2010 in Retrospect

It's hard to believe that 2010 is already at a close. I feel as if it was 2002 about ten seconds ago, so how can we possibly be about to enter 2011?!

As with any year, a lot can be said to sum up 2010 from just about any perspective imaginable. In the United States, those on the right of the political spectrum certainly had a lot to cheer in the mid term elections, yet it was also the year in which Congress finally passed some Health Care legislation and repealed Don't Ask, Don't Tell, which will allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military.

On the Same Sex Marriage front, no new states joined the five states (and Washington, D.C.) that had already allowed (or were about to allow) LGBT citizens their right to marry at this time last year, but Maryland did begin to recognize same sex marriages performed in other states and, best of all, California's Prop 8 was overturned in federal court, though of course the case is far from over.

President Obama appointed Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court this year, bringing the number of women on the court to an historic high of three.

In the entertainment world, the two biggest men to come out of the closet this year weren't really any great surprise: pop singer Ricky Martin and Will & Grace star Sean Hayes had both been rumored/assumed to be gay for many years, but that doesn't make the fact that they finally took the steps to come out publicly in 2010 any less noteworthy.

A true milestone this year in terms of coming out: the first openly gay country music artist, in the form of newly out lesbian Chely Wright.

Ricky Martin, by the way, was part of another trend this year: out gay celebrities becoming parents. Ricky Martin has been a dad since 2008, while Neil Patrick Harris and his partner David Burtka, and Elton John and his partner, David Furnish, all welcomed new children into their lives in 2010.

We lost some greats this year in every field imaginable, from daytime TV's Frances Reid, James Mitchell, and Helen Wagner, to primetime TV greats Rue McCLanahan, Dixie Carter, Barbara Billingsly, and John Forsythe, to all around legends like Lena Horne, Dennis Hopper, and Tony Curtis.

The literary world lost an iconic figure in J.D. Salinger and we lost a great historian, writer, and activist when Howard Zinn left us at age 87.

Last year in my retrospective, I mentioned that the year had been bookended by two very different gay love scenes in daytime soaps: Luke & Noah's long awaited first time on As the World Turns at the beginning of the year and Oliver and Kyle's amazing New Year's Eve love scene on One Life to Live.

It's sad to read the hope and excitement I was feeling over Kish a year ago at this time, completely unaware that in less than three months Kish would be gone, that in less than nine months there would no longer be an As The World Turns or any LGBT characters on daytime TV at all. This year, when I say "What a difference a year can make" I say it with sadness.

Well, on to some of my picks for this year's favorite things!

*Favorite Classic Fiction Book I read this year: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

*Favorite Gay Fiction Book I read this year: Mary Ann In Autumn, by Armistead Maupin, with Stephen McCauley's Insignificant Others a near second.

*Favorite Modern Fiction Book I read this year: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I snobbishly put off reading this for ages because it was published in the U.S. as a Young Adult novel (in the author's native Australia, it was published as adult fiction), but it was so good!

*Favorite Non-Fiction (Literary) Book I read this year: The Book of William by Paul Collins.

*Favorite Non-Fiction (Autobiography) Book I read this year: City Boy by Edmund White.

*Favorite Film I saw this year: (500) Days of Summer.

*Favorite Gay Themed Film I saw this year: A Single Man. I only saw four gay themed films this year, and this was by far the best, but it couldn't begin to touch the beauty of the book.

*Film I Most Wanted to see this year but haven't yet: The Kids Are All Right. What's wrong with me?! I've been dying to see this. First film of 2011, for sure.

*Favorite Hour long TV Show: It's still Glee.

*Favorite Half Hour long TV Show: A tie between Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory, both of which I've belatedly caught up with and love.

*Best Daytime Soap: One Life to Live until March. After that, NONE.

*Favorite CD: Hard to say. I've been discovering Sondheim all year, so probably A Little Night Music or Company.

*Favorite Actress: Kristin Chenoweth

*Favorite Gay Themed Website of the year: AfterElton.com.

*Favorite Gay Character of the year (Daytime): A tie between Oliver Fish, One Life to Live (until March), and Reid Oliver, As The World Turns.

*Favorite Gay Character of the year (Primetime): Kurt Hummel, Glee.

*Favorite Gay Character of the year (International): Aaron Livesy, Emmerdale

*Hottest Actor (Daytime): A tie. Scott Evans (until March)

and then the Brothers Ford (aka Nicolas Robuck, David A. Gregory and Lenny Platt), One Life to Live.
*Hottest Actor (Primetime): Jared Padalecki. I still love me some Jared, and this year he even deigned to show some skin!
*Hottest Actor (Film): I barely saw any films this year, so I'll go with my choice from last year, the still very sexy Ryan Reynolds.

Well, I think that about sums it up. I hope 2011 proves to be a wonderful year for everyone reading this!

NYC Longing

There have been countless times when I've found myself wishing that I lived in or near New York City. There is just so much I'd love to see and do there- theater, music, museums, life!- and I've always told myself that one of these days I'd move there. My entire life (family, friends, etc) is based on the West Coast, though, so at this point I think I'll have to settle for being a tourist, if I can ever manage to actually save some money for a trip in this economy.

I wish I could be there a few days from now, though. Next Sunday night Michael Urie and Becki Newton (who of course play Marc and Amanda on Ugly Betty) will be doing a show together at Feinsteins at Loew's Regency called Becki and Michael IS Broadway.

The two of them are so hilarious together, I know it's going to be a fun night for those who are able to attend. I love the video from their appearance at last year's Broadway Backwards, where they performed 'Getting Married Today' from Company. There is also an amateur video on YouTube that I've watched at least three times of their very funny TV theme song performance from a 2008 show called Broadway Loves the 80's.

Which all adds up to me being a huge fan of these two and wishing I could be at this Sunday's show! Michael gave an interview to Theatre Mania which was mostly about his show The Temperamentals (which also sounds fantastic and like something I'd want to see!) and mentioned the show:

'TM: You're also doing this show at Feinstein's with your good friend and co-star Becki Newton, who plays Amanda on Ugly Betty. Can you tell us more about that?

MU: It's called Becki and Michael IS Broadway, and it's going to be hilarious. Early in the first season of Ugly Betty, Becki and I were asked to sing a song at a benefit and so dressed up like Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond and we sang "You Don't Bring Me Flowers." And we loved it so much, that we became addicted to it, and since then, we've done so many appearances together that we finally decided, let's just do our own show. It's sort of a like a cabaret show that you might see at Feinstein's, but it's also off-the-wall funny. I don't want to give it away, but there are versions of songs from shows like Phantom of the Opera, A Chorus Line and Gypsy that you haven't heard before. We're shamelessly attacking everything and anything musical theater. Hopefully, it will move to Broadway. Actually, I think it would be fun to do Becki and Michael IS Broadway Off-Broadway.'

Maybe it will become a regular show and I'll be able to see it when I finally get to NYC! I was hoping I could manage a trip this spring or summer to see Kristin Chenoweth in Promises, Promises, but now I'm hoping that the show will have a good long run so I have the chance to see Kristin in it later on.

As if Becki and Michael IS Broadway weren't tempting enough, the very next day is the latest edition of Broadway Backwards, the annual show benefitting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. This is the show where the male performers sing the female parts, and vice versa. It always looks like such a fun time!

Well, maybe next year, though I seem to say that each year! Thank God for the bits and pieces that show up on YouTube!

Van's True Colors

This month's edition of the True Colors Cabaret concert took place last night and was hosted by Van Hansis. It featured two Glee stars, Lea Michele and the openly gay Jonathan Groff (or maybe I should say one current and one future Glee star, since Groff hasn't debuted on the show yet).Seeing Van standing next to Lea in that picture makes me want very badly to see him join Glee! Let's not forget that he has a history with Mr. Schuster himself, too, since Matthew Morrison did a month long stint on As the World Turns a few years back. Van has done a musical, last year's Dance Dance Revolution, but I seem to remember him saying at the time that he's not really a singer. Not every character on Glee sings, though, at least not so far. Quick, someone talk to Ryan Murphy about Van!

As I noted last month, this ongoing series of monthly concerts benefits both the True Colors Fund and Broadway Impact. There isn't much I wouldn't have given to be there last night! If anyone was lucky enough to attend, please share the details.

Lambert Rocks The Early Show

Adam Lambert was on The Early Show on CBS today. He was scheduled to appear on Good Morning America, but after his AMA performance last Sunday, that show rather idiotically decided to cancel his concert.

I guess Good Morning America doesn't really care much for ratings. They had the perfect chance to have Adam discuss the controversy on camera for the first time, and instead they caved into pressure from the morality police.

Luckily, CBS jumped at the chance to have the most talked about person of the week, not to mention an artist whose debut CD is selling very well, on their show instead.

Adam gave a great interview in which he discussed the fact that the song he was performing is a sexual song to begin with, but admitted getting carried away in the moment. He pointed out that he's not a babysitter, though, and parents should be monitoring what their children watch if they're concerned.

He also mentioned the several potentially 'offensive' moments in earlier performances that night, from Lady Gaga's performance to Janet Jackson fondling a male dancer, and of course Eminem rapping about having a certain number of rapes under his belt, and noted that none of those moments have received the slightest bit of the outraged attention that he got.

They discussed the double standard that Adam mentioned immediately after the AMAs and Adam said that the fact that he's gay and male was the main reason behind the outcry. The interviewer tried to downplay the sexuality angle, noting that most people seemed upset by where he'd done this, rather than the fact that he'd done it at all, but ironically enough the double standard she seemed to want to deny was very much present in The Early Show's own coverage.

They blurred out the 'simulated oral sex' and the kiss between Adam and the other man, but then showed a clip of Madonna kissing Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera from 2003, with no blurring whatsoever! That's exactly what Adam was talking about!

At any rate, Adam gave a great interview in which he remained unapologetic (as well he should, in my view, since he had nothing to apologize for) but did say that in the future, he'll try and stick to how he did things in rehearsal rather than improvising in the moment.

Then, he performed two songs that happen to be my two favorites on his new CD, Whataya Want From Me and Music Again. They're both really great songs, the two that stood out for me the most as I listened to his album for the first time. Adam sounds really great on each song and I thought his performances this morning on the The Early Show served to remind everyone that while Adam can deliver with a great over the top performance like he did last Sunday, he's even better when it's just him singing with that hauntingly beautiful voice of his, without any frills or theatrics.

I hope the idiots at Good Morning America have been kicking themselves all day long.

For My Entertainment

I just finished watching Adam Lambert's performance at the American Music Awards. Six months had passed since the last time I saw an Adam Lambert performance and as much as I remember loving every single one of his songs on American Idol, I'd somehow forgotten just how exciting he is when he's performing.

I have to confess that I haven't yet watched the rest of the show. I recorded it mostly just for Adam and he's all I've watched so far. I'll probably check the rest out tomorrow. Going by in fast forward mode, it looked like there were some interesting performances.

Adam certainly didn't disappoint! I hadn't realized that he was going to be the grand finale of the evening, but he definitely ended things on a high note. I really like his first single, the title track from For Your Entertainment, and the performance was deliciously Adam: sexy, theatrical, and with an S&M edge to it. All of it, of course, revolving around that amazing voice of his.

No doubt Aaron Hicklin will disapprove of the fact that Adam danced with and fondled female dancers during the performance, but he also lead a couple of half naked men around on leashes, danced with male dancers, and gave a full on, open mouthed kiss to a keyboard player who I think was male, though it was a bit hard to tell.

In other words, there was nothing safe or low key about it. Adam doesn't have to tone it down or worry about a voting audience any more. He is most definitely here for our entertainment, and I hope he continues to push the envelope and deliver performances like this for a long time to come.

His first CD comes out tomorrow, by the way. I can't wait!

UPDATE:

I live on the West Coast and the moment in the performance where Adam shoved a male dancer's face in his crotch, simulating oral sex, was edited out. We got a shot of the drums at that moment instead!

So, I had no idea until today, the day after, about that moment. It seems to be garnering a lot of attention, along with the (confirmed) male/male kiss. Just reading the gay blogs and the comments on them this morning, things seem to be about half and half, with one side loving Adam for pushing the envelope and the other finding it everything from 'tacky' to 'a setback' for the image of gays.

I find that completely ridiculous, by the way. First of all, the kiss Adam gave his male keyboardist is a stunt along the same lines as the Madonna/Britney kiss a few years ago, and Adam himself noted that there is a double standard when it comes to what two women are allowed to do as opposed to two men:

"I do feel like there's a bit of a double standard in the entertainment community, on television, on radio. I feel like women performers have been pushing the envelope, especially, for the past 20 years. And all of the sudden a male does it and everybody goes 'Oh, we can't show that on TV.' For me, that's a form of discrimination and a double standard. And that's too bad."

Adam is helping to break down that double standard, you have to admit that at least! I also think the fact that Adam is openly gay lends to the homophobia behind the reactions. When two straight female pop stars do something like this, it's titillating. If a straight male pop star had done it, there would still be a backlash, but I doubt it would be as extreme. Homophobes know Adam likes to kiss boys in real life, so they feel especially insulted that he did so on TV.

As for the 'simulated oral sex', I think it fit the tone of the performance. I think we Americans in general are far too prudish about such things. It's not like it aired during the dinner hour, either, it was nearly 11 p.m.

Adam certainly knows how to get people's attention. Even during American Idol he seemed to be someone that people either loved or hated, and that will obviously be the way it is throughout his career.

A Bit of Music

I've been suffering from Glee withdrawal and have taken to my sickbed these past few days. Well, at least that's what I'm choosing to blame being sick on!

Luckily, the first volume of the soundtrack was released this past week and it included a few songs that haven't been performed on the show yet, so that helped bridge the gap a bit. For the record, I love Kevin McHale's Dancing With Myself and especially Chris Colfer & Lea Michele's take on Defying Gravity. I can't wait to see them on the show! The latter song is clearly going to be related to a big moment for Kurt.

Speaking of music, AfterElton has a look at Adam Lambert's first music video. It's not for the first single from his upcoming album, but rather for Time for Miracles, a song he did on the soundtrack of the new movie 2012. Honestly, this particular song doesn't impress me all that much, but having loved every one of Adam's performances on American Idol, I'm very excited for his album (which is called For Your Entertainment) to be released in two weeks. I think his own album will be more... well, Adamesque than this particular song is.

He looks and sounds great in the video, though, even if it is more about promoting the movie than anything else.

On His Way to the Top

You may remember that a few months back, I had a little crush on this guy who was on a some sort of a singing competition TV show. I'd never watched the show before, but after catching this guy's audition completely by chance I was an instant fan, and it only got better with each passing week.

I'm talking, of course, about Adam Lambert, the runner up on this year's season of American Idol. I haven't mentioned Adam here on the blog since he 'came out' (or, more accurately, confirmed that he was never in) via a cover story in Rolling Stone magazine right after the end of the show, but I've spent the months since anticipating the release of his first album.

Apparently, I'm not the only one. Even though it won't be released until November 24, the advanced purchases have already placed it at number two on Amazon.com sales charts. This happened without any kind of press release or pre-sale push from his record company, either!

Pretty amazing stuff, but then Adam is incredibly talented, as he proved week after week on live TV, and it earned him a lot of fans. I can't wait to hear what he's done for the album and I'm hoping I'll get the chance to see him in concert at some point in the near future, since I avoided the Idol tour.
The above is a recent picture of Adam and his boyfriend, Drake Labry, after attending a Pink concert. Just imagine how amazing is it going to be when Adam is topping the charts as an openly gay artist!

Books, Books, Books

I'm still waaay behind on gay soap stories, though I'm hoping to write about the last few weeks of Nuke tomorrow night, provided that my fast forward button doesn't self destruct with that much As the World Turns in one evening!

Tonight, I just thought I'd write a bit about what I've been reading. You may recall that earlier this year, I devoured the collections of short stories known as the 'Buddies' cycle by Ethan Mordden. I really fell in love with the characters in those stories and I was so sad when I'd finished the final collection, but now there is a silver lining to that particular cloud.

Awhile back, I bought two anthology collections, Between Men and Between Men 2. I hadn't actually started the Mordden books yet when I bought them, so even though I looked to see which authors were included at the time, his name hadn't particularly stood out for me then.

Recently, I glanced at the collections again and noticed that he had a story in each one. The story in the first collection, called 'The Ballad of Jimmy Pie', is a tale that has nothing to do with the characters in the 'Buddies' stories, but the story in the second collection, 'Fancy Our Meeting' is a new one in the cycle!

It probably sounds silly, but finding that out was like hearing news about old friends that you really loved but thought you'd lost touch with forever. I was so excited to see that he's still writing about Bud, Cosgrove, Dennis Savage, Carlo, and the rest of the gang. Maybe there will be another collection someday?

In the meantime, I haven't actually read 'Fancy Our Meeting' yet. If it really is the final story, I want to savor the prospect of still having it to look forward to for just a little longer! We'll see how long I can hold out.

I've gone a bit Mordden crazy, though, I have to say. After I saw Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal in Rent a few months ago, I found myself wanting to really embrace musicals. I've slowly become interested in them over the last few years, but I still know so very little about the genre in general!

So, to start with, I scoured the Internet for copies of Mordden's books on the history of the Broadway musical, which goes decade by decade from the 1920's through the 1970's and then has a final book covering 1980 to the middle of this decade.

Last month I read Make Believe, the book covering the 1920's and I'm now reading Sing for Your Supper, covering the 1930's (I have to read them in order by decade, of course, since I'm a little anal when it comes to chronology!).

I've discovered that even though I thought for the majority of my life that I didn't like musicals, it turns out that I've long since loved many songs from them. I blush to admit this, but I had no idea that most of the old standards that I've always loved actually came from musicals!

Maybe I should also mention my new addiction to the original cast album of A Chorus Line. Mordden mentions this musical more than once in the 'Buddies' stories (it's Little Kiwi's favorite, he sees it many, many times), so it was the first one I thought of to check out post-Rent.

Here we are, not quite two months later, and I could sing it to you line for line, if my voice wouldn't make your ears bleed! Sadly, I haven't been able to see an actual performance, unless you count the 1985 film version which I rented. I didn't really find that it lived up to the anticipation that had built up in me from loving the cast album, though, and from what I've read since it's not a very good adaptation of the show.

I also just finished reading Mordden's sweeping novel on post World War II gay life in America, How Long Has This Been Going On? The action starts in Los Angeles in 1949 and later moves to the Midwest, to New York, to San Francisco, and to New England before ending back in New York in 1991.

Various interconnected characters experience gay life in America in very different ways throughout the book, depending on the decade and setting they find themselves in and on their own personality and outlook. I think Mordden did a very good job of writing characters who all had their own views on gay life within each era, rather than presenting characters who all thought the same way just because they were gay in the 1950's or in the 1980's.

It's not all Mordden all the time for me, of course. I've read some great books by other authors lately, including Virginia Woolf's Orlando and Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford, as well as some light, funny reads like Marc Acito's hilarious How I Paid for College and the equally funny follow up, Attack of the Theater People.

If you're wondering about my plan to read as many of the Booker prize longlist nominees as I can, here's an update on that: I've managed to get my hands on one title thus far (Samantha Harvey's The Wilderness), but I haven't started reading it yet. I have a feeling that I won't be progressing very far with that particular ambition, since I've got so many great books already lying in wait, tempting me every minute of the day to read just a bit faster so I can get to them.

I think I'd need a century or two just to read all that I want to read in my lifetime, and that's not even counting the many books that either haven't been written yet or those that I just haven't heard about yet!

I can only hope that Jorge Luis Borges was right, that the afterlife will be a library!

Broadway & Vacation

AfterElton has some exclusive pictures of last weekend's Broadway Bares extravaganza, the annual show that benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and features some of the hottest guys on Broadway in next to nothing.

In other words, yet another reason I wish I lived in NYC! It looks like such a fun show. This year, in addition to the numerous hot guys of Broadway, the show featured Allison Janney, Michael Urie, and Mo Rocca.

But the men... oh the men! In addition to AfterElton's pictures, you can also visit the official site for more hotness, including video snippets of the annual shows.

One of my current crushes, Gavin Creel from Hair, was there as well, though I only see him in one photo on AfterElton. Ever since his performance at the Tonys, I've been wanting to see more from Gavin.

I bought the title song from the new version of Hair (I don't really know the rest of the show, but I liked that number) and I noticed that he'd put out an album a few years ago called Goodtimenation. Needless to say, I bought it from iTunes and I've been listening to it a lot lately. There's not a song on the CD that I don't enjoy. I love the slower, more serious songs that he pours so much emotion into, and I love the upbeat, catchy songs that are just a lot of fun to sing along to.

If I had the money, I would be going to New York this summer, just so I could see him in Hair! Alas, it will have to wait until some other time. I'm sure he'll be in plenty of shows in the future.

Well, posting may be a bit light here for the next week. I'm on vacation and even though I'm not really going anywhere specific, I have a ton of things planned, including seeing Rent with Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal! I've been looking forward to it for months, so I'm really excited about that.

It'll be as close to Broadway as I've ever been and as close as I'm likely to get for the next year or two, at least.

I will write about anything that happens with gay soap characters this week (and there should be some good stuff!) but it may not be on the day the episode airs.

New Jay Brannan Album!

I've written before about my love of Jay Brannan's first album, goddamned, so you'll probably understand how excited I was when Jay let us know via Twitter that he's got a new album coming out this July!

The latest is called In Living Cover and will have two original songs by Jay and seven covers. Here's the track list:

1. Beautifully (Jay Brannan original)
2. Say It's Possible (Terra Naomi)
3. All I Want (Joni Mitchell)
4. Blowin' In The Wind (Bob Dylan)
5. The Freshmen (The Verve Pipe)
6. Good Mother (Jann Arden)
7. Both Hands (Ani DiFranco)
8. Zombie (The Cranberries)
9. Drowning (Jay Brannan original)

I can't wait to hear this! Actually, if you click the album title above, the page it takes you to has his version of Zombie for you to listen to. It sounds fantastic.

Jay will also be touring starting in July and I'm hoping that I'll get to see him this time around. When he was on tour last summer I wasn't able to make the show because of work.

Music Talk

Can I just say how much I love Kristin Chenoweth? I know that I've said it before. I know that I'll say it again. But I just completely adore her.

I watched last Wednesday's episode of Pushing Daisies last night and it had this fantastic scene where her character, Olive Snook, sings Eternal Flame. One of my favorite moments in season one was a similar scene in which the lovesick Olive sang Hopelessly Devoted to You and I'd been hoping that they'd have Kristin sing again before the show ended. I totally wasn't expecting it when it happened, though, so it was a great surprise.

I bought Kristin's holiday CD, A Lovely Way to Spend Christmas, today and- no shock here- I really like it. I have her two earlier CDs already and I listen to them all the time, especially Let Yourself Go, which has some really fun songs on it. I'm kind of sad that I'm only going to be able to listen to this new CD for one month every year!

I'm going to have to buy the Wicked and You're A Good Man Charlie Brown Broadway cast recordings next, I guess. I really hope some smart TV Exec snaps Chenoweth up for a new show soon now that Pushing Daisies is going off the air.

All right, so to sum up, I basically worship Kristin Chenoweth. I'm probably even going to see Four Christmases just because she's in the cast. I haven't had a non-sexual crush like this since I loved Sarah Michelle Gellar back during her Buffy heyday, but that ended after I saw one too many interviews with her and discovered that it was actually Buffy I liked, not Sarah!

Speaking of music, I've been meaning to mention that I think one of the best CDs that was released this year was Jay Brannan's album Goddamed. I first discovered Jay's music on YouTube (although I'd seen him before that in the movie Shortbus, I didn't actually realize that he was the same guy at first) and was really impressed, especially with the song Housewife. If you aren't familiar with his music, you should check out his videos on YouTube where you can find him singing most of the songs from the CD.

I had a chance to go see him in concert a few months back, but of course I had to work and couldn't find anyone to cover my shift, so I missed out, which is the way things usually go with me! I'm hoping he'll come back this way someday.

Elections, Gay Characters, and Pink

I'm relieved that the election is over. Whether you think Obama being elected is the best thing ever, the worst thing ever, or somewhere in between, it's nice to be done with all the campaigning, all the rhetoric and all the hypotheticals and just get on with things.

When I say 'get on with things' I don't mean forget about politics and bury your head back in the sand. I cringe when I hear people say that they can 'stop paying attention for the next four years'. That's just so disturbing to me, to think that so many people feel that all that's required of them is tuning in for a few months (or weeks) every four years and then going to the polls.

What I mean, though, is that we can now focus on what the new President and the Congress do, instead of what they say they're going to do if and when we elect them to office.

The anti-gay measures that passed in California, Arizona, Arkansas, and Florida were a sad reality check for many who were rejoicing in the results of the Presidential election, or at least they should have been. Those of us in the LGBT community still have a long hard fight ahead of us, but my spirits have been raised by the strong protests being held against the passing of Prop 8 in California. No one is giving up. Equality should be a given for everyone, but having to fight for it makes it all the more precious. If you can, join the fight tomorrow.

Well, in the world of LGBT Soap characters, All My Children is once again breaking ground. Since the character of Bianca returned to the show last month, she's been joined by her partner Reese and received Daytime TV's first same-sex marriage proposal. Since the two are raising Bianca's child and have just had a child of their own together, they're also daytime's first same-sex parents!

All of this is pretty exciting in a medium where there are exactly four gay characters and Luke & Noah have been together for over a year without consummating their relationship, let alone talking about marriage or children.

Speaking of As the World Turns' signature gay couple, things have gotten pretty rocky for them again. Luke's campaign against Kevin turned nasty when Kevin's friends posted homophobic videos about Luke online and generally ran a smear campaign against him based on his sexuality. This brought up unresolved feelings in Luke about how Kevin treated him after he came out to him in high school and when it became clear that Luke wasn't going to win the election, he gave a supporter the go-ahead to stuff the ballot boxes.

It's sort of refreshing, in one sense, to see Luke doing something that makes him less than perfect. He has a tendency to be too good to be true a lot of the time, which is often a danger with Soap writing.

Things went from bad to worse when Kevin questioned the results and Noah wouldn't lie to the Dean for Luke, getting him expelled from Oakdale University as a result. This, to me, seemed to be more than a little hypocritical on Noah's part, given that Luke lied for Noah (to the U.S. GOVERNMENT, mind you!) for months during the whole Ameera mess. At least the show had another character call Noah on this very fact, not that it seemed to make any difference to him.

The expulsion from school, the strain on his relationship with Noah over it, and the loss to Kevin in the election have sent Luke over the edge and he's started drinking again for the first time since before he came out. Given that Luke only has one kidney and tends to drink to excess when he's depressed, this is not a good thing for the character, though it's having the effect of increased air time for the guys and gives Van Hansis something new to play.

I wouldn't mind that Noah & Luke had hit turbulence again (that is, after all, a staple for soap couples) if they'd actually managed to make love between their last break up and this one. When you've been together over a year and have broken up more times that you've actually had sex with each other, that's not a good sign!

Oh, by the way, one of my favorite musical artists, Pink, has a new CD out called Funhouse. It really doesn't have any overtly political songs on it, like her last CD, the amazing I'm Not Dead did, but I think it's a really strong album. It's more along the lines of the work she did on M!ssundaztood, the CD that made me fall in love with her music to begin with. It's not quite on that level, of course (I don't think she'll ever match the raw emotion of that album again), but it's close. She writes songs that are so rooted in her own personal life that you almost feel like you're intruding on her heartache (or anger, joy, etc.) at times.

So, check out the new CD if you can, it's definitely worth it! I've been listening almost non-stop since I bought it.

That's about all for now.