More on "Mind". Regarding my Feb. 23rd posting on "A Beautiful Mind" and the brouhaha over director Ron Howard's "de-gaying" of John Forbes Nash Jr., a friend writes: "I hadn't heard about the controversy, but it doesn't surprise me. Much more offensive than Opie's apparent homophobia is his looks-ism. How dare he insult people who aren't as handsome as Russell Crowe by casting him to play a man who was, at best, only mildly good-looking! Where is GLAAD on this issue? Why aren't they building alliances with our natural partners, the homely people of the world?"
The Times They Are A Changin". A nice column today by Jim Pinkerton about Paul Holm, the significant other of Mark Bingham, one of the "let's roll" heroes who died thwarting the hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93. Holm is described as "a typical 40-something Republican white male" who, atypically, happens to be gay. More to the point, "Holm's political heart is not in the leftism of the Bay Area; it's in the libertarianism of Reagan Country, and it's that cause to which he is dedicated now," Pinkerton writes. Holm has, in fact, become the national political strategist for the Republican Unity Coalition (RUC), described as "a gay-straight political organization that is well on its way to giving $1 million this year to tolerant "big tent" Republicans." Want to change the hearts and minds of the huge constituency of those who aren't hostile, just ambivalent, about gay inclusion? This is how to do it.