Out former baseballer Billy Bean

In a continued effort to bring you all that is important in the world of gay entertainment and ensure that you are being spoon-fed images of gorgeous, commoditized manflesh, we present the newly-minted AfterElton Briefs. Following the usual assortment of carefully-selected news items, interested readers can find a refreshing pic of a hot man in underwear after the jump. Yes, we're serious.

• Michael Ausiello is reporting that the Grey's Anatomy cast is being called back to the set following positive strike negotiations, and that other ABC gay-faves like Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters will likely follow suit. First-seasoners like Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money will likely not resume filming until summer.

• I know that when I watch this PSA from gay former pro baseball player Billy Bean I'm supposed to be paying attention to the message that "ex-gay" ministries are a load of crap, but I can't help being distracted by how adorable he is. Does that make me a bad person?

• People picked out actor Cheyenne Jackson to be their highlighted hottie of the week (much in the way they picked out author Perry Moore as their hot guy of the week a few months back). There's no mention of Jackson's sexuality in the blurb, but let's face it: the guy's hot six ways to Sunday, regardless of his sexuality.

• Project Runway's most recent lovable gift from a galaxy far, far away - Elisa Jimenez - recently showed at New York Fashion week. Unsurprisingly, she brought the crazy with her.

• A man is alleging that gay UK radio presenter Nigel Wrench drugged and raped him at a New Year's Eve party last year, and told the courts as much. Wrench denies the accusations.

• Happy birthday to talented, articulate, courageous, and inhumanly hunky out actor Robert Gant, who turns 39 today. Hmm ... when you're a guy who most gay men (and straight women) would kill to have jump out of their birthday cake, who do you have jump out of yours? The bulldog?
• We'd like to think that this was due in part to our relentless coverage (although rave reviews by two dark horse publications called "The New York Times" and "Variety" may have helped): Xanadu on Broadway broke the Helen Hayes Theatre's box-office record.
• The evil-kiddie thriller Joshua, starring Sam Rockwell and the fabulous Vera Farmiga (from The Depaahted and Breaking and Entering), has a gay supporting character, played by Dallas Roberts. But critic Ed Gonzalez thinks the thriller is driven by a hatred of "women, queers, and religion," and feels that Joshua's dandied, pint-sized sociopath is one left best in the celluloid closet.
  
• Armistead Maupin trash-talks John Travolta and Scientology, calling it the "biggest ex-gay movement in America."
• Freddy Rodriguez (Six Feet Under, Grindhouse) to join Ugly Betty as the new love interest I mentioned in my column. Yay! His character's name is Gio. Ileana Douglas also joins the cast as a new editor at Mode. You may remember the fabulous Douglas from her turns in Ghost World, Six Feet Under, and Cape Fear.
• In honor of Friday the 13th, here's a short film from my favorite attention-deficit, seemingly transgender, part-mannequin former model, Shaye St. John. WARNING: Shaye's mind-bending work is not for everyone and has been known to turn sane men into drooling, empty husks.
• Make sure to check my guest column for some other TV news and a bit about gay cross-country competitive racers (seriously) -- and have the BEST.GAY.WEEKEND.EVER!

Sadly, I didn't hear that Mario Cantone was scheduled to be a guest host on The View yesterday, until I missed my chance to catch it. But thanks to ABC's website, I was able to check out how Mario performed.

First off, were we the only ones who didn't realize that Cantone has been in a relationship for 16 years? Apparently not, because Elisabeth looked like he'd just said "no cookie" when he pulled out that fun fact, leading Joy to give her a "Where the hell have you been"-flavored "Uh-huh!" Mario and the ladies then got back on the topic of how much he hates kids, joking:

I'd be like Joan Crawford if I had a kid. I would never physically abuse, but I think I'd verbally abuse. I would. I'd be like "What are you, stupid? Don't do that!" Because I got that -- which is why I do this.

Well, you can't say the guy's not honest. I have to admit, I certainly missed Rosie when the discussion in the "Hot Topics" segment turned to gay conversion therapy:

Barbara Walters: The American Psychological Association -- it's a six member task force -- you know that psychologists have what's called "Conversion Therapy" where your come and try to tell you -- make you be straight, help you be straight. Well, this is saying that these psychologists should not do that, that its harmful.

Mario Cantone: Finally. Finally.

Barbara: Well. That's what they're investigating.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: They have been for a while, saying you cannot treat it as a mental disorder or a mental disease. So they've said that for a long time since like '97.

Mario: I'm not mental, swear to God!

This week has been full of apologies to the gays. The last time I heard of this many apologies to a group of minorities was when Roots aired in 1977!

Is there suddenly a wave of hetero-guilt across the nation? Between Grey's Anatomy and CNN you cannot avoid the gay mishaps by our hetero counterparts (after Isaiah Washington's appearance on Larry King Live next week I am sure we will see another heap of apologies). Maybe it's the political climate with LGBT issues being one of the major arguments in the presidential race. Maybe it’s a sign that things are changing and discrimination toward gays are becoming less acceptable. Or are gays just having less tolerance for ignorance? Here are the greatest hits for the week ...

Kissing boys get an apology

The city schools superintendent of New Jersey apologized to Andre Jackson, whose picture of him and his boyfriend kissing in the high school yearbook was blacked-out. Marion Bolden, Newark Public Schools superintendent, told the Newark Star Ledger, "If it was either heterosexual or gay, it should have been blacked out. It's how they posed for the picture." The Star Ledger, pulling a nice journalistic move reported, “There are several photos of heterosexual couples kissing in the yearbook, but the superintendent said she didn't review the entire yearbook and was presented only with Jackson's page."

On Monday, a written apology was given to Andre Jackson who absolutely refused to accept it and demanded Marion Bolden apologize publicly. The next day, according to Forbes.com, "Bolden said she arrived at the school Tuesday to find him reluctant to speak with her, but that the two spoke after she made a public apology to the assembled students." Now that's a good activist!

Ex-ex gays apologize at the Lesbian & Gay Los Angeles Center

On Wednesday, three former ex-gay ministers held a tear-fest outside of the Lesbian & Gay Los Angeles Center. According to The New York Times, Michael Bussee, Jeremy Marks and Darlene Bogle admitted "their message had caused isolation, shame and fear." Their apologies were also featured on CNN.com. Should we accept, considering all of the damage the ex-gay movement does to the gay community?

Gay apologies reach the UK

The Ministry of Defence apologized to all gay service personnel who were discriminated against in the Armed Services till the 2000 ban of gays was lifted. The Guardian Unlimited reported, "More than 50 former personnel who were sacked because of their sexuality are now waiting for their breach-of-privacy cases to be settled by the MoD." Phil Sagar, who runs the armed forces' joint equality and diversity training centre, said to the BBC on Thursday, "We can't change the past and what's happened has happened. But if, as I'm sure you have, you've got testimony from people who feel that their lives have been ruined from this, then clearly that is not a good place to be."

What a week!

A week or so ago I blogged about Anderson Cooper 360's investigative report into homosexuality and the Christian Church, and noted a particular fondness for one Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, the founder of the National Association for the Research and Treatment of Homosexuality, or NARTH ("Party on, Wayne!" "Party on, Narth!").

Put down your sandwich for a moment and gaze upon the true face of hatred:

Well, the clip of Nicolosi's on-air temper tantrum is now online, and it's fast becoming my favorite thing in the entire world. This guy really puts the "ass" in "National Association for Blah Blah Blah Death to Gays Praise the Lord Whatever".

Enjoy the clip, after the jump.

Here's a weird one...

It appears that one of our gay-therapy-advocate "friends" (remember: they love the sinner, but hate everything about them) has actually managed to do something stupid enough to upset the other loonies with whom he carpools to the Wonderful Land of Make Believe every morning.

A few weeks back Daily Show reporter (and stealth Canadian hottie) Jason Jones did a hilarious and incredibly bizarre interview segment with Richard Cohen, the author of Coming Out Straight (I think it's subtitled "Adventures in Self-Delusion" or something like that). In true Daily Show tradition, Jones made his guest look like a complete boob -- which in this case was like shooting fish in a barrel.

Here's the clip, in case you missed it (and what went down after)...

This one managed to slip by us when it first aired. (The crack team of flying monkeys at AfterElton can hardly keep up with all the great television that's on these days!) Thanks to several readers for mentioning it.

On March 14th, South Park ran an episode that dealt with Ex-Gay Ministries.

The "Cartman Sucks" episode had poor, hapless Butters getting mistaken for homosexual, and then shipped off to an ex-gay Christian youth camp by his parents.

When presented with the youth camp idea by their minister, Butter's father (himself a closeted homosexual) had this to say:

"A secluded camp where lots of bi-curious boys are all put together? That sounds like a good idea!"

Poor Butters isn't "bi-curious" -- doesn't even understand the concept. But his father is so afraid of the possibility that he ships him off to a place that could do the kid lasting damage.

Once at the camp, the head counselor gives Butters a pep talk while leading him to his room:

"The truth is, with the power of Jesus Christ you can be normal. Now, just to make sure you don't slip up while in camp we assign everybody an 'accountabilibuddy.' Let’s meet Ryan—your accountabilibuddy.”

The counselor stops at the door to Butter & Ryan’s assigned dorm room.

"Ryan thought he could never change, but now with the power of Christ and prayer he can have a whole new life!”

The counselor swings open the door to find Ryan hanging dead from a rope. The counselor quickly shuts the door,

“Now over this way we have the cafeteria…”

As usual, South Park manages to cut right to the ludicrous heart of a social phenomenon.

Butter is assigned a new “accountabililbuddy" named Bradley. But when Bradley develops a crush on Butters, the boy decides that he too must kill himself. The show ends with Bradley on a bridge ready to jump with the camp counselors trying to talk him down.

Bradley: Stand back! I'm an abomination of God!

Counselor: Don't do it, we're fixing you!

Bradley: It's too late!

Butters: Bradley, don't!

Counselor: Get back, you're only making things worse.

Bradley: I'm not normal, I'll never be normal.

Butters: You're perfectly normal Bradley.

Counselor: Get back, you're just as confused as he is.

Butters: That's it, I am sick and tired of everyone telling me I'm confused. I wasn't confused until other people started telling me I was. You know what I think? I think maybe you're the ones who are confused. I'm not going to be confused anymore just because you say I should be. My name is Butters, I'm eight years old, I'm blood type O, and I'm bi-curious. And that's OK, because if I'm somehow made from God, then I figure that God must be at least a little bi-curious himself.

Bradley: I think, I think I'd like to come down.

Counselor: We did it! By the power of Christ we saved him!

My hat is off to Matt Stone and Trey Parker for delivering yet another brilliant, gay-positive episode.