By Jocelyn Voo
Curve magazine

As we speak, Iyari Limon is trucking toward Black Rock Desert, Nev., at 10 p.m., nine friends crammed into vans on the way to Burning Man. “I’ve been wanting to go for many, many years,” the 30-year-old actor enthuses. “I’m very excited.” And what’s not to love about an eight-day festival outfitted with 24-hour falafel stations and pole-dancing lesson camps in the middle of nowhere, culminating in a 40-foot wooden effigy exploding in a blaze of pyrotechnics? It’s just the type of thing any thrill-seeker is want to do.

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By Jocelyn Voo
Curve magazine

No one can deny that roller derby girls are tough. Broken bones and bruises the size of ham hocks are expected in the sport, and judging by the ferocity which with players jam, block and generally manhandle their opponents in the rink, these girls are out for blood. As Kasey Bomber, co-captain of Los Angeles’ Trust Fund Terrors, puts it, “You will get hit, you will get hurt. A girl has to accept that almost welcome it if she wants to succeed here. This isn’t a Yahtzee tournament.”

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By Jocelyn Voo
Curve magazine

Pride — with its hard bodies, disco divas and endless partying — often seems to be a boys’ wonderland, but several of the biggest Pride celebrations in the United States are actually run by lesbians. Here’s their insider’s guide to what it takes to put on a festival to remember.
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By Jocelyn Voo
Curve magazine

If achieving personal celebrity is the goal, then Jennifer Perkins still has a way to go. ” I definitely get the occasional, ‘Hey, you’re the naughty secretary,” the 31-year-old founder of DIY jewelry business Naughty Secretary Club says. “I think a lot of people think that’s my name.”

From an early age, the Texas native showed signs of entrepreneurship, though not by selling lemonade or trying to pawn off her little sister like normal kids do. Instead, her family raised lop-eared rabbits, so she and her younger sister Hope would load the babies into a wagon and set up shop on the corner. Of course, not all ehr early business ventures went that smoothly: “My best friend and I once decided to have a roadside manicure stand in a tent in her front yard. Problem was, it was like 20 degrees and snowing, so only her grandmother paid us not to do her nails.”

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By Jocelyn Voo
Curve magazine

There are few people who could liven up a dinner party like I imagine the Nellie Olesons could. By dessert, I’d expect half the guests to have thrown their napkins down on their tiramisu and left in a huff. Good thing I like my dinner parties saucy.

After performing together in the gay New York comedy group Planet Q, Nora Burns and Terrence Michael founded the Nellie Olesons in 1993 looking to infuse the pre-South Park comedy circuit with their own brand of edgy humor. After some initial member shuffling, the original duo “put out an ad looking for a woman,” says Micahel, “and boy did we get one.” John Cantwell — probably most recognizable as the flamboyant “bend and snap” hairstylist alongside Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde — joined the Nellies in 1996.

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By Jocelyn Voo
Curve magazine

It’s hard not to admire a girl who unapologetically eats a Big Mac three times a week despite its artery-clogging composition and questionable meat sources. It’s nearly impossible when that girl is also a model.

Kim Stolz is the latest lesbian to brave Tyra Banks’ reality television catwalk and emerge relatively unscathed from the unforgiving lens. America’s Next Top Model, soon to be in its sixth season, has featured queer girls before—out contestant Ebony in the premiere cycle and bisexual wrestler Michelle in season four—but perhaps unlike the previous girls, Stolz worker her masculine tendencies to her advantage from day one.

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By Jocelyn Voo
Curve magazine

Versace, Armani, Calvin Klein — you can’t rummage through a Bergdorf women’s rack without flipping past a dozen frocks envisioned by a queer eye. The clothes are sensual and evocative, but their aesthetic almost always conforms perfectly to the mainstream definition of feminine attire: flowing couture gowns, delicate silk shirts, form-fitting tailored pants. And while no one can claim there’s a lack of gay designers, for a gay designer to produce a specifically queer-themed women’s line that defies traditional notions of femininity — well, that’s rarer in the fashion industry than a model wolfing down a pint of Häagen-Dazs without making a post-snack trip to the bathroom.

But Parisa Parnian is one such fashion rebel out to leave her mark on gender-divided clothing. While growing up in a traditional Iranian family — where Islamic dress code requires a woman’s head, neck and arms be covered — and a conservative Republican community in Arizona, Parnian struggled with the idea of discrete gender categories, which seemed increasingly anachronistic as she matured.
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By Jocelyn Voo
Curve magazine

Nearly two years ago, Melissa Koehl and Megan Thomas answered an ad placed by Karen Binor in a small Chicago paper, and together they’ve been stripping the paint from the walls with their aggressive garage rock ever since. The Reptoids are active in the local music scene, yet the 20-something bandmates still have time to watch zombie flicks, release their second EP (Park a Tiger) and drink each other under the table. Watch out: These are the types of girls your mother probably warned you about — and precisely the girls everyone wants to hang with.

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By Jocelyn Voo
Curve magazine

Tucked away on the tip of Cape Cod in Massachusetts is a tight-knit population of 3,500 — a town inhabited by a diverse mix of Portuguese immigrants, eclectic artisans and friendly locals enjoying the prime seaside real estate. Quaint bed-and-breakfasts cluster along the waterfront, white picket fences and artist communes are located mere blocks from each other, and on any given day you’ll see residents biking the miles of trails winding up the coast. The area exudes the boho charm of Santa Cruz, the entrepreneurship of Silicon Valley and the lazy sensibility of a European fishing village. And it’s also arguably gayer than a pair of chintz ass chaps.

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By Jocelyn Voo
Curve magazine

"I basically had a story about an ex-girlfriend that I thought was funny," says Chris Hampton, longtime blogger and co-founder of the WYSIWYG Talent Show, a small-operation all-blogger performance event tucked away in Manhattan’s East Village. Of course, by "funny" she must mean can’t-hardly-breathe, falling-out-of-chairs hilarious, because her allegedly ho-hum story about her ex-girlfriend (detailing the worst sex she’d ever had — on Valentine’s Day, with a staffer in a home for developmentally disabled adults) became the platform for Worst. Sex. Ever. , the first WYSIWYG showcase to appear on the Performance Space 122 stage.

When tickets for the first show sold out, it was clear that there was something larger afoot than just a blogger reading. With the help of writer-performer Andy Horwitz and Dan "Sparky" Rhatigan, WYSIWYG soon commanded a monthly slot at P.S. 122, with a half-dozen talented bloggers regularly turning their once semi-private thoughts into three-dimensional confessions.

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