Chris Kluwe Takes a Stand
[GLAAD’s 2013 “Outstanding Newspaper Article” Winner] How Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe became “football’s most aggressive straight ally to the gay rights movement”:
“Kluwe says he doesn’t see the issue of gay marriage as political. His philosophy on the subject goes back to the Golden Rule, and he believes an amendment that would constitutionally criminalize same-sex marriage amounts to institutionalized segregation.
“‘You see all these arguments against gay marriage, and they all kind of logically boil down to: “It makes me feel icky,”‘ says Kluwe. ‘That’s not a valid logical argument! Like, tell me that gay people getting married is going to cause someone to steal your garage door opener, or it’s going to cause your dog to poop in your front yard. I can argue against that!'”
Bringing Them Back to Life
Scientists have made advances in cloning procedures that would conceivably allow them to bring back extinct species. But is “de-extinction” something humans should be doing?
“Other scientists who favor de-extinction argue that there will be concrete benefits. Biological diversity is a storehouse of natural invention. Most pharmaceutical drugs, for example, were not invented from scratch—they were derived from natural compounds found in wild plant species, which are also vulnerable to extinction. Some extinct animals also performed vital services in their ecosystems, which might benefit from their return. Siberia, for example, was home 12,000 years ago to mammoths and other big grazing mammals. Back then, the landscape was not moss-dominated tundra but grassy steppes. Sergey Zimov, a Russian ecologist and director of the Northeast Science Station in Cherskiy in the Republic of Sakha, has long argued that this was no coincidence: The mammoths and numerous herbivores maintained the grassland by breaking up the soil and fertilizing it with their manure. Once they were gone, moss took over and transformed the grassland into less productive tundra.”
In Mississippi, the Mysterious Murder of a Gay, Black Politician
A black gay man running for mayor in a Mississippi town is murdered, leaving residents with lots of questions, but few answers:
“When McMillian decided to run for mayor, Owens and his friends saw it as a chance for a fresh start. His death has given Owens a sort of helpless feeling, like shadowy forces are conspiring against him and his town.
“‘It could have been a political hit, you never know,’ he says. ‘He knew. That’s the funny thing. He knew he was going to die. He said they was gonna kill him…. He knows how this town is. If you want to be on top, something that comes with money and power, you can pay a big price.'”
Money Matters: Neal Pollack
The writer reflects on his professional and financial mistakes, and how he’s changed his focus:
“I was still just a guy with one book under his belt. And a book that, despite all the attention it was getting, sold maybe 10,000 copies. It wasn’t some sort of international publishing phenomenon. It was, at best, sort of a moderately successful indie-rock project. So I still had to do stuff like write promotional copy for Weight Watchers to support myself and pay my mortgage, which was relatively small. The year I quit the Reader, I made almost no money. Maybe $30,000. And I thought, ‘Aren’t I supposed to be a famous writer? Is this it? A drafty townhouse in Philadelphia?’ So that pattern established itself for me over the years; I’d have a little success, let it go to my head, and then make some outrageous move to try and capitalize on that, and the move would come crashing down on my head. I would always get a little overexcited.”
Blood, Sweat And Fears
A man with blood phobia discovers an effective treatment for his condition:
“He tells me to close my eyes as he puts a new image on the screen of the computer. It is a red dot. I tense my muscles. No problem. And so it goes, until I am looking at blood dripping off the cuticle of a nail. Still, no problem. ‘I love treating phobics,’ Taylor says, grinning. ‘It’s so wonderful to see people do these exercises and get better quickly. It’s so effective.'”
Brief Encounter with the Household Gods
[Fiction] A daughter talks about her father and his favorite TV Show:
“It’s the political woman who’s responsible for his new phase. I see him watching her on her TV show. With her husband & her kids, she’s traveling around her totally backward state. My dad loves that show. He gets all excited because sometimes she climbs out of their obnoxious vehicle & somebody hands her a rifle & she shoots a dog or a moose. ‘This woman’s real, Juby,’ my dad says. ‘You’ve got to sit down and watch this. This is how women used to be in this country.’
Longreads Member Exclusive: Jason Zengerle’s First Assignment for Might Magazine
This week, we’re thrilled to feature Jason Zengerle, a contributing editor for New York magazine and GQ who has been featured on Longreads many times. Our Member Pick is Jason’s 1997 story on Michael Moore for Might magazine: “Is This Man the Last, Best Hope for Popular Liberalism in America? And, More Importantly, Does He Have a Sense of Humor?”
Support Longreads—and get more stories like this—by becoming a member for just $3 per month.
After the Mile
[Not single-page] In 1966, Tim Danielson became the second American high school runner to run a mile under four minutes. Years later, Danielson is now facing murder charges for killing his third wife:
“Nguyen, an electronics engineer, said she suggested that Qi move out of Danielson’s house, telling her friend that Danielson had treated her nicely in bringing her to the United States and establishing her son in school. Make peace with him, Nguyen said she told Qi. Danielson deserved that much respect.
“About 10 days before the shooting, Qi began to pack some things, which made Danielson angry, according to Nguyen. A few days later, he put some of Qi’s belongings in storage and told her to leave. He seemed conflicted, Qi told Nguyen.
“‘She couldn’t understand what he wanted,’ Nguyen said.”
Longreads Guest Pick: Digg’s David Weiner
The editorial director for Digg tells us what he’s reading right now.
Washed Away
Two years after Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, the writer returns to the small town of Onagawa, which was wiped out:
“Through repeat visits and long stays as a volunteer relief worker, I would come to know Fujinaka and post-tsunami Onagawa well. Most of my fellow volunteers that summer were Japanese from undamaged prefectures—students with time on their hands, retirees, people in their early-to-middle years who were so casually employed that they could get off work or quit altogether. Many of these were what you might call ‘dropout’ types—musicians and the like. Few of us could say that anything had happened to us on March 11. But we all came to feel we had a stake in Onagawa. We planted that stake there ourselves, and it allowed us to claim that we loved the place too. Some of the younger ones said they wouldn’t leave until the town was fixed, however many years that might take.”
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