Gay's The Word Needs Your Support!

The last surviving lesbian and gay bookshop in the UK is under threat.

I love Gay's The Word Bookshop. Every time I go to London I try to make the effort to get there - and to buy books. We need bookshops. You can browse online, but you can't hold the books in your hand. It's difficult to come across the surprising find, the older titles, online: the history of our struggles and our celebrations.

Please do what you can to support Gay's The Word. You can sponsor a shelf and help safeguard the bookshop's future.

Read about the authors supporting the bookshop in Times Online and Guardian Online.

Bookshops are a vital part of community-building. Our words are our future!

Let's Talk Toenails

Am I missing something? What's wrong with clipping your toenails in the living room? What room would you rather we did it in?

Ok, it was a straight woman writing about The L Word who made the comment about straight men clipping their toenails in the living room being a cliché and a cheap shot at men. But then, the lesbians got in on the act, and someone claimed: "i have never witnessed a woman (regardless of orientation) or a gay man do it" (clip their toenails in the living room, that is).

What world are we living in that women or men (regardless of orientation) are denied living room space to clip their toenails in?

I shave my head on the landing. I clip my toenails, and my fingernails, in the living room. My hair clippers are kept in the cupboard on the landing. My nail clippers are stored in a box in the living room. It makes perfect sense for me and my partner to clip nails in the living room. We collect our nail clippings in a rubbish bin and dispose of them. We don't distribute them all over the carpet and leave them there. We are two adult lesbians living in our own home. We can do what the f**k we like in our own living room!

Since when did toenail clippings become an indicator of gender and/or sexuality?

I guess it's a little sad that I got riled enough to blog about this, given that I seem to have been away from the blog for a month. Plus, I haven't even seen beyond Season 2 of The L Word. Maybe my problem is I feel I'm missing out!

We used to look at a woman's fingernails and make pointed comments. Do we have to check her toenail habits now, too?