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Date Posted: 00:51:29 10/18/24 Fri
Author: JeffsFort
Subject: My Answer
In reply to: JeffsFort 's message, "Imagine Magazine Question for 10/15 - "What Are We?"" on 16:50:24 10/16/24 Wed

I know that many people may opt out of answering this one because as we have seen with anything the Shack has done and done well,  it would be rocking the boat. I don't blame those who don't answer this one but quite often, Comicality and now even I am pressed to sum up in a couple words what IMAGINE Magazine actually is. This time it was after being asked to take over the https://www.boywiki.org/en/Imagine_Magazine entry to get it caught up after Comsie's passing and to make it more accurate. That was when I saw that we are listed there as a resource for the boy love community :O even though we are so much more.

Now to be clear, if I had to pick only one thing I want anyone to take away from this answer it should be that IMAGINE Magazine is anything but serious. Sure, we are serious about community, we are serious about how much we care about our friends, and we have all always been serious about supporting anyone who felt left out, alone, outcast, or even just hated who they are because of what others may say about them. That describes most people who have ever found shelter within The Shack Outback. Anyone who considers themselves a "Shacker" has either come from a bad situation or is in one. It is a community of outcasts founded by another outcast, and currently under the management of (you guessed it) even more outcasts. And we own that.

That should be the answer, right? No, hardly. When I respond with "We are kind of a hybrid" I am pressed to slam IM into the square hole it doesn't quite fit into. Bringing us back to the multi-cultural community that set the tone for IMAGINE Magazine to be created in as nothing more than an inside joke.

So to understand the Magazine, you need to understand the community. Comprised of mainly even more misfits and outcasts, we were all over the LGBTQ+ spectrum. All races, all religions, all ages... If you felt like you couldn't express yourself freely in your daily life, The Shack welcomed you with open arms. The only thing that would not be tolerated from it's members is being abusive to others. Which of course would be harshly criticized over the years, targeted often, and rarely be appreciated by outsiders. But as for who made up the populace of The Shack over the years, Gay men who hid who they were gay until they got old enough to feel cheated, young adults who were struggling with coming out and wanted a place to be themselves and to be loved for it, teens who saw the desires in the older members' stories that clearly showed a life that they wanted to make a reality somehow. Gay, straight, bi, trans... no one cared. It was the place where to fit in, you had to not be able to fit in. Even that wasn't perfect though as some would try to create barriers to classify sub groups in the community, often looking down on some. That was and looks like it will always be the case everywhere, not just online. Which is unfortunate.

Even longer story short though, are we a gay/lesbian/trans/alt publication? Yes. Are we a coming of age publication? Yes. Are we focused on the talents and success of our younger members? Yup! We often live vicariously through many of them as well. Are we in support of the whole boy love community? To a certain degree yes, which also carries a stigma all of it's own. Do we condone the ideals of the whole boylove movement, the love part of it, yes. The abuse that follows acting on it? No. There's a difference between attraction/admiration and arguing that the general public should stop protecting their children. Some of us learned that lesson the absolute hardest way, but we did learn it. I mean. let's be realistic; for every person that would absolutely never harm a child to satisfy an attraction, there are just as many that would be entitled to hurt and take to get what they desire. So we can't in good conscience consider ourselves a boylove publication even though we do agree with the love part of that label. For many, the attraction is youth. Youth is lost when maturity is rushed and lives become complicated and confusing. Many of us experienced that as well and carry the damage done as adults.

So to sum up: As one of the misfits from a 2+ decade old community that ended out steering a part of this oversized ship we call a magazine, I say we are still the inside joke for a community that took decades to be able to see sunlight through the smog that obscured us in the form of prejudice and persecution. IMAGINE is the ability to see beauty in everyone, admire talent in everyone, accept all for who they are right now, and be the support of a friend that any given one of us needs; while hopefully bringing the smile of a friend at the same time. We are IMAGINE and we intend to be that for those in our community who struggle to imagine on their own.

Still need a category? Fine. "Human Interest" ;)

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Replies:

  • I've always found this place to be a safe haven -- Dom, 12:29:13 10/26/24 Sat
  • ::HUGZ:: -- JeffsFort, 15:24:58 10/27/24 Sun
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