Curve articles from March 2006

Curve archives from March 2006

Around the world.(frankly speaking)(Editorial)
March 1, 2006... Over the holidays, I curiously opened an oversized cardboard box to uncover a huge white cowboy hat with black trim. The card inside the stately hat read, "Happy New Year! Just remember, white hats are only for summer." Last year, I was...

Your Melissa issue rocked!(letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... Thank you for the wonderful article on Melissa Etheridge ("I'm a Survivor," Vol. 15, #8). After losing my sister at the age of 28, I witnessed the hard-fought battle against cancer. I have always been inspired by Melissa Etheridge, as a...

Missy fan.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... I wanted to send a response to the article you featured in your December magazine on Missy Higgins ("Missy's Misdemeanor, Vol. 15, #8). I have been a huge fan of Missy's for the last year. I was so pumped to see her. Thank you for exposing her,...

More on Ugly Ducklings.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... Thank you so much for Aimsel L. Ponti's piece on the Ugly Ducklings Campaign ("Ugly Ducklings Unite," Vol. 15, #8). I felt very honored, and we are all really grateful for the exposure for the project. I especially appreciated the frankness...

SC Johnson on animal testing.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... We were pleased to read that your magazine included SC Johnson on its recent "Top 30 Companies for Lesbians" list (Vol. 15, #7). We also noted your comment about animal testing and wanted to provide you with an understanding of SC Johnson's...

Corrections.(Correction notice)
March 1, 2006... In our 2005 Lesbian Theater Awards (Vol. 15, #8), we incorrectly identified playwright Migdalia Cruz as a lesbian, but we are still pleased to recognize her play, Cigarettes and Moby Dick, with a Lesbian Theater Award. Our online holiday gift...

Who's on top?(letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... THE "30 BEST COMPANIES FOR Lesbians" (Vol. 15, #7) is a valuable tool for those of us searching for a diverse workplace environment, but I was dismayed to see that a number of the companies listed are headed by males who belong to the Augusta...

Legislating equality.(Out in Front)(Karen Clark- lesbian state legislator)
March 1, 2006... Who's more impressive than an openly lesbian state legislator? One who has been elected to 13 consecutive terms, that's who. Karen Clark's 13 political wins have made her the longest-serving openly lesbian state legislator in the United States....

Queer campus fights rage on.
March 1, 2006... HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE CAMPUSES across the country continue to be flash points in the fight for gay rights, with lawsuits erupting everywhere from the O.C. to Florida. After 17-year-old Charlene Nguon, a student at Santiago High School in...

Tackling murder the lesbian way.(Maggie Nelson, poetry professor)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... AUTHOR MAGGIE NELSON HAD BEEN haunted by her aunt's unsolved murder her entire life, but after she tackled the troubling topic in her book Jane: A Murder (Soft Skull Press), a killer was finally brought to justice. In Jane, Nelson takes a...

Libraries aren't only for books.(James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center )(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... FEW LIBRARIES CAN MATCH THE unprecedented queer exhibit Out at the Library offered by the decade-old James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center at the San Francisco Public Library, but thankfully the exhibit will now travel to libraries around the...

Lookie loos.(curvatures)
March 1, 2006... 60% of women say they have had or would like to have lesbian sex. Source: FHM magazine poll, 2005

Making money work for us.(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... THE VANGUARD GROUP, THE NATION'S SECOND-largest mutual fund company, recently voted in favor of sexual orientation workplace protection in its proxy voting rights. "After discussions with Equality Forum, Vanguard determined that a supportive...

Scene.
March 1, 2006... 1 Babeland's grand opening in Los Angeles 2 Melissa Etheridge and wife Tammy Lynn Michaels glam it up at Glamour magazine's 2005 Women of the Year Awards 3 Elizabeth Ziff of Betty and Ilene Chaiken at POWER UP's Power Premiere in Los Angeles 4...

Open studio.(Alex Gibson, photojournalist)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... When Alex Gibson was a 9-year-old in Southern California, she saw Nick Ut's famous photograph of a naked Vietnamese girl running down a street after her home was destroyed by napalm. Gibson (pictured above), who was moved to tears by the image,...

Bells will be ringing.(same sex marriage, South Africa)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... IN DECEMBER, THE SOUTH African Constitutional Court overturned the South African Parliament's statute that marriage is a union between a man and a woman, stating that South Africa's constitution specifically prohibits discrimination based on...

Out in Tokyo.(Kanako Otsuji)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... JAPANESE ASSEMBLYWOMAN KANAKO Otsuji took the Japanese population by surprise when she came out publicly as a lesbian the day before the 2005 Tokyo Pride Parade. One of only seven women in the 110-member Osaka assembly, Otsuji, 30, is the...

Tee times.(Rainbow Living T-shirts)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... IRONIC TEES MIGHT be heading out of fashion, but there's still time to get your hands on a few new lesbo classics: Rainbow Living's first lesbian tee, the vintage-inspired "Beaver Fever," is great for the girl who can tell it like it is...

Spring's sneaker road test.(New Balance sneakers)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... OK, IT'S BEEN A COUPLE OF MONTHS since you resolved to get in shape, stop smoking and run in the Race for the Cure. If you haven't already given up on those resolutions, four Curvettes have road-tested a few of the hottest New Balance sneakers...

T2: judgment gay.(Susan Kennedy, Arnold Schwarzenegger's chief of staff)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... IN A MOVE THAT OUTRAGED CONSERvatives and shocked liberals, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently appointed pro-choice, lesbian Democrat Susan Kennedy as his chief of staff. A former executive director of the California Democratic...

Aging gracefully.(retirement resort for gays)
March 1, 2006... BUOYED BY LOCAL AND STATE government support in Santa Fe, N.M., RainbowVision Properties cut the multicolored ribbon last October to open the nation's first full-service retirement resort specifically welcoming the LGBT population. "As...

Kudos.(MORE MIXED REVIEWS)
March 1, 2006... Kudos to the City University of New York, which has decided to honor their employees' same-sex marriages in their benefits plan.

October issue of Seventeen magazine.(MORE MIXED REVIEWS)
March 1, 2006... The October issue of Seventeen magazine was pulled from 2,500 Albertsons stores because of objections to a health article titled "Vagina 101."

Oklahoma State Legislature.(libraries)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... The Oklahoma State Legislature passed a nonbinding resolution for all public libraries to move LGBT books to the adult section, threatening to withhold funding from those who don't. (Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana legislatures are working on...

Do the right thing.(lipstick & dipstick)
March 1, 2006... Dear Lipstick and Dipstick: I'm stationed in Iraq and met a sweet Australian named Janet in a chat room a couple months ago. I enjoy talking to her, but a month ago I started dating a girl in my unit, Audrey, and am totally into her. We've made...

What's your fantasy?(lesbian relations)
March 1, 2006... Dear Fairy Butch: I just found out that after nine years together, my partner visits Web sites featuring big dicks, gangbangs and other various non-dyke forms of sexuality. I'm understanding and considerate, but this has bothered me so much...

5 good travel tips.
March 1, 2006... IF YOU HAVE A LOUSY VACATION, chances are likely that your travel partner and strangers around you will also feel the impact of your bad time. Misery is more contagious than the flu. So, whether you're a first-time adventurer or a seasoned road...

Barmaids and boxers and cheerleaders, oh my!
March 1, 2006... EVERYBODY SAYS THAT APRIL IS the cruelest month, but what about March? It's slightly too warm for winter sports and too cold for the beach. But there's one thing we do know: As sure as the seasons change, the public will never tire of salacious...

She said, she said.
March 1, 2006... "It's still terribly important to unify and reach people, even if they would not want to reach me or include me perhaps. But I think it's important to be open, to try to create some kind of understanding with people." >> Lily Tomlin to...

Move over, Ellen: a year after the lesbian breakup that provided tabloid fodder for months, actor Alexandra Hedison proves that her talk show ex shouldn't get all the fame.(Ellen DeGeneres)(Interview)
March 1, 2006... Alexandra Hedison is funny. Seriously--she's got a great sense of humor. Of course, if you're the girlfriend of the most famous funny woman in America, it's no wonder that your own wicked wit might get overlooked. But now that Hedison is a...

Around the world with global girls.
March 1, 2006... Some people wait until retirement to travel the world, but lesbians, it seems, are audacious adventurers who like to grab life by the, uh, horns. Whether you're an armchair traveler or a daring global trekker, we're here to tease and tantalize...

Wordsmiths.(lesbian writers)(Interview)
March 1, 2006... LESBIAN BOOKS, ONCE RELEGATED TO BACK ROOMS AND TINY CLOSET-SIZED STORES, ARE HARD TO MISS THESE DAYS. BUT WHO ARE THESE AUTHORS DU JOUR? WHO ARE THESE WOMEN HOLED UP AT THEIR TYPEWRITERS (OK, COMPUTERS) CHURNING OUT THE WORDS THAT WE LIVE BY?...

Baring it all: BloodRayne star Kristanna Loken comes out and tells Curve why women love her--and why she loves us back.(Interview)(Cover story)
March 1, 2006... Given a name like Kristanna Loken, you might expect to encounter a Nordic supermodel or at least, a Norwegian emigre. In fact, the town Loken was born, Ghent, is not some hidden treasure in Norway where beautiful blonde-haired and blue-eyed...

Coming out, coming together: the rocky road to building a queer Asian community.
March 1, 2006... Last February I went to the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco at the last-minute urging of a white friend. The annual event is the largest of its kind outside Asia and regularly draws a half-million spectators, but despite my Chinese...

Dinah Shore's professional party girl: on the eve of Dinah Shore Weekend, promoter and Girl Bar co-founder Sandy Sachs dishes on what goes on behind the scenes at L.A.'s poshest lesbian club.(Interview)
March 1, 2006... Fifteen years ago, Sandy Sachs never dreamed that she would become the powerhouse club promoter and DJ that she is now. She wanted to be a movie star. But soon after she moved to Los Angeles, she found herself co-hosting (with long-time partner...

Lesbian finance 101: a few easy steps can keep your money where it belongs.
March 1, 2006... As politicians wrangle over who can marry whom, the good news is most lesbian couples can still enjoy some of the same rights as straight couples simply by getting hitched at the bank. Setting up finances jointly and drawing up legal documents...

Changing the face of women on TV.(CSI: The Complete Fifth Season)(All-American Girl: The Complete Series)(The L Word: The Complete Second Season)(Aeon Flux: The Complete Animated Collection)(Video recording review)
March 1, 2006... TEEVEE, AS MY PROGRESSIVE FRIENDS SNOBBISHLY call it, does hit our cultural lows with startling accuracy, and when one tiny channel manages to cover anything of real relevance (like, say, transnational feminism or global warming) it often does...

Gettin' your groove on.(Standing in the Way of Control)(Global Groove)(Starter Set: New Dance and Music for the Camera)(Assassin)(Sound recording review)(Video recording review)
March 1, 2006... "IT'S GOT A GOOD BEAT AND YOU can dance to it." Remember that classic American Bandstand-ism? (Am I dating myself here?) Well, it's time to shake off the inertia of winter, so from disco-punk to house music to modern dance-set-to-indierock,...

No such thing as harmless flirtation.(dyke drama)
March 1, 2006... WHAT IS CHEATING? FOR SOME women, cheating means exchanging body fluids with another person; to others, cheating means exchanging phone numbers. But even if people don't agree on the definition, they do agree on one thing: It sucks to be...

Stop torture now.(Column)
March 1, 2006... WRITING THIS COLUMN MADE me sick. Reading it will make you sick. Since the torture at Abu Ghraib was revealed, I have written a great deal about torture in my syndicated newspaper columns. I have discussed it in my college classrooms. I have...

Spring gear and games.
March 1, 2006... FROM BLEMISH ZAPPERS TO ANIME LESBIANS, DYKES are using technology in surprising (and sometimes disgusting) ways these days. Here are a handful of new ideas to help you spring into action. SEX IT UP Does your cell phone look naked? Is...

Top ten: reasons Charlotte Cooper is P-H-A-T.(Pretty Hot And Tempting)
March 1, 2006... POP ON TO CHARLOTTE COOPER'S Web site, charlottecooper.net, and you'll see right away that the keynote speaker for the 2005 fat dyke conference NoLose is no one-trick pony. Although the author of Fat and Proud juggles a dozen job titles, both a...