Q-Seattle Events: Tacky Tourist Clubs

A couple of legal issue bloggers expected the ruling to be appealed when the 10th Circuit Court ruled against the Oklahoma legislature's bizarre decision to deny birth certificates to children born in OK who had been adopted by same-sex couples (in other states, since that's not OK in OK).

Fortunately, that won't happen. The Oklahoma agency that issues birth certificates announced last week that it will honor the appeals court decision.

Tom Cross, the state Health Department's deputy general counsel, said the agency could not meet the requirements to have the 10th Circuit reconsider its opinion.

The agency does not believe that the U.S. Supreme Court would take up the case, he said.

"We will be issuing birth certificates for all adoptions, whether same-sex or not, for children born in Oklahoma," Cross said.

Lambda Legal, which filed cases challenging the hastily-adopted law, celebrated the decision.

"This is a monumental decision, not just for the couples involved in the case, but for lesbian and gay parents and their children nationwide," said Jon Davidson, Legal Director of Lambda Legal. "It means that when same-sex couples have an adoption decree recognizing both of them as parents, the adoption, and their status as their child's parents, must be honored no matter where they go."

---
Still trying to recover a response at the Logo prez forum, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson got some help from a not-so-desirable source, Fox's Bill O'Reilly.

When a viewer email questioned his previous remarks that Bill Richardson "looked bad by saying he believed homosexuality was a choice," Fox News' Bill O'Reilly responded, "I think everybody's got to relax on all this gay stuff."

You know you're in trouble if you?re a Democrat and O'Reilly comes to your defense. Huffington Post blogger RJ Eskow caught onto O'Reilly's probably unintentional 'Relax' reference, and so we offer this: (via YouTube)




But that wasn't O'Reilly's only indication during the week that he just can't bring himself to "relax about this gay stuff". He also flubbed a report about a poll that showed the votes of most folks in three swing states wouldn't be affected if a candidate were endorsed by a gay rights group. And then he flubbed it again when someone pointed out he'd been wrong the first time. (But then, he wasn't the only one. Politico.com headlined its story on the poll "Gay support could cost candidates".)

But the incident did help earn O'Reilly a not-so-rare two-fer on Olbermann's Worst Person nomination. [YouTube].

Labels: gay news, news bites, politics, TV

We posted some of the flurry of news stories on our news feed, but we might be the only gay-related blog that didn't do at least one post last week about Logo's forum for Democratic presidential candidates. But if you missed it, it's not too late to catch the full forum on Logo's website.

But, really, what we were waiting for is coverage of the event by Jon Stewart. You gotta love the bit about Melissa Etheridge's loooong questions. Although, of course, she did manage to ask the one question that really made news in the forum: Gov. Bill Richardson is still trying to recover from his flubbed response to the "rock star's" choice question.

Labels: celebrities, news bites, politics, TV

If you don't read (or look at, at least) Jasmine's Pike/Pine blog regularly, then you should add it to your local blogs menu. It's a near-daily look at the fashion sense (generally trying to ignore our nonsense) of Seattle, and sometimes beyond. Usually, you'll find a single photo each day with a minimal, but always enlightening comment from Jasmine.

We read it frequently, but missed (mea culpa) last week's report that Tim Gunn would be in town last Sunday for a book signing and to judge a fashion contest sponsored by Seattle Metropolitan magazine. Mr. Gunn (and, somehow, he seems to require the honorific) helped Jasmine and other judges determine "Seattle's most stylish man" for the glossy mag.

Jasmine reports of Mr. Gunn that "he came off just as smart, charming, and gracious as he does on the show." Project Rungay has told us that before, so we're not surprised to hear it.

As for the contest, it sounds like there was at least some Runway style banter at University Bookstore. Jasmine tells us that one a judge said that one contestant was "dressed the way you'd want to dress someone who had no sense of style." Heh. Great Nina Garcia line even if it was said about Gopi, the software developer who would eventually be declared the winner.

Labels: celebrities, local bites, Seattle, TV

If you were to land here by, oh -- say, clicking on a picture in a search engine -- and also looked around for just a second, you might see that link up above for Rumor Machine. The rumor part of that page long ago became lame, but the other part of it might still hold some interest. There you will find hundreds of pictures of male eye candy. You can make the images show up randomly, or click "Auto Hunk" and go through the whole collection.

And -- as we occasionally do -- we've added a couple of dozen new treats to the machine for your viewing pleasure.

The ever-appealing actor/model Marco Dapper now gets the top spot in image count with nine. With the addition of some shots from his recent DNA shoot, he just beats out the former favorite, model/carpenter/bartender/Iraq-vet Jonathan Jesensky who has eight images in the machine (for now). Want to know more? Check out Jonathan's music-filled site. And here's an interview with Jonathan, who is judged to be "Extremely intelligent, dangerously handsome, and a very nice person.".

He's currently appearing (with the recognizable tattoos) in online ads for Rufskin jeans.

Most of them are, of course, straight boys in the collection, and so it was embarrasing for us to note that we hadn't yet included any pics of the out model and reality-show star J.P. Calderon, who was recently the cover boy of Instinct magazine. We've fixed that oversight with several images.

Calderon's post-Survivor story is an interesting one.

Having just recently learned to accept his sexuality at the relatively late age of 31, J.P. is still plagued by self-doubt. "I don't want to send a bad image to anyone, but sometimes I'm still conflicted. I'm hoping I won't always be, but I don't know." He goes on to share an example about his volleyball teammates and fellow models that has replayed in his mind time and again. "I see them naked all the time. They're my bros. They're my team mates," he explains. "I don't look at them in that way. I never check them out like that. But, I always think, God, if I came out are they gonna start thinking , 'Oh, J.P. is checking me out' or who knows what. That bothers me because they're my friends, my buddies."

There's almost always more just behing the image in the Rumor Machine. Click on the image or the name underneath to browse off to the web source for that image. You'll usually find larger versions there and several other

Labels: eye candy, shirtless hunk, TV

Northwest Progressive Institute has the segment that included Hutcherson. CNN has the full transcript of the April 7 edition of Anderson Cooper's evening news show.

Hutcherson appeared in a brief segment of a larger report entitled "What Is a Christian?: Sex and Salvation." Hutcherson's segment appears to have been an edited tape of a discussion they taped on March 29, among 360 host Anderson Cooper, Redmond's anti-gay pastor Ken Hutcherson and Dallas pro-gay pastor Joe Hudson of Cathedral of Hope.

After the segment was taped, Hutcherson sent a missive to his "Prayer Warrior" email group asking to "Please pray for Rev. Hudson, that the Holy Spirit will enlighten her to believe what the Bible says regarding homosexuality being a sin."

COOPER: Reverend Hudson, do you believe the Bible says homosexuality is sin?
HUDSON: I believe there are passages in scripture that point to that. But I understand scripture and the bible in a very different way than I think that Reverend Hutcherson does. I look at scripture as a sacred text. The Bible as a sacred and sacramental text. But I also look at it as a text that points to a history and a culture and a very different kind of people that lived then, as do we now.

and

COOPER: Reverend Hudson, the gays and lesbians in your congregation, I imagine some of them have been in other congregations and felt that they were no longer welcome and found a place at your house of worship. What have they been through? For many, this is an academic discussion. It's an academic debate. For people in your congregation this, is very real. And this has real pain and real costs. What are the stories that your congregation tells you?
HUDSON: Well, we hear from people every day, and every week, from people not only in the Dallas-Ft.Worth Metroplex, but people all over the world, who have been rejected by their churches. Who have left the church of Jesus Christ, who want to be in a relationship with God. Who want to have a healthy, strong relationship with a God who loves them. And yet, have been turned away from church after church. And have come to our congregation and been affirmed. Have come close to God. Have through the reading and the study of scripture, come close to god. Have transformed their lives into lives of service and servant hood. Making a difference in the lives of others. And living very Christian, disciplined lives.

That tolerant view was, of course, rejected by Hutcherson who insisted that believers cannot be both gay and Christian.

COOPER: Reverend Hutcherson, do you believe that someone who is gay, happy about it, living a life and has a partner, do you believe they're going to hell?
HUTCHERSON: I think if they have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, that's the key to get into heaven. Not whether or not you are a homosexual or not a homosexual. Whether you're white or whether you're black. The Bible says if haven't accepted Jesus Christ you are a condemned. He is the only way. That is where I stand, bro and I don't even think twice about it.

While Hutcherson's Antioch Bible Church which holds its Sunday services in a high school gym in Redmond, is often described as a "mega-church," Hudson's Dallas Cathedral of Hope certainly qualifies for that designation with its 3500-member congregation. Although it hasn't yet been built, the church is still raising funds to build a 2000-person mega-sanctuary that was one of the last designs completed by noted (and gay) architect Phillip Johnson before he died.

A dictionary entry on the proposed sancuary describes it as:

Monumental, unconventional, and ever-changing, the proposed building will be a symbol of strength, hope, and unity. As Herbert Muschamp observed in reaction to the design, "It ministers not only, or even primarily, to the needs of gay people for self-acceptance. It ministers to society's need for self-acceptance; for the wisdom to perceive that gay men and lesbians are integral to society, not alien from it."

Hudson's church joined United Churches of Christ this year, instantly becoming that denomination's largest member congregation.

A recent feature on the church by Reuters reporter Ed Stoddard recounted its history and mission:

Founded in 1970 by a dozen gays and lesbians who gathered in a home and decided they wanted a safe and tolerant place to worship, the Cathedral of Hope has grown into a large and affluent institution centered in a cavernous building that can seat up to 900. ...

Hudson estimates that over 90% of the church's 3,500 members are gay, lesbian, or transgender. On a recent Sunday during Lent?a period of prayer and penance in the weeks before Easter -- gay couples and singles streamed in for morning services. The big pickup trucks and sports utility vehicles gave the parking lot a Texan flavor, and most were on the expensive side -- highlighting the fact that being openly gay remains a mostly white-collar phenomenon in America.

The church offered liturgical worship with an Episcopal flavor complete with Communion. It also provides contemporary and Spanish-language services.

But that Sunday there was no discussion of homosexuality from the pulpit. One pastor spoke of South African archbishop and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu and the importance of forgiveness. Hudson's sermon focused on humanity's propensity to wander.

Members of the congregation said that while the church was a place of spiritual comfort for gays, its focus was on ministering to the wider community, especially the poor.

"We don't talk much about gay stuff here," said Coy James, who has been attending the church for almost 30 years. "We give over $1 million each year in aid and services to the poorest of the poor, and we have adopted elementary schools in low-income areas and helped them with tutoring and other things," he said after the service.

It sounds to us like Hudson and her congregation are getting by just fine without the intercession of Hutcherson's "Prayer Warriors"

Labels: ken hutcherson, religion, TV

We posted this Daily Show clip last week by the show's rising star, Jason Jones, because we thought it was funny.


[link to part 1] [link to part 2 (above)]

But if we'd looked at our feeds that day, we would have noticed that something odd was happening to the "ex-gay" "therapist" featured in Part 2 of the clip. The self-described "psychotherapist and educator" Richard Cohen was disappeared from the web sites of two "ex-gay" activist groups that had previously served as his organizational cover.

On March 31, writer David Robinson described on the Ex-Gay Watch blog the odd disappearance of Cohen from sites that had been primary proponents of his controversial "therapies."

Over the past couple of days, The National Association for the Therapy of Homosexuals (NARTH), and Parents and Friends of Gays and Ex-Gays (PFOX), have quietly removed all traces of any affirmation of Richard Cohen. PFOX has removed all references to him entirely, while NARTH has left only historical events which included his name - all his articles are gone and his books no longer appear in their online bookstore.

We missed the post along with mentions of it by Pam Spaulding and others. Fortunately, though, the virtual versions of the paper gay press is out there to catch -- a week or two later -- things that fall through the quickly-revolving blog cycle. Bar Area Reporter rehashes the purging in this week's issue:

As recently as last year Cohen had been president of Parents and Friends of Gays and Ex-Gays, whose slogan is "supporting the right of homosexuals to choose change." PFOX believes that individuals can change their sexual orientation and has paid for a series of controversial billboards promoting that idea.

The name of the anti-gay group was chosen as a twisted alternative to the pro-gay group Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

Cohen had been expelled from the American Counseling Association in 2003 for violating its code of ethics. He continues to offer counseling in Maryland without a license.

One of the most recent of his frequent media appearances was a "Diagnosis Mystery" segment on The Daily Show, on March 20. Words cannot describe how hysterically bizarre the segment was.

Two days after the segment aired, Cohen sent out a fundraising appeal for his International Healing Foundation. In it he said he did such media appearances "in an effort to reach people who would normally never hear our message."

He called The Daily Show experience "the most degrading experience I've ever had in the media. I unknowingly allowed myself to be manipulated and coerced by the producer and the host. I take full responsibility for this mistake." He accused the program of taking comments out of context and making him look like a fool.

The Daily Show segment appears to have been too much for Cohen's ex-gay allies.

Even before Cohen's former sponsors had purged references to him, another "ex-gay" group, Exodus International, which claims to be the largest organization in that "movement," had criticized Cohen:

Randy Thomas, vice president of Exodus International, is rightly embarrassed by Richard Cohen?s appearance on the Daily Show:

The guy on the video announces Richard as the foremost expert on "healing the gay" or something like that. Richard is not the foremost of anything except making a spectacle of himself and completely misrepresenting the larger "ex-gay" movement. He is not a part of Exodus and apparently not willing to take our private feedback and accountability to heart.

But if the Daily Show appearance was finally just too much for Cohen's fellow activists, there were plenty of other bizarre appearances by the man before that:



On ABC's Jimmy Kimmell On CNN's Paula Zahn

Truth Wins Out founder Wayne Besen who appeared on the same Daily Show report as Cohen details his downfall in a syndiated column that appeared this week in several papers, including SGN.

The wheels began to fall off the car when I got a tip that Cohen had been kicked out of the American Counseling Association in 2002. He managed to hide this career suicide from the public until I informed the media in 2005.

With his counseling career in ruins, Cohen turned to the media as his only channel to attract new clients to his "healing" seminars. However, his act that played so well at the NARTH convention made him look like a quack to mainstream Americans. On his appearance on CNN's Paula Zahn Now earlier this year, Cohen actually performed his tennis racket routine to the guffaws of million of viewers. He made a further buffoon of himself on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live where boxer George Foreman looked as if he wanted to give him a left hook. He further disgraced his image on Showtime's Bullshit, starring comedians Penn and Teller.

However, Cohen's "jumping on Oprah's couch moment" came on his appearance with me on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart . To prove he was heterosexual, Cohen belched and cursed and when he was feeling the heat, he got up in the middle of the interview to "shake it off."

Cohen's antics were even more than PFOX and NARTH could take and they heaved him overboard, purging their websites this month of his kooky books and articles. The largest ex-gay group, Exodus International, even put out a statement saying they do not endorse the counselor's work.

But taking his name off the websites may not be enough to get Cohen and his bizarre techniques off the cable news shows. He appeared as part of a long documentary about "Conversion Therapy" on Australian network ABC. Although the documentary was probably taped months ago, CNN International re-aired it recently. Raw Story has the video. Snippets of the documentary showed up again this Friday on Anderson Cooper 360.

Labels: activism, celebrities, news bites, TV, youtube

No, no... Not that way.

The interview taped last week that prompted Ken Hutcherson to ask his "Prayer Warriors" to pray for the minister who appeared with him will -- according to the latest missive from the Redmond pastor -- appear tonight on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360.

Hutcherson gives this preview to his warriors:

Tune in tonight at 7:00 pm PST when CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 presents a feature show on the topic of homosexuality, the ex-gay movement and faith. The show will highlight Focus on the Family's Love Won Out conference and will feature interviews with Exodus President Alan Chambers and Dr. Ken "Hutch" Hutcherson, featured speaker at this year's Exodus conference and Senior Pastor of the Antioch Bible Church in Seattle, Washington.

CNN, for its part, teases the segment with this:

Are Christians obsessed with sex? Some say the church is interfering in private lives, others say sex is something to be explored as part of one's walk with Christ. A "360" special report: "What is a Christian," tonight, 10 ET

Hutcherson asks his warriors to "pray that they play what I taped, and it will come across accurately!"

Labels: ken hutcherson, TV

A site where you used to find hundreds of pages of satirical "reports" generated "in the spirit of Stephen Colbert" now shows only a copy of a faxed letter from a law firm telling the site that it must shut down.

This comes from lawyers for Viacom -- the same company that recently slapped down a $1billion suit against YouTube owner Google charging copyright infringement. Viacom seems to want to keep anything and everything involving their "properties" within a tightly controlled little sub-world.

[See update below.]

The corporate suits of Viacom seem to be mistaking their Real World franchize for the real world, wanting to lock everything up behind locked doors into a sanitized fantasy land.

We saw a bit of that the other day when we posted a rumor we'd heard that Colbert might be appearing next week as a guest host on the Regis show. In response to our post we got a sternly-worded email from a ComedyCentral address telling us that the rumor was "patently untrue," but warning us not to post anything more about it. We didn't rate a fax from the lawyers, but the email suggested it would be coming if we didn't shut up about the Regis appearance.

We still don't know if Stephen will be sitting next to Kelly sometime next week, but the actions of the outfit that employs him makes us think it's more likely. I mean, really... Why worry about a post on a little blog in Seattle if there weren't more than a grain of truth in it that somehow irritatates their petty corporate imaginations.

[Update: You'll notice the date... April 1. The front page and all the other pages of wikiality.com are now back to their usual places. The shutdown notice had replaced everything on the site during April Fools Day.]

Labels: celebrities, Colbert Report, TV, wikiality

Now, really... Celebrity gossip isn't our shtick. We don't have the sources, for one thing, and we're not nearly bitchy enough. But still, we couldn't resist in that previous post throwing out a few off-hand rumors we'd heard about a certain satirical newscaster.

Ah! But through the magic of the inter-webs tubes, we find that we just might be onto something here. A ticket buyer from last year's Queen City Cruise emailed us with this fascinating bit on insider info:

Honey!

i was on your cruise last year and made lots of friends!

ive been checking in to see the latest dish (& maybe more cruises!)...when i saw your post about late night hottie, Colbert (love that ear!), and i wanted to tell you about what i saw on my job (please don't give out my email)

i work as a PA for the Regis&Kelly prodco/distro (i do lots of internet stuff, like digitizing and upload footage for internet promos, i dont get to go on set too much)

for some reason we were shooting the promos way early. not normal, but Regis is out and it may have to do with making it hard for guest hosts to back out

weird thing though was that i was only sent 4, not the expected 5. (i usually get a wk ahead of time) One was missing.

then, get this, i was told, the last one would be shot thursday 29th after 8pm which is way strange, no one shoots for R&K that late (Ripa gets bitchy and Regis always had something to do so everything was scheduled during human hours, not vampire ones!LOL)

anyway, when i saw your post about Colbert hosting, it made sense!

his last day of shooting is thursdays! i am going to hang out at the studio to see if its him!

if its, i will try to get a pic of him for you!

thanks a bunch, sailor!

So, sure. It's not enough for Page Six, or even page 666, but it's yet another interesting hint... The official show site doesn't list Colbert as a guest next week, but they appear to have stuck some repeats into the schedule. It's starting to look more and more that it's more than just librarians who are hiding something. They do so that they'll have some kind of "Big Announcement" on Monday, however.

Oh, and by the way, despite what he said on his program last night, Colbert is not listed as a winner of one of this year's GLAAD awards. Of course, he should have been given a lifetime award for his gaydar piece and more.

Labels: celebrities, Colbert Report, TV

Wayne Besen of Ex-Gay Watch made a great appearance on The Daily Show on March 11 that deserves another look. Activists don't often do well on this kind of thing, but we were impressed. So were commenters on Ex-Gay Watch.


[link to video part 1] [link to part 2]

Speaking of Comedy Central's nighttime, we've heard an interesting rumor from some friends who share our fondness for The Colbert Report. We're not sure how much stock to put in any of this since it mostly seems to be second-hand and third-hand rumors, but folks who know a lot more about what goes on at the comedy network tell us that Stephen Colbert is preparing to make a big-net hosting appearance.

The possibilities are fascinating. After all, that might explain Katie Couric's recent featherwieght interview with the satirist. Who knows, maybe she thought that was a good way to butter him up for an offer from CBS? What? A Letterman guest-host spot? (Except, of course, Letterman does repeats instead of guests hosts.) If they were smart, the folks at CBS Evening News might want to give Colbert the desk on that program. It would probably increase the show's credibility.

Dunno. There is common ownership among the parent companies of Comedy Central and CBS, but the more likely candidate would be ABC's silly show Regis and Kelly-Lee (as Letterman likes to call it). Regis is still on medical leave, so they've been running through guest hosts at a pretty good clip. Would they dare put Colbert on the air right before Rosie? Who knows. But wouldn't that be fun. Kelly might just have an on-air breakdown.

Labels: Colbert Report, link bites, TV

The state public affairs network, TVW, will present a live webcast and telecast this morning of the House Judiciary Committee which will be voting on SB-5336, the domestic partnership bill that has passed Senate. The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 am.

TVW is on channel 23 on Seattle Comcast systems.

This is one of several bills that will be considered by the committee. Since the bill is almost assured of passage for consideration by the full house, there might not be much debate. But, then again, opponents of the bill attempted to saddle it with complex amendments in the Senate and will probably do much the same thing in the House.

[Update:]

The testimony

An audio archive of the hearing is now available from TVW. It was the first bill considered by the committee. The bill is introduced and a staff summary starts at 1:30 into the archive. Testimony starts from about a dozen people at 6:21 with Rev. Caroline Peterson who speaks in support of domestic partnerships for older adults. At 8:30 Adrea Jesse tells a wonderful story about her "white picket fence family" from Redmond.

Opponents start at 16:10 with several "faith-based" appeals for discrimination along with the classic "agenda" warnings. As happened in the Senate, the Catholic Church and others suggest that the bill should have been made far more complex by attempting to modify the existing rights of blood relatives.

At 23:00 Rep. John Ahern (R-6) suggests that the bill would cost a bunch of money by making a domestic partner eligible for higher Social Security payments. He becomes the first to use the "slippery slope" phrase. Staff explains to him that Social Security payments are governed by federal law which cannot be altered by this state law.

All of the comments are polite and at least arguably tolerant. Most comments follow the usual script from both sides, but an interesting curmudgeonly comment by Rene Lise [spelling unclear] starts at 31:08.

She introduces herself as a "lesbian over 30 years" and tells the legislators that the bill is not supported by "the homosexual community." She says that she has never been subject to discrimination because she's lesbian and claims that "the homosexual of today has more rights and privileges than the heterosexual."

She tells the legislators, "Homosexuals want to be left alone, want to live, love, and be loved."

Labels: legislature, marriage equality, SB5336, TV

Leave it to John Waters to find a whole different way to approach the marriage issue.



Waters plays the "groom reaper" on a new show, 'Til Death Do Us Part that will premier Monday on Court TV at 10pm. They're currently running a promo on that link and also feature outtakes, sneak peaks, and interviews with Waters.

This one is a "reality-based" series in which actors portray the characters in true-crime stories of spousal murders. And it's sure to be filled with Waters's gallows humor as he demonstrates in his interview (above) with Jon Stewart.

It's bound to leave bizarre state Sen. Stevens apoplectic. And that's a good thing.

Labels: celebrities, TV, video, youtube

Lewis Black takes a Daily Show look at bigotry on television, including 24 and rehabber Isaiah Washinton:



Direct link.

Labels: TV, video

• Gray zone: Isaiah Washington, serial slur-er and a star of the fake-Seattle medical drama Grey's Anatomy, kicked off an apology tour by meeting with activists from Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and "agreed to help educate the public about the cruelty of anti-gay slurs." Not everyone is buying this act in the long-simmering drama. And other bloviating blatherers don't understand why it matters.
• ABCs of awards: Meanwhile, the ever-angry and easily offended (but always useful) folks at the inappropriately-named GLAAD gave Grey's and its home network, ABC, several nominations for GLAAD's annual Media Awards.
• Tourist attraction: Gay weddings are proving to be a popular tourist attraction in Vancouver and elsewhere in Canada. According to the first available set of stats, half of BC's marriage certs for same-sex nuptuals were given to non-Canadians. Do we smell a market for San Juan honeymoon suites?

• Witch hunts:
• The Roman Catholic Church says it will close its Brit adoption agencies if it isn't allowed to practice its Pope-given right to discriminate.
• The first gay couple married in South Africa got a lot of publicity followed by threatening calls and letters.
• Google seems to be targeting gay blogs that post even vaguely suggestive "eye-candy" photos on the site. Google has told at least two prominent blogs, Scott-O-Rama and BestGayBlogs, that if they display pictures of shirtless guys, they can no longer display the Google-supplied ads that often are a primary way for bloggers and other web sites to pay for (or partly pay for) web hosting charges. It's a good thing for Viacom that Google doesn't sell ads for eye-candy-only MTV.

Labels: gay news, marriage equality, news bites, TV

• Mess-o-potamia: Activists say that Bush's proposed surgelette of American troops in Iraq is unlikely to help gay and lesbian Iraqis who continue to be targeted by death squads, sometimes operated by US-allied factions.
• Noble scolding: Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu scolded his fellow Anglicans -- and especially his fellow African bishops -- for worrying too much about gay priests in the US and not enough about disease, poverty, and malnutrition in Africa. But then, rich conservative US parishes aren't lining up to join Tutu.
• Silly scolding: ABC scolded its Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington for once again using the a slur at the Golden Globes. He apologized and refrained, this time, from using the word yet again.

• Sillier: Before firing him, the Donald scolded a hawt gay Apprentice candidate for being too gay. At least he didn't call him a "degenerate."
• Irredeemably silly: American Id... No, we can't stand to even think of it, let alone link.
• Cost of censorship: Little Sisters, the great LGBT bookstore in Vancouver won't be getting any help from Ottawa for the huge legal bills it racked up over two decades of fighting "oppressive and dismissive" customs officers who tried to keep foreign erotica out of the store.
• Sort of supportive: Gov. Gregoire kind of said that she kind of supports Murray and Pedersen's domestic partnership bill and indicated to LGBT activists that she might, kind of, sign it if it passes. (If it could be made really noisy, ugly, and view-blocking, it might have a better chance with her.)
• Supportive congregation: Parishioners prayed outside a hearing where church officials gathered to decide the fate of the gay Lutheran minister who got into trouble because he has what folks used to call a "companion."

Labels: gay news, news bites, politics, religion, TV

• Lobbying log: Log Cabin Republicans in California are actively lobbying their gubernator to sign the marriage equality bill that is expected to pass (again) in the legislature this year. They probably won't be getting much help from the largest national lobbying group, HRC, which has decided it's all about Democrats. A civil rights pioneer explained in Eugene yesterday why he things gay activists are focusing on the wrong issues.
• Divorcing rights: While marriage equality or inequality makes its way through legislatures, city halls, and ballot boxes, courts continue to be asked to sort of the contractual obligations of couples that split up:
  In Maine and Connecticut, courts are sorting through inheritance rights of the ex-partner of an IBM heiress who had, in happier days, adopted her adult partner since they couldn't get married. The adoptee now claims rights to part of her ex-partner's Watson/IBM fortune.
  In Virginia and Vermont, courts are still sorting out visitation rights for a lesbian couple who were once joined in civil union in Vermont, but the later split. The bio-mom of the couple's baby moved to Virginia and denied Vermont-court-ordered visitation. A Virginia court now says the Vermont ruling should apply even to the current Virginia resident.
• Make it work: Bravo TV will close its Queer Eye after one last mini-season, but the tradition of restyling clueless schlubs will carry on when Project Runway's Tim Gunn debuts his new style show on the cable net. Project Rungay is happy that he's escaped "from the claws of that Teutonic hussy."

Labels: gay news, marriage equality, news bites, TV

Yes. That's Jake Gyllenhaal from last night's Saturday Night Live. Yes he's doing Dreamgirls drag. Gotta love it.

He's no WonderRobbie, but he is J-j-jake GyllenHot.

Mine's huge: Oh, yes... and then there's this repartee between CNN's Anderson Cooper and Larry King sit-in Ryan Seacrest.

HatTip: Oh My God blog and The Malcontent.

Labels: celebrities, drag show, Dreamgirls, TV, video, youtube

Joshua and Jacob Miller, the hunky gay twins from Kalispell, Montana, who starred in a Logo reality series this fall were kicked out of the Jehovah's Witnesses last week. They hadn't been practicing Witnesses, but their family members were.

According to a press release sent out last week by the twins, the action taken last week by their church means that

Our immediate family is to have limited or no contact with us. And all other practicing Jehovah's Witnesses around the world are not to speak with us ever again.

That particularly nasty practice is called "disfellowship" by the Witnesses. But, at least they make official something that is all-too-common in other churches.

If you're wondering what all the fuss is about (or just want to catch more eye-candy), you could -- if you dare -- watch a marathon of all seven Nemesis Rising on Logo next Saturday morning (Dec. 30) starting at 7am (that's Eastern time, but we who don't get that channel assume they might have a west coast feed that shows it here at the same time).

A USA Today pop blogger even rated the show as a guilty pleasure, while warning, "J&J make some of the most watered-down, eardrum-shattering pop music since, oh, O-Town."

And that's being nice. Unfortunately there's already way too much saccharine "nice" in the pop pablum performed by the twins. Their album includes a cover of Nic Gilder's creepy 1979 one-hit wonder Hot Child in the City. And they (or their producers more likely) make the song about a very young prostitute sound nice.

The song from the album that qualifies as their hit, Number One In Heaven [YouTube], shares the same edgeless niceness even though it's a celebration of a one-night stand.

There are clearly some great possibilities in their song selection. But just as they waste the name "Nemesis" they also waste the chance to do something -- anything -- slightly interesting with their performances.

So, we're not sure it's worth even TiVoing the marathon, but you can catch a few video clips on Logo's site. It looks to us that the clip called, Nemesis: Special Episode Part 2 pretty well summarizes all the issues of the show. That clip also includes a live video of their dreadful rendition of Hot Child.

Labels: eye candy, Gay, religion, shirtless hunk, TV, witch hunts

We usually ignore the bizarre little "battles" that the culture warriors out there set up for their minions as fundraising or ratings campaigns, but a recent one was too odd to overlook. This one was run mostly by the crazies at American Family Association (AFA) and targeted a new show on the low-rated NBC television network. [The AFA site was offline when this was posted.]

The show, which premiered Friday on KING and most other NBC stations, is called "Book of Daniel". It's about the dysfunctional family and work life of a pill-popping Episcopalian priest named Daniel Webster -- which is apparently supposed to call to mind the story of The Devil and Daniel Webster, except that this Daniel Webster communes with a hippie-like robed Anglo Jesus who often serves as his co-pilot while driving.

Several of the objections to the show by the AFA and other critics revolve partly around that JC character.

Jerry Falwell complains that "God is portrayed as a kind of inane wise guy, maybe not quite as dopey as the "Jesus' of 'South Park' who hosts a cable access show in Colorado."

Washington Post uber-critic Tom Shales, who panned the show as "A mean-spirited unholy mess", called the Jesus character "a pushover for a bad gag and much too cool a guy to be judgmental about the deplorable pack of crackpots who make up the priest's family and friends."

A Christian blogger complains

Jesus is portrayed as being passive! This is not the way I see Jesus at all. He is not going to tell a Dad, whose son is committing sin, that 'he's just a kid'. That goes against what the Bible really teaches! Therefore, it's offensive to me, that Jesus was portrayed in this way.

Well, yes. The character on this show who represents the Jesus that this priest is "seeing" probably isn't the most common of the various Jesi that other folks who also commune with him think they see and hear. But I believe that's part of the point of the character. Of course it's a flawed Jesus, but then, Daniel Webster -- who followed his father into the family church business -- is himself a flawed character. He is depicted as a man of faith by the dramatic conceit of having him chat with a Jesus who is visible to the camera. But Father Webster's faith might be called a flawed faith. It strikes me that this is just the kind of Jesus that he would see. And hey, this Jesus wears a seatbelt when he's shown as the co-pilot and that has to be good. No?

Big problem for AFA: It's written by a gay man

The bigger objection to the show comes from something that's closer to the viscera of AFA and its ilk: The show was created by an openly gay man, Jack Kenny. That, in itself is a problem for these folks. Interestingly enough, it doesn't seem to be a problem in Hollywood. Whereas, being termed a "gay actor" is a ticket to cable TV or low-budget art flicks, "gay writer" seems -- at least from our distant perspective -- to be a mark in favor of a show. I suppose that's because of the success of shows like Friends, Desperate Housewives, and Will & Grace. AFA, however, is doing its best to put a stop to this possible trend.

A spokesman for AFA, Ed Vitagliano, told the LA Times

that the group was also offended that Kenny is gay, as are two of the show's characters.

"We look at that and say, 'If they wanted to try to alienate conservative Christians, they're making every effort to do so,'" he said.

Responded Kenny: "That strikes me as both non-Christian and un-American. It seems to me I should be able to write about anything I want to write about. They have a perfect right not to watch it."

[The LA Times story is also available here if the link above requires a subscription]

Kenny told the Times that the religious aspects of the show were never intended to be its primary subject.

All the fuss has come as somewhat of a surprise to creator Jack Kenny, who originally wrote the pilot as a writing sample a year ago. Kenny -- who most recently produced "Wanda at Large" and "Titus" -- said he intended to make Webster's vocation merely the background, not the focus of the show.

"It's never been about religion," said Kenny, who was raised Roman Catholic and describes himself now as an unaffiliated Christian. "It's about a family that loves each other unconditionally and is ready to catch each other when they fall.

"I was always very clear with the writers and actors that this was never to make fun of or mock Christianity," he added. "It was always a show about people of faith who believe in Jesus Christ as their savior. But it's not about that -- that's just there."

Vitigliano, the AFA spokesman, insisted that "[T]his was not a realistic portrayal of a minister's life. This was so far beyond the pale, it was almost a comic strip version."

Some real Episcopalian priests embrace show

Some of the Episcopal priests who watched the show disagree. After watching previews of the show, clergy as some Episcopal parishes urged theparishionersers to watch the show. The Diocese of Washington [DC] even set up a blog that includes generally positive comments on the show.

The LA Times talked to an Episcopal priest who had actually watched the show before judging it:

"I'm thrilled we have the opportunity to offer to the mainstream media the story of a progressive protagonist in a faith-based story where life is never tidy and neat," said the Rev. Susan Russell, senior associate for parish life at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, where the show's pilot was filmed. "I think it's a realistic portrayal of a faithful man facing 21st century challenges."

Russell, who has watched the pilot and read the scripts for the rest of the episodes, said she has sent a message to her congregants urging them to tune in to the program. She and other Episcopal leaders believe the show could actually draw more people to the Episcopal Church....

"I think a lot of people are looking for a spiritual home that doesn't look like the welcome mat that Jerry Falwell puts out," Russell said.

Some NBC affiliates treated the show's debut as a news story by collecting focus groups of religious-affiliated folk to discuss it after it aired. In one of those discussions -- this one with an Indianapolis station -- two Episcopalian clergymen found the portrayalyal of the priest at least within the pale.

"I didn't think it was anti Christian at all... pro-Christian," said The Rev. Gary Goldacker of Christ Church Cathedral.

"What I saw in the show, I didn't consider to be irreverent, I didn't agree with everything in the show," said Bishop Cate Waynick of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis.

But it is, as we understand it, part of the nature of that church that not everyone agrees with everyone else or with those who make a different profession of faith. One poster on RateItAll.com -- a site that collects amateur reviews about anything -- expressed concern about the perception that the show might create for his church:

The scary part about this show for me is it that many viewers will misunderstand the snarky writing and possibly believe the characters in the show to be representational of my co-religionists. I want to shout out there into TV-land that we Episcopalians, at times flawed and challenged like everyone else, do take our Christian beliefs very seriously.

The show gets an mediocre 2.38 (out of a possible 5) rating from the RateItAll site, but the majority of those who weighed in with comments did so before the shows aired on any NBC station. We somehow doubt that all of them were given preview screenings of the show.

But even after the shows aired, the "Terrible" ratings continued. One poster called it "a slanderous portrayal of Christians and Christianity by modern day AntiChrists...". Another who displays an interesting take on the notion of Christian charity said, "I saw that this show has 'always been a favorite of NBC executives'. [T]hey should all be shot."

In the numbers that will actually matter to NBC, the show didn't do a whole lot better for the network that is trying to pull itself out of a recent ratings slide. Despite all of the publicity about the show, NBC still staggered to a third-place ranking on Friday night with the more traditionally religious and sentimental shows on CBS drawing the most viewers.

Is it worth watching?

But beyond all that, is it worth watching? Hmmm... There's this: The oversexed straight son is a hottie who is given frequent reason in the scripts to remove his shirt. The more conservative gay son was only barely introduced in the initial episodes that aired Friday, so it's hard to guess how that character will be developed.

In fact, the first two episodes seemed to be little more than collections of too-brief scenes that will be replayed later as "Previously on Book of Daniel." A wide array of characters and subplots -- too wide for these two hours -- were introduced in the initial episodes. The show also strikes us as a victim of too much group think that might have diluted its initial spirit. Is it a family drama like Seventh Heaven or a melodrama/comedy like Desperate Housewives? The answer wasn't clear from the initial episodes. It didn't jump far enough over the top to fulfill its melodramatic promise.

Frankly, I'd rather watch something more like the over-the-top manga cartoon that the daughter in the family is creating. If Book of Daniel is to become an edgy drama, as NBC's publicity insists, then its blunt edge will need to be sharpened.

I certainly wouldn't advise anyone to stay home or otherwise go out of the way to watch this show, but it strikes us as at least worth a Tivo slot. This schizophrenic show strikes as as having a bit too much "Seventh Heaven" in it and not enough Desperate Housewives or Six Feet Under. But there is reason to hope that the balance will change in later shows once they can take more time to develop the odd collection of characters and situations. Even in the initial episodes, it demonstrated that it can have at least a few laugh-out-loud moments.

And then there's that hawt bad-boy brother always taking his shirt off. The gay son is also a hottie, of course, but we suspect that it will be a long time before he removes his shirt. Sigh.

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Labels: gay news, news bites, TV