Gee, this all puts me in mind of President Obama--pursues the Gay Family and wants our support, but doesn't really do much for us...

As far as the pic goes, for me, Katy is just showing pure lack of experience with and real interest in the huge number of ways that ppl express their identity. She sees some things juxtaposed that aren't really seen together very often, except in the context of making ppl laugh (such as the birthday cards with some macho-looking guy wearing booty shorts, or an older woman in pearls getting drunk, or more likely, ogling male strippers), and she thinks it's funny.

I look at this pic and just see someone who is expressing themself, and seems pretty happy with how they look (unless I am misreading the little smile, and that it is in the person's room--maybe it is a made-up pic, I don't know, just that it doesn't seem particularly strange to me). Most of the general public just doesn't know about the huge diversity of expression out there, and either doesn't care, or just rejects it out-of-hand. To me, this really fits in with all the discussions of tolerance and acceptance of diversity of expression with the Gay Family and in the majority straight society (as I guess Jerame intended?).

Carol

"NO AIDS/HIV activist should EVER show Donna any love."

Wow, that's a blast from the past. And long discredited as well.

Funny, Madonna became a millionaire and a "living legend" while maintaining "gay icon" status. Your claim that being a "gay icon" will negatively affect sales is completely false; if anything, having a strong and loyal GBLT fan base is essentially what has catapulted many performers to legendary status. We're statistically the most loyal fans a performer can have -- well, right after or tied with metal-heads, anyway.

I had a different take on this...it seems obvious that it *is* transism, but it seemed to me that Jerame was casting it as an insult to the 'GLBT' Family to *be* inclusive, rather than divisive? Essentially saying that "this isn't 'just' a Trans issue, if you insult trans-identified ppl, then it is an issue for the whole GLBT Family"?

Just my impression, sorry if I missed something!

Carol :)

Well then I stand corrected. Thank you gentlemen (I want to include Chuck too) for setting me 'straight.' I've been holding a grudge against her for over a decade, since I first came out. Now I feel like an ass!

Well we all know I AM an ass, but I feel like an even BIGGER ass.

Donna, my apologies. I guess I'm going to go flip on "Queen of Disco" now as a mea culpa.

The Bette story is not untrue though, because THAT all happened very visibly in the press after Massachusetts, and I was vigorously following LGBT news by then. She has come around since, but it was a really shitty move in my book, considering where she came from. Miss Bathhouse Betty ought NOT bite the hand that feeds her. I haven't spun "the Divine Miss M" since.

A gay icon mustn't waver. She needs to be 100% behind her peeps no matter what, and that's where Bette and Katy Perry blew it. You can't be part time. We get enough of that from our 'allies' on Capitol Hill and in state legislatures. Throughout all of our trials and tribulations over the past half a century, we've always, as a community, been able to take refuge in our music, and won't accept anything less than FULL investment by anyone wanting our worship.

Some think the pop culture aspect of the community is shallow and silly, but I think its serious stuff. When a person of stature, like a celebrity, models tolerance acceptance and love to America, it can have a profound effect. When Babs and Bette (in contrast to her latter day sins) took up the cause of the Florida Orange boycott, it was narry getting a notice in mainstream America. They brought visibility and acted as our voice, and we won!

Beyond that, we're not going to reach our goal of full equality under the law everywhere in America tomorrow, and there will be more really rough patches. Even then--even when we've got full equality--its still going to be hella hard to come out, especially for the youth. Art is therapeutic and soothing. Pop music is no different. What's kept me from activist burnout in my life of watching our community get beat down over and over is my ability to go shake it off Friday night, and come back Monday morning, refreshed and ready to begin anew. That's why I take the gay Icon thing very seriously.

To paint yourself as this new gay icon, and make no investment in the community AND THEN TO MAKE TRANSPHOBIC COMMENTS ON TOP OF THAT is a slap in the face. To come up in the community, use us as a springboard to fame, and then turn your back on us is a slap in the face. Manipulation like that is mean and thoughtless, but its also uninformed--it assumes our community is stupid enough to fall for that. We're not. We see through it. Its transparent.

We deserve better, and we show the 'less thans' to the door. Goodbye Katy Perry. Not so nice knowing ya.

On that note, I think Cyndi Lauper ought get the loyalest Icon award--she's NEVER failed us.

Seriously? Jeez. Googled and here's a link for everyone else:

http://gawker.com/5084483/katy-perry-kissed-a-girl-and-out-magazine-liked-it-but-i-didnt

I can't stand Katy Perry. She's a terrible singer and her songs are stupid. "I kissed a girl" was just annoying, no matter the lyrical content.

She thinks she can police what is cool and what isn't, and apparently that extends to gender policing. Not cool in my book, but then again I'm not a vapid pop star.

And before Riot Grrl, there was Joan Jett (who has never come out), and that's pretty much it. Every other female artist or band was all about being cockteases for teenage boys. What was great about Joan was even though she was totally aggressive in a way that was very sexy onstage, she didn't play just to that stereotypical fan, she played for and to everyone. In the early 80's, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts were one of those few bands in the Manhattan punk club scene that were safe for both open and closeted LGBT's to go see. It wasn't until New Wave hit and really took hold that things began to blur a bit more in terms of gender in modern music.

:-)

Angela, you're not wrong. We DON'T pay enough attention to ENDA. Though I do believe that to stay sane you've got to take a bit of a breather from time to time, ENDA has been my mantra for some months now, but I have not posted about it in a while. Thank you for calling me out and reminding me to get back on the road before I veered into the ditch!

The 'straight' press will not say ANYTHING about ENDA unless WE make a lot of noise about it.

I don't think we SHOULDN'T also talk about lots of other topics too. A rock star--flash in the pan as she is--tweeting something potentially transphobic to millions of readers IS important to note, on top of all of the other things. We've got to talk about it all. We've got a real shot at an LGBT political revolution here in Illinois, with an opportunity to elect an openly gay US Senator, openly gay State Senator and two openly gay State Reps. These are important as well. We should really be talking about all of it, all of the time, and not be afraid to annoy our less political friends with all of our LGBT political drivel all of the time. It may make activists out of them yet.

We can and should take tangents, but we must keep our eyes on the prize. Thanks for this, I think I've got a post brewing in my little brain now!

My my! Aren't WE mature!

@Dan: "I don't consider it really polite or appropriate to speculate on whether a particular person with a trans appearance is MTF or FTM, and I'm sure the readers of this could cite evidence one way or the other."

Way to go ahead and do exactly what you think isn't appropriate. Btw, herbal phytoestrogens don't have nearly enough estrogen in them to feminize anyone... so, as to your inappropriate diagnosis... fail. Plus, he's absolutely ftm and his body is no one's beezwax, including mine. The photo itself is fairly mild but her snide crack is what people are really talking about here. Basically, feeling entitled to make fun of trans bodies. But then, any cis-person who's made fun of 'trannies' is displaying about much ugly entitlement as KP.

Lady Gaga, the one that just likes sex with girls, has only been in love with men, and is absolutely not a feminist.