November 08 - Homo Promo
Gay people have been accused since the 80s of having an agenda to recruit more gay people into their lifestyle (not having children, they need to freshen their numbers somehow). This is a thought that has always fascinated and amused me in equally horrified measures. We got thinking at the office – if this were true, perhaps we would have advertising recruitment campaigns. What would THAT look like?
When I first started to approach advertising agencies to see if they wanted to be involved, I was bowled over by their enthusiastic and positive responses. I can’t thank them all enough for the time, thought, resource and effort they put into the brief (p 59). Text us with your favourite poster choice (p 73), and the first five will receive an A1 version of the one they vote for. We’ll tell you which was the most popular next month.
The true homosexual agenda, according to our dear friend Justin ‘Kiki’ Bond (p 56), should be about fighting discrimination and for everyone’s equality – however they define their gender or sexuality. How True. We should remember that it was drag queens who rioted at Stonewall, and we should also honour trans pioneers like April Ashley, whose gender transition, in many ways, ushered in a brave new world and preceded the sexual revolution by a good decade. Our much-esteemed walking-queer-history book and all-round fabulous editor-at-large, Rupert Smith, caught up with April as she strolls elegantly though her eighth decade – and 57 years after she first transitioned. We salute this brave, unique woman.
Elsewhere in the magazine we have some great writing – Tim Teeman (our other much-loved editor-at-large) defends PC and The Beano (p 82), the legendary Mark Simpson aches for 80s’ advertising (p 74) and The Guardian’s Gary Younge analyses the forthcoming US Election (p 90)
Now…let’s get RECRUITING!