Anderson Cooper On Harps Story

"This is a learning moment for everybody."

Press Release Of The Day

My click-tracker tells me that over 1700 of you hit the Harps contact page link I posted at the beginning of the day. It's a tiny victory to be sure, but it's also a message to all the nation's retailers. Nice work, everybody.

UPDATE: Appreciative positive reinforcement would be a nice thing for us to do.

Grocery Store Finds Gay Parenting Magazine Cover Too Offensive For Kids

Last night Twitter user JennHudd tweeted out this photo she took at Harps, a grocery store in Mountain Home, Arkansas. Apparently US Weekly's cover shot of Elton John, his partner, and baby is just too shocking for children. Harps has over 60 locations in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Call their home office at 877-772-8193 or use their contact form if you'd like to register a polite protest.

UPDATE: According to a company spokesperson, the store claims it was responding to customer complaints when it covered up the magazine. GLAAD investigates:

I spoke with Harps Corporate Executive Assistant Marty Yarborough, who told me that every Harps store is equipped with these shields and that they get put up whenever customers complain about the content of a magazine cover. She said the word from the store about this particular cover was that “several” customers had complained, so the shield went up. She also confirmed that these shields are utilized on a store-by-store basis, so the magazine would not have been covered up at any of the other Harps locations, unless customers complained there as well. She also told me that the usage of the shield on this particular cover is “in no way our opinion on this issue.” She quickly added, ”we do not have an opinion on this issue.”

UPDATE II: The Harps corporate office has issued an official press release on the matter.

Bob Guccione Dies At Age 79

Bob Guccione, founder of Penthouse Magazine and the man whose spectacular flop Caligula introduced hetero movie audiences to fisting, has died at the age of 79.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1930, Guccione started Penthouse in the mid-1960s. By the 1980s, he had created a $300 million media business and Penthouse had a circulation of 4.7 million, according to the New York Times. Marc Bell, chief executive officer of FriendFinder Networks Inc., which now publishes Penthouse and runs adult websites, called the death “very sad” in an e-mailed statement. The company plans to release a statement today, he said. Penthouse’s first issue hit newsstands in the U.K. in 1965 and went on sale in the U.S. in 1969, according to Biography.com. The magazine challenged the popularity of Playboy, a men’s magazine that had gained widespread following, by featuring photos and content that were intended to be more explicit and provocative.

Back in one of my writing classes in college, students held an unauthorized Penthouse Forum contest. All entries were required to contain the rote phrases "much to my surprise" and "needless to say," which appeared in almost all every issue. Much to my surprise, when I opened the door there stood two buxom blond twins! Needless to say, I invited them in. I recall arguing for the inclusion of the equally overused "endless gobs of ropey cum," but I was denied.

I still miss Guccione's excellent science/sci-fi title, Omni Magazine.

James Franco For Candy Magazine

Copyranter points out James Franco's cover shot for the first issue of Candy Magazine, "the first transversal style magazine." One thousand copies only, street date October 24th.

Mithly: A Magazine For Gay Arabs

Mithly, a groundbreaking magazine for gay Arabs, has launched in Morocco. Although an online magazine for gay Arabs launched out of Lebanon in 2007, Mithly is first such print title.

Mithly means "the same as me" in Arabic; it is also a respectful way to refer to homosexuals. It is a word that the people behind Mithly magazine would like to see replace the more common "shazz," meaning pervert or deviant in Arabic, or "zemel," an expletive to describe gays in the Moroccan Berber dialect. Mithly was launched in the Moroccan capital Rabat earlier this month. Even though the magazine has received partial funding from the European Union, it was printed clandestinely and its first 200 issues were distributed under the counter. In Morocco, as in the rest of the Arab world, homosexuality is a criminal offense, punishable with six months to three years in jail. "So far the reporting about homosexuals in Morocco has been the monopoly of the mainstream media, most of which describe us as perverts and a menace to society," said a journalist for Mithly who identified himself only as Mourad. "Mithly is a chance for homosexuals to give their side of the story. We wanted to give homosexuals in the Arab world a voice."

You can read Mithly online here.