The Dish: Murals of Poussey are Popping Up in Major Cities, Lesbian Couple Goes Missing in Turkey

Orange you glad to see me?

It’s Thursday! One step closer to Friday!

Perhaps you’re looking for a way to spice up your weekend. If you’re into lesbian porn made by actual lesbians, featuring actual lesbians (or other parts of the LGBTQ rainbow), you’re in luck. Distributors like Crash Pad offer all different kinds of sexy scenarios with a diverse array of bodies and identities. They literally offer just about anything you can imagine and might even give you a few ideas to try at home.

Maria Jimena Rico Montero and girlfriend Shaza Ismail are missing after Shaza’s father reportedly tricked them into flying from London to Dubai (where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by death) and reporting them to authorities. Maria’s mother is speaking out to the press trying to find her daughter and her partner, who she hasn’t heard from since Monday.  She alleges that Shaza’s father lied about her mother being on her deathbed in order to get the women to Dubai, and once they arrived, destroyed his daughter’s Visa and both of the women’s passports. They were able to make it to Turkey, but have not been heard from since. Turkish authorities are searching for the couple, but this is just sickening. And people worry gay parents will fuck kids up.

 

Congrats to former basketball player Kristin Martha, who is being honored by The Gay and Lesbian Alumni/ae of the University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s College. She’ll receive their Tom Dooley Award, celebrating her work as an LGBTQ advocate and as Associate Director of Academic and Membership Affairs for the NCAA.

A University of Connecticut student came out four years after she’d tweeted that her mom asked if she was gay. They say moms know (mine didn’t!).

 

A new documentary about Whitney Houston premiered at Tribeca this week, and in it, close friends discuss the late singer’s relationship with “friend” Robyn Crawford. “I don’t think she was gay, I think she was bisexual,” says longtime friend and stylist Ellin Lavar in “Whitney: Can I Be Me?” “Robyn provided a safe place for her…in that Whitney found safety and solace.” Others in the film discuss how Bobby Brown detested his wife’s relationship with Robyn and forced it to end. Whatever the true story is, Whitney deserved better.

Netflix has commissioned artists in eight major cities (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Toronto, San Francisco, Sydney and Melbourne) to paint public murals of Samira Wiley as Poussey from “Orange is the New Black.” Artist Michelle Tanguay is behind the Detroit portrait, which is 24-by-25 feet on a brick wall at the corner of Broadway Street and Grand River Avenue. “I viewed this project as paying tribute to the character,” Tanguay said. “I wanted to make it very positive and that’s why I chose the bright colors, the bright blues, to just do her justice. I just wanted to be able to see her again.”

Photo by Netflix

Speaking of Samira, I hope you’re all binging on “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Both she and Alexis Bledel are killing it as major lesbian characters, and despite what other stars of the show said during a recent panel, Samira says the series is definitely feminist. “Of course this show is a feminist work,” she said. “I don’t know if the conference got misconstrued or anything, but I think what some of my castmates were trying to say was that for people who consider themselves feminists, and for people who don’t consider themselves feminists, that there are things in this [show] that everyone can get. But I don’t want to be afraid of the word feminist. I don’t want to act like it’s not [feminist]; it’s definitely a feminist work. But I also think that people who are afraid of that word can gain something as well.”

Jodie Foster remembers her “Silence of the Lamb” director Jonathan Demme in a touching tribute after learning of his passing. An LGBTQ ally, Demme also directed the Oscar-winning AIDS-themed film “Philadelphia.”

Well, The Afghan Whigs made a new music video with a lesbian witch coven, so…they’re obviously trolling us.

Where are all the butches? One butch says they’re still here: “And even if the identity of butch isn’t as central or popular as it used to be, it takes absolutely nothing away from my butch identity. Embracing the enormous progress we as a community have made over the years in expanding our awareness and ability to embrace gender fluidity seems much more important than concerning ourselves with where any particular identity has gone.”

Speaking of, one of my favorite works by Angela Davis Fegan is a love letter to butch women, and I’d like to steal the poster for my bedroom. (Don’t worry—she approves.)

Photo by Angela Davis Fegan

A private Facebook group for “open-minded Christian mothers” of LGBTQ kids penned an open letter to “The Voice” contestant Stephanie Rice after she performed Kelly Clarkson‘s “Piece By Piece” on the show and explained to the judges that she chose the song because she connected with its theme of strained family relationships. She said her parents were furious after discovering love letters between her and another girl, and disowned her after she came out. From the letter: ” Of course we are sad and broken hearted to hear about the way your parents abandoned and rejected you, but we are so thankful that you are willing to share your story because we believe it is important for others to hear stories like your own. We also want to let you know we care about you and recognize the courage it took for you to share your story publicly. We are moms who understand because some of our own children have had to exhibit the same kind of courage when they finally determined to come out and begin living fully into the person they were created to be.” NO, YOU’RE CRYING.

Heineken’s new ad puts two people with completely different views together in a room and asks them to connect and converse (over a beer, of course).

So, see you tomorrow?


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