A Glance Back at 2011 - From a Gay Perspective

Politics - The two biggest stories of 2011 were New York state's legalization of same-sex marriage(coinciding with Gay Pride weekend) and the ending of the U.S. military's shameful "Don't ask, don't tell" policy.  But we could still count on continued intolerance by Republicans as they booed a gay soldier during one of the Republican debates.

 

 

Fashion - Critically acclaimed documentaires were released about New York Times fashion photographer Bill Cunningham (left) and designer Yves St. Laurent; an exhibit of late fashion designer Alexander McQueen's work was a huge draw at the Met; John Galliano, head designer at Christian Dior was fired after making drunken anti-Semitic remarks to patrons at a restaurant in Paris.

 

Gay-themed Movies of Note - Weekend; Heartbeats; Beginners; and the documetary Making the Boys.

 

Bodies Beautiful - Ryan Gosling in Crazy Stupid Love; Chris Hemsworth in Thor (near right); Taylor Lautner in the latest Twilight sequel; and supposedly straight, rightwing Illinois congressman Aaron Schock on the cover of Men's Health.  Finally, after performances of his acclaimed one-man show Hugh Jackman occasionally auctioned off his sweat soaked t-shirt.

 

NYC Nightlife - The cowboy bar Flaming Saddles opened in Hell's Kitchen; Boxers joined Gym Bar as Chelsea's second sports bar; Splash celebrated its 20th anniversary; Viceroy and Vinyl restaurants in Chelsea closed.  Meanwhile, Next Magazine's page size continued to shrink.  

 

Music - Erasure's Then I Go Twisting and Kelly Rowland's What a Feeling; in February Lady Gaga's single Born This Way became the 1,000th song to hit #1 in the history of Billboard's Hot 100 chart.   

 

 

RIP - Pioneering gay civil rights activist Frank Kameny; AIDS angel Elizabeth Taylor; John Geddes Lawrence, plaintiff in landmark Lawrence v Texas anti-sodomy Supreme Court case; disco diva Loleatta Hollaway.

 

Chaz Bono - A documentary and book about Chaz's female-to-male transition received considerable attention as did his appearance as a male contestant on Dancing with the Stars.  (Carson Kressley also competed).

 

 

 

Milestones - Crisco turned 100 and Ricky Martin hit the big 4-0.

 

A fire in November in the harbor of Fire Island Pines destroyed the Pavilion dance club and Sip-n Twirl bar (and a number of other businesses).

 

 

Actor Zachary Quinto came out (not to be confused with actor Jeremy Sisto).  Still not out: Olympic gold medal figure skaters Evan Lysacek and Brian Boitano; singer/actress/Cover Girl spokesperson Queen Latifah; Emmy Award winning actor Jim Parsons (Big Bang Theory).

 

Talk Show Roulet - Without Oprah's presence housewives apparently weren't interested in an entire hour of Nate Berkus (left) as his home design show was cancelled after just one season.  The same fate may await Anderson Cooper's snoozer of an afternoon talk show which debuted in the fall (housewives may not be as enamored with him as gay men at the David Barton Gym are).  And Rosie O'Donnell tried for a comeback with a talk show on Oprah's OWN cable network.  

 

Neil Patrick Harris continued to dazzle as host of the Tony Awards.  The theme for this year's teleast was: "It's not for gays anymore!"  Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart won the Tony for Best Revival of a Play, out actor John Benjamin Hickey won for Best Featured Actor and Ellen Barkin for Best Featured Actress.

 

A fun new website was launched in June named "Subway Crush" which gives riders an opportunity to share pics of cute guys they've admired riding the subway.

 

The new ABC sitcom, Happy Endings, (following Modern Family) features a slovenly gay character, Max, who has few stereotypical gay traits.  And speaking of Modern Family, who do you love more, Sofia Vergara or gay daddies Cam and Mitchell?

 

On Curb Your Enthusiasm Larry David coined the term "pre-gay" to describe his girlfriend's delightfully precocious young son who showed all the obvious traits of being gay (he was a big fan of Project Runway).  The little boy is the spitting image of Kurt from Glee. 

 

 

 

Saturday Night Live aired a music video titled "It's OK If It's In a Threeway", featuring Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga and Adam Samberg.  The show also had a hysterical skit about a game show called "Who's on Top?" in which non-gay male celebrities were paired up and constestants had to choose which one would be the "top" if the celebs were engaged in gay sex. 

 

Still MIA: Rupert Everett

 

Finally, as the year came to a close a sexy billboard for Manhunt Mobile went up, overlooking Sheridan Square, bringing back fond memories of the gay West Village of the 70's and 80's.

      

   

Comments

[Jack]

At a performance a friend recently attended of Hugh Jackman's show Hugh auctioned two t-shirts (one for each act) and belt at each show, and offered to pose backstage with an audience member for $2000 - there was a line!

Hugh has now single-handedly raised over $1 million for Broadway Cares, and will continue his curtain speeches through the end of the run.

P.S. Happy New Year!