Tag Archives: Lesbians

Lesbian Parents Forced to Accept Rights of Donor

A lesbian couple faced court in France this week after their sperm donor sought parental rights of their child.

The donor, a friend of the couple, had initially agreed to donate sperm and waive his parental rights to the child. The lesbian couple had exclusive custody of their two-year-old offspring until this week when a French court ruled in favour of the donor.

The judge’s decision means the father will be granted visitation rights, before eventually moving to a shared custody agreement where the child will spend every other weekend with the father.

The lawyer for the child’s biological mother, said her clients were upset by the ruling.

“A man did my client and her partner a favour. However he then changed his mind and wanted to take on the role of father. But the initial parental project was between two women,” the lawyer said.

The father’s lawyer said his client’s desire to have his parental rights recognised was nothing out of the ordinary.

“The demand to have his rights recognized is completely normal, the only distinction we have a homosexual couple who refused to acknowledge the presence of the father,” the lawyer said.

Michelle Hardwick Comes Out as Lesbian

A popular UK soapie star, Michelle Hardwick, has come out in an interview with The Mirror as a lesbian.

The actress best known for her role as Vanessa Woodfield on UKTV soap Emmerdale spoke for the first time about her relationship with her partner Rosie Nicholl.

The 36 year old actor said that she and her girlfriend met about 18 months ago and were friends for some time before becoming a couple. She said she couldn’t be happier with the status of her personal life.

“Life is good – and my life with Rosie is a big part of that, it really is bliss. I’ve not spoken about it sooner because it never seemed like the right time.

“When I was in The Royal, the majority of our audience were older and I would have been nervous of revealing too much. But since joining Emmerdale I’ve been getting asked about my personal life and when people want to know ‘Do you have a boyfriend?’ it’s tricky.

“I don’t want to hide anything,” she told The Mirror. “I’ve never actually been able to talk about ‘my girlfriend’ or ‘partner’ – this person that means everything to me, and it feels good to be able to finally do it.”

She went on to say:”I do tweet, so people can see me and Rosie on there but they probably think we’re mates who share a house. People say, ‘I’d never have guessed you were gay’ because they expect you to look a certain way and I don’t fit their stereotype.”

Hardwick admits that as teenager she struggled with her sexuality and was initially concerned how her family and friends would take the news that she was a lesbian. She delayed coming out to her family until she was 29.

“The only thing my family were upset about is I hadn’t felt I could come out sooner… As a teenager, it was hard as I had to keep things secret and it shouldn’t be that way. Hopefully things are different now.”

Lesbian Model Jessica Clark in Playboy

Just Some Facts:Unknown

Jessica Clark is one stunning beauty stretching to about 5 ft. 11 inches. She has been featured in many fashion magazines. Perhaps, her beauty comes from the combination of genes; she comes from that come from English, Irish, Indian, and Nigerian descent.

On April 21, 1985, she was born in the United Kingdom and finished her education at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Jessica and Lacey Stone fell in love and married in 2010. The model and the beautiful work-out instructor were a ‘dream couple.’ The marriage lasted two years and I am sure these were great years of love and growth.

Movies: Television and Playboy

Jessica Clark, who plays tempestuous deity Lilith on HBO’s True Blood, has won her acclaim. In June 2013, Playboy asked her to pose (clothes on) and she did. Below is the picture in Playboy where Jessica is sprawled across a bed, upside down in a a sexy white tank and hot pink leggings,.

Lesbian Model Jessica Clark in Playboy-June, 2013

Paula, 2013, stories4hotbloodedlesbians.com

Who Were the First Lesbians to be Legally Married?

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

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

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

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

Lesbians More Likely To Orgasm, Study Finds

Does one sexual identity have a greater likelihood of sexual pleasure then another? A study by the Kinsey Institute for research of sex and gender at Indiana University Bloomington has found that lesbians are the most likely of any group to experience orgasms.

The study entitled “Variation in Orgasm Occurrence by Sexual Orientation in a Sample of U.S. Singles” surveyed 6,151 single and sexually active men and women, from ages 21 to 65. The researchers found that lesbian women had the highest frequency of orgasms at 75% of sexual experiences resulting in orgasm. The lowest likelihood of orgasm was found in bisexual women at 58%.

The correlation between rate of orgasm and sexual identity was not demonstrated in men. However, men orgasm 85% of the time regardless of sexual orientation or identity, whereas adjusting for sexual orientation, women orgasm only 62% of the time.

The institute’s founder Alfred Kinsey, pioneered research in sexual pleasure as a scientific pursuit, and noted as early as the 1950s, a correlations between sexual orientation and orgasm, however this is the first attempt to codify Kinsey’s theories.

Scientists next hope to find whether a mental or physical differentiation is responsible for the variations in likelihood of orgasm. Very little is known outside of a purely physiological level—the increase of heart rate and changes in blood pressure. The mental and emotional aspects of stimulation remains something of a mystery to researchers.

Dr. M. Mirza, 2015
lgbt health wellness .com

Questions That Insult Queer Women

There are some questions you’re better off knowing will likely be annoying to queer women.

Who’s the man in your relationship?
Who is the man in your relationship?  Lesbian relationships involve two women and this question assumes that one of the women is acting as a man.  Even if the relationship involves a more feminine woman and a butch woman, this doesn’t mean that one of them is roleplaying as a man. It’s rude to assume so.

How do you have sex?
Is this a question you would ask anybody?  Why would you think that it’s appropriate to ask a lesbian or bisexual woman?   And, there’s more than one way to go about having sex no matter your sexual orientation.  Are you really expecting anybody you choose to provide the details of their sexual activities?

If you’ve never had sex with a man how do you know you’re a lesbian?
Answer this question yourself by asking:  how do I know my sexuality if I haven’t engaged in sex with someone of the same sex?

Are you up for a threesome?
Many queer women are affected by this question– especially bisexual women.  Just as many, if not more, queer women choose to be in a monogamous relationship and have no interest whatsoever in inviting anybody else to join.

You must not be bisexual anymore since you married a man
Just because a bisexual woman enters into a monogamous relationship with a man doesn’t mean that she has lost her sexuality.  Although she may not continue to have sex with women, it’s very possible she’s still going to be attracted to women. The fact that she doesn’t act on it doesn’t make it less so.

You just haven’t found the right man
This assumes that queer women exist just because they’ve had unpleasant experiences with men. While it may be the case that some of them have had bad relationships with men, the same would apply to heterosexual women. Does this mean that they are going to become lesbians suddenly? No.

Life would be so much easier if I were a lesbian
Really?  Probably not, especially due to the hate crimes, higher suicide rates, harassment, workplace discrimination, stigma,  possible isolation from your family,  and the list goes on. This is an insensitive comment to make to a queer woman. Do you really think life would be easier? Choose sensitivity; think before you speak.

What does Lesbian mean?

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.