True Blood's Newest Lesbian: Tara

I gotta say, that took me by surprise.

Obama Names Open Lesbian Roberta Achtenberg To Civil Rights Commission

Gay rights attorney and former San Francisco Supervisor Roberta Achtenberg has been appointed by the president to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Achtenberg co-founded the National Center for Lesbian Rights and was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1990. In 1993, she became the first openly gay or lesbian person to be confirmed for a federal appointment when the Senate approved President Bill Clinton's nomination of Achtenberg as assistant secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. She has served on the Cal State Board of Trustees since 2000.

RELATED: In 1995 Achtenberg left the above-mentioned HUD position to unsuccessfully run for mayor of San Francisco. And I voted for her even though her campaign worker totally ruined my bought-that-day suede jacket with a big sticker.

Scissoring For Equality

This is one of the more amusing/odd stories we'll read today. From California State University, Long Beach.

About 24 theatre arts majors protested in front of Brotman Hall on Wednesday by tribbing with one another, a lesbian sex act commonly known as "scissoring." The demonstration was in response to Cal State Long Beach refusing to advertise a play on the Seventh Street marquee because its title has "tribades" in the title. The play, called "The Night of the Tribades," is about playwright August Strindberg's relationship with women. The play is part of the graduate acting program, Cal Rep, at Cal State Long Beach. According to theatre arts major Courtney Knight, tribade is an archaic Greek term for lesbian.

Knight said the school refused to advertise the play on the marquee because of the word's similarity with tribadism. "When you put tribade into a Google search image, apparently it comes up with the word tribadism, which is a sex act and they decided it was inappropriate," Knight said. In response to CSULB's refusal to promote the play, the group of students conducted a different type of protest. According to the flyers they handed out, the protest was a "flash mob," where a group assembles in a public place to raise awareness of something via a physical gesture or act.

FYI, scissoring is where Scissor Sisters got their name. True story.

NOTE: Didja see how I resisted using the headline The Trouble With Tribbles? You're welcome.

Gay Parenting Study Reports Zero Cases Of Abuse By Lesbian Moms

The Williams Institute today reported (PDF) that a small study of the adolescent children of lesbian mothers showed no reported incidents of abuse by either their parents or another caregiver.

The paper finds that none of the 78 NLLFS adolescents report having ever been physically or sexually abused by a parent or other caregiver. This contrasts with 26% of American adolescents who report parent or caregiver physical abuse and 8.3% who report sexual abuse. According to the authors, "the absence of child abuse in lesbian mother families is particularly noteworthy, because victimization of children is pervasive and its consequences can be devastating. To the extent that our findings are replicated by other researchers, these reports from adolescents with lesbian mothers have implications for healthcare professionals, policymakers, social service agencies, and child protection experts who seek family models in which violence does not occur." On sexual orientation, 2.8% of the NLLFS adolescents identified as predominantly to exclusively homosexual.

The Williams Institute is part of the UCLA School of Law and has been tracking lesbian-headed families for 24 years. Read their complete study. (PDF)

Portia de Rossi On Coming Out

Mrs. Portia DeGeneres appeared on Oprah yesterday to talk about her struggle to come out. "The best possible response is, 'So What?'"

Essence Magazine Publishes Online Photo Essay Of Lesbian Wedding

With the guidance of GLAAD, Essence Magazine, which is aimed at black females, has published an online photo essay of a lesbian wedding. The article includes a profile of how the women met and later married in Washington DC. This is a first for the magazine.

Out Lesbian Joins Colorado Supreme Court

Today Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter named out lesbian Monica Marquez to the state Supreme Court.

"It is not because Monica is a Latina or because she is gay," he said. "I chose her because of her analytical ability and her keen intellect." On Wednesday, as Ritter announced that Marquez — currently deputy Colorado attorney general — would become the state's next Supreme Court justice, the Capitol erupted in cheers from her colleagues and family. "I look forward to serving the state of Colorado in this new capacity, and I promise to bring an exceptional work ethic, a collaborative spirit, an open mind and a reverence for the rule of law," Marquez said. Marquez, 41, a native of Grand Junction, attended Stanford University and earned her undergraduate degree in political science in 1991.

Expect the Colorado-based Focus On The Family to start screaming.

Radio Host Stephanie Miller Comes Out

Nationally syndicated radio host Stephanie Miller came out on her program about an hour ago. Judging by the comments on her blog (linked above), her listeners are being very supportive. The news began on her Twitter feed with the cryptic message, "There may be a lot of crying next hour."

Cougar Lesbians Go To College

Elizabeth Hasselbeck: Older Women Become Lesbians Due To Lack Of Men

(Via - The Advocate)

Sara Gilbert To Launch Chat Show

Sara Gilbert, who starred in Rosanne as a child and is now openly gay, will launch a daily talk show about parenting issues on CBS this fall.

Sources on Wednesday confirmed the plans for the show, which is also set to feature panelists Julie Chen, Holly Robinson Peete, Sharon Osbourne and Leah Remini. Deadline Hollywood first reported that CBS had picked the show as the replacement for "World" -- which goes off the air in September after a 54 year run. The network had also considered a new version of "Pyramid" with Andy Richter as host and a cooking game show with Emeril Lagasse.

Gilbert's show will replace the retiring As The World Turns.

The Hunt For Lingle's Lady Friends Is ON

JMG reader Josh writes:

I thought your readers might just love this photo of us with Governor Lingle, taken at the Kailua Independence Day parade (held on July 5). This photo was taken just 24 hours before Governor Lingle vetoed the civil unions bill, and at the Independence Day parade, no less. The Governor spent 15 minutes posing for photos with a dozen representatives of PFLAG-Oahu, and treating us like human beings, even though she had decided a week ago to veto the civil rights bill and to call for a statwide vote on whether we should have relationship recognition. This is the new face of evil. Love the smile--she must be "comfortable" with her decision, all right.

Meanwhile the emails have been flying between highly-placed activists today as the hunt for any "lady friends" of the twice-divorced and gaydar-pinging Gov. Lingle heats up. Please email me with any tips or clues at JoeMyGod@gmail.com.

Lingle's term ends in December and her successor may be nutjob Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, seen below being "annointed in the Lord" at a Christianist voodoo ceremony in which they pledge to "break every weapon of the enemy."

The House Of Butch

Self-described butch lesbian Shaz Riley has launched the Butch Clothing Company, a fashion line aimed specifically at manly gals.

The Butch Clothing Company is a dream she has harboured for a quarter century. "All those years of having to wear men's clothes will be behind me now. BCC will make a lot of butch women happy. If they have ever had to put up with negativity from people because of being butch, my clothes will give them the confidence to hold their heads up high." When I meet her she is resplendent in one of her designs, a single-breasted charcoal suit, white shirt and purple tie, her spiky hair gelled to the nines, and reeking of aftershave. "Butches don't want to be or look like men; we just don't want to wear female clothing," Riley says. BCC is based in Brighton, with consultation rooms in the Lanes. It offers bespoke handmade clothing. There will be shorts, trousers and T-shirts, but the main focus is on formal wear (with civil partnerships in mind). Riley pledges to meet and measure each customer personally. Prices start from £240 for a suit, £75 for cotton shirts and £110 for waistcoats.

Riley says her line de-emphasizes the bust line and reduces that pesky crotch-tenting in men's trousers.

TENNESSEE: Baptist Softball League Bans Entire Team Over Lesbian Coach

After she confirmed that she is gay, church officials told a lesbian coach that her entire team would not be allowed to compete in the Bellevue Baptist Church softball league in suburban Memphis.

Jana J. Jacobson said church officials told her the "deviant" lifestyle would prevent the team from competing in Bellevue's adult women's softball league. The coach said she was the only team member who attended meetings in preparation for the season that began June 8, and the only member questioned by Bellevue leadership. She wondered why her lifestyle mattered since they were playing softball. "Finally, in my frustration, I said that I am going to be clear. I am gay, and I find all of this to be absurd and against the word of God as I know it," Jacobson said of a meeting with Bellevue officials. Jim Barnwell, Bellevue's director of communications, said Tuesday afternoon the church has "no plans to comment on (Jacobson's story) at this time.

A local civil rights attorney quoted in the above-linked story says the church's action appears to be legal. Outsports has contact information for the church, if you'd like to let them know what you think. Nothing to see here folks, just more of God's Gentle Love™.

FREEP THIS POLL: The Commercial Appeal is asking readers if the league did the right thing. Go vote now.

Everybody Loves A Lesbian

(Tipped by JMG reader Russ)

The Perils Of Lesbianity

PhoboQuotable - Wendy Wright

"That proves the prejudice and bias of the study. This study was clearly designed to come out with one outcome -- to attempt to sway people that children are not detrimentally affected in a homosexual household. You have to be a little suspicious of any study that says children being raised by same-sex couples do better or have superior outcomes to children raised with a mother and father. It just defies common sense and reality." - Concerned Women for America head Wendy Wright, complaining that a gay parenting study was funded by gay advocacy groups.

The study, which was released yesterday, claims that lesbian parents tend to turn out children with fewer behavioral problems.

NEW STUDY: Lesbians Raise Better Kids

According to a just published 20 year study, lesbians tend to be fantastic parents. But you knew that.

When compared to teens of the same age, adolescents raised by lesbian parents are doing just fine socially, psychologically and academically, new research finds. Not only that, they have fewer social problems, and less aggressive and rule-breaking behaviors than other teens. The nearly 20-year study has followed 78 teens since their lesbian mothers were planning their pregnancies, and concluded that these children "demonstrate healthy psychological adjustment." These findings stand in contrast to what some vocal opponents of gay or lesbian parents might have expected.

"One of the things that opponents of the equalities of gays and lesbians -- in marriage, parenting, adoption and foster care -- often bring up is the so-called gold standard of parenting, which defined by them is the traditional family where children are conceived in traditional ways and not through insemination or surrogates. But, when we compared the adolescents in our study to the so-called gold standard, we found the teens with lesbian mothers were actually doing better," said study author Dr. Nanette Gartrell, the Williams Distinguished Scholar at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law.

The study's authors say they expect that a study of gay male parents would yield similar results.

Katie Couric Profiles Jane Lynch

If you cannot get enough of Jane Lynch (and who can?), Katie Couric has conducted a 30-minute interview. Couric says she loves Glee because it "celebrates all the right values for all the right reasons."

(Via - Towleroad)

Cable News: Softball = Gay