For the past four years something odd has happened in a sleepy town in County Durham and this year is to be no different. From the 2^nd to the 4^th of August 2013, beautiful music will be heard against a backdrop of sea and sand, straw bales will rustle gently in the wind, and lgbt musicians and artists will descend in tents and campervans to have a real good shindig. What is this odd occurrence I hear you say and how can I get a ticket? Well I caught up with Newcastle based musician sensation, Gem Andrews, to talk about her own music and insider tips for the festival itself.

Gem Andrews is a critically acclaimed artist in her own right, she launched her 2012 album ‘Scatter’ last year at the Cluny 2 in Newcastle. I was lucky enough to discover her music at the Women’s Zone at Newcastle’s 2012 Pride and have been a fan ever since. Her music is beautiful, melodic and heart wrenching. It’s music that’s good for the soul and I’m not the only one who thinks so. Gem has already toured in Europe, her fan base growing all of the time and in 2014 she is planning a tour of Canada and the US, including the NXNE Showcase in Toronto. So catching her at this year’s Muma Moonshine will be a real treat!

Describing her music as “Alt. Country/Americana/Dark Folk.”, Gem went on to tell me that she, “started playing guitar at about 6 years old, and writing my own lyrics at 14…However, it took until I was 20 until I could get up in front of an audience and play a song!”

“It often taken me six months to write one song!”

My personal favourite on her debut album is ‘Alright’, the lyrics send shivers down my spine every time I hear the song. I wanted to know what inspired Gem and how goes about writing her lyrics, “Reading and listening to how other songwriters do it. I love the songs of Leonard Cohen and Kate & Anna McGarrigle and try to only write lyrics that are totally necessary…which is why it often taken me six months to write one song!”

Luckily for us this lengthy time frame hasn’t put Gem off future music releases, “I’m working on a new EP at the moment. Five new songs that I’m hoping to put out on Vinyl by the end of the year.” Phew! Good news for us music fans. Although Gem so far claims that she has avoided any comedy disasters, she did reveal her music guilty pleasure to me, “Country-Rap. It’s a fairly new genre, there’s a lot of it on YouTube!” I’ll take your word for it Gem but if anyone fancies branching out… you heard it here first!

“Surrounded by friends and musicians that I love.”

Gem said that her best gig was, “Probably my album launch, at the Cluny 2 last year. I was surrounded by friends and musicians that I love.” Certainly Muma Moonshine reflects this desire to share wonderful music in intimate surroundings. I was lucky enough to be part of the audience at last year’s festival and the first thing I noticed was how different it was to other festivals I had been and other lgbt focused events I had attended. There was a real inclusive family vibe, everyone was incredibly friendly and more than willing to share straw bales with strangers and join in campfire sing-along’s.

Gem filled me in on the aims of the festival and who established it in the first place, “Muma Moonshine is a small but perfectly formed music festival for women, based in County Durham. It runs annually. It was established by musicians Gem Andrews, Sarah Van Jellie and Nicky Rushton in 2008. We’re all about supporting women artists and providing a LGBT friendly and safe space for performers, guests and their families.”

Fabulous line up

There is a fabulous line up too, “This year we are very very excited to have musician Fiona Sally Miller come up from London to play, we also have Beccy Owen, The Camp Vamps, Iceni, Mush, Hannabiell and the Ladies of Midnight Blue and many many more (more info on their respective websites). We have a very full, very fantastic line up of amazingly talented women.”

“genuinely excited”

Although Gem claimed not to have any favourites at this year’s festival, “I am genuinely excited about all of the live music this year. Lots of our artists have new albums and EP’s to promote, so I’m looking forward to hearing all of the new material!” She did admit to a few regulars who she looks forward to seeing every year. “Mush are a brilliant band from the North East. They’re made up of Nicky Rushton and Sarah Van Jellie who I run the festival with. I must have seen them play a thousand times, but they still have the ability to totally capture their audience. They’re pretty spellbinding; I know that a lot of our regular campers will be excited to hear them too. And of course the Camp Vamps, who headline the Saturday night – they’re such a great band, they always get everybody in the field dancing to the early hours!”

Gem also admitted that, “The perk of running a festival is that I get to book myself!” It’s a perk for the audience too; the festival wouldn’t be the same without the melodic tunes from Gem’s guitar.

“waterproof matches”

However, there are more important things to worry about than the actual music at the festival. For example, what should people bring? “Wellies, wet wipes and water bottles! Oh and maybe something to swim in, as Muma Moonshine is only a ten minute walk from a secluded beach!” As for Gem, she never goes camping without waterproof matches. So take heed from this sensible advice and make sure to bring some!

If you are interested in finding out more about the festival and attending, you had best be quick! This year’s festival runs from 2^nd August  to 4^th August. For more information, search ‘Muma Moonshine’ Festival on Facebook or even email them directly at [email protected]. Also, remember to visit Gem Andrew’s website to find out more information about her music and future gigs.

A few weeks ago, Channel 4 asked me to participate in their 4Thought programme on being LGBT and Jewish (I’d previously sourced them a friend for a different theme) to coincide with London Pride. I agreed, filmed it, and thought nothing more of it other than “ZOMG, I’m going to be on telly! And no-one watches telly anymore, so I don’t have to tell anyone if they make me look bad”. As it turned out, they took three hours of insightful, thought-out analysis on Pride, LGBT, Judaism, and our society, and produced a minute and a half of TV that barely mentioned Judaism at all and said not much more about anything else. Maybe I wasn’t soundbiteable enough.

The reaction from my friends, feeds etc, was as proud and as gay as you would expect. Several people had caught it airing, and as I was actually walking down the Pride route, a friend I went to school with and hadn’t seen in five years jumped out the crowd and screamed that it had been so long and had she seen me on Channel 4 the day before?

I didn’t want to contribute to the “Pride, what is it good for” debate that happens every year in the run-up to a major local Pride, so I didn’t say much about it at the time – I think it should be obvious to every LGBT person why we march, and the main arguments seem to be over money. Not that that’s not important, but it’s not something I wanted to get into.

But I checked my page on the 4Thought website recently, though, and I was surprised to see that all of the comments are from heterosexuals claiming that we don’t need Pride because everyone can be proud and Pride should be Equality Pride, to which everyone should be able to come.

Someone wrote: “I agreed with all of that until the last sentence. Pride should not be about reveling in the fact that straight people are the ‘different’ ones for once. Straight people should be as welcome at pride as gay people. It should just be a celebration of being proud of who you are: gay, straight or whatever!”

Another comment said: “we dont need pride because everyone should have the right to express themselves and be pround anyday. why have just one day. stop having gay pride, or black history week/month etc and just have people pride, we are all the same whether we are black,white,purple or green, or gay, straight, bi-sexual,trans or anything.”

I choose to assume that this people are genuine and not just homophobes trying to put a respectable face on their bigotry (not so sure about the comment who suggested Tolerance Pride, apparently unaware that you only tolerate things you can’t accept) like Straight Pride. I also assume with greater certainty that none of them have actually ever attended a Pride, as plenty of straight people go. The difference is that they’re assumed to be LGBT unless they explicitly specify otherwise – exactly the opposite of every other day of the year. That was my point. That’s the point.

I had a great time at London Pride, but apparently in between the sticker-collecting, enthusiastic cheering for the LGBT Nigerian group that turned out (all two of them), and silent disapproval of all the corporate delegations that showed up (Facebook had more people there than Stonewall), we forgot to tell people why we were there.

The part of the Pride that I was watching from happening to be one of the designated crossing gates, so that at gaps in the march, people could get across from one side of the road to the other (one of the friends I was with told me that the there are two events in the year when they shut down so many major roads in central London – Remembrance Day, and Pride). Some people were nicer about this that others – one woman crossed over to our side, complaining all the way, and then shouted something like “I’m straight and you don’t see me parading my sexuality around!” My friend yelled back, “Try being oppressed for hundred of years and see how you feel then!” I quietly said “*thousands”.

I suppose that for many people, they see Barack Obama supporting same sex marriage and think everyone is is now equal and that is just fine and dandy. No-one seems to stop to consider that the reason he’s “supporting same sex marriage” is because it doesn’t exist yet and there’s quite a lot of people, including here, who don’t want to see it happen. Though as as of this week, there’s nothing that British homophobes will be able to do about it.

For the most part, it’s manageable. We live in a first world country with gay MPs and the Mayor led World Pride last year and it’s starting to seem kind of weird when celebrities we all knew were gay finally come out.

But, on a more personal level, I see friends being put in awkward situations because their partners are presumed to be a sex they’re not, and others have been threatened in the street for holding hands. I’ve had friends beaten up, and others are still disowned by their parents despite this new world we’re living in. The stories I hear from my trans friends about trying to access NHS services are horrific, and they’re still happening on a daily basis. I was told I was probably going through a phase only a few months ago by someone I consider a friend.

It’s 2013, and it’s such a good time to be gay. But it’s still better to be straight.

There will be no equal pride as long as we are not equal.

I went for a drink with one of my straight female friends the other day who wanted to have a moan about her boyfriend. She was getting weary of his addiction to video games and his poor personal hygiene.

As she downed her fifth glass of Pinot Grigio, she confessed that her boyfriend liked to fart in bed and then hold her head under the covers. ‘God I wish I was a lesbian’ she said with a mournful sigh and I patted her arm in sympathy.

Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman, but it’s bloody great being a lesbian. Aside from the obvious bonus that we get to date women, there are many other unexpected advantages:

We have more female friends

Straight women are predators and often see other women as a threat. As a lesbian, you are the ultimate trustworthy friend as there is zero chance of you flirting with or stealing your mate’s man. Do a lot of straight women consider you to be their best friend? Yep, I thought so.

We don’t have to eat the smallest pork chop

When serving dinner you don’t have to automatically take the smallest portion in order to look dainty and feminine. In fact, giving yourself to a few extra chips is helping your girlfriend along with her diet. Nom nom nom.

We get to watch the best TV

You can spend a whole day watching a Sex And The City box set or get hooked on Downton Abbey and your other half is unlikely to complain. In fact, she will probably be curled up watching it with you.

We get to go to stag parties… and hen parties

Your male friends consider you to be ‘one of the lads’ and you get to go to the stag dos with all the associated debauchery. Of course, you are also invited to hen parties with the added bonus you can bring your girlfriend along too.

Cost saving

The cost of expensive but necessary items such as hairdryers is halved and clothes, shoes, makeup and jewellery can all be shared. If you are lucky enough to date someone the same size as you, your wardrobe instantly doubles.

There’s no baby pressure

For most women, as soon as there’s a sniff of a serious relationship unfolding the well-meaning relatives begin to enquire about the patter of tiny feet. For us lesbians, the family are unlikely to know about the options and procedures for gay couples having children and are probably uncertain about the etiquette of asking, so they avoid the subject altogether. Thank heavens for that.

Data is on our side

Statistically, your partner is more likely to stay faithful and is less likely to give you a STD if you are in a lesbian relationship. You partner is less likely to snore and you probably share household chores equally compared with your straight female counterparts who do 75% of the boring jobs. Women also live longer than men. Boom.

And last, but by no means least…

The Sex

How many times have bewildered blokes or straight girls asked their lesbian friends ‘but how do you have sex without a penis?’

Apart from the unique closeness and passion of lesbian relationships, the fact that the typical lesbian bedroom scenario contains two pairs of breasts, two clitorises, two g-spots and maybe even a bag of sex toys makes it the most varied type of sex there is.  There is far too much fun going on for anybody to be missing a penis, with the added bonus that nobody has to sleep in the wet patch.

Sorry guys!

Whilst gay, lesbian and bisexual people across England and Wales celebrate the legalisation of same-sex marriage, authorities in Russia are cracking down on LGBT rights.

A recent national ban on “homosexual propaganda” makes Britain’s Section 28 look positively tame by comparison. Ordinary people face fines of 100,000 roubles (£2,000) for discussing LGBT issues in a neutral or positive light on the Internet; organisations can be fined one million roubles (£20,000). Openly gay foreigners in Russia (including athletes in the forthcoming Winter Olympics) face arrest or deportation.

It is in this troubled context that feminist punk collective Pussy Riot called for lesbian, gay, bi, trans and intersex rights during a recent tour of Russia’s oil facilities.

The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.

In their new video, Pussy Riot argue that political leaders such as president Vladimir Putin and vice-premier Igor Sechin have hoarded oil profits at the expense of ordinary workers.

But their criticisms of the Russian government deliberately link the struggles against sexism, homophobia, individual power and corporate greed.

“Evil fucking sexist, leave the hole alone!

Homophobic vermin, out from history!”

It’s a really big deal that Pussy Riot are prepared to make this kind of stand. The imprisonment of their bandmates has demonstrated that Russian authorities are keen to punish them for taking a stand. Every further radical statement only offers more evidence against members of the group.

Pussy Riot’s message is aimed at the whole world. Part of this is about raising awareness of what is happening in Russia. However, it’s also about encouraging everyone to act on injustice regardless of where they live.

As we celebrate the passage of same-sex marriage in England and Wales (with further legalisation hopefully to follow in Scotland and Northern Ireland), we should remember that the battle for equality is far from won.

Trans people will be further marginalised by the new Marriage Act. Homophobia is still all-too common. Cuts to welfare and support services mean that hundreds of thousands of people have to rely on food banks and many are being forced out of their home. Disabled people are being denied vital benefits.

Pussy Riot remind us that all of these struggles stem from both individual greed and the concentration of power in the hands of a few. The situation in Russia is, of course, very different to that in the UK – but we can still find inspiration in an angry punk song.

You can read more about the Red Prison Tour here.

Please note: it has emerged since the publication of this article that the group which undertook the “Red Prison Tour” and filmed the above video is not the “original” Pussy Riot. A statement from that group can be found here. The points made in this article still stand.

Writer/director Nicole Conn visits Brighton UK in January 2014

Lesbian movie legend Nicole Conn is coming to the UK in January 2014 for the first ever Nicole Conn Movie Convention. The convention, aptly named ‘iConn’, will be taking place in the UK’s gay capital Brighton, at the prestigious Brighton Centre.

Writer/director Nicole Conn is famous for lesbian classics Claire of the Moon, Elena Undone and A Perfect Ending.

A Perfect Ending has been crowned the best-selling lesbian movie of all time.

She Walks in Beauty is Nicole’s new film project and is based on the novel of the same name that she wrote in 2001.

iConn is one of a series of events that will be taking place across the US and Europe to raise funds for this exciting new project.

iConn will be an exclusive weekend of movie screenings and entertainment over the weekend of 10th – 12th January 2014.

Fans are expected to flock from all over Europe and as far as the US for the opportunity to meet Nicole and to mingle with the stars from her movies – including Barbara Niven, Mary Wells and Cathy DeBuono. More exciting announcements about special guests are expected soon.

Jessica Clark as Paris in A Perfect Ending.

She Walks in the Beauty will be the first of Nicole’s movies to be shot in Europe as well as the US. For this reason, there is an extra element to iConn that fans should be extremely excited about.

As well as the opportunity to meet Nicole and to mingle with the familiar faces from her films, there is also the exclusive opportunity to get behind the scenes of She Walks in Beauty.

VIP tickets are available which grant access to the casting sessions at iConn, where Nicole is hoping to find the leading star for She Walks in Beauty.

For more information and to book tickets visit the She Walks in Beauty movie website.

“Which one of you is the man?”

“You don’t look like a lesbian.”

“Can I join in?”

“You just haven’t met the right man yet.”

“I’m sure I could turn you.”

… and so the list of lesbophobic comments goes on. If any of these are sounding familiar then you are certainly not alone. It would seem that lesbophobia is a worryingly common occurrence but what exactly is it?

According to Jane Czyzselska of Diva Magazine fame, lesbophobia is “homophobia with a side order of sexism”.

In other words, lesbophobia includes all the verbal and physical abuse aimed a person perceived to be lesbian, as well as all those subtly offensive comments that indicate that lesbians are second class citizens or in some way abnormal because they do not desire a man or a heterosexual relationship.

The team at DIVA have decided it is time to fight back and have started a campaign called “Everyday Lesbophobia”, based on the successful “Everyday Sexism” project.

The intention of the campaign is to raise awareness about lesbophobia and make the point that it is not acceptable. Facebook, Twitter and a blog are being used as a platform for lesbians and bi women to share their stories and experiences from serious attacks to everyday putdowns.

Does lesbophobia really need its own campaign?

As members of the LGBT community we are regularly assumed to be the same, face the same issues and have exactly the same beliefs as each other, so it is likely that we may be questioned why we need to campaign against lesbophobia when we are already fight against homophobia. Apart from the obvious fact that one is aimed at people perceived to be homosexual and the other is aimed solely at people perceived to be lesbians, there are other significant differences.

Arguably, it is that “side of sexism” that makes a huge difference. The root of this is presumably the fact that we live in an extremely heteronormative society. Men often feel threatened if they are not needed or desired and tend to display this by making crude comments about “joining in” or “watching” lesbians sex life. But it’s not just men; women are often as guilty. Comments about lesbian sex not being real sex or being asked “what do you actually do” are as common from women as from men.

Lesbophobic comments are not restricted to sexual references though. It is just as offensive to be asked who the man in the relationship is because surprisingly not every relationship is based on the normative heterosexual style relationship. People fail to understand that two women can have a relationship with each other whilst acting, dressing, talking and feeling like women.

It may not seem important to straight people, but it gets very tedious when you talk to someone new about your partner and she is automatically assumed to be a man. There have even been times when I have corrected a person and stated SHE and either been met with a refusal to accept what I’d said or been asked “don’t you mean HE” as if I must have completely forgotten the gender of my partner.

Another important distinction is the way in which lesbophobia is manifested. While there is no doubt there are verbal and physical lesbophobic hate crimes, there is also a whole lot of lesbophobia that doesn’t happen out of malice, spite or hate.

People often say things such as “you’re too pretty to be a lesbian” or “it’s such a waste”, which they appear to think is a compliment. In fact a large amount of lesbophobic comments come from friends and family who have, according to them, ‘accepted’ the person’s sexuality. This is more difficult to tackle than the overtly abusive hate crime type lesbophobia as people genuinely do not understand why their comments are offensive.

Hate crimes deliver a huge blow to us physically and mentally, whereas the more subtle, everyday lesbophobia chips away at our self-esteem.  Arguably then the way to tackle it is to raise awareness, educate people and stand up for ourselves. This is exactly what the “Everyday Lesbophobia” campaign is trying to do.

So in answer to the question “does lesbophobia really need its’ own campaign”? The simple answer is yes.

To get involved go to the blog, Facebook page or Twitter and share you experiences.

Things are going pretty well for Battle of You so far; last week they were selected as Sarah Champion’s Emerging icons of the week on Absolute Radio, they have been played on BBC Introducing on BBC 6 music, and performed at the Paralympics last summer. Their debut EP is now available on Itunes and Spotify. I met them for an iced coffee in their native Shoreditch.

On Battle of You

We used to be called BOY. It turned out that there was this German band called BOY and they were meant to be the next big thing, so we had to change our name.

BOY always stood for Battle of You. It’s the idea that every single person has this battle or struggle that they’re going through.

We do this project where we ask people what their battle is. So say someone’s is anxiety and their goal in life is to get through that no matter what other people say.

We are not the most normal of people. We are not Shoreditch enough to be Shoreditch and we’re not pretentious or moody on stage. We’re not ashamed to be catchy. There are men in the band so we’re not gay enough to be a lesbian band. We’re just slightly on the boundaries of everything.

(from left to right) Killian McCorley, Nic Hogg, Mel Patman, HP Drums, Tomi Tank

On sexuality

Mel: I say “girl” in the songs. I like it when bands are not gender-specific but we want it to be really honest music so if I’m singing a love song, I say ‘girl’.

We are not a queer band. If HP [the drummer] was the singer then he would be singing about girls and it would be a straight band. Mel: I’m out but I don’t want my sexuality to define the band.We don’t want to be the next Tegan and Sara.

Mel: I’ve been sitting in Candy Bar and I’ve had, ‘You’re not lesbian enough’, because we’ve got men in the band.

Killian: By going down that route you are almost selling out a bit.

Nic: I don’t see how relevant it [sexuality] is.

Every time we play Candy Bar we get a great reaction. We don’t shy away from it because we’re not stupid; we want a fan base.

Mel: I’m proud to hold hands with a girl and walk down the street.

Killian: a straight audience can be really put off, almost nasty, about a band that is really gay or even a bit.

Mel: All the boys are straight and they’ve come to East Bloc, Joiners Arms, and Candy Bar. We sometimes go to really laddy bars.

Our best gig was playing at the Paralympics.

Killian: It was the atmosphere mainly.

Mel: As we were walking down the stairs at the Paralympics, someone came up to me and said, ‘by the way BBC news are going to be filming you, but don’t tell anyone’. Then we come off stage and my Mum calls me and says, ‘I’ve seen you on the 6 o’clock news.’ It was awesome.

Mel: During one gig I got a laughing fit for the entire set.

On tangents

Nic: I’m the best at I-spy. They still haven’t guessed my one from Newquay.

Mel: I love The Voice.

Killian: I was shocked at the result. That guy that looks like Will.i.am was amazing.

Mel: No, crap, crap. Boring! If he came on the radio, I wouldn’t be like, ‘Oh that’s Matt.’

Nic: My X factor sob story would be that I got adopted when I was eight and my adoptive family wouldn’t let me speak or sing or do anything for ten years and I had this bubbling within me to sing out and now I’ve finally got the chance to do it.

Mel: I think I look like a cartoon character.

Killian: I want to get in a time machine and go back in time and write all the Beatles’ songs a year before they wrote them.

On their EP

Mel: We’ve just released our EP and have just finished our music video. We’re going to have a launch gig in a few months and we’re going to release our music video, which is our single, ‘Rebecca’.

Rebecca is two people; she is a girl I dated when I was thirteen. She was absolutely crazy. One day I messaged someone else on the Internet, so I cheated on her. I told her on MSN and she said, ‘That’s it, I’m killing myself’. She logged her computer off and turned her phone off. So for half an hour I thought I’d killed someone from being a dickhead and I was coming to terms with it. Then I called her parents’ house and asked if she was there, and they said, ‘Yeah, she’s in the lounge.’

I wrote the song and a couple of years later I had this really disgusting affair with a girl called Rebecca when I was in a relationship. The whole song ended up coming true.

I like a muse. I like to take as much as I can from someone then I get very fed up. Or I end up in one of these long horrible relationships.

On Hunter Valentine

Mel: I saw that they [Hunter Valentine]were playing at Candy Bar and I added her [Kiyomi] on Facebook and sent her a message asking if we could play with them and that’s the only reason we got the gig.

Killian: I went to a lot of trouble getting them equipment and none of them said a word to me.

Mel: I don’t get it when you meet people and they are up themselves. I hope we never get like that.

We stole Hunter Valentine’s lasagne. They were nice girls though. They didn’t really give it their all, but maybe you don’t need to if you are Hunter Valentine.

Download the single ‘Rebecca’ for free at battleofyou.com

The third annual Wotever Queer Film Festival is taking place on 27 August 2013 in London, and submissions for short films are being accepted until 7 August.

Submissions should be short films (3-20 mins) on any genre on a Queer theme.

“We welcome films that push the boundaries of queer thinking and ideology, are thought-provoking and progressive,” says Theresa Heath, Wotever Film Programmer. “Saying that, we also appreciate a nice queer-meets-queer love story, slap stick comedy or music video we can dance to.

“We’ve been delighted with the diversity of the films we’ve shown over the last year and would like to continue to encourage queers of all backgrounds, nationalities, origins, identities and abilities to submit work.

“However, we know we can always do better and so if you feel that you have been under-represented thus far, send us your film and we will show it; send us your suggestions and we will listen. Alternatively, share this with your friends, lovers and family and let’s get the word out to as many corners of our wonderful queer community as possible.”

For submissions, questions, suggestions or queries contact Theresa at [email protected].

Wotever are also holding a film night fundraiser on 16th July 2013 to raise money for Jake Graf, a queer independent film maker and director of X-Why, which showed at the LLGFF.

His new film. Brace, is being directed by Emmerdale star and LGBT campaigner Alicya Eyo. It will highlight the ever-increasing issue of homophobia and gang violence in British culture and is already being hotly anticipated.