2007: BEST GAY YEAR EVER!

2007: SO LONG. FAREWELL. AUF WIEDERSEHEN. GOODBYE!
Well folks, this marks my final column for the year as we're all taking next week off for a well needed rest (read: collapsing into a quivering heap and clutching our favorite blankie tightly to our chests). But before I ride off into the sunset channeling Julie Andrews, I thought it time for a look back at the year that was!

JANUARY: TOO BAD HOMOPHOBES DON'T HIBERNATE
Call it a late Christmas present, but this month GLAAD named The New York Post's Sean Delonas as one of the worst anti-gay defamers in the business. Why? Because the "editorial cartoonist" regularly runs garbage like this:

A man marrying a sheep! How fresh! How funny! How nice such a talentless hack actually found gainful employment! At least it keeps him off the streets.

Proving that homophobia need not reside only in straight hack cartoonists, out figure skating analyst Mark Lund joined Nancy Kerrigan and analyst Lou Tilley in verbally trashing then current U.S. Men's Figure Skating Champion Johnny Weir shortly before Weir attempted to defend his title. Their complaint? Johnny didn't present the "proper image" for professional skating. In other words, Weir wasn't nearly butch enough for skating. No doubt Lund was thrilled when Evan Lysacek won possibly validating Lund's own weak grasp on his masculinity.

Showing he had no issues with his masculinity, Jake Gyllenhaal dropped by Saturday Night Live where he joked about Brokeback Mountain and performed a number from Dreamgirls while wearing drag. Is it any wonder we heart Jake so much?

At "The Golden Globe Awards" Isaiah Washington reignited the whole "F" word controversy when he used the slur again backstage after Grey's Anatomy won for best series. Washington would apologize (again), go into homophobe rehab, get fired, accuse T.R. Knight of being a schemer who planned the whole thing to get rich and famous, then land on NBC's low-rated The Bionic Woman. Hmm, maybe I should give that "Karma" idea some more thought.

A harbinger of how bad the year in gay movies would be arrived when the Oscar nominations came out and many gay fans gave a collective shrug as there just wasn't that much of gay interest, especially since Steve Carelll's terrific performance in Little Miss Sunshine wasn't nominated.

And in a harbinger that things would better for us 'mos on television, former Survivor competitor J.P. Calderon came out as a result of being on The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency.

And in very sad news, Doug Blasdell, a trainer on Bravo's Work Out died very suddenly.

IMHO — The Year in TV

Donald Trump gets points for including two gay guys on The Apprentice: L.A. But did he really have to get so worked up over a "gay" swimsuit? Apprentice contestant Derek Arteta says the Donald isn't homophobic, but his attacks against Rosie O'Donnell certainly didn't come off too well.

 

Not everyone loved Lifetime's dating show Gay, Straight, or Taken. True, gay men were once again excluded from making the "love" match, but the show did upend stereotypes and a happy gay couple did appear at the end of every episode. Still, I'd love to see The Bachelor: Key West. Well, theoretically anyway.

 

Stereotypical closeted gay character? Check. Gay character in love with straight friend? Check. Gay character gets almost no screen time? Check. Bad acting, bad writing, and bad premise? Check. Canceled? Check and not a moment too soon!