Exploring the frontiers of gay consciousness with Don kilhefner

Gay Blogs and the End of the World: Sometimes I feel like a computer geek trapped in a Luddite’s body.

Maybe I am a closet conformist, but since this is the season for handing out awards of all kinds for the best of 2007, I’ll try to “go with the flow.” So listen up you two-spirited brothers. Ladies and/or Gentlemen, (yes, I am talking to the fullness—pleroma in ancient Greek—of who you are), I have spent some time online reviewing each of the following sites for your edification and pleasure. May I present to you my look at the nominees (drum roll and cameras flashing) for the Best LGBT Blog of 2007 (www.weblogawards.org):

Republic of T (www.republicofT.com): Written by Terrance Heath of D.C. who describes himself as “Black. Gay. Father. Vegetarian. Buddhist. Liberal.” From Mr. T I learned for the first time about “Blog-Related Stress Disorder,” “Blog Amnesty Day,” and the “Myth of the Flat Blogesphere” among many other intriguing ideas. Definitely worth a serious peek.

Pam’s House Blend…always steamin’ (www.pamshouseblend.com): Founded by Pam Spaulding in 2004, the blog calls itself “an on-line magazine in a reality based community.” This award-winning blog presents an intelligent progressive political point of view and Pam has been called “the most important lesbian blogger in America.”

Mombian (www.mombian.com): The blog’s subtitle is “Sustenance for Lesbian Moms.” It was started by Dana Rudolph who left a vice presidency at Merrill Lynch to become a very intelligent and articulate writer. Get information on topics ranging from how to ship sperm safely, to LGBT-themed children’s books, to lesbian pregnancies on The L Word.

Fetch me my axe (www.fetchmemyaxe.blogspot.com): Subtitled: “we all got something to grind,” this blog is a breath of fresh air—politically progressive but refreshingly not politically correct. Aimed primarily at lesbians, the women’s responses are dynamite—intelligent, honest, wicked, sexy, and funny. I learned a whole bunch of useful new words like “hetnormativity” and “spread’emism.”

Keith Boykin (www.keithboykin.com): This very important gay blog is in the process of closing and the last blog is online now. Boykin, a BET commentator, has written intelligently, deeply, and passionately about race, sex, and politics in the gay community and his voice will be greatly missed. The good news is that Boykin has moved on to being editor of The Daily Voice (www.thedailyvoice.com ) which describes itself as “black America’s daily news source.”

The Bilerico Project (www.bilerico.com): Is considered the web’s largest queer group blog with 50 contributors. It has an underground feel to it with lots of smart, well-written opinions. I consider it essential reading. My favorite recent line by blogger Mike Rogers talking about the 2008 presidential election is: “If either of them [Hillary or Obama] said the same things about women, blacks, and Jews [that they say about gay people], they would never be elected president.”

Susie Bright’s Journal (www.susiebright.blogs.com): The current episode involves a You Tube clip about Bat Pussy (a circa 1973 porno film), a smart discussion of how ’70s porno was different than the kind of stuff we see today, and a petition drive to release the film on DVD. Highly erotic, sexy, politically aware, and fun. My favorite episodes are “Snooping around the underwear drawer” and “Finally, naked lesbian yoga.”

Average Gay Joe (www.averagegayjoe.blogspot.com): There’s a certain honest logic to this site. Well, how can I say this: Average Gay Joe has produced an average gay blog. Largely a collection of You Tube clips that are mildly amusing and that I would have probably otherwise overlooked. The site is right of center and GOP-oriented in its outlook with good coverage of issues of gays in the military.

Gay Patriot (www.gaypatriot.net): Created by Bruce Carroll, this blog bills itself as “the most reliably conservative gay blog on the Internet.” It hews a rather heavy-handed, unimaginative right-wing party line. Every now and then a hint of gay humor peeks out and then quickly seems to hide again (e.g., “Blogcasting for the worldwide headquarters of the not-so-vast gay right wing conspiracy”).

Joe My God (www.joemygod.blogspot.com): Sees itself “covering gay culture, short stories, politics, and fabulous disco trivia.” Indeed, it does seem stuck in a rather shallow consciousness. Please forgive me my transgressions, but like much of mainstream gay culture this blog seems blissfully unaware of its self-absorption and superficiality—kind of like disco now that I think of it.

The Weblog Awards are the world’s largest blog competition with over 525,000 votes cast worldwide (interestingly only 9,482 votes were cast for the LGBT awards). And now the moment for which you have been breathlessly waiting. Presenting the best blog award for 2007 is the winner of “Best LGBT Blog of 2006”—the always beautiful and vivacious Pam’s House Blend…always steamin’. Pam opens the envelope and announces the winner of the best gay blog of 2007 … Ladies and/or Gentlemen, the winner is “Joe My God.” Oh, my God!!! If “Joe My God” is what passes for gay culture these days, we are in deep, deep trouble brothers.

I only have 250 words left in this column so let me get serious with you for a moment. Americans have been so over-sold on computers, cyberspace, new media, blogs, etc. that we have lost perspective on the destructive impact this is all having on our lives and society. When many of you talk about the cyber revolution you sound like the mindless, programmed robots you have become on this subject. Marshall McClune (“the medium is the message”) observed that as we move from a literate culture to a visual culture we will become more superficial because visual culture is by its very nature lacks depth. Literate culture activates a different part of the brain than visual culture. Reading involves the symbol-formation and image-formation (as in imagination) parts of the brain while watching does not. Hence the crisis of imagination in our culture.

Of the plethora of books out there on this subject, I want to highly recommend the following three, which stand out from the pack. Jeremy Mander’s In The Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of Indian Nations was published by the Sierra Club. It is an easy, compelling, and profound read on what has been gained and what has been lost looking back over 500 years of new technology since the Industrial Revolution. Lee Siegel’s recently published Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob is brilliant and noteworthy since it is written by a supporter of the new technology.

In 1961 the Polish novelist Stanislaw Lem published Solaris (made into a Russian film by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972 and an American film in 2002 by Steven Soderbergh) which I suggest is the perfect description for the Cyber/Blog world. Lem portrays with powerful and poetic insight what happens when humans get cut off from our natural roots in outer space, inner space, or cyber space—isolation, loneliness, and deep depression. Don’t ever say you weren’t warned.

Don Kilhefner, Ph.D., is a Jungian psychologist and longtime community activist in West Hollywood. He can be reached at: donkilhefner@sbcglobal.net.