Girlfriend's room was covered in Phantom of the Opera merch!
A slew of household-name LGBT people appear in a powerful new ad to re-elect President Obama, including Jane Lynch, Billie Jean King, Chaz Bono, Wanda Sykes, George Takei, Zachary Quinto and this budding queen above.
Entertainment Weekly (June 29, 2012) has an interesting feature on the "new art of coming out" in Hollywood. In a nutshell, the magazine points out that many of the celebrities who've made if official in the years since Ellen's "Yep, I'm gay" splash have done so in low-key ways or as an afterthought. This removes the defensive argument many people make about gay public figures not having to march in pride parades—that was never the point. The point was making it official, and more and more are doing so.
Sidenote: Above is the newsstand cover, but the subscription cover needs space for a mailing address so loses two faces. The two who were considered expendable: Jane Lynch and Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
I hired my sweet pal Brad as my videographer and met him at the Westin Bonaventure just in time to check in and take our places. I kind of hate how the carpet was set up—the guests were allowed to congregate behind us to stargaze, which was distracting. But it was nothing compared to the women two spots down from me whose entire goal was to flash a huge "FREE GAY HUGS!" sign and video themselves receiving said hugs from roughly two-thirds of the celebrities who walked. (And I thought I was lame with my aggressive pic-with requests!) They were so damn loud! Luckily, they didn't ruin any of my interviews, but only by sheer luck.
Brad's mic needed batteries (he's blond; sorry, Brad) so I wound up videoing my own first chat, with Jennifer Tyrrell. She's the lesbian mom recently booted as a den mother by the virulently homophobic Boy Scouts of America. Smart woman and immediately likable. Unreal that they're getting away with that crap. I was a cub scout (I bailed on Webelos mainly because...what the fuck is a Webelo???) and fondly remember my Pinewood Derby racing days as well as the hillbilly band we assembled for a talent night. Not to mention the father/son cook-off, in which my father and I had a well-appreciated coconut cream pie. But still, fuck the Scouts.
My first stars were Angela Featherstone (STUH-nning, but my campadre confessed she had been an ice queen on a recent shoot) and Michelle Paradise of Exes & Ohs. No Megan Cavanagh, but they were delightful.
Next, I snagged Grant Gustin of Glee. I don't really follow the show, but no one that cute is getting past me without a third degree. He's adorable and quite articulate, even if he refers to gay people as "homosexuals," which totally didn't offend me because he was totally doing it to sound smart, not homophobic. I had a homosexual crush on various parts of him.
Max Adler from the same show was equally adorable and charming. He's passionate about his role, even though it came as a total shocker that his bullying character would be written as a late-blooming man-lover.
Julie Bowen, Jesse Tyler Ferguson & Ariel Winter of Modern Family
Modern Family and Glee both won for Outstanding Comedy Series at the 22nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards, which presenter Joel McHale points out is not a "tie" but a "silk cravate" in LGBT terms.
Keep watching to see the acceptances, as well as videos of Dolly Parton (weirdly played on by Madonna's "Vogue," and who describes her appearance as "comin' out..." to present an award), Sean Hayes, Kristin Chenoweth, Chris Colfer and Mike O'Malley...
People (April 11, 2011) includes this cute pic of Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson and his lawyer boyf Justin Mikita. The weekly celebrity mags are doing more and more of this.
Globe (February 21, 2011) is Jewish-mothering Jesse Tyler Ferguson, turning second-hand, anonymous quotes about how he could totally see having kids with BF Justin Mikita into, "It's a Baby for Gay Star of 'Modern Family'!"
And yes, the "Gay Star" is offset from the rest of the headline.
TV Guide (December 20—January 2, 2011) chooses Modern Family as its favorite TV show of the year—and grants modern family Cam, Mitchell and Lily (Eric Stonestreet, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Jaden Hiller) one of three cast covers.
