It All Fits

Where the Cheesecake Has no Calories

Good Groaner

There's Latinum to be Made

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image by waldryano from Pixabay 

Tammy Faye's Disturbed Ex

On his daily show, televangelist and felon Jim Bakker mentioned Florida's Don't Say Gay law, and went on to claim that, when it comes to controversial social issues, preachers aren't "going to be able to preach much longer, because they'll shoot us in the pulpit. They will kill us in our pulpits. You don't believe me? They're already doing it."

I missed the memo. I went to church today and didn't give my minister so much as a noogie.

Image:  Facebook

Awards Awareness

Yesterday evening, as I watched the NCAA women's basketball tournament on TV, I assumed I was tuned in to the most lesbionic viewing option of the night. 

Imagine my surprise this morning when I read that, over on another channel, the Academy Awards had been busy going sapphic.

In her acceptance speech after winning the Oscar for best supporting actress, Ariana DeBose said, "Imagine this little girl in the back seat of a white Ford Focus. Look into her eyes, you see an openly queer woman of color and Latina who found her life and strength in art. That’s what I believe we are here to celebrate."

DeBose, who won for her turn as Anita in "West Side Story," added, "So to anybody who has ever questioned your identity, ever, ever, ever—you, you find yourself living in the gray spaces—I promise you this:  There is indeed a place for you."

As she sought to inspire others, the first queer woman of color to win an Oscar invoked famous lyrics from her movie that were written by a beloved gay man who died four months ago. The nation must've been awash in rainbow tears last night.

Kristen Stewart didn't take the Oscar for playing Princess Diana in "Spencer," but she strode the red carpet with her female fiance, Dylan Meyer. Also tripping the carpet fantastic were wife and wife Niecy Nash and Jessica Betts.

Out comedian Wanda Sykes was one of three women to host the show. In a shot at Florida's Don't Say Gay bill, Sykes opened with, "We’re going to have a great night tonight—and for you people in Florida, we’re going to have a gay night,” and she and her co-hosts broke into choruses of "gay, gay, gay."

They weren't lying. It feels like it was a breakthrough night for gay women. I'd like to thank the Academy.

Image:  Facebook

Smart and Confident Woman

There was a lot to like about Amy Schneider's long run on "Jeopardy."

She was openly transgender. She became the winningest woman in the history of the show. She confessed she founded her high school debate club largely so she could put it on her college applications.

"The best part for me has been being on TV as my true self," Schneider said in an interview. "Expressing myself, representing the entire community of trans people and . . .  just being a smart, confident woman doing something super normal like being on 'Jeopardy!'"

I agree that the game show itself is super normal, super mainstream. But anyone who goes on it as a contestant and is able to, first, think, and second, convince her lips to say "Who is Benazir Bhutto?" isn't super normal. She's just super.

Washington Post columnist Monica Hesse wrote that Schneider "shared her whole self, and this was her tremendous, generous gift to America. She would not allow the country to think of her merely as a transgender woman or merely as a "Jeopardy!" champion. Instead, with little fanfare, she made sure the two identities were linked. To the viewing public of a country that still regularly dehumanizes transgender individuals — via humiliating bathroom bills, via harmful stereotypes, via disgraceful statistics related to homelessness, poverty, sexual assault — Schneider was relentlessly human."

So relentlessly human she has a cat named Meep.

My favorite part of the Schneider story might be that she was dethroned by a gay man. Two members of the queer community matched wits on America's televisions, and the whole scene was . . . super normal.

Again, if you consider normal a person who, under all that pressure, comes up with the only country in the world whose name, in English, ends with an "H." Rhone Talsma correctly answered Bangladesh.

I would've answered Swedenish.