From the “Subculture-Merges-Into-the-Uberculture” file, a cartoon strip, “Sally Forth,” from the Chicago Sun-Times (2/11) has this exchange between an office manager & his subordinate. Subordinate: “Just because Aria and I talk in the office doesen’t mean we’re an ‘item’, sir. I mean, Harold and Kevin are always together and no one thinks THEY’RE a couple.” Man: “They’ve been married for a year.” Subordinate: “Oh, I should get them something.”
Did anyone else notice the nasty little homophobic slam Rush Limbaugh threw into his hissy-fit dissing of President Obama? Saying he wished Obama would fail because success would mean a socialist America, the Chicago Sun-Times (2/2) quoted him exactly: “We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles … [and] we’ve got to accept this.” Apparently in Limbaugh’s fractured logic, Obama = socialism = sodomy. Perhaps all Rush’s illegal drugs cracked his skull. (On the other hand, how could you tell?)
From the “History-Drags-On” file, the New York Times (1/30) reviews a play, Cornbury: the Queen’s Governor. A British governor of New York and New Jersey before the American Revolution way outdid Eliot Spitzer in scandalous behavior. Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury was a cousin of Queen Anne of England. “Lord Cornbury was firmly convinced he looked better in queenly get-ups than his cousin did” and appeared everywhere in women’s (expensive, expansive, 18th-century) clothing. The play, by William H. Hoffman, is hilarious but needs some editing. It’s too bad the late gay playwright Chas. Ludlam of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company is not around to do it but he does have a connection to this play: His partner, Everett Quinton, is the play’s villain, a Dutch minister.
From the “Wassup-With-That?” file, Harper’s magazine (March) in its Findings column reports a Canadian study found that lesbian and bisexual girls are between two to seven times more likely than straight girls to get pregnant.
The New York Times (2/9) has an op-ed piece, “An About-Face on Gay Troops.” The principal originators of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy on gays in the U.S. armed forces, former Gen. Colin Powell and former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, have said it was time to “review” the policy. That’s politicianese for “We’ve changed our minds.” They don’t mean to make it more rigid; they mean to abolish it. The army has changed its recruiting rules and now admits fat ex-armed robbers without high-school diplomas and with ADD. Gay folks ought to be shoo-ins.
R.I.P.: The Chicago Tribune (2/11) has an obit on Robert Anderson, the playwright, who, though straight, wrote the gay-themed play Tea and Sympathy in 1953. It was a brave thing even to mention homosexuality in the ’50s, and the play’s theme—that even to be accused of gayness was practically worse than being gay—was a telling indictment of that era.