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Forget about rain keeping you stuck inside. The intense heat this summer does the job quite nicely. If an E. coli outbreak puts a damper on your plans to go to a local beach on a sweltering day, cool off in an air-conditioned room, plop yourself down in front of a computer, and check out these sites.
Two huge sites have come to my attention recently. Livineasy.Com is the brainchild of Barbara McLean, a veteran GLBT activist who has turned her attention to the aging Baby Boomer generation. Her site is based on the premise that Baby Boomers "are in the prime of their life, a time of celebrating accomplishments and new beginnings." To that end, the site is simply exhaustive in its coverage of all aspects of life after 50, including health, retirement plans, and travel. McLean even offers a mini-course on computers for those who are either completely unfamiliar with them (hear that, Mom?) or have limited knowledge of them. Even youngsters like myself can find something of interest on Livineasy.Com. Membership is free and has several benefits, including special discounts on different products and advanced computer training.
The other big site is People with a History: An Online Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans History. This is the mother of all guides to online information sources about the GLBT community. So far, it has eleven sections covering the dawn of time to the present. And it is not limited to the Western GLBT experience: Africa, Asia, and Latin America are covered at length. Within Section V: North America, for instance, you have a listing of online sources on Native American societies, US and Canadian GLBT history from the Colonial Era to the present, AIDS, and current GLBT thought. It will take you all day just to read the articles and Web sites linked to Section V. It'll no doubt take the rest of the month to go through the rest of the sections. People with a History is definitely a one-stop resource for information on the GLBT community.
A new site with potential is DC Magazine, "DC" standing for "Decent Choices." It is the hope of Webmaster Robb Tilley that DC Magazine will be an alternative to GLBT sites that are more advertisements for XXX sites than anything substantial that relates to the day-to-day realities of the GLBT community. As Tilley writes in his Editor's Note in the July 1999 issue, "We are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, but we are also more than just a name, more than a label. We're people who care about what goes on around us, just like everyone else." The content is a bit thin right now, considering that it has only two issues under its belt, but Tilley has sent out a call for writers.
If you would rather listen to the latest GLBT news and entertainment than sit in front of a computer screen and read it, there are sites offering that alternative. The Gay Grapevine Radio Show calls itself the "Proud Out Loud Voice of LesBiGay South Florida" and has recently come online. You'll need the Real Audio player to listen to the shows available (you can download the plug-in from the site). You have your choice of either listening to each show right at the moment or downloading it so you can listen to it later. The latter option is preferable if you have a slow or poor connection. These shows are not real time broadcasts; however, new ones are added weekly. The Gay Grapevine is part of the Pink Noise Web ring that offers links to other GLBT radio sites. Check this site out for GLBT radio around the world.
Next month I'll feature Back to School sites (yes, it's almost that time again). Keep cool till then!
Linineasy.Com
www.livineasy.com
People with a History: An Online Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans History
www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/index-am.html
DC Magazine
members.xoom.com/_XOOM/TCSOnline/DCM/
The Gay Grapevine Radio Show
freehosting2.at.webjump.com/ga/gaygrapevien-webjump/ra.htm
Pink Noise web ring
members.xoom.com/_XOOM/gareth_w/index.html
