What's Happening Hot Stuff 7th May 2012!!

What a week - or maybe that should be weekend - we have had personally- we started off in Birmingham on Friday where we met up with the wonderful ladies at http://2bridesto2mummies.blogspot.co.uk/ and spent the day at Cadbury's World - we'll have a post about that later in the week! And then we've just come back from Windsor where we celebrated Megan (from Wegan's) 25th Birthday!

Before diving into the news we came across this video that gave us a few bits of info regarding sexual orientation that we didn't know and thought we'd share:

The rest of the world has had an interesting week too, so to cover it all in one post we thought we'd give you the links so you can read as much or as little as you like - and of course we will give our thoughts on the contents!

In London it has been confirmed that Boris will have another 4 years as Mayor - it's controversial but we're happy it's not Ken - he's creepy! The outcome was announced as voters across the UK took to the polls and results swung back in Labour favour. The change in support had some papers speculating that David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, will retreat over equal marriage - according to this article (HERE) that's not the case - thankfully!

Stateside, US Vice President Joe Biden, an outspoken, lovable 'Uncle' figure (in Laura's opinion) came out in support of gay marriage. This short video clip on 'Meet the Press' shows him explaining a point that we very much support - that gay marriage is a simple proposition - it's about 'who you love and will you be loyal to the person you love?'.  

It also brings up how 'social attitudes are changing' and making it more normal to be gay - he references Will and Grace starting the change, and it is amazing how many top shows now have lead gay characters - our favourite is still Brittany & Santana in Glee as we see ourselves in the characters.

JC Penny is once again hitting headlines because of One-Million-Moms. Are we the only ones who see the irony here?!?! Every time One-Million-Moms comes out against a campaign, it helps promote it - this time they want us to dislike an advert with lesbian Mums with a child. We covered the group's disapproval of Ellen back in February, check it out HERE.

Colorado has also moved a step closer to supporting civil unions- the Washington Post explains what's happening. The proposed measure would not allow couples to marry but it would entitle them to the same rights. Republican Don Beezley explain why he came out in support of the bill “For me, it really came down to that basic issue of fairness and doing the right thing.”


Shocking news - 'man up' - beat the gay out of your kids- that's the suggestion of a pastor in North Carolina! If you haven't already read the article it's here BUT be warned the contents are AWFUL! The overriding point is that the pastor thinks that children should 'conform to gender norms' and if they don't they should be FORCED to! One quote that highlights this is  “ when your daughter starts acting to Butch you reign her in. And you say, “Oh, no, sweetheart. You can play sports. Play them to the glory of God. But sometimes you are going to act like a girl and walk like a girl and talk like a girl and smell like a girl and that means you are going to be beautiful. You are going to be attractive. You are going to dress yourself up.”! Terrible, just terrible!

A Texas rapper makes a gay is OK music video - you may have seen this on our facebook page earlier in the week, but listening to it again we thought it was worth including in in this post:

Annoying - Denmark gay bar ban straight people kissing - because that's the way to get gay people accepted - NOT! Read about it here. We understand that gay bars are environments for gay people to feel safe and they shouldn't be turned into straight bars BUT surely this kind of attitude would mean that straight bars can ban us from kissing and then we start the cycle of 'the same but different' that we are trying to break. When we are out we want to be just like everyone else - we don't want to just hang out with just gay people!

As you may know, we got our 'What's Happening, Hot Stuff??' title from 16 Candles, a film about a girl coming of age, featuring the lovely Molly Ringwold - and lo and behold, in the news this week the actress, now 44, is going to have a lesbian fling with a new female character on ABC Family's The Secret Life of the American Teenager, according to gaystarnews.

Right, well, that's it for this week - we're sure there has been far more happening but these are the things that caught our attention!

Have a great week

Sarah & Laura

xoxo

February Photo-A-Day Catchup!!

Wow, we didn't realise what commitment-phobes we were. We thought posting a photo every day (or a few every other day) wouldn't be that difficult - boy were we wrong! First it was 2 days, then 4, then a week - and our resolve went downhill from there. This is reminiscent of basically every 'healthy eating' plan we've ever been on. So we are catching up here and now - we can't promise this won't happen again, but look on the bright side - February is almost over already!!

So, lets catch you up - click HERE for the rules and Days 1 - 3, HERE for Days 4 - 5, and HERE for 6 - 7. Seen it all? Great, lets get this party started!!

Day 8. Sun - 

This is a picture Sarah took from our bedroom balcony of the sunset over the Thames River the other day. So gorgeous, right? The park across the river still had some snow on it, and the sun was beautiful. We have said it many times, but we love love LOVE living on the river - it makes our days less concrete-y & city-y!!

Day 9. Front Door - 

Our flat front door is pretty uninspiring, so we thought we'd post the front door to our office! It's a very old building in Victoria, Central London (around the back of Buckingham Palace, so we can say HEYGURLHEY!! to the Queen), which everyone keeps telling Laura used to be the American Embassy. As if that means she should naturally know her way around the place. With five floors and countless rooms (some we are convinced used to be panic rooms), we are constantly getting lost, almost a year into our employment!

Day 10. Self Portrait - 

Wow, so many to choose from! Us two girls are masters of the self-taken photo, self-timed shots, arm-out.. we rock at it. We decided to go with one we haven't yet put on this blog, of us when we met Wegan last week. We originally were going to go with something sillier, but we came across this one, and we just look so happy, we loved it! :) Couldn't not put it up!! Because at the end of the day, that's what we are most - HAPPY!!

Day 11. Makes You Happy - 

The obvious choice for this one is each other, but its Saturday afternoon, and you know what's making us happy at the moment? Our big and little laptops. The pink is Laura's and the purple is Sarah's - a Christmas present from Laura & the Smiff family!!

Day 12. Inside Our Closet - 

Oh dear, brace yourselves - two girls plus one closet equals mayhem!! Sarah wanted to take a picture of Laura's 'floordrobe' but that was motivation enough to pick it all up haha!!

Day 13. Blue - 

We've only recently started using Twitter regularly, so we thought we'd highlight this - to be honest, Laura thinks Sarah overdoes it - she literally Tweets everything Laura says for like an entire day. That may be an exaggeration, but you'll never find out unless you FOLLOW US!!

Day 14. Heart - 

This is the first present Laura ever received from Sarah - upon her return from one month in Australia just after we got together! It's a silver heart-shaped bell, and reminds her that she always has Sarah's heart. Awww!

Day 15. Phone - 

You knew this was coming - matching phones!! We both have the Samsung Galaxy S on Orange - we are def Android fans! Laura recently got her plan down to cost only £15 per month - woot! Because the only person she calls/texts is Sarah. Some may call this sad, Laura calls it thrifty. Again - pink = Laura, purple = Sarah. Starting to sense a theme here?

Day 16. Something New - 

Sarah's new swimsuit for Thailand!! She got it from Pinup Girl Clothing! Does it look familiar? It should, it was featured on Glee!! Sarah looks beautiful in it and can't wait for summer to wear it!!!

Day 17. Time - 

We don't own watches, or an alarm clock - the only way we ever know the time is on our phones. This is the background on both of our phones. A great reminder of each other throughout the day, and only mildly awkward when it flashes up occasionally in front of coworkers/grandparents.

Day 18. Drink - 

(source)

Diet Coke, holla!! 

Phew!! Glad we get that out of the way. We promise to try harder, but don't be surprised if the last 10 days of February are all in one post too. Hope you've enjoyed it!!

Hey, why not become members of our blog, follow us on Twitter, Youtube and also Tumblr!! We would love it, and we're sure you would too!!

Love always,

Laura & Sarah xo

What's Happening, Hot Stuff?? 22/01/12

Welcome to this week's WHHS!

There has been SO much news relating to the cruise liner sinking off the coast of the Tuscan island Giglio killing 13 people and we hope that the boat's Captain gets the punishment he deserves for abandoning his ship with people still aboard. While the news is both terrible and shocking, the actions of the village people where the distressed survivors arrived on land show that acts of kindness still happen everywhere - they just don't get as much press!

It turns out that there is actually an entire week dedicated to Random Acts of Kindness - February 13th - 19th http://www.randomactsofkindness.org/! Our landlord's sister actually did us a great RAK yesterday - we had left our parking lot gate key in Sarah's car that was being fixed (so we had another one with us) and as we jumped around in front of the gate trying to make it open (as you need a permit to park on the road) very late at night, she spotted us (as she lives in the next block), got out of bed and let us park in her space. We were SO grateful.

We are now on a mission to complete our RAK!

In other news, have you seen the coverage around Sherlock Holmes being gay? Apparently, in the films and the new series, the title role has been portrayed as a gay man! We love the films with Robert Downey Jr. & Jude Law, and the BBC series set in 21st Century London. The best bit is they have scenes filmed around SOHO and the characters write a blog!

Great news for Glee fans too - Jane Lynch (love her!) and Matthew Morrison are the latest actors to sign up for a one night play in LA about the Proposition 8 ballot. The play revisits the measure which banned gay marriage in California. The play also stars Jaime Lee Curtis (Freaky Friday & My Girl (Laura has just announced she's never seen this film OMG OMG!)), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family - love him too!) and George Takei (Star Trek). It will be great publicity for the NOH8 campaign!

Every article we read on gay marriage makes the challenges we will potentially face even more real. Thus far we have been lucky enough to not have received any discrimination - in fact most people are fascinated by our relationship and interested to know more. However, a story we read recently really highlighted just how much this isn't the case for everyone. When we joined our gym we got a couple's discount and our personal trainer LOVED asking about us and our relationship - how sad that in Ohio not only did a gay married couple get denied the 'family discount', when they complained to the state they got told 'The state of Ohio does not protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and the state doesn't recognize same-sex unions.' Ouch! Outrageous! This. Must. Change.

Discrimination is awful wherever it happens and it's good to see that if you stir up hatred in the UK you will be punished. A group of Muslims who were caught handing out anti-gay leaflets were the first people convicted under a new law. 'The Public Order Act 1986 was amended by the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 to create the offence of intentionally stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation.' If found guilty the maximum sentence is 7 years. Sue Hemming of the Special Crimes & Counter Terrorism Division followed this up with this statement 'Everyone has a right to be protected by the law and we regard homophobic crimes, along with all hate crimes, as particularly serious because they undermine people’s right to feel safe. While people are entitled to hold extreme opinions which others may find unpleasant and obnoxious, they are not entitled to distribute those opinions in a threatening manner intending to stir up hatred against gay people.' 

A UK backbench revolt against equal marriage has started ahead of the government's consultation in March.  The Independent paper reported that Conservative MP David Burrowes (for Enfield-Southgate) says that the debate/consultation should be about 'how we view marriage rather than about homosexual rights, and that there was no public outcry for marriage equality. Many colleagues are worried that it would fundamentally affect how marriage between a man and woman has historically been viewed in this country. There are strong doubts that we need to go down this path. It would open up a can of worms and a legal minefield about freedom, religion and equality legislation. Gay marriage is a debate we don’t need to have at this stage. It is not an issue people are hammering us on the doorstep to do something about.'  Erm, where has this guy been living? It's not an issue?! It would open up a can of worms?! Do these people really play a role in the government of a country!?

MP David Burrowes

You may also have read the coverage about whether footballers should 'come out' or remain silent if they are gay. As a football fan (Sarah is a loyal Reading supporter), we can see the pro's and con's. Ultimately no-one should have to hide who they are BUT it is imperative football club managers support players, should they come-out. This is the first challenge to address. One of the UK's more out-spoken players Joey Barton has explained to a BBC3 documentary: “Certain managers will discriminate,” and “these archaic figures think if they had a gay footballer there would be all kinds of shenanigans in the dressing room.” Max Clifford, who has apparently known several gay players too frightened to come out, said: “When they have come to me to protect their identity, they have made it very clear that their career would be finished if they were known to be gay.” Coming out in the world of football has been a topic in the news recently after the Head of the German Football Association promised to support any player who chooses to come out. The documentary on BBC3, about sexuality in sport, shows on the 30th of Jan. It should spark an  interesting debate as there are currently no openly gay professional football players in Britain, and only two in the world.

Stateside, in Glee, Rachel's gay Dads have been announced as Jeff Goldblum and Brian Stokes Mitchell, and they will be singing a duet in the Valentine's day episode. Exciting! Obama has also been caught singing.... *swoon*

And there were some states this week, including Idaho, who got snow! Boise got six inches, but unfortunately it was all melted a day later!

Until next week
Sarah & Laura xoxo

If you have enjoyed this post check out other WHHS HERE!

Sarah's Fun Fact Friday- Happy New Year 2012!

Welcome to 2012 and my first Fun Fact Friday of the year.

Fresh off a hard week back at work and wishing I was still walking through the snow covered streets of Moscow, I am now turning my attention to finding fun facts to share with you.

Our snow covered plane

Well, as I still have Russia on the mind I thought what better place to start.....
Did you know Russia spans 9 time zones and is the largest land-mass country in the world! It also means that it borders more countries than any other. It is home to the oldest mountains in the world (the Urals) and the deepest lake in the world (Lake Baikal).

Russian is the fifth most spoken language in the world and uses the Cyrillic alphabet- so if you see something thats not written in Latin or Asian it will be Cryllic - my favourite letter is ж and my name became: Сара Nutley and Laura's became: Лаура Смит.

Capa & Лаура

Top 5 most spoken languages:
1) Mandarin
2) English
3) Hindustani
4) Spanish
5) Russian

There are actually over 2,700 languages in the world and over 7,000 dialects. And Africa has over 1,000 different languages alone!

Talking about language, have you seen if you type in Darren Criss into google translate and convert it to Japanese, then copy it in Japense and translate it back to English...it becomes Chris & Darren! Why do we care? Well, if you watch Glee you will know that Chris Colfer and Darren Criss play the ever-so cute couple of Kurt Hummell & Blaine. *collective Gleek sigh*

And so here's something for you to ponder as I leave you for this week. If you have set yourself some New Years resolutions which category to do you expect to full into?

• 75% of people keep up resolutions for 1 week
• 71% keep them up for 2 weeks
• 64% last more than a month
• and after 6 months 46% of resolutions should still be in place!

Higher numbers than expected! Have you set yourself any resolutions? We plan to do the 'keep fit' thing- we have a friend's wedding in Thailand in August so have to look holiday photo ready by then!

Happy New Year, I hope 2012 is filled with happiness, success and love!

Have a good week!

Sarah

xoxo

If you've enjoyed this post, find the other Fun Fact Friday posts HERE!

P.S. if you are reading this in Scotland...Happy Hogmanay! Or translated 'Hug Me Now'!


For those of you who use facebook chat try these:

• To Insert the like button into Facebook chat type the following “(y)”
• To get the shark type (^^^) 
• You can also make a human head appear in Facebook chat 
  to get the head type :putnam:
• Pac-man smiley :v
• I guess Zuckerberg was a star wars fan! 
  to get a robot type  ]
• To get the angle smiley type  O:) or O:-)
• To get the demon smiley type 3:) or  3:-)
  or if you use Google check this out: CLICK HERE! 

What We Love Wednesdays!! Brittana - Glee!

Once again, the choice of topic for this week's WWLW was hottly debated but we decided to go for something thats HOT on TV - Glee! Well actually, Brittana - Brittany and Santana. Why? We LOVE Ryan Murphy's portrayal of this couple, and of course they are gorgeous girls.

Having watched recent episodes of Glee where Santana has been 'outed', it made us remember why the writing in Glee is SO clever and how it really does help redefine stereotypes. For those of you who aren't Gleeks you don't necessarily have to know the weekly on-goings of Britanna for this post to be relevant, but to bring you up to speed (Here's what you missed on Glee):

Season 1 - no-one is quite sure if Brittany and Santana are 'just good friends' - they are both are seen with boyfriends until the 'Sectionals' episode, when Brittany mentions that 'if sex were dating she'd be dating Santana!' Fast forward to the Duets episode in Season 2 where they mention having shared 'sweet lady kisses', but Brittany starts dating Artie after Santana says she doesn't love her....as Season 2 continues there are more and more scenes of them touching, holding and flirting until they visit Holly Holliday (Gwyneth Paltrow) to discuss their feelings! Neither admits to being a lesbian but the song they sing says it ALL! Santana has a revelation: 'I’m a bitch because I’m angry. I’m angry because I have all of these feelings. Feelings for you, that I’m afraid of dealing with because I’m afraid of dealing with the consequences. I want to be with you, but I’m afraid of the talks and the looks. I’m so afraid of what everyone will say behind my back, still I have to accept that I love you. I love you and I don’t want to be with Sam or Finn, or any of those other guys. I just want you.' Moving on to the 'Born This Way' episode, our favourite episode of Glee - although the 'Lebanese' t-shirt was rejected by Santana as it was meant to read 'lesbian', it was a turning point and from then on it's been clear to all that Santana really loves Brittany! That brings us to Season 3 and even though there hasn't been an episode to 'DTR' (define the relationship) Santana is about to be outed in a campaign intended to bring down Sue (the cheerleading coach, resident bitch, one of our fav characters & congress seat hopeful- played by Jane Lynch (an all round AMAZING actress)) and as they say, 'thats what you missed on Glee'!

Fascinating as that all is, why is it the topic for WWLW? Santana's 'outing' brought up something close to home - amazing as our life is, I (Sarah) have not exactly had the easiest 'coming out' story. In fact, to this day my parents have decided that rather than acknowledge me being with Laura, I must NOT TELL ANYONE - I can be 'out and proud' as long as they 1) never have to hear about it, 2) never have to acknowledge it and 3) I can continue to have a relationship with them BUT make no reference to Laura, the things I do with Laura or how much I love Laura! So everyone I work with knows and in fact most of my facebook friends know (hell Laura and I do SO much together I don't want to be quiet about it!!!!) but no-one in my family (or extended family) can know. When Santana and Brittany hold hands under a napkin it might as well symbolise Laura and my life around my family - undercover! The sad thing is it's been 3 years. I have tried to prove being with Laura hasn't changed me, I have shown what Laura and I are capable of - I have even tried to involve them but to no avail. And so back to the Glee link and to refer back to the quote, I keep telling Laura 'I don't want to be with any other guys, I just want you'- thankfully she believes me! No amount of my Mum's praying, ignoring or hurtful comments about how I feel about Laura will make a difference, I just feel sad for the stuff that my family will miss out on.

True love, no H8

So- why do we LOVE Glee? We've found it is true to life - neither Laura or I have said we are for sure 100% 'Lebanese' - before 'we' happened, we had both dated guys - but I read something the other day that summed it up perfectly 'the guys were lovely, they just bored me, I didn't know what that meant until I met the One, then it wasn't boring any more' - it just happens that my One is a girl, my One is Laura.

We appreciate the increasing visibility of 'lipstick lesbians' to highlight that being a lesbian isn't about shaving your head, getting tattoos and looking 'androgynous' - in fact, since being with Laura I have become FAR more girly - we do each other's make up, go clothes shopping, cook, dance around the flat (mainly to Britney Spears see our love of Britters HERE)  - I think my parents have a hard time because they are so closed off and unwilling to see any good in anything that isn't stereotypically correct- I understand they fear being judged, I just hope one day their love for me becomes more important. Laura and I plan to get married, raise a family (of well behaved kids :) - and it looks like we have a chance, see HERE),  get dogs (already named as Nando and Sydney) and live happily ever after. Neither of us may be a Prince but who says we can't have our modern fairytale!

Lets hope Brittana get theirs - or at least continue showing that being in a girl-girl couple has far more benefits that 'sharing sweet lady kisses'!!!!!

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With love, Sarah xo