Livng Out and The Source has consistently fucked over many members of the GLBT community. My partner used to work for The Source and on many occasions (MANY!) his paycheck bounced. Here is one practice [Living Out and the Source] is guilty of: The Source had a higher turnover rate than most restaurants I know of. Typically, [they] would hire full-time staff, but fire them the day before they were eligible for benefits. Promotion in the company, or even just keeping the job was also obviously based along racial lines. Employees of non-white origin were obviously viewed as disposable.

Frequently, staff were denied their commission, or lied to about the exact amount. On a number of occasions, [the company] transfered one employees commission to [others in the company], claiming [an individual in the company was] actually the one who made the sale.

It is surprising to me that the TC Pride Committee trusted [Living Out and the Source] enough to produce the Pride Guide. I laughed when I heard that and was skeptical that the Pride Guide would actually come out. Lucky for them it did, but I wonder what the committee's knowledge of [Living Out and the Source] business practices were when they contracted Three Dollar Bill to produce the guide? Surely, someone on the committee had to have known. {Living Out and the Source'] poor community relations have been an open secret for years.

[edited by Andy]

It sucks that we get these greedy bastards who claim to represent GLBT communities and then fuck us in the butthole (pun intended). Lavender is NOT exempt here! (They claim to represent GLBT communities but frequently overlook communities of color)It gives real GLBTs a bad name and makes us look like swindlers.

I've edited the comments to take out people's names. It's one thing to criticize a company, but I'd rather not get into discussing private citizens. We can all trash politicians, celebrities, companies, etc. however, complaints against private citizens will be discouraged on this blog. I know the lines are never all that clear when we are discussing community members, so I had to edit those last 2 comments. Sorry y'all!

I worked for The Source for a very brief amount of time. In the time that I was there, I witnessed co-workers looking for alternate jobs during work hours, using work phones. There was a very distinct window period as to when one could cash a paycheck without fearing the possibility of it bouncing, and for awhile the bank in the same building wouldn't cash paychecks from Three Dollar Bill (the parent company).

I at one time had a list of things compiled that struck me as odd or not quite right when I worked there. I also heard through the grapevine that monies were sometimes taken without services provided.

It was a shady, shady business.

I worked there myself and know many others who worked there after I left and can say that most of the comments listed here are accurate if slightly misleading.

The African-American community was most certainly represented with promotions being given as well. I do not believe that my former employer was racist in the least.

But the rest? Yeah, there were bouncing checks during June and July of 2005 and the business was run badly. There were also some problems with the newspaper (Living Out) being stolen off the stands or being pushed off the shelves by Lavender's distribution - getting started in the Twin Cities is very hard. From what I heard, the GLBT Press suffered the exact same problem with Lavender.

But none of that excuses the company's poor business practices. Turn-over was far too high and this had to do with poor management, hostile management, and avoidance tactics used by the owner when confronted with a paycheck request.

About the only good thing I encountered in my short time there was the editor of the newspaper, a photographer, and a couple of the writers. I wish those men and women could buy the name Living Out and start their own paper away from the former ownership! They did a good job and I really miss them.

By the way, I hear rumors that they may not be finished yet and may be opening again in mid-August, but I'm not holding my breath. I should try to track down either Dave Rust or Steph Shaw who wrote for the paper and see if they know anything more.

I worked there, like a lot of others posting here, but you should know that even though some of it was pretty shady, the Nashville news article used sources that were very suspect. A former employee who had allegedly taken funds from the company and then tried to set up a competing business was one source and -of all things- Lavender was another. In one article in the Nashville area, Lavender actually tried to say that 3 Dollar Bill had so damaged the GLBT community in the Twin Cities that they were having a hard time fixing relations between the media and the rest of us!

Lavender!

Trust me: there are no good guys in this scenario, but not everything you read out of Nashville is acurate.

Please check us out. We are going to be big. We are the next publication in MSP. We hope to please everyone. www.gaymsp.com

I'm all about supporting new media ventures, but I hesitate to take seriously a new publication whose blog states: "We are building a product that this community deserves." and "We're new, hip and different. We're sexy and we're all about the men. It's a man's world honey and we're into men!!"

I hope that I don't have to point out that this community consists of more than men, and that sexy is not something I look for in a GLBT publication. I can just flip to the back half of Lavender if I want to see scantily clad men.

That's too bad what happened to Living Out. Ironically Living Out did more coverage of political issues than Lavender - which has always been abysmal at that.

I think one thing worth considering is looking at starting an online gay news portal for the twin cities.

I rarely get any gay political news from Lavender. The Rake, City Pages and the Star Tribune do much better on that score.

One thing about Lavender is they do pay writers.

I'd love to add in my 2 cents, since that is more than LivingOut has paid me in months. I am a contributing writer to this GLBT publication. I say "am" because LivingOut never had the decency to contact me or presumably any of the writers and photographers to let us know what in the heck is going on. As far as any of us know, we're still in the employ of LivingOut.

Have we heard so much as a peep from them in the last few weeks? NO! We're left wondering the following: Is the business kaput? Is the newspaper restructuring? Did an alien spacecraft filled with little green men with huge, black bug-like eyes snatch up Donna Gimbut (publisher) and Charles Hughes (editor) and commence performing painful medical experiments on them? A little update from these folks would have gone a long way.

Instead, what we have gotten from them is avoidance (whenever we inquire as to the whereabouts of our MIA paychecks) and lies, when we phone them about bounced checks.

Now, we don't even have the satisfaction of reaching a living, breathing human being at the end of a phone line. One of their phones has been disconnected. The other has had a full voicemail box for weeks now. Emails to various and sundry email boxes go unanswered. This is just a guess, but I somehow doubt that these business tactics are taught at the Carlson School of Business.

This is all so sad, since I really think that LivingOut was a quality product. The writing on politics was refreshing and something that was sorely needed in the GLBT press in the Twin Cities. The pieces on movies, plays and other forms of entertainment were informative and well-written.

I agree with a previous commenter above that LivingOut had a rough time of it, due in part to underhanded tactics by Lavender Magazine. There were many copies of LivingOut stolen from the stands. The stands themselves were stolen and broken to bits on many, many occassions. It is too bad that Lavender feels so paranoid about competition that they need to resort to playing dirty. Minneapolis and St Paul are big towns. There is more than enough room for several GLBT publications. LivingOut was quite a bit different from Lavender. The two publications filled different niches.

I hope that in the future, Lavender will ease up and simply be proud of the good work that they do, without stomping out any competition. You honestly do a great job -- just calm down, for cryin' out loud.

I also hope that LivingOut will come forward, do the honest thing, and pay their employees and contractors for the hard work that they did for them. We believed in you, Donna and LivingOut. This belief was translated into hard, quality work. Don't spit on our efforts. We don't deserve it.

There are a lot of things I cannot speak about - as much of this is secondhand information. However, the quote you referenced from the Nashville paper is accurate. Living Out (or more broadly, 3 Dollar Bill and The Source) did have a negative effect on the market in Minneapolis. Their business model (especially for The Source) was to convince straight-owned businesses that had no experience advertising with the gay market to advertise in The Source. The businesses that did, did so thinking the biz was legit, and that the company was printing 30,000 copies of the directory. However, they allegedly did not. And distribution was shady at best. So, the straight businesses didn't get any response from their ads (and it's very easy to track response rate when you have a coupon or special offer in your Source ad!) So, when Lavender, or any other gay pub approached them about advertising, they were not interested. "I tried the gay market, and it's not as loyal or lucrative as they say." They effectively tainted the market of straight businesses.
I don't know anything about throwing out copies or breaking stands, but I have heard (from a very reliable source) that Lavender was involved in a very underhanded - and extraordinarily shady - mailing that went out regarding some of Living Out's biz practices.
I agree - Lavender needs to stop freaking out any time someone new steps on the market.
But I disagree that the writing in LO was good. They did a nice job of reprinting press releases, and a few stories were good - especially on local political topics. But most of the writing was substandard and unedited.

I hope that the publisher of LivingOut realizes that by not paying the writers for work that they did, and she published in her newspaper, that she is in violation of a federal copyright law. This is serious.

I don't know if other former employees who commented are going to check back, but I hope they do, 'cause I ahve a couple things to add:

Write down days, times, etc, you've attempted to contact your (former?) employer for your compensation. Continue to do so for a week or so, and contact a lawyer. This woman broke laws, and is not compensating you for services rendered.

So sue her. Seriously. You deserve your money, or at least to give her hell and sleepless nights for not doing so.

You have got to be kidding me with this www.gaymsp.com crap. How dillusional are the people behind this? Good Lord. I'm not a huge Lavender fan, believe me - especially lately. The rag is going down the tubes. But come on. You think that what we need is a couple of hotter-than-thou queens reviewing gay bars, posting pics of gay bars, and showcasing a single guy of the month selected from self-nominating hedonists? And as if I'm not already turned off by the site, their arrogance is completely revolting.
Give me a freaking gay break!

From what I have now heard, LivingOUT is, indeed, no more. I was there from the first issue to the last and hope that the 200+ articles I wrote were well-recieved and useful. I'm sorry to see it all go and, yes, I would like to be paid for the work I did up until the end.

I can say that I've heard about many of the allegations commented upon here but have little more to add.

I'm frustrated that it came to this and wish I could find out when or even if I'll be paid for sticking around to the bitter end.

Being a reporter has meant I've seen some really nasty stuff in the GLBT community but I've also seen some really good stuff. While I've found a new job outside the field of journalism, I hope someone steps up to the plate to start a GLBT Newspaper for Minnesota.

Lavender certainly isn't cutting it.

David Rust, you were the single best thing about LivingOut. The best to you in your new job!

I worked for Donna Gimbut's company and am still waiting to get paid for work I did last June. I had to send a certified letter to her with a copy sent to the Labor Department to try and get my last paycheck. I got a check for $35 stating that another check of mine was indeed short and that my last paycheck was sent to my old address. It never was.

I am not pleased at all with a newspaper claiming to work toward GBLT rigts that does not even pay its employees.

Toni Manning

I am appalled at the business practices of The Source! I represent one of the businesses that paid them to advertise our business in their directory(which never came out). We have never been contacted on what the situation is and haven't received a refund.After reading all of this, I am definitely going to pursue getting our money refunded.

Well, I have been wondering what the situation was with Three Dollar Bill... I worked for Donna and company back in 2003 in Denver. That year had a few rough spots, but was ok for the most part. Being a straight guy in a GLBT publication, I did feel welcome and over all it was a good experience. I was never made to feel like an outsider or discriminated. If anything, I felt very welcome and I really felt a kinship with many of the people I worked with. I took on, after leaving as a sales rep, their web site. I rebuilt it from the ground up, paid out of pocket months of hosting while it was in development and bent over backwards (is that a pun?!?!) to help and make it successful for them. I was paid for the programming part (luckily, as I outsourced that part) but I was never paid for the sites front-end development. After a few months of not receiving hosting money, I notified the source that I was disconnecting their site. I got a call from their graphic designer guy, the day before the site was to go down, asking how to back it up. I even did a cool flash intro page for Donna for the LivingOUT site for free, because I believed in them and believed in their sincerity and because I could help them with that. It saddens me to see people do this kind of thing. I am not angry about the money, it is only money and I am not an angry person… I am saddened that people treat others that they proclaim to care about like this. Our world is very whacked out and I am continually looking for the bright side and the good in my fellow persons and I keep finding this… I hope all those that were wronged will leave the anger behind – do not forget and do not stop trying to get what you deserve, but just leave the anger – it just perpetuates what is wrong with the world – anger, hate, distrust. Don’t lose faith, be strong! Speaking for myself, I will continue to believe and I will continue to help when I can – although, I will be a bit more cautious now. So… anyone wanna buy a really great yellow page type web site?!?!?  Peace, Love and Prosperity to all!

If anybody knows where Ms. Gimbut or Ms. Barry might be please call (866)886-8153 ext 103. There is a $500 finders fee available please call for details.

Hello from Phoenix. My partner and I paid nearly $1700.00 in December 2004 for what we were told would be a very colorful and glossy ad released in the Source directory at Phx Pride in April 2005. The edition never materialized. I kept copious notes about conversations I had with several employees and am interested in any up-to-date info about Donna/3 Dollar Bill, etc. I have read stories based in Mn, TN, IL and AZ and believe there is enough evidence to demonstrate fraud. Does anybody have any additional info about the latest regarding Donna and her fly-by-night rip off scam???

Writing from Phoenix where the dishonest business practices of Donna and Co. are ebing felt by many. My partner and I paid nearly $1700.00 in December 2004 for an ad in a publication that never materialized. I kept copious notes from conversations with employees and it seems there is enought eveidence to support a claim of fraud. I read similar accounts in publications based in TN, IL, MN and AZ. Does anyone have any up-to-date info about Donna and the Co??

We are out hundreds of dollars in advertising that was paid months before The Source was to be released. I trusted Kristin Barry and the publisher Donna Gimbut. They are both crooks and should repay all the money that they stole from advertisers.

Who ever knows were Donna Gimbut is please provide her contact information we need to contact and get our moeny back. She should never be allowed to live above the poverty line until she pays back every dime she stole plus interest.

I saw in City Pages that she had 3 cars - 2 of them BMWs - I guess that is were my money went.

Donna Gimbut is a disgrace to all... do the right thing Donna!!!

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