Closet
The teen-age girls who make up the Russian lesbian pop duo t.A.T.u. may be the world's first closeted heterosexual public figures.In the video for the international No. 1 song "All the Things She Said," Julia Volkova, 18, and Lena Katina, 17, passionately kiss and make out. They are unmistakably two baby dykes in love.
When asked by Russian reporters if they are lovers, the girls have responded, "Maybe."
But Russian journalists told Britain's Sunday Mail on Feb. 9 that both Julia and Lena have secret boyfriends.
"They've been hiding two boys from their fans," said reporter Svetlana Makunina from the newspaper Zhizn. "Their boyfriends are both students who are a little bit older than themselves. Nobody in Russia believes they are lesbians."
Kevin O'Flynn of the Moscow Times agreed. "The members of t.A.T.u. are about as lesbian as I am," he said. "The story is a load of bull. There hasn't been too much of a fuss in Russia about t.A.T.u.'s claims to be lesbians. I don't think anybody believes it."
The Sunday Mail said Lena's boyfriend is named Seryozha and Julia's is named Vanya.
"The girls were snapped in (the) Moscow nightclub Cloud-B2 with their real male lovers," the paper said. "When questioned by Russian gossip writers, they insisted the guys were merely security men."
"All the Things She Said" has hit No. 1 in Austria, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It's at No. 30 on Billboard's Hot 100 in the United States.
Britain is so aghast at the video that both the BBC and ITV1 banned it. TV hosts Richard and Judy called it "pedophile porn."
The Canadian Press wire service exclaimed, "It's enough to make Britney Spears' much-talked-about midriff-baring schoolgirl outfit from the 'Baby One More Time' video look as saucy as bubblegum."
After reading that, I had no choice but to get the t.A.T.u. video and watch it repeatedly. I have no idea what people are upset about. Yes, two cute girls kiss and make out. But can it really be the case that, in 2003, Britain and Canada didn't know lesbians kiss each other?
The video and the song, by the way, are both quite good.
Fag
"Oh, well."That was Leona Helmsley's response to the jury's $11.175 million award to a hotel manager Leona was found guilty of having fired because he's gay, according to the New York Post.
She did add, however, "I've been robbed."
Helmsley is worth between $3.2 and $4 billion. Former manager Charles Bell wanted $40 million of it.
He said her anti-gay actions included shouting at him: "You look like a fag. You dress like a fag. You are a fag."
Which I think now belongs on many T-shirts.
You know me. I believe the fight for gay acceptance and equality is nearing an end. I see this verdict as piece of evidence No. 11,175.
Germs
There's a new gay disease, says the L.A. Times.It has popped up first in Los Angeles. Gay men are spreading antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria to each other.
It causes large, painful boils, deep abscesses and widespread inflammation on unbroken skin, commonly on the legs, hands, face, butt, penis and scrotum.
Doctors monitoring the outbreak believe it is being transmitted through sex and in warm, moist environments such as those found at health clubs and bathhouses, among other places.
When regular antibiotics fail to kill the bug, some people have to spend a month in the hospital being given intravenous antibiotics that cost $1,500.
Doctors fear it could only be a matter of time before staph outsmarts all antibiotics. It is presently resistant to methicillin, penicillin and cephalosporins such as Keflex and Ceftin, as well as erythromycin and fluoroquinolones such as Cipro and Levaquin, the Times said.
Drugs that may still work include Bactrim, rifampin, clindamycin, intravenous vancomycin and Zyvox, the $1,500 drug.
If you get something like described here, go to the doctor. Any time you are prescribed an antibiotic, take all of it. Scientists claim that one of the main ways bacteria become resistant is by not being fully killed when people start feeling better and don't finish their prescriptions.
PlanetBye
PlanetOut has canceled this column after being its home base for three and a half years.The column will continue uninterrupted in numerous gay newspapers. Online readers must redirect their browsers on March 4 to one of PlanetOut's competitors, 365Gay.com.
PlanetOut News Director Tom Musbach said: "We have evaluated our content offerings and reallocated resources to support the offerings that will help us meet current programming goals. The Wockner Wire does not meet our needs at this time."
365Gay.com Publisher Rob Sands said: "We're thrilled to have the addition of such a well-known gay journalist, and Rex is a perfect fit in our opinion section along with Michelangelo Signorile and Eleanor Brown."
PlanetOut's decision was not a big surprise. I was, in fact, surprised when The Wockner Wire survived the merger of PlanetOut and Gay.com two years ago. The cultures of the two companies were different, the resulting corporation is Gay.com-dominated, and I am too iconoclastic for the Gay.com worldview.
For the history buffs among you, The Wockner Wire began in June of 1998 at Microsoft's delicious Sidewalk.com Web sites, where it was called The Wockner List. (Sidewalk was one thing Microsoft did very, very well.)
When Sidewalk.com was sold (murdered) and merged (disappeared) into CitySearch.com, the column moved to PlanetOut, on Oct. 23, 1999. The column was weekly until Aug. 16, 2001, when PlanetOut changed it to biweekly during a previous content reorganization.
In addition to 365Gay.com, Web surfers can access The Wockner Wire
-- and some of my other work for the gay press -- from my simple little home page, http://members.aol.com/wockner
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