RFD 194 Summer 2023 1 RAINBOW FLAG Number 194 Summer 2023 $11.95Issue 195 / Fall 2023 QUEER MENTAL HEALTH Submission Deadline: August 15, 2023 www.rfdmag.org/upload Our queer selves have always been weighed against the idea of being unstable, unwell, mad. Some of that has always been the projection of a heteronormative culture seeking to control our lives by medicalizing our lived experiences. But we also face the challenge of oppression, the difficulty of living in the “crazy world” and some of us in reality face mental health challenges not because of who we are but merely “because.” We’re asking our readers to consider the ways we face mental health issues in our GLBTQ community. We’ve come a long way from being oppressed because of mental health professionals labeling us as “sick” but now we make up a piece of the mental health and helping professions in a more holistic way. We have come to understand our mental health is actually important and that we at times need support—from friends and family, work places, and mostly deeply ourselves. So we’re asking readers to consider sharing stories about yourselves as people facing mental health issues, people working to help people facing challenges as well as friends and partners who’ve dealth with someone in their lives facing mental health issues. The language of mental health is couched in a lot of negative language and we’re also hoping to learn ways of speaking about issues like depression, emotional trauma, suicidal thought as way of being more gentle to ourselves in facing something that in often intangible, unknowing and often unique to that person in a given moment, a period of one’s life or as part of one’s life journey. Please consider sharing your stories and resources for helping our community be more out about their emotional and psychic health. Image (cropped): David Bushnell, Ken Westover and Roger Kornberg, Stanford University via Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC 2.0). RFD 194 Summer 2023 3 Rainbow Flag Dirigible Vol 49 No 4 #194 Summer 2023 Between the Lines As we enter another summer, we welcome you to enjoy this issue celebrating the Rainbow Flag. With all of its overuse and commercialization the Rainbow Flag is still a powerful symbol of unity. The flag itself has seen many permutations but that reflects the shifts in the “rainbow” that we are. We hope you enjoy the stories and poetry in this issue which reflect the rainbow vibe. As we enter Pride month in most of the world, we hope people are able to celebrate as well as organize to protect our rainbow rights as we face Right-Wing backlash. It urges us to see the collective power of organizing as we show our pride. Speaking of pride, we’re still seeking folks help in celebrating RFD’s fifty year publishing year in 2024. If you are able to help out with reading and selecting prose, poetry and art from our fifty-year legacy for inclusion in a book, please be in touch with Rosie at houseofdelicious@gmail.com. As always, we appreciate you, our dear readers, for your input, submissions of material and donations that come as part of your subscription or donating to support the online version of RFD, which appears on our website—www.rfdmag.org. We re- ally do appreciate your ideas for upcoming themes as your ideas become a way of communicating to the rest of the community. Send theme ideas to us at submissions@rfdmag.org. Okay, take a sip of your lemonade and enjoy this issue! With vigor and blue skies from New England —the RFD Collective4RFD 194 Summer 2023 RFD is a reader-written journal for gay people which focuses on country living and encourages alterna- tive lifestyles. 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 volunteers. 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, PMB 329, 351 Pleasant St., Ste B, Northamp- ton, MA 01060-3998. Postmaster: Send address changes to RFD Press, PMB 329, 351 Pleasant St., Ste B, Northampton, MA 01060-3998. Non-profit tax exempt #62-1723644, a function of RFD Press, Inc., with office of registration at 231 Ten Penny Rd., Woodbury, TN 37190. RFD Cover Price: $11.95. A regular subscription is the least expensive way to receive RFD four times a year. First class mailed issues will be forwarded. Others will not. Send ad- dress changes to submissions@rfdmag.org or to our Northampton, MA address. Copyright © RFD Press, Inc. The records required by Title 18 U.S.D. Section 2257 and associated 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. Production Managing Editor: Bambi Gauthier Production Editor: Matt Bucy Submission Deadlines Fall–August 15, 2023 Winter–November 15, 2023 See inside covers for themes and specifics. For advertising, subscriptions, back issues and other information visit www.rfdmag.org. To read online visit www.issuu.com/rfmag . Visual Contributors Inside This Issue Artwork not directly associated with an article. Artboydancing ..............Back Cover, 2, 6, 29 Michael Mitchell. ...........................14 Daydream. ...............................19, 24 Patrick Hughes. ..............................17 Richard Vyse. ......................20, 40, 44, 49 EGGMAN ..................................33 Jonny on the Spot. ............................34 David Carter. ...............................36 "Africa Loves Asia" by Artboydancing RFD 194 Summer 2023 5 CONTENTS Announcements ................................................................4 Rainbow Flag Origin Stories ...............August Bernadicou ....................7 How I Feel When I See the Flag ............Gordon Binder .......................11 The First Rainbow Flag in U.N. Plaza for the Gay Pride Parade ................Toby Johnson ........................15 Holi Festival 2023 ........................Notre Dame .........................16 Our First Flag ............................Barry/Dynaton .......................21 Rainbow Roads ...........................Raya Finkle ..........................22 On the Greyhound to Gallup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .D. Scott Humphries ...................23 Refraction ...............................Andre Le Mont Wilson ................25 Rainbow, Rainbow, Rainbow ...............Steven Cordova ......................26 The Big Bang .............................J.R. Kangas ..........................27 Oz and Effect ............................Alan Sugar ...........................28 What Never Was One .....................Todd H. C. Fischer ....................30 Shoplifting ...............................Maytag Dishwasher ...................35 Sebastian ...............................Michael Loren Butkovich ..............37 Queer Archiving .........................Bambi Gauthier ......................52 RFD Books for Sale ............................................................556RFD 194 Summer 2023 Children of Lazarus: Voices of the “Forgotten Generation” of Long-Term AIDS Survivors In 1996 the miracle the antiviral three-drug cocktail changed the diagnosis of AIDS from a guaranteed death sentence to a chronic manageable disease for those afflicted. Most people assumed there were no survivors. Others have preferred to treat the AIDS epidemic as a terrible chapter in his- tory best forgotten. In fact, some of us early PWA’s (persons with AIDS) have survived that death sentence. Over time we have been finding each other. Support groups have emerged. The consequences of long-term sur- vivorship have impacted us physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. Professionals in the HIV healthcare system, in the legal system, and allies of people living with HIV are celebrated today, even as long-term survivors are rendered invisible. As a consequence of our current invisibility, historians have labeled us the “forgotten generation” of AIDS survivors. This is a call for submissions of personal stories of long-term AIDS survivors. For the purposes of this book, “long-term” is defined as those diag- nosed before 1996, as “pre-highly active anti- retroviral therapy” survivors. This book will be published by Bearskin Lodge Press (www.bearskin- lodgepress.com). Minimum word count is 1500 words. There is no maximum word count. Original essays are encouraged. Previously published essays are also acceptable, provided the author secures reprint permission. Writers will receive a contribu- tor’s copy of the book. Essays may be submitted in WORD or PDF format. Deadline for submissions is December 31, 2023. Email inquiries and submis- sions to the editor Les K. Wright at bearskinlodge- press@gmail.com. Call for Submissions Sex Magick Workshops 2023 www.faeriesexmagick.org open your sexuality beyond society's borders September 9-16 Blue Heron Farm, Upstate New York September 30-October 7 Folleterre, France Consider these questions: How can I extend the limits of intimacy with my community? Does sex constrain or expand my relationships with men? How can I better integrate sexual play and my desires into my intimate relationships? Does rec- reational sex diminish my capacity for intimacy in a committed relationship? How does the prevailing society’s prudishness dampen and undermine the intimacy in my relationships? How does my sexual- ity and my spirituality inter-relate? Are my sexual and my spiritual aspects one in the same? RFD 194 Summer 2023 7 Richard Price is having an opening reception and art sale at The Story Garage, 1875 Niagara St., Buffalo, NY 14207 on Saturday, July 8, 2023, 12–4pm. The show runs until July 22, 2023. Gallery hours Fridays 12–6 pm and Saturdays 12–4 pm. Richard Price Fifty-Year Retrospective From top-left: Self portrait, "Andy", "Scott and David", "John and John." Photographs by Richard Price.8RFD 194 Summer 2023 "Hello" by Artboydancing. RFD 194 Summer 2023 9 Many enduring symbols that establish an instant understanding and define a diverse community are intrinsically linked with controversy, confusion, and ill-informed backstories dictated by vested interests and those who told the story loudest. The LGBTQ rainbow flag is no different. While it was the work of many, the people who deserve credit the most have been minimized if not erased. Gilbert Baker, the self-titled “Creator,” screamed the story and now has a powerful estate behind his legacy. Before his death in 2017, Baker established himself as the complete authority on the LGBTQ rainbow flag. It was his story which he lived and became. While there are disputed accounts on the flag’s origins, one thing that is not disputed is that the LGBTQ rainbow flag was born in San Francisco and made for the Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978. For all of human history, rainbows have mystified and inspired. A greeting of light and serenity after the darkness and chaos of a storm. They have sym- bolized hope, peace, and the mysteries of existence. For a moment, we can see the invisible structure, the “body” of light, made visible. A secret revealed, then hidden again. Though it may seem like a modern phenomenon, rainbow flags have waved throughout history. Their origin can be traced to at least the 15th Century. The German theologian, Thomas Müntzer, used a rainbow flag for his reformist preachings. In the 18th Century, the English-American revolutionary and author, Thomas Paine, advocated adopting the rainbow flag as a universal symbol for identifying neutral ships at sea. Rainbow flags were flown by Buddhists in Sri Lanka in the late 19th Century as a unifying emblem of their faith. They also represent the Peruvian city of Cusco, are flown by Indians on January 31st to commemorate the passing of the spiritual leader Meher Baba, and since 1961, have represented members of international peace movements. Now, the rainbow flag has become the symbol for the LGBTQ community, a community of differ- ent colors, backgrounds, and orientations united together, bringing light and joy to the world. A forever symbol of where they started, where they have come, and where they need to go. When many LGBTQ people see a rainbow flag flowing in the wind, they know they are safe and free. While the upper class and tech interests rule the city now, in the 1960s and 70s, San Francisco was a wonderland for low and no-income artists. The counterculture’s mecca. By the mid-1970s, the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood that had once been a psychedelic playground of hippie art, culture, and music had fallen into disarray. Hard, dangerous drugs like heroin had replaced mind-expanding psy- chedelics. Young queers and artists needed a new home, and they found it in the Castro. Lee Mentley (1948-2020) arrived in San Francis- co in 1972 and quickly fell in with the oddball artist and performers in the Castro neighborhood, don- ning flamboyant, gender-fucked clothes, performing avant-garde theater, and creating their own club- houses. He was on the Pride Planning Committee in 1978 and ran the Top Floor Gallery on the top floor of 330 Grove, which served as an early Gay Center in San Francisco. Lynn Segerblom (Faerie Argyle Rainbow) was originally from the North Shore of Hawaii and moved to San Francisco where she attended art school at the Academy of Art. Her life changed when she found a new passion in tie-dye and rain- bows in the early 1970s. Entrenched in the free- loving technicolor world of San Francisco, in 1976, Lynn legally changed her name to Faerie Argyle Rainbow. She joined the Angels of Light, a “free” performance art troupe where the members had to return to an alternative, hippie lifestyle and deny credit for their work. Shortly after the original rainbow flags were flown for the last time, both Lynn and Lee moved out of San Francisco. Lee moved to Hawaii and Lynn moved to Japan. When they returned, they were shocked to see how their contribution to his- tory was becoming a universal symbol. They remain passionate about defending their legacies and giving a voice to the mute. LEE MENTLEY: One day in 1978, Lynn came to 330 Grove with a couple of her friends, James Mc- Namara and Robert Guttman, and said we should make rainbow flags for Gay Day to brighten up San Rainbow Flag Origin Stories By August Bernadicou (with additional text and research by Chris Coats)Next >