Greetings one and all!

Yesterday we posted our first first birthday post, and now here’s part 2!

October

Well, everyone seemed to be slowly realising that the world economy was going to holy hell, so we pondered on what our rights might look like as a result of the downturn. We also looked at Out Adventures, for those of us still with disposable income and who just want to get away from it all.. The fabulous Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan published their joint memoirs. The following day, George Hook interviewed the two women on radio and, over the fading-in strains of title music, had this to say by way of concluding the programme: “Therefore I may not agree with your choice, but I would fight to the death for you to make it.” Charming. There was mention of Ireland’s first gay prom, and applause all ’round generally for our young gay people. Go, you kids! We had a review of Kirstin Scott Thomas’ film, “Il y a longtemps que je t’aime” (I’ve Loved You for So Long), directed by Philippe Claudel. We profiled the hi-larious Alison Bechdel, American creator of the “Dykes to Watch Out For” cartoon strip series. If you’re not familiar, get thee to your local bookery! There were a couple of posts on the impending Proposition 8 vote in the U.S. – Ellen and Portia‘s involvement in supporting a “No” vote; plus the humourous campaign around the use of language, namely the phrase, “That’s so gay!” Oh, and: Malaysia banned lesbianisim (t’s amazing they can do that now..) and the Iona Institute’s religious ire was now directed towards straight people (just the ones living in sin, mind). In the face of that shite, the wonderful young gays were to the rescue again, this time from Galway and Dublin, challenging homophobic bullying.

November

November saw the first in our series on same-sex parenting. This installment: foster children and emergency care (part one). We had a couple of U.S. election-related posts: on Obama‘s level of gay-friendly-ness (that is a word, I promise..) and on the “ballot initiatives” tacked onto the presidential voting across the states in a cynical move by the Republicans to get the conservative electorate to the polls. We also discussed the fallout of the passing of Prop 8. In telly land, there was the tantalising first glimpse of the final L Word series, plus a whole gaggle of gays in the Australian jungle, for some reason. A consortium of organisations published research on the lives of LGBT people in rural and isolated communities in the west of Ireland, illustrating the isolation, discrimination and violence experienced by those who live outside the liberal bubbles that can exist in cities such as Dublin and Cork. There was an article on best-boxer-in-the-world, Katie Taylor, on the eve of her fight to retain her World Lightweight Champion title. Good thing we did, too, as it seemd no-one could be arsed broadcasting Ireland’s top athlete competing.

December

December kicked off with World AIDS Day, marked annually around the world on the 1st of the month. On the big screen, we looked at the Hollywood Chart – like Alice’s Chart, in the L Word, only slightly different. Six degrees of sapphication, but for actors. Lesbian par extraordinnaire, Tracy Chapman, played at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre. We had the top ten bonkers reasons against the idea of marriage equality, plus the news of Niall Crowley‘s resignation from the Equality Authority, after the Cowen government savagely decided to slash the agency’s budget by nearly half. On a festive note, we provided a veritable smörgåsbord of lesbo-literary gift ideas from various Irish and international retailers. And we had part two of the foster care articles, in our series on parenting. We had a review of Angelina Jolie’s film, “Changeling“, a selection of interpretations of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah“, plus a review of the festive vocalisings of Ireland’s award-winning queer choir, Glória. There were more festive gift ideas (this time for the tardy amongst us!); and we learned of RTÉ‘s decision to: take the progressive step of broadcasting LGBT-related programming -or- sideline the gays into the otherworld of digital radio (delete as appropriate). Finally, Sarah Waters’ novel, “Affinity” was adapted for d’telly and broadcast by ITV on New Year’s Eve eve eve eve, reviewed on this here lesblog.

January

We kicked off 2008 with a review of the Oscar-winning film, “Milk“, starring Sean Penn in the title role; and some thoughts on the homophobia (are we surprised?) of Pope “Palpatine” Benny XVI, the artist formerly known as Cardinal Nazinger and head of the Catholic Inquisition. True story. There were shocking rumours that Sarah Waters is working on lesbian-free literature! Plus Lesbian Vampire Killers on the loose. Avoid at all costs. A few of us Gaelickers picked our favourite albums of 2008, and we had our first L Word recap from the final season! There was another homage to women in sport, and free art of a Friday. The month was rounded off with a wide-ranging article on hugely accomplished writer – including contributions to The L Word – A. M. Homes.

February

Spring sprang with a dusting of snow, a review of Vicky Christina Barcelona, and the Superbowl axeing a gay-related ad (boo..). We started with the first of our many polls, and were delighted to learn that somehow we had been nominated for the annual Irish Blog Awards. We even made it as far as the long list! It was a thrill for a blog so new to even me mentioned. The lesbians were so popular in February, that Iceland elected one of our number to head their interim government until the summer. We marked the annual Lesbian Lives conference, and learned of continuing lesbian fictions in the L Word spin-off: this time, with the prospect of Famke Janssen making an appearance (mmm..). Continuing with our parenting articles, OtherMother began her series, “Diary of an Non-Biological Mother in Waiting“. We had a review of lesbian nightlife fixture, Cake, and Panti demanded we all get up off our apathetic asses and get radical! We also had reviews of Oscar night; Meryl Streep being utterly fabulous in the film, “Doubt“; and a review of new night, Queer Spraoi, from guest blogger, Una Mullally.

March

March began with our interview with the unstoppable positive force that is Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan. We reviewed the debut album of elestronica duo, Telepathe, and attempted to provide food for thought as to why International Women’s Day is as essentially important as ever. There followed the make-you-laugh-or-cry-with-the-ridiculousness live blogging of The L Word finalé. We also had our interview with fearless leader and rabble-rouser, Miss Panti “Pandora” Bliss. And none other than the irrepressible YuriVision guest blogged in advance of AMI 2009. We bade fare thee well to the comedy empire of French and Saunders upon their retirement. The sudden, awful death of Natasha Richardson shocked us all. And picturegate / cowengate revealed the sinister side of Irish government and policing.

Oh, and of course we continued with our regular installments of restaurant reviews and the ever-popular P!nk articles.

It’s been quite the eventful 12 months, and here’s to another year of even better lesbionic blogging. And don’t forget, if you ever have any suggestions, ideas or thoughts, just let us know either in the comments or by email.

Once again, Thank you! to all our readers, commenters and fellow bloggers for making the past year so great!

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