I barely knew how to climb the pole, and even the sloppiest of inversions seemed like feats of Olympic athletes to me. Protestors have rallied in London against Italy’s move to strip non-gestational lesbian mothers’ names from their children’s birth certificates. Lesbians have long suffered discrimination by those telling us we are perverted and defining us by sexual acts rather than sexual identity. While we were sitting at the bar, she was shy, and that shyness didn’t leave her while I was dancing, but it turned huskier, magnetic.

Speaking about one of her assailants, she said: “When I was walking she tried to pull a bat out and swing it at me. Tristan Taormino is an American feminist author, columnist, sex educator, activist, editor, speaker, radio host, and pornographic film director. She lectures at top colleges and universities including Yale, Cornell, Princeton, Brown, Harvard, Columbia, Smith, Johns Hopkins, and UCLA, where she speaks on gay and lesbian issues, sexuality and gender, and feminism. Toni and Clarice had a commitment ceremony in the backyard, a civil union in Vermont, and a (not legally recognized by the state) marriage at City Hall.DTWOF chronicled the lives, loves, and politics of a fairly diverse group of characters (most of them lesbians) living in a medium-sized city in the United States, featuring both humorous soap opera storylines and biting topical commentary.

Quinn Vertiz's "Jubilee" describes a classic American rite of passage -- a trip to a trailer brothel in the Nevada desert -- but with a truck full of butch dykes in place of the local boys.Where else but a Tristan Taormino erotica collection can readers find a femme vigilante, a virgin baby butch and a snake charmer jostling for attention?