If you're in print, you need a good relationship with your printing company. But some of that gay stuff can queer the cozy business connection.

Take John Long, publisher of the monthly tabloid Camp, based in Kansas City, Mo. In October 2005, the placement within its pages of the syndicated comic strip "A Couple of Guys" riled the people at Camp's print shop. The cartoon featured two guys in bed, post hanky-panky. It was a Halloween take-off on sex so good it was frightening.

"Our sales rep for the printer came by our office on one of his routine visits," Long said, and announced he had "something embarrassing" to report. The Christian print shop owners, based in St. Joseph, Mo., about 50 miles north of Kansas City, found the gay sex content offensive.

Camp had switched from a printer located in a more hip college town just a few months earlier, saving some $600 in the process. "I told our rep that they better get used to it if they want our business since we hope to run the strip regularly." The issue was printed. But Long was concerned he'd have to switch printers again.

Five months later, all's well. "We never did change printers," said Long. "However, it wouldn't surprise me if they made comments on our content in the future." And he noted that pictures and graphics are often considered more controversial than text, regardless of the actual content of that text, because it's rarely read at the print shop.

Long said that publishers should regularly solicit printing bids from various businesses. That way, you're always prepared - just in case.

The staff of the Los Angeles-based national magazine, Cybersocket, always put a star in the word "f*ck" in headlines and captions. But, said company president Morgan Sommer, that's got nothing to do with the sensibilities of the printer. "We allow it and our printer allows it," said Sommer. The star is "a way to draw attention to it." Company policy allows use of the complete word in story text.

Sommer added that Cybersocket is not X-rated. "We have no fully nude images in our publication. We talk about sex, we have a lot of adult advertisers, but we do not in fact publish anything pornographic." Cybersocket maintains a "less abrasive" language policy because, said Sommer, it's free and already considered "edgy" for its mentions of sex and its advertisers (mainly gay porn sites and videos).

Some six years ago, Sommer was confronted with an Orange County business refusing to print an annual directory. "Again, that pub had no sex or frontal nudity," Sommer said. Business owners felt their Christian staff should not be subjected to the advertisers' words and images while working the presses and binding machines. "We moved our annual's printing to Hong Kong," Sommer said. Cybersocket continues to be printed in Los Angeles, however.

Sommer said he can cope with being refused service. "Printers have a right to refuse to print anything they don't like," Sommer said. "They are not a public service.... If I want my right to produce protected, then I should also want other business owners to have the same right," he said. Some legal jurisdictions, however, do force equal treatment in service provision to the public - though it can take a costly legal battle to make the point. On the other hand, some employers refuse print jobs to protect themselves from sexual harassment litigation, brought by employees.

"I think the government should stay out of the business of forcing businesses to do something that is not about civil rights," said Sommer. "I don't perceive my need to print my magazine as a civil right."

X-Factor is a Phoenix-based magazine with a mix of glossy and nonglossy pages. Its content portrays "a safe, healthy and enjoyable erotic lifestyle," according to the mission statement. The publication relies on reviews (of porn, adult websites, and print erotica and gay-themed books, both fiction and non). There are also horoscope, travel, and fitness columns.

Editor Ken Furtado doesn't "censor any specific words." But he also works for the sibling LGBT general interest magazine, Echo, which "uses the 'star' when it's necessary to print an expletive."

Four years ago, a Utah shop refused Echo's business when the company was looking for bids. At the time, Furtado thought the printer was offended by gay content in general, not any particular image or word.

"We've never had problems with X-Factor," Furtado said. On the other hand, X-Factor's website has twice - once in 1998 and again in 2002 - had to find a new Internet host when changes in management or policy resulted in the rejection of adult sites.

Furtado has another set of restrictions to honor. Because X-Factor is distributed free in venues where alcohol is served, he mustn't run afoul of Arizona blue laws regarding pictorial content. "We oversimplify by stating we have a 'no cock, no crack' policy for all images," Furtado said. And he doesn't distribute in out-of-state venues subject to similar laws.

That doesn't mean that X-Factor quietly acquiesces to government control of private life. Furtado added a political commentary column to the magazine 15 months ago to keep readers aware of legal restrictions on adult entertainment. The column encourages readers to be active participants in a democracy (which, he believes, must allow gay men the freedom to enjoy porn). Recent topics tackled include the evils of refusing to teach evolution, the "onerous" record-keeping requirements when Internet companies post personals ads for customers, and other attacks "on the survival of America's ideals of liberty and justice for all." Said Furtado: "[W]e can no longer take porn and First Amendment or privacy rights for granted."

Though LPI is a company that's better known for producing The Advocate and Out, its SpecPub imprint is one of the larger publishers of gay male porn. Said to be extremely profitable, the porn line is now owned, along with many of LPI's original assets, by PlanetOut Inc. The magazines include Freshmen, Men, and Unzipped.

Have SpecPub magazines had printer problems? LPI promotions director Chip Stevenson won't say. He "cannot comment on [such] questions... since we are a publicly traded company."

In the queer popular imagination, gay male issues (and sex) have a harder time being accepted in the mainstream than do lesbian issues (and sex). Heather Findlay is editor in chief of the women's erotica title On Our Backs (see the news section below for more on On Our Backs). Findlay said men don't have the monopoly on such predicaments. "Oh yes, we've had problems," said Findlay. It's a constant struggle "because we're both lesbian and adult content." In 1996, Findlay lost a press date over a shipping snafu. She had to find another press - and fast. "Ten printers refused to print us," she said. Finally, she found a shop right across the street from notorious gay-hater Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church. "Two pressmen refused to help," she said. But the issue got out.

FLORIDA TWOSOME FOLD. Two long-lived Florida siblings shut down this month. The tabloid TWN, also known as The Weekly News, and the statewide weekly Contax Guide newsprint magazine, published their last issues this month. They are thought to be the region's oldest LGBT publications.

The closures were reported in the Miami Herald; neither TWN publisher Bill Watson nor managing editor Bill D. Green returned Press Pass Q's calls.

Both publications were touted as being "produced by gay people for a gay (and gay friendly) audience. We're not the 'special interest' section of an 'alternative weekly' or the 'pet project of the moment' of some regional daily," note both the Contax and TWN websites.

TWN was founded by volunteers in 1977 in response to singer Anita Bryant, who parlayed a job as spokesperson for Florida orange juice into a populist antigay lobby that led to the successful repeal of the first gay rights ordinance passed in Dade County.

TWN was distributed in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Its last print issue was March 2, with the next edition appearing online only. The final Contax Guide appeared in print and online on March 9. It shared staff and some content with TWN, as well as an office in Miami.

Writers for the publications told the Miami Herald that the closure "comes down to money." Previous cost-cutting plans had called for a page count reduction. At least one writer said the frequency of his paid column had been reduced.

- Eleanor Brown

GIRLFRIENDS ON THE BLOCK. San Francisco-based H.A.F. Enterprises is negotiating the sale of the monthly glossy magazine Girlfriends and the quarterly erotic lesbian title On Our Backs. The buyer is "an online media company," according to a March 3 press release, and the deal "will involve the magazines' brands, inventory, various assigned licenses and copyright to back content, and all online and newsletter properties...

"The buyer specified that it does not have immediate plans for print editions but is very interested in building out the online properties to tap into the growing market for Internet-based ad revenue."

H.A.F. president and editor in chief Heather Findlay stated the company will continue to publish its "series of official guides to major San Francisco events," which include handbooks for Pride celebrations and the Folsom and Castro Street fairs. In the press release, Findlay also noted that she "will be pursuing new opportunities, including an online venture dedicated to wine."

Findlay confirmed to Press Pass Q that she is H.A.F.'s majority shareholder and her mother, Erin, is "the other major shareholder." Heather Findlay founded Girlfriends in 1994. On Our Backs began publishing in 1984 and was purchased in 1996. When asked about magazine staff changes, Findlay said via e-mail: "I’ve kept Suzanne Corson, executive editor, and Karen Shertzer, sales director, on."

H.A.F. company spokesperson and lawyer Jennifer Hagan did not return Press Pass Q's telephone calls, but the communique stated the deal will be finalized in April.

PlanetOut Inc. is the continent's biggest gay online media company. But, said public relations manager James David, "Per company policy, we do not comment on rumors."

- Eleanor Brown

MUSLIM CARTOON COVERAGE. Sixty-eight percent of respondents to LGBT Minneapolis-based biweekly Lavender magazine's regular Internet poll told the magazine this month that it should publish the controversial cartoons that appeared in the Danish Jyllands-Posten newspaper that have been blamed for riots in the Muslim world.

Another 26 percent said the magazine should print the cartoons plus unpublished, even more "inflammatory" graphics used to further inflame Muslims, while 6 percent said "Lavender should not publish any of the cartoons." The question received 18 responses.

Some of the graphics portray the prophet Muhammad himself (one showed a bomb hidden in the prophet's turban), which many believe goes against the religion's rules.

The vote results, published March 17, are part of the magazine's continuing coverage of the controversy. Editor Ethan Boatner wrote a month earlier, on Feb. 17, that he would not print the cartoons: "I believe that Lavender's omission of the Danish cartoons stands not for capitulation to terrorists, but rather simple respect for those Muslims living and working peacefully here in the Twin Cities."

In an interview with Press Pass Q, Boatner said he's "not interested in printing nasty things about any group. I prefer to be respectful of people."

Lavender also ran letters to the editor on the topic and a commentary from syndicated writer Wayne Besen (who said moderate Muslims are, shamefully, allowing extremist Muslims to drown them out, and called the violent reaction "not normal or civilized").

Phoenix, Ariz.-based X-Factor editor Ken Furtado wrote in the March issue that "free speech is getting a drubbing over the violence unleashed by the widespread reprinting.... Knees continue to jerk on both sides of the issue." Wrote Furtado: "Cartoons do not kill people; people kill people." And he noted that religions - including Islam and Christianity - have perpetrated great injustices throughout the ages.

Boston's Bay Windows ran a piece Feb. 23 written by former editor Jeff Epperly, an atheist, examining attempts to balance free speech with sensitivity. "This is where the true culture war is," he wrote, "and it ought to frighten the bejeezus out of all of us: the majority of the Muslim world wants homosexuals dead or in jail. How's that for a 'culture clash'?"

He added: "Heterosexual liberals like to make nice about how we simply need to come to a cultural understanding with Islam. For those of us... deeply affected by the sight of those teenaged Iranian boys being led off to slaughter with nooses around their necks [allegedly for the crime of gay sex], we understand that with some cultures there can and should be no effort at cultural understanding."

- Eleanor Brown