Band of Thebes

National Magazine Awards: Fast Company, New York, The New Yorker

Lesbian Ariel Levy's painful essay about her late miscarriage while traveling in Mongolia was one of four writing awards for The New Yorker this afternoon at the Ellies, but a big winner was New York (for best general interest publication, best design, and best website), while Fast Company was named magazine of the year. Zadie Smith won the fiction prize for her short story The Embassy of Cambodia. Read it free.

Full list of all winners after the jump.

National Magazine Award Finalists 2014

Good day for Wells Tower, the only writer nominated in two categories, fiction and essay; Luke Mogelson, the only writer nominated twice in one category, reporting; and Sarah Stillman, the only writer nominated three years in a row, for her public interest articles. Memorable nominees are Barry Lopez's harrowing account of his sexual abuse, Sliver of Sky, and out lesbian Ariel Levy's fact piece about suffering a late miscarrage far from home, Thanksgiving in Mongolia. New York magazine leads the nominees with nine nods, including the two biggest categories, both of which omit The New Yorker.

Winners will be announced May 1.

Magazine of the Year

• The Atlantic
• Bon Appétit
• Esquire
• Fast Company
• New York

General Interest Magazine

• GQ
• Harper’s Magazine
• National Geographic
• New York
• Wired 

Fiction

• McSweeney’s for The Dance Contest, by Wells Tower
• The New Republic for I Am Asleep But My Heart Is Awake, by Nicole Krauss
• The New Yorker for The Embassy of Cambodia, by Zadie Smith

Full list after the jump

2013 in Review: Gay Marriage, Comings Out

 Yesterday Google posted this year in review video, which opens with the royal baby, immediately cuts to a gay wedding, and later features Jason Collins' coming out. (See 52 other notable comings out.) Last week, Facebook posted their 2013 roundup, which is gayer, with more marriages and more pride, but much uglier.

Also yesterday, Richard Socarides posted his half-smart, half-suckup Top 10 Gay Rights Heroes of 2013 on The New Yorker blog and Buzzfeed listed 100 Moments To Be Proud. 

I'm astonished by the queer lists' omission of the Boy Scouts' announcement to lift their ban on gay youth. This was a decades-long battle of far-reaching cultural importance. James Dale took his case to the Supreme Court in 2000, and his defeat triggered an increase in debates nationwide as schools, churches, and municipalities reconsidered their association with the discriminatory organization. More recently, people signed petitions, pop stars canceled BSA concerts, Eagle Scouts returned their badges, and more and more major sponsors cut off support... and still in the summer of 2012, after a two-year internal study, the BSA refused to change their policy. This May the BSA board finally voted to change their policy on gay scouts, though they left the ban on gay leaders. As in church schisms, reactionary parents have broken off and formed a new outdoor group called Trail Life USA just to continue being antigay. 

Yet again, in their year's summary video the Onion's razor humor captures uncomfortable truths if not literal facts ("In science news, NASA announced we will have a mass shooting on the moon by 2055"). Viewers who factcheck satire will object to their pro-gay coverage of marriage equality in which they claim all nine Supreme Court Justices agreed. Also, Ruth Ginsburg didn't actually say, "For fuck's sake. Yes!"

429: Kevin Sessums' $13 Magazine To Be Gay 'Style Bible' Like W or V

First impressions matter when announcing a new product. Here are the four opening statements in 429's promo video, verbatim and unedited. 

Publisher: "429 magazine, what I'm excited about, what that is, is that we're not just focused on one community." 

Editor-in-Chief: "I'm looking on this as a magazine that happens to be LGBT, and not an LGBT magazine."

Creative advisor: "You know we all have, um, other aspects of our lives, too, that we really want to celebrate and focus and feel empowered about. And so that's why we set about to do this."

EIC: "Our identity is LGBT but that's only one facet of who we are as people, and I think that will only be one facet of who and what the magazine itself is."

Did a marketing consultant force them to this? It's confusing but I sympathize. I spend a lot of time thinking about gay culture and I have no idea what a post-gay magazine in 2013 should be. Their Kickstarter page says: 429 is "a new kind of LGBT* print magazine - one that just happens to be LGBT. Covering the latest news and innovations in technology, entertainment, design, media and politics, 429 magazine showcases how LGBT people are living in the context of the larger world. From stimulating conversations to inspiring stories, from the sumptuous work of our photographers to the singular voices of our columnists, from the influential to the cutting-edge, from fashion to fiction to humor to travel to entertainment to design, 429 magazine will continue and expand the partnership dot429 has already so carefully cultivated with its members and subscribers. The magazine stands alone as a new kind of style bible for thought leaders and trend-setters in any industry. Lively. Gorgeous. Brilliant. Timely."

The editor-in-chief is former Vanity Fair editor and Mississippi Sissy author Kevin Sessums, who posted on Facebook (his ellipses), "our cover price is $12.99 .. we are a luxury niche brand ... oversized format ... amazing photography and great paper stock ... kind of a V or W for LGBT folks with Salman Rushdie and Mark Doty et al thrown into the editorial mix ..."

The Rushdie piece is "The Half-Woman God" about the hijra of India, which appears to be his old article reprinted from the 2008 anthology AIDS Sutra: Untold Stories from India. 

After exorbitant paper, printing, and postage costs at a time of declining ad buys, subscribers, and print readers, 429's biggest challenge might be defining itself and its audience. Be honest, have you had harder things come out of your mouth than not lgbt luxury niche brand but luxury niche brand that happens to be lgbt? Is the magazine going to be a dickless air kiss, a style eunuch for aging A-list gays in the Hamptons, Hollywood, Marin, and Miami? They talk about profiling thought leaders but the comparisons are V and W and their funding page has only two sample photos, like this. Sleek, chic, but would you pay $13 for more of those? Then again, Mark Doty's work is priceless. I hope he and other writers bring some of the resurgent Hell Yeah All Gay All the Time energy of BGSQD bookstore and the free, NSFW site Homo-Online, which pairs fine porn with reprints of incredibly smart blog posts from the likes of, well, Band of Thebes twice in the past week but that's not why... 

The name 429 is closet code from 2003, with the 4-2-9 corresponding on your keypad to G-A-Y. The first issue arrives in October. I'll buy it just for the huge type.

National Magazine Award Winners: NY, Nat Geo, and King Again

At yesterday's National Magazine Awards luncheon, multiple honors for New York, National Geographic, and Texas Monthly, along with wins for The Paris Review, Vogue, Martha Stewart Living, Outside, W, Saveur, Time, Wired, Los Angeles, GQ, Slate, the Atlantic, and, god bless them, Mother Jones for the Romney 47% video. Inexplicably, the judges claim the best piece of fiction published in any magazine last year was "Batman and Robin Have an Altercation," by Stephen King in Harper's. It's the second time he's won.

The New Yorker got zilch.

National Magazine Award Finalists 2013

Bad day at The New Yorker. The venerable mag failed to get National Magazine Award nominations in general excellence, or fiction, or commentary, or electronic tablet edition despite those incessant iPad promotions. The weekly New Yorker earned only one profile nomination while the monthly GQ got two.

The noms are great news for National Geographic, which leads the pack with seven nods, followed by New York and Bon Appetit each with six. The happiest editors of all may be the first-time nominees, like Byliner, which is a big finalist in two popular fields: profile writing and fiction.

If you wonder where print is headed, please note that five of the twenty-three categories are paperless: general excellence digital, website, tablet edition, multimedia, and video.

Across all categories, LGBT subjects are basically nil. Did nothing queer happen in 2012 worth writing well about? Instead, lots of Iraq, Romney, Obama, and Hurricane Sandy.

Fiction finalists:

• Byliner for "The Boy Vanishes," by Jennifer Haigh; July
• Harper's for "Batman and Robin Have an Altercation," by Stephen King; September
• Harper's for "Train," by Alice Munro; April
• McSweeney's Quarterly for "River Camp," by Thomas McGuane; September
• The Paris Review for "Housebreaking," by Sarah Frisch; December

Born January 12: Tracy Baim, Kieron Richardson

In 1985, the year after she graduated from Des Moines' Drake University, Tracy Baim and three men co-founded Chicago's lgbt newspaper Windy City Times. Two years later she left to start a new queer paper, Outlines, which she ran for 12 years until she bought WCT and merged the two publications. While so many other gay weeklies folded, WCT is thriving and Baim is still publisher and executive editor. She was also co-vice chair of Chicago's Gay Games VII from 1999 to 2007, and with her new free time in September 2008 she launched the website ChicagoGayHistory.org in tandem with the release of her book Out and Proud in Chicago [Kindle]. Among her many other books are Obama and the Gays: A Political Marriage [Kindle], Mom: A Tribute to Mothers of LGBTs, Leatherman: The Legend of Chuck Renslow, Jim Flint: The Boy From Peoria, and a novel about lesbians in the military The Half Life of Sgt. Jen Hunter [Kindle]. Baim also produced a lesbian movie starring Sharon Gless called Hannah Free, winner of five Best Feature awards from lgbt festivals in Miami, Philadelphia, Austin, St. Louis, and Montreal. Days ago she released her newest book Gay Press, Gay Power: The Growth of LGBT Community Newspapers in America [Kindle], with an introduction by John D'Emilio and contributions from ten writers including Sarah Toce, Yasmin Nair, and Lou Chibbaro.

After two years of plot twists, fans of the British drama series Hollyoaks finally got what they wanted the week before Christmas: Ste Hay left his husband Doug Carter to return to his Irish ex, Brendan Brady. Former bad boy Ste (prison for car theft) is played by Kieron Richardson who came out at 24 in September 2010. He said he was inspired by Joe McElderry, the X-Factor winner who came out at 19 two months before him.

If Kieron's agent or manager told him to tone it down, he didn't listen. He posed for this cover of Gay Times. He had already skated his way to 3rd place finish wearing tight, hot pink spangles on Dancing on Ice.

Last year he began co-hosting a weekly "lifestyle and entertainment gossip programme" on the Gaydio radio network from Manchester, which you can listen to live every Sunday.

You can also follow him on The Twitter.

OUT Magazine Cuts Editorial Staff to Zero, Will Still Publish

Regent/Here Media, the company that killed Alyson Books in print and reduced the Advocate to a ten-times-a-year add-on, has a new plan to continue publishing OUT magazine after today firing the entire editorial staff. Yep, OUTsourcing. Editor Aaron Hicklin is creating a custom-content company called Grand Editorial whose first client is OUT. He will extend offers to "most" of the twelve staffers as contract freelancers with no benefits to write the magazine on a per project basis. He said, "This was not a cost-cutting measure." He's looking for office space in Carroll Gardens.

Capital New York notes: "Here Media has had problems paying its freelancers and vendors over the past several years. There is an outstanding fraud lawsuit, meanwhile, against Regent."

ASME Magazine Award Finalists

Another off year for nominations [after the jump] from the American Society of Magazine Editors. Surely these were not the very best stories of 2011 nor were these five the finest photo features. Down from last year's nine noms, The New Yorker got six this year, but none in fiction. New York also earned six. One thing ASME did nail: David Grann's fantastic fact piece, "A Murder Foretold," already optioned by Hollywood. Strange that the press release lists only the magazine and title, omitting authors or photographers. I had to google each title to find the fiction writers.

FICTION

The Atlantic for “Scars,” by Sarah Turcotte, Summer 2011
McSweeney’s Quarterly for “Ambition,” by Jonathan Franzen, April
McSweeney’s Quarterly for “The Northeast Kingdom,” by Nathaniel Rich, August
Virginia Quarterly Review for “La Moretta,” by Maggie Shipstead, Fall
Zoetrope: All-Story for “The Hox River Window,” by Karen Russell, Fall

FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY

National Geographic for “Taming the Wild,” March
The New York Times Magazine for “Touch of Evil,” December 11
TIME for “Portraits of Resilience,” September 19
Vogue for “Lady Be Good,” March [Amber & son, above by Steven Klein]
W for “Planet Tilda,” August  [below by Tim Walker]

    

Born March 23: J.C. Leyendecker

In the early 20th century when Arrow had 94% of market share, much of the shirtmaker's success could be laid with illustrator J.C. Leyendecker -- he used his chiseled boyfriend as the model for the archetypal Arrow Collar Man. Born in Germany in 1874, Leyendecker moved with his family to Chicago when he was eight. He and his brother enrolled at the city's Art Institute before studying art nouveau at the Académie Julian in Paris. They returned to Chicago early in 1899 and by May Leyendecker received his first commission for a cover of the era's most famous magazine, The Saturday Evening Post. Throughout his career he would draw 321 more covers for them, creating the genre of "adorable" domestic chaos, stirring patriotism, family holidays, lovers' foibles, and youthful high spirits (with scrawny nudity) that today we associate with his Eve Harrington protege and successor Norman Rockwell. Leyendecker was slight and disliked confrontation; when his friends warned him Rockwell was stealing his style, he didn't protest. (Being a gay man and an immigrant in the early 20th century may also have amplified his instincts to avoid trouble.) One area in which he maintained preeminence was the blatant homoerotic. Leyendecker's men eternally give one another penetrating looks inside, outdoors, and on deck, and they're always thrusting elongated objects at happy angles from their bodies. He never met a muscle that didn't need to beef up, ripple, or glisten under his expert touch. As his biographers   explain, “Neighboring artists shared models with the brothers, which meant a seemingly endless train of attractive Greenwich Village lads parading through their chilly studio in the buff.” One was named Charles Beach. He was 17 and Leyendecker was 28. By all accounts Beach was both hot and not, given to self aggrandizing claims that he did Leyendecker's work (despite not being able to draw), along with the more typical fits of jealousy, insecurity, and tyranny. Margo Channing Norman Rockwell complained he never heard Beach say anything intelligent and called him "stupid." Nevertheless, Leyendecker and Beach moved into a New Rochelle mansion together and threw luxe parties attended by the jazz age set including Scott and Zelda. Inevitably, times changed, the commissions dwindled, and the money ran out. They had to dismiss their staff yet they stayed together a total of 49 years, until Leyendecker's death in 1951 when he instructed his private papers be destroyed. For more, read J.C. Leyendecker.

Leyendecker's artist brother F.X. Leyendecker also had an eye for masculine muscle, as with this barechested blacksmith, and for strategically placed missiles between shirtless swabbies (compare below). He became addicted to drugs and killed himself at 47.

    

    

151 GLAAD Media Award Nominees

GLAAD today announced their nominees for the 23rd GLAAD Media Awards including heaps of television, movies, print journalism, digital journalism, blogs, comic books, and, oddly, music, but, odder still, not books. Sadly, it's because musicians are celebrities who generate media coverage and authors aren't. This year a mere three films make their wide release category: Albert Nobbs, J. Edgar, and the Golden Globe-winner Beginners [above].

The awards will be presented at three fundraising dinners: New York on March 24, Los Angeles on April 21, and San Francisco on June 2. Their website says, the ceremonies "bring celebrities, corporate partners, media professionals, and young adults together in support of GLAAD’s mission." Turning a gigantic blind eye to the blatant baiting of people mature enough to pay $5,000 a table with the promise of young adults, please review which of the remaining three categories would describe GLAAD co-founder Vito Russo?

Congratulations on well-deserved nominations to blogs Towleroad, Rod 2.0, Bilerico Project, Mombian, and The New Civil Rights Project. I wish GLAAD could have included the wonderful Polari Magazine but I suppose UK sites don't qualify. If there's any justice, the spectacular Andy Towle will win.

Interracial Gay Wedding, Corporate Drama at Archie Comics

Comic book character Kevin Keller followed in his father's footsteps, joined the army, was injured in Iraq, came home to a rehab center, and fell in love with his physical therapist, Dr. Clay Walker. Now, they're getting married. The gay wedding issue (#16) goes on sale in bookstores January 4 and at newsstands January 10.

Jonathan Goldwater followed in his father's footsteps as CEO of Archie Comics and said if the wholesome, all-American series hadn't embraced LGBT characters it would risk becoming irrelevant. He said Kevin's initial coming out resulted in a mere seven canceled subscriptions but added "hundreds and hundreds" of new subscribers.

Goldwater's bigger problem is his co-CEO Nancy Silberkleit, 57, who assumed the job after her husband's death in 2009. The two families have run the Archies empire since its creation by Goldwater's father in 1941. Now, the company is suing Silberkleit for harassment. The New York Post cites a few allegations:

* Barging into a meeting, pointing at four men in the room, and screeching, “Penis, penis, penis, penis!”

* Complaining her “balls hurt” and she needed to “adjust my balls because they are irritating me.”

* Shouting, “All you penises think you can run me out,” and telling a new employee to “stand up and pull down your pants.”

* told a female worker that the only reason anyone in the company liked her was because she had “big boobies.”

Of the gay issue, CNN casually mentions the most appalling fact: "The Comics Code Authority, an industry body, explicitly banned any mention of homosexuality in comics until 1989."

On Apple's New CEO's Being Gay: "It Isn't Outing, It's Reporting."

The head of a $355 $74 billion company is a gay man. Last February Joe Clark at Fawny wrote about reporters avoiding the queer fact that Apple's Tim Cook:

"When you tell us it’s wrong to report on gay public figures, you are telling gays not to come out of the closet and journalists not to report the truth. (What you’re telling us as gay journalists is even worse.)"

This week Felix Salmon writes:

"Keeping his sexuality a secret is no longer an option. And so the press shouldn’t treat it as though it’s something to be avoided at all costs. There’s no ethical dilemma when it comes to reporting on Cook’s sexuality: rather, the ethical dilemma comes in not reporting it, thereby perpetuating the idea that there’s some kind of stigma associated with being gay. Yes, the stigma does still exist in much of society. But it’s not the job of the press to perpetuate it. Quite the opposite."

(Thanks, Brian.)

Literary Journal Chelsea Station Aims To Be the New Christopher Street

Jameson Currier, publisher of Chelsea Station Editions, announced plans for a new gay literary journal called Chelsea Station modeled on the storied pioneer Christopher Street. Currier says Issue I will launch in November 2011 and the deadline for submissions is October 1, which seems tight. He wants "original and unpublished fiction, nonfiction, poetry, essays, memoir, humor, narrative travelogue, interviews, and reviews (books, theater, television, and film) relating to gay literature and gay men." He adds, "While we are open to all sorts of experimental forms, we tend to gravitate to more traditional literary writing." No payment.

Currier's new novel is The Third Buddha [[Kindle]].

The announcement of the journal is very welcome news. Let's hope more small gay press publishers follow suit, especially those that extend beyond gay male writing exclusively. Wouldn't it be amazing if Peter Cameron started a Wallflower journal?

Born March 23: J.C. Leyendecker

In the early 20th century when Arrow had 94% of market share, much of their success could be laid with illustrator J.C. Leyendecker -- he used his chiseled boyfriend as the model for the archetypal Arrow Collar Man. Born in Germany in 1874, Leyendecker moved with his family to Chicago when he was eight. He and his brother enrolled at the city's Art Institute before studying art nouveau at the Académie Julian in Paris. They returned to Chicago early in 1899 and by May Leyendecker received his first commission for a cover of the era's most famous magazine, The Saturday Evening Post. Throughout his career he would draw 321 more covers for them, creating the genre of "adorable" domestic chaos, stirring patriotism, family holidays, lovers' foibles, and youthful high spirits (with scrawny nudity) that today we associate with his Eve Harrington protege and successor Norman Rockwell. Leyendecker was slight and disliked confrontation; when his friends warned him Rockwell was stealing his style, he didn't protest. (Being a gay man and an immigrant in the early 20th century may also have amplified his instincts to avoid trouble.) One area in which he maintained preeminence was the blatant homoerotic. Leyendecker's men eternally give one another penetrating looks inside, outdoors, and on deck, and they're always thrusting elongated objects at happy angles from their bodies. He never met a muscle that didn't need to beef up, ripple, or glisten under his expert touch. As his biographers   explain, “Neighboring artists shared models with the brothers, which meant a seemingly endless train of attractive Greenwich Village lads parading through their chilly studio in the buff.” One was named Charles Beach. He was 17 and Leyendecker was 28. By all accounts Beach was both hot and not, given to self aggrandizing claims that he did Leyendecker's work (despite not being able to draw), along with the more typical fits of jealousy, insecurity, and tyranny. Margo Channing Norman Rockwell complained he never heard Beach say anything intelligent and called him "stupid." Nevertheless, Leyendecker and Beach moved into a New Rochelle mansion together and threw luxe parties attended by the jazz age set including Scott and Zelda. Inevitably, times changed, the commissions dwindled, and the money ran out. They had to dismiss their staff yet they stayed together a total of 49 years, until Leyendecker's death in 1951 when he instructed his private papers be destroyed. For more, read J.C. Leyendecker.

Leyendecker's artist brother F.X. Leyendecker also had an eye for masculine muscle, as with this barechested blacksmith, and for strategically placed missiles between shirtless swabbies (compare below). He became addicted to drugs and killed himself at 47.

    

    

The End of Print: Book Sales, Phone Directories, US News

Did you buy a physical book in September? Was it a lonely experience? The Association of American Publishers announced their September results, showing drastic declines in printed book sales, whether purchased in a store or online. Electronic book sales have nearly doubled.

Adult Hardcover sales for September 2010 were down 40.4% compared to Sept 2009, and are down 8.1% year-to-date.

Adult Mass Market sales for September were down 23.6% and are down 15.7% y-t-d.

Adult Paperback sales for September were down 15.8% but increased 1.5% y-t-d.

Children's/YA Hardcovers for September were down 17.4% and are down 15.1% y-t-d.

Children's/YA Paperbacks for September were down only 1.6% but are down 6.8% y-t-d.

Physical Audio Sales [CDs, tapes] were down 42.6% for September and 12.6% y-t-d.

Download Audio sales were up 73.7% for September and have increased 34.1% y-t-d.

E-book sales rose 158% over September 2009 and y-t-d are up 188%.

Here's another aspect of the future: From 1878 until today, phone companies have had to pay to print, store, ship, and deliver directories of phone numbers, aka The White Pages, free of charge to the areas they cover. Now that New York, Pennsylvania, and Florida have approved Verizon's request to cease publication of residential directories, the only way to get phone numbers is online; or via directory assistance, which you pay for. Other states that have already approved or are pending similar approval: Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. Yes, it's a great reduction of environmental impact (paper, evil ink, shipping) but this is the wrong net result: was their cost, now your cost.

U.S. News & World Report, founded in 1933, announced that December would be its last print issue. Tumbling from a weekly to a fortnightly to a monthly publication, it continually lost readers. The magazine will continue only online and in rare special print editions like their annual college survey.

In September, NYT publisher Arthur Sulzberger conceded, "We will stop printing the New York Times sometime in the future." Enjoy it online while it's still free, this month and next. The NYT website pay wall is coming in the first quarter of 2011.

Stonewall Awards: Martina, Stella Duffy, Rupert Smith, Gareth Thomas

Last night in London, authors Stella Duffy (Theodora-Actress, Empress,  Whore) and Rupert Smith (Man's World) tied to win the Stonewall award for writer of the year, besting 2010's two queer Man Booker shortlisted writers, Emma Donoghue and Damon Galgut, and the always marvelous Jackie Kay. The unstoppable Mr. Smith is also the commercial fiction writer Rupert James (Silk) and the prolific, bestselling erotic writer James Lear (The Back Passage).

As it happens, the heterosexual writer Frederick Forsyth also was a nominee, in the category Bigot of the Year. He "mocked the persecution facing lesbian and gay asylum seekers in a sneering piece in the Daily Express." Ultimately, he lost to Tory MP Chris Grayling, who "was secretly recorded in May saying that bed and breakfasts should have the right to bar gay couples."

Patrick Strudwick won the journalism award for his undercover expose of fraudulent "gay cure" therapists, and Coronation Street won tv show of the year for its first ever lesbian storyline. Openly gay actor John Partridge [right] won entertainer of the year for his role as a gay character on EastEnders and for judging the BBC talent show Over the Rainbow. Glee's Jane Lynch, A Single Man's Colin Firth, comedian Simon Amstell, and Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke were the other contenders.

Rugby player Gareth Thomas, who came out last December, won the Hero of the Year award. Gareth attended the 450-person gala event with his parents. Accepting his award he said, “I don’t really know what denotes a hero. I’m just myself. But when you live in a world that tries to make different a wrong thing, to me, being a hero is just being honest...To be a hero, you have to follow in a hero’s footsteps. And there’s people here tonight who’ve been my heroes all my life and will be forever – that’s my mother and father.”

Martina Navratilova could not collect her sports award in person because she's in Colorado training to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.

The winners are below, with the complete list of nominees after the jump:

Hero of the Year: Gareth Thomas

Entertainer of the Year: John Partridge

Broadcast of the Year: Coronation Street

Journalist of the Year: Patrick Strudwick

Politician of the Year: Rt Hon John Bercow MP

Writer of the Year (tie): Stella Duffy, Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore
                                    Rupert Smith, Man’s World

Publication of the Year: The Times

Sports Award of the Year: Martina Navratilova

Community Group of the Year: Mind Out

Bigot of the Year: Chris Grayling

Take NPR's Book Survey, Demand Better Coverage of Your Favorites

NPR.org wants your opinion of their book coverage online and on the air. You won't be surprised that LGBT isn't offered as a category you'd like more of, but the survey does have lots of boxes to write in your queer little thoughts.

They seem sincere in wanting to hear from you. Take this opportunity to call for more attention to the books you like best. Other groups of readers are already clamoring for more coverage. So far, the graphic novels and SciFi/Fantasy crowds are the most visible.

Take the survey here.

Gay Breakup Leads to Nick Denton Media Blitz

Apparently you've been subjected to these bloated, completely unrevealing profiles of Gawker Media millionaire and Brit nihilist Nick Denton recently not because he's looking to unload his company but because his boyfriend of four years dumped him. After New York magazine last week, The New Yorker this week devotes a numbing 9,600 words to Denton's successful poses and inability to open up. But there's this bit toward the end of Ben McGrath's fact piece, which sensitive readers may find a little dismissive about gay relationships and/or black conceptual artists:

"Denton recently split up with his boyfriend of four years, an African-American conceptual artist who made a show of hating bloggers and blogging, and who was, in turn, generally beloved by Denton’s friends and colleagues. The mere existence of the relationship, and Denton’s evident vulnerability in the wake of its demise, served to humanize the Gawker chief, whose public presentation had allowed no room for romanticism. “He didn’t understand my frenzy when I would get excited about a scoop,” Denton told me. “He’d say, ‘I can’t stand you like this.’ You know how journalists, or former journalists, turn into monsters when confronted by a big story? The adrenaline surges through your body, and you’re gleeful and unconcerned about civilian casualties, like a warrior going into battle.” A couple of Denton’s friends speculated to me that the breakup had been a contributing factor in his decision to coöperate with this profile, in the interest of projecting emotional availability. A certain person advised me, off the record, not to name the ex, out of respect for his parents, who may not be entirely comfortable with the possibility of their son’s being “caught up in the vortex,” as it were, of Internet celebrity. When I assented to this advice, and said, “Who cares what his name is, anyway?,” meaning New Yorker readers, this person looked hurt, and said, “That’s mean.”

To quote the mainstream: Who cares? If you do -- and of course you'd rather read a profile of the conceptual artist -- the internets says his ex's name is Doug Boatwright and possibly this is another photo. I doubt his parents read Band of Thebes.

New Gay Magazine Launches: Out There

If you were launching a new glossy magazine for the discerning international gay man, would your four areas of content be: Features, Spotlight, Travel, and Style? That's how they roll at the just released Out There, with their cover story on Alan Cumming, interviews with Peter Tatchell and (straight?) actor Michael Fassbender, as well as quickies with photographers Markus Bollingmo and Eiki Mori, singer Ezra Axelrod, and novelist Paul Burston. It costs £10 an issue (twice yearly, for now) and competes with Attitude, Britain's bestselling gay mag, which costs £3.50.

Until proven otherwise, the world's best lifestyle magazine for les gays is the French Têtu, which manages to be smart without stridency and sexy without pandering. The magazine began after Gai Pied failed and is "directed" by Pierre Bergé, YSL's longtime partner. They are generous with their free online content, far beyond the culturally significant slideshows of their cover models. Recently they ran a short piece and fifteen photos of Australian rugby players' campaign for diversity acceptance, memorably translated as «footy contre l'homophobie.»