(JESSE on the BRINK) To the Supremes!.

by Jesse Archer

If you're wondering why Facebook has gone red this week it's because the Supreme Court is hearing arguments on Prop 8 and marriage equality.

Let's hope SCOTUS can distinguish between privilege and equality. Even people close to me biologically have trouble understanding this is a civil issue and not some kind of "special rights".

One of the litigants in a case is Edie Windsor who had to pay estate taxes to the tune of $360K after the death of her partner of 44 years - money she wouldn't have to pay if her partner were a man. Or my friend Lavi Soloway who has for years been fighting to stop DOMA and deportation of same-sex partners with foreign-born partners. The fact I have never been able to consider the option marrying my foreign born partners so they could stay in the USA. Consider the 1,138 rights and privileges granted by the government to married couples denied to some in the land of all men created equal.

(JESSE on the BRINK) The Front Runner!

by Jesse Archer

The Front Runner, a 1974 novel from Patricia Nell Warren is "most celebrated gay love story ever" so it's a wonder I haven't read it until now. Not least because I'm a long distance runner!

I find the novel both completely outdated and yet in many ways current. Chiefly, it deals with the romantic relationship between 40 year old coach Harlan Brown and his Olympic-quality distance runner, Billy Sive. Even today that is provocative and to me, frankly, yuck. They also get "married" - still today, provocative. Today we still see massive homophobia in the sports world, even though it's no longer, as portrayed in the book, getting fired or facing threats, boycotts, and violence.

The Front Runner is dated in its portrayal of homosexuality - in Harlan Brown's repeated insistence on their masculinity, in his outright distaste for women (strange, as he was written by a woman), and often the sexual passages "they soaped each other's genitals" were cringe-worthy. And the talk of how good a dancer Billy was, gyrating his hips and wooing the "foxes" with his moves, to me rang false as having known hundreds of distance runners - not one of them can dance!

(JESSE on the BRINK) The Dark Side of Mardi Gras!

by Jesse Archer

Nothing says PARTY TIME FIESTA like encountering hordes of police and a phalanx of sniffer dogs.

For lack of any real problems in Australia, the government creates them. Such is the case with an overly intense police presence at Sydney Mardi Gras that includes drug dogs, humiliating and degrading strip searches of partygoers, and this year several accounts of police misconduct, including one caught on tape of 18 year old Jamie Jackson. I don't care what he did or whether he's innocent, but he was handcuffed and in custody when police officer 266 brutally threw him to the ground where he crash landed on his skull. There is no way this type of violence would have happened if instead of a petit young gay boy, he was a petite young girl.

(JESSE on the BRINK) All The Goss!

by Jesse Archer

After weeks of preparation, a few of us made our drag debut onstage at Polly's Follies. They offer free champagne all night to drag queens which is the reason 1) there are so many drag queens at Stonewall and b) why we got ejected from the premises by Polly herself! Read on.

(JESSE on the BRINK) Mardi Gras with the HOFF!

by Jesse Archer

Sydney's heating up with Mardi Gras season in full swing and the tourists flooding in.

My radio show on 2ser has been a blast, interviewing everyone from gay foster parents to Sydney's member for Parliament Alex Greenwich, and look here I am with David Hasselhoff (BELOW)!

(JESSE on the BRINK) Ending HIV!

by Jesse Archer

ACON has put out a very progressive new campaign to stamp out the transmission of HIV. It's targeted toward gay men, and its mission is to get everyone tested regularly. These kinds of campaigns have to walk that razor's edge between not stigmatizing the HIV-positive, while not scaring off the HIV-negative. But there's more to this one, watch and listen.

Knowledge is power - so if you know your status, you can go on treatment - and get your viral load down to undetectable. The voice of the campaign is familiar, with its message much like we hear on the street. At the film festival opening night, it received an ovation.

(JESSE on the BRINK) Gay Panic!

by Jesse Archer

You've heard of pop up bars, pop up shops, even restaurants, and now POP UP RADIO arrives and yours truly has been asked to host. I now get to exploit my gift of gab and gossip (food of the GODS) each weekday through Mardi Gras season. As I told the producers, my face is SO ready for radio.

Our show, GAY PANIC, is hosted by 2ser fm, Joy fm and the Star Observer. Find Star Observer Digital on your digital radio or stream it online here. I always thought Gay Panic would be an awesome band name, but until I learn to lift a tune (let alone carry one) a radio show it shall be.

(JESSE on the BRINK) Why Am I?

by Jesse Archer

Here is a screen grab from my public FB page. It appears to be me, but it is really FB pretending to be me in order to tell me how and why Jesse Archer needs to post a status update about himself. Yes, my existential crisis approaches its apex. Who Am I?

(MY VIEW) Words With Friends, Smut With Strangers!

by Jesse Archer

When a friend said he was cheating with the popular app Words With Friends, I didn't think much of it. Who hasn't cheated at online Scrabble? Then he clarified, saying he was using the app to cheat on his longterm boyfriend.

He met someone, and they are carrying on an inflagrante affair in the chat function behind each WWF game. Here they discuss scoring. Their chats then scroll up into the ether and vanish, leaving no history. For him, WWF operates as a speakeasy, a façade of innocently shuffled letters masking a backroom of outlaw lust.

Methods have changed, but infidelity transcends time. A mistress once employed a go-between to deliver lustful missives between her bodice and the hands of her steerage-class hunk. But the future is a foreign country; they do things differently here. Today's go-between isn't human and could be anywhere, at anytime.

(Jesse on the Brink) Happy 'Straya Day!

 by Jesse Archer

The long weekend was meant to be all wet - and began with a biathlon at Boy Charlton pool. My swim club buddy Drew and I SURVIVED. This easy breezy biathlon is fast becoming a weekly habit.

After that, the weekend raced quickly downhill! 

Hit a pool party at my former CEOs, and caught up with loads of friends including gorgeous Andrea.

(JESSE on the BRINK) Poppers are Dead; Long Live Poppers!

by Jesse Archer

Get a whiff of my latest essay in the Advocate. It's on one of my favorite topics - POPPERS. As some in the comments note, this is shocking. Appalling. We should be writing essays on gay child rearing! Thank you for proving my point.

(JESSE on the BRINK) What a FEAST!

by Jesse Archer
 
 "Life's a banquet and most poor sons of bitches are STARVING to death!" is Auntie Mame's most famous quote and her credo. Auntie Mame (one of my all time favorite films) is based on a bestselling book by Patrick Dennis, pseudonym Edward Everett "Pat" Tanner III. I just finished reading his biography, a very good one, UNCLE MAME.

Tanner was fun-loving and vastly entertaining (both in person and in print) married to a wonderful companion, Louise, and had two children. He essentially sheperded camp humor to the mainstream and was the first author to have 3 books on the bestseller list - at the same time.

Yet with the advent of 60s counterculture, what he did best - incisively skewer the snobbery of high society - quite suddenly was quaint and fell out of fashion. He attempted to become an arts dealer, and then - as he was a snob in his own right - found a final career as a butler. He excelled in this role, and ultimately butlered for Ray Kroc, owner of McDonalds, who never knew his clever and reliable servant was actually the famous former millionaire author of Auntie Mame.

(JESSE on the BRINK) Best of 2012!

In 2012, we  were thrilled that one our my Faves, Jesse Archer officially joined our team and is able to write his adventures. Here are  his Top 5 posts , according to our Readers (Based on Page Views.) 

5. Gay Pride Parade New York 2012 (6/27)

4. Fire Island Invasion 2012 (7/25)

3. Sexualising the Sea Cucumber! (4/25)

2. The Man Burns in 350 Days! (9/19)

(Best of 2012) the TOP 5 Columns on OUTview!

In 2012, OUTview went back to its Roots and brought more columns from different Views and different parts of the world, so Here are our Top 5 COLUMNS, according to our Readers (Based on Page Views.)

5. INTO THE LIGHT

4. JESSE on the BRINK

3. MK SCOTT

2. MOVIE FREAK

(JESSE on the BRINK) Holiday Gift Ideas?

by Jesse Archer

Stuff your stocking with summer fun! Buy a DVD or download of my Fire Island comedy Half-Share for 20% off. With purchase this month, you'll be making a donation to help homeless youth in NYC.

 

Edge magazine writes, "What really makes Half-Share soar over the pabulum that substitutes for entertainment these days are the details... that, and the sweetness that lies just below the tartness."

(JESSE on the BRINK) the Queen of King's Cross!

by Jesse Archer

Here is Gemma. She is always cracked out in the middle of King's Cross, speaking nonsensically, mostly about being an indigenous supermodel and always sporting a revolutionary outfit for the day.

This is the first time I've seen Gemma dressed as a boy. You can't really tell, but she's got a turban under the hat and a sweater for a skirt. The necklaces are amazing and that pile of books? She is not reading them. They are complementary props. Gemma knows how to pull together and rock a look.

(JESSE on the BRINK) Homecoming of The Undoubted Queen!

by Jesse Archer

I just spent five days in Napier, New Zealand - home of art deco, a devastating 1931 earthquake, and my friend Peter Cross.

Peter was a performer and writer (he is an Executive Producer on my film Violet Tendencies, and his short Shopping is now hot on the festival circuit), who had often written of growing up in Napier on his blog. After Peter passed away this past july of cancer, his long-time partner Richard was tasked with bringing him home, and asked me last minute if I would join him on the trip. Not sure if I was asked to be company or comedy...but we had a very memorable journey together. 

(JESSE on the BRINK) Up and Close with Mitcham!

by Jesse Archer 

It's not every day you get to meet a gold medal Olympian! Australian gold medalist diver Matthew Mitcham had a signing this week for his autobiography "Twists and Turns". He admitted that at 24, he's far too young to have written an autobiography which is why "I fluffed it out with so many photos!" Not that anyone minds...

Not only rare to have met a gold medal Olympian, but an openly gay one at that... is rarely seen in elite sports. I gave Johnny Weir a big kiss for that and also got to thank Matthew Mitcham for his authenticity and openness... qualities which sadly put athletes like him at risk of losing endorsements.

(JESSE on the BRINK) Words With Strangers!

by Jesse Archer

I'm addicted to online scrabble "words with friends"and I'm not even GOOD. I'm so terrible that the only game I ever won was when my opponent surrendered. She only surrendered because she was crushing me so badly it wasn't worth continuing! I really need to get familiar with 3-letter words containing an X or a Q that would never be seen outside of a pharmacy. I also have an inkling there is some word breaker app they are using to crush me. And yes, I realize this could be self-delusion.

Friday night, friends in LA sent me a photo to say HI. This is what I NORMALLY do with friends:

(JESSE on the BRINK) A Country For Old Men!

by Jesse Archer

This had to be the most cultural weekend I've experienced in Sydney - and by culture I mean seeing things that you don't quite understand even though you're supposed to understand so instead you just applaud. And yes, that does include waking up this morning with grass stains and an empty pizza box. More on that later, but first - how about all these old dictators racing around in motorized wheelchairs? 

Ric took me around Paddington art galleries where we caught these incredible figures at Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation. These old dudes are meant to "call to mind" various dictators and make you ponder the temporary nature of both life and power.