From the ‘Long-Live-the-Queen’ file, The Chicago Sun-Times (Dec. 1) has Stella’s Column speculating on the Queen Latifah rumor that the royal rapper is jumping out of the closet to become engaged to her long-time trainer, Jeanette Jenkins. Not true says Latifah, but times have changed some—gossip, yeah; snarkiness, no. No one’s being especially nasty about the Queen’s long-suspected lesbianism.
The Chicago Sun-Times (Dec. 10) reports a team of Chicago scientists have discovered a gene to turn on and off homosexual behavior in fruitflies. Now, trivial people want to know if this would have any effect on humans but serious people want to know if this will lead to a new insect subculture—cruising fruitflies, little leather fruitflies, p.c. dyke fruitflies, fruitfly same-sex couples adopting other’s eggs. Will there be mini-pride parades in the produce section of Whole Foods? Tell us, pleeese!
Stephanie Coontz wants to take marriage private, according to The New York Times (Nov. 26). The state should document civil unions of any two people, gay or straight, and should not perform marriages of any kind. Churches should ‘sanctify’ any marriages they wish. Amen.
The Chicago Tribune (Dec. 1) reprints a Los Angeles Times review of Portraits and Observations: The Essays of Truman Capote. Reviewer Jane Smiley likes the book even though it is an uneven miscellany of gay author Capote’s pieces from 1946 to 1984. He traps Brando into an interview, travels across Russia with a Porgy and Bess troupe, sweet-talks Elizabeth Taylor, smokes joints with his cleaning lady and admits many of the tales he tells to entertain folks are lies. The New York Times Book Review (Dec. 2) loathes the same book.
The New York Times (Oct. 27), in an op-ed piece, tells of the anthropologists trooping off with the U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan to help keep the cultural peace: ‘Ms. McFate [the anthropologist] stressed her success at getting American soldiers to stop making moral judgements about a local Afghan cultural practice in which older men go off with younger boys on ‘love Thursdays’ and do some ‘hanky-panky’.’ The op-ed writer’s heart was warmed because McFate was wa s t’s-See-If-You-Can-Follow-This’ file, The New York Times (Dec. 6) reports the Philadelphia Council of Boy Scouts fought ‘n fought ‘n fought but they lost its case against the city for discrimination. Against homosexuals. So they can’t stay in the wonderful Beaux Arts building they’ve had almost rent-free ($1 a year) since 1928—even though they built it. On city land. Philly said they could stay there if they pay the market price rent: $200,000 per year. Ahh, brotherly love.