Jess’s Team Pick: LA Gay & Lesbian Center Benefit – Lez Give Back

Hey there, all you Los Angeles girlie girls!

Just giving you a heads up about a fun event you should check out tomorrow (Saturday) night if in the area. The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center’s Young Professional Council is teaming up with LA party staples P.Y.T., GirlBar, Truck Stop, ClubSkirts and Booby Trap to benefit the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center’s women’s services.

Tickets are $40, or $100 for VIP, and include an OPEN BAR ALL NIGHT. The VIP reception with free champagne starts at 9pm, and general admission will be admitted at 10pm.

The money raised goes to benefit the women-specific services of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, including women’s health and medical, legal assistance, domestic violence prevention & education, cultural programs, self-enrichment courses, social events and discussion groups.

Lez Give Back
Saturday, May 7th
10 pm
Hollywood Forever Cemetery Masonic Lodge
6000 Santa Monica Blvd., LA
$40 – Open bar ALL night
Purchase Tickets
Facebook event

Juicy Pink Box Threw a Screening Party and Everyone Came

The truth is I don’t even really like porn. When I signed up to cover the screening of Juicy Pink Box’s “latest film,” Taxi Volume 2, I thought (for no reason, really) I was going to the premiere of a lesbian indie flick. A rom-com or something. Yes, I can hear you laughing at me. My mind is just SO seldom in the ‘gutter’ and therefore, the whole night was FULL of surprises!

For starters, I really thought the viewing party was happening on the Lower East Side. I don’t know why I thought this, but I did. Turns out it was in Soho.

I thought it would be held in a bar. I had a legitimate reason to think that, though, because queer movie screenings are often held in the back of bars, kind of inexplicably, maybe because lesbians in New York party like nobody’s business and so bar-screenings are a natural result of the nightlife networking.

Turns out it was happening in a glitzy loft above a Picasso-centric art gallery. It was all class, all the way — and should we expect any less from a lesbian production company? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group of people complain about tacky porn more than lesbians, and half of those lesbians secretly love watching gay guy porn (you know it’s true).

Once inside and upstairs I learned that the party had a Marie Antoinette theme! This particular surprise met me with mixed emotions because

1. I love Marie Antoinette. I love. Marie Antoinette themes.

2. I was wearing my weird, too-small, maroon flannel shirt from 10^th grade.

I don’t know what had gotten into me that morning. But it was okay, because there were cute boys wearing white powder wigs walking around and eagerly refilling glasses of bubbly pink champagne.

 

I’ve never had an empty glass of alcohol so watchfully attended. Girls in Marie Antoinette-themed lingerie — thigh-high stockings, corsets, etc — handed out pink cookies and danced to whatever Jane Bang was playing.

You’ve heard of Jane Bang, right? She’s a hipster DJ of burgeoning fame with really good hair. She kept the party moving from old school Motown classics into dirty beats towards the end, at which time the champagne refills were swarming in everyone’s heads. Porn silently/vividly ran on the screen a the front of the room.

The crowd was full of art and fashion people, and everyone kept asking “Where’s Jincey? Is Jincey here yet?” I acted like I knew what they were talking about.

Now I know, though! Jincey is the CEO of Juicy Pink Box, a porn production company responsible for this whole thing. For Jincey Lumpkin’s entrance, all the lights went out and the song “Took the Night” by Chelly (which I have always said was the gayest song ever made) popped on and then, almost out of nowhere, there she was, Jincey Lumpkin, dressed in a fabulous, short, elaborate Marie Antoinette dress. Four spry breakdancers, wearing all black, bounced around her as she bowed.

Jincey Lumpkin used to be a high power attorney practicing fashion law, but bored with her job, she started writing an anonymous sex blog. It took off fast. A business-minded lady, she springboarded the success of her blog into a successful sex-oriented lesbian social site called digiromp.com. Digiromp did well for a while and finally she decided to take the leap into film.

Authentic lesbian porn is a growing revolution that is only now really happening, with the Crash Pad Series and Courtney Trouble and so on. Crash Pad is nitty gritty real-life queer porn, and Courtney Trouble directs eye-catching, high contrast, high intensity scenes that feel like they came straight out of San Francisco (which they did). There are some excellent options with a diverse range of styles for people looking for artful sex films out there, and Jincey is joining the party with her own very different aesthetic.

Jincey is a New York girl with a glitzy slant who wants to portray lesbian sex accurately and also beautifully. Some of her best-known titles are Therapy (solo stars recline on a therapy couch, sharing intimate secrets which are often kinda kinky fantasies) and Taxi (a diverse assortment of girls hooking up in the back of a taxi cab, pretending to be ritzy New Yorkers).

Taxi Volume 2 features more girls hooking up in the back of a cab, this time during a moody, hot rainstorm. It’s pretty sweet — like lesbian Sex-and-the-City but porn and starring girls who are having actual lesbian sex. The most common complaint I’ve heard lesbians make about porn, is, obviously, that it doesn’t look like the girls don’t enjoy it and OH GOD LOOK AT THEIR NAILS.

In Jincey’s films, you see legit queer girls having fun doing what they’re doing, and looking really good doing it. The casting is great and the chemistry is obviously smooth. Justine Joli, Madison Young, Dallas Fivestar, and Jett Bleu are just a few of the people she’s brought on board. Jincey is a perfectionist who wants to give back to the community by giving this venture her all. The one thing that can surely be said about these films, regardless of taste, preferences, whatever your own personal porn standards are (or lack thereof) is that the production quality of these films is top-notch.

Everyone in the room was clearly proud of Jincey, and rightly so. Taxi Volume 2 looked really good — even to me!

At the end everybody toasted to Jincey’s new adventure and women doing it for themselves. It’s a new era

There was a toast to her new adventure, a feeling that this was the start of something very good. Juicy Pink Box thinks outside the box to please your box, and they’re damn good at it.

Visit Juicy Pink Box! [VERY VERY VERY NSFW]

 

GLAAD Media Awards Los Angeles: The Liveblog!

Hello you pretty young things! There is good news and bad news today. Bad news: no Sunday Funday, which means Lindsay Lohan could potentially have worn a slightly gay slouchy knit hat and you could be missing out. Good news: Today is the GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles, and a ton of really f*cking awesome people are going! For instance, Kristin Chenoweth is going to accept her GLAAD Vanguard Award for a lot of things including her response to Ramin Setoodeh’s anti-gay Newsweek article. Robert Greenblatt, the chairman of NBC Entertainment, and former head of Showtime, will also be honored with the Stephen F. Kolzak Award.

And in recognition of Riese’s consulation with her now-famous letter, Riese and bcw/Marni are going to the GLAAD Awards Kristin’s guests! That means Riese is technically off press duty tonight.

And therefore also in attendance will be Alex and sexy calendar lady Kelli to interview celebs on the red carpet along with Miss April, light of all of our lives. The whole event will be hosted by Rashida Jones and Amy Poehler, which, uh, great?! Basically there is no reason for you to do anything else but refresh this page over and over forever, or at least until later tonight. ARE YOU READY YET LET’S GO!

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10:26 PM: I think we might be done. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that when someone holds up a can of lube (???) and a swimsuit calendar (???) in the dressing room/supply closet (???) the night is over. Riese says via text: “We’re done, everyone lost their passes and then we couldn’t find the car and then we got lost in the hotel maze and now we’re standing on a bridge and Marni is smoking and I’m putting on lip gloss.” Well! There you have it. Good night kittens, smoking is bad for you. Dream of Kristin Chenoweth and pie.

9:55 PM: WHAAAAAAA IS THAT LUBE?!?

9:47 PM: Riese via text: You’re all too young to get it, but Robert Reed (Mr. Brady) just got a shoutout from Greenblatt. Greenblatt left Showtime this year which makes me really worried about the future of the second season of The Real L Word. Also, unrelated, me and Alex had brunch with Nikki and Jill from The Real L Word yesterday and it was really great, I like them a lot. Tell the children that.” YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST. (You’re the children fyi.)

9:40 PM: Alex: Robert Greenblatt, chairman of NBC entertainment honored with the Stephen F. Kolzak Award just now. The presentation that introduced him included a LOT of L Word clips, so go Robert! (Obvs Dolly Parton presented his award.) Riese concurs: “There were a lot of L Word clips in the Robert Greenblatt montage, a lot of Tasha and Alice.”

9:35 PM: Riese via text: Marni is hyperventilating over Dolly Parton

9:31 PM: You guys Dolly Parton was totally the special surprise guest

9:25 PM: Oops I accidentally forgot the part where Amber Heard happened

9:20 PM: There’s a tie for Outstanding Comedy Series! Modern Family and Glee, obvs. Joel McHale presented the award and we’re in love with him. Mike O’Malley and Chris Colfer accepted the award.

9:00 PM: Alex: Kristin just gave an amazing acceptance speech! We recorded it on film. So exciting.

8:37 PM: Riese via text: “This is super cute, she’s crying and hasn’t even started talking yet, Sean Hayes is still talking.”

8:33 PM: My roommate has suggested that we institute a “GLAAD/glad” pun contest, and I agree with this idea. Best pun in the comments wins an award from Emily Choo. Ready set go. Also, everyone is glad about Chaz Bono’s speech.

8:31 PM: They’re presenting Kristin’s award! Riese says that Sean Hayes just said “On Ambien, she flies higher than any rocket I know.” #Iloveeverything

8:29 PM: Riese via text: “Amy and Rashida just said there’s gonna be an amazing special guest everyone should wait for and I feel like it’s gonna be Dolly Parton. What if Dolly Parton comes out.” Riese also wants everyone to know she’s sober b/c she’s afraid of dying now. I hope her mom is reading this.

8:26 PM: Ok this makes more sense

8:22 PM: Stop the presses. Riese says “Someone is doing crazy shit with their limbs.” WELL THANK YOU FEARLESS LEADER.

8:18 PM: What if Kristin Chenoweth made a pie for everyone at the GLAAD Media Awards and hid it under their seats? I mean, she didn’t, but what if?
h

8:07 PM: Oh wait, I think that Janice Langbehn is talking about how her family was completely violated by the Florida hospital that her wife died in and also by the general level of completely insane bone-crushing day-in-and-day-out oppression that gay people all over America live with. So everyone is just crying I guess. Carry on.

8:05 PM: What if California finally did fall into the ocean/the Big One finally came

7:56 PM: God it would be just super if there were pictures of any of the celebrities attending this event uploaded to the internet by media outlets by this point in the evening, wouldn’t it?

7:41 PM: Riese, via text: “In some obtuse way, being here for this makes me feel like we are part of a really special time in American history w/r/t gay rights, there’s so much happening and changing.” I’m assuming she’s talking about Dolly Parton

7:38 PM: Project Runway just won Outstanding Reality Show. Apparently The Real L Word wasn’t nominated. I know, I’m just as shocked as you.

7:32 PM: Said photo montage, it’s making Alex Vega cry which I mean is that not the cutest fucking thing

7:28 PM: Everyone knows the best montages are training montages, but this one sounds ok too

7:23 PM: Riese also says that Dolly Parton is going to be the surprise special guest, but I can’t tell if she’s for real or just fucking with me because she knows that I want Dolly Parton to be the surprise special guest at everything, including “Tuesday” and “breakfast.” #9to5forever #jolene

7:18 PM: Oh man I wish this part were being broadcast, it sounds super awesome and cute! Amy Poehler and Rashida Jones are in menswear and Rashida is wearing cute glasses, aka is the perfect woman. Also she just said “Lady Gaga has done as much for gay people as she has for lazy people trying to think of Halloween costumes.” I think she should run for President.

7:15 PM: Croce is calling this “three bois one mirror.” There was also something about a peeing contest that I’m not going to repeat here because I’m a fucking lady. (Although I do feel it’s important to note that Vega won.)

7:04 PM: If you were wondering what it feels like to be a gay or gay-friendly celeb in the greater LA area tonight, it’s this:

6:41 PM: Um stop everything, Riese says that they are auctioning off a puppy for $3,000. As a vegan, I am not sure how to feel about this, but as a person who wants a puppy, I feel like I want that puppy. Is the puppy gay? Has it eaten a diamond ring or something? I have many questions.

6:36 PM: Riese via text: “There are two animals on my plate, and our ad in the program looks really hot! Also, we were in the bathroom with Kirsten Dunst and she’s just like us!” I assume that means that Kirsten Dunst made faces at herself in the mirror and asked aloud why she looked so terrible and whether too much of her shoulders were showing. Kirsten Dunst, I salute you.

6:30 PM: “Alex, with legitimate fear in her voice: ‘How do you interview a deaf person?!”

6:22 PM: Ok we are back with some EXECUTIVE ALEX VEGA REALNESS:

6:13 PM: Riese & Marni are at the fancy dinner thing and Kristin Chenoweth just told Marni she looks cute. I think a lot of important things are happening according to Alex but I don’t have any pictures or anything of them, so stand by for just a few minutes guys!

6:02 PM: Um, Sister Wives

6:00 PM: Riese via text: “We’re at dinner, there’s a thing on a piece of lettuce and I’m gonna eat it”

5:51 PM: You guys, Press Team is so cute. I wish there was a kitten graphic for interviewing Tori Spelling. There isn’t, but also that just means that you get to look at Sarah Croce actually doing it, which, I mean, awesome.

5:44 PM: I am fairly certain that this is Lisa Vanderkamp, a Real Housewife of somewhere in this cold cruel world. Apparently the GLAAD Media Awards are the place to be!

5:39 PM: Marni via text: THERE’S ANOTHER DUDE WEARING MY SHIRT HERE

GOD THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS

5:31 PM: See what I mean about Shay Mitchell?

5:26 PM: Riese via text: “All the Pretty Little Liars are here, maybe we will finally find out who A is. Also there are like 10,000 dudes here, in 5 years it has to be 50/50. Autostraddle will make this happen.”

5:21 PM: Tori Spelling is here! I don’t know who she is.

5:15 PM: Riese, via text: “Melissa Etheridge is wearing ripped up corduroys and shades indoors and looks badass.” UGH I am going to go listen to “Yes I Am” and scowl

5:05 PM: And back in the real world: HOARDERS IS ON! Sister Wives is next. I am ALL THE FUCK SET.

5:00 PM: Riese and Marni have finally made it, and have visual confirmation re: Alex Vega and The Press Team. That sounds like a band I would listen to. Someone start making the tshirts stat.

4:56 PM: WHAAAAAAAT Alex Vega says that Melissa Etheridge just walked by, but isn’t doing any interviews. Doesn’t she know that I would have come to her window ANY TIME between the ages of, oh, fourteen and now? Including the part when she was undergoing chemo?

4:50 PM: Team Press has made it to the red carpet! The red carpet just got kind of sexy, no? I hope they yell “FRONT OF THE DRESS” a lot. That’s probably why I’m not on Team Press though, and am instead sitting home alone wearing a tea-stained wifebeater and jeans that don’t fit. Life lessons.

4:45 PM: Oh I think Janice Langbehn is here also, she’s the one whose partner tragically fell ill and died while they were on a cruise vacation with their kids and was prevented from seeing her as she died in her hospital room by the Florida hospital staff. Sorry to be a downer, but I am glad she’s here! It’s pretty great that there’s an awards ceremony for, like, real people who deserve to have good things happen to them? And not just famous people with shiny hair and glossy lips?

4:38 PM: There is some photographer dude whose thing is yelling “The front of the dress! The front of the dress!” every time someone walks by that he wants to take pictures of, and he kind of needs to slow his roll but other than that everything seems really fun and perfect and stuff, Kristin’s looking-back-over-shoulder-sexy-baby-kitten-angel face is really incomparable

4:32 PM: KRISTIN CHENOWETH IS HERE ohmigod she is so small and cute and perfect, I love everything forever

4:30 PM: OH SHIT WAIT Shay Mitchell actually is here and is wearing this thing that is like if Lady Gaga had sex with Jackie O and their baby became a television high school lesbian with a creepy dead friend!

4:28 PM: Riese, via text: We’re stuck in traffic, I wonder if Collin Farrell is stuck in traffic too

4:18 PM: Holy shit, Nikki Peet is here! She’s getting a Special Recognition Award? Do you guys even remember who she is, no you don’t you’re just here for NSFW Sunday and PLL recaps. Nikki Peet is a high school senior who mobilized like the entire state of Texas because her school (illegally) refused to let her start a GSA, she is a fucking badass. This is awesome. ALL OF THE GLAAD MEDIA AWARDS FOR YOU, NIKKI PEET

4:15 PM: I wish RuPaul was going to this

4:08 PM: Look how cute Riese and bcw/Marni are. I think Marni may have taken those sunglasses from my ten-year-old cousin but I don’t even blame her, that’s how cute they look

4:05 PM: Someone named Shareen Mitchell is here, which sounds deceptively like Shay Mitchell. She has a very pretty red dress on!

3:59 PM: The nominees from Nurse Jackie are here! This is really exciting for me, I had somehow forgotten that this meant all the gay or gayish characters from every TV show ever would be in the same place at the same time, it’s like a fantasy television world utopia!

3:51 PM: Someone named Ariel is here instead, she has long hair and is very pretty. I wish I knew who she was. Is this also about Pretty Little Liars? Will everyone in the world now know i don’t actually watch it?

3:50 PM: Twitter is very concerned about whether Darren Criss is coming. No one has any idea. The tension is killing me. What if he stays home to sing Katy Perry songs instead?

3:48 PM: Also, uh, HEY SHAY MITCHELL HEY.

3:36 PM: Alex, via email: Team Press is ready! These ladies are ready to ask the tough questions, get real. Prepare to find out Adam Lambert’s stance on Libya.

Dinah Shore Weekend 2011: Lesbian Events, Parties & Concert Schedule

Hey do you have your bikini on? Do you want to take it off and leap into the swimming pool where you can languish in the desire and fun reverberating from every water jet and every human female also in the pool? Do you enjoy not just one beer, but 15 beers? Do you like dance music? Dancing? COMEDY?!

Or — Are you a socially awkward weirdo who generally prefers vacations which involve historical re-enactment villages or modern art museums and usually needs a xanax to do anything besides sit at home and typity-type-type into your computer screen?

Well either way there is a home for you at Dinah Shore, even for the weirdos, because we’re weirdos, AND WE’RE GOING. You guys, the weather:

Basically there are two situations happening simultaneously during Dinah Shore Weekend — there’s Club Skirts and there’s GirlBar — two pools, two sets of parties, etc. Most people buy an all-access pass to one or the other but party-hopping is always possible if you want to buy individual event tickets. It’s too late to buy tickets online but you can pick them up on site at Girlbar or at Club Skirts.

Last year we did a little bit of both but mostly Club Skirts. This year we’ll be holding down Autostraddle HQ at Girlbar in some kind of special lounge situation, which my or may not look like this:

This year Team Auto will be represented by Riese, Laneia, Julie Goldman, Brandy Howard, Jess R., Alex Vega, Sarah Jesus Christ Palmface, Rachel Killer K and Haviland “Rising Star” Stillwell.

We’ll be live blogging/photographing/video-ing our Dinah adventures starting this Thursday night until Sunday and it will be super entertaining.

So on with it…

 

Let’s start with the GirlBar events:

– Wednesday –

Meet n Greet Cocktail Party

at The Hyatt Lounge & Pool Deck from 8pm-11pm

EVERYONE LOVES A COCKTAIL!

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– Thursday –

Welcome Party

at Hunters Nightclub, from 8pm-2am
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Funny Girlz 6 – Comedy Show

at Hotel Zoso, doors at 7:30pm, show at 8:30pm

hosted by Stamie K and Tracy Ryerson of your favorite show of all time, The Real L Word!

featuring JULIE GOLDMAN, the funniest lesbian in the entire world!

Along with Liz Feldman and Erin Foley!

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– Friday –

TGIF Pool Party

at The Hyatt Pool Deck starting at noon til 5pm

Girl Bar Dancers vs. Truck Stop Girls all day long!

You may recognize these girls from your other favorite TV show, Gimme Sugar!

Look! It’s just like The L Word:

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then get on your favorite white virginal dress or pantsuit ’cause it’s time for the …

Pure White Party

at Hotel Zoso with a performance by Wynter Gordon performing her hits”Dirty Talk” and “Believer”

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– Saturday –

Wet n Wild Pool Party

at The Hyatt Pool Deck from 9am-4pm
featuring the Lingerie Football League

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Chill Out Pool Party

at Hotel Zoso from 10am-4pm
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Gurlesque – THE MAIN EVENT

at Hotel Zoso from 9pm-2am
with a live performance by British singing sensation Estelle (hits including “American Boy” and “One Love”)

and a burlesque show by the Truckstop Girls and GirlBar’s Go-Gos.

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– Sunday –

Splash Pool Party

at The Hyatt Pool Deck from 9am-5pm
with a performance by Jessie and the ToyBoys

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Closing Party

at Hunters Nightclub from 9pm-2am
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Now onto the Club Skirts events:

– Wednesday –

Meet and Greet

at the Riviera Resort and Hotel
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– Thursday –

Laughing Loud

an evening of comedy with Paula Poundstone, Susan Westenhoefer, Fortune Feimster and more.
Doors at 7pm. Show starts at 8:30pm

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Opening Bash

at Zeldaz Nightclub at 9pm.

Two rooms, two dance floors and an outside patio.

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– Friday –

Frisky Friday Pool Party

with a live performance by Auburn.
at the Riviera Resort from noon to 5pm.

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White Diamonds Party

at the Riviera Resort and Spa at 9pm

MTV/Logo VIP party from 9pm – 10:30pm in the VIP Section

Celebrity Arrivals from 10pm-10:30pm

featuring performances by Chely Wright and Dev & The Cataracs
(Doors at 8pm, concert at 8:45pm)

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– Saturday –

Cabana Girl Pool Party

with a meet-n-great with The Real Housewives‘ Fernanda Rocha and an autograph signing by The L Word’s Laurel Holloman …

2-5 pm – Girltrash! Pool Party

Meet & Greet with Creator Angela Robinson with actors & friends of the Girltrash web-series: Gabrielle Christian, Mandy Musgrave, Michelle Lombardo, Lisa Rieffel, Alex Kondracke and Clementine Ford.

5pm – Battle of the Lesbian Webseries

The Battle of the Lesbian Webseries at 5pm featuring Anyone But Me, Venice, We Have to Stop Now, Cherry Bomb, Cowgirl Up, The Lovers & Friends Show, Girltrash, GirlGirl Scene, More to L with our girl Nat Garcia, Orange Juice in Bishop’s Garden, Seeking Simone & The Real Girl’s Guide to Everything Else.
(At the Riviera Resort at 9am.)

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The Hollywood Party

at the Palm Springs Convention Center at 9pm

Here TV! Network & SheWired.com VIP Party: 9pm-10:30 PM

Red Carpet arrivals from 10-10:30 pm

featuring performances by Platinum Recording artist Natasha Bedingfield at 11pm

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and Luciana performing her hit “I Like That” and more at 1am

 

Also, Wolfe Video presents a high-flying acrobatic act by P!nk choreographer and star of “A Marine Story” Dreya Weber.
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– Sunday –

Love is Louder Pool Party

at the Riviera Resort & Spa

to support the Love is Louder campaign launched by Brittany Snow MTV and The JED Foundation

with a performance by Tiffany Dunn and an autograph appearance by Lauren Holloman.

and a “Surprise Performance” by “one of the most popular bands – an absolute crowd favorite!”

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The Closing Gala

 

at Zeldaz Nightclub at 9pm

 

WHEN DO YOU WANNA MEET UP?!

Four For You, GLAAD Media Awards, It’s Sunday Funday!

GLAAD AWARDS:

You guys the GLAAD Media Awards were last night! A lot of people we like won, like 30 Rock, True Blood and Essence. Ricky Martin won the Vito Russo Award for his appearance on Oprah (who was also nominated for an award), and publicly thanked/acknowledged his boyfriend Carlos for the first time ever (!!!) Also, this picture happened!

Autostraddle sent Intern Lily to the GLAAD Awards so she could breathe air with Ricky Martin, and we’ll have a full recap from her and a special correspondent tomorrow or the next day or the day after that.

 

This was actually the 25th Anniversary of GLAAD: and a good time reflect on how lucky we are that people like Kristin (who will be given her award in Los Angeles in April) and Ricky and Lafayette who I know is imaginary are here in the world. Or as Jarrett Barrios, GLAAD President, says:  “When allies like Kristin take such powerful stands against anti-gay sentiments in the media, it sends an important message of equality… It is a privilege to honor such a talented and conscientious advocate for fairness towards the LGBT community.”

SLDN CELEBRATION:

Other gay people celebrated too this weekend! It was the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network’s National Dinner this weekend, an event to celebrate those GLBTQ-identified people fighting for our country, and also those who are fighting for them and their rights. It sounds like it was a fabulous event, with appearances by such diverse individuals as the Gay Men’s Chorus and Barney Frank, and a lot of discussion of victories with DADT and the road ahead. Pam’s House Blend has helpfully liveblogged the whole thing here, check it out!

QUEEN LATIFAH:

It was her birthday! She’s 41! We will acknowledge this despite her refusal to acknowledge us back. Happy birthday, Vintage Biker Queen Latifah!

AMERICANS OK WITH US KINDA:

A new poll shows that the majority of Americans are ok with gay marriage. ‘More than half of Americans say it should be legal for gays and lesbians to marry, a first in nearly a decade of polls by ABC News and The Washington Post. This milestone result caps a dramatic, long-term shift in public attitudes. From a low of 32 percent in a 2004 survey of registered voters, support for gay marriage has grown to 53 percent today. Forty-four percent are opposed, down 18 points from that 2004 survey.”

SUGAR BOXX:

I mostly want to link you to this because it sounds awesome and hilarious, and I’m allowed to because lesbians are mentioned! “If a women’s prison movie doesn’t have an actual prison in it, should we still call it a prison movie? “Sugar Boxx,” arriving on DVD this week from Entertainment One, can be described more accurately as a work camp movie because the producers couldn’t afford an actual cell or even a few steel bars to throw in front of the camera at any point during the film’s 86-minute runtime. Instead, our women in bondage look like they’re spending a bummer of a vacation at a public park… As the film’s screenwriter, Jarrett boasts one accomplishment: In the traditional women-in-chains flick, lesbianism is something inflicted on our wrongly accused protagonists by butch cellmates or obese lady guards who threaten the lash for noncompliance, but in “Sugar Boxx,” plucky TV reporter Valerie March (Geneviere Anderson) is in a committed lesbian relationship from the get-go. In fact, much of the film’s suspense, if you manage to care at all, is generated by Valerie’s efforts to avoid compromising her sexual orientation as the drooling hicks of the Sugar State Women’s Prison attempt to force themselves on her. This is by far the most enlightened aspect of “Sugar Boxx,” which for the most part makes “Reform School Girls” (1986) with Wendy O. Williams of the Plasmatics look like it was produced by Stanley Kramer.”

WIRED:

WIRED Magazine has featured an actual female engineer on their cover for the first time ever, which usually features things like “wires,” “men,” or “disembodied breast.” There is a certain amount of brouhaha over the image itself, which you are certainly welcome to engage in, but this being the Sunday Funday we’re going to quit while we’re ahead and call this a good thing.

WOMEN WRITERS:

You guys it’s women’s history month!!! In honor of it, these eight women writers have written about their female heroes and inspirations. It will make you feel really good to read I promise!

“UPPERS”:

It would appear that the Sunday Funday concept is catching on, which I fully credit us for: Salon has a roundup of feel-good news to offset the fact that if you’re anything like me, you have had a legitimate breakdown every time you’ve turned on the news for the past 2 weeks or so. I have to say, though, they did a pretty solid job. This week a Great Dane gave birth to 17 puppies, and there’s this video of some elephants!

Where the Bois Are: Bklyn Boihood is the Future

In order to truly understand the momentousness of New York’s Bklyn Boihood and the impact it stands to make on our community, first you need to get with this rapidly-growing “queer collective” concept.

See, New York City is a pretty gay city with a lot of gay players, but you’ll find a lot of lesbians whining that the only thing for lesbians to do here — or anywhere — is drink beer. We have the resources and the population here, but many still feel we lack Something.

Something that could provide a greater sense of togetherness, some kind of decent and focused hub where queers-in-the-know can go.

Something more wide-reaching and accessible than the three bars for lesbians. Something more consolatory than the occasional jolts of ubiquity induced by a dyke nod on the subway. Something more comfortable than dropping the gay bomb to future roommates found on craigslist. We’re lucky to have an LGBT center planned and built with community-building in mind, but it’s more of an open venue than a place for queers to just drop in and hang out.

Luckily –when the mainstream fails to meet the needs of a growing population, the underground emerges.

It’s a force, this underground, because our people tend to have a lot going on. Queer collective and communes are springing up with greater verb, mostly in the Bedford- Stuyvesant (“Bed-Stuy”) neighborhood in Brooklyn, a name which non-New Yorkers may recognize from Spike Lee films like Do the Right Thing and Crooklyn and lyrics from Notorious B.I.G, Jay-Z and Mos Def.

Now Bed-Stuy is quickly becoming the “new” gay neighborhood, blowing the tourist-gays West Village right out of the water. Victorian houses-turned-queer-living spaces like The Glitter House and The Marilyn Mansion are sprouting up as places to throw parties, host workshops and basically get everyone into one room together to start planning shit. Every January those houses participate in Quo Rum, “a ten-day extravaganza of knowledge, skills, and talents for the purpose of creating and supporting sustainable community projects,” with events like Dismantling Racism and Classism in Queer Communities, Trans Jewish Punk Polka and Fisting to the Heart. It was makeshift to the point of nearly being anarchist in spirit. It was awesome. This is what we can do here, and we’re doing it.

And this brings us to another vital queer collective- Bklyn Boihood.

Bklyn Boihood’s seemingly abstract aim is to “provide visibility and empowerment to masculine-presenting queer and trans people of color.” Ryann tells me this before hopping up for a coffee at the Bed-stuy café where she’s squeezed me in between MBA classes along with her co-founder, Genesis.

As Genesis tells me about how awesome it is to be a high school math teacher, I just nod as it’s occurring to me that they have day jobs and have accomplished all this stuff in the off-hours most of us spend watching L Word on Netflix. Also, Ryann and Genesis are even more gorgeous in person, which contributes to the awed nodding reaction.

Ryann returns with the story of how it all started — the modest, yet inspired beginnings of a very Big Thing:  “Back in 2009, we were just hanging out at Genesis’ place. We’d been talking about how we don’t really see ourselves represented in a lot of ways. We didn’t see ourselves at the parties we were going to, we didn’t see ourselves in the organizing world, in any sort of medium.”

Genesis nods in agreement.

“So I was thinking, ‘Okay, visibility, what’s something we can produce? What kind of project could we do that would be fun, that we have the resources for?’ And I was like, ‘Yo, we should do a calendar!’”

But a calendar snowballed into a lot more. Bklyn Boihood hits all the key elements of a progressive, powerful and young community — politics, volunteering, art-making, blogging, opinion-voicing, socializing, alcohol, parties, pictures, dating, and positivity — and then some.

Ryann explains that they’re about “giving exposure to people through blogging, giving exposure to issues that don’t get talked about, fashion, we hope to get into film projects this year. And we host really dope parties.” (All of these ideas are neatly organized and consolidated on their website.)

But first there was a calendar: A bold, glossy 2010-2011 calendar featuring members of the collective — all of whom are masculine-of-center queers-of-color.

Genesis shakes her head, “There was a type of magic that happened on each set that it’s truly difficult to put into words.”

The end-result is an edgy magic-tinged work of art that personifies Boihood’s mission and lovingly highlights the beauty and strength of the kind of women we rarely see represented in LGBT media, let alone the mainstream.

“When they come to shoot, they’re the star,” Genesis tells me. “We’re like, ‘Yo, what is it that you jam to? What do you feel sexy in?’ We’re bumping down the street with loud music, our whole team, we got film crew, photographers, makeup, everybody’s on set having fun. Sip a little somethin’, smoke a little somethin’, chilling. Every model was very different and brought something different. It felt very spiritual.”

One model even teared up when a crew member told her she was “absolutely beautiful” — nobody had ever told her that before. There’s gonna be another calendar this year, which they hope to document in a behind-the-scenes video. The success of the calendar has their ideas churning really, really fast.

Listening to Ryann and Genesis talk about bklyn boihood feels like being in the center of a thing jetting towards a bright, inclusive future, moving at the speed of caffeine.

“We’re trying to further our presence. Which is being done in ways that have worked for us in the past- the parties, the mixers. We’re talking about possibly concerts, possibly art exhibitions. When the community makes it clear that these are things that are needed and wanted, let’s do it!”

Ryann and Genesis have a dynamic that is unsurprisingly dream-team-esque. Ryann is the strategic business-minded entrepreneur, and Genesis is the artist and it’s all very organic, although the “how we met” story comes out different from their two varying points of view.

Genesis says, “I met Ryann when she came to my desk at a job we were working at years ago. She was very sweet. I felt a pull from day one to look after her.”

Ryann starts cracking up — “I’ll tell you the real story,” Ryann holds Genesis’s hand. “Yeah, we met at work and shit. But after like two weeks, Gen was like ‘Yo, dude, you wanna keep this fucking job, you gotta come to work on time. It’s easiest thing anyone can do is come to work on time.’ And I’m like, ‘Who is this?'”

Genesis breaks in, “And I’m an assistant- nobody – no pull.”

Ryann continued, “She was like, ‘I could care less, but I know no one’s telling you that they notice that you’re late, but they’re noticing.’ So she looked out for me.”

Ryann returned the favor;  Genesis credits their friendship as the catalyst to her own evolving sense of comfort with her queer identity. Genesis’ personal evolution has helped her to understand what newly out gay kids are looking for when they turn to the city for queer resources. “I’m a late bloomer, if you will. I know what it’s like to be at a point where you want to get in the groove of everything but not knowing how to do so or who to talk to.”

Coming out and getting comfortable with your queerness is a long process fraught with all kinds of horrendous bumps in the roads and subtle complexities, but Ryann and Genesis clearly survived and emerged from the whole experience radiating genuine self-love. They’re comfortable with themselves, and this makes them ideal role models to younger queers.

“Once you find your comfort in yourself,” Genesis explains, “You want everyone to feel that way. I want everyone to feel as amazing as I feel.”

They hint that there’s some age-transcending in the future of Bklyn Boihood — a community project that’s still largely under wraps about which I’m only given the hint “inter-generational” and “folks that are older, younger.” I also receive a cryptic hint about another start-up: “bridging international gaps.” So think on that for a bit.

As for the present, I must now mention the parties. I can personally testify that Bklyn Boihood parties are already legendary. They’re different than the wildly promoted, glossy-flyer girlparties that happen in the basements of straight clubs because they happen in queer homes and, like only the best parties, they aren’t trying to be blowouts. They grow organically, with good music and BYOB and nice people.

“We usually drop the date a week in advance. It’s not too premeditated. The concept is to just provide the community with a safe space, allow them to let go and be themselves.” And even though they’re not trying to be blowouts, that’s generally precisely what happens.

These girls are right on the edge of something poised to change the queer community and provide those missing spaces we long for between happy hours and ladies night. They’re proud of what they’ve done and there’s so much more to look forward to in the future and you know how we love the future. There’s the next calendar, more parties, more blogging, and many, many, many plans still undisclosed or slyly hinted-at.

Before running off to class, Ryann tells me about a loft party coming up March 25th. I know I’ll be there; there’s going to be dancing at this revolution.

[ bklyn boihood website / blog / twitter / facebook / buy a calendar & t-shirt ]

So, Sydney’s Biggest Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras EVER Happened

This past weekend was the biggest event on the Australian queer calendar – The 2011 Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.

The Mardi Gras is an annual gay pride parade that has been protesting inequality and celebrating the LGBT community since the early 80s. The Mardi Gras may be held in a very small country, but in fact it’s one of the largest Pride event of its kind in the world.

For one night the city closes down to allow for thousands and thousands of cheerful drunk people to dance or march through the streets in various states of undress. Every queer and queer ally should attend the Mardi Gras at least once in their lifetime. 

This year’s Mardi Gras Parade was likely one of the biggest ever, with 135 floats, 8,500 marchers and thousands upon thousands of spectators lining the streets. Following the Parade was the official Mardi Gras Party, which attracted approximately 13,000 people in itself. This year there was a strong focus on legalising same sex marriage because, while the government are happy to allow the queer community to throw a party that generates $30 mil for the local economy, they still won’t allow us to get married.

Australian queer website Same Same has captured the Mardi Gras spectacle in a rather brilliant photo gallery, check it out here.

I’ve compiled all the news and gossip from the night, courtesy of both credible news sources and the Morning After Lesbian Phone Tree:

– Leading the Parade for the very first time were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. US actress / out lesbian Lily Tomlin was also out on the front lines.

– The Mardi Gras Parade was commentated by queers and queer allies including Australian Drag stars Miss Penny Tration, Tora Hymen & Candy Box. Also reporting from the sidelines was Olympian Matthew Mitcham, and various celebrities including Louie Spence, Charlotte Dawson & Ruby Rose. Ruby allegedly kept welling up with tears over all the bare-chested glittery Pride marching by. Aw.

– Entertainment was provided by US artists Alexis Jordan and Wynter Gordon. Apparently they were a hit. GUESS WHERE ELSE WYNTER GORDEN IS GONNA BE A BIG GAY HIT THIS YEAR?  That’s right, Girlbar’s Dinah Shore Weekend! You should come.

– Rihanna attended the Mardi Gras and reportedly ruffled some feather(boa)s by choosing not to perform. Apparently she “wasn’t feeling it,” or something. Ke$ha was also rumored to be at the party. There were no reports of either pop star making out with cute girls and/or each other on the night, which is where my interest in their attendance ends.

– Amanda F*cking Palmer was there too. I’m only mentioning it because she looked fierce.

– A few weeks ago, Christian Democrat Party candidate Peter Madden tried to ban the Mardi Gras because it “incited all kinds of lust, filth and moral depravity.” There’s always one, isn’t there. So it was nice to hear reports that John Madden, Peter’s less-ignorant brother, protested Peter’s views by marching in the Parade.

– During an interview with Mardi Gras Co-Chair Peter Urmson, Channel 10 morning news anchor Ron Wilson referred to the Mardi Gras as “disgusting.” I’m really quite shocked that this happened, anyone else?

Ron Wilson has released an apology/statement: “As a journalist my job is to present an issue from different perspectives. If anyone took offense at anything I said during the interview I apologise. I fully support the gay community in its campaign to promote the issue of gay marriage and I congratulate the gay and lesbian community on the success of Mardi Gras.”

– Have you been watching the new Australian lesbian reality web series, Generation L? We have. The girls were filming during Mardi Gras and promise to give you a little taste of their evening will be posted shortly. Keep an eye on the Generation L YouTube page.

 

West Hollywood is Too Gay to Function, or “Shane Don’t Live Here No More”

This weekend, The New York Times turned its homoerotic eye to the lovely village of West Hollywood, California, the gayest city ever and home to the illustriously sophisticated homosexual television franchise The Real L Word. An upcoming City Council election will test West Hollywood citizens’ feelings about The G word: gentrification. Described as “uncommonly bitter,” this year’s election has drawn focus to a “growing divide over what West Hollywood should represent, with prosperity and urban development pitted against the city’s history as a countercultural haven.”

Founded 26 years ago by gay activists, WeHo has always been “the country’s closest approximation of a gay city” with a mostly gay City Council.  In 1985 it became one of the nation’s first cities to provide equal rights for domestic & married partners in the city.

From The Times:

Since long before its founding in 1984, West Hollywood has offered a haven for social outsiders and illicit nightlife. During Prohibition, when it was a two-square-mile slice of unincorporated Los Angeles County, mobsters set up casinos and nightclubs where alcohol was served in back rooms beyond the reach of the Los Angeles police, and in the 1970s gay men started opening bars here.

Today, West Hollywood, where an estimated 40 percent of residents are gay, is a boomtown. Amid a recession that has plunged so many governments into budget crises, West Hollywood has a surplus of more than $50 million. Crime rates are down drastically, and the city has embarked on a huge project to rebuild a public parking garage, a library and a park.

Furthermore, there are plans to replace a drug rehab center with a playground and the city recently banned smoking on restaurant patios. On Tuesday residents will face six challengers (looking to oust three incumbents) running on platforms “invoking concerns about development and gentrification pushing out younger gay residents and the edgier elements that have long distinguished West Hollywood.” Scott Schmidt, one of the six challengers, says he’s concerned that without proper action, WeHo could become “no different than Beverly Hills or Calabasas.”

Some fear “the city is increasingly catering to middle-class families, rather than young people who want to let loose.”

But what say the young people who want to let loose?

“West Hollywood is super expensive already,” Haviland Stillwell, an actress and singer who’s lived in West Hollywood and the surrounding area since 2008, told Autostraddle. “Gays have money here and its’ a super-hip place to live — you live there if you can find a good deal or if you have money.”

West Hollywood is unique amongst gay villages insofar as its nightlife is hardly boys-only. WeHo’s been the epicenter of the upper-crust of lesbian society — the “polished,” wealthy, impossibly good-looking lesbians who sleep with closeted movie stars/each other (see also: The Chart), throw parties in expensive swimming pools and have dramatic fights which result in the physical destruction of expensive cars and/or fine art, and pursue power lesbianism with aplomb. Also, anthropologists have reported mating rites including creamed corn wrestling, below:

WeHo’s rep as Sapphic Central went national when our dear Ilene F*cking Chaiken debuted West-Hollywood-based The L Word — which garnered disdain amongst the lesbian community for its unrealistic portrayal of lesbians. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, Chaiken’s show did, in fact, reflect the WeHo population with relative accuracy.

 

Alex Vega, Design Director of Autostraddle.com, moved to Los Angeles in October 2010 with two lesbian friends from the city, but they eventually settled on a house in the East Hollywood/Silverlake area. West Hollywood is just too expensive, and although Vega and her seemingly enormous circle of young trendy lesbionic friends attend a weekly PYT parties at Haute in West Hollywood and brunch at Hamburger Mary’s, she says she only has two friends who actually live in WeHo proper and they often hang out in Silver Lake, Hollywood, Los Feliz and Burbank.

“L.A. is huge,” Vega says. “There’s so many cool areas to live, why live where it’s expensive when I can live somewhere equally cool for less?” Her roommate, stylist Sara Medd, adds that there are a lot of apartment complexes in WeHo, and it was easier to find a house where “we don’t have to deal with weird and annoying neighbors.”

“WeHo is WeHo and always will be,” says Stillwell, who recently moved out of the area. “It’s one of the cleanest and most pretty places in the entire city and, in my opinion, the most fun.”

Although Vega says she wouldn’t consider any of West Hollywood, “family-oriented,” Stillwell says “there are equal parts youthful and families — most people with kids probably live farther up in the Hills, or more east where there are bigger houses.”

“But also, I was just talking about this yesterday that I feel like a lot of my gay male couple friends will be having babies within the next few years and will likely stay in the WeHo area,” Stillwell observes. “So it’s a generational thing. I mean, I would TOTALLY be into bringing kids to all the places in weho during the day. its fun and open.”

“I think the world is changing. And WeHo is right there with it. I think the stereotypes about gay people that existed 25 years ago aren’t really that valid anymore.”

This attitude is reflected by Don Reuter, quoted in The New York Times: “In every city I’ve been to, I hear people say, ‘I wish this neighborhood was what it used to be. But at the same time, the gay community was asking for acceptance, and what they’ve gotten is acceptance.”

Gentrifying the gayborhood is an issue Nationwide, of course. When I moved to New York City from Michigan in 2004 earlier than I’d planned on and needed a temporary summer sublet, I felt like the luckiest girl in the world to snag a a bedroom in a “quaint” 2-bedroom on West 10th street and Bleeker — right in the heart of Greenwich Village. Granted, my room, which cost $1,000/month, was literally walk-in closet size, sans closet, and the building was a sixth-floor walkup with extraordinarily serious stairs. Take-a-water-and-oranges-break-on-the-third-floor stairs.

So it’s unsurprising that eventually, although it’d seemed cool to live in the center of the gayberverse, I quickly tired of milk costing twice what it did uptown and aside from some scattered sex shops and stalwart gay bars, Christopher Street’s once-vibrant young racially diverse gay community was definitely dispersing, replaced by high-profile tenants like Marc Jacobs’s boutique and Sarah Jessica Parker’s home. Even The Oscar Wilde Bookshop went under a few years back. Chelsea, Manhattan’s other gay haven, was losing its bohemian charm too — The Chelsea Hotel, once known as a bohemian colony of sorts where Sid Vicious maybe killed someone and The Beats wrote their books and Dylan Thomas drank himself to death (when he wasn’t in the West Village’s White Horse Tavern, also a popular spot for James Baldwin and Anais Nin), runs $200 a night.

That being said — the neighborhoods remain as beautiful and gay-friendly as always, if populated by a more monied residency (and the gays who snatched up rent-controlled apartments back in the day). But I never moved back downtown, and when I moved to the Bay Area this October, I didn’t even bother checking out The Castro or The Mission, instead settling in Oakland, which boasts a violent crimes rate of nearly three times the national average!

But there are plenty of homos here, too.

 

In 2007, The New York Times reported a similar lament about The Castro, remarking that “the social forces that gave rise to the Castro and other gay neighborhoods like the West Village and West Hollywood may be becoming passé.”:

These are wrenching times for San Francisco’s historic gay village, with population shifts, booming development, and a waning sense of belonging… they struggle to maintain cultural relevance in the face of gentrification… there has been a notable shift of gravity from the Castro, with young gay men and lesbians fanning out into less-expensive neighborhoods like Mission Dolores and the Outer Sunset, and farther away to Marin and Alameda Counties, “mirroring national trends where you are seeing same-sex couples becoming less urban, even as the population become slightly more urban,” said Gary J. Gates, a demographer and senior research fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles.

But West Hollywood differs from The Castro and Chelsea in that it’s not just a ‘hood, it’s an entire city with 35,000 residents — and surely there must be a compromise between becoming Familyland and remaining the Street Shane Strides Down. When the entire country becomes a safe place for outsiders, outsider-specific spaces will naturally lose their appeal.

Furthermore, as these gayborhoods price out their homogay residents, new neighborhoods rise up — Columbus, Fort Worth, El Paso, Red Hook,  Atlanta, Seattle — is angsting over gentrification really worth all this fuss? Is it just a natural reflection of residents aging and the world changing?  How important are gay neighborhoods to gay life? And if there’s always  a new place to go — usually nearby, as the thwarted dreamers who caught the tail end of the old neighborhood’s shelf life are the first to stake out new ground — well, doesn’t that mean we’re getting somewhere by getting everywhere?

Alex’s Team Pick: Lesbian Party-Throwers, “PYT” Celebrate One Year Anniversary Tonight

If there’s one thing you should know about Los Angeles, it’s that it has a happening gay scene. Since moving here four months ago, it’s been a nonstop dance-a-thon (and drink-a-thon) for myself and my gay clan, who enjoy going out on the town seemingly almost every night. Seriously I can’t keep up.

Obviously one of our favorite lesbian spots is the weekly parties that the awesome ladies of PYT throw every Wednesday and Friday night. And this Friday (aka tonight February 25th) is a special one: it’s PYT’s one year anniversary! And for real, that’s something to celebrate.

If you live in Los Angeles or on the west coast, come out and support these lezzies and also dance with me on the dance floor because my talented friend, DJ Pinke and as always, DJ Saratonin are providing the tunes, obvs. And also drink and celebrate because it’s totally an open bar all night which is always a win.

Here are all the official details. See you there
xoxo Alex!

PYT Productions presents….

Our 1 Year Anniversary

Friday, February 25th (that’s tonight weirdos!)
at HAUTE
665 North Robertson Blvd
West Hollywood

Back by popular demand, we bring you many of the amazing special guests DJ’s
that have made this year so off the hook:

DJ Amara & Josh Kane
aka “Rhythm in Stereo”

* DJ Asha and Lezlee * (KYSS)
* Mix America * (BeatBox)
* DJ Frenchkiss de Kutt * (French Kiss)

* DJ Pinke *
* Resident DJ Saratonin & Euphoric *

Photos by Taylor Bond

$30 Open Bar
This includes entry and all night open bar from 10pm to 2am

$25 with RSVP to: WRITE2PYT [at] GMAIL [dot] COM
(Must show email confirmation at the door either printed or on your cell)

The Ballad of Melissa Etheridge & Tammy Lynn Marches On

We generally stay away from gossip here, but this is The ETH we’re talking about here and look — there is some seriously crazy shit going down with Melissa Etheridge and Tammy Lynn Michaels.

First, let’s backtrack. News of Tammy & Melissa’s break up hit the web back in April — we can thank Melissa for that.

Over the next two months, Tammy occasionally ripped open her heart and let the feelings pour freely on her blog, hollywood farmgirl, often scolding Melissa for leaving Tammy & the 5 year-old twins pretty much broke-ass broke.

Now, the dyke drama has taken a new turn: People Magazine says Melissa is in a committed relationship with a new woman, OK. But here’s the thing: the woman is Nurse Jackie writer/producer, Linda Wallem, aka Melissa Etheridge’s best friend of seven years. Right. So she’s been around like all this time. In fact, Wallem acted as her “best man” at their 2003 wedding.

Let’s pause for a WTF and some hollywood farmgirl processing of this news:

i moved out november 23rd 2009
she said it would help
i was convinced it would
too and i trusted there was
no one else
i didn’t know
there was someone moving in
as i was moving out

three weeks later a box of new toys
was delivered and her assistant brought
it to my rental house as a mistake
i opened it and that’s when i felt something was up

i called her
“i have your new dicks on my kitchen counter?”

one thing by one thing
i slowly felt things were not
as they were being represented

one never even said one was breaking up with me
one only says things in song and string

and then i listened to the album
and i understood
oh you don’t want to work it out
oh you already have someone in the wings
oh you already have pined for another
oh you are done here

oh i have become another one of your exes
oh i have become an album many albums
starting with lucky which is why you can’t find that tattoo on my body anymore

Linda Wallem (right) with Nurse Jackie star, Edie Falco

Tammy goes on to vent over People’s “scoop” of Melissa and Linda as a “new couple” since according to Tammy, the relationship has been going on for nearly a year.

but i have had some time to let it digest, rip my stomach apart,
digest some more, and i think i’m in a better spot now.
sometimes reality takes a moment to settle in. you know, like if
you were standing in the pitch black, and suddenly you threw
on some intense 1500W bulbs around you?? you’d need to quint
and adjust and maybe be blind for a minute? okay. maybe vomit up
your stomach until you have a brand new lining, but hey, who
doesn’t do that when their world turns upside down? :-)

so. you know. people magazine tries to get things right. they try to
clean things up for the famous folk- their sources are usually the publicist
for the celebrity. i’m here to clarify. well… i want to clarify without
dealing with getting sued for SLANDER (and paying someone), which would include
me saying that the two were involved while I was living there (it is still my house, by the way).
and i haven’t gone just that far yet.

since april of 09? mmm…. one of my little sweet peas told me otherwise much
earlier than that, Pooper magazine.they should have shut the bedroom door.

So what did we learn? In a nutshell, this relationship has been going on for nearly a year and Tammy was blindsided when her assistant accidentally delivered Melissa’s new dildos to Tammy’s rental house…. really Papi?

Weirdly enough, she later goes on to actually praise Nurse Jackie in general, specifically Linda’s writing/producing partner, Liz Brixus — who just so happens to also be Linda Wallem’s ex.

While Tammy suggests that Melissa was seeing Linda Wallem behind her back, she also adds that she has since “found someone myself” and “most importantly to me: the kids are alright.”

Speaking of the kids, Wallem apparently ‘lives vicariously’ through Melissa and Tammy’s family — “I have to say, I live vicariously through them because I don’t have kids, and they are the most amazing mothers, the most amazing family I know. The kids are just so loved and so magical. I always tease Melissa, ‘You know, you have four kids now!’ and she says, ‘I know! I don’t know how this happened!’ She’s like the sister I never had.”

That quote actually doesn’t make sense but hell, what does.

FYI, there’s been an Etheridge / Nurse Jackie connection for a while now as her song “Nervous” played throughout the second season finale of the [f*ing amazing] Edie Falco series.

Riese’s Special Comment:

Hi. As a the Very Important Editor in Chief, I was just reading this article so that I could press the “publish” button and I had so many feelings that now I am writing them right here. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE. Seriously. Breakups are PRIVATE. I used to think “dyke drama” was an unfair stereotype, but g-ddamn if there wasn’t one thing I learned in 2010…

+

+

+

… it’s that heartbreak makes grown women act like fucking asshats, even if they’re public figures. It doesn’t have to, though — some people are totally able to breakup without any public displays of overblown emotion. Nothing is ever accomplished by sharing the private, painful details of a dissolved relationship with the proletariats, whether that be magazine readers or facebook friends. Aren’t you glad we AREN’T in high school anymore and don’t HAVE to tell everybody everything? Relationships are complicated things and nobody knows what goes on really besides the two people involved. In conclusion, I’m on Team Tammy. WTF Eth. WTF. Okay back to Jess.

Ok

+

So, how do you feel about all of this? Are you busy deleting the Breakdown album off your iPod in disgust? Are you Team Tammy? Is Team Etheridge even an option at this point?

PYT & Autostraddle Threw A Calendar Release Party in LA, Took Photos

Hey we told you we were having a “Holiday Straddle“-themed PYT lesbo bash in Los Angeles, California on December 17th and guess what? WE DID. The party celebrated a) the holidays, obvs and b) the release of the 2011 Autostraddle Calendar (made possible with the help of 12 smokin’ hot models, world-famous fashion photographer Robin Roemer and stylist Sara Medd and make-up artist Christina Natale). It was so much fun, (as PYT parties always are) and so many fun people came out to dance and drink and buy calendars! The calendar girls in attendance were: Nicole Pacent (June), Sarah Croce (April), Romi Klinger (December) and Laura (August!)

Charlene made us an AWESOME Autostraddle mural (she cut the stencil and spray painted the whole damn thing herself!) obvs DJ Saratonin provided the dance party soundtrack, and amazing photographer Abz Cruz is responsible for the memories below (as well as any and every photo that comes from PYT), and we really wouldn’t have it any other way.

Get your calendar here. It’s almost 2011 silly!

Come Party With Us At PYT Productions’ HOLIDAY STRADDLE, The 2011 Autostraddle Calendar Girls Release Party

Hey hey gurl do you live in or nearLA? What are you doing Friday night? Whatever it is, you should cancel it, because something way cooler is happening — PYT Productions and Autostraddle.com are throwing a party to celebrate our first-ever Autostraddle Calendar, which you should order this week if you want it in time for the holidays WHICH OF COURSE YOU DO.

When you read these official words from PYT Productions, imagine Charlene is yelling them at you on a megaphone.

FREE COVER! FREE COVER! FREE COVER!

**A PYT TEA ROOM EXCLUSIVE**

2011 CALENDAR GIRLS Release Party!

FRIDAY NIGHT – DECEMBER 17TH

PYT Productions presents…..

“THE HOLIDAY STRADDLE PARTY”

With your special guest hosts AUTOSTRADDLE.COM!

The ladies of PYT team up with the HOTTEST LESBIAN website to date, to bring you the ULTIMATE HOLIDAY WHITE PARTY! The 2011 Autostraddle Calendar is now on sale!! Get your copy on the website or purchase yours at PYT this FRIDAY NIGHT! It’s the Sexiest Hottest Lesbian calendar out there!!

It’s gonna be quite the debaucherous evening. With old skool jamz, hip hop, dance & house… Music will penetrate your body… HOT SEXY BEAUTIFUL LESBIANS will definitely be in attendance!

*** Resident DJ SARATONIN!! ***

*** Resident DJ EUPHORIC!! ***

***  Holiday straddle photos by ABZ CRUZ ***

Friday nights get craaaaaazy!!! Come on in and see what all the buzz is about. You won’t be disappointed!

ATTIRE: It’s gonna be a WHITE Christmas. Bust out your WHITE PARTY Attire!!

WHEN: Friday December 17, 2010 @ 9:30pm

Cover: FREE FREE FREE ALL NIGHT!

RSVP to write2pyt@gmail.com

WHERE: “H.WOOD”. – Tea Room
@ 1738 N Orange Dr.
Hollywood, CA

So we’ll see you there right? Alex’s dance moves look even better in person, just saying! THIS WILL BE THE MOST ULTIMATE BEST PARTY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD TO EVER HAPPEN TO THE HOMOGAYSEXUAL COMMUNITY MAYBE SOMEONE WILL EVEN SIGN YOUR CALENDAR!

Video! Interviewing Out Lesbian Amber Heard, Others, at GLAAD’s 25th Anniversary Party

“The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the nation’s LGBT media advocacy and anti-defamation organization, marked 25 years of service to LGBT Americans.”

Autostraddle design director Alex Vega and Autostraddle Calendar girl Miss April (and Host-with-the-Most) Sarah Croce hit the grey/blue carpet in Los Angeles on December 3rd to talk to the likes of Chaz Bono, Wilson Cruz, Amber Heard (obviously), and “Pioneer Award” recipient Jonathan Murray (executive producer of The Real World, Road Rules and Project Runway) about gay things and GLAAD.

Richard Jennings, former President & Executive Director of GLAAD, was also honored at the event with the GLAAD Founders’ Award.

It was a great event for an organization that we still very much need on our side, fighting for our community in the media. As it said on the screen at GLAAD’s event: words and images matter.

In between the honorees and guests speeches, they played video clips of GLAADs history since 1985. Sounds boring? It was not. I almost cried and I never cry.

Maro Hagopian, Photographer of Choice C*nts, Celebrities & Characters, Threw a Party

Once upon a time I was a lonely baby lez, bored as hell on a not-so-fun campus, wondering where all the New York lesbians were. I think I googled “where are the New York lesbians,” or something like it and Maro Hagopian’s pictures from Choice Cunts popped up on The Village Voice website and subsequent listings‘ of Choice Cunts parties on GO. Five hours may or may not have been spent gaping at the snapshots of cute shirtless girls and their excellent haircuts and well-placed electrical tape making out in front of the neon Santos Party House walls. One day, I promised myself, I would go where all the New York lesbians were. And maybe she would take my picture and then I would be an Official New York Lesbian. And not long after making this promise, I followed through: look at that happy face!

Maro is what one might call an icon or an institution or a force on the scene. She’s a big deal, you guys. It only made sense to go pay our respects on a night when Maro was unveiling her fancy new website, Maro Hagopian dot com, which showcases her work spanning the gamut from editorial to celebrity to her trademark hipstersexy playfully-raunchy nightlife photography.

Maro grew up in Nevada and has been taking pictures since she was twelve. “It was 1984. There weren’t many people with cameras,” she told me, in between accepting bear hugs from every person who walked through the door. “My cousin came to visit. She had an SLR camera. I was blown away by it. I used to run around by myself and take photos of, like, rocks and desert, and that was the beginning of my photography.”

Her fashion photography, party pictures and celebrity portraits were projected on a white wall in the front of the candlelit room at Union Square Lounge. To say that these photographs are stunning might scratch the surface, barely. While the place filled up, Amber Valentine spun Cassie behind the glassy DJ booth. Other movers and shakers on the scene were in attendance, including Susan Herr, founder of DapperQ.com, KS Stevens, playwright of Butch Mamas, as well as comedian and entertainer, Murray Hill.

Of the event, Maro explains: “I had three websites for myself that I’d just throw photos up on to look at, and I finally decided to make one nice slick website and just do a party around it.” But this didn’t feel like just a party or an art show; it felt like a devastatingly stylish family reunion. Everyone knew each other and they happily stood around sipping eleven-dollar cocktails, watching their own faces click through on the wall.

“It took so long to get to this place and to be comfortable enough to show my work.
My work is an interaction between the subject and the photographer.
I want to celebrate that.”

Something about the queer community in New York and Maro’s documentation of it was shining at this party; it was more than just a bunch of cool people in a bar, because everyone was friends. And it was more than just a promotional gallery opening, because everyone cared so much about the art. It wasn’t just pictures from a “scene,” it was living-art evidence of a happy, alive, creative, excited community.

To see photos of the night’s festivities, check out , Joelle Sedlmeyer’s Flickr album, in which everyone looks just as fun and gorgeous as they did in real life.

PYT Girls Amp Up Los Angeles Lesbian Nightlife, One Costume at a Time

After evaluating the LA Lesbian Nightlife situation for a hot second, the women of PYT [People You Trust] decided it was time for something new: a girl party that would reflect their many interests, such as crazysexycool people, costumes of the day, fancy cocktails, danceable music and a good excuse to wear a flapper dress or feather earring every once in a while. It was time for L.A. Lesbian Nightlife to grow up and these scene veterans know exactly what they’re doing, from the bottle service to the carefully-chosen special guests.

Some of these faces might ring a bell or several, like The Real L Word‘s Romi, Gimme Sugar’s Charlene (Gimme Sugar) or L.A’s super-popular well-stickered DJ Saratonin (who DJ’ed Autostraddle’s own Rodeo Disco 2 pride party). Uh-huh, per ushe, reality TV didn’t tell the whole story of how precisely kickass these girls are in real life.

PYT Happens:

Friday nights at H.Wood (N. Orange St at Hollywood Blvd) are for theme parties! Each week, PYT decides on a theme and the ladies roll up dressed to impress. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from working at Autostraddle, it’s that everyone loves a Costume of the Day. Initially making their way through the decades (1922, 1962, 1982), recent Friday night PYT themes have included the Eyes Wide Shut Masquerade, Studio 54, and Mad Hatter. Other times they bring in a special host for the evening, like our very own Julie Goldman & Brandy Howard!

Wednesday nights at Haute (N. Robertson at Santa Monica Blvd.) are “SEXT YOUR X,” where the girls showcase an up and coming band at 8pm, before the night gets into full swing (like Real L Word theme songers Love Darling) which is ideal for those of us who can’t stay out past midnight on a school night.

What makes PYT different?

Romi: Most of us are either in our late twenties or early thirties and we didn’t have a place to go. We wanted to throw a party for people looking for a good time without the naked girls and thumping club music. We felt the lesbian scene in LA needed something new, so we started off by moving out of West Hollywood, away from the strip where all the bars are. We wanted people to get excited about dressing for a theme, although everyone is welcome, even if they don’t dress up! But it’s really fun when people connect to the theme and have fun with it.”

Holiday events are also in the PYT calendar. They’ve already thrown a big Pride party fundraiser for the Harvey Milk Foundation and coincided their theme nights with the Fourth of July and Labor Day. Obviously everyone’s looking forward to Halloween.

Will PYT move out of LA?

Romi: Yes! In fact, PYT will be coming to Boston in October and we hope to come to New York City very soon. We’re still new and expanding within LA, but we hope to do parties all over the country next year.

What do each of the PYT girls bring to the table?

Romi: There are a lot of us, which isn’t common for a promotion company nowadays, but we each bring something different to the group.

+ Charlene had a following from Gimme Sugar and from her Truck Stop days, so she acts as our host, gets on the mic and runs the party. She also does all of our verbiage, writing all of the copy on our posters and our catchphrases.

+ DJ Saratonin is our resident DJ and in charge of bringing in guest DJs for all of our events.

+ Dawnita is a full-time event promoter and was the one who brought the idea for PYT to our attention last year. Dawnita and Sara are kind of the “mamas” of the company and take care of all our financial responsibilities, like booking the venues and handling the business side of things.

+ Raynee is our graphic designer and in charge of the visual media.

+ Wendy and I and came into this without any promotions background, unlike the rest of the girls who had experience throwing girl parties. Wendy has worked for Olivia Cruises, so she had experience with marketing and PR. She reaches out to potential sponsors for our events.

+ My job is to host the parties and interact with all the girls, hand out shots. I get on the bar at 11:30 hand out free shots. I also dress to the theme and walk around handing out whatever swag (candy, etc) from the company sponsoring us for the night. I’m making sure you’re getting whatever free stuff we’re handing out that night, engaging with the crowd and taking pictures of everyone.

Six women running a girl party business. That’s a lot of feelings in the mix.

Romi: It’s like a relationship! Six ideas, six opinions for one thing. We love each other and we’re so proud of what we’ve accomplished so far. I wouldn’t want to do this with anyone else. We all have other careers and lives going on, but we come together for this and we don’t want to let our friends and the community down. We want to be proud of what we do.

Email writetopyt@gmail.com for theme ideas. PYT aims to give the people what they want!

Visit & friend PYT on Facebook

Jess’s Team Pick: Rock the Jewish New Year With Your Fellow NYC Gays

As you know, this weekend marks Rosh Hashanah, the start of the Jewish New Year. If you’re looking to party like it’s 5771 with your fellow homos, you may want to check out the High Homodays party on Saturday, September 11 at 9pm.

Come out and and celebrate the first-ever gay Jewish High Holiday party with the hippest and hottest gay Jews in NYC!

Pay. Repent. Party.

Shana Tova, ya’ll!

DJ Saratonin Spins: The Autostraddle Interview

DJ Saratonin is a resident DJ for “Club Skirts” Dinah Shore weekend and was previously at the very famous girl-party in West Hollywood “Truck Stop.” Her newest venture is an all-female production company, PYT Productions, whose unique weekly theme parties in Hollywood are highly sought-after for LA’s A-list lesbians.

We check out any and all Saratonin gigs when we make our one or two trips a year to Los Angeles and are happy to have her on the east coast to make you dance at the Rodeo Disco this weekend.

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Crystal: Tell us a little about how you got your start as a DJ.

Saratonin: Well my first gig was actually at a club I began throwing back in 2001 called Brownies For My Bitches, which officially ended this past year. I am very fortunate that it had such a long run. It was at Harvey’s bar in the heart of the Castro in San Francisco. I started throwing this party specifically so I could DJ. Starting out at such a young age, I was, in my opinion, absolutely horrible. However, instead of feeling out the waters beforehand, I threw caution to the wind and dove in head first. I had an amazing group of friends that came out to support me then and continue to support me and my love of DJing, as well as my new promotional endeavors. Thanks to all the support I’ve received, I’ve been able to grow as an artist and move past only playing my own parties.

Crystal: Tell us a little about your style?

Saratonin: I don’t think DJs choose their style. I believe it is something inherent. Like, if you are right-handed or left-handed. You play what you love and try to play it in a way that others understand and enjoy. I think most DJs have eclectic taste and they show you that in the story that they tell through the set they are playing. Some art forms are limited to certain countries or social groups but the music, lifestyle and art of a DJ is truly limitless.

I love almost all music and honestly what I prefer to play changes so often, it really depends on my favorite new tracks. For example, lets say I find some great new electro remixes that spur my creativity, they will in turn entice me to want to go out and play those tracks for people so they can experience them like I do. Same goes for all genres. It’s whatever gets me up and dancing in the morning.

Crystal: You’ve become a well-known artist in the community, playing a lot of popular parties and of course those residencies at Truck Stop and Club Skirts. As far as your DJ career is concerned, are you living the dream?

Saratonin: I have so much more to accomplish! I have left Truck Stop to create my own production company — People You Trust Productions, or PYT for short. We have the hottest Friday night party in Los Angeles. I am living my dream each and every day. I am a successful DJ, and now I own my own production company.

PYT started late one Friday evening after watching The Hangover. A group of old friends who were all involved in the community in one way or another were sitting around deciding what the night had in store for them. After running down the list of options, they were left feeling lackluster about where they might end up. Instead of heading to the clubs they took that evening to develop the idea People You Trust.

People You Trust is a group of 6 women: Saratonin, international DJ; Romi, makeup artist to the stars; Dawnita, CEO of Girl Charged Productions; Charlene, star of Gimme Sugar & National MC; Wendy, major marketer for lesbian travel companies; Raynee, CEO of Luxx LA Promotions; and managing company.

Currently PYT holds a newly themed event every Friday night at Hwood, currently a hot 100 club on the Conde Naste list. Also, every Sunday night PYT screens the Real L Word at Capitol City. This is where you will find the full cast and crew along with all the LA locals.

Crystal: Did you feel the need to start PYT because of a particular gap in the current scene?

Saratonin: Our scene seemed to be run by the same two people for all events. The monopoly they held created a lack of heart and lack of community. People You Trust was started to give that back to the party scene. In the four months since our inception, we have thrown multiple fundraisers and have been incredibly involved in our community. We intend to always give back!

Crystal: What are some of the tracks you’re spinning right now?

Saratonin:
Let’s Make Nasty (Afrojack Remix) by Larry Tee
Crookers by Royal T ft. Roisin Murphy
XXX0 by M.I.A.
Bass Down Low by The Cataracs
ADD SUV ft. Pharrel Williams (Armand Van Helden Club Remix) by Pharrel & Uffie

Crystal: Do you walk into the DJ booth with a playlist in mind, or do you make it up as you go and play to the crowd’s vibe?

Saratonin: I think most DJs including myself come to a gig prepared with some sort of set. I also think the best DJs are able to switch that set up if the crowd isn’t into the vibe they are setting. I try to come to the decks as prepared as possible but I also know that I can change it up to get the crowd jumping!

Crystal: Do you have a secret weapon? One particular track that’s guaranteed to get an unenergetic dancefloor moving again?

Saratonin: I call the song “Be Faithful,” it’s the cheater’s song. Only because if you know you are losing energy or losing the crowd, you throw that song on and they are right back in it! I’ve heard it used by many DJs to do that exact thing. It never fails!

 

Crystal: What’s your favorite city to DJ in?

Saratonin: Honestly, I love New York! In New York you can play the smallest of spots, little hidden gems, huge club venues, all kinds of places. You play gigs with the most inspiring artists like you are playing in your bedroom. It’s just a different vibe than I have ever experienced, it’s true and honest and about the music! New York is always inspiring. New York always renews my love for DJing.

Crystal: You’ve opened for some impressive artists. What one has been the most memorable?

Saratonin: Opening for Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Peaches, Salt N Pepa, Ke$ha and all the amazing talent I have had the fortune of working with over the years has been a true blessing. Lady Gaga & Salt n Pepa were both absolutely insane to watch from a behind the scenes stand point. To watch the crowd of thousands of women with their hands in the air singing along to every word gave me goosebumps. That is why I am in this industry, for those few moments of pure adrenaline that the crowd gives you.

The next exciting gig I have coming up is on June 26 in San Francisco. I am going to be playing with Larry Tee, the creator of Electroclash! The scene he created out of Williamsburg was the reason I started DJing. It really opened my eyes to dance music and started me down the path I am on today. I wanted to be that club kid from New York, and next week I am playing with the creator of the club kids!

Crystal: Some people may be led to believe that being a DJ is a glamorous lifestyle. Would you agree?

Saratonin: I think it can be. I think more importantly its living a dream! I am able to support myself and my lifestyle by doing the one thing I love the most, playing music.

Crystal: You versus Samantha Ronson — who’d win?
Saratonin: Is the crowd blind folded? I can tell you when I played with her a few months ago, the crowd thought I was her at first and just started screaming. I think she has an unfair advantage.

What sets me apart from her is the way I personally translate music — how I influence dance floors. The music I select crosses so many boundaries throughout the evening, you never know where I’m headed next. Loving so many different types of music, I don’t like to stay in one genre, mixing in tracks I think will keep the crowd enthralled no matter what you may classify its type as.

I also think studying is a huge part of my growth and pushes me to be distinct in my style. Studying births of different music styles and studying other DJs while I’m out at the club. All of this helps to create my own distinct sound.

Crystal: DJs are so hot. When you play an LGBT, event does your girlfriend have to stand guard at the DJ booth?

Saratonin: I honestly don’t notice. I am pretty involved in playing music and trying to focus on the crowd as a whole. I think my girlfriend notices more of the attention I’m receiving than I do.

Crystal: Tell us about what you’d like to accomplish next?

Saratonin: Next on the list is making PYT a huge name in the lesbian community! Not only as the hottest Friday night party in LA but for bigger and better reasons. I really want to give the girls of Los Angeles a better party experience. I want lesbians to be able to party in the most exclusive night clubs and to the hottest musicians and DJs around. I love the message, what we stand for and the girls involved. We are here to change the LA party scene!

Crystal: Lastly, tell us where people can find out where your next show or PYT party is.

Saratonin: You can find out where I’m playing next by following me on facebook or visiting my website. Also follow PYT on facebook or visit the website to find out where the next party is.

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Don’t miss Saratonin when she DJ’s the headlining set at our RODEO DISCO Pride Party this Sunday.
Get your tickets now in advance (they’re much cheaper) and we’ll see you there!

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Autostraddle’s Rodeo Disco 2: Back in the Straddle

We’re happy to announce that we’re throwing our Second Annual Rodeo Disco Pride Party in New York City! Did you come last year? We had one last year, DJ Lady Starlight (of Lady Gaga‘s Starlight Revue) DJ’ed along with DJ Carlytron and DJ Boom Boom and this year it’ll be same time, same place, but better! Like 50 times better.

Also, your ticket purchase benefits the likelihood of our future. Ikr? Who thought we’d still be saying this a year later. The economy has not been kind to start-up media companies my friends. DAMN THE MAN CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS.

Ok cool, got it? Let’s discuss:

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Hosted by MTV’s Rachel Robinson

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Rachel Robinson first blew your little queer mind on Road Rules: Campus Crawl (which aired in the summer of 2002) and then continued to do so many subsequent Real World/Road Rules challenges thereafter, including “Battle of the Sexes,” “The Gauntlet,” “Battle of the Sexes 2,” “The Inferno II,” and “The Island”. Just talking about it makes us super nostalgic for the MTV reality challenges/shows of the early 00s. Rachel was among a batch of young, sexy, fierce, and out lesbians first brought to us by MTV’s original shows. These days Rachel has her own fitness company in Miami and is joining us as emcee for this years Rodeo Disco. We’re very excited to have her!

Also you can follow Rachel on twitter.

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DJ Saratonin:

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Saratonin is a resident DJ for “Club Skirts” Dinah Shore weekend and the very famous girl-party in West Hollywood “Truck Stop”. Her newest venture is a an all-female production company, PYT Productions, whose unique weekly theme parties in Hollywood are highly sought-after for LA’s A-list lesbians. We check out any and all Saratonin gigs when we make our one or two trips a year to Los Angeles and we’re happy to have her on the east coast to make you dance at the Rodeo Disco (and you will. Promise.)

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The Spangles:

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The Spangles is an 80s tribute dance company, we saw them at a Candy Slice Show and have been obsessed ever since. We love the 80s and we think you’ll love them too. Catch ’em on this season of America’s Got Talent and also at our Rodeo Disco.

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CandySlice Comedy:

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Hey remember when we had a fun and awesome photoshoot/interview with the funny girls of CandySlice Comedy? And then they modeled for us and were in this video and had all these videos go viral and do shows every month and YEAH catch them at the Rodeo Disco!

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Autostraddle.com… have you heard of it?

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So there’s this website. It’s called Autostraddle.com. I don’t know, people seem to like it and stuff. I hear it’s like a full-time job for approximately five different people, and a part-time job for about 30 more people, and we can hardly pay our bills and buy real food. This recession happened, bad timing, and bla bla bla, and yadda yadda anyhow listen, this isn’t an infomercial starring Sally Struthers or anything but seriously: if you come to this party, you are monetarily supporting us for this summer and we are forever grateful to you and will keep working diligently to keep bringing you executive lesbian realness.

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Anyone But Me

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Anyone But Me is the award-winning funny, edgy, smart, witty, webseries totally taking the internet and lesbian media by storm. Their second season takes it to a whole new level.

We love this show and it’s cast and creators so we invited them to come hang out at the Rodeo Disco (come say hi to the cast members!) and you can get your hands on ABM goods like the DVD from Season One and prepare to touch Rachael’s hair by watching the show online.

You can meet the two leading (and awesome) ladies Rachel and Nicole when we did a photoshoot and interview with them last August and check out Nicole Pacent, Autostraddle’s Miss June.

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GO Magazine:

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Obvs.

GO! Magazine is the first thing you read when you’re going gay in the city — they have the most reliable nightlife listings, and you can pick one up on the streetcorner without having to interact with a bookstore clerk who’s gonna tell your Mom that you’re gay. It rewards, enhances and enables NYC lesbian nightlife and so we are kinda thrilled that they’re working with us. And you should too.

Oh also, GO! is redesigning their website and it’s going to be amazing so keep your eyeballs peeled! (Whatever that actually means.)

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Guess what? T-SHIRTS.

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Hey remember when Alex hand-made these “AUTO / STRADDLE THIS” t-shirts for the team to wear when we went to Dinah Shore and everyone loved them so much that Taylor had two stolen right off her back? Well we decided to produce them FOR REALS to sell here on Autostraddle.

UPDATE: Emphasize-ation on “selling here on Autostraddle” — we made these shirts to sell via the internet to our readers around the world. It just happens that the first day they will actually be available for purchase will be at the party on the 27th. After that (if we don’t sell out!) you will be able to get them here. We would never deny you the opportunity to spend your money on us!

If you’re going to the party, you’ll be able to get them right then and there cause that’s when these babies are making their debut! We’re very excited about that and just thought we should let you know.

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Let’s reminisce about last year:
Rodeo Disco ’09

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Facebook Event Page for Rodeo Disco 2

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Wanna promote the Rodeo Disco or just wanna put this on your page/blog/tumblr cause it’s pretty?
Here’s the official flier with all the info:
Feel free to use this wherever and however you want. And thank you!

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Alex’s Team Pick: Hey Brooklyn! What are you doing this Saturday Night?

Hey Brooklyn! And you too New York/Long Island, whoevs you are:

The very awesome Dykes on Bike-cycles are throwing a Pride Kick-Off/Benefit Dance Party this Saturday June 5th, at Bar 4 in Brooklyn.

There will be a performance by Inner Princess and burlesque dancers, obviously. And a brand new bike will be raffled off.

What else? Wait for it… free beer from 10 to 11. I’m there.

$5 gets you in, and it gets you a raffle ticket for all the cool stuff they’re raffling off throughout the night. (Additional raffle tickets are only $1.)

A portion of the money we raise will be donated to the Brooklyn Community Pride Center.

All the information is on their flier (which you can see/save here).

See you there!

Tinkerbell’s Team Pick: Girls in Wonderland

Hello Autostraddle. It is me, Tinkerbell. I am a dog who participates in Autostraddle Roundtables, writes articles and also I used to be a purse. I am famous, pretty, I have 45 friends on myspace and a boifriend named Littlefoot who is a dinosaur.

As you may or may not know, I was born in Miami Florida in 2008. Since then I have lived many years, and this year is no exception. Although Florida ruined the 2004 election, many other good things happen there, like my birth and Pandora Events Presents the Hottest Women’s Weekend of the Year GIRLS IN WONDERLAND.

If you like lesbian girls, Mickey Mouse, beer, party time, ho-downs, hos, and arbitrarily capitalized phrases like Live Women’s Music and More Pool Parties, you should be at Girls in Wonderland in Orlando, Florida from June 3rd-June 6th. Basically it is when Lesbians take over Disneyworld, which includes all the countries of Epcot Center, the haunted mansion, and girls in bikinis.  If you don’t already live there, you can get there by car/train/scooter, here buy tickets.

Of all those reasons to ride Space Mountain and/or your girlfriend this weekend in Orlando Florida, none is as important as this reason: Dani Campbell and Rachel Robinson wuth their rock-hard abs, charming smiles, and how they are ready to stop being polite and start acting real in the heart of Downtown Disney.

Here, it’s the schedule. Also, Julie Goldman & Brandy Howard aren’t going to be there, even though it says that they are. You can only see them here.

If I were a lesbian lady, I would at least try to be there on Saturday for the “Wild Wild South” Party with 2,500 women including “your outlaws Baby Blue, Michelle, Spikey, Keri and Vita” with Live Performances by “Shutup and Dance, Baby Blue, and Spikey Dikey” hosted by Suzanne Westenhoefer, Dani Campbell, and Rachel Robinson.

Also I would recommend the Hall of Presidents, it is very education. Also the imagination ride with my starcrush Figment.