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Saturday, July 31st, 2004
We released the August issue of QVegas today and it’s the one I’m proudest of to date. We had a theme issue, all about gay youth issues, and succeeded in giving it a comprehensive and interesting treatment. Particularly, we avoided just covering a well-know issue in familiar ways (such as the high suicide rate among LGBT youth and harassment). Instead, we managed to find unique angles on a subject that’s often “done to death” by the gay media. For example, we spoke to straight teenagers to get their feelings on and reactions to gay people. Another story focused on my latest pet project – the disparate age of consent laws for gay couples v. straight couples. One issue that we covered – but had to cut for space in the final editorial layout – discussed the sex lives of gay teens in honest and clear terms, which we did in combined interviews with the gay youth and their parents (who often didn’t know exactly how sexually active their LGBT children were). It was decided that including that coverage in with other interviews about harassment and family support cheapened and exploited the issue.
Anyway, Steve’s really getting a good grasp on how to build a great issue and contributing his own ideas to make them even better. Since the magazine has been primarily reflective of my personality for the past 4 years (and will continue to do so for a while, I did design the long-term editorial calendar, mission statement, readership profile and columns), it’s interesting to see how Steve’s personality has changed the publication and broadened its appeal.
The one thing that seems to have been a major source of conflict already was in the letters to the editor page. We received two letters this month where the send asked us to withhold their names from publication. One of them clearly explained that he was a recipient of the services offered by an AIDS agency he criticized, the other offered no explanation as to why she wanted her name withheld. In the past, my policy has been that as long as we have the name and address of the sender on file, we will respect anyone’s closet (for whatever reason they need to hid their identity). I guess that’s no longer our policy. Kelly was upset that we included a letter that couldn’t be signed without offering a reason to withhold it. We’ll still run letters with names withheld, as long as the sender makes it clear why they are hiding their name. I think it’s a confusing policy that no one will understand, but it’s only my headache for the next 6 weeks, right?
As “Current Music” indicates, I’m listening to the new commercial promo song for every teen drama on television this fall. I admit it’s a lovely song, but is it really the only tune that these network promo people can find to evoke the spirit of teenage life in a 30 second spot? Quick, somebody out there start writing more songs about being teenagers with simple melodic piano accompaniment!
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