Lesbian Prime Minister Walks in Belgrade Pride

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić marched in Belgrade Pride today.

The openly-lesbian Prime Minister is the first leader to ever march in a Balkan Pride event.

In a speech on the day, she said: ‘Many criticize me.

‘As a representative of the state, I am proud that our country has adopted anti-discrimination laws.

‘The level of discrimination of minority groups and members of national communities is in decline,’ she added.

‘The answer to the expression of hatred must be something else’

In a powerful message of solidarity to Serbian LGBTI people, Ana Brnabić said: ‘After an undoubted decrease in the number of physical attacks on people who are different from the majority, it is equally important that we stop hurting ourselves with words.

‘No matter how much pain a slap in the face may cause, the weight of a word is often far more painful,’ she said.

Serbian folk singer and human rights activist Jelena Karleua also joined the march.

She wrote on Instagram: ‘And you who hate and write sick comments full of hate, you are guilty.

17 September 2017

Lesbian Muslim Runs for Atlanta City Council

Liliana Bakhtiari was born in Atlanta Georgia and attended her first protest march when she was 8 years old.

Liliana’s father is a first generation Iranian immigrant that engaged in community service and acts of social justice. Her mother put Liliana’s father through university where he became a pharmacist. Working as a young person in her father’s pharmacy, Liliana was exposed to the poverty of Sweet Auburn, a district of Atlanta. Her father made medicine affordable to people who could not access it.

She is now running for Atlanta City Council.

Facing Racism in School

In various interviews, Liliana reports the hurtful racism that she endured in school. In high school racist taunts such as “how many goats would she be worth on her wedding day?” Due to traditional practises, Liliana was not allowed to shave her legs or trim her eye brows. These practises only added to the racism she endured.

University a Place of Shelter and Education

State of Georgia

At Georgia State University, Liliana felt freedom and equality amongst her peers. It was in Liliana’s nature to travel and volunteer. To date, she has visited 22 countries in Africa, Asia, Australia and Central and South America.

Travelling was dedicated work that involved working with genocide and sex trafficking victims in Cambodia.

She has worked with torture victims and refugees in Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. Liliana is the type of person who works physically, emotionally and mentally. She is a ‘hands on’ person who has been involved in the building of houses and composting toilets. On her journeys she became concerned about food accessibility and water scarcity. Being involved in this type of work changes a person for ever. I have personally known volunteers that could not adjust to their return to first world consumerism and the apathy towards developing countries and their economic problems.

Liliana Returns to Atlantic and Activism

Liliana was upset with the gap between her state of Georgia’s rich, middle class and very poor. She noticed the plight of the homeless and lack of affordable housing. Public transportation was in need of upgrading as were the needs of the jobless and senior citizens.

One of her ventures was serving on the board of Lost-n-Found Youth, a nonprofit organization that works with homeless LGBTI youths.

At home, Bakhtiari continued her activism, advocating for underserved communities and serving on the board of Lost-n-Found Youth, a nonprofit that works with homeless LGBTI youths.

Running for Office

It is Liliana’s hope that if elected for public office she can make a difference to the problems that she been actively engaged in. Liliana knows that it will be challenging for her as a woman, a Muslim and a lesbian.

She states that President Trump is a direct attack of all these three things that identify her. He attacks women, Muslims and encourages the extreme right-wing evangelicals to discriminate against LGBTI persons through “religious freedom.”

I wish Liliana every success in her crusade against injustice as it affects minorities, the poor, seniors, the jobless, the homeless, Muslims and other religious minorities and lastly the LGBTI community.

Best Lesbian Movies

Cinema films stand out among the cultural productions that deal with social and political issues and they have tried to give a message to people. Lesbian movies that once again prove that love is far beyond gender stereotypes.

It is about a maid’s secret love for her lady who is hired by a crook. In the story set in the 1930s, a crook who introduces himself as the Count plans to make him fall in love with him to seize the wealth of the mysterious and naive-looking Japanese heir, Lady Hideko. He hires Sook-hee as a maid to the Lady to help her. But it will be messy for this maid to fall in love with her unaware lady …

There are two things that 15-year-old Adele is sure of; she is a girl and girls date boys she. One day she notices Emma’s blue hair in the big square and then realizes that her life will change. All alone with her own adolescent questions, she turns her gaze to herself and the gaze of others to herself. She lives in love with Emma as a woman, as an adult. But Adele is unable to make peace with herself, with her family, or with this absurd world.

The Favorite is about the struggle between Queen Anne’s right-hand man, Lady Sarah, and the new maid, Abigail. While the poor Queen Anne sits on the throne of the country, her advisor and secret lover, Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough, deals with the queen’s deteriorating health and her changeable temperament, while also ruling the country instead. Newly arrived maid, Abigail, impresses herself with Lady Sarah with her charming. When Sarah takes Abigail under her wing, Abigail also gets a chance to return to her aristocratic roots. When the politics of war become too time-consuming for Sarah, Abigail takes on the task of being the queen’s friend. Their commendable friendship gives Abigail a chance to fulfill her ambitions. Abigail will no longer allow any woman, man or political move to get in her way …

Adepero Oduye Alike is a 17-year-old girl who lives in Brooklyn with her mother Audrey, father Arthur and younger sister Sharonda. Alike, who has to live in an environment where she does not feel belonging, tries to discover her own sexual identity. Alike, who accepts her sexual orientation and tries to live accordingly, encounters the pressure of her environment and society. Not sure how much she can pour into her family, Alike is determined to overcome her problems with honor, joy and determination. a

Carol is a well-known figure in New York in the 1950s. She wants a divorce from her husband and fights for the custody of her daughter. Therese works in a boutique. The paths of these two worldly women, Carol and Therese, intersect in this luxury boutique in Manhattan. As soon as Carol sees Therese, she is struck by the young woman’s beauty. But there is no place for this forbidden love in Carol’s community yet.

Carmen y Lola tells the story of two women trying to live their love despite all difficulties.

Nic and Jules are a married lesbian couple living in California. Through artificial insemination using sperm donation, both have a child. Kids named Joni and Laser want to meet their real fathers when they reach puberty. The donor named Paul, whom they reach out using their rights, finds out that they are their father and arranges a meeting with him. The three meet at Paul’s workplace. Laser, who wanted to meet Paul at first, was not very pleased after the meeting, but Paul’s bohemian life attracted Joni. Things unfold when Paul meets Nic and Jules, whom he is a donor.

The Swedish-made lesbian-themed movie is about the story of two women named Mia and Frida who met at their parents’ engagement. While Mia’s father, Lasse, marries Frida’s mother, two women in their thirties inevitably become half-sisters. The two, who started to spend time together, will gradually start to like each other and this closeness will cause dramatic results.

16-year-old Cyd, who was severely traumatized as a child, goes to Chicago to spend the summer with his aunt Spence. Cyd, who has the opportunity to get to know his aunt who is a writer better during the summer break, meets Katie, who works at a coffee shop. Cyd soon begins to be attracted to someone and begins to question many things about sexuality. In this film, Stephen Cone is about a woman stepping into the real world with natural acting and unexpected poetry.

Disobedience is based on a woman named Esti Kuperman (Rachel Weisz). After the death of his former rabbi father, Esti returns to his Orthodox Jewish family home in London. However, the life he has established for himself and the beliefs of his family and environment are now different. This conflict of belief will surface when Esti begins to take an interest in her childhood friend (Rachel McAdams), whom she sees again.

When the engaged young woman meets her best friend’s girlfriend, her life changes completely.

Kena and Ziki are two quite different young girls living in Nairobi residences. In a conservative society, young people who approach each other lovingly against the political rivalry between their families struggle together to realize their dreams. But when Kena and Ziki fall in love, they have to make a difficult choice.

Snapshots tell the story of 3 generations. Her granddaughter finds a roll of film and the grandmother remembers her love for her best girlfriend in the past.

Nina, a teacher in her 30s, is looking for a surrogate mother with her husband, now that they want to have children. Eventually they find a suitable candidate, but Nina falls in love with the woman who will give birth to her child.

Alba and Natasha’s paths cross in Rome on the night of December 22nd. Choosing an ordinary hotel room for themselves, these two young women will tell each other about their lives, share their most secret secrets and discover each other’s bodies during the night. For both, tonight will be an adventure of self-discovery, but it will remain a secret that only them know for life.

Tell It to the Bees chronicles the love of a single mother abandoned by her husband and a doctor who recently returned to her old town. Lydia, who tragically ended her marriage, knocks on Jean’s door after her child Charlie was attacked at school, and the story begins …

32-year-old Lizzie is an unmarried woman forced to live under her father’s unpretentious and authoritarian control. However, this situation begins to change with the arrival of young maid Bridget Sullivan. While Lizzie gets the chance to get closer to young Bridget with a likeable, kind spirit, Bridget doesn’t leave her feelings unrequited. However, the story of the two began to evolve towards a dark, disturbing ending. It’s going to be extremely difficult for Lizzie who gets the chance to unleash her emotions with this relationship.

The sudden passionate love affair between Jasmine and Dallas will radically change the lives of both women.

Based on a true story, “Vita & Virginia” explores the passionate relationship between one of the most successful writers in literary history, Virginia Woolf (Elizabeth Debicki) and the mysterious aristocrat Vita Sackville-West (Gemma Arterton). When the two cross paths, Vita decides that Virginia will be his new conquest, no matter the cost. The fruit of the relationship that began between the glamorous Vita and the charming, stubborn and talented Virginia is Woolf’s daring and experimental novel “Orlando.”

Why do Lesbians Hate Bisexuals?

Are you a Gold Star Lesbian? What do you mean you don’t know what one is? It’s a lesbian who’s never slept with a man, of course. Gold stars for the pure, no stars for the contaminated but repentant, and as for those greedy bisexuals… Well, what about those bisexuals? Those betraying, confused, promiscuous, untrustworthy fence-sitters that crept into the jolly LGBT acronym but will never know how it feels to be truly oppressed.

What a joke. Bi folk get it twice of course – as well as straightforward homophobia, they also have to face biphobia from both the straight and gay community.

But what, exactly, is biphobia? Cheryl Dobinson from bi zine The Fence describes it simply as “any type of discrimination, oppression or prejudice that is directed at or specifically affects bisexual people.” The ‘hilarious’ Gold Star Lesbian label, for example. And if it’s not prejudice masquerading as humour, it’s prejudice wrapped in ignorance.

“There’s this presumption that bisexuality is a transient phase that you dip in and out of,” explains Leeds student Laura Nieurzyla. “Like the time my mum asked me if I was ‘still’ bisexual because I was currently involved with a man, or when my gay friend seriously asked me if I would identify as gay if my next relationship was with a woman. It isn’t meant nastily, but can still get a bit tedious.”

So let’s set some bi myths uh, straight. Yes, some people genuinely do feel attraction to both men and women. No, it’s not a phase, or greed, or indecision. No, they don’t all need to have a boyfriend and a girlfriend at the same time. Yes, they are just as faithful as anyone else. No, you’re not likely to catch more diseases from them, because no, they’re not any more likely to be promiscuous.

And the greatest myth of all? That there just aren’t many bisexual women around. Actually, in a recent US study, two-thirds of self-defined lesbians reported feelings of attraction to men. Yikes.

Bisexual Lesbians

The study published in Explaining Diversity in the Development of Same-Sex Sexuality Among Young Women by Lisa M. Diamond and Ritch C. Savin-Williams involved interviewing 100 women over two years. The scientists found that two thirds of the 34 women who identified as lesbian reported periodic attractions to men.

One study is interesting but not terribly statistically significant; however, it’s not the only report to find that self-identified lesbians sometimes feel attraction to men. A separate paper published in 1994, for example, found that of the 4.4% of American women who reported experiencing same-sex attraction, 94% were also attracted to men.

So if lesbians are sometimes attracted to men, does it follow that straight women are sometimes attracted to other women? Yes. In fact possibly as many as 84% of heterosexual women experience same-sex attraction. However, as Lisa Diamond notes, “A reliable answer to this question is elusive, given the stigma that prevents heterosexual women from readily acknowledging same-sex attractions.”

But back up. What does this all mean? How can 66% of lesbians – let alone 95% – be attracted to men? That would make them bisexual for a start, not lesbian, surely? Well, no actually.

Lesbian Subculture

‘Lesbian’ means so much more than just being attracted to people of the same gender as yourself. It’s a subculture. You might not like everything or everyone that shares your subculture, but there is still an underlying solidarity and strength to it that we are all part of. Being a lesbian means knowing that there are bars, towns, TV programmes and haircuts that are yours. Yes they might be crap, but they’re yours. They’re ours. So is it so difficult to understand why so many lesbians are unwilling to give all this up, just because they sometimes fancy men?

“I don’t think I would ever tell my mates I sometimes fancy blokes,” explains a woman in her twenties who has asked not to be named. “I know they’d think I was ‘letting down the side’ and I’m scared I’d lose them.”

“I think that the idea of bisexuality can be very threatening and challenging to lesbians,” adds Cheryl. “Some lesbians feel that bisexual women are traitors or betrayers because we can love women, but can also ‘sleep with the enemy.’”

Lesbianism as a political rather than an emotional or social act definitely gives a new slant to some lesbians’ feelings about bisexuality. As Cheryl explains, “there can be concerns about the political implications [of bisexuality], with some lesbians seeing bisexuals as blurring boundaries/muddying the waters and potentially weakening the queer political cause. I’ve heard this called something like ‘diluting’ the movement.

“Oh, and a favorite [stereotype] of mine is the idea that bisexual women could be lesbians if only we were stronger or more politically aware or what-have-you. Sort of assuming that we need to have our consciousnesses raised kind of thing, or that we’re ‘weak’ lesbians.”

Getting Over It

Much as homophobia is often an indication of latent homosexual desire, perhaps gay and straight people are sometimes biphobic because they haven’t dealt with their own bisexual desires, and the thought of getting with a guy/girl both attracts and repels them.

But how can we overcome our internalized biphobia without losing our lesbian cultural identity? The answer might be to stop thinking so rigidly about sexuality. Several social scientists point to the concept of a ‘lesbian continuum’ as a better way of interpreting female sexuality than the strict boundaries of gay, bi or straight, a theory that has been absorbed by some LGBT people under the umbrella term queer.

Regardless of whether you believe that you might be a teeny bit attracted to men yourself, or whether the idea appalls your sense of what it is to be a lesbian, the fact remains that there are plenty of women out there who identify as bisexual, and experiencing biphobia is having a negative effect on their health.

Cheryl is a queer health researcher as well as a zine writer. “I can tell you that on many mental health measures – depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicidality – research shows that bisexual people tend to report higher rates than both straight and gay people,” she says.

“I think that the reasons are primarily related to biphobia, and that we should all be aware of this and be concerned about the damage that biphobia can have.” In other words, no it’s not ‘harmless fun’. And please, no more with the lame Gold Star jibes.

This article was published in April 2008 at lesbilicious.co.uk