"I knew I was butch, long before I knew I was a lesbian," says Dipstick, a.k.a. Kathy Belge .  "I used to run around with no shirt  and try to catch fish with a spear I had made."  She grew up with five brothers and spent hours with her Dad fishing and working in his woodshop.  

Her favorite book was about a boy who went off and lived in the wilderness for a year eating food his trained hawk captured.  It was then that Dipstick knew she wanted to write.  Her stories would not be about young boys, but girls like herself who preferred  rough-and-tumble to Barbie.

Dipstick has more than 10 years experience counseling LGBT youth and their families and facilitating support groups in high schools and community settings. Areas of expertise include Coming Out, Family/Relationship Issues, Sexual Orientation Development, Lesbian Community and Culture. This practical experience helping queer youth has given Dipstick her chops when it comes to dishing out advice.    

Since she came out in her late teens, Dipstick has carved out a good life as a professional lesbian.  She's worked as a techie at women's music festivals, a counselor to queer youth and a "lesbian expert" on About.com.  A stint in journalism school helped her perfect the writing craft and ten years as a counselor for queer youth taught her a thing or two about giving advice.

For more Dip: www.lesbianlife.about.com.  Email her at dipstick@lipstickdipstick.com.

PO Box 6814, Portland, OR 97228