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RFD Magazine

As defined by the RFD website, "RFD is a reader-written journal for gay men which focuses on country living and encourages alternative life-styles. Articles often explore the building of a sense of community, radical faerie consciousness, caring for the environment, as well as sharing gay men’s experiences." Having begun publication 1974, RFD is the oldest reader-written gay quarterly magazine. Quarterly issues of the work are 64 full color pages and produced by volunteers. The business and general production are coordinated by a collective, and the magazine is printed in Hadley, Massachusetts.

RFD stands for Radical Faerie Digest. The development of the radical faeries involved the convergence of a number of distinct social trends in the 1970s. RFD magazine started in 1974, during a time Becky Thompson cites as a major moment in which affinity groups came together to protest the oppression they experienced due to their intersectional identities. RFD works to create queer communities in rural areas, a goal that was not acknowledged by hetero-activists before them. The socialist and feminist movement came together in the development of an ideology of gay male egalitarianism that remains a central part of the radical faeries culture. As the radical faerie movement gained ground, radical faeries used RFD to promote various gatherings and other radical faerie events .

The Summer 2004 edition of RFD is titled, "30+ What Does the Future Hold". In this edition, RFD discusses how the magazine defines itself and navigates between rural and city environments,

"Ever wonder who the “RFD Collective” is? Surprise! We all are. Be you in the country, the city or some other planet, if you read/write/design for this publication, you have a vested interest in it’s success. Being one of many voices for the queer community, a place for us to explore and express ourselves, RFD has been gifted with many talented journalists, editors, and artists…."

— RFD Issue #118

Because RFD is a reader-written work, it relies on the experiences and thoughts of those who subscribe to the work. In this way the magazine remains fluid and changing depending on it's readership. Large portions of the work consist of dialogue between reader and writer. This can be seen most pertinently in the personal add section and the "Brothers Behind Bars" section.

RFD also navigates social and political topics, "Through war, social injustice, prison reform, global manipulation and sexual inequities we are placed on the front line of a worldwide shift of values." RFD deems it their responsibility to report on these issues, and makes a point of recognizing why and for whom this is important, "Through it all RFD will take on the challenge (not a new thing) of reporting, changes as they happen, providing a cross-fire format for unique voices, and giving credence to our history, our humor and magik."

Political Shifts

From the conception of RFD to today, the publication has always been a political magazine. The act of creating a reader written magazine for rural queers is in itself a political act.

RFD interacts with the politics of its time. One could see RFD as an archive for language used in and for queer communities. The magazine can also be seen as an archive of queer political and personal issues.

In the Fall of 2004 (issue #119) RFD published two particularly political essays. One was titled, "Why Soldiers Rape and Why Gay Men Should Care". This article focuses on rape culture in the military, and is one of the first publication that speaks out against patriarchal structures that exist and are perpetuated by the military. The other article was titled, "The Federal Marriage Amendment Counter Curse". This article is a call to action, asking for queer communities to vote agains an ammendment to the United states marriage policy.

"When the President and every radically conservative organization in the country decided to declare war against queer people by trying to amend the constitution of the United States… This November we will go to vote, and voting is a magikal act - one of the most transformative acts possible in a democratic… The proposed Constitutional amendment is at right. Burn it. Banish it. Tell it that it doesn’t exist in this world… Replace it with a vision of love. Talk to people, tell them that a vicious hateful thing is happening, and that we can’t allow it to continue. Cast a spell in the ballot box and vote against hate. Wake up, get out and change the world." (pg. 30)

RFD is a way for rural gay communities to interact in a safer space. By using the magazine as a political platform, its writers are prescribing political awareness onto queer rural identities.

Rural to Urban

RFD started as a magazine made for and produced by queer men in rural communities. Queer communities have remained firmly located in the urban, particularly the metropolitan, and have only recently become more acknowledge in the countryside. Despite the fact that queer people are located around the globe and throughout the United States, LGBTQ publications have been primarily focused on urban queer life. This may be because rural areas are often presented as settings for traditional and hegemonic sexualities .

The Summer 2005 RFD article, "fresh from NYC" focuses on the changing locality of the magazine. The publication opens with the following lines from Walt Whitman's poem, "City of Orgies",

"Give me your tired, poor-ole drag queens,/ Your huddled faeries yearning to breathe free,/ The radical refuse of queers who have more,/ Send these, the freaks, tempest tossed to me,/ I lift my lamp guiding them to sanctuary"

Although the magazine maintains it's rural location (RFD is currently being published in Hadley, Massachusetts) it recognizes the need for inter-community connection and consciousness raising.

Understanding Queer Experiences

Transgender Rights

RFD begins to become more intersectional in it's approach to acknowledging identity politics around 1999, in it's "the 25th year" magazine. In this publication there is an article published titled, "The Satanic Transgender Politics".

"Ironically the gay community, despite all of its past persecutions, is intolerant towards some of its own subgroups, displaying toward them cruel self-righteousness that mirrors the bigotry of Christians toward all sodomites. I am referring particularly to the intolerance that many mainstream gas have for transvestites and shemales , those whose inner urgings draw them into a life between genders… I have written this article in hopes that others, perhaps even one person, will respond in a similar vein… we may find networks of support to foster our sense of independence and self esteem."

Although many of the language within this text is no longer politically correct, the author does acknowledge the lack of representation for gender queer individuals who are apart of the RFD community and beyond. The author of this piece makes a call to action, asking that the members of RFD create a safer space for gender queer people within the magazine.

Recognizing Privilege

In Issue #106 published in 2001, RFD publishes an article titled, "Recognizing Privilege". This article acknowledges intersectionality in the forms of class, race, gender, and sexuality. The author first talks about the seperation between class lines which occurs in queer communities,

"...I have learned that the Gay and Lesbian Community is not interested in playing on the same field as straight or gay working class Americans, much less people of color, people in poverty, or - Harvey Milk forbid - third world peoples... However, in spite of our fine intentions, our own privilege and prejudices continue to invade our attitudes and actions… Someone from a much lower class background than most of us would likely have to navigate a lot of weird unchecked prejudices in order to benefit from the sanctuary we provide."

In this text the author acknowledges their own privilege and later acknowledges the struggle for those with identities who's oppression goes beyond exclusively homophobia and/or misogyny. Later he says, "I’d also love to open up more general conversations about what we queers with some measure of privilege are doing with said privilege." By asking for continued intersectional consciousness raising, the author of this work is making important strides for the relevance of RFD's feminist goals.

RFD archives and purchasing

Over 50 archives around the world have copies of the RFD magazine, however only three of these archives are complete. RFD has sent out a call for people with copies of the work to contribute to this archival project, "If you have old issues which you’d like to donate to our project to complete these collections, please have a look at our back issues page on our website, it shows which issues which we have sold out." (RFD website) The publication is also making an effort to digitize each of the RFD issues, though it does cost three thousand dollars. For this reason they are also asking for donations to continue archiving the work so that is is more accessible to a wider population.

An archive of the images associated with issues published between 1974 and 2012 can be found at the Radical Faerie organization website.

Additionally, RFD has provided ten copies to be read online through an online publishing source.

This list of bookstores is taken from the RFD website.

Alley Cat Books	3036 24th St San Francisco CA 94110-4129
Antigone	411 N 4th Ave, Tucson AZ 85705-8444
Bound Together Book Store	1369 Haight St, San Francisco CA 94117
Crazy Wisdom Bookstore	114 S Main St, Ann Arbor MI 48104-1903
Dog Eared Books Castro	489 Castro St San Francisco CA 94114-2019
Easton Mountain	391 Herrington Hill Rd, Greenwich NY 12834-5809
Elliott Bay Books	1521 10th Ave Seattle WA 98122-3806
FAB Faubourg Marigny Books	600 Frenchmen St, New Orleans LA 70116
Leslie-Lohman Museum of     Gay and Lesbian Art	26 Wooster St, New York NY 10013
Powell's Books	1005 W Burnside St, Portland OR 97208-3989
Quimby's	1854 W North Ave, Chicago IL 60622-1310
Rubber Library & Flower Bodega	3240 Dauphine St New Orleans LA 70117

Issues List

• The dates and names below are as they appear on the RFD magazine from the said issue.
  • No. 67 Fall ‘91
    • A Country Journal for Gay Men Everywhere
  • No. 69 Spring ‘92
    • RFD a country rag for the urbane fag
  • No. 84 Winter ‘95/’96
  • No. 87 Fall 1996
    • Reefer Fried Divas
  • No. 88 Winter 96/’97
    • Repairing Familiar Dysfunctions
  • No. 89 Spring 1997
    • The Fiction and Photography Issue
  • No. 91 Fall 1997
    • The Fall Fashion Issue
  • No. 92 Winter 1997-98
    • Refined Foreign Drag Queens
  • No. 93 Spring ‘98
    • Rural Fags Deconstruct
  • No. 94 Summer ‘98
    • Raising Frisky Dicks
  • No. 95 Fall 1998
    • The 25th Year: A Celebration of Our Elders
  • No. 96 Winter 1998/1999
    • The 25th Year: A Celebration of Our Elders
  • No. 97 Spring 1999
    • The 25th Year: A Celebration of Our Elders
  • No. 98 Summer 1999
    • 25 Years <3 Celebrating Our Elders
  • No. 99 Fall 1999
    • Celebrating Queer Communities
  • No. 103  Fall 2000
    • celebrating our elders
  • No. 104 Winter 2000/2001
    • The Sex and Spirituality Issue
  • No. 106 Summer 2001
    • Men Connecting
  • No. 107 Fall 2001
  • No. 108 Winter 2001/2002
  • No. 109 Spring of 2002
    • Rebirth from Destruction
  • No. 1120 Summer 2002
    • Summer of Sleaze
  • No. 111 Fall 2002
    • River Faeries Debut
  • No. 112 Winter 2002/03
    • Finding/Creating Shelter
  • No. 113 Spring 2003
    • Courage and Vision
  • No. 114 Summer 2003
    • war is very profitable for politicians and other parasites
  • No. 115 Fall 2003
    • Growth and Harvest
  • No. 116 Winter 2003
    • Healing
  • No. 117 Spring 2004
    • Queer Music
  • No. 118 Summer 2004
    • 30+ What Does The Future Hold?
  • No. 119 Fall 2004
    • Politixxx
  • No. 122 Summer 2005
    • fresh from NYC: … what it is
  • No. 123 Fall 2005
    • Folle Terre Where Real Queens Rule! I <3 EU Faeries