Torres drops new album
Torres, the musician engaged to artist Jenna Gribbon, has dropped a new album: Thirstier. The concept centres around a “post-plague celebration”: “I wanted to channel my intensity into something that felt positive and constructive, as opposed to being intense in a destructive or eviscerating way,” Torres said. “I love the idea that intensity can actually be something life-saving or something joyous.”
Torres, born Mackenzie Scott, and Jenna Gribbon clearly have a strong love connection. The couple act as each other’s muses in their respective art. Torres explores the notion of “worshipping” your long-term, live-in lover on the album, and the insecurity many of us feel: that they’ll “shoot their arrow at a new obsession.”
Hinge partners up with The Lesbian Bar project
The dating app Hinge has partnered up with The Lesbian Bar project, to offer financial support to the limited bars that remain open. The 200 lesbian bars that existed in the 1980s have dwindled to less than 25. Helping the remaining lesbian bars survive is increasingly hard during the pandemic, when many of us have suffered financially, but Hinge has leant out a helping hand to keep the Lesbian Bar Project advocating for these almost-extinct spaces.
“This August, Hinge is providing stimulus payments to the remaining lesbian bars and encouraging its community to visit and support each location to ensure they survive the financial challenges of the ongoing pandemic,” Jarryd, a Hinge representative, stated. “The majority (81%) of lesbian daters on Hinge said it’s important to have access to a lesbian bar in their local area, and the top reason they prefer lesbian bars is that they make them feel more comfortable. Additionally, over half (60%) of lesbian daters on HInge are feeling anxious about dating right now — with 40% of them being nervous about finding things to talk about with a date.”
Call for an Anne Lister statue to be built at the University of York
Artist Ama Menec has sculpted a maquette (small scale model) of Anne Lister and is proposing for it to be expanded to life-size and situated at the University of York. In 2018, there was a petition with around 10,000 proposed to the Calderdale Council, UK, to honour Anne Lister in the region she lived, worked, and loved. This was met with a big “no!”
University of York has a new Anne Lister College. Ama Menec hopes, after casting the maquette in bronze and patinating it in life-like colors, the university will jump at the chance to feature a statue of Anne Lister on the grounds.
“All of this started because in 2018 only 3% of public statues in the UK were of named, non-allegorical, non-royal women, and absolutely none of them were of an out [and] named modern lesbian, with their statue bearing the L-word,” said Ama.
New lesbian-only dating app
Club Monocle, the “first-ever private Clubhouse app designed exclusively for Lesbians,” has recently been launched. “The clubhouse is a full-service social media experience where Lesbians can express themselves freely, in a comfortable space designated for same-sex attracted women. Club Monocle is a subscription-based members only app, with a privacy posting element, a general discussion center, and a separate exclusive dating area, among other features,” the website states.
“Being a Lesbian, nurturing, protecting and providing safe spaces for members of our community, fostering positivity and sincerity is integral to the ideology of Club Monocle,” founder and president of Club Monocle, Bianca Navaeh, outlined. “We will all have a space to call home.” Bianca also has apps in the works exclusively for gay men, bisexual people, and transgender people.
The app is available from the Apple Store, and from the Google Play store for Android devices.
The L Word: Gen Q is back with season 2!
The L Word: Gen Q season 2 launched on August 6th. Considering it’s the only lesbian ensemble on TV, many of us are (begrudgingly) looking past its clear problems, such as the sheer awkwardness of it all. What was once a natural plot flow, an ease between characters, and a discussion of important lesbian issues in the original L Word, has transformed into what it needs to in order to survive new censorship: safe.
There are some positives about the new Gen Q. There are more lesbians of color. There are characters of varying physical abilities. Bette and Tina will obviously get back together (again). Will Bette learn – finally – to stop treating Tina like a sidekick to her own artistic genius? Will she stop treating her like a housewife who must watch Bette excel from the sidelines? A chance as fat as her ego. I must admit, however, that she played a huge role in my lesbian awakening. That assertive power lesbian with something to prove has just always been so damn hot! I’d be her Tina any day… so long as she doesn’t cheat again!
