Before rank-and-file conservatives ask, “What went wrong?”, they should ask themselves a question every bit as important: “Why were we the last to realize that things were going wrong for us?”
U.S. President Barack Obama walks onstage with daughter Sasha (2R), First lady Michelle Obama (2L) and daughter Malia (L) before giving his election night victory speech in Chicago, November 7, 2012. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
This is a great piece in The Atlantic. Worth spending a few minutes thinking about.
Jay Michaelson: Straight Talk About Gay Marriage: 4 Points for Undecided Voters to Consider.
This is an excellent article.
I really do understand the complicated religious questions that same-sex marriage brings up, but make no mistake: A vote for so-called “traditional marriage” is a vote against the dignity of gay and lesbian people. It is deeply hurtful and deeply unfair. And unfortunately, there’s just no getting around that.
As Michaelson points out, this “separate but equal” business was always been a stumbling block for me. As a gay man, as someone who was brought up in the Church, as a somewhat amateur Anglican theologian (back then; now lapsed), using the word marriage always tripped me up.
My modest proposal, back when this was gaining traction in the 90s, was a civil union for all. Reserve marriage for the Church, but make the state mandate a civil contract for all partnerships, gay or otherwise.
This never got any traction, but I think we could have moved forward faster — evolved faster, to use the President’s term — if we could have come to a consensus on civil unions for all 20 years ago. That way, no one could be denied the rights we are still fighting for — all 1,100 of them — and no member of the clergy could stand in for the government. You could get married, if you chose to do so, in the church or synagogue or temple or mud hut or funeral parlor of your choice.
You could swing incense and have communion; you could handle snakes or jump a broom, but legally it would mean bupkiss. In order for your partnership to be legal — in order for you to check that box on the 1040 short form beside “Married Filing Jointly,” you would have to be civilly united at a courthouse or justice of the peace’s office or by some other registered civil servant of your municipality. Every single man, woman, sheepdog and houseplant.
And if the Lutheran Church, the Episcopal Church, the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or the Church of the Poisoned Mind refused to “marry” two women, well, who the hell cares. You could still get hitched by Andy Taylor down on Main Street in Mayberry, U.S.A. Fill out the form in triplicate and pay your $25.
Think about this: today, you can be married in a church, by a member of the clergy, but no one is talking about preserving the sanctity of traditional, religious divorce. Why? Because the dissolution of a marriage is a civil act.
Today, I’m old enough and cranky enough to say that I want to get married and that I WILL marry my partner someday, if for no other reason that it will allow me to thumb my nose at the knuckle-dragging, gammy-handed, drooling troglodytes.
Someone should elect me to office. I’ll fix ’em!
Of course I know who Scott Evans is. The openly blond actor is the kid brother of Captain America star Chris Evans. He has made a name for himself in his own right with a memorable turn on One Life to Live playing a cop, one of our top five gay career fantasies, according to the Village People. Most recently I spotted him in the audience at the Emmy Awards, and a few weeks ago on the patio of a bar in West Hollywood. So, yes, I certainly know who he is. I just don’t know him. But try telling that to Facebook.
via Derek Hartley: Scott Evans: One of the People You May Know.
Scott Evans as Ofc. Oliver Fish on “One Life to Live,” part of one of daytime’s first longer term gay couples. Sadly, Facebook has never connected him to me!
Love this piece on HuffPo. I was just having this conversation with a co-worker. Everyone Facebook suggests to me either (A) I don’t know or (B) I absolutely, positively never, ever want to be friends with — like the troll who orchestrated my ouster from one of the best jobs I ever had. [Well, karma’s a bitch: he got his! LOL]
Anyhow, it seems to me that at this point in my long Facebook “career,” if I’m going to be friends with someone, I’ve already friended them or vice versa. I have enough friends.
As to Derek Hartley’s article, I have to admit to being more than a little bit jealous here. I legitimately know (not just “Facebook know”) a few folks who travel in the same circles as Mr. Evans, but Facebook has never suggested his dreamy visage to the right of my screen. Upset by that, I must admit! LOL
Sam Champion Engaged: ‘GMA’ Weather Anchor Comes Out, Plans To Marry Rubem Robierb.
Pardon me for being crass, but there’s someone out there that had no idea that Sam Champion was gay? C’mon…..
PS – Good for you, Sam.
GLAAD’s ‘Where We Are On TV’ Report Finds LGBT Television Characters At Record High.
A record high — for the record — is 31 out of 701 series regular characters. T’aint enough, McGee….
In Honor Of My Dad – The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Beast.
This is a terrific short piece by Sullivan, one of our most distinctive voices.
Amelia: My 7-Year-Old Son Wants a ‘Likes Boys’ T-Shirt, and Here Is Why He’s Going to Get It.
From Huffington Post Gay Voices.
This mom is FIERCE! Love her. Also love the Dad in Germany who’s started wearing dresses because his little boy likes dresses. What would have happened in MY generation? Oy, don’t even want to think. You go, freethinking folk!
‘Honey Boo Boo’ Has the Ratings, if Not the Critics – NYTimes.com.
Dear Sweet Lord …. what is wrong with America?????????
Excellent article by Alyssa Rosenberg. Read it.
This is an intriguing web series — and a cut above almost every other web-exclusive show. It helps that they are in Hollywood and they’ve got some connections because, let’s face it, how else do you get Jon Cryer and Joss Whedon to appear in your web series?
The first season is a series of approximately 2 minute eps. Longer, but fewer eps for the just being released season 2.
The writing is excellent. And the eye candy is first rate.
Watch it.
Gaycoms in a Progressive Age?: Partners and The New Normal Stephen Tropiano / Ithaca College | Flow.
Hmmm… Not sure about this one. Let me back up and tell you my initial reactions to these shows before I had seen them:
1. I don’t think “Glee” is the end-all be-all of TV in the new millennium. I run hot and cold on it because it is, without a doubt, the most uneven series on television. I’ll love an episode, its crisp writing, elegant plotting and deft, nuanced musical numbers. Then I’ll tune in the next week and watch a train wreck, written by monkeys locked in a room full of typewriters trying to bang out Hamlet and a lot of ham-fisted jokes that don’t land and a whole lot of one-dimensional snark and I’ll swear I’ll never watch it again. I held out little hope for Ryan Murphy’s gaycom, “The New Normal.”
2. I loved “Will & Grace,” Max Mutchnick and David Kohan’s groundbreaking sitcom. Other than queening up Will about halfway through the run — which was unnecessary and a little bit dumb — I loved it all.
All that said, I have watched all three episodes that have aired (as of this writing) of “The New Normal” and I am head over heels in love with it. I have watched the pilot of “Partners” and yawned.
Here’s why: “The New Normal” feels fresh and modern. Yes, there are a few over-the-top elements that possibly should be toned down, but the writing, so far, has been eloquent without being preachy. It’s shot in a modern style, lit smartly and is shot on sets that look like a place where people would actually live.
“Partners” feels like “I Love Lucy.” It’s a dinosaur. It’s shot on heavily key-lit sets that look like sitcom sets and the sitcom they seem to be shooting is called “Jack & Will & Occasionally Grace & Some Other Guy.”
And it’s that “Some Other Guy” part that especially annoys me. Kohan and Mutchnick understand that they need to ground Michael Urie, so they have paired him with ex-Man of Steel Brandon Routh as his boyfriend. That makes sense. And Routh is a great actor — “Superman” aside (also good) but he was terrific on “Chuck” — but they have left him without a character. There is NOTHING in the text that suggests that he’s even supposed to be real. There’s a lot to be annoyed by here, but that and the infernal hand-clapping between scenes was enough for me to give it two thumbs way, way down.
In “Partners'” defense, pilots generally suck, so I’ll give it another whirl and we’ll see what happens. However, in spite of the media’s hype of the fabled Kohan-Mutchnick partnership, realize that the ONLY certifiable hit they’ve ever had is “Will & Grace.”
(Then again, that IS one more than me!)
One Last Word 