I hate smoking with the deep and abiding passion only an asthmatic person can muster. The very idea of selfish nicotine junkies taking umbrage with my desire to enjoy a meal or cocktail without expelling phlegm is obscene. And I am giddy with delight over proposals to create smoke free workplaces for everyone, even those unfortunate enough to provide service to said nicotine users. 

(If you think I'm being mean or nasty, screw you.  Shove an inhaler in your mouth so you can catch your breath and tell me how mean I am ....I have no pity for smokers.  Get the patch and stop whining.)

The data is clear. Second-hand smoke kills people.  Smoking bans do not put restaurants and bars out of business.  Even the Pennsylvania Restaurant association is willing to support a 100% statewide ban if it includes casinos (I caught this on McIntire's show). 

And this is most decidedly a very important LGBTQ issue.  According to a 2001 study, lesbians smoke more than straight women.  Specifically, 35.5% of lesbians smoke compared to 20.5% of straight women.  Other studies have shown similar disproportions among gay men. 

Even more frightening was a 2004 study in which 40% of lesbian and bisexual girls between the ages of 12 and 17 report smoking, compared with 6% of heterosexual girls of the same ages.   Forty percent to six percent. 

There's a whole host of reasons this could be the case --- the history of the bar as a gay gathering place, societal pressure over gay identity, tobacco companies specific targeting of gay subcultures, and so forth. 

So creating smokefree spaces is critical for the health and well being of our community.  We need to push for environments in which people can be gay, find community and not have to inhale carcinogens. 

Personally, I would enjoy occasionally going to the local gay bars.  I like to dance, I like the shows and enjoy mingling with the homos.  But my recent foray to The Eagle was a disaster -- big kinds of fun followed by two and a half days of illness.  Who needs that?

Check out Tobacco Free Allegheny for local resources on smoking bans. 

Here's some lovely and not so lovely news from those who would drag us back into the good old days ...courtesy of Feministing.

Grooms for Life matches anti-choice bachelors willing to marry and become a father to the feti of unwed pregnant women.  Marry the women I mean.  Ick Ick Ick. 

Will the state soon gain custody of abandoned embryos?  Mother Jones had this story. 

Should the term Pro-Choice be retired?  Feministe has this take ... 

And finally in the most f*cked up situation of the week, the loonies at Operation Rescue have purchased the building housing a Wichita health center which performed abortions.  Guess who got evicted?   Makes me glad we have a pathetic twerp running the local rescue group.  They can't even keep their blog updated ....

h/t Feministing

A bill outlawing all abortions - even in the case of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother -- is scheduled for a hearing in the Ohio House of Representatives on Tuesday.

Right wing antics to win elections?  You bet.  Tapping into misogeny to garner votes?  Absolutely.

This piece legislation has 18 co-sponsors.

Yet another reason I'm glad there's a bit of West Virginia between me and most of Ohio.

Last night, we toddled off to The Eagle to catch Steel Queer N'At, a quarterly performance of Pittsburgh queer talent put together by a local eclectic queer art collective.  For months, we've talked about going to the monthly K'vetch performances (third Thursdays at Modern Formations in Garfield), but something always came up. So this was our big chance to see what all the fuss was about.

It was awesome (except for one detail I'll get to later).  The organizers did a great job staging an outrageous, sexy show that made me think and, even more importantly, made me want to take some action ... to pick up my pen, pick up my picket sign and pick my ass up off the couch. 

The performers were this amazing group of rowdy, righteous, motivated babes (and a few gents) who had something important ... a whole lotta something important .... to say and did it with style and words and music and movement that left the audience panting for more.  In a good way.  

It was also easily the most diverse group of queer women I've encountered in Pgh.  Most every gay event is pure white with maybe one or two token minorities.  And most every gay event organizers claim that they don't know how to connect with gay minorities.  Perhaps they should get in touch with the collective because they seem to be doing a fine job.

We loved 'em all for speaking their truth, for speaking out loud and for getting up on that stage to just speak. 

The next Steel Queer N'At should be in October.  We'll post it here with plenty of advance warning so you can catch the show. October is also the Celebrate the Night performance night, but we'll post on that separately.

Now here's our concern.  The performers howled about women taking back control of our bodies, our sexuality, our health and our identity.  They called out corporate America for filling our bodies with poisons and to society for boxing us in with few choices.  It was chilling and it was the truth.

It was also done in a room filled with smoke.  And there lies the rub.  If I wanted to hear the message, I had no choice but to expose myself to second hand smoke for the entire evening.  Every smoker in that room took away my control over the very air I breathe.  To hear their message, I had to sacrifice my own ability to breath and speak.  How is this inclusive or empowering? 

I respect that each woman, each person, in that room has the right to choose to smoke, but they shouldn't have the right to force me to smoke, too.   If someone drank too much or acted obnoxiously, I could choose to move away.  There's was nowhere to hide from the smoke.  I had to leave the space to reclaim my breath. 

On their website, they write:

We are creating a new aesthetic and we do this collectively because it is absolutely necessary for our health, well-being and struggle.

If you take the beauty industry to task for seducing us into inserting carcinogens into our vaginas, what about the tobacco industry's well-documented coercion of smokers?  Studies show that lesbians are 70% more likely to smoke than heterosexual women; 25 % of lesbians smoke.  I can't find the stats on the incidents of lung cancer and emphysema for lesbians versus heterosexual women, but I'm guessing there's a statistically significant difference. 

That means roughly 75% of us don't smoke.  Why force us to compromise our health to be part of the Steel Queer N'At experience?  Why not have a smoke-free event and ask the smokers to respect me and my choices about MY health enough to step outside? Even make the performance area itself smoke free and have the smokers go downstairs to the third floor to smoke -- its not even outside.  If a few smokers choose not to attend, I guarantee more non-smokers will gladly take their seats. 

A smoke-free event would rock.  I want to go again and want to take my women friends with me, but they won't willingly go into an environment where they can't breathe freely.  No one should.

Look for another post soon comparing and critiquing the lesbian performance experiences in Pittsburgh.

And check out the Steel Queer N'At collective for a consciousness raising jolt to your LGBT identity.  You won't regret it.

From the AP today, I picked up an interesting little tidbit.  Swedish research indicates that lesbians' brains react differently to sex hormones than the brains of straight women.

In fact, lesbian reactions are similar to the reaction of heterosexual men; previous research indicates that the opposite is true for gay men - their reaction are smilier to heterosexual women. 

The research gives credence to the argument that sexual orientation has a biological basis.

Here's a sad fact: Russian Orthdox Catholics are working in unity with
skinheads to oppose gay rights.

On Sunday
police had to hold back a crowd of bottle-tossing skinheads and Bible-
clutching church folks who were protesting a gay event at a local club.

Not to be outdone by the Christian-Skinhead connection, Russian Muslims are
threatening to kill gays if they proceed with plans to celebrate Pride.

PrideFest is scheduled for May 26 and 27 in Moscow. If the city bans the
event, organizers plan to take the matter to the European Court of Human
Rights.

Sounds like a crowd where Fred Phelps would feel right at home.

Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents is pleased to welcome our newest
correspondent Shelly. We've known Shelly for several years -- she is very
active in the local LGBT community. Her writing, you will find, is
articulate, insightful and from a slightly different perspective than Ledcat
and me.

Three's Company, too!

Welcome aboard Shelly!

Sue

           

 

UPMC?s Celebrate Life, Celebrate Art 2006 ?
an auction to benefit Persad Center

The Patron Party*
Friday, April 7, 2006

Society for Contemporary Craft
2100 Smallman Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15222 (Strip District)
7:00 - 10:00 p.m.

The Auction
Monday, May 15, 2006

Carnegie Museum of Art, Oakland
4400 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Didn't we leave this behind in the 20th Century? 

According to a federal discrimination suit filed yesterday,  Welch West Virginia Sheriff Robert K. Bowman physically prevented a bystander from performing CPR on Claude Green, Jr. who was suffering a heart atack.  Green died at the hospital.

Sheriff Bowman acted because he thought Green was HIV positive.  Did he have any factual knowledge?  No, he reached this conclusion that b/c Green was gay he MUST be HIV positive.  And, thus, not deserving of CPR for fear of spreading the disease. 

Here's the link to the Welch, West Virginia website. 

Paging Rick Santorum and the Catholic and Presbyterian Church --- this is the other end of that slippery slope of discrimination YOU create with your intolerance and ignorance.  When you send a message that gays are second class citizens, idiots like this Sheriff pay attention and jump to conclusions that are FATAL. 

Claude Green died because of the fear, ignorance and hate lying just beneath the veneer of civility on current LGBT discussions. 

What if Rob Traynham or Mary Cheney were traveling around Welch, West Virginia?