Obama: The Wizard Of US

The Observer.

'It turns out that President Obama is our Glinda, riding the winds of change to turn LGBT equality into a legacy issue with breathtaking haste...' 

Aaron FFS!

The Observer: Rally Round The Flag, Boys

For reasons only known to itself, the Observer Magazine today is splashing with a selection of photos of "the world's most inspirational gay people" from the Out100 list.
Each photograph is captioned by Out magazine's editor-in-chief, Aaron Hicklin.
Hicklin is an occasional contributor to the Observer - here's a gay review of the year they published a year ago.
It's interesting, but as with the Out100 photos, it's mainly about the US and not the UK, and one wonders why this is thought to be of much relevance to British readers.
Or of more import than a homegrown-take on this would be.
I say this not as some Little Englander, of course, but just through a continued bafflement at what some editors consider worthy of inclusion and exclusion.
The Out100 list was published over two months ago, too.
So why is it here now?
Did the Observer Magazine desperately need to fill up a few pages in a hurry? 

PS Interesting the Observer selected the above photo of some US soldiers who got gaymarried. Everyone loves gay soldiers and gay marriage, don't they? Cause heteronormativity and obedience to the state are supercool. Hooray for the good gays!

2011: A Very Good Year?

The festive silly season is upon us.
When newspapers give up on news and that and start padding out their pages with retrospectives, Reviews of The Year/s, and endless Best Of lists.
Funny, it seems to start earlier every year, doesn't it?
The Observer is first out of the mixed metaphors.
"2011", it notes sagely, was, "A good year to be gay."
Further, it's been "extraordinary".
The piece is an interesting overview written by Aaron Hicklin, editor-in-chief of Out magazine.
Though Scottish born-and-bred, Hicklin now abides Stateside and writes accordingly, so it's hard to know quite why The Observer thought this was the most relevant way of looking at the world of gay for its readers.
The Tea Party, Don't Ask Don't Tell, marriage equality in New York, President Obama, Glee, Modern Family, Neil Patrick Harris...
No island is an island, of course, so tidal waves in the US can cause ripples on the shores of the UK, but why didn't the Observer get Aaron or someone to look - specifically - at what has happened over here?
Most oddly of all a sub-editor has condensed his schtick to; "Here, Aaron Hicklin, editor-in-chief of Out magazine, looks forward to the end of gay culture..."
He doesn't - surely the article contests the gay-identity deathwish of right-wing anti-gay, gay commentators like Andrew Sullivan?
Extraordinary.