Category: uncategorized

Interesting report from Jeddah on the emergence of gay culture in Saudi Arabia, which incidentally mentions a subgroup within the community, Filipino foreign workers: “Queer Sheik.” By the way, I suppose The New Republic thought themselves clever in using a homophone (har har, homophone) for “chic,” but at first I thought the article was actually going to be about an openly gay sheik. Anyway. (Link via Arts & Letters Daily.)

In recent months… Jeddah’s malls have become meeting places for another group: homosexuals. Gay Saudi men now cruise certain malls and supermarkets, openly making passes at each other, and one street in Jeddah is said to have the most traffic accidents in the city because it is the most popular place for Saudi drivers to pick up gay Filipinos, who strut their stuff on the sidewalk in tight jeans and cut-off t-shirts. (Filipinos are one of the larger groups of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia.) Meanwhile, gay and lesbian discos, gay-friendly coffee shops, and even gay-oriented Internet chat rooms are now flourishing in some Saudi cities; in the chat rooms, gay and lesbian Saudis discuss the best places to meet people for one-night stands. “We talk about places that aren’t gay cruising areas, because they’re now in the minority,” says one young gay Saudi, only half-jokingly.

More intellectual nitpicking:

• This morning on the Metro I was reading Express, the free, “lite” version of the Post (when they first started publishing it last year I told myself it wasn’t worth reading, but hey, I get bored sometimes), and one AP report back in the entertainment section speculated on additional Harry Potter books following Harry into adulthood, and ran under the headline “Boy Wizard to Become Warlock?” Now I’m no sci-fi/fantasyologist, but isn’t there some odd taxonomical leap there? Doesn’t “warlock” imply some kind of evil? (Chime in here, Thom et al.) I don’t think that’s what they wanted to imply, but who knows.
• Just now I was reading an article online which mentioned the White House AIDS czar, and I’m wondering how and why these types of policy positions ever came to be called “czar“? Like “drug czar,” who on the national level is the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and so forth. Yes, I know this current American usage has been around for a while (I remember first hearing it in the Reagan days), but as a political term doesn’t it just seem a little strange even for informal use?

A heads up to locals: Thursday, Mar. 11 is Dining Out for Life. Over 130 participating restaurants in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia will donate 25 to 100% of your bill to Food & Friends, an organization that prepares and delivers meals to people living with HIV/AIDS and other illnesses. Check out their website for a list of restaurants, and info on events in other cities.

Some quick midseason TV notes:

• At long last, new episodes of BBC America’s What Not To Wear start up Tuesday, Mar. 9 at 9 p.m.
• UPN’s CGI-animated comedy Game Over, about the Smashenburns, a family whose day jobs are video game characters, premieres Wednesday, Mar. 10 at 8 p.m.
• Yes, I will check out Playing It Straight on Fox and hope it’s not too much of a train wreck. Which it probably will be. The premiere is Friday, Mar. 12 at 8 p.m. I’ll also take a look at The Help on the WB (Friday, Mar. 5 at 9:30 p.m.), if only for Al Santos. I mean, come on.
• USA is remaking the British series Touching Evil (Friday, Mar. 12). Eh, could be interesting.
• Ioan Gruffud, maybe best known as A&E’s Horatio Hornblower, comes back to the small screen in a legal drama set in the year 2030, Century City on CBS (Tuesday, Mar. 16 at 9 p.m.).

Anything else new I should watch out for? I know it’s not an exciting season, but hey, the TiVo is always ready and willing. By the way, this Saturday night (Mar. 6), Colin Firth hosts Saturday Night Live with musical guest Norah Jones. Thanks to Rajani for the heads up.

Last night’s rally was cool. The turnout was huge, spilling onto the streets around the HRC building. There was a long roster of speakers (perhaps more than I’d expected), but I thought the most memorable was 13-year-old Jake, a boy with two mothers, whose speech about his family was simple and moving. Proponents of the marriage amendment keep saying how marriage is about family and children. Well, that’s a family right there, just one of hundreds of thousands of gay families that deserve the right of recognition. (By the way, is it just us, or did the rally get no media coverage at all?)

In other news, D.C. mayor Anthony Williams has asked the corporation counsel to weigh in on whether the District should legally recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. Nota bene: the current corporation counsel, Robert Spagnoletti, is gay, with a domestic partner and adopted child. Interesting.

On the Hill yesterday a Senate Judiciary subcommittee held an initial hearing on the amendment and related issues. Transcripts of the testimony and statements are up on the web.

Finally on a nonpolitical note (in this town we all need a break from politics sometime), there will be a Gay Life and Wedding Expo on Sunday, Apr. 4. Sounds like fun.

A reminder: the local rally against the federal marriage amendment is tonight at 5:45 p.m. in front of the HRC (at 17th and Rhode Island). Come on down!

Well, there’s been a lot of related news in the past week (perhaps it’s worth a “gay marriage” sideblog), so here’s a rundown of selected points:

• officials in Multnomah county, Ore., began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples today.
• California governor Schwarzenegger, who previously speculated that the San Francisco issuances could lead to riots, said on Monday that he’d be fine with gay marriage if state voters and courts approved it. (I’m not exactly thrilled, though; it’s basically a legalistic concession, not a philosophical endorsement.)
• last week a Georgia constitutional amendment banning gay marriage failed to pass in the state’s House of Representatives, and will be reconsidered; a Mississippi constitutional amendment will be on the state ballot in November.
• New York news: attorney general Eliot Spitzer said state laws do not allow same-sex marriage, but uncertainty on constitutional questions of equal protection will have to be settled by the courts; New Paltz mayor Jason West was charged with misdemeanor counts for solemnizing marriages for couples who did not have licenses; Ithaca and Nyack had begun officially recognizing same-sex marriages–the former will offer legal help to gay couples who go to court if their marriage license applications are denied by the state, and the latter plans to perform ceremonies as early as this week.

[Clarification: While Spitzer’s opinion is that New York law prohibits the state’s mayors and town leaders from performing same-sex marriage ceremonies, he believes it does allow recognition of such marriages performed in other jurisdictions.]

By the way, the April issue of Atlantic Monthly has a piece by Jonathan Rauch (whose writing I enjoy; “Caring for Your Introvert” is one of my favorites), entitled “A More Perfect Union.” “Advocates and opponents of same-sex marriage agree on one point: something needs to be done about it on a nationwide basis. But why not consider a different approach?” I’m looking forward to it.

First though, another tidbit for the “you know you’re gay when…” file: last night I had a dream which featured Alias star Jennifer Garner. What was she doing? Singing something Sondheim-ish (not quite “The Ladies Who Lunch,” but close) and dancing around on top of a grand piano. And what else do I remember thinking at the time? That (1) she looks great in her evening gown (basically the same shade as the lovely dress she wore at the Oscars), and (2) gee, this choreography stinks.

Hmm. So how ’bout them Oscars? The past couple of years I’d been really buzzed about it (like making a point to see all the Best Picture nominees, and last year holding my own “pick the winners” contest), but this time around I wasn’t quite so excited. The only Best Picture nominee I’ve seen is The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The DVD of Lost in Translation is sitting next to the TV, waiting to be viewed, and I also got Seabiscuit from Netflix, but who knows if and when I’ll get around to it. So anyway, no catty awards-night commentary here, sorry. We TiVoed and fast-forwarded through a lot of it. Seek running commentary elsewhere, like Gothamist (link via Tin Man).

I spent the weekend with Thom and his family in Covington, Va. It was really nice to get out there and meet everyone, especially his mom, who is so sweet.

If I am to tell the whole story, though, I have to admit on my part some culture shock (it’s surprising how here you can drive for just a few hours, and boom, you’re in the South) and unfounded anxiety over “meeting the folks” (everyone was really friendly, but for some reason I think I had pressured myself into an all-or-nothing “I must like them and they must like me” mentality, and when I expectedly felt out of place, I kind of unexpectedly fell apart; thanks go to Thom for talking me down off the panic).

Despite all that drama in my head, the weekend turned out just fine. Sunday morning I skipped church, which apparently was a smart move, and met up with everyone afterwards for lunch. It was good times: good food and good company, and really, when you’re gathered around a table, sharing laughs over a hearty meal, what more can you ask for?