I'm ready for my closeup, Mrs. Clinton

Another Washington gay blogger says Washington Blade editor Kevin Neff's unendorsement of the she-Clinton opened his eyes, then confirms what drew so much of the tribe's "leaders" into her orbit to begin with:

"Like Kevin, I was -- after a major flip about a year ago -- a supporter of the Clinton campaign. I helped raise some money, got to go to a few really cool events and was excited to see someone care about the issues I cared about. Folks I've trusted for over 10 years supported her and had unprecedented levels of access, which is where a lot of change comes from."

Unprecedented levels of access to a man who ran against gays for re-election and degayed his memoirs; and his wife, who sends their daughter on creepy bar crawls with Rob Reiner and Gloria Steinem (when we think of gay icons, "sic transit Gloria Steinem" comes to mind immediately) while steadfastly refusing to say the word gay except to carefully selected gay audiences of people whose unprecedented levels of access guarantees no one will ask a question harder than Barbara Walter's request of Jimmy Carter that he be good and kind to us.

This is the trouble with the gay community all too often: we're Sally Field at the Oscars any time some straight celebrity plays gay and says he feels OK with it, or a politician who pats us on the head and says I love you to death, just don't ask me to do anything but come to your dinners, and we're all supposed to clap our hands and cry, "You like me! You really like me!"

New York Post 2007

Such are the compensations of a celebrity age: getting invited to cool events ("So many other gays I know aren't here"); friends I know ("I know important people") have "unprecedented access" ("I believe whatever they tell me about that") to someone "who cares about the issues I care about ("yes, deep in my heart I know she isn't going to do squat, but that's because it's politically impossible, especially from a candidate who won't admit we exist to the straight, hard-working white voters her polls show are more numerous and she knows we'll turn out for her anyway").

Except that we are completely unknown, this sort of candor would get us our gay card revoked.