It’s Gonna Be Huge All in the interest of keeping our finger on the Zeitgeist as it evolves in ways that those over, say, fifty may not have foreseen: there’s a new gay reality dating show called For the Love of DILFs on OutTV that’s being hosted by Stormy Daniels (yes, that Stormy Daniels). The series features two groups of gay men, “daddies” and “himbos,” who compete for each other’s affections. Daddies are older men (but not too old!), while “himbos” are gay bimbos (get it?). The goal is to be the first lucky couple to find their perfect match (and win $10k!), and among the methods used is—wait for it—the sniffing of underwear to home in on Mr. Right. Did we mention that the host of the show is Stormy Daniels, who has apparently landed on her feet despite the ongoing drama with Donald Trump? Indeed For the Love of DILFs looks like a pretty sweet gig, filmed in Florida, where, believe me, everything is beautyful.
Seriously? Then on to George Santos (R-NY), who seems to be living his nine lives simultaneously, one of which is that of a legislator in the U.S. House. Among the bills he’s cosponsoring is H.R. 115, which is ostensibly about women’s rights but whose real purpose is to deny transgender rights. Of the resolution’s six points, the first three would redefine the word “sex” to mean “biological sex at birth” in various contexts. The other three specify that this definition shall apply to all federal protections related to sex, which would seem to rewrite decades of legislation on sexual equality. Santos is the only out LGBT person in Congress to be a cosponsor—but why? It’s the kind of bill that closeted gay politicians jump on to prove their hetero bona fides, but Santos is openly gay and even used his gayness as a trump card during his campaign, which hasn’t prevented him from speaking out against same-sex marriage and parenting. So, maybe this guy is just a dick, or maybe it’s a case of “internalized homophobia” or generalized feelings of self-hatred—feelings that seem increasingly justified the more we learn.
There’s Always a Twist Another anti-LGBT politician who got caught engaging in decidedly pro-LGBT behavior, another mea culpa, another plunge into that inexplicable realm of closeted gay men whose public homophobia is proportional to their private misbehavior. What makes the case of Tennessee Lt. Governor Randy McNally special is that the object of his affections became a minor celebrity in his own right. McNally has a history of anti-gay rhetoric and support for anti-LGBT legislation, including his administration’s bill (now law) banning drag shows and healthcare for transgender minors. And yet, it seems McNally became smitten with a young man on Instagram named Franklyn (“Finn”), a musician who likes to pose in scanty underwear and sometimes in the nude. McNally was a frequent fan of both styles, writing comments such as “Finn, you can turn a rainy day into rainbows and sunshine!” followed by three heart and three flame emojis. Franklyn, who is presumably the source of the screen shots, revealed that he and McNally have been social media friends for years and have communicated privately. He noted that they’ve never met in person, but he assumes McNally is gay. It turns out he’s well-informed, and his actions may have been strategic: “I just hope that he knows I love him and lgbtq+ loves him and would love him even more if he would open his heart and treat everyone else the way he wants to be treated.”
Pat Robertson Lives Surely it was inevitable that someone would blame LGBT people for the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)—hey, Silicon Valley is close to San Francisco—but it’s surprising how far this meme got in the ideosphere (a coinage), going beyond the Tucker Carlson stage of just making stuff up, all the way to The Wall Street Journal. A kind of explanation was produced, and it all came down to… “wokeness.” The most dumbed-down version was offered (predictably) by Fox News, where Jesse Waters asserted that SVB’s executives, rather than attending to issues like risk management, were spending all their time “holding seminars on Lesbian Visibility Day and National Pride Month.” The Journal was more measured, of course, suggesting that “the company may have been distracted by diversity demands,” while noting that the Board was 45 percent women, with one Black and one lgbtq+ member (aha!). Okay, so let’s say the Board and management were too “woke”—this led them to do what exactly? No actual financial decisions or policies are cited that might be attributed to wokeness or used to explain SVB’s collapse. (For the record, the causes of the collapse are well understood: rising interest rates, etc.) So it turns out it was all about proximity to San Francisco, after all.
