Meet Judge David Young and his partner, Scott Bernstein. Both are judges. Both are gay. Duh. And both offered me their thoughts on several blue-flame topics ripped from the headlines. Judge Young, by the way, is here at the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association's national convention in San Diego to promote his new half-hour daily court show that premiers September 10th. Here's how Sony, the studio behind the show, describes him:
"Quick-witted, provocative and compassionate, Judge David Young arrives
to daytime television straight from his native Miami, where he achieved
local celebrity for his creative courtroom approach and his tough, but
fair sentencing."
In this posting from the road... I'm San Diego... I offer myself some thoughts on Senator Larry Craig, who plead guilty earlier this summer to to "disorderly conduct." He was arrested after peering into an undercover officer's bathroom stall at an airport, and making gestures indicating he wanted to engage in lewd conduct. As part of my 2050 Project, I try to explain the significance of this to the me who may watch this in the year 2050. I forgot to load my fun little 2050 Project graphic onto this computer, but it'll be there next time.
We reported last week on the controversy involving Fort Lauderdale's mayor, Jim Naugle, and his crusade to rid the city's public restrooms of gay tomfoolery. Here are some thoughts.
Trey and Matt (creators of South Park) have animated one of our great philsophers - Alan Watts
What a brilliant analogy. The comparison of life to a sheet of music is, I think, a great image to keep in mind. For we do have to remind ourselves again, and again, and again that this, right here, right now, is life. What makes this a challenge is what makes the sheet-of-music analogy imperfect: we are learning, growing, gaining experiences in life that give each note more clarity and confidence than the ones that came before. In other words, striving is part of living, and striving requires you to have an object to be striven for. Perhaps a better analogy would be playing music while in a marching band -- heading in some direction.
I interviewed armistead back in June. The summer has flown by, and don't ask me why we haven't aired it yet... I don't have a good excuse. I love talking to him, and find him fascinating... so it wasn't it for a lack of interest on our part. It had more to do with misplaced tapes. Oops. Anyway, enjoy.
Someone told me about Zefrank, who no longer has a web show. But for one year he did. He forced himself to post new videos five days per week until the year was up. I have no idea what he's doing now, and I regret I wasn't in on his show when he was actually producing them, but the archives are a solid source of humor or entertainment. If you get him. My boyfriend Will doesn't. I just showed him this video, and he didn't even laugh once.
I love a good story. And Cindy Adams has some brilliant ones she saved up for a long-awaited occasion: Leona Helmsley's buying the farm. Read the article. Cindy talks about the time when Helmsley invited Adams' ailing mother to visit her home in Florida:
"When Mrs. Helmsley's monitors reported to her that mom's small coterie of caretakers and their friends were gay, she went ape. She screamed: "Remove them. I will not have homosexuals in my cabana. Throw the whole bunch out!!!" Startled, reeling in disbelief, they began falling all over themselves to grab up their clothes and gear because Leona had actually summoned marshals. These marshals came onto the property and physically removed my mother.'
A well-known writer, blogger, social commentator, and tv pundit named Andrew Sullivan is poised to get married to his longtime boyfriend. He admits on his blog to being quite nervous about the whole thing:
You fight for something, never expecting it to happen, let alone to you, and then it does, and it can overwhelm. Taking yes for an answer can be harder than no. Maybe it's a function of having over-thought this issue for so long; maybe it's just handling a big family occasion of any sort (Christmas is bad enough). Maybe it's a lifetime in which my actual relationships have always been private, or so targeted by political enemies I've become very defensive.
Same-sex marriage in the U.S. now is legal in only one state: Massachusetts. Still, for gays and lesbians (particularly those over 30) who never imagined getting married, the ramifications are being felt more and more as the reality of the past several years sets in. Now all of us must recalibrate our possibilities in life. It's exciting, and a little scary.
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