"Originality is not the strong suit of "Can't Hardly Wait,'" wrote the New York Times, one of the nicer reads on the John Hughes rip-off. Canada's Globe & Mail's take was more acerbic, calling the film "combination custom-made to annoy audiences of all ages." Variety boiled it down: "A failed attempt to recapture the exuberant magic of such high school movie classics as American Graffiti." They're all correct.

Yet, with all the nit-picking about acting and originality, none of these reviews touch on the movie's rampant homophobia; a silent crowd bursting into laughter after the jock, just rejected by the female lead, is called "fag"; the standard, requisite revulsion of two passed out guys being found in a supposedly compromising position. (We later learn that the shame even follows one of them, the jock, into the future.) These are just a two examples of the movie's anti-gay gags. But, again, it was 1998.

• President Obama finally spoke out about the Trayvon Martin killing, telling reporters today, "If I had a son he'd look like Trayvon... I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together, federal state and local to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened."
• A truly awesome 17-year old has organized a marriage equality rally to be held tomorrow in Cleveland, Ohio.
• Speaking of Ohio, a gay couple there tied the knot in New York and were granted a divorce in the Buckeye State. What does this mean for marriage laws?
• A bit of self-promotion here, but some commentary on Bill Maher's New York Times op-ed about phony apologies.
• There's a possibility that Russian officials may detain Madonna for her pro-gay activism. A slim possibility, but still...
• A Catholic school in New Jersey refuses to put on "The Laramie Project," a play about Matthew Shepard's 1998 murder.
• On a happier note, Democrats in Colorado, have put forth a resolution to repeal that state's ordinance forbidding LGBT protections.

Penned in 1913, between Howards End and A Passage To India, Maurice concerns a young British man coming to terms with his homosexuality, a word he has not uttered, nor even heard.

He simply knows that he longs for a mythical, seemingly impossible "friend" who has appeared in his dreams his entire life.

Maurice very nearly finds that friend in a Cambridge classmate named Clive. The men, as a closeted Forster writes, "had as much happiness as men under that star can expect."

"That star," homosexuality, of course went against the social grain, leading well-connected and "respectable" Clive to seek psychiatric help.

"I have become normal -- like other men," he tells confused, heartbroken Maurice. Our protagonist can only reply, baffled, "[But] we love each other, and know it."

Unsure where he stands in life and love, suicidal Maurice too seeks counseling, and that counseling bears an eerie resemblance to "ex-gay" therapies like those practices at Marcus Bachmann's clinic.

And as the scandal unfolded, Rae Chelle, a reporter from Iowa-based ABC affiliate WQAD, did the logical journalistic thing: She asked the candidate about the so-called "reparative therapy," a process most medical professionals agree can lead to depression and suicide.

"What is your opinion on reparative therapy, and is it something that's conducted in that center?" the reporter asked, to which Bachmann replied, "I'm running for the presidency of the United States and I'm here to talk about job creation and that we do have a business that deals with job creation. I'm very proud of the business that we created."

Asked about the clinic again, Bachmann repeated herself, "As I said, again, we're very proud of our business."

But Capitol Hill isn't all bad: The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday held hearings about repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law that prohibits federal recognition of gay marriage. This is democracy at its best.

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy announced earlier this month that he would hold a special hearing on Senators Dianne Feinstein and Jerry Nadler's Respect for Marriage Act, legislation that repeals DOMA and extends federal benefits to same-sex couples in states where they can marry.

Marriage equality activists were thrilled at the news; so, one assumes, was President Obama, who said this week that he's "proud to support the Respect for Marriage Act" that "uphold[s] the principle that the federal government should not deny gay and lesbian couples the same rights and legal protections as straight couples."

Well, the Senate held its meeting yesterday, and it was action packed.

The former Pennsylvania Senator and super long shot presidential claimed this week that he's not a homophobe, and anyone who says otherwise is just "personalizing" a political debate, which is a bizarre statement, because all of Santorum's comments on LGBT people founded on personal attacks that paint us as menacing, un-American and inhuman.

Santorum's self-defense came after Joy Behar said he "seems like a big homophobe" on her CNN Headline News show, a remark that spurred conservative radio host Steve Malzberg to wonder, "where does she get that you are a homophobe?"

Santorum at least has the sense to know "homophobe" is a pejorative, and whined, "I guess because you stand for traditional marriage and you believe that, you know, that people should, we should have a society that affirms one man and one woman as marriage, that makes you someone who's a hater, someone that doesn't, doesn't like people."

He went on to say Behar and his other progressive critics are "personalizing politics:" "It's a public policy discussion, and this is the, this is really the problem that we see on the left which is the personalization of politics. I mean, we have a policy disagreement, and, and which I am very passionate about.... The only thing that's wrong [with equality activists] is their opinion."

So, wait, Santorum thinks the fight for equality boils down to just policy? It's just a difference of opinion and there's nothing personal about it? Then why do all of Santorum's arguments against same-sex marriage, adoption and love rest on personal judgement?

"I quit taking my HIV medication the day that I got the transplant and haven't had to take any since," said Brown, referred to by medical professionals as "The Berlin Patient."

"I'm cured of HIV. I had HIV, but I don't anymore."

Doctors believe that Brown's miraculous turnaround may be traced to the marrow that contained an immunity, perhaps one passed down from the days of the Black Plague, when certain people found themselves unaffected by the fatal disease.

If that's the case, then it's possible the marrow's life-saving element can be isolated and eventually mass produced, ending the disease's reign of terror once and for all.

Now, I try not to call people names. On the sporadic occasions that I do, however, I prefer "cocksucker." It has such a nice, forceful effect to it. It's evocative. Sadly for me, it's also homophobic.

But not always....

Should ABC be shamed for what appears to be a double standard?

Some people say "yes," and such a reaction's superficially understandable: it is queer, after all, for ABC to willingly host abusive Brown while prohibiting Lambert for a performance in which he innocently kissed another man. The popular website AfterElton, for example, described the decision as a "display of hypocrisy."

A deeper look at ABC's actions and record, though, muddles this seemingly straight-forward scenario.

West's keynote speech, built around a "new dawn in America," had all the of the ideological hallmarks his conservative colleagues expected, including declarations that the deficit will destroy us, ruminations on the importance of religion and attacks on "liberal" media and institutions, including the EPA.

And then there was his assertion that multiculturalism must be stopped.

"Once again, the government has imposed an unreasonable and absurd mandate on business and the American people," wrote Kurt Nimmo at influential conservative website InfoWars.

He went on to liken the system, which would raise flags during national emergencies, like a terror attack, as a way for the government to "disseminate propaganda" and as a "total takeover" of the media.

This "President Alert" is only the latest uproars over the Obama administration's potential power over the internet. Last month, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee allowed legislation to go forward that would give the commander-in-chief control over "crucial components that form our nation's critical infrastructure" during an administration. Opponents have dubbed such a mechanism a "kill switch."

And then there's another online development, one that hits closer to LGBT home: the White House's attempts to create a governmental veto for certain domain suffixes, including the controversial .gay.

Who can keep a straight face watching Roman Empress Nympho, played by the late, great Madeleine Kahn, rating her potential orgy partners' penis size? And what about the glitzy musical number during the Spanish Inquisition, complete with harmonized Rabbis and synchronized-swimming nuns? It is pure parodical gold.

But watching the movie more recently, my first view in over a decade, I was struck by something that never occurred to me in my younger, less politically aware days: the at-times offensive role gays play in History, and what it means about the true nature of comedy.

Comic books have been coming under a lot of conservative fire lately. First, last February, the right claimed Marvel icon Captain America and black hero Falcon denigrated the Tea Party movement as an "anti-tax thing" filled with "angry white folk."

Though that particular debate eventually simmered down, the culture war gained new steam this month with two fresh protests: first, the Council of Conservative Citizens' boycott of the 'Thor' movie, which had to gall to cast black actor Idris Elba as a Norse god, and then an Anti-Islamic stink over Batman's collaboration with an Algerian Muslim hero, Nightrunner.

Now a blogger named Warner Todd Huston, one of the leaders in the battle against Captain America, has taken up the Batman cause, which he promptly uses to launch a meta-attack on the comic industry's "political correctness," including the inclusion of a gay man in 'Archie.'

I didn't know Mrs. Edwards personally. I never met her, nor, I bet, have you, but we're all at least familiar with her story: her father's military career forced her to move around; she attended law school at University of North Carolina, where she met a princely man named John Edwards, whom she would marry. They both worked in the legal field, become fabulously wealthy and he eventually evolved into an up-and-coming Senator and, later, vice-presidential and presidential candidate, while she toiled to insure his success. She became a political wife, and appeared to love it.

The Finnish Episcopal Church, however, has found a middle ground of sorts: they're now offering special prayers for gay unions.

Is this good or bad?