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 How innocent and sweetly smiling she is in this picture. You would never think from it that little Miss Michelle Tea is a raucous raunchy writer with lengthy and lecherous literary history. And now she’s moved into the realm of (somehwat more) fiction. But if she is a bit of a scene queen, a little fireball that might make your head reel, her writing is intense and interesting, if not always finely crafted. But to see her read it is worth the trip. She certainly breathes life into the menagerie of characters she presents. And the comic like illustrations of Rent Girl also served her story well. I can’t wait to see what television will do with it.
All of this is why she is so worth seeing at an already fascinating Lewis & Clark College Gender Studies Symposium, March 8-10, called Body Language, Sexualities, Identities and Time. Michelle will be appearing Wednesday the 8th at 3:45 but several others have caught my eye as well. Glitter princess and gender outlaw Kate Bornstein will be following Tea at 7:30. There’s talks about East German lesbianism, transgendered sex work and The West Wing. You can even make your own tampons. How can a symposium be better?
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In Commissioner Sam Adams speech this Saturday at a queer youth conference at Catlin Gabel school he points out all that Oregon has not done for GBLT people this year. Especially shaming is that he points out all the things our peer and neighbor states have accomplished.
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 Who knew that gay men were so obsessed with the Olympics? My fellow blogger Joshua Gibson’s most recent posts are all about the winter games. Queer window columnist Byron Beck also gets into the game. But master big boy blog Queerty is really all over the rings. I guess after this weekend we’ll have to find a whole new hunk subject…
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Though I find them intriguing, genetic studies like this one (Moms’ Genetics Might Help Produce Gay Sons) rarely say anything meaningful to me. An interesting experiment or dinner discussion perhaps, but it ain’t curing any diseases, you know? It is, at best, a curiosity satisfier, at worst, a reason to further pathologize an already oppressed population. Besides, seldom are they any kind of conclusive. For example, my favorite line from this article:
What does this all mean? The researchers aren’t sure…
It further explains its own shortcomings:
Still, there are caveats. Dr. Ionel Sandovici, a genetics researcher at The Babraham Institute in Cambridge, England, pointed out that most of the mothers of multiple gay sons didn’t share the unusual X-chromosome trait…Ultimately, Sandovici added, the origins of sexual orientation remain “rather a complicated biological puzzle.”
So just keep that in mind while you’re reading about “extreme Xs” or blaming Mom for all the other things that have gone wrong in your life.
The bigger fear, however, is exemplified in this paragraph towards the end:
And this line of research does have its critics. Some have worried that, in the future, manipulation of a “gay gene” or genes might be used as a method of preventing homosexuality in utero, or perhaps even after. But Bocklandt said these kinds of fears shouldn’t stand in the way of legitimate scientific research.
I recently engulfed myself in a short story collection of queer science-fiction. What this reminds me of is a story wherein a gay gene had been identified and most of America aborted their gay babies. Catholics, however, saw a parent’s abortion as a much larger sin than a lifelong battle with the sin of homosexuality. Therefore, the gay population is almost exclusively Catholic and Catholic imagery becomes equated with gay iconography. Every bit as fascinating…and plausible…as most of these studies…
For a thorough look at gender, sexuality and Drawinism from a thoroughly researched scientific yet still thoughtful and queer perspective I highly recommend Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People by transgendered Stanford Biology Professor Joan Roughgarden.
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 Seldom does a blog post or article get my undivided attention while at work but this little piece about the history of offbeat westerns is worth reading from beginning to end. Who knew there were so many 50s, 60s, and 70s truly wild west flicks I was missing?
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 How crazy that a fundamentalist church group has chosen to picket funerals of soldiers fighting for our country (yeah the same ones who protested civil right’s leader Coretta Scott King’s funeral) with the argument that the US deserves these deaths because were all homos? How truly bizarre. More strange, but this time heartening, are the biker toughies who ride their hogs in to protect the dead soldiers’ families. And all this on the tails of multiple news reports documenting some new complaints, such as taxpayer costs, about one of Clinton’s more ridiculous policies, “Dont ask, Dont tell.”
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So lately I’ve been going on and on about gay TV, but whats our entertainment when we cant give the screen full attention, or when we want to hear some new tunes, or when we need background noise at work? Thats right, internet radio. So when my pal Alicia told me about GaydarRadio I had to give it a listen. Its gay heaven with plenty of Eurobeats, Madonna, and even gay news. And in those British accents! I swoon, really.
Ok now back to my current obsession, television, for a moment. Although I have been berating this new L Word season since it began several weeks ago I must let you know two small, if significant reasons the last episode was worth watching.
Firstly, the funniest line I’ve heard all season. When Billie says he’s got FMS, Kit asks him if thats F** Munchausen Syndrome. I laughed ’till merlot came out of my nose.
 Secondly, the heat is back in quite an unusual way. No, it’s not more Carmen and Shane drama, even if they are the resident hotties. It’s our lad Billie again in a “love” scene between a newly transitioning FTM and bio guy right in the middle of The Planet…Ironic how a gay man is spicing up a lesbian show. And yet, now that he has created all this fuss, I believe the Alan Cumming character has left the show. You heartbreaker. Even so, I really can’t bring myself to buy his signature perfume, even as delightfully dirty as it is.
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Looks like the image of the gay cowboy has hopped out of the tent and into the recording studio. Willie Nelson, one of the quintessential Country music men of our time, has come out with “Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)” although the western toughie is not the first to sing this anthem of cowboy love. It was written 25 years ago by Texas-born singer-songwriter Ned Sublette and recorded in 1995 years ago by the rambunctious and raucously funny queer rock’n’roll trio Pansy Division. Queer rock is still going strong. Gay is in and the cowboy fashionista is heading the pack. But as these both give me another opportunity to plug Homo-a-gogo, the queer music extravaganza in August only a few miles up the freeway, I can’t complain.
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• Scary. I mean, what more can you say really?
• Plus looks like my only slightly-abashed new TV obsession (I mean New, Now, Next is like the greatest video show since Bohemia Afterdark and 120 minutes) LOGO is looking into some original programming.
• And what kind of press is an alcoholic gay bishop? Gossipy, that’s what…
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You all must know by now that I’m a big Jake Gyllenhaal fan. I would have probably been mildly excited by a movie about gay cowboys if it had had Ledger opposite another Hollywood leading-man-of-the-moment, but I would not have gushed or swooned. That’s why I have to look up from the hoopla and agree with AP writer David Germain’s assessment of the unfair “supporting” attention my boy has been getting. My Jakey’s every bit as talented as tight-lipped Ledger. That’s right!
On a sidenote, I have to say that Ellen’s spoof skit portrayal of Ennis mumbling by the campfire that she re-aired yesterday was hilarious. I’ve always know that lesbians could indeed be successful actors, cowboys, and gay men…
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