The Women in My Head

They say “Books are never completed, they’re just abandoned.”

As an author, I’ve found this to be true.  Even though I might think a book is finished once I get to the happily ever after and type “The End,” the characters usually refuse to give up the real estate they’ve occupied in my head.  As a result, their stories continue silently in my mind, as I fold laundry or brush my teeth or space out during a meeting. 

But these are definitely not the stories that will go into future books because they have very little conflict, drama or tension.  Instead, my “tomorrowland” is a pretty happy place to be.  All the time!

So if you’ve read my three books (or even if you haven’t) you might be amused to hear what I’ve got going on with these folks.

Robin and Tracy from Exception to the Rule:

Together now over 20 years (you’ll recall they finally became a couple in 1994), Tracy is happily ensconced in her profession as a psychologist in private practice with an adjunct appointment at Columbia.  She’s still taking dance classes for fun, still has an intense interest in fashion and has taken charge of the small family foundation she and Robin have created now that they have amassed some wealth from Robin’s writing.  Robin is a famous writer with many books to her credit.  She also penned the screenplay for her first novel, Home Town, which was nominated for an Academy Award.  So it was off to the Oscars for our two lucky heroines.  But through it all, Robin is still the same wise-cracking, down to earth kid she was in college, though far less cynical.  And she still spends a lot of time working to help homeless LGBT youth.  Oh, and did I mention, they have a son; a little blonde haired boy named Jonathan Patterson-Greene.

Angie and Jan from Love Is Enough:

The epilogue of this book actually took place in 2016 on election night when Angie will be elected to the US Senate.  Like Robin and Tracy, Angie and Jan also have a child; a little girl named Josie.  And Angie is pregnant again.  Next year she’ll give birth to a son, Peter Antonelli Clifford.

Elizabeth and Ruth from Getting Back:

After their 30-year estrangement, they are finally back together, married, and spending a lot of time with their friends from Fowler College as well as with their (now combined) families.  With the recent death of Justice Scalia, Ruth’s name has surfaced on the short list for the US Supreme Court.  Many LGBT organizations and media are urging President Obama to appoint her, but Ruth is trying to turn the volume down a bit because she doesn’t think she’s really being seriously considered and, after waiting so long to begin her life with Elizabeth, she’s not really sure she wants to keep working into her eighties.

As for Margaret Halperin, Elizabeth’s best friend, who runs a successful public relations firm in Hollywood, well, her story is not yet ready for public display.  Instead, one day she will be at the center of her own book.  Stay tuned…   

Jove Belle is Here…with Cake!

Hey folks, the fabulous Jove Belle, lesfic author and regular at the Women & Words blog, has been on an ambitious blog tour that has spanned the globe (and boy are her arms tired…ba-da-bum).  Today, I have the pleasure of hosting her here so she can share a bit about her new book, Cake, published by Ylva.  And who doesn’t love Cake?

Take it away, Jove…

Hi everyone! Even though this blog post is showing up on Cindy Rizzo’s site, I’m actually Jove Belle. Because Cindy is so kickass, she loaned me her blog for the day. Now, I know that she normally says important words about important things, but I’m here to talk about fun stuff, like lesbian fiction and Cake.

Cake is not only a delicious dessert, it’s also the name of my new release. Like the dessert, Cake is a sweet treat, except when you read it, it won’t go straight to your hips. Cake is a novella length erotic romance. Basically, that means the two main characters get to have lots of sex to go with the romantic plot.

Check out the blurb below, then hop over to Ylva Publishing to pick up a copy of your own.

One last thing, because it’s a food themed book, I’m donating ten percent of the royalties to the United Nations World Food Programme. They feel the poorest people on the planet, and I really appreciate the work they do. You should check them out. Maybe make a donation if you can.

Cake:

Kelly and Elana’s relationship is a recipe for disaster. First, they meet at a wedding, and that never works. Second, Kelly’s older brother is marrying Elana’s ex-lover. And third, Elana is still painfully, undeniably in love with said ex.

When it comes to other people’s lives, Elana Verdad is an expert. As a licensed psychologist and life coach, she helps people overcome obstacles. Her own life, on the other hand, is a disaster. Her lover left her for a man, so she drove over his mailbox accidentally on purpose. Now, not only did the judge take away her driver’s license, he also assigned her to community service at the local women’s prison. In what may be her worst idea ever, Elana decides to crash their wedding.

Kelly Miller may not understand her brother’s rush to marry his girlfriend, but when he asks her to bake his wedding cake, it’s not as if she can refuse. She’s in the catering business after all. At the wedding, she meets a beautiful, complicated, and seriously damaged woman. Although Kelly knows it’s crazy, she’s drawn to her nonetheless.

Despite the reasons they shouldn’t be together, there’s still an undeniable something between them. All they need is a chance to enjoy their slice of the cake.

Jove Belle has been a part of the lesbian fiction publishing community for almost a decade.

In addition to being an author and editor, Jove is a founding member and co-admin of the popular lesbian fiction blog Women and Words. She also works as a consultant with Book Enthusiast Promotions, an online marketing company for fiction authors, and as Operations Director US for Ylva Publishing.

Social Media Links

http://www.jovebelle.com

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AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE

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YLVA PUBLISHING AUTHOR PAGE

Newfest Brings It for the Girls: Films You’ll Want to See

This past weekend, beginning on Friday night, I had the pleasure of seeing seven feature films and two programs of shorts at the 2015 Newfest LGBT Film Festival in New York. What kept me at the Bow Tie Theater on West 23^rd Street for so many hours? The amazing selection of films focused on the stories of lesbians and queer women. This year, Newfest did a terrific job of telling our stories.

Here are some of the best ones I saw, so be on the lookout for them in a theater near you!

A Quick Word About Huge Shorts

I love shorts—those 15 or 20-minute films that pack so much storytelling into so little time. Some filmmakers make shorts because they are hoping to raise enough money to create a full-length feature. I first saw Dee Rees’ amazing film, Pariah, as a short and it was the best thing I’d seen at the Festival that year. Other filmmakers just prefer doing a lot with a little bit of time.

This year, I saw two programs of shorts—one focused on queer youth and the other focused on hard-hitting themes that get you thinking.

Terran, the main character in House, Not Home

Among the youth shorts, one stand-out was House, Not Home, the story of an African-American trans teen’s experience in high school. Originally written by a 16-year old gender fluid teen in Cleveland, the script was picked up by Scenarios USA, an organization that takes stories written by youth and turns them into films. This one was powerful and outstanding.

On the adult side, I’d highly recommend Ma/ddy, the story of a butch widow who decides to become pregnant with the embryo created from her dead wife’s eggs. Sensitive and humorous at times, the film plays with our notions of gender fluidity and grief.

Okay, now for those longer, narrative films.

Last Summer in Venezuela

If you’re a lesbian over 45 years old, you might remember a wonderful play Last Summer at Bluefish Cove by Jane Chambers. It’s the story of a group of lesbian friends who spend their summer holiday together at a beach each year. The excellent film I saw, Liz in September, is an adaptation of the play, but set in Venezuela and in Spanish with subtitles. In it, Liz, an attractive player who has bedded many women, has refused further treatment for a recurrence of cancer, unbeknownst to all but one of her friends. She meets and falls in love with Eva, a straight married woman whose car breaks down on the way to meet her husband. The ensemble cast is wonderful, the story compelling, and the end had me sobbing as I thought of a good friend who is waging the same battle. Sad and redemptive—it’s a must see.

Generations and Class Clash in South Africa

In While You Weren’t Looking, a middle-aged lesbian couple (one white, the other mixed race) live in great comfort with their 18 year old adopted daughter, who is Black. When the daughter, Asanda, is out dancing with her white boyfriend, she meets Shadoe, a Black “tommy boi” from the nearby township. The film raises intense questions about class, gentrification, race and sexuality within this family and among those connected to it. It’s a more serious and cross-issue look at lesbian families than you’ll get watching The Fosters or The Kids Are All Right.

The One Doc I Saw Was a Winner

The Same Difference is the first film by Nneka Onuorah. It’s a documentary about the self-imposed “rules” that often constrain and divide African American lesbian communities in the US. Rules like: You must be Stud or Femme. Studs cannot be with other studs. Bisexuals are confused. Studs cannot get pregnant. Onuorah dissects each of these rules by following the stories of her amazing subjects: a stud who became pregnant when her femme wife couldn’t conceive; a bisexual femme who “comes out” about her boyfriend to her circle of friends; a stud who wears a long-haired weave; and a stud couple who push back against the notion that they should not be together. The film is meant to educate and change hearts and minds. Given the fact that it sold out four showings at Newfest, I think it’s on the right track.

Ready for Something a Bit Lighter?

Taking a break from the heavier subjects, I got a ticket for a rom-com, Portrait of a Serial Monogamist. A Canadian film, shot in Toronto, it’s the story of Elsie, who breaks up her five-year relationship in the first scene and then makes a bet with her best friend that she can’t stay single for the next five months. It’s a funny yet insightful film that also functions as a great tour of Toronto neighborhoods. A bonus was the scene of the weekly Friday night dinner of Elsie’s Jewish family, somewhat reminiscent of the TV show Transparent.

And Then There Was the More Mainstream Fare

The Girl King, a retelling of the story of Queen Christina of Sweden, who ruled in the mid-1600s, is a wonderful opportunity to learn about the brilliant, forward-thinking, cross-dressing, woman-loving monarch in all her splendor. The film is mesmerizing and will have you on the edge of your seat.

And finally, there’s the headline film of the Festival, Carol, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. Based on the book, The Price of Salt—the first lesbian pulp with a happy ending—the book was written by Patricia Highsmith under the pseudonym Clare Morgan. I won’t bother with a review and will instead direct you to Autostraddle, where Heather Hogan, a fabulous writer, has done the film justice.

So that’s a wrap for this year. At least for me. Newfest 2015 continues tonight and tomorrow night at the LGBT Center in NYC.

I can’t wait to see what they do for us next year!

Productive Much? Let’s Share What’s Working – Part IV: The Virtual Notebook

This is the fourth and final post in a 4-part series on the tech tools I’m using to help me be more productive.

Most productivity blogs will compare two applications that store and organize your content, allowing you to add notes and share information easily.  Both use the metaphor of a “virtual notebook.”  These are Evernote and One Note.  Both are accessible as desktop programs (Mac and PC), web-based apps and mobile apps.  I used to use one and now I use the other. 

Evernote is the one I used to use.  It’s great at grabbing and organizing content of any kind.  It also lets you write notes.  It has great tagging and search capabilities.  But for me it doesn’t lend itself as well to project management.  One Note does it better.

One Note is a Microsoft Office product.  For a long time it sat on my work computer until one day I decided to investigate it.  Now I use it for a ton of things–taking notes at meetings and events, taking notes on what I’m reading, and organizing projects.  I even drafted these productivity blog posts in One Note.

What I like most about One Note is the way it’s set up.  Like Evernote, there’s a notebook paradigm, but One Note really takes this idea to heart.  Like the looseleaf notebooks you’d buy for school, each One Note notebook has tabbed sections and pages.  You can even create sub-pages. 

Here’s a picture of one of my notebooks:

This is my notebook on everything book-related.  The tabs at the top are sections of the notebook.  The first section consists of notes I took at the Golden Crown Literary Conference last year.  Each page of the section (listed on the right) includes notes from a session I attended.  The photo shows my notes from a session on writing historical fiction.

If I want to share any notes (i.e., a page) with a friend or colleague, I can easily do that via email.

In addition to organizing your note taking, One Note lets you insert pictures, photos and screenshots.  You can also insert entire files of any type and store them on a page of related content. You can also create a table in One Note.

Content can also be tagged within each page.  If you look at the above photo on the top right, you’ll see a partial list of the tags, including “To Do,” “Remember for Later,” “Important,” and “Question.” 

I’m using One Note to manage a big project at work where I need to organize a lot of information and have it in one place.

I will say that one limitation of One Note is that because it’s a Microsoft product the Mac version of the desktop app is not as robust as the PC version, but overall it’s a great application for managing a lot of information and keeping it accessible.

The Most Important Tool

For any of the tools I’ve discussed to work well, you have to use The Most Important Tool–your brain.  There’s a lot you can tag to do or read later, but then later catches up with you.  So using Pocket to read what you’ve saved, keeping up with your Feedly subscriptions so they don’t overwhelm you (I go through my Feedly feed every morning), and getting back to those emails you’ve labeled *To Do is what really make these systems work.

I hope these posts have been helpful.  Maybe one thing resonated with you and will help you?  

Please, please, please let me know.  And if you have other/better ideas, let me (and everyone) know as well.

Productive Much? Let’s Share What’s Working – Part III: Swimming in the Internet Sea

This is the third in a 4-part series on the tech tools I’m using to help me be more productive.  If you read yesterday’s post on taming email, I’ve added an important clarification about the use of labels in Gmail that you may want to check out.

The internet is amazing because it contains so much accessible information. 

The internet is maddening because it contains so much accessible information.

I have a few tools I use as a kind of life raft to guide me through the Sea of Info.

• Feedly puts it all in one place.  Feedly is an aggregator of content from any site on the web.  You “subscribe” to blogs or sites and every new item (or post) appears in your feed as a separate story.  I subscribe to about 100 sites, though many do not have daily content.  I group my subscriptions as LGBT, News + Info, Philanthropy, and Writing.  A couple of great things about Feedly:
  • You can zip through each story by scanning the headline and then hitting the J key to go to the next story.  Moving too fast?  Hit the K key to go back.  Feedly lets you click on the headline to get to the website but doesn’t disappear.  It just opens a new tab in the browser.  It also has a Preview function that lets you see the content from within Feedly. 
  • You can share content via email, twitter, or Facebook.  And you can save it to either Evernote or Pocket.

The screen shot below shows you the left column of my Feedly account.  I have 150 unread stories, and you can see how they are arranged into categories and individual sites.

• Newsletters inform me of things I might like to read:  I subscribe to a bunch of these that the NY Times produces (Personal Tech, Boomers, Movie Reviews, What We’re Reading) and also receive a daily digest from The New Yorker (both require a subscription).  Also, if you use Pocket (which I’ll talk about in a minute), you get a periodic email letting you know about articles you might like to read.

So, Cindy, when do you find the time to actually read that stuff?

Well that’s where Pocket comes in.  Pocket lets you store the stuff you want to save for later and tag it into categories.  Pocket can be accessed on your computer and any of your mobile devices.  When I’m sitting in the doctor’s office waiting for my appointment, commuting on the bus, or needing to kill time before a meeting, I can read all sorts of great stuff I’ve saved using my phone or my iPad. 

Also, Pocket is a great place to store info from the web that you’ll be using to research a book or for any work-related project.  Below is a screen shot of my Pocket home screen with the tag box open.  As you can see, the list of everything I’ve saved is there and each item has been tagged.  I use the tag “to read” for my own leisure reading.  I also have a “to watch” tag for new web series or videos that I’ve come across as well as “to listen” for podcasts.  There’s even something called “untagged items” that lets you see which items you’ve saved but haven’t yet tagged.

One great thing about reading content you’ve saved to Pocket is that Pocket cleans up the text so it’s much more readable, without the distraction of website ads and graphics.  If you want to see the original site, Pocket also lets you do that.

There’s a browser extension for Pocket that gets added to the top of Chrome.  Anytime you want to save something from the web, you just click that extension and you’ll be asked to type in your tag and hit save.  It’s that simple.  Also, Feedly has a save to Pocket button as well.

In the final post tomorrow (Part IV), I’ll let you know how I organize my notes and content to manage projects and keep information accessible in a virtual notebook.

Please, please, please let me know if these strategies seem helpful, are crazy, would never work for you or could save your life.  Also, if you have other/better ideas, let me (and everyone) know.

Productive Much? Let’s Share What’s Working – Part II: Taming the Email Beast

This is the second in a 4-part series on the tech tools I’m using to help myself be more productive.

There’s a lot out there about getting your inbox to zero. If you can successfully do that, and keep doing it, more power to you.  I frankly cannot.  But I do have a system using Gmail.  Why Gmail?  It’s ability to let me label my mail, put it into folders, and use stars and filters make it a robust system.  Here’s what I do with email.

1. Labels instead of Folders:  In Gmail, labels and folders are essentially the same thing.  Once you create labels (which are easily set up in the Settings area), you’ll see a list of your labels on the left side of your Inbox.  You just click on the label in the list and it functions like a folder, filtering out everything other than what’s labeled for that category.  So if I only want to see tax-related emails (e.g., charitable gift receipts) I just click on the label I created called “Tax Related” and there they are. 

IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION:  Hat tip to Cassidy Summer for pointing out that Labels in Gmail are not the same as Folders.  Folders enable you to move an email out of your inbox into a new location, i.e., the folder.  Alternately, labels let you tag an email that remains in your inbox as a read email, but is retrievable when you click on the label name.  In essence, labels act as filters, not folders.  Once you read and tag an email with a label, it’s location in your inbox is no longer relevant.

1. The Important Stuff to Save and Do:  I have two categories of important stuff: things I need to save for something coming up (e.g., emails with travel info like hotel reservations or airlines) and things I need to do (respond to a friend, edit a document, etc.).  All of these get starred and labeled.  The stars are all grouped in one place and each starred email has a label that either says “*Star Save” or “*Star To Do.”  For someone like me who uses a lot of labels, using the * symbol in the label name places the label at the top of list so I can click on all my To Dos and go through them.  A lot of people like using separate To Do programs and apps.  Google Tasks is an example of one.  I’ve tried many of these and some are very good.  But I find that integrating my To Do list with my email works best for me.
2. Grouping the Inbox: Emails in my inbox are collected into groups as follows: first is anything unread, then anything starred and then everything else (in Gmail that means what’s been read but not deleted).  To group your inbox, go to settings and then click Multiple Inboxes.  Google calls each group a “panel.”  My first panel is “is:unread” and my second panel is “is:starred.”  This way the top of my inbox takes me to the place where my attention needs to go—new stuff and follow ups.
3. Calendaring and Tasking Emails:  I can make an email into an event on my Google Calendar by clicking on the “More” menu once I’ve got the email open and then selecting “create event.”  You can also turn the email into a task for Google’s To Do list.  I’ve tried this and it works well, just not for me.  My method with the star and the label keeps the email visible on the screen and much more in the front of my mind.

Here’s a peek at my Gmail:

The labels are on the left (including my To Dos and To Saves near the top).  The inbox shows me unread email first and then the stuff I need to save or do.  Color-coding the labels makes them stand out really well.

In tomorrow’s post (Part III), I’ll tell you how I learned to navigate the treacherous waters of the internet’s sea of information in order to save and share boatloads of stuff.  And finally, in part 4, I’ll let you know how I organize my notes and content to manage projects and keep information accessible in a virtual notebook.

Please, please, please let me know if these strategies seem helpful, are crazy, would never work for you or could save your life.  Also, if you have other/better ideas, let me (and everyone) know.

Productive Much? Let’s Share What’s Working For Us – Part I: Access Everything Everywhere

This is the first in a series of 4 blog posts about the tech tools I’m using to help me be more productive.  

Over the years through trial and error I’ve figured out a bunch of things that work to keep me informed, efficient and productive.  Believe me, I’ve failed many times and I’m probably still failing and iterating, but there’s some tried and true things that I know I can rely on to help me accomplish what I need to do. 

So I thought why not share some tips with you, get your feedback and hear what works for you.

To begin, here’s what you need to know about me. 

• I’m tech-focused, which means I like and rely on technology tools to create systems for myself.
• I gorge on information and ideas.  I love to read and learn about topics I care about.
• I curate and share info according to what I think specific people (or all people) might like to see.
• I need to access my tools and information on all of my devices–my work computer, my home computer, my iPad and my iPhone.
• I work best when I have deadlines and structure my time because I love to goof off by playing computer games, doing crossword puzzles and watching web series.

Hardware Agnostic Access

I use two laptops, a PC at work and a Mac at home.  I also use my iPhone and an iPad.  So I need consistency across devices and the ability to access files and apps no matter what I’m using.

Chrome: My browser of choice is Google Chrome which will maintain my bookmarks, history and apps no matter where I sign in using my Google account.  Chrome also has a really good app store that gives me access to all kinds of tools and shortcuts.  I mostly only use free apps.  

One of the most useful apps I have on Chrome is the redesign of my browser home page using a series of “tiles” that I created for quick access to sites I use a lot (Gmail, Facebook, You Tube, my blog, Thesaurus).  Here’s a screenshot of one that I use at home.  It’s a Google extension called Taplika New Tab.

Dropbox: To access files across devices I use Dropbox, a cloud file storage application.  By putting my files in Dropbox I can access them anywhere—home, work, and on the go.  Dropbox apps on my iPad and iPhone give me access to documents there, in addition to the integration with the Finder on my Mac and the File Explorer on my work PC. 

For writers using Scrivener, Dropbox comes in handy as a backup for your files and as a method of portability.  Since Scrivener is a desktop program (as opposed to a cloud-based program) it lives only on one computer.  But it allows you to sync your files (each scene in a chapter is a separate file) to Dropbox. The sync’d files are in Rich Text Format (rtf) so they can be easily opened in any text editing program, including MS Word.  And if you make changes to these files, the next time you use Scrivener, any changes to the Dropbox files will be sync’d back.  Until the folks at Scrivener come up with a web-based product, Dropbox is a great way to keep writing whenever you’re on another computer.

Three other neat tricks I do with Dropbox. 

1. Automatic photo uploads from my iPhone into a folder.  It helps to find photos quickly and reduce the number of photos you keep on your phone. 
2. FileThis, an app that automatically takes new bank statements, credit cards bills and Amazon orders and files them into Dropbox (a great way to go paperless!).
3. Book Drop, an app that creates a folder in Dropbox so that when you buy an e-book from a non-Amazon site and download the file, just placing it in the Book Drop folder automatically sends it to your Kindle.  It’s magic.

In tomorrow’s post (Part II), I’ll tell you how I’ve tamed the email beast without “getting to inbox zero.”  And in the following days I’ll be letting you know first how I manage to swim in the sea of internet content without drowning and finally how I organize my notes and content to manage projects and keep information accessible in a virtual notebook.

Please, please, please let me know if these strategies seem helpful, are crazy, would never work for you or could save your life.  Also, if you have other/better ideas, let me (and everyone) know.

The Village People: How A Group of Lesbian Moms Raised A Bunch of Great Kids

How do you know you’ve done a good thing as a parent?  Well, one indicator is when your adult son, who just became a father himself, tells you that he wants to create a group of parents with kids his daughter’s age.

“You know, like you all did, Mom.”

These days, he and his wife have the convenience of the Meet Up site to aid them in their search.  In 1985 in Boston, we had Lesbians Choosing Children, a homegrown group that met at the Women’s Center.  It was from that group that I found the lesbian moms who would become my closest friends, really my chosen family, as we all proceeded to raise our children—separately and together—over the next 30 years.

We’d heard this could be done.  Lesbians in San Francisco had started to have children a few years before.  Each of us knew at least one family where the kids weren’t the product of someone’s past heterosexual relationship.  We sought out these parents so we could learn which doctors, which midwives, which clinics, or which adoption agencies would accept us.

If you’re sensing a bit of an underground tone to all this, you’re not off base.  In 1985, two young children were summarily removed from a foster home in Boston because the parents, who’d been pre-approved, were gay men.  The story was all over the papers and hardly any politicians or state government officials sided with us.  So, yes, back in 1985, there was still some degree of risk and quite a lot of stigma attached to the whole notion of lesbians having and raising children.

But we did it anyway because we wanted kids and we all believed we had a lot to offer.  And we made the conscious decision, year after year, until these kids were nearly in college, not to do it alone.

First, there was the babysitting co-op.  Each month a couple got a Saturday night to themselves because their child was sleeping over another family’s house.  We all had a chart up on our refrigerators; which nights you took a child and which nights you brought yours to someone else.

Then, there were rituals.  Christmas Day dinners.  Marching together at Pride with a barbecue at someone’s house right after.

And then there was family camp.  A week away in Maine for about 10 families, with counselors and kitchen help hired, and yet another chart to divide up the cooking, plus trips to the Union Fair and the Rockland Lobster Festival.  Oh, and to Port Clyde for ice cream.

Even though our kids went to different schools and different summer camps, they always knew they weren’t alone, that there were other kids with lesbian moms.  They had a support system just as we did.

These were the women I could come to with anything.  I didn’t have to pretend that my kids were perfect.  I could confide my worries.  I could seek help from them.  There was no posturing and no one-upmanship.  We celebrated each of our achievements and supported one another through the difficulties, including our own relationship breakups and the deaths of our parents.

This is what I wish for my adult son and for every parent.  But I especially wish this for every queer parent.  Don’t isolate yourselves.  Find one another and create your own rituals, your own memories.

The notion that “it takes a village” has become a bit hackneyed by now.  But I’ll tell you, I’m eternally grateful for the little village my friends and I created for ourselves and for our amazing, now grown-up kids.  Among us we’ve produced quite a diverse and wonderful group of Millennials, including an attorney, a farmer, two artists, a member of the foreign service, an engineer, a political consultant and a photo editor for a major TV network.  Not too shabby for The (Lesbian) Village People. 

Countdown to Election Day with Rep. Angie Antonelli: T Minus 1 – Naming Names

Congresswoman Angie Antonelli, the main character of my new book, Love Is Enough, asked to post a series of daily posts on this blog leading up to Election Day in the US on Tuesday, November 4.   And, really, how could I refuse her?

This is my final post on Cindy’s blog, so I first want to thank her for letting me be here these last few days. It’s been a pleasure.

And if you check back tomorrow, Cindy will have something really special to announce. So watch this space!

I promised that today I’d name names and tell you about some of the people who’ll be on the ballot tomorrow—both incumbents and new candidates. These are the people who will continue the progress we have made and will push back against any attempts to stop justice in its tracks.

So here they are:

First and Foremost—The US Senate

The tightest races where your vote is most needed include:

• Georgia: Michelle Nunn – while not perfect on LGBT rights is much better than her opponent
• Louisiana: Incumbent Mary Landrieu – an important person to keep in the Senate; she’s a voice of reason among her Southern colleagues
• Michigan: Gary Peters is vying for the seat held by the retiring Carl Levin. Peters is a pro-choice, pro-LGBT progressive running against an arch conservative
• New Hampshire: Jeanne Shaheen, the incumbent, deserves a second term
• North Carolina: Kay Hagan, another voice of reason from the South

In the House

• Arizona: Krystan Sinema – the only openly bisexual member of Congress and a progressive voice. Let’s re-elect her.
• Florida: Gwen Graham – pro-choice, pro-marriage equality facing a Tea Party incumbent who voted to defund Planned Parenthood

Governor Races

Four important races, three of which will defeat key opponents of equality and justice. In Florida, former governor Charlie Crist can oust the incumbent, Rick Scott, a Tea Party member. Similarly, in Maine, openly gay candidate Michael Michaud not only has the chance to become the first openly elected gay governor; he would defeat another Tea Party member, Paul Le Page. Finally, two exciting women are running in Wisconsin and Texas. Mary Burke, a progressive, would oust Governor Scott Walker who has Presidential aspirations and is a darling of the Koch Brothers. And the woman who singlehandedly opposed anti-abortion forces in Texas, Wendy Davis, is running for governor and deserves our support.

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Finally, in my own state of Massachusetts, Maura Healey, could become the first openly lesbian attorney general in the state. Maura has been a longstanding opponent of the heinous former Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and led the state’s legal argument against the law.

So get out and vote tomorrow. As I’ve been telling you for days, so much depends on it!

To learn about more candidates, go to:

http://www.teamlpac.com/2014-endorsements/

http://feministmajoritypac.org/2014-candidates-2/

http://www.emilyslist.org/candidates/gallery/federal

http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/2014-endorsements

To learn more about Angie Antonelli and the ups and downs of her love life, read Love Is Enough, available here and here.

Countdown to Election Day with Rep. Angie Antonelli: T Minus 2 – The Back Door Plan

Congresswoman Angie Antonelli, the main character of my new book, Love Is Enough, asked to post a series of daily posts on this blog leading up to Election Day in the US on Tuesday, November 4.   And, really, how could I refuse her?

Hi, it’s me, Angie, again. Only two more days until Election Day and today we’re going to talk about a particularly devious tactic that the opponents of LGBT equality and women’s rights have been using to bend the arc of history that Martin Luther King spoke about away from its inevitable route toward justice. While they refer to this tactic as “religious liberty” or “religious freedom,” it is, in actuality, a back door plan to greatly weaken the hard fought for rights and freedoms we now enjoy.

Here are some examples of what they are doing.

While every advocate will tell you that the right of same-sex couples to marry does not mean that clergy are now required to officiate their wedding ceremonies, our opponents not only insist that marriage equality infringes on the religious freedom of clergy, but they also insist that anyone with a “sincerely held religious belief”—including florists, caterers, the owners of events spaces, or bakers—should be free to deny service to same-sex couples. If they are successful, can their next campaign to keep us out of restaurants and hotels be very far behind?

In addition, our opponents assert that pharmacists with those same religious beliefs should be able to refuse to sell the morning after pill to women.

And a student pursuing her graduate degree in counseling should be free to refuse to see a gay client.

Getting the picture?

Unfortunately, just like I mentioned yesterday when I wrote about voting rights, all of this has been further complicated by a Supreme Court decision. This one held that the crafts chain, Hobby Lobby, had a right to refuse to follow the requirement of the Affordable Care Act that an employer-sponsored health insurance policy cover contraception.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m all in favor of sincerely held religious beliefs. I was raised Catholic and I still attend mass. And while the hierarchy of the Church and I don’t always agree (though I’m hopeful about the new Pope), I do gain strength and peace from my faith. I talk about this a lot with my best friend, Robin Greene, who is Jewish. We both feel proud of the long history of social justice associated with each of our faiths, even though at times there are things make us cringe.

So I come to this issue, not from a place of hostility toward people of faith or religion as a whole, but from the belief that religion should always be on the side of justice and should never sow the seeds of division among people.

I am also a firm believer in separation of church and state following the precepts set forth by our country’s founders. It was Thomas Jefferson himself who first spoke of a wall separating church and state, stating that “the interests of society require the observation of those moral precepts only in which all religions agree (for all forbid us to steal, murder, plunder, or bear false witness), and that we should not intermeddle with the particular dogmas in which all religions differ, and which are totally unconnected with morality.”

In the wake of the Hobby Lobby decision, Congress has become a battleground on this issue and so we must ensure that our representatives in office follow the principles of Jefferson and his colleagues and not those of the religious right wing.

Our opponents know they have lost the fight on marriage equality and on women’s rights. So in a desperate attempt to whittle away at our freedoms, they have created this new argument about religious freedom. One important way to make sure they do not prevail is to exercise our right to vote on Tuesday, November 4^th.

To learn more about Angie Antonelli and the ups and downs of her love life, read Love Is Enough, available here and here.