Quoted!
[I’m quoted in this. :)
P.S. in case you’re curious, I’ve been mostly offline for the past month, taking a college course in Pre-Calculus, busting my ass emptying storage units and cleaning/organizing house, etc.
-Thomas]
http://www.presspassq.com/detail.cfm?id=41#Feature
PRESS PASS Q
A Newsletter for the Gay and Lesbian Press Professional
October 2004 (Vol. 6, No. 7)
A Publication of Rivendell Media and Q Syndicate
TABLE OF CONTENTS
*
FEATURE: Bis, lies and the Internet
The state of the bisexual press - and the queer media's alleged tunnel
vision
By Liz Highleyman
There are hundreds of gay or GLBT publications, and dozens of lesbian
ones. Yet the bisexual press has a visibility problem - like bisexuals
themselves, some might say.
Since the demise of the only U.S. national print bisexual magazine,
Anything That Moves (ATM), the bi press has taken the form of local
newsletters, zines, and online publications.
ATM began publishing in 1991, riding the crest of a burgeoning bisexual
movement that saw the creation of dozens of local groups and the
formation of BiNet USA, a national network for bisexuals (itself now on
a long-term hiatus). ATM was a 64-page magazine with a glossy cover,
publishing seasonally at first, and with a more random schedule as it
aged. The final two issues came out a year apart.
After 22 issues, ATM called it quits in the spring of 2001. According to
former staffer Jack Random, "The primary reason for ATM's fold was
volunteer burnout, aggravated by the perennial financial issues of any
small volunteer organization."
The group tried to find new blood to take over, but met with little
success. In the end, the magazine's remaining assets were turned over to
a local San Francisco group, the Bay Area Bisexual Network. "Everyone
wanted ATM to keep publishing, but no one had the guts to take it over,"
said former staffer Jennifer Yee. "I figure that ATM was around for 10
years, and perhaps that was the natural life of that type of magazine
in that format."
Today, bi print publications tend to be smaller and more locally
oriented, including group newsletters like the Boston Bisexual Women's
Network's photocopied Bi Women, which has been around for two decades.
"I don't know if a large glossy with a paid staff and high overhead cost
is sustainable," said Toronto's Cheryl Dobinson, who publishes The Fence
(
and there."
The Fence, which debuted in September 2002, has about 70 subscribers and
a print run of 500. "I wanted to give bisexual women a voice and some
representation, to provide a place where they could hear people's
stories and share their own," Dobinson said.
The rise of the Internet has not deterred Dobinson, who describes
herself as "an old-school zinester." She puts The Fence together with
scissors, tape, and a photocopier. "I like zine culture. I like
something you can read on the subway and pass along to friends," she
said. "It's very satisfying to have a product you made with your own
hands."
Across the pond, Jen Yockney edits Bi Community News (
1995. Yockney says the print publication has felt the impact of the
Internet, and especially of blogs. "'Net communications have knocked a
real hole in the amount of stuff that goes through magazines like BCN,"
she reported. "Bis are having the debate directly with one another,
rather than through our letters pages, which is great for immediacy, but
sharpens the information divide and loses the historical record."
Back on this continent, Silicon Valley bi activist Thomas Leavitt said
that online talk is easier for everybody. "Why kill yourself raising
money, struggling to meet deadlines and pay bills, when you can obtain
90 percent of the benefit by running an online publication?"
BiMagazine (
is only available on the Web, and is bankrolled by the San Diego-based
activist Dr. Fritz Klein (author of "The Bisexual Option" and editor of
the Journal of Bisexuality). One of the few well-paying bi publications,
BiMagazine looks for "excellent journalism on topics relevant to
bisexuals," said San Diego-based journalist Rex Wockner, who edits the
nonfiction section.
Wockner and others suggest that bi publications are giving way to media
that are not specific to a single orientation. "Fewer people are making
a big deal about their label," said Wockner. And an ATM alumnus went on
to found
Other: The Magazine for People Who Defy Categories.
Much of bisexual activism has focused on gaining inclusion within gay
and lesbian institutions, including its media. During the 1990s,
countless publications expanded their scope to include bisexual and
transgender people.
San Francisco's Bay Times changed its masthead to include "B" and "T" in
the early 1990s, prompting several angry letters from lesbian readers.
And Jeff Epperly, when he was editor of Boston's Bay Windows, once
famously declined to cover the International Bisexual Conference held
across the river in Cambridge.
Many bisexuals took that editorial decision as a personal slight, but
Epperly, now a freelancer, told Press Pass Q that he was simply
short-handed.
"As for general bisexual coverage in the paper, I got better at
understanding bi issues, like many people. Twenty years ago when I
started writing for the paper, I think I shared the misconception that
bisexuals were harmless but confused gay men and lesbians who were just
starting to come out and couldn't yet admit they were Kinsey sixes. I
was wrong and I learned."
Epperly also said that, at the time, he thought "precious space and time
were better used covering issues that affected everyone with an interest
in sexual orientation topics," and listed violence, discrimination, and
government as issues that bring all readers together. As such, the paper
didn't cover bears or the gay party circuit, either.
"Of course, everyone wants to see themselves reflected very specifically
in a paper, and if they are not they tend to see it as exclusionary. I
saw it as covering topics in a broad enough manner so as to include
everyone."
New Bay Windows editor Andrew Rapp made a point of welcoming bisexual
readers in one of his first editorials (in 2002). "This newspaper has a
responsibility to make the events and issues of the bisexual community
visible to our readership," he wrote.
Visibility is a constant concern. Asked what kinds of bisexual content
she'd like to see more of, Boston-based activist Robyn Ochs suggested
coverage of bi events, bi speakers and performers, and profiles of bi
organizations and bi leaders, plus the inclusion of bi-identified
individuals in stories that are not specifically about bisexuality. "I'd
like to see bisexual individuals and organizations woven unremarkably
into the community fabric and documented in our history," she said.
But former Bay Times staff writer Tim Kingston accused those in the GLBT
media of ignoring bi identity even when it is made clear. He said
celebrities are pressured to adopt a firm gay identity when they may
actually be bisexual. "There remains a confusion between being closeted
versus being bi," he said.
He added that many people in so-called gay or lesbian marriages are in
fact openly bisexual - but their sexual orientation is pervasively
mischaracterized in the GLBT (and mainstream) media. Reporters, he
suggested, just can't get identity right.
LIZ HIGHLEYMAN has written for several bisexual publications over the
past 15 years, including Bi Women and Anything That Moves. She is a
freelance editor and writer for publications such as Bay Area Reporter
and POZ, and writes Q Syndicate's LGBT history column, Past Out.
==============================================
THE STAFF
Publisher: Todd Evans, todd@PressPassQ.com
Founder: David Bianco
Editor: Eleanor Brown, editor@PressPassQ.com
Consulting Editor: Paula Martinac, paula@PressPassQ.com Associate
Editor: Dave Brousseau, dave@QSyndicate.com
Contributing Writers: D.C. Culbertson, Robert DeKoven, Liz
Highleyman, Bennett Marcus, Frank Pizzoli
==============================================
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