Nussbaum's wearing some pretty kickass boots in the accompanying photo, and she mentions that the University of Chicago lesbian and gay alumni association thanked her for wearing leather to a speaking engagement. But the real meat of the interview is Nussbaum's take on relationships and marriage. She handily dispatches a classic Deborah Solomon underminer question, "Do you find it difficult being a single woman in her early 60s, in a culture that values youth over wisdom," thusly:

I think that's been overplayed. I'm just happy being myself. I sing for an hour before dinner, and right now I'm singing Cherubino's aria from "The Marriage of Figaro," and playing the part of a teenager is natural to me. I also go clothes shopping with my friends. It's one way I have fun.

Basically Solomon is saying "don't you hate being single, and also old?" And Nussbaum's like, "I'm busy singing opera, fuck you." But since marriage is just as important a subject for philosophy professors as it is for actors (as long as they're women), Solomon's gotta ask, "Do you think you will marry again?" Nussbaum says,

If I thought of getting married, I would worry that I was taking advantage of a privilege that I have that a same-sex couple wouldn't have.

The question of whether this makes sense as a political stance is a complicated one, especially in light of John Marcotte's statement that if gay Californians can't marry, straight ones shouldn't get to divorce. The 2010 California Marriage Protection Act that Marcotte's spearheading may not make it onto the ballot, and apparently not everyone understands that it's meant to be a form of protest against Prop. 8 (not against divorce). But the Meghan Daum of the LA Times writes that Marcotte is "fighting not just for the rights of gays and lesbians, who surely deserve to be feted as they parade down the street in post-wedding rapture, but also for the cause of irony itself, which — in this often painfully literal society — needs all the help it can get." I don't think the cause of irony needs fighting for — even talking about its death just makes it stronger — but gay marriage certainly does. So is forgoing marriage yourself the way to fight?

Nussbaum makes a lot of other interesting points about gay marriage, arguing that much opposition to it is really about "disgust." She reminds us that people are disgusted by many things that aren't actually harmful (like "a sterilized cockroach, as studies have found"), and that the most insidious kind of disgust "is the projective kind, meaning projecting smelliness, sliminess and stickiness onto a group of people who are then stigmatized and regarded as inferior." In a way chalking homophobia up to disgust almost seems to excuse homophobes, by attributing an immoral point of view to some kind of visceral impulse. On the other hand, it may be valid to examine whether those who say they just want to "protect traditional marriage" actually look at gay people the way they look at cockroaches.

But Nussbaum's rejection of marriage may actually be better as a defense against Solomon than as support for gay rights. Solomon's not-so-subtle hints that Nussbaum must be lonely are just one version of the kind of shit single women get every damn day, and to say, "I'm single for a cause" is a decent rejoinder (though maybe not as good as, "lalalala I'm singing!"). The truth is, to reject marriage as a straight woman is kind of empowering — but to straight women, not necessarily gay ones. And while challenging stereotypes about gender and relationships might have some effect on homophobia, that effect is still tangential. In order for gays to get the rights they deserve, lawmakers (looking at you, New York State Senate) need to think about simple equality rather than the complicated calculus of reelection. Voters (looking at you, my home state of California) need to get over their disgust or bigotry or whatever makes them think that anyone else's marriage could threaten theirs. And yes, straight allies need to stand up and speak out — but that doesn't necessarily mean not getting married.

Gross National Politics [NYT]
John Marcotte: Defending Marriage By Denying Divorce [LA Times]

"Men and women — women want all the rights of men, but they're not asking to be called men… do you think… is it the word [marriage] is more important than the rights?" Portia, who is married to Ellen DeGeneres, was measured, confident, calm and clear in her answer: "Of course it's not the word." (I would have added, "Dumbass.") Portia went on to say, "Without the word, we don't have equal rights." Then she explained that a "lesser" term would imply that gay couples are lesser. Applause.

In this clip, Portia explains when she knew she was in love with Ellen, and why she was reticent to come out of the closet.


Here, the couple discusses how their lives and well-being have been positively affected by coming out of the closet, and how their love for each other overcame Portia's fear of public rejection concerning her sexual orientation.

Patrick Range McDonald writes that Bragman, openly gay himself, has helped numerous celebrities and pro athletes with the "tricky and, for decades, risky terrain" of coming out. He currently works with Chaz Bono, whose gender transition from female to male was recently reported on TMZ. He's brought out actor Mitchell Anderson and NBA player John Amaechi. But now, he says, it's time for someone really big. McDonald writes,

The publicist hasn't brought out an A-list, gay male actor - yet. But Bragman says that day is coming, and after the first superstar decides to reveal himself, a fundamental shift in American acceptance of gay leading men may not be far behind. He's currently working with a famous musician who's still closeted from the public, but who will come out next year. And the manager of one major movie star approached Bragman a year ago and asked about his client's possibly going public, but the actor still refuses to pull the trigger.

"I felt a little frustrated with that superstar," Bragman says in reflection, "because it had to be ‘handled.' "

Bragman's frustration aside, Hollywood remains "a surprisingly conservative entity." Stars mobilized for a "No on Prop. 8" campaign, but McDonald says "the big studios and their mostly male chiefs - and the scores of socially liberal men and women who play key roles as casting directors and agents - have together created a kind of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which places enormous pressure on gay, male actors to remain in the closet." Bragman is confident this can change — he even says, "coming out can be used as a marketing tool." And McDonald cites some hopeful statistics — 89% of Americans now believe that gay people should have equal job opportunities, and 72% say they would not change their opinion of an athlete if they found out he was gay.

Still, gay actors face some challenges. Foremost is the fear that, as McDonald writes, "audiences would be uncomfortable seeing a known gay actor like Cheyenne Jackson kissing or fondling Kate Winslet, and box-office earnings would nose-dive." Neil Patrick Harris is famously both out and doing well, but he says that for years, "I wasn't thought of in a sexual way, which is easy when you have big ears and are called Doogie all the time." If someone who was a sex symbol and a "superstar" to boot chose to come out, the response might be different. And the process would be even more complicated if said superstar also had a high-profile heterosexual cover relationship, as it's safe to assume at least a few do.

Then again, the fiction that no one — or almost no one — in Hollywood is gay can't last forever. It's already been much remarked-upon that while straight actors can "play gay" (like Sean Penn in Milk), only a very few gay actors are permitted to "play straight." Given that the entire film industry is based on audiences agreeing to believe for a few hours that someone very famous is actually someone else, this seems obviously ludicrous. And perhaps it's true that if one "superstar" — one with enough clout to get movies made regardless of sexual orientation — actually came out, everyone would have to confront the ridiculousness of Hollywood's straight-washing. Still, when the movie industry can campaign against Prop. 8 one day and enforce a "don't ask, don't tell" policy the next, it's no surprise that no one's clamoring to be the first.

LA Weekly Discusses Hollywood's Closet [Mediabistro]
The Secret Lives Of Queer Leading Men [LA Weekly]

Interestingly, later in the episode, when Kathy was "canvassing" — going out in the community and talking to people about how they voted — she learned that many voters were confused over the wording of Prop 8, thinking that voting "yes" on it was a vote for agreeing with gay marriage.

Earlier: Etheridge Calls Elisabeth Out For Her Support Of Prop 8

Think about it: as a piece in Forbes explains, if even half of the approximately 781,267 same-sex couples in the U.S. were granted, and took, the opportunity to marry, it could save an industry that's otherwise been hit hard by the economy - to the tune of $10 billion in additional revenue.

Although the average same-sex couple spends only a third on weddings as do their straight counterparts, this could change as gay marriage achieves increasing acceptance and becomes more wide-spread. Part of the discrepancy, says one researcher, is due to circumstances, the fact that after waiting for many years for the right to do so, many couples - some already formally committed - want to be married as a quickly as possible. Or, as one researcher in the article explains it, "It takes time to spend a lot of money." And one imagines that attitudes towards gay marriage would also be a factor. Hopefully, the days of disapproving relatives boycotting the big day are numbered; an attitude change - and more tailored options for same-sex couples - could mean an embrace of more elaborate nuptials. To say nothing of the same parental money given towards same-sex marriages as funds many a hetero wedding.

One wonders, however, if it could take a few years for the excess levels to catch up: with the true meaning of marriage so fresh in everyone's mind, will the bells and whistles seem less important? Or - not? After all, however much we might bemoan the increasing materialism of the modern wedding,the chocolate fountain, the carpet of rose petals and the fortnight at Sandals is a right that all Americans are entitled to. And the wedding industry will surely be happy to remind you of this.

The $9.5 Billion Gay Marriage Windfall [Forbes]

[Los Angeles, May 26. Image via Getty]

• New day, same rumor: The "doc" is a diva. So. Did Katherine Heigl get dropped from the cast of cringe-inducing flick Valentine's Day because she wanted too much cash? Her rep says:

"The story is ludicrous." And: "Katherine walked away from this project for multiple reasons." Hmm. Julia Roberts, Jennifer Garner, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, Shirley MacLaine and Bradley Cooper are still in. [Page Six]

• Celebrities are speaking out about the gay marriage ban in California: Melissa Etheridge says: "So, will anyone be sleeping better tonight? Those full of hate and fear will surely be disappointed that 18,000 same sex couples will be living in wedded bliss, kissing their spouses goodnight, checking off those little 'married' boxes on all those forms we fill out nowadays. That's really going to drive them crazy." Lance Bass says: "The decision to uphold Prop 8 is deeply disappointing. I can only hope to one day live in a country that grants equal rights, opportunity, and freedom to all citizens." [Radar Online]
• George Clooney says of the ruling on Prop 8: "This just should invigorate people to get it back on the ballot in 2010 and 2012 and every two years until all people are allowed a basic civil right." [E!]
• Twitterholics Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore are threatening to quit Tweeting if Twitter goes forward with its plans to launch a TV show. [NY Mag]
• More Demi Moore: She will make the trip to the UK to watch Susan Boyle in the Britain's Got Talent finale. Simon Cowell offered her (and hubs Ashton) first-class plane tickets. [The Sun]
• This video clip may or may not be footage from the new Amy Winehouse documentary Saving Amy. One thing is for sure: It's boring. If you want to see Amy's dad talk about the villa in St. Lucia for 10 seconds and then see Amy say something unintelligible for about 2 seconds, then go ahead and click. [ONTD]
• News you cannot use: Someone somewhere says of Jesus Luz: "Leave it to Madonna to find the only Jew who's a hot Latino with an uncut penis." Brazilians aren't Latino, though, right? [Village Voice]
• Speaking of Madonna: Artist Peter Howson has created an oil painting of her Madgesty in the nude with her ex, Guy Ritchie, touching her thigh. Honestly? It doesn't exactly look like her. But it's up for auction this week, if you have £22, 000. [Mirror]
• Oh! Jesus Luz speaks! He and Madonna bought jewelry together, but it's not because they're getting married: "I received these pieces of jewellery because they are inspired by Kabbalah," he says. "If I want to present them to somebody, it could be my mother or a friend of mine. I don't have any marriage plans or any wedding present." [Mirror]
• Hugh Jackman's nine-year-old son uttered the following: "Hey dad, 2 o'clock, hot chicks." And, apparently, the kid, Oscar, went up to the girls and said: "Hey, you know that my dad's Wolverine?" [Mirror]
• Michael Lohan was arrested last month when he threatened to kill his fiancée and himself when she tried to dump him. Not good. [Page Six]
• Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick are moving to a bigger house in preparation for the twins. [Daily Mail]
• It's not a Mariah Carey gossip item without hairdresser drama and diamonds! [Page Six]
• Robert Pattinson may or may not have hooked up with a blonde chick when he was in the South of France for the Cannes Film Festival. Star spoke to the lady in question, who says: "We had a great time together! Rob's very sweet." Scintillating. [Star]
• If you see a "parade of rats," follow them! You might find Gisele Bundchen, Michael Cera, Rupert Everett and NBC news anchor Lester Holt, who are all experiencing a serious rat problem on their street in the West Village in NYC. [Page Six]
• Russell Brand, who hosted the MTV Awards last year, has advice for Andy Samberg, who's hosting the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday: "Do not jokingly criticise the Jonas Brothers — you will receive less-threatening death threats. There's nothing worse than opening a letter and then seeing in it a death threat. You think, 'Hold on a minute. I wasn't looking forward to the letter particularly. Now I fear death. Ruins a perfectly good read.'" [Mirror]
• Hey, Page Six: This item is called "Kelis & Nas Celebrate Their Baby," yet they're in the middle of a bitter divorce! [Page Six]
• Kevin Kreider, brother of Kate of Jon & Kate Plus 8, says the kids are being exploited and viewed as commodities. Sigh. [CBS News]
• Kirsten Dunst is selling her L.A. home on Nichols Canyon Road; it's got 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, exposed beams in the living room and cute outdoor spaces. Kiki is accepting offers starting at $1,700,000. Go! [Real Estalker]
• Kim Kardashian is not engaged. She doesn't know when she will get engaged. And yet. She is picking out rings. "It's just easier," she explains. "Isn't it easy if someone's like, 'This is exactly what I want.' It'll make your life so easy." [Yahoo News via E!]
• Breaking news from Lady GaGa: "I like boys that look like girls." [Fox News]
• Gavin Rossdale is on the road touring to support his new album, and little Kingston is with him! "Sometimes we'll go to museums of modern art so he can see a big splash of color on the walls… I found a way to kill some time in New York by asking him to look out the window and tell me every time he saw a yellow taxi," says Gavin. "He was so into it. We had a really good time." [People]
• Kelly Osbourne's fiancé saved her dog's life! Little Goldie was bitten by a rattlesnke and Luke rushed the pup to the vet. Kelly Twittered: "Thanks to Luke we got her there just in time. Luke was amazing, if he was not there I don't know what would have happened!" [The Sun]
• "Lifetime Movie Network Tuesday announced plans to air two fashion-themed murder mysteries this summer." LOL. Maggie Lawson stars as Lacey Smithsonian, a Washington, D.C., fashion reporter whose beat turns deadly. LOL! Mark Consuelos, Mario Cantone, Finola Hughes, Mary McDonnell and Victor Webster will be cast in the flicks, titled Killer Hair and Hostile Makeover. LOL. [UPI]
• Jodie Sweetin — aka Stephanie Tanner — has penned a book, UnSweetined, which details her past as a meth, coke, ecstasy and booze abuser who finally straightened out after she discovered she was pregnant. [Page Six]
• James Gandolfini, Will Ferrell, Nicole Kidman, Anne Hathaway and Kevin Spacey will be presenting at the Tony awards. Fingers crossed that they'll all do a musical number together! [Variety]
• James Brown died Christmas 2006, but legal battles over his estate have lived on. Yesterday a judge ruled that half of his assets will go to his charitable trust; a quarter to his wife and young son, and the rest to Brown's adult children. [USA Today]
• Ed McMahon's lawsuit — regarding slipping on a ramp-like staircase at a mansion and hurting his neck — has been settled. [TMZ]
• The promoter who sold tickets to see a fake Toni Braxton sing says that the Braxton impersonator was unaware of his scheme; she thought that everyone knew that she was an impersonator, and didn't find out until later that people purchased tickets expecting to see the real Toni Braxton. [Yahoo News via AP]
• Starting today, fans who visit Graceland get to go in the stables. [USA Today]
• Blind item! "Which beauty now going through a divorce told a pal over lunch four years ago, 'I've had several abortions. If my husband ever found out, he'd throw me out of the house?' Looks like he found out." [Page Six]
• "It's all about history. What we as mothers are doing is creating history with our kids that we can look back on. When they're adults I want my kids to say 'Mom worked so hard, but she was always there for us.'" — Britney Spears, who says she was encouraged by Madonna to take her kids on tour. [The Sun]
• "Playing a bad guy is always a freeing experience - because you don't have the same envelope of restrictions that you have playing a good guy." — John Travolta, who plays a bad guy in The Taking Of Pelham 123. [Mirror]
• "You want people to talk about you, because once they stop talking about you that's when you're really in trouble! I'm happy to have people talk about all the craziness they want to talk about, whether it's things like every year we're getting divorced or we're an open family or Will's gay, or I'm gay." — Jada Pinkett Smith, who graces the new cover of Ebony. [Just Jared]
• "I was on my way to a festival [in Chicago], I was on the street and he (a police officer) stopped me. He said 'put your ass up against the fence,' there were kids around so I guess he wanted me to cover up my butt — quite a bit was showing. But it was quite an epic moment for me, I was up against the fence going ‘it's fashion, I'm an artist!' I signed his ridiculous piece of paper and left. I was being wildly disrespectful to him, he looked like some park ranger on a bike." — Lady GaGa. [Fox News]
• "I had a gentleman turn up on my doorstep all the way from Peru. He said he'd seen my clip on YouTube and had to come congratulate me. That was pretty weird." —Susan Boyle. [MSNBC Scoop]
• "I met Randy Jackson, and he asked me to sing on American Idol. I was like, 'Um, I'll stick to dancing.'" —Shawn Johnson. [MSNBC Scoop]
• "I've always approached this from the place where I don't compete with other girls. I don't compete with other people in the industry, I compete with myself. If I looked at every other girl in the entertainment industry as competition, my life would be really lonely. I wouldn't have some of the coolest friends that I'm so glad I've gotten to know over the last couple of years. ... It's really awesome to get to hang out with those girls [Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez] and to call them friends." — Taylor Swift. [Yahoo News via AP]
• "I'm home from the hospital and feeling great. Thanks for all the love and support!" — Elizabeth Taylor, via Twitter. [Reuters, Liz Taylor's Twitter]
• "I couldn't marry John Mayer, it'd be so intense. I'd definitely shag the shit out of him though. I'll go on record saying that." — Katy Perry. [The Sun via Complex]

Chris's family is accepting of the fact that he's gay, but they don't view his long-term relationship as "real," the way they do with his sister and her husband, who have been together a much shorter amount of time. He's also resentful that his nieces and nephews don't refer to his boyfriend as "Uncle Shawn." Lastly, he's upset that he doesn't own a house and have a family. His pain about these issues is real and palpable, but it's hard to say that if they weren't present in his life that he wouldn't suffer from alcoholism, as his father and his father's parents all had the disease.

Anti-gay bigots are back in court in California this week, and not to defend against the suits that seek to overturn Proposition 8 or even to meet the kind of people that will invite them to the gay orgies they know are going on but swear they don't want to go to. They're in court to try to get the court to overturn California's open records laws on political donations that require all contributions in excess of $100 be disclosed. Although the federal contribution disclosure standard is $200, conserva-lawyer James Bopp — once literally laughed out of court — says that the standard should be way higher to prevent bigoted donors from being identified publicly as bigots and being subjected to harassment campaigns — like boycotts by LGBT people and their supporters who don't want our money funding bigots or their bigoted political causes. Boo fucking hoo.

In other news, both African-Americans and white Americans seem to think that racism is less of a problem in this country on the whole than it was 15 years ago, though more white people than black people think that blacks have achieved racial equality and don't have any problems anymore. I guess that's because race had no apparent effect on the election so, since Barack didn't "suffer" from racism no black person does anymore. Yay equality.

Obama is, however, having a worse time of it in Congress than anyone suspected, with significant differences between his stimulus plans and Nancy Pelosi's ideas continuing to spill out in public. And if it weren't bad enough that Pelosi wants to repeal Bush's tax cuts now and Obama wants to wait for them to expire next year, the media insists on drumming up this big rift because it's more interesting if it's a fight rather than a boring disagreement on mundane tax policy. They also disagree about whether to investigate Bush and his Administration over everything that has ever happened, but that's good because it will allow Obama to keep his hands clean and call for unity up until the House investigations that were always going to happen anyway unearth something prosecutable, at which point Obama can with great sadness appoint a special prosecutor and let the games begin.

Speaking of games, Rod Blagojevich has asked his lead lawyer not to show up for his impeachment trial next week because Ed Genson thinks it might be a bad idea to call the trial "a lynching," which (and I never thought I'd say this), good for Ed Genson. Everyone is freaking out about who New York Governor David Paterson will appoint to take over Hillary Clinton's seat this week and the Obama camp is unofficially officially behind Caroline Kennedy but Paterson is still thinking about some new info that has come to light. And that pilot guy that ditched the plane in the Hudson River last week will be at the inauguration of Barack Obama this week with his family in what will no doubt be many of this Administration's cribbing from former Presidents' PR playbooks.

On the international front, the Iraqi shoe-thrower is looking for asylum in Switzerland because he's fine throwing his shoes at a world leader on camera and less fine with paying the consequences for it. North Korea has finally admitted that it's got enough weapons grade plutonium for 4-5 nukes which they totally promise not to use on Alaska as long as Obama gives them lots of other cool shit with which to occupy their time in between figuring out how to starve their own people more efficiently and mint more fake U.S. currency. Gaza is pretty well fucked up but, as I predicted, Israel has signed a cease-fire and is starting to withdraw its troops just in time for Obama's inauguration tomorrow. That's change, if not exactly progress.

Wanda was her usual witty self, cracking jokes and asking the newly-hitched Craig "are they trying to overturn your marriage?" as a way of transitioning into a brief discussion of same-sex marriage. Craig replies that "just to be safe, I got married in Vermont... I married someone from the other side," to which Wanda says: "Ohh, you went old school." Wanda, who got married in California, wonders why people don't focus on breaking up their own marriages rather than threatening hers. She points out that gay marriage could potentially solve our economic crisis by pouring much-needed dollars into the wedding industry: "especially with men, we're talking like millions of dollars in ice sculptures alone!" Clip above.

Oh, Timmy Geithner. I liked him — really I did — when Barack Obama tapped him instead of Larry Summers. He was young! He was fun! And then he suggested Obama should fire Sheila Bair from the FDIC and a little of the luster wore off. And now with the taxes thing. Leaving aside the nanny issue — did the Obama vetters really forgot Zoe Baird? or did he hire the people that vetted Palin? — having a man astride the Treasury Department (which is, of course, atop the IRS) who managed to fuck up his taxes to the tune of $42,000 this decade and didn't even finish paying them off until November of this year isn't a good plan even if he does snowboard. And don't even get me started on the Obama team passing out Bush-esque talking points to make us all think it's ok — it's not like we're talking about someone headed up transportation had a little tax error. This would be like the Transportation Secretary having an drunk driving accident last year while not wearing a seatbelt, or the Secretary of Labor hiring an illegal nanny (cough, Zoe Baird, cough) or Obama's Car Czar driving a Lexus or the head of Health and Human Services illegally getting his scrips filled in Canada. Bad call, Obama dudes. Obama needs to get himself some new vetters and a new Treasury nominee.

Other nominations, though, seem to be pretty well on track, like Clinton's, whose confirmation hearings yesterday went pretty well, and, rumor has it, Janet Napolitano who will likely coast through even easier than Clinton did. Clinton, in fact, has a 65 percent positive rating among Americans these days, something she might want to keep in mind as she considers Senator Lugar's (and the Washington Post's, and the New York Times') advice to reconsider the disclosures about Bill Clinton's foundations that she's agreed to but that no one is quite sure are adequate.

In other tales of inadequacy, a former Gitmo prosecutor is coming forward to say that pretty much everything related to prosecuting Gitmo detainees in inadequate, from evidence collection to missing evidence to torturiffic confessions, which surprises no one but his bosses who, like, totally swear he's just a disgruntled former employee — except this country is now filled with disgruntled former employees, most of whom don't like aspersions cast on their characters. And, in fact, the top Bushie in charge of the prosecutions agrees that there was a little too much torture going on down there to be able to move forward with some prosecutions, which should be a blow for the other Bushies but they're all too busy looking for new jobs and protecting their legacies to give any more of a shit than they did when they were authorizing torture. I mean, Bush's priority is protecting an attack, not the Constitution, despite that whole swearing-in thing that he did twice where he promised the latter and not the former.

Bush's ideological brothers-in-arms broke bread with Obama last night at George Will's house at a dinner party that including Will, Bill Kristol, David Brooks and Charles Krauthammer. I can only imagine the hangover he has this morning — between that and his first veto threat yesterday (it's his bail-out money and he wants it now!), it was definitely a drinking kind of evening. But at least the Fed has his back that Congress needs to release the rest of the bailout money, not that anyone cares because they're all flexing their muscles and trying to improve the relative power of the legislative branch after 8 years of getting buried by Bushies.

The real headache for Obama (or extra savvy PR move by David Axelrod, which is more likely) is that it's just now that Obama unequivocally backed gay marriage in 1996 before he had to flip-flop and say that he didn't in order to win the Presidential election. Unlike Barack Obama's wishy-washyness on gay marriage, Al Sharpton may have melted my cold, cold heart of disdain for him by what he said to California churches this weekend about their support for the discriminatory Prop 8:

"There is something immoral and sick about using all of that power to not end brutality and poverty, but to break into people's bedrooms and claim that God sent you."

Oh, and there is more, and it's even fucking hotter.

"It amazes me," he said, "when I looked at California and saw churches that had nothing to say about police brutality, nothing to say when a young black boy was shot while he was wearing police handcuffs, nothing to say when they overturned affirmative action, nothing to say when people were being [relegated] into poverty, yet they were organizing and mobilizing to stop consenting adults from choosing their life partners."

"I am tired," he went on, "of seeing ministers who will preach homophobia by day, and then after they're preaching, when the lights are off they go cruising for trade...We know you're not preaching the Bible, because if you were preaching the Bible we would have heard from you.

I hate myself for loving you, Al Sharpton.

In the latest clusterfuckery that has become the race to convince David Paterson who he should appoint to fill the remainder of Hillary Clinton's Senate seat, New York Republicans are trying to force a special election based on Blagojevich and Burris, not that they'll succeed, Bloomberg is trying to be governor before he's even challenged Paterson in 2010and send La Kennedy to the Senate and Paterson is still quietly conducting his secret interviews and application-reading. So it's going well and won't be a giant mess no matter what happens.

In response to all the backlash against the selection of Saddleback pastor Rick Warren giving the invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration, she says:

When I heard the news, in its neat little sound bite form that we are so accustomed to, it painted the picture for me. This Pastor Rick must surely be one hate spouting, money grabbing, bad hair televangelist like all the others. He probably has his own gay little secret bathroom stall somewhere, you know. One more hater working up his congregation to hate the gays, comparing us to pedophiles and those who commit incest, blah blah blah. Same 'ole thing. Would I be boycotting the inauguration? Would we be marching again?

But, last night, Etheridge performed at a Muslim Public Affairs Council event last night — at which, she was informed Monday, Warren was going to be the keynote speaker.

She flipped. And then she thought. And then she reached out to Rick Warren.

On the day of the conference I received a call from Pastor Rick, and before I could say anything, he told me what a fan he was. He had most of my albums from the very first one. What? This didn't sound like a gay hater, much less a preacher. He explained in very thoughtful words that as a Christian he believed in equal rights for everyone. He believed every loving relationship should have equal protection. He struggled with proposition 8 because he didn't want to see marriage redefined as anything other than between a man and a woman. He said he regretted his choice of words in his video message to his congregation about proposition 8 when he mentioned pedophiles and those who commit incest. He said that in no way, is that how he thought about gays. He invited me to his church, I invited him to my home to meet my wife and kids. He told me of his wife's struggle with breast cancer just a year before mine.

When we met later that night, he entered the room with open arms and an open heart. We agreed to build bridges to the future.

Maybe it's the spirit of the season, or she's infected with some audacious hope, but Etheridge thinks that maybe, rather than shunning religious figures who denounce same sex marriage (or homosexuality more generally), the anti-H8 community should engage them on issues and in causes on which both sides agree.

Of course, she might have also written it not knowing that the Saddleback Church used to — until recently — deny practicing homosexuals membership in the congregation. Or she might have written it before the Pope said that "saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour was as important as protecting the environment." Or she might just be trying to understand the Prop 8 supporters that are trying to annul her marriage after they totally kind of completely hinted to voters that they wouldn't.

Actually, she probably does know those things. She's lived with open intolerance much of her life, after all. That's what makes it harder to hold hands and try to change people by allowing them to understand her. It's easier to hate the H8ers than to grit your teeth and show more understanding of their religious world views than they've ever bother trying to show people who have something other than the most banal heteronormative sexuality.

The Choice Is Ours Now [Huffington Post]

Related: Warren’s Church Removes Anti-Gay Statements From Website [Think Progress]
Gay Groups Angry At Pope Remarks [BBC]
Prop. 8 Sponsors Seek To Nullify 18,000 Gay Marriages [Huffington Post]

Earlier: Melissa Etheridge on Prop 8

MEGAN: Greetings from the frigid north, where my father is currently suiting up in full snow regalia to head outside and snowblow away the foot of snow in our driveway in temperatures that should reach 15 degrees! (Without wind chill, of course).

SPENCER: Greetings from Washington D.C.'s historic blogger Flophouse, where the heat has evidently decided to give out the week that the managing company and most of my roommates have skipped town for this farkakteh holiday. I'm typing this on my couch in a Triple F.A.T. Goose coat and probably look like a South Park character

MEGAN: Only if you have a knit hat with a pom pom on it, or your hood drawn close around your face.

SPENCER: Hmm I should put the hood up.

MEGAN: Also, the local "news"cast here reliably informed me that it is now Hannukah, this strange eight day holiday celebrated by the Jews over something to do with war with the Syrians and macaroons and candles. And oil, though I'm not sure Syria has much oil.

SPENCER: now now now. Hannukah is more properly understood as the first-ever war for oil.

MEGAN: I still fail to see why it merited 70 seconds of explanation! On the news! The Jews! They don't celebrate Christmas! Do they even know it's Christmastime at all?

SPENCER: Is it actually Hannukah? I hate that bullshit holiday too. It's a bunch of Jews trying to out-vulgarize Christians. Have some self-respect, it's embarrassing. Do you really need an explanation for why THE MEDIA devoted so much time to a JEWISH HOLIDAY

MEGAN: To explaining its existence? Yes. What amused/annoyed me was how the anchorwoman managed to infuse such awe into her voice when explaining it, as though she was explaining to the viewers some strange, secret thing they'd never heard of before. It's fucking Hannukah, it happens every year and has for longer than Christmas. The end.

SPENCER: I love how the Catholic girl is more offended than the Jewboy

MEGAN: Former Catholic. I get offended over the insult to my intelligence, and more so when I've been drinking until my parents seem normal.

SPENCER: sorry! I keep forgetting that you Christians don't have to be Christians if you don't choose to be, which is not the case for Jews.

MEGAN: Former Catholics get all of the guilt and none of the absolution. It's the only real choice for a true masochist. Anyway, so a real media outlet informs me that the mortgage crisis is Bush's fault?

SPENCER: Ah, now we have the natural tie between religionethnicity and broader political questions. I didn't read that story and wouldn't have understood it if I had, so I don't know if it blames Jews at all for the mortgage crisis, unlike the giant Ponzi scheme that's been going on for some time which is obviously the fault of the Jew. But isn't it fair to say that over the last eight years, our three biggest core-competencies as Jews — the media; international finance; and American foreign policy — have seriously suffered? I'm kind of gratified Obama doesn't have Jews in his cabinet. We need to take a knee and think about what we've done.

MEGAN: I believe it blames it all on Bush's laissez faire regulatory policies, not the Jews. But I had not been paying attention to who wasn't in the Cabinet, that's sort of interesting.

SPENCER: well, that's the whitewashing Jewish media for you. Actually it isn't! Politico is the one media organization in DC that's practically judenrein. Seriously, they're one giant cucumber sandwich. Wrapped in a foreskin. Another symptom of the Jew's weakening hold on this country.

MEGAN: Cucumber sandwiches? I have never once eaten one, but I come from the land of Fluffernutters and baloney-and-cheese-on-Wonder-bread.

SPENCER: Nonsense. I read on Ta-Nehisi's blog all about cucumber sandwiches.

MEGAN: I cannot get on board with a steak cooked past "mooing." If I wanted to eat carbonized carpet padding, I wouldn't pay $30 for the privilege.

SPENCER: PREACH IT. I have no idea why you'd ruin a perfectly good piece of red meat

MEGAN: Besides, like Sarah Palin before me, something about the thrill of the hunt makes me enjoy it more, even if it is just chasing a piece of beef around my plate as it tries to escape from my fork, screaming.

SPENCER: No one could possibly believe a steak is improved by removing its flavor. Speaking of removing its flavor, or at least numbing it, did you & Ana talk about Levi's mother's apparent oxycontin dealership? Because, i mean — SHIT.

MEGAN: Was it oxy? I was convinced it was meth. Either way, I'm guessing someone won't be babysitting much. If it was meth, though, the house could be a Superfund site, depending on how long she was cooking. For real, Arkansas had so many meth labs a couple years back that it cost the state and the feds a ton to clean up because they all ended up being so polluted they became Superfund sites.

SPENCER: no it was definitely Oxycontin. I learned it from watching Alex Pareene.

MEGAN: One would think it would be hard to get enough oxy to distro in rural Alaska, since it's a controlled substance and all and monitored by the feds, but I guess that is why she got caught.
SPENCER: In any event. I liked his point about how we were supposed to venerate the Palinites' rugged white authenticity. Cuts both ways, doesn't it?

MEGAN: The only people that venerated the Palin's white rural authenticity are Republicans that grew up in urban areas and avoid places like where I grew up in the fear that they might get their wingtips dirty. They like the idea of the noble lower middle class or the poor that could lift themselves up by their bootstraps, and not the actuality of sitting on there decomposing sofas with the Coors light cans and full ashtrays talking about how both their kids went to state schools but live at home because they can't find jobs. A Republican friend who grew up around D.C. called me last week in the midst of some Caroline Kennedy coverage and said, "Did you know that half of the welfare payments in the state of New York are made upstate? And that half of the industrialized jobs in the country that have disappeared since the Reagan years came from upstate New York?" And I was like, um, yeah. I grew up there.

SPENCER: I'm just going to sit back and watch you riff. Preach!

MEGAN: There wasn't a boom in the 90s up here! We went from being the headquarters of General Electric (hello, Jack Welch, and fuck you very much, the stock sucks now, too) to being a minor gas turbine generating plant and a bunch of semi-reclaimed green space. One in every 2 adults or something up here works for the state. Ohio? Pennsylvania? We got your rust belt, only it's gotten a little thinner in the last 25 years, but so have our local budgets. It didn't take 7 days to fix the electricity here and in Western Mass (hello, Rachel Maddow's family!) last week because they couldn't. It took a week because there's not enough money in it for a big electrical company to care to spend the money to fix it quickly.

SPENCER: I'm from Brooklyn, where upstate — everything north of Yonkers — is an abstraction. I've heard you also have a nuclear power plant that doesn't work well?

MEGAN: Not where I live, there's still some minor nuclear research that's done, apparently, but no one really talks about it. Anyway, my parents were without power for 5 days and we live in "town" so I'm a little bitter. Also, I spent the one night that I wasn't snowed in drinking with a really old friend whose job was outsourced to China this year and who, because of the economy, is working at a FedEx facility part-time, unable to make ends meet, but thankful that the work means he doesn't have to be on the dole.

SPENCER: God, my feet are startng to freeze.

MEGAN: If I had money, I would buy you a slanket.

SPENCER: Is anyone around Scotia NY expecting to see anything out of the Obama job-creation package?

MEGAN: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. Oh, thanks, I needed a good laugh. I mean, that stimulus is aimed at temporarily fixing the recent unemployment. This part of the country — and others, I shouldn't mock our Ohio and Pennsylvania brothers-and-sisters-in-shabby-arms too much — the unemployment and underemployment is structural. It's two decades worth of declining employment and population. I mean, we lost a Blockbuster and a McDonalds here, and one of the two liquor stores went out of business. When you can't support a liquor store, man... Anyway, in other outrage news, the Prop 8 people who totally promised they weren't going to go after the same sex couples that got married before the vote are totally going after the same sex marriages that were performed just in time for Christmas! They want to give 18,000 married people annulments for Christmas! How charitable!

SPENCER: one of them is my rabbi, if you can believe that. It's not just a Christmas miracle!

MEGAN: Oh, and noted moralist Ken Starr has signed up, too. Actually, it makes a kind of perverse sense that a bunch of Christian bigots would try to annul your rabbi's marriage for Christmas.

SPENCER: Let's call this for what it is. Barbarism. I'm sick of arguing about the merits of gay marriage. They're self-evident from a civil-rights perspective. All that's left to do is, as you're doing, point out the bad faith and bigotry of people like the man who's going to be preaching during the inauguration.

MEGAN: Well, and if Time's John Cloud is to be believed, Barack Obama, too. Of course, I kind of called it.

SPENCER: I don't like the framing of this piece in the slightest. It's not just a problem for gays that Obama is coddling this homophobe, it's a problem for America, indicating a persistent — what was that word you used earlier? — structural deficiency in American politics that you can say all this Bull-Connor shit about millions of your fellow Americans and be treated as a force to be appeased. I mean, I suppose I'm inconsistent here, as I think you should appease Moqtada al-Sadr and not Rick Warren, but let's treat Warren like Moqtada al-Sadr in terms of the contempt that we hold him in and invective and treat him to.

MEGAN: Yeah, fuck that guy with a chainsaw.

Brown, who once said he would dismiss challenges to the measure, has apparently made a dramatic turn-around. "Upon further reflection and a deeper probing into all the aspects of our Constitution" Brown said, "It became evident that the Article 1 provision guaranteeing basic liberty, which includes the right to marry, took precedence over the initiative. Based on my duty to defend the law and the entire Constitution, I concluded the court should protect the right to marry even in the face of the 52 percent vote."

Yes on 8 supporters, including Attorney Kenneth Starr, were urging the Attorney General's office to uphold the measure by invalidating all gay marriages that took place before the ban, an act that Starr claims would be "about restoring and maintaining the traditional definition of marriage." Brown disagreed, noting that the Proposition itself did not have any language in it that specified invalidating marriages performed before the election.

In the end, Brown declared, in what is potentially a very important step towards overturning the measure: "Proposition 8 must be invalidated because the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification."

California Attorney General Jerry Brown Urges Repeal Of Proposition 8[Huffington Post]
Brown Asks State High Court To Overturn Prop. 8[San Francisco Chronicle]

Elisabeth Hasselbeck stuck strong to her Fox News rhetoric of "if you want to compliment our democracy and say 'Yes, we got together and voted on a president, and this is who we want. Hurrah!' And then look at that system of democracy and also call it a failure in the same breath…" Which is conservative speak for "you got your black guy in there fair and square, same as how we stopped the fags from getting out of hand." But even with all of Hasselbeck's "democracy runs this country, God bless the USA" talk, Etheridge referenced Thomas Jefferson when said that the majority should not vote on what the minority is allowed to do. But as hard as she tried, Etheridge couldn't get Hasselbeck to get past the technicality argument and say how she personally feels about gay marriage.

• Pseudo-alt schlockmeisters Urban Outfitters have pulled a tee from their California stores bearing the words "I Support Same Sex Marriage," while presumably continuing to carry shirts that say "Lebowski 08." Urban remains unrepentant. [Racked]
• Can you stand it? Probably: Now you can see the full ten minutes of Karl Lagerfeld's silent treatment of Coco Chanel! [Fashionologie]
• Okay, maybe you can stand that, but what about this: Mariah Carey has selected the fan's dress design that best captures the spirit of her new fragrance, "Luscious Pink!" [ET Online]
• Grateful Dead Converse premiere. University of Vermont rejoices! [Telegraph]
• Still standing? Well, clearly you haven't heard about Nicole Richie's trip to Moscow with the Russian Peaches Geldof! [WWD]

• Wait, what? Conde Nast is launching a new British fashion magazine! You know, those things that are closing all over the world? But you see, this one is called Love, and it's "edgy" and "high-end." Our prayers are with you. [WWD]
• Nigel Barker and his wife have a presumably stunning baby girl, Jasmine. [Us]
• Not shockingly, New York retailers are down. [WWD]
• Sergio Rossi is an economic casualty: they're closing all U.S. stores. [New York]
• Those vibrating mascara brushes are a recession bright spot. Tear-proof formula, we assume! [WSJ]
• Also presumably doing OK, H&M opens its first Israeli store. [WWD]
• Kenneth Cole says his new collection's going to do well, because it's better. Does this translate to fewer smug puns - or more? [Crains]
• New York Times reporter finds the Paul Stuart store a pleasantly classic antidote to outmoded excess. We find our bank balances serve the same salutary function! [New York Times]
• Of her naked romp for CK, Eva Mendes: "I certainly don't consider it modelling." [Telegraph]
• Will Monique Lhuillier be collaborating with Cinta? Or was she just having lunch with the designer? Or are they just good friends?[WWD]
• Some good news! A new report has found fewer creepy chems in perfumes and other personal care fripperies! [USA Today]
• We're liking reports of a new, lower-priced line from Doo.Ri. Let's think more Go! for Target then Moschimo "Cheap and Chic," 'k? [WWD]
  [Image via Support Shirts]

• Oprah Winfrey is talking her show on the road to D.C. during the Inauguration. Let the speculation begin about which members of the new Administration will be appearing. [Access Hollywood]
• Congress is going to pass a law to reduce the salary of the Secretary of State to block Republican efforts to keep Hillary Clinton from serving on Constitutional grounds. So much for pay equity in an Obama Administration. [Talking Points Memo]
• Al Franken says he's pulled ahead of Norm Coleman in the Minnesota Senate race. [Politico]

• Bill Richardson didn't win any points with Barack Obama when he showed up at the presser announcing his appointment sans beard. [Washington Post, CNN]
• But could the Commerce Department just be a stepping stone on Bill Richardson's path to his beloved State Department? [Washington Independent]
• Barack Obama told all the ambassadors appointed by Bush to be out by January 20th.There's no word whether the ambassadors to India or Pakistan might be staying on. [Washington Post]
• By the way, the Mumbai terrorists were high as shit on coke and LSD the entire time they were killing people. [Boing Boing]
• Possibly also high as shit was Karl Rove, who told a roomful of New Yorkers that George Bush is totally not the worst President in modern history. [Washington Times]
• Eliot Spitzer will begin penning a finance-and-government column for Slate. It won't talk about financing high-end sex with prostitution while being in government. [New York Observer via Attackerman]
• The anti Prop 8 folks get every actor you've ever seen to act in a musical. [Funny Or Die]