 | | The Doctor Is Out
By Diane Anderson-Minshall
She’s been in Hollywood for 24 years — showing up in films like Deep Impact and sitcoms like Wings — but television viewers around the globe know Laura Innes as the conflicted, differently-abled, and just-coming-out lesbian administrator Dr. Kerry Weaver on America’s favorite drama, “ER.” She caused a firestorm last year when Weaver fell for, then flubbed a relationship with, a lesbian shrink. After Dr. Romano, “ER”’s malicious head honcho, fires her love interest for being, well, queer, Dr. Weaver — in one of television’s rare delightfully symbolic scenes — faces down the establishment amidst a row of men’s urinals and tells him that she too is gay.
Now, the actress behind the character, 44-year-old Laura Innes, has proudly become the poster girl for middle-aged lesbians everywhere.
Red, White and Indigo
In Concert With America’s Favorite Folk-Rock Girls
By Bayle Bayrd
Emily Saliers leans into the mike and lets her resilient voice fly. To her right, Amy Ray, hand in pants pocket, bends into her own vibrato.
It’s an hour before show time, and the crowd outside — a microcosm of lesbian society sprinkled with lefties, gender-benders, folkies, and their dogs — will do anything to catch a glimpse of the sound check, which takes vocals, five guitar solos, a mandolin strum, and a full set of harmonica scales to complete.
Gone are the days when openly gay artists are such a rarity that their very presence inspires blind devotion. But that hasn’t much affected the Indigo Girls, despite the fact that today’s baby dykes may be just as likely to listen to the homophobic lyrics of Eminem as they are to seek role models in their own community. (Much more in the current issue of Curve Magazine.) Order this issue
7TH Annual Photo Contest
“Smile for the camera” is the mantra of families everywhere. From major events to everyday moments, it seems the flash of the camera is always there to punctuate our lives. Photographs exist to document the things that really matter. And so it is with us — from commitment ceremonies to fishing expeditions and afternoons spent romping with the dogs, we take photos to help us remember who we are and to show the world what we really look like. Our families, our photos. It’s as simple as pressing a button. — Gretchen Lee
(Winning photos in the this issue of Curve Magazine.)
For the Love of the Game
How the NCLR’s new initiative is tackling homophobia in women’s sports
By Christianne Walker
“I grew up my whole life with people calling me a boy, or dribbling down the court and people screaming, ‘Dyke!’” says Jenn, a 28-year-old lesbian who played Division I basketball at an Ivy League school for four years. “It just was a regular way I existed.”
“Before I was out, I was afraid to join the softball team because of the fear of becoming what they called ‘Dykes on Spikes’,” says Tanya, a 30-year-old high school softball coach, of her college sports experience. “So many people didn’t go out for the team because of it.”
According to Helen Carroll — acclaimed National Championship basketball coach for the University of North Carolina-Asheville, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletic director for 12 years, and now one of the country’s foremost authorities on the issue of homophobia in sports — Jenn’s and Tanya’s experiences are all too common for female athletes. “Any woman athlete who plays sports, at some point in her life, will be called a lesbian.”
A Hands-On Business Venture: Cary Cruea’s Massage Bar
By Gillian Kendall
As the old joke goes, becoming a lesbian is like taking a vow of poverty. After all, our stereotypical career paths, such as teacher, social worker, librarian and artist, don’t pay well. Besides the glass ceiling — which seems to hang somewhat lower for lesbians than other women — we get held back by homophobia in the workplace and inequitable pay for “women’s work.”
Cary Cruea, owner of the Massage Bar Inc., smashes that stereotype. Now one of the massage world’s most successful entrepreneurs, Cruea, a 40-year-old lesbian, has built a thriving business out of her enthusiasm for bodywork.
Cruea’s Massage Bars in airports in Seattle and Nashville, and at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, attract thousands of weary travellers eager for a little respite from the stress of cramped airlines and long waits at the security gate.
Road Trips for Biker Babes: Six Rides for the Open Road
By Nancy Einhart
No matter where you hang your helmet, there’s always a new adventure somewhere around that next turn in the road. Curve asked women riders all over the country to share their favorite day trips.
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