Month: April 2006

A reader writes:

"Your post, "Republican Degeneracy Watch" is a headline in search of a story. Cato and CAGW and other think tanks, left and right, have identifiable agendas. These agendas coincide with various other groups‚Äô agendas. We are to be surprised, shocked, disheartened when the relevant groups support the think tanks with whom they agree or the think tanks that will promote their side?  Let‚Äôs not imply a scandal where there is none.
Should we expect that all think tank funding be ideologically driven?  It is very difficult even to untangle the relationship between interests and ideology. Circumstances, to a large extent, drive people‚Äôs ideology. Most members of the teacher‚Äôs union are ideologically opposed to vouchers. Most union members are ideologically in favor of higher minimum wages. Pornographers are strong promoters of the first amendment right to free speech, as they interpret it. Big farmers support ag policy that includes generous subsidies‚Ķ
All will insist that their position is independent of their particular status. ‚ÄúEven if I weren‚Äôt an administrator in a public school I would still be opposed to vouchers‚Ķ etc. As long as the think tanks do not engage in direct lobbying activity and various other restrictions they are ok.  CAGW was doing what think tanks do ‚Äì promoting their agenda that happened to be to in line with what big tobacco wanted to promote. Big Deal."

Some of them are angry at my perceived nostalgia:

"As a 21 year old, Ivy-educated gay man, I find it interesting, albeit predictable, that older gay men are lamenting the death of gay culture. Frankly, I’ll be much happier once drag shows and camp goes out the window. Unfortunately, I feel sincerely that the prevalence of sex shops and theaters, the celebration of farcical dress, and the obsession older gays have with a separate minority identity have done little outside give fodder to the religious right and keep us out of the mainstream. In fact, I feel that the older generation has done a great disservice by not giving us real role models and, instead, taking joy in anonymous sex in darkened theaters, dissolution of the family model, and wallowing in outrageousness. All of these things have contributed to a gay culture wherein I, as a politically active, liberal, professional, educated, monogamous, partnered, JCrew/LL Bean wearing, HIV Negative man am an unfortunate minority.

How am I supposed to support gay leadership when they seemingly endorse a culture of death (excessive partying, no interest in children, HIV, anonymous sex, etc.) and lament whenever another pit of self disrespect (i.e. sex shops/theaters, drag theaters) is closed? I truly love you and your words, Andrew, but enough is enough. Let us move on together and create a real culture with a real future and abandon the culture of separatist victimization we were forced into years ago by a repressive society."

I understand where this guy is coming from. But I don’t think my essay suggests we should cling to the past. On the contrary. I wrote "Virtually Normal" for a reason and helped pioneer the idea of marriage for gay couples almost two decades ago precisely to chart such a gay future. But human beings are fallible and flawed and, well, human. While we can and should strive to move on, we need not be excessively judgmental about those in the past or present whose pace of adjustment is not so swift. I have never been an angel myself, and have often failed to live up to ideals I hold. But life is a flawed  journey; and the point, at least in my Catholic soul, is the struggle and forgiveness in that struggle. I’ve learned that lesson the hard way. I hope my 21 year-old reader does better in his own future. He’ll start from a base my own generation had no inkling of.

I might add that there’s nothing to my mind in any way wrong with drag, cross-dressing or other gender-bending activities. They do not define gay life, or many gay men; but they are surely one part of gay culture and are genuine expressions of some gay men’s identity. In the past, drag queens helped forge the small space in which today’s 21-year-old Ivy Leaguers can now breathe. The lesson to me is that gay men should do less judging of one another. We should rather try and become the future we want to forge. And let our example, however imperfect, lead others.

How insanely complicated is our tax system? Cato’s Chris Edwards elaborates (PDF).

I’m not a fan of political pop. But when it’s a funny, subtle, biting rendition of a gay love story, I can enjoy it. And when it’s the Pet Shop Boys doing all this as a way to twit Tony Blair’s crush on George W. Bush, I’m intrigued. When the video is being made with "Little Britain" stars, Matt Lucas, and Reigate Grammar School alum, David Walliams, I have to surrender. Yes, I have little ability to resist anything by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, and I went to RGS, so my recommendation may not carry much weight. Otherwise, enjoy. Lyrics can be read here.

My readers flex more muscles:

"Regarding the nerd stuff about the time and date reading 01:02:03 04/05/06 at 2 minutes and 3 seconds after 1 AM on Wednesday, I think they haven’t gone far enough.. Depending on how you arrange and display time and date, then at 34 minutes and 56.7 seconds after noon on August 9, 2010, the time and date will be: 12:34:56.7 8/9/10."

Er, thanks.

"I said a little prayer before I actually did the fingerprint thing, and the picture. My prayer was basically: ‘Let people see Christ through me. And let me smile,’" – Tom DeLay, channeling God again. John Judis has the scoop on his possible successor.

It’s just one small, seedy strip. But it meant a world to a lot of people over the decades. Hank Stuever has a moving piece on the end of D.C.’s drag and sex block in Southeast, all to make way for a baseball stadium, when Washington has a perfectly good one as it is. Oh well. My TNR essay on the end of gay culture can be read here. A Christianist sneer can be found here.

(Photo: Aaron Tone.)

There’s a Chef connection to the Cynthia McKinney saga. She paid Isaac Hayes $1000 to commemmorate her new office – from tax-payers’ money.

"I get a call the other night. They’ve found four more bodies in western Baghdad. They’re bound, hands and feet. They’re blindfolded. They’ve been shot in the head. Their bodies bear wounds from beatings and electrical burns, and someone has used a drill on their flesh. That’s just one phone call. I get a few more. Every night it seems, dozens of bodies turn up, both Shiite and Sunni, often killed in the same fashion.
We spoke with a journalist recently who works for an Iraqi television station. For the last nine days, he’s been sleeping at the office. He’s been threatened with death because of his work and he doesn’t want to bring the danger home to his parents and six sisters. He told the Ministry of the Interior about the threat. They told him to get a gun," – NPR’s Baghdad producer JJ Sutherland, today.

(Photo: Wathiq Khuzaie/Getty.)

"Sexual orientation cannot, and must not, be the basis of a second-class citizenship," – Irish prime minister, Bertie Ahern, yesterday.

Ireland will soon legislate civil partnership rights for gay couples, the legal equivalent of marriage in the UK. What’s fascinating to me is how two of the most historically Catholic countries in Western Europe, Spain and Ireland, are now in the forefront of recognizing gay civil equality. Italy and France are, however, less evolved. Perhaps the link between Spain and Ireland is that both countries endured many decades of Church-State collusion, allowing the Church to enjoy astonishing civil powers. The sex abuse scandal helped the collapse of the Church hierarchy’s moral authority in both countries. But it’s politicization that wounded both Spanish and Irish churches in the long run. There’s a lesson there for America’s Christianists. There is a price for conflating religion and politics. Eventually, it will come back to haunt you.