"Lesbian.com". Offensive? I would think not, but that's not what one security guard thought when a Southern California woman wore a t-shirt with that written on it into a federal building where he worked.

Lapriss Gilbert says she went to the federal building in Van Nuys, CA on Monday to pick up a Social Security card for her son. But before she could make it to the queue she was stopped by a security guard.Gilbert said she was told that the t-shirt, which bore the words “Lesbian.com,” was offensive. The web site is NOT a porn site; in fact it's a popular educational resource for lesbians.


Gilbert told The Contra Costa Times that the guard demanded that she leave the building or face arrest.

“As an African-American and a lesbian, I haven’t been through one day without facing some sort of discrimination…but this is just shocking,” Gilbert, 31, told the newspaper.

The guard was not a government employee but works for Paragon, a private company hired by the Department of Homeland Security.

He also works for the "I'm an ignorant chauvinistic asshole who feels threatened by powerful women" company, although the Department of Homeland Security did not know this at the time.

A spokesperson for the department said the guard’s actions were “inappropriate and unacceptable” and that Paragon had been contacted.

Gilbert and her mother Tanya, who is also a lesbian and a longtime LGBT activist, say they are contacting an attorney. Gilbert told the Times that she may file a federal civil rights lawsuit.

The younger Gilbert called her mother after being escorted out of the building. The mother called police but before officers arrived another Paragon guard told Gilbert she could enter the building and escorted her to the Social Security line.

A witness contacted by The Times backs up Gilbert’s account.

“For her to be told to leave was completely unnecessary, especially considering how peaceful and quiet she was responding the the security officers,” Paul Dumont told the paper. “Nobody in that office felt her t-shirt was offensive by any means.”

In a statement to police, Dumont said the guard’s “loud, unreasonable, aggressive and angry approach to the situation almost caused chaos.”

This afternoon, Lesbiatopia spoke with a well-placed contact inside the Department of Homeland Security in Washington DC to ask them about this incident and was told,

“This department is aware of this unfortunate incident at its very highest levels… and in no way condones what happen to MS Gilbert.

We respect the feelings of all our citizens and mandate that all contractors do as well.

The Department of Homeland Security will be carefully examining the training policies and procedures of Paragon Security Company to see if those training policies and procedures are deficient in any way and if they are in accord with DHS policies…

If it warrants further action will be taken.”

Lesbiatopia can wholly relate to this story on so many levels.

If any of you remember back to December 2007, there was quite the controversy involving the popular social bookmarking site, Digg.

Digg banned Lesbiatopia from submitting articles for "displaying Adult Content". It would seem that some over at Digg thought our name, and lesbians in general, held pornographic connotations, though we were never told exactly why we were banned.

See... Digg Says We are Bad Girls" and "You Can't Pull the Wool Over Our Eyes.

We really hope that Ms. Gilbert files a federal civil rights lawsuit, as she says she intends to do. As for the security guard, we hope that he is fired because it is that type of behavior that is unacceptable and should be made a public example of.

Now, I must ask you this: what do you think would have happened if a man walked into that same federal building wearing the same t-shirt or even worse, a t-shirt with a naked woman on it or some other type of woman-objectifying message?

My guess is nothing. I'll let you be the judge.

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I was perusing the rants and raves of Craiglist Los Angeles and I came across this "Wedding Photographer" who has clearly stated he will never photograph a gay wedding. I just had to share.

THIS WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER WILL NEVER, EVER DO ANY GAY WEDDINGS OR ANYTHING REMOTELY RELATED. YOU PEOPLE CREATED AIDS AND YOU WANT RECOGNITION AS A LEGITIMATE LIFESTYLE??? GET F-ING REAL!

* Location: GAY = PERVERSION

Too bad being homophobic will really kill his chance at getting some good business. Forget this guy, I'll photograph your wedding (and for cheap!). Feel free to email this guy and tell him all the great business he just lost: pers-723377191@craigslist.org.

And a BIG congratulations to all the newly wedded gays and lezzies who are celebrating across the state of California today!!

(and because I just couldn't help myself)

(and I even gained a fan!)

(but I also gained an enemy)

(and yet another homophobic photographer, throwing their money down the toilet)

(and this is just downright hilarious)

god, I love craigslist.

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Imagine a world where homosexuality was assumed and heterosexuality was taboo?

Imagine a world where gay marriage was the norm, adoption was simple, same-sex public affection was totally acceptable and “coming out” didn’t exist?

For me, it’s actually hard to imagine a society that could possibly exist under these conditions, given all the homophobia and inequality we’ve experience already in our lifetime.

However if this were the case, and sexual preference roles were reversed, would the GLBT community be more tolerant towards the straight community or would the same injustices, prejudices and inequalities ensue towards a heterosexual lifestyle as being outcast, unacceptable and possibly even “a choice”?


You probably haven’t given much thought to this issue, since the chance that this would happen is pretty much non-existent, and why would you? Why would you imagine a world where the roles of sexual preference are switched? Well, the short film “Straight” does exactly that. “Straight” explores issues of homophobia, tolerance, and discrimination by portraying a world where the roles of homosexuality and heterosexuality are reversed.

Here is a video clip from the short film “Straight” which was brought to you by Current.com. We here at Lesbiatopia are HUGE fans of Current, which is a site dedicated to what's going on in your world: all the things you and your friends are actually interested in -- that you won't find on any other news site or cable TV channel. Current.com is the place to find and share stories and videos that are interesting to you. It connects to Current TV, a global cable and satellite TV network.

After watching this video, I got to thinking about sexual preference and also, gender as an underlying role in sexual preference. I started to wonder, what if someday gender and gender roles became obsolete - that our anatomical makeup did not define us as a person, who we dated or our socioeconomic status, even. Imagine that stereotypes of men and women were abolished and male and female pronouns became non-existent. If gender became obsolete, there would be no need to place ourselves in a pandora’s box of sexual orientation; gay, straight, bi, etc themselves would all become obsolete and with the termination of these terms, there would be no inequality based on sexuality, there would be no homophobia, and most importantly there would be universal tolerance. Or would there be? I’ll let you decide…

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Today I went through a very painful situation.

The relationship with my father has always been tense to say the least. Well, my father let it be known today that somehow he had been living with the idea that Gina and I were just roommates - even after I came out publicly before we filed for partnership four years ago. The kicker is that his position is that being gay is a choice, and that I chose to be gay and he doesn’t accept that. Basically he feels embarrassment at the thought of telling his friends that his daughter is a lesbian.



I think he has this picture in his mind of lesbian life being the equivalent of an adult movie.

I can understand how he might think that because of the portrayal of gays and lesbians in the media. Yet I don’t know what to do with that information, because regardless of the media I am his daughter. I feel like that simple fact should make him willing to try to see things in a different light – especially if I am living a decent life and handling my responsibilities.

I feel like he doesn’t care about how I feel, only about how he feels.

I feel like he wants me to be ashamed of who I am, when I know that I should really feel pride about being a strong gay woman in today’s society. He says being gay is a choice, I say so what – if it is or isn’t, it doesn’t matter to me – he should love me regardless. If I chose to be gay or didn’t choose to be gay – I am still gay… and he should still have love for me.

If he can’t feel good about me as a person, how can I feel good about him as a father?

I am trying not to judge, I am trying to remain impartial and stay neutral – understand his position and why he feels the way he does. Sad thing is that I do understand, I just don’t agree… so I agree to disagree but… it still hurts. And, I don’t judge him because that it is not in my jurisdiction. But honestly, I want to hug him and let him know that it’s okay… it’s okay to have a gay daughter.

And that I love him anyway.

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