that he had been asked to undress by the older man and was then sodomised. Police investigations had uncovered a network of high-profile people involved homosexual acts, investigations were under way "and we will arrest them all", Chingwalu said.

Malawi has been criticized by international groups for the prosecution of Steven Monjeza, 26, and 20-year-old Tiwonge Chimbalanga, jailed in December for holding a wedding ceremony. The men were charged with unnatural acts and gross indecency and could be imprisoned for up to 14 years if found guilty.

A 21-year-old man was recently sentenced to two months' community service for putting up pro-gay rights posters, and a senior minister expelled a woman from her town even after a court acquitted her on charges of having sex with two girls.

Campaigners in Malawi say homophobic legislation is driving gays and lesbians underground, making them hard to reach with information that could protect them from Aids."In Malawi it's a complete witch-hunt that denies the people the right to self-determination," said Phumi Mtetwa, executive director of the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, based in South Africa. "We are deeply concerned about this spate of homophobia across the continent."

Mtetwa said the recent series of incidents was no accident but rather the work of US evangelical Christian groups. "It's very well calculated. It's exploding at the moment but it's been happening for a year and a half. We have proof of American evangelical churches driving the religious fundamentalism in Uganda."

The Ugandan parliament is considering a bill that would impose life imprisonment as the minimum punishment for anyone convicted of having gay sex. If the accused person is HIV positive or a serial offender, or a "person of authority" over the other partner, or if the "victim" is under 18, a conviction will result in the death penalty.

Members of the public are obliged to report any homosexual activity to police within 24 hours or risk up to three years in jail.

The legislation has earned international condemnation - Barack Obama described it as "odious" - but has received vocal backing within Uganda. Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Jinja, about 40 miles east of the capital, Kampala, in the biggest demonstration against homosexuals since the bill was introduced.

Okware Romano, a protester, said: "I have a verse in the bible in Leviticus 20 verse 13. It says that homosexuals should be put to death ... yes."

Last week police in Kenya said they had arrested five men whom they believed were homosexual in Kikambala beach resort near Mombasa. District officer George Matandura said two of the men had been found with wedding rings, attempting to get married.

"It is an offence, an unnatural offence, and also their behaviour is repugnant to the morality of the people," Matandura said.

The other three men were turned in to the police by members of the public. Two of them had reportedly been beaten.

Gay sex is illegal in 36 countries in Africa. Only South Africa has legalised same sex marriage, and even there campaigners say the fight against bigotry is far from over.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Lizzy the Lezzy's Valentine's Day Shtick

In honor of Valentine's Day, I thought you might enjoy watching Lizzy the Lezzy's Valentine's Day Shtick. Oh, if you're not sure what Shtick means, just Google it.

Warning: Lizzy's videos tend to be a bit on the bawdy side, to put it mildly, so if you're at work you may want to turn the sound down or just wait until you get home.

Happy Valentine's Day Everybody!!!

Gay & Lesbian Health Research Study

Here is your chance to help improve the treatment and awareness of urinary and sexual health in Gays and Lesbians.

Researchers in the Department of Urology at the University of California in San Francisco are conducting a study on the urinary and sexual heath of Women who have sex with Women (WSW) and Men who have sex with Men (MSM). We hope to promote understanding, attention and awareness of this topic in the LGBT and medical community.

If you are 18 or older, WSW or MSM, They need your help completing a TOTALLY ANONYMOUS internet based survey. The survey only takes about 15 minutes to complete.

Lesbians: Click Here

Gay Men: Click Here

Please feel free to pass this on to anyone you know who may be interested in helping out with this study

Have Questions? Please contact the study investigators: Benjamin Breyer, MD bbreyer@urology. ucsf.edu and Alan Shindel MD shindela@urology.ucsf.edu

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

The Truth About Relationship Expectations

By Larry James

"Blaming others for the pain we feel each time someone fails to live up to our expectations is no different than burning our tongue on coffee that's too hot to swallow, and then calling our cup an idiot" - Guy Finley

Unfulfilled expectations always cause problems.

Having expectations in our culture is expected. We are brought up that way. Having great expectations sounds great however when the expectation is unfulfilled, we bitch, we moan, we become disappointed. That is a problem for most people.

For example, if I expect you to love me a certain way and your love doesn't show up that way for me, I will most likely be disappointed. A better way might be to strive to get the need of being loved fulfilled by allowing your partner to love you the way they love you. Your need to be loved a certain way is not a healthy need, it is only and always an unrealistic expectation.

Another disappointing thing about expectations is that they often do not come true. One love partner knows the expectation. The other love partner doesn't know the expectation of the other. Expectations are in the eye of the beholder. Can you see the problem?

Needs must be communicated. Expectations are rarely ever communicated. Needs can be cussed and discussed. You must give careful thought to what needs must be fulfilled for you to know you have a healthy love relationship.

"Expect the best," is certainly a better attitude than the alternative. Some say, "If you always expect the best for your relationship, everything will work out better." This is a myth. It will work out the way it works out and you will be disappointed because it didn't work out the way you expected it to. You don't always get what you expect.

We often expect our love partner to make the best choices for themselves and our relationship and when they are not our choices, we often get angry or disappointed. . . or both. Most people call this situation a problem: a problem we create by our expectations.

Try this: "No expectations, fewer disappointments!" It's that simple. Not easy. Simple.

By considering a new point of view, by changing our thinking about expectations, we open ourselves up to whatever good the 'us' of the committed you and me may be working on together at the time. Since we are detached from the way things need to work out, we may be surprised by the result. Even when we imagine the very best, we are often surprised, because if there were shades of doubt present in our imaginings, things may turn out better than we imagined. . . or worse.

Once we learn to identify our own individual, healthy needs, we must also learn not to be attached to the expectation of how those needs get fulfilled. This will always generate lots of surprises. That is when the adventure begins; the adventure the heart was crying for. Surprises create a sense of adventure; surprises you can enjoy together; surprises that create new and exciting possibilities for the two of you to experience.

Some of the surprises may show up as challenges for the relationship. They bring couples together and give them something to share. When two people really love each other and are committed to work together, those kind of surprises create the kind of conversation that empowers both love partners to continue to self-inquire, to investigate their curiosities about what they can do to stand together, to be challenged by the surprise and know that everything is going to be okay.

Problems are not to break us. Working together on problems makes us strong.

While there is something to be said about "expecting the best," we must remember that disappointment comes from unfulfilled expectations. This does not mean that when your expectations do not get met, that the results are always bad. It only means that if your expectations don't get met. Disappointment usually follows.

By thinking in terms of needs instead of expectations, we create vulnerability. Having needs with no expectations about how they will be fulfilled causes us to feel vulnerable. We have more to lose because now we know what we want. The outcome is less predictable. There is some risk involved. And we have a responsibility for getting our needs met.

Never give yourself away in the relationship. By "give yourself away," I mean making sacrifices that conflict with what you need from the relationship. Never sacrifice your own personal integrity with regard to getting your needs met. The healthier image you have of yourself, the less likely this will occur.

There is a difference between duty and responsibility. When duty does not meet our needs, it is something to be avoided. For example, if there are children in the relationship you have a responsibility to take care of them. When it feels like duty, you have a responsibility to take care of your need to not have it feel like duty.

We all experience the need to have healthy choices exercised and when they don't show up in our relationship, we either choose to have conversations about them or not. If the choices are abusive and therefore unacceptable, we begin to think about making a responsible choice to leave the relationship. However, always picking our lover apart because their choices are not the ones we would make can only point the relationship in the wrong direction.

If we could accept the notion that everyone is doing the best they can, regardless of whether their choices are our choices, our attitude about our relationship would improve and perhaps the relationship we have would become the relationship we enjoy being in.

We must learn to distinguish between expectations and needs. Everyone has a need to be loved, to be understood, to be accepted and to be forgiven when necessary. For us to have expectations about how those needs get fulfilled can only cause disappointment.

The number one problem in relationships is undelivered communication. It's the things we don't communicate because the last time we did, it caused a confrontation, argument, anger, frustration and we want to avoid these feelings so we stuff them. The next thing you know is, your partner didn't take out the garbage and you want a divorce and it's not about the garbage.

In my opinion, the number two problem in relationships revolves around unfulfilled expectations.

So, how do you sidestep the disappointment that always comes from unfulfilled expectations? Who wins the "expectations versus needs" dilemma? Needs, of course! You focus on your needs and make a commitment to never have any undelivered communication about them. Talk about what you need with your partner. Express your needs with love.

Unfulfilled expectations always cause problems.

We often call things that happen that cause disappointment, problems. To avoid disappointment or problems. . . as best you can, have no expectations, good or bad. When you have expectations there are never any surprises because the outcome is almost always predictable.

Disappointment follows unfulfilled expectations. The predicaments that follow are predictable. If your relationship is not full of surprises, it is most likely very boring and may border on being unhealthy. Having healthy needs is a natural and creative attitude to embrace.

It is important to allow your love partner the freedom to fulfill your needs in their own best way.

What you can be with in life lets you be!

When you know what you need from your relationship and can express those needs to your partner and be okay with allowing them to love you the way they can love you, you will see a shift in your relationship that goes far beyond what you ever could have imagined!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Galileo Opens Gay and Lesbian Focused Hedge Fund

Galileo Capital Management has plans to start four hedge funds in the beginning of this year. The hedge fund's newest launch will focus on the gay and lesbian consumer products and services sector. Galileo's co-founder Paul Thompson believes there is a demand for a LGBT focused fund and that it will expand businesses in that arena.

London and Hong Kong-based Galileo has set up a subsidiary, LGBT Capital, which, in addition to the planned hedge fund, will offer corporate advisory and business development services to LGBT consumer companies.

The fund is the result of meetings with gay business owners and managers who expressed their specific frustrations and needs.

“LGBT‐oriented business owners often have the desire to expand but also frequently lack the expertise, correct capital structure or know–how to access funding” Galileo co-founder Paul Thompson said. “We believe there is a significant opportunity to provide the financial expertise typically found within an investment banking context to LGBT companies, which in turn would allow quality companies to secure funding.”

“We expect there to be a significant increase in LGBT‐oriented companies in the developing markets, coupled with greater openness within the developed markets. This will provide significant opportunities for corporate activity, including cross-border investment opportunities requiring industry specialists,” Thompson said.

Source

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Maryland House Committee Rejects Anti-Same-Sex Marriage Bill

On Wednesday, members of the Maryland House committee shot down a bill that would have prohibited Maryland from recognizing same-sex marriages that were legal in other states and countries.

The vote was 12-8 to reject the legislation sponsored by Del. Emmett Burns, a Democratic Baltimore County minister. The same committee has rejected similar measures introduced in earlier years. Their vote prevents the bill from going to the House floor for debate.

During the hearings last week, more than 20 people testified against Burns’ bill, including Candace Gingrich-Jones, the half-sister of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, while only five people including Burns spoke in support.

Congress oversees the district's laws, so the bill must pass a period of 30-day review by Congress.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Rachael Maddow Talks About the Don't Ask Don't Tell Hearing

My favorite Lesbian Pundit, Rachel Maddow, was at the Senate hearing on “don’t’ ask, don’t tell” this afternoon, and before going back to prepare for her own show, she went on MSNBC to give a first-hand report.

 

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