Number 162 Summer 2015 $9.95 Out for HireWho is your favorite RFD author? What article should we consider re-publishing to share with a new audience. Over our forty year history we’ve published a variety of authors and artists. From the unknown, to the well known, to the now known, to the casual reader wanting to share with our other readers their experiences. As part of our fortieth anniversary we’re hoping readers will consider sharing your favorite article, art work or poem from a previous issue. We’re hoping to be able to connect with the authors to see if they have current work they would like to share and what writing for RFD meant to them at the time. So please—feel free to share this theme idea with anyone who has contributed to RFD in the past and also let us know how to get in touch with an author or artist you think we should be in touch with. Meanwhile, we’ll be combing our archives for articles and work we’d like to re-share with you. Issue 163 / Fall 2015 AUTHORING RFD Submission Deadline: July 21, 2015 www.rfdmag.org/upload Ron Lamb. Photograph by Robert Giard. Courtesy Estate of Robert Giard. RFD 162 Summer 2015 3 PRINT Subscribe to RFD Print and recieve RFD in your mailbox every quarter for $6.25/per issue (37% off retail price). Paypal and credit cards accepted. www.rfdmag.org/subscribeDONATE We are 100% volunteer! We rely on your donations to make the magazine available online. More if you can, less if you can’t. It all helps. www.rfdmag.org/donate RFD 162 Summer 2015 1 Ready for Deposit Vol 41 No 4 #162 Summer 2015 In this issue we’re exploring the experience of being queer and working. Each writer explores their own trajectory in interacting with living in a commodified world while maintaining their own queer space and lives. We’re happy to see the variety of people contributing to each issue. We have a few personal notes to share with our readers. We’ve heard news over the spring that Gabby Haze and his partner Merrill’s house burned to the ground. Gabby was RFD’s longtime stalwart bookkeeper. We’re sorry to hear of the loss of their home and wish them all the best. In many ways Gabby’s home was a nexus of RFD activity over the years and we in New England have fond memories of lunch at Gabby’s after moving boxes and boxes of back issues from the back porch. We also received news that Fritz Bell passed away, he was an early refuge for the Northeast faeries - allowing our motely crew to rent his conference space at Walnut Hill in southern New Hampshire for long weekends and the ever popular sweat lodges. Our sympathies to his partner, Will and our thoughts go out to Moon, his former partner who also played such a vital role in the development of sanctuary space in New England. Our upcoming issue is all about you! Your favorite RFD article, poem or artwork, or how RFD shaped your experience, dust off your old copies and let us know which article we should consider sharing again or tell us your story about RFD’s pages touching your lives. We’ve had a flurry of folks sending in notes saying they didn’t get their RFD in the mail. If you get a bulk subscription, please remember it’s on you to tell us you’ve moved, the USPS doesn’t forward bulk mail! But always be in touch if you have questions about your subscription and bare with us, it’s getting warm out and the garden beckons. Enjoy the “Out for Hire” issue! —From the working girls in White River Junction parading around as the RFD Collective! Between the Lines2 RFD 162 Summer 2015 RFD is a reader-written journal for gay people which focuses on country living and encourages alternative life- styles. We foster community building and networking, explore the diverse expressions of our sexuality, care for the environment, Radical Faerie consciousness, and nature-centered spirituality, and share experiences of our lives. RFD is produced by volun- teers. We welcome your participation. The business and general production are coordinated by a collective. Features and entire issues are prepared by different groups in various places. RFD (ISSN# 0149-709X) is published quarterly for $25 a year by RFD Press, P.O. Box 302, Hadley MA 01035-0302. Postmaster: Send address changes to RFD, P.O. Box 302, Hadley 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: $9.95. A regular subscription is the least expensive way to receive it four times a year. First class mailed issues will be forwarded. Others will not. Send address changes to submissions@rfdmag.org or to our Hadley, MA address. Copyright © RFD Press. The records required by Title 18 U.S.D. Section 2257 and as- sociated 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, 85 N Main St, Ste 200, White River Junction, VT 05001. On the Covers Front : “Cloyd” by Matthew Conway Back : Photo by Colton Baumgartner Production Managing Editor: Bambi Gauthier Assistant Editor: Rosie Delicious Art Director: Matt Bucy Submission Deadlines Fall–July 21, 2015 Winter–October 21, 2015 See inside covers for themes and specifics. For advertising, subscriptions, back issues and other information visit www.rfdmag.org Artists in this Issue Franklin Abbott 2 Josh Turk 4,9 Eugene Salandra 6 Dhamiboo 10 Kwai Lam 14 Colton Baumgartner Back Cover, 17 Ron Kibble and Rob Ordonez 21 Streetcandy 23 Matthew Conway 26,31,34,36,37,38,40,42 Photo by Franklin Abbott RFD 162 Summer 2015 3 CONTENTS Letters & Announcements ....................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Oases of Art and Eros ..........................Eugene Salandra .................6 Coming Out at Work, All Over Again ............Tim Evans .......................8 A Closet Full of Gifts ...........................Dhami Boo .....................10 Gay Sexual Freedom Leads to Erotic Healing Role .........................Dragonfly ......................14 Navigating Through Life’s Debits and Credits .....John Orlando ...................18 Sustenance and Struggle ........................Jon Weatherman ................20 Work History…With Some Conclusions ..........Streetcandy ....................22 Mort & Me ...................................Phillip-John Puzzo ..............27 Roaches and Eats and Mice Oh My! The Front Porch, 1980-1981 ..................Steve Turtell ....................39 The Naked Monk: A New Monastic Leader Brings Nudity, Sex to Faith ............Mark Hart ......................47 On Sanctuary .................................Stella Maris ....................51 Three Questions for Three Poets ................Franklin Abbott .................52 human .......................................James Elmore ...................57 My Roommates ...............................Ron Reikki .....................58 My Brother Comes Out to My Father ............Ron Reikki .....................59 Come Inside ..................................Don Ingraham ..................60 This fire escape once outside ....................Simon Perchik ..................61 RFD Participates Rainbow Book Fair .............Rosie Delicious .................62 Remembrance: Fritz Bell ........................ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634 RFD 162 Summer 2015 LETTERS & ANNOUNCEMENTS Gatherings The 2nd SOUNDOFFAERIES Gathering at Hochkönig Austria 15-25 August 2015 After a fantastic roller coaster of fun, dance, love, talks, magic and nature in 2013, we are thrilled to announce Austria’s Second International Faerie Gathering in the Austrian Alps near Salzburg August 15-25, 2015. Many faeries from fourteen countries wanted to come back as soon as possible to this most unexpected but breathtaking Hochkönig Mountain loca- tion, 1300 meters up in the heart of the Salzburg Alps. So again we welcome and are calling all faerie folk, all ye queer and gentle crea- tures, bambis, eagles, deer, mountain trolls, pixies, phoenixes and friends of all genders from across Europe, Africa, America, Asia, Australia, Arctic, Antarctic, Moon and around the whole Universe to rise like a faerie. Celebrate our/your rebirth with us and building bridges to all faeries of the world for ten days of summer love, light and laughter on this magical mountain— that could change your life and fulfill your dreams! We will also celebrate twenty years of the Eurofaeries and the comeback of the the 60th Eurovision Song Contest ESC to Austria in 2015 by singing songs from all countries of participating faeries and three years of Radical Faerie Movement in Aus- tria by presenting “Symbiofaerietaxiplasm”, a Filmdokuvaganza about the beginning of the faerie movement in Austria, and the first Faerie novel/anthology written by Mata Hari Rise like a faerie and by creating visions for the faerie tribes in Europe and sanctuaries to be in Austria. So join us to create safe space in a comfort- able and private and typical Alpine style lodge (Hostel) near a mountain forest. If you want more privacy you can also set up your own tent. “Shifting Within” by Josh Turk RFD 162 Summer 2015 5 Hello RFD readers! We’re happy to announce the production of These C*Cksucking Tears—a docu- mentary about the life and work of Patrick Haggerty, who wrote, sang, and released the first and only gay- themed country music album in 1973. Produced by Seattle Gay Community Services and starting with only a thousand copies, the album Lavender Country was distributed to like- minded country queers like yourselves through ads in this very publication way back when! Anyone with their own thoughts or memories of Lavender Country to share can be sent to tears@idiotbox- productions.com. More information and a way to help the cause of getting this story out there can be found at www.thesec- cksuckingtears.com. Correction : The wonderful cover photo from the last is- sue was mis-credited. It should have been credited to Sierra Mountain Spirit. Our apolgies! The nearest international airport is Munich where you can get an inexpensive train ticket to the near- est train station to the gathering, Bischofshofen, Austria. Check out our website http://radicalfaeries.at/ for the latest news about the 2nd faerie gath- ering in Austria or email us: faerietref- fen@hotmail.com.” A DocumentaryNext >