Can one imagine conservative African-American politician Alan Keyes having a hissy fit (‘I am not, not, NOT going to join PFLAG!’ for example) when his daughter, Maya Marcel-Keyes, announced she was a ‘liberal queer’? (The Chicago Tribune & the Chicago Sun-Times, 2/15.) Perhaps the elder Keyes could found a club for conservative parents of gay kids: PHEGAL (Parents & Homophobic Enemies of Gays & Lesbians). Phyliss Schlafley and the Cheneys could join. Maya was tossed out of the house by the way.
The NY Times (2/10) highlights the February TV Sweeps’ new weapon: The Lesbian Kiss. Sweeps stunts, according to the article, need to be A) very visible, B) inexpensive to produce, C) controversial, and D) reversible. The old biggies, weddings and natural disasters, don’t even fit all these criteria, but lesbian flings do. The number of shows with full-time, part-time, and ‘I’m-just-trying-this-out-and-I’m-probably-not-one-but-just-in-case-let’s-show-everybody’ lesbian characters has become a matter of long lists. ‘Sweeps lesbians typically vanish or go straight when the week’s over.’ Speaking of two current shows, The O.C. and One Tree Hill, ‘… lesbianism on both shows often appears to be a displaced consummation of the intimate, complex relationships between the central male characters.’ (Are they saying the new gay man is the lesbian?) Even the reality shows are joining in: Wife Swap featured a particularly hostile, prejudiced and stereotyped exchange of spouses between a straight and lesbian couple.
A tongue-in-cheek writer in The NY Times (2/6) tells how ‘The Patriots Made a Man of Me, in a Manner of Speaking.’ Brendan Tapley, a gay man, spent a whole life trying to talk ‘guy’ with no success till he started deliberately watching football games. He read all the articles on the Patriots’ Listserv. Voila, he could talk to straight men and found to his amazement they could talk to him (even when he admitted the whole thing started because he liked the Patriots’ photogenic quarterback.) One wonders if Tapley will go on to hockey, baseball, and boxing.