Top ‘o the mornin’, friends!
Our fearless leader, Trish Bendix, is down in ol’ Austin, TX at SXSW, where she’s getting ready to rock the “Engaging the Queer Community” panel, and generally wow and woo the Gay Internet. If you’ve got your rollick on in Austin, too, you can keep up with the queer happenings at SXSWhomo.com. Or, you know, just wander out into the street and cry, “Trish Bendix! Trish Bendix!” That’s what I do when I get lost online.
Anyway, I promised not to let The Brew explode in her absence, so be gentle with me.
Actually, I’m going to bribe you to be nice to me with a spoiler pic from next week’s Skins finale.
What’s happening there? Well, let’s just say I might have misjudged the height of not-Naomi relative to actual Naomi.
You’ve probably heard the huge, community-busting news that came out of Jackson, MS yesterday. Lesbian teen Constance McMillen petitioned her high school to bring her girlfriend to her school’s prom, and after much internal homophobic hullabaloo, Itawamba County’s school board called off the the dance.
I did a little research last night and found out that reported rape in Mississippi is 2.1 times the national average. And do you know what is one of the biggest crimes reported on prom night? Yep, date rape. Because guess what? According to a study by the US Dept. of Health and Human Services, 39% of male high school students think it is OK to force sex with a girl who is drunk or high.
Drunk or high: why is that a problem? Oh, because the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention found that alcohol is the number one youth drug problem on prom night. Also a problem on prom night? 70% of kids don’t wear their seatbelts. Maybe that’s why alcohol-related automobile fatalities increase 58 percent between April and Mid-June.
Let me just sum that up with a chart:
In happier news, five gay and lesbian couples were married in Mexico City yesterday, the first to do so since same-sex marriage was legalized in February.
Civil Registry Judge Hegel Cortes told the gathered crowd, “Today is a historic day. It solidifies the evolution of one of the most important rights.”
Hear that, America?
And speaking of Real America, DJ Tracy Young – of Madonna’s wedding fame – is finally speaking up after months of being tabloid fodder for her purported relationship with Real Housewife of Atlanta Kim Zolciak. She told The Advocate:
Kim and I have a very complicated relationship. I met her in L.A. in December to do the “Tardy for the Party” remix, which has been released on my label, and through that working process we got really close … I’m not at liberty to say all the personal details, but we have a lot of similarities and a very strong connection. She’s a great friend and I adore her, but it’s kind of complicated.
If that sounds eerily like the early quotes coming out of LiLo’s mouth when the tabs started snapping her photo with SamRo, don’t worry – The Advocate called her on that. The whole interview is deliciously awkward (very much like watching an actual episode of Real Housewives). My favorite part is when the interviewer flat out asks Young if she’s sexually attracted to Kim, and “Would she make a good lesbian girlfriend?”
Now back across the pond, The Guardian reported early this morning that E4 has decided to capitalize on monstrous ratings and pick up Skins for another two seasons. The catch? Well, you knew it was coming: They’re bringing in another new cast.
And speaking of new casts, rumors have been flying all week about the cast of MTV’s Americanized version of Skins. I’ve made it perfectly clear how I feel about this debacle, but here are the photos anyway – in case you haven’t seen them.
I can’t confirm it, but a couple of tipsters have told us that the American team is using the exact same script from the first season of real British Skins. I hope that’s not true. Someone should phone the USA network and ask them how that worked out for them with Coupling.
And finally, CurrentTV’s Bryan Safi let us know that his latest episode of “That’s Gay” (one of my very favorite infoMania segments) is all about Awards Show Fashion this week. Have a laugh on him, and a good weekend!
