Three printing companies have refused to publish the spring edition of Fusion, a Campus Progress-sponsored LGBT magazine at Kent State University, citing concerns over its images and language.
The controversy has cost Fusion, Campus Progress' 2010 awardee for Best Overall Publication, more than $2,000, its editor says, as well as substantial effort as students try to release the issue before the school year ends next week.
One company after another turned Fusion down before a fourth printer agreed to take the issue to press.
"We are very surprised that it happened more than once," says Raytevia Evans, the editor of Fusion and a first-year journalism and mass communications graduate student at Kent State.
The controversial magazine issue includes an eight-page spread featuring cross-dressing models, with the headline "Gender Fuck" written in large print above. Because the issue has not yet been released, Fusion requested that Campus Progress withhold posting the controversial content.
The three Ohio-based printing companies that rejected Fusion in its final form--Freeport Press Inc. in Freeport, Hess Print Solutions in Brimfield, and Davis Graphic Communication Solutions in Bamberton--cited similar reasons for refusing to publish the magazine.