01/05/09-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Since Friday, a number of news outlets have noticed an increase in a particular type of comment directed at derailing the debate over the Miller/Jenkins custody case. Many of these comments come from the same group of people, and at least one news organization in Virginia has outed some of these posters for posting repeatedly the same distorted information on different names in order to make it seem as if Lisa Miller has greater support than she does. This effort appears to be coming from people following  instructions on Lisa Millers Face Book Page directing that  Millers distorted talking points on this case are put on any news  site covering this story.

The set up at LezGetReal is not conducive to that kind of manipulation; however, a group of roughly three to four individuals have tried to “flood” the comment pages of this newsblog with comments supporting Lisa Miller and spreading allegations which have been proven false by the courts already.

“The flood of protests “by this handful of people often rely upon an interview given by Lisa Miller to the fundamentalist blog Life Site. Unfortunately, Life Site is very unreliable when it comes to the information that it posts as being accurate. A recent case of a woman threatening to kill a anti-abortion rights activist was distorted by Life Site in order to make it seem as if the woman who threatened to kill this young lady was going in for an abortion when it was never proven to be the case.

The allegations leveled by Lisa Miller were, indeed, investigated by the courts, and proven to be a baseless attempt to slander Janet Jenkins and garner sympathy with those helping to prevent Isabella from seeing her mother. By not following the orders of Judge William Cohen, Lisa Miller has lost custody of Isabella, and now faces a very real possibility of jail time. A wide variety of parents’ rights groups have come out in support of Judge Cohen’s orders, and the feeling among many women even in Virginia is that Lisa Miller should hand over custody of Isabella at this point since she has refused to follow the court’s orders.

Support for Jenkins comes from the fact that the law is very much on her side, something that the courts in Virginia and Vermont have stated, and the Federal Courts. Even the Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear this case based upon federal law governing custody battles. There exists a very real probability that, should this case continue back to the Federal level, that it will pit the laws governing child custody and custodial abduction against the Defense of Marriage Act. It is likely that, given the importance of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction And Enforcement Act, backed up by the Constitution, that the Supreme Court would end up striking down the Defense of Marriage act before undermining parental rights and the authority of every judge and court in the country.

“The flood of comments” have had little effect in the debate largely because the news organizations reporting upon this case are reporting on the facts and not the allegations. Those using the comments are trying to bypass the journalistic integrity of the news organizations by posting these unproven and unfounded allegations by Miller in the comments pages. Often times, far more people have come forward to counter the points attempted to be made by those trying to flood the system. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to spot that those flooding the forums of those stories reporting on this custody battle are a small hand full of people who are posting.

Many Fundamentalist sites which have, in the past, supported Lisa Miller have started pulling back on their support because there is now the very real risk that they could be seen as supporting a fugitive, and that supporting Miller could end up undermining their own political and social platforms. In the end, the support of Lisa Miller has, despite a belief that it would hurt the LGBT Community, has undermined many of the Fundamentalist groups which have most vocally supported her.

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• Janet Jenkins’ Lawyers File Motion To Hold Lisa Miller In Contempt of Court (lezgetreal.com)

The tactics being employed are not dissimilar to those used by the Teabag Protesters during the August health care reform debate.

Melanie Nathan Today, after reading  that Elizabeth Smart’s female captor, Wanda Barzee,  received a sentence of 15 years in prison, I decided to start a column in honor of a very brave spokesperson for women’s safety, young Elizabeth Smart, and after finding my first consumer related travesty I named the column LEZ BE SMART.  

 The entire article can be read here http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-elizabeth-smart18-2009nov18,0,6807810.story 

The idea came when I  looked up my new office location on  the National Sex Offender regisrty to find a competing bevy of sites all claiming to have the ultimate access and accuracy.  Punch in your zip and up pops the message – “we have found ten sex offenders in your area…. give us your credit card number and pay $$ and then we will show you who they are.”

Amazing how many sex offender registries sites are online, the  LEZ BE SMART amongst us find that all you need do is go to this website at the Justice Department and there will be no charge at all for the same information. 

http://www.nsopw.gov/Core/Conditions.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

In naming this  column Lez Be Smart Iplan on reporting on ALL consumer related matters, including matters of safety.

Posted by Melanie Nathan.

There is a new page on LezGetReal.com where you can find a list of our feed links.

What are feed links you ask?

Let me tell you…

A feed link is the link that you need to subscribe to a syndicated website, like this blog.

Recently, we created a list of feed links for each and every section of our site!

What that means for you is that you can now subscribe to our main feed and/or any one of our feeds by section.

For instance, if you only want to receive the latest news you can subscribe to our News section feed. If you wanted to keep up to date on the latest in Relationships Rights, you could subscribe to that section’s feed, etc. etc.

Isn’t that a good feature to have on our site? I hope that you think so!

If not, that’s okay too; but if you are excited about this new feature like I am you can find the link to this new page at the top of our site or to make it easy for you, you can find the link to our new feeds list HERE.

In any case, thank you for being a reader of LezGetReal and we hope enjoyed this bit of news and have a great rest of your day!

Sincerely,

Julie Phineas
Executive Editor
LezGetReal.com

Gay Girls Jobs is the new online job board with lesbian friendly employment!

Organizations like the Lambda Community Center, Immigration Equality, the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the ACLU and other organizations are looking to expand their operations and hire employees to help them do it.

The Gay Girls Jobs job board filters through all jobs posted online and displays the jobs that are considered “lesbian friendly”.

You can search for jobs that are full-time, part-time, contract, seasonal, permanent, temporary, volunteer, or internships. Jobs can be found in a variety of industries with a wide array of occupations to choose from.

Lesbian friendly employers can post jobs directly to the Gay Girls Jobs job board for just $5 for a 45 day posting.

Jobs posted directly to our board are displayed above those that have been filtered from the internet, and are also syndicated via our Gay Girls Jobs RSS Feed.

If you are a gay girl looking for employment or an employer offering lesbian friendly employment, be sure to take a look at Gay Girls Jobs to see if we have what you need.

Here are the links:

Gay Girls Jobs: Job Board

Gay Girls Jobs: Post a Job

Gay Girls Jobs: RSS Feed

If you want to start your own job board you can do so by visiting www.jobamatic.com.

Thanks for being a reader of this blog and feel free to come back by any time.

Sincerely,

LezGetReal.com

For the past few weeks we have been moving our site to a new server. We moved to a grid server on GoDaddy, and they couldn’t handle us so we moved to MediaTemple.

In the first move to the grid on GoDaddy we lost about 100 votes from our current poll… the question for that poll is “Where do you fall on The Kinsey Scale?”

The Kinsey Scale is something that measures the level of your ’sexual fluidity’. Oprah talked about sexual fluidity, living without labels, and The Kinsey Scale on a recent show (which highlighted celesbian Jackie Warner).

The levels of the scale are this…

Please visit our homepage at www.LezGetReal.com to vote in our poll or re-cast your vote over in the main sidebar.

Let us know what level of sexual fluidity you think you find yourself at. The results to this and all our polls can be found in the Polls/Surveys section of our site.

This post is just to let our readers know that we are back online and running on our new grid hosting plan with GoDaddy. It took a lot longer than expected to get us back online, and it was a very frustrating experience at times. The good news is that we have a fresh look I hope you enjoy. Our writers are preparing new posts for you so look forward to some fresh posts coming out today.

Thanks for standing by and being patient through our transition, and we hope you like the new look.

Sincerely,

LezGetReal.com

We are making the jump to the grid right now and so we are going to go offline for about ten hours. Thank you for your patience and please stand by.

We’ll be back online before you know it!

Sincerely,
LezGetReal.com

Happy June everyone!

It may be a gloomy June for some, but here at LezGetReal we are making upgrades and preparing for an exciting rest of the year here with you. Today you will notice that our site is a bit jumbled and out of sorts, but that is only because we are making our site better for you!

Stay tuned and we’ll keep you posted, but for now just enjoy your day.

Thanks for reading and we’ll see you online again soon!

Sincerely,

Lez Get Real

Are you a single gay girl looking for love?

If so then you might want to check out GayGirlsDating.com, it’s our new dating site! Partnering with LDate we bought our own “Private Label Dating Site” so that we can help connect the single gay girls we know to other single gay girls from around the world.

GayGirlsDating.com is one of our newest Founding Sponsors as well, and earns revenue for our writers.

If you’re a single gay girl who is looking for love, you can join our dating site for free, and then there is an option to upgrade to premium membership to connect with other single gay girls in your area.

Be sure to visit www.GayGirlsDating.com and sign up today!

Doing so supports our site and helps our writers keep bringing you their gay girl’s view.

Thank you and best wishes in your search for love!

Hi there everyone – I hope you’re having a great day!

I wanted to pop in and let you know what’s up with us over here at LezGetReal lately.

Last week we were working hard to bring you our best, and in doing so we crashed another server.

We’ve got to stop doing that!! LOL

Honestly though, we are so thankful to all of you who come by and read our site. Thanks to your links to us and readership we have experienced a lot more traffic then we anticipated which just forces us to take things up a notch!

So the past few days we have been optimizing and you may have noticed errors, long loading, and/or widgets out of place.

Well… we’re done doing all of that now and can get back to business as usual and you can expect to see us focusing our attention on bringing you the latest and best from our gay girls from around the world.

(We hope that the new server we are on can keep up!)

Stay well and thank  you so much for reading our site.

Sincerely,

Julie Phineas
Executive Editor
LezGetReal.com

You may be wondering why it has been so quiet here on LezGetReal the past few days, weeks, months…

You might not even be able to tell, but for a short while now we have been quickly and quietly making behind the scenes changes here at LezGetReal.

Over the short course of time since we started this website, it has evolved to a work of art that has made an impact in many lives.

We work with many different people on a variety of tasks, and our main objective is always to be as helpful as we can.

We have a mission to make a difference in this world, to make positive changes and significant impact in society for those who need it.

We are fighters for equality, justice, and security in the lives of not just the LGBT community but for all people.

As you might imagine, this is quite a large task to take on, and many, many times have we wanted to throw in the towel.

But we are not quitters over here at LGR, and have been persistent enough to bring things to this point…

Today is a special day for us because now we can bring you our best!

We have brought on some new writers and some have gone on their own way; we have moved many of our articles from our old site, and some have been left behind; we have incorporated some our old layout into our new site, but for the most part that’s been left behind as well.

We have been so quiet because we have been organizing, expanding, and warming up; but now we want you to brace yourself for the new us!

Be sure to subscribe to our feed or sign up for an email subscription using the box below so you don’t miss any of the awesome articles and information our exclusive team has to bring you.

Thank you thank you thank you for being a reader of our blogsite.

All the best!

Sincerely,

LezGetReal.com

Mindancer Books, an imprint of Bedazzled Ink Publishing, is creating an anthology of stories featuring female pirates as either the main character or the focus of the story.

The project is called Skulls and Crossbones and recently issued a call for submissions by authors online. However, a majority of the submissions have been created by male authors, rather than a balance of the genders.

Lesbian author Andi Marquette, who has written books such as State of Denial and Land of Entrapment, is an Executive Editor on the project and shared the news with LezGetReal, asking us if we knew any women who would be interested in submitting a story. Of course, we know a lot of women, but most of them are gay.

Andi tells LGR that lesbians are more than welcome and encouraged to enter submissions, which are due by September 1, 2009.

The pirate anthology aims to become a collection of short stories that feature women pirates in any setting and any time period. Although the focus of the story “cannot be a romantic hook-up or sex/erotica”, stories featuring adventure, intrigue, antiheroines/heroines, something to be accomplished/overcome, battles, vengeance, trickery, thievery, “and/or assorted banditry” are encouraged.

Original and previously published stories will be taken under consideration and each contributor will receive one print copy as well as one ebook copy of the anthology.

You can find complete details and submission guidelines for Skulls and Crossbones here.

Final selections will be made by October 1, 2009, with publication tentatively slated for January 2010

If you have questions, you can contact the Skulls and Crossbones project team through pirateanthology@gmail.com.

Today is the annual Blog Reader Appreciation Day hosted by The Other Mother and if you have a blog there is still time to tell your readers how much you appreciate them.

I can personally say that we sincerely appreciate the readers of LezGetReal. Without our readers there is no purpose to the site at all. This blog was made for YOU and we hope that you are enjoying it so far! We have tried to put together a comprehensive and all inclusive website using our blog, and for the most part we think we’ve succeeded.

We do realize however that there is still a long way to go before we have reached our ultimate goal.

Our goal is to make a positive change in this world and without our readers this would simply not be possible. You are the ones who carry the messages we deliver  into your lives, and we hope that we have been able to help some of you live better lives as a result of reading this blog. It’s a very real aspect of why we do what we do, and that being said you should know how much we appreciate that our readers take the time to stop their day and pay attention to what we have to share. First things are always first, and the first thing to us is always our readers.

So in the spirit of Blog Reader Appreciation Day we here at LezGetReal.com are saying THANK YOU to all of our readers very, very much!!

Hello LezGetReal Readers!

Have you noticed our new look? We hope you like it!

When we launched in September of 2008, we were a very plain looking site without many features and only a handful of writers. As we grew and added features, some of you may remember that we had a blog roll and link lists on our homepage. As we have evolved to over 1200 posts and 40 some writers, we have gone to a new format and you may have noticed that the links and blog roll are gone.

This is why…

We are moving to a new way of doing things! I know new ways of doing things are not always welcomed but hey I’m the Executive Editor and I approve this message, haha.

So this is what we’re going to do…

In order to give everyone a fair chance at being linked on our site, you can either take a look at paid advertising, or (drumroll please!) take part in our Freebies.

We have come up with the following ‘No Cost Solutions’ for being linked on LezGetReal:

News Tips
Send us your press releases! We report on news that is relevant to the LGBT community or that includes lesbians in some manner. Although we can’t guarantee that your story will be covered, there is no cost to send us your news so it is worth a try.

Event Reports
Send us tickets to your show! We report on events we have attended that are of interest to our lesbian readers. Coordinate with us before sending tickets and to arrange an interview and photo op.

Featured Lesbian
We are always looking for real lesbians to feature for our weekly column. If you would like to be considered for this feature, simply send us your photo with a short biography of yourself with any links to profiles or websites where our readers can find more of you if desired. Although we can’t guarantee that you will be featured, there is no cost to send us your bio so it is worth a try.

Lesbian Owned
We are always looking for lesbian owned websites and blogs to feature for our weekly column. If you would like to be considered for this feature, simply send us your link with a logo or banner to use if we are able to feature your site. Preferred size is 200 x 200. Although we can’t guarantee that your site or blog will be featured, there is no cost to send us your link so it is worth a try.

Free Sample
Product Placement
Send us a free sample of your product or service if you feel it is relevant to the LGBT community or of interest to our lesbian writers. We make every effort to forward product samples to the most compatible writer for the product. Writers will usually give honest reviews of your product within a few weeks of receiving the sample, although there is no guarantee that your product will be reviewed. Coordinate with us before sending samples for best results.

Video Report
Product Placement
Send us your relevant product for our writers to wear or display during a Video Report. We make every effort to forward product samples to the most compatible writer for your product, but cannot guarantee that your product will be used. Coordinate with us before sending samples for best results. Product sent for product placement can not be used in our Sponsored Video Reports.

Another way to get a link or banner on our site is to revenue share with us.

We are a member of a variety of affiliate programs because we use affiliate ads to fill in our ad spaces that have not yet been purchased. We love to revenue share with relevant websites!

Affiliate programs that are especially relevant to our readers might also earn a Sponsor Spotlight post.

If you have an affiliate program and would like for us to consider using your advertisements as fill-ins, simply send us the link for where we can participate. We are currently members of Commission Junction , Share a Sale , Link Share , and Share Results.

So there you have it.

There are many options for you to be linked or featured on our site, and if you are a lesbian who feels like you have much more to contribute, you might consider becoming a writer for our site as well.

In any case, please contact me, Julie Phineas to participate or ask questions.

We really appreciate your readership and thank you for taking the time to read this post!

]]> http://lezgetreal.com/?feed=rss2&p=7448 0 http://lezgetreal.com/?p=7305 http://lezgetreal.com/?p=7305#comments Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:00:20 +0000 ~Julie Phineas~ http://lezgetreal.com/?p=7305

We have come a long way since we launched our site last September!

If you’ve been with us since the beginning, you might remember how our site first started out, using the Blogger.com platform with only a handful of writers. We were very limited there, but did our best to bring you the best of what we had to offer from the perspective of a lesbian. Now, as I write this post to you, we have had over 300,000 page views to our little blogsite!

Since our server crashed last month, we moved over to our new platform and our new look.

It’s taken us some hard work to get our posts and features moved over… we had over a thousand posts to move! In the process, our subscription information was interrupted, and I am happy to report that we are back online completely and now holding a Subscription Drive, plus we are officially open to accept Sponsorships as well!

You’ll want to make sure to subscribe to our site at this time so you are on our list to receive the latest and find out about exclusive opportunities.

Speaking of opportunities, if you are a lesbian business owner, or have a product that you think our readers would be interested in, now that we are open for sponsorships, you have the opportunity to get your offer out there. We have text links, sponsored videos, and product placement solutions so be sure to visit our advertising page for more information if that is something that interests you. In any case we sincerely hope that you are enjoying LezGetReal, and if you have any comments or questions for us, you can find our contact form on our About page here.

Thank you for reading our blogsite, and we hope you’ll take the time to subscribe.

Here is the link for those who are interested in subscribing via email.

Enjoy and thanks again!

Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her by visiting her page on MySpace.

]]> http://lezgetreal.com/?feed=rss2&p=7305 0 http://lezgetreal.com/?p=800 http://lezgetreal.com/?p=800#comments Fri, 20 Mar 2009 04:00:00 +0000 Lezgetreal http://lezgetreal.com/?p=800

LezGetReal.com and Dyke Drama Online are proud to share with you that our very own Niki Hutson is participating in this years AIDS/LifeCycle Event!

Please show your support by visiting her page on the AIDS/LifeCycle website where you can make a donation to her cause and provide much needed financial assistance; plus keep tabs on Niki Hutson and her progress throughout the event. AIDS/LifeCycle is the only AIDS fundraising cycling event in California organized and co-produced by the beneficiaries.

With your help, fundraising efforts will enable The San Francisco AIDS Foundation to continue providing leadership to prevent new HIV infections and to develop a ground-breaking prevention program and bold policy initiatives.

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation refuses to accept that HIV transmission is inevitable. Together we can do our part to support the Foundation and its clients. Side by side we CAN realize a world free of HIV and the human suffering it causes. Any amount you can give is greatly appreciated, even $10. If you have already donated, THANK YOU! If you haven’t, please consider even a small donation, every bit helps.

Niki is the west coast half of the DykeDrama duo. She is a tech geek in the Silicon Valley, where she lives with her partner and their pre-teen son. You can find out more about her and Dyke Drama at dykedramaonline.com. Yay for Gay!

Life gets in the way sometimes and we can’t always catch up to our favorite shows, The L Word being one of them.

Join us on Saturday as I re-cap all the L Word Season 6 episodes throughout the day, which lead up to the final episode that is set to air on Sunday March 8th on Showtime.

I have purposely kept myself from watching the show since episode 4 so that I can bring you fresh reaction to the events leading up to the final episode of the last season of the popular lesbian drama series.

If life has gotten in the way, or for some other reason you have not been able to follow the show, you can get the scoop on episodes 1 through 7 all day Saturday 03/07, and get my predictions for the final episode airing Sunday 03/08.

L Word Lovers… this one is for Y*O*U.
xoxo

The LezGetReal.com L Word Marathon is Sponsored By:

The following are comments were made by our followers on twitter.com.

@penguirl John Madden’s secret identity? Captain Obvious.

@ntinaz76 is wondering if the Cards are falling apart

@azravenwood Geez, the Cardinals are acting like idiots

@Luvologist Is it me or is this game boring as hell. The NFL needs to go back to having the Super Bowl the week after the championship game.

@J_Bradley The Cards are beating themselves with all these penalties.

@MCBrennan Ten yard penalty against Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for having too many letters in his surname. You hate to see that, Al.

@meowable watching superbowl at hamburger marys

@nakedbard @J_Bradley yes, the Steelers could send their moms out to play and the Cards might still lose with those flags

@debontherocks Don’t use a VP Debate 08 Bingo list as a drinking game for the Superbowl. Not even one Maverick, I’m cold sober, and I feel sad for America.

@wishfulwriter FINALLY! Cards make a play WITHOUT fouling!

@marlaerwin Dude, you never heard of fair catch?

@carnellm Is Madden gay? “big strong hands”, “penetration”, “explosion” just too much

@LaBarceloneta Man, if the Cards come up with another TD, everybody’s gonna be KUNG FU FIGHTING! (do-da-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-dooooo!)

@J_Bradley What a shift in the momentum.

@geraldsaunders Cardinals are doing The Safety Dance – Are they wearing their hats?

@LaBarceloneta Whenever I hear “Special Teams” I think “Oh..that explains the helmet.”

@veronicaeye TD Cards!! They have to win cuz that will leave my Cubs as THE team of futility.

@quoththeravyn stops pretending not to care about this game thang.

@AlohaArleen yeEEEOw!!! GOcardinals!!!

@irobyn and will it be the underdog AZ? i’m thinking so…but, who knows?

@heathr 49 seconds in football is like 3 months in a gay relationship: a long time.

@LaBarceloneta I should not care this much about a sporting event. HOLY CRAP!

@wishfulwriter NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

@ohchicken pittsburgh! that was lovely!

@wishfulwriter I’m dying over here. Tell me the Steelers didn’t JUST DO THAT.

@AlexaRPD Now the Steelers are ahead. What a game!

@saintchick ok i give. i really wanted to see the cards pull it out. i’m a sucka for an underdog!

@RobinJP 4-point game is killer right? cards have to get a touchdown .. yikes.

@irobyn does pittsburg have it? i’m thinking that AZ is going to do something spectacular!

@HistKB come on Cardinals! 22 seconds is like an hour in football. this game has proved that.

@wishfulwriter I am SWEATING. Fifteen seconds. Come on Cardinals.

@simplyn2deep I wish the clock could have run out when the Cards were ahead and there was 2 mins left #superbowl

@HistKB A flag? is there hope?

@leapingwoman the dominant words in the room are “holy crap!” #superbowl

LezGetReal Steelers Win 27 – 23

@LaBarceloneta Wow. Just…wow.

@J_Bradley Very happy for Mike Tomlin, I really like his style.

@simplyn2deep I like Ben Rothlessburg and all, but I really wanted the Cards to win. good game anyway #superbowl

@RobinJP so did the hairiest team win?

@fantasyvsreal OMFG!!!! HOW INCREDIBLE!!!!!

Thanks to all of our amazing followers on twitter.

If you are on twitter please follow Lez Get Real. If you aren’t familiar with twitter it’s a social networking site that allows you to update life in 140 characters or less.

Lezzymom has two kids and a wonderful partner. Her political commentary has appeared on C-Span and CSPAN.org. Visit her Lezzymom blog for more of her insights.

Image via CrunchBase

The following are comments from our followers on Twitter.com

@J_Bradley Countdown to the not-so-super Super Bowl with Keith Olbermann.

@sarahdopp Proud of myself for finally noticing that the Superbowl’s on

LezGetReal Twitter Poll – Who are you pulling for to win the #superbowl?

@ntinaz76 @lezgetreal GO CARDS!

@simplyn2deep @lezgetreal Cardinals for the win!

@J_Bradley I’d go country for Faith Hill!

@urbanphish @lezgetreal we are eating chips and dip, mini corn dogs, sandwiches, and bagel bites tonight!

@simplyn2deep man talking about penetration just doesn’t sound right! #superbowl

@MCBrennan John Madden seems unduly obsessed with getting penetration. Well, there’s another recurring nightmare to discuss with my therapist.

@simplyn2deep NOOOOOOOO steelers got first blood!

@lacomandante Face, Pittsburgh!

@fantasyvsreal BWAAHAHAA they have WIRELESS here!!! Cards offense is CAVING!! I SO predicted that!!! BWAHAHAHAHAAH

@apeywoo how many superbowl commercials are going to involve removing women’s clothes? (dorritos, godaddy…)

LezGetReal Hard to go wrong with Danica Patrick

@LaBarceloneta @lezgetreal Yeah, but I’ll bet the German girl’s a top too. Could get violent.

@WorldHarmony @lezgetreal I like Patrick but I’m tired of her being a sex object in those GoDaddy ads. Sigh

@RobinJP Madden: ‘pass on running downs’ and ‘run on passing downs’ .. what am I missing?

@msceo8 watching the superbowl…more like, it’s watching me. just can’t get into football. but i need to, since my 7 y/o loves it and plays well

@NSpirit I love watching touchdown drives unfold.

@LaBarceloneta “He gets good penetration because he jumps early” No, football isn’t homoerotic. Why?

@simplyn2deep cat thinks I’m crazy for yelling go go go haha #superbowl

LezGetReal The President is having a Super Bowl Party. Who is invited http://twurl.nl/il33fi

@leapingwoman @bipolarturtle the gals watching here want to know what food is being served at Obama’s #superbowl party!
@NSpirit Yes TOUCHDOWN! Superbowl history!

@saintchick damn that play was fraking awesome

@madamminnie Unbelievable run by Harrison! But geez Cards! Take the man down! WTH?

@simplyn2deep not much of a Bruce fan. don’t think I’m going to watch the half time show #superbowl

Half time Cardinals 7 Steelers 17

Thanks to all of our followers for sharing your Super Bowl stories with us.

Do you see the “Sign In or Sign Up” link at the top right side of our main site?

That links you to the Lez Get Real social network. You can also click on the tab that says ‘Connect’ to visit our social network as well. I’ve talked about the social network here on the blog before, and so for those of you who are keeping tabs I wanted to let you know that our social network got a makeover! When we started LezGetReal.com there weren’t many posts or features to our site. Now you can find our top features from the main site over on the LGR social network.

Rather than sorting through the posts on the main site you can now find features like the LGR Video Report, Featured Lesbian of the Week, A Gay Girl’s View and more all in one convenient place when you visit the main page of our social network.

Of course there are still exclusive discussion groups for lesbians on our social network, and as a matter of fact we’ve added even more of them for you. There are now over 100 discussion groups there! We’ve got over 100 members right now but that’s not enough for us. We need more lesbians to talk to, discuss the issues with, and share funny finds with too.

Come on over and join us if you haven’t already; be sure to tell your friends, and you know we’ll see you there!

LezGetReal.com is growing by leaps and bounds!

We have over 800 articles here on our site in over 100 different categories that are written by real lesbians from around the world, including our Queer Eye for The Lez World, Queers United. With exclusive content sections and our own social network we are looking for more lesbians to contribute to LezGetReal.com as we move ahead into our bright future!

Although becoming a regular contributor with LGR is not a paid position, there are a few perks to joining our team such as free publicity and the bragging rights that you are a part of LGR.

We occasionally do offer incentives for exclusive coverage of key topics, and look forward to making more than enough to pay for the bills in the near future which we’ll split between all writers.

There are only a few openings right now, and we are looking for the best lesbian voices on the following topics:

Adoption
Automotives
Health and Wellness
Home and Garden
Infertility
Movies
Parenting
News
Relationships

and in the following locations:

Australia
Canada
India
New Zealand
Netherlands
South Africa
South America
South East Asia
The Middle East
The UK

If you are interested in becoming a member of the LGR team, send an email to me, our Executive Editor Julie Phineas.

I’d like to see a sample of what you would like to contribute, find out what your talents and skill are, and learn more about you as a lesbian. If you feel you have something to contribute to our blog and are not in one of these locations or topics, let us know what you have in mind to contribute and we will see what we can do to help get your voice heard.

NOTE: We ALWAYS post news and stories submitted to us by friends and others who need help getting the word out through out Guest Blogger account. If you would like to submit a Guest Submission for consideration to be posted on LezGetReal.com simply send your submission by email to lezgetreal@yahoo.com.

Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her by visiting her page on MySpace.

Recently, LGR received a message from lesbian comedian Bridget McManus:

Keep up the good work I was forwarded one of your videos and I just wanted to thank you for all your work.

You make our community stronger.

Take care,
Bridget McManus

Thank YOU Bridget!

We love your video blog on After Ellen and your No On Prop 8 video was hilarious! We are looking forward to more from you in the near future and if there is anything we can do for you please let us know – we are big fans!

**To find out more about Bridget McManus**
Visit her page on MySpace
Watch her on Lunch with Bridgette at After Ellen
Watch her on Lunch with Bridgette on the LOGO channel
Watch her on The Jam at PeopleJam.com

Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her by visiting her page on MySpace.

This coming Tuesday January 20th, 2009 is the day we’ve all been waiting for – a new President is sworn into office in the United States.

Our President-Elect is none other than Barack Obama, the first African-American man elected to become President of The United States in the history of the country. This is an historical event, and you can bet that you’ll get the “Gay Girl’s View” on the Inauguration. We’ve got our very own Paula Brooks in town and armed with press credentials to get you up close and personal with what’s going on in Washington D.C. as the town and the world prepares for the big day. Please continue to join us for more from The Gay Girl in D.C., Paula Brooks, and her inside scoops on what’s happening in the nation’s capitol.

Paula Brooks lives in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. You can visit her Blogger profile here.

Do you have a question for one of our Columnists?

LezGetReal.com is committed to bringing you the best lesbian content from real lesbians online. Our featured columnists are ready and excited to answer your questions about sex, fashion, business, and other aspects of your lesbian life. You can always reach out to our writers through our contact page, but you can send your questions in and have them answered on our blog by using the email addresses below…

Send your questions to The Sex Slog here.
Send your questions to Lez Ask the Butch here.
Send your questions to Lez Ask the Femme here.
Send your questions to Lez Be Fashionable here.
Send your questions to Lez Get Down to Business here.
Send your questions to Queer Eye for The Lez World here.

We are looking forward to your questions and hope to see you visit again soon.

Sincerely,

All of Us @ LezGetReal.com

LezGetReal.com is proud to announce the grand opening of our activism site, The Rainbow Dragon Network!

The RDN is a network of outreach organizations and individuals that are dedicated to helping members of the LGBT community through tough times. We have been working hard to bring you A Gay Girl’s View of the World, and share our experiences and insights with you. Now, we are using our voice to make an impact on the LGBT community through the creation of The Rainbow Dragon Network.

We’ve found that members of the LGBT community have unique issues and concerns and we aim to help by providing a directory of organizations dedicated to helping LGBT individuals and their families; as well as a social networking website that will allow those in need to communicate with others who might be in a similar situation.

You might find yourself in need of legal advice, adoption resources, employment, financial assistance, etc. There are organizations available for these specific needs and we hope we can connect you with them if you are in need. Volunteers from LezGetReal.com created The Rainbow Dragon Network in response to the many lesbians who come to us in need. The program expanded to include the entire LGBT community and our motto is “Don’t Tread on Me”.

*If you are an LGBT individual in need, please be sure to visit the main website for information on outreach organizations that can help you.

*If you are an LGBT individual and would like to participate in helping others in the LGBT community, we invite you to join our social network and share your advice and insights with those in need.

*If you lead an LGBT outreach organization and would like to be included as a resource for the LGBT community please contact us at therainbowdragon@yahoo.com.

Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her by visiting her page on MySpace.

Are you ready for 2009?

I hope so because it’s just about here!

We’ve been working hard to bring you “A Gay Girl’s View of The World” and it will only get better in the new year!

We’ve found that the most popular posts on this blog so far have been on articles where we’ve touched a nerve with anti-gays, such as the Yes on Prop. 8 Blog Roll and Sei’s insights on a recent hate crime. On posts like these you can usually find us being barraged with slurs and hate, but we love it when truth is brought to light and we have no problem speaking truth so you can best believe that 2009 will only bring more hard hitting commentary alongside our general topics and featured columns such as The Sex Slog, Lez Ask the Butch and more.

We are also rolling out new columns for your reading pleasure so be sure to keep an eye out for those in ‘09!

You’ll still find real lesbians sharing articles, photos, videos, podcasts, and everything lesbian related, but you can expect that in 2009 we are definately going to take it up a notch. We want to thank you for being with us in this exciting time, and for reading along with us in 2008. We hope that you continue to enjoy everything here on LezGetReal.com, and we look forward to bringing you the best of ourselves as we share “A Gay Girl’s View of The World” with you in 2009!

Have a Safe and Happy New Year from The LGR Family!

Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her by visiting her page on MySpace.

Here’s a holiday gift to all of our readers – Lizzy the Lezzy is now being featured here on LezGetReal.com!

The newest member of the LGR Writers Family is none other than our favorite muff-munching animated celesbian comic, and she is pulling out all the stops from here on out!!

You can look forward to exclusive, crude, and downright hilarious videos, sound bytes, photos and more direct from Lizzy the Lezzy herself, right here on LezGetReal.

She already shares her sexual insights with us from her website, MySpace page, and blog. Now, you can find Lizzy the Lezzy insights and webisodes, games and more right here on LezGetReal.com.

Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her by visiting her page on MySpace.

Girl Afraid, taken from a Smiths song, is in love with Flickr and obsessed with You Tube.

On December 10th, 2008 the LGBT Community rallied together by participating in a National Day Without A Gay protest, where members of the community were encouraged to “Call in Gay” to work and volunteer their time instead.

Since then I have kept my eyes open for news of how the day went, and I am a bit discouraged that all I can find is articles stating how much of a fizzle the day turned out to be. Well in my opinion, Day Without A Gay definitely had an impact, but it is somewhat intangible and hard to measure. I think that even though many in the LGBT community weren’t able to call out of work for the day due to workplace discrimination, we DID do well in keeping the issue in the minds of people and once again bringing visibility to our community in a positive way.

Here is a comment from one of our readers about how Day Without A Gay went for her…

I live in a state where I can be fired at will, with no protections for LGBT employees. I HAD to go to work, or risk losing my job.

I did my part by sharing with everyone I talked to about ‘Day Without a Gay’, and why I couldn’t participate. I spoke about the rights that I, a tax-paying, law abiding American citizen, am currently denied, including employment protection, protection from losing my home if God forbid, something happens to my partner, protection from being attacked with no hate crime penalties for my attackers, being able to marry my partner, etc. I spoke about the rights my partner and I have had to PAY good money to obtain, by virtue of wills and powers of attorney, that are given to other couples just by virtue of signing their marriage license. I passed out white knot ribbons and asked people to wear them in support of the freedom to marry.

That was my ‘Day Without a Gay.’

I think if most people’s day went like this, then there have been a lot of good seeds planted in people’s minds about the LGBT community.

I know I was stuck in the house all day, but my wife did go out of the house that day and something was different. Something intangible, something in the air that has changed about how we are being viewed by others. I think this energy will take a little time to manifest into something tangible that we can all hold onto, such as equal rights under the law. In the meantime, I like LezzyMom’s idea of More Gays Each Day. Maybe we can’t measure this impact today, but when we look back in retrospect I am sure we will be able to give credit to the Day Without A Gay efforts for contributing to the overall visibility of the LGBT Rights Movement too.

Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her by visiting her page on MySpace.

If you participated in the National Prop. 8 Protest on November 15th, 2008, it was because of Amy Balliett.

Amy Balliett is the founder of the organization that called the protest which is JoinTheImpact.com. We are proud to announce that Amy Balliett is now one of the real lesbians that you can find contributing to the blog here on LezGetReal.com! As always, the LGR writers work hard behind the scenes to make a difference in the LGBT community, and with Amy Balliett as part of the team we are having some interesting and thought provoking discussions about the next steps in the LGBT Rights Movement and more. Please join us in welcoming Amy to Lez Get Real, and we look forward to joining together for the next Join The Impact event which is Light Up The Night for Equality, a candle light vigil being held in memory of the equal marriage rights that California once had. Other events coming up that we support include the Million Gay March and a rally at the California Supreme Court hearings.

Other issues that we are working on:

- Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT)
- The Employment Non-Discrimination Act
- The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
- The Matthew Shepard Act
- The UN LGBT Resolution

With an all star cast of lesbian bloggers, vloggers, podcasters, activists, and authors, Amy Balliett is a perfect addition to the team! Thank you for being a reader of LezGetReal.com, and a supporter of Amy Balliett and her Join The Impact efforts.

Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her by visiting her page on MySpace.

You may have read our recent LGR Important Announcement about the passing of Debbie Long, the partner of our Executive Director, Paula Brooks.

It has been a very sad week for the LGR family. Many of us have discussed the situation in our online writers group, and planned to send flowers to the Memorial Service for Debbie. Paula let us know that Debbie was a lover of gardens and against picking flowers, and so we decided to make donations in honor of Debbie to Susan G. Komen for The Cure. Now we are asking that you come together this holiday, and help us help Paula through this hard time. She is asking for us to donate to The Marine Corps Toys for Tots drive in memory of her partner, Debbie Long.

Here is a letter from Paula…

Ladies,

It was one of Debbie’s last wishes she be cremated and her remains deposited at her favorite surfing spot here on the island…. and we will be having a memorial service for her family and friends on the beach there.

I want to thank you so much for wanting to make a contribution in Debbie’s name for breast cancer research… Her full name name was Debra Marie Long… and she lived in Nags Heads, North Carolina

But Debs was a very big supporter The Marine Corps Toys for Tots drive, we spent a lot of time during the Christmas season in Malls helping the Marines on this one… and it was something she really loved to do.

Today I was reading in the paper they are having a hard time this year, so I think that if you gave a toy to them in her name, it would really make her smile.

And if you took a picture of you doing it and posted it on the blog I know it would make me smile.

Paula

You can find a local Toys for Tots toy drop off location by visiting the main website at ToysforTots.org or you can make a donation online here. If you are able to take a photo or shoot video while donating a toy to your local Toys for Tots, be sure to let us know by emailing our tips and info email.

Thank You Everyone!!

Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her by visiting her page on MySpace.

An inside source has just informed me that this coming Sunday’s GPS with Fareed Zakaria will be very important to all of us in the gay community. Colin Powell will be his guest with a very important statement:

Former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell will be saying in an interview that he believes it is time to re evaluated the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Policy…

This is a huge swing by anyone’s standards, but admitting that your own policies were flawed is one thing, standing up and demanding they be changed is another. Let’s see how much he has to give. We have seen time and time again that this is a man of conscience, and a genuine will to do what is right. He stood up to the administration on Iraq, and his endorsement of Obama this fall was probably the most important nail in McCain’s coffin.

Most importantly, let this be a sign to you that your efforts do make a difference. Change is coming, if we have the presence of mind to join together and grab it. GPS with Colin Powell will be this Sunday @ 1pm ET. The international schedule is 1200 & 1900 GMT. I’d like to see him make a statement about the UN resolution that the US failed to join in on to prevent the murder of our people. I really, really, would.

Update! Video!

Jenime is an artist living in the SF bay area. You can watch her musings and ravings any time by visiting her channel on YouTube.

Valerie and Tracie, a Los Angeles couple affected by the passage of Proposition 8, are carrying the banner of marriage equality across the state of California. The marchers are walking from Los Angeles to San Francisco and will arrive at the steps of the California Supreme Court on Friday, December 19. The couple will deliver a petition urging the Supreme Court to revoke Proposition 8. December 19 is the first filing date in the historic case before the Supreme Court to consider the constitutionality of Proposition 8.

Follow their progress, complete with photos and videos, on the Revoke 8 blog.

Recent highlights:

o Hosts Bart and Tony, married ranchers near San Miguel
o TLC from hosts Terri and Toni, and free beers from Marshall the biker in Oxnard
o Hosts David and David, longtime Marriage Equality activists
o Hosts Les and Bonnie, a Unitarian Universalist couple married 60 years
o Support in Nipomo, Arroyo Grande, and Pismo Beach

The March to Revoke 8 is raising awareness about Prop 8 and the importance of marriage equality all along the route. Check out coverage in Salinas, Santa Maria, Carp, Pasadena, Santa Barbara, and more… plus, love from the Stephanie Miller show and Frangela!

Upcoming stops: Gonzales, Chualar, Salinas, Watsonville, Aptos, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Cupertino, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Redwood City, San Mateo, Burlingame… and all the way to San Francisco

How can I support the marchers?

1. JOIN. Make a plan to walk with Valerie and Tracie for a few hours, a day, a few days or more. We especially hope to have a group for the last few days (Dec. 15-19) as the March proceeds through the Bay Area up to the Supreme Court. For daily departure times and locations, check the blog at http://www.revoke8. blogspot. com/ or email message@revoke8. com

2. CHEER THEM ON. Bookmark the March to Revoke 8 blog: http://www.revoke8. blogspot. com/. Check the blog every day and post encouraging comments for Valerie and Tracie! These comments sustain them and are wonderful for them to see at the end of those loooong days of walking (in not always supportive communities) .

3. SPREAD THE WORD. Make sure your friends, activist networks, media contacts, social networking, church, EVERYONE knows about the March to Revoke 8! You can start by forwarding this email and posting it on your social networking sites. For flyers, press releases, and any other materials about the March to Revoke 8, contact Sarah at info@revoke8. com.

4. DONATE. Valerie and Tracie are taking leaves of absence from their jobs and have invested considerable funds to be on the road for as long as it takes to get to the steps of the San Francisco Supreme Court. You can donate at the blog: http://www.revoke8. blogspot. com/.

5. VOLUNTEER to do some support logistics for the March. Offer your home for a night, help set up rallies, media, and meet-and-greets in the towns they march through, help get the word out in your local community. Write to support@revoke8. com to get involved.

About the March to Revoke 8

Valerie Paget and Tracie Jones, a Los Angeles couple affected by the passage of Proposition 8, are marching through California to demonstrate their conviction that the California Supreme Court should revoke Prop 8. They are marching from West Hollywood Park to the California Supreme Court in San Francisco. In coordination with Rick Jacobs of the Courage Campaign, they will deliver a petition to revoke Prop 8 that has been signed by over 250,000 people.

As they march, Valerie and Tracie are carrying their message through every community along their route from Los Angeles to San Francisco, collecting signatures, rallying communities, and gathering personal letters and a video diary of regular Californians’ messages to the Supreme Court to bring to the courthouse.

“We will carry the demands for full equality from our streets to the steps of the California Supreme Court, gathering support as we go,” they said.

“Valerie and Tracie’s walk to the Supreme Court will move Californians to recognize the importance of equal marriage rights. Their march across California will help to sustain the tremendous grassroots movement for marriage equality that we’ve seen in our communities, ” said Rick Jacobs of the Courage Campaign.

The public is invited to walk with Valerie and Tracie along this historic 450-mile, five week march for equal rights. Supporters can encourage Valerie and Tracie and follow their progress online at www.Revoke8. blogspot. com and www.Revoke8. com.

ABOUT Tracie & Valerie – Valerie and Tracie met in 1998 while working at a group home for disadvantaged children. They soon fell in love and exchanged wedding rings. They filed for Domestic Partnership in 2001 to ensure some basic legal recognition and protection. Then, on their 10-year anniversary, in April 2008, they were married in Vancouver, Canada.

On May 15th, the California Supreme Court ruled that marriage between same sex couples is protected by our state constitution, declaring Tracie and Valerie’s marriage valid and recognized by the state of California. Immediately, the threat of Prop 8 became apparent. On May 18th, the couple began working in their community to defeat Prop 8, donating their time through Election Day.

Although devastated by the passage of Prop 8, which invalidates their marriage in California, Valerie and Tracie are inspired by the groundswell of protest against Prop 8. With the status of their own marriage hanging in the balance, they have vowed to fight this discrimination and continue the battle for equal rights. Taking leaves of absence from their jobs, they will bring the message of Equal Rights all the way to the State Supreme Courthouse in San Francisco …on foot. — March to Revoke Prop 8!From West Hollywood to the California Supreme Court in San Francisco
WEBSITE: http://www.revoke8. com/
BLOG:http://www.revoke8. blogspot. com/
JOIN OR SUPPORT THE MARCH:support@revoke8. com
MEDIA INQUIRIES:info@revoke8. com(650) 269-1150

Today is Day Without A Gay and the organization Atticus Circle is encouraging the LGBT community to write to at least one straight friend, neighbor, or co-worker and ask a straight person to take a public stand for LGBT equality by joining their organization.

Atticus Cirlce is an organization that aims their efforts towards educating and mobilizing “fair-minded” straight people to help in the fight for LGBT Human Rights. On their website they offer the ability to send an email to our straight allies, asking them to join Atticus Circle in support of Day Without A Gay. Please take some time to send this email to at least ten of your straight friends or family members. For your convenience, the email has been included below.

Dear [Friend's Name],

I’m writing you today to help me (or family member, neighbor, co-worker) to achieve full equality. December 10th is Human Rights Day, on which gay Americans and straight allies across the nation will participate in the Day without a Gay action. I’ve committed to writing to as many straight allies as possible to help spread the word about how we can help in the fight for equality.

Most Americans share the deeply-held belief that all people are created equal, and thus, all people should be treated equally. Many Americans do not realize that millions of people in this country – committed partners in relationships, and parents and children — are in fact not being treated equally. How discrimination harms lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender partners, parents and their children is simply not on people’s radar. It’s essential that more people become aware of this ongoing injustice.

Please join Atticus Circle, a national non-profit organization which educates and mobilizes straight Americans to advance equal rights for LGBT partners, parents and their families.

By joining Atticus Circle, you can add your voice to those straight Americans who believe it is time to stand up and stand with our gay and lesbian friends who are being systematically denied the most basic rights and recognition – the very things we, in the heterosexual world, take for granted day after day. It is time for all children, regardless of their parents’ sexual orientation, to share the same rights and protections. And it is time for our country to acknowledge that the right to love a partner, be a parent and build a family is a fundamental and equal right for each and every one of us.

I need your help to win this “civil rights battle rooted in love.” Atticus Circle needs you to add your voice to the growing number of our friends who say, “This just isn’t right.” Click here to join Atticus Circle

Thanks for standing up for equal rights with me,
[My Name]

Please take the time to send this email today. We need all the support we can get.

Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her by visiting her page on MySpace.

Hello? This is LezGetReal.com.

We can’t come in to work today, we’re gay. Today is Human Rights Day and Day Without A Gay; and since we are not afforded all of the same basic rights as heterosexuals, we will not post anything today that is not directly related to the Day Without A Gay Protest. We are sorry but there will be no breaking news, no entertainment gossip, no sex slog. There will be no new fashion posts, video blogs, site reviews, awareness posts, parenting advice, travel stories, or poetry. Many of our writers are instead volunteering their time to local LGBT organizations, and/or drastically reducing their participation in society. Today, in solidarity with the LGBT Human Rights Movement, only Day Without A Gay related information will be posted to our blog. If you have Day Without A Gay related information to share please send it to our tips and info email.

United We Stand,
LezGetReal.com
Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her by visiting her page on MySpace.

From The Associated Press two men were walking arm and arm on Sunday and were beaten by four attackers in New York. The men were biological brothers. One of the attackers used an anti-gay slur when first confronting the brothers as he smashed him over the head with a bottle. As one brother managed to runaway the four assailants were beating up the second brother with an aluminum bat. The victim was 31-years old and died yesterday.

What would compel someone to do such a thing? Oh, it was a mistake, they thought the men were actually lovers, they believed they were actually gay. That would be a good reason, right? What is wrong with our world today, that no one of the same sex can walk arm in arm? Who feeds this anger and hatred?

I blame those that call being homosexual abnormal. I blame those that say it is a chosen lifestyle. I blame those that state it is a sin and even consider it more serious than many other sins. I blame those that state it endangers the family and thus social stability. I blame those that preach God hates homosexuality. I blame those that stand by this: Gay relationships are an abomination, hated by God. I blame those that also stand by this: Same-sex marriages or civil unions threaten regular families and thus the stability of society. Hate is hate. When you preach discrimination it leads to hate.

When are “religious leaders” going to realize that what they preach and what they spew is what leads to these senseless killings and beatings? When?

This isn’t about anger against religion. This is anger against the homophobia that religious rhetoric accomplishes.

p.Johanna is a single lesbian who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her and view her photos by visiting her page on MySpace.

Pat Boone, you sir are despicable.

On 8 December, 2008, Keith Olbermann, the host of Countdown, did his normal Worst Person in the World segment and number two was Pat Boone. This one time singing star compared the Mumbai terrorist attacks to the largely peaceful, organized protests which occurred following the passage of Prop 8 in an article he wrote for the WorldNetDaily. One of his statements included how rights for women, and blacks were won through due process, and not through protest and violence, and that slavery was ended through due process as well. One thing is clear, he has absolutely no clue as to what happened in history, including large portions of the history he lived through. Apparently the racial protests and riots of the 1960’s did not occur in his rosy glassed world and rights for African-Americans were won through legal and political means and the riots which came close to destroying Los Angeles and the marches in Selma and elsewhere never occurred.

Mr. Boone might really want to take a larger look at the events which transpired during these recent protests. Most of the violence which was perpetrated came from those who has supported Prop 8 and not those who opposed it. Those who supported marriage equality rarely engaged in vitriolic attacks upon others, and reports of physical violence were few.

What Mr. Boone is pushing is something that many others have been pushing, that is, the Yes vote won and we need to just sit down and shut up. He is pushing what many want us to do, which is give up our Constitutional right to protest peacefully.

Pat Boone was only beaten out as Worst Person in the World by Bill O’Reilly who, once again, changed position on the War On Christmas.

Pat Boone’s article
http://www.worldnetdaily.com

Countdown with Keith Olbermann
http://www.msnbc.msn.com

Sei is a trans-lesbian who lives in Vermont and has a strong passion for LGBTI rights. She has a BA in History and her hobbies include sci-fi, anime, fantasy, action movies, video games, and more. You can visit her Blogger profile here.

I am very sad to report to you that early this morning our Executive Director, Paula Brooks, lost her partner Debbie in a brave battle against breast cancer.

The LezGetReal.com Writers

*You can read Paula’s Post about Debbie here.

In case you haven’t been to our homepage lately, I wanted to let you know there are some new features here on LGR.

LezGetReal.com has been online a little over two months now, and we have been working hard behind the scenes to bring you our very best while sharing our voices with you. If you take a look at the homepage you will see that there are now links to many site features to accompany the many featured writers we have here on the site.

Here are some of the features you can now find as a part of LGR…

Topix News LGBT – Daily Horoscope – Radio Player – YouTubes – Poetry – Fun and Games – Adults Only – Free Stuff – Contests – Books – DVDs – Celesbians We Love – Rainbow Dragon Outreach – LGBT Dating Links – Featured Lesbians – The Blog Roll – Got Pride?

There are also new features on our social network, where you can now create your own discussion group to accompany your personal profile and network membership. You’ll find most of the LezGetReal writers roaming around the network, so feel free to reach out and message them if you see one there.

We have a very talented cast of writers here on LezGetReal, with lesbians from all walks of life bringing you their perspective on the world we live in. You may already be familiar with some of the regular contributors here, like p.Johanna, Cyndi Wiley, and Jules Joyce. There are published authors Jove Belle, Andi Marquette, and Jill Malone. There are business women, housewives, students, activists, transgendered, and other types of lesbian women writing on our blog as well. We feature stories submitted to us by guest bloggers such as Robin Tyler and Diane Olson, and have recently welcomed Amy Balliet to the team. The Dyke Drama Duo and Spaz Talk Radio proudly represent with their insights on LezGetReal from time to time, as does an all star cast of lesbian bloggers such as Hahn at Home, Two Lesbos Goin at It, Bridge Out, and more.

Our columnists are unparalleled, with columns featured on our blog such as:

Lez Ask the Butch
Lez Ask the Femme
Lez Be Fashionable
Lez Drive Cars
Lez Go Out
Lez Get Down to Business
Lez Wrap It Up
Queer Eye for The Lez World
The Lez Get Real Top Ten
and The Sex Slog w/Busy Beaver and Pugs

You can bet that there is more to come from this bunch, and if you want to find more from our writers please visit their individual websites which are linked on our homepage.

Thank you for being a reader of LGR, and we hope you enjoy the new site features!

Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her by visiting her page on MySpace.

Well here is your chance. As I’m sure some of you have come to realize, I use a website called Polyvore to create and shape my weekly outfits. I recently created a group with the polyvore website that makes it so you can “join” and then “submit” your own outfits and clothing sets. I urge you all to go out there and create looks that really catch your eye and if I think your job is something stellar I could feature it in an upcoming Lez Be Fashionable post! I want to see what you guys are taking away from my little lessons and what you can create from the deepest parts of your imagination. Also, if you keep close watch to the group you could get a glimpse of an upcoming look before it’s even posted!

Click here to check out the group and sign up for Polyvore today!

Can’t wait to see what you guys come up with!

Brittany Marie lives in Southern California and works with the City of Santa Clarita. She is considered a plus size fashionista and loves styling outfits for her friends and family. She runs two fashion blogs including Lez Be Fashionable and I’m Feeling Fat and Sassy.

Have you seen our social network lately??

It’s a fun place for lesbians to discuss the topics we present to you here on Lez Get Real, on our discussion forum and also in our discussion groups. When we first started the Lez Get Real social network on Ning.com, we kept the network closed while we set things up.

As of today that has changed!!

We are now opening up the Lez Get Real social network to lesbians worldwide who are interested in connecting with the LGR writers and other lesbians to discuss the topics that are important to them! You have always been able to add a new thread to our discussion forum, but now you can also create your own discussion group as well! Please visit our social network and join our community today. Create a discussion group or forum thread on a topic you are passionate about or get involved in an already existing group or discussion.

Enjoy yourself lezzies and we’ll see you there!

Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her by visiting her page on MySpace.

Someone has not learned their lesson.

We have kept you up to date on the eHarmony fiasco and now it seems like Ancestry.com is going to get itself in the same mess.

One of our brothers tried to join and the system didn’t allow him.

He promptly e-mailed them and this was the response he got:

Recently you requested personal assistance from our on-line support center. Below is a summary of your request and our response.

Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.

Subject
Domestic Partner

Discussion Thread
Response (Spencer) 12/05/2008 02:48 PM
Dear James,

We appreciate your message.

Please note that same-gender relationships are unable to be entered in our genealogy software (either the Online Family Tree of the Ancestry Family Tree). This is because genealogy trees are intended to trace biological relationships or bloodlines. As two persons of the same gender are unable to have biological children, they cannot be entered as spouses or partners.

If there is anything else with which we might assist you, please let us know.

Spencer
Member Solutions
Ancestry.com
http://ancestry.custhelp.com/

Ok, so let’s say I am a straight chick (OH NO!) and I marry a straight dude (Yikes!) but we can’t have children? The system will obviously take my information, right? Just my wondering mind, don’t mind me.

I haven’t confirmed this, but word on the street was this company is owned by a member of the: L.D.S!(I hope you know, I dropped my voice and an echo resonated). Someone else suggested using Geni.com

Just like eHarmony, if you want to pester them, GO FOR IT! But after they lose the battle, why stay with them?

I say use Geni.com and just shrug your shoulder at this other website that from this point on shall remain nameless from me.

Oh yes, and please pass the word: THIS NAMELESS WEBSITE IS STUCK IN THE ICE AGES AND HASN’T LEARNED FROM eHARMONY!

p.Johanna is a single lesbian who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her and view her photos by visiting her page on MySpace.

Hi everyone, I hope the Holidays aren’t twisting you up too much!

Its that time of year again, where our friends in and out of the closet struggle with being themselves while being with their family. Do I bring my partner (or if you’re lucky, spouse!)?

Should I tell my little sister?

I don’t want Grandma to disown me, maybe I should just wait till next year. My family is ultra-conservative, there’s no point in coming out, maybe I won’t go.

I believe that you know your family better than anybody, which is probably fucking you up. I remember stressing about these things before I came out. I come from a big, and I mean BIG, Oirish Cat’lick family. My whole life I grew up hearing “fags this”, and “dykes that”. For years I tortured myself with sex, drugs, and alcohol trying to deny that I could ever be one of “those people”. I’m the oldest of seven kids, and I was ashamed to set that kind of example for them too. I still remember my little sister’s earnest sendoff the first time I went to college: “Don’t let them turn you into a Lesbian, Jen!”.

In fact, I had been warned not to become a lesbian my whole life. I remember being yelled at for holding my best friend’s hand in kindergarten. She and I just thought it was awesome we had the same birthday, for Christ’s sake. Looking back, there was always someone at every phase of my development warning me not to “become” gay. And you know what I’ve figured out? This wasn’t just because they were homophobic shitheads. This was because I have always been, really, really, really obviously gay. Something I’m quite proud of now.

So I agonized over telling my family once I had accepted the truth. And that became really old, really quick. I’m lucky to have a family that loves me tremendously, and does let me feel important to the overall clan. I started looking at things from that perspective. I’m the oldest of my sisters and brothers, so I can just noogie them into submission. My Mom and Dad and I used to be so at odds with each other, and since I’ve grown up we’ve managed to build a really great, open, healthy relationship. They wouldn’t want to throw that away, why bring back the headaches they know I can cause? My extended family is also important to me, and with the support of my nuclear family, they wouldn’t dare mistreat or disrespect me. I’m also the first grandchild of my generation, and I know my Grandparents, especially my Grandma, have and will always be there for me.

Looking at it from that angle did help, but it still didn’t make it any easier to come out. Why? It seems so irrational and silly now to be afraid of these people. They’re my family. Our saying has always been “blood is thicker than anything”. We’ve always had a protective pride ingrained in us. I resolved to finally do it a few Christmases ago. I agonized, kept pushing the time I was going to do it back. Finally, after a night of drinking and agonizing (a bad mix, I don’t have to tell you) I marched into my parents home around 3Am to find my Dad just getting home from work.

He was standing in front of the TV watching something. He laughed when I came in, winking with the customary “Hey kid”. I stood there watching whatever it was with him. We were talking about something, I forget what, but about five lines in I couldn’t take it anymore. I leveled my 6′4 Dad with a mistrusting eye, and interrupted what he was saying with: “You know I’m gay right?”

He smiled, and nudged me with his elbow. “No Shit, Sherlock!”

God I hate it when my parents out-wise-ass me. But it was great. It was the perfect answer and we both howled laughter so loud my Mom woke up and came downstairs to yell at us. I was like “Mom there’s something I have to tell you!” And she was like “Shut up and go to bed, I know!”

Ah, memories. *wipes a tear* Of course they knew. Later, when my favorite Uncle Jawn was down from Vancouver with his husband Max, he told me just how long they’ve probably known. Turns out my Mom (his sister), had been asking him for years if he thought I was gay. He recalled the story that kind of says it all:

You were about five Jen, and your parents and I were in the living room watching the Pee Wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special. Now you would expect some wacky things on this program, but your parents were REALLY surprised when K.D. Lang came on and started singing. In order on the couch: your Dad said “This is weird.”, your Mom quipped “This is REALLY weird”, and you stood up and yelled at them:

“THAT’S NOT WEIRD! THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT!”

I beam with pride at my really awesomely gay child self! The point of the story is: you can’t hide it. You really can’t. Give your family the chance, and let them know who you really are. And try not to be too let down if there isn’t an emotional landslide after it happens. It could go really well, like it did for me. I’m lucky to have a really open minded family, sure. But I’m more lucky to have a family that loves me, and just wants me to be happy. Try to go into it remembering that they love you, and make that part of your coming out to them. Tell them you love them, and tell them the truth. It’ll cut all that nervous tension for the holidays. You know you’re gay but you can’t say anything, they think you might be gay but can’t say anything, you know what I mean. One less bit of stress for the rest of your life because you’re not worrying about all the “what ifs”? Now that is what I call a gift that keeps on bloody giving!

Find the whole Pee Wee’s Christmas Special on our youtube channel’!

Jenime is an artist living in the SF bay area. You can watch her musings and ravings any time by visiting her channel on YouTube.

This full page ad appeared in the New York Times

The following is the response by The Human Rights Campaign:

Today, members of the Human Rights Campaign’s Religion Council responded forcefully to a full-page ad in the New York Times that implies there is an organized attempt to foment mob intimidation and violence toward the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints due to its actions dehumanizing lesbian and gay people in the recent election campaign, particularly in California around passage of Proposition 8, which stripped gay families of the right to a civil marriage. The ad was sponsored by NoMobVeto.org, a project of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

When did the LDS Church become the victim?

It’s hard to believe, but that is exactly what it is trying to convince the public of. It is continuing to spend an excess of dollars in an attempt to mislead the public and transform its image. But the truth is that this is the same church that conducted a national broadcast to every temple, calling on members to organize and write checks to the Prop 8 campaign. The same church that donated more than half of the $40 million behind Prop 8, even though California Mormons represent just 2 percent of the state’s population. Yes, it’s the same church.

Don’t allow them to replace the truth with their own version of the truth. Use our Religion Council’s message today to take action and demand the truth:

• Click here to write a letter to the New York Times
• Click here to send an email to the Becket Fund, the organization that paid for the misleading New York Times ad
• Click here to share your personal story with NoMobVeto.org and let them know how the passage of Prop 8 affected your life

What HRC’s Religion Council had to say:

• “Several signatories to the ad are generals in the culture wars,” said Rev. Susan Russell of All Saints Church (Epsicopal), Pasadena, Calif. “They lied about gay people in the campaign, and now they are lying again when they say we are in favor of mob intimidation and violence. I personally talked legitimately angry demonstrators in California out of such action and every credible LGBT organization called for peaceful resistance to the Prop 8 travesty. Many of the leaders cited in this ad preach hate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, then look the other way when LGBT people are the victims of hate crimes. This ad is an act of individual and corporate hypocrisy.”
• Bishop John Selders of Amistad United Church of Christ in Hartford, Conn. commented, “As an African-American, I’ve heard this before. A few frustrated members of a minority group respond in anger to a new indignity and the oppressor calls them anarchists. Satan, sometimes called the Father of Lies, is at work when powerful people seek to dehumanize those who are less powerful.”
• Rev. Dr. Miguel de la Torre of Iliff School of Theology in Denver agreed, “I am always struck that those in power, those who manipulate the truth to maintain oppressive structures, present themselves to the public as the ones being persecuted. Make no mistake, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is a powerful organization with an agenda of imposing a narrow religious view upon the rest of America. As we Hispanics say, ‘que vergüenza’ (what a shameful act).”
• “Calls for tolerance of certain religious viewpoints rings hollow in a world where religion often stands by tolerating violence perpetrated on God’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender children,” was Rev. Dr. Erin Swenson’s reply. Dr. Swenson is a Presbyterian minister and psychotherapist in Atlanta.
• Rev. Dr. Ken Stone of Chicago Theological Seminary said, “While I agree that violence and anti-religious bigotry need to be combated, we must also demand an end to the violence undertaken by those religious institutions that not only encourage but also fund bigotry against lesbians and gay men. Where will the Becket Fund be when we call for endorsements of hate crimes and employment protection legislation for LGBT people?”
• Here’s what Rev. Dr. Mary A. Tolbert of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the Pacific School of Religion had to say: “The ‘No Mob Veto’ ad would be more convincing as a statement of concern for civil debate over the well-organized and well-funded participation of the LDS church in the passage of Prop 8 had it not itself ended with a clear threat of intimidation toward anyone criticizing that church’s role in the election. As the Christian gospels demonstrate in Jesus’ action of overturning the tables of money-lenders in the temple, sometimes speaking the truth to entrenched and wealthy religious leaders requires a dramatic stroke. To protest the enormous financial involvement of a religious body in stripping equal rights from California LGBT people, their families, and their children is in no way anti-religious bigotry; it is instead, like the example of Jesus in the temple, an attempt to speak the truth to those rooted in power and wealth whose actions serve to deprive other human beings of the equal respect and dignity all of God’s children deserve.”
• Rev. Rebecca Voelkel of the Institute for Welcoming Resources of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force summed up: “As a Christian, I was taught not to ‘bear false witness.’ One of the deepest tragedies of the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign in California was its bearing false witness– more plainly stated, its lies– about the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons. This ad is one more example. In response to the passage of Proposition 8, faithful, honorable, patriotic Americans from every walk of life and of many sexual orientations and gender identities gathered to say no to lies and yes to love, truth and the American way. To name these overwhelmingly peaceful gatherings as mobs dishonors me, my family, members of my church and so many others who participated in them. As a Christian, my religious tradition also admonishes me to speak the truth in love. Therefore, I prayerfully ask those who have run this ad and others like it, to stop your false witness. Instead, and especially in these times, our country and our world need all of us, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, pagans and all people of faith, to work on behalf of the dignity of all human beings.”

Lezzymom has two kids and a wonderful partner. Her political commentary has appeared on C-Span and CSPAN.org. Visit her Lezzymom blog for more of her insights.

Jack Black as Jesus. John C. Reilly as a Fundamentalist Christian proposing hate in the Constitution. Mark Shaiman as the composer.

On 5 December 2008, Keith Olbermann interviewed all three about Prop 8- The Musical.

Shaiman wrote the three minute musical soon after the vote in November. Shaiman said in there one sterling piece. Shaiman, who is gay, said “I and people like me are born gay, we don’t choose it. God makes us gay, and you should not hate us because God made us gay because then you’re questioning God’s taste and that isn’t cool.”

All three agree that this is a fight over civil rights. Black also pointed out that a number of people are starting to realize just what they did in voting for Prop 8, and that, should this go back to the people for a vote, it would be overturned.

Shaiman ended the interview with a sentiment that many of us here have had. “I’m doing what every father teaches his son which is get up after you get hit by a bully and continue fighting back.”

Thanks go out to Mr. Olbermann for continuing to push the issue of marriage equality in interviewing these three men, and to Jack Black and John C. Reilly for giving us such wonderful performances, and to Mr. Shaiman for a wonderful skit.

Sei is a trans-lesbian who lives in Vermont and has a strong passion for LGBTI rights. She has a BA in History and her hobbies include sci-fi, anime, fantasy, action movies, video games, and more. You can visit her Blogger profile here.

You can’t really be on the internet these days without hearing of all the protests and boycotts and discussion around what has been going on since the election and the passing of Prop 8 in California. A lot of people have found their voices for the first time and are standing up for what they believe in. Both LGBT people and straight folk alike are coming out in huge numbers around the country to protest and be seen.

The next upcoming event that is being organized by JointheImpact.com as well as other groups is the Day without a Gay event on December 10th. People are being asked to call in to work Gay, not sick, and then give your time to volunteer for a local organization.

This action ideally will illustrate the economic impact of the LGBT community. Did you ever see “A Day without a Mexican”? It was a movie in 2004 where all Mexicans in LA were taken by aliens. The film depicts what would happen in California if 1/3 of the population disappeared. If you haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend it. California fell apart without it’s Mexican population. What if we could make the same statement?

Then there is reality. Many of us can’t call in “Gay” to work. We would lose our jobs and with the economy the way it is now, no one can afford that. There are those of us that own businesses that would suffer tremendously if we took the day off. And then there are our allies, the straight community that want to show support, but don’t feel that they can call in “Gay”. How do all of these people take part in this action and show support?

There is a lot of discussion going on around the web. You can wear a shirt or a button, you can go to a protest at lunch or after work. There are many things that you can do, but one thing that the jointheimpact.com folks are suggesting is to wear a white knot to show your support for marriage equality.

The idea for the white knots and www.whiteknot.org was created by Frank Voci to keep the conversation going. The white knot combines two symbols that are traditional symbols for marriage, we wear white and we tie the knot.

So, on the 10th, if you can’t call in, if you must go to work, make sure you wear your white knot. Even if you do call in, wear a white knot. People will ask what it is for and that will keep the conversation going.

Niki is the west coast half of the DykeDrama duo. She is a tech geek in the Silicon Valley, where she lives with her partner and their pre-teen son. You can find out more about her and Dyke Drama at dykedramaonline.com. Yay for Gay!

Although voters have approved bans on same-sex marriage in 30 states, most Americans favor other legal protections for gay and transgender people, according to a survey released this week by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).

The Pulse of Equality survey, commissioned by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), shows that majorities of Americans favor either marriage or civil unions/domestic partnerships for gay and lesbian couples, as well as gay- and transgender-inclusive hate-crimes laws and non-discrimination laws, and allowing openly gay service members to serve in the armed forces, while a majority opposes laws that would ban adoption by qualified gay and lesbian couples.

According to the Pulse of Equality telephone survey among 2,008 U.S. adults ages 18 and older, conducted from Nov. 13-17, 2008, Americans support key policy proposals that affect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Among them:

• Three-quarters of U.S. adults (75%) favor either marriage or domestic partnerships/civil unions for gay and lesbian couples. Only about two in 10 (22%) say gay and lesbian couples should have no legal recognition. (Gay and lesbian couples are able to marry in two states, and comprehensive civil union or domestic partnership laws exist in only five others and the District of Columbia.)
• U.S. adults are now about evenly divided on whether they support allowing gay and lesbian couples to legally marry (47% favor to 49% oppose).
• Almost two-thirds (64%) of U.S. adults favor allowing openly gay military personnel to serve in the armed forces. (The current “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law bans military service by openly gay personnel.)
• About six in 10 (63%) U.S. adults favor expanding hate crime laws to cover gay and transgender people. (Hate crimes laws cover gay and transgender people in 11 states and the District of Columbia, and an additional – 20 states’ laws cover sexual orientation but not gender identity.)
• A slight majority of U.S. adults (51%) favor protecting gay and transgender people under existing laws that prohibit discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. (Existing non-discrimination laws cover gay and transgender people in only 12 states and the District of Columbia, and eight other states’ laws cover sexual orientation but not gender identity.)
• early seven out of 10 U.S. adults (69%) oppose laws that would ban qualified gay and lesbian couples from adopting children. (In several states, gay and lesbian couples are banned from adopting.)

Across the LGBT-related policy proposals, there were statistically significant differences in support with respect to age, gender, race/ethnicity and religion. People under 65, and especially those 18-34, were more supportive than people over 65. Women were generally more supportive than men, with women age 18-34 often being more supportive than other segments. Hispanics were more supportive than Whites and African-Americans in showing strong support for allowing openly gay military personnel to serve in the armed forces. African Americans were more strongly supportive than Whites and Hispanics of expanding existing hate crimes laws to cover gay and transgender people. Mainline Christians (a category that includes, among other denominations, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians) and Catholics were more supportive than Evangelical Christians, and Mainline Christians were often among the more supportive segments on a variety of issues.

The survey also revealed that there has been greater acceptance of gay and lesbian Americans over the last five years. Approximately two in 10 Americans (19%) reported that their feelings toward gay and lesbian people have become more favorable over the past five years, with contributing factors including: knowing someone who is gay or lesbian (79%), the fact that laws have been passed that protect gay and lesbian people (50%), opinions of family or friends (45%) and religious leaders (21%), news coverage of gay and lesbian issues (41%), and seeing gay or lesbian characters on television (34%) and in movies (29%). Nearly three out of four Americans (73%) personally know or work with a gay or transgender person, and half of those who know or work with someone who is gay or transgender know five or more gay or transgender people.

“The visibility of the past several years, and the intense conversations of the past few weeks, seem to have galvanized a majority of Americans’ support of equality for gay and transgender Americans,” said GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano. “While this expression of support is encouraging, particularly after the setbacks we experienced on Election Day, it’s not something we can rest on. There is a lot of work to be done. We must all do what we can to sustain and expand this emerging wave of grassroots activism so that it leads to laws and policies that extend full equality under the law to all Americans – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and straight.”

Paula Brooks lives in the Outer Banks of North Carolina with her partner, their twin daughters and her hearing helper dog, where they own and operate a vacation home rental business. You can visit her Blogger profile here.

shit·list – also shit list

(shtlst)

n. Vulgar Slang

A number of persons who are strongly disapproved of….

It is our plan to post entries detailing those Organizations, Businesses and Individuals who gave the $36 million to the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign that ended same-sex marriage in California and then ask you to join us in sending a copy of our little award to them…

Todays entry to this list is ….

The Knights of Columbus…. $1,425,000

Headquartered in New Haven, CT, The Knights of Columbus is chartered as a fraternal benefit society, and is set up as a 501(c)8 corporation.

While the Knights of Columbus support political awareness and activity, United States councils are prohibited by tax laws from engaging in candidate endorsement and partisan political activity due to their non-profit status.

That has however not stopped them from giving millions of dollars to fight stem cell research initiatives and to fund constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage across the United States. During the Proposition 8 fight the National K of C gave $250,000 on 2/4/08, $1,000,000 on 8/15/08 and $150,000 on 10/21/08, while the local California organization gave $25,000 on 4/18/08…

Founded in 1882, it acts as the political arm of the Catholic Church, it is an exclusively male organization that has 1.7 million members that is not altogether friendly to women rights issues either… and their philosophy on this issue could easily be summed up to… keep ‘em pregnant and keep ‘em in the kitchen….

The Knights of Columbus invites the head of state of every country they operate in to the Supreme Convention each year.

In 1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon gave the keynote address at the States Dinner; Secretary of Transportation and Knight John Volpe was responsible for this first appearance of a U.S. President at a Supreme Council gathering. President Ronald Reagan spoke at the Centennial Convention in 1982. President George H.W. Bush appeared in 1992. President Bill Clinton sent a written message while he was in office, and President George W. Bush sent videotaped messages before he attended in person at the 2004 convention.

Cardinal J. Francis Stafford, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary of the Holy See, called President-elect Barack Obama’s policies “aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic,” and said that his election was “a cultural earthquake”. In the past politicians favoring a woman’s right to an abortion have not be allowed to speak at this event, so it will be interesting to see if our new president get or accepts an invitation from the K of C to this shindig in the future….

So for their continual efforts to promote hate and intolerance of LGBT people and suppression of womens rights the world over, We here by award the The Knights of Columbus our first Stercus Liber Award.

You can send your copy to….

The National Headquarters:
1 Columbus Plaza, New Haven, CT 06510
• Tel: 203.752.4000
• Web: www.kofc.org/un/index.cfm

or the California Headquarters:
15808 Arrow Blvd, Suite A, Fontana, CA 92335
• Tel: 909.434.0460
• Web: www.kofc-california.org

Paula Brooks lives in the Outer Banks of North Carolina with her partner, their twin daughters and her hearing helper dog, where they own and operate a vacation home rental business. You can visit her Blogger profile here.

On Tuesday November 11th ‘08 The Lesbian Podcast, a new online podcast for lesbians, featured our Top Ten Most Popular Halloween Costumes ‘08 here.

The Lesbian Podcast broadcasts from San Francisco and they “hope to attract listeners from all walks of life all over the world”. Well they came to the right place when they visited Lez Get Real. We pride ourselves on showcasing the voices of “real lesbians from all walks of life from around the world”! The Lesbian Podcast is also for people who are questioning their sexuality or who live in a place with no lesbian subculture. We aim to help these people as well! That being said, check out The Lesbian Podcast and see what they’ve got going on there.

Thanks to the Lesbian Podcast ladies for checkin US out over here… love the show!

Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her by visiting her page on MySpace.