NBC has cancelled The Playboy Club, the sexy melodrama–set in the mid-1960s Chicago and centering around the flagship key club–which was one of the most subversive series on network television. TalkAboutEquality explained why:

The two characters who they try to make us believe are a young attractive married couple happen to be gay. And not only that – they are running a meeting of the Chicago chapter of the Mattachine Society! …

The characters in the Playboy Club (a lesbian Playboy Bunny and a gay man) are in what was referred to as a “lavender marriage.” This was a common occurrence and still exists today when someone feels the need to hide their sexuality by marrying someone of the opposite gender.

Plus, openly gay Sean Maher plays the male half of the lavender marriage, while Amber Heard, who stars as the blond Bunny-in-training with a deadly secret, has been dating a woman for three years:

To say I came out implies that I was once in. Let me be straight about that—no pun intended—I never came out from anywhere. I’ve always lived my life the way I’ve wanted and have been honest with myself and everyone around me. It didn’t really affect anything in my career. I don’t think the producers and directors I’ve worked with care one way or another … I don’t want to be labeled as one thing or another. In the past I’ve had successful relationships with men, and now I’m in this successful relationship with a woman. When it comes to love I am totally open. And I don’t want to be put into a category, as in ‘I’m this’ or ‘I’m that.’ … [Gay marriage] is an important issue, and I’m fighting for the right to get married. For other people.

The Parents’ Television Council targeted advertisers, upset over what they perceived as a mainstreaming of pornography and the objectification of women; and Gloria Steinem, herself once a Playboy Bunny, both called for a boycott.

I watched the show and thought it was a fun morality play, complete with politics, America on the brink of change, murder, secrets, love, intrigue, and great costumes. Plus it showed the strides being made in civil rights for African Americans.

Regarding the Parents Television Council calling the whaambulance: seriously, it was on after 9pm, and as parents, it’s your responsibility to monitor what your kids watch. And you don’t like it, don’t watch it!

Cue ignorant hordes with torches and pitchforks howling about the homosexual agenda:

NBC just announced they’re developing  My Best Friend’s a Lesbo a girl buddy comedy about best friends–one straight, one lesbian–

who help one another navigate life, love and dating in Los Angeles.

The semi-autobiographical sitcom comes from longtime friends Randi Barnes and Sascha Rothchild. A seasoned TV writer, Barnes co-write the animated feature Dorothy of Oz, due out next year; Rothchild, who has also worked in television as a producer and creative consultant, has script Who Invited Her in development with Reese Witherspoon attached.

Homosexual agenda? Nope, reality. According a 2010 CBS News poll, 77% of Americans say they

have a close friend, work colleague or relative who is gay or lesbian. Just 22 percent say they do not know anyone at all who falls into that category.

While I’m not crazy about the show’s name, I love the premise, which is true and real. Life, love and dating have the same joys, pitfalls and pratfalls no matter who’s involved.

photo: Creative Commons, Eugene Wei

I am very fascinated by the controversy surrounding GOP presidential candidate Fred Karger and the GOP’s fear of him. And for me it’s personal.

My stepfather, Fred Karger was a film composer and musical supervisor at Columbia, MGM, for Elvis Presley’s goofball oeuvres (Harum Scarum, Kissin’ Cousins, Frankie and Johnny, etc.) and later for a series of campy independent films like Riot on Sunset Strip. He’s best known for the theme songs he wrote: From Here to Eternity, Magnificent Obsession, Gidget, Gidget Goes Hawaiian, and for his love life: He dated Marilyn Monroe for a number of years and was married twice to Jane Wyman. And once to my mom. Fred, who died in 1979, was super cool and a great stepfather. Every day I give thanks for having him in my life, for all the amazing people I met through him, and for showing me you can live life by following your creative dreams.

So when the name Fred Karger first popped up in my inbox during the Proposition 8 campaign, I did a huge double take, it’s a pretty unusual name. Well, this Fred Karger was the founder/director of Californians Against Hate and would send emails detailing his work on four boycotts against the Mormon Church and formal ethics violation complaints leading to investigations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church) and the National Organization for Marriage in California and Maine. This Fred Karger was a Republican, while my stepfather had supported the Kennedys– though he banned them from Marilyn Monroe’s funeral, as the family story goes, telling Joe DiMaggio

None of those sons of bitches are welcome

Since then, Republican Fred Karger–who worked on nine presidential campaigns and served as a senior consultant on campaigns for Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Gerald Ford–has become a frequent correspondent since he’s running for president as a Republican.

But Fred Karger has been excluded from the debates by a constantly shifting series of rules put in place by debate organizers. But it seems more like the other candidates and GOP Powers That Be want him excluded because of his political and social stances. He’d like to make the Republican party more open and inclusive. He is also openly gay, supports same-sex marriage, and

believes that abortion is a private matter for citizens, and rejects the idea of the government’s encroachment into the life of ordinary Americans…

Oh and he’s Jewish, not that religion should be an issue in any campaign because the Constitution states that Congress should establish no religion; to run the country under Christian law is the same principle as running the country under sharia law.

Fred Karger, Republican candidate, has been shut out of the Fox GOP debates and the CNN GOP debates, and now:

NBC News will broadcast a GOP presidential debate…And still Fred Karger won’t be permitted to participate. Please sign this petition to get Fred Karger on the GOP stage

My stepfather, composer Fred Karger, never wanted to be president of the United States. But I love seeing someone with his name running. And I would like to hear from a GOP candidate who is not bigot, who doesn’t pander to people’s religious mania, and who doesn’t push xenophobic, homophobic buttons while claiming God is all mad at America. I’d to see the GOP allow a qualifying candidate to speak rationally about the issues that are important: The economy, energy, and getting out of the War-in-’Stans (which would actually solve the other two matters!).

You can sign the petition here.

[Thanks Teddy!]