https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/qmmunity/2008-12-31/721542/

2008 Was So Gay.

By Kate Getty, December 31, 2008, 11:04am, Qmmunity

What a homosexual 365 days we had, no?

10. Rachel Maddow. Never made my bean tingle, but sure makes my gray matter thump. Not since Ellen's airport "I'm Gay" have I felt normalized like this. She's brilliant, and that's why she has made it this far. The fact that she's a same-sex-fuzzy-bumper, well that's just icing on that little queer cupcake.

9. The Gay Re-Place. After four years of Kate and K8 on the GP byline, it looks like I will be moving on. Was hired by the queerest ad agency in town (6 out of 40 employees), and a great lil writer named Ash Bell will be jumping in to fill the void. Weird thing is, my gf's name is Ashley Bellview. You do the math. Conspiracy? Probably. (Remember, 911 was an inside job.)

8. Seventh Street Live. Officially I started liking downtown again. And it's really all Rusty Spurs fault. Well, it's my girlfriend's fault. She's a Texan and is set on making a two-stepper out of me. I mean, I am from Kentucky.

7. People Magazine Made Me Cry. Normally, the rag makes me vom. Especially when celebs exclusive their wedding pictures, but when Ellen and Portia did it, it touched me. It really did. I even bought a copy, instead of just tearing up in the express aisle.

6. California Made Me Cry. Proposition H8. Dare I say more? Through twisted advertising (that mislead many religious voters) and a big hunk of change (ha, cute pun) from the Mormon Church, the amendment heard round the world passed. Talking about it this weekend with an SF-native, she called it bittersweet, but then we decided that with the recession and economy twisting down the porcelain, if the Utah mormon faction wants to shell out a billion dollars because they equate us to beastiality, so be it. But, they're not gonna get that money back. And the funny thing is, we might just get that nonsense overturned. Wonder if they will fly their hatred-mobiles to D.C. in a few months to ask for a bailout?

5. Austin Made Me Proud. In the wake of such hatred, Austin, along with cities all over the country, answered the call for support. We Joined the impact. Although, I do have to mention. That rally at city hall was like the see-and-be-seen event of the year. I remember looking around, moved by what the 10-year-old son of two mothers had said, but then noticing, "wow, there sure are a lot of Gucci sunglasses here."

4.Austin Began to Move. Again, not specifically homo, but since the queers in the city don't really have many places to go, it was amazing to see how much dancing was popping up all over town. A latin night named Peligrosa, Gadjo Disko earned its reputation for one of the weirdest and most amazing nights in the city, The Second Sunday Sock Hop got so big it had to move to the Scoot, and even Barcelona hit the scene with Sunday night Dub-step with ear-shattering bass and a pocket of queers to boogie with. Finally.

3.I had gay sex for the first time. Ok. I'm only kidding. I've been queer for ten years now ...

2. Lindsay Lohan had gay sex for the first time. Ok, ok, probably not, because we know there was that Co-Co girl she did a little dingle with, but all eyes were on LezLo and SaMAN to see what they would say, would they come out as girlfriends? And they never said it. Which, to me, someone who gives two shits about labels, was worthy of respect. They treated it like, "who cares?" And it's about time to see gay treated that way in mainstream culture, and not hushed whispers whenever the word lesbian is uttered.

1.The Country Opened Its Eyes. And saw big business de-regulation poo-pooing all over everyone's 401k's, the worst Republican candidates ever, its first majority party African-American candidate who wanted change. And they said "Yes. We. Can." And we did. Dammit.