…and it’s a good thing. Look at these two young women. They’ve just been voted “best couple” by their senior class at a South Bronx high school:
Mention the South Bronx to marriage equality advocates in New York, and many think of State Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr., the fiery Pentecostal minister and legislator from the area who vehemently opposes same-sex marriage. Ask young lesbians Victoria (“Vikky”) Cruz and Deoine Scott about that kind of resistance, however, and it barely seems to square with their personal experience as an out couple in an area high school.
Vikky 17, and Deoine, 18, were overwhelmingly voted “best couple” by their peers in the graduating class at Mott Haven Village Preparatory High School, a first for the small public high school located in the senate district represented by Diaz, Sr. Vikky, who participates in the Radio Rookies program for aspiring young journalists sponsored by local public radio station WNYC-FM, reported on the historic experience in this piece that first aired on Thursday.
Sometimes I try to imagine how my life might have been if the world had treated me and my first girlfriend this way thirty years ago. And you know what? My imagination utterly fails me, it just fuses into a lump. The differences, for me, are literally unimaginable. Wow. I can’t begin to tell you how pleased I am for these two girls. What an amazing life they have ahead of them.
Nicola Griffith 
That is awesome news.
Stories like this give me hope!
I'm smiling and smiling here…
Very Sweet!
South Bronx! South South Bronx!
Such a beautiful and joyful thing to celebrate. What a way to start my afternoon!
Wow, the world is changing. Very cool.
And now it's even cool and sexy to
be butch (in some circles).
A friend of mine said a few months ago: thank god for Rachel Maddow–now people understand the way I dress!
Personally, I think analysts are over-thinking the public response to Ellen D and Rachel M; the world has always found confidence attractive. I think it's that simple.
That article on the 'new butch' really needed to be written by someone who actually knows something about lgbt history. The idea that wearing flannel shirts and work boots equates to hating men is a tired old straight stereotype that it's really rather appalling to find reiterated in the gay media. In my experience, many butches tended to have loads of male buddies, both straight and gay. And, also IME, when women do hate men, they're usually straight.
But to get back to the main topic … great news!
Yep. In my experience, a lot of women who hated men back in the day (70s and 80s) were the 'political lesbians', i.e. the straight girls who hated men so much they couldn't bear to have sex with them so they had sex with other women instead. People can be bizarre.
I'm straight, I don't hate men, and I love wearing flannel and work boots. You couldn't pay me to wear a dress. I have no idea how that's relevant, just sayin.
I certainly find confidence and a sharp intellect attractive. But I never thought of Ellen as being all that confident – not that she isn't, I just never thought of her that way. And I'm not particularly attracted to her either. And I used to see her around town now and then. Rachel Maddow – could be a different story… I agree with what you are saying re some of what the article said about old-style butches, but I think some things in the article have merit.
I can't think of any publicly out butch figures of the past that straight people and lesbians all found attractive, can anyone else? Not that I think butch women need men to find them attractive in order to be validated, but I do think it shows a trend toward public acceptance of the whole quiltbag community. And that is a good thing. What I wonder about is that fashion aspect. That part I find annoying – probably because I'm not very fashionable…
And I do see a difference in the way young butch women of today carry themselves and interact with people. I see them at dance clubs and people think they are hot. Maybe that comes from a confidence they have because they are more accepted in the world these days. But that's just my little world; I wasn't much aware of these things in my younger days.
I think I heard these young women being interviewed on Publlc Radio and they just sounded so wonderfully happy about how it all worked out.
I love this story!
Yes, thirty years ago my HS girlfriend and I got beat up because we were girlfriends and everyone knew it. But then the next year something sort of changed. We were less reviled and she actually was voted prom queen and I got voted class clown. Yes, I laughed through my agony.
I think, in our case, that after a year of beatings, and we were still together, they figured, eh, that's it. What can you do? Back then kids didn't plot on killing other kids, so they had to accept us. Then we broke up after I went to college.
Amazing! I graduated from an urban high school eleven years ago, and I can't imagine something like this happening then. Homophobia was constant and everywhere. I don't think I even knew anyone who was actually out. I know every situation is different… but if things can change that much, that fast, it gives me hope.