Best. Gay. Week. Ever! So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu!

NO, I'M NOT LEAVING! YOU CAN'T GET RID OF ME THAT EASILY! HOWEVER...
Time for a pop quiz! Which one of these three things is true?

A) The BGWE column was recently caught in a sex scandal involving Dan Savage's Savage Love column and the advice show Loveline with Mike and Dr. Drew. Thus leaving me with no choice but to fire it.
B) The BGWE demanded to have its salary quadrupled, insisted on top billing over all other columns, and wanted all-expense paid trips to Paris three times a year. Thus leaving me with no choice but to fire it.
C) While is much beloved by its author, has nonetheless become a soul-crushing, stress-inducing burden that sucks up more time than said author can afford without becoming a pill-popping, alcoholic who gobbles Dove dark chocolate in order to cope. Thus leaving me with no choice but to fire it.

If you answered "C," congrats for being so damned perceptive! And I'm guessing you've been around the site for a while.

Given that C is  the correct answer, and given how smart my BGWE readers are in general, you've probably already deduced that I'm announcing this is the last BGWE.

Trust me, this isn't an easy decision. For me, the BGWE has been the heart and soul of AfterElton from the very beginning. It was how I connected with our readers and was my "voice" on the site. In other words, it was my baby.

When I wrote my first column way back in July of 2005, AfterElton.com published one piece of content a day, had thirty thousand unique visitors a month and had a full time staff of one — me.

Here we are — gulp — nearly six years and 200+ columns later and we've got Dennis Ayers as my managing editor, Brent Hartinger as our associate editor, snicks, Ed Kennedy, Lyle Masaki and Anthony Langford as featured writers, plus a whole slew of contributing writers. We publish up to twelve pieces of content a day — much of it original content — and are rapidly approaching one million unique visitors a month. Seriously, a million!

All of which means the demands of my job have grown in ridiculous ways. I have multiple phone conferences a week, edit dozens of pieces of content, deal with hundreds of emails, write not just the BGWE, but interviews, articles and breaking news posts.There are more shows for us to write about and recap, more out gay and bi men to interview, not to mention the fact that I now go to Los Angeles twice a year for two weeks each time to cover the Television Critics Association press tour. And that's just a part of what I do.

It's a lot to handle.

For those of you have been around here for a while, you know I've tried before to make adjustments to the BGWE including rotating it amongst the staff. Alas, they are no dummies (which is why I work with them!) and quickly came to hate the weeks they had to write the column. Which meant I took it back over full time before they revolted.

Both Brent and Dennis have been advising me for years that it was time to let the BGWE go, but like I said, it's been my baby. And it's hard to let your baby go! However, as the witty image above (created by Dennis) demonstrates, the "baby" has become a bit of a monster wreaking havoc on my life. (See: grinding teeth, elevated blood pressure, hallucinations.)

The issue reached a breaking this point when I was all set to start working on the column on Wednesday, but had to drop everything in order to interview Dustin Lance Black about whether or not his new screenplay J. Edgar was in danger of being de-gayed. By the time I got that article up and posted, I was light years behind in getting the column under way and realized that Dennis and Brent might have a point.

Okay, they did have a point.

I'm really going to miss doing the column, but the good news is that it's going to allow me much more time to write all sorts of other content for the site like my post about Star Trek, my interview with Disney's Gary Marsh, and some pretty great stuff I'll have next week. I've actually still got interviews from the last TCA I've yet to write up, not to mention a full length feature I've been trying to finish ever since I got home. The point is, what we lose in the BGWE, we'll all be getting back in other ways.

Plus the guys will be hugely relieved that I'll stop falling into deep funks that spiral into crying jags before ending up with me throwing review DVDs of new reality shows that I need to watch at the staff while screaming "No more reality shows about wire hangers!"

Or something like that. I'm usually too drunk by that point to remember what I yell. (Note: not really drinking at work!)

Hmm, getting angry seems to make me hotter...

And I'm also going to start writing something called AE's Gay Agenda which will address some of the issues the BGWE currently does. It will be much shorter than the BGWE (and will appear most weeks) and will have news about changes to the site, highlight new user forums and cover any important or controversial issues that might pop up on the site in any given week. Say, like the reaction to our article about how some gay celebrities announce they are gay. (More on that in a moment.)

I know some readers of the column have actually been with me from the very beginning and that just amazes me. But whether you've read every single BGWE or just started this year, I want to say how much I appreciate your taking the time to read what I had to say. And a double thanks to all of you who took the time to actually respond to my columns. I know there is a ton of stuff out there competing for your attention, and I feel honored you thought the BGWE was worth your attention.

But I'd rather you remember the BGWE fondly rather than something that just petered out because I was burnt out. So speaking for the column, allow me to say,

So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, good night
I hate to go and leave this pretty sight.
So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, adieu,
Adieu, adieu, to you and you and you.

Apologies to Julie Andrews!

BTW, can you imagine how sappy I'll be when I actually do leave AfterElton? Gah....

Next page! But before I go...