"Mary Cheney, 31, is not just any lesbian. Until May, she was the lesbian/gay corporate relations manager for the once-notoriously anti-gay Coors Brewing Co. In that role she became a key player in the pivotal 'movement vs. market' debate raging inside the gay activist community, representing the point of view that corporate America is a better friend than government in advancing the cause of gay rights. Judging from her efforts on behalf of Coors, Cheney will go the extra mile for a cause she believes in. To get gay advocates to drop their support for a Coors boycott, for instance, she traveled the country with the winner of the International Mr. Leather 1999 competition—a hugely popular event on the gay-bar circuit—meeting with gay leaders to advance the Coors cause. Friends describe Cheney as extremely close to her father and fiercely loyal to the family. She takes frequent hunting and fishing trips with him; they recently returned from an excursion to South America." — Dave Cullen writing in Salon.com July 29 on the daughter of Republican VP candidates Dick Cheney.
"At the heart of that controversy [ movement vs. market ] stands Coors Brewing Co., one of the most hated corporations in gay America since the 1970s. Once synonymous with right-wing causes, it was accused of spying on its workers and discriminating against a variety of minorities, including gays, blacks and Latinos. The most infamous charge was that the brewery forced employees to take polygraph tests about their sexual orientation. Labor unions organized a boycott in 1974, and California gay rights pioneers Harvey Milk and Morris Knight called on gays to join the boycott, which has raged for more than 20 years. Coors spokesman David Taylor says the company aggressively worked to change both policies and image in the late '70s and early '80s, when Coors began expanding and developing a national marketing strategy. The company added sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy in the '80s and offered domestic partnership benefits in 1995." — Salon.com
"Coming out in the past ten to fifteen years has been considerably eased by the mainstream culture's speedy incorporation of gay life ( Will and Grace, Andrew Sullivan, Vermont ) . As a result, gay men in this generation are mostly indifferent to the faux tragedy and flamboyant exoticism of camp, and to old-time gay icons like Judy Garland. We have fetishized a flamboyant normalcy, exemplified by the frat-boy chic of Bruce Weber's slyly homoerotic ad campaigns for Abercrombie & Fitch. Young gay men today just want to be regular guys—with better-than-average bodies." — Michael Joseph Gross writing in the August Atlanta Monthly.
" [ At last year's Castro Street Pink Party ] I remember two men on top of a bus stop booth completely naked in front of hundreds. They were both gross but that didn't stop the crowd from going wild when one of the guys bent over and took a huge dildo up his ass. That was nothing compared to when they started fucking for all to see. They guy doing the fucking came in about two seconds. He pulled his limp dick out and removed a condom full of jizz. 'Safe Sex!' he screamed at the crowd while raising the used condom. The crowd cheered in unison. The guy suddenly twirled the condom in the air threatening to fling it. The cheering turned into panicked screams as everyone scrambled to avoid being hit by the loaded condom. To everyone's horror, it was flung and a fucking stampede took place as if acid were pouring. Thankfully, I was at a safe distance. It's rumored that it landed on an unsuspecting guys's back." — Columnist Paulo Murillo writing in Los Angeles' fab!, July 21.
