It's Friday, reader. You know what that means - it's Queerty ReBUTTal time! Yay!

You guys did super with the comments. Really. Just super - lisp and all. While we have plenty of thoughts on your thoughts on our thoughts, we're switching it up these week. As you're well aware, we've just kicked off The Style Issue.

Before things go too far, however, we'd like to have a brief look back on some of our other issues and some of the bits that didn't make it. Take a look at some unpublished excerpts, after the jump.

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Ever wonder what goes into the making of a drag performer? Well, now's your chance. The Power Issue feature subject Adrian L. Acosta has passed along this video of his very queer transformation into loud mouthed Amnesia Sparkles. With a Madonna soundtrack, naturally.

• It's that time of the month again. No, not that time - that shit usually starts flowing around the fourth week. We're talking about the new voting period for 247gay's ever-rotating cast of attractives. New additions: Pete Wentz, Eric Balfour and Ryan Diesel. We're still cheering for Days of Our Lives stud and alleged Lance Bass lover, Brandon Beemer. [247Gay]

• Does the internet hurt gays? [Fridae]

• It's certainly not doing anything to help the fag's get laid, that's for damn sure. [Pink News UK]

• The Power Issue subject, performance artist and photography Adrian L. Acosta just made a slide show of his most recent work. And guess what - he wants you to check it out. [YouTube]

• Anderson Cooper loves to eat Stephen Colbert's cream. Especially when it's iced. [Eat The Press]

• New Hampshire's homos can't seem to reach a consensus on gay marriage. But, really, who can? [Foster's]

• Mark you calendars: the hate crime trial against alleged homo-hater George Clinton Young starts next week. [Pegasus News]

• Davis Mallory, The Real World's resident homo, can't believe he helped break up Lance and Reichen by snogging Reichen. As you can see, Lance has (allegedly) done well for himself. [Gay Socialites]

• Because we love you more than anything in the world, we've posted Ciara's video for "Like A Boy". We're not sure how we feel about it...

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We've had an email correspondence with artist Del LaGrace Volcano for about two months now. We originally contacted him for The Boundaries Issue, but, as happens, things didn't work out. Sitting down to play The Emotions Issue, we knew we couldn't pull it off without his help.

Our entire mission with this issue revolves around the idea that love is not one set things - it's a melange, a collage, a medley of emotions, sentiments and, at times, constraints. Volcano's work addresses the space between gender, sexuality and everything in between.

On his website, Volcano writes,

As a gender variant visual artist I access 'technologies of gender' in order to amplify rather than erase the hermaphroditic traces of my body... An intentional mutation and intersex by design, (as opposed to diagnosis), in order to distinguish my journey from the thousands of intersex individuals who have had their 'ambiguous' bodies mutilated and disfigured in a misguided attempt at 'normalization'. I believe in crossing the line as many times as it takes to build a bridge we can all walk across.

Like The Power Issue subject, Claude Cahun - who, you'll see, Volcano cites as an inspiration - Volcano's work seeks not simply to test the viewer's perspective, but to extend it. Break it, even. As in love, one walks away from Volcano's work having learned something new. Or, we should hope so, because no life's worth living if you don't open yourself to new experiences, right?

Lucky for us, Volcano opened himself up to us. See what he has to say about the all-pervasive nature of androgyny, "coming out" as "intersex", and his sexually frustrating teenage years, after the jump...

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We haven't left our house in weeks, so we haven't yet had a chance to peruse the new issue of BUTT Magazine featuring a chat with Michael Lucas. Thankfully, Lucas Entertainment's publicity-queen Heather Reznor sent us this link to Lucas' blog, where you can find his interview with our friend and BUTT editor, Gert Jonkers.

While the boys chat about Lucas' boyfriend and Brooklyn-based relatives, we were struck by two particular things. The first comes in the form of Lucas' admission that he's trying to toss his accent:

GJ: Are you trying to lose your accent?

ML: Sure, I would love to lose it. I'm sure I will one day. It'll take some time an I'll have to take more classes. If you live in a country, you want to speak the language. You don't want to be asked all the time, like, "Where are you from?" I also think it's a sign of respect for the country to speak the language properly.

Boo! Hearing him call you guys our "retarded readers" simply won't be the same without what we always thought to be his most endearing quality. Although, thanks for respecting our country so much, but we suspect he doesn't love it as much as Israel.

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We first reported on the case of the missing gay Iraqis back in The Power Issue, when Peter Tatchell wrote on the horrors facing Iraqi queers. The men have been missing since November 9th and - guess what? - still no word. It's unfortunate to say, but they're probably dead.

Their disappeance, however, is hardly the most recent. UK Gay News reports:

Just days after these five activists were abducted, Haydar Kamel, aged 35, the owner of famous men’s clothing shop in the al-Karada district of Baghdad, was kidnapped near his home in Sadr city.

The kidnappers were members of the Mahdi army, an Islamist militia loyal to fundamentalist leader Muqtada al-Sadr.
...
Another recent raid was on the Jar al-Qamar barber shop in the al-Karada district of Baghdad. It was popular with gay men, which is probably the reason it was targeted.

All four employees were arrested and taken away by the Iraqi police. They have disappeared.

It is feared that these ten kidnapped men may have been summarily executed.

Some activists refer to this campaign as "sexual cleansing" - a frighteningly accurate summation.

Exactly one month ago, millions of Americans went to the polls to cast their ballots, ushering in a new government and - presumably - some hope.

Not coincidentally, we unveiled The Power Issue, ushering in...well, not a new government, but what we like to think are some compelling examinations, ruminations and explanations of power.

It breaks our little gay hearts, but this here's the last installment of The Power Issue. It's become kind of a tradition to end with a piece of art. So, here's an image from I design New York: an upstart photography and branding studio based right here in lil' ol' New York City. Actually, it's based in DUMBO, which is technically a part of the broader city, but actually in Brooklyn. But, we digress...

Founded by Ronald Sella, the studio hopes to add a little theory to the whole world of advertising. We've met Sella before and judging from his off-color sense of humor and all-around good will, we've no doubt he'll shake things up a bit.

Above you see Sella's image, "The District", composed and shot especially for this occassion. Depicting a sexual liason in two parts, Sella describes "The District" as narrative piece representing the duality of domination and submission. It is, he writes, his attempt "to represent the notion of power as the display of possession or control over others or oneself".

By definition, submission involves the giving up of oneself, offering your body, mind or heart to another person: a person who then has the power to either revere or abuse one's subjectivity. That said, Sella wonders:

What if the submission is a willing decision? What if the idea of giving oneself completely over to another dominate force is just another way of taking control over oneself?

Sort of recalls that whole Out Magazine Ed Droste/Owen Pallette cum conversation, no?

Though it would looks as the first figure retains control of the situation, preparing to bounce on the dainty, seemingly docile second subject, there's marked ambiguity in their expressions. This sentiment's enhanced by the fact that the subject's are, in fact, the same person. These hazy power relations challenge the parameters of power. The space between predator and prey become blurred, crossing from one boundary to the next.

It's only fitting that our next issue's The Boundaries Issue. We can't give away any of the tittilating details, but rest assured that it'll cross more than a few borders. As you get pumped about that exciting development, be sure to save some energy for I Design's official launch in March of 2007. We know you're brain's all sorts of damaged, so we'll be sure to remind you.

We’re totally down with CCP. You know: cement cementing power. While not always made from this specific material, public space consistently works to uphold dominant – predominantly domineering – power structures. To paraphrase legendary spatial theorist Henri Lefebvre, "Space is planned". Not surprisingly, this plan doesn't include the homos.

In their collective struggle to survive hetercentric oppression, queers have resisted these constrictive constructions, carving out public space for themselves. It is in these so-called queer spaces that homos of all varieties first formed and performed their subjective idenities. In the rousing introduction to Queers in Space: Communities, Public Places, Sites of Resistance, Gordon Brent Ingram and his editorial cohorts write:

Queer space enables people with marginalized (homo)sexualities and identities to survive and...expand their influence and opportunities to live fully (2).

This reappropriation of space not only pulvarized the pervasive, equally pulvarizing closet, but served as the pivots for gay communalities, consciousness and collective memory. As economic and political forces shifted, however, many of these multiple c's found themselves tarnished, tossed aside like yesterday’s trick.

After the jump, we’ll take a cursory look at the rise and fall of queer space with a specific focus on New York City. All the while we'll ask - hopefully answer - some pretty pressing questions. What happened to these so-called gay meccas? What does it mean for queer space as a whole? And is there hope for a revival of some good old fashioned queer CCP?

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For this installment of The Power Issue, we'd like to open the floor to Zackary Drucker. Or, rather, his work.

Above you see a brand-new self-portrait from the California-based talent in which Drucker harnesses the power of self-representation to deconstruct dominant sexual and aesthtic norms. Below, you see an even fresher shot of Drucker's favorite subject, legendary queer former Jack Doroshow. In placing Doroshow below a Picasso, Drucker reinterprates an iconic image to pay homage to Doroshow, whose performative work challenged - and, in fact - continues to challenge prescriptive ideals. It is within his (among others) history that real lesson on power and revolution can be found.

Both images, we think, beautifully exemplify some of the themes we've explored so far in The Power Issue: the use of art as agency, the puissance of costuming and the necessity of queer legacy.

• You know you love David Byrne, so why not prove it to him by seeing his light/sound installation at Pace/MacGill in NYC. It's only up for four more days, so it's basically now or never. If you don't go, he'll cry. [Pace/MacGill]

• The Power Issue subject Adrian L. Acosta may be the hardest working man in show business. Or, at least, the hardest working man we know: his merry musical buddies, No Subordination, just posted their demo on MySpace. [MySpace]

• A man claims that Golan "I Didn't Fuck Jim McGreevey" Cipel checked him out at the Reebok Sports Club in Amsterdam. How can he prove it? Well, he can't, but we believe him anyway. [Gawker]

• Gael Garcia Bernal loves the homos. How much? Well, he's just joined the fight for gay-nups in Mexico City, where conservatives are trying to strike down a new law allowing same-sex marriage. Oh, and some less famous/attractive people joined the movement, too. [International Herald Tribute]

• 39.5 million people are currently living with HIV. Needless to say, that's a pretty hefty - and upsetting - number. While the rates continue to rise, there is some good news: more people have access to necessary medicines. Of course, there could always be more. [Canada.com]

• Here's some proof God exists: Britney Spears and Kevin Federline have both denied the existence of a sex-tape. While we don't believe them, we sure are glad we won't be tempted to watch them make a baby (and you know they did). [Mollygood]

• We can only imagine how many Buckeye heads are spinning: Ohio-based Miami University has agreed to keep same-sex benefits for employees. [Cincinnati Enquirer]

• Who's funny, Jewish and lesbianic? Well, lots of people, but in this case we mean Judy Gold. And, you know what? She's yucking it up over at AfterEllen. [AfterEllen]

For today's installment of The Power Issue we sat down with Jop van Bennekom and Gert Jonkers, the darling duo behind everyone's favorite arty-cum-pervy fag-rag, BUTT.

Of course, when we say "sit", we mean we actually corresponded via the magic of the internet. Why? Well, a number of reasons, not least of all the fact that the boys live in Amsterdam. And they've been gearing up for the American release of The BUTT Book published by Taschen, a compilation of the last five years of the pink-papered mag. As if that's enough, the next issue of BUTT will be out sometime in December. One never can tell with these things.

In the meantime, dive on into that there jump and see what the boys have to say about growing up "in the exact geographical middle point of The Netherlands" (even though their towns have different names), the hows and whys behind the BUTT birth, the difference between their magazine and porn and - of course - what they look for in a penis.

When you're done pouring over the details, head on over to the BUTT website and to Fantastic Man: their less nudie, but no less incredible fashion mag. Because, really, we could also be a bit more fantastic. Except for Jop and Gert, of course...

(Loyal readers will notice we've changed the picture above. Jop asked that we change it. It seems he didn't like the way he and Gert looked. While we typically don't concede to subjective requests, he used four question marks. And he said please. So, we caved.)

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You may recall that as part of The Power Issue, we've asked a few artist friends to submit their depictions of power. For today's offering, we'd like to share this piece by New York-based graphic designer, Stephen Sunderland.

We weren't exactly sure what to make of it. It sort of looks like some sort of gay super-hero charging up. Of course, Sunderland's not as nerdy as us, so we thought it best to call for a bit of explanation.

It seems that Sunderland intentionally chose a male figure as a commentary on the ways men have historically been granted power. At the same time, the man stands in the middle of various symbols, from which he draws his power. The male power figure, then, is a mere sum of his parts: powerless at his core, forced to draw on the things around him to survive. Sunderland says, "Power cannot rely on one thing, it needs other things."

It's worth noting, we think, that the man's crowned by a bomb: one of the most effective tools of false power. While more passive symbols of power revolve around him, it is the bomb that stands out, a reminder of male violence in power relations.