PREFACE
For some time I had been thinking about republishing in one volume my political/spiritual articles from my six-year stint, 1983-1988, as Political Editor of RFD Journal, in hopes they would reach a wider readership. Because RFD does not copyright its issues and ownership remains with the authors, there were none of the usual publisher’s permissions problems. Over the years, mostly by word of mouth, appreciations have trickled back. I recently learned that a faerie in Australia had quoted from one of my articles in his Master’s thesis. Gathered together, these speak of a place and time now gone, but not too far away. I wrote with my voice, my agenda in mind. There is a common theme running through most of them. Some of them are dated, others I hope still freshly speak to us now. I have attempted a small amount of editing, mostly minor corrections of grammar or spelling and the occasional replacement with a better term. Not all of my RFD articles are republished here, but I have included a few previously unpublished articles that fit the context. These might have been earlier published in RFD or other gay magazines had I not kept tinkering with them.
Ron Lambe, who was editor of RFD from 1978-88, when the magazine was published at Running Water Farm in Bakersville, NC, asked me to take on the position in the spring of 1983, when we met at the Southeastern Conference for Lesbians and Gay Men. My debut was “Spiritual Politics” in the Fall of that year. In 1988, shortly after Ron relinquished the editorship to pursue other local political issues and RFD moved to Short Mountain Sanctuary in Tennessee, I also gave up my position to allow fresh voices to speak.
I decided to group these articles by subject matter rather than in chronological order. It simply makes good sense. To each I have added a short introductory comment on how it stood the test of time or to place it in the context of then current social events.
Stuart Norman
Cyrwyn, “The Leatherfaerie Shaman”
Greensboro, NC 1998
Contents
Introduction