So dissapointed...

This New Condo is pretty much an activism free zone... there are plenty of other places to get the word on who to vote for, who's a hypocrite, who hates who... I just wanted a place to diary my experience as a new homeowner (which by the way has been much easier than I expected).

I didn't talk about Ann, Isaiah, Tim, General Peter, Corporal Matt, Representative Mark, or even Reverend Ted. I just didn't see how my voice could add to the debate, so I left them out of this.

Today though, I came across a post on Towleroad which quotes an opinion piece that someone I have (had?) great respect for wrote for Salon, and I was really disappointed.

I've always loved A Prairie Home Companion, except for some of the musical acts, but on the whole I really love that show. I LOVE how Garrison Keillor's voice comes across over the radio. It resonates like no other. Garrison also does this breathing thing... it's almost a sigh that punctuates every other sentence, or even individual words. I love how when we get to the part of the show where he describes a day in the fictional town of "Lake Woebegon" without sound effects or music. It's just him and you and his voice and a very detailed story for 3 or 4 minutes and I love it. I can sing the Powdered Milk Biscuit song, I look forward to the bizarre Ketchup Advisory Board commercials and Guy Noir: Private Eye is always a good laugh. I even like his "Writer's Almanac" pieces they sprinkle through out the day on NPR. In fact, the Writer's Almanac may be the reason I like PHC so much. I KNOW he is a WRITER, he's thoughtfully crafted everything I hear on PHC show.

Today I found out he also wrote this:
"The country has come to accept stereotypical gay men -- sardonic fellows with fussy hair who live in over-decorated apartments with a striped sofa and a small weird dog and who worship campy performers and go in for flamboyance now and then themselves. If they want to be accepted as couples and daddies, however, the flamboyance may have to be brought under control. Parents are supposed to stand in back and not wear chartreuse pants and black polka-dot shirts. That's for the kids. It's their show."

I can't describe to you how weird it makes me feel to read that. One: it doesn't describe me or anyone I know. Two: I really respected this guy. He comes across as so open minded and progressive on his radio show and then I read THAT.

I did read the entire piece (PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE PIECE) and the digs at gay men are only part of a larger essay on children, packaged in an example of government waste, but still. It just hit me funny.

Many have called him out on because he's apparently been married three times and it's reported he has had some affairs. So maybe he shouldn't be lamenting the loss of the nuclear family. Dan Savage has a good (and very "spirited") piece on that aspect of it.

Just really bums me out. I've never been a boycotter, but IF I listen to PHC again, it will be with very different ears, and MUCH less reverence.

Thanks to Andy at Towleroad for turning me on to this story and SO MANY others.