My Final Column For Stonewall News Northwest~Outlasting Out In The Middle Of Nowhere...

Penning this last column for Stonewall News is a bittersweet experience. Over the last two years, as this publication matured, it became a professionally produced and comprehensive resource for the gay community. Stonewall also demonstrated a unique commitment to thinking outside the box, which sadly enough is something that few other gay orientated publications have been willing to do.

It’s not like Spokane and the Intermountain West haven’t born the brunt of tremendous ignorance. For example The Advocate was quite willing to give Seattle Stranger Editor and columnist Dan Savage free reign to torch Spokane and the entire Inland Empire as a region hostile to gays, progressive ideals and freedom during the Mayor West scandal. Yet as the ultimate ironic bitch slap to Savage, it would turn out that it was Spokane’s Lisa Brown who led the fight in Olympia to ensure that Washington embraced equality. We sure didn’t see any coverage of Brown’s leadership by Savage in the Advocate.

The Brokeback Mountain phenomenon created interesting opportunities in our area as well. The distribution of Stonewall covers much of Montana, Idaho, eastern Oregon, and I’m sure plenty of copies of the paper eventually make their way south of Billings toward Wyoming. That’s prime Brokeback territory and is often defined by the loneliest silence filling up all that big sky. Without major population centers for reference, it wasn’t surprising when the press began Googling our area for comment on all things Cowboy Up.

Sadly those in the press that should know better were more than willing to blindly echo the fear driven, sometimes homophobic messages of the movie. How many times were we subjected to storylines that asked if a “real” cowboy could be gay? Was Brokeback just another version of sex, lies, and saddle sore-produced via the Hollywood fiction machine? In the midst of that coverage, ABC News approached me asking if I could help find the network closeted gay cowboys-big hated guys who would cower before the camera’s, portraying for America their shame, fear, and self revulsion.

I didn’t know any closeted cowboys who wanted national notoriety. Duh-the closet does sort of imply that individuals who haven’t come out aren’t exactly going to be seeking attention. But, I did know plenty of out and proud ranchers from Olds Alberta to Crane Oregon who would gladly appear on camera. Unfortunately, the producers of the piece weren’t interested in happy endings and once again long invalid stereotypes were reinforced by the coverage that was eventually produced.

Traditionally, the media images most often associated with the gay community are of urban gays. These portrayals reinforce the entire country’s stereotypes, especially when it comes to championing the myths of gay’s higher disposable incomes, HGTV Network materialism, or a disproportionate focus on the fabulous lives we must be leading partying it up in gay enclaves on either coast. Working class gays, when they have any visibility at all, are usually regulated to the stuff of porn fantasy- hold their humanity please.

Talk to most gay truckers, cowboys, or mill workers and life is anything but a series of rolls in the hay with an endless series of hot partners. As the global economy ramped up and free trade, deregulation and outsourcing began steamrolling the wages of the working class, those gays working in extraction industries, manufacturing, and transportation have seen their wages and working conditions deteriorate. For some of these workers, Meth isn’t a recreational party drug but a way to get through day after day of 18 hours spent behind the wheel of a big rig or 24 hours shifts slaving away on a drilling rig.

Even among well educated gays, this disconnect can be stunning. I’ve experienced openly gay, well-traveled and highly educated writers ridiculing working class gays. Laughing at those among us who live in double wide mobile homes, get paid by the hour, or may not have the gas money to attend some fabulous dinner, these intellectuals completely dismiss any reality that doesn’t reflect their loft-lived lifestyles. Yet to get our stories told, access to media is precisely through these illuminati. The largest barriers to a truly diverse representation have often come from within the gay community. It’s easy to be a critic but much harder to open your mind to the possibility that one size does not fit all and that we have many varied dreams and lifestyles. The portrayal of gays that millions of Americans witnessed on Will and Grace was a start, not an ending.

Under the leadership of Mike Schultz and the editors of Stonewall, not only has the paper respectfully acknowledged working class and rural gays, they’ve done so without falling into the typical traps of talking down to these communities or hyper sexualizing them. Our story was finally getting told, without the fear, stereotypes, or the porno’d endings. Still the gay community is changing rapidly. Print media is under increasing competition from the Internet. Traditional gay meeting places such as bars and clubs struggle to survive against the convenience of online communities. With our increased acceptance and mainstreaming, gayborhoods such as the Castro and Provincetown struggle to retain their gay identity. We are actually realizing that which we’ve struggled for so long-Acceptance. And that acceptance is coming quickly, wherever we may happen to be.

Yet my agenda, and I do have one, is to keep telling these varied stories of who we are. Even if those stories are set Out in the Middle of Nowhere.