O'Reilly's Two Faces. In his March 20 syndicated column, conservative talkmaster Bill O"Reilly, host of Fox News's top-rated "The O"Reilly Factor," came out in favor of gay adoptions ("Good Bill"), but also in favor of the closet ("Bad Bill"). This reveals a great deal about the muddle in the minds of many who dislike bigotry (and thus oppose outright discrimination against gays and lesbians), but still don't GET IT. For example, "Good Bill" writes:
Not bad, eh, for a darling of the right? Unfortunately, "Bad Bill" later opines:
This is obviously unfair. Madonna does make blatantly sexual presentations. But of course Rosie has not. People like "Bad Bill" think that mentioning your partner is talking about your sex life, but heterosexuals have to actually talk about their sex lives to be accused of the same thing. Mentioning your wife -- or your children -- doesn't count.
O"Reilly is not a clod. Opposing discrimination AND urging gays to keep silent about our lives is common among Americans in the middle to center-right -- a huge demographic whose support we vitally need. The good news is that if a Bill O"Reilly can come as far as he has, taking the next leap and GETTING OVER a sense of queasiness over gays having actual relationships is probably not an insurmountable hurdle.
Note: Shouting "Bigot, bigot, go away," as the gay Left tends to do over expressions such as "Bad Bill" O"Reilly"s, achieves nothing.
Not So Beautiful. As for not talking about IT... Just in time for the Oscars, John Forbes Nash Jr. and his wife, Alicia, gave a joint interview to 60 Minutes in which the facts of John's past were, to say the least, subject to obfuscation. The man whose life was the basis for the award-winning film "A Beautiful Mind" has now been thoroughly de-gayed, at his own (and his wife"s) instigation . As I wrote in my Feb. 23 posting, Ron Howard's film came in for much criticism for omitting some of the same-sex escapades that were document in Sylvia Naser's biography (also titled "A Beautiful Mind"). In her book, Naser wrote of how Nash was arrested for a same-sex restroom come-on (thus losing his security clearance). Among several other incidents, she noted that Nash climbed into a fellow mathematician's bed and made a pass at him, and that Nash had commented about his long awaited 'gay liberation".
Now reunited with his wife and of advanced years, things are told differently. Much like Anne Heche, Nash (and wife) say he wasn't gay, that his behavior was just another symptom of his psychosis -- and he's better now. Author Naser, paid nicely for the film rights to her bio, is chiming along. She tells USA Today, "The book didn't say [Nash] was gay. I stuck to the facts I had. I don't know where people are getting all this." Maybe she should try re-reading her own work. It's another reason why you should never, ever attempt to make movies about living people.