Best. Gay. Week. Ever! Annie Lennox is Positively Beautiful, "Spartacus" Goes Out With a Bang and more!

SO JUST WHERE DO YOU DRAW THE LINE?
Here is an interesting question for you: as gay people where do we draw the line when it comes to spending our hard earned dollars on movies, books, plays and or music that in some way might benefit a person or business who doesn't have our best interests at heart?

Eminem, Mel Gibson

This is a question most of us face at some point whether it's deciding if you want to download that new Eminem song that is so great despite his past comments about gay people. Or whether you should shell out ten bucks to see that new Mel Gibson flick your brother wants to see even though Gibson supports the far right wing of the Catholic Church, not to mention the awful and historically inaccurate portrayal of Edward II he gave us in Braveheart, as well as the ugly murder of Edward's lover in that same movie. 

For me the issue came up around the shockingly homophobic sci fi writer Orson Scott Card. Even though I love science fiction and thought Card's Ender's Game was brilliant, I not only won't buy anything else Card writes, but I won't even check any of his book's out of the library because I don't want to do a single damned thing that might even indirectly benefit a bigot like him.

Now the issue has come up again in terms of Kelsey Grammer playing gay in the current revival of La Cage Aux Folles.

Douglas Hodge, Kelsey Grammer

More than one AfterElton.com reader wrote in to either complain about Grammer's role in La Cage or to ask what I thought about it. The topic took another twist this week when Grammer was announced as the spokesmen for RightNetwork, a fledgling TV channel targeted for a conservative audience. 

Should Grammer's politics, which have included supporting the very anti-gay Bush administration, as well as the anti-gay McCain campaign, keep you from seeing the musical? After all, the more successful the show is and the longer it runs, the more money that goes into Grammer's pocket and the more influential he becomes.

If you had asked me last week, I probably would have shrugged and said I didn't much care either way.  I wasn't particularly interested in the rather retro musical (paging John Barrowman!) and probably wouldn't have seen it, but not because Grammer is Republican. Everyone is entitled to their personal beliefs and it wasn't like he was doing me any real harm. Heck, he even supports gay marriage.

But now that Grammer is a spokesman for a rightwing network, I feel rather differently. As a gay man still not allowed to get married and still dependent on Presidential executive orders to ensure I be allowed to visit the Flying Monkey in the hospital (fingers crossed against that happening!), I simply can't imagine how RightNetwork will do anything but harm our fight for equality. 

I suppose it's possible that RightNetwork might actually espouse a moderate Republican point-of-view. But if you've been paying much attention to politics of late, "moderate" is pretty much a four letter word for the rightwing these days. And in poking around the RightNetwork site, I found nothing that indicated the network would be welcoming to the GLBT community. So call me doubtful about the whole moderate thing.

And despite the fact that there are other gay folks involved with the production (hey, Nick Adams!), and despite the fact I'm somewhat conflicted about my decision, call me a no show for La Cage. I'd rather wait until a different actor takes the part; one who won't take my money and then go out and support a party who pretty much opposes all of my rights.

But that's a choice for you to make for yourself and in fact, we'll even be running a review of La Cage so you can decide for yourself if you want to check it out. 

Next page! It's the Derriere Chapeau poll!