Thursday, January 31, 2008

Gay Blogging

GuyDads was recently mentioned in PopMatters, a webzine of cultural criticism. In a column by Michael Abernethy titled, “Queer, Isn’t It?: Getting to Know You” he discusses the various types of blogging done by the GLBT community. He says:

“The majority of blogs are more personal than those previously mentioned, however. It is these blogs which provide the greatest service to society, as they portray GLBT individuals outside the parameters of popular stereotypes. They show the ill-informed homophobe that gay and lesbian individuals have the same worries, concerns, and joys as every one else. Moreover, they help those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered find a source of inspiration and camaraderie.”
“…Similarly, gay blogs dispel the erroneous notion that gays and lesbians can’t be effective parents.
Mombian is run by Dana Rudolph, an Oxford Masters graduate and former Merrill Lynch executive who is now a stay-at-home mom and blogger. Her site focuses on “lifestyle” tips for lesbian mothers. For men, there is Guy Dads, about “two Jewish gay dads, their six children, and life on the town.” After their respective divorces, the men found one another, got married, and created a new life with their “Brady Bunch” brood (although custody is shared with the mothers). "


Brady Bunch in Hawaii and a hot looking Robert Reed as Mr. BradyThe “Brady Bunch” remark is cute. At times our family life resembles a sitcom with a missing laugh track. But these days we are more like a “Brady” reunion movie because four of our six kids are college age. The other inaccuracy… we do not have an Alice, a live-in housekeeper.

Mr. Abernethy comes up with a logical justification for my blogging. It is just a small peek into my family’s life and how it is the same and different from others. I started to blog in order to share some of our personal and family highlights with friends and selected family. I soon learned that other gay visitors to our blog found it helpful, interesting or inspiring.

Trivia: Interesting trivia I learned about Robert Reed (Mike Brady pictured above) in Wikipedia: Like many gay actors then and now, Reed was secretive about his sexuality. He was briefly married a couple years and has one daughter. Reed was sued for $582,750 in 1971 by Anglia Television Ltd, 3 All.E.R. 690 (C.A. 1971), for breaching a contract to perform in "The Man in the Wood", due to a mix up on his bookings (he lost the lawsuit). The case is studied by first year law students in the United States and is included on page 345 of Fuller and Eisenberg's "Basic Contract Law". Robert Reed died in 1992 at age 59 from cancer; he was HIV positive at the time.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this! I hadn't caught Abernethy's article earlier.

The Honourable Husband said...

A sitcom without the laugh track? I hope it's considerrably funnier!

Robert Reed is a tragic example of how life in the closet eats away at your soul. He was, apparently, a self-loathing queer, frequently drunk. Would he have been generally more agreeable on set if he were more relaxed about his sexuality?--he was notorious for insisting on "motivation" for all his dumb sitcom antics.

And more important, would he have been a better surrogate father to the kids on the set? Apparently, many of them suffered from the dysfunctions common to child actors, and was a valued fatehr figure to them all.

I read somewhere, also, that he was romantically linked to Rock Hudson. Two of Hollywood's most handsome leading men were lovers? All I can say is hubba hubba.

Someone should make a biopic.

Anonymous said...

I've never been here before but was drawn in, educated, and entertained. Not sure how you find the time. Impressive!

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