Tonight, make your way down to the WolfeVideo.com Final Four Party (as seen on the L Word) at The Industry! This is THE biggest women’s party during the Final Four – so you can’t miss out!

Special guest Pam Grier – “Kit” from the L Word - will be there dancing right along with you to the sounds of the 70′s, 80′s, and 90′s (and a little bit o’ country mixed in)!

Gift bags for the first 100 guests (valued at $100/piece)…and more give-aways all night long!

Doors open at 7 pm and the party lasts till 2 am.  Tickets are $10 if you buy them online or $15 at the door.  If you are really feelin’ sassy and want to go VIP style, that will cost you$35 and are for advanced sell online only.

SAGE is designed to enhance the lives of older LGBT adults and seniors, and in the Chicago area that’s estimated at around 40,000 LGBT people over age 55. That’s a large population! And what a forward-thinking program. SAGE is receiving the third largest federal grant awarded to an LGBT aging program in the United States.

Nice to know we are taking steps forward for our community everyday.

The Winter Olympics kicked off today, so let’s check out 4 openly gay women who are competing in the 2010 games:

Ireen Wüst – Speed Skating:

A 2006 Olympic gold medal winner (at the age of 19) from the Netherlands, Ireen is competing on Sunday, February 14th in the 3000 meter race, February 19th in the 1000 meter race, and February 21st in the 1500 meter race.  She came out in November 2009 in TVM Helden magazine where she mentioed that she has a girlfriend and is very happy.

Sarah Vaillancourt – Hockey:

A foward for the fierce Canadian women’s hockey team, Sarah and her team are expected to be one of the top contender’s for the gold medal this year.  Sarah has been out about her sexuality since she was a Freshman at Harvard University.

Erika Holst - Hockey:

Erika and the rest of her Swedish teammates took home the bronze medal in the 2002 Olympics.  In 2006, they won silver.  I see a pattern here…next step, gold?  Erika has been out since 2006.

Vibeke Skofterud – Cross-Country Skiing:

The Norweigan skiier has been out since 2008 when she told See and Hear magazine: “I have gone many rounds with myself, and it has taken a lot of time to figure out. I was not always honest with my own feelings.”

Today on Oprah, Kimberly Reed, formerly Paul McKerrow, will be revealing her amazing story of going from a Montana High School’s golden boy quarterback to a modern day lesbian filmmaker in New York.

Kimberly Reed has created a documentary entitled Prodigal Sons based on her, I would venture to say almost unbelievable, life and the life of her family.  It has to be one of the most intriguing films I’ve ever heard about.

It not only reveals her own story about growing up the popular high school quarter back, valedictorian, and student voted most likely to succeed who eventually transitions into a female lesbian, but also the story of her two brothers - Marc, the oldest adopted son, who ends up finding out he is the long lost grandson of Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth and also goes through a tramatic accident that leads to life-altering brain surgery, and the youngest brother, Todd, who comes out as a gay man later in life.

Prodigal Sons is to be released in theaters in late February by First Run Features and broadcast on the Sundance Channel in June.  Until then, set your DVRs to record her interview with Oprah today!

To read more details about the film and the lives of Kimberly and her brothers check out this article from Details magazine:
http://www.details.com/culture-trends/critical-eye/201001/kimberly-reed-transgender-documentary-prodigal-sons?currentPage=1

Enjoy!!

U.S. CENSUS DATA

One in five male couples and one in three lesbian couples were raising children as of the 2000 Census. That’s way up from 1990, when one in 20 male couples and one in five lesbian couples had kids.

A NEW PUBLISHED CLINICAL STUDY

And new research now shows that children raised by same-sex couples appear to do as well as those raised by parents of both sexes,  challenging the long-ingrained belief that children need male and female parents for healthy adjustment.

“It’s more about the quality of the parenting than the gender of the parents,” says Judith Stacey of New York University, co-author of the comprehensive review. It will be published Friday in the Journal of Marriage and Family.

“Children being raised by same-gender parents, on most all of the measures that we care about, self-esteem, school performance, social adjustment and so on, seem to be doing just fine and, in most cases, are statistically indistinguishable from kids raised by married moms and dads on these measures.” 

In addition to child outcomes, the sociologists reviewed parenting styles and found “two women who choose to parent together are slightly more likely than a heterosexual couple to be actively committed to hands-on parenting.

A NEW PUBLISHED RESEARCH BOOK

Also, there’s another new comprehensive study being published in a book called Lesbian and Gay Parents and Their Children: Research on the Family Life Cycle, by Abbie Goldberg, an assistant professor of psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.

Among findings outlined in Goldberg’s book:

• The transition to parenthood is similar for both homosexual couples and heterosexual couples.

• Children of gay couples don’t differ from their peers raised by heterosexual couples in terms of their mental health, self-esteem, life satisfaction, social skills or number of friends.

• Children in gay families are teased more about their families and their sexuality but are not teased more overall.

Stephanie Woolley-Larrea, 36, of Miami says she and her partner, Mary Larrea, 49, have tried to prepare their 7-year-old triplets (two girls and a boy) to face such ridicule, but “it’s been a non-issue.” Her kids know “their family is not like everybody else’s” but “think it is much more unusual that they are triplets than that they have gay moms.”

It makes me excited to become a lesbian mom someday soon!

Ted Olson and David Boies, two high-profile lawyers (who worked the Bush v. Gore 2000 opposing one another) representing two same-sex couples who were denied the right to marry, are challenging Proposition 8′s federal constitutionality and believe that it should be repealed.

“This unequal treatment of gays and lesbians denies them the basic liberties and equal protection under the law that are guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution,” their suit states.

According to the suit, Proposition 8:

• Violates the Due Process Clause by impinging on fundamental liberties
• Violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
• Singles out gays and lesbians for a disfavored legal status, thereby creating a category of “second-class citizens.”
• Discriminates on the basis of gender.
• Discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation.

The trial is supposed to be made available for viewing tonight on YouTube, so if you are interested in watching the hearing minute by minute be looking out for that! 

You can also show your support without even leaving your chair by “attending” on the Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=210238489967&ref=ts

Shopping can move mountains. Especially when we’re talking about mountains of discrimination against the LGBT community. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has done an exhaustive audit of big, key brands to see who treats our people well, and who doesn’t– and then scored each one for our convenience. It’s called the Corporate Equality Index, or BUYING FOR EQUALITY 2010.

So what does it mean to score 100 percent? It means those companies have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (hallelujah!), provide benefits for LGBT employees and their families (amen!) and publicly support LGBT equality (praise them all!). And you know what’s even cooler? Despite a recession, there are MORE companies this year that scored 100 percent than last year! I’m talking 305 golden organizations compared to 260 just a year earlier. Just amazing. 

So, you ask, what are some of these forward-thinking, non-discriminating companies? 

Target. Best Buy. CVS. Anheiser-Busch. HomeDepot. Borders. Shell. AllState. American Express. Time Warner. Starbucks. Abercrombie & Fitch. Subaru. Nike. Apple. Dell. JetBlue. Orbitz. Mattel. UPS.

And the list goes on….. To view the full list by shopping category, visit http://www.hrc.org/buyersguide2010/category.htm?category=where_to_shop 

Now the power is in our hands to reward the good companies by patronizing them, and speak volumes by keeping our money in our pocket when we walk by the others. 

Parker celebrates with her partner Photo: AP

History has been made…deep in the heart of Texas.  Where the doctrine of the conservative right usually reigns, a mold has been broken.  Houston, TX is the largest city in the United States to elect an openly gay mayor.  Annise Parker has done it – and she has not only proven herself worthy of the job, but has also proven that when it comes down to it, even a city in the conservative south is growing less and less concerned with a candidate’s gender and sexual orientation and more concerned with the issues.

The LGBT community is celebrating Parker’s win as hope for a more promising future.

“The fact that an openly gay candidate wins for mayor in the nation’s fourth largest city, in the South, in Texas, shows that when Americans get to know gay people as people, not as stereotypes, their resistance to treating gay people equally reduces,” Evan Wolfson, director of Freedom to Marry, a gay-marriage advocacy group, told USA Today.

All of those anti-gay campaign efforts in Houston led anti-gay activists and conservative religious groups failed to sway the opinion of the majority.  What is that old saying…oh yes, stick and stones may break my bones but…Annise Parker has won anyway!

With this great news also comes some concerning news.  The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington last month threatened to cut their social service programs if the bill passed.  Now that that has happened, the Archdiocese is determined to stand strong on keeping its promise.  The Archbishop would cut homeless shelters, food programs for needy families, and health services rather than provide equal benefits for employees in same-sex marriages. 

Does that make any sense at all?  It doesn’t seem like the way of Jesus to use the needy and homeless as anti-gay pawns.  We will have to just wait and see if they actually follow through with this horrible threat.

We also have to wait a little bit longer to see if the bill actually becomes law.  The bill now goes to the Mayor Adrian Fenty, who has promised to sign it. The U.S. Congress then has 30 days to review the legislation. After that window passes, the bill becomes law!  We will definitely keep you updated on this situation, but all we can do for now is stay hopeful.

When Night is Falling captures a different side of lesbian relationships – a softer and more sensual side.  Granted it does showcase the usual complications and issues that come along with defying societal norms of sexuality – but it doesn’t focus on the negativity that can surround it.

The movie begins as you get a glimpse into the life of Camille, a subtly beautiful Professor of mythology at a Christian college.  We enter at a time when Camille is going through a sort of transformative period in her life – She is up for the chaplaincy at her college (along with her fellow professor and fiancé of three years Martin), she is getting pressure from her superiors at the college to marry Martin – i.e. stop living in sin, and worst of all her beloved dog has just died unexpectedly.  Camille can’t help but feel unfulfilled and finds herself spiraling down a hole of uncertainty in her life.

At just the right moment, of course, Camille runs into Petra – an exotically beautifully, free-spirited, bohemian circus performer – while doing laundry at the local laundry mat.  They are immediately drawn to one another as if they had been long-time friends, and Petra consoles Camille after she tells her the story of losing her dog.  Nothing happens right away, but after they part a smitten Petra pursues Camille quite insistently – showing up at her door the next day to Camille’s surprise.  Despite Camille’s hesitancy, she ultimately willingly gives into Petra and the two begin a torrid love affair – one that awakens Camille’s spirit but also makes her question her life’s destiny.

If I can tell you nothing more about this movie, I will leave you with this.  It is beautifully and artistically directed.  The two women share amazing chemistry that feels real – and not forced like many gratuitous lesbian relationships on American TV.  There are several, tastefully done yet graphic sex scenes, and lots of nudity.  I mean the movie begins with two women swimming naked underwater!  Not to be assuming, but let’s get real – we lesbians love to see two women wrapped up in the throes of love – I mean why else was the L Word so successful?! :)  And last but not least – well I won’t spoil it for you, but let’s just say it doesn’t end in suicide!

I give this movie two thumbs!  Check it out, throw out some comments here and let us know what you think…