What Just Happened? The facts are simple and few in this story out of Cincinnati, where a sophomore at Mariemont High School named Cass Steiner was recently voted Homecoming Princess by her classmates. But it soon divides into Rashomon-like narratives according to one’s point of view. Cass was thrilled to be the school’s first transgender Homecoming Princess, and her entire family was celebrating—until they were informed by a guidance counselor that the vote was apparently a student prank. He suggested that Cass decline the title, but in the spirit of Putney Swope—perhaps a few readers will remember this 1969 film—she refused to step down, and embraced her new role. Then a number of students came forward and said that they knew about the plan to vote en masse for Cass, but they didn’t see it as a prank and genuinely liked the idea. Cass, for her part, has embraced that interpretation and become something of an activist for the cause. At the homecoming event, a group of supporters showed up with signs that read “We love our warrior” and “You are more than a princess. You are a QUEEN!” A high compliment indeed.
Managing the Ménage It’s time to revisit a trio we came to know a few years ago: Jerry Falwell Jr., his wife Becki, and former pool boy Giancarlo Granda. When last we met them, Jerry Jr. had just been forced to resign as president of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, not for his unusual ménage with wife and pool boy, but instead for financial malfeasance related to his need to buy Granda’s silence on the matter. But lest we skip over the juicy part, the sexual MO for this threesome apparently involved Granda having intercourse with Becki while Jerry watched and did what men do. The new news is that the whole sordid affair is explained in a documentary titled God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty. The film confirms the role of Michael Cohen as the fixer who undid the deal between Falwell and Granda, which involved the transfer of $1.8 million of university money to Granda’s hotel project. Did we mention that Cohen was Donald Trump’s personal lawyer at that time? Soon after that, in January 2016, Falwell endorsed Trump for president, which was undoubtedly a factor in the 81 percent of Evangelicals who voted for him. In a final twist, Falwell has declared that the only reason his financial shenanigans in Lynchberg came to light is because he endorsed Trump for president, and he’s probably right. Call it karma.
Here She Comes The Miss Universe pageant has been bought by Thai trans celebrity and businesswoman Jakapong Jakrajutatip. According to Reuters, Jakrajutatip is the third richest trans woman in the world. (Is there an official score card for this sort of thing?) But the fun part is that the Miss Universe pageant was once owned by none other than Donald Trump. This came up in one of his debates with Hilary Clinton, who accused him of buying the pageant so he could hang around the dressing rooms, which he did, and not without incident (Miss Venezuela’s accusation of sexual harassment in 1996). Lately Trump has been going on anti-trans rants in speeches, adding a new touch of irony to the purchase. And a curious detail: in 2013, Trump traveled to Russia to check out Moscow as a possible Miss Universe site, and he finagled a meeting with Vladimir Putin. Just weeks after Moscow was announced as the winning site, Putin signed the infamous law criminalizing “gay propaganda.” Coincidence? Perhaps, but—as in the story above—it’s remarkable how often Trump is just one degree of separation from the sleaziest action in the room.
Good to Know For gay guys of a certain generation, rock stars like Mick Jagger and David Bowie and Lou Reed played an outsize role in liberating the libido from the straitjacket of, well, straightness. Still, there was always that slightly uneasy feeling that they may not have come by their androgyny honestly, that it was all just an act to sell records. Jagger, after all, has had four female partners or wives and has eight children (it’s two and two for Bowie). It may be vulgar to wonder whether these godlike figures ever actually did the nasty with another dude, but hey, we’re only human. There have been various corroborations over the years, but a new book titled The Stone Age: Sixty Years of the Rolling Stones, by Lesley-Ann Jones, has dug deep and confirmed that Jagger had sexual relations with David Bowie, guitarist Mick Taylor, band member Keith Richards, Austrian actor Helmut Berger, and others. Which is reassuring and not surprising, but… Keith Richards?!
