RFD 207 Fall 2026 1 Number 207 Fall 2026 $11.95 CrisisIssue 208 / Winter 2026 FOUND OBJECTS Submission Deadline: November 15, 2026 www.rfdmag.org/upload RFD’s office is filled with little piles of paper, bits of information, stacks of cor- respondence and the occasional gifted objet. Sifting through it sometimes we find delightful memories and shared mo- ments. A restaurant receipt, flowers long wilted and dry in a vase, a quirky photo snapped at an odd moment. A little prized note from a reader, some Maudi Gras beads. We’re asking you, our dear reader, to consider the small things around you. What do they reflect of your experience— do you also give importance to such small trifles? Or do you have some trove of books, photos, that tell something about your life or those who surrounded you at a given moment in time. Perhaps you kept a journal or kept a lover’s letters from when you were apart. How do these objects fill your life, tell a chapter of your life and what would you like to see happen to them. We all even- tually downsize, move across country or redecorate and shift our possessions to work with our current lives. Do you gift things to friends, have plans for your art- work? Who will deal with the paper trail and pictures? And given our digital lives, our ephemeral self in the cloud. Tell us your tale of found objects in your life through a story, poetry and artwork. We’d also love to hear the story from the perspective of the person who brought the object into your life. "untitled" by bracken hollow. A ritual circle from my Ostara celebration in the Fairy Woods, Hathersage! RFD 207 Fall 2026 1 Remedial Fact Derivative Vol 53 No 1 #207 Fall 2026 Between the Lines In all of the hussle and bustle of putting together the last issue we mistakenly laid in an image for Allan Troxler’s Remem- brance which wasn’t Allan! Oops. So, we include a lovely image of Allan provided by his niece, Kate Mitchell, with our deepest apologies. This issue is focusing on the many varying crisis we face in our daily lives, our regions, as queer people and as empathetic people navigating the terrain of constant shifts, open hostility and lack of discussion parading as policy foreign and domestic. Our submissions this issue focus on coping mechanisms, ways of addressing the immediate in our own surroundings and not losing focus on ourselves as the globalized crisis unfolds. Another feature of this issue is an interview with Jason Ezell about his book, For A Spell, which we hope you all find a way to read. We obviously care how the manufactured crisis impact our lives as LGBTQ+ people. We hope people are hunkering down, making friends, and creating positive responses to a world in flux. We hope you enjoy the issue for the kernels of strength it offers. From a breezy September afternoon in Vermont —The RFD Collective Allan Troxler, photograph by Kate Mitchell.2RFD 207 Fall 2026 RFD is a reader-written journal for gay people which focuses on country living and encourages alternative lifestyles. We foster community building and networking, explore the diverse expres- sions of our sexuality, care for the environment, Radical Faerie conscious- ness, 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 vari- ous places. RFD (ISSN# 0149-709X) is published quarterly for $25 a year by RFD Press, PMB 329, 351 Pleasant St., Ste B, Northampton, 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 is- sues will be forwarded. Others will not. Send address 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 fol- lowing 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 Winter–November 15, 2026 Spring–February 15, 2027 See inside covers for themes and specifics. For online issues, advertising, subscriptions, back orders and other information visit www.rfdmag.org. Artwork Contributors Visual work not directly associated with an article. Front Cover ""Internal Conflict" by Denison Beach. Back Cover Untitled by imajinary. Jacob Clayton ..........................2, 37 Gordon Binder ............................6 Chris Moody ............................. 35 Patrick Gracewood .......................25 Matt Bucy ...............................42 "Self Portrait | Untitled" by Jacob Clayton. RFD 207 Fall 2026 3 CONTENTS A Radical Blooming in Mexico ...................................................4 Kein Yiush Iz Gor Nit Farhandn— There Is No Such Thing As Despair ......Adamante Deer .......................5 Confessions Of A Magical Negro ...........Robert Mathis-Friedman ...............7 SLIP ....................................Martin Dayne ........................11 The Scale at Which Love Has Leverage ......Brenden “Tiger” Shucart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 God's Elect vs. Sluts and Sodomites .........Ronald Madson ......................17 Same Old Point of View ...................Tide Covill ...........................21 Crisis Diary ..............................Luna ................................22 A Trumper and A Gay Man ................Justin Rietmann ......................23 Kingdom Come! ..........................Alan N. Yount ........................24 Legal Exposure ...........................Uranus ..............................26 Confronting the General ..................Tom Seidner .........................35 I See My Father Running in the Distance of the Western Pasture, Moving like a Stranger I Have Never Met ..............Robert C. Doty .......................36 Dead-Eyed Descent .......................Stephen Schwei ......................38 The Ghost of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. . . . . . . . . .Donald Hua ..........................39 prayer for the happy ending ................Emerson Gray ........................40 Flock Upon Us ...........................Nonbeaunary ........................41 The Shadowed Guise ......................Claude Chabot .......................43 RSVP ...................................Jaime Rodríguez ......................52 Jason Ezell – For A Spell ...................Interview with Bambi .................53 It Ate My Eyes ...........................Uranus and Mike Diana ...............564RFD 207 Fall 2026 We are over the moon to announce what will be to our knowledge the first Radical Faerie Gathering in Abya Yala also known as Latin America. For more than a decade many Faeries have dreamed of holding gatherings in this part of the world, so come join us from February 16th to the 25th, 2027 when Fa- eries from Mexico, Latin America, and all over the world will gather in com- munion in Veracruz for ten days of community, rest, ritual, camaraderie, dance, healing, friend- ship and queer witch- craft. We will gather on the rainforest of southern Veracruz, Mexico on the very shore of Lake Catemaco on a Sanctuary surrounded by teeming wildlife, volcanoes, water- falls, in the archeological and cultural landscapes of Los Tuxlas region. On February 20, an eclipsed full moon will rise over the lake marking the ritual heart of the Gathering. Our intention is to plant Radical Faerie seeds and cross-pollinate the Radical Faerie Movement with the fantastic queer communities on this side of the world, plotting and dreaming for ongoing gatherings every year around the lands of Abya Yala. In this first gathering we are honoring Xo- chipilli an ancient Nahua-Mexica divinity, lord of the flowers, music, dance, pleasure, entheogenic medicines and protector of male sex workers. Yoo-Hoo Calling Faeries, faggots and their friends from the South and West, East and North, those who live on this continent, those who had to leave it and all and everyone who want to come join us. At this time we are reaching out to our Faerie family to support us through a fundraising to make the gathering happen, without an estab- lished radical Faerie community yet in Latin America please consider supporting us on our first baby Faerie steps in these beautiful ancestral lands while expanding the Faerie movement. We expect to open registra- tion in the coming weeks along with detailed information on travel, camping, logistics and everything a Faerie on the go needs to know. To secure the sanc- tuary we need to raise an initial seed fund of US$3,300 for: • Sanctuary first de- posit and rental • Camping and cooking equipment needed ac- cording to the gathering size • Logistics, set-up, pick- ups and transport • Sponsor local and Latinx queers and Faeries in transport to attend • A small emergency fund Every contribution is welcome and no offering is too small. Feel free to spread the call, share the fundraising campaign with Faeries and allies, we expect to open registration soon. Link and QR to fundraising page: gofund.me/ nicolas-drum-27aug With love and gratitude, Ángel, Fernando, Colorful Unicorn, and Bambi. A Radical Blooming in Mexico Xochipilli Artwork by Félix d’Eon. RFD 207 Fall 2026 5 There is a famous Breslover saying: Kein yiush iz gor nit farhandn—There is no such thing as despair. I was taught it meant that we are not allowed to wallow in despair. I don’t think that’s what it means anymore. But first, you have to meet Ida, my great- grandmother. Jewish Ida. Yiddish Ida. Ida who was born in Berlin. Ida who married in a lively, majority-Yiddish Polish town with multiple synagogues and a robust leftist work- ers’ movement. Ida who, feeling the winds turn, moved to Paris before the invasion. Ida who managed not to be killed. Ida who managed to keep herself and her children alive while most of her family was being murdered. Without Ida, I would not be here. I saw her only a few times as a child. She looked so frail, so tiny. Yet, without ever saying much, her very presence changed the atmo- sphere of any room she entered. Her great blue eyes seemed to welcome you into a time- less space, a space where you specifically had always belonged. Where, somehow, you’d been expected. With her trembling voice, she spoke a Yid- dish-inflected French that sounded to us the way her cooking smelled: like an old Shabbat melody announcing a day of great food and rest after a weary week of work. It sounded like home. Then, you have to meet me at that point in my transition. That point where I simply looked too queer for a world desperate for gender reassurance and conformity. I looked neither here nor there, anxiously straddling the unforgiving line sepa- rating man and woman in our regime of gender orthodoxy. There is a special kind of social hell, at least in my corner of the world, reserved for visibly transfeminine people. Going out for any reason meant facing it. Of course, it began with insults and catcalls. Then came the threats of violence. The constant street harassment. And, eventually, sexual assault. The usual script. The same old transphobic, sexist violence, endlessly repeating itself. But there was also another kind of violence. People staring. People gawking at me with open, sometimes vocal disgust. People em- barrassed by my very presence, as though my existence revealed some dirty secret about life, about themselves, about the world. People wrapping themselves in the ugly cloth of bour- geois indignation, offended by the unchristian sight of me. There wasn’t a single place – not a street, not a public park, not a library, not a café – where I would not encounter at least some version of it. What does another person’s gaze do to the soul? Violent or loving, it leaves its mark. Discreet or deep, it remains within us, making slow waves that continue to echo long after the mo- ment itself has passed. It’s one of the only things I love in the Gos- pels – that least Jewish book of all Jewish books ever written by Jews. When it says: “Jesus, look- ing at him, loved him.” I always took it to mean this: if you truly look at another human being, really look, what can you do but love them? I don’t know whether they ever really looked at me. But certainly they didn’t find in their heart to love me. The outside world felt like a sea of disgust. Stepping beyond the curated confines of my apartment meant trying not to drown in it. So now, you know what I mean. You know what I mean when I say that I’m dressed, ready for work, standing before the front door. You know what I mean when I say an invisible wall of dread rises between me and the doorknob. What if I called in sick? What if I stayed home? What if I boy-moded today? The thoughts would come, again and again. Thoughts of kindness, in a way. Thoughts of survival. Kein Yiush Iz Gor Nit Farhandn— There Is No Such Thing As Despair A trans Yiddish take on surviving the impossible By Adamante Deer 6RFD 207 Fall 2026 That’s when I saw her face. Ida. Great-grandmother Ida. Her great, watery blue eyes. That’s when I heard her voice: “I didn’t survive all of that for my children not to be themselves.” I felt her energy: calm, fierce, unyielding. The energy of a woman who had faced ev- erything, who had seen the worst, yet a woman who had lived. I felt the weight of her sacrifices, the demands of them, the gift of them. I felt that same strength, unyielding, alive inside of me. More than twenty years after her passing, I was still drinking from the springwell of her quiet strength. So I stepped outside, facing my dread. Again and again, I heard her voice. Again and again, I stepped. The fact is: I did not know what would come next. I didn’t know it would get better. I did not know that one day I would look in the mir- ror and find myself beautiful. I did not know that one day I would walk through the city in a spring dress, smiling, and receive in return the gentle, sisterly smiles of mothers and daughters. I had been told that all trans women could ever be was ugly and rejected. It was a lie. I know that now. What I mean to say: When I stepped outside, I did not know I would be safe. I did not know I would keep my job. I certainly did not know that life was open- ing toward a larger, a deeper form of love. And what Rabbi Nachman meant to say: not that despair does not exist as a feeling, not that terror is imaginary, not that suffering isn’t real. What he meant was: that despair lies when it says the future is already written in the darkest ink, on the darkest page. When it tells us that no road remains. When it tells us that our not seeing the light means there is no light left for us to find. He meant: You just take the next step. Then another. Then another. Ida took the next step. And so did I. I hope you do too, my Faerie friends. I hope we all do. "Pride Under Capital Dome" by Gordon Binder. RFD 207 Fall 2026 7 Introduction Cornelius, a photojournalist with the The Bay Area Times, and an old friend, looked over my latest work…an autoethnographic collection of my writings concerning the social and political intersections between the Queer and Neopagan communities. There was a pregnant pause over the phone while he weighed his next words… “Bob…do you know what a Magical Negro is?” I caught myself smiling; Cornelius asked what was, to me, a rhetorical question. In 2001, Spike Lee coined the phrase, referring to Black characters in literature or other media (such as television and especially movies), who are usually supporting or walk-ons, and may have overt or implied mystical abilities or skills, whose function is to assist in the emotional, profes- sional or spiritual progress of the central (usually White) character(s), leading to them becoming better people. Examples include: Isaac from The Love Boat (1977-86), Oda Mae Brown from Ghost (1991), many characters played by Morgan Free- man, such as in The Green Mile (1999) and Driv- ing Miss Daisy (1989), and especially, Will Smith in the Legend Of Bagger Vance (2000). Then there is a Magical Negro that is literally timeless: the spiritual descendant of Isaac the bar- tender who is also his spiritual ancestor, depend- ing upon one’s persprective...Guinan, from the Star Trek Franchise. Appearing in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-94), and the movies Star Trek: Generations (1994) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). These characters, while on the surface appear to offer a kind of positive example of a Black char- acter (a step up from the savages, street thugs, etc., that the media is rife with), there is another side to them: the notion of the Other in service to the Center, with the latter becoming comfortable with the former, as a result, and assuaging any “white guilt” or equivalent problems through the Magical Negro’s actions. The dynamics (and more literal aspects) of the concept are explored in depth in the film The American Society Of Magi- cal Negroes (2024). Crossovers The concept can apply to not just Black/Af- rican Americans, but any marginalized, outside, or Other; Asians (Kato, from the Green Hornet, whose status was negotiated by members of the Asian community in very different ways, and Mr. Miyagi, from the Karate Kid franchise, who had the relatively uncommon distinction of possessing a complex backstory), Tonto and Apache Chief (and any of a myriad other mystical Native Amer- icans, particularly shamans), and...of relevance to this article, Hollywood, the flamboyantly gay Black sidekick from the Mannequin film franchise (1987, 1991), who possessed a variety of skills that accompanied his wits and sass. This brings us to the Magical Queer. Magical Queers The magical Negro trope as applied to LG- BTQ+ entities in narratives can date farther back than even when Hermes brought a Molly plant to Odysseus in order to help him defeat Circe in the Homeric epic, but, in this case, we’ll glide past the implicitly queer guides to Rock Hudson characters, played by Tony Randall (that’s a LOT of irony, there, that the younger readers may need to do a deep dive into, in order to unpack; here’s my invitation to you, to do so), and start with Chris, from the play/movie, The Ritz (1975/76); like a psychopomp guiding the hero through the Underworld, Chris helps the main characters... three straight men hiding from criminals by duck- ing into a gay bath house in New York...navigate the culture, come to understand a very different world, and even assist in dealing with the Pro- tagonists’ pursuers, armed with wisdom, style and wit. Chris’ own backstory, aside from what was necessary to help explain gay culture and identity to the protagonists, was kept to a minimum. Beverly La Salle, a renowned New York drag Queen (played by real-life professional drag performer Lori Shannon), made three appear- ances in the groundbreaking television series, All In The Family (1971-79). In each appearance, his (the character insisted on expressing himself with male gender designations, to make his “reality” clear to both the characters and the audience) Confessions Of A Magical Negro By Robert Mathis-FriedmanNext >