part 1 | part 2
	What's the purpose of Sylvester? There is probably more than one purpose. We actually want to change the gay world of today. Compared to other gay media who mostly wants to document the gay society. Have sex, have fun, don't be afraid of discovering new things. We're outside of the pattern of how you should be. Gays are very good at self-inflicted oppression. In order to be a good fag you must be this or that. In fact QX had a test in an issue: Are you a real homo? First of all you must love popular music [schlager Ed. note], and so on. That's a gay culture we're not quite at comfortable with. It's really an old school gay society with all the kitsch and camp. We're very open at Sylvester with that people are actually searching for sex on the site, and it's ok. Go out and party till five in the morning, have fun! The risk of being a gay accepted by the heterosexual society is becoming genderless. Then it's all about friendship and baby adoption. What kind of response do you get to your articles on the site? There are many moralists, people wonder: How could you tell him to have an open relationship? There are a lot of double standards - I don't want to have an open relationship, so I sleep around instead. It's not ok with drugs, but I sniff poppers [a drug said to have aphrodisiac effects]. But it's not up to us to raise people. You still have to have role models, but there are as many idiot gays as straights. Gays are a minority group. If someone is feminine or straight acting [masculine] others consider him to be a shame for "our people". We are too small of a subculture to be divided into further sub cultures. Everyone from the 15 year old guy who just came out of the closet, to the 47 year old man who've been out for 20 years, hang out at Sylvester. That's a very wide spectrum. You can't expect all those people to be the same. Is Sylvester a 9 to 5 job? We're at the office 9 to 5, but we also work when we're out of the office. When we're out people approach and want to talk. We've done a lot of things and sometimes people recognize us though they can't quite place us. It's Sylvester that's important though, not the individuals behind it. That's the drawback of this being such a small society. Though we're rather anonymous, everything is actually a parish pump, everyone knows what everyone has done. Stockholm is simply too small, in fact so is Oslo, Copenhagen and even London. More people choose to be in the periphery, you don't even have to be gay to visit gay clubs. Do you hang out when not working as well? Not that much really, since we see one another everyday at work. What's a typical day at Sylvester like? You get in, check your e-mail. We have stations to manage. What we do depend a bit on how far from a new issue we are. We're a bit to few people to always quite have the time with everything that needs to be done. Sometimes the site will have to suffer in order to get the printed magazine done in time. So you're looking for more people? Today we're not looking for more editors, but we are looking for more freelancers. We always do. A lot of people want us to find them, some believe you can't just call a magazine and present your ideas. People who get in touch often want to be sent out on missions, cover certain news, but it's better if you have the ideas, we can't be aware of all the things going on, you do. What would you be doing if Sylvester hadn't existed? Tomas: I do a lot of music, I jock all from punk music to techno, make radio chronicles, and work as a freelance journalist. Henrik: It's hard to say because I like it at Sylvester, but if it wouldn't work out I'd be writing in one way or another. But probably not in any gay media. On the site you call straight people hetrofjolla [something like hetro-sissy]. Is that because you don't want as many straights to register? Yes. Actually there are hetrofjolla and faghag. You can either think well it's fun or you don't like it at all and then you don't belong here. It's they who are different now, it's a sort of a queer school. There were some complaints about that just in the beginning, but besides that people don't seem to mind. Who's your hero? Tomas: Glenn Danzig. He looks like Wolverine and makes all from good punk music to good hard rock. He has made himself into an icon, always referring to himself in such manners. Henrik: David Letterman and Robert Ashberg [Robert Ashberg could be the Swedish equivalent to David Letterman. Ed. note] are two people who do what they do in a smart way. They're not my heroes, but they're doing their thing very intelligent. And I like drama queens, like Marc Almond and Depeche Mode. People who've lived a dramatic life and revels themselves in their own sorrow. Visit Sylvester at www.sylvester.se
	robin
	part 1 | part 2
	back to menu