Eliot: The Wind Beneath Our Wings | Newsweek Scope

MUSIC
Gay-Pride Grenade
Joshua Alston 4/11/2009 12:00:00 AM
The stereotype is that gay men's music tastes favor pop divas and show tunes, while lesbians dig sensitive folk, and to let Jon Ginoli tell it, that stereotype is truer than it is false. That's why, in 1991, Ginoli founded Pansy Division, an out-and-proud punk-rock band. Pansy Division's sound was influenced heavily by '70s-era punk bands like the Ramones and the Sex Pistols. Like those groups, Pansy Division keeps the songs short, sweet and snotty. And after taking a six-year break to work day jobs—homocentric rock music isn't exactly reaping a windfall—the band has returned with "That's So Gay," its seventh album. And not a moment too soon—"Gay" is a catchy call to arms for the gays and lesbians who say they want a revolution while their iPods tell a different story.
DRAMA QUEENS
Judy, Barbra, Liza—And Little Edie
4/4/2009 12:00:00 AM
"Grey Gardens" is not a gay movie, but there is no question that it has a huge and loyal fan base among those of us who enjoy same-sex stimulus plans. But why? Is there a gay-icon awards committee? Do shaved-headed lawyers in Dolce & Gabbana swimming trunks carry black briefcases full of votes to some unmarked gay bar where John Waters, Russell Simmons and Cher mull over the merits of the homo-nees? Do Ethel Merman and Rock Hudson welcome new inductees to the Gay Hall of Fame with vodka cranberries and power bars? Oh, my, I wish. But it's not like that. Spotting a gay icon is like being double-jointed or riding a unicycle: to laymen it is imperceptible, but to gay men it's like, well, duh.
The End Of An Error
Anna Quindlen 4/4/2009 12:00:00 AM
The most unlikely blurb of this publishing season is on the back cover of Nathaniel Frank's "Unfriendly Fire" and comes from John Shalikashvili. The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff lauds a book that systematically trashes a policy the general once oversaw: the ban on openly gay men and lesbians in the military known as "don't ask, don't tell."
MY TURN
Fresh Start
Julie Halpert 4/3/2009 12:00:00 AM
My daughter, Alyson, began checking out colleges in her junior year of high school. On one of our first visits, she and I were finishing up an interview with the dean of admissions when she asked if I could step outside so she could have a moment alone with him. Later that night, I asked her what she had said to him. "I asked him if the college was gay-friendly," she said, "because I am." That was when I first learned that my daughter, then 16, was a lesbian.
TELEVISION
Tuning Out Dr. Laura

There is no progress without resistance." That's one of those "Lauraisms" that Laura Schlessinger, the radio scold better known as "Dr. Laura," must suddenly deplore. Even she could not have been prepared for the resistance by gays and feminists that preceded this week's debut of her new eponymous weekday TV show. Her incendiary views have galvanized antihate groups into perhaps the most successful "education campaign aimed at advertisers"--don't call it a boycott--in talk-show history. Before the television show was ever on the air, potential advertisers were backing out. Even her six-year-old radio show started taking on water, and 16 percent of her regular advertisers have jumped ship. "We have never faced anything like this before," says Premiere Radio Network president Kraig Kitchin, her syndicator.
Dr. Laura, Talk Radio Celebrity

Even as tolerance seems to be on the increase, gays have learned they've got a new nemesis: the harsh-tongued talk-radio oracle Dr. Laura Schlessinger, 53, who's surpassed Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh as most-listened-to personality on the air. Her anti-gay remarks on air were well known in the gay community, but when she landed an upcoming TV show, protests ignited. She backed off a little last week, but nobody thinks the trouble's over.