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1 Eastern Caribbean Cruise FEBRUARY 1-8, 2014 $100 OFF PP when you mention “Lesbian News” Welcome to the way the world should be! We ALWAYS charter the entire ship so you can be out and free! (800) 631-6277 • OLIVIA.COM Lesbian News Magazine | July 2013 | www.LesbianNews.com Eastern Subscribe Caribbean To Lesbian News Cruise FEBRUARY 1-8, 2014 NOW $100 OFF PP when you mention “Lesbian News” Welcome to the way the world should be! We ALWAYS charter the entire ship so you Subscribe to Lesbian News on your can be out and free! iPad and access the magazine as well as LN digital extras each month. (800) 631-6277 • OLIVIA.COM 3 July 2013 Features 12 Positive Reflections By Dian Katz, MS 14 Get In Here, You! CON By John Ester 16 Theorhetorically Speaking By Nikki McCauley TENTS 20 Transgender By Chris Angel Murphy 29 Living Out Inside LN By Sally Sheklow 30 Sperm Donor Genetic Testing 20 LIFE COACH’S CORNER By Sherron Mills 22 QUEERLY QUESTIONING 38 Words That Make Sense 22 MUSIC By Toni Hart 23 BOOKS 38 Alcoholism, The Thinking Disease 24 LOLs By G-O Digillio 27 MOVIES EYE C 30 POETRY 35 THE WEEKENDER Lifestyles 35 TRAVEL 18 Comic of the Month 36 HOT SPOTS By Gladi Adams, PhD 37 FEMASTROLOGY 32 Lucas Silveira Of The Cliks Is A Brand New Man By Michele Khordoc 8-11 Cover Story Lisa Koch (No, It’s Pronounced Coke) Cocks An Eyebrow At The Insanity Of Life. By Nat Burns Cover Photo by Thomas Bliss Lesbian News Magazine | July 2013 | www.LesbianNews.com “ I wish I could tell my younger self it gets better.” It can be hard to be young, but thanks to great organizations like GLSEN, the It Gets Better Project, Point Foundation, Teach For America, and The Trevor Project, we’re all working together to bring help and hope to all young people. Let’s keep making it better. Learn more about Wells Fargo’s commitment to the LGBT community at wellsfargo.com/itgetsbetter. HAPPY PRIDE FROM WELLS FARGO AND OUR COMMUNITY ALLIANCES © 2013 Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. Member FDIC. ECG-947837 5 LESBIAN NEWS Publisher, Editor in Chief Ella Matthes • Executive Editors Zoe Edgerton and Gladi Adams, PhD • Arts & Culture Editor Terry DeCrescenzo • Entertainment Editor Dian Katz • Film Editor John Esther • International Editor Heather Cassell • Music Editor Nat Burns • Newsbytes Gillian Kelly Sports Editor Anne Winchester • Travel Editor Barbara Horngren • Columnists and Contributors: Gigi Acevedo, Victoria Bearden, Heather Cassell, Toni Hart, Morag Hillsinger, Lillian Jensen, Dian Katz, Michele Khordoc, Kelly Lynch, Nikki McCauley, Carl Matthes, Chris Angel Murrphy, Kristi Pallino, Juno Parrenas, PhD, Sally Sheklow, Amanda Vallo, Donna Wade • Executive Vice President Stacy Cantrell • Creative Director Karen Jones • Circulation and Distribution (310) 548-9888 • Board Members Gladi Adams, PhD, Sherri Davison, Carl Matthes, Lee Werbel • LESBIAN NEWS P.O. Box 55 Torrance, CA 90507 www.LesbianNews.com • For Advertising or Print Subscriptions, contact: (310) 548-9888 (800) 458-9888 or [email protected] [email protected] online at LesbianNews.com • National Advertising Representative Rivendell Media (212) 242-6863 • Editorial: Administration: (310) 548-9888 Fax: (310) 548-9588 LN Editor E-mail: [email protected] Lesbian News (ISSN 0739-1803) is published monthly by LN Publishing, Inc. Contributions of news tips, stories, fiction and photographs are welcome. All submissions become property of Lesbian News and cannot be returned. We reserve the right to refuse any advertising that we deem to be sexually exploitive or offensive. Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles or advertising is not to be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such person or organization. Opinions expressed in Lesbian News are not necessarily those of the Publisher or the Editor in Chief. Copyright © Lesbian News, 2013. Magazine and/or its contents may not be sold or reproduced in any form whatsoever without the expressed legal consent of the copyright owner. The Lesbian News logo and “Lesbians on Location” are registered trademarks of Lesbian News. Jinx Beers Deborah Bergman Founder and Publisher Publisher 1975-1989 1989-1994 Lesbian News Magazine | July 2013 | www.LesbianNews.com 7 Lisa Koch (No, It’s Pronounced Coke) Cocks An Eyebrow At The Insanity Of Life. By Nat Burns Lesbian News Magazine | July 2013 | www.LesbianNews.com magine a cocktail made up of two parts Bette Midler, one part Cyndi Characters the duo created and profile in skits skew just south of reality but Lauper, three parts Lily Tomlin… and just a dash of parthenogenesis all ring true, such as crunchy granola folk duo Mud, made up of Compost I Morningdew and Dolphin-Free Tuna Womon and the dysfunctional mother- What can one say about an irresistible life force…a spiraling dynamo of daughter country superstars The Spudds—Euomi and Wynotta. And we nature…a lesbian wit with easy follow-through? mustn’t forget the lesbian couple, Ro and Judith, who run the Pussywillow Cove B&B in Port Ludlow. They call themselves part of the SQUEEL Plenty. If you can stop (the Sequim Queer laughing long enough. Unified Ensemble Entertainment League). Lisa Koch is a Lisa has co-written somewhat impertinent intense, funny shows Seattle-based singer and such as The Carpenters: comedian who, at the Uncomfortably Close drop of a hat, can don a To You, Two’s Company, mocking new persona. I’m a Crowd and Deja Whether it’s country Poo. singer Wynotta Spudd, nun Sister Mary Agnes, Together, Koch and Platt environmentalist have toured their own Compost Morningdew, sold-out stage shows, Xena, warrior princess, such as Pretty Girls, blues singer Blind Enid Not Too Bright, Twin Bailey, or ex-President Sisters of Different Cul- George W. Bush, de-sacs, and Desperate the Koch trademark Spuddwives, in theaters cleverness and hilarity all over— in London, come through every New York, San time. Francisco, LA, Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis An accomplished and Indianapolis. musician, Koch can In addition, yes, there’s also break out into more, much more, song with very little Koch and Platt, dressed prompting. Popular titles she has written and performed include: “Stainies in drag, are part of the The Sequim Gay Men’s Chorus, which includes in my Undies”, “Women’s Health Care Medley”, “I Never Think About D.J. Gommels and Michael Oaks. The four put on a Ham for the Holidays You”, “Beaver Cleaver Fever”, “Hands off my Clam”, “I’m a Middle-Aged program each year. Past titles, usually performed at the Theatre Off Jackson Woman” and, of course, “You Make My Pants Pound”. She even has two in Seattle, have been Ham for the Holidays: A Lard Day’s Night, Ham for musical albums out. You Make My Pants Pound & Other Show Tunes was the Holidays: Wham Bam, Thank You Ham!, Ham for the Holidays: Swine, released in 2002 and Tall Cool Drink was released in 2007. Both feature her Women and Song, Ham for the Holidays: Ham-Ageddan and Ham for the own special blend of wacky, hilarious songs. Even her label, Tongueinchic Holidays: Lard Potion #9. Records, Mamajune Music has that special Lisa Koch touch. Koch has been featured at the National and Michigan Women’s Music Guitar came easily to Koch. She is a self-taught guitarist, though one Festivals, Bumbershoot, the Vancouver Comedy Festival and has appeared would never know it while watching her expert performances, even when onstage with a wealth of talent, including Steve Martin, Janis Ian, Heart, she is off the cuff, playing accompaniment to her cousins in Germany The Indigo Girls, Kate Clinton and Suzanne Westenhoefer. She is a regular as they sing “Lili Marline” in German. (http://www.youtube.com/ performer on Olivia Cruises, has performed on LOGO, and is the recipient watch?v=hLUqJVnhwMs&feature=youtu.be) of a Just Plain Folks Award. This ever-ready machine of a woman is also an actor. She has appeared It’s been a busy year thus far for the prolific writer, actor, comedian and in The Vagina Monologues, Dirty Blonde, and as the Wicked Witch of the musician. She started the year with two weeks of performances on the Olivia West in The Wizard of Oz onstage. 40th Anniversary cruises. Then she moved on to revise her late father’s tribute show Show Me The Way to Go Home (formerly Demonstrate the As half of the duo, Dos Fallopia, with comedic partner Peggy Platt, a Seattle Place of My Abode). Then she made a book club appearance to create an stand-up comic, Koch combines music, sketch comedy, improvisation, original song based on the Bible. Ummhm. She has recently composed an amazing wit, and a bit of lunacy to produce biting commentary from a off-Broadway musical about Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas called 27, woman’s point of view. Working together since the early 90s, Koch and Platt Rue de Fleurus. One of her songs has even been sampled by Jay-Z, and have logged about twenty holiday shows together, with more than twenty- she and her music appear in a recent documentary called Two in a Million. five full-length performances, and countless international appearances. Currently they have released one album —which has achieved cult status— Dos Fallopia sang with the Kansas City Women’s Chorus, and will spend called, My Breasts Are Out of Control, and a video Pretty Girls, Not Too the summer in Indianapolis at the Phoenix Theatre. Then, of course, the Bright. Christmas show Ham for the Holidays for 2013 is scheduled this year for the ACT Theatre in Seattle as part of the Central Heating Lab’s productions.