Beginning with her open use of the word “faggot,” Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore makes even SFR a little uncomfortable, but we’re fine with her method of telling it straight (no pun intended) and knocking people off their pedestals.

“Whether they’re at the opera or sucking cock through a glory hole, [gay men are] all the same,” Sycamore tells SFR.

A transgender female concerned that gay men have conformed too much to be accepted, Sycamore has written and edited several books on the the topic of gay assimilation, including the recent, overtly antagonistic anthology Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform.

“The book is an intervention to the disaster of gay culture,” she says, adding that Why Are Faggots So Afraid is a call to challenge the “corporate consumer gay lifestyle of Pottery Barn and pec implants.”

The desire for individuality and acceptance, Sycamore says, may manifest as an “I am the right kind of faggot” self-righteousness, yet the gay community is as prejudiced as the straight community. When “cruising” on one of the many gay websites, she notes that “lying is a given,” and users create an abundance of acronyms for things like “No Asians or Blacks,” “No Fatties” or “HIV-only.” Gay men who don’t have these prejudices are considered to be flamboyant.

However, for Sycamore, flamboyance means rejecting the norm, and its ugliest aspects, without shame. She also has some ideas on how the gay community can resist assimilation with the corporate consumerist version of homosexuality, returning instead to a solidarity movement, but for those you’ll have to attend her book launch. 

Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: 2 pm Sunday, Jan. 15. Op. cit. Books, 930-C Baca St., 428-0321