As of midnight tonight, it will be exactly five years since my first post. It's hard to imagine it's been that long, and a lot's changed—the tone and subject matter are different, how often I post, my limits (no nudity in a couple of years due to ad constraints). I've devoted a crazy amount of time and money and energy to this blog for a very small financial return (you couldn't guess low enough), but it's always rewarding to have this forum with which to express myself, keep my writing ability fluid, perhaps influence a couple of people here and there, share obsessions with strangers (in both senses of the word) and learn new things.

Take That's Howard...can you believe this happened onstage at a pop concert?

Here are some of the posts that were most important to Boy Culture's history. For the uninitiated, some of the oldest ones refer to Boy Culture, the movie made of my novel; I started the blog at the time Boy Culture was being filmed as a way to keep people informed of the progress...and it all snowballed from there.

Subtle

Some of these posts are milestones when it comes to the hits they provided but most are filled with original writing and/or photography and video and are just the posts of which I'm proudest. I hope you'll take some time to click on them and send their links around to others—and some time is what you'll need...

MY ART

Boy-crazy

FROM BOY TO MAN: BC B.C. (2007): The entire history of my novella, novel and movie Boy Culture; might be my ultimate post.

From '07, one of my faves. Old iPhones were better because they were worse.

"Your pictures suck" (2008): An art critic attacks me, but not without sustaining some hits in return.

GUYDAR (since at least January 17, 2008) & ENDS OF THE WORLD (since at least January 13, 2008): Attractive men of the world—I got your backs. Your fronts, too.

i-i-i (phone)

TriBeCa is for Boy lovers...

BOY ON FILM (2006): An account of the NYC launch party for Boy Culture as it played the TriBeCa Film Fest.

I was left "Reeling" by the experience

FRIENDS AND "FAMILY" (2006): The movie version of Boy Culture hits Chicago.

RAPT PUPIL (2006): The final night of Outfest with Boy Culture; I was fat but on the other hand got to meet Bryan Singer.

Let's call it a draw

DRAWN TOGETHER (2008): How my desire to draw related to my secret desire. One of my absolute favorite posts.

ME

Death of the party—Jeff in high school, already halfway through his life

BURNING MAN (2007): Tribute to my late high school friend and first romance.

I had the Fever for Jon-Erik Hexum

AN OBSESSION IS BORN (2009): One of my best posts about my obsession with...obsession.

Death becomes here

ILLINOIS DEATH TRIP (2007): Ruminations on death while revisiting a past home, and the past.

Life is short and meaningful

PASSING BY (2008): Mourning the loss of a person I only met once.

I was given the red-carpet treatment

HAVEN'T WE MET? (2010): Celebrating my time with someone I've only met once—Madonna.

Queen Latifah may not be on the record as a lesbian, but good for her that she seems to be easing into living her life in broad daylight. I do appreciate that she is one of the only closeted stars to not completely expunge her life of any visual clues that she is in the life.

Queen Latifah equates acknowledging being a lesbian with sharing a very intimate aspect of her "personal, personal" life, and seems to say that people who own up to their identities are publicity-hungry. 

From a Larry King appearance:

"I live my life...you write about my life, you write about what you see. I share with the public the things that we should share...We should share music, I mean, we should share my music, let's share films, let's share that, let's share thoughts about positive things, let's share those things. But what happens in my personal, personal life is my personal business."

No one's asking you to describe what it's like eating out your lover, La, it just would be nice if you'd treat your sexual identity as you do your gender or your race or any other extremely salient, basic fact of your existence. Keeping only one aspect of your private life private makes that aspect seem dirty. The media going along with you just reinforces that impression.

Or it might just be about that Queen Latifah brand she references in the clip; and if so, then be a woman and say, "I want as much money as I can get and if I talk too much about who I am, I might make less of it."

P.S. In the same interview, she defended Jersey Shore as "neighborly" and said people like to be entertained by reality shows. "People like watching other people's lives. That's just what it is."

Queen Latifah all but comes out in Upscale...in order to say she's not coming out:

"I don't have to explain anything. I don't have to confirm anything. Look, I need my time. I need my life...I don't feel like I need to explain. I'm the one living it. You write about it. You go ahead and speculate. I'll just live it. I don't feel like I need to explain things to a perfect stranger."

She's right that she can't/shouldn't be forced to speak on the subject of being a lesbian, and if she doesn't feel a personal need to, then that is her right. But I, like a lot of people, wish she did feel that need to speak out, if not for herself then to help—and fuck, it would help with a big star like her!—to change minds and to uplift gay kids.

Queen Latifah's coming-out interview in Entertainment Weekly (May 14, 2010) was fun to read. At least I think it's a coming-out interview—she loves RuPaul's Drag Race ("I just love how every week there's something new, some new way to enunciate the words."), is Betty White's biggest fan and loves Greek (food).

Queerty has a provocative article (aren't they all?) about how Howard Bragman, the publicist behind country singer Chely Wright's coming out, may have led to undue pressure on closeted stars forced to deal with a temporarily extra-inquisitive media and may have jeopardized any of them actually coming out on their own.

I commented over there, but why give my candy away to other kids, right? In a nutshell, I think what Bragman wound up doing, purposefully or not, was showing all those closet cases that their big secret isn't. He also made everyone yawn when the star turned out not to be a superstar...but that yawn is also quite helpful in that all the closet cases in Hollywood will see that the world didn't end and that a significant chunk of their own market probably doesn't care. (Yes, it's different in that she doesn't have the endorsement deals and massive movie roles Queen Latifah might have, but it's still more positive than negative that she is going to benefit from coming out.)

I think overall he did a great service to the gay community...and Ms. Wright had nothing to lose either so she should be able to withstand a few, "Who the fuck are you, anyway?" comments. Mission accomplished.

I've heard Howard Bragman has denied it's Queen Latifah, but that he gave an interview in 2009 about working with "a musician" who would be coming out in 2010. A lesbian site's already noted that they've interviewed the subject, so...we end up with a female musician. (Again, Queen is hard to give up it would be so great for her to come out, but she isn't really going to be called "a musician" in 2009 or 2010 so much as an actress, actress/musician or just major celebrity. Who, who, who?

So the big news has been that a closeted celebrity is coming out with a splash on Cinco de Mayo. It could be a fake rumor, or it could be someone we all know is gay like Johnny Weir.

Howard Bragman, who's the PR allegedly involved, reps Weir, and also Laila Ali, a decent guess if you're aiming low on the fame scale.

Some of the most interesting guesses would be:

Hugh Jackman or Kelly Clarkson or Alicia Keys: Someone like this, who's certainly been the subject of rumors but whom the vast majority of the public would not believe to actually be gay, would be the gold standard of news-making.

Queen Latifah or Anderson Cooper or Barry Manilow: Hugely famous, "everybody" knows (not everybody, believe me) and yet acknowledging the truth would be pretty spectacular.

Johnny Weir, et. al.: Also welcome, but would seem odd to be hyped in advance.

I'm guessing and hoping for Queen Latifah. Her being out could do a world of good. Rumor has it the out-coming star is a lesbian.

I think this season of The Big Gay Sketch Show is pretty damn funny, definitely competitive with industry standard SNL. (Actually, I laughed a lot more at the former than I ever do at the latter.)

The skits were filmed AGES ago, but most are pretty fresh. It's gotten edgier as it's gone along. I still think the Rosie O'Donnell bits are completely counter-productive and unfunny. The best was their Amazing Race send-up, which casually outed Hugh Jackman, Tyler Perry, Queen Latifah and several others...but in a funny way.

Somehow, I missed last week's "Blind Items About Predatory Lesbians" by Michael Musto, but here they are, even though they're not all about lesbians. Highlights:

Married Oscar winner who gets serviced by a dominatrix in the Vill? Kate Winslet? Frances McDormand? Marcia Gay-Harden? (Catherine Zeta-Jones? Jennifer Connelly? Mercedes Ruehl?)

Fiftysomething singer who threw a hissy fit? Sade (who's 51 and looks like she could kill you dead)

Reality-show personality who was molested by a superstar and broke up a relationship? Wade Robson (too easy)

R&B singer who's a lesbian? Alicia Keys (too easy)

Hip-hop lady came on to a married mom of three? Assuming Queen Latifah, though is she really a "hip-hop lady" still?