GO Magazine’s Red Hot Entrepreneurs Includes the Ladies of Unicorn PLAN-IT

Intern Bren’s Team Pick

Its no secret how much we love GO Magazine and their lists. We’ve mentioned this on more than one occasion. The September issue no different. In it they’ve listed 2011’s Red Hot Entrepreneurs.

Here are just a few that may be relevant to your interests:

+ Romi Klinger of The Real L Word fame is on the cover! Autostraddle’s Miss December 2011 is doing great things with her jewelry line.

+ Hannah Lavon is a mitten-making lesbian. I seriously can’t think of a better kind. She and her business partner have created a product that takes the brutality of nature and makes it freaking adorable. Their company, Horray Hoopla, makes Predator vs. Prey mittens. On one hand you have an unsuspecting little fly or gazelle or fish and on the other you have a hungry frog or lion or whale. Sounds sad, but, I mean they’re MITTENS! And if you are looking for a way to break the ice with some cute barista, this could be just the thing.

photo by jessica winston

+ No list of hot ladies doing amazing things is complete without the trifecta of awesomeness that is Sarah Croce, Haviland Stillwell and Ashley Reed — the brains behind Autostraddle’s first original series Unicorn PLAN-IT. Just when you thought these ladies had reached the pinnacle of greatness, that they couldn’t possibly be more marvelous, they’ve gone and co-founded Lighter Entertainment, a production company set to shoot its first feature this fall!

photo by wingspan pictures

Seriously every one of these women makes me feel like a lazy lump on a log. You should read all their stories. You’ll be inspired to run a marathon, finally fill out that grad school application, or, if you’re anything like me, just get off the couch already.

100 Awesome Magazine Covers Starring Lesbians

So, as a magazine junkie, I’m a sucker for those “50 Most Iconic/Controversial/Well-Designed Magazine Covers” lists that seem to come out near-monthly. I don’t know why I click on them every time, as it’s always the same magazines, it’s not like one day I’ll wake up and be like, OH MY GOD JOHN AND YOKO IN ROLLING STONE I DIDN’T SEE THAT ONE COMING.

So I thought I’d make a list of the 50 Most Iconic GLBTQ Magazine Covers.

The problem is, it turns out, that people really don’t like to put ladies on magazine covers and finding 50 ICONIC covers was hard! Turns out that by “gay,” everyone means “dudes.” I know this comes as a giant surprise to you, my friends of all genders and sexual orientations — but literally every major mainstream-magazine’s BIG STORY about gay people had DUDES on the cover with a special emphasis on white dudes. Whether it was published in 1977 or 2011, stories about gay people in genreal are illustrated by dudes.

On top of that, so many of the iconic “celebrity” covers that sprang to mind — Adam Lambert in Rolling Stone, Clay Aiken/Lance Bass in People, Neil Patrick Harris in New York Magazine — were gay guys. And the last thing I wanted to do was make an OUT magazine-esque list (read: 80% men) for this fine lesbian publication.

Consequentially, I decided to leave men out of it altogether and just focus on Lesbian-Containing magazine covers from all over the newsstand, whether iconic or just emblematic of the times or just good-looking. This process took me literally ten days.

And I am proud to present:

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100 Lesbian Magazine Covers

 criteria: all of these magazine covers are from print magazines AND every cover, if it includes recognizable people, contains at least one woman who identifies as gay/bi/queer/lesbian or did so at the time of the magazine’s printing. except michelle rodriguez, but we had to include that cover b/c that’s the one where everyone thought she came out even though she didn’t come out.

Check yourselves out, you crazy diamonds! [Click to enlarge/see the gallery. There are two 50-photo galleries below for your delight.]

Magazines Featured in this Gallery:
+ GO! Mag
+ DIVA UK
+ Curve
+ The Advocate
+ OUT
+ LOTL
+ She
+ FlawLes
+ Alice
+ g3 mag
+ Dirty Queer
+ Maui Time
+ The Stranger – Seattle
+ qNotes
+ Girls Like Us Magazine
+ Out Northwest
+ Velvet Park
+ Cherrie
+ IKONS
+ Riverfront Times
+ SF Weekly
+ Boston Globe
+ People

Out of Print:
+ Vintage lesbian magazines including The Furies can be found at rainbowhistory.org
+ Outweek
+ Girlfriends
+ Jane and Jane
+ BOUND
+ On Our Backs

For more magazine cover fun, visit Newmanology!

Gay Moments in Music, Santana’s Sexuality, Vicci Martinez, Tegan Quin & Real L Girls

BILLBOARD’S 20 GREAT GAY MOMENTS IN MUSIC:

Billboard has published its list of “20 Great Gay Moments in Music” which wisely places “Adam Lambert Glams Up American Idol” in the number two slot, only behind “Kurt Meets Blaine on Glee.”

Other mentions relevant to your interests:

+ Jill Sobule’s huge 1995 hit “I Kissed a Girl”
+ Chely Wright, Lance Bass & Ricky Martin coming out
+ Madonna teaching heteros how to Vogue
+ Melissa Etheridge‘s 1993 “Yes I Am” record
+ …and finally, Lady Gaga fighting for gay rights

BETTY could not be reached for comment. Seriously though, I’m a little surprised Christina Aguilera‘s 2002 video for “Beautiful” didn’t make the list, or any mention of The Gossip or the Scissor Sisters, or David Bowie… What else would you have added to the list?

GLEE:

All signs are pointing toward lesbian homosexy goodness w/r/t Santana’s third season storyline, with a new lesbian co-executive producer (Allison Adler) in the mix and a brand new Ryan Murphy quote on the subject:

“The thing we’re not going to do is something I would feel is disingenuous – Santana being like, ‘Oh, I’m going to try sleeping with boys again.’ No, Santana is now officially a lesbian and will be dealing with that as Kurt did.”

And what about Brittana?

“Brittany with a coupla wine coolers in her is good to go, so never say never. But we haven’t really [worked out] that story. All I can say is we will be true to Santana’s sexual orientation.”

Hey, that’s more than Ilene Chaiken ever did or promised. Our faith is in you, RM.

THE VOICE / VICCI MARTINEZ:

Has there been a lovelier headline than the LA Times’ The Voice Recap: America Loves Singing Lesbians!? Aside from Riese’s frequent nuggets of genius, of course. Anyway, Vicci Martinez and Beverly McClellan are still in the running, holding down the dyke quotient for prime time television this summer. Sayeth the LA Times:

“Of the eight semifinalists in “The Voice,” only two are openly lesbian, but that’s a pretty high number: 25%. And both those two were saved by the viewing audiences’ vote, which has to say something: America loves singing lesbians!”

SheWired chatted with Vicci this week, where she addressed the controversy surrounding Cee-Lo‘s nonsensical homophobic tweet directed toward a random music editor who criticized one of his live performances.

“He [Cee Lo] got a bad review and I think it probably just hit him emotionally. I know that feeling too sometimes. I think he probably had his phone in front of him and you know… It’s too bad sometimes that everything is so accessible. You just don’t even get the time to maybe think about it a little bit.

I think that’s maybe what happened, because Cee Lo just loves the crap out of me and Nakia (a gay male contestant on Cee Lo’s team). And right away, he messaged us and was like, “I just want you guys to know that this just came out and that’s not how I feel. They are totally messing it up, blowing it up, and I just want to apologize to you guys first.” He was like, “so, if you start hearing stuff, just know that I love you and that’s just sometimes what happens in the business.”

Vicci performing “Jolene“:

TEGAN QUIN:

Our very own Tegan was Tegan was smack in the middle of the Vancouver riots that broke out after the Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. According to the (quite lengthy) article, Tegan had gone from the zen calm of yoga straight to watch the game at a friend’s house. After the home favorite lost, drunken Vancouverites started setting cars on fire, looting and breaking windows, echoing the same freak out that happened back in 1994.

“After a few hours of following the rioters on TV and fielding a call from her frantic mother — “They’re closing the bridges! You have to get out of downtown!” — Tegan finally braved the walk to her own apartment.”

She also briefly mentions beginning work on the follow-up to Sainthood:

“I feel like the last month or two, Sara and I have been pretty inspired by all the ridiculousness in the media and the world. There’s nothing like a little bit of anger and judgment to get the juices flowing.”

GO! MAG NIGHTLIFE AWARDS:

The cast of The Real L Word [Whitney, Tracy, Francine, Claire, and Romi] descended upon New York City last week to announce the nominations for the the GO! Magazine Nightlife Awards/Pride Kick-Off Bash and there’s red carpet footage to prove it. I had the pleasure of attending the event last week and it was jam packed with nearly 1,000 women hoping for a chance to sniff Whitney’s hair, per ushe.

GO Magazine’s 100 (Lesbian) Women We Love Features Autostraddle CEO, Other People

GO! Magazine’s 2011 Pride issue is out, Ladies and statistically a few gentlemen!

This year, as always, they’ve compiled a list of 100 Women We Love.

From GO! Mag:

The 100 Women We Love – out artists, elected officials, business leaders, athletes, community activists – are role models for us all. Many are up-and-coming movers and shakers; some are at the zenith of their careers. Some of their achievements change our world and, just as importantly, others improve the world’s perception of out women. They all strive tirelessly to increase our visibility and continue our incredible progress toward equality and justice.

Last year’s list included many Autostraddlers. This year it seems that GO! Mag loves many of the same ladies that Autostraddle would share a bed / sandwich / carpool with given half the chance. I think this validates our feelings, yes?

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Loves We Have in Common:

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bklyn boihood Co-Founder Ryann Makenzi Holmes

Probs you’ve heard of bklyn boihood. Their goal: to “provide visibility and empowerment to masculine-presenting queer and trans people of color.” And we’ve got Ryann Makenzi Holmes to thank.

Her current focus is on expanding the scope of bklyn boihood to include more hosting opportunities for networking, substantial program development and using social innovation to empower individuals and community efforts on a global scale.

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Miss June Francine Beppu

Co-Founder/Director of Business Development at NamiWave and Autostraddle’s Miss June 2012. I don’t know what can be said about Miss June that hasn’t already been said so just take a moment and wish you were that blanket or rug or whatever down there on the left.

For more of that purchase your 2011 Calendar HERE.
Oh, and she’s on some show called The Real L Word or something, IDK.

“In our technology-driven, modernized world, it’s mind-boggling how backwards we are in treating people with respect and granting everyone equal rights, especially when the issue at hand is love.”

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Singer Vicci Martinez

Did ya ever want to fast forward through The Voice just to get to the lesbian parts? Done.

“I love getting messages from people that say they are taking that leap of faith, and doing what makes them happy and passionate in life. That’s why I do what I do!”

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Singer/Songwriter Chely Wright

Chely Wright finally assuaged my guilt of liking country music. Finally a country music star who comes out of the closet, writes a book about it, gets engaged, and is interviewed by Autostraddle.

Ya’ll are gonna say KD Lang came out first. Fine, she’s on GO’s list too.

“I have lived a very blessed life and I know what it feels like to achieve goals. I want to do my part in helping others have as many opportunities to have milestones in their lives too.”

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Rapper Lady Sovereign

Remember when she came out? That was interesting.

“I’ve always felt that I’ve got this weird spiritual energy around me that means I’ll be okay, like having a guide. Everything has always happened for a reason, things always worked out in the end.”

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Musicians/Twins Tegan & Sara

When you’re trying to come up with a good fantasy sometimes its hard to decide which would be hotter – musicians or twins? With Tegan and Sara you don’t have to decide!

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Juicy Pink Box’s Chief Sexy Officer Jincey Lumpkin

In case you’re tired of girl-on-girl porn geared toward straight white dudes, there’s Jincey Lumpkin and her Juicy Pink Box.

“A lot of my customer base is straight women, and I love that, because Juicy Pink Box is exposing them to real lesbian sex and real lesbians. If I can help a woman to feel more comfortable exploring her sexuality, then I’m happy!”

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Student /Outserve Spokesperson Katie Miller

Just when you thought this lady couldn’t get any sexier you read the words “captain of the Yale women’s rugby team.” Yeah, it just got hotter in here.

“Military service is a great opportunity and honor, and there is no reason why America’s best and brightest should ever be barred or even remotely deterred from it because of discriminatory policies.”

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Most importantly though…

Autostraddle.com’s Editor in Chief / CEO RIESE DANGER BERNARD

She recaps horrible/awesome shows for you, you ask her weird things on Formspring, she says things on the internet, sometimes you agree with her, sometimes you yell at her and she loves you anyway, but really you shouldn’t yell at her. Look how adorable she is.

photo by robin roemer

Autostraddle.com, Riese Bernard’s phenomenally popular Web site, has enjoyed explosive growth in the past year. The site doubled its readership with lady-friendly advice columns, snarky cultural commentary and political news; launched a redesign and added social networking tools; coordinated a worldwide meetup for fans; and opened its online store. What’s the secret to Autostraddle’s success? “We employ a funny, conversational tone to make all that complicated DOMA and DADT stuff make sense and be fun to read, so everyone is informed and can fight properly with their parents at the dinner table,” Bernard laughs. “When readers tell us they’ve met other queers, come out to their friends and family, stopped hating themselves and decided life is worth living because of Autostraddle, that’s not just the most rewarding part of my work—that’s the most rewarding part of my life.” –KL

Kick Off NYC Pride With GO! and Real L Word’s Real Live Lesbians

Pride in New York City is so soon! And while it’s easy to get depressed thinking about the Rodeo Discos of yore (you guys, Mason-Dixon doesn’t even exist anymore!), there is a bright sunshine on the horizon because our friends at GO! Magazine are throwing a kickass Pride Kickoff Party that you should go to. It’s Pride! YAY!

What: GO! Magazine’s Pride Kickoff Party

Where: District 36 Nightclub, 9 West 36th Street
When: Wednesday, June 15, 7 p.m.

GO! Magazine is the epicenter of New York City lesbian nightlife and it divides its time between throwing the very best girl parties in the city and promoting the very best girl parties in the city and, of course, producing a kickass magazine which may or may not love the same people you do.

This year GO is bringing some Los Angeles residents cross-country to pollinate with all ye New Yorkers – you’ve seen them naked/half-naked, drunk, screaming, fighting, laughing and/or loving and now you’re gonna see them as the real human beings they actually are!! Did you know that Tracy seems even taller in person? You will!

Tracy, Francine, Romi, Whitney, Claire and Sara of The Real L Word will be in attendance along with 1,000 of your nearest dearest friends and exes. The event will also feature the announcement of all nominations for GO Magazine’s 5th Annual Readers’ Choice Nightlife Awards:

It’s time to nominate the ladies who keep your late-night calendar full–after all, just like the Academy, before we distribute the honors, we need to tally the votes. Join GO and celebrate Pride month at our Pride Kick-off and Awards Nominations Bash, where we officially unveil the list of nominees and categories and then roll out the red carpet and raise a glass like only GO Magazine can.They pour your shots, keep the bass turned up and probably know your ex-girlfriend. They are the reigning queens of New York City lesbian nightlife. And we are here to honor them, every year like clockwork, at GO’s Annual Nightlife Awards.

GO parties were the first girl parties I ever went to back in the heydey of my New York City youth because even though everyone from the scene showed up, it didn’t ever feel scene-y and was super diverse — like The L Word Season Four Premiere Party (with Jennifer Beals and Marlee Matlin!) (except we had to leave early because the episode was so terrible Haviland couldn’t stand it for one more minute), The 5th Anniversary Party (with Uh Huh Her, Julie Goldman,Dani Campbell, and a super-drunk Guinevere Turner!) and last year’s blowout at M2 Ultra Lounge featuring DJ Michelle Rodriguez , Kin-4-Life, Sarah Croce on the Red carpet, and, per ushe, lots of Go-Go Dancers and moderately famous women who like to go down on other women.

You can buy tickets at gomag.com. Go now, go.

GO’s “100 Women We Love” Honors Autostraddle CEO Riese, Julie Goldman, Miss April, Also Other People

GO! Magazine’s Annual Pride Issue issue is the year’s most hotly anticipated issue not just ’cause it’s got all your Pride Week listings (*cough*Rodeo Disco) and a Where-To Guide to New York City, but because it’s annual 100 Women We Love draws a diverse cast of 100 gaymos from Ellen DeGeneres to the sexy butch that runs our favorite Village vintage clothing shop and lays ’em all out for you. Hypothetically one might feel honored to be in such an issue just saying.

From GO! Mag:

As the first decade of the new millennium comes to an end, we take a moment to celebrate 100 out lesbians who have made the past year one of inspiring change and amazing progress. These are the women who fight for justice, chronicle our lives, lift our spirits and bring our communities together. From bloggers to chefs to entrepreneurs to White House officials, these are the women we love. So let’s hear it for the Class of 2010.

This year, Autostraddle kinda kicked ass and are repped hard core on this list and we’re pretty thrilled/honored/surprised/wet our collective pants, had to take them off, and couldn’t find new pants. So now we have no pants on, just like you would have always wanted! Also, a lot of women we actually love were on the list, even the ones who don’t work for us!

Go check out the entire list at Go Magazine RIGHTNOW I mean after reading this post.

Autostraddlers that GO Magazine loves:

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Internet Performance Artist Marie “Riese” Lyn Bernard

Editor-in-chief and CEO of Autostraddle.com, Riese (Marie Lyn Bernard):

photo by Layla Love

Look! Isn’t she cute? We think so. And by cute, I mean totally tuff.

“There are lots of lesbos out there who like books, hot girls, bad television, social activism and group therapy,” she laughs. “We provide all of those in one website! Our goal is to create web 3.0, in which the connections we make online either directly translate into real-life friendships, or empower our community online to be a part of their local queer circles.”

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Comedienne/Actress Julie Goldman

Star of Autostraddle.com’s most consistently produced, dirtiest, edgiest, bestest webseries of all time, “Julie and Brandy in Your Box Office,” Julie Goldman:

“I love romantic comedies and [The Nicest Thing] would be the first one that I could watch as an audience member and see myself, a butch-ish woman, reflected on the screen,” Goldman says. “This movie is the first of its kind, and we just need to find a groundbreaking visionary to join us to get this movie made.”

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Actress/Model & TV Host Sarah Croce

Our friend Sarah Croce, better known to y’all as Autostraddle’s Miss April:

photo by Robin Roemer

“I want to bring LGBT characters into everyone’s household,” she says of her impending media domination. “I want people to see that it’s not wrong or disgusting, but beautiful and human.”

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TV Personality Dani Campbell

Special correspondent Dani Campbell, who covered the Miami Winter Party and interviewed Pam Grier for Autostraddle:

“I hope to be a catalyst for young people to become involved in the fight towards equal rights.”

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Anyone But Me Creator Susan Miller

Miller and Tina Cesa Ward are the faces behind the hit webseries Anyone But Me, which just wrapped up its second season. She’s also a long-time friend and supporter of Autostraddle. She’s even helping us out with our Rodeo Disco pride party this weekend!

“It was important to both Miller and Ward that the show featured out lesbian characters, but as part of a diverse ensemble. As Miller puts it, ‘The other characters – straight, black, multiethnic – are no different from our two lesbian characters – each is unsure of his or her footing. They all have insecurities. And they all want to belong somewhere and with someone.'”

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If you’re a super old school Autostraddler with a kickass memory (as in: you’ve been reading the auto-universe since back when it was just a little personal blog and some l word recaps), you may recognize singer Anne Steele from the reading of Living it Out (a wonderful lesbian sitcom written by Riese & Carlytron that nobody ever produced because um, either it was bad or the world is bad, or a little bit of both) performed on the R-Family Cruise in 2007 starring Broadway’s Andrea McArdle! Here’s our cast photo, via Bruce Glickas for Broadway.com:

Cast of "Living it Out" R-Family Cruise Reading

And here we all are again, being loved and stuff. Also lesbians never age, true story. Also hello tragik, I love the cheekbones.

Also, some of our many wives are featured, such as Rachel Maddow, Sarah Paulson and Ilene Chaiken — haha jk on that last one. I mean she’s in it, but we wouldn’t f*ck her with a 10-foot pole.

And there’s even more of our friends and favorites, such as Gloria Bigelow, Suzanne Westenhoefer, Rosie O’Donnell, Erin Foley (Autostraddle’s Erin Foley Interview), Pam Spaulding, Jane Lynch because she can do no wrong, Ellen DeGeneres, Portia DeRossi, Kathy Wolfe, Constance McMillen, Beth Ditto and so much more!

Michelle Rodriguez DJ’ing GO’s Lesbian Nightlife Awards

Guess which smokin’ hot actress is hosting next week’s hottest NYC-area party?

Michelle Rodriguez. Betcha didn’t even know that she’s a DJ. Well, no one knew that Superman could fly either and then he was like Niagra Falls here I come. So are you gonna be there or what.

GO Magazine, the nation’s most widely distributed free lesbian publication, is hosting its 4th Annual “Readers’ Choice Nightlife Awards” on Tuesday, April 20 at M2 Ultra Lounge. This party is going to be so good that we’re actually voluntarily leaving our self-imposed Emily Dickensonian 2.0 bedrooms to socialize, dance, drink a lot of alcohol, and make sexually suggestive jokes about M-Ro.

Yeah we said M-Ro.

This year’s hotly anticipated event features actress Michelle Rodriguez – star of blockbusters like Avatar, Lost, Fast & Furious, and Girlfight – on the turntables as a very special Guest DJ.

Autostraddle correspondent and community activist Dani Campbell will host the evening, and award winning vocalist Anne Steele, recording artist Lori Michaels and acclaimed hip-hop duo KIN4LIFE round out the star-studded lineup.

“It’s going to be an incredible event,” says Amy Lesser, the event producer and publisher of GO Magazine. “No one parties like New York City’s lesbian community. Our annual Nightlife Awards are our chance to show our appreciation for the bartenders, party promoters, DJs and entertainers that make it all possible.”

Among some of the categories for awards given out, with our picks & predictions

Best Drink Deals: Free Vodka
Best Karaoke: Sweet Cruise
Best Billiards Spot: The basement of the first girl who ever made out with me
Best Pickup Spot: Library
Most Romantic Bar: Hershey’s Dark Chocolate
Hottest Go-Gos: Gadget Umbrella!

… as well as Best Party, Best Eye Candy Behind the Bar, and Best Burlesque Act. Go Mag is where everyone has gotten their nightlife listings since forever ever, so I think you should probs trust their nightlife to be awesome.

But seriously the parties always sell out, so if you wanna go you’ve gotta get your tickets now — General Admission Tickets are $20 and include an hour of complimentary Voli Vodka cocktails from 7-8pm. VIP Tickets are $50 and include complimentary Voli Vodka cocktails all night, special section and express entry at the door. [Purchase tickets here]

Anne Steele, KIN4LIFE, and Lori Michaels

We’ll definitely be there and looking forward to seeing some of your faces.

Click for info & to purchase tickets

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