From the category archives:

Garrison Keillor

Garrison Keillor apologizes (Prairie Home Companion)

by Viviane on 03/19/2007

in Garrison Keillor,gay,gay marriage,lesbian,queer

Garrison Keillor writes:

Ordinarily I don’t like to use this space to talk about my newspaper column but the most recent column aroused such angry reactions that I thought I should reply. The column was done tongue-in-cheek, always a risky thing, and was meant to be funny, another risky thing these days, and two sentences about gay people lit a fire in some readers and sent them racing to their computers to fire off some jagged e-mails. That’s okay. But the underlying cause of the trouble is rather simple.

I live in a small world — the world of entertainment, musicians, writers — in which gayness is as common as having brown eyes. Ever since I was in college, gay men and women have been friends, associates, heroes, adversaries, and in that small world, we talk openly and we kid each other and think nothing of it. But in the larger world, gayness is controversial. In almost every state, gay marriage would be voted down if put on a ballot. Gay men and women have been targeted by the right wing as a hot-button issue. And so gay people out in the larger world feel besieged to some degree. In the small world I live in, they feel accepted and cherished as individuals, but in the larger world they may feel like Types. My column spoke as we would speak in my small world and it was read by people in the larger world and thus the misunderstanding. And for that, I am sorry. Gay people who set out to be parents can be just as good parents as anybody else, and they know that, and so do I.

Tagged as: , , , , ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Poor, poor serial adulterer Garrison Keillor

by Viviane on 03/15/2007

in Cameron Scott,Dan Savage,Eric Alva,Garrison Keillor,gay,gay marriage,John Amaechi,Prairie Home Companion

Poor, poor, nostalgic Garrison Keillor. He appoints himself the spokesperson for monogamy, and then spouts stupid, outdated gay stereotypes (Stating the Obvious):

Under the old monogamous system, we didn’t have the problem of apportioning Thanksgiving and Christmas among your mother and stepdad, your dad and his third wife, your mother-in-law and her boyfriend Hal, and your father-in-law and his boyfriend Chuck. Today, serial monogamy has stretched the extended family to the breaking point. A child can now grow up with eight or nine or 10 grandparents — Gampa, Gammy, Goopa, Gumby, Papa, Poopsy, Goofy, Gaga and Chuck — and need a program to keep track of the actors.

And now gay marriage will produce a whole new string of hyphenated relatives. In addition to the ex-stepson and ex-in-laws and your wife’s first husband’s second wife, there now will be Bruce and Kevin’s in-laws and Bruce’s ex, Mark, and Mark’s current partner, and I suppose we’ll get used to it.

The country has come to accept stereotypical gay men — sardonic fellows with fussy hair who live in over-decorated apartments with a striped sofa and a small weird dog and who worship campy performers and go in for flamboyance now and then themselves. If they want to be accepted as couples and daddies, however, the flamboyance may have to be brought under control. Parents are supposed to stand in back and not wear chartreuse pants and black polka-dot shirts. That’s for the kids. It’s their show.

Yeah, I know it’s a parody of some sort, but still.

Dan Savage has steam comin’ out of his ears (Fuck Garrison Keillor):

Ultimately gay parents aren’t interested in being “accepted as couples and daddies” by withered old adulterers. We exist irrespective of your “acceptance.” And if I seem angry, you fucking motherfucker, it’s because I am. Angered and shocked. I’m used to being attacked by right-wingers obsessed with gay sex and fixated on anti-gay stereotypes. It’s a new and different sensation to be attacked so crudely by a man of the left—particularly when that man’s fat ass squats in a large glass house.

Cameron Scott asks, Why is Salon Running a Bigoted Anti-Gay Column by Garrison Keillor?:

Does Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva who fought and was wounded in Iraq fit this stereotype? Does John Amaechi, a retired NBA player? Keillor is just vomiting up his own homophobic impressions.

Write Salon and ask why they’re giving bigotry a platform.

Feministing gives Yet another reason to hate Garrison Keillor

Twisty tells Garrison Keillor to take his lutefisk and shove it.

Tell you what Garrison, how about tea with manly Matt Sanchez, mmmkay?

Update: Lolita made a good point at dinner tonight. If’ you’re going to complain, it should be to National Public Radio. which broadcasts Prairie Home Companion or American Public Media, home of of the show:

  • Jay Kernis, Senior Vice President for Programming (email: jkernis@npr.org)
  • Kevin Klose, President (kklose@npr.org)
  • Walt Swanston, Director of Diversity Management(email: wswanston@npr.org)
  • William H. Kling, President & CEO, Minnesota Public Radio, American Public Media Group, American Public Media (email: bkling@mpr.org)

Tagged as: , , , , , ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }