Pink has a few questions for the President…
Category Archives: Bo Young
The Learning Curve: An Apology and An Explanation
If I recall the phrase correctly it’s "never complain, never explain."
…and whoever said that never published a magazine.
Many of you have been contacting us complaining (rightfully) that you haven’t received the spring issue yet.
That would be because it is two months late.
As I have explained to those who have contacted us, what little hair I have left is now greatly diminished as a result. So here’s what happened:
When last we spoke of this, the printer we had been using since Toby was publisher, in Texas, simply disappeared <POOF!> just before we put out the winter issue, which was also late because of this unforeseen complication.
And as you may also have noticed with the winter issue, we’re looking a lot prettier, a lot sleeker and a lot more colorful. That’s the good part of finding a new printer.
The bad part of finding a new printer is we have a whole set of new specifications and picture formats and guidelines and requirements that we’ve never had before. There’s a reason we’re prettier and sleeker and more colorful. Our newfound sophistication comes at a price.
It’s called "a learning curve." And we took this one a little too fast.
And, boy…did it throw us for a loop! We really thought we had it down… pictures all in the right format, everything off to the printers in a timely manner. What could possibly go wrong?!
The answer is: Everything and anything.
That’s when we discovered that some of our mail from the printer was being shunted into our spam file. A whole week and a half had gone by before we discovered that the printer wasn’t happy with what we’d sent and we needed to make some changes.
This added yet another few days to the mess…and by the time we got things back to the printers we’d lost our place in the printing line-up. We had to go to the end of the line. Which meant that we had to wait yet another two weeks before the issue was printed…and then another few days to ge
t it to the distribution folks. And there you have it.
Or you don’t…and as a result, you, our devoted and patient subscribers, haven’t seen the spectacular, cinemascopic issue on Movies with it’s cast of thousands.
Unless, of course, you have…because I am assured that the mailing went out this week and you should have the spring issue, pictured above and excerpted here…soon…very very soon.
And we are very very sorry. We are working to make sure it never happens again. And as an apology, we are extending every subscription by an issue. So if your subscription ended with the Summer issue this year, it will now end with the fall issue…etc.
And thank you for your support….and understanding.
Oh puhleeeze!
I don’t know about the rest of you…but I find it, I don’t know…what’s the word? Unseemly? Yes…I find the parading of peoples private faith in front of large audiences for the purpose of getting votes unseemly. I think the term is "Cheap Grace."
The "debates" (and as someone who actually was a debater in high school and college, I use the term in relation to these media events advisedly and very very loosely!) in which the hot topics are whether or not the candidate "believes" in evolution [ask them about the theory of gravity, why don’t they?…see if they believe in that!] and goes on at length about their imaginary friend, er, I mean, their Lord and Savior (again…I’m sorry, but didn’t we fight a Revolutionary War precisely for the purpose of getting rid of "lords"?….just asking) as if it meant anything at all, while larger far more real issues of education, health care that will effect the future of this nation for generations to come and a foreign policy that has set back our position in the world community for a generation go blithely unanswered is so frightening to me it’s hard to compose a rational response! That the television networks focus on these non-issues, further riling up the excitable unwashed masses to a frenzy…the greedy collusion between our Ruling Classes and the Corporate Classes…
The RepubliCrats and the Demublicans have pretty much sewn up any real debate and locked out any serious third (or fourth, or fifth) parties from speaking to issues about the emperor’s clothing situation we find ourselves in. Perhaps instead of "bringing Democracy to the world" we ought to start worrying about what’s happening to our own home-grown version of it? Why isn’t this administration being impeached wholesale? No reasonable person thinks that they’ve accomplished anything but to bring us one debacle after another.
I’m tired of the bread and circus banalities that pass for serious conversation.
I’m tired of the dumbing down…the conflation of "faith" with reason, the confusion of religion and science.
Science is not a matter of opinion. It is not up for debate…it’s open to discovery. And reasonable proof.
I’m appalled that a "creationist museum" could be opened in this country and no one seems to be even slightly embarrassed by it. This is a level of flat out IGNORANCE that is breathtaking and dangerous.
When the hell is America going to wake up?
Great Night at the Lammies
Thursday night, May 31st, a nice contingent of White Crane folks descended on the Lambda Literary Awards held at the Fashion Institute in New York City. These events are always a lot of fun as they afford an opportunity to see a lot of writers and artists whose work has meant so much. Dan drove up from with partner Pete and went with Bo and his partner Bill Foote.
When we got to F.I.T. we were delighted to meet up with Toby Johnson and Kip Dollar, in from San Antonio. Toby was a finalist in the Anthology category for the White Crane Books project he and Steve Berman edited, Charmed Lives. Berman appeared a few minutes later and we had a great time talking with each other, catching up (such is the nature of internet publishing 
and editing, that one relishes the opportunity to just look at each other in the face and be in one’s presence!) The winner, alas, was not our book, but Love, Bourbon Street, edited by Greg Herren and his partner, Paul J. Willis. Next year…All: A James Broughton Reader!
Other friends at the reception included Jeff Mann, author of the amazing collection of poetry, On The Tongue (reviewed in the Summer ’07 of White Crane) and the scorching A History of Barbed Wire, winner in the category of Gay Erotica.
We had a great interview with Jeff last year when his last book Loving Mountains, Loving Men came out. You can read an excerpt of that interview online.
Perry Brass, author of Angel Lust, and Substance of God and regular contributor to White Crane was there as well and it’s always good to see Perry.
Tom Spanbauer, who was nominated for his latest novel Now Is The Hour was there from Portland with mural painter, theatre technician/designer, tattoo artist, and permaculture specialist, Sage Ricci. It was wonderful to meet them in person after the interview (online excerpt) Bo had with Tom in White Crane a few years ago.
Frequent contributor and friend Stuart Timmons was a double winner last night with the Lambda Literary Awards for GLBT Non Fiction and GLBT Arts going to the book he co-wrote with Lillian Faderman Gay L.A. Since Stuart wasn’t able to attend the ceremonies Bo and I had the good fortune of stepping out of the hall and calling him to give him the good news after each win. The book is really a wonder and it’s a well-deserved double win.
It was also great to see Gregg Shapiro, a wonderful writer and poet we’ve featured in White Crane at the ceremony. Gregg has a book of poetry coming out next year and we had a chance to catch up with him as he’s on a whirlwind tour of the East Coast doing some music reporting and generally being a charm in every circle he enters.
It was great to see many legends at the event too, like Martin Duberman, author of the brilliant biography of Lincoln Kirstein, The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein, was honored with the Pioneer Award at the gala event, and the brilliant Alison Bechdel, of Dykes To Watch Out For and author of Lesbian Memoir/Biography Lammy winner, Fun Home, to name just a few. Bechdel got to present a 
Pioneer Award to Marijane Meaker, author lesbian pulp novels in the fifties, to groundbreaking young adult books like Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack! to her amazing memoir Highsmith, A Romance of the 1950’s, which is about her relationship with Patricia Highsmith. She just turned 80.
The winner in the Spirituality category was Michael McColly’s The After Death Room (Soft Skull Press) which is reviewed in the Summer 2007 issue of White Crane. We will have an interview with the author in an upcoming issue.
The After-Death Room is McColly’s chronicle of the events that took him from the day in a Chicago clinic when he heard the news that so affected his life, to the many steps he took to reconcile himself to the diagnosis, to becoming a world traveled AIDS activist and journalist.
Jim Elledge’s A History of My Tattoo won in the Gay Poetry category.
Special Friendships in Camelot
A friend writes:
Starting with the cover photo of six people, including President Kennedy and LeMoyne Billings, the May issue of Houston’s OutSmart Magazine has an article based on a new book, by David Pitts, Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings-the untold story of an extraordinary friendship, published by Carroll Graf. My question to not only the homosexual community, but to all those journalists, since the 60s, and the dozens of historians and authors who made lots of money writing about President Kennedy and all the Kennedys, is, why has no one told the public this before?
I think the media also hid the many women President Kennedy had sex with, but they finally talked about that. Perhaps heterosexual writers didn’t think Lem was of interest. But, in a sense contradicting myself when I’ve complained about our gay media trying to out celebrities, and putting merely gay-friendly celebrities on their covers and in their pages, as if we would be happier-gayer-if famous rich and cute people were also homosexual, it seems to me that this friendship is of great interest in knowing how our government acted on sexuality in the 60s and after when the homosexual movement for civil rights was slowly but surely growing.
A major issue is that the most powerful person in the world had a lifetime friendship with a homosexual, and everyone in the White House, and the family members all along, knew this, and so you have to ask why no one mentioned this all these years. The issue is a major one also because those who started this movement were accused of alerting the public to homosexuality and thus scaring off possible sex partners.
And the author covers this issue this way: "That’s one point I tried to make in the book in one of the chapters. Ironically, in some ways gay people had more license at that time than they do now. Homosexuality wasn’t on the radar screen, the general population wasn’t really aware of it, and so, in a sense, gay people could do certain things, such as the example you gave, and it did not come under suspicion the way it clearly would today."
So those people who complained that once Mattachine stopped being secret, and became public as ONE Magazine, their easy find of sex partners would be hurt, had a point. Can heterosexual men and women have close friendships with homosexual men and women without being called homosexual? Will this book be almost as important as Brokeback Mountain in getting all of us to think about homosexuality?
You Really Oughta Be In Movies…
INTERNATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN SCREENPLAY COMPETITION
The ONE IN TEN SCREENPLAY CONTEST, a screenplay contest dedicated to the positive portrayal of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, trangendered and queer individuals in film, celebrates it’s 9th anniversary this year. Entries are now being accepted online and are limited to the first 250 entries for 2007. Executive Director, David Jensen, "We are pleased to continue the contest and are amazed with the high caliber screenplays received year after year."The ONE IN TEN SCREENPLAY CONTEST has gained respect and notoriety from Hollywood studios, agents and producers. Entries for 2007 are being accepted online at: www.OneInTenScreenplayContest.com
Prizes for 2007 include cash, industry exposure and merchandise. The One In Ten Screenplay Contest is sponsored by: Cherub Productions, Final Draft, scr(i)pt magazine, www.inktip.com, and www.sellascript.com.
The submission deadline for 2007 ONE IN TEN SCREENPLAY CONTEST is September 1, 2007. Entry forms are available online through the contest website: http://OneInTenScreenplayContest.com. Entry forms may also be obtained through the mail by sending a self addressed stamped envelope to:
CHERUB PRODUCTIONS One In Ten Screenplay Contest, PO Box 540, Boulder, Colorado 80306
For more information contact: Mike Dean — One In Ten Screenplay Contest 303.629.3072
Thank You Bill Moyers
BILL MOYERS: It’s time to send an SOS for the least among us — I mean small independent magazines. They are always struggling to survive while making a unique contribution to the conversation of democracy. Magazines like NATIONAL REVIEW, THE AMERICAN PROSPECT, SOJOURNERS, THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, THE NATION, WASHINGTON MONTHLY, MOTHER JONES, IN THESE TIMES, WORLD MAGAZINE, THE CHRISTIAN CENTURY, CHRISTIANITY TODAY, COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW, REASON and many others. [Editor’s Note: Like the one you’re reading here.]
The Internet may be the way of the future, but for today much of what you read on the Web is generated by newspapers and small magazines. They may be devoted to a cause, a party, a worldview, an issue, an idea, or to one eccentric person’s vision of what could be, but they nourish the public debate. America wouldn’t be the same without them.
Our founding fathers knew this; knew that a low-cost postal incentive was crucial to giving voice to ideas from outside the main tent. So they made sure such publications would get a break in the cost of reaching their readers. That’s now in jeopardy. An impending rate hike, worked out by postal regulators, with almost no public input but plenty of corporate lobbying, would reward big publishers like Time Warner, while forcing these smaller periodicals into higher subscription fees, big cutbacks and even bankruptcy.
It’s not too late. The postal service is a monopoly, but if its governors, and especially members of Congress, hear from enough citizens, they could have a change of heart. So, liberal or conservative, left or right, libertarian, vegetarian, communitarian or Unitarian, or simply good Samaritan, let’s make ourselves heard.
Ding Dong the Witch is Dead…
Jerry Falwell is dead.
This is the definition of "schadenfreude."
This was the man who blamed gay people for 9/11, blurred the line between church and state, and brought us all the mythical and hypocritical "Moral Majority." It’s hard not to feel good about this. This was a man who accused Tinky Winky of being gay. He was a spiteful, evil, bloated, dangerous windbag in the odious tradition of Elmer Gantry.
My condolences to all the gay families he has slandered. To all the children who go unadopted because of his bigotry and ignorance.
Send flowers to all the taxpayers who have had to repeatedly waste monies that could be spent on education, health, infrastructure, but instead were spent on hateful and spiteful state ballot initiatives depriving gay people of civil rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
My heart goes out to the thousands and thousands of people who have had their science education and general intellectual fitness hobbled by his fundamentalist mythologies and tooth fairy Jesus stories.
We are lead in prayer by Kurt Vonnegut, in the voice of his character, The Reverend C. Horner Redwine, from Sirens of Titan:
"Oh Lord Most High, Creator of the Cosmos, Spinner of Galaxies, Soul of Electromagnetic Waves, Inhaler and Exhaler of Inconceivable Volumes of Vacuum, Spitter of Fire and Rock, Trifler with Millennia — what could we do for Thee that Thou couldst not do for Thyself one octillion times better? Nothing. What could we do or say that could possibly interest Thee? Nothing. Oh, Mankind, rejoice in the apathy of our Creator, for it makes us free and truthful and dignified at last. No longer can a fool point to a ridiculous accident of good luck and say, ‘Somebody up there likes me.’ And no longer can a tyrant say, ‘God wants this or that to happen, and anyone who doesn’t help this or that to happen is against God.’ O Lord Most High, what a glorious weapon is Thy Apathy, for we have unsheathed it, have thrust and slashed mightily with it, and the claptrap that has so often enslaved us or driven us into the madhouse lies slain!" Sirens of Titan
Contributions in memory of his destructive and hateful life can be made to White Crane Institute.
SF Gate columnist, Mark Morford, wisely allows the man to hoist himself by his own petard, but in closing, we would like to cite President Jimmy Carter: "In a very Christian way, as far as I’m concerned, he can go to hell!"
We have a few questions for you about your butt…
There…now that we have your attention…
AIDS Foundation of Chicago, one of three national organizations in the new Sexual Health Xchange (SHX) collaboration has partnered with AIDS Project Los Angeles and Boston’s AIDS Action Committee to expand the range of sexual health education resources available to men who have sex with men. And together, they’re all doing some really smart work.
This last Valentine’s Day, SHX launched a new sexual health site at http://www.LifeLube.org. The site promotes a healthy, holistic and integrated gay sexuality that goes beyond HIV and STDs to embrace body, mind, and soul. They’re striving to build connections between and among gay and bi men toward a healthier, nurturing, and more vibrant community.
One of the fun things they’re promoting now is a survey on lubricants used for anal sex – in 6 languages – linked right on the homepage. 
Smart Sex is Safe Sex…and Safe Sex is SEXY!
Please check it all out!
Cock Crafts and Penis Cozies
We receive a lot of press notices and announcements of books and theater and art exhibits. We’re crazy for craft work, too (in his spare time, Dan also edits MENKNIT — "Man Enough to Knit/Strong Enough to Purl").
And White Crane devoted an entire issue of the magazine to crafts….Summer 2005
But even we were particularly taken with the work of Jack Davis, now appearing at the Mark I. Chester Studio at 1229 Folsom Street, in San Francisco. Needless to say, these are not your grandmother’s crochet.
Just the kind of arts and crafts you’d like to curl up with on a chilly spring evening.