Random Musings

Well, the powder room demolition has begun.

Last weekend, we tore out the sink and vanity, the toilet, and the tile flooring and baseboards.

We tried to save the vanity, in order to donate it, but it was nailed to the wall with roughly a hundred nails — seriously — so it kind of fell to pieces. But, we are giving the toilet, the sink, and a great many floor tiles that came up easily, to our local Habitat ReStore.

Next up, fix the floor; the vanity was placed on the sub-subfloor, then a plywood subfloor was laid on top, followed by a cement board, so the floor under the vanity is nearly two inches lower than the rest of the floor. And since we’re just putting in a pedestal sink, that all needs to be replaced.

Then it’s onto painting and tiling and new baseboards and new toilet and sin k and lights and artwork. As the painter in the house, I was going to paint it black — no judgments, I thought it’d be cool and how long do you spend in a powder room? — but then we found a beautiful gray tile, so now the walls will be tone-on-tone gray pinstripes.

Hand-painted by moi. Uh huh.

Even though back in April of 2013, when the Boy Scouts of America [BSA] began allowing gay kids under the age of 18 to participate in scouting, but maintained that openly gay adults could not be scout leaders, Walt Disney World [WDW] isn’t happy.

In fact, that BSA discriminatory policy has led Walt Disney World to discontinue funding the BSA through their annual “Ears to You” grant program until the policy changes.

Central Florida Council Board President Robert Utsey wrote:

“We recognize that many Scout Units have received financial support over the last several years from this grant opportunity and are sad to see it go. The National BSA Council has reached out to [Walt Disney World] to try to resolve the situation, however, according to WDW, their views do not currently align with the BSA and they are choosing to discontinue this level of support.”

Um, actually, Utsey, it’s the views of the BSA that do not align with Walt Disney World.

On the other side of the coin, however, the National Basketball Association [NBA] announced plans to donate the proceeds from sales of Jason Collins jerseys to the Matthew Shepard Foundation and the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network [GLSEN].

Collins, who is the NBA’s first openly gay player after signing with the Brooklyn Nets, wears the number 98 — in remembrance of 1998 when Matthew Shepard was murdered — and it has become the top seller on the league’s website.

On a side note: Jason Collins met Matthew’s parents, Judy and Dennis, when the Nets played in Denver last week.

The NBA has said that donations would total no less than $100,000, and that they will also auction off Collins’s autographed, game-worn jerseys to benefit the same organizations.

Good on the NBA. Too bad the BSA couldn’t be so accepting.

So, at the Oscars last Sunday night, host Ellen DeGeneres made a joke about the Liza Minnelli drag queen in the audience; it was the actual Liza, dusted off, dressed up, and shuttled to the show.

Well, Liza has answered the question as to how she felt about Ellen’s joke:

"I think she thought it would be funny but she never stopped after she said it and said, 'my friend Liza Minnelli'. So I think it went a bit astray on her. I don't think she meant any harm at all and she's a wonderful lady."

It was a joke because they have been Liza drag queens and Liza female impersonators everywhere — especially Hollywood — for the last forty years. And it’s the most attention Liza’s gotten since her last hip surgery.

I’m still in on RuPaul’s Drag Race.

This week, the rest of the queens arrived and were subjected to a photo shoot in a bed with four underwear clad hotties from the Pit Crew … Lucky bitches … and then a Party Themed Runway show.

My favorite this week was Milk, who actually wore a beard as part of her drag. It was a bit disconcerting, but I give her props for coloring outside the lines.

Still, after week 2, I am Team Ben DeLaCreme.

Speaking of TV …

Bates Motel is back, and Mistress Maddie has gotten me intrigued by a SyFy show called Bitten, about werewolves, though I’m less interested in the wolf part and more intrigued by the male nudity ass-pect.

We’ve also watched the first two episode of Mixolgy, a show about one night in a bar and the hookups, breakups, and makeups that ensue over the course of one evening. No gay couples so far, but I like the irreverent humor and the addition of Hot Blond Brit, Ron, as played by Adam Campbell [left], and Adan Canto [right], who plays hot Latin bartender, Dominic.

Plus, there’s a show coming up called Believe, which strikes me as a little like that Stephen King book, “Firestarter” though it might be good, and Resurrection, about people who die, and then come back years later, having not aged a bit. And no, thankfully, they are not zombies, or vampires, or werewolves. I think.

With the idea that the NFL might soon have its first openly gay player, in Michael Sam, the league is considering banning anti-gay and racial slurs, specifically the F-word and the N-word.

Seriously? This is under consideration? In 2014.

No wonder it’s taken so long to have a player come out as gay when the league seems to have been turning a deaf ear on racial and homophobic slurs for decades.

Crackpot Teabagger US Republican — of course — Representative Steve Stockman of Texas — again, of course — suffered a humiliating defeat in his GOP primary bid to unseat US Senator John Cornyn; the Teabagger got just 17% of the vote.

Wow, in Texas — yes, Texas — a Teabagger goes down to defeat. Of course, Stockman is the man who, last fall, gave every member of Congress a book calling for the impeachment of President Obama, and a year prior, in 2012, Stockman mailed his supporters the "Official Obama Barf Bag" because "socialism makes me sick." He also Tweeted a photo of himself lubricating a gun with a spray can labeled "Liberal Tears."

And he’s too crazy for the Texas ‘Baggers. Wow.

Also on the good news front, a new ABC/WaPo poll shows support for marriage equality nationwide has hit an all-time high, with fifty-nine percent of Americans saying they support same-sex marriage; just 34% do not support marriage equality.

And, 50% of all Americans believe that gay couples have a constitutional right to marry, and, on the heels of Don’t Serve The Gays in Arizona, a much larger majority says businesses should not be able to deny serving the LGBT community for religious reasons.

The march goes on, but it sure feels like the end is in sight.

Now, I take this news with a grain of salt, but if it pans out, well, I still won’t eat there.

According to newly-released 2012 tax documents, Chick-Fil-A ended nearly all of its corporate donations to anti-LGBT groups at the same time that homophobic statements from the company's CEO became national headlines. 

It seems that Chick-fil-A’s WinShape Foundation apparently reversed course in 2012, eliminating nearly all it’s grant-making to anti-LGBT groups and causes, though its separate Chick-fil-A Foundation still gave some $120,000 in grant donations, including $25,000 to the anti-LGBT Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

But, while in 2010 and 2011, Chick-fil-A’s corporate foundations increased their grants to anti-LGBT groups like the Marriage & Family Foundation and the National Christian Foundation, from $1.9 million to more than $3.6 million, neither of these groups received a penny in 2012.

From three million to nothing. That’s good news, no? But, lets’ remember, the CEO is a bigot and a homophobe, and anti-equality, and the company’s foundation still gives to anti-LGBT groups; and lets’ also understand that Chick-fil-A slashed corporate donations to all outside groups, not just the anti-gay ones.

So, yeah, still no chicken for me.