Jess talks to polarizing musician Elizabeth Ziff: “Honestly, I’m queer more than I am gay. I’m peripheral. I’ve never been conformist, I’ve never been status quo, it’s never even entered my brain. I’ve been in a band for 25 years, that’s what I’ve done. Traveled the world, fucked, got wasted, been political, and created.”

“Well, a friend of mine saw me playing at some point and said, ‘You know, it’d be interesting if you took paint and put it on your fingers and and left a mark of where your fingers traveled on the guitar.’ … I kind of took this idea for a minute and thought well, OK.. That was the first seed planted.”

To shed some light on DADT as it relates to gay women, Autostraddle has been fortunate enough to snag an interview with Lissa Young, an insanely intelligent, aware, reflective and accomplished woman. Lissa graduated from West Point in 1986.

“When time came for them to watch Top Model, which they did, I think they started seeing gayness in a normal and great light, because people liked me for that on the show. That was an attractive part of me on the show, it wasn’t anything embarrassing or perverted, and it was just a great thing. I think they started seeing me through the eyes of all the accepting people.”