the awesome/terrifying freedom

my play opens this friday. things have been crazy so not as much blog action lately. there are of course some tidbits.

in what was obviously part of a last ditch attempt to prevent gene robinson from being voted in as the first openly gay episcopal bishop, the investigation has ended and the vote will continue. i don't envy his position. he has got to be the most squeaky-clean gay men ever to exist in order to win this vote. i mean, if evidence that you once visited a porn site is enough to scrap you, then wow, i guess i'll have to break it to my mom that my career in the church is over.

walt chimes in response to my post last week saying "Maybe if the Vatican would allow priests to be married, their problem wouldn't as big as it is." i read an article in salon - this was awhile ago, when the child abuse stuff was sexploding (ha, that was a typo, but i like it). the article's main thesis was 'well, what do you expect to happen when you provide a place for sexually repressed and troubled men to seek refuge?' as david cross puts it: 'i mean come on. how could you not fuck that virgin pink starfish?? i mean puh-leese. how could you not fuck that?'

if you found that funny, i highly suggest you run out and buy a copy of 'shut up you fucking baby' by david cross.

chris wrote me to ask 'Hey Joe. Are you planning on endorsing any of the Democratic presidential nominees soon?' at the bottom of his email was a link to outfordean.com. wow. i'm being solicited to publicly endorse a candidate, which is a brilliant grass-roots campaign strategy - get the bloggers on your side. could i possibly have the kind of reach that would make a difference in an election? hmm..

a woman named tina wrote me this week to say Just so you know, I am a 42 year old stay at home mom and love your site. Your writing is so entertaining! I love it when you get political. I know several other people from all walks of life who also read your blog. thanks tina! it's so great to hear that - especially since i've taken a bit of flack for getting political on the blog. could i become the harry knowles of gay politics? would be nice.

during the last presidential election, i was a resident of florida. yep. i was in florida during all the recount hoopla. i was also teaching college classes to voting-age students. i'll never forget the sinking feeling that had i only encouraged everyone in my classes to vote - not even necessarily to vote for gore, that i alone could have made a tangible difference on a national level. so thanks for kicking my ass chris. i won't let apathy and indifference win me over this time around.

check out the outfordean website. wow, lots of hot gay men support howard dean! c'mon joe, you know you want to do it too. all the hot guys are doing it. straight acting gay actors robert gant and chad allen are doing it. look at their big solid democratic pecs and left-slanting jawlines. danny roberts from 'the real world' is doing it. look at that sugary twinkle in his eyes. how can you resist? vote for dean.. vote for dean..

i don't know. i'm still too ignorant on all of this to commit to a solid endorsement right now. i will dedicate the next couple weeks to finding out more about the candidates - and will post my findings. any smart democratic candidate is going to solicit the gay vote - i want to know which ones actually have a history of gay support. i also want to know who reichen is voting for. oh and who that vacuous chris from 'the real world chicago' is voting for. and who mango is voting for. and carson from queer eye.

not to be the gay spokesperson for lesbians, but don't you think it's interesting that all the pictures on outfordean.com are of men? i mean, they've got melissa etheridge's support. she's a household name, and instead we've got a picture of chad allen who hasn't done anything since 'dr. quinn'? what gives?