You Know How I Know You're Gay?

• I hear ya, Harvey, how was the house building? headed with son Fred to SXSW tomorrow. Gonna drive down, might take the backroads, headed to Jaime's for a rock show. Starts at 1. Good times. I was wondering when I'd hear from you again. Nice p.o.v on linemen, I love that Glenn Campbell song. Really good song. blessings, bill

• Bill I think we're on the outside looking in. ; > ) We're so used to slurs being used as slurs it's hard to pick up on slurs used as slang. Now, for Simon Doonan, if you want to blow a dressed-like-a-lineman's mind show him how to lace up them knee highs with a one hand faster'n a two hander will ever believe. Visit a Redwing Boot store and have the salesperson demonstrate it. It saved me many a minute back in the day. Bill, it's good to see your voice again.

• robert it's all cooool! souljah. you iz da man. cheese please. jack jett

• I understand it. I'm a straight man (in more ways than one, maybe many). I just don't like epithets. I don't like it when the 'n' word is used, whether by a Black person or not. I grew up in a racist home, where these terms were, I am ashamed to say, used. It makes me a tad more self conscious I guess. I wasn't ascribing anyting sinister to Robert, I was just expressing an opinion.

• Actually, Jack, I linked to it and quoted from it for the same reason I link to and quote from most pieces on Unfair Park: because it's about Dallas. That, and I generally like Doonan's take on things; I think he's a witty writer and commentator when I see him, oh, on Vh1 specials or network morning shows. Wouldn't have mattered to me whether he used the word a dozen times or not at all; that wasn't the point, though it did seem a particularly funny place at which to end that particular quote above. That, and I love the fact his boyfriend is Jonathan Adler, the <em>Top Design</em>-er who adioses losers from the Bravo show by telling them, "See you later, decorator." Any other questions?

• this brings up a really good point. as a gay man and a comic wannabe, i have conflict with this word. doonan, like david sedaris are wordsmiths. i use to despise the word "queer" and ended up in a show with the word in it. when straight texas guys are cool with gay people, they are really cool about it. they are not just trying to be p.c.....but they are comfortable enough with their own sexuality to be "in" on the joke. i wonder if robert ran the piece because it used the word faggotry so much or that he really is a fan of mr. doonan as a writer. only wobert rilonsky can answer that question. jack jett

• Well, when you're gay and as ultra-fab as Doonan, I think you can get away with it. He only uses the word, and variations on it, like, 10 times in the entire piece. I think that's reasonably acceptable.

• Perhaps I am too p.c., but I find the term 'faggotry' offensive. Perhaps he's being ironic or something I'm not smart enough to get, but I think slurs are slurs and shouldn't be repeated. I realize Robert you are quoting him.

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