The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine) articles from December 2007

The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine) archives from December 2007

A time to face facts: an evangelical organization called Watchmen on the Walls is inciting deadly violence against gays. How will we fight back?(FROM THE EDITOR)
December 4, 2007... On a Friday in October, when I arrived at the Los Angeles studio of celebrity photographer Kwaku Alston, the mood was electric. This wasn't just another cover shoot. This was Mary J. Blige, the queen of hip-hop soul, sitting down with America's...

Not so scary?(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
December 4, 2007... The question you pose on your recent cover implies that gay Halloween should "rise from the dead" ["Halloween: Is the Party Over?" November 6]. Communities, like individuals, change and evolve; thankfully, the gay community is no exception. The...

Together and apart.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
December 4, 2007... I am disappointed with Anne Stockwell's comments about ENDA in your November 6 issue [From the Editor]. As a gay trans man, I had hoped she would take a firm stance for unity. Yes, GLBTQ people are all different, and it can be difficult to work...

The advocate poll: do you feel that straights spoil the gay Halloween experience?(FEEDBACK)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... "Straights, per se, are not necessarily the problem here in the Castro where I live. The problem is the ignorant and thoughtless people who come to our neighborhood from out of the area to cause trouble." "That has always been the way. We...

All victims are created equal.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
December 4, 2007... Jasmyne Cannick brought up an important point in her column ["Hate Crimes in Black and White," November 6]. She asked why the hate crime against Michael Sandy didn't garner the same type of media coverage as Matthew Shepard's murder eight years...

Just enough swish.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
December 4, 2007... Brett Krutzsch's essay really resonated with me ["The Gayest One," November 6]. I've often found myself wondering where the line is that we as gay men must toe. I remember once, in college, when I found out that my roommate had been telling...

Where's the love?(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
December 4, 2007... How could you guys credit some unknown company like GrapeVine Public Relations as "perhaps the first firm to specifically serve gay and gay-friendly actors, writers, and musicians" ["Hey, Flack, Watch Your Back," November 6]? Project Publicity...

Out on the Street.(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... We asked a sampling of LGBT people in Birmingham, Ala.: "Do you think obesity is a problem in the gay community?" [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Kenneth Norton, 23 restaurant manager "Obesity itself isn't an issue; it's the fear of obesity in...

The Brazilian way.(HEALTH)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... SINCE THE FIRST WORLD AIDS Day, 20 years ago this December 1, Brazil has gone out of its way to honor victims of the disease. And not just with memori als-like last year's installation of 12,000 red ribbons (above) in Brasilia, the nation's...

Missionary men.(Forward)(Mormons)
December 4, 2007... CALL IT A GIFT FROM GOD. The 2008 Men on a Mission calendar features handsome young Mormon guys-all returned missionaries-posing both in door-to-door ensembles and shirt less, with the kind of ripped physiques typically reserved for Abercrombie...

Whoopi's funny guy.(Forward)(Whoopi Goldberg's Bobby Rivers)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... Not a day goes by that Bobby Rivers doesn't realize how lucky he is. As the film critic on Wake Up With Whoopi, Whoopi Goldberg's popular morning FM radio show, Rivers is given free rein to be himself. Not only does Rivers get to release...

Cyber Granny.(Forward)(Renee Mazon)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... Don't let the screen name Silver Sun Woman fool you--Renee Mazon is no hippie chick. The 78year-old lesbian, who appropriates that alias on ElderWisdomCircle. org, a site staffed by seniors who dispense advice to young folk, is a tough New York...

Give it away: for 20 years, Katherine Acey has headed the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, which funds some of the world's worthiest causes.(DOSSIER)(Interview)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... AT AN OCTOBER EVENT CELEBRATING Katherine Acey's two decades as head of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, Acey found herself in a new place: the spotlight. Typically, the beneficiaries of Astraea's grants get all the attention. ...

Gay porn nets mom big bucks.(Forward)(Edwina McCombs)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... That's what a jury decided in a recent XXX-rated lawsuit in suburban Los Angeles. After a two-week trial in mid October, a superior court jury in Norwalk awarded $85,000 to a Tennessee woman whose two daughters were exposed to gay porn while...

Albus Dumbeldore.(OUTED)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Albus Dumbeldore, former headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of books, October 19. During a reading at New York City's Carnegie Hall, Rowling revealed that...

Joe Herzenberg.(DIED)(Obituary)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... Joe Herzenberg, 66, North Carolina's first openly gay elected official, of complications from diabetes, in Chapel Hill, N.C., October 28. A member of the Chapel Hill town council from 1987 to 1993, Herzenberg mentored other openly gay officials...

AmFAR.(APPOINTED)(American Foundation for AIDS Research)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... Kevin Frost, as chief executive officer of AmFAR, the AIDS research organization, October 3. Before joining the foundation in 1994, Frost researched HIV and AIDS for four years at New York University Medical Center and worked as the inpatient...

Jeremy Wilson.(APPOINTED)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... Jeremy Wilson, as the LGBT and HIV/AIDS liaison to New York city council member Christine Quinn, October 22. Previously, Wilson served as a liaison for Fernando Ferrer, borough president of the Bronx, and New York state assembly member Linda...

Rants & raves.(Forward)(Quotation)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... "I asked President [Yoweri] Museveni to get us an island on Lake Victoria and we take these homosexuals and they die out there. If they die there, then we shall have no more homosexuals in the country." --Uganda's leading Muslim cleric...

Paper trail.(Forward)(Excerpt)
December 4, 2007... The title of A.J. Jacobs's new memoir says it all-The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. In the following excerpt, the author grapples with God's war on foreskin: He that is...

Datebook 11.20-12.04.(Forward)(Brief article)(Calendar)
December 4, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] DECEMBER 2 Say you'll be there--the Spice Girls' reunion tour kicks off December 2 in Vancouver, Canada. Who's your favorite [beginning strikethrough] drag queen [end strikethrough] lass? [ILLUSTRATION...

The age-old question: how to stay young in Hollywood? Become a lesbian.(GUEST COLUMN)(Column)
December 4, 2007... SEARCH THE INTERNET for any female entertainer over the age of 40. What you'll find: other people talking about how old they're getting. By"people" I mean everyone from financial advisers to celebrity-obsessed journalists to losers with nothing...

Death in Afghanistan: a lesbian soldier's mysterious death in Afghanistan raises many questions--including why more fallen service members have not been identified as gay.(MILITARY)(Ciara Durkin)
December 4, 2007... ON FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, Army specialist Ciara Durkin, a 30-year-old corporal in the Massachusetts National Guard, was found dead with a single gunshot wound to her head at the Bagram Airfield military base in Afghanistan. Four days later, she...

Continental chic for a dream delivery: forget the Eurail. Europe is best viewed from the windows of your brand-new import.(FAST LANE: AUTOS)
December 4, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] DREAMING OF A NEW EUROPEAN CAR? Yearning for a European vacation? How about both at once? Picture this: You order a new car at your local dealership at a discounted no-haggle price. You and your partner fly to Europe...

The art of the deal: we're all in sales, whether we want a job, a raise, or a date.(CAREERS)
December 4, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WANT A RAISE? YOU'RE IN SALES! Seeking a promotion or that cool new job? You're in sales! Single? Well, then you're definitely in sales. The bottom line is that we're all in sales, regardless of what we actually...

Breaking away: they didn't have the it equipment, but pedaling 275 miles in the AIDS ride proved Team Guinan had the right stuff.(FIRST PERSON)
December 4, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IT WAS LATE AFTERNOON on September 27 and the wind was kicking up war ghosts in Gettysburg's battlefields when the seven members of Team Guinan got our first reality check. The next morning, we'd be pedaling out...

Amy Adams: in this month's combo live-action and animated feature Enchanted, Amy Adams earns her tiara as Disney's most complex princess yet. But as much as we respect the living doll's 2005 Oscar nomination for Junebug and her breakthrough performance in Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can, we're still enchanted by her earlier efforts Drop Dead Gorgeous, Psycho Beach Party, and Cruel Intentions 2.(BIG GAY FOLLOWING)(Interview)
December 4, 2007... In Enchanted, your Giselle is the first Disney princess since Belle [Beauty and the Bectst] to be portrayed by an actress who performs her own singing parts. Was that intimidating? I was a bit nervous because I haven't been training as a singer...

Killed in abroad daylight: Sacramento has long been considered a tolerant city, a gay man's violent death has exposed the wide divide between LGBT residents and the areas Slavic evangelical Christians.(NEWS)(Satendar Singh)
December 4, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Clayton Pettus used to spend Sunday afternoons with his coworker and friend Satendar Singh. The pair would people-watch from the second floor of the Sacramento gay bar Badlands, where they could look down and take in...

Inside the HIV fight: from vaccines to microbicides, from preexposure prophylaxis to circumcision, researchers are considering multiple options in the fight to prevent HIV. Tim Murphy talks to the players involved and gives us a progress report.(HEALTH)
December 4, 2007... Though Scott Smith and Joe Birdsong are both gay, their differences outweigh their similarities. Smith, 39, is a clean- cut Atlanta IT sales rep, while the punk-coiffed Birdsong, 37, used to be a go-go boy and now owns the Rapture Cafe, a New...

Domestic partner insurance: coming soon to a city near you? New York city's path to equal-benefits plans might prove a model for other parts of the country, middle America included.(HEALTH)
December 4, 2007... In 1996, San Francisco boldly passed a law that required virtually all companies doing business with the city to provide domestic partners equal access to health insurance. The landmark legislation paved the way for 13 progressive cities and...

Black, white, and gray: measuring the incidence of mental illness among black gays versus white gays isn't a clear-cut proposition.(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... ALTHOUGH A COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY STUDY published this November in the American Journal of Public Health suggested that gays, lesbians, and bisexuals as a group have a higher incidence of mental disorders than straight people, black LGBs were...

Mary J. Blige has something to tell you ... ... about fighting AIDS, creating a hot new album, and doing the hard work of living with joy.(Cover story)
December 4, 2007... MARY J. BLIGE HAS A FANTASTIC BODY, fit surprising curvy. Today it's poured into a pair of form-fitting jeans, a chic orange turtleneck, and dark leather boots. Huge dark sunglasses set off her trademark blond bob wig. She's curled up in a...

Changing faces: a snapshot of how HIV continues to have a powerful impact on individuals in the United States.(WORLD AIDS DAY)(Table)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] RACIAL MINORITIES BEAR THE BRUNT Black Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities are being hit disproportionately by HIV, together accounting for more than two thirds of new infections occurring in 2005....

Food for thought: organic yogurt, Niman Ranch pork, and Wildwood tofu are just some of the ingredients in the pantry at a food-forward nonprofit in San Francisco.(Project Open Hand)(Organization overview)
December 4, 2007... THERE ALMOST SEEMS TO BE AN OVERABUNDANCE OF FOOD at Project Open Hand, a nonprofit organization in San Francisco that prepares and delivers food to seniors, people living with HIV, and homebound critically ill residents. A tin of home-baked...

TV for you and me: current TV has democratized the small screen with user-generated programming. So what's in it for us? Turns out, whatever we make of it.(TV)
December 4, 2007... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] PRODUCER-DIRECTOR DAVE O'BRIEN has already gone through the development wringer with the Here cable network and MTV's Logo channel. The gay 30-year-old's indic documentary Hip Hop Hornos and short film Straight Boys...

Inside man: as segment producer for Monday Night Football, Matt Brady infiltrated sports' biggest boys' club--and lived to tell about it.(SPORTS)(MRB Productions)(Interview)
December 4, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] REMEMBER THAT SUPER BOWL XXXVIII opener with Arnold Schwarzenegger? What about that infamous "Towelgate" teaser, where Nicollette Sheridan dropped her towel for Terrell Owens? If so, you have producer Matt Brady to...

Final Fantasy: heading into the Oscar season, three films arrive with performances--and worlds--that are truly magical.(Margot at the Wedding)(Enchanted)(Movie review)
December 4, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ENCHANTED DIRECTED BY Kevin Lima STARRING Amy Adams, Susan Sarandon, and Patrick Dempsey DISNEY MARGOT AT THE WEDDING DIRECTED BY Noah Baumbach STARRING Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh,...

Queer as Folk.(DVD PICKS)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] PARAMOUNT The series that asked America "Are you ready?" is now in one neat little box. Sure, it got a little preachy at the end, but there is still a whole lot of good drama and hot sex to be relived.

Waitress.(DVD PICKS)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 2OTH CENTURY FOX We will forever miss Adrienne Shelly's quirky characters and forgive her for maybe not having had the time to really edit this slightly repetitive but still satisfying comedy.

Will & Grace: Season Seven.(DVD PICKS)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] LIONSGATE Perhaps we're so accepted now that we don't need a show that's 100% gay, but let's not forget the one that started it all.

Pirates of The Caribbean: at World's End.(DVD PICKS)
December 4, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] BUENA VISTA The third installment of Jack Sparrow's swash-buckling adventures means more makeup-wearing Johnny Depp battling Orlando Bloom and ships full of men.

Trantasia.(DVD PICKS)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] TLA RELEASING A behind-the-scenes look at the first World's Most Beautiful Transsexual Pageant. Contestants parade down runways in over-the-top costumes and cry through their mascara.

Mensa Melodies: ex-Boyfriends and LD & the New Criticism bring you pop with a side of smarts.(In With)(Amoral Certitudes)(Sound recording review)
December 4, 2007... EX-BOYFRIENDS In With ABSOLUTELY KOSHER LD & THE NEW CRITICISM Amoral Certitudes DARLA IF THE MEMBERS OF THE San Francisco trio Ex-Boyfriends were skinny young things from Los Angeles, clad in skintight black jeans...

Common: This Is Me Then: The Best of Common.(MUSIC PICKS)
December 4, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] RED MUSIC Early-career gems from the Chicago rapper whose conscious rhymes and jazzy cadences belie his misleading moniker.

James Murphy & Pat Mahoney: Fabriclive. 36.(MUSIC PICKS)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] FABRIC The year of LCD Sound-system concludes with a bang and a whistle via this eclectic DJ mix of mutant disco and cutting-edge grooves.

Gorillaz:D-Sides.(MUSIC PICKS)
December 4, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] OCTONE/INTERSCOPE Rarities, flip sides, and remixes culled from the Grammy-winning Demon Days, by the most popular cartoon band since the Archies.

Nick Drake: Fruit Tree.(MUSIC PICKS)
December 4, 2007... UME/FONTANA This limited-edition boxed set includes the "Pink Moon" balladeer's three studio albums, a documentary DVD, and a 108-page book offering song-by-song analysis.

Original Cast Bare: The Album.(MUSIC PICKS)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] BARETHEALBUM.COM Complete score of the alternative rock opera about ill-fated romance in a Catholic boys' school. A portion of proceeds benefits the Trevor Project.

Cartoon.(Cartoon)
December 4, 2007... "You're just confusing her. Stop saying, 'Who's your daddy?"

A bigger boat: feminist and lesbian, gay and trans: different eras, same fight for inclusion.(FROM THE EDITOR)
December 18, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IT WAS 1977 WHEN Bella Abzug--the redoubtable U.S. congresswoman from New York and one of the sparkling lights of the feminist movement--organized the first National Women's Conference, held in Houston. According to...

Straight talk.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
December 18, 2007... I feel it is essential to honor our straight allies, so I appreciated your article on the Coolest Straight People of 2007 [November 20]. I understand that you cannot include everyone; however, parents involved with Parents, Families, and...

Straight talk 2.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
December 18, 2007... It is so tiring to see yet another letter from a whiny reader complaining about a straight person on the Advocate cover [Feedback re Matthew Rhys, November 20]. The reader goes on to complain that the straight actor is foreign (!) and playing a...

Guiliani, pro and con.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
December 18, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] While it's decent of you to publish a kind a sort a positive article about Rudolph Giuliani and his tepid support of gay rights ["Republican Matters," November 20], I'm very disappointed that you didn't mention the...

The Advocate poll.(FEEDBACK)(Brief article)
December 18, 2007... Are the Republican candidates' antigay stances genuine or a ploy to get votes? "All politicians want to win--they just calculate their best chances. The unfortunate side implication is that our friends' are similarly calculating and may...

Slumming it?(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
December 18, 2007... How nice for us that Victor Maldonado has seen the light and come on over to the side of the Democrats, if only until the GOP gets it right on gay issues (which will be never) [First Person, November 20]. Mr. Maldonado makes it quite clear that...

Daddy's girl.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
December 18, 2007... I enjoyed your interview with Jennifer Jason Leigh [Big Gay Following, November 20], but how could you do an article about her without mentioning that her father was actor Vic Morrow? Morrow starred in the TV series Combat from 1962 to 1967 and...

Picking our icons.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
December 18, 2007... Christopher Rice got it absolutely right in his column "Desperately Seeking Divas" [Coastal Disturbances, November 20]. Way to go, Chris! Paris Hilton as grand marshal of a gay pride parade? That was certainly one of gay pride's truly low...

Out on the street.(Brief article)
December 18, 2007... We asked a sampling of LGBT people in Salem, Ore.: "Should the gay rights movement include transgender people?" Marjorie Browne, 42 nurse "No one should be denied rights--gay, straight, transgender. We are all a part of the human race."...

Art show confidential.(CULTURE)(Art Basel)(Brief article)
December 18, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As the American Riviera's gilded gay mecca, Miami has long been synonymous with the flashy and the fun--Versace, the White Party, Rue McClanahan. But Art Basel Miami Beach--a contemporary art fair whose eminence has...

Meet the bloggers.(Forward)(Dana Rudolph)(Website overview)(Brief article)
December 18, 2007... Dana Rudolph Age: 40 Location: greater Boston area Blog: Mombian.com Year launched: 2005 Visitors per month: Over 10,000 and growing Why you started: I saw the need for a site offering practical tips for lesbian moms as well as a...

Dumbledore is lonely.(Forward)(Albus Dumbledore)
December 18, 2007... It's a crazy sign of the times when the fictional headmaster of a school of witchcraft and wizardry can come out but The Chronicle of Higher Education can identify fewer than a dozen openly gay top officers of U.S. institutions of higher...

AIDS in space.(Forward)(Brief article)
December 18, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The next time you look toward space, you'll be seeing one of the last great frontiers in AIDS research. In October a rocket took off from Kazakhstan and transported a global crew of astronauts to the International...

Ava's eyes: for lesbian photographer Ava Weinstein, pictures are more than visual. They have to be--she's legally blind.(DOSSIER)(Interview)
December 18, 2007... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] THE STEELY METTLE of the New York City--bred Weinstein belies her romantic portraits and tranquil nature shots. After struggling through school, Weinstein moved to Los Angeles and worked two jobs--restaurant manager...

Craig Covey.(ELECTED)(Brief article)
December 18, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Craig Covey, 50, as the mayor of Ferndate, Mich., November 6. A city council member for eight years and CEO of the Midwest AIDS Prevention Project, Covey became the first openly gay elected mayor in the state....

Timothy J. Ray.(DIED)(Obituary)(Brief article)
December 18, 2007... Timothy J. Ray, 47, a Broadway theater publicist, of kidney failure, in Providence, R.I., October 25. Remembered for his endless enthusiasm and inventive marketing, Ray worked as an associate on Broadway shows including Meet Me in St. Louis,...

Massimo Consoli.(DIED)(Obituary)(Brief article)
December 18, 2007... Massimo Consoli, 61, the so-called father of the Italian gay rights movement, of cancer, in Marino, Italy, November 4. Called "Papa Max" by his best friends, Consoli was a self-trained historian who wrote more than 40 books, mostly on gay...

Noi Chudnoff.(DIED)(Obituary)
December 18, 2007... Noi Chudnoff, 59, a prominent philanthropist for LGBT causes, of a head injury resulting from a fall in a Washington, D.C.--area hospital, November 6. The proprietor of a local home decor store, Chudnoff donated money to organizations such as...

Callen-Lorde Community Health Center.(APPOINTED)(Brief article)
December 18, 2007... Wendy Stark, as executive director of New York City's Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, November 5. Formerly the deputy executive director for finance and administration, Stark began working at the organization 13 years ago as a patient...

Rants & raves.(Forward)(quotes)(Quotation)(Brief article)
December 18, 2007... "People can improve themselves when they are younger, but when you're 60 or 70, you start looking like a freak. You end up looking like a lesbian big sister, and that's not right!" --Daniel Craig, on plastic surgery, in December's British...

Paper trail.(Forward)(Excerpt)(Brief article)
December 18, 2007... Margaret Mitchell's estate handpicked Donald McCaig (below), author of Jacob's Ladder, to craft the Gone With the Wind story from a male perspective--specifically that of Rhett Kershaw Butler. McCaig came up with the novel Rhett Butler's...

Datebook: 12.04-12.18.(Forward)(Calendar)
December 18, 2007... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] DECEMBER 12 Did you know Kiki and Herb were present when Jesus was born? It'll all be explained at Kiki & Herb: The Second Coming, a one-night-only Christmas concert at Carnegie Hall. KIKIANDHERB.COM ...

Now, that's smart: the new Fortwo: think of it as the anti-Hummer.(FAST LANE / AUTOS)(Product/service evaluation)
December 18, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 2008 MERCEDES-BENZ SMART FORTWO RETAIL PRICE (MSRP) $11,590 STANDARD ENGINE 1.0L 3-CYLINDER HORSEPOWER 70 @ 5,800 RPM TORQUE (LB-FT) 68 @ 4,500 RPM FUEL ECONOMY, CITY (MPG) 34 HIGHWAY (MPG)...

Don't tick off trans: transgressive questions likely to be a transgender conversation-ender.(GUEST COLUMN)(Column)
December 18, 2007... LET'S SAY YOU'RE AT WORK, a social setting, or political event, and a real live transgender person says "Hi!" You don't want to say anything wrong since you recall the tedious questions and responses you've endured about your sexuality, but...

Sharper focus: did AOL downsize its popular LGBT site QueerSighted for political reasons or simply business ones?(MEDIA)
December 18, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] OCTOBER 22 WAS A CURIOUS DAY at QueerSighted, the LGBT Web site launched by AOL with much fanfare last February. Inaddition to the usual fun stuff regular visitors had come to expect--viral video clips, "Aberzombie"...

Top gay chef? Out kitchen maestros have thrived on TV shows like Top Chef. But in the real-life restaurant world? Not so much. Rebecca Marx looks at why.(CUISINE)
December 18, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I'M A BIG GAY CHEF and I'm gonna outcook your ass!" So declared Dale Levitski, the memorably driven Chicago chef with the fauxhawk on season 3 of Top Chef, the Bravo reality series that has fueled many a foodie's...

Invisible man: gay senior Robert Harkabus hid from view when he was younger and has to fight to be seen now.(FIRST PERSON)
December 18, 2007... LGBT PEOPLE HAVE HAD A LOT of practice being invisible. For gays like me, who came of age in the 1940s and '50s, the straight world was a place where we had to stay hidden. Society was much more repressive than it is today, and either people...

Jason Bateman.(BIG GAY FOLLOWING)(Interview)
December 18, 2007... Four years after his queer sitcom fizzled, Jason Bateman earned a Golden Globe award and an Emmy nomination for playing the quintessential straight man on Fox's Arrested Development; even so, gays are still some of his best friends. So with Mr....

I'm voting for ... About 80% of gays and lesbians cast votes in the last midterm election. So is it any surprise that presidential candidates of both parties have courted LGBT support along with the usual list of celebrities and politicos? Here, a look at who's backing whom.
December 18, 2007... Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton OF NEW YORK [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * BILLIE JEAN KING, tennis legend * STEVEN SPIELBERG, director and producer * ERIC SCHMIDT, CEO of Google * GREG BERLANTI, film and...

Gay vs trans in America: lesbian. Gay. Bisexual. Transgender. In the aftermath of ENDA, can't we all just get along? An Advocate round table on the state of the community now.(Cover story)(Discussion)
December 18, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE LGBT "COMMUNITY" has never seemed less communal than in the last few months. When Barney Frank decided in September to move forward with a federal Employment NonDiscrimination Act that covered sexual orientation...

The gift of travel: news flash: all the e-mails and text messages in the world can't replace quality face time. Why not road-trip off the retail route this gift-giving season and deliver a present that promises serious bonding opportunities? We're willing to bet that the resulting travel memories won't ever go out of style.(LAST MINUTE GIFTS: THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE)(Website list)
December 18, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * Out in Africa Gay2Afrika, part of New York-based travel company 2Afrika, custom-designs safaris for LGBT travelers and their families, including gorilla treks in Rwanda, private game lodges within South Africa's...

Beautiful books: give your favorite coffee table what it deserves--arresting photographs and riotous remarks.(LAST MINUTE GIFTS: THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE)
December 18, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Mapplethorpe: Polaroids Before Robert Mapplethorpe became famous for his explicit homoerotic photographs and celebrity portraits, he was taking countless Polaroids. This treasure trove of more than 1,500 snapshots,...

The gift that gives back: truth is, most people we know have too much stuff. Spread the wealth this holiday season by shopping at one of these charitable organizations. You'll get and they'll give.(LAST MINUTE GIFTS: THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE)(Brief article)
December 18, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Broadway Cares Snow globes, tuxedo baby bibs, and dog collars with Broadway show loges make perfect gifts for the theatrically inclined. Plus, supporting the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS organization this...

The gigolo grows up: he made De Niro a taxi driver, Gere an American gigolo, and with his latest film, The Walker, writer-director Paul Schrader refashions Woody Harrelson as a gay D.C. socialite.(film)(Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver and Richard Gere in American Gigolo)
December 18, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IMAGINE a MIDDLE-AGED MAN with this unlikely resume: In his 20s he was a taxi driver; in his 30s, a highpriced male prostitute; and in his 40s, an insomniac drug dealer. As the man enters his 50s, where would an...

Jamal airs his dirty laundry.(SHORT ANSWERS)(Maurice Jamal and his film Dirty Laundry)(Interview)
December 18, 2007... Maurice Jamal first blipped on the pop culture radar in 2003 as a recurring player on Chappelle's Show, the deliciously politically incorrect variety and sketch show on Comedy Central. A year later Jamal broke into film with The Ski Trip, a...