Lavender is another throw-away G(LBT) rag that perpetuates tired stereotypes and is narrowly aimed toward the affluent white gay male who fills out his $1500 rent check for a one bed luxury apartment without a 2nd thought. Think your LOGO program gays who fit into their neat little columns: effeminate gossiping Lady Gaga loving gays here and no-nonsense butch lesbians there. What's even more absurd is that this purports to be "Minnesota's GLBT Magazine". Clubbing at the 90s isn't even a possibility for GLBT residents outside of the Twin Cities and there are even those who have that as an option but *gasp* don't like club music and don't care to make room for that scene into our lives. This is irrelevant for small town GLBT folk and does nothing to nurse and support more visibility and acceptance for them. But then they aren't into east/west cost fashion and actually like cheesy country pop (which somehow passes for country music these days) so they don't fit into the early 20 something pretty boy with a faux-hawk and deep V neck t-shirt image, so who cares about them? The only purpose such media serves is to squash any alternative subcultures within the GLBT population: I hesitate to call it a "community" since there are clearly defined lines that are meant to keep out what's the riff-raff. You're not going to the rest of the state get meaningful coverage you also aren't going to see representation for subcultures even within Mpls. Take where Lavender is based in Powderhorn: neither GLBT punks nor GLBT hippies get any space despite a noticeable presence of hippie and punk subcultures in general which of course means GLBT individuals among their ranks that fit largely into either one to a significant degree. It's not all Lavender's fault though: the prevailing white upper-class gay male culture is largely vapid and devoid of intellectual substance: it's exactly what you'd expect from the mainstream and sadly the gay mainstream is just as lazy and void of meaningful content as its straight counterpart and is evidenced by what's predictably found between the covers of a Lavender magazine. This culture also goes well beyond a mere magazine whether it's defining what is socially acceptable as can be considered "gay TV", "gay music", etc and the gay yuppies who decide that on the rest of our behalf then impose it onto the GLBT population as a whole and the most visible vocal group, white gay males, by and large accept this as a part and parcel of their identity without examining it beforehand. You can't be truly gay if you aren't listening to X, watching Y, and dressing like Z. Unlike the straight world where subcultures can go to predominantly straight places catering to them, the GLBT equivalents only have the mainstream establishments and publications: no GLBT oriented establishments or rags cater to the rest of us. We're left out in the cold and yet we're supposed to call that "community". Lavender may be free, but I'm still not buying what they're selling. read more