Matt Damon Just Got Hunkier

Sarah Palin: Ahmadinejad in Heels

President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Sarah Palin.  One’s a naive, oil-obsessed, holy war-calling, religious extremist, and the other is an Iranian.  Here’s the Lovesick Billy take on this dynamic duo:

Ahmadinejad: Thinks the Holocaust is a myth.

Palin: Thinks evolution is a myth.

Ahmadinejad & Palin: Were not widely known when they entered their presidential election campaigns, although they had already made their marks for rolling back earlier reforms.

The Real Last Word on Sarah Palin

It’s time to stop talking about Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin may not share beliefs with much of the country, and that’s just fine.  She has her hands full with a special needs child, a pregnant teen, and an investigation into her conduct, all of which she’s certain to survive.  It’s okay, because at 44 – by political standards – she’s just a kid.  Her day will come.  Just not this year.

Governor Palin is formidable: a smart, congenial, accomplished woman, passionate about her country. 

Palin Comparison to Lynne Spears

Last December, People reported Lynne Spears’ book on parenting was indefinitely delayed when her 16-year old, unwed daughter, Jamie-Lynn became pregnant.  The world called them trailer trash.  The implied cry: what’s she doing writing a book on parenting when she can’t keep her teenage daughter intact through high school?  (Say nothing of Britney.)  Hey, at least Lynne called it what it was.  Almost a year later, instead of a book that may have accompanied Dr. Spock, she publishes Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World.

Now that we have a recklessly chosen VP candidate in the same situation as Lynne Spears, (say nothing of the Troopergate scandal [where she pretty clearly dogs her former brother-in-law, expending considerable personal and state resources over a personal vendetta] and the ensuing legal defense), what will be said of her? 

The Democratic National Convention

I’m watching the beginning of the DNC, and it is gloriously black. Sure, there are people in attendance who aren’t black, and – God bless them – they’re all bad dancers, but they’re there to shake it for the DNC and national television, for better or worse. Motown is alive in Denver tonight, and a little girl just belted out Alicia Keys “No One” with talent and gusto impossibly contained by her tiny teenage frame. What a breath of fresh air, if for no other reason than the fact that white people can be some of the most boring MFs on the planet, especially when we’re part of a three-day sales job. Besides, America doesn’t look that white and tight-assed anymore, and it’s about time we see her in every color.

America loves minorities: black, asian, latino, and even LGBT (a pan-cultural minority), just as long as they entertain, houseclean, and coif, while we continue being discriminated against or just plain ignored. Being able to legally marry Sam is one of the greatest moments of my life, and even though our marriage is said to be ex post facto, or grandfathered in the event of a constitutional amendment, there still looms a keen sense that half of those around me would like to revoke that basic right.

A lesbian friend of mine just called to ask me what “casar se=hombre+mujer” means

Cheeky News Recap 8/21/08

British Olympian Craig Pickering (clearly a big boy) laments that he ‘let the country down’ with a bad run at the games 1 while a Florida community let down an adorable lesbian high school student by standing behind the fundamentalist principal who shamed her, told her to stay away from children, and outed her to her family. 2

The king, and absolute monarch, of Swaziland, one of the world’s poorest countries where 40% of the population is HIV+ and can’t afford treatment or even food, sent 9 of his 13 wives (check this out) on a shopping spree across Europe and the Middle East. Nice. 3

Native Americans accepted gay marriage 4, while the Knights of Columbus, upped the ante to revoke our right. 5 Why don’t they just

Election 2008: The Pots Calling the Kettle ‘Uppity’

Sam and I were listening to NPR this weekend when we heard a woman say, “I am sick and tired that every black man with an education is called ‘uppity,'” or something pretty close to that.

We guffawed in total agreement. Show me a white Ivy Leaguer who has been labeled as such. It may be my upbringing in the south, but uppity has always been understood as a code word; always the adjective that precedes a very specific epithet. If I know this, then you know the McCain camp does.

Online Etymology Dictionary:

uppity
1880, from up; originally used by blacks of other blacks felt to be too self-assertive (first recorded use is in “Uncle Remus”). The parallel British variant uppish (1678) originally meant “lavish;” the sense of “conceited, arrogant” being first recorded 1734.

Howard Bragman Kicks Ass

According to the L.A. Times: As a wedding gift to friend and celebrity publicist Howard Bragman and his longtime partner, Chuck O’Donnell, Bratton made it official: He and his wife, former Court TV diva Rikki Kleiman, strongly believe that gays have a right to marry. And in honor of Bragman and O’Donnell, who wed this past week in Norwalk, the chief and Kleiman have made a donation to Equality California, a group seeking to stop a state ballot measure this November that would ban same-sex marriages.

Sam and I are Married (Again)

6:35AM Sam is in the shower and we’re getting ready to go into West Hollywood to be legally married in the state of California. We don’t really know what to expect: if it will be a circus or what, but we’re going to find out.

7:25AM Sam’s pulling up news. Obama just spoke in a clip. “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman,” he said. I don’t get it. So who says it’s between a man and a woman? The bible. Okay, what was thing about the separation of church and state again??? We’re leaving now.

Given the right reasons and the right two people, marriage is a wonderful way of experiencing your life. – George Carlin

6:16PM We waited about 7 hours, and were married around 4pm. It was worth the wait a hundred times over. We are married husbands in accordance with the law of the vanguard State of California. Hooray! We did several interviews including one for the Japanese national news and another for one of the networks, in Spanish. I had no idea I’d retained so much. Thanks to my high school Spanish teachers, Rosaura Cantú and Ernesto Suarez. There were only a handful of haters there, but they disbanded after about two hours. We made some new friends in line, and generally speaking, it was a love fest. More details and photos to follow. Thanks to all for your love and support. xo, Billy

Define Yourself Above the Waist: A Primer for Coming Out

I know a lot of people struggle with ‘the closet’. I know that coming out can be a very big deal, and certainly, coming out in a small town is very different than coming out in a major metropolitan area, where the LGBT help make the city tick, but a lot of these blogs are written by men in NYC, LA, Chicago, Miami, where we gays aren’t a novelty. Just the same, the writers act as if they’re the first homo on Earth, and nobody else could possibly understand how difficult it is for them. Bullshit. We’ve all done it.

I’d like to offer some unsolicited coaching.