Serafin LaRiviere Mar 23, 2016

How do women who love women meet in 2016? We found the answer

When Slack’s on Church Street closed its doors back in 2013, we said farewell to the last queer, women-dominant space in Toronto.

And no, you can’t cite Remington’s Ladies Night as a comparable substitute.

As someone who lives in what my best friend calls “the buckle of the fruit belt,” I immediately noticed a marked reduction in the number of women I’d see in the Village. There were fewer females on the street during the daytime hours, and weekend evenings were now strangely silent, bereft of the drunken lesbian break-ups that would frequently take place mere feet from our bedroom window.

While I don’t miss being woken at 2am with stentorian cries of “motherfucker,” I do feel a real absence of the vibrant, sexy and strong gals whose presence gives so much to any neighbourhood, queer or otherwise. So where did they all go? Where are lesbian and bisexual women hanging out these days?

Denise Benson — a legendary  DJ in the Toronto music scene — has been hosting numerous women’s dance nights around the city since the late 1980s. From her famous Dyke Night at places like The Caribou and the Boom Boom Room, to her red-hot monthly Cherry Bomb at The Round in Kensington Market, Benson is an integral figure in the scene for the city’s gay and bi women.

“When I first moved to Toronto, there were more options,” Benson says. “There was Felines and The Chez and The Rose, so there’s definitely a gap now. As the scene has changed it’s become more monthlies and one-offs.

“There may not be a dedicated women’s bar, but there are small spaces that allow you to do niche nights for the music you love. There’s no shortage out there, you just have to look.”

Benson also points to the radical changes in Church Street demographics as property values and condo development continue their skyward climb away from the average queer’s reach. “People like to socialize where they live,” she says. “But we live all over the city now.”

With Cherry Bomb entering its eighth year of monthly hijinks, Benson and co-pilot DJ Cozmic Cat have been introducing even more social elements to the night to create a space where people can have actual conversations before things heat up.

“Both of us really work to put a focus on the fact that it’s a queer women’s night that is truly exclusive,” she says. “In January we started having games set up on the tables. There’s cards, Uno, checkers, dominos and even Twister on the dance floor.

“We set it up early evening from about 10 o’clock until it’s too crazy on the dance floor. That way they can come in with their groups of friends earlier in the evening, hang out, and then stay for the dancing.”

So it’s clear there are still lots of places to get hot and sweaty with your besties on the dancefloor, but what about gals looking for Ms Right? Is a monthly women’s dance the only game in town? Absolutely not, says Ashley Magalas, organizer of Girls’ Night Speed Dating for lesbian and bi women in Toronto.

“The good thing about these events is that you don’t know in a club who’s actually single,” Magalas points out. “We’ve really geared it towards singles looking to date long term. They’re not looking for a quick fling or a one night stand.”

When Magalas started out, the events she organized were largely targeted at straight folk. But with a more crowded hetero playing field, and a dearth of options for lesbian and bi singles craving attachment, she quickly switched gears.

“It can be really hard for women looking to meet other women,” she says. “Slacks has been closed for the past couple of years, so the two main regular places in the village are Crews and Tangos.

“The only problem with that is that they’re very lively. It’s packed and it’s hard to meet people who are down to earth and get to know them.”

Magalas runs her speed dating events twice a month, generally on weeknights to provide flexibility for women who can’t make it out on the weekend. Attendance has been high, and Magalas has been particularly gratified with the positive response to her event’s inclusive and relaxed tone.

“My intention is to make it as stress-free and as fun as possible,” she says. “Women will actually leave together in groups even though the event is over, and hang out with people they’ve met from the group. I tell people it’s a good way to also make friends and do some networking in the community. Even if you don’t have any romantic matches, you may discover some good friends.”

As a performer, promoter and former club owner, Maggie Cassella knows the Toronto scene inside and out. And for those of us wringing our hands at the seeming paucity of double-X chromosomes on Church Street, she offers little sympathy but much-needed perspective.

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” she says with a laugh. “Honestly, I feel like I’ve had this conversation for years. Look, it’s 2016 and there are enclaves everywhere now. I live in Scarborough for Christ’s sake. The scene is happening still, but it’s just happening differently.

“There’s individual girl parties and those dating parties, and meet-up groups are a huge thing. It’s more of a like-minded thing now, like groups for adventurous dykes, or for sports, or maybe you just want to go out to dinner and hang out.”

Cassella feels social media plays a larger role in organizing events these days, and has embraced the medium in promoting her own gigs as well as her monthly cabaret series at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. As far as a bar for lesbian and bisexual women in the Village, well, things don’t look quite as rosy.

“Who cares about Church Street,” she asks. “If it’s a good club, we’ll go anywhere. I wouldn’t even think of opening a club in the Village when there are so many other areas. There’s a huge number of lesbians in Riverdale and Leslieville. Also, women aren’t men. For some reason the boy circuit party lives on, but women don’t go out as much as guys do like that.”

So there you have it. Rest assured there is still plenty to do in the city for an enterprising lesbian or bisexual woman. And for those of us on the outside looking in, it might be a good idea to relax a little and have faith that our larger community is evolving in how it interacts along with the rest of the world.

“Here’s the point,” says Cassella. “Just like how you listen to music has changed and how you catch a cab has changed, the way people socialize has changed too. It’s just natural.”

link: http://www.dailyxtra.com/arts-and-entertainment/the-toronto-lesbians-188320

AUGUST 14, 2016

Hey Emily!
I’m a 20-year-old girl from England. As far as I know, I’m completely straight and in love with my long-term boyfriend. (OK, there was one time that I hooked up with a girl, but I decided it’s just not for me.)
Here’s the thing: When I masturbate (and even sometimes when my boyfriend is going down on me), I think about girls having sex with girls. Mainly, I imagine situations where a girl is having lesbian sex for the first time. Am I normal?! Am I even straight? There are absolutely no issues with my boyfriend and I really don’t think I’m gay. Am I maybe bisexual? Am I alone?
Thanks,
Bi-Curious Britney in Britain

Dear Britney,

I am so glad you wrote me, Britney. These are the types of questions that come up for a LOT of people, but they’re usually too embarrassed to talk about it. They worry that maybe they’re confused or in denial about their sexuality. But here’s the truth: Not only are you not alone, you are actually in great company.

It is “normal” (even though I dislike that word, especially when it comes to sex), healthy, and extremely common for women to fantasize about other women during masturbation and during sex—even when they’re with their boyfriend or husband! And just because you imagine two (or more) ladies getting down doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to be with women. Hey, you’ve actually already tried it, so you know this.

Here’s what it does mean: You have a healthy and active imagination and you know what turns you on. Good for you.

I think it’s really helpful to think about sexuality as a spectrum, rather than a fixed state. The well known sexologist Alfred Kinsey and a team of colleagues even created a scale to classify varying degrees of hetero and homosexuality. This chart rates sexual thought and behavior somewhere between zero and six, with zero being “exclusively hetero” and six being “exclusively homosexual.” So someone who would rate themselves a “three” on the Kinsey Scale would more or less be considered bisexual, because they prefer both men and women equally.

Women naturally tend to fluctuate on the spectrum, with the majority not 100 percent straight. So we are all what I like to call “fluid,” depending on where we are on any given day or based on our personal experiences and fluctuating desire.

In fact, women are actually turned on by a much wider range of sexual imagery than you might think. We usually think of men as the ones who escape into sexual fantasy and visuals, but actually, we women have a pretty solid and adventurous mental “library.” So for whatever reason, when most women retreat into that secret sexual lair in our brains, there’s some hot girl on girl action going on. Whatever “normal” is, it isn’t 100 percent straight!

I also want to remind you that everyone has all kinds of fantasies. Just because an idea or scenario helps keep the fires burning in the heat of the moment doesn’t mean that you necessarily want to play them out IRL.

I think the short answer to your question is this: you, like most women, might have an attraction to other women and find them sexy, but it doesn’t mean you have to leave your boyfriend or worry about coming out of the closet.

So when it comes to defining your own sexuality, try not to get too wrapped up in labels. Since sexuality is fluid, let’s all just go with the flow!

link: http://www.glamour.com/story/straight-fantasize-lesbian-sex

Pega Ren 06/15/2015

As a sex therapist in private practice, I’m asked all sorts of interesting questions on a regular basis. The following touched on sensitive and important issues deserving of being shared with others. Here’s the question. Do you agree with my answer?

Question:
I’m a politically active high femme lesbian. About ten years ago, I met an attractive Butch when we shared both political and social interests. We became friendly, and even sparked, but didn’t act on it.
Fast forward to the present. After years of living in different cities, we met again at a dance. Surprise! She’s transitioned to male. The chemistry is still there, and we’re both available, but now it all seems confusing. He’s asked me out, and his intentions are clear: to act on our long-standing mutual attraction.
I’m torn. I glory in being visible on the arm of a Butch woman…otherwise society reads me as straight. And my work is LGBT sensitive (as is his). My identity as a lesbian is clear.

Still, I know and like this person. We have good history, shared values, similar interests. This could be a wonderful opportunity.

Can I be seen as a lesbian and date this man? How do I maintain my identity when together we read as a straight couple?

Answer:
Can you be seen as a lesbian? Nothing will change except when you are with your new lover. As a couple, you will probably be read by strangers as straight, just as you are now when alone. Outsiders will not recognize you.

You both work in queer-related jobs, and likely both have diverse circles of friends. Stay connected with your (now expanded) social network. You’ll find support there from those who matter.

You may encounter resistance even within your tribe, as identities and loyalties are sensitive to change. Some will resist the intersectionality of gender and sexual expression. However, you will come to understand difference and acceptance on a whole new level. When you analyze it, can you think of anything more transgressive than dating this man? It’s coming out multiplied!

And, don’t forget, you’ll now get to discover this person with whom you’ve shared a long term attraction, and to learn him as his authentic self!

Granted, you will be doing a lot of explaining. Even well-intentioned people will ask completely personal and inappropriate questions. You will need to be visible and vocal in entirely new ways. Dating a trans man will stretch you, challenge you to examine how you feel about the rainbow of diversity that encompasses being different sexually and socially.

As your sense of sex and gender adjusts, you may need to adapt your language. “Queer” may fit better now than “lesbian.” There’s not one right answer, nor hurry to choose personally-appropriate labels. You can get yourself T-shirts that proudly proclaim you a “Lesbian with an asterisk,” “Passing for straight,” or “Queer Femme,” and wear them while on your new man’s arm as well as when you are solo. Watch the world react, and monitor your own responses. A little discomfort is the price for challenging convention.

Make no mistake: you will be changed forever. Your sexuality will be recognized and responded to differently. Though your suitor is no more straight than you are, you’ll both be granted heterosexual privilege, even when you don’t want it. You will be in daring new territory and, as you develop your expanded identity, you’ll become more comfortable with your own way.

If you choose to date this old friend and comrade, do so because he is a trans man, not despite it. He has lived within your camp, is fluent in your language, and appreciates feminism (and feminine!) in a truly unique way. And, wow, does he ever get the Butch/femme dance!

Aim to match his bravery and authenticity with your own. The results may be spectacular! After all, the only time you run out of chances is when you quit taking them.

link: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/pega-ren/can-i-be-a-lesbian-and-da_b_7570464.html

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — After competing in pageants for generations in the closet or working behind the scenes, gays and lesbians finally get to see one of their own take one of pageantry’s biggest stages.

Miss Missouri, Erin O’Flaherty, will compete for the Miss America crown this weekend as the first openly lesbian contestant.

“Behind the scenes, we’ve been well-represented, but I’m the first openly gay title holder, so I’m very excited,” she told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “I knew going in that I had the opportunity to make history. Now I get to be more visible to the community and meet more people.”

Rich Helfant, executive director of the Greater Atlantic City GLBT Alliance, helps run the Miss’d America pageant, a drag spoof of the Miss America pageant that has become popular in Atlantic City as an entertainment and fundraising event. He said he’ll watch the Miss America pageant finals Sept. 11 with extra interest this year.

Miss’d America took its name from the fact that many gay pageant workers toiled behind the scenes during Miss America and never got to see what was happening onstage.

“They literally missed Miss America,” Helfant said.

Robert Hitchen of Philadelphia appears regularly in the Miss’d America pageant under the stage name Sandy Beach and recalled decades of behind-the-scenes work on pageants, including designing floats, and later riding on them in Miss America parades.

The “Show Us Your Shoes” parade that has become a fixture of Miss America, in which contestants ride in vehicles on the Boardwalk and show off their state-themed footwear, sprang from the interest of gay spectators, he said.

“We would watch the parade from the deck of a hotel and we’d look down into the cars and see some of the women wearing slippers or being barefoot, and we started calling out, ‘Show us your shoes!’” he recalled. “We sort of embarrassed them into wearing these big elaborate shoes, which are the highlight of the parade now.”

Antwan Lee, who won the Miss Gay America 2016 pageant under the stage name Asia O’Hara, would excitedly watch Miss America every year as a child and a young man, imagining what it would be like onstage.

“I would always gravitate toward celebrities and singers and actresses that had a high level of glam: beautiful, poised people who would live their life with a high degree of dignity,” he said. “To see that on TV with 50 women, as a young gay boy, that’s the first place you see such a concentration of that. I was like, ‘Wow, look at all those beautiful women, all the class, all the glamor!’ It’s very alluring.”

Lesbians have been more visible in pageants lately. Djuan Trent competed in the Miss America pageant as Miss Kentucky in 2011, when she finished in the top 10. She came out as a lesbian in 2014.

Patricia Yurena, two-time winner of the Miss Spain contest and a runner up in the 2013 Miss Universe competition, announced in 2014 that she is a lesbian, posting a photo of her and her girlfriend cuddling, titling it “Romeo and Juliet.”

In 2012, two openly lesbian contestants, Jenelle Hutcherson and Mollie Thomas, competed in the Miss California USA pageant but did not advance to the national Miss USA pageant competition.

O’Flaherty is the first Miss America contestant to win a state title after coming out; Trent came out after competing.

Hitchen said the social activism of many Miss America contestants resonates with the gay community; the Miss’d America drag queen parody pageant raises $300,000 a year for local and national charities and has become the top social event of the year in Atlantic City’s gay community.

Josh Randle, chief operating officer of the Miss America Organization, said the pageant reflects an evolving America.

“Through every major milestone of our nation’s evolution, Miss America has provided a voice for women from all walks of life, and, this year, we welcome our first openly gay contestant,” he said. “Miss America contestants continue to be the best and brightest in the country, and we proudly support each and every young woman who competes in our national program.”

link: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/miss-missouri-competes-as-miss-americas-first-openly-lesbian-contestant/

By Dena Landon SEPTEMBER 7, 2016

The summer my parents’ marriage was falling apart, my best friend’s two moms saved me—even though my dad said they were going to Hell.

Hey Penny, is Carrie awake?” I ducked through the screen door, letting it bang shut behind me. The sun had barely crested the Seattle skyline and I was already at my best friends’ house. Her mom, Joy, grabbed a bowl from the cabinets and a box of cereal and set it on the kitchen table. “I’ll go check,” she said. I pulled up a stool and sat down, pouring out the sugary cereal and adding the milk that Penny, Carrie’s other mom, fetched from the fridge.

It was the summer before my mother left my dad. My twelve-year-old self lived in books and fantasy worlds of unicorns and dragons, rather than the real world of dark bruises and a shattered living room lamp, swept up and never discussed. Unlikely friends, proximity brought Carrie and I together more than anything else. We were the only two girls our age in the neighborhood.

My strictly religious family attended church every Sunday morning, worship services on Sunday night, and Wednesday night youth group. I’m not sure if Carrie had ever been to church. Her two mothers, Penny and Joy, lived around the block from my parents’ brick Edwardian house in a small two-story bungalow that they were constantly improving. They played the Indigo Girls on their stereo, danced around their kitchen, and talked about summer solstice as casually as my mother discussed the church bake sale.

I only went back to my house to sleep, escaping out the back door every morning before my dad could catch me. If I slept through my alarm and he hadn’t left yet to meet a client I’d have to stand barefoot in the kitchen and recite my assigned Bible verses for the week, or share with him the prayer requests he required me to write on 3×5 index cards. My mom taught kindergarten, and had the summers off, but while physically present, she wasn’t really there. She moved in a daze through my father’s shouted words and hid for hours in the bathroom, planning the escape she’d execute later that fall.

Every morning I’d show up on Carrie’s doorstep and her mothers took me in. They never asked why I was there, and never told me to go home. They acted like it was perfectly natural to have a second daughter.

At the top of a hill that overlooked Seattle, Carrie and I roamed in and out of back alleys, eating fruit that had fallen from neighbors’ trees. Ripe juice dripped down our arms, staining our cutoffs red. We rode our bikes in circles through the crushed glass and burnt stubs of fireworks left at the elementary school’s concrete yard after the Fourth of July. And at nights, when the air hung hot and humid, we’d play truth or dare. We prank-called the boys at school who’d made us cross our legs in class. We egged the neighbor’s house after she yelled at us for eating plums from her trees.

“Truth,” I picked, tossing the well-read issue of Sassy on her bed. After I’d ripped the inseam of my brand new, eighty-dollar Guess jeans trying to scale the fence around the local cemetery I’d been going for the ‘truth’ option more.

“Have you ever kissed a boy?” Carrie asked. We collapsed into giggles, tanned legs wound together and thighs touching, and later lied to her mothers about the hot pink nail polish we’d spilled on her comforter.

Our games veered back and forth between the children we’d been and the women we’d become.

Too many things were changing all around me. Earlier that year, I’d read the headline “War” on a newspaper and it wasn’t in a history class. Signed out of all sex education classes by my religious parents, I had no idea what was going on with my body. When short, curly hairs started appearing between my thighs I cut them off with craft scissors, stuffing them into the bathroom wastebasket. And I sensed changes coming in my family, the way you can sense a summer rainstorm hanging in the clouds just before it lets loose.

“We’re going swimming at Greenlake, why don’t you run home and grab your suit?” Penny tossed out the suggestion, and I’d duck through the back alley and run home to tell my mom I probably wouldn’t be back for dinner. Trips to the lake, meals out at local restaurants or crowding around their kitchen table for pizza; I took for granted that I was included. With the myopic focus of youth I never wondered why they’d opened their home to me so thoroughly.

That winter, my mom finally left. A ’90s latch-key kid, I was the first one home every day. The day she moved out, I opened the back door and walked into a bare kitchen. There were no chairs in the breakfast nook, or around the dining room table. I wandered through the house, past empty closets and vanity drawers that now held only the crumbs of blue eyeshadow and pencil shavings. She’d left no note, no explanation, and given him no warning. It wasn’t until my twenties that I assembled all the cracked and jumbled pieces of my parents’ marriage into the shape of a missing living room lamp.

Once she’d left, my Dad noticed how much time I’d been spending at Carrie’s house. “Hate the sin, love the sinners!” he’d remind me at the nightly dinners we ate around the dining room table. I now had a bedtime, and he’d sit cross-legged on the floor by my futon and read passages from the Bible. I’d stare out the open window, up at the stars, while he read, “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination.” Then he’d quiz me.

“Dena, pay attention.” He’d snap his fingers under my nose. “Do you understand? Penny and Joy are going to hell, but you can save them. You have to tell them about the Good News.”

I’d sigh, roll on my side and present him with my back. Any rebellion, no matter how small, had to be carefully chosen. The boundary between the territory of what I could get away with and a slap across the face constantly shifted. “Yes, Dad.”

My parents’ divorce dragged on, and the house went up on the market. It was winter and, trapped inside, Carrie and I switched to listening to Madonna’s “Immaculate Collection” and practicing our dance moves. We decided to stage a show for her moms in their living room, setting up chairs and bed sheets that hung from the ceiling. Wearing blazers borrowed from their closet and black bras stuffed with tissue, we went all out to re-create her “Express Yourself” video.

I don’t know why my Dad showed up that night to sit, awkwardly perched on the edge of a folding chair, and watch our performance. I remember his stilted clapping and forced smile, the way he grabbed me by the arm and dragged me out of there. And suddenly I was busy watching my younger brother and sister, preparing meals for the family, and doing laundry, without any time for childish things like playing dress-up. Early that spring we moved across the water to Bellevue, leaving behind their bad influence. Even though I begged and pleaded, somehow there was never time to go back and visit the old neighborhood. The divorce went through and my Mom moved to Bellevue, too. I didn’t understand the how and why of her leaving until I was older. For years we had a difficult relationship, until I gained the maturity and experience to understand my parents’ marriage.

The last time I was home was for my mother’s funeral, in February of 2009. Afterwards, drained and exhausted, I begged my now ex-husband to drive with me to my old house. I gave him directions, the route burned into my memory even after fifteen years. Up the hill, past the graveyard where I’d torn my jeans. Around the corner, past the elementary school where they’d rebuilt the playground, tearing down the old wooden structures and replacing them with bright, colored plastic.

The trees had grown to shadow and shade the entrance to my old house, hiding it from the street. We parked, and my ex stayed in the car while I walked around the block and stood on a sidewalk littered with evergreen needles. When I rang the doorbell, no one answered. There were no names on the mailbox, and no way of telling if they still lived there.

They chose to love me even though they knew that I was being taught to hate them. They listened to my father’s lectures about Jesus with a patience borne – I can see now, out of a desire to continue being a refuge for a lost and scared little girl.

For one glorious summer they gave me the gift of freedom, a home, and a safe place to hide.

When I finally responded to my husband’s persistent honking and turned away from their front door, words and memories jumbled inside me, clogging my throat. But as I opened the passenger door and climbed inside, I looked back at the house that had sheltered me and whispered, “Tell them I said ‘thank you.’”

link: http://narrative.ly/i-was-taught-to-hate-my-lesbian-neighbors-they-took-me-in-anyway/

by Robyn Maynard, FUSE Magazine 35-3 ABOLITION

Anti-prostitution women’s groups — comprised of women morally and politically opposed to the very existence of the sex trade — have a far-reaching influence in the Canadian political climate that can be traced back to the colonization of Canada. While these groups often promote themselves as advancing an abolitionist feminist agenda, prohibitionist feminism is a more accurate descriptor, and will be used throughout this essay. [1] In the present writing, I will argue that the strategies of prohibitionist feminists do not serve the health and well-being of sex workers, but actually result in the criminalization of the very people they purport to protect. In contrast, the arguments in this essay promote a model of solidarity with sex workers, in support of their own movements for health, security and dignity within the sex trade.

Sex workers are marginalized in Canadian society — they face staggering rates of violence and stigmatization that affect their ability to access health, social and protective services, and many (especially street- based workers) are subject to heavy police repression. Trans*, racialized, and Indigenous sex workers, as well as sex workers who use drugs, face these forms of marginalization at an even higher level, and experience higher levels of policing and incarceration. This reality is largely acknowledged by sex work activists and by most prohibitionists. [2] The issue that divides sex work activists from prohibitionists is the determination of the necessary steps to abolish violence towards sex workers. Prohibitionists believe that sex work, in and of itself, is inherently violent and exploitative, and propose instead that a carceral, prohibitionist approach must be taken to eliminate sex work itself. This model runs contrary to struggles for labour rights, migrants rights, decriminalization and self-determination which are currently being waged by sex work activists, as the means to end the high rates of violence and repression in the industry. As sex work in Canada is currently under intense public scrutiny, as well as political and legal upheaval, it is a feminist issue of the utmost importance, with high stakes in terms of the lives and safety of sex workers. Sex workers’ voices are not always represented in these debates; however, organizations run by and for sex workers such as POWER (Prostitutes of Ottawa/Gatineau Work, Educate, Resist) and legal allies such as the Pivot Legal Society have produced a wealth of information giving space for sex workers to describe their realities and needs. This information was assembled as part of sustained efforts by sex workers to prioritize their voices in the public domain as the pressure has mounted in the highly mediatized societal debates surrounding their work. Given this context, it is more necessary than ever to demonstrate how prohibitionist feminism’s align- ment with the moral right’s carceral approach to sex work in Canada results in significant harm to sex workers’ safety and autonomy. Indeed, much stands to be gained by redefining a truly abolitionist feminism with the goal of abolishing violence against sex workers, in solidarity with the safety, needs and self-determination of sex workers themselves.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

If you are a woman interested in experimenting with woman on woman contact, how does one go about looking for a provider?

Really, the process of looking for a female escort isn’t much different for a woman than it is for a man who’s looking for a particular appearance or activity; in fact, it’s probably easier than finding one who caters to an unusual kink, becausebisexuality isn’t all that uncommon in women.  There is one catch, though; while most escorts will advertise the fetishes they work with, most don’t advertise that they see female clients (outside of couples) for the simple reason that there aren’t that many (I saw exactly two in my entire career).  So when you do your research (these two posts shouldhelp you there), don’t just look for ladies who specifically state that they will see female clients; also look for ones who say that they enjoy seeing couples and also do “doubles”.  If an escort sees couples and is willing to do two-girl shows with other escorts, there is a very good chance she will also be open to seeing a woman alone.

Once you’ve found a lady who appeals to you and who you think would be willing to see you, contact her by whatever means she specifies on her website; be sure you let her know that you are a woman and that you want to see her solo, i.e. your husband or boyfriend won’t be there.  Otherwise she may think you’re approaching her for a couple call, or even fail to recognize that she isn’t corresponding with a man (if your screen name doesn’t make your gender obvious).  Since you’ve never done this before, you don’t have any references; this may not be a problem because A) most women aren’t going to be as wary of meeting a strange woman as they are of meeting a strange man; and B) I sincerely doubt many cops are trying to set up escort stings with female fakers.  This is by no means a sure thing, however; some ladies may insist on screening you on principle, so just give whatever information they request and it shouldn’t be an issue.  If you want to be on the safe side, try to find one who says she’s “newbie friendly” in addition to the bisexuality factor; that usually means she’s willing to do full screening rather than relying on references.

I have one more suggestion:  since it seems from your question that you’ve never had any lesbian experiences before, you might consider hiring your escort for several hours rather than just one; you could then take her to dinner, chat for a while and warm up to her as you would on a regular date, instead of just jumping into the sack.  I think that would dramatically increase your chances of having a good experience, which would in turn help you to know whether you really like it or not.  After all, if you rushed things and things didn’t turn out well, it might turn you off to the idea of further experimentation when the problem was really with the uncomfortable situation rather than with the lady.

August 14, 2013 by Maggie McNeill

link: https://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/seeking-sappho/

We at Escorts Are For Women Too have tested out more than our fair share of online dating programs. In our professional opinion, they all belong in a special circle of hell. But it can be a laugh, so we keep on cruising.

We were invited to try out Her, the lesbian app for dating and chatting. We thought that anything other than Tinder would be outstanding, since the queer Tinder pool in Toronto is rather shallow. Her has a similar swiping format, each profile has pictures, height, orientation, and distance from your phone. On top of this there is a Facebook-style feed that lists lezzy news and events (as they call them) relevant to your GPS that are mainstream but rather cute.

Profile photos aren’t limited to ones already uploaded on Facebook. This turns out to be rather crucial, because there is no clear space to write a bio. So when it comes to messaging a hottie, often all you have to go on is their look, and hope that they’ve put a picture of themselves in front of some mountains or getting tattoo, so you can strike up conversation that goes further than the cunt-shrivelling “hi how r u” opener. There is an option to insert text into a photo space, but most people don’t. Their website coos that we can “forget those boring forms” and just shove 20 selfies on our profile, sit real quiet and patient and hope that someone sends us a message first. A little peek into the mind of a matching profile would be a huge time saver, as we at Escorts Are For Women Too are militant sapiosexuals who need more to get off than “I love going to the gym and watching TV.”

Saving grace… there’s no reject button. It’s a double sliding reversible conveyor belt of women so if you swiped the love of your life to the side, it’s very easy to get her back again.

All in all, it’s a sweet but somewhat clunky app that has a go at encouraging women to talk to each other.

We get wonderful feedback from clients in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal who have found escorts, BDSM professionals, and massage providers through our listings. Recently a couple contacted us to let us know about their experience.

Veronica joined my girlfriend and I last night for our first threesome together. I was hesitant in my selection process of whom to approach for what I wanted to be a special, sensual erotic experience for my girlfriend who I adore on her birthday. We are so unbelievably happy I approached veronica and that she was available.

Veronica provided an experience above and beyond our expectations. Besides the obvious that she is a truly classy, sexy and sensual woman she is a great person as we took the time to get to know each other over a drink first prior to moving to the hotel room.

Veronica I know you enjoyed yourself last night too and we both want to thank you for a euphoric sensual erotic night that we will never forget. Big kiss from both of us. Xxx D&N

What is your desire? Connecting people to their ideal service provider is what we do best. Contact us at escortsareforwomentoo [at] gmail [dot] com with an idea of what you are seeking.