5 LGBT Good News Stories!

Okay so who remembers the last time we posted something LGBT related?! Us either and we feel bad that it's been that long. The good news is that a lot of the drama we used to post about- gay marriage for the UK and the USA is starting to become a distant memory. In fact in our world - our small, mainly Birmingham and UK, based world things couldn't be better for us. Our life as a lesbian couple is exactly like all of our straight friends life's....except with a lot more teamwork.

But anyway this post wasn't/isn't about us. On new years eve I was looking for some good news that had happened in 2018 so we could leave the negativity of Brexit and Trump aside. What I found was a heartwarming post filled to the brim with 99 good news stories we had never heard about....I am guessing you may not have either.

If you want to read the whole post it can be found here. It is written for Future Crunch who focus on collating good news stories.

We wanted to pick out the key LGBT headlines that we found interesting. We know the rest of the world has a long way to go with improving rights and understanding of/for the community so any good news is positive.

Here are the top 5 headlines we found:

• Costa Rica's supreme court ruled their ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional
• India's highest court struck down a century old prohibition on homosexual sex
• Lebanon issued a new judgement saying homosexuality is not a crime
• Trinidad and Tobago high court ruled a law banning gay sex as unconstitutional
• Pakistan passed a law giving transgender citizens basic rights and banning employers from discriminating

Other points we thought were really interesting:

• In 2018, for the first time since agriculture-based civilization began 10,000 years ago, the majority of the world is no longer poor or vulnerable to falling into poverty 
• Teenage drinking across Europe declined and the UK saw the steepest decline
• Scotland became the first country to guarantee free sanity products to all students AND
• Scotland became the first country to teach pupils about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex rights in schools

Anyway the whole 99 stories will take you abut 15 minutes to read if you have time and my mind was blown! It's amazing how many good things are going on in the world, they just don't make great headlines so we miss them. Well we do.

Anyway bring on an awesome 2019 and many, many more good news stories!

Australia: The Vote Is On!

A few weeks ago we posted about the vote on Same Sex marriage in Australia. At the time that post was published there were challenges in the high court to try to throw out the vote. They failed and today (the 12th of September) is the first day forms will be sent out to those registered to vote.

The first post with 5 things you need to know about the vote can be found here.

The postal survey will have one question 'Do you support a change in the law to allow same-sex couples to marry?'

That's it. A simple yes or no answer.

Now the UK may be a long way from Australia but there are more than a few reasons why this vote means something to us. To start Laura is half Australian, should we ever want to live in Australia or for me to get an Australian passport the law needs to change to recognise our relationship.

It is a civil right.

No-one should be able to vote on the legitimacy of an adult, consenting relationship. It's not fair. Love is love.

Australia is well behind the curve, for a country built on hard work, freedom and a desire to create a society for all the fact that equal marriage isn't already a law is shocking.

This ballot is ultimately a power play by the Prime Minister - this vote holds no binding in parliament meaning the outcome of the vote may not change anything! That's right the vote could show a massive support from those voting and gay people will still be unable to get married.

Okay so moving on, if you are in Australia 'Come Out For LGBT' friends and family. For those you know and those you don't. Be a part of a better future!

'Vote Yes' - your vote counts. Just as other countries have fought this battle we have seen that not voting is a win for the detractors. You have to make yourself heard and the best way to do that is to vote yes and make sure everyone else does. You can't leave this to chance.

Tonight I stood in a tent on the South Bank of the Thames in London watching Briefs an all-male boylesque circus act from Austrlia. We were invited as the show was to be followed by a rally to show support for Australia's equal marriage vote.

The Brief's spun, soared, stripped, danced and partied the evening away. You can see full show details here on the Udderbelly website. The audience was predominantly gay and as the compere shared how important it was to embrace diversity and differences the cheers and applause filled the tent.

The night ended with a photo shoot with the boys and supporters who had joined. The Briefs wanted to send a message of support to Australia and all the gay Australian's in London.

Thomas (2nd from the left in the pic above) shared his story:
Aerialist, contortionist and Briefs performer, Thomas Worrell who, as the law stands, is unable to marry his long-term partner in Australia says“Being in a same sex relationship, engaged and unable to marry while the entire country debates my rights is a complicated and difficult situation. To add to that being on the other side of the world and feeling removed from it all is even more challenging. That's why in true Briefs style we are going to make noise, even if we're on the other side of the globe. There are so many Australians living or travelling around the world who want their voices to be heard in this matter. Many Australian same sex couples have been forced to marry overseas but won't have their marriage recognised when they return home, and some just haven’t gone back. This is a chance for Australians living in London and others who believe marriage is the equal right of all to come together and celebrate life and just take a moment to acknowledge that while we aren't at home, we are still connected, still responsible and still have a voice. A way to come together and celebrate equal love.” 

d supporters who had joined. The Briefs wanted to send a message of support to Australia and all the gay Australian's in London.

Lets also hope that Australia sees sense and that the 'No' campaigners don't get the opportunity to spread their homophobic rhetoric that always appears when equal rights are being discussed.

#4 Top LGBT Blog in the UK, Youtube's Pride month video, and Other Pre-Pride London Musings

As it's only 3 (!!!) days until Pride London, some awesomely 'gay' things are happening this week that we wanted to share with you.

We are gutted that we won't be attending Pride London this year - it is our 'first' Pride, as we have been attending every year (except 2010, when we were in Sydney, and 2014 when we were getting married!) since we got together, over 7 years ago! Last year, we were honoured to be there for our first year wedding anniversary, and were featured in this beautiful video from Youtube in the wake of gay marriage being legalised across the USA:

This year's video to celebrate Pride month is about Identity - and it is beautiful and moving as always:

We have differing opinions on Identity - I have always liked labels, since I was a high school student, labelling myself as a choir geek and part of the 'second smartest group in my class' - as an adult, labelling myself a lesbian has helped me become prouder of that part of myself, and has helped me be a part of an amazing lgbt community I personally might not have had the courage to seek without my identity. To clarify, I only like self-made labels and identities - I'm not pro- people putting others into boxes where they don't want to be.

Sarah, on the other hand, doesn't like labels - she finds them derisive and restrictive and is way too picky to be defined by just a few descriptors.

Anyway!

We were notified today that we have made it to number 4 (!!) on Vuelio's Top 10 LGBT UK Blogs! This is fantastic news, and we are in great company - you can check out the article and the write up on us and our fellow bloggers here - make sure you check them out!

Photo courtesy of Barefoot

Finally, Barefoot wine has sent us a bottle of their pink muscato (coincidentally our favourite ever wine, we love a bubbly pink!) to make a cocktail they dreamed up specifically for Pride London this weekend. We've bought pear liqueur, passionfruit coulis, and we can't WAIT to have our own little celebration this evening! Look out for that recipe so you can try your own!




Happy Pride to our friends in London, have an amazing, safe time, and don't do anything we wouldn't do :)

Love is love,

For Orlando. Stand proud, Keep Dancing.

We didn't plan to write a blog post on the atrocity that took place in Orlando. Social media is filled with better written passages than we could ever create and stronger images than we could envisage. However over the course of today the united in love messages are giving way to something awful and we didn't want to stand by and not say anything. For taking no action is still taking an action - for letting the hate and support for the shooting take over and doing nothing is allowing negativity to win. Therefore we hope this post goes some way to pushing a negative post out of the way.

Before work today scrolling through comments on a number of Instagram posts we were horrified to see things like this on posts sending love to Orlando:

There were so many more but I don't want to give them any further publicity

It was only weeks ago that we wrote a post asking are gay rights still relevant - not because we don't think they are, but because so much of the battle seemed to have been won - at least in the Western world. These very comments we see posted on social media prove in fact that gay rights are still very relevant. While this one awful act does nothing to undo the work already done, what it shows it that changing hearts and minds is still very far from over. 

It is clear that people STILL do not understand that being gay is NOT a choice. 

Gay people are not perverted.

We are not an abomination.

Two people of the same sex holding hand is not a reason for disgust.

Two people of the same sex kissing is not a reason for anger.
 

Did you know in France in the 16th century there was no word for homosexuality or being gay?! That is because it was described as just a man loving a man - it was not judged or talked about in disgust, it just was. Love is just that - love. It shouldn't need a term to describe who the love is between, it should just be called love. 

Our marriage is just called marriage.

Our love is just love. 

'It matters not who you love, where you love, why you love, when you love or how you love, it matters only that you love' - John Lennon

To us this sums it up.

So while there are many in this world who are so ready to hate something they don't understand, those of us evolved enough to realise that love is a chemical reaction that can take many forms, we must be the bigger people. While awful, senseless individuals will find any excuse to hate we must do the opposite. While race, gender, religion and sexuality can all be reason to divide us surely love, peace and happiness are bigger reasons that could unite us?

Our hearts, thoughts and sympathies go out to everyone in Orlando and to anyone effected, while we may not have lost anyone we know, we know people who have. That is one thing we will take away from this - the world is really, truly, a small place, so the kindness you show to someone really can change the world. 

To anyone who is heading to a Pride this year, stay safe, stay proud, keep dancing, and never ever forget that by standing strong, by being 'out', we being brave. We are helping make things better for the next generation of LGBT people. Just as those who came before us risked their lives so we can attend these amazing Pride events, we must stand up in unity against the hatred and show that one individual cannot destroy the great work of many.

   

We are heading to a candlelight vigil at the Gay Village in Birmingham, tonight at 10pm. There are many similar events happening today around the world - if you can spare some time, head to one, remember the heroes that we've lost, and let's support one another.

PRIDE: Are gay rights still relevant?

It's Pride season again and we are prepped and ready!

We are lucky that Birmingham hosts one of the first UK Prides so we don't have to travel far to celebrate. With outfits ready and the sun shining we headed into town and took our place along the parade route.

We were photographed by quite a few people - Bisbee is quite the star- and one of the photos even appeared in a national paper here!

In preparation for Pride we watched MILK - have you seen it?

We had been meaning to watch it since we visited the Castro while in San Francisco and while the rainbow covered area was a great place to visit I had very little idea about it's significance. I had no idea that the streets we were walking on were the scenes of such momentous and historical relevance. In all honesty I had very little of who Harvey Milk was or why he is such a worshiped figure in the LBGT community.

The film was a documentary, educational and informative while bringing Harvey Milk to life. On finishing the film we both sat in silence, it resonated. The fact that we had been to the locations resonated. The fact that the issues highlighted in the film seemed so out of date yet still occur in parts of the world today, resonated.

The fact that Milk made political history in 1977 by becoming the first openly gay man in politics and was supported by Mayor George Moscone has had more of a baring on my life and other LGBT lives than I ever knew.

We are lucky enough to live in a part of the world where the response to 'i'm gay' is usually 'so what?' and having seen the film I will never EVER take that for granted.

While LGBT in the UK and USA are no longer persecuted or deemed 'sick' it is amazing that there are still headlines like this in today's paper:

From Daily Mail 11/11/2015

Or that in countries like Australia marriage equality is STILL to happen and there are still headlines like this:

From Daily Mail 11/11/2015

It is evidence that while we are a world away from what Harvey Milk fought for - stopping a law being implemented that would lead to the firing of gay teachers and anyone who supported them (he won by 75%) we are not far away enough. How was it only 2 years ago that gay marriage was made legal?

The other point that really stuck with me was the line that Milk kept saying 'show them that they know one of us' - what he was referring to was LGBT individuals coming out and showing family and friends that we are one of you, we are the same. We are no different. Being gay shouldn't define you, it is part of you but it is not all of you. It is something that I completely agree with. I am gay but so what?

'Burst down those closet doors once and for all and stand up and start to fight' - Harvey Milk

Some of Briggs arguments - shown in the film - were that having gay teachers in schools would allows them to recruit children to be gay! However it was the Anita Bryant part of the film that I found shocking - her arguments were based in religion. I found it shocking because the it wasn't that long ago in the news that 'The Mormon church ban children of gay parents'. The main line being ' In their new policy manual, the church also said that Mormon same-sex couples will be considered apostates (The term apostasy is used by sociologists to mean renunciation and criticism of, or opposition to, a person's former religion) under new church guidelines. '

It proves that while the social battle is being won and the LGBT community is more accepted than ever before there is still a way to go especially when it comes to religion and in parts of the world where Harvey Milk's points still resonate.

I Woke Up Like This - A Huge Step Forward For Idaho

Honestly, I couldn't believe my Instagram feed this morning. Scrolling through as I was waking up, I came across the news I hadn't dared let myself even hope for:

That's right, good old Idaho - I've always been proud of my beautiful home state, but at the same time completely mortified at how backwards the state is in some things - we are 50th in education funding (that's last.), have very right wing, anti-gay people in power, and nothing I've ever heard in the news here about Idaho has been good (think snake infested houses, neo-nazis.... the only good thing was when we were in the papers for our legal marriage in the UK, and it mentioned I was from Idaho!)

Of course, Governor 'Butch' Otter (the most ironically named governor I've come across due to his feelings on butch lezzies) is doing his best to fight the news and return Idaho to the dark ages (2006, when it was put into the constitution that marriage is between a man and woman). But you know, even if he succeeds this time, Idaho has made this step, and it will happen again.

Whether same-sex marriage is legal in Idaho for our wedding in 6 weeks time (I never thought I'd write that sentence!!!) or not, I will be a little more proud to be an Idahoan because of today.

I've got everything crossed for my little home state - because if this sticks we will have everything anyone could ever want - mountains, Whole Foods, copious amounts of potatoes, and the gays.

I'll keep everyone posted!

Sarah & Laura's Wedding: Only 3 Months.

Oh. My. God.

3 months.

Obviously it's all been excitement over here with the legal ceremony and the media excitement around the first gay marriages happening (tomorrow!!), but amongst all of it, our wedding day in June is drawing ever-nearer. Ever nearer!!

This month, we had a Skype meeting with our wedding planner, where we okay'd the final (ish) design elements, and its really really feeling real. Even the fact that we are over budget - boo! We knew this time would come, it was all going to well, but now we are down to making decisions about what we can save money on and what we don't really need! We are hoping for bonuses at work so that we can sneak a little more into the budget but we are well aware that running up a huge debt for one day - however significant - won't be worth it.

So while our debates continue and our wedding planner does her best to move cost and save us a bit of money we are concentrating on our legal I do's. But we did find out this week that our invites have gone out, so we are SO EXCITED!!!!! Not only do we absolutely love the invite design by our wonderful bridesmaid Julia but we can't wait for everyone we invited to see them too. And then there's finally getting to receive RSVPs and actually secure some seating/sleeping arrangements! Our wedding planner has been very relaxed about this while we wanted invites sent out ages ago. The logic Brandi explained to us makes perfect sense - send them too early and people will forget or lose the details - but L loves to plan and I am not good when things go to the wire so planning ahead is almost a necessity for us. 3 months ahead does not seem like a long time - but we negotiated to get 3 months Brandi was happy with 2 :) We went with the reason that as we leave the country the week before the wedding to head to VEGAS we needed more time!

Planning the wedding is one thing, there are so many blogs and websites that give you check lists and planning tools but when you are planning a wedding week it's a whole different story! It makes planning a wedding (with wedding planner help :)) seem easy. With guests from 3 continents flying in at different times, having different trips and with different expectations it's a logistical challenge that only L and her Mum could manage! I mean the spreadsheets - there are lists for EVERYTHING! For food,sleeping, travel itineraries, arrival times, hotel bookings - it's like we've planned a lifetime worth of trips.

Without our Mum's it is fair to say that we wouldn't get any sleep and would be more than a little stressed. Thanks to them the moment it gets too much they step in and do what they can and we are so lucky that they take care of everything and anything! While L's Mum is choosing stamps and addressing envelopes mine is sorting our flight and hotel payments and managing appointments! We will of course give them Mother's Day off!

Oh so yeah the appointments- this month there's the dress fittings, and we have booked hairdressers, manicure & pedicure's, the Bridesmaids are debating hairstyles and shoes and accessories are being ordered.

So while we continue with the celebration for our legal ceremony I thought I would end this post on a reflective note. Love. Isn't it amazing how happy love makes people. People you have never met, people you follow online or who follow you, people you work with, friends you known forever or have only just met and family - they all love love. Seriously the happiness and joy we have experienced has been overwhelming. It turns out people like sharing love with us! THANK YOU for all the kind comments, for all the support through our dieting, for all the comments and love you have sent but most of all for sharing our journey. Even out engagement video views are astounding (for us): It's here. In the last few weeks we've cried more tears of joy that ever before - partly because we are picking songs for the legal ceremony and big day - but mainly because of the love.

Enjoy your weekends and we will be sure to keep you updated on everything that happens as equal marriage becomes a reality in the UK!
If you haven't already find us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/sarahpluslaura
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Twitter: www.twitter.com/sarahpluslaura

Exciting Times!

In our world, every day's a gay day, but come this Saturday we will be flying our rainbow flag with pride as it's the day same-sex marriage becomes legal in England and Wales. Over the time we've had this blog we have followed the news with great anticipation watching countries and states vote for and against gay marriage and waiting for the moment we could get married - not civil partnership-ed - in our home country.

As L mentioned in our previous post, we will be among the first same-sex couples to be saying 'I do' on the 29th of March, and we couldn't be more excited. It will be a small intimate ceremony as for us this will be a legal ceremony, not our wedding - that will be in June. However the significance is not lost on us, our hope was that we could get married on our 5 year anniversary but that was two weekends ago and we would have had to have a civil partnership so we chose the next significant date. The date that same-sex marriage is legal, couldn't get more significant than that!

While we knew the day would be significant for us - after all, we will be getting legally married - but we didn't know anyone else would be interested, unless they were also getting married. How wrong could we be! As well as giving notice to a very excited Registrations Officer at Westminster Register Office, Emma, we were asked a few questions for a BBC programme about gay marriage and we were happy to share our experience. We also received champagne glasses from the council bearing their crest- amazing!

Then Emma gave our names to The Times, and well, you saw the result! (It's here if you missed it)

Then it all went quiet and we continued on with our wedding preparations, our invites are officially in but L will update everyone on that later :)

We also found out that London is throwing parties as well. G-A-Y are hosting a wedding party sponsored by Ben and Jerry's, an incentive for us to pop in me thinks :)

So an exciting weekend ahead, we can't wait to complete our legal ceremony and be part of history in the making but more than anything I am grateful that we can finally, legally, make a commitment in marriage to one another.

One question that all our interviewers asked was if we felt that legalising same-sex marriage would change people's opinions and increase acceptance and all we could say in response was that we hope it would. I think I may have even dropped this quote in on one interview - hopefully it makes it in! For me marriage is summed up in this:

I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS ALL SO REAL!!!

We're in The Sunday Times!

Happy Monday!

We had the absolute best weekend - from Lesbian Prom, to our anniversary celebration in London (5 years!), to being in the newspaper, it's just been incredible. We'll tell you about our weekend shortly, but for now, some big news....

A few friends and followers were probably very surprised when they opened up their Sunday Times yesterday and saw our faces!

As you all know, we are getting married in June, in Laura's home state. Well, unfortunately gay marriage is not yet legal in the great state of Idaho, so we will need to make our union legal here in the UK. We thought that if we have to have a ceremony here, we might as well be a part of history - and we managed to snag one of the last spots to get legally married in London on the 29th March 2014, or the day gay marriage becomes legal in the UK.

We'd planned on keeping our legal ceremony quiet, so as to not confuse people, or have them thinking we are having two 'weddings', but as it has gotten closer we've been contacted for a few interviews, and the true magnitude of the day, for us, and for all lgbt people in the UK, is dawning upon us. When we were asked to do the Times interview, we thought, well then it probably won't be a secret anymore, but how could we pass up having a memento from such a historic day like an article in the paper?

So, we are embracing it, as it is our reality. Idaho, a place we cherish enough to want to marry there despite it being behind times, will be where we hold our wedding - just not the legal ceremony. One day Idaho will catch up to the UK, and to other states of the USA but as it hasn't, we get the opportunity to legally commit ourselves to one another on the very first day that any same sex couples in the UK can, and be a part of that history. It's crazy to think about - currently, we, as a gay couple couldn't get married here. In less than two weeks, that will all change. We will get to wait and throw confetti to the gay couple who become married after us - and we will get to have a lovely dinner together, excited for our real wedding in June, the one we've been planning for over a year now, the one our family and friends have been amazing enough to come to, to help out at, to celebrate with us, the one we've dreamed about since we were little girls.

So without further ado, here's the little article we are pictured in, with our BFFs Ellen and Portia, celebrating the increase in profit for the wedding industry that will come with same sex weddings.

Exciting stuff!

From Sochi with not so much love!

Well, as the dark, wet evening once again surrounds London and makes our commute up to Birmingham that little bit more interesting, I thought I would put together a quick post to acknowledge the start of the Sochi Winter Olympics 2014.

As you may recall, Laura and I were in Russia not that long ago, in fact we stood in the centre of the Red Square and took kissing photos - imagine! We knew when we visited Russia that they weren't exactly a rainbow toting nation but they didn't really seem an overly friendly nation at all. Our News Years Eve involved being ushered through rows of gun wielding Russian soldiers and if you stepped out of line visiting Lenin's tomb you were yelled at. All in all the vodka was the best we've ever had, the buildings in the centre of Moscow were beautiful but the Russians weren't ready to make new friends with us!

So to the Olympics, all we hope is that the violence shown to LGBT folks over there doesn't continue and that Putin and his nasty cronies realise the joy in things that are a little bit gay - if not flying out of the closest in a rainbow flag or, you know, prancing around on ice-skates - you have to be good to prance remember otherwise it's just falling on ice!

Come on Putin, we're not all bad...

I mean how can you really hate gay people! I don't say that as a gay person, I say that as a human being who knows above all that being gay isn't about who you sleep with it's about who you love and when did loving someone ever cause society harm?! Love is love after all! And everyone will need that in the arctic cold Russian winter after a day slipping on snow and ice.

If there is a positive outcome to the homophobic Russians hosting the Winter Olympics, it's that some people, companies and businesses are pretty ready to come out, so to speak, and show their support to the LBGT community. Kudos goes to Channel 4 especially for showing this:

Not that we are all flaming gay bears ready to head up gay mountain, but it does sound fun!

Then there's Google- there is always good ole' Google:

Germany dressed to impress (kinda)

I want to know where Greece got these gloves!

And the gay Dutch snowboarder was modeling a wonderful Unicorn and rainbow glove:

Thanks for highlighting gaystarnews.com 

Canada even created this showing the games have always been a little bit gay:

The Guardian paper in the UK also added their support:

And for those brands who are yet to show support some people took matters into their own hands, Queer Nation put this together for Coca-Cola:

Let's hope that the LBGT community can be left alone to enjoy the games

"The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play." - Olympic Charter

and the UK win a few medals - Laura and I do love the Winter Olympics after all!