Best Gay Books

AfterElton recently polled their reads on what they thought the best gay books ever written were. They released the results of the 50 Best Gay Books a couple of weeks ago and I've been thinking about the books the AE readers chose. It's a really interesting list and I was surprised that I'd read just under half of the choices. I've read a lot of gay themed books in the past decade or so and I really thought I'd have read more of the picks.

So, in addition to adding several books to my To Read list, the poll has also inspired me to do my own list, though I'm going to limit it to Top 10 and unlike the AfterElton poll, my list is fiction only.

I may do another list in the near future on best gay non-fiction, but for now I'm sticking to literature. I was happy to see that all but two of my own top ten made it on to the AfterElton poll somewhere.

My own personal top ten best gay books, always subject to change, is currently as follows:

1. At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill. This came in at number 4 in the AfterElton poll, but it is hands down my own personal favorite. It's so beautifully written and such a moving story. It also places the love story at its center against a very unique backdrop.

2. Maurice by E.M. Forster. I feel like this was in exactly the right spot in the AfterElton poll. Forster was one of the greatest writers of the past century and this was his one overtly gay novel, something that couldn't even be published until after his death. Best of all, it's a beautiful story.

3. The Tales of the City series as a whole, by Armistead Maupin. I already touched on my feelings about these books a bit the other day. The first book came in at number 1 in the AfterElton poll.

4. The Object of My Affection, by Stephen MacCauley. I love MacCauley's writing and have read all of his novels, but this one holds a very special place in my heart because it is the first gay love story I ever read. It's also very different from the Paul Rudd/Jennifer Aniston film version, which I enjoy as a completely separate animal altogether. None of MacCauley's books made the Top 50 in the poll which really shocks me.

5. Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman. This was number 13 on the AfterElton poll and I really think it rates higher than that. This is just an incredibly intense, passionate book.

6. A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood. This was way down at number 32 in the poll and I was honestly just glad to see it on the list at all. This is a modern classic in every sense of the word. It should be read by everyone, regardless of their sexuality.

7. The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, another book I think was in exactly the right place in the poll results. I was tempted to fill out the entire end of the list with Hollinghurst books. He's an author who has yet to disappoint me. This book is certainly his most well known (in addition to winning the Booker Prize it was also made into a mini-series in Britain) and arguably his best, but everything he's written has been pretty damn amazing. His novel The Swimming Pool Library also made the AE poll, at number 15.

8. A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunnignham. This was at number 9 on the AfterElton Poll. If you've seen the Colin Farrell film version, forget it completely and read the infinitely better book. I should note that The Hours would rank above this on my list if I considered it a gay book. It made the AE poll at number 35, but I don't think the gay characters in the book are really the main focus so for me it doesn't belong on this list. I'm probably nitpicking, but there we are.

9. The Lost Language of Cranes by David Leavitt. This is another of my favorite authors and though I think his short stories are among the best I've ever read, this is his best work by far. It made the AE list at number 27.

10. Leave Myself Behind by Bart Yates. This one didn't make the poll at all. In thinking about what I'd put on my own list, this one immediately came to mind. I've loved all three of the novels that Yates has published so far, but his first was the one that moved me the most. Like a lot of gay themed novels these days, it's a story of coming of age and coming out, but it's by far the best I've read in that genre.

There we have it. A very hard list to make, but I've had fun doing it. Of course, if I was to make the same list a year from now, it would probably look completely different.

Television and a Movie Recommendation

Since I discussed television a bit yesterday while mourning the loss of Pushing Daisies, I thought I'd write about the other shows I watch on a regular basis.

Once upon a time, I was a television addict. I had tons of shows that I followed and I'd buy the fall preview issues of Entertainment Weekly and plan out my viewing habits for each new TV season. This was before I had TiVo, too, so I watched most stuff live or had to record it on VHS. Oh, the horrors of the past!

Then I went through a phase that last about four years or so where I didn't start watching any new shows and dropped many of the ones that I'd been following. Eventually, all the old shows I was still watching came to an end, too, so there wasn't much of anything I actually made an effort to watch in primetime.

Then, about two and a half years ago, I got sucked back in. Not through actually turning on the TV again, at least not at first. What got me was TV box sets that were available to rent through Netflix. Someone would tell me how good a show was and I'd think to myself "Well, I'm not going to start watching it when it's already in its third season." But thanks to Netflix, I could rent the earlier seasons, and so I relapsed.

It started with Supernatural. I'd heard it was good and I loved Jensen Ackles when he was on Days of Our Lives but I hadn't tuned in for the first season. I'm not someone who can just jump into a show part-way through the series. That's like starting a book on chapter five! So, disc by disc, I watched the first season through Netflix and instantly became hooked.

Jensen and Jared Padalecki are both incredibly hot and their chemistry together is off the charts (they play brothers, but have been mistaken for a gay couple more than once on the show). The mythology that drives the show has become stronger and stronger with each season, and right now, in the shows fourth season, I can easily say it's the best its ever been. The funny thing is that this isn't really a show about demons and dark forces, as much as those things drive all of the action. It's about the relationship between these two brothers who are pretty much everything to each other.

Supernatural can break your heart (as Jensen Ackles broke mine in the closing scene of the most recent episode) and it never fails to make you laugh and to freak you out, too.

If you haven't started watching the show yet, Netflix is your friend! I don't think you'll regret it. Come for the man candy, stay for the quality writing and acting.

Since I'd decided to tune in to Supernatural's second season in real time, I thought I'd see what else was on that season, and I sort of hit the jackpot. It happened to be the season that Heroes and Brothers & Sisters both started, so I've been following them since the beginning.

Heroes has had a really hit or miss quality about it for the last two seasons, but I've stuck with it because I think it's still better than a lot of stuff that's on TV and because I loved the first season so much and I know that they can find that magic again. Plus, they do bring the hot guys to the table, don't they? Milo Ventimiglia, Adrian Pasdar, Zachary Quinto, Sendhil Ramamurthy, I could go on and on, but you get the picture. They're a very sexy bunch.

Brothers & Sisters is now in its third season and with the exception of last Sunday's episode I've really not cared much for it this year. The first two seasons were really good, even though I can only take Calista Flockhart's Kitty in doses much smaller than we're ever given and I can't stand Rob Lowe's character at all.

But Sally Field and Rachel Griffiths, both incredible actresses, more than make up for this, especially when you throw in hunks like Matthew Rhys, Dave Annable and Balthazar Getty as well.

Best of all, though, is the relationship between Kevin & Scotty (played by Luke MacFarlane, who manages to be both adorable and very sexy all at the same time, and who is out in real life). They're the reason why the most recent episode was better than anything else so far this season and they're a huge part of why I loved the first two seasons.

Kevin, like all of his siblings, is flawed and can be a frustrating character to say the least. But what I love is that his romantic life has never been treated any differently than that of any of the straight characters. I was looking forward to season three in particular because Kevin & Scotty ended last season with a commitment ceremony and I thought we'd see even more of a focus on their relationship. I forgot, though, that the only In-Law ever made a focus on this show is Robert, Rob Lowe's character. The rest of the husbands and wives tend to fade into the background.

Overall, the show is really boring this year. They don't seem to know what they're doing with Rachel Griffiths' character at all, and Uncle Saul, who came out last year, hasn't had any storyline of his own yet. I'm not even going to mention Kevin going to work for his Republican Senator brother-in-law, which is completely out of character no matter how they're trying to spin it!

It feels more and more like the Kitty & Robert show, and that's not a good thing.

I also watch Greek & Kyle XY on ABC Family. Greek is a lot of fun, but Kyle XY is downright amazing. This is another show you should get on Netflix if you haven't seen it yet. I never thought I'd like anything on ABC Family, but they take their slogan "A New Kind of Family" seriously. I only wish we didn't have to wait so long between seasons for Kyle XY!

I also just finished watching the first season of Chuck on DVD and I loved it!

I'll just mention the sitcoms briefly, since I feel like I've been going on forever already: How I Met Your Mother is the funniest show on TV. I don't know why everyone isn't watching this show! I love it so much. I have the first two seasons on DVD and I watch them all the time. I think this is the best ensemble cast in a sitcom since Friends. Plus, it stars Neil Patrick Harris! Enough said.

I also watch The New Adventures of Old Christine which is really enjoyable and 30 Rock, which had two incredible seasons but is making me mad this season because they're relying so heavily on guest stars. It's totally becoming Will & Grace, with the Big Guest Star each week, and it really doesn't need that. I get that they're trying to attract new viewers to pull in ratings, but I think it's mostly just alienating the viewers they already had. It's still funny, don't get me wrong, I think they just need to lay off the guest stars already. Tina Fey & co are funny enough on their own, as the first two seasons demonstrated.

I've heard from several of my co-workers that I have got to watch The Office but I haven't yet. Is it as amazing as everyone says?

On a final, non-Television related note, I saw the film Rachel Getting Married last night and I highly recommend it. It's got some really heart wrenching emotional scenes and it also makes you laugh out loud more than once. Anne Hathaway really surprised and impressed me in the lead role. I tend to think of her as being a less than serious actress, but she was excellent. I think Debra Winger, whom we do not see nearly enough of onscreen these days, was also incredible as the emotionally distant mother. She did so much with body language alone, her character is so tightly self controlled that the one scene where she does lose control is very powerful.

So, there you go, some DVD recommendations if you have Netflix and a film you should go see if it's playing near you.

ABC Sucks!

I'm in mourning today. ABC has just cancelled one of my very favorite shows, Pushing Daisies. Well, the network isn't officially using the word cancelled, but their failure to pick up any additional episodes beyond the 13 already produced for this season amounts to the same thing.

The show did pretty well in its first season last year, but then thanks to the Writer's Strike it disappeared from television for nearly ten months. By the time it came back, the ratings were down and this is the end result. It's especially sad because the show has been even better in its second season.

I almost didn't tune in at all last year when it started. I read a description of the show's concept and it sounded sort of silly: a man can bring the dead back to life for one minute by touching them and helps solve murders by asking the victims who killed them. It didn't sound like something I'd really want to watch.

But then I heard that Kristin Chenoweth would be one of the stars and I saw a preview that included the show's adorably sexy lead, Lee Pace, and I thought I'd give it a chance.

I was so glad I did. Pushing Daisies was like nothing else I'd ever seen on TV, with its fairy tale style narration and vibrantly stylized look and its sweet nature colored by a strong dose of life's darkest aspect, death.

The lead characters, Ned & Chuck (the latter being a female, played by Anna Friel), loved each other but could literally never touch since Ned had brought Chuck back to life and another touch would mean she was dead for good. Imagine a show that sets it up from the first episode that its love interests can never be together, at least not in a way that most of us would consider 'together'.

The love between Ned & Chuck would almost have been too sweet to take if it wasn't for the character of Emerson Cod, the sarcastic Private Detective whom Ned solves murders with (perfectly played by Chi McBride). Emerson was always snarking on them from the sidelines, rolling his eyes at them the way most regular people would if they had to be around them all the time. Somehow, this just balanced things out perfectly.

If the show had tried to sell its concept with a more realistic setting and tone, it never would have worked. Such a premise calls for an over the top presentation, and most would have gone for the dark, edgy sort (which is how I originally pictured it when I thought I'd pass on watching), but Pushing Daisies went for exactly the opposite, making it a modern day fairy tale, and it really worked.

Take all of that and throw in Kristin Chenoweth as Olive Snook, a waitress at Ned's restaurant, the Pie Hole, always pining over Ned and just generally being awesome and watchable in a way that only Kristin Chenoweth can be, and you had real magic on the screen.

I've spent the last month loaning out my nine episode first season DVD box set of the show to friends and co-workers, hoping to win over new viewers, and now ABC goes and pulls the rug out from under it all.

My only consolation is that there are still seven episodes which have already been shot to look forward to before its all over.

Bryan Fuller, the openly gay creator of the show, had similar luck with two earlier shows he created, which were both pretty incredible in their own right, and which were cancelled far too soon. Dead Like Me aired for two seasons on Showtime, and Wonderfalls (which had Lee Pace in a supporting role) only aired four episodes before Fox cancelled it, although thirteen episodes were shot and are available on DVD.

Fuller seems destined to be the creator of wonderful shows that gain cult status after being yanked off the air far too soon. More and more people will probably discover Pushing Daisies on DVD after it's too late, which is what happened with his other two shows, Wonderfalls in particular.

It's probably worth noting that Bryan Fuller was also a producer and writer on Heroes during its first season, back when most people were actually enjoying the show. There's been some speculation that he may return to try and revive that show now.

Whatever happens, I know I'll follow Lee, Kristin, and Bryan on to whatever roles and shows they create next, but I'll never quite get over what could have been with Pushing Daisies.

I should also add that ABC cancelled Dirty Sexy Money as well, a show which featured a transgendered character played by real life trans actress Candis Cayne and was created by the openly gay Greg Berlanti of Brothers & Sisters. I watched the first season of Dirty Sexy Money last year and enjoyed it, but like Pushing Daisies it disappeared from the screen for many months after the writer's strike and I never ended up tuning in for the second season.

Berlanti was dealt a double whammy by ABC, since they also cancelled another show he produced and wrote for, Eli Stone.

I Just Tripped and Fell Against Your Lips!

Luke was on As The World Turns again today, making that three days in a row this week and last week. We're in danger of starting to believe that Luke & Noah (who wasn't on today) are actually regular characters on this show! You could be forgiven for being left in doubt about that most of time, since they typically pop up once a week at most.

Still, Luke didn't have all that much to do today. After waking up and remembering the kiss with Brian (see below) he headed off to the hospital and arrived just in time to hear Brian toasting Lucinda as his new bride.



Luke pulled Gramps aside and accused him of trying to rip off his Grandmother and of lying to her. When Brian professed his innocence, Luke asked "What about what you did to me last night?"

It was actually kind of amusing to watch Brian smoothly run through all the 'morning after' excuses. He pulled out everything except "Dude, we were so wasted!" and I'm sure he would have tried that one if he could have.

First, Brian feigned ignorance. What he did to Luke? He got him home, tried to sober him up and take care of him. This forced Luke to actually say it: "You kissed me."

At which point Brian switched tactics without missing a beat: "Is that how it happened?", he asked, implying that perhaps it had been Luke who'd kissed him.

When that didn't seem to have much effect on Luke's outrage, Brian apologized and said that he just comes from a really affectionate family and he's sorry if his affection offended Luke.

Finally, and most amusingly, Brian countered with "Don't you have friends who joke around with you like that?" as if it was just a big prank between buddies.

All of this makes Brian sound desperate to cover up what happened, and underneath his calm exterior I'm sure he was. But the very fact that he remained so collected and seemingly unfazed by all of this speaks volumes. This is clearly a character well versed in lying to himself.

Luke didn't buy any of this, of course, and was determined to tell Lucinda everything then and there. His mother Lily, thinking that his opposition was coming from his pre-kiss feelings of distrust towards Brian, told him that Brian had singed a pre-nup and clearly cared for Lucinda and, what's more, was making her happy and giving her something to live for. Lily ordered poor Luke to go in and congratulate his Grandmother whether he meant it or not.

Luke was left looking in at Lucinda's obvious happiness with Brian while clearly feeling pretty miserable himself.

This, of course, is an old story in daytime: keeping a secret, usually about an affair or something a loved one has done, from someone because their health depends on it. This is the first time, however, that the secret has involved a kiss between two men.

If this was real life, you could say Brian might turn out to just be curious. It happens, and could even the straightest of men resist feeling something for a vulnerable, shirtless Luke Snyder? Okay, a majority of them could. But my point is that this is a soap and 'just curious' doesn't really further the drama any. So Brian is obviously going to end up being a closeted gay man or, even rarer for daytime, bisexual. Either way, we can now put the number of LGBT characters on daytime at four going on five.

What's more, Brian will be the only LGBT character currently on daytime who is over the age of 30. He's not exactly a senior citizen, of course (Laurence Lau, the actor playing Brian, is 54) but the generational difference between him & Luke could definitely come into play, even if just as contrast in their ability to be open about their sexualities. After all, Brian would have been a teenager during the Stonewall riots. He didn't exactly grow up in the same world Luke has, and look how hard it still was for Luke to come out.

I don't know if the show will explore any of this, of course, these are just my musings on the subject. It would be interesting if daytime explored older gay characters, though. Granted, they've still got a long way to go on perfecting the younger gay characters they're writing for (or not writing for, as the case may be), but no one has really done an older gay character and what they would have to go through. Imagine coming out to your children, rather than your parents, for instance! Plenty of drama and story to be mined there.

The British soap Coronation Street had something similar happen earlier this year, when the character Gail Platt, a fifty-something mother of three herself, finally met the long lost father who'd never known she existed. He turned out to be rather lonely gay man who'd recently lost his partner of many years.

American soaps probably would never introduce a new straight character who was over 70, let alone a gay one, which is a shame. There are so many stories to be told, about so many different types of people and situations, and yet daytime TV keeps telling the same old stories over and over again, always with younger and younger characters and actors.

It's no wonder the soap medium is in the state that it's in. Then again, just a few years ago characters like Luke & Noah, whatever they're lacking compared to the straight characters on the show, wouldn't have existed at all. The addition of Brian also means that As the World Turns now has three regular LGBT characters on at the same time, another milestone in and of itself. Clearly, it would be unfair to say things haven't improved at all.

Prop 8 Bullies, Changes in Congress

The supporters of California's Prop 8 are so very sure of the merits of their case that they're resorting to threats to make sure that it's upheld by the state Supreme Court. An Attorney for the Prop 8 forces made it clear to the Los Angeles Times that if the Justices vote to overturn the proposition, they'll likely face a recall vote! Nothing like an old fashioned school yard bully mentality of 'Do it our way or else!' to get the case started, right?

Truly disgusting.

In other news, the health of our planet got a bit of a boost today. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce, chaired for the last two years by Congressman John Dingell of Michigan, will have a new Chairman in the upcoming Congress. Dingell will be replaced, thanks to a vote today by the Democratic members of the House, by Congressman Henry Waxman of California, a strong advocate for the Environment. Dingell, largely seen as a tool of the Auto Industry and of major electric utilities, had weakened any attempts to effect real change in the fight against global warming by representing the needs of the Auto Industry first and foremost.

Since the majority of power in Washington could be said to lie in the hands of Committee Chairs (they have the power to hold legislation back from getting a full vote in the House or in the Senate, for instance, simply by denying it a Committee vote to move it to the floor), this is a big deal, and not just for the environment. This particular committee also has oversight of health care programs, telecommunications, energy, and consumer protection. Having a strong liberal like Waxman chairing this Committee increases the chances for real change.

It's also an important change for another reason: Committees in Congress are largely chaired by the rule of Seniority. The longest serving members of the majority party typically have a lock on all Chairmanships. This has wrecked havoc in the past, for instance in the lead up to and during the Civil Rights movement when the most Senior members in the House and particularly in the Senate were long serving Southern Democrats, re-elected time and again without any real opposition, who were adamantly opposed to any change on matters of race relations.

Today, the Democrats in the House voted to set Seniority aside and go with someone who was better suited to the job. Let's hope that becomes a trend.

On another note, there are now more women serving in Congress than at any other point in history, including a record 17 women in the incoming Senate. But before we start celebrating that fact, Maria Cocco has an article about just how slowly we're moving towards gender equality in Government that is worth checking out.

Today is another Luke day on As the World Turns and I'll be back sometime tonight with a post about that.

Um... Welcome to the Family?!

I should start out by saying that I avoid spoilers about Luke's storyline on As the World Turns whenever I can and today was the sort of day where that pays off. I had some inkling, going back to Brian Wheatley's arrival in Oakdale this past summer, that there was something up with him. He didn't seem personally homophobic at all, but he acted so strangely about Luke being out and he would occasionally give Luke & Noah the oddest glance when they were being affectionate in public.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Today Luke's grandmother Lucinda, still fresh from surgery, decided that life was just too short and that she didn't want to be alone any more. Lucinda, never one to waste time, had barely uttered her proposal of marriage before she & Brian were having that most romantic of dream weddings: the hospital bed ceremony! Luke should seriously be taking lessons from her on how to move things to the next level, relationship wise, because he & Noah obviously don't know what they're doing!

Speaking of Nuke, Noah found Luke stumbling around even more drunk than he had been in yesterday's episode. After Luke told poor Noah that he was just like his father, "Colonel Don't Ask Don't Tell" and more or less collapsed in his arms, Noah drove Luke back to the farm and tried to get him to drink some water and sober up.

Luke just about broke my heart when he went from angry, bitter drunk to wounded, vulnerable drunk and asked Noah to please stay with him, saying he just wanted things to go to back the way they were. Noah pointed out that he couldn't keep Luke from cheating in the election or getting drunk, so he didn't think they could go back. He told Luke to sleep it off and left with his car keys, which of course flipped Luke's switch back to angry, bitter drunk as he went stumbling out after Noah on foot.

Which is how Brian, on his way to pick up some things for Lucinda, discovered Luke wandering along the road, close to passing out but determined to find Noah and get his keys back. Brian took Luke back to the farm and told him to change his clothes and brush his teeth (he'd apparently been sick sometime after Noah's departure) and then tried to get him to sober up before anyone in his family saw him.

After coming back downstairs (sans shirt, I might add!) and thanking Brian for not yelling at him, even though he deserved it, Luke broke down in Brian's arms (more or less: they were sitting facing each other and Luke sort of fell into him) and told Brian that he'd ruined everything he loved: school, his parents' respect, and his relationship with Noah.

Brian stroked Luke's head and told him it was all going to be all right, that he was a good person, and then he kissed Luke on the forehead... and then on the cheek.... and then on the lips, full on, open mouth! Luke, who looked completely out of it (Van Hansis plays a drunk very well, I have to say), sort of went along with it for a second and then leaped backwards, asking "What the hell was that?" before running out of the room.

Luke still has no idea, of course, that Brian is his new step-Grandfather, and given that Brian seems to be giving Lucinda a reason to fight for her life against cancer, Luke is going to have a tough decision to make when he sobers up: tell Grandma that her new hubby just tried to make out with him, thereby destroying her happiness and possibly her will to live, or let her go on living a lie. I suspect that Luke will be hitting the bottle even more as he deals with all of this.

What I like best about this is that the show isn't writing Brian as someone who is just using Lucinda as a cover. Just before spotting Luke on the side of the road, Brian was singing along with the car radio, obviously very happy about having Lucinda as his wife. Before the ceremony, he assuaged new step-daughter Lily's worries by signing a pre-nup, so he's not after Lucinda's fortune, either. His affection for her seems to be completely genuine and from the look of things, the show is writing him as a character who is probably not out even to himself.

Things could be getting very interesting.

Prop 8 Goes to Court; Obama Names LGBT Team Members; Out in Congress

If you hadn't heard yet, the California Supreme Court has taken up cases on the legality of Prop 8. Gays & Lesbians in California won't be able to marry while the court hears arguments and deliberates on the case, which some opponents of the proposition had hoped the court would allow, but at least there is a chance that Prop 8 could be nullified.

This is another step in the ongoing battle for marriage equality and we'll all be watching closely. I think the demonstrations all over the country this past Saturday send the clear message that a growing number of people want change and eventually the courts will catch up to the will of the people.

In other news, President-elect Obama has named seven out gay & lesbian members to his various transitional teams as he prepares to take over the Presidency. Among them is Michael Guest, the former Ambassador to Romania who left the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute last year in protest of the department's refusal to extend spousal benefits to same sex partners of State Department employees working overseas. This refusal was a real issue beyond just the basic injustice of it, because part of the benefits being denied to same sex partners were basic security protections.

Hopefully, under the next Secretary of State, this policy will become a thing of the past.

By the way, did you know that just over two weeks ago voters in Colorado elected the first openly gay freshman Congressman in United States history? Congressman Jared Polis will be only the third ever openly gay member of Congress, but he's the first out gay man ever elected as a non-incumbent. Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts is, of course, the first out gay man to serve in Congress, but he was already in office when he came out.

The third out gay member of Congress is Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, who was also out when elected to office for the first time in 1998, making her the first out Lesbian ever elected to Congress and the first out person ever elected to a seat they didn't already hold.

On the one hand, it's sad that in 2009 only 3 openly gay people will have served in Congress, but on the other hand you could say that there are now more openly gay Members of Congress than ever before, and I'm sure the number will continue to grow. It also doesn't take in to account the many closeted members of the House and Senate who have served over the years and are no doubt still serving now.

365Gay has an article up on incoming Congressman Polis, you should check it out.

I'll be back later this evening with a post on today's As the World Turns.

Today's ATWT, Van Back to the Stage

Since I'm blogging more often, I'll probably cover each Luke & Noah episode of As the World Turns individually rather than saving up several and talking about them all at once.

The guys were on today (and will be on again tomorrow) and while it was not a great day for Luke, it was one for Van Hansis. I can't help thinking that Van has to be having the time of his life acting scenes like today's after playing the more or less saintly Luke for quite awhile now.

Today started with a hungover Luke getting the news from Brian (the man whom his Grandmother Lucinda hired to run Luke's new foundation) that his Grandmother's breast cancer has returned and that she's about to go into surgery for a second mastectomy. Luke also got quite the lecture from Brian about how he's wasting the second chance at life that his new kidney gave him while Lucinda is fighting to hang on to her own life.

Poor miserable Luke thought there'd be at least one bright spot in his life when Noah showed up at the hospital, but it turned out that he wasn't there to get back together with Luke, or even to offer him the tiniest bit of sympathy and support, but rather to drop off some flowers for Lucinda. It was particularly lame when Noah said he hadn't expected to see Luke there, given that Luke is pretty much the most family orientated guy around. Where else would he have been? But, this isn't Noah's fault so much as the fault of bad writing, so let's move on.

Being rejected by Noah again was too much for Luke to take and he fled to a bar where he bribed the bartender to serve him and proceeded to get wasted yet again. When his friends Casey & Alison showed up and tried to help him, Luke lashed out both physically, punching Casey in the face, and verbally, throwing Casey & Alison's own mistakes back in their faces before telling them that his life sucks but he doesn't need losers like them.

Needless to say, this was all very un-Luke like behavior, very well played by Van, and it will be interesting to see where this goes. Casey & Alison called Noah at the end of today's show to alert him to the state Luke is in and it looks like the two will have a confrontation tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Lucinda came through her operation and proposed marriage to Brian, with whom she'd been getting romantic before she found out her cancer had returned. This should be interesting, since he's clashed with Luke several times on how Luke being openly gay could negatively affect the foundation.

By the way, if you haven't checked out AfterElton.com's liveblogs of each Luke & Noah episode, you really should. They're hilarious. I read them after I've watched each Nuke episode and they can often be the only saving grace when the storyline is in a particularly bad spot.

To end on a completely shallow note, Van Hansis as drunk Luke: totally hot! Then again, Van Hansis as sober Luke is pretty damn hot, too.

Speaking of Van, he'll be doing double duty on stage and screen again next month when he stars in Les Freres Corbusier's Dance Dance Revolution on stage. The show is described in an article on AfterElton as follows:

'The stage adaptation will keep up the game's campy sensibility. It's set in an Orwellian society where a dance prophet named Moonbeam Funk helps dancing youth gangs rebel against a fascist government. The company working on the show describes it as "like Footloose set in the future -- but kind of scarier, and with 40 really attractive, barely-clothed young actors and buckets of free beer." '

The show will be at the Ohio Theatre in Soho December 3-20 and if you're lucky enough to see it... well, then I hate you. Okay, not really, but I am very jealous of you. I hate that I missed Van's performance in Die Mommie Die! last year and that I'll be missing this as well. I really need to move to NYC.

Obama's Civil Rights Plan for LGBT Citizens

I just saw this post on Towleroad about the addition of a civil rights plan regarding LGBT issues that has been added to the President-elect's website. Andy rightly notes that page most recently failed to mention even the words gay or lesbian, let alone a plan, but the plan they've added looks fairly impressive to me, especially when compared to Bush's views on LGBT issues.

"While we have come a long way since the Stonewall riots in 1969, we still have a lot of work to do. Too often, the issue of LGBT rights is exploited by those seeking to divide us. But at its core, this issue is about who we are as Americans. It's about whether this nation is going to live up to its founding promise of equality by treating all its citizens with dignity and respect."

-- Barack Obama, June 1, 2007

The Obama-Biden Plan

• Expand Hate Crimes Statutes: In 2004, crimes against LGBT Americans constituted the third-highest category of hate crime reported and made up more than 15 percent of such crimes. Barack Obama cosponsored legislation that would expand federal jurisdiction to include violent hate crimes perpetrated because of race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or physical disability. As a state senator, Obama passed tough legislation that made hate crimes and conspiracy to commit them against the law.
• Fight Workplace Discrimination: Barack Obama supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and believes that our anti-discrimination employment laws should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity. While an increasing number of employers have extended benefits to their employees' domestic partners, discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace occurs with no federal legal remedy. Obama also sponsored legislation in the Illinois State Senate that would ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
• Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples: Barack Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples. Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions. These rights and benefits include the right to assist a loved one in times of emergency, the right to equal health insurance and other employment benefits, and property rights.
• Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage: Barack Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2006 which would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman and prevented judicial extension of marriage-like rights to same-sex or other unmarried couples.
• Repeal Don't Ask-Don't Tell: Barack Obama agrees with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili and other military experts that we need to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The key test for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a willingness to serve. Discrimination should be prohibited. The U.S. government has spent millions of dollars replacing troops kicked out of the military because of their sexual orientation. Additionally, more than 300 language experts have been fired under this policy, including more than 50 who are fluent in Arabic. Obama will work with military leaders to repeal the current policy and ensure it helps accomplish our national defense goals.
• Expand Adoption Rights: Barack Obama believes that we must ensure adoption rights for all couples and individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation. He thinks that a child will benefit from a healthy and loving home, whether the parents are gay or not.
• Promote AIDS Prevention: In the first year of his presidency, Barack Obama will develop and begin to implement a comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategy that includes all federal agencies. The strategy will be designed to reduce HIV infections, increase access to care and reduce HIV-related health disparities. Obama will support common sense approaches including age-appropriate sex education that includes information about contraception, combating infection within our prison population through education and contraception, and distributing contraceptives through our public health system. Obama also supports lifting the federal ban on needle exchange, which could dramatically reduce rates of infection among drug users. Obama has also been willing to confront the stigma -- too often tied to homophobia -- that continues to surround HIV/AIDS. He will continue to speak out on this issue as president.
• Empower Women to Prevent HIV/AIDS: In the United States, the percentage of women diagnosed with AIDS has quadrupled over the last 20 years. Today, women account for more than one quarter of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses. Barack Obama introduced the Microbicide Development Act, which will accelerate the development of products that empower women in the battle against AIDS. Microbicides are a class of products currently under development that women apply topically to prevent transmission of HIV and other infections.

It all sounds great to me, though I still wished he supported full marriage equality, but the proof will be in what he does in office to enact these changes.

I'm so excited!

I didn't plan on blogging again today, but I just couldn't resist.

If you could have seen me about five minutes ago, dancing happily around my bedroom, you'd probably think I was on some pretty good drugs or something.

The reality, though, is that I'm a total dork when it comes to books and this was just a more demonstrative than usual example of that.

I just read on AfterElton.com that Armistead Maupin is at work on an 8th book in the Tales of the City series! He published the seventh book in the series, Michael Tolliver Lives, last year after nearly twenty years between books. The latest, which will be called Mary Ann in Autumn, is going to be more like the first six books: "It’s the old format of the multi-character tapestry..." which makes me even happier!

I seriously love these books so much. I'm especially excited that the new book is going to include Mary Ann, who showed up briefly at the end of Michael Tolliver Lives but was mostly absent.

By the end of the six original books, the character of Mary Ann had become a pretty selfish person who put her career ambitions before her friends and her family, to the point of leaving her husband and child behind completely. I think in that sense, her character's evolution over the first six books embodies the change from the more free spirited 70's into the self involved, money and status obsessed 80's.

It was interesting to see where she was at during her cameo appearance in the last book, but I'm sure it will be even more so to have her as a lead character in the next.

The only downside is that Maupin just started writing it and doesn't know when it will be finished. Patience is a virtue, though, right?

Books, Secretary of State Clinton?

First off, thanks to Darius for the book blog recommendations! I've already checked out a couple of them and I can't wait to take a look at the rest.

If anyone else would like to tip me off to a great book blog or any site involving literature, feel free!

I just finished reading Daniel Mendelsohn's collection of critical essays, How Beautiful It Is and How Easily It Can Be Broken. I have to say I really enjoyed it. Mendelsohn is a classicist, so many of the reviews either dealt directly with works that touched on the classical world (such as revivals of Medea, Oedipus Rex, or Aristophane's Frogs) or reflected on them in some way. I've studied the Classical world at the college level, but Mendelsohn's enthusiasm in these essays somehow makes it all come alive more than my Professor ever did.

Mendelsohn, who is gay, also has a section of reviews dealing with The Closet, which includes insightful essays on Henry James, Oscar Wilde, A.E. Housman, and the movie Brokeback Mountain, among others, and a section on War that included an incredible essay on Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War and the misrepresentation and re-interpretation of it and of the war itself by modern war hawks like Donald Kagan and Victor Hanson.

I really enjoyed the collection a lot and it's worth checking out.

I just bought a couple of new books the other day. I'm really excited for the upcoming Gus Van Sant movie Milk, so I picked up the biography of Harvey Milk, The Mayor of Castro Street by Randy Shilts. I've also always meant to read Shilts' definitive work about the AIDS crisis, And the Band Played On, so I bought that as well. I'm not sure which I'll end up reading first.

On an unrelated note, The Guardian is reporting that Senator Hillary Clinton has accepted President-elect Obama's offer to become Secretary of State! As far as I know, it hadn't been officially confirmed by either party that the offer had even been made in the first place, but the Guardian is usually a very reliable source.

I think Senator Clinton would be an excellent choice to be Secretary of State, so I'm hoping that this turns out to be true.

Thoughts on Obama

Now that I'm blogging a bit more often I'll probably be writing about a wider variety of topics, one of which will probably be books. Bookworm doesn't even begin to describe me and I'm surprised that I really haven't touched on books in this blog.

I've added some of my favorite book blog links over to the side and I'll probably be adding more as time goes on. If you know of a really good blog about books, feel free to drop me a line and let me know! I'm always interested in reading new book blogs.

I'll probably be writing more about Movies & TV shows than I have so far (aside from daytime soaps, I mean), and also just about things from every day life or things in the news.

Have no fear, though, I will still write about politics and gay characters on soaps, too!

Speaking of politics, there is a point that I feel I need to make.

I wrote last March about my preference for Senator Clinton in the Democratic Primaries and she was the candidate I voted for in my state's primary election.

Less than two weeks ago, in the general election, I cast my vote for Senator Obama.

Do I think he's everything everyone believes him to be? No. I especially have my concerns when it comes to quickly ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But I do think he's a vast improvement on George W. Bush and I think he was far better than the alternative we had in the general election.

On the issues of a woman's right to choose, on stem cell research, on global warming and the environment, and on judicial appointments, he'll be an incredible force for change for the better when compared to the outgoing administration.

On gay rights, I see him as a big improvement over Bush for the simple reason that while he doesn't support gay marriage, he does support civil unions, and that's light years beyond the outgoing occupant of the Oval Office, who was openly opposed to any kind of legal union between gays & lesbians. Obama has also stated that he's for a full repeal of the odious Defense of Marriage Act, which would be an excellent starting point.

I really think that the issue of Gay Marriage is going to come down to the Courts eventually and if they were courts packed with McCain appointees, we'd be in trouble. The judges that President Obama will appoint will be far more likely to be socially progressive and to recognize that this is a clear matter of civil rights being denied to a minority group.

I would have greatly preferred Senator Clinton between these two candidates, but I will judge Obama as President by what he does in office and I personally will feel a million times better on January 20th when Bush is consigned to the history books and Obama is sworn in. He's not the overwhelming force for real Progressive change I feel we need, but at least he's not going to be the overwhelming regressive force we've endured for eight long years.

Standing Up for Equality

I hope everyone has had a great weekend. Hopefully many of you got the chance to stand up for equal rights for gays & lesbians in the United States by joining one of the many simultaneous protests of Prop 8 across the country yesterday.

I live in a smallish city with a large University and our group wasn't huge but a fair number of people did turn out. Many people had gone to one of the two or three larger protests in cities nearby, I think, but it was still an amazing event. There were a few non-supportive passers by who felt the need to voice their narrow minded bigotry, shouted oh so bravely from car windows as they sped past, but the overall response from people was incredibly supportive.

I don't think it's a day that any of us will forget any time soon, and that goes for the thousands who turned out all over the country in various cities and towns. It's amazing how we can come together through adversity and turn ourselves into a force for real change. So many people were hurt and angry a few weeks ago when Prop 8 (and the other anti-gay measures in Florida, Arizona, and Arkansas) passed, but we're already turning those feelings into something positive that is going to make marriage equality a reality in this country.

On a related note, one of my favorite comedians, Wanda Sykes, joined the protest in Las Vegas and officially came out as a lesbian while doing so!

'Sykes... said the passage of California's Proposition 8 made her feel like she was "attacked."

"Now, I gotta get in their face," she said. "I'm proud to be a woman. I'm proud to be a black woman, and I'm proud to be gay." '

Congratulations, Wanda! I love that the visibility of gays and lesbians in the public arena is growing all the time.

Studs Terkel 1912-2008

I meant to write this a few weeks ago when Studs Terkel passed away, but I wasn't able to find the time before now.

I was tempted to start out by saying that we'd lost an important figure a few weeks back, but the truth is that we haven't, not really. Terkel has left us, that much is true, but he had ninety six long years in which to leave behind a record that I suspect will last not for mere decades, but for centuries.

Howard Zinn, a man born a decade after Terkel, accomplished the amazing task of re-writing American history from the perspective of average people, rather than from the point of view of those in power. Terkel took things a step further and created a record of the actual voices, thoughts, opinions, and feelings of those people, average Americans living everyday lives in the turbulent 20th Century.

Imagine if we had such a record from Ancient Rome or Greece, if someone had taken the time to sit down and write out what common people, those otherwise completely lost to history, thought about the issues they were facing and about the world around them! Not the chronicle of those in power or the dry listing of dates and events, but the actual voices of the people who lived with the consequences of those events in real time. We'd know what they thought about their work situations, the social structures around them, their views on entertainment and religion, on hard times and good times.

The future will have just such a record of 20th Century Americans, thanks to Studs Terkel. His oral histories cover a variety of topics, from the Great Depression to music, from race issues to feelings on our jobs and working conditions, from hope in hard times to death and faith. It's all there, a valuable historical record that people centuries or perhaps even a few millennia from now will turn to for a sense of what life in our time was like for average people.

The future owes Studs Terkel a great debt of gratitude, and so do we.

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.

Political Humor

I'm posting twice in one night! My God! :)

Actually, this is more like a mini-post. I just wanted to link to this cute post on another blog, Puntabulous. It's a very funny blog that I tend to check every day for a good laugh and I thought this post was very amusing for anyone following politics at the moment.

Where Do We Go From Here?

There hasn't been a whole lot of action (in any sense) for the gay characters of Daytime TV in the last few months. On As the World Turns Luke & Noah are together but still not sleeping together for some inexplicable reason.

Since I last wrote, they really haven't had all that much of a storyline. Luke's shady biological father Damian sent him a huge advance on his trust fund, as some sort of unexplained peace offering or bribe. Luke initially planned to reject the money, but instead he decided to put it to good use and form a charitable foundation. His Grandmother Lucinda hired one Brian Wheatley to run the foundation for Luke and though Brian seems personally fine with Luke being gay, he's been adamant about not associating the foundation with homosexuality, on the grounds that many potential donors would be scared off. Most recently, he's threatened to quit because Luke handed out flyers for the foundation at a gay student film festival.

This, needless to say, has caused ongoing tension between Brian and Luke, and that's really been the only story of their own that Luke & Noah have been involved in since I last wrote about them. The good news is that the kisses continue to come freely and I have to imagine that those in the viewing audience who may have been uneasy about it at first are probably fairly used to it by now. (I'm not, of course, talking about those hardcore nuts who are no doubt still calling & writing in disgust that there are even gay characters on their TV at all, let alone ones who kiss each other. They'll never change their minds because they'd have to open them first.)

Finally, though, after months of nothing much, a new story is starting for Luke & Noah. This past week, we found out that Oakdale University's Gay Film Festival (which Noah was in charge of this year and hopes to make an entry for next year) is under fire from offended benefactors of the University who were horrified by the gay content. The show got in a nice little dig at their own horrified viewers by having Luke ask "Just because they show two guys kissing in bed together?"

Anyway, Luke & Noah went to a meeting, where it came out that the University was letting the decision of whether or not to kill the Festival's funding be made by the Student Government itself. The deciding vote on the issue will be cast by whoever wins the upcoming election for Student Body President, and guess who the only declared candidate is? If you guessed that it was Luke's former best friend and high school love interest Kevin, who did not take Luke's coming out at all well, give yourself a pat on the back.

Luke & Kevin had an awkward reunion and Kevin remained non-committal about his stance on the film festival. Reg, the guy who was interested in Luke when he and Noah were on a break, noticed that Kevin got a rather disgusted look on his face when he saw Noah put his arm around Luke and decided that it did not bode well for their chances of saving the festival.

All of which lead to Luke deciding to step up and run for President himself, so that the GLBTQ community and their allies on campus could at least have a chance to make their voices heard.

This story is just getting under way and I'm feeling (foolishly) hopeful that it will be worth watching, especially with the reintroduction of Kevin as Luke's electoral nemesis.

Meanwhile, there is some good news on the gay character front over on All My Children. Groundbreaking lesbian character Bianca has returned to the show and she'll have a new partner, played by former General Hospital and Days of Our Lives star Tamara Braun. So, the number of GLBTQ characters on daytime has just doubled and the casting of Braun in the role is hopefully a good sign that it's going to be a big one.

Of course, there is also the rather sweet love story between Kyle & Eric (the latter played by out actor Chad Allen) on SoapNet's General Hospital: Night Shift, but that doesn't really count as daytime.

I have to say that I've become addicted to the German Soap Verboten Liebe (Forbidden Love), which you can find with translated English subtitles on YouTube. The love story on that show between Christian & Oliver really puts anything I've seen on American soaps to shame, story wise. What's even more impressive is that nearly ten years ago, in 1999, the same soap had a love story between two gay characters named Tom & Ullie, which is also being subtitled on YouTube and was also pretty amazing. Between the Germans and the British (with their fantastic John Paul/Craig & John Paul/Kieron love stories on the soap Hollyoaks), its easy to see just how behind the times and repressed we still are over here in America.

Still, it's getting better all the time, right? I mean, gays can now marry in three states and counting (Yay Connecticut!). Which reminds me, if you live in California, please make sure and vote No on Proposition 8!

Honestly, if I'm going to continue this blog, I'm going to have to branch out to new topics because there really isn't much of interest to say about gay soap characters that can't be said once every other month or so. I'm really not sure why I ended up focusing on just one topic so completely, given that there is a lot more to me than being a fan of soap operas who is also gay.

I've had questions via e-mail about why I don't write about politics any more, like I did when I started this blog. I'm not really sure, other than that I just never felt like I was that great at writing about them. I follow what's going on, and I love having discussions with my friends and family about it all, but I always just felt that when it came to writing about it, it had already been done, and better, by others, many of whom you can find in the links over on the side.

So, we shall see. I'd like to start writing about other things in the near future on this blog, though of course I'll keep updating on Nuke and any other gay characters who may come along.

Checking in on the Gays of Daytime

Time again for my quarterly blog post! Okay, so they're not intended to be quarterly, but that's about how it seems to work out.

I'm not sure what I have to say about the state of gays on Soaps Operas. The good news is that Luke & Noah, after the stalwart Kiss Campaign and media blitz waged by Nuke Fans, are finally kissing more frequently on As the World Turns. The bad news is that the show keeps coming up with silly reasons for them not to make love.

To recap from where we left off: Noah married Iraqi refugee Ameera, to keep her in the country, which kept the boys from being able to be together. Eventually, Noah's psycho father escaped from prison (where he was serving time for the murder of Noah's mother and the attempted murder of Luke) and took Ameera hostage in New York City, where for some inexplicable reason she was to be handed over to mysterious people who wanted her, in return for him being smuggled out of the country to freedom. Ooookay.

Of course, Luke & Noah tracked them down. Noah had just managed to convince his father that he should let Ameera go when Luke arrived with the police and Colonel Mayer jumped into the river, drowning himself. No body was found, which in soap world means he'll pop back up in six months to a year.

With that behind them and Ameera officially giving Noah his freedom and leaving town (thank God!), the path was finally clear for the boys to be together... right?

Oh, you silly, silly person. Of course it wasn't! You see, Noah blamed Luke for showing up with the police just when dear old Dad was thinking about being a human being for a second or two. Noah needed 'a break' from Luke, which quickly became a break up.

All hope was lost, until Cyndi Lauper rolled into town for Oakdale Pride (daytime's first ever pride event, I might note) and managed to reunite Luke & Noah through the power of song. Don't you love it when gay friendly pop divas show up and do that?

Seriously, though, that was one of the better episodes that As the World Turns had done in a long while and Cyndi Lauper is completely awesome and a great ally to gays and lesbians. I wish the Nuke story was half as awesome as she is.

Anyway, Luke & Noah reunited at Cyndi's concert and Luke told Noah that he wanted that to be The Night for them. You know, THE night. But, Holy Plot Contrivance!, Noah stunned Luke with the news that he couldn't deflower him back at the farm as requested. Why? He'd joined the army and had to report for induction!

The show tried to spin it as Noah dealing with the loss of his father by doing the one thing his father always wanted him to do, but the whole thing was ridiculous from start to finish. Luke followed Noah and outed him as his boyfriend in front of some recruiters, but they turned a deaf ear, as did the head recruiter when Noah came out to him directly. He warned Noah that if he reported that, Noah may or may not be allowed to enlist and gave him a chance to take it back.

Noah decided not to sign the final papers and the story was wrapped up pretty quickly, thankfully, but it was a mess all the same. Their timely intention may have been to comment upon Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the way that gays are frequently allowed to serve during war time when they're needed but forced out the rest of the time, but the way they went about it was very haphazardly thrown together.

With all that behind them, Noah and Luke have gone back a few steps and returned to Not Having Sex because they're both living under Grandma Emma's roof on the farm and it's against her rules that unmarried people hook up in her house. (The show even had Luke & Noah comment on the fact that Luke's newly divorced cousin Jack was breaking the rules with his new girlfriend Janet while Emma was out of town, but then they're straight!)

I'd love it if Noah & Luke sat Emma down and pointed out that they're not ALLOWED to marry each other in Illinois, or better yet if they flew off to California or Massachusetts and came back and hung a marriage license on their bedroom door for all to see as they went at it on the other side! But I don't see that happening any time soon.

At least the characters are acknowledging the situation. It would be far worse if they were being presented as naturally chaste. A frustrated Luke recently pointed out to Noah that there is no real reason for them not to be having sex and asked "So why aren't we?" Noah's romantic response was that he wants it to be special, not just something that happens because they're alone on the farm for half an hour, blah blah blah. And I'm all for that. It SHOULD be special. But, more importantly, it should HAPPEN. And soon.

Making all of this worse is the fact that Luke's teen cousin Parker, played by a real life 15 year old, has become sexually active before Luke! Of course, Parker is having sex with a girl, so I guess that makes it moral and just fine to show on daytime. Never mind the fact that said Girl is his cousin by adoption (and played in real life by a 21 year old actress, which makes the whole situation even more uncomfortable to watch onscreen!).

In addition to (straight) Teen Sex, the show is of course also indulging in that time honored daytime tradition, Adultery, in this case between Luke's father Holden and Carly, the ex-wife of Holden's cousin Jack. Then there is Casey Hughes, who is Luke's age, and is having an affair with 40-something Emily Stewart, who also happens to have a child with Casey's father.

And, of course, several characters are being mysteriously poisoned by an unknown person.

So, let's put this in perspective:
~ Straight, underage teen sex between cousins- okay for daytime viewing.
~ Adultery between straight, former in-laws: okay for daytime viewing.
~ Straight Sex Between a 40 something woman and a young college student who is the brother of her son: okay for daytime viewing.
~ Attempted Murder: okay for daytime viewing
~ Two men deeply in love and completely faithful to each other consummating their nearly year old relationship: Keep dreaming!

Still, they are letting them kiss more (see below for the most recent example, borrowed from Superherofan's Nuke site) and they're not shying away from sex as a topic of conversation between them, at least, so all hope isn't completely lost. In recent weeks, though, Luke & Noah have mostly been involved in the acrimonious break up between Luke's parents. Considering the quality of their recent story lines, maybe it's a good thing to have them take a break for a bit from a story of their own, lest the writers have Noah join the circus and Luke come down with a special sort of amnesia that makes him think he's straight. Wait, I shouldn't be giving them ideas!

The other thing that should be noted is that while Van Hansis was once again deservedly nominated for a Best Younger Actor Daytime Emmy this year (the last year he was eligible for that category), he lost for the second year in a row. Van is one of the most talented actors in the medium and the fact that he has been passed over twice for an Emmy is incredibly sad.

Luke & Noah are still the only gays on daytime, though apparently the primetime spin off of General Hospital (oh-so-creatively entitled General Hospital: Night Shift); which airs on Soap Net, has introduced a gay doctor. Given their track record with the gay character of Lucas Jones, who came out around the same time as ATWT's Luke Snyder, and who stuck around only long enough to come out and be gay bashed before disappearing from the show, I don't know how much hope to hold out for this new character. Rumor has it, though, that he may make the transition to the daytime version of the show.

Meanwhile, just when you thought that the now defunct Passions had done quite enough in its nine year run, they managed to air daytime's first gay wedding. Of course, it didn't actually air on network TV, since Passions had moved to DirectTv after being cancelled last year by NBC. But it's still worth noting that the show that gave us the first African American lesbian character in daytime and the first Down Low storyline (though it turned out that Vincent was a hermaphrodite and Chad was sleeping with his female parts, not his male parts), ended with a milestone gay wedding between Norma & Edna, two middle aged lesbian characters, before going off the air.

When you read about such stories, you might almost think Passions broke some important ground, but of course the stories themselves were often completely unwatchable, so I don't really know just how much impact they had.

It will be interesting to see if other shows begin to incorporate gay characters any time soon. Luke & Noah have been together for close to a year now and have shared several kisses. The world hasn't ended and in fact the pairing has become one of the most popular on the show. Will they remain a one of a kind story, or will other shows try and capitalize on the popularity of the pairing for themselves? With daytime starved for ratings and any increased attention from viewers that they can get, they'd be stupid not to. But then, if you knew how many times the Powers that Be in daytime had demonstrated their stupidity in the last few years, you'd probably lose whatever slim hope you were holding on to.

Daytime and Electoral Soaps

Hello again! I have to admit, I'm not even sure where to pick up after nearly eight months away from blogging.

I've had a few e-mails from people wondering why I hadn't written anything about Luke & Noah in such a long time. There have certainly been some ups and downs for the boys since last August and plenty of off-screen controversy as well, with the apparent No Kissing Allowed mandate having been in effect since last September and the press attention surrounding the campaign by Nuke fans to change it.

Okay, here's a basic summary of what's gone on since I last wrote. After their kiss, Noah tried to fight his feelings for awhile, but in the end he couldn't. Maddie, Noah's girlfriend, took the news rather well, all things considered, and left town for college. Noah's father, the Colonel, didn't see things quite the same way. He pretended to be accepting of his son's boyfriend long enough to lure the boys off on fishing trip with him, where he planned to kill Luke.

What we ended up with as a result was the first of what promises to be many plot devices to keep the boys from being intimate: Luke in a wheel chair.

Of course, Noah was by Luke's side the whole time and helped him regain the use of his legs, but around that time fans started noticing how odd it was that Luke & Noah were no longer kissing. After their ground breaking first kiss in August, they shared one more quick lip lock in September (which Colonel Mayer walked in on), but in spite of some nice romantic moments between the two, their lips just weren't coming together. Even the pivotal moment where Luke took his first post-paralysis steps into Noah's waiting arms was celebrated with a hug.

Still, it wasn't until the now infamous Mistletoe Incident that fans really started seeing red. At Christmas time, they boys found themselves all alone under the mistletoe and finally moved in for another kiss after a three month dry spell... only to have the camera pan up to the mistletoe before their mouths actually met.

ATWT claimed it was an 'artistic decision', but the fans weren't buying it. They retaliated by launching the Kiss Campaign, bombarding the Powers that Be with Hershey's Kisses to make their demand that Luke & Noah be allowed to kiss like any other couple on the soap.

In the months since, there have been several near misses, where the boys moved in for a kiss only to pull apart at the last second for one reason or another. There was also the Valentine's Day episode which featured 'What If' stories about several couples, imagining their lives together in different circumstances. Each couple's story ended with a kiss except for Nuke's. They had to settle for their usual hug.

As if things weren't bad enough, the show has finally hit upon the perfect solution to why two out and proud gay men who are completely in love with each other would refrain from showing physical affection: Ameera. The very name has come to represent all that is wrong with the treatment of daytime's only current gay characters.

You see, it turns out that Noah's evil father was generous to an Iraqi woman and her daughter. His support kept them safe and when it stopped (because of the whole going to prison for trying to kill his gay son's boyfriend thing, you know) the woman died and her daughter, Ameera, managed somehow to get all the way to Oakdale, where Noah had to save her from a return to war torn Iraq by marrying her.

Ta da! Now the boys can't kiss in public for a reason! The INS would send poor innocent Ameera back to Iraq. I guess all the show has to do is refrain from ever showing the boys alone together in private (which they seem to be doing) and the lack of kissing is totally logical!

There have been some good moments along the way, of course, like Noah becoming a part of the Snyder family and even moving to the Snyder farm, and Luke & Noah discussing what they want their first time to be like. But when second base is a pat on the shoulder, I think we've got a long wait before we get to any romantic bedroom scenes.

There was also a conflict with two drunken frat boy types who pulled Ameera into their car. Though the dreaded F Bomb was dropped (and, I'm sorry, I don't think the show should be so free with that word- they've used it twice since Luke came out- if they're not going to show a simple kiss between two guys in love), I was glad to see that rather than being victims Noah & especially Luke fought back and were holding their own and kicking some ass.

But all in all, the story is in a really bad place right now that has a lot of viewers tuning out. The show clearly knows that Nuke is an incredibly popular couple- Van Hansis was just signed to a new, multi-year contract as Luke and the show just won a GLAAD award, not to mention that they've received more press coverage over all of this than they have for anything in decades- but none of that is going to last much longer if this continues. There is a lot of talk about where the No Kissing rule comes from- the network, Procter & Gamble, the producers?- and the show itself denies that such a double standard is in place. The audience isn't stupid, though, and we're not going to settle for second class status for Luke & Noah any more than we would for ourselves.

So that's where things are on the Nuke front. If you're wondering about the other daytime soaps, don't bother. Still no glbt characters is sight outside of Oakdale.

I also got an e-mail recently asking me to weigh in on the question of the year: Hillary or Obama?

I'm tempted to say that it doesn't matter. Neither one is going to be a trailblazer for progressive change, not really. They're both very much a part of the establishment and we should all know by now that the only real change comes from the outside, from the people forcing the establishment to make just enough of a change to keep anything more radical at bay.

I do believe this, but I also know that after the last disastrous seven years, no one can ever really say that it doesn't matter who the President is. Change for the better has to be forced on them, but change for the worse is all too easily accomplished when the wrong person is in the Oval Office.

Clinton and Obama are very similar in their positions on a lot of issues, but I want to look specifically at glbt issues (big surprise, I know).

I can't quite get past the fact that Senator Obama invited not one but several openly anti-gay individuals to join him on a political tour in South Carolina. Yes, he added an openly gay pastor to the tour, but only after he was heavily criticized.

It is true that he's said he's in favor of civil unions and he did vote against the Federal Marriage Amendment. But no Democrat considering a run for the Presidency would dare to vote for it, would they?

It all just makes me nervous about what he actually believes. I don't think for a second that he would be anywhere near as bad on glbt issues as Bush is or McCain would be, but I'm not at all convinced that he'd be open to positive change, either.

As a gay man, I can't quite forget the cop out that was Don't Ask Don't Tell and the slap in the face that was Bill Clinton's signing of the Defense of Marriage Act. But I'm not going to hold Hillary Clinton accountable for anything her husband did in office, any more than I'd hold Barack Obama accountable for something Michelle Obama did in her position at the University of Chicago.

Senator Clinton has spoken out about the failure of Don't Ask Don't Tell and has said she'd repeal the key part of the Defense of Marriage Act that defines marriage as being a union of one man and one woman.

Personally, my vote goes to Senator Clinton. I just think she's more of a known quantity than the freshman Senator from Illinois.

I also want to say that it annoys the hell out of me to see the pressure being brought to bear on her right now to drop out of the race. All this ridiculous talk about having it settled before the convention pisses me off because plenty of people haven't voted yet and to force Clinton out of the race would be to deny them their vote.

The whole system is ridiculous. We should have a national primary election, get it all over with in one day of voting. Then all the people would have their chance to be heard. It's so ridiculous that our primaries drag on for months and months, costing countless millions, and even so are settled before so many people can even cast their vote!