Pundits are busily watching for hints of democracy in the Middle East these days. The maxim of the day seems to be ‘Mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow.’ One can do the same thing with gay liberation, which, in spite of the U.S.A.’s red state politics, has world-wide tiny (and strange) green shoots: Mexico has, according to the Chicago Tribune (3/1), its own professional wrestling ‘sport’, Lucha Libre, where the scripted matches are so over-the-top that it would make Hulk Hogan and his ilk look like the vicar’s tea party. Lucha Libre always has villains (who sometimes win) and heroes (who sometimes lose). Some heroes: Super Barrio, champion of the poor; Super Ecologist, fighter for the environment; Super Animal for animal rights; and, tah dah—Super Gay for gay rights. That’s right, Super Gay is a popular hero, cheered by Mexico’s working poor. Take that, you fundies!
The Chicago Sun-Times (2/27) tells of gay marriages in India—somewhat twisted from the same controversy in the States: India is even more conservative and disapproving of homosexuality than the U.S.A. but its laws say nothing on the same-sex marriage issue. Hence same-sex couples can legally marry but they are subject to arrest if they have sex, which is illegal. One set of lesbian girlfriends solved their problem by marrying the same man.
The NY Times (2/25) says the European press gave almost as much coverage to the breakup of gay couple Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana as they did to President Bush’s European visit. It seems that the fashion designing couple split, got new partners, added all the new personnel to their menage and carried on in a true civilized Italian manner.
Speaking of Texans, a new play Texas Homos, reviewed in The NY Times (2/8), tells the story of a small-town preacher and the town doctor caught in a public washroom by a police sting. The playwright drags out the ending but the play about the exposure of secret lives still hits home.
The Chicago Reader (2/18) suggests defrocked Catholic priest Paul Shanley, convicted in the child abuse scandal, may have been found guilty as a consequence of false ‘recovered’ memory: the victim’s memory faded in and out numerous times and Shanley, who never testified on his own behalf, was identified, even by his family, as an ephebophile (attracted to teenage boys), not a pedophile who was attracted to children as young as the victim.
And just in case you think Catholicism has been picked on too much, shift your attention to the Greek Orthodox Church where Father Iakovos Giosakis stole Byzantine icons, embezzled thousands of dollars from his Chicago parish, trafficked in drugs, tried to fix his trial and fled to Greece where he finally did something positive—he distracted the press from another scandal in which another cleric had just been suspended after a TV station aired a little romantic recording of him and his male lover. Next up: vegetarian Baptist strippers plan to impose their values on an unsuspecting world.