This time in Marvel Comic's X-Factor #45.

In the final frames …

Shatterstar: "Ricktor?"
Rictor: "Yeah, it's me, dude. It's Okay. Whatever happened, it's gonna be fine. No worries.
(big beautiful kiss)

... to be continued!

If you want to see how it unfolds, you'll have to pick up next month's issue.

You can get X-Factor #45 from Marvel.

It's not too late to get your tickets for the official book release party for Oysters & Chocolate: Erotic Stories of Every Flavor, featuring some of the best women erotica writers of Colorado and beyond.

It's all happening on Saturday, May 16 at 8 p.m. at The b.side Lounge in Boulder, with a book signing, DJ Danny, burlesque and drag performances and a ton of fun. Get your $10 tickets in advance, because this one will sell out.

It’s been unofficially dubbed "Amazonfail" across the blogosphere and social networking sites like Twitter.com and Facebook, but even "epic fail" doesn’t begin to describe the fallout from online book retailer Amazon.com’s recent de-ranking of hundreds of LGBT- and sexuality-related titles on its site Sunday afternoon.

The buzz started when blogger and published author Mark R. Probst noticed that the ranking had been removed from various gay romance books, including his own young adult book, "The Filly." Amazon uses a system of customer ratings and reviews (along with sales figures) to create its best-seller lists and to organize searchable content – when books lose their rankings, they do not show up in searches by category or even, in several cases, by author. After contacting the company about the change, Probst received a canned e-mail from a service representative citing Amazon’s policy to "exclude 'adult' material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists."

As Sara Decker, our art and layout person, keeps telling me, no one reads anymore. Being close to the queer publishing community, I'd dispute that. People do indeed still read, but they tend to read online or buy their books from somewhere other than their local GLBT (or even independent) bookstore. Consequently, GLBT bookstores are falling faster than dominoes, especially in this punishing economy. We've seen it happen locally with the demise of Book Garden, Relatively Wilde and Word Is Out, all within the last five years, and now, New York City's Oscar Wilde - at 41 years, the nation's oldest GLBT bookstore - is closing.

Owner Kim Brinster's letter states: "It is with a sorrowful heart that after 41 years in business the Oscar Wilde Bookshop will close its doors for the final time on March 29, 2009. We want to thank all of our customers for their love and loyalty to the store over the years. You have helped make this store a world wide destination and all of us at the store have enjoyed welcoming our neighbors whether they are next door or half way around the world. In 1967 Craig Rodwell started this landmark store that not only sold Gay and Lesbian literature but also became a meeting place for the LGBT community. Over the years it grew into a first-rate bookshop thanks to the loyal, smart and dedicated staff. There are not enough words to thank these dedicated booksellers for making the OWB one of the world?s finest LGBT bookstores. I feel very honored to have gotten to work with them. Unfortunately we do not have the resources to weather the current economic crisis and find it?s time to call it a day. So thanks to all who have been a part of the Oscar Wilde family over the years, you have truly been a part of a great global community."

My late partner's death taught me that everything ends. Good things end too soon and bad things not soon enough, but everything ends. I was reminded of that all too recently. This, however, is our community's loss. And it deserves a moment of your silence because gathering places such as these were the grounds in which the seeds of our struggle for liberation and rights were planted. It's sad to see them go but, again, everything ends.

Dammit.

At last! "I Do!: An Anthology in Support of Marriage Equality" is out and available on Amazon here.

Enjoy 20 romantic and erotic stories from GLBT authors, all for a good cause. All proceeds of this anthology go to Lambda Legal Fund to fight Prop 8 in California - so settle in for a good romantic, sexy read and give for a good cause at the same time.

... well, according to the readers of AfterElton.com anyway. Personally, I'd quibble with some of these choices - especially their placement, but I think they have the top 10 down:

1) Tales of the City - Armistead Maupin

2) Maurice - E.M. Forster

3) The Front Runner - Patricia Nell Warren

4) At Swim, Two Boys - Jamie O'Neill

5) Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin

6) Hero - Perry Moore

7) The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst

8) Boy Meets Boy - David Levithan

9) A Home at the End of the World - Michael Cunningham

10) Rainbow Boys - Alex Sanchez

Click here for the full list.

Yours truly, Jerry Wheeler, OFC's staff writer will be appearing between the covers of "I Do!," edited by Alex Beecroft - an anthology of same-sex romance stories guaranteed to bring a tear to your eye and a skip to your heartbeat. My short story is called "Templeton's in Love." The anthology will be a benefit for Prop 8, with all proceeds going to the Lambda Legal Fund to fight for marriage equality in California. We're aiming for a late January/early February release, so stay tuned. You'll be hearing more about this.

A lot more.

Trust me.

Women's Business Link (WBL) has announced the "Dreaming Big" essay contest to help at-risk young women in need of assistance. The contest is open to young women ages 16-24 in the Denver metro area who consider themselves to be in need of financial, educational and professional support who are not able to get this support by any other means. Women are to develop a realistic, step-by-step plan clearly stating what they need and how they intend to utilize the resources that they might be awarded in order to improve their current situation. Deadline for submissions is November 15. For complete guidelines and an application, call Sara Davenport at 303-905-3360 or e-mail sara@womensbusinesslink.org, or call Wendy Barr at 720-261-1940 or e-mail wendy@womensbusinesslink.org.

Randy Shilts

Author and AIDS journalist

b. August 8, 1951
d. February 17, 1994

"History is not served when reporters prize trepidation and propriety over the robust journalistic duty to tell the whole story."

Randy Shilts was the first openly gay journalist to cover GLBT issues in the American mainstream press. He held positions at The Advocate and the San Francisco Chronicle and is the author of three books.

Shilts came out at age 20 and was head of the Eugene, Oregon Gay People's Alliance.
After working as the northwest correspondent for The Advocate, he moved to San Francisco to become a staff writer. He covered gay issues and city politics at San Francisco area television stations.

Shilts wrote “The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk” (1982), when a biography about a gay political figure was groundbreaking.

His New York Times best seller, “And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic” (1987), was the first major book about AIDS. It chronicles the first five years of the epidemic and exposes the infighting and inaction that led the virus to become a pandemic. The book earned a nomination for the National Book Award and was translated into seven languages. It was adapted into an Emmy Award-winning HBO film starring Alan Alda, Anjelica Huston, Steve Martin, Matthew Modine and Lily Tomlin.

While suffering from AIDS-related causes, Shilts dictated the last chapters of “Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the US Military: Vietnam to the Persian Gulf” (1993). The work examines homophobia in the military and is based on more than 1,000 interviews.

Shilts never compromised his professional integrity. In 1993, a year before he lost his battle with AIDS, he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

Allen Ginsberg

Poet and activist

b. June 3, 1926

d. April 5, 1997

"The only thing that can save the world is the reclaiming of the awareness of the world. That's what poetry does."

Allen Ginsberg was a revolutionary poet and committed activist. He was a leader of the Beat movement, which celebrated nonconformity and paved the way for many previously ignored poets. Ginsberg’s works captured his antiestablishment spirit and fostered social change.

He was born Irwin Allen Ginsberg and raised in Patterson, New Jersey. His father, Louis, was a successful poet who walked around the house reciting poetry. His mother suffered from paranoia and was in and out of mental hospitals. Three years after her death, Ginsberg wrote "Kaddish for Naomi Ginsberg" (1961), which is considered one of his finest works.

Ginsberg attended Columbia University, where he received a B.A. in 1948. The next year, he met Carl Solomon, whom he credited with "deepening his understanding of poetry and its power as a weapon of political dissent." His most celebrated poem, "Howl!" (1956), was dedicated to Solomon. Ginsberg was tried and acquitted of obscenity charges partially related to the poem’s homoerotic content. A judge found that the poem had "redeeming social importance," making "Howl!" a reference case for free-speech advocates.

Ginsberg is credited with coining the term "flower power," which encouraged protesters to engage in nonviolent rebellion. Once kicked out of Cuba for saying Che Guevara was "cute," Ginsberg was dubbed a social bandit. His frank writing about homosexuality made an important contribution to gay rights.

In 1954, Ginsberg met the man who would become his life partner, Peter Orlovsky. Like Ginsberg, Orlovsky was an American poet and experienced the mental illness of a family member. Their 43-year relationship ended with Ginsberg’s death in 1997.

Ginsberg’s honors include a National Book Award, a Robert Frost Medal for distinguished poetic achievement and an American Book Award for contributions to literary excellence. In 1987, he was named a distinguished professor at Brooklyn College, where he taught English and creative writing. In 1993, the French minister of culture awarded Ginsberg the Order of Arts and Letters.

Author

b. January 1, 1879

d. June 7, 1970

“If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.”



E. M. Forster was a prolific and internationally acclaimed writer. His works display his acute awareness of the social and political problems of his time and his belief in the power of human connection. Though best known for novels, he wrote numerous short stories and nonfiction works.

Forster grew up in London, England. An inheritance from his great-aunt allowed him to attend college and sustained his early writing career. Forster received his B.A. from King’s College in Cambridge. After graduation, he and his mother traveled to Italy. This experience deeply influenced two of his first novels, “Where Angels Fear to Tread” (1905) and “A Room with a View” (1907).

Forster’s novel “Howard’s End” (1910) provided a sharp analysis of the upper-class British world. It is recognized as his greatest work. His next novel, “A Passage to India” (1924), won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1924 and was named one of the 100 best novels published in the English language by Modern Library in 1998.

“Maurice,” which Forster wrote between 1913 and 1915, was not published until a year after his death, at the author’s request. Written when homosexuality was illegal in England, the book revolved around a gay man and his relationships. Though unwilling to publish “Maurice,” Forster fought against the suppression of Radclyffe Hall’s novel about a lesbian Englishwoman, “The Well of Loneliness” (1928).

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, Forster’s novels were adapted for the big screen. According to The New York Times, “Forster displayed a genius for capturing the complex personalities expressed in the social manners of his day, and the best screen adaptations have done the same.” The film versions of “Howard’s End” and “A Room with a View” each won three Oscars, and “A Passage to India” secured two more.

In 1934, Forster became the first president of the National Council for Civil Liberties, a human rights organization in England. A year before his death, Queen Elizabeth appointed Forster a member of England’s Order of Merit, one of the highest national honors.