Poet Details Account of Tampa Killings
In Other Words, December 2005
Volume III, Issue 20
In the Fall Issue of Velvet Mafia's online journal, poet Steven Reigns recounts with detail and depth the killings of Tampa residents Jason Galehouse and Michael Wachholtz according to an affidavit filed on May 20, 2005. Velvet Mafia is one of the web's premier gay literary publications. This award winning journal has never been shy to controversial subjects. The topics have ranged from love, politics, fetishes, and even murder.
Reigns explains his motivation to write the poem This is Not, about the killings. "I had a hard time processing the murders because of how close this was to my life. We went to the same bars, they were around my age, and the murders happened in a house I passed often while exercising with my friend Jill."
Reigns recently located to Los Angles but still connects strongly with the incident. "This wasn't a headline, this was hedging against my gay reality. I spent so much of my time in Tampa battling homophobia because it slowly erodes our esteem. But I was blindsiding with this type of destruction. It was from within and more brutal."
Upset by the lack of national coverage on the murders, Reigns is pleased with the poem's far-reaching audience online. Velvet Mafia receives 100,000 reads per issue and the poem will be archived for years to come.
Editor Sean Meriwether chose to link to the affidavit on www.findjasonnow.com "It was important to me for readers to see that this poem, similar to Reigns' other poems in the issue, was factual and that this is a gay reality. The themed issue of Velvet Mafia took on the over-armament of the world by publishing work featuring weapons, and asked our audience to Surrender Your Weapon."
The 17 issue of Velvet Mafia launched on November 1, 2005.