Jane Lynch's 'Best New Thing' Is GOP Strategist's Gay Memo: VIDEO

Jane Lynch filled in for Rachel Maddow during the MSNBC host's "Best New Thing In The World" segment last night. And the out actress was kind enough to bring along her own new thing suggestion: the memo from former Bush pollster Jan van Lohuizen advising Republicans to catch up on LGBT rights by presenting equality as a conservative value.

According to Lynch, the memo has the potential to create some jobs, another conservative value, because strategists can now charge more money for their gay expertise. "There's money to be made on promoting gay rights within the Republican Party," she said.

Someone is going to have to teach Republicans to talk about gay rights without seeming like they've caved to the Democrats. Some strategists are going to have to make it their specialty to teach Republicans how do be pro gay while still sounding angry. That's a very tall order, but the good news is, you can charge more money.

Republicans are trying to figure out how to lose gracefully -- the best new thing in the world today.

 

Lynch later tells Maddow that she's not sure Obama's equality proclamation will "change history," or whether there was "political calculus" involved, but "believes in the dignity of our relationships and our right to exist." And the actress also discusses the importance of being out and about with her family, Joe Biden's comment about Will and Grace changing American culture and had this to say about Mitt Romney's right-wing gay politics: "Even us talking together right now, he's probably against that."

Maddow replied: "That's exactly right. It`s probably illegal somewhere, and he supports that state`s right to make it that way."

Watch the entire segment, AFTER THE JUMP.

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #1082

RON PAUL: I'm a victim of election fraud!

JANE LYNCH AND JOAN RIVERS: On politics, contraception, Cialis.

GRILLED CHEESE: Competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi sets world record for most sandwiches consumed in one minute.

MOVIE SUPERCUT: "I'm too old for this sh*t."

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Watch the L.A. Premiere of '8' with Brad Pitt, George Clooney: VIDEO

Did you miss the livestream of last night's staged reading production of '8', Dustin Lance Black's play based on the closing remarks of the trial challenging Proposition 8?

Have no fear. You can watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

George Clooney and Martin Sheen play plaintiffs’ lead co-counsel David Boies and Theodore B. Olson, the all-star attorneys who notably faced-off in Bush v. Gore. Christine Lahti and Jamie Lee Curtis play plaintiffs Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, a lesbian couple together for eleven years and the parents of four boys.  Matthew Morrison and Matt Bomer  play plaintiffs Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, a gay couple together over ten years. 
 
Jane Lynch plays despicable opponent of same-sex marriage Maggie Gallagher, co-founder and former chairman of the National Organization for Marriage. Rob Reiner directs and plays David Blankenhorn, founder and president of the Institute for American Values. Additional cast includes Emmy Award-winning journalist Campbell Brown, Kevin Bacon, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, prominent gay rights activist Cleve Jones, Rory O’Malley, Chris Colfer, Emmy Award-winner Yeardley Smith, and acclaimed Star Trek television and film star George Takei.

Brad Pitt plays Judge Vaughn Walker. Enjoy, AFTER THE JUMP....

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #972

TONY BENNETT: His take on 9/11 and what Bush told him about the Iraq war.

JANE LYNCH: "I'm really, really gay."

TRON LIGHTCYCLE: Street legal.

BURROWING OWLS: The coolest time-lapse of a family of burrowing owls you'll ever see, presented by the San Diego Zoo conservation project.

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Jane Lynch Says Sue Sylvester is a Michele Bachmann Mouthpiece: VIDEO

Jane Lynch tells Lawrence O'Donnell that the things Sue Sylvester says about gays in her "Sue's Corner" segments are what Michele Bachmann would say if her handlers let her.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Why Jane Lynch is a Lesbian: VIDEO

Jane Lynch jokes about the reason she's a lesbian, in one of the funnier moments from last night's Emmys, AFTER THE JUMP...

All kidding aside, not too long ago gays and lesbians were invisible here.

Emmy-winner Norman Sunshine remembers, in a heartfelt piece in the NYT:

That night we talked about the show and the two tickets I would receive. We had been told of Warner Brothers’ hesitation in making Alan president because of our relationship, and had been advised by helpful friends not to rub it in people’s faces. So Alan always attended business parties with women, never with me. But this was the Emmys, and I was nominated for Alan’s show. Shouldn’t we be together?

We went back and forth but finally decided it would be better if I went with a woman, and that was the end of it.