Britney Griner, Glory Johnson and how life imitates art

May 18, 2015

Just when I think stories about gay athletes who are rivals and lovers – the subjects of my novel series “The Games Men Play” – may be preposterous comes news of the marriage of W.N.B.A. stars Britney Griner and Glory Johnson.

Griner, the center for the Phoenix Mercury, is the league’s top blocker; Johnson, a forward for the Tulsa Shock, the league’s No. 3 rebounder. They hit it off away from the courts and, despite a bump in the relationship that resulted in both being arrested on domestic violence charges (and suspended for seven games), married on May 8 in Phoenix.

It was a story I read with great interest, because the heroes of my forthcoming second novel “The Penalty for Holding” – Quinn and Tam, rival quarterbacks – consider marriage. (Griner and Johnson were also rivals during their college years, just like Tam and Mal – the third figure in my quarterback triangle – are.)

Adding a twist to the Briner-Johnson story: Johnson is straight. ...

Jared Leto, the inside man

March 3, 2014

How great was it to see Jared Leto – who left Hollywood to front a band – win the Best Supporting Oscar for his role as a transgender prostitute in “Dallas Buyers Club”? (Actually, the win was sort of a no-brainer. Hollywood loves to reward actors who transform themselves and stories that have their hearts in the right place.)

Leto seems to have his in the right place, too. Of course, there was plenty of Internet snark about his acceptance speech, in which he told the “dreamers” in Ukraine and Venezuela that we were thinking of them. (Apparently, actors aren’t allowed to be human.) I came late to his speech, but I’m glad I caught the end: "This is for the 36 million people out there who have lost the battle to AIDS.” He concluded, “To those of you who have felt injustice because of who you love and who you are, I stand here with you and for you.”’

As he left the stage, host Ellen DeGeneres shook her head and said, “Beautiful.”’

Is gay the new black?

January 20, 2014

Recently, I was giving someone a pitch about my new, gay-themed novel, “Water Music,” which bowed last week – a pitch that I sometimes end defensively with, “Well, it’s not for everyone.” (I really must learn to stop demurring like that.)

Or maybe not, because when I say that, my listeners often respond as this man did: “I’m not so sure about that. I think it’s an idea whose time has come.”

This week seems to have confirmed that. HBO has a new series, “Looking,” about gay men searching for love in San Francisco. Unlike Showtime’s “Queer as Folk” (2000-05) – which was, let’s face it, all about hot guys (and women) having hot sex – “this show is at such a time when suddenly gay people can conform to heterosexual blueprints of how to live,” out actor and “Looking” star Russell Tovey told the Sunday New York Times (Jan. 19). “You can get married, you can have kids, you can have joint mortgages, you’re recognized as next of kin, which is all fresh.”

Tovey, who’s actually made a career of playing straight guys (the athlete Rudge in “The History Boys”), stars as a closeted footballer – soccer player to us in the U.S.– in John Donnelly’s play “The Pass” in London.

So is gay the new black – in more ways than one? Is Ellen DeGeneres, who’ll host the Oscars again (March 2), the new Oprah? Read more