Let's call this column All Short Takes: Newsweek ( 1/24 ) describes a new phrase from the blogosphere—'HoYay!'—which means 'Homoeroticism Yay!' to indicate those little glances or sexually ambiguous talk between ostensibly straight TV characters. Participants include Clark & Lex on Smallville, Seth & Ryan on The O.C., and most of the men on Lost.
The Chicago Sun-Times ( 2/14 ) : Gay and lesbian groups protested a German zoo's importation of four female Humboldt penguins to break up some gay male penguin couples. The keepers wanted chicks but the boy-birds have opted for love. ( Here's a compromise, volken. Give the gay couples some fertile extra eggs to hatch and raise. )
The NY Times ( 2/4 ) : From a painting exhibit in NY City - a series by Mark Chamberlain entitled 'Queer Batman' where one can check out the dynamic duo kissing among, apparently, other things.
The NY Times Op-Ed page ( 2/17 ) : Dan Savage, tongue-in-cheek, empathizes with all those conservatives ( like Alan Keyes ) whose gay relatives keep popping out of the closet because the same thing may happen in reverse to him: he and his lover's adopted child may grow up to be a 'born-again Christian Republican who condemns his parents for their selfish hedonism.'
The Chicago Tribune ( 2/23 ) : A little story about marital and legal confusion. Judi married Michael. Michael had a sex-change. Now he's Mikayla. But New Hampshire, their home, bans same-sex marriages. New Hampshire allows gender up-dates though. So are Judi and Mikayla who are not divorced still married? You can see where this is heading? Where? By the way they have three children.
The Chicago Tribune ( 2/20 ) : Chicago's Chi-Town Squares, the only gay square dance group in the city, is given a whole page of positive spin ( or twirl ) . The club, the biggest in Chicago, welcomes anyone who wants to dance, says president Jim Maxwell, tho most members are gay. ( In the interest of disclosure, I have actually been on a dance floor with some of these folks. )
The NY Times ( 2/24 ) : A book review of Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith by Dr. Martha Beck. Dr. Beck accuses her father, a prominent Mormon religious scholar, of ritual sexual abuse of her as a child. Dad, elderly and ill, can't speak but says it is not true. Dr. Beck marries John C. Beck. They publish a book condemning homosexuality after which they divorce and come out as gay. The Mormon church is in a swifet about her new book but she says they're more concerned with her making fun of their sacred underwear than the sex accusations. Whew!
The Chicago Sun-Times ( 2/20 ) : Jennifer Beals says of her role as Bette in TV's The L Word that among other things, lesbian sex scenes make her more secure than straight ones because women will always cover each other's cellulite from the camera.
The NY Times ( 2/18 ) : A review of a new movie Harry and Max—Blond girly gay brother seduces his older bisexual bro. Succeeds, whereupon younger bro seduces his bro's old girlfriend which sets older bro to seducing younger's old boyfriend, etc. I may skip this one.
