VT’s ‘Gay Gun Nut’ Blogs Between Worlds = Bv CATHY RESMEFI thing, the 50-year-old Fairlee resi- dent is a self—described gay gun nut. “I’m pro-gun, pro-life, and pro-gay marriage,” says Soyer, who concedes that his positions might seem somehow . ironic. “It does sound like an oxy- moron,” he admits. But Soyer’s politics aren’t the only thing that sets him apart. When he Jeff Soyer is a rare breed. For one . reads something in the New York Times that upsets him, which is often, he doesn’t just fire off a letter to the editor or complain to his friends. Soyer, who works as a webmaster for a Vermont furniture company, responds on his webblog, or blog, at htt_p://alphecca. corn. . Despite its celestial address — it’s named after a star — Alphecca proudly calls itself “an occasional blog by a gay gun nut in Vermont.” Blogs, fyi, are on-line journals that are updated frequently. They’ve been around since out in the mountains the late 1990's, but this year have attracted considerable attention. Bloggers propelled Howard Dean into the national spotlight and recently forced CBS to investigate the authentic- ity of National Guard memos relating to President Bush’s military service. _ J Of the nearly 4 million extant _blogs enumerated by Technorati.com, only a few dozen are influential. These include liberal sites like Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos, and conservative blogs like AndrewSullivan.com (yes, ‘ ' gay conservative Andrew Sullivan has an influential blog) and Instapunditf According to site meters that track their traffic, the biggest blogs draw six-figure daily readership—Instapundit, for example, averages around 300,000 readers a day. By contrast, the gay gun nut says his site attracts "1000-2000 daily viewers, giving him a weekly circula- tion that exceeds that of many Vermont community newspapers. That’s not bad for a guy who doesn’t market himself, who has no journalistic training, and who calls himself a gay gunnut. “I’m sort of a pariah,” he admits, noting that liberal bloggers won’t link to him because he’s pro-gun, and social conser- vative bloggers are turned off by his sexual orientation. But though he’s gay, Soyer rarely writes about traditional gay issues. His favorite topic is what_ he describes as media bias against the Second Amendment. In a recent post titled, “NBC: Nothing But Crap,” Soyer takes on the peacock network’s ' September 15 “Special Report” about the expiration of the assault weapon ban. “This is biased reporting of the worst kind,” wrote Soyer, “... and just goes to show that NBC will stop at nothing to discredit the Second Amendment, blame Bush for it's [sic] demise, and (in my opinion) outright lie ' about the effectiveness of or~the effects of the demise of the phony ‘assault weapons’ ban." (Despite his conserva- tive bent, Soyer does not support Bush.) _ Each Monday, Soyer posts a weekly media bias report, which has Community Money: VT Unity Project Gets Grants The Vermont Unity Project, a partner- ship of the Vermont Community Foundation and the Samara Foundation, awarded grants in September. The grants, awarded in three categories to 18 projects and organizations, totaled $77,053. Small grants ranged from $500 to support Champlain Valley Union high School’s GSA to $1,000 to send students from People’s Academy in Morrisville to diversity training. Also included among the 7 small grants was — $937 to.South Burlington High School to support the “Love Makes a Family” exhibit, $750 for the Afnelia Earhart Underground Flying Society’s 25th anniversary gala, $500 to Lamoille Union High School to support a GSA start-up, $700 to the Glover Public Library for lgbt-related books and materials, and $900 to the Unitarian Universalist Society for printed and video library resources. . The Unity Project awarded $59,966 in Program Grants to nine organizations and projects: Middlebury Community Television ($10,000) for a video project involving students and _ faculty from Mount Abraham Union garnered him attention from Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit. Reynolds men- tions Soyer’s weekly media bias report nearly every Monday, funneling thou- sands of his conservative readers to Soyer’s site. As a result, Soyer has been featured in a recent issue of Outdoor ‘ Life, on an NRA radio show, and in a recent Associated Press story about how hard it is-to make money by blogging. Despite all this attention, Soyer says he’s never received any hate mail from his readers — whether anti- K gay or anti-gun — surprising considering how easy it is to respond. Like most .bloggers, Soyer gives readers the oppor- tunity to share comments on the site. Most of the comments appearing at the ‘ end of his posts contain predictable out- rage at anti-gun bias, or congratulate Soyer for his reporting, but occasionally someone writes something unexpected? Such responses occur when Soyer posts one of his infrequent gay- themed entries, like the May 11 item entitled “Who Speaks for Me?” In it, Soyer writes about his own experiences High School and Middlebury College; Mountain Pride Media ($10,000) for technology upgrades and-training; Outright ($7500) for education and out- reach programs for youth; R.U.l.2? ($7500) for work with youth‘; P.R.I.D.E. Vermont ($2500) for the celebration in , 2005; SafeSpace ($2000) for training service providers in rural counties; Spectrum ($7500) to add a half-time outreach worker for LGBT homeless youth; AIDS Project of Southern Vermont ($9,966) for a Southern Fine Diamonds and Jewelry ~ A sample of our band collection \_7_o_r_1___1_3_a_r ens Jewelry LLC 864-0012 800-841-8820 150 Church St., Burlington, VT" Stratton, Springfield V7} Hanover NH Platinum & 18kt bands- Prices starting at $1495 with anti-gay violence -— he was knifed in New York in 1985 — and calls for tol- erance and respect for all gay people. He also takes national gay rights groups to task for taking liberal stands on non- gay issues like the Second Amendment and abortion. In response, “Countertop” wrote, “Well put Jeff. At least this straight as an arrow neanderthal conser- J vative read your entire rant.” In response to a July 6 post, “John Cunningham” wrote: “hi Alphecca, I just dropped by your site ‘ V for the first time, it is excellent! I am a‘ hetero gun nut, and I have no prob with your discussing being gay.” Comments like that are actually more common than comments like, “I’m gay, andl have no prob with your discussing guns.” V Cathy Resmer is a freelance writer who lives in Winooski. Vermont LGBT Organizing Conference; and the Tuming Point Club of ' Bennington ($3,000) for LGBT organ- izing and resources in_Bennington. The sole Strategic Partnership grant ($12,000) was award- ed to a collaboration among R.U.l.2?, Outright, SafeSpace, and Mountain Pride Media (publisher of OIT M) to support an exploratory process looking at closer working relationships and potential sharing of resources. Anywhere, Anyplace, Anytime. a CHll.D TRAVEL SERVICES . COLCHESTER ' SO. BURLINGTON BURLINGTON 0 ST. 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