Ask the Flying Monkey! (May 20, 2009)

I absolutely love him! I adored "So Close", and when I saw him perform it at the Oscars I was mesmerized by him and completely fell in love. It has very personal meaning to me. IMO it should have won, but whatever, Jon has gone on to make more beautiful music (go listen to "Beautiful Disaster"). Great to here he likes his gay fans too.

You too can be saved by the blog! www.savedbytheblog14.blogspot.com 

I may be straight, but I'm not narrow.

love your comparison between the struggle for gay rights and the wizard of oz love it

god, i had such a huge crush when JTT was younger....as was I. with that random memory said....

"when he left mid-way through the eighth season, and didn’t return for the finale the following year, because he had landed movie roles (as hard as it is to imagine now, Thomas was then a Very Big Deal). "

^ i'm not trying to be mean, but i don't remember many movies back then with Jonathan. I remember that one movie with Jessica Biel about Christmas and Wild America. That's it though. when he was younger, he had a few hit movies (lion king, tom sawyer) - - I'm not really buying the "oh i have movie roles" explanation. He was big, but never Brad Pitt big.

I always remembered him being more famous for his role as Randy and being cute than being in movies. If he had a "movie career" then i missed it. i always have read that he left the show because of wanting to go to college.

 

 

http://www.ehrensteinland.com/htmls/g012/riptaylor.html

 Another generation, boys and girls. Another very sad generation.

Not only does Dom DeLuise have three grown sons, his three grown sons are freakin' hot!

Well, two of them are, anyway. The other one is more "adorkable," I suppose. ;Þ

This comparison you made was really well done, it totally made me cry, I printed it out and hung on my wall!

Great answer to the last question. We may have arrived at the Emerald City but we still have to douse many witches before we have a happy ending.

YUM!!! I actually got to see him in person at Disney where I work. He and his family ate at the restaurant where I work at and part of my job is to monitor the dining room and delegate work that is needed to keep operations smooth. I delegated myself to stand by the table he was at and actually got to talk to him for a bit. Part of creating "Magic" of course. He was indeed gorgeous and has gotten more so with age... and he did lean to the right, trust me I was looking!

GLBT Canadians and GLBT Dutch and GLBT Spaniards and GLBT Belgians and GLBT Swedes and GLBT Norwegians are nearly at the Emerald City - GLBT U.S. Americans are just stumbling out of the swirling house after it has crashed from the cyclone (i.e. 26 constitutional amendments that the USA Supreme Court will not overturn in the next 100 years, DOMA, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Solomon Amendment, no federal enforcement of the 14th Amendment [equal protection] or the First Amendment [do GLBT really have religious freedom in the USA?!], cowardly federal Democraps and Republican'ts at the helm, etc.).

The USA GLBT community needs to avoid falling into the 90's trap - when things start going well in a few places and the White House isn't railing against us, our leaders start to act like everything is going swell. This is precisely the time for our community to build up local and state organizations, strengthen them as much as possible, connect with as many allies as possible, and do all the grunt work that so many ignorantly think can be avoided while still expecting to make progress (the 90's trap). Only when enforced laws are penned explicitly protecting our human rights - those which are ours by birthright not by popularity - and the ink is long dry should we finally rest; at last at the gates of the Emerald City.

Brent - you are simply stunning. I swear, your intellect never fails to amaze me. I agree with you - while there are the many times in which we can look at the past (pointing fingers at others and perhaps at ourselves) we needed every facet of our experience to prepare us for the extreme burden that is to be our freedom.  

Anne Bradstreet said it well when she penned 'If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome,'.

 

Was Matthew Shephard necessary? Yes. His death (as did his life, and more importantly - the events that transpired in his after-life with us) taught us to be safer, to be stronger, to live.

But, I have to beg the LGBT community for one request. Remember - that we are not alone. We have the fortunate burden of being a minority that is neither bound by boarders or demarcations. We must remember our brothers and sisters in neighboring nations. When we have achieved our sense of comfort - we must turn to their aide.

As a member of the +50 club I can remember watching Dom on Dean Martin and other 60's and 70's show. I always enjoyed his antics. I however never got the gay vibe from him as many of the younger generation seems to have had. Perhaps it was because camp was in vogue in the 60's and 70's and that leaves many with the impression that a lot of the people on TV were gay. Certainly there were, (Lynde, Nelson-Reilly, Liberace) but not all. Anyone who's watched Stargate knows that Dom's son's had a connection with it. In two episodes especially (the fake tv show/movie within the show episodes ) Dom was a bit campy (as any good comedian should be) but certainly not gay.

I have often thought that those of us who have survived the 80s (which I assume includes you, Brent, if not I' sorry, but I was going more on wisdom that you're youthful appearance), did so because there was a need for the next generations to have Yodas. There didn't seem to be a lot of wisdom pre-Stonewall that was available to younger G:BT people. It was probably there, but there certainly wasn't easy access. How many of us, particularly when we first got to college, assumed there were only two gay people on campus: you and your boyfriend (if you were lucky)? This June marks the 40th anniversary of Judy Garland's death and the ensuing Stonewall Riots. In American politics, 40 years is really not that long a time period. The wheels have historically turned very slowly regarding civil rights and equality. So on one hand, I do believe there have been great strides forward (post-Stonewall and apparently post-Prop 8) with giant road blocks to overcome (Reagan onward). On the other hand, it is indeed frustrating to not be closer to our goals. The AIDS crisis, for all its horror and sadness, accomplished almost a religious fervor similar to the Chautauquah movement 100 years before. It mobilized and brought together a diverse group of men and women to survive and fight toward a common goal. As you may recall, this was when gay marriage first became a prominent issue. Until lately, it seems as though solidarity, unity, and focus was too difficult to attain (although Matthew Shepard would be an exception). It seems that during the 60s and 70s all oppressed people were working toward a common goal. I confess that currently I feel like GLBT people have been not only on their own but also butting heads with the same people we had fought for earlier. Could we have gotten where we are now any sooner? Probably not. Should we continue the journey? How can we not?

Pope Skippy XVI

I got a little teary reading your Yellow Brick Road allusion--which is kind of bad because I'm at work. Thank you Brent. So well done.

I remember reading that he was on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher one time and said that gay people should have separate bathrooms so they don't look at straight people's privates. Does anyone know if that's true?

I can't believe you turned a hoary Wizard of Oz reference into a really true and touching analogy of Coming Out. Really nicely written, a keeper. (And it reminded me when Glinda told Dorothy she actually could have gone home any time, what a passive-aggressive c**t I always thought Glinda was!)

re: John Schneider

You can't say it, but I am not a journalist -- John Schneider pings my gaydar in a MAJOR way. Didn;t anyone notice when he was on Smallville he could not get through a speech to Clark Kent without touching his chest or stroking his hair or holding his neck? I mean never. Then he was written off the show. PING.

I do love to read your column and rush to do that as soon as it comes out. It is always fun to be somewhere deliciousness abounds. A question, perhaps you can answer. Around April Fools Day, AfterElton put in an item that says all but one of the editors is straight. Is that true? Brent

I work in a music store, and one day I spotted Jon McLaughlin on the cover of his CD, and I just stood there staring, my jaw dropped. He is SOOO Gorgeous! I eventually got told off by my boss and had to get back to work, but I stop back to gaze at him some more every now and then.

And I have a friend who is a close personal friend of John Schneider. And this friend of mine, he is the kind of straight guy who would flat-out kill a man for saying anything anti-gay. Seriously, he's trained in it. So I doubt very much Schneider is anti-gay, or my friend would not be friends with him.