Words From a Wicked Woman

Thanks for visiting my blog, Words From a Wicked Woman.  I am a freelance journalist published under my own name as well as the pseudonym Drew Alise Timmens. This blog is a project I started late January, 2007 after several years out of journalism due to chronic illness. This is the place I put those things I can’t quite put anywhere else. I am working my way back to the journalism fold, but it is a slow process. Therefore, those topics I’d normally write about for publication in a magazine, news site or newspaper find a home here.

My areas of interest are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues, especially as they relate to people of color (PoC) communities. In particular, I am interested in the politics of being LGBT and write about the issues, people and events related to LGBT and PoC constituencies. From 2000 through 2003 I wrote primarily for LGBT media. Over 50 published articles with my byline have appeared on a former incarnation of the site LesbiaNation.com; in Venus Magazine before the publisher supposedly found Jesus and began preaching deliverance from homosexuality to the delight of Right Wing Religious Nuts, and; Arise magazine before it ceased publication. I have also written for the Window Media group–publisher of the LGBT newspapers Southern Voice and The Washington Blade, and; the Mac Observer where I wrote about one of my favorite subjects, Apple.

I’ve lived in a wonderfully diverse suburb of Cleveland, Ohio called Cleveland Heights for the vast majority of my life. It is here that I learned that the United States isn’t the only country in the world and that the values assumed to be American aren’t shared by everyone. This city is a microcosm of the rest of the world in that we’ve got a little bit of everyone from everywhere on every populated continent. Living in this environment definitely gives one a different perspective.

Cleveland Heights has the distinction of being the first city in Ohio to have a domestic partnership registry. Although the state legislature passed a reprehensible Defense of Marriage Act that nullifies any benefit that might have come as a result of the registry, it is still on the city’s books and it serves as official recognition of all people who have agreed to share their lives together. I am proud to say that I worked on the committee that advocated for the registry’s existence.

It is difficult to put me into any particular box. I don’t necessarily agree with anyone’s “party line” and have often questioned the sincerity of some in the LGBT rights movement. I am queer and I am black. However, I don’t always agree with whatever someone says is the theoretically uniform opinion held by the pseudo-monolithic black community. Because I fall out of the mainstream of so many groups and ideological camps, speaking my truth makes me a heretic in some circles. Readers find that I rarely scream anything from the rooftops–that isn’t my style–however the beliefs I have are strong and I’ve found the best way to get them across is to write insistently, consistently and persistently. Doing so makes me The Wicked Woman.

If, for some reason, you wish to contact me, I can be reached at thewickedwoman (at) roadrunner dot com.