In light of Germany's vice-chancellor and foreign minister seat now being filled by an openly gay man, Guido Westerwelle, Andrew Sullivan took to his Daily Dish blog to ruminate on America's' comparatively slow crawl towards accepting gays -- especially on the federal level.
"Westerwelle is now the world's leading non-leftist gay leader. His politics are
eclectic: for example, he favors removing the last American nuclear
weapons from Germany. He came out formally five years ago. The Germans
paid no mind.
Meanwhile, in America, there are almost no openly gay politicians,
and one major party seeks to marginalize and disenfranchise gay people,
stripping them of all relationship rights, and running ad campaigns
focused on the "threat" that openly gay couples pose to schoolkids.
The other party, while offering lip service to gay equality and
being disproportionately financed by gay donors, enforces the federal
ban on gay soldiers, refuses to repeal the law that requires the
federal government to treat gay couples as strangers to one another,
and has no openly gay people in any but minor roles in government."
And there doesn't seem to be much hope of things changing in the near future. Despite the many hurdles we've overcome in our attempt to secure basic civil rights, much of America -- including our government -- is stuck in a time warp. But it's comforting to know that even the smallest gesture -- from Lady Gaga using her (over)exposure to give visibility to the gay community to Sullivan's posts -- can make a world a difference and to remind ourselves that changes can and do happen in this country every day.
In the last two days Andrew Sullivan, our favorite Daily Dish-er, has linked to a couple of interesting tidbits regarding gay marriage including:
Statistician Nate Silver notes some surprising results coming out of the last week's Value Voters' summit. Abortion
ranked first among issues of concern to straw-poll voters, getting 41
percent of the vote, with protection of religious liberty second with
18 percent and opposition to same-sex marriage coming in a distant third at 7 percent. Silver reminds us that "these are not the tea-partiers, who have a libertarian bent. This is a forum, rather, sponsored by the Family Research Council,
an organization which continues to insist that homosexuality is curable
and to link it to pedophilia. But the actual attendees at the forum --
religious conservative activists from around the country -- just don't
seem to be all that riled up about the prospect of two men getting
married." While we shouldn't jump to the conclusion that any of these people actually support our right to legally wed, it should be noted that the last time
this poll was conducted, in October 2007, gay marriage was the top
choice of 20 percent of the attendees.
According to a new poll by the Des Moine Register, 92 percent of Iowans say that gay marriage "has brought no real change to their lives."
Dan Savage, the renowned sexpert known for dispensing no-nonsense advice alongside linguistic coups, may be taking his ample wit and wisdom to premium cable. The syndicated alt-weekly columnist and gay-life memoirist is currently in L.A. working on a pilot for an HBO series. "I'm hoping to bring a new kind of conversation to TV about sex," he writes on his blog. "An
honest conversation, one that's informed without being (too) wonky,
funny without being (too) cruel, sexy without being (too) cheesy.
Basically, my sex-advice column—but on the teevee!" If you're in L.A. and in a participatory mood, you can try to get tickets to this Thursday's taping here.
The Advocate just released a list of the Top 15 Gay(ish) Blogs and we made the cut! Here's what they had to say:
Out Magazine's
pop culture blog is a little bit fashion, a little bit
alterna-chic, and a whole lot of fun. From exclusive
photos from big gay events to one off-chats with gay(ish)
celebs like Katy Perry, Tori Amos and Pete Wentz,
Popnography has a lock on the pulse of gay
entertainment -- and manages to make it all looks so damn
glamorous.
We do, don't we? Though, I should probably admit that The Advocate is our sister publication and someone just pointed out, "It's a little bit like your mom saying that you're one of her favorite relatives," but -- no matter! I have plenty of relatives I can't even handle sitting across from for a 45-minute meal at The Olive Garden (the most popular restaurant in Midwestern hometowns like mine) when I go home for the holidays, much less would want to nominate for a Top 15 ANYTHING award!
For the full list, including nods to Popnog favorites Towleroad, Perez Hilton, Gawker, DListed, and more, head here.
This morning my horribly, disgustingly cluttered cubicle and the unsolicited (and unwelcome) arrival of a book entitled The Insider's Guide to Cancer in your 20s and 30s had me considering taking the rest of the day off, heading home, and hiding under my bed with a jumbo bag of mini Butterfingers for the entire weekend -- if not month.
So it was the stuff of miracles when I happened up the Ends of The World section of the Boy Culture blog today while trolling the Internet for distractions from the doom and gloom hanging over my head (and mucking up my desk). The page is entirely devoted to and made up of asses encountered and secretly snapped with an iPhone by the blogger as he goes about his day to day activities. Here's a firm specimen on the subway. There's a perky one at the grocery store. Look at how he's filling out those jeans. Who knew a butt could look that good in sweat pants (or that people with butts like that actually wear sweat pants out in public?)
The combination of the humble page's voyeuristic nature, the randomness of the subjects and their locations, and the gritty quality of the iPhone photographs had me clicking and grinning so much that I've already forgotten about my pigsty and the batch of tumors that are probably at this very moment growing at an exponential rate somewhere south by southeast of my liver.
Rosie has taken to her blog -- this time not to set any record straight by spittin' half-haikus, but to peddle some of her world famous crafts to raise money for her charity, Rosie's Broadway Kids.
You can buy one of the many Munny art dolls (the DIY kits are available at Kid Robot stores and online) Rosie has painstakingly painted by visiting her ESTY page.Rosie writes:
"i do these obsessively - i cant stop myself....i love them -i have done
about 100.. I'm selling them here to benefit my new school in NYC - the
maravel arts center, the home of "Rosie's Broadway KIds." 100% of the
proceeds of every single sale goes directly to the school to benefit
the kids."
She even pays the shipping!
If the prices seem a bit steep now (around $100 for a Munny doll), just hold tight. Ro promises that cheaper offerings are on the way so all of us can own an O'Donnell original.
Want to be famous? Well, Perez Hilton’s new book, Red Carpet Suicide, reveals how you, too, can become Hollywood boldface by applying his easy to follow advice.
Born Mario Armando Lavandeira, Jr. in Miami, Florida, the Cuban-American celebrity blogger says luring over 9 million people a day to his entertaining and acerbic website isn’t as easy as it looks (he goes to bed at 10pm, and wakes up each morning at 4am). “I work really hard,” he confirms. “But anything is possible when you work hard and focus.”
In fact, many would argue that Perez is now more famous than his namesake, Paris Hilton. So who is the real Perez Hilton? We caught up with the gossip guru to try and find out:
OUT: Rumor has it you’re dating Tom Cruise! Is that true? Enquiring minds want to know... Perez Hilton: That’s not true! Currently, I am dating an actor. He’s somewhat well known, but I don’t want to talk about it. [Joking] I will say his initials are ZE.
Let me guess -- you guys cuddle up each night watching High School Musical together! [Laughs] I hope you’re both very happy together. [Laughs] Thanks! We are!
Speaking of celebrities, who is the sexiest man in boldface culture these days, and who is the most stylish woman? Sexiest celebrity is David Beckham because he’s a real man. And the most stylish woman is the fierce Dita Von Teese, obviously.
How do you unwind? I make sure I get a massage three times a month, and a facial every four weeks.
What kind of facial? [Laughs] Why did you decide to lose weight? Because I hadn’t been laid since 2007!
Well, that’s a silly reason! [Laughs] You’re a fearless and sometimes controversial gay activist. Did you always know you were gay? I always knew from a very young age. I had very vivid memories of Marky Mark from his Calvin Klein underwear campaign when I was a young teenager. I was like, “Oh, gosh….!” [Giggles] I came out in my freshman year at New York University. This classmate of mine had said, “You’re gay!” I responded, “No, I’m not,” and started crying. Then, I admitted, “Okay, I am!” I was studying acting, so it wasn’t a big deal because everyone in my program was gay!
Your parents are Cuban -- did they have any issues with your sexuality? It took them a while for them to accept it. Now my mother prays for me to meet someone! But my family is very happy and proud of me.
As is Paris Hilton, no doubt! Red Carpet Suicide is available in stores and from online retailers.
In the spirit of being a good gay blogger, whatever that means, I signed myself up to read the ubiquitous big gay blogs, like Home of the Best Gay Blogs.* How lovely, I thought, that someone else would read through the thousands of hot homos who chronicle their every move with a webcam. But after a few dozen interviews with said studs (Q: "When did you start blogging?" A: "2005!") I grew weary and unimpressed.
Until today! Today I read about Chicago blogger Paul's post about his "International Porn Film Festival" (or: What to do when your boyfriend's out of town). Then I read his happy day post ("Today, I'm in the midst my third decade and I have all my teeth."). Then I read his post about my favorite subject, the lost art of conversation:
"The good news is that by nature, gay people are gregarious and can talk about almost any subject under the sun, probably because until we were old enough to go to gay bars, we didn't go out much. We watched a lot of TV and read a lot of magazines.
"For any gay kid growing up, developing this talent for witty conversation is like a defense mechanism of sorts, especially for me. In high school, I thought that if I can make interesting conversation, then maybe the other guys wouldn't notice that fact that I am a complete and total flamer. Maybe my knowledge of music, art and fashion can fool them into thinking I am straight."
And then I did that spazzy dance I do out of sheer joy at finding a great writer who can make me feel something. And who isn't just discovering the world online. And who actually spends a lot of time making his site readable, and easily syndicated no matter where you're reading, and isn't always posting pictures of his treasure trail in lieu of actual content. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Anyway, it's Friday. You're not really working. You can read this at work without worrying about your boss walking by and seeing something naughty. Go read: No Milk.
*I also started watching Project Runway, the only uber-queer show not already on my Season Pass list. But that's a different story. A love story. About how me and Tim are going to run away and have the most enthusiastically direct children in the history of queerdom.
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