Photograph: Melissa Mahoney

Staceyann Chin, spoken word artist and LGBT political activist, has penned a very provocative piece in the UK Guardian called, ‘Why Chasing Straight Women Still Thrills Me.” It lays out the many reasons why lesbian women, like Chin here, love the thrill of chasing and eventually bedding straight girls.

Chin writes: “Maybe it is the thrill of conversion – and that is only if any such crossover can be deemed a conversion. Who is to say such conquests were not sleeper-lesbians, just waiting for the right moment to awaken? I suppose, though, through the right lens, the process could be described as evangelical, this business of meeting, and courting and having a woman decide to jump the heterosexual ship to be with you (even if it is temporary). More often than not, the crossover is accompanied by confessions of, “I’ve never done this with anyone before.” Or, “I’m not into women, there’s just something about you that makes me want to try this.” Either way, you are the chosen one, the messiah, the mandate that pulls her, magnetic, toward her most hidden desires.”

After getting all Neo on us and declaring herself the “chosen one,” Chin then proceeds to run down the list of a sure fire way to have all the lesbian sex with straight woman as humanly possible. The trick, she writes, is to not take yourself, or the interaction, too seriously and to “be platonic first” like the caring buddy, who will listen and be the shoulder to cry on about all the messed up stuff  like how disrespectful or inconsiderate her boyfriend is being. And then when she is at her most vulnerable, swoop in for the kill.

Needless to say, this editorial has stoked all sorts of flames online. Some of the comments accuse Chin of being predatory, especially for viewing her potential straight love interest as conquest.  Some of the reaction questioned whether a narrative such as this would be acceptable if written by a man. And then there are others, who wonder if Chin’s candor is a bit irresponsible in that it perpetuates stereotypes about the aggressive lesbian preying on innocent women.

Personally, I don’t have anything against gay women sleeping with straight, or I like to think of them as bi-curious, women if both parties like the idea. That’s not to say that I necessarily like or agree with her methods, but I do believe that there is something here that we all could learn from – regardless of sexual orientation of the speaker.

By B. Hutson

Although South Africa is the fifth country in the world, and the first in Africa, to legalize gay marriage, it hasn’t stopped an increasing number of violent homophobic acts from being committed, namely “corrective rape,” which a 13-year-old lesbian recently became a victim of.

Activists say “corrective rape,” in which men rape lesbians to “cure” them of their sexual orientation, has been on the rise in South Africa. In the past decade, thirty-one lesbians have been killed because of their sexuality, and more than 10 lesbians a week are raped or gang raped in Cape Town alone, reports the Guardian.

The 13-year-old girl, who is said to be open about her sexuality, was raped in Pretoria last week.

Ndumie Funda, founder of the Luleki Sizwe Project, a charity that supports survivors of corrective rape in Cape Town, says the problem “is getting worse and needs to come to an end.”

“It is about time we retaliate,” she said.

Funda estimates that about 510 women report corrective rape in South Africa each year. Her fiancé, who died in 2007, had been raped at gunpoint by five men and infected with HIV.

Other alleged victims of corrective rape include Noxolo Nogwaza, a member of the Ekurhuleni Pride Organizing Committee, a gay rights group, who was raped by eight men and murdered in a township near Johannesburg; and Nokuthula Radebe, whose body was found in Soweto in March.

Last week, the South African government set up a team to address hate crimes against lesbian and gays after 170,000 people from around the world signed an online petition on change.org demanding action against corrective rape.

According to South Africa’s Medical Research Council, one in four men admit to committing rape. The country has one of the highest incidents of reported rape in the world. It’s saddening that this ‘epidemic’ continues to rise and there has yet to be policies implemented to protect women and hold offenders more accountable. Though the government has labeled corrective rape as a hate crime, this is only one step in a complex battle against rape.

Do you ever find yourself bogged down by stereotypes so much that you start to see the bigot in yourself? I found myself in this dilemma recently, 2 weeks ago to be exact. In my spare time I like to peruse the “black love is a beautiful thing” tumblr page for all their healthy images of black love. There’s something magical about seeing black men dotting over black women, that whole restoration of the black family tends to get me every time. However, a few weeks ago they were showcasing photos of homosexual couples, two black men loving each other or two black women. The photos filled up my tumblr timeline and my face scrunched up like o_0.

Now for the record, I typically align myself with progressives and see the fight for ‘gay rights’ as a human rights issue. While I’m not marching, bearing a rainbow flag I have been known to be in support of gay rights and I’ve had countless debates about the need to support gay rights efforts. So why the scrunched up face when a website who works to show healthy images of black couples chooses to show homosexual couples as well as heterosexual couples? It’s because my definition of black love was very narrow and only included relationships that consist of men and women, black men and black women!

I felt bad about my initial reaction because in that moment I knew that I was just as big of a bigot as those who would like gays to keep their sexual preference to themselves in the military. My prejudice was no better than heterosexuals who want to push the gay lifestyle to far corners of the earth while purposely flaunting their “normal” sexcapades and relationships for everyone to see.

Black love is subjective. I can no more claim the title of black love because I date women more than a brother who is in love with other men. While I know this is a sensitive topic because of the media hyped phenomena of the down low brother and the many sisters who feel suitable mates are simply non-existent due to homosexuality, and incarceration stats of black men. Those are different topics entirely, I’m speaking specifically about the core of love, the joy of companionship. Whether it’s male/female, female/female, male/male, we all have a right to love and if we’re black, we desperately need that love because God knows we’ve been dealing with trauma for centuries.

While I’m sure my sexual orientation still holds some biases. When I think of the black family I’m more often than not going to imagine something that looks similar to the Obama’s rather than (insert famous black homosexual) his/her lover and their potential to adopt or find an alternative way to have children. But I do recognize that ‘black love’ is not solely resigned to black couples who fit societies norms, black love is varied and all that 2 people need to be involved in black love is that they be unashamedly black, proud and in love. What do you think, do you have a bias of what black love is?

The 2010 census data showed a surprising trend. According to demographers who have combed through the data, there  gay people  are more likely to raise children in the south than in any other part of the country.  Additionally, the majority of the same-sex families below the Mason Dixon line are minorities. People often assume that southerners are conservative and holders of strict religious views that don’t exactly translate into being gay-friendly. And of course racism has a long and ominous past and present in many southern states (and beyond).

So, how did this happen? Why have so many same-sex minority couples decided to live in the south? Click here to read theories from the experts.

Why do you think so many same-sex minority parents are living in the south?

(New York Times) — Most people are familiar with the pay gap between women and men, but here’s a gap you may not have been aware of. According to a recent post on the blog BoingBoing, lesbian women are paid more than heterosexual women.  According to the research the site pointed to, lesbians make about 6 percent more than heterosexual women when factors like race, education, profession, location and number of children are accounted for.

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Lesbians may be winners when it comes to raising kids, but according to a new study they are more likely to be fat than heterosexual women.

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See? Katie Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” was on to something. Lesbians apparently have the best kids.

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