Recently, TheColu.mn caught up with Meefers.com, an online GLBT multimedia website aimed at connecting queer communities across the United States. The publication has a presence in Minneapolis and St. Paul for about a year. We checked in with them to see how the site is going and what is in store for the future.

TheColu.mn: When was the one-year anniversary?

 Meefers.com: Meefers.com had its anniversary on May 1st.  We’re happy to say that we made it and are continuing to grow and expand our website.

TC: Who started and owns Meefers?

M: Clay Ebert and I, life partners of five years, and Co-Founders.  Meefers recently purchased our business partner’s remaining shares and are now 100 percent owners of the business. I work as the President, Executive Creative Director, and Editor-In-Chief.  Clay is the Chief Financial Officer and Editor. 

TC: How many cities now? And any new ones for the future? 

M:  We are up to 11 cities currently. We are hoping to add San Diego and Los Angeles by the end of the year.  We are hopeful to add some more cities after that.  

TC:  Last summer Meefers held a big three-city concert tour.  Pretty ambitious stuff for a start up! Any more big events on the horizon and if so, where?

M: We held a nice event in Michigan a few months back, entitled, “We Are Michigan”. We combined gay and gay-friendly musical acts together with gay-rights speakers to promote LGBT equality.  We definitely want to do more events and parties across the nation…maybe Minneapolis could be next! 

TC:  On the development of communities Meefers had this to say…

M: We are excited to be apart of the gay industry and gay culture as gay men. It’s so nice to be “out of the closet” and to be doing business and commerce with other gay folks–a dream come true.  Meefers wants to help promote gay culture to gays and to allies across the country.  We “gays” are still second-class citizens in this country, and that alone should encourage all of us to work together, to help one another, as best we can, until we truly have equality.  News states that gays will account for close to $2 trillion in ‘buying power” by 2012 (right now we are close to a trillion).  So let’s, as a gay collective, use that money to support gay business and commerce, and use the energy of that money to make our demands for equality.

TC: Future plans?

M: On a film note, we donated some funding to a Chicago LGBTQ advocate lecturer (and freelance writer for Meefers), Greg Baird, for his full length documentary, Second Class Citizen: Gay Rights in the New Millennium, which is in post-production and will hopefully be ready for film festivals by late winter or early spring. 

Also in the works is a national “social network” that we are working on, which hopefully will launch by the end of the year, similar to Myspace or Facebook, respectively.  The code is currently being worked on as we speak–but the site (which I cannot say the name of just yet) will be an LGBT focused social network.  We are very excited to launch it. 

 And if that isn’t enough!

I guess I should mention that Clay and I are also co-founders and now 100% owners of FoxonaHill Productions , which currently acts similar to a music label. Our goal is to promote arts and culture by supporting artists, musicians, and filmmakers.  Mostly that’s been through micro-loans and distribution deals, licensing, etc.  We are currently working on a “Hollywood” music licensing deal that will be groundbreaking for us in terms of our expansion.  We’ve produced over 30 albums these past three years, mostly contemporary folk-rock music. We did Executive Produce a full-length documentary called “La Curacion” (The Healing), by filmmaker Yoni Goldstein, examining the shamanic health practices of Quito, Ecuador.

  We really want to expand our film and art section of FoxonaHill in the months to come. 

TC: There you have it, a couple of queers moving and shaking their Meefers!