You know them as the hip, queer publishers and co-founders of the now defunct CHILL Magazine ( chillmag.com ) , but dynamic duo Trish Bendix and Jamie Murnane have a new mission—to take the blogosphere by storm. Or at least have a hell of a lot of fun making young women crack up while getting their quick, daily fix of queer news.
Along with New York blogger Amanda Lyn Ferri, freelance writers and co-founders of this summer's Queerfest Midwest, Bendix and Murnane, bring you Girlfriendisahomo.com, a blog for the fresher batch of lesbian, bi and gender queer women.
According to Bendix, CHILL was created as a 'fun outlet' for her and Murnane that attempted to reflect who they are as part of the newer generation of queer women. They saw a great need for a publication for their local peers and ran with it. CHILL lasted about one year, until the co-founders and partners realized they love writing, but detest business.
'There was plenty of stuff to still write about in Chicago for queer women, but it was just basically the business end of things that we weren't too keen on,' Bendix told Nightspots with a laugh.
Bendix said that they also switched to a daily blog format because, following a survey on CHILL's site, they realized a lot of readers were from outside of Chicago. 'They were just coming to us through other lesbian magazines, but there aren't many of those, either,' she said.
Knowing that there are, indeed, options outside of print nowadays, they started a blog to also create accessibility and timeliness. With a similar mission as CHILL, but on a national scope, they are on to the next chapter.
And why the name? 'We were trying to think of something that was kind of quirky and funny,' Bendix said. 'We don't mind the word 'lesbian,' but it really is used a lot when referring to women.'
The name is fitting, for sure. Girlfriend is a Homo quickly turns around a humorous and quirky look at national headlines, entertainment news, gossip and hot events all over.
'I feel like a lot of lesbian Web sites are newsy, and that's cool because we need that,' Bendix said. 'But I also think we are sometimes too afraid to laugh at ourselves.'
These three may not yet know what the future will bring, Bendix said, but definitely encourage feedback from readers. Check out www.girlfriendisahomo.com for yourself and tell them what you think.
