Best. Gay. Week. Ever. (November 14, 2008)

KEITH OLBERMANN ISN'T OUR ONLY ROCKIN' STRAIGHT ALLY
Another name that us gay folks should be singing the praise of is African American columnist Leonard Pitts who has been a friend of the gays for a long, long time now. Pitts, who writes for The Miami Herald has been such a great ally that in 2003 GLAAD named him Outstanding Newspaper Columnist and The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force honored him in 2007.

Pitts recieving an honor from the NGLTF

Well, Pitts is at it again, this week writing a column about the passage of Proposition 8 titled Some blacks forgot sting of discrimination. Says Pitts,

When, for instance, they use an obscure passage from the Bible to claim God has ordained the mistreatment of gays, don't they hear an echo of white people using that Bible to claim God ordained the mistreatment of blacks?

When they rail against homosexuality as ''unnatural,'' don't they remember when that word was used to describe abolition, interracial marriage and school integration?

When they say they'd have no trouble with gay people if they would just stop ''flaunting'' their sexuality, doesn't it bring to mind all those good ol' boys who said they had no problem with ''Nigras'' so long as they stayed in their place?

I heart Leonard. And you should too. Why not drop him an email in appreciation — because trust me, he's getting the hate mail. On the other side of the African American columnist spectrum, we've got the uber-homophobic Thomas Sowell (pictured, below right) who calls gay marriage a fraud and then says:

Marriage has existed for centuries and, until recent times, it has always meant a union between a man and a woman. Over those centuries, a vast array of laws has grown up, all based on circumstances that arise in unions between a man and a woman.

It's bad enough to hear Tony Perkins lie about marriage never having changed, but to hear a black man spread those same lies when the same courts he now rails against are the ones who changed the definition of marriage for his sake is simply uncsonscionable.

And as long as we've waded back into the thorny racial issues surrounding Prop 8, here is an interesting link to my friend Rod McCullom over at Rod 2.0 who points out that not a single ad against Prop 8 included a black gay couple and that there was very little outreach down to the African American community.

I have to confess I am dismayed and disappointed by the firestorm that has erupted over this issue. God knows we have enough work to do and enough enemies to fight without getting bogged down in which group of straight people hate us the most. Yes, I'm talking about you Tony Perkins.

LOOKS LIKE NATHAN MUST'VE HEARD ABOUT THOSE INFAMOUS 'TIL DEATH TABLE READS
Last month Michael Ausiello reported that Nathan Lane was going to be doing an episode of Brad Garrett's Fox sitcom 'Til Death. Lane was scheduled to play Garrett's gay brother, this even though during the whole Isaiah Washington "faggot" controversy, Garrett said, "Should he [Washington] be fired? For saying that word? Isaiah's got to come to my show. We open every table read with words like this."

Classy. Anyway, curious about the storyline and interested in getting some pics of Lane on the set, I got in touch with Fox only to learn that Lane is no longer doing the episode. No particular reason was given, but I was told that Richard Kind (Spin City, Scrubs) was taking Lane's place.

Nathan Lane is out and Richard Kind is in

Oh, well, at least Garrett doesn't have to worry about offending Lane during the table read. Not that he would've worried.

Next page! Having fun with a gay Bond love interest!