I have recently been discussing with friends rather McGreevey was bi or a “gay American.” This has led me to dust off my queer theory cap (with the vain hope that the diploma may, one day, be good for something other than dust)…
This is one of the areas that has always fascinated me: the occluded divide between contemporary labels and universal/timeless taxonomy. Currently we have the three teams (or perhaps four, since some argue that lesbians and gay men are only tenuously aligned).
LGBT studies breaks down into two philosophic camps: contructionist/essentialist, homosexuality as innate and historically contiguous vs, homosexuality as a cultural construct denoting the current, temporal modeling of same-sex desire. Essence vs. artifact,
I personally have developed a theory that holds a historic continuity of desire (same-sex desire in this case) and people throughout history have related themselves to this desire in different ways. the continuity comes out both in the desire itself and in the fact, I would argue, that a certain segment of people always have defined themselves in specific relation to said desire. The referential comportment has taken on different cultural meanings among different peoples and at different times.
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In interviews granted toward the end of his life, French philosopher Michel Foucualt spoke of homosexuality as “an occasion to re-open effective and relational virtualities.” He spoke of an inherent potential to “introduce love where there’s supposed to be only law, rule or habit.” Foucault’s premise is are core values I have carried with me for years. (see my article Friendship As a Way of Life) Now reading Ko Imani’s Shirt of Flame: The Gay Art of War I have found a manifesto that merges Foucault’s positivist vision of Queer placement and a Buddhist-derived concept of universal compassion, while throwing in a healthy dose of Sun Tzu.
Imani book is an amazing find–one that has the potential of turning the reader in a complete 180°. Imani writes with a passion and palpable immediacy: “We must create change now or not in our lifetimes.” Imani writes:
As LGBT individuals and as a queer community, the time had come to make a bold and decisive commitment to the most congruent and effective means to create change that we can muster given our current knowledge.
Imani asks where FIGHTING for our rights has got us and, more a more uncomfortable question, what has it cost us. He envisions a new direction that fully embraces the Buddhist conception of Compassion–fully embracing the “love thy enemy” ethic. The image of Imani sitting in tonglen (Buddhist compassion meditation) amidst Rev Phelps and his fellows protesting at University of Michigan says it all.
Official Site (with preview): Shirt of Flame
I have a piece in the upcoming anthology from Suspect Thoughts Press (San Francisco) I Do/I Don’t: Queers On Marriage, edited by Greg Wharton and Ian Phillips. The piece is called “You Can Keep Your Rights, I Already Gots Mine!” The collection is scheduled for a September release. More details will follow…
Authors included:
Dorothy Allison, Shane Allison, Charlie Anders, Antler, M.J. Arcangelini, Josh Aterovis and Jon Andrews, Cheryl B., Bruce Bawer, Kevin Bentley, S. Bear Bergman, Steve Berman, Chane Binderup, Jay Blotcher, Keith O. Boykin, Christopher Bram, Tala Brandeis, Michael Bronski, Victoria A. Brownworth, Cynthia Burack and Laree Martin, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Patrick Califia, Anne Campbell, Dale Carpenter, Margaret Cho, David Christensen, Cheryl Clarke, Matthew A. Coles, Sherilyn Connelly, Dana Cory, Wayne Courtois, Dani Couture, Jameson Currier, David Cutler and Mark Ewert, Sven Davisson, Robbie Daw, Christian de la Huerta, Maggie Dolan, Neal Drinnan, Lisa Duggan, Dean Durber, Amie M. Evans, Douglas Ferguson, Steven Finch, Gay Shame San Francisco, Jim Gladstone, Thomas Glave, Robert Gl�ck, Daphne Gottlieb, 
Steve Greenberg, Aaron Hamburger, Brent Hartinger, Kristie Helms, Kris Hill and Karen Stogdill, Thea Hillman, Walter Holland, Michael Huxley, Debra Hyde, Francisco Ib��ez-Carrasco, Rik Isensee, Aaron Jason, Matt Kailey, Davina Kotulski, Gil Kudrin, Greg M. Lanza, Daniel W.K. Lee, Sharon “Vinnie” Levin, Ali Liebegott and Anna Joy Springer, Michael T. Luongo, Jason Mahanes, Jeff Mann, Meredith Maran, Janet Mason, David McConnell, Mike McGinty, Skian McGuire, Mara McWilliams, Tommi Avicolli Mecca, Sean Meriwether, Marshall Miller and Dorian Solot, Tim Miller, John Mitzel, Marshall Moore, Eileen Myles, Lesl�a Newman, Geoff Parkes, Christopher Penczak, Elissa G. Perry, Felice Picano, Jeff Poniewaz, Jim Provenzano, Andy Quan, Carol Queen, Jonathan Rauch, Alan Reade, Shar Rednour, Rick R. Reed and Nicholas Reed, Alexander Renault, Eric Rofes, David Rosen, Rob Rosen, Roxxie Rosen, Richard J. Rosendall, Michael Rowe, Lawrence Schimel, Sarah Schulman, D. Travers Scott, Will Shank, Simon Sheppard, Bob Smith, Horehound Stillpoint, Meg Stone, Jackie Strano, Ron Suresha, Steve Swayne, Mattilda a.k.a. Matt Bernstein Sycamore, zak szymanski, Cecilia Tan, Tristan Taormino, Robert Taylor, Richard Tayson, Dylan Vade, Jim Van Buskirk, Jennifer Vanasco, Carmen Vazquez, Kai Venice, Norah Vincent, Jeff Walsh, Patricia Nell Warren, Tom Wilson Weinberg, Judy Wieder, Robert Williams, Evan Wolfson, and Andrew Wolter.
Suspect thoughts voted Best of the Bay 2004…
Best Brand-New, Badass, Superqueer Press
With its wide-open definition of the word queer and fearless publishing choices that ricochet from risky to risqu�, San Francisco’s Suspect Thoughts Press has made the book world a more interesting place to inhabit. First slammed onto the map by Pulling Taffy, Matt Bernstein Sycamore’s experimental memoir, Suspect Thoughts has swiftly become the hot press for connoisseurs of transgressive, intelligent literature. In the coming months we can look forward to works like Bullets and Butterflies, queer spoken word poetry edited by New York City glam-slammer Emanuel Xavier; The Beautifully Worthless, Ali Liebegott’s long-awaited epic road poem; and I Do/I Don’t: Queers on Marriage, an anthology put together by publisher Greg Wharton and editor Ian Philips. And as if serving a readership of misfit queers weren’t enough, Wharton and Philips � stellar writers themselves � have rounded up a gang of authors with good taste in storytelling to judge Suspect Thoughts’ queer-novel search, which gives unpublished scribes a shot at a first book with the upstart press. –San Francisco Bay Gaurdian
A group of friends and I went to see “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring” (Kim Ki-duk, 2003) last night. 
I was pretty much expecting an ‘art film’–which sadly I have zero tolerance for anymore, confirmed action/sci-fi philistine that I am. The movie was actually quite sweet and I’m glad I was dragged out of my own hermitage.
The film is entirely set in tiny monestary on a raft at the center of a lake. The plot follows the life of two monks, one old at the outset and the other progressing from childhood through the viscisitudes (and tragedies) of adulthood. The imagery in the film is beautiful and the sound minimal. It’s subtitled from Korean, but there’s very little dialogue to begin with.
In the image above the older monk writes the Prajnaparamitra Sutra (Heart Sutra) on the raft’s deck with the tail of his pet cat. Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha…
The latest issue of Velvet Mafia: Dangerous Queer Fiction includes a short piece of mine called “Et In Arcadia Ego”
Velvet Mafia questions morality and asks you to Love the Sin, Fuck the Sinner… get down in the dirt with some of the hottest literary deviants on the web. Feed your fist and your mind with hard-hitting fiction, erotica and poetry in Velvet Mafia’s hottest summer issue. Get it online now in Issue 12.
Velvet Mafia
