Sometimes being a columnist is just one damned thing after another—ask the Chicago Sun-Times’ Richard Roeper. On 8/16 under the heading ‘Whoever heard of coming out of the straight closet?’ he wrote ‘If you don’t think it’s tougher to be gay than straight in this world, how come we’ve never seen a press conference where a putatively gay individual announces he’s actually hetero?’ Unfortunately for the resolutely gay-friendly (but straight) columnist, his own paper on the same day a few pages away was running a news item about the alleged paramour of gay New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey. Golan Cipel told an Israeli newspaper that he was not, not, not gay, but straight.
Thomas Cahill, author of Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter, points out, in The NY Times (8/9), a few differences between the ancient Olympics and the modern games: the youths who participated in the first games did so nude and the spectators, especially older men, were not at all loath to express their sexual and romantic admiration publically.
A couple of quotes: from the Chicago Sun-Times (8/5), Patti LaBelle, appearing at Glamorama, the fashion benefit for Chicago’s Art Institute, explained her bright orange ensemble this way—'[It was] … made by a friend of mine in New York who makes clothes for the top female impersonators—perfect since I’m basically a drag queen at heart!’ Another drag queen, Dame Edna, opines in the same paper (8/16) ‘I adored The Passion of the Christ especially the flagellation scenes, which were done so tastefully. I suggested the idea of that film to Mel [Gibson] years ago, inspired by a little book I found in the drawer of my hotel night stand.’
Discover Magazine (8/04) tells of the fuss, raised by, among others, the Traditional Values Coalition, on any type of sexual research. The specific project objected to in this article focused on the sex lives of long-distance truckers and their use of prostitutes (‘lot lizards’) and male ‘truck chasers’ who fetishize drivers. National Institute of Health Officials had OK’d the study because they wanted to compare it to Africa where truckers were a major source in the spread of HIV.
Real College by Douglas Stone and Elizabeth Tippett as seen by The NY Times Book Review (8/22) purports to give advice to new students on various topics, perhaps tongue in cheek. On ‘Identity’: ‘If you are female and have a one-time sexual experience with another woman, you are probably exploring your physicality, expanding your morality, gaining an understanding of what you will (and will not) desire within the context of a mature, ideologically consensual relationship. If you are male and have a one-time sexual experience with another man, you are probably gay.’