Diane & Jacob Anderson-Minshall

Diane (born March 19) and Jacob (born September 14) Anderson-Minshall are co-conspirators in life and love. Their memoir, Queerly Beloved: A Love Story Across Genders (Bold Strokes Books), is about their 23+-year-relationship, which survived Jacob's gender transition. Their story has been the subject of numerous articles (including in The New York Times) and radio shows (like NPR's Story Corp). The couple also write the Blind Eye Detectives mystery series (Blind Curves, Blind Faith, and the Lambda Literary Award finalist Blind Leap).

Diane is currently the editor at large for The Advocate, the world's oldest LGBT magazine; editor in chief of HIV Plus magazine, the most widely read magazine for people with HIV; and contributing editor to SheWired.com, Gay.net, and OutTraveler.com. A longtime journalist who has appeared in dozens of publications including The New York Times, Bitch, Us Weekly, Seventeen, Film Threat, Passport, Bust, and Glamour magazine, she was also the co-founder of two women's magazines (Girlfriends and Alice) and the longtime editor in chief of Curve magazine.

Jacob recently sat on the board of Lambda Literary Foundation. He has written for numerous LGBT and feminist publications and, for four years, he penned the nationally syndicated weekly column, TransNation. He later produced and co-hosted the radio show, Gender Blender. His work is included in anthologies including Men Speak Out: Views on Gender, Sex, and Power(now in its 2nd edition) and the Lambda award-winning Portland Queer.

Jacob was assigned female at birth and identified as a lesbian for many years before coming out transgender and transitioning to male.


Diane and Jacob Anderson-Minshall are co-conspirators in life and love. Their memoir, Queerly Beloved: A Love Story Across Genders (Bold Strokes Books), is about their 23+-year-relationship, which survived Jacob's gender transition. Their story has been the subject of numerous articles (including in The New York Times) and radio shows (like NPR's Story Corp). The couple also write the Blind Eye Detectives mystery series (Blind Curves, Blind Faith, and the Lambda Literary Award finalist Blind Leap).

( Read more... )

Further Readings:

Queerly Beloved: A Love Story Across Genders by Diane & Jacob Anderson-Minshall
Paperback: 264 pages
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books (May 13, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1626390622
ISBN-13: 978-1626390621
Amazon: Queerly Beloved: A Love Story Across Genders
Amazon Kindle: Queerly Beloved: A Love Story Across Genders

Imagine if, after fifteen years as a lesbian couple, your partner turned to you and said, “I think I’m really a man.” What would you do? How would you respond? For Diane and Jacob (née Suzy) Anderson-Minshall this isn’t a hypothetical question. It’s what really happened. Eight years later, the couple not only remains together, they still identify as queer, still work in LGBT media, and remain part of the LGBT community. How did their relationship survive a gender transition? The authors explore this question and delve into their relationship to reveal the trials and tribulations they have faced along the way. In doing so, they paint a portrait of love, not only to each other, but to the San Francisco Bay Area, LGBT publishing, and the queer community. Queerly Beloved is a love story that flies in the face of expectations and raises questions about the true nature of identity, sexuality, and love.

More Rainbow Awards at my website: www.elisarolle.com/, Rainbow Awards/2014

Alexander von Humboldt & Reinhard von Haeften

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (September 14, 1769 – May 6, 1859) was a German (Prussian) geographer, naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835). Humboldt's quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography. (P: Joseph Karl Stieler (1781–1858)/Schloss Charlottenhof, Potsdam. Alexander von Humboldt, 1843)

Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt travelled extensively in Latin America, exploring and describing it for the first time from a modern scientific point of view. His description of the journey was written up and published in an enormous set of volumes over 21 years. He was one of the first to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean were once joined (South America and Africa in particular). Later, his five-volume work, Kosmos (1845), attempted to unify the various branches of scientific knowledge. Humboldt supported and worked with other scientists, including Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, Justus von Liebig, Louis Agassiz, Matthew Fontaine Maury, Georg von Neumayer, and most notably, Aimé Bonpland, with whom he conducted much of his scientific exploration.

Much of Humboldt's private life remains a mystery because he destroyed his private letters.

In 1908 the sexual researcher Paul Näcke, who worked with outspoken gay activist Magnus Hirschfeld, gathered reminiscences of him from people who recalled his participation in the homosexual subculture of Berlin. A travelling companion, the pious Francisco José de Caldas, accused him of frequenting houses where 'impure love reigned', of making friends with 'obscene dissolute youths', and giving vent to 'shameful passions of his heart'. But author Robert F. Aldrich concludes hesitantly: "As for so many men of his age, a definite answer is impossible."

( Read more... )

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_von_Humboldt

Further Readings:

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher

James Egan & John Norris Nesbit

Egan v. Canada, [1995] 2 S.C.R. 513 was one of a trilogy of equality rights cases published by a very divided Supreme Court of Canada in the spring of 1995. It stands today as a landmark Supreme Court case which established that sexual orientation constitutes a prohibited basis of discrimination under Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

James Egan (September 14, 1921 - March 9, 2000) and John Norris Nesbit, the plaintiffs, were a gay couple who had been in a conjugal relationship since 1948. Upon reaching age 65 in 1986, Egan became eligible to receive old age security and a guaranteed income supplement from the government under the Old Age Security Act.

The Old Age Security Act provides that a spouse of the pensioner may receive a spousal allowance should their combined income fall below a certain amount. When Nesbit reached 65, he applied to the Department of National Health and Welfare for a spousal allowance. However, he was refused on the basis that spouse, defined in section 2 of Old Age Security Act, did not include a member of the same sex.

Joseph J. Arvay, Q.C., represented the plaintiffs Egan and Nesbit, who delivered a motion for a declaration of unconstitutionality to the Federal Court of Canada (Trial Division). They alleged that the definition of "spouse" under the Old Age Security Act constituted an infringement of their right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law, entrenched in section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and that such an infringement was discriminatory on the basis of sexual orientation. Furthermore, they alleged that the section 15 violation could not be saved under Section 1. Nesbit and Egan petitioned the Court to remedy the alleged Charter violation by reading the definition of spouse so as to include same-sex couples.


Egan v. Canada, [1995] 2 S.C.R. 513 was one of a trilogy of equality rights cases published by a much-divided Supreme Court of Canada in the spring of 1995. James Egan and John Norris Nesbit, the plaintiffs, were a gay couple who had been in a conjugal relationship since 1948. When Nesbit reached 65, he applied to the Department of National Health and Welfare for a spousal allowance. However, he was refused on the basis that spouse, defined in section 2 of Old Age Security Act, did not include a member of the same sex.

( Read more... )

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egan_v._Canada

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher

Eric Bentley (born September 14, 1916)

Eric Bentley (born September 14, 1916) is a British-born American critic, playwright, singer, editor and translator. In 1998, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame and is a member of the New York Theater Hall of Fame in recognition of his many years of cabaret performances.

Born in Bolton, Lancashire, England, Bentley attended Oxford University, receiving his degree in 1938, and subsequently attended Yale University (B.Litt, 1939 and PhD., 1941), where he received the John Addison Porter Prize.

Beginning in 1953, Bentley taught at Columbia University and simultaneously was a theatre critic for The New Republic. Known for his blunt style of theatre criticism, Bentley incurred the wrath of playwrights Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, both of whom threatened to sue him for his unfavorable reviews of their work. From 1960-1961, Bentley was the Norton professor at Harvard University.

Bentley is considered one of the preeminent experts on Bertolt Brecht, whom he met at UCLA as a young man and whose works he has translated extensively. He edited the Grove Press issue of Brecht's work, and recorded two albums of Brecht's songs for Folkways Records, most of which had never before been recorded in English.

In 1968, he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.

( Read more... )

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Bentley

( Eric Bentley, 1986, by Robert Giard )

( Further Readings )

More Particular Voices at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Particular Voices

Kate Millett (born September 14, 1934)

Kate Millett (born Katherine Murray Millett; September 14, 1934) is an American feminist writer, artist and activist. A seminal influence on second-wave feminism, Millett is best known for her 1970 book Sexual Politics.

Millett received her B.A. at the University of Minnesota in 1956, where she was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. She later obtained a first-class degree, with honors, from St Hilda's College, Oxford in 1958. She was the first American woman to be awarded a postgraduate degree with first-class honors by St. Hilda's.

Millett moved to Japan in 1961, where she taught English at Waseda University and pursued a career as a sculptor. Two years later, Millett returned to the United States with fellow sculptor Fumio Yoshimura, whom she married in 1965. The two divorced in 1985. She was active in feminist politics in late 1960s and the 1970s. In 1966, she became a committee member of National Organization for Women.

Sexual Politics originated as Millett's Ph.D. dissertation and was published in 1970, the same year that she was awarded her doctorate from Columbia University. The book, a critique of patriarchy in Western society and literature, addressed the sexism and heterosexism of the modern novelists D. H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, and Norman Mailer contrasted their perspectives with the dissenting viewpoint of the homosexual author Jean Genet. Millett questioned the origins of patriarchy, argued that sex-based oppression was both political and cultural, and posited that undoing the traditional family was the key to true sexual revolution.

( Read more... )

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Millett

( Kate Millett - N.Y.C, 1987-88, by Robert Giard )

( Further Readings )

More Particular Voices at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Particular Voices

GRL: SJD Peterson

Starting from June 1, 2015, I will daily feature authors attending the three conventions I will join, Euro Pride in Munich (July), UK Meet in Bristol (September) and GRL in San Diego (October).

For the GRL in San Diego, October 15-18, 2015, today author is SJD Peterson: SJD Peterson, better known as Jo, hails from Michigan. Not the best place to live for someone who hates the cold and snow. When not reading or writing, Jo can be found close to the heater checking out NHL stats and watching the Red Wings kick a little butt. Can't cook, misses the clothes hamper nine out of ten tries, but is handy with power tools.

Further Readings:

Ruin Porn by S.A. McAuley and SJD Peterson
Paperback: 252 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (August 28, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1634764676
ISBN-13: 978-1634764674
Amazon: Ruin Porn
Amazon Kindle: Ruin Porn

There is underlying beauty in destruction….

Miah Thade, Finn Reese, and Ritchie Meyer are Resonator, an indie rock band with an edge―best friends turned rock stars, known as the Detroit 3. When Evin Rene appears in their life, none of them can deny he belongs with Rez.

They may have named their first album Ruin Porn because people get off on seeing how Detroit went from deeply loved to thoroughly forsaken, but they’re determined to prove that blight isn’t the entire story and blight isn’t always ugly.

Ritchie, Miah, Finn, and Evin take Resonator to a level no one anticipates. But no prosperity comes without sacrifice, and no secret stays hidden without a trail of lies. As Rez’s fame grows, so does the intensity between two of its members… as well as their potential for destruction.

Evin and Finn are about to discover the underlying beauty in their ruin porn.

2015 Rainbow Awards Submission: Not Such A Stranger by Dalia Craig

Not Such A Stranger by Dalia Craig
Lesbian Contemporary Romance
Paperback: 360 pages
Publisher: Lydian Press (September 12, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1909934682
ISBN-13: 978-1909934689
Amazon: Not Such A Stranger
Amazon Kindle: Not Such A Stranger

Two women, a lovely old house, and an ancient family feud, come together in this lesbian romance set in and around the picturesque seaside town of Whitby, North Yorkshire. When Jaime Fyre inherits Rykesby from her uncle, James, the unexpected bequest proves increasingly problematic. The sudden arrival of Kimberly Marshall, who lays claim to the property, adds to Jaime’s troubles. Why is Kimberly so convinced that Jaime is both a liar and a fraud? The mystery deepens when Jaime finds a photograph of her mother amongst her uncle’s possessions. Why is it there? Did her mother and her uncle have a relationship? Jaime’s search for answers draws a blank. With nobody left to ask, the list of unanswered questions grows, matching the tension between Kimberly and Jaime. As Jaime’s future happiness, and her relationship with Kimberly, hang in the balance will what Jaime discovers behind a locked door in the library help or hinder her quest for truth and reconciliation?

2015 Rainbow Awards Guidelines: http://www.elisarolle.com/rainbowawards/rainbow_awards_2015.html

2015 Rainbow Awards - Cover Contest

We have 482 covers in the poll.

To vote for the covers you like you can use the following form: http://www.elisarolle.com/rainbowawards/covers.php (you have to vote for at least 3 covers otherwise the vote is void; no limit on how many covers you can vote)

The poll will remain open until November 30.



Please fair play. This is the popular side of the Rainbow Awards, and I trust all voters to be honest.