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SOUTHERN VOICE OCTOBER 14/1993
The legend of the
Faggot
Iccording to Webster's a FAGGOT is a bundle of sticks used for
fuel. How then did this word gain usage as an EXPRESSION of con
tempt for gay men?
We must look to the Dark Ages. That period in the history of
HUMANKIND when progress stopped, civilization declined and much
of the hate and ignorance we suffer today began.
In that age a favorite pastime of church and state was burning at the
stake all UNDESIRABLES and heretics who didn't CONFORM to the
accepted standards of the ruling order. Wood being very costly and
burnings very frequent made this sport expensive.
An economic SOLUTION was quick in coming. Burning at the stake
was reserved for only superior sinners. Lesser deviants like HOMO
SEXUALS, were tossed on the pyre as cheaper fuel, just another fag
got in the flames. Even those who recanted of their SINS and were
spared the fire were forced to wear a badge with a faggot symbol so
their status would be known to all.
in 25th year
ir the STONEWALL
we turn this brand of
r of unity and survival:
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Kristin Hall
Continued from page 25
Her first assignment was “Slaves Night Out”
at the Texas Drilling Company, where she ran
into a co-worker who handed her a leash with a
man at ihe other end. He asked her to “hold this
while I go to the bathroom.”
“I was 18 and very green,” she says.
Though the publication itself ended in scan
dal, she remembers the journalism job as a
“lovely time of my life.”
“It was also very sad,” she adds. “It’s really
when AIDS first started happening. I remember
when we ran a whole back cover ad saying this
is going on, be aware of it. The world was
changing.”
After the Gayzcttc folded, Hall says, “1 be
came a bar hag. I worked at Weekends when it
was still on Peachtree and it was still cool.”
Then her life took what she now considers a
downhill turn.
“1 got into drugs pretty heavily. From that
point, it was just a rollercoaster. I spent really
the next four or five years being fucked up, as
fucked up as I could afford to be. I thank God
every day that I had nothing to lose at the time,
and that I wasn’t dependable enough to cam
more money, because everything I made went
into my body through drugs or something else.”
But it was also during this time that she
began to pick up her guitar more often, if only to
play for herself. “At every point in my life when
it got desolate and shitty, at home I would pick
up the guitar,” she explains.
Her break came when she got a job selling
futons. Her boss had a recording studio in his
basement where he recorded a couple of her
songs. He also made a recording for Indigo Girls
in his basement studio.
“Then he played one of my songs for them, I
guess,” says Hall. Though she went into a year
of drug rehabilitation at that point, that didn’t
stop her music. “1 would sneak out of drug rehab
to go to Tracksidc. I told them I was going to a
late AA meeting or something. Amy and Emily
would let me play a song.”
As Hall began to develop confidence in her
music, she also saw others in her community
getting recognition. “I remember picking up a
paper and seeing a picture of Michelle Malone
and (the article] saying she’s the next big thing.
And I thought, damn, I can do that,” she says.
But the music gave her more than confidence. It
also became a bridge to her recovery.
“It scents to me that the only way you can
get out of this circle is to make a new circle
Uingcnt to this one. Music really provided that
place for ntc,” she explains. The intensity of her
lyrics also reflects the places she has come from.
Hall has toured as an opener for acLs as
diverse as Kathy Maltca, Joan Baez, Concrete
Blonde, Christy Moore, Matthew Sweet and
CSN. She teamed up with Michelle Malone to
write two songs on Malone’s “Relentless” LP
on Arista. On Hall’s “Fact & Fiction,” she is
joined by artists like John Ashton (Psychedelic
Furs), Cindy Wilson (B-52s), Sara Lee (Gang of
Four), and Emily Sabers (Indigo Girls). She has
also toured with Indigo Girls, of course.
Though her acoustic-based guitar rhythms
could be compared to Indigo Girls’, “the simi
larity stops when you look at the lyrics. My
music is so much of a story-telling,” says Hall.
In her songs, Hall explains, “I’m telling you this
is exactly how I feel, and I’m not leaving you
any room to interpret it.”
In reference to her CD title, “Fact & Fic
tion,” she says, “It’s both. I try to stay true in the
facts, but it’s only my side of the story. I might
think I’ve been perfectly clear, when in fact,
I’ve been perfectly misleading.”
Hall will be back in Atlanta for a perfor
mance at the Variety Playhouse on October 16.
Look for her new CD to come out in the spring
of 1994.
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