Ah, March Madness. It seems to be everywhere, not just the basketball courts. LGBT people may be getting more visible on the tube in drama series and especially sitcoms, but they are not getting more visible on the news. At all. We haven't seen a recent GLAAD report on this (meaning we looked, and there isn't one), but what percent of TV news is devoted to LGBT issues? We're pretty sure it's hovering near zero.
Yes, we know we got a lot of attention to marriage equality last year. So much, apparently, that Mediaite's TV writer Joe Concha had to complain that he was seeing way too much about the gays on his TV news. But in reality, as opposed to straight white dudes getting their tidy whities in a homophobic bunch, do we ever come up on TV news if there isn't a Supreme Court decision? Not really. Yes, the Arizona bill that would have allowed businesses to discriminate against us got attention. But have you heard anything about the other anti-gay bill in the Arizona legislature? No, you have not.
In the next week or two, the Arizona House is expected to vote on HB 2481, which would allow judges and justices of the peace to refuse to officiate at same-sex weddings. Arizona does not yet have marriage equality, but the bill would act as an end-run around same-sex marriages when the issue comes up for review, which is expected to happen in the next year. That's a news item. Given the attention to the Arizona business bill, wouldn't it make sense for the national news to continue to run with the Arizona storyline? If it were a soap opera it would.
Speaking of what gets covered and what doesn't, it's been all Ukraine, all the time for the past couple of weeks on network news. What hasn't been part of the reportage is that the little coup we've supported over there was promulgated in large part by nationalists. Remember those from history? They were, you know, Nazis.
Ukraine is not some pro-gay democracy, folks. All the things we were protesting last month in Sochi? The anti-gay policies in Russia? They go double for Ukraine. Here's a sound bite from last year's TV news for you: As Al-Jazeera broadcast, Archbishop Sviatslav Shevchuk called homosexuality the same as murder. Shevchuk's the head of the Kiev Ukrainian Orthodox Church. So, like the Pope Francis of Kiev. Except vile. Al-Jazeera also reported that Ukrainian gays feared coming out of the closet due to repercussions. We're pretty sure with nationalists in control of the fledgling post-coup government, that's not going to get better.
Speaking of news about LGBT people you're not seeing, where are the stories on the horrifying violence against gay men and lesbians in Nigeria and Uganda? That violence has revved up since Uganda President Yoweri Museveni signed the world's most dangerous anti-gay law on Feb. 24. Gay men and lesbians are being pulled out of their houses and beaten. In January, a gay man was burned alive.
At the United Nations Human Rights Council conference being held last week, Ugandan Ambassador Christopher Onyanga Aparr said that sexual orientation was "not a fundamental human right" as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The new Uganda law makes being openly gay or lesbian a crime punishable by life in prison. It also makes harboring known lesbians or gay men a crime. Ugandans are urged to turn lesbians and gay men in to the police. You know, like Jews in Nazi Germany.
Yet Aparr told the UN Council, "It is important to underscore the fact that the law is not intended to discriminate, persecute or punish homosexuals by the sheer fact of their sexual orientation. Rather, the law is aimed at protecting and defending Ugandan society from social disorientation." The law absolutely discriminates, since it sends gay men and lesbians to prison for life.
Aparr also used the Putin defense that was so decried last month prior to the Olympics. He said, "It seeks to protect our children from those engaged in acts of recruiting them into homosexuality and lesbianism." He also said, "The law also aims at discouraging homosexuals from publicly exhibiting their sexuality and sexual acts or practices." These outrageous homophobic sound bites would have translated perfectly to TV newscasts. So why didn't they make the news? If ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, PBS and Univision had no room for it on their telecasts (please), what's the excuse for CNN and MSNBC? Those are 24-hour news networks. That's all they do: news.
Two countries are treating gay men and lesbians the way the Nazis treated the Jews. We handled the Holocaust pretty badly. Are we going to do the same thing with gay men and lesbians in Africa? Because state-sanctioned murder is a global concern.
More news you're not seeing is this: the U.S. is still giving millions in foreign aid to both Nigeria and Uganda. Hundreds of millions. You might want to ask your local and national news networks why they aren't reporting that. And while you're headed for social media blitzing, check this out: Stop the Outing of Gay & Lesbian Ugandans [www.allout.org//en/actions/uganda-corps]. That's to end the ad campaigns in newspapers and on TV urging outing of gay men and lesbians, which is, as we said, a death sentence.
And now back to our regular programming.
New normal
Ryan Murphy's The Normal Heart with the gorgeous Matt Bomer doesn't air on HBO until May, but the buzz is beginning. And we wanted to segue from that horrifying news about lesbians and gays to something sublime. Like Matt Bomer.
Or Jim Parsons. As Neil Patrick Harris exists stage left as CBS' How I Met Your Mother moves toward the series finale, Parsons is primed to take over the slot of best-loved-out-gay-sitcom star. Parsons (Big Bang Theory ) is a regular on the late-night talk-show circuit and is always a delight. But when Parsons hosted SNL March 1, OMG. Hilarity ensued.
It's easy to conflate sitcom actors with their characters. Parsons did a fabulous job of making it clear he is not Sheldon Cooper. Parsons' portrayal of gay Olympic skater Johnny Weir was fantastic. Weir is known for his high-camp outfits, and Parsons didn't disappoint. As he was interviewed by Ellen (played by lesbian cast member Kate MacKinnon), he wore skintight leather pants, pink jacket, foufy necklace, rainbow fur jacket and a 1920s-style headdress. Weir apparently took it in stride, tweeting, "I need Jim Parsons' necklace from his Johnny Weir parody on @nbcsnl."
Speaking of laughs, Glee is back, which makes us happy, just because it's still there and so very gay. Oh, and we caught this tidbit: Lea Michelle (Rachel) says she would so play a lesbian on Looking. We're more than ready. She has always been a fave of ours.
CBS has a caustic new sitcom that debuts March 31. We highly recommend it, having seen the preview. #FWBL (Friends with Better Lives) is sharp and funny. It stars James Van Der Beek, proving as he did on the regrettably short-lived and funny (and tres gay) ABC sitcom Don't Trust the B- in Apt. 23 that he is a comedic genius. Put this on the DVR now.
You are also going to want to catch NBC's new series American Dream Builders. Why? Because it's the new vehicle for gay interior designer Nate Berkus. The show debuts March 23 in the early slot on Sundays, so it won't interfere with the Sunday lineup. Berkus is always worth watching, and any time a gay man gets his own show on network TV, we send up a big cheer.
There's still more new shows debuting, thanks to the new and improved expansion of the TV seasons, and more of the old faves are headed back for spring: Game of Thrones (is Peter Dinklage the sexiest little person who ever lived?), and Mad Men returns for its seventh and final season next month.
New this month are two dramas on NBC (who knew NBC really could turn things around?): Crisis, starring perennial lesbian heartthrob Gillian Anderson (Scully from The X Files) and Believe . Crisis is the latest in a series of thrillers about terrorism, government, and how things really can go horribly wrong in a nanosecond. Also in the cast are Dermot Mulroney, Rachael Taylor, Lance Gross and Michael Beach. Fast-paced and somewhat edgy, it debuts March 16 opposite gay-fave heavyweights like ABC's returning Revenge and Downton Abbey.
Also debuting March 16 on NBC is Believe, a sci-fi/fantasy about telekinesis and other intriguing things. This series is created by Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuaron, so all eyes are on this one. Expect to see some of the same dazzling visuals that won him the Oscar for Gravity. Starring the always entertaining Kyle MacLachlan. This one plays against The Good Wife, which returns from hiatus the same night with a three-episode arc featuring everyone's favorite bisexual-lesbian-what-is-she character, Kalinda (Archie Panjabi).
And we're not done yet: ABC's new thriller/horror series Resurrection debuted March 9 in the slot before Revenge. This is one superb series and was developed by Brad Pitt, who is beginning to look like a major player in Hollywood after 12 Years a Slave. Starring dramatic heavyweights Omar Epps, Matt Craven, Frances Fisher, Kurtwood Smith, among others. The plot: What happens in a small Missouri town when the loved ones of the town's residents return. From the dead. Yeah, exactly. We're gonna need a second DVR just for Sundays!
Speaking of DVRing shows, we have never been a devotee of ABC's Dancing with the Stars, but it is the perfect show to DVR and then just watch the dancing and judging and cut out all the warming up if it doesn't interest you (it doesn't interest us). The new season was just announced, and among the contestants are lesbian world-champion swimmer Diana Nyad and the U.S. Olympic ice-dancing Gold Medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White. We're not sure how Nyad is out of water, but we're certain Davis and White will be spectacular. DWTS has announced a series of changes in the show's formatting this season, so it might even be worth watching straight through.
We're loving Arrow on the CW, especially the character Sin played by lesbian heartthrob Bex Taylor-Klaus. Now we have even more reason to love the adorable Bex, who has collaborated on an anti-bullying video. Check it out on YouTube. This young woman is bound to be making headlines as one of our new spokespersons.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has always trumpeted the "stories ripped from the headlines," and the March 5 episode was a stunner. Now in its 15th year, it's the longest-running drama on TV, and this is one of its finest, most complex seasons ever. We expected an episode about hazing of college football recruits, and that is what we got. But with a total gay angle. Small-town Georgia African-American football player comes to the Big Apple to be feted by a college looking for another star. But when it turns out the player, Cedric, has already signed with another school, the coach decides on some hazing. Cedric is taken to the gym, blindfolded and serviced by some sexy cheerleaders. Or maybe not.
As the story unfolds, Cedric is arrested for gay-bashing a man outside a gay club. But his gay-panic defense is revealed to be much more. Cedric was actually serviced by Ty, a slight, flaming Asian student at the college who is beholden to the football team. Cedric is then dropped off at the "sports bar," only to be hit on by several men.
The story gets more and more complex, and we won't divulge the rest so you can watch for yourselves if you missed it. This episode addressed a myriad of issues related to gays and sports, pulling in elements of recent scandals and also the problems the NFL has with gay players. The rape-culture aspect is there: this is a tale of rape being used as a tool to subjugate. But the complicated layering of rape, forced masculinity, homophobia, gay-bashing and the perils of the closet is heartbreakingly real. The repeated cries throughout this episode of "I'm not gay!" resonate for all the wrong reasons. And the horrifying consequences of both forced masculinity and closeting are brutally clear.
SVU addresses what those of us living gay and lesbian in the real world know is a sad reality: 45 years after Stonewall, Ellen may be hosting the Oscars and turning up in bed with her wife Portia De Rossi in Jimmy Kimmel's Oscar after-party show, but the closet is where the majority of lesbians and gays still are. Because of all the reasons outlined in this episode of SVU. There is still no real room for men to be both masculine and gay for straight America. And there's little room even in the LGBT community for men who are the flamers of old.
Finally, it was only a matter of time before someone gave Lindsay Lohan her own reality show. Our favorite bisexual bad girl is trying to clean up her act, and how better to do that than on TV, right? Lindsay debuted March 9 on OWN, and Oprah has been accused of exploiting the young star who has been in and out of jail and rehab for what seems like longer than she's had a career. According to Lohan on Extra! however, "I did it because it's not a reality show, it's pretty raw. Obviously it's TV, so things will be edited in certain ways to get ratings, which I can't control, but I do know that my intentions going into it were really pure and honest. I appreciate all that's happened and all that Oprah has done for me."
Let's hope this show is the turning point for the talented Lohan, and that the closet becomes less inviting as the series progresses. So for all these fabulous shows, and to see if LGBT people ever make the news, you know you really must stay tuned.