August 2010

“I call myself ‘Blessed,’” he explained, “because that’s what I am, so fortunate to be born like this.” Like this: gay, and so in love with the world that even in jail he forgot about the bars.

Teresa and Héctor fight about him putting her father behind bars. Ana and Teresa share an intense moment in an elevator.

This time eurOut features as our Website of the Week 'Lesbianas Viajeras', a Spanish website dedicated to lesbian entertainment.

I don’t go clubbing much and when I go, I never go to gay-only parties or places. I wouldn’t be able to tell you the location of the nearest LGBT centre, let alone take you there, and I always thought I had more straight friends than LGBT ones. And then I took into account my internet life.

Usually when I see the name of a festival I can understand where it came from, or what point it is trying to make, but I have to be honest here and say that I couldn’t work this one out. So off I went to investigate.

Here is your weekly overview of everything that happened and is about to happen in the world of European lesBian entertainment. We'll keep you up-to-date on all the latest events and movie releases and what's been happening in TV land.

Like many countries, Armenia once had a law against homosexual ‘actions’. This particular law was a remnant of earlier days, as it dated back to 1936, and it was against anal intercourse between men. Lesbians weren’t explicitly mentioned in the law, which I think is the case for most of these outdated laws, like no one ever pondered back then that lesbians may have existed as well.

Friday means Video of the Week here at eurOut, and this time we bring you a music video that already has over 2,5 million YouTube views.

Studying LesBians is a monthly column in which I discuss recent and not-so-recent research involving LesBians or the LGBT community as a whole. This month I want to talk about a study that was published this week, which shows that lesbians and gay men are happy to be single.

Find out more about Bettina Isabel Rocha's latest book, 'Tango mit Inés', which seemed to fit right in at the Gay Games with its story about lesBian love and dancing.

Europe might get equal rights via a case of labor law, study results from Finland and the Netherlands, new reports from Belgium and France and lots more.

After the major grounding from Sally for going to the festival without permission, Sophie is going insane being escorted by her parents to and from work, while Sian misses her girlfriend and tries to sneak seeing her whenever the opportunity arises.

In the days leading up to the new magazine, we fulfil our promise and release the Gay Games edition of our magazine. With this issue we were present at the WomenPlace and it was the first issue we publicly released on paper. It was quite the moment.

I read a lot of blogs. Too many are the ones that reinforce exactly what I believe already. Some are about subjects I don’t know much about. Others take a different viewpoint from my own. Some of those bloggers have even managed to change my stubborn mind on issues over the years. They’re my favourites.

Queeruption is a free DIY radical queer gathering that has so far happened in London, New York, San Francisco, Berlin, Tel-Aviv, Sydney, Barcelona, Vancouver and Amsterdam. Every Queeruption is a little different from the last one, shaped by the people who plan it, the community that makes it happen and the possibilities of each new location.

Just when you are ready to give up on the summer and get your winter head on, up pops Limerick Pride to get you back into those shorts one last time - rain be damned! Limerick Pride 2010 runs from Sept 5th to Sept 12th, so why not get out there and get involved?

This week eurOut features as Website of the Week Lesbian.org, an online resource site for lesbians and bisexual women.

More hugging between Ana and Teresa takes place, and we finally find out what exactly is the truth in the Rivas family. It is a true shocker.

Now, I believe there are sports everyone can play and, with enough training, be relatively good at. I, however, firmly believe no one will ever be able to teach me how to properly dance.

One of the few gay politicians on an international level decides to leave his partner at home when travelling to countries that are less tolerant about homosexuality. Is he really not limited in his diplomatic task as he insists?

Here is your weekly overview of everything that happened and is about to happen in the world of European lesBian entertainment. We'll keep you up-to-date on all the latest events and movie releases, what's been happening in TV land and who did what to whom.

A lot of young, or simply inspired, filmmakers bring their skills to the internet these days, and it provides one of the most powerful platforms for LGBT film content.

It's Friday, which means Video of the Week here at eurOut. This time we have selected for you a brand new music video.

Many queer ladies look at the eyes and/or face first when they see an attractive lady, but I’m sure many also check out a lady’s butt or boobs. Now, I know some of you think such preferences would mostly correlate straight men, and I guess that’s true, but I have read some interviews by and with queer ladies where one of the questions was ‘Butt or boobs?’

Charting and ovulation predictor kits and checking cervical mucus be damned. I think we missed ovulation. I rang our donor but he was busy that evening. We made plans to go ahead a bit early and go the next morning. However, if I actually ovulated when I felt that pain, the next day was far too late.

Well, after the drama of Ryan finding out their secret in the previous recap, and the looming festival in this one, surely there can’t be anymore drama for Weatherfield’s little lesBians?!

Prop8 banned or not; what about the supreme court rulings in Mexico and Germany; are you still keeping track? We do, for you...

Fabienne is not your average 22-year-old. She is not only quite diverse in her music (alternative pop), but also in her choice of pets.

Armed with my notepad and pen, photographer, translator, and if I’m honest a few nerves too, we all headed off with Steffi to a local coffee shop near the WomenPlace tent to avoid the crowds and the awesome music, to carry out the interview in relative peace and quiet.

I admire the combination of drive, ability and kindness. I met Heather Scanlon at the ‘track and field’ field in the glaring sun. I’d watched her receive her third medal at this year’s Gay Games. Bronze for spear throwing, silver for shut put and now silver for hammer throw.

OutLesbian.com is a blog for and by lesBians, and features all kinds of different posts that could be of interest to us, including music reviews, human interest stories, posts about love troubles, sex and LGBT news stories.

When I was asked to go to the Gay Games in Cologne this year, it took at little bit of time to think it through and I was still undecided. Undecided that is, until somebody mentioned one little word, which I can honestly say, has been always like warm summer sunshine on my ears... Cheerleading...

Over the course of three days, I watched quite a lot of sports. Sometimes we arrived halfway into an important match, other times we arrived during warming up. I occasionally use sports on TV as a background to studying, like I do with chick flicks and movies I’ve seen several times already, but I’m not a huge sports fan, so normally arriving halfway into something doesn't bother me.

Here is your weekly overview of everything that happened and is about to happen in the world of European lesBian entertainment. We'll keep you up-to-date on all the latest events and movie releases, what's been happening in TV land and who did what to whom.

For those of you who don't know Anne Bax, why not? She's a wonderful woman who is smart, funny and an incredibly witty author too. I caught a quick interview with her after her popular and humorous reading at WomenPlace at the Gay Games Cologne.

'Komponent' by German electronic musician Apparat is a song from 2004 and the accompanying video reads more like scenes from a movie than those of a music video (Please tell me if I am mistaken, and if these scenes actually are from a movie. Because if that's the case, I might just want to watch it.)

There's already been a lot of discussion about the list, mainly about why some of these people should or should not be on it, but I don't want to add to that conversation. Instead, I want to tell you a little more about some of the awesome women on this list. Unfortunately, 31 women were too many to feature all in detail and with a photo, but I tried to share a little bit about each of them.

For those of you who haven't come across the German artist Gerda Laufenberg, let's just say she is one very talented lady who shows Cologne as she sees it in her drawings, but in a friendly way.

Diana Knezevic and Marion Scholz wrote the book 'Bei Sport Mord', which takes place during the Gay Games in Cologne, so it seems only fitting that the week kick-started and also finished with these lovely ladies.

What happened in Europe the last days? Anything important you missed? Or that we missed?

In time for the 14th Amsterdam Pride COC Netherlands and the Dutch broadcaster AVRO launched a new campaign last week.

This week eurOut features as Website of the Week the blog 'The Lesbian Question'.

After the last recap I need a little break in the drama! One thing after the other came falling down and Ana’s mother got caught in the fire, literal fire that is.

If you’re thinking of starting a family, you’ve probably had a look at websites aimed at people who are trying to conceive. For women who don’t routinely have sex with men, getting pregnant requires some planning, so we have a lot to learn from women who’ve had trouble conceiving, despite their sperm-on-tap existence.

Here is your weekly overview of everything that happened and is about to happen in the world of European lesBian entertainment. We'll keep you up to date on all the latest events and movie releases, what's been happening in TV land and who did what to whom.

On Wednesday I had the good fortune to meet German author Brigitte Bialojahn after her reading at the Women Place. She was kind enough to allow me a good half hour of her time to talk about her book, her plans and the struggles of being an upcoming author.

Since eurOut this week is all about the Gay Games, our video of the week is no other than the official Gay Games anthem.

There is more to the Gay Games than sports. Here to prove that statement are DJanes Kitty Atomic and Miss Stereo. They rocked the Women Place and were kind enough to grand me a few minutes of their time to answer some questions about being a female DJ, playing for the gays and living your life the way you want to.

It's one of the best parts of the Gay Games formula; you get to meet people from all ethnicities, age groups, sexual orientations, religions and walks of life. It's because of this the eurOut staff got a chance to hear and meet the Croatian choir Le Zbor as they performed at the Women Place.

While we all know Meike Gottschalk as Emma Stahl, you may not know that she is actually a wonderful singer as well. She has been doing her rounds in the theatres with her show Agnetha und Ich (Agnetha and I), which includes almost every ABBA song ever recorded.

Two highlights for me so far have been the bodybuilding and cheerleading competitions and exhibitions. All participants at bodybuilding gave away a highly entertaining show, which made it definitely worth our while, even though there was only one female competitor there.

It's one of the few categories a lot of women compete in; track and field. It is comprised of sports like javelin throwing, the high jump and—what we came to see yesterday; track. Our favorite of the day; Martje Hoekmeijer. She was born in the Netherlands and ran track professionally until four years ago. Yesterday she ran the final and we caught up with her.

It is a moment in our history that began what we think of when we say gay rights movement and the courage it took for those involved to stand up and say ‘no more’ is inspiring.

The Netherlands has a reputation as a very LGBT friendly country, but in recent months there have been increasing reports of discrimination and attacks against gay people. The results of an online quiz indicate a similar development, with 10% of those taking it being of the opinion that gay people should be put in prison.

Every day more and more (LGBT) people arrive and are easily identified by the red or yellow strapped ID cards every volunteer, athlete or press member wears everywhere, because it offers free public transport and admission to Gay Games events.

This week eurOut features as website of the week the Dutch website for teens Jong & Out, an online community for Dutch gays, lesbians and bisexuals age 18 and under. It provides the opportunity for gay teens to meet like minded others both online and in the flesh, and it's also a great resource of information.

After last time’s shocking revelation that not only Teresa and Alfonso will both be working at the Rivas Department Stores, but that Ana is engaged to be married to Alfonso, things seem to be settling down quite nicely.