After four glorious years of smoking joints, exposing the fact that Katy Perry has never in fact “Kissed A Girl”, and showing his penis to win a Netroots Nation scholarship, on Friday, July 22nd Zack Rosen will step down as Editor-In-Chief of the Washington D.C. alterna-queer blog, The New Gay. Though he anticipates a future of “panic eating, infrequent showering and bored, compulsive masturbation,” let us take a moment to reflect on Mr. Rosen’s accomplishments… beyond showing his dick, we mean.
Rosen has been with The New Gay one week longer than he’s been with his current boyfriend and in that time he helped turned it from a one-man operation into a full-fledged blog keeping tabs on the Northeast queer culture by regularly featuring new music, visiting artists, curated photographs and poetry, and refreshingly honest hot button articles like “Why I Reject Gay Culture”, “Gays Don’t Deserve Equality” and “Why Am I Not Attracted To Black Men?”
Rosen delighted in interviewing Cut Copy, The Dodos, Stephen Merritt from The Magnetic Fields, and Margaret Cho. He once interviewed Gawker’s gay staff writer Brian Moylan while nude and Of Montreal while wearing a skin tight, sparkling, magenta body suit.
In person, Rosen became a regular at queer conferences and panels including Netroots Nation and Creating Change. I sat with him at a panel entitled, “The Penis That Ruined Marriage Equality” and have heard his frequent musings denouncing use of the word “tranny”, calling bullshit on idyllic conceptions of romance and slamming self-righteous activists who act passively rather than directly. His editorship also oversaw the creation of the ‘Fuck Ruben Diaz’ writing contest which asked readers to submit their wildest sexual stories about the anti-gay New York senator amidst his campaign to squash marriage equality.
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Rosen’s really the kind of queer we need these days: young, mischievous, idealistic, willing to speak his mind, take risks, and make mistakes. He got his ass handed back to him in two columns that he penned for The Advocate: one criticizing Lady Gaga and one bemoaning his loss of minority-cred as a white, cisgendered male. But what he lacks in self-reflection he makes up for in cage rattling.
So it makes sense that The New Gay also aligned itself with Get Equal during Rosen’s tenure—their direct and sometimes disagreeable form of activism fits Rosen’s philosophy well. He prefers to challenge preconception and recreate queer culture rather than passively accept pre-packaged identity. And though he’s still in his 20s and still refining his work, Rosen’s career remains one to watch, he’s really a newly-pressed B-sides CD that grows more complex and sophisticated in context of all the music that will follow.
jeff4justice
Can’t find “Why I Reject Gay Culture”, “Gays Don’t Deserve Equality” and “Why Am I Not Attracted To Black Men?” online anywhere.
Anyway, I’m glad he isn’t attracted to black men. More for me!
UWSguy
Still don’t understand how this guy rates so much copy on this blog
christopher di spirito
Never heard of Zack Rosen. I’d prefer something about Dustin Zito. He just tweeted me he got a new haircut and believe me, he looks good enough to eat.
Ogre Magi
MMMM, you just know he’s a little wildcat in the sack
Jeffree
Who’s taking over for Zack?
I used to visit once TNG once every few weeks, but stopped for reasons I don’t recall. Ok, I’m probably not edgy or northeastern enough to hang with them.
Zack has a rare talent: to find the seismic faults in the homosphere just as theyre about to erupt.
@ jeff4justice: TNG’s site is still up & running; the archives are pretty easy to search from there.
DavyJones
@UWSguy: Because Daniel thinks he’s made contributions to the Queer ‘blog-o-sphere’… Why do you mind? Are they charging your internet by the byte now? If so, you should stop clicking on the post, and your problem will be solved.
Cam
Hey, I was bitching because I thought this blog was shilling a bit much for HRC, so I will be the last person to complain that they are focusing on something else. Even though HRC still gets the velvet glove treatment, and this guy and get equals actions are still called “Disagreeable”. But again, nice to see somebody like this on here.
Stace
As a DC resident, I can attest to his sluttiness and drunken violent tendencies in the wee hours at Town. He’s also made a vocal point of being racist in person as well. Guess thats what queerty means as “edgy.” Ahh journalism.
Codswallop
For whatever reason, The New Gay makes “Why am I not attracted to black men?” really hard to find. If you search that exact title you get no results. I was curious to read it (despite the fact I am attracted to black men) so I kept looking until I found it.
http://thenewgay.net/2010/08/why-am-i-not-attracted-to-black-men.html
Abirdwillingtobeitself
@Codswallop: I searched for the exact title and it shows up as the second entry. I can’t say Bloff wrote anything insightful in the article, though.
Cam
Just read the article, thanks Codswallop.
It seemed to me more of a lament on the long lasting effect of an upbringing tinged with racism, not an attack on a particular race. Then again, my response would be to him. “Get over it”.
Daniel Villarreal
@Stace: Way to make such unsubstantiated claims behind an alias. You may be right, but how easy is it to make such serious accusations with specifics or putting your own reputation on the line? Very.
Manny
panic eating? looks like we’re already suffering the loss of an editor.
Manny
“Panic eating” ??? Looks like we’re already suffering the loss of an editor.
Ian Awesome
i heart you zack!
Michael
Not sure why Queerty didn’t link to these articles:
* Why I Reject Gay Culture
* Gays Don’t Deserve Equality
* Cynical and Southern: Why Am I Not Attracted To Black Men?
Please note, Zack is not the author of any of these, but they’re all from his site.
Stace
You can find that exact same article on any aryan power website, but from a heterosexual perspective. But because this guy’s gay we’re supposed to excuse him or worse yet, feel pity? Racism isnt edgy or any less about hatred because he happens to be gay. Are white power racists just as brave because they admit to being racist also?
Daniel Villarreal
@Stace: Did you even bother actually reading the article or noticing that Rosen didn’t write it? Yet again, it’s really easy to talk trash and call others racist behind an anonymous screen name. Until you’re willing to put your actual identity and reputation on the line, your words mean nothing.
McGullen
Does anyone else think it’s strange that Jeremy praised the South in that article? Compared to the subtle racism he said he got from the North, I thought he was about to slam the South for its overt racism. Instead he just talked about how great Miami is. But that’s one city.
Jeffree
@McGullen: The Miami reference in the TNG article struck me as odd too. Although Miami is (obviously) geographically southern, culturally Miami —and much of the lower half of Florida — has little in common with “the rest of the South.”
Rilo
I always found it amusing that The New Gay was created/edited by someone who fits every stereotype of the old gay.
Zac is unabashedly racist, femme, promiscuous, flakey, bitchy, attention-starved, and manorexic–yet he seems to pretend that just because he likes indie music, he represents something new and refreshing. I hope this move marks the beginning of his rapid descent into complete obscurity (as opposed to relative obscurity).
TNG Zack
Someone who understands the problems inherent in a racist attitude (which I don’t believe I possess) should also understand the problems with judging someone for being “femme” or “promiscious.” Or “bitchy” for that matter. How well do we know each other? I could also eat you under the table, fucker. Never question my eating abilities. They’re staggering.
Henry
@TNG Zack: True. Nobody really knows anything about anyone. Deception or miscommunication is always possible.