BY FRANCESCA LEWIS
Lesbian.com

GLAAD Media Award-winning film and TV producer JD Disalvatore (Shelter, Elena Undone) is crowdfunding a hugely important project. After seeing reports on the news about pets being surrendered to shelters due to a rash of foreclosures in the area, JD started volunteering at her local animal shelter.

Being a filmmaker, she quickly started to use her skills to photograph and film the amazing animals and the inspiring people who cared for them. When she was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer, JD did not slow down. Putting on her activist hat, she launched an Indie GoGo for an ambitious and worthy project: a documentary film about East Valley Animal Shelter, highlighting the No-Kill movement that aims to stop the unnecessary euthanizing of hundreds of dogs and cats every year, and a series of free educational videos for social media.

I caught up with JD to talk animals, inspirations and her plans for the project.

One of the major aims of your film is to address the unnecessary euthanizing of unwanted animals. What is the “no kill” movement all about?

Most times the city shelters don’t have the budgets we would like, and unfortunately the stray dogs and cats keep coming and coming. When there is no more room at a facility, that’s when they start to euthanize for space. The No Kill movement has been kick-started in Los Angeles by a big, wonderful organization called BEST FRIENDS. They are working with local shelter and rescues to brand NKLA (No Kill LA). This is a multi-tiered movement that involves all areas of animal rescue and care. And everyone is working on it! San Francisco is already a no-kill city, so I know we can do it.

Many people who love animals avoid shelters as they imagine it will be too depressing. Do you hope to debunk such ideas with your film?

I can’t speak for all shelters, but the city shelter where I have been volunteering for seven years — East Valley Animal Shelter in Van Nuys — we have tried our best to make it a clean, warm and welcoming place. Depending on where you are, the shelter experience will vary. If people are put off by the idea of going to a place where the animals might be euthanized, there are so many no-kill rescues in every town in America. But don’t discard the idea of going to your local shelter as this is where the need is the greatest for loving adopters. I don’t know that I can debunk any thinking on shelters, but I can honestly depict the shelters where I film, and hopefully that’ll educate and enlighten.

In addition to the film, you are also producing free educational videos, what will these focus on?

I’ve formed a volunteer/staff committee at the shelter where I volunteer, so we discuss and vote on projects like this there. We’ve already discussed and currently we are just starting Kitten Season, so the biggest need now will be a video about Bottle Feeder Fosters and kitten season. Last year, 29,000 cats were euthanized in LA County. So we have to get that number down. A lot of organizations are throwing a ton of money at this, and some exciting things are happening. So a good internet video will only help everyone’s efforts. Next, we have been examining our shelter and the trends there, and we believe a video about “How To Introduce Your New Dog or Cat to Your Pets” would be needed, as we get many returns based on this. We’ll also be making a wonderful How To Become a Dog/Cat Foster… I say wonderful because I just adore all our Foster Families at my shelter. They really save lives, and it can be so rewarding to be a pet foster.

It is very admirable of you to take this on given your health status. Do you feel it’s therapeutic to be with animals and to fight for this cause?

I’m sure my oncologist would freak out if he knew I was at a city shelter all the time, considering my minuscule white blood count, and all the germs and possibility of scratches and bites, but what the hell. You only live once. Yes. It’s hard to suddenly be handicapped and not be able to do all you could do before, especially if you were an active, type A film producer, but these animals don’t care. Sometimes all you have to do is go in a cage and comfort a scared, lonely dog or cat. I can certainly still do that.

You must have met so many lovely, inspirational creatures on this journey, any in particular that stand out or that inspired you?

The key for me is trying NOT to get attached to all the animals because they come and go so quickly. I’m currently in love with (and fighting for) a dog named Butch. Poor Butch, just no one wants him. I met him when I was doing a photo session when I tried to grab good shots of about 30 dogs. What struck me was that even though he’d been in medical for a month (it’s rather small and isolating back there, as it needs to be for them to heal) he was still a happy dog. He is a good boy. But again, they are all good boys. Then I found out he was in medical because he had CANCER. Which you know, explains perhaps the instant bond. Fortunately, the vet at the shelter removed many of his skin tumors and was able to remove all this cancer. Butch was kept in a backyard for the four years of his life, and he is fair skinned. These backyard dogs, it’s like they have no idea what a real home is and they love love. Butch has been in the shelter since last August, and every day I pray they don’t put him down. He survived cancer, for god’s sake. There is no hope for me, but there’s hope for Butch.

To learn more about JD’s work and support the How To Save A Dog project, visit her indiegogo page.

Francesca Lewis is a queer feminist writer from Yorkshire, UK. She has written for Curve Magazine, DIVA Magazine, xoJane and The Human Experience. You can find her opinion pieces on Medium. 

The post Lesbian filmmaker, warrior & activist JD Disalvatore dies after a long battle with cancer first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BY FRANCESCA LEWIS

Lesbian.com

Your character has an interesting perspective on the Dead – was that hard to relate to?

Celia’s relationship with the dead is one of caretaker. Marlene had a hard time with the dead! One of the hardest scenes I had to shoot was the one where Nick bring backs Luis.  The make up on this show is amazing and very real looking. Arturo, who plays Luis, was foaming at the mouth and spitting blood out.  His eyes had these contacts which made his eyes look dead! And there I am having a love affair with him! I had a hard time NOT gagging! But in all seriousness, Celia’s relationship with the dead goes back to the Mexican culture.  Day of the Dead!  Death is just the next step.  And the living very much continue to communicate with the dead.  Very much like Ofelia speaks to her mother at the altar.  Now, we don’t keep them in the basement! But there is a big element of that.  Now, like Celia says, we can’t see the dead, but they have always walked among us!

Celia is certainly an antagonist, but is she a villain

Well, Marlene doesn’t think she is a villain! I try not to judge my characters.  Even the most horrible serial killer doesn’t think they are doing anything wrong. Celia is just assisting with the inevitable: death! We are all heading in that direction!

What did it mean to you to play the mother of the first gay character on the series?

I was thrilled! I love that fact that nothing was really made out of it! It was just introduced and was not discussed! I think it is becoming more visible on TV. I work on The Fosters too, and I love that show for the same reasons! It is just a family show that centers around love.  It doesn’t matter who you love! And “family” doesn’t necessary look like the Brady Bunch anymore! I really hope that this isn’t an issue in the future. Everybody go out and VOTE!

Diversity has always been a real problem in Hollywood and, though it has improved, it hasn’t improved anywhere near enough. Do you think being a latinx actor is any easier now than it was when you started out, in terms of roles and representation?

Yes I do think it’s easier.  But we are not yet properly represented on TV like the African American community. I always say it, we don’t have our own Tyler Perry or Oprah! When I started, I was still married to my daughter’s dad. He is Rodriguez. That was not a choice back then. My reps at the time wanted to change it to Rodrick. I was born Ana Marlene Forte Machado, I said. “Pick one!” Even Machado was too ethnic 21 years ago. Now no one blinks at Rodriguez or Lopez. But we still have a long way to go.

Your real life backstory is a fascinating one – can you tell me a bit about your life before you started acting?

am the oldest of three girls, the only one born in Cuba. I was very sheltered and married my high school sweetheart.  Within a year I was pregnant and he wanted two more! LOL – I was done. I always knew I wanted to act and I just knew, even back then, that I could not have more kids and be an actor.  So we played house for four years; until we graduate college.  He went off to be a doctor and I went off to be an actress.  I really didn’t get started till the late 1980’s.  I ran my own video store back at the start of the whole thing for about 5 years.  And then Blockbuster hit the scene and I exited stage left! I had just gotten into The LAB (Latino’s Actor’s Base) at Intar and I saw the writing on the wall.  I was not getting any younger so I moved to Manhattan. And that’s when it all began.

You’ve appeared in a lot of TV shows over the years, you’ve pretty much been in everything – any highlights? Any current shows you’d love to appear in?

I would love to do The Walking Dead but that’s not going to happen unless the east coast meets the west coast! I really loved working on Dallas.  I enjoyed the city of Dallas and the cast was just the best.  And I must say that Fear The Walking Dead has been the ultimate roller coaster so far! The fans are the amazing and I really enjoyed bringing Celia Flores to life!

Francesca Lewis is a queer feminist writer from Yorkshire, UK. She has written for Curve Magazine, DIVA Magazine, xoJane and The Human Experience. You can find her opinion pieces on Medium. 

The post Fear The Walking Dead’s Marlene Forte on Diversity, Culture and Dealing with The Dead first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BY FRANCESCA LEWIS

We all have that fantasy of finding a trunk of priceless family heirlooms in the attic, but in Jane Anderson’s case, such a discovery led to something a lot more fulfilling than money. Anderson, an award-winning writer/director whose most recent work Olive Kitteridge won an Emmy in 2014, has been surrounded by her Great Aunt Edith’s artwork all her life. Discovered by her mother in a bunch of old steamer trunks in the attic, they decorated the walls of her house when she was growing up. Not much was known about the mysterious Aunt Edith, except that she was born in the 1860s and spent the latter 30 years of her life in an asylum. As Anderson herself grew into a bohemian artist, living in New York, in part inspired by what she knew of her artsy Aunt Edith’s life, she became fascinated with this familial kindred spirit. Her mother would send her sketches, done by Edith when she was in New York herself, that were almost identical to the ones Anderson herself was making. Upon researching Edith’s life she learned two things – that Edith, like her, was a lesbian, spending her life with a “companion” named Fanny, and that it appeared that Edith’s incarceration was less about mental illness and more about a greedy attorney who wanted to get his mitts on her inheritance. Thus began a lifelong obsession with her aunt. Over the years Anderson tried to learn more about Edith Lake Wilkinson – her art, her life, her tragedy – and to get her recognised by the art world. Finally, reaching the same age Edith was when she was put away, happily married to her spouse Tess, she embarked upon this documentary project and her aunt’s story finally opened up in fascinating and surprising ways. The resulting film, Packed in a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson, is a lively, colorful film full of heart, beauty and sadness – part detective story, part history lesson, part love letter to a kindred spirit.

Probably the most wonderful thing about this film, other than the intriguing story, is Anderson herself. A bubbly character with a vibrant red bob and a selection of funky glasses, she makes this so much more entertaining than a film about a woman who was wrongly thrown into an asylum would typically be. Her relationship with Tess, who seems like the yin to her yang, a serene and centred presence, lends a sweet dimension to the film, also providing an interesting mirror to the relationship of Edith and Fanny. As is pointed out in the film, Jane and Tess have what Edith and Fanny were tragically denied: the freedom to be in love.

Packed In The Trunk would be a worthwhile film even if it focused on an untalented relative with the same backstory, but what is surprising is that Edith Lake Wilkinson’s work actually has a significant place in American art history. Edith was part of a group of modernists in Provincetown in the 1910/20s whose names are well known for their work with white line printmaking. Anderson learns in the film that there is compelling evidence, in the dating of a piece she possesses, that her Aunt originated the style. This leads to her being prominently featured in a show at the Provincetown Art Association Museum, a place Anderson had longed to see Edith’s work displayed for some time. It is the smaller show before this, however, held in a building Edith painted many years ago, where Jane and Tess lovingly decorate the walls Edith’s favourite shade of forest green, that feels like the real victory. There are a number of genuinely moving moments in this film but Anderson’s exuberance and playful humour ensures that it never becomes sentimental or maudlin.

The details of Edith’s life are never fully uncovered, but we do learn a few things. Edith Lake Wilkinson studied art, moved to New York, and later spent a lot of time in Provincetown where she was friends with prominent members of the art scene there. Provincetown was a place where bohemians and queer people could live safely – a tolerant and progressive haven. Unfortunately, it seems that all it took to doom Edith to a life of tragedy was an unscrupulous attorney, and at the age of 57, just as she planned to move to Paris to join the thriving art scene there, he had her committed to an asylum in order to steal her money. Her diagnosis: paranoia. Likely she told the staff her lawyer was robbing her blind, but this was the 1920s and nobody listened. Edith remained incarcerated until her death in the 1950s. A tragic tale indeed – an independent and talented woman, cut off in her prime – which makes her grand-niece’s crusade to have her properly recognised all the more poignant.

Packed In The Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson is delightful on a number of levels. Firstly, it charts Edith’s return to her proper place in American art history. Secondly, it provides a window into the life of a queer woman who lived a century ago – and into the strides society has made in the time since then. Thirdly, and for me most importantly, it is a very human, very touching story about love, passion and the ways that those who have gone before us, even if they passed before we ever lived, can still have a profound effect on our lives.

You can watch Packed In The Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson on Wolfe video.

Francesca Lewis is a queer feminist writer from Yorkshire, UK. She has written for Curve Magazine, DIVA Magazine, xoJane and The Human Experience. You can find her opinion pieces on Medium. 

The post “Packed In The Trunk” – Part Detective Story, Part History Lesson, Part Love Letter To A Kindred Spirit first appeared on Lesbian.com.

In the United Kingdom, healthcare is supposed to be free and equally accessible to everyone. Unfortunately, for the over 2,700 patients on NHS GIC (gender identity clinic) waiting lists, this may not always be true. With an average of 284 new referrals for gender identity services per month, the underfunded NHS is struggling to provide for the trans community. Their guidelines state that patients should be seen within 18 weeks, but in reality it can be more like 18 months before they even receive an initial consultation. A government report on Transgender Equality says the NHS is failing in its legal duty under the Equality Act, not only with its unacceptably long waiting times and long distances to travel to access treatment, but in the “lack of understanding” of many doctors.

Like many young trans people in the UK, Harlan, a trans boy from London, is now paying for his testosterone prescriptions himself. With the required quarterly visits to the endocrinologist, he is spending £1,400 a year to fund a treatment that should be available on the free healthcare system. LGBT-friendly alternative lifestyle community Mookychick has set up a JustGiving page to help support him get the help he needs.

Harlan has been trying to take the next step of his journey for some time now, but has found referral difficult, and doctors dismissive and uneducated.

“One actually asked me to leave when I brought it up,” says Harlan, “I want to be able to live my twenties in a way that makes me happy and feels true to who I am. Gender dysphoria and resulting mental health issues made my teen years incredibly difficult, and I’m at the beginning of something that will change my life, so I desperately want to be able to keep moving forward with this.”

He is far from the only one – in fact, the UK Government is currently being petitioned to make bridging hormone prescriptions easier to obtain for transgender people.

Harlan just after receiving his first testosterone prescription

“Just the thought of being able to keep on testosterone without panicking about not being able to afford the next month & the idea of surgery down the line is so incredible.” says Harlan, “This time last year I was thinking I’d never transition and it was messing me up in a big way. Everyone’s support has helped me get on T & is helping me stay there and I’m so happy!”

If you would like to help support Harlan, by donating or simply by sharing his story, you can go to his JustGiving page. Any donations over his £1,000 target goal will be donated to non-profit organisation Gendered Intelligence.

Francesca Lewis is a queer feminist writer from Yorkshire, UK. She writes for Curve Magazine and The Human Experience as well as writing short fiction and working on a novel. Her ardent love of American pop culture is matched only by her passion for analyzing it completely to death.

The post UK trans boy crowdfunds treatment as health service fails first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BY FRANCESCA LEWIS
Lesbian.com

Six months ago I wrote about a group of queer small business owners in Oakland raising funds for a community space called Qulture Collective. Located in downtown Oakland, their mission was to “provide a central, devoted space for LGBTQIA folks to network, cultivate creativity, and develop and accomplish entrepreneurial goals.” Well, they did it, and they officially opened regular hours in November. With a café, shop, workspace and gallery, it has already become a key fixture of Oakland’s queer community, supporting local art and culture, and serving as a social hub for queer creative types in the Bay Area.

This month you can head on down to their Franklin Street location and check out multidisciplinary artist India Davis’ month-long residency, featuring an exhibition of photography and video work. “From A Place With No Space or Time” is the culmination of Davis’ four year collaboration with New Orleans photographer Lauren Hind. Shot in New Mexico and New Orleans, the installations show Davis, an acrobat and dancer, embodying “traditional and imagined spiritual and cultural archetypes as a means for creating new narratives that reflect queer Black femme experience and power.”

The exhibition, which will remain throughout February, is an apt choice for Black History Month.

“I want to recognize that ghosts, spirits, and supernatural entities are a very real way that people understand themselves and reality,” says Davis, “It’s about channelling, and self-determination, and creating worlds that lift up what feels true. This is especially important for queer people, people of color, trans people, who in dominant American cultural narratives aren’t given power, and may not even exist.”

Davis is a fascinating woman. A trained acrobat, aerialist and pole dancer, she teaches pole, acrobatic and aerial hoop classes for queer and trans people of color throughout the Bay Area. She is Artistic Director of Topsy Turvy Queer Circus, a circus with a difference, “highlighting artists of color, trans-identified and gender variant performers, and artists with varieties of body types and abilities”, which featured for the last three years in The National Queer Arts Festival. She is also a founding member, dancer and choreographer of Body Waves, an awesome queer Black acrobatic dance collective based in Oakland.

To learn more about Qulture Collective’s kickass space, check out their website.

Francesca Lewis is a queer feminist writer from Yorkshire, UK. She writes for Curve Magazine and The Human Experience as well as writing short fiction and working on a novel. Her ardent love of American pop culture is matched only by her passion for analyzing it completely to death.

The post Oakland’s Qulture Collective Features Queer Artist of Color India Davis first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Francesca Lewis is a queer feminist writer from Yorkshire, UK. She writes for Curve Magazine and The Human Experience as well as writing short fiction and working on a novel. Her ardent love of American pop culture is matched only by her passion for analyzing it completely to death.

The post “Portrait of a Serial Monogamist”: Witty, Cool and Very Human first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BY FRANCESCA LEWIS

Lesbian.com

With an enigmatic title like How To Win At Checkers (Every Time) I wasn’t sure what to expect from this Thai film, written and directed by Korean-American Josh Kim. What I found was an understated yet finely crafted coming-of-age story where sexuality was not a plot device or a source of conflict, but simply a piece of admirably true-to-life characterisation.

This is all the more surprising given that How To Win At Checkers (Every Time) is Kim’s feature film debut. Having made short documentaries in the past, including an acclaimed film about trans women and the draft lottery in Thailand, he turned his attention to the bestselling short stories of Thai-American writer Rattawut Lapcharoensap.

“Even though the stories were set in another country,” says Kim, “I felt that the characters were people I knew, my brother, my neighbors, my friends. Rattawut wrote it in such a visual way that it felt like I had just watched a movie. It was almost as if I had licked the colors off a film strip.”

The film tells the story of little orphan Oat’s loss of innocence, as he watches his brother Ek deal with the fear and hopelessness of being entered into the military draft lottery at age eighteen. We see this unfold through Oat’s young eyes, unable to quite comprehend the magnitude of what is happening but in awe of his cool, motorcycle-riding brother and terrified to lose him.

Ek is gay and has a boyfriend, works at a gay bar and is close friends with a trans woman (a wonderfully nuanced portrayal) but none of this is treated as unusual by the characters in the film.

“It’s funny, in Thailand so many people have come up to me and said that the film is not an LGBT film, but rather that it’s a family film. I think people could feel this way because we decided not to make the LGBT aspect an issue. The conflicts in the film arise from other more serious problems in society and not from a character’s sexuality.”

What’s more, Thailand’s underground world of organised crime and prostitution is treated with a subtlety and respectfulness rarely seen in Western films that depict Thailand. This is not your usual one-dimensional sleaze-pit.

“I think one of the reasons the book stuck out to me was because the novels and stories I had read about Thailand (in English) previously dealt with crime and drugs and poisonous snakes.” says Kim, “It just felt like a really dangerous place to be and it was hard to relate to the usual detective protagonists. Rattawut’s stories were the first time Thailand felt like a place I could’ve grown up in. It was just a lot more relatable.”

The level of commitment that Kim brought to this project is exemplified in the fact that he actually learned the Thai language in order to communicate with his actors and be able to read the script in Thai. He enrolled in an intensive six month language program, four hours a day, five days a week. That level of serious dedication makes Kim a filmmaker to watch in the future.

Other than Kim himself, one of the film’s great strengths is its actors, all perfectly cast and capable of understated performances to match the film’s tone. Stand out performances by Thira Chutikul as Ek and trans actress Natarat Lakha as Kitty are particularly impressive, but it is Ingkarat Damrongsakkul as Oat who really surprises. Good child actors are a rare thing and Ingkarat is a delight as the innocent boy who just wants to be like his cool brother, holding his own in complex scenes with skilled adult actors. Kim says the casting process was gruelling,

“We saw an average of 20-40 people per day for 2 weeks straight. Ryu (young Ingkarat) was the first boy that came in and he nailed it. I was ready to move forward, but the producers reminded me that I had only seen just one boy. So we kept bringing him back in to match with the rest of the potential cast and I think by the 3rd time we all just knew that he was the one.”

It is interesting to note that both Rattawut and Kim share a certain insider/outsider status. From Asian-American families, having lived in both the U.S and Asia, they have a unique perspective. While a Thai film on this subject might be hard for a Western audience to relate to, and a Western film might be full of stereotypes, the cross-cultural point of view of both writer and filmmaker bring us the best of both worlds – a deep understanding of the culture and an ability to make it accessible to a wide audience.

“I guess you could say that there were benefits to our cross-cultural upbringings,” says Kim, “There are situations that can be at once familiar and unfamiliar. I think in Rattawut’s case, having a Thai heritage brought rich stories which he has seen, heard and lived. In my case, having roots from and living in Asia has also made me more invested in the way the story is told. I think the insider/outsider status helped both of us find the right balance between over-explaining cultural concepts and being able to express them to a more wider audience.“

How To Win At Checkers (Every Time) is a surprising, subtly political, finely crafted film that will appeal to anyone, regardless of race, location and sexuality – quite an achievement for a foreign-language indie movie from a first-time director.

You can watch How To Win At Checkers (Every Time) on Wolfe Video.

Francesca Lewis is a queer feminist writer from Yorkshire, UK. She writes for Curve Magazine and The Human Experience as well as writing short fiction and working on a novel. Her ardent love of American pop culture is matched only by her passion for analyzing it completely to death.

The post Understated Thai Coming-of-Age Film “How To Win At Checkers (Every Time)” Surprises & Delights first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BY FRANCESCA LEWIS
Lesbian.com

An imaginative coming-of-age fantasy novella populated with diverse characters, magic and a whole lot of queerness – sound too good to be true? Well this is exactly what freelance writer J.M. Bates has created in her crowdfunded novella, Brilliant Shadows. With its beautiful cover by Asher Dumonchelle, this quick, bold read would be a worthy addition to any queer feminist shelf.

Brilliant Shadows tells the story of Nattie, an androgynous paper delivery girl living in the gloomy city of Cobalt, a place where only a chosen few have magical powers, bestowed by shoulder-dwelling sprites called Shadows. Orphaned at a young age, Nattie lives at the local church, where a cruel nun takes her hard-earned money to buy silk sheets and romance novels. Nattie’s only happiness in life is her friendship with her boss’ daughter Blake, her comic books and her love of riding her bike – fast. One night she investigates a strange light blinking atop a water tower and meets Pyro, a tiny fire faerie Shadow, who chooses Nattie as her host. Now a whole new world opens up to Nattie, as she discovers her power and travels to the Otherworld in search of a new life.

It is a simple story, almost a fairytale, with some complex and progressive themes. The story’s characters are diverse in every way, from race to body type to sexuality to gender identity. Almost every character in the novel is either explicitly, or implied to be, queer – from immortal lovers Rose and Mereida (who grace the cover) to the story’s young black protagonist, just discovering her lady feelings. Brilliant Shadows is a story set in a world where these things are non-issues, simple differences like blue eyes, never commented upon at all. What this does is create a very validating experience for the queer reader, while normalizing difference for others.

What the story has to say about power is especially interesting. The Shadows are a perfect metaphor for anything potent and dangerous, and Bates uses the various characters to explore the right and wrong ways that power can be used. When used to learn and grow, to punish the truly wicked or to help others, the power of the Shadow is a wonderful thing, but when used for personal gain or to abuse others, it is a corrupting force that can only lead to self-destruction. The key message is that unearned power is a very dangerous thing. Underpinning this is the story’s emphasis of the importance of community and its belief in the enriching power of finding belonging. The characters with strong connections, who form caring friendships and are willing to make sacrifices for others, fair much better than those who choose a selfish, solitary existence.

Brilliant Shadows is a vibrant, refreshing tale of power and community that shows how easy – and important – it is to infuse the fantasy genre with a little diversity.

Francesca Lewis is a queer feminist writer from Yorkshire, UK. She writes for Curve Magazine and The Human Experience as well as writing short fiction and working on a novel. Her ardent love of American pop culture is matched only by her passion for analyzing it completely to death.

The post Diverse Fantasy Novella “Brilliant Shadows” Shines first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Painting: Healing Energy by Michelle Minero

BY FRANCESCA LEWIS
Lesbian.com

Now that the holidays are over and we’re all full of egg nogg and self-reflection, we turn our thoughts to the coming year. We want to change – to be happier, more productive – but we’re full of self-doubt and have a hard time believing any of these changes are truly possible.

To help kick start the year with a positive, self-compassionate attitude, mother-daughter team Michelle and Emelina Minero run a yearly writing challenge, called the 31 Day Self-Love Writing Challenge. Michelle, a therapist who specializes in eating disorder recovery, and Emelina, a queer writer/editor, created the Love Warrior Community together, an online community that uses creative expression to help people foster self-acceptance, body acceptance, self-awareness, emotional awareness, and self-love. Inspired by this community, and by Michelle’s book Self-Love Diet: The Only Diet That Works, they created the yearly writing challenge. The 31 Day Self-Love Writing Challenge has grown over the past four years, from a small project between mother, daughter and a friend, to a community of over 100 participants.

I asked Emelina to tell me more about the community, the challenge and how it has helped not only the participants, but Emelina herself.

What is the Love Warrior community all about?

The Love Warrior Community is an aggregate of inspiring, empowering, and body positive media that we curate and create and that anyone can contribute to. More than positive content, we encourage people to reflect on their self-love journey and to create or build upon their self-love practice through Self-Love Diet writing prompts and writing templates, like body love letters, body forgiveness letters, and self-love letters. Our motto is, “Love Yourself. Love Your Body. Love the World.” We believe that when you love yourself, you have the power to impact and change the world.

You created this project with your mom – what’s it like working on this with her?

It’s wonderful working with my mom, and it’s wonderful to work on something with her that positively impacts so many people. It’s surreal to realize the impact that you have on the world. We’ve had people tell us that they’ve stopped cutting, that they’ve let go of the shame around their mental diagnoses, that they’ve lessened or stopped their eating disorder behaviors, that their relationship with their partner has become stronger and that they’ve gotten more in touch with their emotions, that they love and accept themselves more.

Self-love resonates with everyone differently. We each have our own unique self-love journey. As a therapist who specializes in eating disorder recovery, my mom’s self-love journey has been tied to body image and the eating disorder recovery community. Mine has been connected to the LGBT community and the larger mental health community.

Tell me a little about the 31 Day Self-Love Writing Challenge and what’s different this year.

Each year, we share a Self-Love Diet writing prompt every day throughout January. People can publish their writing on the Love Warrior Community or share it on the public Facebook event page, which has become this supportive forum throughout the whole month where people share their self-love journey, witness others’, and support each other.

What’s different this year is that instead of a public Facebook event page, we’re creating two private Facebook groups – one for mental health professionals and one for the general public. Last year some people told us that they didn’t feel comfortable sharing their writing on a public space. The groups will continue year-round after the 31-Day Self-Love Diet Writing Challenge with weekly writing prompts.

Also new this year on January 9th, we’ll be hosting a free webinar called “Embodying Gratitude”, where we’ll guide participants through creating a personalized gratitude list, recalling specific memories and experiences that bring them joy and comfort, deepening their awareness of emotions in their body, self-soothing and creating the emotions that they want to feel. The first eight people who join will be able to participate in a live workshop.

On January 23, we’re also hosting an in-person workshop in Oakland, CA at Qulture Collective. It’s tentatively titled, “Go Into the Darkness: An Emotional Exploration” where we’ll explore how to become aware of, feel, express, and learn from the darker emotions, like fear, anger, and depression.

Do you take part in the challenge? What do you get out of it?

I participate in the challenge every year. Over the past 6 years of self-love writing, I’ve let go of my fear around my sexual orientation, and I’ve let go of my shame around my neurodiversities. A really big gift of my Self-Love Diet practice is my relationship with my thoughts and emotions. I have bipolar two disorder and paranoia, and through exploring my relationship with those aspects of myself through a self-love lens, I let go of the fear, the shame, and the struggle. I used to think that those parts of me were a hinderance, but now I view them just like any other part of me, beautiful, and part of my normal. When I do cycle, it can be difficult, but I view each of those experiences as a gift and a learning opportunity to further practice my Self-Love Diet tools, coping skills, and to further explore myself. Every moment in life is an opportunity to offer myself unconditional love.

[This interview has been edited for length]

To find out more about the 31 Day Self-Love Writing challenge, check out the Love Warrior blog: http://www.lovewarriorcommunity.com/31-day-self-love-diet-writing-challenge/

The post Love Warrior Community Expands Their Yearly Self-Love Writing Challenge first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BY FRANCESCA LEWIS

Amazon Prime’s groundbreaking original series Transparent is back for a new season and better than ever. When it was released last year I wrote about the relative lack of buzz surrounding this incredible show, so it was heartening to see it recognised with Golden Globes, Emmys and a GLAAD award and to see that, this time around, people were excited for the next instalment in the Pfeffermans’ beautifully dysfunctional story.

Beginning with a somewhat one-note wedding episode, the season soon deepens and picks up momentum. The first episode feels indulgent and shallow after the memory of the subtle depth of the previous season, its least endearing quality being the sheer unquestioned vulgarity of this lavish, expensive wedding that ultimately ends in the couple breaking up. But by the second episode things get interesting and a number of fascinating arcs are set in motion. Maura is back with her ex-wife Shelly, a step backwards that is clearly not a happy development for our heroine. As the season progresses, we see her moving through a new phase of her trans journey, having navigated coming out and being out. Now that she’s finally allowed to be herself, just what kind of woman does Maura want to be? Sarah, having belatedly jilted Tammy, finds life as a single mother a struggle and embarks on a journey of soul searching and sexual discovery that leads her to unexpected places. Josh and Raquel are settling down together, but Josh’s almost grown son Colton, who showed up unexpected last season, is here to stay and as he and Raquel try to handle the various stresses of their new complicated family, disaster strikes. And then of course there’s awesome Ali, back with an unapologetically non-gender-conforming look and exploring her queer identity, her Jewish identity and how the two overlap, once again stealing the season as the most fascinating Pfefferman.

The big complex theme of this season is intersectionality, and every character deals with how their own multiple identities overlap, contradict and interact. This subject is faced head-on when Sarah and Ali take their Moppa to the Womyn’s festival, which – unbeknownst to them – does not look favourable upon trans women. The campfire debate between radical feminists and Maura about the false dichotomy of privilege and oppression is one of the most tense, thought-provoking scenes in Transparent to date. Ali’s interest in the relationship between queer and Jewish identity, inspired (perhaps – it is never clear just how much Ali knows about her family’s past) by the Polish Pfefferman’s brushes with gender fluidity and open sexuality back in 1930s Berlin, brings up some quite boldly intellectual ideas. It is impressive to see a TV show willing to approach these complicated, thorny subjects with empathy, nuance and, yes, humor.

As always, the writing, direction and performances are impeccable here. Gaby Hoffmann reprises the boyish intensity of first season Ali, bringing a new sultry maturity that makes her positively Frida Kahlo-esque in certain scenes, while Amy Landecker both lightens and deepens her performance as control-freak-turned-train-wreck Sarah. With an impressive cast of queer guest stars including Carrie Brownstein, Trace Lysette, Cherry Jones,  Tig Notaro and impish porn performer Jiz Lee, this is a show that wears its queerness on its sleeve and that clearly cares about queer visibility. Anjelica Huston’s small part as a new love interest for Maura is, of course, transcendent and I cannot wait to see if she appears in season three.

Transparent‘s second season builds on the foundation of its first with a bold, complex look at intersectional identities and how these impact our lives, loves and families.

Francesca Lewis is a queer feminist writer from Yorkshire, UK. She writes for Curve Magazine and The Human Experience as well as writing short fiction and working on a novel. Her ardent love of American pop culture is matched only by her passion for analyzing it completely to death.

The post Transparent’s Second Season Brings Empathy And Nuance To Controversial Issues first appeared on Lesbian.com.