Random Musings

So … Audra. I could sum up her performance with one word: flawless. But y’all know I need more than one word, so ...

The voice is perfection.

The song choices are amazing.

She was gorgeous and funny and thoughtful and thought-provoking.

She talked of her support for marriage equality — she was one of the first — way back when it was just Massachusetts and Iowa—because, as she said it, she’s a beneficiary of the Civil Rights movement, and without that movement back in the 60s, she might not have been able to stand on a stage in Greenville, South Carolina and sing before a mixed audience.

She told a story of playing the Mother Superior in NBC’s live version of The Sound of Music, and how, during the live airing, the actors couldn’t leave the soundstage for fear that the noise from doors opening and closing would be heard on TV. So the actors sat in cubbyholes backstage and, since they also had to keep quiet, Audra live Tweeted the show with her daughter Zoe, who told her that it was beautiful and sounded great and was a fabulous show. Audra texted her back saying she had to go, she was up to sing ‘Climb Every Mountain,’ and when she returned to her phone, hoping to see what her daughter had said, she found this text:

“Do we have dryer sheets? I wanna do some laundry.”

Audra. Flawless.

In a case of ‘My How Things Change’ comes this tidbit … An LGBT community center has opened in Imperial County, California.  Not familiar with Imperial County? Well, here’s the back story:

After the passage of marriage equality in California, several anti-gay groups turned to the deeply conservative Imperial County because they needed a governmental body to defend Prop 8 when the state refused to do so.

Imperial County became the starting point for Prop Hate in 2008 and now, today, they have opened their first LGBT community center.

Times do change, though the march still goes on …

Early next year there's a big change coming to Playboy magazine. No more nudes; citing easy access to nekkid pictures via the internet, Playboy will stop with the nude pictorials.

So I guess folks really will be reading it for the articles.

We missed the democratic debates because of Audra and that was all well and good with me, but I did see a few snaps of that hot guy on my television later on.

Martin O'Malley. If I was a shallow type, or, let’s be real, a more shallow type, I might vote for him for president just to ogle him during each and every news conference and State of the Union Address.

Pedro Redding has been charged in the gang assault and murder of trans woman Keisha Jenkins last week in Philadelphia ... original post HERE.

A judge arraigned Redding on murder, conspiracy and weapons charges noting that he was among a group of “neighborhood individuals” who go around the city’s Hunting Park section robbing people.

So far no other arrests have been made and, again, I wonder how this isn’t a Hate Crime since Keisha Jenkins was murdered — beaten and then shot twice — and not just robbed.

So, there’s a commercial for Campbell’s soup that starts off with a Dad feeding his son, and saying, “Luke, I’m your father.” The camera pans back and there’s another man, who also says, “No, Luke, I am your father.”

Two gay dads feeding soup to their child and One Million Moms Seventy-Five-Thousand Moms wants a boycott.

You know what to do … to the soup aisle at your local grocer and stock up on Campbell’s!

American Horror Story: Hotel. Seriously? You expect me to believe that Lady Gaga would toss aside Matt Bomer for Finn Wittrock?

I mean, Finn can wittrock a pair of black lace briefs, but he’s no Matt Bomer.

Just saying …

So, the CW has cancelled America’s Top Model… about ten years too, late is what I’m thinking. But, Tyra Banks, who gave the world “smizing” — smiling with your eyes — is now giving us crazing, er, crying, and lyzing, um, lying, as she released this statement to Instagram:

TYRA MAIL! 

Thinking #ANTM #cycle22 should be our last cycle. Yeah, I truly believe it’s time. Our diehard fans know we’ve expanded the definition of beauty, presented what Flawsome is, tooched and booched and boom boom boomed, shown the world how to show their neck, rocked couture/catalogue/commercial poses, have found our (and your) light, strutted countless runways, gone on tons of go-sees, added guys to the girls mix, and have traveled around the globe and back again. Yeah, it’s time. It really is.

Wow, I am SO proud of what Top Model has done.

Bitch please. The CW kicked you to the curb. And, um, please to explain exactly what it has done?

Another Republican, Richard Hanna a New York Congressman, says the House Select Committee on Benghazi was formed solely to go after the reputation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

And let the Teabaggers begin the Hanna Bashing, though I might ask that, even if you don’t like Hillary Clinton, you’re okay with the GOP spending millions and millions of your tax dollars on a fake investigation?

Just saying.

Lamar Odom is reportedly still in a coma today after being found unconscious after an ALLEGED four-day coke binge at a Las Vegas whorehouse.

The whorehouse is not ALLEGED, however. But, true to form, the Kardastrophes have taken to brooms and flown to his side, after first stopping in hair and makeup and wardrobe, and brought along a camera crew because, well, if they don’t sell it to TV it didn’t happen.

To be fair, the Kardastrophe news channel, AKA TMZ, says the show is on hiatus so there were no cameras, but this is That Woman and her family so I’m kinda thinking that’s a lie because … November sweeps.

God Hates Fags ... The New Discrimination

I remember feeling so great when marriage equality began to spread across the country. Iowa was a shock, Massachusetts, not so much. California made me smile, made me mad, then made me smile again. Washington, Connecticut, New Mexico, Hawaii, and a few others. It felt good. The quashing of DOMA and Prop 8 were a boost, too.

But I couldn’t help feeling that with each step toward equality, we’d find ourselves facing new kinds of discrimination, new kinds of hate, because it’s clear that as progress moves forward there are still some in this country who have their boots planted in the past and are holding on for dear life.

That new discrimination is the push for legalized discrimination — yes, you read that right, legalized discrimination based on your religious point-of view; in other words, God hates Fags. Sounds harsh, I know, but it is in essence what these new faith-based discrimination laws are saying; that God doesn’t like The Gays and she doesn’t want you baking a cake for their wedding, or selling them flowers, or renting them chairs, or serving them food, because they’re, well, icky and stuff.

Take Tennessee for example.

Just a week or so ago, State Senator Brian Kelsey, a Republican of course, proposed a bill he called the Religious Liberties Act; it was quickly, and rightfully so, dubbed, the “Turn the Gays Away” bill because it would allow businesses, any business, to refuse service to The Gays simply on the basis of their belief that God said so.

But then the shiz hit the fan and lotsa folks around the world got upset and Kelsey suddenly pulled his sponsorship of the bill. You know how that works, suddenly you’re in the national news as a bigot and homophobe using the Bible to justify discrimination and hate so you fold up your circus tent and go home.

Which would have been good except the “Turn the Gays Away” bill did not die when Kelsey pulled his sponsorship. Oh no, it found a new sponsor in another Republican — of course — Senator Mike Bell of Riceville, and it seemed to be moving forward. Now that his name is off the bill, Senator Kelsey is thinking about whether he’ll support it or not; big surprise if he doesn’t now that the light is off of him.

Kelsey now says the bill should be modified:

"I think the bill should be clarified to be sure it doesn't regard every day uses of restaurants, facilities, or hospitals or anything like that."

Kinda like, we only discriminate against The Gays on their wedding day, but y’all come back some other time, y’hear?

Also hear this: it appears, for now, that the bill is officially dead, at least for this legislative session. The measure was withdrawn from the Senate Judiciary Committee this past Tuesday. Bell is still saying that his legislation was intended to protect shop owners in Tennessee, and yet at the same time he says he allowed the legislation to die because current state law already offers business owners the protections his bill spelled out because, sadly, the Tennessee Human Rights Act does not include LGBT citizens as a protected class from discrimination.

Then why try to push it forward? Was Bell just trying to double-down on the bigotry? Shore up the hate?

It didn’t work; and it also didn’t work in other parts of the country. Proposed legislation in three other states besides Tennessee — Idaho, Kansas, South Dakota — that would have allowed religious-based discrimination of the LGBT community has either ailed or faced major setbacks.

“[Tuesday was] a very important rebuffing of the latest anti-gay and anti-choice tactics, but I wouldn’t say that we’re out of the woods yet. Our opponents have lost the argument about gay people, they’ve lost the argument about marriage and all they have left is distractions, diversions, and desperate attempts to carve out the license to discriminate as they have tried in every other civil rights chapter in our nation’s history.” — Evan Wolfson, president and founder of Freedom to Marry

Rational thinking lawmakers in Idaho, Kansas, South Dakota, and Tennessee chose to backtrack on the discrimination laws, block the discrimination laws, of just plain vote ‘em down; in Kansas, in addition to allowing individuals, religious organizations, businesses the right to discriminate — how sad does that sound: the right to discriminate — Kansas was planning on allowing government employees the right to refuse service to the LGBT community.

And yet, as happens, as I said, with each step forward, some asshat who lives in the past digs in deep and holds on tight, and somehow convinces people that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is fine.

As in Arizona.

Yesterday the Arizona Senate passed a bill, backed by Republicans, naturally, that expands the rights of people to assert their religious beliefs in refusing service to The Gays. Of course, Arizona if home to homophobe John McCain and the Eva Braun of American politics, Jan Brewer, so is this really a surprise?

The sponsor of this new Hate Law, Republican — are you seeing a trend here? — state Senator Steve Yarbrough says his push for legalized discrimination was prompted by a case in neighboring New Mexico in which that state’s Supreme Court allowed a gay couple to sue a photographer who refused to take pictures of their wedding. Yarbrough says he’s protecting religious rights.

You know, God hates pictures of fags.

“This bill is not about allowing discrimination. This bill is about preventing discrimination against people who are clearly living out their faith.” — Steve Yarbrough

The Arizona sponsored eight hostile amendments in an effort to sidetrack the legislation, but they were steadily rejected by Republican-controlled Senate.

So, there you have it, the New Discrimination; because God Said So.

And while we may have won a couple of battles, in four states, this kind of legislation is moving forward in other areas. Republicans, and let’s be clear it’s always the GOP, will be using God to deny equality; using religion as a mask for hate; using faith to tell people to shop someplace else, buy flowers elsewhere. Get married in one of those heathen states.

As I have said countless times, if you’re a business owner and you believe that God wants you to discriminate against anyone, then please, please, put a sign  in your window — We don’t cater to Gays — and put a notice in your newspaper ads — No Gays Allowed — and mention it on your website — Straights Only.

Then I’ll know where to shop; and then people, and I’d like to think most people, will know where to shop, and your little faith-based-hate business will dry up and take you with it, because if you truly believe that God Hates Fags then you have no place in religion, you have no faith in a higher power.

You just hate.

Kelsey Pulls Sponsorship of 'Turn Away The Gays' Bill 

Wedding Services Bill Dead This Session

Bills Allowing Anti-LGBT Discrimination Fail In Four States

Arizona Approves Bill Allowing Discrimination Against Gays

Mormon Steve Young And His Wife Come Out As LGBT Allies

So, Steve Young? Former San Francisco 49er quarterback and highly visible member of the Mormon Church? Where do you stand on LGBT equality?

Let’s say he doesn’t exactly stand with his church.

Back in 2008. Steve Young and his wife Barbara placed "No on Prop. 8" yard signs in front of their California home, a highly significant move considering how much time, and more importantly, money—upwards of $20 million—the Mormon Church had sunk into passing Prop H8.

Back then, Barbara Young explained that she had placed the sign in her yard because she has a gay brother, but her husband, Steve, stayed silent on the matter.

Until now.

Both Steve and Barbara Young are being more vocal on LGBT rights, and have agreed to be the keynote speakers in Salt Lake City at next month's convention of an LGBT Mormon group, called "Affirmation."

The Young’s released a statement thorough the Salt Lake City Tribune confirming that they will be speaking, and adding that this is "where they hope to lend their voices to the healing work of making our families, our society and our church more welcoming places for our LGBT brothers and sisters."

And this might be just the right time, as evidenced by many members of the church now changing their stance on marriage equality, but it always helped to have someone with a level of fame take that same stand.

The march goes on ….

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Good News Friday: ♫ ♪ Ding Dong Prop H8 Is [officially] Dead ♪ ♫

After the Supreme Court sounded the death knell for California’s Prop H8 last June, the wingnuts out there in The Golden State foot-stomped, head-snapped, and law-suited all over the place trying to keep the thing alive, but earlier this week, the California Supreme Court refused to revive Proposition 8, effectively unplugging it from lifer support and ending the last remaining legal challenge to same-sex marriage in California.

After meetings in closed session, the court rejected arguments by the ludicrously named ProtectMarriage, the original sponsors of H8, that only an appellate court could overturn a statewide law.

After a federal judge in San Francisco declared Prop H8 unconstitutional in 2010, and state officials then refused to appeal, ProtectMarriage tried their hand at it, but the US Supreme Court ruled in June that initiative sponsors have no right to defend their measures in federal court.

Snap.

Still, in their challenge to the court, ProtectMarriage argued that a single judge lacked the authority to overturn a state constitutional amendment, and they also argued that Judge Vaughn Walker’s injunction applied to two counties at most and that state officials had overstepped their authority by ordering county clerks throughout California to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

Alas, California officials countered that the ProtectMarriage challenge was a veiled attempt to persuade a state court to interfere with a federal court’s order in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

After that federal appeals court lifted a hold on Walker’s injunction, same-sex couples began marrying in California, and ProtectMarriage went back to the US Supreme Court the very next day to foot-stomp and head-snap that the appeals court acted prematurely because the high court’s decision was not even final.

The Supreme Court basically said to ProtectMarriage, ‘Bugger off.’

But they refused, and instead went to the California Supreme Court, asking the justices to halt the marriages immediately while considering the legal arguments, and then that court told ProtectMarriage to, well, ‘Bugger off.’

It’s over, it’s done, it’s dead.

California is a land of Marriage Equality and, um, ProtectMarriage?

Bugger off.

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Random Musings

Okay, so while I’m still on a high from yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling striking down the Defense of Marriage Act and dismissing Prop H8 I found a truly wonderful story about the impact of the decisions.

Steven and Sean Brooks, a binational gay couple, were in court yesterday, in front of an immigration judge, whose ruling could have split up the couple because of DOMA.

According to Lavi Soloway, who represented the couple: “A copy of the 77-page Supreme Court decision in United States v. Windsor was delivered to the court by our summer intern, Gabe, who ran five blocks and made it in time for the decision to be submitted to the Immigration Judge and to serve a copy on the Immigration & Customs Enforcement Assistant Chief Counsel.”

‘DOMA is DEAD’ it announced.

The judge threw out the case against Mr. and Mr. Brooks because they are a legally married couple in America, entitled to all the rights of legally married couples.

I’m still grinning.

That Woman, fame-whoring, daughter pimping, sex tape fronting is getting a talk show this summer.

Since all Kris can do is talk about her daughters, I’m wondering how long it will take her to whore our her latest grandbaby meal-ticket, and then how long before the show is cancelled.

In the words of Margaret Cho, “This is gonna be a Kardastrophe!”

We had a Free HBO weekend a couple of weeks back, so I went mad DVRing movies from that channel.

One was, of course, Behind The Candelabra, about Liberace’s love affair, and bad breakup, with Scott Thorsen.

I found it good, but sad; it wasn’t until Liberace’s mother passed away that he felt he could truly be free as a gay man, though he remained deeply closeted until his death, and even afterwards.

That said, the shallow part of me, which I love, is beginning to run an ad campaign to see that Matt Damon’s Ass gets an Emmy nod.

It was real, and it was spectacular.

A little more on DOMA? Okay.

Some who are much more familiar with the rulings are looking very closely at the decision, for clues on how the court might rule on future challenges to state laws barring gay marriage. And they think they’ve found something ….

Buried in the decision is a reference to the Supreme Court’s decision in Loving v. Virginia, in which SCOTUS struck down a state law against interracial marriage as unconstitutional. To LGBT advocates, that reference looks as if it might signal a readiness on the Court’s part to do the same to state laws banning gay marriage.

In Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court ruled that the Virginia law outlawing interracial marriage was unconstitutional on the grounds that it violated the equal protection clause in the Fourteenth Amendment, ruling that the freedom to marry must not be limited by discrimination and that the Virginia law had no legitimate purpose other than maintaining discrimination.

And that’s exactly the argument that lawyers in the Prop 8 case made in asking the Court to strike that law down. Now, SCOTUS declined to take a position on Prop 8, invoking standing issues, and it did not directly address the question of whether states could or couldn’t continue to refuse to marry gay and lesbian couples, and it did not declare a constitutional right to marriage.

But the DOMA decision made an expansive case against discrimination based on sexual orientation, and more specifically, the citation of Loving v. Virginia which could be an encouraging signal.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

So, the other day I’m watching TV and one of those wacky commercials came on, this time for something called the Air Curler. It’s an attachment to a blow dryer that looks like it has a plastic pitcher on the end of it. You, um, insert your hair into the pitcher, turn on the blow dryer, and your hair is magically spun into delightful curls.

Stupid? Of course. But then I saw something else when they removed the Air Curler from the blow dryer.

To put it bluntly, it looks like one of those Cock Sleeves that some men—and I ain’t naming names—slip over their penis and then proceed to, um, jack off pleasure themselves, until they cum into the patented Cum pitcher.

Sorry for the mental image, but it had to be said.

But … speaking of that device, Carlos and I have started watching Hannibal, having DVR’d the season.

It’s quite gruesome, so far—but I expected no less—and really interesting.

It doesn’t hurt that it stars the Pia Z’adorbale Hugh Dancy. Oh, he’s not Hannibal—that would be –he’s the FBI investigator who begins working with Dr. Lecter.

But he’s a delightfully cute man.

In Light of the deaths of DOMA and Prop H8, here's a little refresher course on what to say, and not say, to The Straights.

I got caught up in the Jodi Arias movie on Lifetime the other day.

Back story: I had the shingle on my face about three years ago. Shingles affects the nerves and, in some cases, the sufferer endures constant nerve pain for the rest of their lives. I do not; I do, however, get very bad, very bad, headaches located in the same spot where I had the shingles. I used to get them about once a month, and then less often and less often, to the point where I’d forgotten about them, Until Monday night when one struck, turning me into a light-sensitive vampire, who sits in a dark dark room until the pain subsides, generally 24 hours later.

Which was why I was channel surfing and came upon the Jodi Arias Lifetime movie.

All I gots to say about that is: Bitch was cray. Way cray.

So cray I am surprised that her attorneys didn’t use the insanity defense.

Cray.

Gee, ain't it funny? 

Just when you think things have changed .... The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?

Paula Deen. Her restaurants are packed, her books are flying off the shelves, but she’s losing some big deals, y’all. And I kinda wish I had a Way Back Machine, so I could travel back in time and apply for a job as one of Paula Deen’s minions and tell her, as nicely as I could, to STFU before she opened her yap.

The Food Network said Pack her knives and go … literally … and now Smithfield, whose products Paula used to hawk, have canned her ham … see what I did there? … and rumor has it that QVC will quickly follow suit.

There is also talk that Deen’s publisher, Random House, may close the book on her, and diabetes drug makers Novo Nordisk and Sears Holdings are said to be “monitoring the situation.” Then, let’s toss in Harrah’s Hotels and Casinos, which have Paula Deen Restaurants in their casinos, who have decided to rebrand her restaurants as something other than Paula. Even WalMart … Wal-freaking-Mart … has decided to take Paul’s dishware and cookware off their shelves.

Now, you can say that this is all a lot of Who shot John? over words Paula Deen may have used decades back, but it’s also about a history of Paula Deen and her treatment of African America employees at her businesses.

I recently caught sight of a video from 2012—last year—and taped by the New York Times, where Paula was asked about her ancestors who were slave owners and the story of her great-grandfather who killed himself when his slaves were set free: “Between the death of his son and losing all the workers, he went out into his barn and shot himself because he couldn’t deal with those kind of changes…Back then, black folk were such an integral part of our lives. They were like our family, and for that reason we didn’t see ourselves as prejudiced.”

Trouble is, after that bit, she then tells the interviewer and the audience that she has black people in her employ who are just like family. One, and I think she said his name was Hollis Johnson, was a particularly dark-skinned man, or, as Paula put it, pointing to a black wall behind her, “He’s as black as that.”

Yes. She did. And then she dug herself in deeper. When asked if Hollis was there with her that day, Paula looks around and asks, “Hollie? Hollie? Where are you? Oh, get away from that black wall, we can’t see you.”

Yes. She did. I was all about giving Deen the benefit of the doubt for her use of the n-word, thinking about when she said it, where she lived and how she was raised, and that she said it, apparently, so long ago. But, while she may not toss about the n-word as handily as those old days, the way she speaks of African Americans—even the ones she considers “like family’”—and the way she treats her African American employees, makes me hope that everyone cuts ties with Deen. And fast.

Like I said, though, I would have liked to have access to a Way back Machine and given Paula, and anyone else who thinks and speaks like she does, a heads up about their future. Maybe then they’d think twice, and speak less.

Just A Thought

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Just Sayin Tweetin'

Random Musings

So, we have a new season of Food Network Star upon us and since I like to cook, and fancy myself a star, I’m gonna use this weekly posting of Randomness to talk about the show.

First up: it’s the same every year. I mean, the names of the contestants change, but here’s always a Sassy Black cook—Hello Lovely … Yes, she calls herself Lovely. And there’s always the nice guy, this season it’s Chad, and the Latino, Daniela, who went home this first week because, well, she can’t cook.

Each season has it’s Model-cum-Chef, this year it’s Danushka, who is also playing the part of Angry Chef. She scares me. Then we have the Rock’n’Roll Chef, and this year a pie baker, too, in Rodney Henry, and the formerly overweight, now svelte cast-member, Andres Guillama. Chris Hodgson plays the part of nice guy who thinks he’s funny but isn’t, while we have another wacky Southern girl in Damaris Phillips. Stacey Poon-Kinney—and don’t get me started on what I can do with that name—will play the Obnoxious One, I’m thinking, judging by Week One, while Nikki Dinki is the Know-It-All Veggie Chef who, I’m guessing, we’ll find out can’t really cook.

Russell Jackson is the Daddy Chef, while Viet Pham is the Ambiguously Gay chef.

Just like last year but with new names. Plus we have Giada DeLaurentiis, the Networks’ It Girl, Bobby Flay, Smug Self-Centered Tool, and Alton Brown, Hot Not Gay Nerd.

Like I said, I see myself as a pretty good cook, so let’s see what happens this season and who sets the house on fire and who fails at risotto.

So, we bought the riding mower and have been using it, and loving it, regularly.

The first week, I mowed some and then Carlos mowed some, and then we repeated it.

The next week, because when I say I’m gonna do something, I do it, I got up, ate breakfast and went out to do the lawn. Carlos bemoaned the fact that he couldn’t use it.

The next week, again, because when I say I’m gonna do something, I do it, I got up, ate breakfast and went out to do the lawn. Carlos, again, bemoaned the fact that he couldn’t use it.

The next week, I said, ‘Why don’t you mow the lawn after breakfast?’

Carlos said, ‘Sure, make me do all the work.’

I.Cannot.Win.

I first posted about this back in March, 2012, when the Indiana Youth Group [IYG], an LGBT youth support group, was told that the Bureau of Motor Vehicles had revoked their specialty license plate for violating "state law and Indiana Administrative Code" by giving donors low number plates. Indiana’s asshatted legislators—Republicans, mostly—had wanted to backdoor....and I'll let that pun just lie there and do nothing like an Indiana state legislator....legislation targeting the group's specialty plate, but their constituents wanted no part of it.

So, they, um, listened to the people who put them in office? No. Republican State Senate President Pro Tempore and Grand Poobah Asshat, David Long, found a new "solution" by demanding the BMV revoke the plate on contractual grounds.

But, while it lasted a year, the good news is that Indiana Youth Group is celebrating a big win because a judge ordered their specialty license plates to be reinstated.

Suh-nap, GOP.

IYG is the only not-for-profit agency that is solely dedicated to serving LGBTQ youth in Indianapolis and the only agency with a full-time staff in the state. "The youth we serve often have nowhere else to turn and the money we raise goes directly toward supporting disenfranchised youth and toward putting a stop to needless bullying and violence in our schools."

Yet the GOP tried—and now failed—to stomp on it.

I loves me a happy ending.

Apparently, Real Housewives of Atlanta star, Nene Leakes, took a page out of an old Carol Burnet Show script this week when deciding what to wear to Kash Kow Kardashians baby shower … let that sink in, Nene and Kash Kow, friends?

Anyway, it seems as though Nene could find nothing she liked so she took the bed skirt and made herself a party dress.

Inventive?

I know that all the SCOTUS rulings can sometimes be confusing—I sometimes think it’s planned that way—and when I found his handy graph to explain what will happen when The Supremes rule on Prop 8 to be quite handy.

Here’s hoping for the right ruling.

I love me a good LGBT ally, and when he has a sense of humor, well, I love him all the more.

Marriage equality ally and Oakland Raiders punter Chris Kluwe was invited to this year's LGBT Pride Month reception at the White House but unfortunately is unable to attend because he’ll be training with his team instead. So, Kluwe sent his regrets, like this:

Followed by a little joke:

"p.s. - if you really wanted to, I'm sure I could make a late supper if an F35 were to pick me up at the field right after practice. Just saying....

p.p.s. - Please don't do that. Then I'd be "that guy" on the team. You know. "That guy". (Plus it also seems like an extremely unnecessary waste of taxpayer dollars."

Madonna appeared at a concert this past week to preview her new music and her new face. I’m hoping the music is better than the face.

HOT MAN OF THE WEEK

Justin Baldoni, who has created a video for a song written by Zach Sobiech, a 17-year-old who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. Given only months to live, Zach turned to music to say goodbye and his song "Clouds" spread across the country.

Baldoni asked some famous folks to 'sing' with Zach and they did.

So, Justin. Yeah, he's hot, and has abs you could bounce a quarter off of, and a big heart, too.

Hot and compassionate; a winning combination.

Carlos considers himself a Masterbaker, and if he had his way, he’d be masterbaking morning, noon, and night; he lives to masterbake.

So, last week he made these little walnut balls and they were little bite-sized tastes of goodness. After dinner, he asked if I wanted to try his balls again, and I said, 'Only if you dust ‘em with powdered sugar first.'

I’ll leave you to your imaginations as to what Carlos did next. Oy.

TWEETS OF THE WEEK

The Advocate magazine website ahs what they call a Blanche week, where they ask Twitterers to Twat, AKA skewer, an LGBT celebrity. This week’s choice was Husband-In-My-Head, Anderson Cooper and here are The Blanches:

Which is your favorite?