Frances Faye was Danny Kaye’s second cousin - I love how their names have the same delivery to them. She was a Jewish nightclub performer and actress who while not open about her bisexuality, at least hinted at it. And her material onstage did the same - bawdy if you knew what she was alluding to, as this song certainly demonstrates. She seems like a pretty interesting person with a great story - her partner for life after two marriages was also her manager, and she recorded several albums, and appeared in a few movies. This is a cool album capturing her night club act I have no idea when. I imagine the 1960s, but who knows?
“This is not dirty, it’s the way I say it.”
Toward the end of her introduction, she offers something of an apology for her handling of the book’s subject matter entirely from a heterosexual point of view. She suggests that it was not a matter of heterosexism (although she doesn’t use that term) as much as it was an acknowledgement that lesbian and bisexual women’s experience of their vaginas (in general) and sex (in particular) merit their own handling rather than being lumped together under one rubric.
As I mentioned earlier this week, I was invited to give the sermon this Shabbat at Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, MA for their Pride Shabbat. If you’d like to read what I had to say, it’s behind the cut.
…and it’s not too late to contribute!
If you’re outraged over the North Carolina vote, you can take action. Instead of writing off the people of this state who need support more than ever, help keep the institutions of the LGBTQ community strong when they’re needed more than ever. Your gift to the lgbt Center of Raleigh at any level will send a message that the LGBTQ residents of NC have the rest of us behind them.
Keshet is assembling a directory to provide a way for LGBTQ Jews and their loved ones to find welcoming institutions and spiritual leaders. The survey is very short and consists of a series of yes/no questions. If you are a member of the clergy or the leader of a Jewish organization, please complete the survey to add yourself to the directory.
The City of Raleigh has declared this All Families Matter week. (I’m guest tweeting from @lgbtcenterral today - follow me there for more pictured and awesomeness.)
Amendment One proposes to change the state constitution in such a way that not only would ban same-sex marriage, it would prohibit the law from offering any accommodations to any couples of any configuration, which could have such far-reaching effects as, for example, nullifying any domestic violence protections for unmarried women.
In other words, even people who oppose same-sex marriage should vote against Amendment One.
However, the campaign to get this message across to the state seems to be falling short, and as we approach the final week before the vote, that’s really fucking scary.
So click through this link and vote in this meaningless television station poll. And then make sure you tell everyone you know who votes in North Carolina, and everyone you know who knows someone who votes in North Carolina, why they should VOTE AGAINST AMENDMENT ONE.