BY DATTCH STAFF

Today, Dattch, “The Lesbian App,” starts a column for Lesbian.com on love, dating and, well, lesbians. We figured a good way to kickstart this lesbian loving affair was to look at the celebrity couples that had it right.

So how about looking at these nine super cute famous lesbian couples? We promise your work rate will improve after reading this list. Either that, or you’ll be desperate to get a girlfriend of your own.

1. Ellen DeGeneres & Portia de Rossi

Although rumours of divorce seem to always to trouble Ellen and Portia, they still are the queen and queen of lesbian couples. They have have been together since 2004 and tied the knot in 2008, the equivalent of a 30-year marriage in celebrity years.

2. Chely Blitzer-Wright & Lauren Blitzer-Wright

Another married couple. Country star Chely Wright came out as a lesbian in 2010 and married girlfriend Lauren Blitzer. The two have twin sons and post loads of pictures of them on their Twitter.

3. Cara Delevingne & Michelle Rodriguez

So what if Michelle Rodriguez is apparently with Zac Efron now. Unless we have a bombshell on the way, Cara and Michelle will still hold the trophy of 2014’s coolest lesbian couple and deserve a place on the list. The English supermodel and “Fast & Furious” actress were paparazzi’s favorite gays.

4. Adele Haenel & Celine Sciamma

Adele came out in this year’s Cesar, the French Academy Awards, by thanking her girlfriend Celine. The two met when filming the lesbian movie “Water Lilies.” Adele was the lead actress, Celine the director.

5. Wanda & Alex Sykes

Comedian Wanda Sykes married the French Alex Niedbalski, a month before publicly coming in 2008. This adorable lesbian couple have two children together, Lucas and Olivia Sykes.

6. Michelle Harper & Jenny Shimizu

The model Jenny Shimizu is famous for dating Angelina Jolie in the 90s, but her current girlfriend is actually fashion brand consultant Michelle Harper. Rejoice in the super cute queer photoshoot the two did for a clothing brand.

7. Beth Ditto & Kristin Ogata

Last year, The Gossip’s Beth Ditto married her long-term girlfriend Kristin Ogata in a wedding ceremony in Hawaii. Beth was wearing a Jean Paul-Gaultier dress and Ogata was wearing a shorts suit. Alright for some.

8. Rose & Rosie

The lesbian YouTubers are, quite possibly, the cutest lesbian YouTubers on YouTube. You’ve probably seen Rose & Rosie’s gifs on Tumblr or watched videos of them goofing around. A video of them “superkissing” has over a million views, so safe to say they are popular with lesbians.

9. Ellen Page & You

A lesbian can dream.

Dattch — The Lesbian App is out for iOS and Android. Loved by Lesbian.com, AfterEllen and Autostraddle, we are the social platform for all things gay. Free download!

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Diedra Meredith, Chairwoman of OUTmusic

BY EMELINA MINERO
Lesbian.com

The LGBT Academy of Recording Arts (LARA) launched a social media awareness campaign, Freedom of Expression = Music Equality (FOE=MEQ). The campaign serves to commemorate LARA’s 25th anniversary, celebrate the 9th production of the OUTmusic Awards and emphasize the importance of supporting LGBT artists.

Not only is LARA hoping to raise awareness about the importance of championing queer musicians and the impact that music created by queer people has on both queer and mainstream culture, they’re also using this campaign to raise $200,000 to fund the upcoming OUTmusic Awards and a documentary about the awards, “For Which WE Stand (One Queer Music Nation in The Visible).”

“This film and the live production of the OUTmusic Awards is integral to the Academy’s mission to document and archive our movement and history,” said Diedra Meredith, Chairwoman of OUTmusic.

“Our goal is to create more opportunities for LGBTQ recording artists and ensure that queer music culture be included as an integral platform in the music industry,” said Meredith.

The documentary will interweave live footage from the OUTmusic Awards as well as interviews with LGBT artists and allies such as Michael Musto, Dolly Parton, Melissa Etheridge, Frenchie Davis, Diana King, Chely Wright and Tona Brown.

LARA is taking on the important task of ensuring that the LGBT community’s contributions to music are recorded. Mainstream media often omits the minority in documenting history and those stories go untold. LARA believes that part of the fight for equality is inclusion in mainstream history, that LGBT voices need to be heard and amplified. LARA’s mission is to highlight LGBT artists who have contributed to the music world and to bolster the voices of those who are currently making contributions. They work to ensure that the stories of LGBT artists are included in the annals music history.

“It is important that OUTmusic Awards be included and celebrated in media, music and entertainment history just as the Latin Grammy Awards, the Country Music Awards and the Black Entertainment Music Awards. The more LGBT people are included, acknowledged and celebrated for their achievements and contributions, the more impact we can make in changing hearts and minds to erase the stigmas,” said Meredith.

LARA is hoping that through FOE=MEQ they will also help highlight the importance that music plays in our self-expression and in impacting our culture.

“It is important that LGBT people express their authentic emotions and images through their music, art, acting, performance art and writing,” said Meredith.

FOE=MEQ is about more than highlighting the importance of freedom of expression. It’s also highlighting LGBT musicians and artists and bringing the LGBT community together over a common goal: freedom and equal representation.

LARA is run completely by passionate volunteers, and all of the money raised in the current campaign will go toward the production of the 9th OUTmusic Awards and “For Which WE Stand (One Queer Music Nation in The Visible).” OUTmusic, Inc., is a nonprofit and donations are tax deductible. LARA is hoping to get 200,000 people to make a $1 donation to reach their $200,000 goal.

As part of their fundraising effort, LARA has partnered with various out and ally artists to help spread the word about FOE=MEQ, including the cast of the web series “Producing Juliet,” film director Sean Robinson, Kristen Henderson of Antigone Rising, Jamaican recording artist Kat C.H.R. and many more.

Each week, LARA will release a new FOE=MEQ photo from their campaign on their Facebook page highlighting a different artist and what freedom of expression means to them. To join the campaign, visit the FOE=MEQ website. Donations to the fundraising campaign can be made here.

The post LGBT Academy of Recording Artists launches photo campaign first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Fans of openly lesbian country singer Chely Wright want to see her back on the Grand Ole Opry stage. Once a mainstay on the Opry stage, Wright hasn’t been invited to perform there since coming out publicly in 2010. Fans are hoping to change that with a petition campaign at Change.org.

The singer made a name for herself in Nashville with hits like “Single White Female” and “Bumper of my SUV” and was named one of People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People” in 2001. Since coming out, she’s released a new album, a book and her award-winning documentary “Wish Me Away” was featured at the Nashville Film Festival. But the country music industry has largely turned its back on the singer, failing to invite her to perform at the Opry or other major industry events.

At press time the petition had garnered over 60,000 signatures. If you’d like to see Chely Wright invited back to the Grand Ole Opry stage, sign the Change.org petition here.

The post Petition: Invite Chely Wright back to the Grand Ole Opry first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Chely Wright (left) and Lauren Blitzer at the Nashville Film Festival.
(Photo: Beth Gwinn/Getty Images)

BY KELLY MORRIS
TheSeattleLesbian

Country singer Chely Wright and wife Lauren Blitzer Wright welcomed two identical twin boys on Saturday May 18, Us Weekly confirmed. The boys are named George Samuel and Everett Joseph. Wright, 42 and Lauren, 31, said the boys are “thriving.”

Wright came out publicly in 2010 and met Lauren two weeks later. In an interview with the Today show, the singer said. “Country music has been described as being about God and family and country. And for some reason, people think that you can’t be gay and have those beliefs. That’s why I have to do this. I have to be the one to step forward.”

Read more at TheSeattleLesbian.com

TheSeattleLesbian online magazine reaches over 188,000 readers per week globally.

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All-American girl Chely Wright shocked the nation when she became the first U.S. country singer to declare her love for women two years ago with her seventh musical release “Lifted Off the Ground” and her confessional memoir “Like Me: Confessions Of A Heartland Country Singer”.

The country music world turned its back on the award-winning singer with only country legend Mary Chapin Carpenter and a little known country girl group SHeDAISY speaking out publicly in support of Chely.

Privately, a couple of Chely’s friends reached out to her telling her that they were, “really proud of you. Good job,” “I didn’t know, sorry you’ve been in pain,” and “I love you,” she says, but when the public spotlight was on them they didn’t comment or simply avoided answering the question.

However, the LGBT community embraced Chely, welcoming her into the folds inviting her to events and helping her through the journey of living her life fully and openly.

Since coming out she’s become an outspoken advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights founding the Like Me Lighthouse, an LGBT community center in Kansas City, Kan., where she was born and raised, and married her wife Lauren Blitzer last year. Chely has also been making up for lost time in the LGBT community, from a time when she couldn’t even fathom the community that awaited to embrace her and shower her with adoration and love, entertaining, such as at The Dinah!, in Palm Springs, Calif., and Capital Pride in Washington, D.C. and supporting events, such as the National Center for Lesbian Rights, based in San Francisco.

Chely also continues her work with at Reading, Writing and Rhythm, an organization that has raised more than $1 million over the past dozen years bringing musical instruments and granting money to public schools across the United States.

Now a new documentary, “Chely Wright: Wish Me Away,“ revisits that time in Chely’s life giving her audiences an private look into the tumultuous period before and after she came out publicly. Chely gave filmmakers Bobbie Birleffi and Beverly Kopf full access to her life to film” Wish Me Away“. She didn’t even view the film during screening edits, leaving her story fully in the hands of the filmmakers, she tells Girls That Roam.

“My manager and my best friend [who has seen the film] said … that it’s emotional and that I’m going to have to revisit some of the hard times that I went through, but that’s okay I know the ending of the movie. The ending of the movie is that I’m really happy,” says Chely.

“I’m proud and I’m happy that we did it. Hopefully, it will give some people some insight into what a daunting life it is to hide and a toll it takes on a person,” she continues, believing that celebrities who are ready to come out should.

“I felt uniquely positioned in my world of country music,” she says wanting to use the “public capital” as an all-American “good girl” who is a philanthropist. “I wanted to use that public capital well. If there is a 15-year-old kid that is thinking about telling her dad that she’s gay and is afraid to tell her dad, but her dad’s favorite country singer happens to be gay what a great way to use my voice.”

Chely’s fans can expect to see the singer at the depths of the closet where she didn’t even acknowledge the LGBT community existed for fear of wanting to participate, but not being able to in fear of losing her other dream: country music.

Nashville dreams

A soon as she graduated from high school, Chely packed her bags and moved to Nashville to become a country singer. She made it big in 1997 with the smash hit “Shut Up & Drive” in 1997. Her fourth musical release, “Single White Female,“ went gold in 1999.

Dreams coming true couldn’t heal the loneliness and pain lying about her true self.

“It transcends not seeing myself in the country music world,” says Chely about how she felt before she sat across from Oprah on TV and gracing the covers of Curve and People magazines claiming her truth. “I didn’t see myself anywhere. I didn’t see an image of me in my town or in my school … it was beyond frightening. It was beyond confusing. It was a color I couldn’t identify. It was a sound that I couldn’t identify. It was something so foreign to me that I felt like an alien is the best way that I can say it I felt like.”

“I always felt isolated,” she continues recalling the profound loneliness she felt that led her to holding a barrel of a loaded gun in her mouth ready to end her dream and nightmare in an instant. “Part of being in the country music community is that that fraternity and sorority of kinship and collaboration. So, it was a push and pull … I want in but I can’t get too far in, I want to belong, but I don’t belong. It was exhausting and it was scary.”

Fortunately, Chely is a fighter, during her darkest moment she had an epiphany and decided to sing a new song.

Proud. American.

Today, Chely, who has sung proudly for U.S. troupes in Afghanistan and Iraq up to eight times and has performed in Italy, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Germany, South America to name a few places she’s traveled to, would like to see Australia and Egypt.

“I haven’t been to Australia and I haven’t been to Egypt, so if you can find out a way to make that happen for me that would be awesome,” she jokes giggling.

Truly, seeing the world is the best part of her job and “music has taken me there,” says Chely, who never travels without the angel that her niece gave to her years ago in Las Vegas.

“I love it. I really love waking up and putting my feet down in different sand or soil each day. It’s the best part of this job … I get to put my feet down on different parts of the earth,” she says.

Yet, out of all of the places she’s traveled to or dreams of visiting she remains fascinated by North America, particularly America’s big cities and small towns and Canada’s prairies.

“I couldn’t begin to pick a favorite place or the most fascinating place. They are all pretty fascinating,” says Chely, pausing for a moment before continuing, “Actually, the United States, when you break it down and take a second to really metabolize it, the U.S. is fascinating — small town America is fascinating, big major cities in America [are] just riveting, the prairies of Canada [are] just beautiful.”

In spite of enjoying all of the places she goes to, nothing beats being home either in New York or Nashville, she says.

“Oh, god, it’s the greatest thing in the world,” says Chely, who simply loves vacationing at home. “Home is where I want to be. My apartment or my house in Nashville is where I want to be coming home, flipping open my suitcase, putting my laundry right in the washer, [and] getting in my spot on my couch and my bathtub — its great. It’s a great feeling — my pillow, my bed.”

This article was originally published by GirlsThatRoam.com, a women’s online travel magazine and community.

The post Backstage with Chely Wright first appeared on Lesbian.com.

“Chely Wright: Wish Me Away” opened Friday in Los Angeles. The film offers an examination of the lesbian country singer’s difficult coming out journey as documented by filmmakers Bobbie Birleffi and Beverly Kopf.

The film originally debuted at the Los Angeles Film Festival and has garnered numerous awards, including best documentary there and at the Frameline Festival. Jury and audience awards were also collected in Nashville, Palm Springs, Seattle LGBT, Philadelphia Q Fest and Atlanta’s Out on Film, among others.

Birleffi and Kopf, whose prior work on the 2006 documentary “Be Real: Stories From Queer America” had greatly impressed Wright, followed the singer over a three-year period, tracing both her private and public struggles with coming out, as well as the aftermath of her May 2010 revelation to People magazine and “The Today Show.”

Wright was once a hugely popular fixture in Nashville where she lived for 19 years until moving to New York in 2008. But once she unveiled her true self the singer-songwriter says she has been largely rejected by the tight-knit country music capital — and the country music machine in general.

“They just got really silent on me,” remarked Wright.

According to Wright, her record sales fell to around one-third of their previous level, invitations to major country music events dried up, and she has received hate mail and threatening letters. Perhaps most notably, Nashville’s famed Grand Ole Opry, where Wright performed more than 100 times, has yet to ask her back.

Wright’s last album, “Lifted Off the Ground,” released in 2010 in sync with her revelatory media blitz, was greeted by mixed reviews, virtually no airplay on mainstream country radio and weak business.

Wright hopes “Wish Me Away” will challenge its more conservative viewers to rethink their feelings about gays and lesbians.

“I want it to change hearts and minds. I want it to challenge stereotypes,” said Wright, who is writing a new country album. “I also hope that people who don’t think that they know anybody like me might come across it and realize that you don’t have to be gay to believe in the equality movement — you just have to be human.”

The post News: Chely Wright comes out all over again in ‘Wish Me Away’ first appeared on Lesbian.com.