That liberal bastion in a big, fat (and by fat I mean politically obese), red state is going through some growing pains when it comes to their LGBTQI citizens and this year’s pride.

Gay Pride Parade in Austin Texas, 2009 - photo by Tiger Boy Angel

Here’s the deal: This year, as in recent years past, Austin’s “official” Pride celebrations are being run by the Austin Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (AGLCC). Unlike year’s past there’s a new entity which is doing god-knows-what called the Austin Gay and Lesbian Pride Foundation (AGLPF).

Funnily enough the boards of the two organizations look mighty similar. You can see where this is going, right? Sometimes the AGLCC’s version of Pride is inclusive and lovely – as it was last year – and sometimes it feels a little… vampiric. And not the sparkly Twilight kind of vampires who ignore their personal hygiene just enough to be cute. Vampiric as in the current manifestation of the AGLCC is obsessed with something called “The Gay Dollar”. Oh, and gay meaning gay and lesbian, not bi, not trans, not queer, not intersex.

Go to the AGLCC’s website and see images well-heeled Gs and Ls lounging around BoConcept. You would be forgiven for thinking all Austin queers are wealthy people who have a soft spot for luxury furniture. As is made painfully clear by many in the AGLCC they couldn’t give a shit about “bisexuals and transvestites.” Add to this, egregious and petty abuses of power and strikingly conservative views from the leadership of AGLCC over the past year. The org wants to make a “family-friendly” Pride as in years past, but the idea of family is conventional and feels like a cover to disclude any whose gender manifestation is anything but normative.

Keep It in Good Taste

Marc Felion, Christeene, Fausto Fernos

At a meeting for the Pride march and festival participants were told to “keep it in good taste”. That’s classy, not Qlassy.

And now, in response a counter-group has arisen, more concept than organization, called QueerBomb. The ethos of QueerBomb, in their own words:

“QueerBomb is a flash Force assembly of LGBTQIA individuals within the community who have found the current strategy and structure of Austin Pride to be non-inclusive, capitalist, heteronormative, safe and unchallenging.QueerBomb has been assembled with boisterous urgency in organizing a counter ‘Pride’ procession that carries a strong Queer message to the streets of Downtown Austin reclaiming the radical, carnal and transgressive lineage of our ever changing community, while celebrating every facet and form of our people as a unique and vibrant whole.”

QueerBomb, unlike the AGLCC has no head or endless committees. All the events held by QueerBomb are free for everyone – gawkers, nonproftis, participants. It’s people – excited that they’re queer! It’s even questionable if QueerBomb has a permit to march at this point, but march they will! Chanting Dadaist phrases and singing songs by Erasure, or The Itsy Bitsy Spider, or whatever! The goal is to reach for radical inclusivity by making the events accessible – anyone can participate.

In many ways, those of you from bigger cities would be shocked at what I’m saying – even the official Austin Pride in comparison to the big city Prides elsewhere might seem provincial and grassroots-y. But to this scrappy town earnestness and community-building still matter a whole hell of a lot more to people than corporate sponsorship and tracking how GL folks spend their disposable incomes. At least in this town – minds and bodies are split this year.

Here’s a links roundup so you can do a little digging yourself:

• Queerbomb
• Austin Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce
• Austin Pride
• The Austin Chronicle Pride Guide by Kate Messer

Three blog posts from the Austin Chronicle’s GayPlace:

• A Queer Renaissance?
• The Cost of Pride
• Mind Your Ts and Qs
• The Austin American Statesman on Pride v. Queerbomb

Trish Bendix and Fausto Fernós

“Tomorrow Happens Here”—the slogan to this year’s SXSW interactive, film and music festivals—was not hyperbole. Attending the workshops, films, concerts and parties, one had the distinct feeling of being right at the heart of something very important, and bursting with possibility. Even the conference badges seemed like they were right out of, well, tomorrow. Swipe your badge across a smart phone, and you neatly swap contact info—no need for old-fashioned paper business cards. Chart your movement, avoid your ex, find the best parties and panels with free location software; follow Twitter to decide if you should ditch your boring panel for something better. Gowalla, Foursquare, Google, Mashable, Digg and dozens of tech giants and juniors were on site launching new products, throwing extravagant parties and working hard to out-geek each other to become the next trending topic. New and free technology was flying around so fast, your freshly uploaded SXSW iPhone app was practically outdated by the end of the conference.

For the first time, paid Interactive attendance surpassed that of the music festival, long the grand dame of SXSW. Interactive grew 40 percent over last year to 13,000 paid attendees, and has become a must-attend event for tech industry leaders, geeks, nerds, bloggers, academics, social media mavens and edgy marketing professionals. And for good reason—many a start up was made or broken by its reception at SXSW. As well worn legend has it, when Twitter launched at the 2007 festival, its usage quadrupled in one week, embolding Twitter to go out and conquer the world.

–Read the rest.

OutCast airs live from Austin, TX on Tuesdays at 6pm CST on KOOP 91.7fm. Streaming live at www.KOOP.org.

You can listen to our show here.

For decades Heyd Fontenot has built a career as a versatile multimedia darling, leveraging his experiences as an independent film maker into a well received career as visual artist. In an age where everything is digital, Heyd is now making paintings featuring his friends naked, with big heads, in moppet-like exaggerated features.

Today we’re taking a look at sex in Heyd’s work and how we deal with the intense feelings and confused reactions to the nude body.

Listen to find out how we infuse sex into every thing we do, and how polyamory is the new sexual identity.

Hot news:

James “The Amazing” Randi, skeptic and magician comes out as gay.

George Takei is now the spokes model for a new tv screen that uses yellow light for enhanced image quality. Oh my!

And the anti-gay organization Americans For Truth About Homosexuality is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Take that Porno-Pete!

Featured Music:
Diamond Rings – Wait & See: iTunes

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Austin is truly an oasis of fabulousness in the heart of the Lone Star State. This weekend gays and their pals from around the country are gathering at Lake Travis for Splash Weekend, a delicious celebration where believe it or not, clothing is optional.

An ad for the event from several years ago prominently features blogger-hunk Jakub Stefano but Jakub lives in the Czech Republic and has never set foot inside of Texas. Can’t they find a photo of an actual Texan to use in their ad? Where have all the cowboys gone?

Jakub is in the finals for 2009 World Hunk Competition. The winner will be flown to America for a lucrative and hopefully sexy modeling shoot. We think he’s the clear winner, but you know how these things go.

Meanwhile a groundswell of support is growing for the National Equality March set for October 10 and 11 in the nation’s capital. And to entice people to go, the organizers have released a list of 140 leaders and allies endorsing the march.

Did our endorsement get lost in the e-mail or are organizers limiting the list to people they deem worthy?

Why not have everyone endorse the March for Equality? We want your photos and videos stating you support equality and exclusivity- please post your pictures and videos stating “I’m Going” into an inclusive March for Equality Facebook page inspired by the Sorry Everybody campaign where Americans apologized to the world for George Bush.

We can’t do it without you.

Listen to today’s show as we dish up a hot plate of goodies-

A German TV station takes credit for creating the Michael Jackson coroner video, but did they really do it?

The Catholic Church’s new sex tips- prayer.

Is Sean Lennon a little tacky with his attempts to recreate the famous photo of his late father?

And finally a sport we all can enjoy- World Gravy Wrestling. Congratulations to this year’s sexy championship winner Joel Hicks!

Check out today’s sponsor:

How Are You Healthy? Find out at Lifelube.org
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emotional health, spirituality and more.

Featured Music:
Mina- Sulla Tua Bocca Lo Diro: Amazon | iTunes

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Last Friday, Oct 3, 2008 I had an informal meet-up with some of the listeners who live in Austin, Texas at the Taco Cabana on MLK. Here’s the group photo! More after the jump.