The following is a message from Darrah de jour, the author of the new editorial column “Femme in the City.”

I am a writer and performer whose monthly editorial column, “Femme in the City” is now in print and online in dot Newsmagazine. This cutting-edge LGBTQI arts & entertainment magazine is housed in Long Beach, CA, but available in the following areas in paper version: Los Angeles, Long Beach, Inland Empire, Orange County, San Diego and Palm Springs.

It can be read Online at: www.dotnewsmagazine.com/la2.htm in the Los Angeles News and Society section. (Cover page: www.dotnewsmagazine.com/la.htm.)

Please take a look! The column features dating (of butches, trans-men & others), fashion, literary and artistic happenings in and around LA, and musings about the life of this high-femme.

Please feel free to give dot Newsmagazine your feedback, and myself as well. darrahdejour@hotmail.com, www.myspace.com/darrahdejour

Darrah de jour will be performing at the ‘Saturday Night Cabaret’ at Femme2006. 29 more days until the conference!

Previous Femme2006 posts here, here, here and here.

What’s your take?

“Party bisexual,” a new term growing in popularity to describe men or women who act out bisexual urges while under the influence of alcohol or drugs is getting a mixed reception.

The term “party bisexual” can describe those who identify as straight, but demonstrate an interest in people of their own sex when drunk. The term also applies to those who identify as gay, yet hit on the opposite sex while drunk, or to similarly unexpected couplings.

Some are calling the term progressive, a new recognition that bisexuals and bisexual feelings are more common than generally acknowledged.

But others, like 35-year-old bisexual Brad Brownfield, said the term seems derogatory and stereotypical.

“It seems to stigmatize the bisexual orientation as an irresponsible, party-based orientation,” he said. “I can assure people from personal experience that being bisexual does not equal being promiscuous, or make one more likely to party.”

Read all of “‘Party bisexual’ phenom draws mixed reviews” here.

The Christian Civic League of Maine brought suit against the Federal Election Commission in the District of Columbia claiming the League’s First Amendment right “to advocate for support of the Marriage Amendment was being unconstitutionally burdened” after the League was unable to broadcast a radio advertisement supporting the Federal Marriage Protection Amendment. The CCL planned to broadcast an ad identifying Maine’s senators “by name as having ‘unfortunately’ voted against the amendment two years ago” in hopes of putting pressure on the senators to be in favor of the amendment at an upcoming vote. Because of a FEC “electioneering communications” rule, stating corporations cannot use general funds to broadcast any advertisement naming a candidate and targeting relevant voters for a specific amount of time before federal primaries or general elections, the Christian Civic League was not able to broadcast the Marriage Amendment ad on the dates the League wished to: May 10th through early June. The League challenged the FEC rule and their challenge was unanimously rejected by a panel of one federal circuit court of appeals judge and two district court judges.

In a joint opinion, they pointed out that the Supreme Court has upheld the blackout provision against prior challenges involving socalled “issues advertising,” taking the position that Congress could protect federal elections from undue corporate influence by imposing such a rule.

Perhaps more importantly, the court pointed out that the statute left open plenty of alternative ways for the CCL to communicate its message. CCL actually did not have enough money in its own coffers to fund this advertisement, so it had come up with a donor. It could just get its donor to give the money to a political action committee, which would not be barred from broadcasting the ad during the blackout period. Or, it could spend the money to publish the ad in newspapers and magazines in Maine, since the FEC blackout period only applies to broadcast media.

Read more here (”Federal Rules Block Anti-Marriage Ad Broadcast” starts on page 7).

Lesbian/Gay Law Notes (June 2006) reports that Fontanez-Nunez, who first lost a case against his former employer in U.S. District Court in Puerto Rico, recently had his claim that he was terminated for reasons that violate Title VII rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit.

While employed at Janssen, Fontanez-Nunez was promoted and received several salary increases. However, during his last two years of employment, the employer claimed, he performed poorly, leading to his termination. Upon his termination, Fontanez-Nunez brought suit under Title VII, alleging that his former supervisor, Angel Natal, used foul language and often made sexual comments to him or in his presence. Some of these comments referenced homosexual activity, and one time knowing that Fontanez-Nunez was a pharmacist, Natal said that all pharmacists are homosexuals. Shortly before he was terminated, Fontanez-Nunez said, Natal remarked that he was looking for a homosexual with whom to engage in sexual relations. The termination decision was made by his last supervisor and another senior manager.

The court ruled in favor of Janssen because Fontanez-Nunez failed to present any evidence of discrimination and was unable to establish a prima facie case. He presented no evidence that the real reason for his termination was age or gender discrimination. The court stated that Natal’s comments might have been inappropriate, but they were not severe or pervasive enough to alter the conditions of Fontanez-Nunez’s employment and thus did not violate Title VII. Natal’s comments were typically directed at many employees. Janssen had a grievance procedure in place, but Fontanez-Nunez never filed a grievance on these issues.

More here (”Title VII Claim Premised on Supervisor’s Sexual Solicitation Fails” can be found on page 9).

July’s Carnival of Bent Attractions is up! Dean of Aman Yala did an amazing job with this edition. Read it HERE.

The August edition of the Carnival of Bent Attractions will be hosted at Coaching4Lesbians. Get your submissions in by 12:01AM on August 2nd!

Lenn Keller is looking for butches and femmes to appear in her new film Desire: Exploring Butch/Femme.

Hot femmes and butches of all ages and ethnicities are wanted to be in the vignettes (little stories taking place in the 60’s to the present) that we will be shooting.

Details about specific casting needs and casting call dates will go out as we get closer to the shoot dates which will take place on the weekends from July - September ‘06. If you are interested in acting or being an extra, please get on our email list, and we will send you a notice 6-8 weeks in advance of shooting.

To get on the email list or for more information call (415) 789-8477 (please let us know when you can best be reached). Email us at info@exploredesire.com

Headshots (or a snapshot) may be emailed to info@exploredesire.com or sent to: Lenn Keller, c/o Magnet Films, P.O. Box 22467, Oakland, CA 94609.

Another _Queer Shorts_ excerpt! This one’s from Gayle Lloyd’s “Evelyn.”

That night, in Evelyn’s bedroom, we slipped into separate twin beds. She had offered a quick hug, but no kiss, when I arrived and had brushed aside my gestures of affection. She was friendly but not loving. I hoped for a better response once we were alone and the lights were out.

I whispered her name a couple of times from my bed, but she gave no answer. I moved over to her bed, knelt on the floor next to her head, and whispered again, “Evelyn.” No response. I thought she feigned sleep because she couldn’t have dozed off so fast.

I stroked her hair. She didn’t move. I whispered again, “Evelyn.” Nothing.

Finally, I bent over and softly kissed her still lips. She might as well have been a corpse. I stayed beside her for a few minutes, gazing at her, hoping she would awaken to me. At last I realized how hopeless it was to try to rouse her. She would have her way.

My stomach churned and my throat and eyes felt dry and hot, but I could not cry. I crept back to my bed. It was hours before sleep finally overtook me. I was forced to understand that we were no longer lovers.

Gayle Lloyd lives in Atlanta. She is currently working on The Cat Comes on Little Fog Feet, a humorous, illustrated, literary cat book; An Incomplete Fool, a novel; and Legal Matters, a play about gay marriage.

_Queer Shorts_ is coming soon! Here’s a snippet from Jen Burke’s “Finding Room” (also posted at her blog here):

I have never had an affair with a married person. I am not your first affair during your long marriage. I need to hear it all again and again. Tell me. I ask you many questions about the other women. There were plenty of indiscretions on your part. There was the clichéd secretary you slept with over a period of years. You started sleeping with her during a blizzard when the roads were sheeted with ice. You couldn’t drive home, so you slept at work. She was the one who had a raspy voice and made necklaces woven out of chicken wire in her spare time. You haven’t spoken to her in fifteen years. I always ask about her. You never tell me what color her hair was, how she wore it.

I need to think that you are a good woman in a bad situation. That your character is somehow not responsible for your decades of the same pain and the same relentless dedication to a man who insists you are not vital. I want to see the world and your narrative as you see it, to believe that you are not responsible. I want to hear how you shape the world you inhabit.

I watch you lecture your students on a type of representational art one day, as I stand at the back of the hall, the “EXIT” sign glowing over my head like a halo.

“Don’t repeat reality,” you tell them. “Flat, silvery mirrors already exist for simple, accurate repetition. Look at your face in a spoon, on moving water, in tinted subway windows flying by, in someone’s dilated pupils. You know it’s your reflection. The contours are still unique and distinguishable. It looks like you. It is you. But you know it’s very far from reality.”