Happy New Year!

Just a few quotes to start off your New Year in the right direction.

"The reality is that changes are coming. ... They must come. You must share in bringing them."
-John Hersey

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day." -Edith Lovejoy Pierce

"One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things." - John Burroughs

Wishing you all a Happy, Healthy and Properous 2011!

2011 Law Changes for California's LGBT Community

Thanks to Equality California, there are four new pieces of lesgialation that will help LGBT Californians in the New Year. All four will go into effect on January 1st, 2011.

1. SB 543, authored by Senator Mark Leno, will allow LGBT youth to access mental health services without their parents' consent, ensuring they get the care that they need when they need it, without having to come out to their parents first.
   
2. AB 2199, authored by Assemblymember Bonnie Lowenthal, repeals the reprehensible requirement that California seek the “causes and cures of homosexuality.”
   
3. AB 2700, authored by Assemblymember Fiona Ma, will allow same-sex couples who are both domestic partners and married to dissolve their partnership and their marriage with the same process if they choose to separate.
   
4. AB 2055, authored by Assemblymember Hector De La Torre, will grant same-sex couples who are about to enter into a domestic partnership the same unemployment benefits as opposite-sex couples who are about to wed.

Another Way to Win the $25 Lesbian Sex Toy Gift Card Giveaway

By request, I have have come up with 1 more way for you to enter the Lesbian Sex Toy Gift Card Giveaway. All you have to do is go to my new Facebook page and click the "Like It" button. Then come back to the blog and leave a comment letting me know that you did it. It is that simple!

Lesbian Sex Toy Gift Card Giveaway Contest

I am having a Sex Toy Gift Card Giveaway to Celebrate the Holiday Season!!!

And to answers all the questions you may have about this Lesbian Sex Toys Giveaway Contest, I decided to have a conversation with myself about it... (if you know me, you're probably laughing right about now, since I seem to constantly be having conversations with myself).

Just follow along, you'll catch on...

Q: So, what can I win at this Sex Toy Giveaway Contest?
A: So glad you asked... I will be giving away a $25 Gift Certificate to mypleasure.com, which you can use to buy anything you want on their site.

Q: So, how do I enter?
A: There are 2 ways to enter the contest. One way is to go to my Facebook page and click on the "Like it" button, then come back to my blog and leave me a comment letting me know that you did it. The second way to enter is to Tweet about this contest and include a link to this blog page. Then be sure to come back here and leave a comment on this post with the tweet link. (For example: http://twitter.com/#!/girl2grl/status/18133321045245952)

Q: Is there a way to get more then one entry into this contest?
A: Of course there is! To get a second entry into the contest just leave a comment on this post telling me what you would buy with the gift certificate if you won, why you would buy it, and then add a link to that product page so we can all check it out.

Q: Do I have to be a lesbian to enter this contest?
A: Of course not...and seriously, how the heck would I know anyway? Despite what some people think, we don't all know each other...well, most of the time...LOL.

Q: When does the contest end?
A: The contest will end at Midnight on January 5, 2011.

Q: How will you pick a winner?
A: All of the entries will be given a number as they come in, then those numbers will be entered in at Random.org, that way an unbiased computer program can be responsible for picking the winner. Making my life much easier!

Q: When will the winner be contacted?
A: The winner will be contacted by January 7th, 2011. I will also post the winner on my blog once they have been contacted. And no, we don't have to use your full name if you're not comfortable with it, just let me know.

One last thing, this contest is only open to US residents over the age of 18.

Well, I hope that answered all of the questions that may crop up, please feel free to email me if there are any that I missed.

Good Luck!

Rachel Maddow's Special Segment On the DADT Repeal

This video is from a Special MSNBC Rachael Maddow segment about the DADT Repeal. The first few minutes of the video are clips from previous programs that show the process that DADT has gone through over the past two years or so. After those clips are finished, she sits down with a number of service personnel who have been effected by DADT.

The entire video lasts about 15 minutes, but if you missed it the other night on MSNBC, it is well worth watching.

Breaking Down Media Stigma About Gay Marriage - Case Study in Legislation

Article by Tim Millett, a guest writer for Lesbian Dating & Relationships Blog

The recent furor regarding gay marriage in the US, Australia and elsewhere has exposed one basic fact- Widespread ignorance of issues, both among the public and politicians, both of whom obviously know less about gay relationships than they do about vibrators and alien mating rituals. The mainstream media, which is arguably even less well informed than the public, is even worse. The primitive issue management involved in media coverage of gay marriage was well beyond appalling.

Media and political perspective- Contradiction in terms?
To understand the problems getting through to the legislatures, it’s necessary to follow their mindsets. If you’ve ever seen the classic Yes Minister series, you may remember one line in particular- Hacker, referring to the public: “I am their leader- I must follow them!” This is exactly how the media has approached coverage of gay marriage. It’s also a reflection of how the political system and its “obsolescent intellectual equipment” (another quote from Yes Minister) has been dealing with the issues.

Both media and politics have assumed market positions that are really what they think are opinions with which the public agrees. This truly pathetic performance, so insular that it effectively negates any possibility of even defining the issues in gay marriages, is largely responsible for the mess.

To describe mainstream media as aware of anything would be a risky assertion. Translating anything through an interpretation of public views would get anyone a fail in a basic media class, but at editorial level, apparently that’s how things are done. The political system has a better excuse, in that political policies are invariably a generation behind reality on any subject.
News media are prepared to admit anything is relevant, when it’s on TV or clearly in the public eye, like a TV series. Otherwise, it’s out with the macros, and another piece of predictable, safe, cliché-soaked garbage comes thundering off the presses. The conservative commentators also respond to media stimulus like a cow prod, and if they’ll always be negative, a higher profile image would at least update their copy and views.

These two fountains of selective relevance are the primary source for politicians, or more importantly their media minders. Even a PR person is at least theoretically capable of watching TV and reading ratings, and interpreting statistics at a basic level.


Getting the message across
The fact is that to penetrate this fog requires high profile media material. The gay marriage issue would need to be translated into a sitcom to hit the arteries of “public consciousness” as mainstream media understands it, because that’s pretty much where marketing is focused. This approach is necessary because media management and politics have yet to catch up with the fact that they’re now marketing to a planet full of people having double degrees, not medieval rural peasants.

It may be seen as trivialization of an important issue, but it works. This is marketing, more than an appeal to sanity, which obviously doesn’t work very well. Gay marriages need to be seen in their true context, as lifetime relationships, without the fakery, overkill and trivialization of “conspicuously gay” portrayal. Humanize gay marriages through media, and the political hurricanes will blow the other way in a hurry.

Tim Millet is an Australian freelance writer and journalist. He writes extensively in Australia, Canada, Europe, and the US. He’s published more than 500 articles about various topics, including Sex Toys.

New Tumblr: Butches Holding Animals

Kristen from Kitchentop Catering has created a new tumblr called Butches Holding Animals. The tumblr consists of pages & pages of adorable photos of dykes holding their pets, gotta love it!

Submissions are still welcome and encouraged, check it out!

Recently Published Butch Femme Study

Recently, Dr. Esther Rothblum published a study on butch/femme in The British Psychological Society's Psychology of Sexualities Review. The study and published article was named, "The complexity of Butch and Femme among sexual minority women in the 21st century." It was based on lesbian and bisexual women in their 20s to 60s, in rural and urban settings across the US, from diverse ethnic and racial groups. The sample was about equally divided into those who identified as butch, those who identified as femme, and those who did not identify specifically as either. The project focused on these women's understanding of butch/femme, and whether they found the terms butch or femme to be useful or representative.

Dr. Esther D. Rothblum is a Professor of Women’s Studies at San Diego State University and editor of the Journal of Lesbian Studies. Her research and writing have focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender relationships and mental health, and she has edited over 20 books.

Click here to read the full published study.

Belmont University Faculty Stand Up For Fired Lesbian Coach

Article by Michael A. Jones from Change.org

Is it acceptable for an employer to fire you because you want to start a family with your same-sex partner? Faculty at Belmont University say no, and they're coming to the defense of a lesbian women's soccer coach, Lisa Howe, who was removed by the University after she disclosed that she was having a child with her same-sex partner.

Last week, Belmont University's student newspaper ran an article quoting several soccer players who said that their coach was removed because of her sexual orientation. In the days since, scores of students, alumni, and community members have spoken out against the University's decision, even holding a demonstration on Sunday outside of the school. Here at Change.org? More than 2,300 emails have been sent to the University, calling administrators out for fostering a climate of discrimination and homophobia.

Now University faculty are weighing in, saying that leaders of the University need to do something to quell Belmont's growing reputation as a beacon for intolerance. The Faculty Senate at the school passed a resolution late last night, stating that no employee should be fired because of her or his sexual orientation, and that leaders at the school ought to open up a dialogue on campus about LGBT issues.

"The Senate believes that the sexual identity of individuals should not impact that person's standing on campus," the resolution stated. It goes on to call for a campus-wide conversation about the place of LGBT students, staff and faculty at the Christian college.

That dialogue couldn't come soon enough. Weeks before Howe was removed from her job as head soccer coach, university officials denied several gay students the chance to form a campus group. The Dean of Students, Andrew Johnston, even suggested that gay Christians on campus could be disruptive.

"I know a lot of the gay community at Belmont feels marginalized and feels like they don't have a place to meet on campus," said Belmont student Robbie Maris last month. Maris is one of the students trying to organize the student group, Bridge Builders, to serve as a forum where discussion and examination of the Christian faith and LGBT-related issues can take place. But instead, the group continues to get the cold shoulder from Belmont leaders.

Here's hoping the resolution passed by the Faculty Senate last night underscores how important it is for leaders at Belmont University to deal not only with the question of why this gay student group can't meet on campus, but why employees are being shown the exit door solely because of their sexual orientation. We've said it before, and we'll say it again until we're blue in the face: Christianity does not have to equal discrimination. Belmont University has a prime chance here to demonstrate that. Will leaders at the school be willing to take that step?

Meanwhile, Lisa Howe herself issued a statement last night. The gist? That she's darn proud of the work she did at Belmont, and the family she's about to start with the love of her life.

"I was a good student athlete recruiter, had an organized and professionally run program, and was one of Belmont’s best employees,” Howe said. "I am proud of who I am and my family and our future, and I want every person—no matter what race, religion, nationality, or sexuality they represent—to feel the same way. Yes, I would have preferred to not be in the headlines, but if my situation leads to one person beginning to feel acceptance now, or one person becoming more understanding of diversity, and if people can talk openly and honestly about topics they never broached before, then this unfortunate situation will have served a positive purpose.”

Sounds like the words of a very wise woman. One that students and soccer players at Belmont University would be lucky to call coach.

Article by Michael A. Jones from Change.org