President Obama has made health care reform a priority for his first year in office. We must act now to ensure that LGBT and HIV issues are included in the national health care reform agenda.
As a part of their health care fairness campaign, Lambda Legal is conducting a national survey to document the unique health care experiences and needs of LGBT people and people living with HIV. We will then use this information to educate politicians and other decision makers about the specific problems health care reform must address.
Make sure your voice is heard. Take the health care fairness survey today:
Frida Kahlo is one of my favorite artists. In a slightly different twist to W4, I present some of her works that I like best as well as a few pictures of the artist herself:
"Broken Column" (the painting that began my fascination with her work)
Last night I watched So You Think You Can Dance for the first time in years; Wikipedia tells me that season two was the last time I tuned in. Wikipedia also tells me that Hugh and Heke is a New Zealand-made comedy from 2007 written by Reston Griffith and Tricia Kelly, but that isn't important right now.
After the contestant pairs perform, they are either skewered or praised by the judges (no shock there). I quickly remembered one of the reasons I had stopped watching the show; Mary Murphy is a fucking nightmare with that scream (possibly a more grown-up version of being a woo girl in her youth) and her weird possible-plastic-surgery-gone-wrong-I-want-to-be-Marie-Osmond-cheeks-glued-to-my-teeth "smile." I finally realized or remembered that I could mute the TV as soon as the judges started speaking; unfortunately, I was 90 minutes into the program before I remembered to hoist aloft The Magical Remote Control and Bring Forth the Silence. At least Murphy seems sober, albeit blonder, this season, which is definitely more than I can say about season two.
I really enjoyed the contemporary dance between Randi and Evan, especially because the music they danced to was great. The song is by a duo named Koop, whom I'd never heard of, and features Ane Brun:
And here's the full song with its video, which is a bit like watching a short artsy foreign film without the sound or subtitles on. This is Koop with "Koop Island Blues:"
Bless all these women. I've included the name(s) of the book(s) that has, to date, made each author a favorite. I have many more works by Alice Walker alone to read. And I don't know what's up with a three-Alice list; it just happened. Check each book out (figuratively and literally if you're a ho for the library like me); you won't be sorry.
Alice Walker (The Color Purple)
Judy Blume (Tiger Eyes)
Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
Sapphire (Push)
Marilyn Wann (Fat!So?)
Alice Sebold (The Lovely Bones and Lucky)
Sarah Saffian (Ithaka: A Daughter's Memoir of Being Found)
Semi-international woman of mystery headed someday for Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, and Ghana (not necessarily in that order). Lesboqueerian, biracial, plus-size and truly learning to love the body I'm in instead of pretending to be okay being fat but simultaneously trying to lose 150 pounds, Dianic Wiccan, writer, and artist (arteeste!) in search of thick spiral notebooks with lined pages, blank canvases and acrylic paint, milk chocolate, good books, people who give good hug, a city to move to for cool culture and maybe grad school, and eventually, a girlfriend (or partner-in-crime) with whom to raise a kid or cats that I *promise* we will NOT dress up in clothes and treat like children. I would also like a pony. I keep asking my dad, but he clearly thinks I'm kidding.
