Best. Gay. Week. Ever. (August 14, 2009)

A TOTALLY SERIOUS, IN-DEPTH LOOK AT ABSOLUTELY ALL THE NEWS THIS WEEK
IMHO "no homo" is a no go, idiots who write letters to the editor, Texas' anti-gay bragging rights and more about Brian Boitano.

Last week, Slate posted Does This Purple Mink Make Me Look Gay? about the rise of "no homo" in hip-hop and whether or not the term was in some way a good thing for us gays. The author, Jonah Weiner, took a fair bit of flak for writing about something not exactly new, but what annoyed me was the twisted logic that it's somehow progress for rappers to say "no homo" in situations both homoerotic and not.

I can't quite follow Weiner's twisted thinking, but according to him, just uttering the words "no homo" somehow lessens the rigidity of the homophobia being expressed by the rapper. Or something.

Um, sure, Jonah. To my ears, it sounds like the same homophobia we've been getting from hip-hop for years. Personally, I'll say no thanks to "no homo."

George Deller of Bel Air, Maryland stopped drooling long enough to scribble a letter to the Baltimore Sun saying he's decided to support same-sex marriage after opposing it his entire life. But he says his new enlightenment makes him believe we should go even further and allow mothers to marry sons, brothers marry sisters, etc. He proposes calling it the "the Same-Sex/Incestuous Marriage Act of 2009."

Yes, it's that tired ass-slippery slope argument we've been hearing for years where we all end up married to dolphins and our flat screen televisions.

I'm just certain that when women started gaining equality under marriage, George was there warning that slippery slope would end up here, and he argued that men should just keep owning women along with other livestock. What a jackass is our George. (BTW, you'll see on page three why I'm being so hard on straight morons like George this week.)

Despite the fact that Australia's Perfect Couple was cut from an hour to thirty minutes due to tanking ratings, and that the show is down to only four couples, AE reader Prometheus_Welsh reports that the show's gay couple still aren't getting much screen time. I'd say that's a bad thing, but given how awful the show apparently is, it might be for the best.

Texas likes to claim lots of bragging rights and thanks to the latest rankings of homophobic colleges in the U.S., they get to lay claim to having four of the most anti-gay colleges in the country. Go Mustangs! The four Texas schools that George Deller above would probably most like to attend include the University of Dallas (#8), Baylor University (#11), Southern Methodist University (#14), and Texas A&M (#15).

Other homophobic schools making the list include Wheaton College (#1), Brigham Young (#7) and Pepperdine University (#17).

Meanwhile New York University, Stanford University and New College of Florida rank first, second and third when it comes to being gay-friendly. (The lists were compiled by the Princeton Review and are based on surveys of college students.) BTW, anyone ever heard of the New College of Florida before? And via Queerty, I found a more in-depth ranking of gay-friendly colleges that might prove a more thorough guide.

Earlier this week, I wrote about my experience at the Television Critics Association Summer Tour in Los Angeles when I tried to interview Brian Boitano about his new show What Would Brian Boitano Make? My story was subsequently picked up by Towleroad, The Advocate, Queerty and Outsports.com. The mainstream media? Crickets. No one touched the story, not that I'm surprised. And no doubt the Food Network is thrilled about that.

Maybe if I'd used my magic marker to draw crude graffiti on Brian's face, Entertainment Weekly might write about our site and call us gay-rights activists and daring provocateurs. Shudder. I'd rather right ad copy for 7-11's Big Gulps.

I thought I'd address a couple of issues here some folks raised about the article. A number of readers pointed out that the Food Network has had gay personalities on air before and that the publicist who rebuffed me might have been Brian's personal publicist.

To the first point, yes, the network has had gay people on the air, which is great. But this is an entirely new show built around one celebrity and the stakes are considerably higher. That might account for their reluctance to address something some might consider "controversial." Notice I said "account for" and not "excuse."

To the second point, perhaps it was Brian's publicist who fed me the B.S. about the show focusing "strictly" on the food, but A) I doubt it and B) that makes no difference to me. This was an official Food Network event that was being held to promote a Food Network show to the media. Brian is now working for the Food Network and they are all responsible for how they represent themselves.

BTW, if the Food Network wants to clarify the matter and make Brian available to chat with me, I'm not hard to find. After all, they're the ones who approached me in the first place. But I'm not holding my breath and you shouldn't either.