Project Runway redeemed as Shear Genius dies!

Wow, last night’s episode “Fashion that Drives You” really surprised me. Maybe I’ve been underwhelmed by the designers this year in general, or maybe there were just too many to begin with – the gradually ballooning cast has now expanded to an attention-span-stretching 16 self-involved creative types. I think my impressions of the show have also been tainted by its proximity to the sheer horrors of Shear Genius which I foolishly watch every week right afterwards. It really says something when someone like me who knows nothing about cutting hair and could easily be blown away by a well-cut bob is bored week after week after week. Perhaps it is no coincidence that my first real wow moments and lasting impressions on Project Runway for this season happened on a night when I decided to forgo Jaclyn, Kim and the gang.

In any case, I think the cast on Project Runway has finally been whittled down to those who have a consistent and interesting sensibility. In my estimation the judges have done a great job of getting rid of the duller designers quickly and without incident so I can forget them entirely and focus on falling in love with Korto and her repeatedly “africana,” but repeatedly flawless work. Check out her unreal coat dress made of nothing but seat belts. Good lord. I was going to post last night’s winner, the bustled number from the adorably introverted Leanne but it just doesn’t look as amazing in the photos.

Anyway, my picks for the final three are Leanne, Korto and Kenley. It would be out of character for the producers to select three women, but they’re all interesting, consistent and totally different so I’d be into it. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see Suede or Terri in the final. In the next couple weeks I expect to see Jerell, Blayne and Joe get the axe. They’ve all had moments of greatness, but mostly just boring crap.

Here’s hoping that the season continues to impress. I can’t imagine it could get worse now that Shear Genius is officially over. The only thing I’ll miss about SG is my weekly fascination with the bizarre facial expressions of the omni-ethnic master colorist Kim Vo. Although he’ll surely continue to have many more crack-infused appearances with Debbie Matenopoulos on E!’s Daily10, so I won’t shed too many tears.

Hey Jesus, Can You Turn Your Chin to the Left

Last night I  watched a great program on photography (“The Genius of Photography: Right Place, Right Time” – on Ovation TV). You can see a short clip from the show on photographs from Hiroshima and Nagasaki at this link. In a different part of the show, one of the interviewees shared a quote about the power of photographs that stopped me cold with it’s profoundness. I’ve since discovered that it’s actually quite a famous quote and I should probably be a little embarrassed that I’d never heard it, but I’ll share it with you just the same.

George Bernard Shaw

It’s by George Bernard Shaw, the uber-prolific turn-of-the-century Irish playwright, novelist, critic, etc. and goes a little something like this: “I would willingly exchange every single painting of Christ for one snapshot.“

First of all, don’t you agree? I certainly do, and I would venture to guess that most people would at least consider it. And that’s just shocking when you think about how many times Christ has been depicted in art through the last 2000 years. That’s a lot of precious artwork to cast aside for just one polaroid. But a picture is different than a painting isn’t it? That was definitely the point in the documentary, photographs are more real, more convincing, somehow more compelling. But I think the point of the quote is really about Christ. If you replaced his name with some other historically significant figure who we only know through art, like Queen Elizabeth I, George Washington, or Cleopatra, I don’t think we’d care as much. Personally, I’d be really disappointed to find out that Cleopatra didn’t really look like Elizabeth Taylor (Note: see comments below for clarification). I think we’re all cool with the reality of those people with or without photography. But I think in most of us there’s some seed of doubt as to who Jesus really was, if he was real at all. And for most people with a Christian background, there would be major vindication in seeing a real photograph of God.

Don’t get me wrong, if there was a picture of Jesus, the debate over its veracity would probably start world war III, which I think would pretty well negate any warm fuzzies in the hearts of a small number of Christians. But isn’t it interesting to consider how that would change the way people see and think about Christianity? Maybe more fun to consider, if there was a picture of Jesus, what would you want him to be doing in it? Would you want a picture of the virgin birth? If so would you stage a “gather round the manger scene” or would you want graphic obstetric photos proving Mary was a virgin at the time of delivery? Would you want a photo of the crucifixion? If so, would seeing him on the cross be enough, or would you need to see him dead after the spear wound? Or would you rather just have some random candid photo of Jesus chillin with his peeps in downtown Damascus? Maybe a myspace-style self-portrait where he’s holding the camera out to photograph himself? It’s so interesting to me because every one of those photos would be hugely significant culturally.

Well, to end this exploration I’ll leave you with this artistic rendering of the J man posing for a mentos ad. It’s possible that this might be the one kind of photo of Jesus that would actually be disappointing.

Chick-fil-A’s for Christ

Well, my friends, I just discovered that one of my favorite fast food dumps has a mission that has nothing to do with food. Chick-fil-A, the home of yummy pickle-adorned chicken sandwiches, is owned and operated by an aggressively Christian family who’s corporate mission at Chick-fil-A is to “glorify God.” I’m all for glorifying God, and I’m all for chicken, but there’s some shady business dealings going on at the CfilA.

Franchise operators at CfilA are subject to intense scrutiny over their faith, marital status and other characteristics irrelevant to an individual’s ability to do work. It’s legal for them to do it because franchise operators are independent contractors and are not protected by the equal opportunity laws that protect normal employees. The founder and chairman of CfilA, S. Truett Cathy, has been quoted as saying he would fire an employee or operator if he “has been sinful.”

Chick-fil-A has been sued 12 times for employment discrimination, but the company shows no signs of slowing. The annual turnover for hourly employees is only 60%, compared with 107% industry average. Last year’s business-wide sales were over 2.3 billion dollars at over 1,300 locations in the US (including one delicious location in the Coralville mall). This is a big big company, with a very restrictive way of doing business.

So how does it work? Cathy claims that one of the keys to success is working using a Christian approach. He says, “You don’t have to be a Christian to work at Chick-fil-A, but we ask you to base your business on biblical principles because they work.” I’m not sure where the Bible dictates proper methods for chicken sales (and “be nice to people” doesn’t count – Jesus doesn’t own that intellectual property), but it does seem clear that one of the Christian approaches used is that of rigid exclusivity. I grew up in a veritable buffet of assorted evangelical Christian churches, where being a Christian meant you get to go to heaven when everyone else (Jews, Buddhists, Hinduists, Muslims, Pagans, Athiests, and other generalized sinners [which includes me according to the evangelical set]) goes to hell. Jesus is the only way to heaven – “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” – everyone else can suck it (with respect to Kathy Griffin of course). Similarly at Chick-fil-A, there is a strong sense of being a member of a club for those who belong. Interviewing for an operator position at CfilA can be a year-long process taking over 15 interviews, and you can still be rejected for not having the right (legally vague) “fit.”

Exclusivity works great for those who fit and share the collective’s mindset. For those who don’t fit, there is a constant sense of being watched. A Chick-fil-A operator who didn’t participate in a prayer at a corporate training event was fired the next day. He sued and the case was settled out of court. I feel that same sense of being watched when I’m in church. I feel like no one believes that my faith is authentic because it’s not as exclusive as theirs, I feel like they are watching and waiting for me to make some kind of gay mistake so they can be validated in their wholesale disregard of anyone who is different.

My response to these vibes at church has been to just not go. I have a living faith in something much bigger than me. I think I’m smart enough to not try to put a name on it and claim to know everything. I know that the cultural language of Christianity is what I was raised on, and it’s what speaks most plainly to my life experience and my heart. And that faith does just fine without the judgment, politics and self-righteousness of the church-going elite. In fact, I think my faith is better and stronger this way. So should I not go to Chick-fil-A for the same reasons? Well, if I felt persecuted by the 16-year old who gave me a sandwich, then maybe not. But it doesn’t seem that Chick-fil-A has any problems taking money from those who are not members of the 700 Club. As long as they don’t ask me to join their prayer groups, and as long as the Coral Ridge Mall food court continues to offer slim pickings, I’ll probably eat the occasional Chick-fil-A. Does that make me a hypocrite? No, I’m just doing my best not to be exclusive.

Elephant Cams

I was watching Animal Planet today and they had a commercial for an upcoming special on Tigers and they said that there would be footage from the first ever “Elephant Cams.” Naturally I assumed that I misheard, because I seem to do that a lot, but sure enough, there they came on the screen – elephants with cameras strapped to their faces. That’s crazy. I’m not sure what bugs me more about it, the actual idea of instrumenting animals with bulky cameras or that the elephants are doing it for a special about Tigers. I would be pissed if I had to wear a camera 24-7 for a TV show about someone else. I think I’m going to Tivo it just to see if I can be proved wrong. We’ll see. I think it’s ridiculous.

I just found this youtube video of a abcnews report on the elephant cams.  I still think it’s ridiculous.

Reality TV Dissected

I spend a lot of time watching reality TV. We all do. Who hasn’t lost a Saturday afternoon to a COPS marathon or fallen off to sleep to the soothing tones of Janice Dickenson berating one of her models? Jason and I had a night of reality TV on Bravo last night, we watched Project Runway and Shear Genius. Why we would choose to watch them back-to-back in the flexible age of the DVR is unknown, but watching the two side-by-side made it very clear that some reality shows are just better than others. Maybe it was most striking because here are two shows that have a very similar message (fashion and hair are amazingly cool and translate well on TV), audience (women and gay men), contestant base (women and gay men) and celebrity star power on the B+/A- list level. Jaclyn Smith may be C list now, but she was full-on A list back in the day, and Kim Vo, well he’s no Michael Kors bubbling over with sarcasm and bile, but you’ve surely seen him on some horrible segment on E! News where you found yourself terrified by his face. Who could have even recognized Michael Kors pre-Project Runway?

Anyway, this awareness of the stratification of reality shows into the good, the bad and the ugly made my mind wander to all the other reality shows out there. Which ones are good, which ones are train wrecks and why? I did some investigation of the science of reality television and found a nice breakdown of the different types of reality shows on Wikipedia. What I present to you here is a summary of that breakdown and some examples of high points and trainwrecks within each category.

Documentary-Style

Special Living Environment

Pure voyeurism – people placed in a unique environment with a bunch of cameras and not much to do. Hall of Fame: Big Brother – I can’t speak for the current season of BB because it started in the middle of our move, but this is a great show that is successful on a global level. There’s just something about hamsters running on a wheel that people everywhere love. Hall of Shame: Real World – although it claims to have invented reality TV, this show has been degraded down to one of the most boring shows on TV in recent years. There’s all kinds of shows that I hate, but everyone else likes. I think everyone is starting to realize what a colossal waste the Real World is now.

Celebreality

Celebrities followed by cameras blurring the line between fact and fiction, fame and success… Hall of Fame: Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List – one of the most stage-y of the celebreality programs, but that makes it one of the most successful. The banality quotient is reduced significantly by a purposeful attempt to setup and tell a story with each episode. Kathy Griffin may have openly begged for the Emmy, but it was deserved. Hall of Shame: Hogan Knows Best - I’ve never seen an episode of this show that didn’t make me angry AND bored. It was only made worse when it became clear that this show was actually a platform for the Hulkster to launch the careers of his largely undertalented children. It’s The Osbournes without the humor.

Professional Activities

Shows which follow a business or professional in their day-to-day goings-on with widely varying results. Hall of Fame: COPS – the longest running reality show ever was and continues to be successful because of its in-your-face portrayal of a whole other side of society most of us only see occasionally at the gas station. Let’s face facts, this show is not about COPS, it’s about crazy people and their disconnection from reality. Hall of Shame: Blowout – this show was so terrible for so many reasons, not the least of which was the self-proclaimed celebrity of leather-fleshed lead stylist Jonathan Antin. Episode after episode showed his inability to work professionally with others, lack of leadership, utter soullessness (see any episode where he is in a therapy session) and simultaneous inexplicable rise to greater success in the LA hair market. I hate you Jonathan Antin.

Elimination/Game Shows

Dating-Based

These shows have a long history going back to the Dating Game and Love Connection. Recently they have adhered to a strict formula of group dates, solo date passes and rose ceremonies. Hall of Fame: I Love New York 1 and 2 – I know there are a lot of Tiffany “New York” Pollard haters out there, but the best thing about her shows was her over the top persona and of course the incomparable Sister Patterson. The tone of the show followed suit and did not take itself seriously – a key to success in the world of televised speed dating. Hall of Shame: All Bachelor/ettes – right down to the one-on-ones with uber-bland host Chris Harrison, this show takes itself way too seriously. Every year the contestants claim to have fallen into a magical love in just hours of face time with the chosen bachelor. You never see that kind of deliberate self-deception on I Love New York. Also, I just want to say that for this category of show, a two-hour season finale is NEVER needed.

Job Search

This is probably the most successful format of the reality genre because it does actually display talented individuals and their crafts. It is compelling to see behind the scenes of your favorite industry and to see the future stars of that industry discovered. Hall of Fame: Tie to Project Runway and American Idol – both shows have been wildly successful in their own ways, Project Runway by establishing Bravo as more than just a junky cable arts network, American Idol by dominating the world and making us love and hate ourselves simultaneously. Answer me this, has a season of American Idol ever gone by where you didn’t get chills from a performance one week and then two weeks later wonder why you continue to subject yourself to the torture of phony Coke commercials, “after the break”s and unfunny inside jokes? Hall of Shame: American Inventor – the winner of this show invented a crazy baby car seat that was basically a free-spinning egg that kept baby from getting slammed around by just allowing it to spin indefinitely in the egg chamber. Seriously.

Fear-Based

There’s not much to say about these shows. Sort of like Candid Camera with the emphasis on scaring people. Hall of Fame: Scare Tactics – one of the few great SciFi originals. The show was at its best in the Shannen Doherty-hosted first season. Who wouldn’t want to punk their friends into thinking they are being abducted by aliens or being sprayed by chemical mutagens and then laughing in their face. Hall of Shame: Celebrity Paranormal Project – unfortunately this show just wasn’t scary. It was just celebrities going into haunted locations and pretending to be scared. I still regret making my brother and sister-in-law watch this at our house. I hope they don’t think we actually watch shows that bad all the time.

Self-Improvement/Makeover

These shows are widely varied in the topics they cover, but always involve some kind of sad case, a down-to-the-wire transformation and an emotional reveal. At their best they are inspiring, at their worst they are boring and predictable. Hall of Fame: Tie to The Biggest Loser and Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School – I’ve never seen a season of The Biggest Loser that didn’t make me cry and thank god for my fast metabolism at least once. Huge personal transformations with the utmost sincerity. And there is the steadfast hotness of trainer Bob Harper. Charm School on the other hand had largely insincere transformations but the characters on the show were unbelievably funny. Chatar’s yarn-y wig and cha-ching sound effects when she batted her lashes kept me in stitches for weeks. Hall of Shame: Sadly, this dishonor goes to TLC’s While You Were Out - the manbeauty of host Evan Farmer was not enough to redeem this show and its frequently unfinished lackluster transformations. The premise is cool, but the rooms usually looked cheaply done (a la Trading Spaces) and you always got the impression that the designers might have actually been actors who spent a week working at Home Depot for “training.”

There are more categories to discuss, i.e. sports competition, social experiment programs, multi-season cast competitions, but I honestly can’t imagine that anyone would want to read more. Please comment on your best and worst reality shows! Also, I welcome your disagreement on any of mine. I really could talk about this all day, so bring it on!

I dare you not to cry over this

This morning they played this video of a lion that was raised by a couple of guys and released into the wild, then they went to go see him in the wild after a year. Aside from however you might feel about the Whitney remake of I Will Always Love You, this is one of those videos that you just can’t help but get a little emotional over. Meredith lost it on air, and thank God she did, because it made me not feel quite so stupid for losing all control of my emotions and bawling while holding onto our dogs. Seriously, watch this and I dare you not to cry. This video clip was from when the ladies on The View showed it. Also, I realize that this has gone viral like 20 times in the last couple years, and I’m only contributing to old video circulation, but come on. This is worth it.

The Omen

Last night was just like any other night in our house. We’d spent much of the day getting odds and ends packed up in the kitchen. I got all of the garbage out of the basement once and for all. All that’s left is stuff we’re taking with us. After some video games and my sunday night fix of Food Network Star, we got both dogs to pee and poop. Jason was brushing his chompers in the bathroom and I was putting away clothes in the bedroom and then Jason uttered a phrase that no one ever wants to hear – “Oh my god you have got to check out this beetle.”

I don’t want beetles in my house ever. I don’t care if they’re tiny and cute like ladybugs or big and nasty they have no place in my home. Period. So I decided to face my mostly irrational fear and at least look at it. That was probably a mistake. I should have just poured gasoline under the bathroom door and lit a match (after letting Jason out of course). This was easily the biggest beetle I’ve ever seen not in a zoo or stuck on a pin in a box. In fact, probably the biggest insect I’ve ever seen. It was about two inches long with generously oversized mandible flesh-ripping devices. I felt my blood pressure elevate to dangerously high levels and for a brief moment I became someone else entirely. Not the calm cool and collected guy who can handle hearing “are we going to have to know this for the exam?” 10-15 times a day. Not the guy who valiantly grabs a magazine and kills moths when we find them in the house because Jason doesn’t want to kill them. No, I was filled with irrational fear and psychotic rage. I knew I couldn’t live in the same house as that horned beast, so I wanted it dead, and the battle between me and him would be brutal and require me to tap into a primordial killer’s spirit. I think Jason found this alternately terrifying and hysterical.

The first concern was making sure the cats didn’t try to attack it because it was totally awake and crawling around all over the bathroom floor. Cats are drawn to anything that moves. God knows what could have happened if our permanently runtified cat Tiny had tried to do battle with the wicked living gargoyle. The second issue was finding something to destroy it that would be totally impenetrable by its giant pinchers. No paper towels or toilet paper here. Unfortunately much of our stuff was packed away, so this took more than a couple seconds. In this brief interim, the beast scurried under the peeling linoleum behind the bathtub and we could hear it crawling around under it. WE COULD HEAR IT MOVING. It was that big. Once he came out again to wreak his unholy vengeance on humanity, I was ready with a shoe. He died quickly.

This whole time, Jason and I were both going back and forth on whether we should try to capture this creature on film. On one hand, it would have been awesome to have some live video of the giant waving its flesh ripping appendages, on the other hand, there was just too much going on and I knew it had to die first before I felt comfortable staging a photo. Jason got some pics of it in its dead form, and I’ll post them later once we get them uploaded, but for now, here’s a picture of the closest facsimile that I could find in a “beetles of eastern iowa” website.

I had to click through so many beetle pictures to find the one with mouth parts that even came close to the ones on our dead beetle. Every time a page loaded with a new beetle picture I got scared again, although a little less each time. It doesn’t make my blood boil to look at it now, but the thought of picking it up or touching it when it’s alive gives me a chill in my bones. Keep in mind the one on the floor was at least two inches long and it’s crazy jaw things were constantly opening and closing in a menacing fashion.

When it was all over, it was clear to me that this messenger of satan who found his way into my bathroom was clearly sent as an omen that it’s time for us to leave this house. And what excellent timing the dark lord has because we close tomorrow on our new house and will be moving as soon as the keys are in our hands. After we leave (and get a clean house approval from the landlords) I don’t care if a thousand giant beetles eat the house apart. We will be free of their tyranny because we had good enough credit for a home loan. Take that satan.

Of course all of that is tempered by the knowledge that our new home is adjacent to a cornfield which no doubt has its own array of dazzling insect life. As long as they stay out of my house, I’m cool with them.

One week until moving day

Only seven days until we close and start the move-in process! I think we’re mostly ready. There’s still lots of odds and ends in the basement that need to be organized and boxed, but everything else is in two neat rows of boxes in the dining room. It’s nice to see the house we’ve lived in for five years with nothing on the walls, stripped of any personal imprint. It is making it easier to imagine not living here, or rather someone else living here. Living in a rental house, you never really shed the notion that the house isn’t really yours and people have lived in your space before you. But after 5 years, I had gotten close.

We have already resolved to not use any of the art that we had at our old place in our new home. I think that’s one of Jason’s best ideas ever. I’m kind of sick of looking at the same three Target brand dead tree framed “art photos” in the bedroom, and the same 5 film posters in the dining room. It’s time for an upgrade.

Things with Isobel are going pretty well. She’s very different from Brody. She’s much more playful and aggressive. She growls a lot while she’s playing. Growls just don’t seem very intimidating coming from a 4 pound dog. She is getting better and better on the potty training routine. I think it helps her to have Brody around. She clearly understands the command for “go poop” because she’ll almost do it on cue now. I wish I could regulate like that. Damn you Activia and your empty promises.

Hopefully in one more week Isobel will be totally potty-trained. Yeah, you betcha. I also hope in one more week to really have the basement fully packed and cleaned. I look forward to the day that I never have to go down there again. I can’t believe I had a party down there once. Complete with tippy cup and beer pong. Some memories just don’t get glossier with time. Finally if it’s possible, sometime in the next week I would love to find me a magic genie who will offer me as one of my three wishes an instantaneous and sweat-free move. My other three wishes would be infinite cash and breakfast served to me every morning forever. Nothing complicated, just some peanut buttered toast and a fried egg. I’m simple that way.

The pet family just grew one bigger

We got our second dachshund this weekend. Her name is Isobel. Not really after the Bjork/Deodato song, but the spelling was inspired by it. She’s adorable and small. Her puppy breath is horrific, think coffee grounds in the garbage. She’s very into playtime which I think is new for us because Brody was always kind of scared and lap-dog-ish. She’s been good about peeing so far. I’ve been a psychotic overlord watching her every move and any time she starts to circle, out she goes. She only peed on the floor once on Saturday and I’ve been able to regulate since then. She’s starting to get the hang of the pooping outside thing. Last night I spent an hour with her outside around 3:15. When she finally pooped I might have cried – I was so delirious I wouldn’t remember clearly. Then she was in crazy play mode until 6:00 when she finally fell asleep in her little dog bed on my lap on the couch. When I then woke up at 8:30 she had at some point made her way out of the dog bed and onto my chest so her little sleepy face was the first thing I saw when I woke up. Of course all was forgiven in that moment.

We were originally going to wait until we moved into our new place to get the new dog, but this one was so cute and just the right age to adopt and we also thought it might be easier to deal with all the puppy stuff in this house rather than in our nice shiny new place. If I can get her fully potty-trained in two weeks, then we were right. We’ll see. Here’s a couple pics, sorry if you read Jason’s blog, they are duplicates of ones he already posted, but I’ll put up more later on in the week.

Gay Science News

I don’t know if you occupy yourself with the scientific press, but there’s been big news in the last couple weeks in homosexuality research. There was a new “gay brain” study in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) that looked at differences in primitive brain structures that are fixed after birth showing that these structures in gay men resembled the same structures in straight women. Similarly, these structures in gay women resembled straight men. For those of you who love neuroanatomy, Hetero Male cerebral hemispheres tend to be lateralized or larger on the right side, mostly due to increased frontal and temporal lobes. Women’s cerebral hemispheres tend to be more similar on both sides. The Homo Male cerebral hemispheres tend to be the same size on each side, more like straight women’s. The opposite is true for gay women. More striking were changes in connectivity between the amygdala (reactions to external stimuli) and subcallosum and anterior cingulate (regulation of mood and anxiety-linked processes). The authors make a supposition that this could explain the increased prevalence in mood disorders amongst women and the increased depression and suicide rate among gay men. I think both statements are questionable because frankly there are a lot of external factors for both women and gay men that profoundly influence mental health. The authors also show that connections between the sensorimotor cortex and striatum are more robust in Hetero men and Homo women. These connections are more involved with attending to the external environment via fight or flight responses. All interesting stuff indeed.

This week, a paper in PLoS One (Public Library of Sciences) did some crazy genetics studies that I can’t even begin to fully understand, but their conclusions were pretty interesting. The authors were puzzled by the notion of a genetic source of homosexuality because in the simplest sense, if homosexuality is genetic and most homosexuals don’t reproduce, homosexuality should become extinct in the population. They show that homosexuality is equally present in cultures throughout the world and stable in incidence through recent history, indicating that a downslide in homosexuality prevalence or homosexual extinction is probably not happening. Then they use the theory of sexually antagonistic selection (the genes of one sex favor the other sex somehow) to come up with the hypothesis that homosexual men would have female relatives who are more fecund, or reproductively active. The theory being that some of the same genes involved in reproductive potential in women are somehow linked to homosexuality in men within the same maternal blood line.  They relate this then to their empirical studies which showed asymmetries in the pedigrees of families with gay men showing that the maternal female relatives (maternal aunts and cousins for example) of gay men do in fact have statistically more children. Interesting stuff as well. So now it’s a matter of doing the genetic linkage studies to identify the genes involved.

All of this research is interesting to me as a gay scientist. I always try to read the introductions and discussions of these papers carefully because the meaning and intent behind this research is perhaps more important than the research data itself. Most of the time, these studies are interpreted to say, “See I told you, being gay is not a lifestyle choice.” However, there are a lot of powerful people out there who would love to see these biological explanations for homosexuality turn into medical solutions to cure homosexuality. Check this quote from Rev. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, “If a biological basis is found, and if a prenatal test is then developed, and if a successful treatment to reverse the sexual orientation to heterosexual is ever developed, we would support its use.” It’s interesting and scary how the position of an anti-gay individual can shift so smoothly from “homosexuality is a choice” to “if it’s not a choice, then let’s fix it with medicine.” And believe you me, if these movers and shakers find ways to fund this sort of gay cure medicine (however far-off and ridiculous it may seem right now), people will want it and use it. Millions of people in China already selectively abort female fetuses to make sure they have a male baby.

All of this comes full circle for me every semester when I teach the pelvis in anatomy. The main message of the pelvis in my class is “having babies is magic, let’s see how much we can learn about how to make, grow and deliver a baby just by studying the anatomy.” It’s really fun, the students seem to absolutely love it, and we are able to talk through all of the anatomy of the male and female by linking it into one cohesive story . I’ve given a lot of thought to whether my approach is too hetero-centric, but you know, the story just isn’t that different for me or any other gay person. The parts all work the same, you just put them in different places. I could talk about gay sexual health issues, but that just goes so far outside the realm of anatomy. Maybe it would be more appropriate for an undergraduate anatomy/physiology class. I feel that my role in doing service to the gay community through my teaching is just being my big bad gay self in the classroom, so my students can see that gay people can be scientists and teachers (and really good ones at that) because they might not get the chance to meet many out role models in their medical education.