What was the deal with your absence?

For years I provided flippant answers to this question because addressing it truthfully was too complicated. But the bottom line is I got mixed up with a jealous and possessive partner, now former, who didn’t want me writing here or elsewhere, even though this site was anonymous.

What have you done in the meantime?

Aged. Eventually wrote things elsewhere.

How has the site changed since the aughts?

The focus has narrowed. It used to be very political, more out of necessity than anything else, because the Internet was much smaller when it came to the intersections of gay issues, pop culture and the media. This time around I’d rather stick to film, classic television and occasionally books, though I still think it’s worth asking hard-hitting questions about whether Mayor McCheese is a homosexual.

Any interest in YouTube videos or podcasts?

Nope. I’ve been asked to appear on podcasts and my monotone would put you to sleep. YouTube videos require a whole new skillset I have no interest in learning.

How has the gay Internet landscape changed over the years?

We’re everywhere now, so you don’t have to go to niche sites for gay content. In some ways that’s fantastic and in others I’m underwhelmed. Marginalized identities are currently sexy to younger folks and everyone’s claiming a piece of the LGBTQ+ pie, regardless of whether they eat it.

Our Internet presence is as big as it has ever been, but there’s often something insufferable about it—a tendency toward clique-y, sanctimonious groupthink that sometimes verges on the absurd. And frequently, despite all the flag-waving, it doesn’t seem particularly gay to me. It’s more redolent of what precocious, fanfic obsessed teenage shut-ins (and their older, predominantly straight-lady-with-colorful-hair counterparts) perceive as gay. 

I no longer use the word “queer” much, for similar reasons. As a young adult I liked, perhaps foolishly, the idea of reclaiming that word from homophobes. These days its meaning has again shifted and it very much strikes me as an empty, even tedious buzzword that’s become the “cool mom” of the moment for older folks and a meaningless pose for younger people.

There’s that crankiness again.

I was once a precocious teenage shut-in, albeit not one who was into fan-fiction (other than a Scully story or two). I was also an out gay teenager in the Midwest in the ’90s, which makes me less sensitive to the plight of today’s mollycoddled youth turned Twitter scolds, Discord addicts and pathologically attention-seeking TikTokkers.

On the bright side, it’s a sign of progress when young people complain about how persecuted they are and you listen to their tirades and think, They weren’t kicked out of the house for being gay. They didn’t become estranged from their parents over DOMA. They weren’t stuffed in lockers or tied to a fencepost and beaten. They’re mad because their dad asked how they could know they’re a polyamorous pansexual demiromantic asexual with a stuffed animal fetish when they’re still prepubescent.

Are you on social media?

Hesitantly. I’m new to Instagram, where I post film and TV screenshots @zborn.again. I used to post review links on Twitter, but left the site with its new change in ownership. There are other self-described “cranky lesbians” on various social media platforms. None are me.