Was the "Out" Power List Sponsored by Wite-Out?

“This isn’t really an empowering list.”
     — Aaron Hicklin, Editor-in-Chief, Out Magazine

“No, sh*t!”
     — BriOut, writer, AfterElton.com

It’s more than a little ironic that a magazine named Out was so intent on sending the message that the closeted are more powerful than the colored. But with their Power 50 list, profiling who they feel are the most powerful gays and lesbians in the country, that is exactly what the editors at Out have done. And they've done it to such a dispiriting degree, I can't be entirely sure it wasn't sponsored by Wite-Out.

Aaron Hicklin (left), Out Editor-in-Chief

Their list includes Jodie Foster, who hasn’t come out as anything except a Mel (“raped-by-a-pack-of-n***ers”) Gibson apologist.

This list also includes Anderson Cooper who no one knows for sure is even gay or straight (okay, we know, but we really don’t) since he twists himself into knots to avoid talking about it.

This list even includes Republican Ken Mehlman, one of the county’s biggest engineers of human misery since Madonna first decided she could act. Sure, Mehlman was powerful when he was closeted and working for the Republicans. But given the Republican party’s continued anti-gay agenda – defending DOMA, fighting same-sex marriage at every turn, presidential hopefuls verbally gay-bashing gays left and right – I can only conclude Mehlman now has no real influence with the GOP.

Ken Mehlman, Anderson Cooper

Meanwhile, the only Black on the list is Dustin Lance’s last name.

Only two people of color found their way onto Out’s list. They are ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero (a fantastic choice) and blogger Perez Hilton (you've got to be f**king kidding me).

Now I take Out Magazine about as seriously as Donald Trump takes wedding vows. Their erections have always been squarely pointed at the well-heeled and well-moneyed (in both the subjects they cover and the readership they covet). People of color rarely grace their pages and almost never their covers, and their fashion spreads prominently feature serious-faced models so Aryan, the whole thing ends up looking like Hitler’s masturbation material.

Which is to say, normally I wouldn’t waste time kvetching about Out or their lists. And I swore I was just going to let this one go. But much like the carbs I swore I wouldn't indulge in this weekend, I'm about to break that promise.

In an audio interview with Bilerico, Out Editor-in-Chief Aaron Hicklin explains that this list, unlike their Out 100 list, measures its powerful participants on wealth, visibility, political influence and their ability to affect mainstream cultural influence.

“When you look at this list, yes, it clearly lacks diversity,” says Hicklin during his conversation with Bilerico’s Phil Reese. “But I think some people, though certainly not the majority because there were fans of this list, have frankly, simply just misunderstood the exercise.”

Really? What exactly did we get wrong? Out of a list of 50 "powerful" people, forty-eight were white. There are more closeted people on their list than people of color. This isn't something I made up, it's fact.

Out wants to throw the weight of their lack of diversity on society as a whole; an 'It's not us, it's them' sort of explanation. But they created the nebulous formula they're using to base their selections on. I find it impossible to accept that they couldn't have included other people of color in their Power list especially since this silly list doesn't even follow its own rules.

For instance, how does Lee Daniels, director of Precious, Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire and the first openly gay African-American Oscar nominated film director, who has six projects in development, not have enough power to appear on the list except for once in 2010, while Jodie Foster, who I reiterate isn't out, wasn't terribly visible and hadn’t appeared in a single project between 2008’s Nim’s Island and 2011's The Beaver remains on their list four years in a row?

Lee Daniels, Ricky Martin