ESPN Produces NBA Shaq Ad with Homophobic Undertones

ESPN has produced a commercial for NBA on ESPN that, while not overtly bashing gays, contains undertones that can be construed as homophobic. The ad features NBA commenter Mike Breen and Shaquille O'Neal in the NBA on ESPN van. After Breen shoots a basket he asks Shaq for a fist bump which he calls a "fist kiss."

Replies Shaq while physically moving away from Breen on the sofa: "No fist kiss, no fiss love, no fist hump. None of that. You're a weirdo man. Stay over there. Fist kiss. Disgusting."

First of all, when has anyone ever called it a "fist kiss"? The term itself seems contrived simply for the dramatic purpose of causing Shaq's "icky" reaction. Anyway, aside from all that, the commercial is moronic at best.

Former NBA player John Amaechi told AfterElton: "I think the ad is in poor taste; it just seems like another signal of yet another flagging, unimaginative, desperate, clutching-at-straws marketing department grasping for the lowest common denominator. It seems so out of character to ESPN ads of old. It makes me feel disappointed, but not angry in anyway...the ad itself is just too tenuous to even bother getting riled about. The character's reaction to the "fist kiss" is of course homophobic, the subtext is that a man asking another man for any kind of kiss, even a 'fist kiss' should be met with repulsion - I am surprised Shaq went anywhere near this ad, given I don't think that would be his true intention or belief; but as a player, I too would have disparaging words to say about someone calling 'fist bumps' anything like "fist kisses" - simply because it's massively dumb ."

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

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News: John Amaechi, Clinton, Iowans, Kenny Chesney, India

Former pro basketball player John Amaechi is blogging from Beijing!

BrightSide: Restaurant/bar funded by Heath Ledger before his death to open in Brooklyn.

Murdered trans woman Angie Zapata mourned in Colorado.

The Atlantic publishes a whole bunch of Hillary Clinton's campaign memos. Here's some of the reaction...

Will Britney Spears attempt it again at the VMAs?

Will John Edwards come around now on gay marriage? "Asked about his position on same-sex marriage a year ago, John Edwards said that he 'personally [does] not' support gay marriage, citing his religious beliefs as basis for his opposition. Even without the hindsight we have recently acquired about Edwards' own marriage, this was the response of a bigot. We now know that as with most bigots, Edwards is a hypocrite. As he was spewing inane statements about being "on a journey" on the issue of gay marriage, he surely had to remember the journey that lead him just months earlier to break his civil obligations and spiritual vows in his union with his wife Elizabeth."

The Sioux City Journal profiles Chuck Swaggerty and Jason Morgan, a gay couple who are not only parents but plaintiffs in the same-sex marriage case making it through the state's court system: "Here we are, 10 years together, two kids together and yet somebody can be married for a month and they can have insurance at their jobs and we can't. But it's really more than that. ... Marriage, it is really more about love and family."

Provincetown business owners take sides over "family week": "Family Week, which just ended here, is causing a turf war between different local businesses: those who benefit from having several hundred children and their parents pushing strollers through town and those who most definitely do not."

The extent to which, unfortunately, some people, even law enforcement, associate gays with child molesters was illustrated in this incident which happened at a Fire Island resort town over the weekend (not one of the gay resort towns).

Wild Kingdom: Polar Bear remains found in shark's stomach: "...they are unable to say whether the shark attacked and ate the bear or whether it simply scavenged a bear's carcase."

Kenny Chesney is an athletic supporter: "Payton volunteered a story he heard about Chesney helping Saints cornerback Mike McKenzie undress for a shower last January while the two were in Birmingham, Ala., to rehabilitate from surgery."

Kylie Minogue is "The One".

Lady Gaga is always on.

With the recent boost from health minister Anbumani Ramadoss, challengers to India's law criminalizing homosexuality are hopeful the antiquated law can be done away with: "The Delhi High Court is set to address a petition filed in the court by the NAZ Foundation, a Delhi-based non-government organization for HIV and AIDS prevention. The group is challenging arrests under 377."

Shia LaBeouf may not lose his finger after all.

Oprah to Feature Gay People Around the World Today

Today, Oprah will look at what it's like to be gay around the world and feature an appearance by Indian Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil I posted about at the beginning of the month.

When he came out in 2006, Gohil said: "I knew that they would never accept me for who I truly am, but I also knew that I could no longer live a lie. I wanted to come out because I had gotten involved with activism and I felt it was no longer right to live in the closet. I came out as gay to a Gujarati daily because I wanted people to openly discuss homosexuality since it's a hidden affair with a lot of stigma attached."

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #177

MARCEL MARCEAU: 1923-2007.

JOHN AMAECHI: The former pro basketball player is the spokesman for National Coming Out Day. Here he talks about one moment that inspired him to decide to make a difference.

HITLER SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT: Controversial comments from the Dean of Columbia University on the eve of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit.

HILLARY CLINTON: Says she'll vote against further funding for the Iraq war. (source: virtual matter)

Check out our previous guides to the Tube here!

Looking at the Business of Gay "Celebrity" Books

Citing numbers from Nielsen BookScan, the Washington Blade's Katherine Volin looks at the disappointing sales of gay "celebrity" books and what's behind the numbers.

Says Charles Flowers, executive director of Lambda Literary Foundation: "The publishers are looking for a way for someone to sell the book and that’s part of the attraction of a celeb book, they’ve got this platform. I’m not sure people make the leap to, ‘Do I want to read a whole book about this person, or by this person?’ So I think it’s something to be careful about in acquiring a celebrity book. If they’re over-exposed, people may not buy a book about them or by them. They already have their opinion made or think they know the person."

I was a bit surprised by the low numbers, though I'm not sure why. It seems all the promotion in the world can't do as much for book sales as a single appearance on Oprah.

A few of the notable books and their sales numbers:

38,000 — "The Confession" by James McGreevey

19,000 — "Silent Partner" by Dina Matos McGreevey

15,000 — "A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style" by Tim Gunn and Kate Moloney

14,000 — "Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins" by Rupert Everett

9,000 — "Man in the Middle" by John Amaechi
9,000 — "Now It's My Turn" by Mary Cheney

8,000 — "There's Nothing in this Book That I Meant to Say" by Paula Poundstone

6,000 — "Tab Hunter Confidential" by Tab Hunter and Eddie Muller
6,000 — "Here's What We'll Say" by Reichen Lehmkuhl

3,000 — "Alone in the Trenches" by Esera Tuaolo and John Rosengren
3,000 — "Include Me Out" by Farley Granger and Robert Calhoun

1,000 — "I Had to Say Something" by Mike Jones with Same Gallegos
1,000 — "La Dolce Musto" by Michael Musto

Gay books a bust [washington blade]

Log Cabin Republicans Convene, Hear Amaechi, Look to Giuliani

The Log Cabin Republicans held their convention in Denver late last week. The Associated Press noted that gay Republicans seem to be leaning toward Rudy Giuliani as their candidate: "However, delegates to the Log Cabin Republicans annual convention said Friday that they also fear the former New York mayor, in his bid to capture the Republican presidential nomination, might be waffling as he reaches out to more conservative GOP voters."

Last week, Giuliani flip-flopped on the issue of civil unions, which he had previously supported. His spokesperson told the New York Sun: "Mayor Giuliani believes marriage is between one man and one woman. Domestic partnerships are the appropriate way to ensure that people are treated fairly. In this specific case the law states same sex civil unions are the equivalent of marriage and recognizes same sex unions from outside states. This goes too far and Mayor Giuliani does not support it."

Frank Ricchiazzi, who helped found Log Cabin three decades ago, warned Rudy: "Mainstream Republican voters and moderate voters are going to vote for you. Don't tilt to the right."

According to a survey taken this year by Log Cabin Republicans, the Human Rights Campaign and the National Rifle Association are the two organizations which receive the greatest amount of financial support from gay Republicans.

The convention also hosted a talk by former NBA player John Amaechi. Amaechi spoke on both his coming out and on the state of gay rights and attitudes in America today.

Said Amaechi: "I underestimated America. I braced myself for the wrath of a nation under God. I imagined that it would be a firestorm, that it would be some insane number of letters demanding my deportation or my death. And in fact, 95 percent of the correspondence I've had have been overwhelmingly supportive and positive. But I will say that the 5 percent that I've had have been unbelievably, viscerally, frighteningly negative."

Amaechi noted that not a single former teammate has been in touch with him since he came out, and his story has never been mentioned on NBA.com: "Probably 30 of my former (NBA) teammates have my e-mail and my telephone contacts and probably 16 or so of those I was in regular touch with and there are probably 10 people who I have (on instant messenger). And...nobody who's active in the NBA has been in touch with me since the day I came out, despite the fact that most of them knew I was gay in the first place."

Perhaps noting his audience, Amaechi, who is a British citizen, did comment diplomatically on the political climate in the country: "It's hard for me to hide the fact that I am no fan of this administration, as much for their foreign policy as for their stance on (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) issues. However, I am no fan of the Democratic candidates who take four days before they decide that Gen. Pace's comments were not very nice."