Senator
Has a Tough Row
Philadelphia
Inquirer, May 2, 2003
P.O. Box 8263, Philadelphia, PA 19101
Fax: 215-854-4483
Email: Inquirer.opinion@phillynews.com
In the Mix
By Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Columnist
Sen. Santorum, you’ve got your work cut out for you.
Those gosh darn homosexuals who are no better than the
polygamists, adulterers and perverts who sleep with their sisters—and in
your words are “antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional
family”—are all over the pop cultural landscape.
David and Keith on Six Feet Under are into gay paintball
and threesomes. The creators of Will & Grace may be unable to find Will a
boyfriend, but still, there he is, a gay man, on one of the top-rated sitcoms
on television. And I can’t even tell you what unnatural acts they’re up to
on Queer as Folk because I don’t get Showtime.
But never mind the boob tube: These days, homosexuals
have entered even the most heretofore red, white and blue strata of our
society. Professional sports, hip-hop, comic books—they’re everywhere.
Former Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Billy Bean has a new book out called
Going the Other Way (Marlowe), and let me tell you, he’s not talking about
hitting to the opposite field.
It’s enough to make you think that being gay is the
American way. If there’s a more homophobic arena than the world of
professional sports—and Bean’s book makes baseball locker rooms sound hard
to top—it could well be the chest-beating crucible of hip-hop.
But this June, just in time for Gay Pride Day, Def Jam
subsidiary Baby Phat will release Shock and Awe, the debut album by Caushun,
an openly gay hairdresser to the stars who doesn’t shy away from gay subject
matter. And for further evidence that the world is going to hell in a
handbasket, Mr. Senator, check out the lunchtime battle scene in 8 Mile, where
former hater Eminem, with a mainstream audience in his sights, puts a gay
basher in his place.
That’s right, Rick, as far as the entertainment
industry is concerned, gayness is good for business. The most fascinating
example on today’s docket is the Rawhide Kid, a monthly Marvel Comic
relaunched in January. Back in 1955, when Rawhide was originated, he was a
straight-arrow good guy drawn by Bob Brown, vying for attention with other
Western gunslingers with such eyebrow-raising sobriquets as Billy Buckskin and
Cowboy Action.
Now, Rawhide has ridden back into town as the first gay
title character of a mainstream comic. (He’s not the first homosexual
character in comics, though: There’s a gay X-Men character named Northstar,
and though he didn’t make it into either movie, X2: X-Men United does
contain a scene in which a character comes out to his parents about being a
mutant.)
But back to Rawhide. In the first four issues, he’s so
far proven to be your kind of gay guy: that is, we never get to see him engage
in any of the “homosexual acts” that you have a “problem” with.
We know he’s gay because Marvel has announced it to the
world, and because in the comic, which is drawn by 86-year-old artist John
Severin, he’s a sharp-dressed six-shooter who is always letting loose with
sexual innuendos that fly over the heads of the gaydar-impaired citizens of
Wells Junction. When asked if he’s a faster draw that the Lone Ranger, he
says: “I just want to meet him. I think that the mask and powder blue outfit
are fantastic. I can certainly see why that Indian follows him around.”
For the most part, Rawhide is a light, amusing exercise
in genre subversion—it even features a Mayor Bush who needs Rawhide to help
him fight bandits terrorizing the townsfolk. (It’s part of Marvel’s
adult-oriented Max series and comes with a parental-advisory sticker, even
though it includes no bad words or sex.)
In the new fourth issue, however, Rawhide gets serious as
he remembers being beaten up and called a sissy as a kid, and why he became a
good guy to begin with. He also spends some time giving a good talking-to to
insolent young Toby Morgan, who thinks his sheriff father is a coward, on the
importance of love, respect and good old traditional family values.
How about that, Sen. Santorum? A gay dandy comic-book
hero who believes in truth, justice and the American way, and fights terrorism
to boot. It’s just another reminder that popular culture makes for a far
more progressive world than politics, and thank God for that.
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