Leta Blake

author. human. working hard to become stellar at life.

lesbian

224 authors giving away books for the LGBTQ Push Back Giveaway! #bethechange #pushback

by

giveaway poster

“224 authors, review bloggers, and publishers have got together to offer something wonderful: a reward for people who do a little bit to give back to charity. Instead of spending $5 on a book in the next two weeks, give that $5 to an LGBT charity of your choice, tell us about it in the comments, and go into the draw to win a book from one of our participating donors. And because it’s not all about money, if you can’t make a donation then please take a moment to share a charity’s links and tell us about that instead.

Three fundraisers have been set up to counter the hateful effects of Indiana’s SB 101. #Pizza4Equality is aiming to match the money raised by *that* pizza parlor, with all donations going to Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors Fund. Another fundraiser is aiming to raise $100,000 for Indiana Youth Group. Finally, Planting Peace is trying to raise $100,000 to provide beds for homeless LGBT people.

Please consider giving to one of these deserving fundraisers, or any other LGBT charity anywhere in the world. We’re not telling you where you should donate your time and money, only asking that you do. The smallest things can make the biggest difference, and together, we can do something incredible.”

Find out more at Diverse Reader! You can register to win! So many authors! So many books! Let’s do something together for change!

LGBTQBannerFB

I Contain Multitudes: Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Straight, Male, Female #LGBT #hetero

by

So, you know, I don’t know if this is because I’m a writer or if it’s because I’m weird, but I feel like there are all kinds of sexualities and people inside of me that just don’t have an expression in my physical form and me as I live my life now. I often talk about “my inner straight man” or “my inner lesbian” or “my inner gay man” and I think people think I’m kidding. I’m not. My inner straight dude totally has a type and I get really hot and bothered and entirely flaily whenever I am around someone who meets his criteria. If I had a penis and was a straight dude, I’d have to ask the woman on a date or find a way to be closer to her. Alas, the reality I live in is I’m a woman, without a dick, and I’m straight, and like dudes. But…that guy is still in me. He’s still feeling really adoring of these beautiful chicks that he’d totally want to make babies with and do manly chores for.

My inner straight men would really like to get to know this woman better, okay? Like in a naked way.
My inner straight men would really like to get to know this woman better, okay? Like in a naked way.

My lesbian also has a type and that kind of woman is entirely different from the inner straight man’s preferred lady. She’s even marginally different from the actual, for-real, totally me-as-I-exist-in-the-real-world’s bit of bisexuality. I’m really not very bisexual, but there has been exactly one woman that I’d have been persuaded to share some passionate months with if I wasn’t married and monogamous.

For the record, the guitarist here? This is her. If I'd been a) younger, b) unmarried, c) not with my now-husband, then I'd have let this woman show me some really stellar months and maybe years before I had to go back to men. Unf. She's so damn hot. The only woman really-truly-exists-in-reality-me has ever been attracted to in my life.
For the record, the guitarist here? This is her. If I’d been a) younger, b) unmarried, c) not with my now-husband, then I’d have let this woman show me some really stellar months and maybe years before I had to go back to men. Unf. She’s so damn hot. The only woman really-truly-exists-in-reality-me has ever been attracted to in my life.

Otherwise, the women that I find myself attracted to are really the province of the inner-lesbian. The gay woman who doesn’t get to live out her life in my skin because, well, I’m not her, but I am her. It’s weird. Like I feel like I’d need to look and just be different to ever really allow her to express herself. But, yes, her type of lady, the ones she gets all roused and hot over are not at all like the ladies my inner straight man likes. (Though, interestingly, neither my inner straight man or my inner lesbian like the media-ready model of a gorgeous woman. They like real, actual women, with real actual bodies and oddities.)

My inner lesbian is fond of the Samantha Brown type. Warm, feminine, and down-to-earth feeling.
My inner lesbian is fond of the Samantha Brown type. Warm, feminine, and down-to-earth feeling.

Inner gay dude’s type of man is 180 degrees different from my actual straight-lady-who-lives-in-this-straight-body type of guy. If I was a gay man, I’d want some moderately effeminate twinky guy for sure, but as a straight lady, I like “bear” types for lack of a better description. When I think about what my inner gay man wants, I feel taller, stronger, more focused and determined and would totally, definitely need a penis and a prostate. The kind of gay guys he’d be interested in would not be at all attractive to me as a viable sex partner. And yet inner gay dude is totally me, too. He’s just gay-dude me and he’ll never get to live an actual life, just like straight-dude me won’t, and lesbian me won’t either. It’s like they’re some AU version of Leta that exist on a plane that simply can’t touch reality.

Straight-me wants nothing to do with this kid, but inner gay dude? He'd top the hell out of him and then do it again...and then probably take him home to his mama and maybe one day get married, because he's heteronormative like that.
Straight-me wants nothing to do with this kid, but inner gay dude? He’d top the hell out of him and then do it again…and then probably take him home to his mama and maybe one day get married, because he’s heteronormative like that.

Anyone else have these inner people that are you but aren’t? They aren’t characters either, they’re much more solidly me than any of my characters ever are, but they aren’t me, either, and they’ll never get to live outside of urges and attractions that don’t fit my life or my body. So, let me know…am I alone in this sense of different selves? Or do you have any of this, too?

Homosexual or Homoamorous

by

gay-lesbian-human-t-shirt

Larry Benjamin has a great blog post up asking “Is Homosexuality Really Just About Sexual Identity?”

To quote:

I put forth the notion that “being gay, lesbian, homosexual is about attraction, it’s about who you want to hold hands with, who you want to go to prom with, who you want to build a life with. Sex is an outgrowth of attraction, an expression of something. And yes, sometimes it’s just a primal urge but surely not all the time, not every time, not exclusively.”

It’s a topic I’ve been thinking about recently myself, but had never gone so far as to spell it out in the way that Mr. Benjamin has done so well. I’d been thinking more along the lines of, “Maybe it’s time we stop thinking about it as homosexual and consider it homoamorous.”

The definition of the word ‘amorous’ includes sexuality but more largely encompasses the idea of falling in love. To me, that seems more descriptive of the majority of gay and lesbian experiences.