Have you ever read something that you loved so much, you wish you could take it out to brunch and feed it a plate of delicious waffles? . . . No? Too specific? Okay then.

Writer Vivian Taylor recently wrote a post for Autostraddle about being a trans woman, and how she deals with other people's pre-conceived notions. It's funny, introspective, and well written, and did I mention the thing about how I want to give her a plate of waffles? Just checking.

But I'm done with it. You can be trans or cis. You can be super femme, you can be ultra butch. You can be straight or queer. You can have people saying you're a transcendent beauty who just stepped off a Renaissance canvas, you can have people saying you're a stomach turning monster. You can be a light in the world who every person you meet loves and devotes themselves to, you can be an awkward storm cloud who drives everyone away.

I don't care. Sun shines and rain falls on the just and unjust alike. I don't want to know who the Real Good Ones and the Real Bad Ones are. We're all people. We all deserve to be treated as valued members of humanity. That's all. 

If you have a few minutes, you should really go read the piece in full. But if nothing else, just remember that there's really no such thing as a correct way to be a human being, and you don't need to fit a certain mold to be treated with the same dignity and respect as others.

[Pic via Imgur]

Goddammit. Just . . . Goddammit. Does anyone else remember the days when Rob Ford was just the dopey buffoon who read while driving? And to think, now the world believes that he allegedly smoked crack. That escalated quickly.

As one of the blogs that broke the story, Gawker is currently crowdsourcing funds on Indiegogo to buy the publishing rights to the alleged video, which are reportedly going for $200,000. Yes, for the price of a house, Gawker can post a video that allegedly shows our mayor smoking crack. Fantastic.

This is a fluid situation. The people who have this video have been straight with Gawker so far, and honored every commitment they have made. We have every expectation that they will live up to their end of the bargain and, if enough money is raised, hand over the video. But buying videos of prominent political figures smoking crack inherently involves a bit of unavoidable dodginess. In the even that, for some reason, the deal goes south and we raise the money but don't get the video, Gawker pledges to donate 100% of the proceeds to a Canadian non-profit institution that helps people suffering from drug addiction and its various consequences. We'll figure out what that is later if it comes to it.

I've said this before, but I'll say it again: I'm by no means Rob Ford's biggest fan, but please, oh for the love of the invisible bearded giant that lives in the sky, please don't let this be true. It would be great if Toronto didn't become the city whose mayor got caught smoking crack. And $200,000 going to charity would be a lot better than it going to some random dude who may or may not have said video. Please please please please pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease let this just be a fake.

For those of you who have never heard of the Eurovision song contest . . . ABBA. It gave us ABBA and then not much else for the next 40 years. That's basically all you really need to know.

Anyway, the 2013 contest is currently underway, and Finnish entrant Krista Siegfrids is making a name for herself so far. After performing her song "Marry Me," Krista proceeded to kiss one of her female backup singers, which apparently threw some people for a loop.

Here's the thing: since Eurovision is meant to be as wholly inoffensive as possible, political statements aren't allowed onstage. Most of Siegfrids's critics aren't so much concerned with the fact that she kissed a woman, as much as they're worried that she might have been making a political statement. Soooooo . . . progress? Kinda?

In a televised interview after the fact, Krista talked about the kiss, saying that who she does or does not kiss is not a political statement and that she wrote the song for her boyfriend, which . . . okay then.

Are high-profile displays of affection between people of the same sex political statements? Usually, no. Are people going to treat them like political statements regardless? Yup. People are going to see something the way they want to see it. If someone sees a kiss between two women as a political statement, regardless of whether or not it is, there's not a lot anyone can do to convince them otherwise. The best thing you can do is just try not to politicize everything.

We're almost at the summer months, which means it's time for major TV networks to start announcing which shows are returning for the fall schedule, which are about to be cut, and what new content will be making it to prime time. One of the most surprising trends seems to be the sudden drop-off of new characters: many of the shows getting das boot not only feature gay characters, but involve them as primary characters.

An October 2012 survey of U.S. broadcast TV by The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation found a record number of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender characters. It was the 17th survey by GLAAD and it pronounced itself well pleased with what it calls “inclusive programming.” The next survey will probably find a very different situation. The cancellation of NBC’s The New Normal and CBS’s Partners, which both featured gay couples, is not the only change. The number of cancelled shows with gay characters is very long – Don’t Trust the B–– in Apt. 23, Malibu Country, 90210, Emily Owens, M.D., The Office, The L.A. Complex and Smash, for a start. And then there is the matter of Glee. It is unclear which characters will return, including Brittany (Heather Morris) the hilarious, scene-stealing, bisexual cheerleader. [SOURCE]

This seems kind of disheartening, but consider this: regular gay characters are mostly concentrated in new shows. Most of the shows that were cancelled? New shows. Newer material is hit-or-miss when it comes to getting picked up for additional seasons, but it's also where gay characters are more likely to pop up because their core casts tend to be more reflective of the current climate. New shows will bring in more gay characters while old shows are cycled out.

Case in point, some of the new shows getting picked up for next fall include a show, starring out actor Jonathan Groff, which is being billed as a gay male version of Girls, as well as a new sitcom starring Sean Hayes playing a gay father. When you factor in the number of new shows that will feature as-of-yet unrevealed regular LGBT characters, it all evens out a little. We'll see how it plays out, but cautious optimism is probably the safest route here.

Tl;dr version: a bunch of gay characters are getting cancelled, but more will pop up eventually. 

[Image source: gregarnette.com] 

Since releasing Love Song back in 2007, Sara Bareilles has been hovering barely beneath the radar with a string of well-received songs that have gone mostly ignored by radio stations. In that respect, here's her latest video for "Brave," a great song that will probably go neglected by most radio and TV stations.

Written by Bareilles and Fun's Jack Antonoff, it was apparently inspired by Bareilles watching one of her friends struggle to come out of the closet. In all fairness, nothing will help you come out of the closet like a mainstream pop artist singing a song about it for everyone to hear. Takes a lot of the pressure off you, really.