Tag Archives: editor’s pick

Love Wins: Lesbian Couple Celebrate Their First Wedding Anniversary After 73 Years Together

Alice “Nonie” Dubes and Vivian Boyack made headline news last year, as they were finally able to marry after 72 year relationship.

One year later, and their first-anniversary celebration were a much simpler affair, with only two close friends as guest, the menu cherry pie à la mode and iced tea.

Dubes and Boyack, 91 and 92 years old respectively, had been a couple for 72 years before they were married in a small ceremony in Iowa in September 2014.

Alice Dubes and Vivian Boyack 02

It was the first time their relationship had been made public.

Talking to the Guardian, Dubes said

It’s been fine, because we were together for 72 years before. We just couldn’t get married. Nothing’s changed. Still the same – very good.”

In the year since Dubes and Boyack married, same-sex marriage has become legal nationwide. That was a change few predicted in the early 2000s, let alone when the couple met in the 40s.

Alice Dubes and Vivian Boyack 03

Dubes thinks the couple’s closest friends knew about the relationship, though it was not discussed until their marriage at the First Christian Church in Davenport, where they have lived since 1947.

Iowa was one of the first states to make same-sex marriage legal, when the state’s ban was struck down in April 2009.

The couple are not interested in discussing the decades they have spent together.

We’re old and grouchy. We get that way sometimes, but just think how many years we’ve known each other.”

Since their story made international headlines, Dubes and Boyack have declined press requests and book offers, communicating their wishes through a man they have known since they were both 19.

They spend most of their days as they did before they were married – maintaining their four-room apartment and zipping around their retirement village on electric scooters.

Alice Dubes and Vivian Boyack 04

Watch : Heartfelt Interview With Lesbian Couple Who have Been together 72 Years

We covered this story last week, but watch and listen to Vivian Boyack and Alice “Nonie” Dubes  talk about their life together.

More than 70 years after beginning their relationship, the couple finally got married.

“I guess at 90, now we don’t have to worry about anyone saying anything or doing anything about us. And so I think that we’ll be happy now.”

Vivian Boyack and Alice “Nonie” Dubes

Sims 4 Get’s LGBT Filter Fix

Shortly after  the launch of Sims 4 last week, players noticed the game would not allow characters with names that contained the words gay, homosexual, lesbian, queer, or other LGBT terms to be shared through the game’s online Gallery system. When the words are entered into the name or description, the game does not allow the character to be uploaded or shared online.
According to the error message, the character “contains a forbidden word”.

Electronic Arts (EA) has since issued a fix for the banned words. An EA spokesperson has said the gaming giant is aware of the issue, and is preparing a fix to remove the issue…

“The Sims has a long history of supporting stories that players want to tell, irrespective of gender preference. The Gallery uses an automated filtering program that filters out certain words, including some of the ones you mentioned below. We are aware of have been working on a fix, which will be out soon.”

Electronic Arts

On launching promotional material for the game’s release, EA boasted LGBT-specific ads telling users to “Be Proud”.

The Sims is a video game franchise that has been inclusive of same-sex romance since the first instalment was released in February 2000. EA Games has been quick to let players know the LGBT filter currently being encountered in the game isn’t a change in policy but a bug plaguing the system that the company is already hard at work fixing.

EA’s response stands in sharp contrast to the statement made by Nintendo of America after the company experienced a wave of backlash for releasing its own version of a life simulator game, Tomodachi Life, which excluded same-sex couples.

“The relationship options in the game represent a playful alternate world rather than a real-life simulation. We hope that all of our fans will see that Tomodachi Life was intended to be a whimsical and quirky game, and that we were absolutely not trying to provide social commentary.”

Nintendo

Lesbian for a Year: Author Spends 12 Months as a Lesbian for New Book

Brooke Hemphill has just released ‘Lesbian for a Year’, an account of her quest to find out about her sexuality.

In 2010, Hemphill – a relationships and sex columnist living in Sydney, unexpectedly had a one-night stand with a woman. This lesbian experience led to a year of ‘sexual exploration’ where she dated other women.

She said the year of ‘dating only women’ was not a planned experiment, but rather a fit of passion, so she decided to write a book about it.

I have always been fascinated with dating and relationships and sex, but in terms of writing this book it was an experience that unexpectedly happened to me… It wasn’t like I woke up one day and thought, right I am going to do this for the next 12 months, it kind of just happened. And after talking to other people about it I realised that there are a lot of people who have similar stories or can relate to it, or have thought about doing something similar, so I decided to write a book.”

Brooke Hemphill

The title of her book, ‘Lesbian For A Year’ has seen her criticised from Sydney’s LGBT community, something she had anticipated.

It is a bit of a tricky one and I understand that a lot of people who identify as lesbian have issues with the title of the book. I have been getting a lot of feedback on Twitter and so forth about how you can’t really be a lesbian for a year and you are either straight or you’re bisexual or you’re a lesbian for a lifetime… But in my experience I had a one-night stand with a woman, woke up in the morning found her in my bed and thought, how did that happen?”

Brooke Hemphill

After this initial experience she went on to have a relationship with a women for six months.

I met a girl and we started dating, we ended up going out together for about six months. In that time I continued to kind of question what my sexuality was, was I gay? Or bisexual? Was I a straight girl kind of going through a phase, so the book kind of explores that journey.”

Brooke Hemphill

While she has copped flak for the title, Hemphill is quick to reassure the book has a serious message about breaking down barriers and stereotypes.

Generally, I think with everything that is going on in the country in relation to gay marriage if everyone went out and spent some time hooking up with their own gender we would probably be in a much more tolerant place and it would open up much more conversation and dialogue around this.

Connection with a person, not their gender, it could be male it could be female, I generally find I am more attracted to people’s personalities than gender or looks.

Some people would suggest that it puts a finality to what my label should be, but I think it is a bit more fluid than that and who knows what the future holds.”

Brooke Hemphill

 

Newlyweds – Finally Married After 72 years Together

This story really touched my heart. More than 70 years after beginning their relationship, Vivian Boyack and Alice “Nonie” Dubes have gotten married.

Boyack, 91, and Dubes, 90, sat next to each other during Saturday’s ceremony, reports the Quad City Times.

“This is a celebration of something that should have happened a very long time ago,” the Rev. Linda Hunsaker told the small group of close friends and family who attended.

The women met in their hometown of Yale, Iowa, while growing up. Then they moved to Davenport in 1947 where Boyack taught school and Dubes did payroll work.

Dubes said the two have enjoyed their life together and over the years they have traveled to all 50 states, all the provinces of Canada, and to England twice.

“We’ve had a good time.”

Alice “Nonie” Dubes

Boyack said it takes a lot of love and work to keep a relationship going for 72 years.

Longtime friend Jerry Yeast, 73, said he got to know the couple when he worked in their yard as a teenager.

“I’ve known these two women all my life, and I can tell you, they are special.”

Jerry Yeast

Iowa legalized same-sex marriage in 2009. The two women say it’s never too late for a new chapter in life.

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Billie Jean King Talks About Tennis and The Progress of Gay Athletes

Billie Jean King is currently attending event surround the U.S. Open, but had some time to praise a new crop of openly gay athletes.

King, who was outed in 1981, said progress comes “one by one” and “you just keep chipping away.” She said openly gay athletes, including Brooklyn Nets player Jason Collins, Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner and Michael Sam, have recently paved the way for equality.

She also went on to say the more gay athletes we have, the more issue of being gay in sport will decrease.

“One of the biggest things that would help is if one of the quarterbacks who is straight, or all collectively say, `This is a non-issue. Let’s get on with it. As long as they do their job, we don’t care’… 

The Bradys, the Lucks, the Romos, Payton Manning, Eli Manning, if all those guys would just say – `This is so ridiculous, as long as the guy can play, we don’t care what color, what sexual orientation.’

If the media stops talking about it, it will be helpful. The reason we cover it, it’s an exception. That’s the way the world works, the way the news works.”

Billie Jean King

As one of the first inductees into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame in 2013, King believes less scrutiny on LGBTI players from the press would help.

‘If the media stops talking about it, it will be helpful. The reason we cover it, it’s an exception. That’s the way the world works, the way the news works.’

Billie Jean King