PDA — ASAP

The Public Display of Affection is a very charming thing — quick, spontaneous and lovely:

Unless you’re gay. Then it’s an arrest for “lewd conduct.”

This weekend, ‘kiss-in’ protests were held in both Salt Lake City, Utah and El Paso, Texas after two male couples were cited by the police for kissing in public. And they say romance is dead!

I like the kiss-in because it’s all about visibility. Homophobes don’t want to be reminded of gay sex, gay love or gay Camaro go-go boys. Well, okay, that last one is simply General Motors spokesman Dave Barthmuss, who said GM’s sassy car wash video promoting the Camaro and the ‘Transformers’ movie back in June “was not appropriate and not in good taste.” Ever sensitive towards the public, GM pulled the video, laid off 2000 workers and asked the government for another 10 billion dollars.

Speaking of bailouts, I tried to throw “gossip gangstar” Perez Hilton a bone during his Hell Week by arguing that, like him or not, he still has every right to voice his opinions. But now it turns out that they’re not even his opinions. Oh Perez, you plagarizing putz, maybe it’s time to listen to your pal John Mayer.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation criticized Hilton and now the new movie ‘Bruno’ but who’s listening? The comedy opened this weekend at number one with a $30-million haul. That’ll buy a lot of anal beaching!

But let Perez and Bruno play the fool — their desperate attention-whoring just makes the everyday gay PDA seem simple, sweet even. Eventually, we’ll be left alone to live our lives however we like because most people won’t be paying attention to us or even their own feet. Until then, here’s one thing we can all agree on: guinea pigs eating watermelon. Adorable!

 

A former editor of the late, lamented fab magazine, Scott has been writing for Xtra since 2007 on a variety of topics in news pieces, interviews, blogs, reviews and humour pieces. He lives on the Danforth with his boyfriend of 12 years, a manic Jack Russell Terrier, a well-stocked mini-bar and a shelf of toy Daleks.

Keep Reading

Samantha Josephs in front of the cover of 'Carrying'

Samantha Josephs gets dirty

The author of “Carrying” talks writing erotica, trans pregnancy—and her novel’s upcoming movie adaptation
A cartoon of two people standing close together; one is holding a puppy, the other is holding a book

How a Canadian kids’ book became the centre of a U.S. Supreme Court case

“Pride Puppy” was written to highlight the joy of Pride. It became a political flashpoint
A cartoon of people raising their fists with police officers facing them. There are flowers in the background

Queer censorship isn’t new in Canada, but we’ve won the fight before

Key figures from censorship fights in the 20th century reflect on what we can learn from them today
A cartoon of a nondescript personified animal riding a horse

Trans Albertans are strong. We aren’t going anywhere

Trans Albertans reflect on what makes their home province special, even in the wake of Premier Danielle Smith’s legislative attacks and book restrictions
Advertisement