Straights Don’t Like Gay PDA (Public Display of Affection)

This is interesting because there’s a mixed message coming from many in the mainstream with regard to gay people showing any signs of public affection, in direct contrast with gay rights and equality. In this case it’s gay people (men and women) kissing in public.

In a survey of 1,000 Americans, 70% said they supported inheritance rights for gay couples, but far fewer were supportive of gay people kissing in public. 

Of the straights interviewed, 95% said they approved of straight couples kissing on the cheek in public, but only 55% approved of gay male couples doing the same. When asked if it was a lesbian couple, 72% approved. 

Over 20% of heterosexuals surveyed even disapproved of gay men telling the respondents about their relationships.

You can read the rest here. I think this just proves how much discrimination there is out there, and how much all LGBT people need to start standing up for themselves in different ways…which will happen in time. I also think as more gays assimilate this PDA issue will disappear eventually.

Bette Midler Gay Culture Is Ordinary

First, in full disclosure, I’ve been gay all my life and frankly Bette Midler’s never been my most favorite performer. I like some things she’s done, others not so much. So this notion that all gay men think of her as an icon isn’t exactly correct. I really do think it’s becoming more important to clarify some things, and one is that Midler’s only an icon to a certain segment of the gay community, not the entire gay community.(The same goes for Kathy Griffin, Liza, Cher, and a few others.) You can read this piece by Nick Boeving about gay icon, the late Joan Rivers.

So with that out of the way, I’m going to remain as objective as I can to Midler’s recent statements:

‘The extreme characters you used to see in the Village in the old days, you just don’t see them anymore,’ Midler tells Advocate.com. 

‘I really do miss them because there was a feeling I used to get that people were expressing themselves in the most elaborate of ways,’ she adds. ‘Now the [gay community] has kind of gone mainstream. It’s sort of ordinary now, and a little bit of the specialness has rubbed away.’

I can’t help but think that sounds a lot like a confederate southerner after the Civil War claiming how much they miss the good old days of slavery before the Civil War. Or even worse, it’s like men of the 21st century saying they miss the good old days when women in the 19th century couldn’t vote, work, or in some cases even own property and handle their own money.

I don’t know WTF she’s talking about with regard to “specialness.” Maybe she should watch more Glee. Or, Ask Oprah and her best friend Gayle to do a special on OWN abut it.

Look at it this way, Midler would never have said that about any other minority in America without getting slammed from one end to the other. And, this is really another good example of passive aggressive homophobia where the straight person making the comments doesn’t even realize it. I don’t think Midler meant harm.

You can read the rest here.  

Strictly Come Dancing With Gay Couples

I posted a while back about an article where someone slammed the concept of gay people dancing together in high profile dancing competitions…like the TV show, Dancing With the Stars. I’m too lazy to look for that link, however, this article to which I’m linking now discusses gay couples dancing on a BBC show called Strictly Come Dancing.

Strictly Come Dancing will feature same-sex couples dancing together for the first time this weekend.

The BBC dancing competition show will feature the professional dancers doing a ‘Cops and Robbers’ routine, likely to appear on Sunday night’s results show (23 November).

Gay pro Robin Windsor, who was forced to pull out of this year’s competition due to a back injury, will return to dance alongside the other pros.

You can read more here. It’s happening, slowly but surely. It’s still making headlines, it’s still shocking to many, but someone should let Bette Midler know that now we’re actually allowed to dance together on big TV shows just like everyone else. It may sound ordinary to some, but it’s one more step toward equality for the rest of us and I for one don’t miss the “good old days.”