COLUMBIA--On January 8, South Carolina blogger Alvin McEwen
published an online booklet designed to take a new direction in refuting anti-gay
propaganda.
Three weeks later, he is astounded as to how successful the
booklet, How They See Us: Unmasking the Religious Right War on Gay America,
has been.
Since being published on the online site Scribd, the booklet has generated over 8,000
reads, over 81,000 embedded views and over 600 downloads. It was also named to Scribd’s Rising List, which is a list of publications
on the site generating many reads and views in a short amount of time.
McEwen credits the booklet’s success to fellow bloggers who,
like himself, embedded the booklet on their sites and publicized it by word of
mouth.
“This booklet wouldn’t have been as successful as it was
without the help and promotion of many of my friends and people who believe in
the work which I am doing. So I am extremely grateful for their help and
encouragement,” McEwen said.
However, mainstream gay media attention has eluded How
They See Us.
McEwen sent press releases to various large scale gay
magazines and blogs with little success.
He said he understands the lack of attention by the mainstream gay media
because of so many things happening in the gay community and the fact that he
has neither a national name nor reputation.
For the most part, McEwen has received much positive
feedback for How They See Us. But as
with all projects, there were a few complaints. Two complaints bothered McEwen tremendously.