I Didn't Say It ...

Billy Crystal, who played Jodie Dallas on 1970s Soap, the first openly gay character to regularly appear on network TV, on gays on TV today:

"I did it in front of a live audience, and there were times where I would say to [the actor who played his boyfriend], 'Bob, “I love you,' and the audience would laugh nervously, because, you know, it’s a long time ago, that I’d feel this anger. I wanted to stop the tape and go, 'What is your problem?' Because it made you sort of very self-conscious about what we were trying to do then. And now it’s just, I see it and I just hope people don’t abuse it and shove it in our face — well, that sounds terrible — to the point of it just feels like an everyday kind of thing."

I was kind of disheartened to hear this from Billy, because, as a young queerling, I wanted to see me on TV and I didn’t—at least not very often. And, if Billy has a problem with in-your-face homosexuality, does he have a problem with in-your-face heterosexuality?

UPDATE:  Crystal has clarified his statement:

"What I meant was that whenever sex or graphic nudity of any kind (gay or straight) is gratuitous to the plot or story it becomes a little too much for my taste."

Much better, Billy.

Frank Bruni, on The Gays being a threat to religion:

"I’ve been called many unpleasant things in my life, and I’ve deserved no small number of them. But I chafe at this latest label: A threat to your religious liberty. I don’t mean me alone. I mean me and my evidently menacing kind: men who have romantic relationships with other men and maybe want to marry them, and women in analogous situations. According to many of the Americans who still cast judgment on us, our 'I do' somehow tramples you, not merely running counter to your creed but running roughshod over it. That’s absurd. And the deference that many politicians show to such thinking is an example not of religion getting the protection it must but of religious people getting a pass that isn’t warranted. It’s an illustration of religion’s favored status in a country that’s still working out this separation-of-church-and-state business and hasn’t yet gotten it quite right."

Once again: word. Keep your religion out of marriage because it’s a civil right, not a religious one.

Shepard Smith, Fox "News" anchor, on the Supreme Court's decision to review the Sixth Circuit same-sex marriage cases:

"Not in every case, but in most cases, the same states which were fighting integration are fighting this as well. Those states which always seem to be behind the curve for reasons which are explainable and understandable."

Sad to say, but you can see it’s true just by looking at a map of marriage equality states versus non-equality states.

Sidenote: it’s lovely that South Carolina bucked that trend.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the most outspoken anti-gay Catholic activists, blaming women for the problems the church is facing:

“Apart from the priest, the sanctuary has become full of women...the activities in the parish and even the liturgy have been influenced by women and become so feminine in many places that men do not want to get involved. Men are often reluctant to become active in the church. The feminised environment and the lack of the church’s effort to engage men has led many men to simply opt out.”

Funny, though, I don’t hear of cases of women raping altar boys, so that sexual abuse problem that the Catholic Church has been fighting for decades is created and perpetuated and aided and abetted by men.

Maybe the Church should let women take over and clean up that mess.

Kevin Hart, while promoting his new film The Wedding Ringer, on turning down a role in Tropic Thunder because it was a gay character:

"Not because I have any ill will or disrespect, it's because I feel like I can't do that because I don't think I'm really going to dive into that role 100%. Because of the insecurities about myself trying to play that part. Like, would I think people are going to think while I'm trying to do this is going to stop me from playing that part the way that I'm supposed to."

So, what he’s saying is he can’t play gay because he’s afraid people will think he’s gay? Or because, maybe he’ll turn gay?

Siddown Kevin. You’re one annoying little man.

Papal Props ... Slight Papal Props

It’s no secret that I am not a fan of the Catholic Church, and it’s Pope. I have this thing where I don’t like people or organizations who harbor child rapists, who give child rapists pensions for life if they just go away, who pay off victims of child rape with millions and millions of dollars that they could use for the “Lord’s work” if they would only stop harboring, protecting, and pensioning child rapists.

And I am not so fond of this somewhat new though slightly tarnished Pope Frankie either. When he first came on the scene he was virulently anti-marriage equality, and while he has evolved — much like President Obama — on the issue, he hasn’t fully come around to joining the 21st century. And, sure, he has said some nice things about The Gays, about the Church welcoming The Gays, about how The Gays have “something” to offer — other than being a scapegoat for the Church — he mostly talks but does nothing.

I am kind of an “actions speak louder than words” kinda gay, but, for today, I’ll give Frankie some props.

See, last year Pope Frankie removed Cardinal Raymond Burke — a very conservative American cardinal who doesn’t seem to care for Frankie very much — off the Vatican's powerful Congregation for Bishops, which deals with appointments of bishops worldwide, and then last week Cardinal Burke was removed as the leader of the Vatican’s highest court and re-appointed to a ceremonial position — which, I think, means he gets to keep the wardrobe — as chaplain of the Knights of Malta, a charity group.

And that demotion — though I wonder if it involves a pay decrease — is rather significant because generally the position of Patron of the Order of Malta is given to a retired cardinal, or offered as a second task to an active cardinal.

Still, the move is no surprise to anyone who’s watched the Vatican since Frankie moved his Prada slip-ons into the Royal, er, Papal closet.  After Frankie suggested that The Gays not be treated as less than, as the scourge of the Church, Burke strapped on his heels and pushed hard for the Vatican to revise and water-down its tentative step — really a non-step since nothing happened — toward greater acceptance of LGBT people.

Then he criticized Frankie’s questioned Francis' denunciation of excesses of capitalism — meaning Burke was all about the Benjamin’s and the cushy lifestyle of Cardinal — and then he gave an interview in which he called Frankie’s leadership “a ship without a rudder.”

So, it was really no surprised that Frankie kicked him to a less desirable curb.

And, like I said, while I’m no fan of the Church and the Pope, I’ll give him props for attempting to clean house ... with a whisk broom.

Pope Francis Demotes Outspoken Conservative Cardinal

Hard-line US cardinal loses another Vatican job