Andy Boreham The co-publisher of Up magazine believes NZ glbt people need to work more on strengthening our relationships with one another, as individuals and groups. Who are you and what's your background? I am a 23-year-old gay Wellingtonian with six brothers and one sister. I was born in Westport and moved to the capital at age 4. I spent most of my childhood making movies with my video camera and dreamt of being a director, so left high school in sixth form to be a part of The New Zealand Film School's inaugural class where I graduated and decided I wanted to start my own publication - don't ask me how! So, in 2002, I put the idea of starting a gay newspaper past a friend who runs a newspaper and once I found out it wasn't all that hard to do I enlisted my good friend Aaron Hailwood as a partner and away we went! What have you hoped to achieve with UP? To create a light-hearted, easy to read non-het publication that wasn't too serious, wasn't too tied up with issues and struggles. That stuff is of course really important, but I wanted to create something new, something that people could laugh with, or at! I want to help people celebrate everything that makes us stand out. What characterises the NZ GLBT community for you? Well, I should say something really sweet and nice here, but instead I'll be sincere. The thing that most characterises the NZ GLBT community for me is the way we make out we're so closely knit and accepting, yet we argue and hurt each other so much with our own internal differences and dramas, and it doesn't seem to end! We need to work more on strengthening our relationships with one another, individuals and groups. What's the worst thing for you about being GLBT? When straight people tell me they know someone who is gay and that being gay is cool! Best thing? Umm, the sex! Relationship status? I've been seeing a cute, smart, stubborn and funny guy for the past year. He doesn't really get into the whole gay thing - I haven't met anyone who hates drag queens more than he does, and he's never been to a gay bar - so I guess opposites really do attract. He provides a great balance to my overly gay life and really brings me back down to earth with his obsession with videogames and anything to do with war. He wants to join the French Foreign Legion but I won't let him 'cos I like his hugs too much! Favourite food and drink? There are too many - I eat all the time! Favourite drink is probably milk. Favourite food would have to be... bangers and mash with pouched eggs (the yolk has to be runny) and the tomato sauce must be on tap! Wait, tomato sauce is my favourite food - I have it with everything. Worst habit? Twirling other people's hair - I've created many a knot that have to be cut out... Most noble feature? Loyalty. Favourite TV show/movie? I don't really watch TV - but I love the series Air Crash Investigation on National Geographic. And I liked Dangerman with Geoff Mackley. Movie: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original!) Qualities you most appreciate in a GLBT person? Modesty, loyalty, and a non-bitchy attitude. I also really respect people who judge others on their own experiences and not on nasty gossip. What are you reading at the moment? My answer to the previous question... yeah, it sounds good! Who in the world including NZ would you most like to have coffee and a chat with? Probably the new Pope. He'd preferably be tied to a chair in some remote place and no one would know where he was. I'd force him to have a lengthy discussion with me about why I'm abhorrent and unacceptable. Role models? My mother - she's the most loving, accepting, understanding and cool mum anyone could wish for. I always look at her and what she does when I'm feeling down and need some direction. Then I'd have to say a gay role model would be Malcolm Kennedy-Vaughan, one of the owners of Pound in Wellington. He has this incredible nack of being able to tell people how it is, what they're doing wrong and what he thinks they should change in such a way that you believe every word he says. He's a powerful and engaging speaker that you just feel drawn to, and he uses this tool whenever he can to help Wellington, and New Zealand's, GLBT communities. What is the most pressing issue currently facing the New Zealand GLBT community? Well we all need to open our arms to Brian Tamaki and stop dissing him left, right and centre. If we don't show him love and acceptance then he's never going to come out of the closet! If you could have one wish granted what would it be? A ten year free pass on any airline that goes anywhere in the world. And ten million dollars!! GayNZ.com - 14th May 2005