2007: BEST GAY YEAR EVER!

MARCH: THOMAS ROBERTS, GARRISON KEILLOR AND I'M STILL ANNOYED OVER BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Ellen DeGeneres did a fine job hosting the Oscars and viewers were even treated to Oscar winner Melissa Etheridge planting a smacker on Tammy Lynn Michaels, but for many gay men this year's ceremony just wasn't all that. Some of us even resorted to watching the Superbowl.

British actor John Inman of Are You Being Served died this month as did AIDS activist Bob Hattoy. Alas, Ann Coulter was still alive and kicking as evidenced by her lame John Edwards is a fag "joke" she made in a church while speaking to a religious group. Don't you just love those family values?

An episode of The View tumbled me on to the fact that Disney World discriminated against the gays when it came to getting married on their properties (thereby disproving that all gay men have great taste). Fortunately, the vast power of the AfterElton Flying Monkeys would bring the Mouse to its knees when they announced a change to their policy a few months later.

CNN anchor Thomas Roberts appeared on Anderson Cooper 360 to discuss the sexual abuse he suffered as a young boy at the hands of a Catholic priest. The out Roberts appeared with another gay man who also suffered abuse in an attempt try to bring pressure to bear on the Maryland legislature to change their sexual abuse laws (the measure failed to pass). Some in the gay community were upset Roberts didn't discuss the fact he was a happily partnered gay man while others felt it wasn't relevant. Shortly after the appearance, Roberts left CNN and joined The Insider.

The Class, CBS' only show with a regularly occurring gay character, aired it's final episode this month as the network declined to pick it up for a second season. The show also featured the out Sam Harris as Perry Pearl, a guy who behaved stereotypically gay (and made pretty gay observations about other men's bodies), but wasn't supposed to be gay. Kyle, the gay character, had so little to do that I bet no one besides me even remembers it. Well, except for the gay who runs Savetheclass.com out of his mother's basement.

While he was certainly no Tim Hardaway, NPR's Garrison Keillor got in a heap of hot water when he penned what he later claimed was a satirical essay that included comments about flamboyant, chartreuse-wearing gay men raising kids being a bad thing for families. As opposed to those Anna Nicole Smith, Britney Spears, Alec Baldwin, David Hasselhoff parents doing such a bang-up job! Perhaps those cold Minnesota winters finally froze Keillor's brain.

As if that wasn't enough, the film adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel 300 did boffo box office. This was discouraging because the film not only whitewashed the gay right out of the Spartan army, but also fell back on the tired Hollywood cliche of a flaming villain to make the hero seem even more heroic and the villain even more creepy.

 

What's even worse is that is this was a step up from last week's homophobiapalooza Wild Hogs which not only featured a creepy gay cop, but forced audiences to view the bare derrieres of John Travolta, Tim Allen, William Macy and Martin Lawrence. Talk about cruel and unusual.

Thankfully, not every movie released this month was tinged with (or swimming in) homophobia. Will Ferrell proved himself gay-friendly yet again with Blades of Glory, his ice-skating movie that managed to avoid all those too obvious gay-cliches (as did the equally surprising Let's Go to Prison last year).

IMHO — The Year in TV

On its surface this Bravo show sounded not too bad, but in execution it was a bit like watching paint dry. And Jonathan Adler's "See you later, decorator" left some folks gagging. But it still provided yet more gay visibility on television and Bravo is reworking Top Design for its second season. Word is losing designers are going to be forced to redecorate their house with only items found at Wal-Mart. Or they can choose death. I'd take death, but that's just me.

 

Rob Corddry must have left his funny on The Daily Show as his Fox sitcom didn't have much of it. The Winner (talk about a title tempting fate!) may only have lasted five episodes, but it did have a (barely there) gay character and even did one gay episode that made the homo-ignorant character played by Corddry the butt of the jokes. Still, like The Class, its loss wasn't exactly tragic.

 

Passions waits until it's been canceled to add a gay character and then it's an African-American man on the "down low"? Gee, thanks for nothing. I don't have a problem with complicated gay characters and this is a soap opera after all, but to give your only gay characters such cliche stereotypes is just lazy writing.