GOP Senator Wicker Attempts to Scare Voters with Costumed Gays

GOP Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi is being challenged for his seat by former Governor Ronnie Musgrove and he's pulling out all the stereotypes in a new ad accusing Musgrove of taking money from liberal interest groups like the Human Rights Campaign, which Talking Points Memo notes is untrue. What is true is that the DSCC (who does accept money from HRC) is spending heartily against Wicker.

So, there's nothing to scare the Mississippi voters like the specter of the gays Village People!

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

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Horsesh*t: McCain Clip Shows Muttering Never Wise at Debates

A video spread around the net over the weekend highlighting the moment during the Mississippi debate when Barack Obama mentioned that McCain said he was unsure about meeting with the president of Spain. The video's maker claims a visibly rattled McCain utters "horsesh*t" under his breath.

I'd have to go with Andrew Sullivan's assessment, that McCain is saying some version of "of course" although it's still unclear exactly what he's saying.

Which is why it's wise not to look flustered and angry at debates while you mutter something under your breath. Or, as Al Gore knows all too well, sigh.

Watch the clip, AFTER THE JUMP...

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Childers in 'Seismic' Mississippi Win as Red District Goes Blue

A bellwether for November?

A stunning win for Democrat Travis Childers in the 1st congressional district in Mississippi, where Cheney and Huckabee campaigned for Republican Greg Davis.

AP: "It happened again Tuesday, as Travis Childers beat Greg Davis in a special election to replace Republican Roger Wicker, who served in the House since 1994 and was appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill the seat vacated by Trent Lott. Childers' win will give him the chance over the next several months left in the seat's two-year term to build a fundraising and publicity advantage as he heads into November's general election. He will again face Davis, as well as two other opponents. Childers' win gave Democrats a 236-199 edge over Republicans in Congress."

Said Mike Huckabee: "The Republican brand is badly damaged..."

Added Chris Matthews: "It's like the Democrats losing in Brooklyn..."

Watch the analysis by Olbermann, Russert, Matthews, and Huckabee, AFTER THE JUMP...

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Towleroad Guide to the Tube #281

GEORGE W BUSH: His speech at the annual White House Correspondent's Dinner over the weekend. Part two here

GQ COVER: A reporter asks Obama whether he's too good-looking to relate to working class people.

100 YEARS: The DNC's new McCain attack ad.

TRAVIS CHILDERS: Mississippi Republican congressional candidate Greg Davis using Jeremiah Wright - Obama ad to attack his Democratic rival Travis Childers.

Check out our previous guides to the Tube here.

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News: Helen Keller, Gay Music, Rosie O'Donnell, NY Marriage

"Pro-family" groups urge parents to keep their children out of school on April 25's "Day of Silence", a day of raising awareness about tolerance and anti-gay bullying. They also accuse GLSEN of exploiting the murder of Lawrence King.

Website names The 50 Gayest Songs of All Time.

Say it isn't so. Lance Bass declares himself single, rips boyfriend from MySpace "top friends" list.

Maryland weighs new approach on same-sex unions: "Concerned that they won't be able to muster the votes for a comprehensive bill on same-sex unions this year, state lawmakers are considering a tactical shift toward legislation that would grant a number of rights to gay and lesbian couples but stop short of full-fledged marriage or civil unions."

Fort Lauderdale magazine flushes anti-gay Mayor Jim Naugle's latest column about gay restroom sex. City Commissioner Cindi Hutchinson: "I just want all this nonsense to stop. I don't want to talk about the bathroom thing again.''

Rosie O'Donnell: the junk food portrait.

New York's legal posturing on Same-sex marriage examined: "Last week in Manhattan, a State Supreme Court justice, ruling in a divorce proceeding, recognized the Canadian marriage of two New York City women, known publicly as Beth R. and Donna M. — or Mom and Mommy to the two young children they had been raising together. Less than two years after New York’s highest court refused to legalize gay marriage, leaving it up to a divided Legislature, courts in Rochester and Manhattan, as well as state and local officials, have begun to carry out what some say is the de facto legalization of gay marriage — and gay divorce — in New York for the price of, say, a ticket to Toronto."

Matthew McConaughey launches line of surf attire called Just Keep Livin'.

Provincetown arsonist strikes again: "In a little more than 10 minutes, flames destroyed a wooden shed belonging to artist Arthur Cohen at his property near Allerton Street. The blaze is at least the 16th arson fire in Provincetown since Oct. 17, Jennifer Mieth, a spokeswoman for the state fire marshal, said yesterday. No one was injured in the fire and Cohen, who was in New York at the time, was expected to arrive yesterday in Provincetown, according to a family member. Cohen declined to comment about the fire yesterday when reached by phone. On Monday, a landlord's report of a 2-foot square of burned shingles at a framing shop at 288 Bradford St. — little more than one-tenth of a mile from the Cohen property — was added to the list of arson fires, Mieth said."

Will & Grace creator Max Mutchnick said his own "internal oppression" held him back from making bigger statements with regard to gays on that show.

120-year-old photo of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan on Cape Cod discovered: "The photograph, shot in July 1888 in Brewster, shows an 8-year-old Helen sitting outside in a light-colored dress, holding Sullivan's hand and cradling one of her beloved dolls. Experts on Keller's life believe it could be the earliest photo of the two women together and the only one showing the blind and deaf child with a doll — the first word Sullivan spelled for Keller after they met in 1887 — according to the New England Historic Genealogical Society, which now has the photo."

USA Today talks to Anne and Christopher Rice about their new books. Christopher: "She has created her own myth-ology. There's no following in those footsteps. So I keep my work a lot smaller and more focused. I would go insane comparing myself to her."

Jackson steals Mariah Carey's look.

Mississippi lawmakers propose bill banning unwed couples living together from adopting in attempt to stop gays from doing the same.

HIV+ British bareback porn actor speaks out: "'They told me that most of the work would be bareback, and that they would normally check certificates from GUM clinics.' On the various shoots he took part in during his short on-screen career he noticed laxity in the ad hoc system of checking the HIV status of performers. 'I presented a certificate about half the time. They would normally take your word for it. At my local clinic you have to pay £25 to get a certificate.' He was told everyone else was HIV negative, but never saw anyone else's certificates. Clyde has been in two or three bareback DVDs and other scenes that went online. 'We did not work under the best conditions most of the time, it was quite low budget and cramped. For most of the time I was getting paid £100 per scene.'

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Mississippi Senator and Minority Whip Trent Lott to Resign

Mississippi GOP Senator and minority whip Trent Lott will resign his Senate seat before the end of the year, NBC reported this morning:

"While the exactly reason Lott is stepping down before he finishes his term is unknown, the general speculation is that a quick departure immunizes Lott against tougher restrictions in a new lobbying law that takes effect at the end of the year. That law would require Senators to wait two-years before entering the lucrative world of lobbying Congress. Also unclear at this point is how Lott's seat would be filled. One Lott supporter said he hoped Republican Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour would appoint U.S. Representative Chip Pickerting to the post, keeping the seat in the hands of Republicans, at least in the short term."

Or, as Joe at AmericaBlog suggests, perhaps he just misses his friend Strom Thurmond.

Lott's remarks at Thurmond's 100th birthday party have not been forgotten, despite apologies. At that party, he referenced Thurmond's run for President in 1948 on the Dixiecrat ticket on a racial segregation platform: "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over the years, either."

Lott made his most well-known comment about homosexuality in a June 1998 television interview, when he said, "It is [a sin]....You should try to show them a way to deal with that problem, just like alcohol...or sex addiction...or kleptomaniacs."

NBC says a formal announcement may come from Lott as soon as today.

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GOP Lauds Feinstein as "Linchpin" Vote for Racist Bigot Judge

Judge Leslie Southwick, seen by many as a racist bigot, was confirmed to a federal appeals court seat in Mississippi. Breaking from the Democrats, Dianne Feinstein voted in August to confirm the judge, a vote Republicans saw as a "linchpin" in the nomination according to The Politico.

Southwick, who believes children should be taken from gay parents, cleared the Senate on Wednesday by a 59-38 vote.

At a press conference, which Feinstein attended GOP leaders heaped praise upon her.

Said Arlen Specter: "This may be out of precedent, but if I may, with the concurrence of the home-state senators, yield to the hero — the lady — of the day, Sen. Feinstein."

Trent Lott actually wept with joy: "She took a tough stand and showed a lot of courage. It is emotional for me because this is a good man, and he will make a great judge on behalf of my state, which I feel has been maligned in this and other instances."

The Politico reports: "The story of how the contentious nominee of an unpopular president made it through a Democratic-controlled Senate centers on several main characters. Specter gathered a dozen conservative groups early on and urged them to fight for Southwick. Lott appealed to Republican senators one on one and reached out to Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), the Senate’s most conservative Democrat. Nelson, in turn, rallied members of the Gang of 14, the bipartisan group that agreed in 2005 to avoid filibustering judicial nominees except under extraordinary circumstances. There were discussions about Republican cooperation on appropriations if Democrats agreed to back Southwick. Lott kept talking with Feinstein, too, whose vocal support proved critical by providing cover to others in her party."

Said Feinstein: "Is he not a person inclined to protect civil rights? For some, is he a racist? I looked very carefully at him.I really came to the conclusion that he is none of the above."

Senate Confirms a Bigot as U.S. Circuit Judge [oped news]

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Interview: Kevin Sessums on his New Memoir, Mississippi Sissy

Many of you have probably read a celebrity profile in the pages of Vanity Fair, or perhaps Allure, penned by Kevin Sessums. The broad range of high-profile stars whose lives Sessums plumbed in the pages of VF provided me for many years with an essential page-turning beach read just when I needed it.

Sessums, whom I've since come to know as a friend, has just hit the bookstores with something completely different, yet no less a page-turner than his interviews. Mississippi Sissy is a memoir of his childhood — growing up gay in the deep south in the 60's in an America churning with civil rights strife and the assassination of a president. Sessums was orphaned with two siblings at the age of eight and his memoir chronicles that loss, along with the awkward journey of a young gay adolescent that might seem achingly familiar to many reading this blog. Yet Sessums' experience is framed by a disarming wit and the lush and racially-charged backdrop of Forest, Mississippi, where cocktail parties with elder homosexual literati and brief encounters with Eudora Welty provide the route for a young gay man searching for a way out.

Kevin is currently on a book tour. The clip he has been reading, in which his trip to a Halloween party dressed in a witch costume goes terribly wrong, is a vivid firecracker of heartbreaking loneliness and spirited defiance, much like the rest of the book. He agreed to answer a few questions for me, and I urge you to head out and hear him read if you're on his schedule.

Most people know you from your celebrity interviews with Vanity Fair, and now Allure. What were the challenges in digging in to your own life rather than someone else's? 

Well, I had to push my own buttons instead of someone else's. Usually when I interview someone I can tell them my deepest, darkest secrets in the hopes it will ignite something within them, inspire them to reveal a bit more about themselves. I can then edit out my own secrets. I couldn't edit them out when I was telling my own story - and there are some pretty deep and dark secrets I reveal in the book. But I decided when I started writing it that I would be honest and as open as I could be in the hopes that if young gay and lesbian kids out there happened to pick it up they could see that they are not alone in feeling freaked out and freaky - that you can survive those feelings, indeed you can revel in them and turn them into strengths. But I don't want people to only think of this book as a gay coming of age story; it's about many things. It's about race in this country. It's about maternal love. It's about all forms of otherness.

MUCH MORE AFTER THE JUMP...

You faced certain unique challenges growing up in the South in the early 60's. Do you think much has changed? Do you spend much time going back there? Has it changed much for gays in the rural south? 

I'm not sure how much it has changed - though my sister, who is a lesbian, and her lover of the last 20 years have a wondeful, full life down there. But an example: I was invited to read at a book store within a department store, Reed's, in Tupelo, Mississippi. When the owner of the store read the book he had the manager of his book store disinvite me, saying he refused to have me set foot in his establishment.

One of the stories I tell in the narrative is my affair with an all-American African American football player at Mississippi State University when I was 17. He was, in fact, the first black player ever to play at Mississippi State and, according to the owner of the store, a friend of his in high school. It was my portrayal of this player - who ulitmately died of AIDS - that prompted the man to disinvite me and ban me in Tupelo. The only reason he could have been upset is that the one sex scene in the book - there are other scenes of molestation but that is not sex, that is a physical act that is a perversion of trust, not sex - is between the player and me. It broke my heart he had that reaction because I think the portrait of the football player is dignified and loving. But some people in Mississippi - even in the 21st Century - can't put the words "dignity" and "love" in the same sentence as "homosexual." I plan to have a t-shirt printed up with BANNED IN TUPELO on it and wear it around the state when I head down there for my readings and signings next week. You can read about my tour schedule on my blog: mississippisissy.com.

Has the book inspired any reaction from folks back in Forest, Mississippi? 

Not yet. At least none that I've heard about. But people are seeming to react to the book very strongly - either negatively or positively. More of the latter, thank God. But I've always had my detractors. I think anyone who dares to have a distinctive voice has those. Thankfully they seem to be in the minority. But I think one needs to have a few virulent detractors as proof you're doing something right, or at least are edgy and controversial and .... well ... worthy on some level.

I think a lot of gay men find that they're coming out is often facilitated by an older mentor. Journalist Frank Hains, who was murdered, seems to have served that purpose for you. How do you feel that having that mentor helped shape you and how do you think you'd be different now had you not had him in your life? 

Frank and his literate, dryly witted coterie in Jackson in the mid 1970s - which included the great American writer Eudora Welty - accepted me into their sphere and proved to me that even if one had the soul of an outsider there are other souls out there who feel the same way - and when a group of talented outsiders get together they usually form the "in crowd." It was a wondrous social cunundrum I was grateful to learn and served me well when I moved to New York when I was 19.

Sissy is a term that that you were taught to flip around and embrace by your late mother. Today's derogatory gay currency seems to be mostly centered around the word "faggot". Do you feel like it's possible for a similar appropriation to be made with that word? 

My mother turned the word "SISSY" around for me by making me write it out for her. She pointed at each letter and said, "See those muscles on those s's. See the arms on that Y raised in victory. Look at how proud that I is to stand there in front of you. Never let anyone dictate the language of your own life. Be your own word." It's a lesson I've taken with me throughout my life. But "faggot"? When spouted by someone like Coulter with such spite and venom and condescension, it makes me think that one is hard to appropriate.

I do think maybe all minorities - whatever the degree of their oppression - need a word for them that is unsayable in polite company as a badge of honor. But "sissy" is such an old-fashioned word. There were people who warned me not to put it in my title because so many people would never read - for reasons good and bad and all their own - a book with that word in its title. And maybe it will make it more difficult to sell. But I had to be true to the story I had to tell. Plus, a boy or a man can be a "sissy" and not be gay. There are sissy heterosexuals out there.

The memoir really captures the sort of "otherness" that a gay kid can feel, knowing that somehow, something's different. What advice might you offer a young gay kid in your situation today - what might the tips be in a Kevin Sessums survival guide? Because the book is very much about survival. 

Well, in keeping with the southern tone of my book and speaking figuratively: summon your inner Scarlett O'Hara. Stare at those ugly drapes in your mama's windows. Tear'em down. Whip yourself up a gown. And go out into the world with your head held high. It's the only way the Rhetts of the world will give you any respect. They WILL give a damn about you if you are not ashamed to be exactly who you are. Use your otherness to stand out but don't preen: BE. I went to listen to a lecture by Toni Morrison the other night at the Alliance Francais based on the multidisciplinary art installation she recently curated at the Louvre. The lecture was titled "Art is Otherwise." She said in the lecture that all the best works of art were about the stranger - that it could be the stranger. It could acknowledge the stranger. It could fear the stranger. When I heard her say that, I thought: that's sort of what my book is about. My book is about the stranger within us. If you re-order what Morrison said I think the process of gay boys and lesbian girls is that we first fear the stranger within. We then acknowledge that stranger at some point. And then, when we're strong enough, we can be that stranger, fully and happily and, yes, daringly.

Now that you've written the memoir, which ends at your departure from Mississippi, is there any desire to pick up another one where that left off, or write a novel of some sort? And if so, what would it be about? 

Well, this memoir leaves off my first afternoon in New York City when I was 19. I'm now 51. Does that mean I can finally have enough distance to write the sequel when I'm 102? Right now I've written the first pages of a novel set in Provincetown. It's a heterosexual, middle-aged love story.

One aspect of the book I've also been curious about is its cover. It's a great shot. Can you tell me the story behind it? 

That photo is a cropped portrait of my little brother and me - the publishing house cut him out. I fought to keep him in but they thought a single image was stronger for a memoir. We were at a baseball game watching our father play and afterwards he took that picture of us. Is there any doubt I had to have the word "sissy" in the title when you look at that hand-on-my-hip stance and my little cocked leg there on the pitcher's mound. You can tell that boy just might want to be a catcher as well. And can't wait to find out what it's like to stop posing.

Mississippi Sissy [official site]

Mississippi Sissy [amazon]

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Mississippi Narcotics Agents Get Off Easy for Anti-gay Assault

In a sentence he said "[does] not suit the Department of Justice and the victims," U.S. Magistrate Judge James C. Sumner ordered one former Mississippi Narcotics Agent a year of home confinement and another one month in prison and 11 months of home confinement for the 2004 assault of two gay men.

"James Buitt, then 42, and Michael Mathis, then 47, both of Bogue Chitto filed a complaint Sept. 16, 2004, alleging abuse by MBN agents on Aug. 29, 2004, at a parking lot near Jack & Jill's bar in Jackson because of their sexual orientation. Buitt said he was sent to the University of Mississippi Medical Center with a broken arm and nose, and Mathis said his hand was broken. Buitt said Tuesday he was out of work for nine months because of surgery on his arm and suffered numerous other repercussions because of the actions by the agents."

Buitt and Mathis were defended by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paige Fitzgerald, who had recommended a year in prison for each of the agents.

On the evening of the attack, the agents attempted to coerce their victims into not filing a complaint, according to 365gay.com: "Forman and Reynolds followed the victims to the hospital where they confronted them, and tried to get them to agree that they would not file a complaint against them if they would not charge Buitt with driving under the influence of alcohol. Buitt ordered the agents to leave, and accordingly, Reynolds and Forman filed a DUI charge against him. Forman later testified falsely against the Buitt in Hinds County Justice Court in relation to the DUI charge. The offenses against Buitt were later dismissed in court. Following that the federal civil rights charges were laid by the US Attorney's department."

Following the sentencing, Forman and Reynolds "received congratulatory hugs from [a] crowded courtroom of law enforcement supporters" according to the Clarion Ledger.

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You Can Have Jake Gyllenhaal's Bone

And I know how many of you want it. But, unfortunately, it's not that bone.

Jake is one of 40 celebs who have signed (along with their dogs) wooden bones to raise money for the Mississippi Animal Rescue League. The bones will be auctioned off at the Society's annual "Fur Ball" event (I'm not even gonna go there) tonight in Jackson, Mississippi.

Other notable bone-signers are Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, John Travolta, Morgan Freeman, Mariah Carey, Matthew McConaughey, James Caan, Brad Paisley, Leann Rimes, Betty White, Dr. Phil McGraw, Eric McCormack and "Dog Whisperer" Cesar Milan.

Recent Jakespotting...
Jake Gyllenhaal at the Beach [tr]
Jake Gyllenhaal: The Sharp-Dressed Man [tr]

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News: Dirty Brown Towels, Nick Lachey, Bush vs. Osama

Family Research Council wingnut issues warning that religious freedom is under attack, citing "declining alarm" over same-sex marriage as an indicator that expression has been stifled. FRC's Tony Perkins: "There are a number of pastors that said, 'Look, we don't get involved in politics, I'm not going to get involved in this issue, I just want to preach the gospel. When they realize their ability to preach the gospel may very well be at stake, they may reconsider their involvement."

Make-up artist/renovator Billy Brasfield is remaking Aberdeen, Mississippi, house by house. Mom: "From a very small age he would build houses from Legos. He’s been creative all his life, and when he sees something that needs to be done he just does it.’"

Bush: Capturing Bin Laden "not a top priority use of American resources."

Nick Lachey says the most adventurous place he's ever had sex is an airport bathroom. And last time we checked, those hadn't gone coed yet.

Exercises in branding: Cleveland Browns launch unfortunately-named marketing gimmick.

Michael Chertoff: If we inspect cargo for nukes, the terrorists win. NYT: "Congress and the American public must accept that the government cannot protect every possible target against attack if it wants to avoid fulfilling Al Qaeda’s goal of bankrupting the nation, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a Senate committee Tuesday."

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