Lesbian.org

What brings you here?

2010-05-15T20:31:32Z

What were you looking for when you landed on this site? What would you like to see here that you haven’t been able to find on other lesbian web sites?

Please fill out this anonymous short survey or post a comment on this message. Thanks!

New: Discussion Forums

2010-05-15T20:58:36Z

In the hopes of building a new lesbian community here at lesbian.org, I’ve just created discussion forums. Follow the link to Forums above, which will launch a new page. On that page follow the link to register for a free account. Right now the only restrictions are that you must be over 18 and identify as a lesbian or bisexual woman. Please join and tell your friends! Hopefully we can get some conversation going on a variety of topics. I’ll expand the forums to respond to user’s needs.

How do you meet lesbians?

2010-05-13T01:27:40Z

The most common question I get from visitors to the site is how to meet other lesbians. So I thought I’d open the question up to visitors to the site. How do you meet lesbians? What would you recommend to women who are just discovering their sexuality? Post your observations as a comment on this message (and maybe soon we’ll move the conversation to the new Discussion Forums).

Lesbians on TV

2010-05-15T20:40:40Z

Know of any TV shows that have lesbian characters or themes? Post a comment on this message to discuss them. Maybe soon we can get a conversation going about lesbians on TV on the new Discussion Forums.

Books on coming out

2010-05-13T23:04:10Z

I frequently get emails from women asking for resources to help with coming out. Here are a few books on the subject. The blurbs are from Barnes and Noble’s web site.

Exploring identity development and gender orientation, Lesbian Epiphanies Women Coming Out in Later Life contains firsthand information about the experiences and difficulties … (click on the image to read more)

The act of “coming out” has the power to transform every aspect of a woman’s life family, friendships, career, sexuality, spirituality. An essential element of self- …

What experiences do women have when they come to identify themselves as lesbian? What happens when they consider telling family and friends about their sexual identity?

A raucous, good-natured look at lesbianism and just what it takes to join in the fun, So You Want to Be a Lesbian takes on all the important issues facing lesbians today, opening with an LAT (Lesbian Aptitude Test), then exploring such hot-button topics as what records to play at a “coming out” party and the three most annoying responses parents can have when their daughter comes out to them.

More lesbian books

2010-05-13T23:07:00Z

I haven’t written reviews of these books yet, but they might be of interest to visitors to this site. The blurbs are from Barnes and Noble’s web site.

Drawn from reports written in response to questions about each participants’ earliest perceptions of being gay and coming to terms with sexuality.

Compiling some of the best scholarship and theory in lesbian studies since the publication of Lesbian Studies in 1982, The New Lesbian Studies Into the Twenty-First Century considers the history, present, and future of the field. By celebrating the differences among lesbian scholars and attending to the ways in which the field has been shaped by shifting policies and the emergence of queer studies, this collection challenges the limits of lesbian studies while affirming its value.

An enlightening, entertaining look at what the term “lesbian” really means—and what it means to be a lesbian.

The best lesbian erotic writing of 2005. The latest in the best-of-the-best series of original lesbian erotica, Ultimate Lesbian Erotica 2006 presents the hottest never- … (click on image for full description)

The Whole Lesbian Sex Book was the first-ever sex guide to offer information and encouragement for all women who desire women lesbian, bisexual, butch, femme, androgynous, and transgender.

Book Review: Art and Lies and The Passion, Jeanette Winterson

2010-05-13T23:02:55Z

I think Winterson is one of the most talented and engaging writers I’ve yet read, and of the five novels of hers I’ve read, these two are my favorite. Perhaps as a sign of how wonderfully rich and engaging her work is, I find myself utterly unable to come up with a summary of either. I will say this of Art and Lies: I think I would rather have had the whole book focus on Handel’s perspective rather than only bits and pieces, although the voices of Sappho and Picasso certainly lend the story a lyrical beauty of a different quality.

Book Review: Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady, Florence King

2010-05-13T23:02:43Z

The funniest book I’ve read in a long time, and so wonderfully written. Although King’s southerness ala Virginia is somewhat different from my Georgian version, she captures the essence of this much misunderstood and maligned region of the country with remarkable wit and grace. Her meditations on femininity and the impossibility of the Southern Belle were especially resonant with my experience, and with my own frustrations at this all-important marker of womanhood I feel sometimes cursed to posses to the Nth degree. All sweetness and light, that’s us suthuhn belles, dontchyaknow!

Book Review: Because They Wanted To, stories by Mary Gaitskill

2010-05-13T23:01:44Z

Set in hip, urban environments, most of these stories deal with lesbian issues in some way or another, though most definitely *not* in any stereotypical Lesbian Literature ways. Common themes in her stories include running away from home as a teenager, panhandling, prostitution, and kinky sex. In some ways the content was a total surprise to me, because I vastly misjudged the book by its cover. The little picture of Gaitskill on the back suggests that these will be stories about the intimate struggles of the heart, drawn in fine, delicate lines. And I suppose in some ways they are, though the characters relate to their bodies, to their sexuality and to each other in ways that don’t resonate for me. A friend praised her ability to characterize the subtle shifts of thought and feeling that can happen in a person even over a short period of time, but I was struck more by how much I couldn’t relate to the metaphors and images she used to do so. “Are there people who really think like this?” I found myself wondering. Of course no two people perceive the world, or the inner workings of the mind, in the same way, and most people probably think in ways I can’t even begin to comprehend, but it’s rare for me to experience such a marked contrast, especially in a writer I like.

Book Review: Prozac Highway, Persimmon Blackbridge

2010-05-13T23:01:34Z

An over-forty lesbian performance artist who suffers from depression and finds her escape on the internet. I love it! This is one of the best accounts I’ve ever read of net addiction and depression, as well as urban dyke life, though you only hear about that in terms of how the narrator doesn’t participate in it. I can soooo relate. Granted, the prose is not particularly lyrical or poetic, like so much depression literature, but she captures the everyday practical realities of depression right on, I think.