Girl on Girl

"Girl on Girl" provides an illuminating group portrait of six women struggling with feminine-lesbian invisibility. Indistinguishable from straight women, feminine lesbians find that their day-to-day experience is plagued by interrogation and by society's insistence that feminine women cannot possibly be "real lesbians." Assumed to be straight by the outside world, feminine lesbians are also invisible to each other. Even in LGBTQ spaces, questioning and skepticism prove more the rule than the exception: "Are you sure?" "You haven't met the right man." "You're too pretty to be gay." Although "Girl on Girl" explores the specific challenges of feminine lesbians, the film also addresses the difficulties that all lesbians face in their efforts to be taken seriously in their sexuality. The scope of "Girl on Girl" is wide, and issues of family tensions, anti-gay policies, homelessness, motherhood, racism, and aging are all woven into the compelling stories of its diverse subjects. The featured women include an old-school feminist with a long, fascinating activist history; a reality-TV star ("The Real L Word") now coping with a serious medical diagnosis; a mixed-race couple who have both had children by the same donor; a former member of the Air Force who came out before the elimination of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"; and a Puerto Rican now living in Miami whose parents forced her from their house, leading to a serious stretch of homelessness. (St. Louis International Film Festival)