Congratulations to Babeland! Seattle’s Center for LGBT Health (Verbena and the Gay City Health Project) just awarded Babeland their first ever honor for Outstanding Service. The award is for promoting LGBT health and wellness. I’m so thrilled that Babeland is being recognized for what we strive to do everyday. As Rebecca Denk, our General Business Manager puts it:

“Good sex and good health go hand in hand. Perhaps no one knows that better than the queer community. At Babeland, we try to turn people on to that simple truth, and we’re honored to be recognized for it.”

Between the classes, the how-tos, the books, porn and toys, we’re working hard at promoting sexual health as much as possible.

We’re just living in it.

Belladonna is one of my favorite porn stars. She’s assertive, has no fear and honestly enjoys what she’s doing. Plus, she truly loves women and it shows in her films.
Bella seems to be popping up everywhere I look. First, she cut off all of her hair again - hot. When I first learned about Belladonna this is how she had her hair and I couldn’t believe that a female porn star would do something like that. Women in the porn industry almost universally have long flowing locks of hair that get in the way and have to be held up during blow jobs, etc.

She also recently spoke at UC Irvine for a Sociology of Sexuality class. I took a class like that in college and we sure didn’t have any porn stars speaking to us. Bella talked about sex on and off camera and what it’s like to be a mom and a porn star. I think it’s fantastic that students are getting the chance to speak with people in the industry instead of just reading books about people in the industry. Plus, they got to watch porn in class (they showed Evil Pink - one of my favorites)

To finish off the overflow of Belladonna goodness, Eros Zine has a very nice interview with her that elaborates on some of the topics she talked about at UC Irvine. Plus, it has some gorgeous photographs.

Babeland carries a few of Belladonna’s many movies including:

Fucking Girls (one of my all time faves), Fucking Girls 3, Fetish Fanatic 2, Evil Pink 2, Fashionistas (another fave), and No Warning. We also have more titles for rent at our stores so you can check out all of her films.

And be sure to check out her own site - Enter Belladonna

The news just broke today that Eric Karoack, the anti-contraception physician appointed by Bush to be the head of the Office of Population Affairs (they distribute monies for contraception) has resigned. Apparently, Medicaid officials in Massachusetts took action against him that required him to resign but no one is saying what that action is.

This is thrilling news. Keroack’s appointment epitomized the Bush administration’s tendency to put people in charge of programs that they actually don’t believe in (Bolton and the U.N., and Hagar at the FDA for example). The program Keroack ran in Massachusetts counseled abstinence-only until marriage, opposed contraception and refused to even give information about birth control. What Keroack would have done to the Office of Population Affairs in the long term is too devastating to think about.

I wonder who the Bush Administration will appoint in his place? I can think of half a dozen qualified physicians right now. Who do you think should be appointed?

Update: The New York Times has a great editorial on Keroack’s resignation.