In Defense of Obama’s Safe School Czar (Sort Of) – or I Was A Teenage ‘Lolito’

When I was 17 and desperate to get out of the house (and away from my parents), I wrote a crafty, fawning letter to a teacher whom I had admired from afar (a gay man 20 years my senior, who looked like a teddy bear), then sat back and waited.  It didn’t take long to get a response, a phone number, and then a meeting that I managed to turn into a date.  He thought I was very “mature” for my age.  I thought so too. 

As soon as I turned 18, I moved in with him.  (Note: he was not my first target; I had a terrible crush on my American History teacher in high school – another gay man – but he was partnered and I scared him off.)  Needless to say, we did not live happily ever after.

Married life brought out my true immaturity.  He was set in his ways, I had no discipline.  He liked dinner parties and lectures, I liked wearing silver lame’ pants to discos.  He had plenty of friends, gay and straight, some of whom he’d known since I was an infant.  They were very nice to me – but I was jealous of them all.  I threw tantrums.  “You love them more than you love me!”  (more…)

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Tags: Christianophobia, Christopher Isherwood, Cruising, Desperate Houswives, Dick Cheney
Posted Oct 9th 2009 at 5:03 am in Culture, Featured Story, Politics | 239946205 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cwinecoff/2009/10/09/in-defense-of-obamas-safe-school-czar-sort-of-or-i-was-a-teenage-lolito/In+Defense+of+Obama%27s+Safe+School+Czar+%28Sort+Of%29+-+or+I+Was+A+Teenage+%27Lolito%272009-10-09+12%3A03%3A06Charles+Winecoff

Love, War – and Gay Marriage

Late last year, when the gay community was working itself into a frenzy over the passage of Proposition 8 -the measure to amend the California State Constitution to define marriage specifically as a union between one man and one woman – I realized I didn’t trust the community anymore.  And I’m gay. 

The realization didn’t come overnight; it had been forming for some time.  But the Gestapo tactics over Prop 8 – McCarthy-style blacklists, boycotting of otherwise gay-friendly businesses, apologies coerced out of individual supporters who made the “wrong” choice, enforced politically-correct donations to the Human Rights Campaign - clarified it for me.

I hadn’t left the community, it had left me.  When did the gays get so mean, anyway? 

Well, isn’t it “mean” for California voters to deny us our basic civil rights?  I can hear the retort.  And I understand the anger, believe me, to a degree.  Feelings have been hurt.  I also agree that changing any Constitution over this issue is a bad idea. (more…)

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Tags: 9/11, Al Pacino, Anita Bryant, Berlin Stories, Christopher Isherwood
Posted Mar 19th 2009 at 5:05 am in Featured Story, Media Criticism, Politics | 76946129 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cwinecoff/2009/03/19/love-war-and-gay-marriage/Love%2C+War+-+and+Gay+Marriage2009-03-19+12%3A05%3A05Charles+Winecoff