 | | The Murmers
By Gina Bowers
It’s Winter Solstice, at a rare free show at The Key Club, one of the largest venues on the Hollywood Sunset Strip. Hip, hot girls pack the house, as Heather Grody and Leisha Hailey – the Murmers – hold court.
In shiny, skin-ass, tight vinyl pants, Grody takes the spotlight, rocking the mic and strutting as she sings the tongue-in-cheek favorite, “Rock Star.” Occasionally, she fires a friendly dig at her best friend Hailey.
Sporting a sexy, sleeveless vintage dress and motorcycle boots, Hailey returns the blaze of banter and leads into one of the group’s more saucy and satirical numbers, “Sucker Upper.” With its refrain of “sucker upper, star fucker,” the song holds particular irony for the pair, who count a number of stars among their inner circle.
k.d. lang, Hailey’s girlfriend of more than two years, is in the audience, chumming around with Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche. When Grody lays down at the edge of the stage, still playing her guitar, the ladies in the front row rush the stage in true girl-groupie style, reaching out to touch her and scream with delight. Cat-calls, whistles and peals of laughter punctuate the set, and all is merry and bright.
Someone’s In The Desert With Dinah
By Gretchen Lee
Photographs by Angela Cappetta
Let the boys have their circuit parties. For women, the Palm Springs Dinah Shore weekend March 25-28 is the biggest lesbian pride event in the world – with 20,000 women expected to converge in the desert for four days of dance parties, concerts, comedy and lounging by the pool.
Although “the Dinah” isn’t the only show in town – any time this many lesbians get together, it’s a crowd big enough to attract attention.
Especially when you hear the stories.
“People drink a lot and they get a little crazy,” admits Joani Weir, an event promoter who produced lesbian parties during the Dinah Shore weekend from 1990 to 1997.
“One girl wanted to go-go dance naked on the balcony, and I had to tell her it wasn’t OK,” says Weir. On another occasion, she recalls, a poolside ménage á trois was initiated amidst a crowd of mildly disinterested, if not slightly annoyed sunbathers. “You don’t just go to a public pool and think that you can have sex there,” says Weir. “I had to speak with them twice, but when I got them to stop, everyone at the pool applauded me.”
St. Croix Style
Model: Eurica Cobb
Photographs by Diane Butler
Fashion for the beach and beyond, with day-to-evening wear by Betsey Johnson.
Behind the Wheel
By Trisha Todd
As the lead in the lesbian classic film “Claire of the Moon,” Trisha Todd discovered truths about her life and her loves that parallel the role she portrayed on-screen. She explores these themes in her autobiographical novel “The Drive”, soon to be published by Naiad press. Read on for an excerpt that gives fresh insight into one extraordinary woman’s life.
The night before I moved to Iowa I got scared. I don’t think I had second thoughts. Well, maybe I did, but mostly I felt like I did when I was little and we would go swimming at the loody in Silverton, Ore. I would stand on the rock ledge waiting to jump. It was cool there beneath the trees, cold when you stood there wet after swimming. To get there you would have to climb up the slick, mossy rocks that hung out over the water; a constant stream of water kept it all moist and damp-smelling cool, a coolness so strong it runs all the way through your body, cleaning your mind and soul.
You Mean There’s Golf Here, Too?
By Nancy Levin
Of all the lesbians who flock to Palm Springs the last weekend of March, only a fraction actually make it to the golf course to watch the event that ostensibly started it all – the Nabisco Dinah Shore Golf Tournament.
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Coming To Terms With The Religious Right
By Donna Minkowitz
I started to write about the religious right eight years ago because I was afraid of them. Very afraid. I never imagined I would wind up writing a book about my similarity to them.
Whenever you find yourself haunted by someone’s evil, more is going on than meets the eye. When you find yourself consumed with thoughts of the evildoer, yearning to hurt them or even just to make them listen, very often it’s yourself you’re being haunted by. How else could the people that you hate make such an impression behind your skull?
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