In 2015 OUTinPerth suddenly closed when the parent company that owned the publication was placed into liquidation.
The publication had begun life as a monthly newspaper that was launched in 2002, and later it transformed into a glossy monthly magazine.
Then in 2015 the company who owned OUTinPerth, and companion publication QPages suddenly shut down. The company also owned a signage and printing business.
In the days that followed the closure Leigh Andrew Hill and Graeme Watson, who were employees of the publication, set up their own company Speirins Media and successfully bought the rights to OUTinPerth.
Then with community support through a GoFundMe campaign the magazine returned only missing one edition. In 2019 OUTinPerth made the move to being a fully digital offering.
Mexican author Luis Zapata was born on this day in 1951. He went on to become one of the most successful and acclaimed gay writers in Mexican literature.
His most celebrated book was 1979’s El vampiro de la colonia Roma, which was released in English as Adonis García: A Picturesque Novel. It tells the story of a lonely hustler named Adonis García, who enthusiastically cruises the city in search of sex and moves through social circles spanning all classes.
Alongside his novels and autobiographies, Zapata wrote for film, worked as a translator, and directed theatre. He was responsible for translating many well‑known works into Spanish for Mexican readers.
He wrote 14 books during a career that began in 1975, with his final work published in 2014.
Zapata died in November 2020, aged 69. His work has been widely acknowledged as helping shift attitudes towards gay men in Mexico. “He paved the way to make visible the LGBTTTIQ movements in the country,” the Ministry of Culture said upon his passing.
The Secretary of Culture, Alejandro Frausto Guerrero, also offered condolences to the writer’s family, saying: “With pain and affection we say goodbye to Luis Zapata, pioneer of LGBT+ literature in Mexico. Creator of experimental and emotional novels, he will be remembered for the brilliant The Vampire of Colonia Roma and the monumental In Shreds. My condolences to his family and friends.”
Image by Luis Miguel Bernal, published via a Creative Commons License 3.0.
