Daily Loaf

There are two sets of crises in 100 Saints You Should Know, one religious, one sexual. The religious crises are experienced by a priest named Matthew, who’s losing his faith, and a cleaning woman named Theresa, who’s just beginning to gain hers. The sexual crises involve Matthew again – he’s discovering that he’s gay and that he needs physical intimacy – and 16-year-old Garrett, who already knows that he’s gay, but is reluctant to out himself. There are two other important characters — Abby, Theresa’s rule-breaking daughter, and Colleen, Matthew’s dogmatic mother — and then there are the two near-nude dancers who, in Kerry Glamsch’s ambitious staging of the play, punctuate the action with intense slow-motion homoerotic couplings set to music including Gregorian chant.

The ultimate result is mixed: the play is original in its treatment of the ebb and flow of faith, formulaic in its scenes of gay self-actualization, and both spectacular and overly pious — sexually pious! — in its choreography. Still, author Kate Fodor is unafraid to aim for big game (her previous play was about who else, Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt), and on several occasions she scores a direct hit. This may not be a totally successful work of theater, but it’s provocative and daring. At the very least, it’ll give you something to talk about. Read the rest of this entry »

Homosexuality has long been difficult to explain in terms of natural selection, as homosexuals reproduce at a lower frequency than their heterosexual counterparts. This would seemingly doom genes related to homosexuality to extinction. However, the fact that homosexuality exists in such a large variety of species suggests that it in some way offers an evolutionary advantage. Otherwise, genes that code for homosexuality would die off (off course this presupposes that you believe homosexuality is determined by nature as opposed to nurture). While homosexuality may not be entirely hereditary, evidence strongly suggests it is largely determined by genetics. Proof of this is the high rate of homosexuality in identical twins, at least for males. Read the rest of this entry »

If Sacha Baron Cohen’s films intentionally court controversy, he’s getting what he asked for with Brüno. Some critics, like CL’s Joe Bardi, admire Cohen’s risk-taking comic performance as a flamboyantly gay Austrian. But the head of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) says the satire is likely to miss the mark: “Some people in the gay community will be as troubled as GLAAD is that the movie doesn’t decrease homophobia, but decreases the public’s comfort with gay people.” Read Bardi’s review and the GLAAD story and check out other critics’ reactions at Rotten Tomatoes. And after the break check out a clip from Current TV’s That’s So Gay (pictured above) that mocks the movie and the controversy, declaring “Bruno is the gay version of Malcolm X!” Read the rest of this entry »

Outrage, a new documentary by Kirby Dick “outs” allegedly closeted republican figures who have anti-gay voting records. Florida Governor Charlie Crist, who recently announced his bid for a 2010 senate seat, is a main target in Dick’s independent film which premiered May 8.

Suspicions of Crist’s homosexuality first arose before his gubernatorial election in a 2006 Palm Beach Post article. A 21 year-old GOP staffer, Jason Wetherington, reportedly boasted to friends that he had sex with Crist and even named Crist’s long-term partner, Bruce Carlton Jordan. Read the rest of this entry »

Wanna be called a “fag” over and over again by 12 year old boys from around the world? Well, that’s what X-Box live was designed to deliver – the young male gamer in all his puerility. I mean sure, there’s a kick-ass shooter or three in there too, but the name-calling can be hard to ignore. Unless you just turn off the voice chat like me, then you can revel in pure blasty goodness without the middle-school machismo. There’s no doubting it though – X-Box Live has a civility problem.

Microsoft has decided on a zero-tolerance policy as their last, best hope, and like all zero tolerance policies, it sucks and is offensive and makes stupid mistakes. In this instance, a woman who identified herself as a lesbian (presumably because she’s, you know, gay), was first hounded by Live idiots who harassed her because sex is scary when you’ve never had it. How did Microsoft respond to her plight? The booted her off X-Box Live because she’s identified herself as a lesbian, and in the wonderful world of Live, sex is verboten. Even having the letters “g-a-y” in your name is against the rules, sorry Mr. Gaywood. Read the rest of this entry »