The terrific actor Alec Mapa, so funny and talented, has some advice for fallen church leader Ted Haggard in his "Minority Retort" column in the next issue of The Advocate. Haggard resigned from his Colorado church after he admitted to buying drugs and to soliciting the services of male prostitute Mike Jones.
"It's one thing to be outed as gay, but to be outed as an adulterous, evangelical, rent-boy soliciting meth head? That's gotta smart. You've fallen from grace. Your own church has chucked you faster than a carton of sour milk...your situation reeks of self-hatred."

So, Alec has this advice for the beleagured Haggard:

GO FOR IT: Come out, but for real this time. Wrap yourself the flag and proudly declare yourself a Gay American. Stop referring to yourself as something "so dark and dark that I've been warring against it my entire adult life." That kind of talk went out with shoulder pads and shock treatments....As the former leader of the National Association of Evangelicals, with its purported 30 million members, you have an enormous opportunity to change hearts and minds.

GET OUT OF COLORADO SPRINGS: Spend a year in a gay neighborhood...I'm talking the Castro, Provincetown, Mass., (Chelsea), West Hollywood. You've been spewing homophobic bile because you've never met a gay person you didn't order from a phone book.

GET A REAL BOYFRIEND: Mike Jones is hot, but stepping out on a wife and five kids for a hooker is no way to build a healthy self-image. Grow a pair, own uyp to who you really are, and maybe everyone will eventually end up as friends. Sure, it might take years of counseling and medication, but that's everybody's story. The fall. Redemption. Grace. Forgiveness. I remember reading about that in a book somewhere.

Well said Alec!!!