now, tastes more like real life

While I ate my Cheerios this morning, I flipped through the first few pages of the latest Entertainment Weekly and found an article (I can't find it online) lauding gay celebrities for coming out. It's like the press celebrating Bush for his flexibility and for never saying that this was "stay the course." All the celebrities that have come out recently have first spent the past 5 years at least clarifying how straight they are - and THOSE are the ones who get all the press and attention for being totally down with their gay selves. People like Portia de Rossi, who is totally lesbian AND a major sex symbol for guys and girls (just look at her in Arrested Development and Ally McBeal - she was not only sexy for men and women, but sexy WITH men and women) - and no one seemed to care that she was openly lesbian (and dating Ellen). Instead they make a big fuss about pseudo-celebrities like Neil Patrick Harris and LANCE BASS. Imagine the scorn dripping from that name. Look. Don't get me wrong - I'm happy that NPH and Lance and cuddly George from Grey's Anatomy have all come out and are now comfortable around town with their boifs and all that. But I'm tired of the media talking about how it's totally cool to be gay in the entertainment industry. Clearly it's not when Burke from Grey's (I don't like him so I am not looking up his real name) calls his costar a "fag" on set, or when NPH and others like him hide from media coverage of their sexuality until ubiquitous rumors on blogs overtake their own PR machine. If it was really just dandy to be gay in Hollywood, then no one would make such a big damn deal about it, now would they?

Anyway, all this is just to say I'm glad someone else finally noticed this ridiculousness, and also noticed how "out and proud" actors like T.R. Knight (for the record, I think that he was pretty even headed about his coming out - there was no rumor mill and there was just a two sentence statement saying he hoped that the fact he was gay was not the least interesting part about him - which it's not) are playing highly unmanly characters on TV still (George is often called "Bambi," although his fishing expertise last week may have made him seem a little more useful at "manly" things than, say, Carev, who apparently only knows how to talk about boxing to unborn babies and say incendiary things).