(DEFINING MARRIAGE) Know who your Enemies Are!

 

by Matt Baume

“Marriage felt impossible for so long. This impossible thing you’re never going to get, so don’t bother asking for it,” said Dan Savage. But: “it doesn’t get better for us in a vacuum. It gets better FOR us because straight people get better ABOUT us.”

I chatted with Dan and with Fred Karger about what life was like for gays in the 1970s, and their two very different ways of dealing with it: for Fred, a gay Republican, there was safety in hiding. But Dan, despite being raised in a Roman Catholic household, came emphatically out of the closet at an early age and let the straight world know that any discomfort they felt was their own doing.

From within the belly of the beast, Fred was able to rally opposition to homophobic legislator John Briggs long before it was safe for him to do so publicly. But ultimately, hiding proved far more destructive than coming out.

After all, if queers were ever going to demand full equality, first they’d have to reveal themselves. They’d have to exist. Then they could get down to the work of making things better.

HEAR THE PODCAST HERE

DEBUT! (Defining Marriage) To be Let in, not Just Left Alone!

 

It was the mid-1970s in Seattle when a twenty-something radical named Faygele Ben Miriam dragged his boyfriend Paul to a King County office to demand a marriage license. They never managed to get one, but if they'd walked into the office of Boulder county clerk Clela Rorex, she'd have defiantly handed one to them on the spot.

These pioneers were the first vanguard of a new post-Stonewall marriage equality movement, and the overwhelming consensus was that they were nuts. Marriage for homosexuals was too ludicrous an idea to take seriously, and those few activists who spoke out for the cause were shunned and ridiculed.

Decades later, the auditor who rejected Faygele Ben Miriam’s license later became one of the state’s leading voices for marriage equality (on behalf of his lesbian daughter). Clela Rorex’s successor, forty years later, led the charge for equality across all of Colorado.

Everyone thought that early vanguard was crazy. It turns out they were visionaries.

Listen to Matt Baume's Podcast HERE

(MATT BAUME) A Salute to Sissies!

Who are your favorite sissies from TV and film? Here are a few of mine, and why, as far as I'm concerned, they're all heroes. Sissies are strong, they're brave, they're upbeat and utterly shameless. For nearly a century they've been fearlessly flouncing through movies and shows, teaching us that it's ok to be honest about who we are -- which ones are at the top of your list?

(MATT BAUME) Are Gay Leaders a Threat to Boy Scouts?

Whose idea was it to ban LGBTs from the Boy Scouts? In part, you can blame some anti-gay groups that have spent years pushing a lie about gay men being dangerous to kids. Now, at last, their bigoted jamboree has ended, and the Scouts have voted to allow LGBTs to serve, because prejudice doesn't fit with scouting's honorable values.

Let's take the Scout Oath together on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mattbaume
And reminisce about the pine wood derby on Facebook: http://facebook.com/mattbaume

(MATT BAUME) The Worst Reactions to Marriage Equality!

Same-sex couples are getting married, and somehow the world has not yet ended. But some politicians seem to think that we're just moments away from the collapse of civilization. Here are some of the dumbest -- and most dangerous -- things they're saying.

Say hi on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mattbaume
And on Facebook: http://facebook.com/mattbaume

(FIRESIDE Chat w/ Matt Baume) Does Gay Marriage Lead to Polygamy?

If we let gay couples get married, won't we have to let polygamous couples get married too? It's the question that just keeps coming up, even from the Supreme Court. So let's answer it once and for all: why is gay marriage different from polygamous marriage?

(MNW) Supreme Court Marriage Predictions!

Oral argument is done, and now we can make a few predictions about how the Supreme Court might rule in June. Texas lawmakers have a plan to stop marriage equality, and they don't seem to care that their plan isn't actually legal. And the National Organization for Marriage is insisting that they'll still exist a year from now.

(FIRESIDE CHAT w/ Matt Baume) Top Supreme Court Arguments For & Against Marriage!

What is the Supreme Court thinking about marriage? They just heard oral argument from gay couples, from the states that want to preserve their bans, and from the US Government. And we can make a couple guesses about what's going through their heads.

(OUTscene AMERICA) The Homoerotic Undertones Of The PBS “Sherlock”!

by Matt Baume

Did you watch Last weekend’s premiere of Sherlock, featuring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman? We don’t want to spoil it for you if you haven’t seen it yet, but let’s just say Sherlock and Watson share a pretty steamy kiss. (LOL, JK, no, they don’t.)

Of course, Sherlock’s sexual orientation has been much discussed long before the latest BBC series arrived. But the show certainly isn’t reluctant about showing two men show share a close emotional bond, if Sherlock’s mechanisms can be described as “emotion.”

Is this show homoerotic? Well, it’s certainly pretty homo-ish, what with Cumberbatch and Freeman playing a pretty intense bromance. Show creator Steven Moffat once said of the pair, “They are just incredibly good friends. If Sherlock is gay, and who knows if he is, then I don’t think he fancies John,” although he’s certainly capable of jealous when his pal’s attention strays toward the opposite sex.

In other words, the “erotic” aspect may be in the eye of the beholder. So let’s behold!