Jack Out of the Box When former Will & Grace costar Sean Hayes came out as gay last fall, it wasn’t exactly earthshattering news; most people had assumed as much. However, Hayes had been studiously coy about his sexuality up to that point, and it would be wrong to confuse his flamboyantly gay character, Jack, with the actor playing that role. Still, he was awfully good at it… (Plus, he does a mean impression of Cher.) In any case, when he finally came out at an award ceremony in L.A., he could not have been more apologetic: “In my mind, my lucky break was inextricably tied to me thinking that I had to stay in the closet in order to keep moving forward. Looking back at my choice to stay silent, I am ashamed and embarrassed.” Okay, he did it for career reasons; but one wonders: perhaps it was the very flamboyance, the stereotypical gayness, of Jack that made it so hard for Hayes to come out. For one thing, he wanted to avoid being typecast: I may be gay, but I’m not that gay. And hey, he wants to be thought of as a good actor, and playing Jack if you are Jack isn’t exactly a stretch.
Be the Victim In the “wedding cake wars” following the legalization of same-sex marriage in various states, one of the players was a bakery in Oregon called After Sweet Cakes, whose owners, Aaron and Melissa Klein, were sued for refusing to bake a cake for a gay couple. In April 2015, an Oregon court awarded the plaintiff $135,000 in damages, a fine that the Kleins paid in full (and placed in escrow pending appeal). Now the Kleins are closing the bakery, and the right-wing media have rallied to their cause. “The Kleins were literally run out of business by an anti-Christian mob,” wrote Fox’s Todd Starnes in an article titled “Family bakery closes after left-wing bullies finally get their pound of cake.” What’s curious is that the Kleins are known to have received over $420,000 in donations from supporters, more than enough to pay that pesky fine. Also, wouldn’t you know, they’ve suddenly started popping up on the right-wing speaking circuit to tell their tale of woe. But, of course, they had to close the business in order to have a tale of woe to tell. Now they can have their cake and—well, you know the rest.
Different Closets “Oregon’s Bisexual Governor Comes Out as a Domestic Violence Survivor,” read the headline—the kind that Tom Wolfe used to write whole essays about after doing a double take. What we notice here is that the governor’s bisexuality is casually assumed, while her history of domestic abuse is an occasion for “coming out.” Sure enough, the article confirms that Governor Kate Brown is indeed bi and a victim of domestic abuse at an unspecified time in the past. That there are darker secrets than being homo- or bisexual is worth noticing—along with the fact that “the closet” and “coming out” has become the universal metaphor for all manner of private revelation—a testament to the fact that at one time being gay was the quintessential secret to be guarded at all costs.
Sweeping Around Curling is one of those sports that we hear about once every four years during the Olympics, have a few laughs over, and quickly forget. It’s that zany game that involves launching a 44-pound stone down an icy lane with the goal of landing it on a bull’s-eye at the other end, complete with sweepers who try to alter its trajectory. It’s a serious sport in lands of ice and snow. Take Canada, which has so many curling leagues that it even has all-gay curling leagues—twelve, in fact, each with its own set of four-member teams. Every team has a name, and here’s where the fun begins. For starters, there’s the Pacific Rim league, whose teams include Don’t Curl for Me Argentina, Sweeping Beauties, Fruit of the Broom, and Curls Gone Wild. Other leagues are known for their costumes and themes: at one tournament, players dressed as Disney villainesses; others have gone with Golden Girls and Wizard of Oz themes. A team marched in last year’s Vancouver Pride parade with T-shirts that read, “I swept with your husband.” Silly stuff, perhaps, but readers of The New York Times (Nov. 14, 2016) needed a diversion.
Schock and Audit When first we reported on Aaron Schock, he was a newly minted U.S. Congressman, an Illinois Republican who was noteworthy for his great looks, workout regimes, photo shoots for men’s fitness magazines, and anti-gay votes in Congress. Also for the fact that he was totally not gay, incriminating photos be damned. We next encountered Schock when he was in hot water for financial malfeasance, but the story was all about what he’d used the diverted funds for: a complete makeover of his D.C. office to replicate a room on Downton Abbey. Perhaps we should have taken his legal troubles more seriously, as recently he was indicted on 24 criminal counts. Curiously, though, just weeks before the indictment, Schock had emerged from nearly two years of obscurity with the kind of media blitz that we had come to know and love: the self-promoting tweets and Facebook posts, the half-naked photos of Aaron working out, engaging in water sports, and so on. He remains in the closet—and may soon be in the slammer—but the important thing is that he still looks fabulous.
Post-election Appeal If there’s any upside to the 2016 election, it is that human rights organizations like Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign (as well as the ACLU and naacp) are being flooded with donations. We believe this magazine also plays an important role in defending GLBT rights and freedom of expression. The G&LR is a nonprofit organization, so your gift is fully tax-deductible. To make a donation, please visit our website at www.GLReview.org.
