Eight-year old stands up to bully Michele Bachmann

Elijah tells Bachmann that his mother is gay and doesn’t need fixing. Way to go!

It would be wrong to call Michele Bachmann evil. She’s ignorant. Willfully and loyally so. It’s what she does/says that is evil.

On the all-new rebuilt Polari Magazine website

To mark its third birthday, Polari is relaunched in the most dynamic and exciting version we’ve built to date.

Interestingly, the idea for Polari was conceived in January 2006, but it was not until December 2008 that the website was launched. That’s a 22 month gestation period, which is the same as it is for a baby elephant.

An interview with Jonathan Kemp.

The author of London Triptych talks pornography, philosophy and the meaning of sex in his new book Twenty-Six.

In terms of me personally I had to overcome a certain reticence in writing these things, because however much it might be autobiographical or however much it might be fictional, people read it in a simplistic way, thinking these things correspond to one’s life.

Polari Facts looks at the magical number 3.

To mark Polari Magazine’s 3rd birthday, here is a look into the magical world of the number 3.

The multi-talented Sabrina Chap talks dirty!

Polari chats with Sabrina about playing live in the UK, her album Oompa!, and the shameless lyrics of “the dirty song”.

Interview by Christopher Bryant and Bryon Fear.

The first burlesque show I did was just after coming off the open mike scene, and I thought, ok, I’d better be sexy, and I literally came out in my bra and underpants, and I was like “What? Here’s my fucking costume.” All the other girls where in character.

There are no fairies at the bottom of the garden!

The bizarre world of Linda Harvey, where homosexuals do not exist and where homosexuals (even though they do not exist) are out to take away the rights of heterosexuals and Scout leaders.

Harvey assumes the mantle of Jesus’ PR, a role to which she adds her own particular insights, although I’m not sure that she has work-shopped her thoughts with the Boss …

[rating=4]
US: 111 min • Universal • DVD & Blu-ray

Is Flash Gordon the embodiment of camp? Why are there many hawkmen but no hawkwomen?

Flash Gordon earns Camp Wings from its very first frames. The camera zeros in on a dodgy papier-mâché model of the Earth, and then the hands of Ming the Merciless (played by Max von Sydow) appear sporting serious Bling. He starts his destruction of Earth – a planet he’s never heard of, even though he has a button labelled ‘Earth Quake’ on his Armageddon Console …

A reading at Bar Wotever

Jonathan Kemp reading from TwentySix, his recently published book of short prose poems, at Bar Wotever (Tuesdays at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, London).

What are the LGBTQ characters in the new brand of Young-Adult novels like?

BJ Epstein, who teaches teaches Young-Adult ficiton on her courses at the University of East Anglia, talks about the LGBTQ characters in contemporary works.

Characters in YA books can often seem more like caricatures than fully developed people. There are distinct types for gay male and female. As is typical of popular culture in general, many gay males are portrayed as fashionable and funny, and sometimes a bit camp.

[rating=4]
391 pages • Headpress • October, 2011 [PB]

Tim Bennett-Goodman learns more than he ever wanted to know about the underworld of adult vintage paperbacks.

If this book sends you racing straight down to your local secondhand bookshop in search of cheap, lurid treasures from the past, then I’ll feel as if I’ve done my job..