Category: Lesbian News

Who Were the First Lesbians to be Legally Married?

~ Alan Turing ~ Leave a comment

There names are Helene Faasen and Anne-Marie Thus, and their civil wedding was approved by the law of the Netherlands on April 1st, 2001. Holland was the first country to approve same sex marriage.

First Great Step for Lesbians

”We married for love, not politics. But of course we were aware it was an historic moment” said Anne-Marie

Her wife, notary Helene Faasen, added, ”By tying the knot in front of the world’s press, we wanted to make other people think about how horrible it is to be denied something that is a natural right for others. A heterosexual person never needs to think about whether he is allowed to marry or not, he simply needs to be lucky enough to find the love of his life.”

The Dutch couple shared their vows with three pairs of grooms. Since then, over 15,000 gay and lesbian couples have wed in the Netherlands – about 2 per cent of the total number of marriages registered between 2001 and 2010, based on figures from the Central Statistics Bureau.

According to the Amsterdam-based COC, the world’s oldest homosexual advocacy group, there are about a million gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in the Netherlands out of a total population of 16.7 million.

Anne-Marie and Helene live with their two children, 10-year-old Nathan, and Myrthle, 9, in Maastricht in south Netherlands, where Anne-Marie says she loves to spend her free time cooking and Helene relaxes by tending the garden.

Their children were born from Anne-Marie and anonymous sperm donors.

“Like many other people, we have a family, work, a house, a dog and two rabbits,” said Anne-Marie, who met “the love of my life” on a blind date in 1998.

 

The Labrys: Claiming our Lesbian Heritage

~ Alan Turing ~ Leave a comment

Women, and lesbians in particular, have a long and fond association with the labrys or double-headed axe. In a world where male history dominates female herstory, we need to go back to learn about our past.

The labrys was both a symbol of Goddess culture, fertility and used as a tool in agriculture. It was celebrated in Greek culture and later by the Amazonian women in battle. When mounted between cattle horns, the labrys was the holiest of Goddess symbols. What is so special about the labrys is that it was only used by women. It came in all sizes being worn as jewelry or being carved as nine feet tall symbols of religion which stood at the end of altars.

When usually view the labrys as an upright axe with blades coming out of the handle to the left and right, that is in an upright position. However, it was also viewed on its side with an hourglass figure that was associated with the female body. When viewed this way, it was honored as the Goddess or Mother Earth figure. It symbolized the female labia at the entrance of the womb. In either position it also came to symbolize the womb and a butterfly that symbolized rebirth. Rebirth was seen around these ancient women in the death and regeneration of trees and crops. The two heads reminded the women of the waxing and waning of the moon and their monthly menstruation. All connected to the birth of new crops and the birth of human life.

Lesbians are drawn to a woman society. In relationships they give birth to love and purposeful living. Many lesbians are mothers to offsprings and mothers to their partners and those with whom they come in contact with. It is a mothering that is creative and empowering of individuals and collectively as a female society. It is a powerful totem against negative people, hatred and indifference.

For many of us, the axe symbolically cuts through prejudice of every kind. In our hands the axe is a powerful weapon of self-love, community service and world-wide celebration of women who love women. We cannot let our labrys rust! Whenever and wherever we can, we must use it to bring justice to our lesbian sisters (and women in general) in homophobic and misogynist society. Our fight is ongoing and a worthy one.

2013, Paula @ stories4hotbloodedlesbians.com

First Buddhist Lesbian Wedding

~ Alan Turing ~ Leave a comment

The location:

Two hundred and fifty guest gathered at the Hongshi Buddhist Seminary outside Taipei, Taiwan. Preparing to meet them were two 30-year old lesbians excited about a marriage that would make headlines world-wide.

The Brides:

Huang Meiyu and You Yating gathered their prayer beads which would be exchanged instead of rings. They walked out into a Taiwan sky filled with sunshine, and a small part of the earth filled with smiles and cheers. In less than an hour, this wedding would mark the first Buddhist blessed same-sex marriage in Taiwan or in Asia for that matter. It was August 11, 2012.

Some Reasons for Marriage

Huang told reporters that neither bride felt the need to legitimize their relationship over the seven years they had spent together.

A movie, “If These Walls Could Talk2,” made the couple re-evaluate their thinking. One of the characters in this move was unable to stay with her dying partner because she was “in the closet,” and there were no laws to protect either lesbian character.

Huang and You felt compelled to marry in order to bring them full and equal marital rights. They also wanted these rights extended to all homosexuals.

Could They Have a Buddhist Marriage?

Huang and You are committed Buddhists and have a spiritual and physical connection to Hongshi Buddhist Seminary. Both women were not sure if a Buddhist wedding ceremony could be performed for lesbians. Buddhist teachings on homosexuality are less defined that the Leviticus teachings of the Jewish Torah or Old Testament.

Some Buddhists ban gay sex based on precept against “inappropriate sexual behaviour.” In countries such as Japan, China and Mongolia, there has been a tradition that celebrated homosexuality and even encouraged it. The women, therefore, approached their teacher, Zhao Hui. Huang told reporters that Zhao Hui was delighted and invited the couple to have the ceremony at the seminary. Now, the couple could happily exchange their marriage vows in front of the monks, nuns, classmates and friends. Zhao Hui is constantly praised for letting her students come to their own moral conclusions.

In the case of a lesbian Buddhist wedding, Zhao Hui expressed to the happy couple that she did not see anything special or different about this relationship. The women were partners and committed to love.

The Buddhist Ceremony

As the couple exchanged prayer beads and vowed to a life-time of commitment, monks, nuns and friends chanted sutras to seek blessings for the couple. Officiating at the wedding was another Buddhist master, Shi Chao-hwei. She witnessed Huang Meiyu and You Yating exchange prayer beads and vows.

The Media

Shi Chao-hwei was asked questions on the first Buddhist same-sex marriage. She responded, “We are witnessing history. The two women ae willing to stand out and fight for their fate…to overcome social discrimination.” Shi Chao-hwei also pointed out that while Buddhism does not engage in ideological struggles, she played down criticisms that homosexuality is a sin, saying, “all lives are equal in the religion.” The families of the couple stayed away from the media, but several reports state that they love and approve of this commitment.

The Future

Pride Week in Taipei, draws over 60,000 homosexuals. The theme of the 2012 parade was for marriage equality. According to several polls carried out recently, many Taiwanese support same-sex marriage. Several bills have been presented to the Taiwanese government (as early as 2003), but with public opinion shifting in favour of equality of marriage, Taiwan is likely to be the first Asian country to approve it.

Our Love to the Newly Weds.

Belated greetings to Huang Meiyu and You Yating. Thank you for taking the bold steps for your fellow brothers and sisters. To all LGBT Taiwanese we wish you peace and happiness and the hope, that if you are longing to hear wedding bells, they will ring very soon. Whether you exchange prayer beads or rings, may your weddings be lasting moments of loving commitment.

Paula, 2012, stories4hotbloodedlesbians.com

 

Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville West

~ Alan Turing ~ Leave a comment

It was over dinner with a mutual acquaintance in December 1922 that Vita met Virginia Woolf and the affair of nineteen years started.

Vita Known as an Aristocratic Woman

Vita may have been better known in English society as the aristocratic writer and gardener, but Virginia was the superior writer. Virginia was published through her husband’s publishing firm, Hogarth and was considered the better writer.

Three years after meeting Vita Sackville West, Virginia published Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and the following: To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928) which put Vita as the hero-ine. In 1929 she wrote an essay A Room of One’s Own with its famous dictum, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”

Virginia Impressed by Vita in Love, but Not in Literature

Virginia was intrigued by Vita’s “full-breastedness” but considered her lover to be a second-rate writer.

Vita and Her Homosexual Husband:

Vita Sackville and her husband, Harold, were open about their bi-sexual nature. She wrote to Harold, ‘I simply adore Virginia Woolf, and so would you,” and again, ‘I’ve rarely taken such a fancy to anyone . . . I have quite lost my heart.’

To Virginia, she wrote straightforwardly: ‘I like you a fabulous lot.’ The two women soon began exchanging flirtatious letters — a correspondence that carried on for 19 years.

Their physical intimacy was of shorter duration.

Sparks Fly

In December 1925, while Virginia was visiting Vita at Long Barn, when passion exploded. In a letter to a Vita, Virginia wrote:

‘the explosion which happened on the sofa in my room here when you behaved so disgracefully and acquired me for ever’. She also wrote about it as ‘the night you were snared, that winter, at Long Barn’.

Vita Considers Virginia’s Mental Stability.

Vita, however, was aware that a full-scale sexual awakening might put her new lover’s fragile mental stability at risk. The following year, Vita told her husband,Harold : ‘I have gone to bed with her (twice), but that’s all . . . I am scared to death of arousing physical feelings, because of the madness.’

Harold praised her restraint: ‘It’s not merely playing with fire; it’s playing with gelignite,’ he said.

Virginia Puts Vita into Literature

Virginia’s acclaimed novel Orlando, which features a hero who keeps changing sex, was clearly based on her Vita — indeed, Vita’s son Nigel later described it as an extended love letter to his mother. It was also Virginia’s way of possessing at least a part of her sexually fascinating friend, if only on paper.

Love Cannot Save Virginia

People have speculated that Virginia was a manic-depressive On March 28, 1941, she filled her overcoat pockets with stones. She walked into the River Ouse and drowned herself.

Paula, 2015, stories4hotbloodedlesbians.com

What does Lesbian mean?

~ Alan Turing ~ Leave a comment

Lesbian is the term most commonly used to describe sexual and romantic attraction among women. This word can be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are considered by others as a primary attribute of female homosexuality or an adjective, to describe the characteristics of an object or activity related to female homosexuality.

The term lesbian is derived from the name of the Greek island of Lesbos and is therefore considered in some cases to be a Eurocentric category that does not necessarily represent the identities of African-Americans and other non-European ethnic groups. With that being said, individually identified individuals from various ethnic groups, including African-Americans, take the term “lesbian” as an identity tag.

For lesbians, the definition of gay women is also used.

Lesbian Flag

~ Alan Turing ~ Leave a comment

While it is difficult to come across lesbian pride flags in pride marches, it is a widely used flag online.

The Lesbian Flag represents L in the LGBTI+ community and comes into existence in many shades of pink.

But many of the lesbian communities prefer other symbols to represent themselves, such as the Venus symbol or the rainbow flag.

You can also see the Lesbian Pride flag in versions that are often combined with other flags, with kisses, lipstick, and Venus symbols.

A lesbian community flag with alternatives available as well.

Lesbian seeking gay man for marriage

~ Alan Turing ~ Leave a comment

The app, called Queers, allows gay men to connect to a network of over 4000 lesbians in order to enter into a ‘co-operative marriage’.

The agreement which is referred to as a ‘xinghun’ in China, operates much like the Western notion of a beard, whereby a person may date someone in order to conceal their sexuality.

Users of the app have explained a xinghun allows them to continue with the appearance of heterosexuality and conceal their sexuality from oftentimes conservative parents.

Although China decriminalised homosexuality in 1997, many of the nation’s older generation still view being lesbian or gay as a mental illness (China removed the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder in 2001).

Founder of Queers, Liao Zhuoying said since the app launched two weeks ago, he has had over 10,000 users sign up.

Liao said Queers was a by-product of his company’s dating and meet-up apps, Gaypark and Lespark. He told the South China Post he had noticed a section of gay men were searching for lesbian wives whilst on his sites so he conducted a survey to canvas the needs of his community and Queers was born…

Lesbian Literature: Sub-Saharan Africa

~ Alan Turing ~ Leave a comment

Many Sub-Sahara African novels/ebooks depict homosexuality negatively and as a product of the West.

There are some incredible pro-gay novels.

An example is No Past, No Present, No Future (1973) by Yulisa Amadu Maddy. This novel follows the lives of three African men who migrate to Europe. One of the characters, Joe Bengoh, is homosexual and the novel not only traces his earliest experiences with a mission priest, but also explores his two friends prejudice towards him – they view homosexuality as sick and morally inferior and so reject him. In the end, however, Joe is the only one of the three whose acknowledgment of his true self does not destroy him. Another of Maddy’s novels, Our Sister Killjoy, openly discusses being lesbian.

After the end of apartheid, and the growth of LGBT rights, there was a growth of LGBT South African literature. These include Mark Behr’s Embrace (2000), Ian Murray’s For the Wings of a Dove (2000), Michiel Heyns’s The Children’s Day (2002), Barry Levy’s Burning Bright (2004) and Craig Higginson’s The Hill (2005), which all deal with boys’ developing sexuality.

Women have made a smaller contribution to LGBT literature in South Africa compared with their male counterparts.

One LGBT-themed book is Open: An Erotic Anthology by South African Women Writers (Schimke 2008), which contains a significant number of stories about being lesbian or bisexual. Other female writers who have LGBT themes in their wok include Suzy Bell, Makhosazana Xaba, Liesl Jobson, Sarah Lotz and Lauren Beukes.

Unfortunately, few works published so far examine homosexuality from a black woman’s perspective, although Jane Bennett’s collection of short stories, Porcupine (2008) includes a representation of being black and a lesbian.

Go Tell it to the Sun by Wame Molefhe has a short story “Sethuya Likes Girls Better”, depicting a married woman forced to suppress her sexuality to conform to societal pressures; while Black Bull, Ancestors and Me is a memoir of sangoma, a traditional healer and lesbian.

paula key has a comment.

I am still in the process of making my ebook stories universal. Jo of the Outback, I set in Australia and it explores the love of a white woman and aboriginal woman. (interracial).

Lt. Dee: Army Nurse, Vietnam. Explores a fictitious love in a war zone. Lieutenant Dee is from a white Mennonite family and she falls in love with an American Native Indian woman. (interracial).

Jazz: Jet Setting Carpenter. This ebook is set in London, England. She is a daughter of an Indian father and mother. Her partners are from various nationalities as she treats the city of London as her bedroom.

My intention is to set one of my next novels in Africa. I would like both women to be African. If you have any stories or it is your African lesbian story – please contact me through the comments section. I would love to invite you to be a guest writer. paula.

If you live in Africa – my ebooks are available on Amazon.com.

Paula, 2015, stories4hotbloodedlesbians.com

 

Lesbian Life In Morocco: Lonely and Fearful

~ Alan Turing ~ Leave a comment

“To live happily, live hidden.” This tends to be the slogan of the LGBTI community in Morocco. This is oneof the most liberal Muslim countries, but under the law, committing unnatural acts with the same sex is punishable. The prison terms can range from 6 months to 3 years. Todate, no lesbian has been imprisoned. Algeria and Tunisia have similar bans.

Affection in Public, but No Relationship

Affection between women is common. Girls link arms and stroll hand-in-hand. They even sit and cuddle. However, a lesbian relationship has to be secret or carried out in another country. Some lesbians are fortunate to study abroad. For straight and lesbian women marriage or escape overseas tends to be the most common way to leave the family home. Like in parts of China, the LGBTI community often has ‘arranged’ marriages.

Lonely and Fearful

The internet allows lesbians to reach gay forums world-wide; one of which is LGBT Maroc. Some of the comments and questions are sad such as “How do I become heterosexual?” There is also another internet site/forum called Lesbiennes du Maroc.

Perhaps more significantly, the government unofficially tolerates Kif-Kif, the only organization advocating for LGBT rights in Morocco. Kif-Kif’s main office sits across the border in Madrid, and its visibility is limited to low-profile conferences and Mithly, a new publication, distributed quietly, that features LGBT voices. Established six years ago, Kif-Kif has sought unsuccessfully to become a legal association in Morocco.

To our Moroccan Lesbian Sisters:

Be careful but do find love with another woman.

Paula, 2018, stories4hotbloodedlesbians.com

Lesbian Hindu Wedding in UK

~ Alan Turing ~ Leave a comment

The marriage is believed to be the first female same-sex Hindu wedding to take place in Leicester, U.K. between Miriam Jefferson and Kalavati Mistry. It was a colourful ceremony as both wore traditional red and white Hindu wedding colours.

They also wore floral garlands and ‘mangala sutra’, which is a necklace traditionally tied around the bride’s neck to show she is now married.

Different Birth Places – One Love

Kalavati is from Leicester while Miriam is a native of Texas, U.S.A Kalavati grew up in a traditional Hindu household. She came out to her family and wanted an Hindu wedding.

Miriam met Kalvati in the year 2000 while when the English woman came to America for working purposes.

One Wedding is NOT Enough!

Miriam grew up in a Jewish household. Earlier in 2017, both women had a Jewish wedding in San Antonio, Texas. This is the home town of Miriam.

Love is the foundation of all religions, and both women have found this gift in their life together.