Friday, November 10, 2006

BILL MAHER OUTS REPUBLICAN, CNN “INS” HIM
Wednesday night's episode of Larry King Live turned out to be a little too live for CNN's taste. Comedian Bill Maher appeared on the show discussing Tuesday's election results, why folks had voted the way they did, why Larry wasn't retired yet (okay, I only wish).

And then the conversation took a turn toward Republican hypocrisy on GLBT issues and whether or not closeted gay Republicans should be outed. Maher definitely thinks they should.

KING: You will name them?
MAHER: I wouldn't be the first. I'd get sued if I was the first, but...you know, Ken Mehlman, okay there's one I think people have talked about. I don't think he's denied it when people have suggested. He doesn't say...
KING: Ken Mehlman? I've never heard that. But the question is...
MAHER: Maybe you don't go to the same bathhouse I do Larry.

Maher also promised to name more names on tonight's edition of Politically Incorrect. Hmm, methinks some very nervous governors, senators, and other legislative bigwigs might have to TIVO that episode.

As Andy Towle pointed out over at Towleroad, Mehlman has in fact denied being gay. CNN was less than pleased with Maher's comments, which CNN edited out for the show's west coast broadcast. Actually, they edited out the entire exchange about the issue of closeted Republicans which makes no sense at all. Then they forced YouTube to send Jon Aravosis of Americablog a cease and desist order for showing the clip, something that has never troubled the network in the past.

And here I was thinking CNN was a news network. Silly me.

Unlike the issue of closeted celebrities, who I don't believe should be outed (as much as I want them to come out), I don't have any real beef with outing closeted Republicans who participate in (or, in Mehlman's case, are the principle architects of) a political strategy that deliberately inflames anti-gay passions in order to drum up votes. When it comes to politicians, hypocrisy matters. But keep in mind: a lot of outing is based completely on rumor and innuendo, and all of us who went through the eighth grade know how inaccurate rumors can sometimes be.

All that aside, there is something very interesting going on in this country right now. We've proceeded from Lance Bass being slowly pushed out of the closet to Neil Patrick Harris coming out after only a little speculation to Bill Maher naming names on national television. By next month, I'll be expecting CNN to have a regular segment announcing who has come out that day. Gosh, I wonder who could host that?

We'll have more on the topic next week.

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. PLEASE STAND BY
As I promised in last week's column, on Monday we launched our new blog BEST.GAY.DAY.EVER. and it was a hit. Too much of a hit apparently. It seems that by turning on the blogs, we tipped the server capacity over its limit causing the whole site to grind to a halt. I called down to engineering to say we needed more power, but was told we were already at warp nine. In fact, our engineer Karman said, “I've given ya all ayuh can give ya, Cap'n. If I push ‘er any ‘arder the whole thing is likely to blow!”

Actually, it was something about server capacity, data base conversion, download times, etc. I hate technology so what I heard was “Wah wah wah. Wha wah wah” -- the way adults sound on those Charlie Brown specials. Anyway, the problem is resolved and on Monday (I think! It might be Tuesday) you may proceed in an orderly fashion over to the blog. No pushing please!

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