The Advocate, The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine

Melissa Etheridge diagnosed with breast cancer
Representatives for the lesbian icon report that the singer-songwriter expects a speedy recovery. Read the full story>>>

The long road ahead
Fifty years after Brown v. the Board of Education, people forget that most victories in the fight for racial equality came after that court decision outlawing segregation. For gays and lesbians, it’s time to steel ourselves for the decades of work we still have to do to achieve equality.
By Evan Wolfson, Executive Director, Freedom to Marry

Leaving the Untited States of Medieval
If you ask our columnist, the October 8 gay boycott doesn’t go far enough. It’s time to let antigay states form an imperfect union of the benighted and for every self-respecting gay man and lesbian to leave for more-enlightened homelands.
By Charles Karel Bouley II

Saving Massachussets marriage
To protect equal marriage rights in the state from a proposed constitutional amendment, the activist Web site SupportEquality.org is boosting the campaigns of politicians who favor equality. At least one marriage opponent has already been defeated.
By Jodi Sperber

It's gettin' hot in here
Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 comes out on DVD today—just in time for the documentary film to take one last swipe at George W. Bush before the election.
By Chad Graham

Out against David Dreier
Democratic challenger Cynthia Matthews, an out lesbian, is taking on U.S. representative David Dreier as the conservative Southern California Republican and favorite of the Bush administration continues to duck questions about his own sexuality
By Christopher Lisotta

Same-sex marriage's Fahrenheit 9/11
A new documentary inspires audiences to tears and anger with the stories of two families torn apart by the lack of marriage equality. To help the movie change hearts and minds about same-sex marriage, says the filmmaker, the first step is to make sure people see it.
By Kevin Kumala

Merci, but no thanks
Despite an amazing cast that includes Dianne Wiest and a Vanessa Redgrave cameo, the limp French farce Merci Docteur Rey never delivers on its promise.
By Stephen Rebello

Why I love Friday the 13th, or What I Did on My Summer Vacation
With the five-DVD box set of the Friday the 13th movies arriving October 5, out TV writer-producer Sean Abley shares his love for Jason, nubile campers, and one of the most successful horror franchises in Hollywood history.
By Sean Abley

Horror and heartbreak
A journey inside the mind of a murderer and child-rapist is doubly chilling because it’s based on a true story.
By Dave White

Nauseated in New York
Our reporter, in business drag, mingled with many charming Bush supporters at the Republicans’ recent convention. Then the night of the president’s speech arrived, and the truth of what these friendly, sincere people stand for could no longer be ignored. It’s a good thing he brought the barf bag.
By Paul VanDeCarr

The way of Will
Big Brother 5’s Will Wikle talks about strategy, betrayal, and sharing a house with devout Christians.
By Bob Adams

Malaysia's long sodomy battle
Gay sex between men remains illegal and can be harshly punished in this predominantly Muslim nation, but one victory was achieved this month: The sodomy conviction of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim was overturned, and he was released from prison after six years. By Kevin Kumala

Careers without borders
A physician’s “vision quest” to rediscover meaning in his career serves as a model for other floundering workers, while a U.S. expatriate’s Danish dilemma looks to our advice columnist like a opportunity for successful self-employment. By Ed Vladich

Coming out...as Cuban
Why aren't there more Latino men visible in the gay rights movement? Maybe because telling Mom you're gay is a little different for a man whose family values masculinity above all else. By Will J. Castillo

Me and the 'tweens
A single lesbian in the suburbs can start feeling a little lonely—and exposed. So when two fifth-graders approach outside a discount store, how honest should she be?. By Jenni Spinner

Boycott for Equality: Good move
If gays and lesbians show unity by dropping out of the economy for 24 hours on October 8, we can make such a powerful impact that the entire country will take notice of our demand for equality. By Dale Duncan

Boycott for Equality: Bad idea
Boycotts need to identify specific offending targets to achieve their ends. Who will suffer from the proposed Boycott for Equality on October 8? Friend and foe alike, including our own Human Rights Campaign. By Mike Masters

Lesbian, Republican, and angry
What’s a nice Jewish lesbian doing in a political party with a platform that’s antigay and antichoice? Trying to win it back from the far-right activists who have steered it away from one its core values: freedom. By Carol L. Newman

Hamm brothers: Thanks, gay fans
Olympic champs Paul and Morgan Hamm talk about their gay fans—and relatives—as they make their way across the country in a post-Athens gymnastics tour. By Cyd Zeigler Jr.

Hedwig grows up
John Cameron Mitchell, writer-director and star of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, is now a mentor to fellow filmmaker Jonathan Caouette. In an Advocate.com exclusive interview, he talks about how he discovered Caouette’s Tarnation. By Bruce C. Steele

Sixteen and ready to change the world
The Advocate’s third annual high school diary begins as our diarist enters a new school—her third in Texas in three years—and shares her ambitious plans to increase queer visibility in her conservative community, a suburb of Houston. By Paige Palmer

“The Year of the Gay” at Notre Dame
The university’s gay and lesbian students were tired of living in the dark ages, so in the past year they’ve brought the school’s LGBT contingent into the media spotlight. By Joanna Basile

Mean people and marriage
The new film Mean Creek, about teenagers’ plotting revenge on a bully, includes one boy with two dads—and a lesson about the real power of same-sex marriage. By Bruce C. Steele

Still swooning over Swoon
Recording a DVD commentary track for the film Swoon, in which he starred, Craig Chester rediscovered things he didn't want to know about himself and something about the importance of the New Queer Cinema, back when it was actually still new. By Craig Chester

Married and suing the IRS
The two men whose fluke wedding in 1971 was the basis for Minnesota's judicial precedent banning same-sex marriage now say the Internal Revenue Service owes them $793.28 because they could not file their tax returns as a married couple. By Mike Hudson

"I do" by the book
Same-sex marriage has not just inspired political books arguing the cases for and against: It's also generated a terrific "how to" book and a moving photography document, By Regina Marler

Who will be the next McGreevey?
The New Jersey governor came out in a very public and——belatedly——honest manner. Does that now pave the way for the country's closeted celebrities, politicians, and athletes to be open about their sexuality? By Chad Graham, Senior News Editor

McGreevey: Bittersweet coming-out
The New Jersey governor’s story as an openly gay man has just begun. Whether he can transform it from a cautionary tale of failure to a story of victory in the long fight for equality is now up to him. By John Crabtree-Ireland

Cop of the year enters seminary
In an exclusive excerpt from his autobiography, The Gay Face of God, an ex-police officer and current openly gay archbishop recalls his seminary days—and his break with the Roman Catholic Church. By Archbishop Bruce J. Simpson, Benedictine Order of St. John the Beloved (an Old Catholic order)

Learning begins in bed
This month’s questions elicit advice on oral sex, what constitutes an orgasm, overcoming muscle cramps, and how to avoid the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases. By Dr. Susan C. Ball

Archives for previous online reports, news stories, and commentaries are listed here.

FEATURED STORY:
Welcome to the house, doll!
In an exclusive interview, Heather Matarazzo traces her path from Welcome to the Dollhouse to costarring in The Princess Diaries, coming out in the Daily News, and winning the right to marry the love of her life. By Anne Stockwell

CONTENTS OF THE CURRENT ISSUE
LINKS TO SITES RELATED TO THIS ISSUE

Kicking with Johnny Knoxville
He brought sexual anarchy into America’s living rooms with Jackass. Now he’s a sex saint with three gay bear apostles in John Waters’s A Dirty Shame. Meet a Southern man without inhibitions. By Alonso Duralde

Ohio’s straight ally
David Caldwell has been knocking on doors to tell voters that legalized gay relationships are no threat to his marriage. By Patrick Letellier
In search of fair-minded Republicans
Log Cabin Republicans is forging ahead in support of GOP candidates—despite an antigay party platform and a president it will not endorse. By John Caldwell
Gay men, straight lives
Like a certain governor, many gay men married to women are now coming out, longing to live the life they’ve been missing. By John Caldwell

Sex, drugs, love, loss
Screenwriter Ron Nyswaner lays bare his private struggle with drugs and hustlers in a sizzling new memoir. By Michael Rowe
Sexy and Loathsome
Author J.T. LeRoy talks to the creators of the underground comic How Loathsome about one of gay readers’ leading phobias: sexual ambiguity.
Welcome to the house, doll!
In an exclusive interview, Heather Matarazzo traces her path from Welcome to the Dollhouse to costarring in The Princess Diaries, coming out in the Daily News, and winning the right to marry the love of her life. By Anne Stockwell

BOOK REVIEW ARCHIVES
MUSIC REVIEW ARCHIVES
VIDEO/DVD REVIEW ARCHIVES

McGreevey’s cry for help
My Perspective guest columnist and political commentator Arianna Huffington’s experience as the ex-wife of a politician who came out as gay gives her a special perspective on New Jersey governor James McGreevey’s recent revelation.
A more radical identity
Generation Q guest columnist Simone N. Sneed explains how the loss of radical individualism and the mainstreaming of homosexuality have caused many of her generation to take on alternate sexual identities.
Over and out
Notes From a Blond columnist Bruce Vilanch on the severity—or not—of Governor McGreevey’s “crimes.”
When outing works
Broadside columnist Charles Kaiser on gay blogger Michael Rogers’s plan to out politicians who espouse antigay positions.

Gay men and marriage
Would the legalization of same-sex marriage reduce the number of gay men who marry women?

Election 2004 Web Archive Collection

Election 2004 Web Archive Collection