Okay, book review. This week I read Boze Hadleigh's Hollywood Gays: Conversations With: Cary Grant, Liberace, Tony Perkins, Paul Lynde, Cesar Romero, Randolph Scott.

I really loved this book.

Paul Lynde comes across very funny. I think I enjoyed most reading his chapter and the interviews with Dick Sargent and Waylon Flowers.

And it's really something to read this book. I think it was the right week for it because it was the week Ava and C.I. noted "Call Her Heroic (Ava and C.I.):"

We're told that various people can't come out because it would destroy their careers. We don't believe that. But, okay, fine, stay in your closets if you have to. What's the reason for keeping someone closeted after they've died?

THE NEW YORK TIMES supports enshrining the dead in a closeted tomb. Of course, they do. They have to. Mel Gussow reviewed or 'reviewed' plays and based his opinions on who he slept with -- if, he slept with an actor in the play before the play (especially if he paid for sex), he panned the play. Gussow wasn't alone at THE TIMES and to this day we're all supposed to pretend that this well known john to countless men was straight. It goes to the paper's image.

We don't give a s**t. The image -- the false image -- needs to be dismantled for truth. Even if you did nothing in life to help equality, in death your truths can help others. Your truths can explode the lies of right-wing hate merchants who want to pretend that there is no historical truth to LGBTQ+ persons. Your truths can provide reality to the ignored history.

As CALL ME ANNE makes clear, Anne Heche always lived in her truth. As life made clear, even in her final days, Anne had to take hate from people. She was so much better than the times she lived in.

There are truths in the book that provide reality. So many gay people who were in the closet. So many that we embraced and that knowing the truth about would make a difference.

Cary Grant. Why can't his daughter talk about the truth today? Who's going to be harmed? Randolph Scott is in the book -- Cary's lover. The book has people talking about Gary Cooper. They were talking about some millionaire kept him. I thought, "I didn't know Anderson Lawler was rich." Anderson was his love affair. Turns out, he also had a rich man who kept him.

I liked the chapter on Caser Romero -- especially when they talked about books on gay actors -- like Sal Mineo -- were minimized or avoided and when they wrote about someone who had come out as bi -- like Marlon Brando -- results in a book that ignores his public comments and instead renders him straight.

It's historical and really increased my understanding and perspective.

Gays were hidden and not by accident and not just in the 50s.

It's a really great book. Also loved the chapter with Richard Deacon -- Mel Coolie on The Dick Van Dyke Show.

I read the book on Amazon Kindle and strongly recommend it.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Friday, February 24, 2023. The wars

Starting with the war on the LGBTQ+ community, let's note this report from QUEER NEWS TONIGHT on the over 120 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced in January by Republican politicians across the country. Over 120.

For a state-by-state look at these bills, you can refer to this page at the ACLU website.

They sold the Iraq War, now THE NEW YORK TIMES sells transphobia. Josh Marcus (INDEPENDENT) reports:

Critics have long argued that theTimes is falling short in its LGTBQ+ coverage, particularly of trans kids, but the debate around the publication’s standards exploded into public view last week.

Thousands of Times contributors signed onto an open letter, organized by the Freelance Solidarity Project and delivered to leadership on 15 February, which voiced “serious concerns about editorial bias in the newspaper’s reporting on transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people.”

The letter accused the storied paper of violating its own ethical standards around neutrality by treating “gender diversity with an eerily familiar mix of pseudoscience and euphemistic, charged language, while publishing reporting on trans children that omits relevant information about its sources.”

The letter pointed to a recent article referring to a person seeking gender-affirming healthcare with the term “patient zero,” and another instance where a source’s affiliation with an anti-trans hate groups wasn’t mentioned.

The document noted with dismay that coverage by The New York Times has been cited by various GOP officials who are waging attacks on trans youth in court and in legislatures across the country; it argued that the Times was fueling a similar media-political feedback loop that saw previous generations demonise those with HIV/Aids and those who were gay.

You may remember the great Glenneth Greenwald snickering and pooh-pahing the letter. It's because he doesn't know journalism. He had some legal training -- not good legal training -- though I do love the story from those years about how he went on a transphobic rant when a group of friend proposed they see PARIS IS BURNING, it's so very Glenneth -- but he's had no journalistic training at all and he doesn't understand what it's about to this day.

It's no surprise that Glenneth would join NYT in endorsing the attacks, that's how he made his pathetic name, after all, by joining NYT's war on Iraq. That is his history.

You'd think by now he'd put some effort into being a decent human being but you would be wrong.

And he runs with others who are, at best, disappointing.

Max Blumenthal is disgusting.

He attacked Jaqueline Luqman on Jimmy Dore's YOUTUBE program -- with Aaron Mate nodding along. He lied about her.

BLACK POWER MEDIA called his lies out.

He lies about her.

He attacks Jaqueline Luqman with lies and then we see his followers throughout the thread -- a bunch of White racists and Indian racists attacking her for her race. And no one's supposed to notice that?

Let's pretend that at least one or two of Max's fans honestly do not get it and let's try to walk them through slowly.

If someone is racist, they aren't your friend. It's not a can't-we-work-together-in-Congress Dem and Rep issue. This is someone signing up for your destruction. No, you cannot ask African-Americans to just try to get along with racists. Do racists stay racist their whole lives. No. People can learn and they can grow. But it's not the responsibility of an African-American to educate a White racist (or one from India). Nor should anyone dismiss concerns of violence. African-Americans have very good reasons -- historical -- for not electing to mix with racists. You're too entitled and privileged if you can't see that on your own.

And asking them to 'work together'?

How very Phyllis George of you, Max, how very Phyllis George.

Before Gayle King put CBS THIS MORNING on the map, the show was a joke for decades. Never so much as when Phyllis George had her infamous moment. Gary Dotson had just been released from prison after the woman who said he raped her, Cathy Webb, admitted she lied. CBS just knew the thing to do was have them both on the program at the same time. At the end of the segment, Phyllis suggested, "How about a hug?" (CRAPAPEDIA is yet again wrong, she did not ask them to "hug it out" -- she did not use those words, nor would anyone have in 1985 -- so CRAPAPEDIA needs to take them out of quotes. I would love it if I didn't have to dictate and anticipate e-mails at the same time. But I did say, "Stop, look up Phyllis George on CRAPAPEDIA and tell me if they quote her." They did. They have it wrong. Refer to Tom Shales, WASHINGTON POST report in real time -- May of 85 -- and if the link for it isn't there when this goes up, give me an hour or two -- we're doing Zooms -- and I'll have put it in myself.)

That's what Max basically wants, an African-American to give a racist a hug and then come work with him and the racists on his issue.

That is disrespectful and its ignorant.

And how dare you ask the oppressed to make nice with their oppressor. On the face of it, Max should have realized how stupid this was.

Max and his ilk whine about both-side-ism all the time. What's more both-side-ist than asking someone targeted with racism to work with a racist. Civil rights and racism are not two equal views.

Max chose to go with racists and transphobes and that's, sorry, because he is both.

That's why Anya Panya can't stop mocking trans persons online at her Twitter account. It's why Max can't recognize that African-Americans are not his minions. Just because he wants -- he says -- to avoid a nuclear war, doesn't mean they give up their own agency and their own beliefs to toe his line. But when you don't see a person as a person due to their race, when you think you own their actions -- and, indeed, think you own them, that's racism. Racism is also evident in Max's response to Jacqueline. He attacks her because she won't do what he wants, he attacks her with lies and tries to ignite his White (and Indian) mob against her. Max, you're doing everything but disclosing her address as you hand out white sheets.

It is not a good look for you.

Once upon a time, Max, you were a very cute little boy who had the widest smile and the biggest heart. If you've let the world beat that out of you, that makes me want to cry. That's who I saw for years now when others picked on or attacked you and why I rushed to your defense over and over. You are so much better than your current behavior indicates. You owe it to who you were to take a look at how you're behaving right now.

Michael Anderson: I was bartending that evening when the attack began. I felt more terrified than I ever have before. I ran for my life that night and hid -- praying and hoping the violence would end. When I stared down the barrel of that gun, I realized I stood no chance against a weapon of that power, magazine capacity, and seemingly automatic firing rate. While I prepared for my life to end in that moment, I prayed. I panicked. And I prayed some more. God must have heard my prayers because two brave men stopped the shooter moments before he would have inevitably found me. I saw my friend lying on the floor, bleeding out, knowing there was little to no chance of surviving the bullet wound. I had to tell him goodbye while I continued to fear for my life, not knowing if the attack was truly over.

Michael Anderson from his Congressional testimony in December of last year -- see this snapshot -- describing what happened at Club Q. The shooting left five people dead:

Daniel Davis Aston, 28

Kelly Loving, 40

Ashley Paugh, 35

Derrick Rump, 38

Raymond Green Vance, 22

The shooting also left twenty-five people injured. We'll quote former US House Rep Carolyn Maloney from a US House Oversight Committee press release on that hearing:

“Last month, a person with an AR-15-style assault rifle entered Club Q—a nightclub that served as a haven for LGBTQI+ people in the Colorado Springs community—and opened fire on unsuspecting bar patrons and staff. The attacker’s depravity robbed us of five innocent lives—Daniel Aston, Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh, and Derrick Rump,” said Chairwoman Maloney in her opening statement. “Let us honor them by recommitting to the bold action necessary to ensure that every person in the United States can experience the freedom to live authentically and safely—regardless of who they love or how they identify.”

The great Glenneth, of course, rushed forward to insist that the shooter being non-binary meant that it wasn't homophobia.

It was shocking because you'd think if anyone would be an expert on internalized homophobia, it would be Glenneth.

As we noted then, it was very likely that the shooter was dealing with issues of homophobia -- whether the shooter was non-binary or not.

John Russell (LGBTQ NATION) reports:

Detective Rebecca Joines testiftied that Aldrich ran a neo-Nazi website that featured a white supremacist training video glorifying mass shootings, posted an image of a Pride parade with a rifle scope trained on it, and used anti-LGBTQ+ and racist slurs while gaming. Joines said that while those who knew Aldrich were unaware that they identified as nonbinary, Aldrich had told them that their mother, Laura Voepel, was nonbinary and had taken them to gay bars. Aldrich’s defense showed a photo of Aldrich and Voepel at Club Q taken in August 2021.

Joines also testified that there was evidence that Aldrich planned to livestream the shooting.

We'll wind down with this from the one and only Jody Watley, the legend, the trend setter, the show stopper, the dance queen, the fashionista, the all around wonderful person, will be hosting her own program starting next month. Reposting from Jody's site:

Jody Watley Celebrates Women’s History Month With New Radio Show

Posted on February 23, 2023

NEW ON EURWEB: HERE

“Check out Jody Watley! She is out here making boss moves. For instance, in celebration of Women’s History Month, the musical icon will host a new monthly 2-hour show exclusively on SiriusXM’s The Groove. The first guest will be Emmy winning actress Sheryl Lee Ralph.

Read the full story on Eurweb

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Adding to Jody's post, in case anyone needs a reminder, two videos. "Real Love" and "Still A Thrill."