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 Take a look at some unpublished excerpts, after the jump.
Our first excerpt comes from The Narcissist Issue, in which we had a two part interview with original ACT UP members, Alan Klein and Ron Goldberg. We chatted about loads of things, including their first mass action, the group’s manipulation of media and the evolution of the gay rights movement. Considering the interview panned out over two postings (one and two), you’d think we’d have printed everything, but you know how those homos like to yak. Here’s an excerpt of Klein and Goldberg discussing the state of the rebellious nation:
QT: Do you think activism has lost some of its sex appeal?
AK: Part of ACT UP for me, and maybe for Ron, was rebellion. I was still in my early-20s, I was still finding myself. It was still a time for me to rebel against my parents, my old identity, the system, everything. I was able to do that, and I saw it reflected on TV. Now, it seems that MTV has rebellion pegged, marketed, and made into a strip show before you even take the second breath. It’s not rebellion anymore once it gets to that point.
RG: Rebellion has been marketed since James Dean and probably before…
AK: It’s immediate now. You don’t have time to effectively rebel before your rebellion becomes a commodity.
RG: This country’s not really interested in having people actively involved in the system. We certainly know how to make people consumers. If we wanted to make people citizens, we could do it, but it’s not in the interest of politicians, it’s not in the interest of the economy.
Alan and Ron aren’t the only ACT-UP fighters we’ve included in our monthly issues. Who could forget when we invited Jack E. Jett to contribute to the very scary The Totally Frightful Issue?
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
In his essay, 25 Years and Counting, Jett gave you kids a peak into how his positive diagnosis changed his life. As you kids may or may not know, Jett’s quite an outspoken individual, so we had to trim his essay down a bit. Sadly, some of his celebrity friends ended up on our office floor:
Now, I don’t mean to name drop, but Rock Hudson and Marc Christian were both friends of mine, independently, prior to them becoming a couple. They were one of those really fun couples to go out with: they never bickered and just wanted to have fun. Rock had come back from shooting a film in Israel and had lost some weight. He told us he had been dieting and wanted to shed a few pounds. Looking back, I don’t know if I believed it or just wanted to believe it. At one point, Marc suspected he might have become anorexic. Again, I don’t know if he believed it, or just wanted to believe it. These two were soul mates and there was a lot of denial going around.
Jett also had some things to say about another actor, the late President Ronald Reagan:
I was furious to see the wee long funeral for Ronald Reagan. As my friends lay dying, he would not even look our way. In my mind, he will always be guilty of crimes against humanity. I doubt he would have given stem cell research a second look if it stood a chance of curing HIV. When I turned on the TV and see yet another tribute to this man, an incomparable wave of nausea overtook me. All those right-wing nutcases that have halted or hindered finding a cure for this disease will burn in hell. That is, if hell exists.
Speaking of hell, there was no way in hell we could fit all of editor Andrew Belonsky’s interview with Frankie D from last month’s The Wild Issue. The boys talked about some juicy bits, so trust we kept the transcript in safe space. What’s so juicy? How about this:
FD: People have asked me to urinate on them – which I did, I wasn’t into it. I remember one time one guy got in the tub and asked me to and once it was over, I ran out of the bathroom. I couldn’t even look at my urine on him.
AB: I couldn’t do that. If someone asked me, I’d just say, “No”. This one guy I went home with once, we were fucking, he was from Italy and he was like, “Do you ever think about your lover’s mothers?” I was like, “No and I think that’s weird.”
For the record, Belonsky still counts that as one of his most bizarre sexual experiences. Frankie and Andy didn’t only talk about their sexual misadventures, but delved into their shared – and blurred – past together. Apparently they first met at the now defunct gay coffee shop, The Big Cup, where a 19-year old Belonsky served it up between semesters:
AB: How long have we known each other?
FD: I first met you at The Big Cup. You didn’t want anything to do with me, actually.
AB: I didn’t?
FD: No. I must have been 21 or 22 – I remember seeing you. I only really knew Will there. I thought you were really attractive and cute, but you wouldn’t give me the time of day… I think I was still growing, because I remember you being so tall. I was like, “This guy is a giant”. But, yeah, you were totally limbful then, too.
AB: I’m all limbs! That’s so funny, I don’t even remember that. I just feel like I’ve always known you.
FD: Was it at Urge that we officially met? Or was it through someone?
AB: I don’t think so, because I went away to South Africa and then I came back and maybe…
FD: We had a small conversation there and I remember you said you were a Vassar student and that was it.
AB: We’ve always had these brief encounters. I remember running up to you one night – you were standing outside the Cock or Urge or someplace and I kissed you and ran away. Do you remember that?
FD: I’m not sure.
AB: I ran off into the night!
Sadly, the boys never did consummate their youthful love. Good thing, too, because that may have jeopardized their friendship.
Speaking of friendship, The Youth Issue feature subject, Michael Musto knows a thing or two about being a good friend:
AB: Have you ever regretted saying something?
MM: Yeah, there have been times when a friend in the business has told me something and I assumed it was for an item. Then you run it and they’re horrified. As a result of that, I’ve learned it’s more important to have a friend than a good item. You should always make sure that it’s not something that’s going to jeopardize your friendship. You can always get an item somewhere else.
And Musto knows a thing or two about being taken out of context. A television personality to be sure, Musto explained to editor Andrew that he prefers to do live television, lest his words get jumbled. And for good reason:
There was one time when I said something too hyperbolic about Tom Cruise. I said, “Oh, he’s in the pantheon of great movie stars”. I called the producer after and said, “I really can’t live with that, please take it out” and they were like, “Sure, we’ll take it out”. Not only did they not take it out, it became the running motif of the whole piece. It was the lead quote. I have just been locked in my house crying ever since.
Well, he was until we dragged him out for that interview.
Finally, we’d like to share something from today’s interview between James Withers, Felicia Luna Lemus and T Cooper. We purposely didn’t mention that T Cooper came into this world a woman, but identifies as a man: a subject that tends to obscure his talent and, as you’ll see, irritates both Cooper and Lemus to no end:
JW: Okay be honest: aren’t you both tired of being asked the trans question and do I get any props for not asking that many?
FLL: Wait, you mean do I ever get tired of people asking me when I transitioned? How could I get tired of that?! Considering the amount of time I take to choose shoes, tease my hair, get my girl-face on, and generally assemble myself even just to run to the corner for a container of soymilk, the question seems fair enough.
TC: You get mad props for not equating gender and sexuality. If I have to read in another review or article that I have “ambiguous sexuality” like my novel’s character, I’m going to impale myself on the Chrysler Building, snap off the tower, and then use it to screw the entire world in the you-know-where with no lube. That wouldn’t qualify as ambiguous sexuality anymore, would it?
Um, no, but it may qualify as murder. Or, at least, assault. Plus, Mr. Cooper, we think you’d be dead, so it’s really mute.
You know what’s not mute? It’s the motherfucking weekend! And, what’s more, it’s a long weekend! Yee-haw! We’re gonna get out there and seize the day, as well as some other things. We suggest you do the same.
xoxo,
Queerty
PS: We’ll have other excerpts in the future. Don’t want to blow our editorial load. As we said, it’s a long weekend…
