Sunday, May 18, 2008

A New Addition to the Gay Lexicon

A new word was born this week. I don't know who started it, but Chris Jenson at the SF Examiner newspaper used it in his blog, the Gay Examiner.

He informs us that at least for the short term, he's developed a crush on Mayor Gavin Newsom. In fact, he'd gay-marry Gavin Newsom if Newsom would agree to a haircut and to use less product in his hair.

As a point of fact, Newsom does seem to be stuck in the late 90s, but somehow the look suits him. I'm not as worried as some of my other gay brethren if he sticks with the look.

Newsom relatively recently divorced his first wife and took a model as his second wife, so it is fairly certain that the mayor is a confirmed player on the other team. But I'm sure a lot of gay men have mini-crushes on Newsom this week, and probably a few lesbians, too.

Something happened at the Mayor's press conference Thursday that impressed me. One of the men making a short speech mentioned how good looking Newsom is. Newsom laughed, reached out and squeezed the man's shoulder by way of thanks for the compliment.

It's pretty refreshing to see a straight man who is so obviously comfortable around gays and lesbians. What a contrast to the national politicians. It brought to mind Barack Obama's hyperfear at being photographed with Newsom again.

I think that is going to be Obama's legacy with a lot of us in the gay community. He had a chance to be part of the latest civil rights movement, but he ducked his head and ran the other way. You can't shout about change and then disappear when the reality of change is inconvenient.

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