I see two girls kissing...

The following email was sent out by Lisa Cox, promoter extraordinaire for
Girls In The Night. My response is beneath her email.

On Tue, 1 Feb 2005 22:47:55 EST , GINAGP69@aol.com sent:




I need to know if I'm the only one that is really puzzled and perplexed about all
the Lesbian Characters, and Love Scenes that are popping up all over Network and Cable TV?

My mentor, would tell me to stay neutral like a good promoter, she's a journalist and has
learned very valuable lessons about being too opinionated, ...but if you ladies know me at
all, and even if you don't, you will learn that I really don't care
what the rest of the world thinks, but I value your opinions,
I know I can keep it real with you, and trust that you will keep my ass
in check if I publish or produce anything that is
not a positive reflection of our community.

(Now that I made my public service announcement, and attempt at being politically correct
let me tell you how I really feel)

Lyric, Tai Boogie, CC Carter, maybe you ladies can help me, I have always been enlightened by
your insight, and I am truly puzzled. Because I'm really irritated, I don't know if I am just being
radical, or really have a legitimate concern about the mixed message this programming is
creating in our community. I think this programming gives those of us that don't know any
better a false sense of acceptance.

Every other television program has a Lesbian character, or two women kissing much
to the delight of High School, College boys, Frat Brothers, Drunken Men in Bars, and Even
Desperate Housewife's! There's lesbian interaction all over prime time television,
and really steamy stuff! Every other rap video has women making out???????
I'm on the computer about 18 hours a day for my real job, and the TV is usually watching me,
I just like the noise, however lately every time I look
up there are girls making noise. Why?

Isn't this the same country that just denied us the right to marry, the right to same sex
health benefits? Didn't the Equal rights amendment just get overturned in the state of Georgia,
didn't they just tell us we couldn't adopt children ?????

O.K. I get it...it's o.k. if we are Lesbians as long as it's entertaining? Like Spike Lee's Movie
"She Hate Me", Spike really has a fascination with Lesbians, and that movie is pure fantasy!
20 beautiful Lesbian women, paying 10,000 each to have sex with one man, and loving it???
Yeah right! They were watching it in my Barbershop today, which is usually extremely noisy,
it was My Barber and I, (The best female Barber in the World, Miriam at Finishing Touch) and
about 20 guys were watching Mr. Lee's masterpiece, you could hear a pin drop in that joint today!!

Maybe I'm being too radical, maybe you Ladies 18 to 25 can make me understand,
have things really changed that much, that's it's just kewl to be a Lesbian? Or are your
heterosexual friends, neighbors, and relatives just completely understanding and accepting
about your sexuality and lifestyle?

The L word premieres next week, and I know we are all waiting on a show
that really portrays our lifestyle in a positive light, I love the L word, and
I will be in front of the Television or at the Red Chair for the season premiere,
but it irritates me a little because why is the only African American Character
(Pam Grier), a recovering junkie, who may be bisexual? I'd really like to see
a positive beautiful portrayal of a woman of color, Asian, Latin, African American
what ever. Why won't they cast the L word with a Poet like Tai Freedom Ford or CC Carter,
a community activist like Lyric, a writer like Robyn Goines who heads up the gay youth program,
or even a sexy Bad Girl like OOHZEE,...Why?

Am I irritated for NO reason? What do you think?

I would have normally been able to post this on our message board, and was going
to wait until the new site was launched next month, but the T.V. was watching me
again tonight, and the chick on Law and Order just proclaimed she's a Lesbian !!!!!!

What?! A lesbian on Law&Order? I missed that and damn I love that show.

At any rate, I was watching VH1's "Best Week Ever" last week they proclaimed that "gay is out" due to the fact that Will&Grace and Queer Eye's ratings are dropping. They decided that the metrosexuals have been made over and are taking over the world so they no longer need gay folks to show them how it's done, but they were definitely talking about the men because I agree with you that lesbianism is the new black.

I think the discrepency between how accepting television is towards gayness and how the red states voted is due to how liberal the media is. The entertainment industry is run by gay folks, mostly men, and I think their inclusion of more and more gay characters is a direct response to the denial of gay rights.

I used to work for Spike Lee and I wanted to reach out to him and tell him he was on some straight bullshit with "She Hate Me". I never saw it because the premise of the movie disturbed me and the fact that he had a lesbian consultant on the movie disturbed me even more. Somebody needs to check that sistah, too, 'cause a paycheck is a paycheck but selling out your sistahs is something else. I forgot her name, but I'll find out.

All in all, I'm not so sure that more gay women characters on television is a bad thing. The red states voted against us because they didn't see us as people, they saw us as faceless deviants. I've been talking to some other social activists about this and I told them I want to have a Day of Recognition where gay folks everywhere wear some self-identifying article of clothing for an entire weekend so when people are out shopping, at the bank, pumping their gas or whatever,they see the faces of the people affected by the denial of marriage equality. I think if we'd done that before the voting, Joe Schmo would have gone into the voting booth with a clear view of who his vote was affecting and while I don't know if it would have changed anything, I'd like to think so.

So basically I'm all for more lesbians on television so long as it's done in a positive light (even though, keep it real, not everything going on in our community is positive). I can't deny that a lot of instances of lesbianism are nothing more than straight men's fantasy, but the other instances are gay Hollywood's strike back against the red states and an attempt to give a face, albeit fictional, to a sometimes faceless community.

Marquita