Everyone has covered the opening of Millennium Park and sooner or later (actually now) it will be noticed, especially in overhead shots, that the oval-shaped concert field with the snaking pedestrian bridge looks like a giant sperm cell (poised to impregnate Lake Michigan?).
The Sun-Times (6/1) reported a Bushism: introducing the wife of the Senate Majority Leader, Mr. Bush said ‘Karyn is with us. A West Texas girl, just like me.’ You go, girl.
Newsweek (7/26) reports that South Dakota, the very rural, lightly populated state that Democratic Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle hails from, is all set for Daschle’s Republican Challenger, evangelical John Thune, to make gay marriage ‘the centerpiece of his campaign’ because he could find no other compelling issues affecting South Dakotans.
Dan Savage in Salon.com (7/19), in his essay ‘What does marriage mean,’ argues that monogamy is both necessary and nearly impossible in almost any kind of relationship, gay or straight. He agrees with Jonathan Katz who has said that monogamy is ‘one of the pillars of heterosexual marriage and perhaps its key source of trauma.’ Among other tidbits in this rather subtle piece is the statement that gay male couples are less monogamous than straight couples, who are less monogamous than lesbian couples.
Along those lines, the Chicago Tribune (7/17) reprinted a political cartoon from the Oregonian: a far right type in front of a mike says (1) gays want to be married; (2) gays want to raise kids; (3) gays want to serve in the military and be ordained ministers; but, (4) gays don’t have the same values we do.
The NY Times (7/7) has an article about an exhibit at the Huntington Library near Pasadena celebrating the 100th anniversary of Christopher Isherwood’s birth. Isherwood (in case you’ve missed any of this) was a gay, British, American pacifist, novelist, screenwriter, and lifelong friend of W. H. Auden (also gay and probably the best poet of the 20th century). Most people would know him (much to his dismay) as the author of the stories that became Cabaret.
The NY Times (7/11) ran a pictorial essay on the progress, on July 4, of the ferry from New York’s Cherry Grove to The Pines on Fire Island. This very gay and glittery festival started when a number of drag queens were turned away from a restaurant in the Pines, 28 years ago. The stars, this year, were the sequin-clad couple Wyn Tucker and Peter Romano, who have been together 57 years.
Cher Gets Logo’d
Cher may make her way back onto the small screen with lesbian daughter Chastity, reports AP. Cher and Chastity Bono are expected to host a new program called ‘Family Outing’ in which celebrities tell their stories of coming out as gay or lesbian. The program will air on Viacom’s new gay and lesbian channel, LOGO. Comedians Margaret Cho, Scott Thompson, and Kathy Griffin all are expected to host shows as well.