Hey…did you hear?  Jodie Foster sorta said she’s gay.  Lance Armstrong…doper/cheater/bully…probably not gay?…Oprah didn’t ask…Anderson Cooper [giggle, giggle, giggle].

Look, the Golden Globes is a pointless enough exercise of celebrities trying to act humble and grateful while alcoholically challenged.  Usually the highlights are about the prepared or seemingly unprepared musings of the host(s) or presenters with an occasional embarrassing acceptance rant.  But, when the entire proceeding is trumped by Jodie’s all-but-really-coming-out, scripted acceptance of her Lifetime Achievement Award, it speaks volumes about how fundamentally, socially bankrupt we are; and the reactions from gay rights advocates as well as those preaching deviant abomination showed an equal lack of currency.

We are historically rooted in the hate and fear of people different from ourselves in appearance and behavior.  Bigotry, like cockroaches and reality TV, has withstood the ravages of war and education.  Its ebb and flow has much less to do with true understanding than with opportunistic, too often temporary, tolerance, and the mere idea that tolerating one another is somehow a lofty, human aspiration is, in itself, simply ludicrous.  That we see and talk and talk and talk about the color of someone’s skin or ethnicity…the first Asian player in the NHL, any white guy in the NBA…black President?…with regard to their achievements or place in the world, defies logic.  It has led us to this incongruous point in time where we are attempting to legislate the ‘gift’ of acceptance where acceptance should have always been a given.  The Defense of Marriage Act…really?  Shame on any Congressman who raised his/her hand in favor…shame on Bill Clinton for signing it…shame on the Supreme Court for not immediately striking it down…shame on all of us for tolerating it through even one election cycle, (no less 8).  Don’t be lulled into thinking that the state-by-state enactment of same-sex marriage laws is an indicator of our moral evolution.  As long as a show of hands can provide a right, another show of hands can take it away.  Being human, in all its variations, is supposed to be unalienable…remember?

Maybe a few thousand years of human socialization just isn’t enough.  Maybe we really need to hate our way to some very distant future where we no longer have the need for a term like, “some of my best friends are…”.  Maybe Jodie Foster’s gayness is important and cool, and I just don’t get it.  Good grief!