No 143 Fall 2010 $7.75Announcing the Winter 2011 Issue: Divas, Gurus and Other Inspirational Folks Who says RFD can’t use the internet for inspiration? A friend on Facebook shared a link to a Diva website - yes all things gay diva related - Judy and Joni and beyond. It made us think about who inspire us for whatever reason. We’re certainly in a time of reflection with Obama as the US president and the shifts that seem to be occurring daily on GLBT issues. But we’re asking you, dear readers, for the dirt on who inspires you at present. Is it an actress, an opera diva, a movie hunk, a porn star... A politician of the people, a comedian who tells it like it is... Perhaps it’s a creative artist, a best friend, a spiritual guru, an idea whose time has come... Of course we’re also interested in places - a forest, a view of the ocean, your first Pride parade... Old standards in diva-dom are certainly welcome -- so all you fans of Dolly Parton - come on confess “Little Sparrow” makes you cry each and every time. One of the reasons we love putting together RFD is hearing from our readers and their experiences. Your diva stories will reveal all! Submissions to RFD are gratefully appreciated - you can send your submission of articles, poems or artwork and photos to submissions@rfdmag.org. For this issue please put “Diva” in the subject line. For all scanned artwork / photos please send them at least 300 dpi and 1 megabyte. If the image is in color scan in color. The deadline for this issue is October 27. – RFD Collective Issue #144RFD 143 • Fall 2010 Recycling Fossilized Drag Between the Lines The Queer Sustainability Issue Vol 37 No 1 #143 Fall 2010 In these days when themes like global warm- ing and peak oil raise ever-greater concern, we decided that it would be timely for us to ex- plore some queer perspectives on these issues. So, in this issue, we’ve assembled some of our readers’ takes on “queer sustainability.” They range from philosophical reflection to practi- cal advice, from social critique to pointers on maintaining a positive outlook. And since we all know that sustainability begins at home, we’ve included a piece about the importance of loving ourselves and each other even as we stumble through sex clubs, heartache, and in- security. In personal terms, we want to thank Moun- taine Jonas for his years of service to the RFD community as he steps off the Board of Direc- tors. Working with him has always been a fun ride. His keen eye for detail has been a blessing on many an occasion, and we look forward to his comments on upcoming issues of the mag- azine and wish him all the best. Several of the pieces on “queer sustainabil- ity” come from outside of the United States. Like a woven thread, our culture has become global, even as we strive to live more locally with respect to food sources, economics, and environmental impacts. Faeries everywhere are bringing the techniques of personal growth work into the environmental realm, while also striving to increase environmental awareness within the larger LGBTQ community. We’re particularly excited by how these various ef- forts seem to echo and expand on the goals of RFD’s founders. In this issue, we also feature the work of sev- eral visual artists whose diverse work relates to sustainability, queer culture, and/or our spiritual connection with nature. Additionally, we’re happy to introduce the poetry of Alfred Duhamel to our readers, along with some of his thoughts on composition and content. Lastly, we’re happy to report that we celebrated our receipt of the Monette- Horwitz award with a festive luncheon at Faerie Camp Destiny in Vermont. With lovely Lammas weather, it was a memo- rable marker for the start of our thirty-sev- enth year. We’re glad to have you with us as we begin another turn of the wheel. The RFD Collective RFD 143 • Fall 2010 CONTENTS On the Covers Front: “Angel” by Rob Ordonez Back: “Dean” by Paul Specht Inside front cover: “Mud” by Matt Bucy Inside back cover: FaePosium Faerie by Pan Production Bambi Gauthier, Edi-tor in Chief Myrlin, Prison Pages Editor Jason Sch- neider, Editor Eric Linton, Editor Rob Goo- dale, Editor Matt Bucy, Design & Typography Michel DuBois, Trea- surer Image Credits Douglas Caulkins ............6, 10 Edward S. Curtis ..................40 Frank Jackson ........................9 Gary Briggs ...........................39 Gary Plouff ................2, 14-17, 22, 38 Jai Sheronda .......................32-33 Matt Bucy .............Inside Front Cover Michael Oglesby ..........18-20, 23-24, 28 Pan ............Inside Back Cover, 4, 36-37 Paul Specht ..........Back Cover 29, 34-35 Rob Ordonez .......Front Cover, 30-31, 41 Sigh Moon ............................ 42 Artist Links RFD appreciates the following artists whose work appears in this issue: Rob Ordonez www.redbubble.com/people/BOBBYBABE RFD is a reader written journal for gay people which focus- es on country living and encourages alternative lifestyles. We foster community building and networking, explore the diverse expressions of our sexuality, care for the en- vironment, radical faerie consciousness, nature-centered spirituality, and share experiences of our lives. RFD is pro- duced by volunteers. We welcome your participation. The business and general production are coordinated by a col- lective. Features and entire issues are prepared by different groups in various places. We print in New England. RFD (ISSN# 0149-709X) is published quarterly for $25 a year by RFD Press, P.O. Box 302, Hadley MA 01035-0302. Post- master: Send address changes to RFD, P.O. Box 302, Had- ley MA 01035-0302 Non-profit tax exempt #62-1723644, a function of RFD Press with office of registration at 231 Ten Penny Rd., Woodbury, TN 37190. RFD Cover Price: $7.75. A regular subscription is the least expensive way to receive it four times a year. Copyright © 2010 RFD Press. The re- cords required by Title 18 U.S.D. Section 2257 and associ- ated with respect to this magazine (and all graphic material associated therewith on which this label appears) are kept by the custodian of records at the following location: RFD Press, 231 Ten Penny Road, Woodbury TN 37190. Mail for our Brothers Behind Bars project should continue to be sent to P.O. Box 68, Liberty TN 37095. Behind the Lines ..........................................................1 Annoucements / Gathering Guide ................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 This issue’s feature: Southern Faerie Roots Report from Faeposium II .........................Kwai ....................4 RFD & White Crane Awarded 2010 Monette-Horwitz Prize ....................Bambi ...................5 The Journey from Running Water Farm to Gay Spirit Visions .............................Douglas B. Caulkins ....... 7 Jesus and Nobody ................................Greg LeClair ... 14 Memorial Stones at Running Water ................Gary Plouff ...........................................16 LaSIS, Dennis Melba’son and the Early Fey Days ..... Dimid Hayes ..................................... 18 Dennis Melba’son’s Diary ....................Dennis Melba’son ..............................21 Letters to Danny ....................Dennis Melba’son ........................23 New Orleans Diary ............Dennis Melba’son .28 The Pansy Test ............Lucius ...............29 Dress-Up .............Rob Ordonez .............30 Jai Drawing Circle .Bambi .......................32 Portraits .....Paul Specht ......................34 Faepo-sium .......Pan ....................36 Be-coming Faerie ...Franklin Abbott ..........38 Berdache Boy .......Griffin Payne ............40 Three Poems ..................Glenn Allen Phillips ......41 Drawing ...Sigh Moon ..................42 Prison Pages ...Myrlin .........................43 The Pantry at Running Water. Photo by Gary Plouff NOT UPDATED YETRFD 143 • Fall 2010 ANNOUNCEMENTS, LETTERS, EVENTS AND CONTACT INFO Dancing in the Moonlight: A Radical Faerie Reader Available this Fall White Crane Books is proud to an- nounce the fall 2010 publishing date for Dancing In The Moonlight: A Radi- cal Faerie Reader, due out October of this year. Dancing In The Moonlight is a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the first Faerie Gathering in a desert ash- ram, a convocation called by Harry Hay, John Burnside and Don Kilhefner. It is a collection of essays and commentaries in response to a Call put out by the an- thology editors, Mark Thompson, Don Kilhefner and Richard (Osiris) Neely and represents an international collo- quy on the birth of Faerie culture. With contributions by new writers, as well as authors Mark Thompson (Gay Body/ Gay Soul/Gay Spirit: Myth & Meaning), Will Roscoe (The Zuni Man-Woman/ Jesus and the Shamanic Traditions of Same-Sex Love/Queer Spirits) and Don Kilhefner (Founder of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Community Services Center and the L.A. Gay Men’s Medicine Circle), Dancing in the Moonlight is a long-awaited Talking Circle of reflection on the progress we have made as Faer- ies moving forward, and a critical and loving appraisal of its importance for GLBT people. Contact: Bo Young 518- 642-8109. Animate Poems! Upcoming contest The Big Joy film isn’t one of those ordinary documentaries. We’ve never endeavored to follow a traditional route of reporting on the life of one man in a standard way. That wouldn’t be like us-- or James Broughton. We have always intended to create something beautiful and truly weird in an uplifting and inspiring way, and we believe we have found a key for the spine of our unique film. Animated or visual poetry. That’s right. The Big Joy film will bring some of Broughton’s poem to animated life. This fall we’ll be holding a competi- tion to collect animated or video ver- sions of Broughton poems that may be included in the movie. If we select your poem, you’ll be paid. If not, you will still receive film credit, YouTube posting, and possibly a prize. We’re giving away things like Adobe Creative Suite ($2,700 value), signed James Broughton books, “This is It” broadsides hand calligraphed by William Stewart, and Here’s what to do: Find a James Broughton poem you love and turn it into a short video (pref- erably under 2:00) using animation, montage, film, photographs, music, spo- ken word, special effects, or whatever. For inspiration check out this Billy Collins animated poetry video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrEPJh14mcU To be eligible to be included in the feature film, please produce your work in HD, 1080p, 24 fps. (Other formats are welcome in the contest, too, but may not make it into the final film). Submit your creation by midnight, October 15, 2010 by posting your video to YouTube, Vimeo or any other online video hosting site. Then, let us know where we can watch it by sending an email (including your name, address, e- mail and brief description) to info@big- joy.org. Questions? Call or e-mail Stephen Sil- ha at (206) 567-4363, info@bigjoy.org. For a sampling of James Brough- ton poems, visit http://www.bigjoy. org and click Enter Flash site and then works - words. There are also poems to download under goodies. James wrote hundreds of poems, so there’s an abun- dance to choose from. There’s one in this newsletter to spark your imagination. A bibliography of his poetry books are also listed on the Broughton wikipedia page. Contestants will be featured on our James Broughton YouTube channel. Letters to the Editor Our former editors share their thoughts on RFD winning the Monette- Horwitz award. I am proud of our little family journal. When I was working on it in the 80s, I took special pains to get RFD into librar- ies and literary venues, and was always surprised and pleased that so many peo- ple outside our community respected the journal. It does have a unique place in Gay literature, and is an important voice of our sub-sub-culture. It is one of the oldest Gay publications and still go- ing strong. How it has survived all these years is a testament to the love its read- ers have for it. So, it is important. –Ron Lambe I am deeply honored that we have been recognized for our years of dedica- tion to a queer reader created magazine and will be there with you in spirit. I have sent the six foot RFD banner that the collective carried in the ‘87 and maybe ‘93 MOWs and I used it last year at the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival. William Stewart is bringing it by car to Destiny in Vermont. Our connection after near- ly thirty years these last few weeks has been deep and heartfelt and much ap- preciated. –Sister Soami Reduce Carbon Footprint One step RFD should seriously con- sider to “reduce our carbon footprint and ecological impact” is to cease print- ed publication and become an exclu- sively virtual e-magazine. As satisfying and elegant as it may be to hold a mate- rial copy of RFD in one’s hand and leave it next to one’s favorite chair for reading at leisure, the cost in materials, postage and shipping is no longer defensible in an age of rapidly spiraling ecological in- sults. I’ll be the first to sign on for the on-line edition. –Bob Fish Continued on page 42 Order Back Issues $5-25 each Plus shipping submissions@rfdmag.org email for prices and to order RFD 143 • Fall 2010 L awrence Brose, an important film- maker and arts advocate, has been accused by Homeland Security of pos- sessing illicit images. The images cited include one hundred prints from his highly acclaimed film, De Profundis (www.lawrencebrose.com), based on Oscar Wilde’s prison letter. Lawrence maintains his innocence and will not plead out the case, for the sake of his own good name and for the well-being of the larger arts community. The film is a visual and audio expe- rience like no other, which invites the viewer to explore personal liberation in the context of Oscar Wilde’s spiri- tual awakening while in prison. Several faeries were involved in its creation as actors and on the production team, in- cluding Agnes de Garron, Mark Miller, Ken Cooper and Keith Gemerek, and it contains scenes shot at Short Mountain Sanctuary and at Fanny and Keisha’s loft in Brooklyn. Initial forensic research, commis- sioned by Lawrence’s attorneys, dis- covered a backdoor Trojan virus on his computer allowing anyone access. Read- ers are urged to install and maintain anti-virus software on their computers – this could happen to you! As can be imagined, Lawrence’s legal defense is going to be quite expensive. His friends, colleagues, and support- ers have set up a legal defense fund, and we are working to raise $200,000 for the cause. We’re reaching out for help from you, the readers of RFD, since we know you feel strongly about free speech and the importance of art in our society. Please visit the website at: http:// lawrencebroselegaldefensefund.com to review the testimonials and the case for support, and consider donating to the defense fund. This is going to be an extensive process and ordeal, but Law- rence’s attorneys feel strongly that they will be able to exonerate him and restore his good name and reputation. The Lawrence Brose Legal Defense Fund is a Class A Non-Profit corporation registered with the State of New York. Support Needed for Lawrence Brose by Fussy Lo Mein Fussy Lo MeinRFD 143 • Fall 2010 I ’m writing here to share some thoughts about how being queer has im- pacted my work within the sustainability movement. Unpacking such a complex subject is fraught with the perils of oversimplification and inaccuracy – after all, one can’t sum up a lifetime’s experience in just a few words – but I want to give it a try. In my professional life, I’ve worked as an attorney in the solar energy field. I feel blessed to have been able to build markets for renewable energy, and to increase opportunities for participation within those markets. In thinking about how my queerness has impacted this work, what most readily comes to mind is how growing up with a sense of “other- ness” has shaped my ability to accept and value different perspectives and ways of being. I sometimes pity the young straight man or woman who has never followed the beat of a different drummer or taken the path less traveled. The skills one develops as an “other” walking those paths and hearing that drum are truly profound and wondrous. As a queer man, I’m grateful for my ability to listen both with mind and heart, to have and share emotions freely, and to see our world as it is without the veil of a heteronormative culture. What’s more, I feel that these sensibilities have served me well in my work. As queer men, we are gifted with the freedom to connect without aggression that is so of- ten denied to our straight brothers and colleagues. Dare I say that even the thick skin needed to survive the slings and ar- rows of bigots and haters has shown it- self to be a blessing in the hearing room? In the end, each of these gifts is the result of my being queer. Each of them allows me to bring a unique perspective to the projects I work on. Not surprisingly, the re- newable energy communi- ty is something of a queer space within the larger world of energy interests, filled with faggots, dykes, free spirits, and other odd sorts – people unwilling (foolishly, some might say) to listen to the dominant message that renewable energy will never “save us from ourselves.” These folks, just like the radical faeries, are committed to creating alternatives to the mass consumerism, alien- ation, and environmental damage that our society currently generates. We now know that our resource use and means of produc- tion have exceeded global carrying capacity; and with this knowledge, we are called as spirits within our larger cosmos to create new modes of being – cultural, economic, and spiritual – which recognize that we cannot con- tinue to exploit the earth as we have done. And I believe the gifts of our queerness make us particularly recep- tive to this call. Carry on, my broth- ers! Let us march to the beat of our own drum, and help create a sustain- able future for ourselves and for our planet as a whole. Queer in the Sustainability Movement by Mouse WonderTree by Ed Hall RFD 143 • Fall 2010 Note: A slightly different version of this piece appears in Dancing in the Moon- light: A Radical Faerie Reader, edited by Don Kilhefner, Ph.D., and Mark Thomp- son, coming in October from White Crane Press. T wo passions animate my life as I ap- proach my sixtieth year. The first is for connecting deeply with my queer- spirit tribe. And the second feels com- plementary to the first: to embrace the prospect of global collapse, and to en- gage in collective consciousness-raising about the gift that inheres in it. The theme of this issue of RFD is sustainability, and it’s a subject that it behooves us all to think about. But to focus solely on changing behaviors and developing more sustainable technolo- gies, without acknowledging our pow- erlessness over the larger momentum of planetary breakdown, is to collude with the denial that has brought us to where we are today. So, while I welcome the conversation about tools and strategies, I personally feel more drawn to invoke our commu- nity’s psychic and spiritual resources in anticipation of the travail ahead. For I am convinced that collapse is inevita- ble, even if there is an unforeseen dra- matic increase in society’s willingness to change course, and I believe that we as queer people will have a vital role in holding space for this global disintegra- tion to unfold. Perhaps, if the converging crises of fossil-fuel depletion, climate change, environmental degradation, overpopula- tion, and political and financial dysfunc- tion were independent of each other, the high-tech quick-fix approach might be adequate to address them. But even though the prevailing paradigm insists on seeing such phenomena in isolation, in fact they’re all manifestations of the same self-amplifying system of beliefs and behaviors that threatens the very foundations of planetary life. It’s no ac- cident that climate change is beginning to spiral out of control just as fossil-fuel scarcities approach a tipping point, or that languages, species, and entire eco- systems are disappearing at similarly accelerating rates. These and an end- less list of other meltdowns – ecologi- cal, economic, social, spiritual – are all ultimately the result of human ingenu- ity run amok, acting on the disastrous misapprehension that the world’s natu- ral resources can be exploited without negative consequences and essentially without end. I t’s not hard to see how this error arose. Until recently, all the evidence sug- gested that it was true. Beginning with the development of agriculture some ten milennia ago, we as a species have been manipulating our environment with ever-increasing effectiveness, enabling a trajectory of exponential growth. It’s only in this unique historical moment, when for the first time we are able to view the entire human experiment as a single episode in the context of plan- etary time, that the inherent unsustain- ability of the growth model has become apparent. From this perspective “civi- lization” is an anomaly of breathtak- ing proportions: never before has one species so completely dominated the planet, capitalizing on the evolutionary edge of its large brain size and taking advantage of an unusual interval of cli- mate stability to drastically increase its numbers and power through plant and animal husbandry, resource extraction, and social control. It’s an open question whether this pat- tern of human development would have been sustainable without the additional factor of fossil fuels. But once human- kind discovered the secret of concentrat- ed energy, the genie was out of the bottle. Expansion on a previously unimaginable scale became possible, and naturally, as a species determined to maximize control over everything around us, we took ad- vantage of the opportunities available. This one-time unrepeatable raid on the strongbox of petrochemicals has fueled a binge of mind-boggling pro- portions. Burning up eons of stored sunlight, we have exhausted most of the readily accessible sources of these sub- stances within just a couple of centuries, enabling us to briefly, grossly, exceed our planet’s carrying capacity, with unheed- ed environmental consequences accru- ing all the while. Even those aspects of petroleum-driven growth which may seem the most benign – I am thinking of things like modern agriculture and medicine, which have made possible massive global population growth and, for some, a better quality of life – can now be seen as deeply problematic, be- cause they have increased the burden of global unsustainability. I mmersed as we are in this era of over- extended carbon-leveraged growth, our natural inclination is to experience it as “normal,” and a significant effort of consciousness is required to discern just how far removed from any previous real- ity our current situation is. But in truth, we are in dangerously uncharted territo- ry. And this is precisely where we queer folk come in – for who better than we, with our outsider status and our multi- focal vision, to see beyond the insidi- ous trance that holds society transfixed? While the “well-adjusted” sleepwalk through a world of material glut and ano- mie, we walkers-on-the-edge are already ahead of the curve in our ability to com- prehend the spiritual bankruptcy and potentially catastrophic consequences of the Western way of life. I don’t mean to suggest that this take on our global predicament is uniquely ours. Many provocative thinkers uncon- cerned with sexual identity have argued that we’re heading for collapse, and their Stewarding the Future A Radical Faerie Call for Sacred Witness by William Stewart For who better than we, with our outsider status and our multi-focal vision, to see beyond the insidious trance that holds society transfixed? RFD 143 • Fall 2010 Song lyrics by Charlie Murphy Calligraphy by William Stewart AWAITING CALLIGRAPHY IMAGENext >