Bobservations

We are headed out of town for a much-needed five-day weekend, spent with our friends, the former Round-The-Way-Gays Neal and David, who used to live in Smallville, but have retired to the mountains of North Carolina. It’s been nearly a year since we’ve seen them, thanks to COVID, and it’s been over a year since our last real getaway, so we are ready to be outta here.

Play nice. I shall return next week …

Carlos has been participating in Zoom calls these past few months on the subject of HIV/AIDS and the Hispanic community. These talks are with folks from all over South Carolina, which is divided into three geographic areas: the Upstate, the Midlands, and the Low Country—we live in the Midlands.

This morning Carlos was telling me about one of the people in the meeting from the Lower Country and I immediately envisioned an impoverished nation to the south.

That’s all.

Again, Tuxedo isn’t allowed to vote, but if he could, he clearly comes down on the other side of that party.

People toss around the word socialism like it’s some kind of horrible thing, but where has capitalism gotten us?

There are 15 million empty homes in this country, but homelessness is a huge issue.

We throw out millions of tons of food, while millions go hungry.

We cheer billionaires going into space while some of their worker pee in bottles because they don’t get breaks.

Capitalism ain’t so great, unless you’re the 1%.

If, today, you are unvaccinated, knowing that Fox News is vaccinated, Thing 45 is vaccinated, MTG and Boebert are vaccinated, but still think the vaccine is dangerous—or you’re gonna be microchipped—and knowing that some 99% of COVID deaths are unvaccinated people, and you still choose to be unvaccinated, then you get what you deserve.

Stupidity is a virus, too. 

The Value In Electing Women Political Action Committee has supported every GOP woman serving in the US House and Senate … until now. According to Julie Conway, VIEW PAC’s executive director , the PAC does not support Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, and will would not endorse them in 2022:

“While we rightfully celebrate the number of GOP women serving in the House, I’ve always professed quality over quantity. The work of Congress is not a joke or reality show. Our women have fought too hard for too long to be respected and taken seriously as legislators, policy makers and thought leaders. We cannot let this work be erased by individuals who chose to be shameless self-promoters and carnival barkers.”

Carnival barker?!!?I love it; but she forgot traitors and morons.

Lil Nas X's same-sex kiss during a performance of 'Montero [Call Me By Your Name]' at last month's BET Awards has been widely celebrated as a powerful, authentic step forward for LGBTQ pop culture representation …sorry Madge. And, as happens, folks tend to get riled up and make phone calls and stomp their feet about gay folks kissin’ on TV.

But times have changed; it seems that just  three people wrote to the Federal Communications Commission [FCC] to express their outrage. Even then, one of the complaints one wasn't even about the kiss, but rather the performance's supposed 'Satanist' themes.

Adam Lambert—who sparked similar headlines, and greater outrage for a 2009 AMAs performance with a male-on-male kiss—said via Instagram:

"Two men kissing ain't indecent, explicit or inappropriate for children. The double standard is painfully clear. All the haters need to really get their heads around the concept of equality. He's clearly making a statement about it and making everyone talk. Pop Culture is being written."

Sad that it still needs to be written today, proving just how slow culture moves.

A federal judge has blocked a new law in Tennessee that required businesses and other entities that allow transgender people to use the public restroom that matches their gender to post a government-prescribed warning sign that trans people pee.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of business owners Kye Sayers and Bob Bernstein who object to the hateful message, states that the law violates the First Amendment and asks the court for a preliminary injunction to stop enforcement of the law while the lawsuit proceeds.

And they did. Score one for equality.

Keep in mind that Flori-duh Governor, Ron DeSantis, allows for running down BLM protestors with your car if their protests block traffic, but if it’s Cubans protesting, you cannot run them over … because Cubans voted DeSantis and Black people did not.

Seriously.

This is Giacomo Cavalli. I know little about him other than that his name sounds Italian, and he is both adorable and hot.

And that he gives good face, looks good dressed, and looks good not so dressed. That’s all.

Bobservations

We went out to brunch over the weekend with our good friends David and Neal to celebrate both my birthday and their 4th wedding anniversary; four doesn’t sound long, but it’s only the amount of time their relationship has been legally and rightfully recognized. It was actually their 35th anniversary.

So there.

On Sunday, Carlos and I were running some errands and we stopped at Tractor Supply to get cat litter. As we checked out, the cashier asked if we’d found everything we wanted, and I said:

“We did. It’s my birthday and he’s buying me cat litter.”

Later in the day, when Tia Gloria called form Mexico to sing me ♪ ♫ Happy Birthday ♫ ♪ over the phone, she asked how we were spending the day, I told her Carlos had gotten me cat litter for my birthday.

She asked to speak to him. And when I spoke with my father and told him of the gift … he asked to speak with Carlos, too.

Those were all good birthday presents!

As was the day spent with Carlos and the Chocolate Orange Cake he made for me.

There’s a sucker born every minute … at least that’s what the folks at Farfetch, an online luxury fashion platform that sells products from over 700 boutiques, thinks because they are offering a Hanes Beefy-T with a small Prada logo sewn onto it for the low, low price of $410.

Seriously.

Senator Joni Ernst filed for divorce, claiming her husband assaulted her years ago, though she never reported the assault to the police.

Last fall, Senator Joni Ernst dismissed Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony against Brett Kavanaugh because her story was  “uncorroborated.”

Let that sink in.

After years of unofficial ’Gay Days’ at Disney theme parks, Disneyland Paris has announced its first ever LGBTQ Pride event called Magical Pride. The park will welcome guests to “discover the enchantment of Disney with the Sparkle of Pride!”

Here’s hoping it spreads to the rest of the Disney empire.

Sidenote: years back Carlos and I were at Disneyworld in Orlando, and as we were leaving the park, and holding hands, two women walked around us and ahead, also holding hands. From behind us someone shouted:

“What is this? Gay Day?”

And one of the women shouted back:

“Every day is Gay Day.”

Yup.

Rent: Live it was not.

The actor playing Roger, Brennin Hunt, broke his foot near the end of Saturday’s rehearsal, so producers decided to show us a recording of that performance. The show was only truly live for the last few minutes, including a finale with members of the original Broadway cast—Idina Menzel, Anthony Rapp, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Taye Diggs—singing “Seasons of Love”.

And so it’s no surprise that Rent Not Live  was the least watched and lowest rated of the trend to date, in part perhaps due to a cast who was saving their best, and fullest, energy for the live performance and not a taped rehearsal.

This week _____ announced that he wanted to allow students who wish to study the Bible to be able to do so in schools, all schools, and his Evangelical Hypocritical Fake Faith Racist base cheered.

They cheered a man who cheated on his first wife with his second wife, then cheated on his second wife with his third wife, then cheated on his third wife with a porn actress and nude model while the wife was pregnant with his fifth child from three different women.

Right?

Lawyers for Kentucky’s Republican Governor Matt Bevin say that former Rowan Kounty Klerk Kim Davis must pay the $225,000 in legal fees owed to the gay couples who sued her for refusing to issue marriage licenses because of her ALLEGED Christian-based opposition to same-sex marriage.

Nice; except it shows the hypocrisy of Bevin. See, while Bevin has called Davis “an inspiration … to the children of America,” after a district judge ruled that the couples suing for marriage licenses clearly prevailed and that the state of Kentucky must pay their fees and costs, Bevin and his lawyers want the bill handed to Davis, and say she acted alone in denying the marriage licenses.

Hypocrisy. GOP.

Russia has embarrassed _____ … again!

This week the Kremlin leaked news that  Putin met with _____ and his nude model wife, Melanie, at the G-20 Summit in Buenos Aires last fall.  The embarrassment is _____ meeting with his boss and handler, Putin, but that not one single US official was present … no collusion, nothing to see, witch hunt … no government officials, no translators, no one from the State Department. It is unprecedented to have held the meeting without a U.S. witness, especially someone to record the details of what happened.

But that was only the first embarrassment; the second embarrassment came via TASS, Russia’s official state media news outlet of the Kremlin who, when asked about _____’s lack of even an interpreter, said:

"It’s none of our business whether _____ had an interpreter; Putin’s interpreter is always by his side — we have stability and order in that regard.”

We don’t because Putin owns _____ , his beck-and-call girl, and when Putin calls, _____ obeys.

New Funny Irreverent Show Alert … The Other Two tells the story of siblings Cary and Brooke whose lives are upended when their 13-year-old brother, Chase, becomes a Justin Bieber-esque type overnight sensation.

It’s very funny, and the humor is quite ballsy, and then there’s the relationship between Cary, played by Drew Tarver, left, who is gay, and his roommate, played by Andy Riddings, right, who is not, and how they just like to make out every so often.

Plus, they’re cute, so yeah, there’s that.

But it’s the funny that gets me. Okay, and the cute guys making out.

A Kiss Is Just A Kiss

I saw that photo and instantly thought it was just a copy of that more famous kiss on V-J Day— Victory over Japan Day—when a Navy sailor grabbed and kissed a woman in Times Square. But this was two men kissing and so I found it all the more fun and interesting and kinda kitschy and hot.

On December 21st, after the USS The Sullivans pulled into port, Kenneth Woodington—the winner of the first kiss lottery—locked lips with his husband, sailor Bryan Woodington, just home from seven months in the Gulf.

As they kissed, many in the crowd applauded and cheered, most notably other service family members waiting for their loved ones, but not everyone was cheering.

WJXT, a Jacksonville, Florida television station, aired the kiss and suddenly all the haters came out …

“How sad your station has dropped to such a low as to show a gay couple kissing on your newscast.”

First off, gay or not, it was a couple kept apart for seven months, greeting one another, but, yeah, I guess because it was two men …

“I thought this was a “family-friendly” news channel.”

This one slayed me; just WTF is a ‘family-friendly news channel’? No stories about crime or murder or destruction? Just puppies and kittens and babies?

We are on the precipice of 2019 and people are still shocked, and disgusted, by the sight of gay couples acting like couples? We have been allowed the rights to marry for nearly four years now, so all of you who find the sight of two men, or two women, kissing, for any reason, need to turn off your TVs, discontinue the newspaper, unplug from the internet, and go live in a cave.

We’re here, we’re queer, and we kiss our spouses and partners whenever we f**king want to kiss them.

Monday Fun Day: First Married Kiss Goes Viral

I remember when Carlos and I got married … we’d flown out to Washington state, because that’s where my Dad lived and he wanted to be at the ceremony, and because South Carolina was about a month away from marriage equality.

We were married in a courtroom by a judge, with my Dad and a couple of witnesses; it was all very simple and kinda quick and easy except … I was worried about The Kiss.

My Dad wanted Carlos and I to get married; he wanted to be there. But a small part of me wondered how he would feel watching two men kiss, especially when one of the men was his own son.

Turns out my Dad didn’t watch the kiss; he was too busy photographing the kiss, so it seemed that my reservations were baseless because my Dad saw it through his camera lens and made sure there were plenty of pictures of the kiss.

And that may be why Spc. Shane Adriano and Pfc. Tristian Resz chose the Greene County Courthouse when they were married; they wanted an intimate spot for their small wedding — on February 11th — which was attended by the couple, a few friends and a judge.

But their “first married kiss” photograph took the internet by storm because the internet is neither small not intimate.

Adriano and Resz shared the photo on Facebook, and the American Military Partner Association saw it and they re-posted it; a few hours after that posting the picture was shared over 800 times and had some 4,400 ‘Likes’ and 215 comments.

One of those ‘shares’ was the LGBTQ group, Promoting Equality for all Missourians [PROMO] who shared it the day after the wedding, adding 1,400 ‘Likes’ and hundreds more comments. The Gay and Lesbian of the Ozarks Center [GLO] also found the photo and shared it … more ‘Likes’, more comments.

Shane Adriano says they’ve lost track of how many times the photo has been shared.

“It just keeps getting reshared. We had a little bit of negative comments on there, but I wasn’t even expecting that many people to like it and share it over and over again.”

Love is love; and a first kiss is a great thing to share and share and 'Like'.

LGBTQ Nation

A Kiss Is Just A Kiss ... Or Is It?

I am not a fan of PDAs, Public Displays of Affection. I don’t mind a peck on the cheek or lips as you say goodbye to a loved one, or holding the hand of your husband as you walk down the street; those things seem sweet to me. But when it goes beyond sweet and enters into something more? Well … let me tell you a story.

While living in California, BC — Before Carlos — I’d met this guy, whose name now escapes me because since our date I have always, and only, called him Harvard. He asked me out and we decided to spend the day in San Francisco; he wanted to visit the Museum of Modern Art, so you know, art, museum, art. But while there, and while gazing at a painting, he walks up behind me, wraps his arms around my waist and tries to stick his hands down the front of my pants.

I calmly ask, ‘What are you trying to do?’

‘I’m trying to get into your pants,’ he replied.

‘Well, you’d have better luck getting into Harvard.’

Hence the name.

Now, I was attracted to him, but I really kinda felt that maybe the art museum wasn’t the place to grab my junk; call me crazy. And sure, the hands fondling my package is not the same as a kiss, but there are times when a kiss — especially between two men — makes people uncomfortable, and there are times when it doesn’t …

As happens at sporting events from time to time, when, up on the Jumbotron appears the words ‘Kiss Cam,’ and then a camera operator zooms in on a couple, usually heterosexual, and the couple kisses on camera. For several years the camera operators at these events might focus on two men attending the game, and the men might grimace and pretend to kiss and the crowd would boo and moan because, you know, two men kissing is icky.

But just last week, at an LA Dodgers baseball, the ‘Kiss Cam’ moment came up and after spotting several opposite sex couples in the crowd, all of who gladly kissed for the camera, suddenly two men — Steven and Rick Simone-Friedland — appeared onscreen and, with a slight hesitation, they kissed.

And.The.Crowd.Roared.

Steven says:

"I turned to my husband … and I said 'You know, this could go badly. This could not go well,' but then we did it, because we thought it would be just so fun to do, and then we heard the crowd — and that was really unexpected, and beautiful, and affirming. All we did was kiss. What made everyone's day was the crowd reaction … I don't think anybody was expecting that reaction … I kiss my husband every single day. That's not the big deal. The big deal is what happened immediately after. That's just the most amazing thing."

It’s just a kiss right? And a kiss is just a kiss, even between two men, but apparently it’s so much more in Huntington, West Virginia,  where Zackary Johnson and Casey Williams paused on the street for a quick kiss and ended up being attacked by Marshall University football running back Steward Butler.

The couple was visiting friends and , after a night of dinner and barhopping, had started walking back to their hotel when Casey pulled Zackary in for a kiss. Steward Butler, riding by in a car with friends, leapt from the automobile and being shouting anti-gay slurs at the couple before punching both men in the head.

"I thought it was going to be the normal case of someone rolling their windows down, yelling some words, and just keep on going, I mean that happens a lot." — Zackary Johnson

Butler is claiming the confrontation was in self-defense, though it’s unclear how he was defending himself against two men kissing … unless he wanted to kiss one of them? I mean, maybe he’s a self-loathing closeted homosexual who spotted two men, in love, walking down the street and stopping for a kiss and then decided he couldn’t stand to see them doing that when he couldn’t and so he had to jump out of a moving car to tell them how much he hated them for kissing … with his fists.

Whatever his reasons, and there really aren’t any, Steward Butler is charged with two counts of misdemeanor battery, and was dismissed from the Marshall University football team.

All because he didn’t like the idea of two men kissing, so I’d like to offer him, and others like him who might decide to stop man-on-man kissing with their fists, a little lesson:

If you’re on the street and you come across two men, or two women, kissing, and you find it repugnant … ignore it and just keep moving.

Random Musings

This story has been everywhere so, naturally, I'm'a give my two-cents....

On Jeopardy Kids Tournament last week, eighth-grader Thomas Hurley III bet $3,000 on that Final Jeopardy! question up there, and he responded like this:

And while technically correct, his response was ruled inaccurate because of a minor spelling error which is a rule of Final Jeopardy; the answer must be spelled correctly. And, according to Trebek, “Because he misspelled it badly … that’s unfortunate.  The judges are ruling against you.”

Now Thomas and his family are crying foul, with Thomas saying, “I was pretty upset that I was cheated out the final question.  It was just a spelling error.”

Which.Makes.The.Answer.Wrong.

Build a bridge and get over; learn something; check your spelling.

Mark Edel-Hunt took a stand against homophobia from a London stage last week after an audience member shouted abuse as two men kissed onstage.

The heckler was among the spectators at The American Plan and cried out, 'Makes me sick' at the embrace and kiss between the characters Nick and Gil.

Edel-Hunt, who plays Gil, responded by returning to the stage at the end of the curtain call with a sign depicting the Stonewall campaign slogan:

“Some people are gay. Get over it!”

Andy Wasley, from Stonewall, told Gay Star News, was delighted at Edel-Hunt’s reaction: "Given that Richard Greenberg’s most famous play is about a gay man, whoever complained about the kiss proved themselves to be as ignorant about theatre as they are about the reality of modern life. It’s great to see a spirited response to such offensive behaviour.”

I'd say so.

Bravo, Mr. Edel-Hunt

OVERHEARD AT WORK

Client [ranting about Obama]: I have had it with him. He really needs to be stopped.

Bob enters the room

Client: I better be quiet, Bob probably voted for Obama.

Bob: I did. I voted for him twice, and I’m voting for him when he runs for president in 2016.

Client: He can't run for a third term.

Bob [dripping with snark]: Oh, can't he? I wouldn’t be so sure about that.

Client: [red-faced and silent] ....

Kellan Lutz is playing Hercules in an upcoming film and, well, he looks hercu-riffic. Pecs you could bounce a quarter off of, if you were so inclined.

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is also playing Herc in another film, but I’d prefer my he-men to be less ‘roided, if you get my meaning.

One of the biggest news stories on the year has been the onset of virulently anti-gay laws in Russia, and the upcoming Winter Olympics there next year.

But, um, yeah, you wouldn’t know it if you watched FauxNews™ who spent exactly zero hours, hell, zero minutes on the story.

Just further proof that FauxNews™ isn’t news.

But …. Speaking of news, this is the Best.News.Ever.

Ellen, DeGeneres that is, will be hosting the Oscars next year! As an Awards Show Queen™ I am beyond with this news and loved that Ellen Tweeted:

"It's official: I'm hosting the #Oscars! I'd like to thank @TheAcademy, my wife Portia and, oh dear, there goes the orchestra."

I.Can’t.Wait.

I love me some fashion, but I have a problem with some of the people in fashion, like Editor-in-chief of American Vogue, and holy terror … or so I’ve heard … Anna Wintour.

Would it kill her to take off the shades? Would it kill her to update her hair? Would it kill her to eat a sandwich so she looks less Bobble-Head and more human?

And do not get me started on Miss Thang, André Leon Talley, who is some sort of fashionista or something. What the hell is she wearing? It looks like she’s headed for the buffet table, wearing a tent so she can abscond with an entire prime rib and all the chilled shrimp a girl can eat.

They are fashion? M’kay …..

In a recent concert, danced with a Rainbow Flag around her neck and some Twitheads began calling her a Lesbian.

She responded thusly … which is just one more reason I ♥ Pink.