The top national and world news since last issue you should know

BY CRAIG OGAN

Demo VP, gay choices

Before she chose a Minnesota Walz as her dancing partner, two gay officials were on the dance card to be the Democratic vice presidential nominee. The most straight-acting gay man in Washington D.C., Trans. Secretary Pete Buttigieg, was asked by TV news’ favorite lesbian, Rachael Maddow, about taking the VP nomination. In a flash of the famous “Buttigieg-Gay Sense of Humor,” he said, “I will do all that I can to help elect her.” When she followed up insisting on an answer, asking, ‘You wouldn’t say no?” His answer was a clever, “Sure.” Critics carped he needed to show more “camp humor” to be the first gay VP. Enter the jolly jokester from Colorado, Governor Jared Polis. Non-lesbian Dana Bash on CNN asked Polis the same question, and (drum roll) he said, “Look, if they do the polling and it turns out that they need a 49-year-old balding gay Jew from Boulder, Colo., they got my number.” (cymbal crash). Unfortunately, Gay history was not to be made this time.

GLAAD kind of SAAD

GLAAD couldn’t have been very glad for the attention from The New York Times report of spending “lavish” amounts on the salary, firstclass travel, luxury hotels, expensive car services, and a home office remodel for chief executive Sarah Kate Ellis. NYT suggested a violation of IRS rules and GLAAD internal policies. For all its activity, GLAAD is a small organization with only 60 employees and a $30 million budget. GLAAD sources suggest the coverage is retaliation for GLAAD’s criticism of the NYT for its “problematic coverage of transgender people” and less than full-throated editorial support for “gender-affirming” surgical and pharmaceutical therapies for minors. The most scrutinized expenses are attendance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where GLAAD rented a pricey mansion to host world bigwigs, and summer meetings held in Provincetown. The GLAAD board authorized the expenses as necessary to raise the millions needed for its mission. GLAAD was founded in 1985 as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation focused on combating negative media coverage about gays and lesbians. The organization formalized the acronym GLAAD as the official name to allow it to focus on transgender issues.

Coming Out by the numbers

A recent Gallup poll reported that 48% of LGBTQ+ people began to understand they were not straight starting at the age of 14. By the age of 18, 72% say they knew who they were and had begun to talk openly to friends and relatives. By age 22, 51% report they were open to all, and by age 30, that figure becomes 72%. How Gallup got answers from the 18% who said they never told anyone is a wonder, but that was what the report showed. Gay and lesbians make up just 5% of the “never-outers.” Bisexuals make up 24% of never-outers. The report indicates that 19% of gays and lesbians and 6% of bisexuals who are “out” reported “poor treatment like harassment or discrimination.”

WEHO hot yoga for Second Gent

In a mark of progress, the spouse of a U.S. presidential candidate goes to a hot yoga studio, cavorts with gay pals, and then is paged at his favorite coffee hangout in a gay part of town. Instead of denying it, the campaign of the newly anointed Democratic presidential candidate wrote a charming “slice of life tell-all” with a video and distributed the story to the media. After the current president retreated from the 2024 campaign, his vice president and acclaimed successor tried to contact her husband to tell him the good news. Turns out he had turned his phone off for a session at a West Hollywood “SoulCycle” class and, as The Advocate magazine reported it, “Having coffee with his gay besties.” The Second Gentleman was quoted, “We’re out there having coffee, messing around and talking, and … people are coming up to me, so it’s now, like, after the announcement has gone out.” The Advocate opines, “The VP’s hubby wanting to be so focused on hanging out with his gay besties that he left his phone in the car is probably the cutest piece of information to come out of this election cycle!” This isn’t your father’s Oldsmobile.

Gotta watch your mouth

You just cannot call a fan a “faggot” if you are in Major League Baseball; that is reserved for soccer and has to be in Spanish. Boston Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran has been suspended for two games after he yelled what is a homophobic slur when used by a straight person in response to a heckler. Duran was not batting well, and the heckler yelled that Duran needed a “tennis racket.” Duran yelled back what most drag queens have yelled at the midnight show, “Shut up, you fucking faggot.” Yelling at the heckler took some of the shine off the evening as just before the game, Durran received his team’s “2024 Heart & Hustles Award” for best embodying the “values, spirit and traditions of the game.” Come to think of it, maybe his outburst was consistent with “the values, spirit, and traditions of MLB.” Duran eventually walked on the play and then struck out in his final at-bat at the bottom of the ninth. (For the baseball-challenged, that means he didn’t play well in the game’s last moments.)

Upper Midwest senate races

Say goodbye to the Upper Midwest’s legendary friendliness. The Senate races for Minnesota and Wisconsin are anything but friendly. Wisconsin: Putting the lie to the notion of “Wisconsin Welcomes you” is Erick Hovde running against incumbent Tammy Baldwin. Hovde won the primary with the Republican presidential nominee’s endorsement. Hovde doesn’t welcome marriage equality, is way against abortion, and says being transgender is “insanity.” He is unwelcoming to surgery and pharmaceutical gender therapies. He does welcome restrooms and sports that comport with birth gender identity. Minnesota: Former NBA player Royce White has been endorsed to run against incumbent U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar. He is not “Minnesota Nice.” He was not nice during the primary election with alleged campaign finance violations over contributions from a Minneapolis strip club owner. He is not nice about “liberals” and says they have “poisoned America’s soil.” Don’t get him started on the LGBTQ community, which he calls “the Church of LGBTQ.” His “X” account is full of slurs and posts decrying “faggots” and “trannys.” Even though he thinks a “small group of Jews” have all the power, he claims he is not antisemitic because he “Prays to a Jewish carpenter every morning for salvation.” Nice, welcoming guys they are NOT. Both are forecast to lose bigley.

Straight-washing star walks

It’s never been a secret that actor Joaquin Phoenix has some eccentric behavior. The latest bizzarro is that he developed a script for a gay romance. The plot is about a gay Los Angeles police officer and a Native American man who have a relationship and must flee to Mexico. It is set in the 1930s, and Phoenix envisioned some racy sex scenes. He cast himself as the gay police officer. He hired Todd Haynes, a noted director of gay-themed films, to helm the movie. The movie was to have been filmed in Guadalajara, Mexico (standing in for a cleaner, safer 1930 LA). Five days into rehearsal, Phoenix “stormed off the set.” The crew opined that he was uncomfortable with the explicit gay scenes he had written and approved. The production company says the film is “dead, and not paused” as the financing was contingent on Phoenix being the star. Apparently, after playing a Roman emperor in a long-term sexual relationship with a sister, there’s only so much that can be expected of an actor.