Washington Blade editor tells all in new book

evin aff revisits years in the battle for B e uality in tome that is part history lesson, part celebrity dish

By ROB WATSON

Washington Blade Editor Kevin Naff this week published his first book, ow We Won the War for B E uality nd ow ur Enemies Could ake It ll way. he book commemorates aff s years editing the Blade and features two decades of his work updated with new insights and commentary, touching on everything from the fight for marriage e uality and repeal of Don t sk, Don t ell to celebrity encounters and the outing of public figures.

It s part history lesson and part celebrity dish, available now at ma on.com and kevinnaff.com.

he following is adapted from an interview between ob Watson of ated B adio and aff. o listen to the full interview, visit blogtalkradio.com ratedlgbtradio.

he two-decades long war in fghanistan was the longest in .S. history. Wars for civil rights have been much longer, and for many, nowhere near over. urs for B rights is a prime e ample.

While gains in our particular war have been many, and by historical standards, have come incredibly fast, they have now been fought by several generations.

Author and Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff highlights this perspective in his new book ow We Won the War for B E uality.

wo decades represents a mere blip in the arc of a civil rights struggle, yet in that span, the B community in the nited States went from legally second-class status to en oying near full protection of federal law along with widespread societal acceptance and even full marriage rights, aff writes.

e is aware that this look into our collective history represents a glimpse into a broader, and more painful fight, where many B families lost their fights. ot a week has gone by in my years at the Blade that I didn t think of the generation of gay men before me who didn t live to see all of this progress, he writes. hey inspire me. I do this work for them. hey did not die in vain. ot ust the men who died, but the lesbians who cared for them when no one else would. hey are not forgotten.

his is not a dry history lesson type of book, but if you want to learn, the book does tell the marriage e uality battle, Don t sk Don t ell, and how a lot of our wins unfolded, aff declared when he sat down with me on the ated B adio podcast.

e s right. ow to Win shares many of aff s articles written as events were unfolding. bsorbing these as a modern reader, I found my deep desire to fight against anything less than full e uality, and repression against our abilities to self-actuali e, getting hungrier and hungrier.

or those wanting shade and the truth, this book delivers, as it s filled with page-turning anecdotes to keep you glued and voracious right to the very end.

ike many of us, aff was persecuted for being perceived as gay when he was a kid. he walk home from school was particularly terrifying I walked alone and my tormentors would often follow, hurling rocks and anti-gay slurs. Sometimes the fear was so intense that I would feign sick ust to avoid a day of the torture, he writes. is youth was not a time when there was much sympathy, or help, for B children. It was the time of do-it-yourself.

here was the day I finally snapped, in seventh grade, while being taunted by a kid in gym class. he insults and threats became too much and all the anger rushed out of me I defended myself. nd it felt good, aff reveals. e acknowledges that his bullies forced me to cultivate an inner strength.

ears later, as a ournalist and conscience for public progressives, aff s unwillingness to back down, and passion to stand and fight, emerge time and time again in the book.

While he writes of contempt for eorge W. Bush s opportunistic use of same-se marriage as a campaign wedge issue, aff stepped up his fight to the ne t level when facing aryland ov. artin alley. alley was a progressive who used B goodwill and campaign muscle to get elected. When an appeals court re ected same-se marriage, alley went from champion to cad at light speed. e issued an offensive statement about Catholic sacraments and asserted his opposition to marriage e uality.

So, aff outed the governor s brother, atrick. hat the brother was gay was a fact commonly known in social circles, but had not reached the media level previously .

he governor was mad, but aff landed a one-on-one interview with alley, and eventually a path to the governor ipping support on the issue.

aff s unwillingness to allow B people to be pushed around is not ust with public figures who use us and then abandon us, people he calls duplicitous allies, but he feels no hesitancy in confronting ollywood icons and their cults, as ohn ravolta found out.

aff went viral with a piece in when he wrote a blog post critici ing the casting of a potentially closeted and indoctrinated Scientologist ohn ravolta, as the Divine-inspired drag role in ohn Waters musical version of airspray.

hat post generated the most attention and traffic of anything I ve written, aff says. y blog post encouraged gay fans to boycott the new film because its star, ohn ravolta, was Scientology s o. spokesperson and his cult was known to engage in reparative therapy, the debunked practice of changing one s se ual orientation.

ainstream gossip media declared that the gays were boycotting airspray. Soon aff found himself inundated with death threats, and being summoned by both o ews and the Church of Scientology itself.

aff agreed to a face off with o s Bill eilly whose friendly off-air persona turned rabid in front of the cameras. When aff pointed out that he was comparing gay people to drug addicts, eilly snarled, Don t be a wise guy, r. aff.

aff s biggest sin, according to the Church of Scientology, was referring to it as a cult. o prove that they weren t, the president of the D.C. church invited aff for a meeting. pon arrival at the Scientology mansion in Dupont Circle, the church president gave aff a tour, which included an immaculate first- oor formal office. fter inuiring whose office it was, aff was told that it was r. ubbard s office and that every church location had one.

CONTINUES ON PAGE 22

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20