rage notes


SPRING AND RENEWAL


April always puts me in mind of renewal and rebirth. We’ve gone through the doldrums of winter, though I must admit that the doldrums in Southern California are nothing compared to those that I experienced in Wisconsin, they still have a certain weight that when spring arrives, is gone. Emerging out of the darkness and achieving a


new perspective ended up being sort of a theme for this month’s issue. It didn’t start out as an intentional idea, but the topic of conversation for the spotlights lent itself to that subject matter. Love, Simonwas the first interview on my slate.


The film is all about acceptance, transformation and self-discovery and is significant for several reasons: First, it’s a wonderfully curated film and a well-executed story. It exemplifies the isolating experience many of us lived with when as teenagers we first discovered that we might be a “little different” than the rest of our classmates. What makes it unique in the lexicon of American film though, is that it’s literally the first one ever done from a teenage perspective that speaks to being LGBTQ. It was surprising to me in some ways that it hadn’t been done before, but at the same time not surprising at all. I remember the John Hughes films depicting teen angst, the travails of high school and related to them on some level, but not totally. To have the same story told in a feature film, from the perspective of a gay teen, was surprisingly validating. Director Greg Berlanti explained why beautifully, “I started crying during scenes that weren’t really even the biggest emotional scenes. It was filling a real, visceral void that I didn’t even know needed to get filled…It really was all about the simple power of representation, just having our story told.” Singer/songwriter Calum Scott and his recently released album was next on the interview list. His surprisingly personal album was all about revelations and transformations, too. Music that reflects his coming to terms with his sexuality and then coming out to his parents, friends and fam- ily… And doing so very publically with uniquely personal, fearless lyrics that talked about those experiences. He said it best in the interview, “The beautiful thing about finally releasing my album is that I’ve been writing this album for a year and a half and I’ve been putting my blood, sweat and tears into it…My own very personal stories. But, I did it with a view in mind to hopefully inspire.


To actually put the album out and to see people relating these songs to their own lives and sound tracking it essentially to their lives—there’s actually something really beautiful in the fact that we’re sharing each other’s stories…” There’s something truly beautiful about hearing Calum Scott sing them, too. Olympian Eric Radford was kind enough to participate for this month’s issue. It was interesting to have a gay men talk about what it was like to compete on the world stage, what it took for him to get to the Olympics and to be there as an out, gay man. Radford shared his arduous, physical journey as one of the world’s gold medalists in pairs skating along with his partner, Meagan Duhamel and spoke of what it was like to come to terms with his sexuality as he did so. “I feel like it took me quite a while to truly except my own sexuality. I started to have an inkling when I was 13 but didn’t really accept it until I was 16, and I had convinced myself I was the only one in the world having these feelings. I moved to Montreal when I was 16 and met Paul Wirtz my former coach. He was the first gay person I met in real life and being around him made me realize that my sexuality was nothing to be afraid of.” All in all, April is one of my favorite issues, because each interview has a heartfelt connection to what it means to come to terms with being LGBTQ, being successful while doing it and liv- ing your life to the fullest in a world that though it’s not completely accepting, is so much more so than it used to be. Change and positive evolution does happen—sometimes it’s painful and sometimes it’s a trial by fire and annoyingly slow—but it does occur and usually for the better.


Joel Martens,Editor in Chief


“Revolution is as unpredict- able as an earthquake and as beautiful as spring. It’s coming is always a surprise, but its nature should not be.”


— Rebecca Solnit **Finally, an apology to one of our dear advertisers and someone who we did a restaurant feature on in our


March issue. We strive for accuracy, but occasionally mistakes do happen and when they involve an incorrect name, it is doubly devastating. Brad Auerbach is the owner of Sapore in Hillcrest and was mistakenly referred to as Doug Auerbach in the article. To him we send our deepest and most sincere apology for the oversight.


PUBLISHER Jay S. Jones jay@ragemonthly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Brad L. Hart brad@ragemonthly.com EDITOR IN CHIEF Joel P. Martens joel@ragemonthly.com ART DIRECTOR Cesar A. Reyes cesar@ragemonthly.com COPY EDITOR Bill Biss INTERN Korie Houston DISTRIBUTION Pride In Media


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RAGE monthly | APRIL 2018


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