Kerr-age

At the Republican debacle, er, um, debate the other night, a retired gay general, Keith Kerr, stood up to press the candidates about the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. And the candidates flubbed, especially Mitt Romney, who told a general with 43 years of experience that gays and lesbians would be bad for the military.

Did you learn that during your time in the military? Right, right. You weren't in the armed services.

And the controversy that followed? That Kerr is affiliated with Sen. Hillary Clinton's camp.

It seems mostly everyone has rolled over the actual exchange between Kerr and the candidates because, you know, the president of the United States doesn't have to answer to anyone who differs from him ideologically.

Let the money talk

Studies, studies everywhere and not a drop ... of change in policy?

A new report from UCLA shows that the state of Maryland would earn roughly $3 million if the state legislature allowed same-sex marriages. The article notes that in the debate over same-sex marriage and homosexuality in general, rarely does finance enter.

Maybe it should. The UCLA report finds that the state would earn more money not only from marriage licenses but also from sales taxes imposed on same-sex weddings.

To quote Tina Fey:
"Cuz you know those gay guys would go all out."

Republicans love money. This could get awkward.

As long as we all hate the gays

As everyone else tries to make an issue about Mitt Romney's Mormonism and his strange under garments, he wants the good folks in Iowa to be concerned about banning gay marriage through a Constitutional Amendment.

In his "colorful" brochure being sent to every Iowa caucuser (?), Romney points out that McCain, Thompson and Guiliani oppose such an amendment -- which would have little chance of passing, cost tons of money and divert from any solid issue that could affect the everyday lives of Americans.

Say, like, health care costs rising so high the U.S. will go bankrupt?

But that's not important right now. Just so long as everyone in Iowa remembers they should vote to protect their marriages, which are legal and are in no danger of being declared otherwise.

Or something like that.

Let's get this week started

The New York Times profiles a lesbian pastor who might lose her collar when the Lutheran Church gathers in 2009 to rule on pastor's in same-sex partnerships. She, according to the article, runs a loving ethnically diverse parish -- things that the modern church needs to embrace if it's going to survive.

But, because of an obscure passage in the Old Testament right after God tells the people not to have sex with women during that time of the month, the congregation that has mostly embraced their lesbian leader might be looking for a new pastor in the coming months.

And be sure that some of these women will be looking for a new church as well.

Happy Turkey Day

Today is that magical day when thousands of gay uncles across America bring their "roommates" to dinner. Well, it's about time those ascot-wearing uncles who cook the best spinach-apricot appetizers let the rest of the family (who already knows) that they're gay. The other impeccably dressed man?

Lover. Not roommate.

Gay. Not sensitive.

Let's make Turkey Day = Coming Out Day.

Poofters all around

All knowing blogger, Princess Sparkle Pony, reports this morning that one Mr. David Phillips has won his First Amendment battle with the Virginia DMV. Phillips -- known mostly as that guy who had sex with Larry Craig one time -- wanted to keep his "poofter," or "queer" in Britian, license plates that he's had for the past 10 years. And the Virginia government relented.

Here's Phillips celebratory remarks, according to the Princess:

VA DMV called this morning to back down. I had sent their generic plates back last week directly to the head of the DMV with a very strong letter regarding First Amendment rights. The new manager for Special Plates called to acknowledge receipt of the substitute plates and to orally declare the issue closed. As I told my office mate, don't fuck with a queen over 40 -- you will not win.

No word on whether Sen. Craig has also sent his congrats.

Sean Penn to play Harvey Milk

Hollywood babdboy and paparazzi boxer Sean Penn will play gay-rights activist Harvey Milk in a bio-pic about the "Mayor of Castro."

No word yet on who gets to play the deranged assassin, Dan White. Or who gets to play his equally deranged lawyer, the one that invented the Twinkie Defense to prove White was not responsible for shooting two men in cold blood. Mmm. Twinkies.

Let's all just hope the White Night Riots stay in the film. And maybe Sen. Dianne Feinstein will make a cameo appearance. Maybe one not so tragic as in this movie, where she has to tell everyone that Milk and the mayor have been killed.

Gus Van Sant is set to direct.

Why Can't We Be Friends?

In the new hate crime stats released by the FBI, it turns out at2 percent of hate crimes based on sexual orientation were committed against heterosexuals.

What?

Okay, okay. The other 98 percent were perpetuated against gays, lesbians and bisexuals -- no mention of transgenders here. And, let's be honest, can straight people really be victims of sexual-orientation based hate crimes?

Maybe when legal gay marriage ruins their lives.

Here are the quick stats from the FBI.

• In 2006, law enforcement agencies reported 1,415 hate crime offenses based on sexual- orientation bias. Of these offenses:
• 62.3 percent were classified as anti-male homosexual biased.
• 20.7 percent were classified as anti-homosexual biased.
• 13.6 percent were classified as anti-female homosexual biased.
• 2.0 percent were classified as anti-heterosexual biased.
• 1.5 percent were classified as anti-bisexual biased.

Lest ye be judged

A creepy Christian blogger just discovered that gays and lesbians not only love each other in hedonistic, amoral ways. Some of them love God, and not just in the weird Wicca/ Lesbian love for god with a little "g," but for the Jesus/ Moses/ Abraham/ George W. Bush/ Big "G" God.

He seems pretty furious that instead of resting from a crystal meth induced hangovers, some gays and lesbians want to go to church and even have their own BIBLE. It's okay when teenagers do it, but consenting adults looking for spiritual redemption? Fuck 'em.

It would be fine if he paid for the sex

Larry Craig is officially gay.

Oops. I mean Larry Craig is officially a gay problem.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has decided to fight the Senate ethics investigation into Craig's now uber-infamous and uber-boring toe tap into history at an airport bathroom this year.

The NGLTF main man, Matt Foreman, wrote to Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to protest the "seeming" hypocrisy between the senate reaction to Craig and to that of Louisiana's unimpressive Sen. David Vitter, who paid for the lady loving.

We are writing to state the inherent contradiction between your treatment of illegations of ethical misconduct by Senator Larry Craig and Senator David Vitter and to insist that you open an investigation into Sen. Vitter’s conduct. There is no explanation for the diametrically opposed responses to these two situations, other than hypocrisy tinged by homophobia. There are only two ways to resolve this: drop the investigation into Sen. Craig or investigate the allegations surrounding Sen. Vitter.

I'm sure Craig loves that the gay rights groups have embraced him like the reluctant, emotionally repressed orphan he sorta is. Or something.

Poofter.

Is that your wand, or are you just in the midst of an unnecessary coverage?

Remember a few weeks ago when I said I wished people would stop talking about Dumblegore = gay? Well, they haven't. The BBC released a story today detailing the movie stars' views of J.K. Rowling's sort of strange announcement. Because, as we all know, Daniel Radcliffe is an expert on homosexuality in literature.

The coverage has been awkward at best. Even the NYT decided to take a who-gives-a-shit attitude, which actually seems slightly offensive and condescending but whatever (I mean, it matters a little).

Anyway, I think it's time we drop the whole story, lest intrepid 10-year-olds with access to the Intrawebz continue to post on every Web site ever. Pleeeeeaz?

Church-going lesbians run too slow

That Episcopalian lesbian couple lost the Amazing Race reality show, but not before scaring the hell out of America (AP)

Finally, someone in Chicago says it is alright to be homosexual (Sun-Times)

Obligatory celebrity reaction story -- now with more Harry Potter (BBC)

Long Island queers conquer business (Newsday)

Just too harsh

Parents in a Boston-area school district think a play about Matthew Shephard is too violent, though more likely it's just too gay (Wxii)

From Jack in drag, to Jake in the tent, EW celebrates gay milestones in film (EW)

Larry Craig might help push gay rights along even if he's in the closet (Queerty)

Being gay is boring? (Seattle Times)

Goodbye, goodbye

The first openly gay man to serve on the president's AIDS advisory council died (Associated Press)

• Dr. R. Scott Hitt, an AIDS specialist and the first openly gay person to head a presidential advisory board, has died. He was 49.

At leat 31 gay candidates won elections this year -- not even counting all of those closeted Republicans (Advocate)

• Of the 71 gay and lesbian political candidates endorsed this year by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, at least 31 were elected on Tuesday, and 10 others won races earlier this year, according to a press release from the political action group.

A non-transgender writer endorses ENDA, woooo! (Blade)

• OF THE MANY arguments against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act — the version that doesn’t protect “gender identity” — the most puzzling and counter-intuitive one is that it doesn’t even protect gay people. This appeal to gays’ self-interest is unpersuasive. Not only does a gay-only ENDA protect gays, it offers limited protection to transgender people as well.

Apparently, the Brits don't understand hate speech, yet they're so good at it (Telegraph)

• Opposing this legislation is not anti-gay. Rather, it is pro freedom of speech.

Sitting on it

Allegedly -- ALLEGEDLY -- the LA Times is sitting on a story about a presidential candidate's sex scandal that could rock the '08 race. The paper has to make some very important ethical decisions about running the story and possibly changing the landscape of the next presidential election, that is, if they actually have a story.

Here are some wild and unproven theories about what it could be:

• Obama Girl really is Obama's girl. And she has video to prove it.
• Um. Hillary killed another ready-to-serve former intern. Or something.
• Mitt Romney not only has multiple wives, but several of them aren't even Mormon. They're, like, Catholic.
• John McCain has a Vietnamese love child living out in Arizona.
• Fred Thompson's daughter is actually a stem-cell clone given to him by the fascist liberals running those secret labs under Planned Parenthoods across the country.
• Dennis Kucinich keeps his wife's hotter, younger sister hidden away in his dungeon and thus, she is forced to pretend to love him.
• Rudy is gay. Alright, that's not so much a shocker.

Slow news day

A man convicted of beating a gay man to death will remain behind bars (Houston Chronicle)

• The parole board said Wednesday that it rejected 33-year-old Jon Buice's bid for release. He has served about one-third of a 45-year sentence he was given after pleading guilty to murder.

Social conservatives hate science, especially when it proves them wrong (Science Daily)

• Canadian scientists have uncovered new evidence which shows genetics has a role to play in determining whether an individual is homosexual or heterosexual.

An openly gay mayor in Michigan promises not to paint the town pink, rename it Cherville (Free Press)

The newly elected and openly gay mayor of Ferndale said being gay is no longer
an issue in city politics. His sexual orientation had little to do with his
campaign, said Craig Covey, 50, elected Tuesday with 54% of the vote.

I'm not your stepping stone

Nancy Pelosi, Frank Barney and others rapped rhapsodic about the ENDA bill on the House floor today, before it was passed, as expected. And it lacked the historic protections for transgender employees. As expected.

Barney, one of two openly gay members of Congress, railed against some of the Republicans who challenged the bill over concerns it would lead to gay marriage. Or abortions. Or something. Barney decided to plead with the gay rights haters on a personal level.

Mr. Speaker, we say here that we don’t take things personally, and usually that’s true. Members, Mr. Speaker, will have to forgive me — I take it personally. 35 years ago, I filed a bill that tried to get rid of discrimination based on sexual orientation. As we sit here today, there are millions of Americans in states where this is not the law. By the way, 19 states have such a law. In no case has it led to that decision. The Massachusetts law passed in 1989, that did not lead to the decision in 2004, unrelated. But here’s the deal: I used to be someone subject to this prejudice. And through luck, circumstance, I got to be a big shot. I’m now above that prejudice. But I feel an obligation, to 15-year-olds dreading to go to school because of the torments, to people they’ll lose their job in a gas station if someone finds out who they love. I feel an obligation to use the status I have been lucky enough to get, to help them.

But Barney, what about all of the T's in LGBT?

Politics happened, of course. Frank and Pelosi deemed it more important to pass a bill with fewer protections than to put forth an exhaustive and highly symbolic bill with zilch chance of being passed. It's called incremental progress, baby steps toward what everyone wants: safeguards from unmerited discrimination.

Members of United ENDA have cried foul. Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, John Newsome compared the watered down ENDA bill to Bill Clinton's about face in the mid-90s, when he abandoned the idea of allowing gays into the military and instead adopted a 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy that, well, pissed A LOT of people off.

And though it would be, like, totally radical to actually pass a bill with the transgender protections in it, I have to go with Frank here. This isn't 'don't ask.' No one has abandoned the LGBT community here. In fact, they swallowed their pride to pass a bill that has a chance of making a difference.

Symbolism and inclusiveness and unity have a place in this fight. But so does real change. And until one can be workably reconciled with the other, it's the job of politicians to do what they can with what they can.

CBS and Logo to show gay newscast

CBS News will begin producing a half-hour newscast for the Logo channel, starting next Monday at 7 p.m. It will focus on gay rights, HIV and AIDS and other stories important to the LGBT community. The newscast will be the culmination of several three-minute featurettes that CBS News made for Logo, which is also owned by CBS' parent company Viacom.

Who said media consolidation hurt the public?

Platypus Eggs

Gay ... muslims? Gasp! What would the president of Iran say? (New York Times)

• While other floats featured men dancing in leather Speedos or women with scant duct tape over their nipples, many Muslims were disguised behind big sunglasses, fezzes or kaffiyehs wrapped around their heads.

The ENDA drama never ends; HRC pushes transgenders in front of political train (AP)

• A leading gay rights group changed course Tuesday to support a job discrimination bill even though it does not include transgender workers.

Michigan's dying auto industry inspires people to care about gay rights (Free Press)

• In a case testing the limits of Michigan's marriage amendment, the state Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday over whether the measure prohibits public agencies and schools from extending health care benefits to the same-sex partners of their employees.

How queers could save marriage

Apparently, as divorce rates remain high (but not, like, super high) and marriage rates are dropping across the country, LGBT people are picking up the rainbow flag and coming to monogamy's rescue.

That's right. Monogamy. Look at these stats: the number of same-sex couples reporting themselves as “unmarried partners” has quintupled since 1990 from, and the number of same-sex couples increased 21 times faster than the U.S. population from 1990 to 2006.

Uh-oh. And the gays are not only conquering common-law marriage (though it's not it's legal yet or something), they're invading the South and the mountain states. East South Central states of Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee saw a combined increase of 863 percent. Mountain states of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Montana, Utah, Nevada and Idaho had an increase of 698 percent.

Aaaaaah.

Atlanta, by the way, has one of the highest concentrations of same-sex couples in the country, behind San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis (wait, what?) and Washington D.C. -- yep, the LGBT couples now roam the nation's capital.

Morning cattle call

Gay bashers pleaded out (New York Times)

• Michael J. Sandy, 29, a designer from Williamsburg, was lured from his home to a secluded lot in Sheepshead Bay on Oct. 8, 2006. He was directed to a beach known as a meeting place for gay sex, then beaten and chased into traffic. He was struck by a car and later died of his injuries.

Malaysian police hate sodomy, gays (International Herald Tribune)

• "Police found used condoms strewn all over the floor, seven tubes of lubrication jelly, 20 gay magazines, four pornographic VCDs and six boxes of new condoms ...."

A discharged flight nurse fights against 'Don't Ask' policy (Seattle Post Intelligencer)

• Maj. Margaret Witt, 42, was suspended in 2004 after the Air Force received a tip that she had been in a long-term relationship with a civilian woman. She was honorably discharged last month, after having put in 18 years - two short of what she needed to receive retirement benefits.

He said, he said

I wrote Marc Fisher one last e-mail before moving on. We have so much trouble doing that:

As per the Phillips story, my only concern would be that leaving out that information would seem (and I stress seem) tantamount to ignoring a "gay story": i.e, would that same latitude have been givento someone involved in a heterosexual story. Would you have, forinstance, published an innocuous story about Jessica Cutler during the initial outbreak of that story without mentioning her involvement in a sex scandal. I realize that the two cases have striking differences, specifically the ones that you mentioned but it still raisesquestions. Also, other bloggers have raised the issue of whether the government's reaction to his license plate (which had to be initiated by aresident, as I understand) could have anything to do with his claimsagainst Sen. Craig. They would be wrong in assuming -- as some have --that the reaction could have been initiated by Craig or someone in his office, etc. I think they would be right, however, in questioning if a citizen who knew of Phillips' claims might have seeked retribution, albeit in a sort of arbitrary and meaningless way.

Fisher fired right back. Well, not fired, really. He calmly answered -- wow, that sounds a lot less exciting:

You raise good points. One of them is easy: The state's move against the"poofter" license plate well predated Phillips' decision to tell anyone about his encounter with Craig, so there is no issue of the state potentially taking retaliatory action against Phillips. Your other point is of course harder and is the core of the question. Cutler doesn't work as ananalogy for me because there was corroborating evidence to her claims from the very start of her case; indeed, her decision to out her partner byusing their mutual communications is what pushed that story into the public arena and certainly into the mainstream press. In this case, we have only Phillips' word, which I am personally inclined to believe, but which does not rise to the level of publishable evidence, which is why no reputable outlet has published that story. I don't think the particular sexuality of the characters involved plays any role here...

Alright. Sounds fair, I suppose. Now all we have to do is prove Phillips' story. But who wants to spend all the time thinking about it?

Fisher's response

Marc Fisher sent me this e-mail:

Thanks for your note. Yes, I spoke to Mr. Phillips at some length aboutthat and of course saw the various blogs that have been taking up his storyabout his encounter with Sen. Craig. I originally thought about includingthat as an aside to the license plate story, but decided against it becauseit's really pretty far afield from what I was writing about and would havetaken too much space to explain the background of the Craig situation. Inaddition, because Phillips' claim about Craig is obviously not somethingthat can be corroborated, and because it took place so long ago, theredidn't seem to be any value added for readers to insert that in adiscussion about the constitutionality and speech issues surrounding vanitylicense plates. In general, I try to err in the direction of fulldisclosure; in this instance, the Craig story was just too distinct anddifferent from the Poofter issue to be anything but a distraction.I'd be interested in hearing a good argument in the other direction. Thanksfor reading the column.

Timeline Update

Princess Sparkle Pony, the all-knowing Wonketter who broke the sort-of infamous Larry Craig/ hairy guy story -- see below for links -- said on the blog that the WP interviewed Phillips weeks before any of those sordid details (and the worst mental picture of our lives) leaked out. Leaked. Gross.

That might help Marc Fisher's case. He was most certainly unaware at the time of the interview and pushed the story through several weeks later without revisiting much of the material. It might be lazy, but it would not have been unethical or biased.

All I can do is wait for a response and wonder what would have happened if someone had ran a story about, oh say, the D.C. madam or one of her "escorts" in an unrelated story and had not mentioned their involvement in a steamy (ugh) sex scandal.

Isn't he the guy that ...

Marc Fisher, Washington Post metro columnist, recently wrote about a burly, bearded gay man whose license plate -- poofter -- would be revoked after the state decided it was offensive. By the way, poofter is British slang for "queer."

States have difficulty in deciding what should be considered appropriate self-expression and what is downright dirty, offensive or hateful. As Fisher notes, a federal judge in Missouri protected one man's right to drive around (presumably in a Confederate-flagged pickup truck) with "ARYAN-1" on the plates. But two women in Alexandria were denied the right to print "2DYKES" on their car.

So discrimination based on race is fine, but self-expression of lesbians is just out of the question. Or something.

By the way, any government review of a previously issued plate must come from a citizen complaint, so apparently after 11 years driving around with poofter on his tail, someone either figured out what the word meant or, more likely, thought it was some sort of scatological reference (courts upheld the prohibition against scat words, since they do not constitute a valid point of view -- says them).

What the Post did not mention in all the mustachioed madness is that Phillips recently proclaimed on Wonkette that he had rather disgusting and dissapointing sex with Idaho Sen. Larry Craig.

Whoops.

I wonder how the Post could have missed something like that? Or, did they just ignore it? For those of you outside the Beltway, Wonkette isn't just another blog. They've broken stories before, including the Washingtonienne scandal. For her work, the former editor of Wonkette, Ana Maria Cox, was hired by Time Magazine.

I sent Marc Fisher an e-mail to find out why this baring-it-all bear's full backstory wasn't included in the article. Check back for updates.

I can't say it any better -- Balance, Shmalance

All journalists struggle with the idea of giving equal play to opposing sides of an argument. Not because we agree or disagree with one side or because we have such distaste for enabling public dialog. No, that's not it. The question (i.e. the problem) lies in the doctrine that says, for a story to be fair, both sides of the argument need equal coverage. Okay. That sounds fine in theory, but in practice, it causes all sorts of coverage fiascoes.

Does the one irate man at the City Council meeting merit as many inches as the dozens of attendees who disagree with him. Are we creating balance where it didn't exist before? And if we are, how in the hell do we decide how much coverage something deserves? Who gets to say that one side is more important than the other without reverting to the kind of partisan journalism we all abhor so much?

In a new piece on Poynter, Cindi E Deutschman-Ruiz details some of those problems, specifically in writing and reporting on LGBT issues. She contrasts coverage with that of race issues. She's right in pointing out that we would never write about once race being better than the other today, as we do with sexuality. But she's missing one of the key points.

...at some point along the line, the concept of racial equality stopped being a point of view in this country and became a generally accepted truth instead.

Here's the problem with following that logic to the next step (which, on its surface, seems entirely plausible): that journalists should not have to balance things that are not actually equal, that we should not have to arbitrarily designate two sides to complex and nuanced issues or continue to give space to those who are, essentially, hate mongers.

But the prejudice and discrimination against LGBT people does not exist in one geographic area, or one political party or any other people or place that can be pointed at as the example of where ideology and dogma went too far. It's everywhere, I hate to say. America has not yet reached a place where sexual equality is a generally accepted truth and it's not going to anytime soon.

She is correct in her more general wish, that we stop treating every side of an issue as equal and indispensable.

I can’t endorse the current system. I think it’s disingenuous and just plain wrong.

What abandoning false balance would mean in the daily practice of journalism -- what kinds of ripple effects it might have -- are questions I don’t pretend to be able to answer.

I don't think anyone could say. But it would certainly be interesting.

Year in Review

CBS News will present a one-hour special report on the Logo Channel, a.k.a. the "gay channel," in December, rehashing the biggest LGTB-related stories of the year. (They left off all the stories about how the gays are ruining America/ destroying marriage/ brainwashing children. Maybe next year.) Here's the list that the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association sent out to its members to choose from:

A. Larry Craig Bathroom Sex Sting Scandal
B. San Diego Mayor Supports Same Sex Marriage/Cries at News Conference
C. ENDA Controversy
D. JK Rowling Says Dumbledore Is Gay
E. Rosie Leaves The View
F. Ann Coulter Attacks John Edwards/Mrs. Edwards Fires Back
G. Grey's Anatomy F-word Controversy At The Golden Globes/TR Knight vs. Isaiah Washington
H. Mary Cheney Gives Birth
I. Ft. Lauderdale Mayor Naugle Comes Under Fire For Comments Over Public Bathrooms
J. Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace Calls Homosexuality Immoral
K. Transgender Susan Stanton/Fired From City Manager Job
L. Logo Presidential Forum
M. President of Iran Says There Are No Homosexuals In His Country
N. Ellen's Dog
O. Gay Pride Violence/Protests Around the World
P. Gays on Primetime TV (Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives)
Q. Elizabeth Edwards Supports Same-Sex Marriage

I wonder which story about a homosexual senator doing the Charleston with an undercover cop in an airport bathroom will top the charts? Anyway, let's at least have a real contest for second place.

My vote, goes for this guy, the San Diego mayor who cried at a press conference. He was upset, if you haven't watched it, because he had planned to sign one more piece of anti-gay legislation but changed his mind at the last minute because of the LGBT members of his family. It's raw and real and this guy clearly went through some soul-searching before the whole cry-fest. We need more of these politicians (even Republican) -- the ones who actually consider the consequences of their actions.

And to show, I'd say the ENDA Controversy -- not so much because it's about Gay Rights (I mean, Jesus, sometimes it seems like everything is about gay rights) but because it gives the LGBT Community some depth and nuance that most people don't recognize. (For some great, inside-the-beltway coverage, check the Washington Blade.) Surprise, surprise. The gays don't always agree with the trangenders. And we're all sometimes a little spooked by the lesbians.

As far as my vote for "Holy shit can you please remove this story from the list before I start punching holes in my computer monitor," it's a 3-way tie: Dumbledore's gay, Rosie quit and Ellen cried or wore something other than that classic pants suit/ gym shoes combination. Please. Celebrities move around. Yes, Rosie got into a fight with Lizzy Hasselback before the transition, but it happens.

And Ellen? Even she says Puppygate has lasted a little too long for her taste. A talk-show host saying something went too far. Dammit people. Drop it.

And while we're on the subject, could we maybe pick some new mascots for the whole gay community other than two show-hosting lesbians? They don't represent us all.

Oh, right. Dumbledore. I don't have a good reason to leave that off the list, other than I'm tired of Harry Potter.

Change in Content

Not that too many people read this anyway, but I will be testing a new theme for the page: namely, working as a young, out reporter. Who knows what might happen.

Mr. Personal Phone Call

You have no children. You do not have a wife, a girlfriend, an ailing mother/ father/ aunt/ grandmother. You don't even have sick pets. You don't have pets at all.

And yet, there you are. Leaning back, laughing, chatting loudly with your unemployed friends from back home who have all the time in the world to update you on all the hookups of all the other unemployed people who never left town.

And there's always this part of the conversation:

"Yeah, it's fine. No, really. I'm just at work."

No wonder everyone hates our generation.