SWiSHing Across the Pond

It all started a year ago when I received an email entitled "Swedish Fag Hag Writer" from a woman named Linda Leopold who identified herself as "a Swedish journalist, editor, and writer. And fag hag." Now mind you, I get emails like this all the time in my capacity as Co-Founder and Queen Hag of SWiSH. But this one intrigued me. Linda expressed her interest in including a chapter on SWiSH in the book, aptly titled "Fag Hags." She said we would be interviewed about love, friendship, politics, and activism along with Margaret Cho, Rufus Wainright and other fags and hags across the pond and in the U.S. Could she follow us around during Pride 2007 in NYC?, she asked. "Sure!" was my reply.

Fast forward to June 2007, and five fun days preceeding and following Pride in NYC telling my innermost fag hag thoughts to this smart, creative woman whom I had just met, and had quickly grown to love. She interviewed Jay and Jamie and Mark and Sean and me about the early days of SWiSH, what we were thinking. We looked at SWiSH home movies and hundreds of photos and our scrapbooks. And while we may have been helping Linda with her book, we were also renewing our faith and love of SWiSH and being reminded about why we all came together on this crazy journey to begin with.

So now I am getting ready to leave tomorrow for 5 days in Stockholm with Linda, her sister hags and fellow fags to celebrate the publication of her book in grand style, and on the unofficial gay holiday - Halloween.

With good news of my first consulting gig in my pocket and waiting for my return, I leave excited and energized for my international fag hag adventures.

Tune in daily for reports from Stockholm.

www.swishpride.org