From the ‘Some-Things-Are-Too-Queer-For-Their-Own-Good’ file, The New York Times Book Review (Aug. 12) introduces us to Love Without, a book of stories by Jerry Stahl. One story starts with a character saying, ‘ I did not mean to sodomize Dick Cheney’ but he does, not finding out until later that this ‘burly, pink-thighed, sneering buffalo of love’ was the Vice President of the United States. Apparently, there are jokes about finding weapons of mass destruction in grandpa Cheney’s pants. Think I could skip this one.
The Advocate (Aug. 9) has a piece for the ‘Tsk-Tsk-Tsk’ file: Glenn Murphy recently was elected the chair of the prestigious Young Republican Foundation. Said he: ‘I will essentially be the mouthpiece and effective leader for tens of thousands of Young Republicans …’—and how! It seems he had to suddenly resign for (allegedly) using his mouthpiece on another man who was sleeping and who objected. Further, it’s not the first time as he did the same thing in 1998.
The New York Times (Aug. 15) reports that Montgomery County, Md., is all set (barring any just-before-the-opening-bell legal actions) to offer lessons on homosexuality in its 8th- and 10th-grade health education classes. And the next sentence is … ‘Some parents object.’ Polls did indicate that more parents supported the idea being taught in high school than in junior high. The lessons start by defining terms such as ‘prejudice,’ ‘homosexual’ and ‘transgender,’ and do add that ‘ … fears about being teased or even attacked are not unfounded’ as the curriculum writers are also finding out.
Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, has been casting its tourist net out for gay and lesbian tourists lately, says the Chicago Sun-Times (Aug. 5). For every dollar the city spent to attract the LGBT hordes, it got back 153 dollars. The city is meeting with gay softball, bowling and soccer leagues to attract their competitions and has met with Rosie O’Donnell’s R Family Vacations, whch caters to gay and lesbian families. The article notes that 75 cities around the world have gay tourism campaigns.
A cartoon in the Chicago Tribune (Aug. 15) shows a man kneeling in front of the graves of his parents: ‘Mom, Dad, I’m gay. Whew! That was easy.’