OBG Writing Team

Our Big Gayborhood was started officially on February 1, 2010 after being part of the progressive blog, A World of Progress for a year.  It was started by a couple of people who love the written word and wanted to share a GLBTQI slice-of-life with others who share ownership of that little amalgam of letters.  It’s our little place to express our diversity.

Lori Hahn, Co-Editor, is a 40-something mom to three adopted teenagers, three adopted Collies, a large extended adopted family and whatever kid  in the neighborhood might need a backup mom.  She likes to think she has the common sense provided by her Iowa upbringing yet loves her California life despite the constant pull to become a tree-hugging, camping, hiking, biking, granola girl.  Not that that’s a bad thing.  Cynical, smart-ass that she is, she calls an asshat an asshat and tries to find her way through middle age.  She has a love of hats, kids, dogs, spreadsheets, and is devoted to a number of social justice causes.  She lives in Northern California and is single and dating someone special. e-Mail lori at lori(at)hahnathome(dot)com

Margo Moon, Co-Editor, was born with (or maybe she chose?) a passion for horses, fine women and the occasional sip of good bourbon. Lucky for her, she landed in Kentucky where she’s blissfully surrounded by all three. All her interests, hobbies and musical tastes center around her animal friends, leaving a small environmental footprint, bending words into shapes that make people smile, and this one beautiful, brown-eyed woman in Kentucky. Margo’s penchant for adventure sometimes leads her across the Great Fiction Divide into the much more illusory territory of reality-based writing. Thus, her inclusion here in the company of the excellent Gayborhood team. e-Mail Margo at margomoon at hotmail dot com.  Margo’s Blog

Velvet Blade nearly drove her mother crazy since she could talk, begging to go to school to learn to how to read. Reading, writing and the study of literature and history have always been focuses in her life ever since that fateful early enrollment into kindergarten. Her love of writing she can be attributed to a childhood full of angst, and a young writer was born. She won many awards as a young writer and continued to do so throughout her adult life, primarily for essays, articles and poems (the sort you never want to share with your mother). As an adult, Velvet traveled the world, trained as an actress, producer and director and appeared professionally in film, television and theater throughout the United States and Europe. These days, she can often be seen with moleskine in hand, writing madly just about any place. She has a fetish for fine writing instruments and papers, often becoming cranky with those nearest and dearest to her who do not share the same fascination. Velvet currently lives in Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles, California with her partner, a fellow artist. Together they own an ever-increasing number of cats (what is it about lesbians and cats?) and one Shiba Inu who prefers screaming to barking. Velvet runs the lesbian blog Softly Dreaming where she discusses lesbian life, love, issues and politics, hopefully with whimsy, honesty, laughter and a dash of smart-ass. She is a contributor and author to several other blogs and Web sites while working on a book of humorous non-fiction. Velvet Blade’s Blog

Camlin is a pagan and a lesbian who came out at the age of 42. She lives in Southwestern Ontario with her younger daughter, a cat that owns the universe and a whiny dog that loves her unconditionally. She sometimes mixes up the names of her two daughters even though they were born fourteen years apart. She writes and blogs with passion and spends her days working with children in a small-town day care center. One day, she’ll figure out the mysterious world of dating and relationships. Maybe. Camlin’s blog.

Belinda Carroll is a stand-up comedian and writer based in Portland, Oregon. She caught the comedy bug circa 1986 in the 3rd grade when she was asked to play not only, “Aunt Sally” in the school comedic masterpiece “Tom Sawyer” but was also asked to sing the national anthem; in front of the entire school, in a gray-haired wig, floral mu-mu dress, and Mom’s orthopedic stockings. With her pride firmly in the gutter, her road had begun.

In a over-the-top, observational style, she tackles everything from her Missionary Southern Baptist mother, her life as a teenage Lesbian Avenger, to her current incarnation as a fabulous femme lesbian who missed her calling as Rupaul. Belinda’s Website

Diana Coe is a middle-aged, suburban single mom of one frighteningly energetic and wily 10-year-old son. Recently relocated back to her southern roots, she is now a scant two miles from her partner and anam cara, Li. The two met and began dating in college and then took a roughly 25-year break from each other to work all of their relationship angst out with other people before deciding to spend the rest of their lives together.

Diana, her son, and their cat live in a bungalow in a neighborhood filled with people who never seem to come out of their homes—but as of this writing the temperatures have yet to dip below 90° so she attributes this to daily heat warnings rather than stand-offishness. After 23+ years in the publishing field (still hoping to write her own book someday), she works as a project manager and copy writer in marketing and communications. She enjoys cooking for friends, taking Zumba classes, auditioning for roles in community theatre, and sitting in a little chair in her new bay window by the light of a borrowed art nouveau lamp doing needlepoint at night. Just in case you think her life is a tad dull? OBG let it slip a while back that she’s got a side hobby writing erotica and that book is definitely in the works. Diana’s blog.

Cody Daigle is an entertainment reporter and playwright living out and proud in the Deep South. A good Cajun boy from the middle of south Louisiana, he’s quite content living somewhere between southern gentleman and theater queen.

He’s always happy to share dispatches from his big gay life in Cajun country, chatter endlessly about pop culture, and talk shop with other theaterphiles.

 

John Dozer – Yeah, he’s  straight, but he swears he comes in peace, or at least similarly committed to many of the leftist causes and ideals that OBG have devoted its pages to, including the desire for gay, lesbian, and transgender members of our society to enjoy the same legal rights and freedoms that straight people do. He  likes the word “leftist” as opposed to “progressive.” Sounds more dangerous somehow. He’s married with three children. That’s easier to do when you’re a straight man, at least in Kentucky. His most cherished book is the IWW anthology edited by Joyce L. Kornbluh called Rebel Voices, but he’s read a lot of Hunter Thompson and Kurt Vonnegut too. He’s never voted for a Republican. He’s stubborn that way. He wants his country to live up to the promise of its ideals. This desire has nothing to do with Empire. Eugene Debs received nearly a million votes for President in 1920 while imprisoned for making an anti-war speech. This is one of his favorite facts. And he’s here to tell ya – that whole “sanctity of marriage” thing…it’s bullshit. What you should hear when someone repeats this nonsense is: “I don’t think that gay people deserve the same rights that I do.” Marriage doesn’t have “sanctity.” It is rather “sanctified” by law as something which gay people cannot enjoy. He hopes that he can help.

Lillian Faderman. From poverty to pin-up to PhD, Lillian Faderman is the award-winning author of numerous books on lesbian/gay history, including Surpassing the Love of Men, an acclaimed study of five centuries of love between women, and Odd Girls, Twilight Lovers, a history of twentieth-century lesbians in America both of which were both named among the New York Times Notable Books of the Year. Her most recent book, Naked in the Promised Land, received the Judy Grahn Award for nonfiction, and a Lambda Literary Award for memoir. She also has been given several “lifetime achievement awards” for gay/lesbian scholarship, including the Paul Monette/Rogler Horwitz Award, Yale University’s James Brudner Award, and the Publishing Triangle’s Bill Whitehead Award. She lives with her partner of over 30 years in Fresno, California. Lillian’s website.

Fannie is the alter ego of an attorney, writer, blogger, activist, and athlete living in the Midwest.

Fannie provides outstanding analysis of some of the most important issues facing the GLBT community.

When not blogging at Our Big Gayborhood and A World of Progress, she can be found hanging out in Fannie’s Room, planning the homosexual agenda, twirling her mustache, or coordinating the recruiting activities of the lesbian mafia. Her days are busy.

Grumpy Granny lives in Pueblo, Colorado, with her illegal wife of 7 years and together they grow food and grandchildren.

Granny has a wide variety of neighbors and friends who aren’t necessarily accustomed to having homosexuals around, but she subtly educates those in her community by living out loud.

When not gardening or granny-ing, she also enjoys blogging, walking across medium-sized countries and swimming in large bodies of water. GG’s Blog

Gary W Gregory Gary is a college English instructor, born and raised in south central Kentucky and dreams of eventually moving to Nashville (but not to pursue the elusive music career). He’s happily single (most of the time), with no kids, but spoils his only nephew rotten, much to his sister’s chagrin. He had an early desire to one day write for One Life to Live, but soon realized that would involve moving north of the Mason Dixon line. And that was simply unthinkable. In his spare time, he dabbles in writing poetry and fiction and is a photographer for a friend’s rock n roll band. Gary’s blog.

 

Chris Hemming is livin’ the dream with his partner and 2.5 furry children in Heteroburbia, aka “Stylish Acres.”

Chris graces Our Big Gayborhood to provide snark and sassiness in his own inimitable and stylish way.

By day a mild-mannered editor, by night a fabulous house-husband, he likes to garden, cook, play with his kids, read, muse about life in general, and … well, who doesn’t love to vacuum? Chris’s blog

Cathy Jameson hails from Chicopee, Massachusetts, the self-proclaimed Home of the World’s Largest Kielbasa. Having been traumatized from attending one too many giant sausage festivals in her hometown, she moved to Boston to pursue her career and become a lesbian. After spending nineteen years in Boston, she moved back to western Massachusetts where she currently resides with her partner and their two Yorkshire Terriers. Not being one to easily adapt to change however, she still travels to the Boston area almost daily, where she works as a computer programmer/analyst.

In addition to blogging, CJ enjoys photography, letting other people cook for her, and making fun of life’s every day events. She also writes at Martini Cartwheels.

Jester is a thirty something midwesterner living in northern California barely making a living as a musician and the owner of a cruise travel agency. He and his partner have been together since 2002 and share a home with their many shedding and chirping substitute children. His brain-droppings can be found at Jestertunes.

 

 

Elena J. Kelly is a single 53-year-old MTF lesbian-identified transsexual woman, living out and proud in northern California after escaping the confines of rural Colorado. She is the father of six adult children and works in corporate finance. She maintained a diary as a young girl until she learned that certain birth defects disqualified her from living her true gender. Those defects have been corrected and she is once again a very happy girl, except when it comes to discrimination, fundamentalism, poverty, bullying, sexual assault, and a few other hateful acts that makes her blood boil. She is a Chapter Leader for Marriage Equality USA, a member of the Stonewall Democrats, the Peace and Justice Network, and is the Director of the Stockton Transgender Alliance.

She is a graduate of the seminary at Bob Jones University with a focus in Ancient Languages, and has taken graduate work in Speech-Language Pathology, Law, and Project Management. She is ordained in three religions – Christianity, Shakta Hinduism, and Correllian Nativist Wicca, and published her first book (her own translation and commentary from the original Sanskrit) under the pen name Rick Veda in 2006 entitled Combating Inner Terrorism: Strategies of the Goddess from the Devi Mahatmyam. She enjoys annoying conservatives with her blog on Open Salon.com, and writes a monthly column in her hometown newspaper. Elena’s Blog

Brian Lageose used to be one of those idealistic, “change-the-world” dreamers when he first burst forth from college, worthless Humanities degree in hand. Then he discovered alcohol, sex, and the realization that he could dance provocatively in nightclubs and never have to pay for anything. And he got a job with a huge corporation that crushes souls.

Two decades pass as these avenues are explored.

Finally, Brian wakes up one day, vaguely remembers that he once dreamed of being a writer. A baby blog is started. Tiny wisps of validation are received. Brian considers, realizes that the lost decades were fodder and inspiration, vows to finally make something of his life, slips back into the writing saddle again, and things feel amazingly good. Game on.

Oh, and Brian is happily partnered with Terry, who sometimes chooses to understand him, they have a child named Scotch who considers it his divine feline privilege to rip apart costly furniture, and all three of them really wish people would just relax and quit getting so worked up about pointless things. Brian’s Blog

Jamie Machotka started as a suburban Chicago Jewish boy. Just the kind of guy you’d love to bring home to mom because he’s warm, friendly, charismatic, well-educated, thoughtful, sensitive, funny, and oh, yeah, he’s trans.

Jamie started public speaking at 15 to peers, parents, educators, organizations and politicians on the importance of GLBTQ safety in schools. He continues to speak on issues of advocacy to broader audiences today.

In 2007, Jamie regrettably graduated from Northeastern University and was unceremoniously booted into the real world. He picked the place to move – the one with super high rents, unemployment, and where everyone thinks they’re a star – Los Angeles. He also began transitioning from female to male. Still in LA, he contemplates life’s next move.

When he’s not seeing clients in his office at Panera Bread, he volunteers as a Lifeguard Workshop facilitator speaking about suicide prevention for The Trevor Project, the only 24/7 crisis prevention hotline for GLBTQA youth. Jamie also writes his own blog about his transition and life as a transman.

Maria lives in a little house on the prairie. She spends way too much time working and not nearly enough time lollygagging. She will go to almost any movie as long as Will Ferrell isn’t in it. She will watch Johnny Depp or Chloe Sevigny act in anything.

She would be a happy woman if she never had to cook again and has never been known to turn down a chance to go out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. She hold a restaurant record for drinking 5 glasses of Horchata in one sitting.

When left on her own, Maria prefers to drink like a fish, eat like a pig and watch reality television. So, it is a very lucky thing that she has a partner and a child to keep her in line. She also has a dog who looks and behaves like Ernest Borgnine. Taking him for walks is her only form of exercise. You may have seen Maria on day one of your pilates class. She’s the one who never came back as she does not enjoy sweating.   Maria has a blog called Just Eat Your Cupcake.

Pat Hitt Martinez is a 50+ mother of three and grandmother of five. She is retired from the military and lives in Western New York with her spouse of several years, Lisa.

Pat successfully filed suit against her employer for recognition of her same-sex marriage, making recognition of same-sex marriages mandatory in the state of New York (see Martinez v County of Monroe).

Pat enjoys knitting, reading, bicycling, remodeling the home, and getting her butt kicked by the Wii Active workouts.

Joe Mirabella is a Seattle based writer and an Iowa native. He studied creative writing at the University of Iowa.

During the day Joe works as a Social Media Consultant. He managed the social networking and online marketing campaign for Washington State’s historic Approve  71 campaign that ushered in the first ever voter approved expansion of LGBT rights in US history.

He continues to provide consulting and freelance writing services for non profits and huge multinational corporations.

During his free time he writes a blog on Seattle PI about LGBT Progressive Politics, is a Bilerico Project Contributor, is a regular diarist for Pam’s House Blend, and has been featured in the Dallas Voice, to name a few.

Deborah Pogue, though in the middle stages of life, feels like a shiny penny in some respects. She isn’t particularly fond of the “later in life” lesbian tag, but for lack of a better descriptor, she did indeed discover (or rather, claim) her truth nearly a decade after the split with hubby and children nearly grown to adult status.

One long-distance relationship gone bust later, she’s fully invested in getting on with a life begun anew.  Along for the ride are a son, a daughter, two cats, and a diva in the body of a Shih Tzu terrier mix, named Diamond. She chronicles her tales of life as a middle-aged lesbian (and more) on her blog, Middle Girl.

Justine Saracen. After years of ‘professing’ at universities and writing for literary journals, Justine Saracen began writing fiction. The first novel, The 100th Generation, which wreaks havoc with the Ancient Egyptian gods, was a finalist in the Queerlit Competition. The sequel, 2007 Lammy nominated Vulture’s Kiss, set during the first crusade dramatizes the dangers of religion in general.

The expatriate Brussels-based writer then moved her literary spotlight up a few centuries to the Renaissance, and a few kilometers to the north, to Rome. Sistine Heresy, conjures up a GLBT, and thoroughly blasphemic backstory to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes.

Mephisto Aria, in contrast, deals with devilish things, in a thriller that has one eye on the Faust story and the other on the world of opera. In Berlin, staggering toward recovery after WWII, a Russian soldier passes on his brilliance, but also his mortal guilt, to his opera singer daughter.

Saracen’s work in progress is about a transvestite in Venice who meets the terrors of the Inquisition and finds out something important — one might say appalling — about God.   Saracen has a self-declared mission, to repopulate history with “the likes of us.”

You can visit her at The Saracen Oasis, or follow her on Facebook (Justine Saracen) and on Twitter @JustSaracen.

Paula Sophia Schonauer is in her mid-forties and has just figured out what she really wants to do when she grows up. As a candidate for a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing, she is trying to launch a writing career while helping raise two children, go to school and work a full time job as a police officer with the Oklahoma City Police Department. She’s a former ordained minister (vocational diaconate) in the Episcopal Church USA where she was forced to renounce her holy orders in 2005 after transitioning from male to female. Bitter about organized religion, she still seeks the spirit and wrestles with questions of faith. She loves motorcycles, rock and roll music and slam poetry. Recently she completed the manuscript of her first novel, The Closet is Dark, about cops, their secrets, and the collision with truth.

James Villanueva. Like the character Roxy Hart from Chicago the Musical, James Villanueva was raised on a chicken farm outside of Lubbock.

Unlike Roxy, of course, James is always in search of jazz, and liquor, and the men who play for fun. However, being that Dairy Queen is considered fine dining in his town, he often comes up short.

James writes human-interest feature stories for The Slatonite Newspaper in Slaton, Texas and squeezes in freelance stories when not covering the shenanigans of the local quilter’s club. His work has been featured in Campus Pride, Gay Lifestyle Monthly, Dog Lovers Monthly, Southwest LGBT Press, The Lubbock-Avalanche Journal, Latino Lubbock Magazine and Texas Monthly Magazine; to name a few.

James has also worked for various organizations such as The Buddy Holly Center and The Silent Wings Museum in Lubbock, Brush Ranch Camps (featured on Disney’s Bug Juice Season 3) in Santa Fe, Northwestern University Settlement House in Chicago, and Camp Echo Lake in Upstate New York.

On lazy afternoons, while blaring Broadway show tunes from his office computer, James is busy at work on his second novel. His first novel, “The Sweet Taste of Bread,” has been selected for publication with Floricanto Press.

Whether they agreed to it or not, James holds a bachelor’s degree of science with an emphasis in Sociology from Eastern New Mexico University.

On most days, he is single. He wishes to extend his deepest sympathy toward those he’s ever dated. It’s been said by many, “James makes a terrible boyfriend but a superb drinking buddy.”   James Villanueva’s blog.

Lynn Young is a lesbian writer, photographer and educator of Lakota heritage. Lynn follows a traditional Native American spiritual path and works to educate students of all ages about Native American history and culture with equal emphasis on historical and contemporary issues. Lynn came out in mid life and is a Mother and Grandmother. As an LGBT activist, Lynn works with college students to create a climate that visibly affirms and supports the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning members of the campus community. Lynn is co-founder, facilitator and member of the safe zone program on her campus. She is a vocal advocate for diversity and inclusiveness in its many forms and encourages people to ask questions and challenge societal structures that propagate oppression. She lives on a small farm in Northern Indiana with her partner of 13 years. They keep busy raising rabbits, chickens and vegetables and are working toward self-sufficiency. Lynn loves blogging about her various interests. You find an eclectic mix of musings on her blog Lyncantations. When Lynn is not teaching or taking pictures or blogging she may be found making drums, dancing at a Pow Wow or attending women’s music concert. It’s hard to say where she’ll turn up!

Uncle Doreen is just an old fashioned lesbian who learned a long time ago that comedy is cheaper than therapy.