September 07 - Eco Issue
We humans have increasingly distanced ourselves from the planet we live on, thoughtlessly smeared it with our rubbish, wrapped ourselves in metal and cling film, and pretended that we’re not part of the great chain of nature. As a result, we’re teetering on the brink of self-destruction, with the worst everything since records began. The green lobby doesn’t sound like a load of cranks any more.
So this issue, we say: “Let’s Go Eco”. We take a green audit of the homes of TV lovely Kristian Digby, “Mouth of the Mersey” Paul O’Grady, and good egg Green candidate Peter Tatchell (p 71). They let us poke around in their laundry and receive a stern talking-to from green goddess Julia Hailes. We also introduce West Country totty Jonathan Stocks, who has left the bright lights of the city and moved into a newly founded eco-community (p 85). He’ll be writing a new column starting next month, and he’s been begging me not to call it “Eco Boy” (our working title), so if other readers have a better title, you may be able to rescue him from eternal embarrassment.
Richard Smith writes a fascinating piece about the real cost of drugs (p 81) and Bruce LaBruce shares his personal recipes for “chemical cocktails” (p 50).
Elsewhere, we have a rare and exclusive interview with queens of comedy French & Saunders (p 62). They’re looking back over a 20-year partnership. And Spice Girls’ songwriter Biff Stannard gossips with us about Kylie, Will Young and the reunited fab spicey fivesome (p 34).
We also travel the former Yugoslavia with human rights organisation Front Line Defenders to find out how life is for its beleaguered gay population. We have a Letter from Tel Aviv and, in “Behind The Story”, Richard Smith looks at the Tories’ transformation from nasty party to cuddly bunnies – or not.
Finally, I’m getting back to nature via an urban safari at London Zoo on September 16th at its third annual gay Sunday, sponsored this year by Pink Paper. www.zsl.org/gaysunday. I’ll be the one swinging around, picking salt crystals off other attendees’ coats…
Joseph Galliano
PS. Now’s an eco-tastic time to subscribe. Not only will you get the world’s best gay mag delivered every month, you’ll also get a free, ecologically-sound bag to carry it around in – check out page 91