On a day when three U.S. soldiers were reported killed in Iraq (25 killed this month and 2,843 killed since March 2003) and on a day when 159 Iraqis were killed - including 35 men blown apart while waiting to join Iraq's police force - tonight's episode of ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" really packed an emotional punch in the stomach.

Justin Walker (Dave Annable), who served in Afghanistan, receives a registered letter from the military ordering him to report for duty in two weeks for a tour of duty in Iraq. On the news that day (in the episode) there's a report that 12 soldiers had died in Iraq. Justin calls his brother Kevin in a panic: "I can't watch any more people die! I can't go back!"

The episode had some dramatic flashbacks to Sept. 11 when Kitty (Calista Flockhart) was living only six blocks away from the World Trade Center and the anguish the family went through waiting for word that she was all right. Her ordeal led Justin to enlist in the military and when he did so, he agreed to a clause that, in essence, was a backdoor draft. He threatens to flee to Mexico and even tries to buy a fake passport.

By episode's end, Justin was being rushed to the hospital after injesting too many drugs and booze. He REALLY did not want to go back. And who can blame him? It's a good thing President Bush is open to fresh ideas and strategies after his election day "thumping."

Ironically, this episode of the show was titled: "Mistakes Were Made."

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It seems like the closet is no longer a safe place for any public figure in either Hollywood or Washington! I'm not for outing gay celebrities really but I am very proud of how Neil Patrick Harris handled the situation last week. It's a model for others to follow and I hope they do! But in most cases, I hope it's on their terms.

Politics is a little trickier and I can't say it bothers me when someone who pushes anti-gay policies is outed. And this is what Bill Maher did on tonight's "Larry King Live" according to the blog Towleroad.

Here's the exchange with Larry King:

MAHER: "Frank Rich wrote about this a couple of weeks ago. He said, yes we've heard about Mark Foley...but he said, that's just the beginning of it. A lot of the chiefs of staff, the people who really run the underpinnings of the Republican party, are gay. I don't want to mention names but I will Friday night.

KING: You will Friday night?

MAHER: There's a couple people everybody in Washington knows, who run the Republican party

KING: You will name them?

MAHER: I wouldn't be the first. I'd get sued if I was the first, but...you know, Ken Mehlman, okay there's one I think people have talked about. I don't think he's denied it when people have suggested it (actually, he has). He doesn't say...

KING: Ken Mehlman? I've never heard that. But the question is...

MAHER: Maybe you don't go to the same bathhouse I do Larry.

KING: Why would someone who is gay take public anti-gay positions? Why would you do that?

MAHER: Because Larry, hating yourself is the greatest love of all.

Postscript: CNN edited the west coast feed of Larry King Live and cut out Bill Maher's comments outing RNC Chair Ken Mehlman. See the two versions on Towleroad.

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"Out in Hollywood" will most certainly return to lighter topics but I did feel compelled to share some post-election thoughts. I woke up this morning, the day after a national election, and I don't feel like staying in bed!

I've spent the last six years increasingly dismayed, disgusted and depressed over the direction our country has been headed - especially since the U.S. began the war in Iraq. I mourn every U.S. life lost and every innocent Iraqi life lost.

Listening to NPR today, it was a different President Bush addressing the press, a humbled man with no "political capital" remaining. Why did it take this kind of "thumping" for the president to see things clearly or even to be open to any other path? I'm beyond disillusioned with him. I believe he has us failed on so many levels and the history books will not be kind.

Anyway, compared to two years ago, when so many of us felt kicked in the stomach with 11 anti-marriage amendments on the Nov. 2004 ballot, this election day had some positives for gays. For the first time, a proposed constitutional amendment to ban any form of legal recognition for same-sex couples was defeated (in Arizona) and even though similar bans did unfortunately pass in seven other states, it was by much slimmer margins than two years ago with 37 percent of voters opposing the bans overall. In 2004, 31 percent opposed such ballot measures.

Other reasons for gays to cheer: sent packing were two of the most anti-gay members of Congress: Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, the third-ranking GOP leader in the Senate who compared same-sex marriage to "man on child, man on dog" sex, lost his seat to Democrat challenger Bob Casey (left), and in Indiana, Democratic challenger Brad Ellsworth defeated Republican Rep. John Hostettler, one of the House’s anti-gay leaders. Hostettler, who was elected in the GOP sweep of 1994, worked to slash funding for AIDS programs and drafted the Marriage Protection Act, designed to prevent federal courts from ordering states to recognize same-sex marriages permitted in other states.

In Ohio, Democrat Ted Strickland (right) beat Republican Ken Blackwell by a wide margin. Blackwell is one of the most virulently anti-gay elected officials in the nation, a chief advocate of Ohio’s 2004 anti-marriage constitutional amendment and an outspoken opponent of Cincinnati’s recent nondiscrimination law. Strickland, on the other hand, voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment as a member of Congress and opposed the 2004 Ohio state constitutional amendment banning same-sex partner recognition of any kind.

In Massachusetts and New York, pro-marriage equality gubernatorial candidates Deval Patrick and Eliot Spitzer were elected by landslides. This is the first time pro-marriage equality candidates have been elected governor of any state.

Hooray! God bless America!

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President Bill Clinton (doesn't that sound especially good these days?) surprised everyone when he showed up at last weekend's National Gay and Lesbian Task Force fundraiser in Miami honoring NAACP Chair Julian Bond. The handsome man next to the ex-prez is Chip Arndt who won the "Amazing Race" several years ago with former partner Reichen Lehmkuhl who is now famously with Lance Bass.

Arndt is president of the Freedom Democrats, the Miami-Dade LGBT Democratic Caucus.

For a full account of Clinton's appearance at the event, click on Towleroad.

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Why do I get the feeling this is only going to get more and more scandalous? Evangelist Ted Haggard admitted Friday that he bought methamphetamine and received a massage from a gay prostitute who claims he was paid for drug-fueled trysts by the outspoken gay marriage opponent.
Talking to reporters outside his house Friday, the married father of five denied he had sex with the man but said he bought the meth because he was curious. "I bought it for myself but never used it," he said. "I was tempted, but I never used it."

That is just pathetic.

Anyway, Haggard resigned Thursday as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and also stepped down as leader of his Colorado megachurch while the two groups investigate the allegations made by Michael Forest Jones (pictured at right), allegations Haggard intially completely denied.
But now, little bits of the "truth" are coming out. It's my hunch that it's not the whole truth - THAT will come when he feels his back is completely up against the wall. Kinda like alcoholic, molestation victim rehab resident Jim Foley, the disgraced former congressman from Florida. It's gross that Haggard, likely a big closet case, is so anti-gay marriage. Reminds me of Foley, the anti-child abuse advocate who sounds to me like a pedophile but insists that he is "a gay man."
The hypocricy of some of these high-profile Republicans just riles me. I mean, be self-loathing if you want, but get the heck off the national stage as you figure out your twisted self. Invest in therapy and please, please, stop telling people how to live their lives.

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The great Elton John, who married his longtime partner David Furnish in the United Kingdom last year, has donated $20,000 to Fair Wisconson, a group trying to defeat a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage in Wisconsin. Voters will decide the issue Nov. 7.

Elton has been giving us memorable music for nearly 40 years now and as he has evolved as an openly gay man, he has become a real activist, raising many millions each year through his AIDS foundation and always speaking his mind on gay issues. It's great to see him putting some of his money where his mouth is!

For more info on Elton's donation, check out the Web site Towleroad.

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I gotta wonder why any staunch Republican go to a Barbra Streisand concert a week before an election. I mean, her music is terrific but her politics are VERY LIBERAL and she has never been one not to express her displeasure with the Bush adminsitration.
Gay icon Streisand was pelted by a beverage in hurled by a concert-goer during her Monday night concert in Sunrise, FL. The incident at the BankAtlantic Center came as Streisand was trading political barbs with a George W. Bush imitator, according to the Miami Herald. After her anti-GOP riff ended, another man in the crowd shouted at the singer and was escorted out of the center.

Streisand appeared to shrug both incidents off, saying some people would do better to buy her records than come to her shows.

Click HERE for an Out in Hollywood report on a similar incident at an earlier Streisand concert this month.

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I am very happy about the New Jersey Supreme Court's historic ruling yesterday that will, at the very least, give gay couples absolutely the same legal rights as married straight couples as Vermont does. My hope is that the legislature in the state will take it a step further and follow Massachusetts to become the second state in the U.S. to allow same-sex marriage.

That being said, the LAST person I want to hear from is former NJ Gov. Jim McGreevey who while in office, opposed gay marriage (he did support civil unions at least) because he didn't want anyone to know that he was secretly gay. Now the almost twice divorced McGreevey (still not legally divorced from his wife) is saying he'd like to enter into a legally recognized union with his partner Mark O'Donnell.

He tells the Newark Star-Ledger: "I would obviously look forward to having our relationship recognized. It's a blessing to live in New Jersey...[The ruling is] so profoundly emotional and meaningful. It speaks to the value of marriage and the value of committed relationships, gay or straight. It's groundbreaking and it shows a great generosity of spirit..."

As the Church Lady from SNL would say, "Well, isn't that special?"

But McGreevey did add this little tidbit to the AP: "I applaud the court's courage. I regret not having had the fortitude to embrace this right during my tenure as governor."

Yeah, the gays in your state regret it too.

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Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is profiled in the November 7 issue of The Advocate by John Caldwell. Here a few highlights:

On same-gender marriage:
"When the [anti-same-sex marriage] Knight bill came along in 2000, I put $10,000 of my own money in [to try to defeat it]."

On the roaring ovation he got in summer 2005 when he became the first L.A. mayor to show up and open Outfest, the LA gay and lesbian film festival. The men in the audience were all but whistling at him.
"Oh, I know they're joking," the mayor says. "I've attended almost every Christopher Street West [pride] parade [in West Hollywood]. Sometimes, especially when I was younger, they'd have these big sings saying, 'He's a 10.' I always liked that."

On gay friends and family members:
"I have two openly gay nephews out of three; I have gay cousins. In the 1950s, my mother had gay couples over for dinner."
On what he would say to one of his children if they came out:
"I'd love them. I'd embrace them. I've always said that. The two nephews I mentined, I love them like they're my own sons. I love them dearly."

Has he experienced a backlash from other Latino leaders over his support of same-gender marriage?
"I have from time to time, but you're always going to have people who are upset with a position you take. I don;t preoccupy myself with those who take umbrage with my views on issues. I respect other views, and I've always been very respectful that the views I come with are just those: my views."

Longtime gay rights leader Torie Osborn, who serves as a special advisor to Villaraigosa, says in the article: "Antonio is a rock star. When you're a rock star, you carry a lot of influence. That goes a long way on the controversial issues and he's taking us with him."

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John Spencer seems to be making a big jackass of himself in the New York senate race against Hillary Rodham Clinton. First he allegedly bags on her looks and now he's allegedly making lesbian jokes.
He sounds, like a moron - allegedly at least.

Clinton's Republican opponent for the U.S. Senate, in an interview with a local Westchester County, N.Y., newspaper, suggested the New York senator and Democratic star is a lesbian. A columnist for the paper, The Journal News, said that Spencer made the insinuation last week in a telephone interview in response to a question about whether he would attempt to portray Clinton as a liberal in two recent debates. "He said words to the effect of, 'Well, you know me, words slip out, but I won't call her a lesbian or anything,'" Phil Reisman, the columnist, told the Times. "He was definitely joking—he laughed after he said it."

Spencer's camp did not deny the remark but offered a lukewarm apology. "As John Spencer said this afternoon, if he offended anyone, he apologizes," Rob Ryan, Spencer's spokesman, said.

Spencer, the former Yonkers mayor, has denied making the comments, which were published by the New York Daily News under the headline "Getting Ugly." "You ever see a picture of her back then? Whew," Spencer was quoted by a Daily News reporter who happened to sit next to Spencer and his wife Friday during a flight from New York to Rochester for a candidates' debate. "I don't know why Bill married her."

Clinton on Tuesday said : "It's unfortunate that when you don't have anything positive to say about the issues that we can get off in some pretty swampy territory."

Outraged women are jumping to Clinton's defense:
"John Spencer's comments about Senator Clinton are an embarrassment to New Yorkers of every party," said Geraldine Ferraro, the party's unsuccessful 1984 candidate for vice president. "Does anyone think if John Spencer were running against a man he would be making comments about his appearance? I think New Yorkers know the answer."

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The brilliant playwright Tony Kushner, whose body of work includes "Angels in America" and "Caroline, or Change," is the subject of an upcoming documentary "Wrestling With Angels" which shares with viewers his work and life during a particularly important time when several of his landmark works were in various stages of being written, being released, or being workshopped. He's so smart and articulate and the SRO audience at Outfest this summer ate this film up.

Anyway, AfterElton.com scored an interview with Kushner posted today and I wanted to share with you some of his thoughts about the damage of being in the closet and his right-on comments about Mark Foley:

“Oh, great, thanks! It's good for you [Foley] to take this moment to come out of the closet now that you have been revealed as a sexual predator.”

Kushner says the Foley affair is reminiscent of parts of "Angels in America," which featured a fictionalized version of Roy Cohn, a conservative gay lawyer who was willing to sell other gay people and Jews down the river for political expediency.

“All this really does is that it reminds us over and over again that the closet is a horrendous place,” Kushner says of the Foley scandal. “People who really need psychological help don't seek it. When you pathologize your entire sexual being, you are making it more likely that you aren't going to openly seek the kind of psychological help that you actually need.”

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If you've been watching Fox News Channel, disgraced former congressman Mark Foley has apparently had his party affiliation switched post-resignation. I wouldn't want him either but c'mon!
This is what appeared on Bill O'Reilly's show twice last night and one other time on Fox:

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I came down hard on Jim McGreevey a few weeks back but good God, he now looks pretty good when you compare his misdeeds and lies with the possibly illegal activity of Mark Foley! Afterelton.com interviewed McGreevey about his book and he lays his cards out on the table. For that, he deserves some measure of credit. He also seems to have done a great deal of self-reflection as opposed to Foley's excuses to preying in teenage male pages: I'm gay, I'm an alcoholic and I was molested by a priest. Dude, Get. A. Shrink.

Anyway, here are some excerpts from the McGreevey chat:

AfterElton.com: The title of your book is The Confession — not The Apology, or The Coming-Out, or My Life in the Closet. But a confession takes place after some sort of wrongdoing. What is it, exactly, that you see yourself confessing to?
James McGreevey: I’m confessing to my inability to live my truth, and confessing to the fact that for the majority of my adult life, I lived a lie. I’m confessing to the reality that I embraced fear as opposed to my identity, and most basically, that I didn’t accept my truth.

AE: The media have been focusing on the sexual aspects of the book, although it’s mostly about your political career and your family life — and the quandaries of the closet with respect to those parts of your life. Why has the media ignored the much larger political aspect of your story in favor of the sexual details?
JM: I can only say why I wrote it. I believe that I wrote a book with [co-author] David France with a heartfelt sense of describing where I got what I wanted, but [I only wanted] what I thought was available to me. I wanted what I think most people want; namely, a loving, committed relationship with another person. I thought because I was gay, it was beyond my capacity ever to have that level of love, that embrace. So, in part because of messages I accepted in my youth, I thought being gay was shameful, and a lot of that shame was wrongly accepted. Because of the shame that I wrongly accepted, I acted out in inappropriate and, for me, unhealthy ways.

I remember when I was a young man, a freshman or sophomore in high school, going to the local public library and trying to find writings regarding homosexuality, and at the time, the American Psychiatric Association referred to homosexuality as a psychiatric disorder, a perversion. And my church, the faith that I love, Roman Catholicism, referred to being gay as an abomination, a mortal sin, a damnable [thing].

And so, being 12 or 13 years of age, being gay was not something I wanted to embrace. I wanted to keep it as far away from me as possible. I thought at first that I could change who and what I am. I tried my own amateurish, boyish form of aversion therapy, of looking at girlie books and trying to channel, with all my mind, my sexual energies toward women. And when that failed, I tried to deny and repress, and subsequently tried to manage, however so badly, my sexuality.

The reason I was so specifically honest [in the writing of the memoir] was the need to show how, as I accepted that shame, I thought that I couldn’t live openly, in the bright light of day, a gay, loving lifestyle, that I then began to do things that were not only unhealthy, but the wrong course for me. I wanted to be candid and truthful in a story which involves a life of deception, and I wanted to share with the greater American public how shame — and particularly for youth, once it’s accepted and internalized — ironically produces actions which are in themselves shameful.

Click HERE to read the complete interview with McGreevey.

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 09:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I try not to get blatantly political on this blog but I've been watching all the television reports about that creepy former congressman Mark Foley for days now and have been sickened. I just about lost my lunch today when I read on the Web that his attorney was telling the world that his client "wants you to know he is a gay man." Oh, great. Just what we need. If Foley had been sending inappropriate e-mails and instant messages (and God knows what else) to female teen congressional pages would the attorney have stated that yes, his client is straight? I don't think so. Foley appears to me to be a pedophile. He gives gay a bad name and having his attorney tell the world that he is a homosexual (as some sort of explanation for his illegal behavior), makes it harder for gay people to fight this misguided notion about them that some ignorant people often have.
If he is gay, why did this creep find it necessary to prey on teens? If he wanted to stay closeted, he could have had anonymous sex in alleys like Jim McGreevey. I just hope that readers of "Out in Hollywood" who might not be gay have been reading enough about some really terrific gay people who are authentic and contribute to society in such positive ways either through their talent or good works.

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 05:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey was AWOL on last night's Letterman show where he had been slated to read the Top Ten List...about himself. Maybe he got wind of the list which were mock chapter titles of his book "The Confession."

10. "The Day I Got Caught Governing Myself"
9. "How to Pretend to Like Girls for 47 Years"
8. "From Schwarzenegger to Pataki: Governors I'd Like to Oil Up"
7. "Another Confession – I Can't Resist Entenmann's Pound Cake"
6. "At First I Just Thought I Was Bipartisan"
5. "The New Jersey Budget Crisis – What Would Judy Garland Do?"
4. "A Look at the Governor's Balls"
3. "Politicians Who Left a Bad Taste in My Mouth"
2. "How to Push Through a Bill – Or a Steve or a Larry …"
1. "Why I Don't Like Bush "

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 01:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Former New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey, now openly gay, has been all over the airwaves this week, from "Oprah" to "The Today Show" hawking his new memoir "The Confession."

I've decided that next time I see him on the airwaves, I'm changing the channel because he's already turning my stomach a little.

Living in the closet sucks and I'm for anyone coming out, whether they are in public life or not. But with McGreevey, who dramatically announced on national television in Aug. 2004 that he is a "gay American," is now talking all about being "authentic." But would he be so "authentic" now if his former lover, who, McGreevey had hired for a position in his administration that he was not qualified for, not threatened to file a sexual harassment suit against the then-governor?

A strong Irish Catholic, McGreevey, 49, has been talking about how terrible life in the closet was but admits that had he not had to come clean about the blackmailing lover, he would have stayed in that closet and stayed in the Governor's mansion. So, ambition trumped authenticity.

This is not some young kid afraid of telling his parents or friends for fear of rejection. This is a man then in his mid-40s, married with children, who was living a very public lie and was planning to continue doing so. As governor, he was having sex in alleys and other seedy places and even had sex with the lover he had appointed to a state homeland security post while his wife was still in the hospital after giving birth to their child!

McGreevey was also opposed to gay marriage while he was in office but said on "Oprah" that he is now supporting it quite openly. He did, however, sign one of the nation's first civil unions bills so at least he wasn't totally self-loathing while in office.

His book is already a best-seller (number seven on Amazon.com as of Thursday) and the "Oprah" segment got huge ratings. I just hope that when a true gay American hero like Martina Navratilova writes another memoir, it gets this kind of attention. Talk about authentic!

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 02:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I recently attented a birthday party at iCandy in West Hollywood for a friend of mine, known around the Web as Boi From Troy, who is gay and is a Republican! So, I met lots of other gay Republicans and it was interesting to talk to many of them about their politics and how their party platform squared with their personal lives. It made for a very interesting evening!

So, I'm very interested in checking out the documentary "The Elephant in the Room" which airs on MTV's Logo channel on Sunday, Aug. 20 at 7:30 p.m. and again on Wednesday, Aug. 23 at 8:30 p.m.

"Elephant" follows three gay Republicanswho are all very different from each other and explores how their political beliefs inform their lives. They are: Ellen, a gun-shooting sugar farmer who wants to help Katrina survivors; Ted, a Log Cabin Republican who works with Democrats to block a gay marriage ban in Texas; and Greg (pictured with Pres. Bush), who has trouble finding a date to a gay wedding in Hawaii because he is a Republican.

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