July 25, 2011

"My gay kids are more fun than my straight ones."

Says a woman with 4 sons, 2 of whom are gay, quoted in a NYT article about mothers who prod their gay kids to get married.

The woman is a 52-year-old California psychiatrist, and the gay sons are stepsons. The quote in the title above is prefaced by the statement "I don't have any girls." The hell! It's bad enough to go public comparing your kids to each other, saying who's "more fun." But the idea that gay sons are like daughters is too stupid to express. (And I am saying that as a person with 2 sons, one of whom is gay.)
To appease her, Mr. Breslow is willing to entertain the notion of a wedding-like celebration, which he sees as a party to celebrate his relationship.
Ugh! Don't appease her! And don't have parties to celebrate relationships! Either get married or don't. And if you do get married, don't assume you have to have a wedding event... even if your family will pay for it because you are the bride or — in your step-mother's twisted logic the bride-like man:
“But I don’t want a proper wedding,” [Breslow] added. “I want it to be really queer and outrageous and angry, with a punk-rock drag queen playing hardcore music and people being naked.”

Ms. Gray has a slightly different vision: “It would be very sophisticated and urban. And I would do the food, which would be very foodie California: maybe a mix of Jewish, which we are, and Dominican, which Dan is. Everything would be lovely and sophisticated and not tacky.”
Sophisticated, angry, naked, and untacky. Weddings!

69 comments:

Titus said...

Hilarious.

This isn't satire?

I am totally my mom's fav. I know, totally gay.

Titus said...

I have a friend who has three bothers and a sister and they are all gay.

What's that all about?

Not even one normal in the bunch.

ricpic said...

Some people just gotta be part of the zeitgeist.

MadisonMan said...

Everything would be lovely and sophisticated and not tacky

Gag.

Would there be an open bar? Only that could save this coming disaster of a wedding.

ricpic said...

Is Titus a fun gal to Palladian? What about vice versa?

Henry said...

Poor Dan.

The Crack Emcee said...

The moms of my gay friends are screwier than my straight ones.

TWM said...

This crap just gives me a headache.

Carol_Herman said...

Marlene Zak has written a book where she says homosexuality travels on the MITROCHONDRIA. (This means only moms can pass it along.) And, it is ancient genetics.

Yes, it produces kids that have to cope. But "genetically speaking" only about 10% of the population is lucky enough to grow up into good looking people.

Finding someone whose heart is good is a much bigger trick. As "sexual attraction" is a flash in the pan. That can fool you.

Even if you're lucky to land such a person. The competition never ceases.

While good friends come in such a wide assortment ... all you need to do is give up on the ideas that anyone else actually gives a crap on how you express your sexuality.

It just doesn't score on the friendship meter.

What the article says is that a mom happens to like only two of her birth kids. I've seen a mother cat with more brains. And, more loyalty.

As to the New Yuk Times ... they repeatedly fail the test of reporting anything accurately.

This article? Well, it certainly doesn't change my mind about that!

MadisonMan said...

I can only hope that the California Psychiatrist gets -- via her straight sons -- the daughter(s)-in-law that she so richly deserves.

This is why parents need hobbies -- so they don't have the hobby of meddling in their kids' lives after high school. If you are that involved in your kid's life, you need to find something else to do.

Sal said...

I am totally my mom's fav. I know, totally gay.

Aren't you the only son? Sons are usually a mom's favorite anyway. And daughters are usually a dad's.

Anonymous said...

"Fun" is to gay as "articulate" is to black.

bagoh20 said...

As predicted, marriage will be debased, but not because they are gay, but because they are "fun".

Phil 314 said...

Well its an accepted scientific fact that "fun-loving" is genetic.

Lincolntf said...

Gay men as perpetual dress-up dolls for their Mommies. How very California.

bagoh20 said...

The mom relates more to the gay sons. Who'd of guessed it?

Phil 314 said...

One parent seeking that official stamp is Vicki Robinson, 58, a physics professor at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester. Ever since Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed the same-sex marriage bill on June 24, Ms. Robinson has been nudging her 27-year-old daughter, Stephanie Pollanen, to marry her girlfriend of six years, Lindsay Hall.

“I’m a Bible-thumping Lutheran who just got my church to put rainbow stickers on their door,” said Ms. Robinson, who is divorced and uses her maiden name. “If they were married, I would feel more like I could write Lindsay’s name in the family Bible in ink.”

But her daughter has refused to share her thoughts on marriage, so Ms. Robinson has taken to following her daughter’s Twitter feed for signs of matrimonial chatter.


"Bible-thumping Lutheran".

Now that there is funny!
I guess she doesn't listen to Garrison Keilor.

(PS They think the Pope is the Anti-Christ!.)

(PPS Must tell my Lutheran friends to thump harder.)

ricpic said...

Hey, Carol's mind is set in cement. Whodathunkit?

It's okay Care, mine too.

Triangle Man said...

Now that there is funny!
I guess she doesn't listen to Garrison Keilor.


His boundless theological knowledge notwithstanding, there may be more to Lutheranism that what can fit into a few jokes about lutefisk in the church basement.

Carol_Herman said...

HELLO, RIPIC!

You are the way you are because of genetics.

As to the psychiatrist lady, I think she wasted her time at school.

And, I actually pity people who sought her out for help.

I also doubt very much it's easy to convince your young about anything. Though as a general rule, those who "thump bibles" end up with very pleasant kids.

It really doesn't hurt people to "be exposed." Because even if all you'll take is an intellectual journey ... you'll learn enough about life, through living life ... that much can be taken with grains of salt.

That's why there's sweet and savory. The "milk & honey" schtick, I never understood ... because there were now cows in Israel or Egypt. It would have been easier to see an elephant. And, describe a tiger.

But that's just me.

I think the psychiatrist lady should go and take a rest on her own couch.

My dad told me that kids don't owe their parents anything. That life should be viewed going forward. That's where you grow up. And, have kids of your own. And, when they're born you're just thrilled to pieces that they come out healthy.

That they come out Americans is a DOUBLE PLUS.

Henry said...

Next up for The Times: Gay Moms who Breastfeed in Public. Gay Dads with Big Strollers. Gay Couples who Live Off the Grid. Vegetarian Men and their Meat-Loving Male Companions.

There's a whole world of lifestyle articles ready to be recycled!

edutcher said...

The woman prefers the stepsons to her biological ones. Supper time at her house must be swell.

"But I don’t want a proper wedding," [Breslow] added. "I want it to be really queer and outrageous and angry, with a punk-rock drag queen playing hardcore music and people being naked."

We seem to be hearing a lot of this, as if now that they've had their tantrum and gotten their way (sort of), they don't want to play any more.

If I were Andrew Cuomo, given the fact there was some sort of big anti-same sex marriage protest in Gotham over the weekend, I might want to start hedging my bets.

PS What Titus said first.

Chuck66 said...

Perhaps she just likes to hear show tunes a lot.

Triangle Man said...

The "milk & honey" schtick, I never understood ... because there were now cows in Israel or Egypt. It would have been easier to see an elephant. And, describe a tiger..."

I have no idea what you're on about with this, cows are not the only source of milk consumed by humans. Is it controversial that milk and honey would be viewed as desirable?

The Crack Emcee said...

The woman is a 52-year-old California psychiatrist,...

And, based on the evidence, a bad one.

Chuck66 said...

"Bible-thumping Lutheran".

If they have the gay rainbow sign on their door, they would be an ELCA church. Bible-thumping? The ECLA really isn't that deep into the Bible. It's more of an "anything goes" church than a hard core orthodox preaching church.

Unknown said...

That woman psychiatrist is like 80% of the psychiatrists I know. They go into the field to treat themselves. I was thinking about psychiatry after an awesome experience as a freshman medical student with a guy named George Harrington. He was a UCLA clinical professor and I could write a book about him. For one thing, he thought that only psychotics needed treatment. The rest are normal, just a little neurotic.

Sort of like Crocodile Dundee says; they just need mates.

I was thinking of becoming a psychiatrist until I met other psychiatrists. One half of my medical school class went into Psych and only two or three were what I consider normal.

That woman is really weird. I would hate to be one of her biological sons.

The Crack Emcee said...

"I don’t want a proper wedding,” [Breslow] added.”

I was watching the festivities in New York yesterday, on the news, and all I kept thinking is "this ain't marriage,..."

Nice to see I've got some back-up,...

Ah Pooh said...

When I read the quotes from Ms Gray, a psychotherapist, it brought to mind - each person teaches their own struggle.

Trapper Townshend said...

The NYT continues to implicitly argue against gay marriage by finding and giving prominent platforms to the most dreadful gays and their cheerleaders that it can find.

Freeman Hunt said...

In other news, the less fun sons commented. "I don't want to go to any wedding. There would probably be cake and dancing." The other added, "Me neither. I have my weekends planned out through 2015. This year my focus is on closet reorganization and repainting all of my furniture gray. I cannot afford to get off track on that."

KCFleming said...

"My gay kids are more fun than my straight ones."

That's because her own kids have known her longer.

And they moved to Maine or Florida, if they haven't crossed the ocean to get away from their psychiatrist mom in California.

Kirby Olson said...

Fun is her only criterion?

DKWalser said...

This is just an extension of the fact it's politically correct to note gender-based differences as long as those differences reflect well upon women. So too, gays and straights are just the same -- only gays are even better!

Christopher said...

I still have yet to meet a single shrink that didn't make me thank God for not being related to him or her.



And I have to agree with the poster who said that the NYT seems, oddly enough, to be going out of their way to provide ammunition to those opposed to gay marriage.

Shanna said...

It sounds to me like this lady wanted a girl and is trying to make her stepsons into one...

KCFleming said...

What she wants is control.

The wedding is one way to show it.

The un-fun sons got tired of mom's control freak ways a long time a ago, is my bet, and are on minimal terms with her now.

The new guys will tire of her in short order. Question is, will they recognize new mom has a personality disorder or not?

Chuck66 said...

The Onion did a good parady of the gay rights parade thing (and it was barely a parady). Quoting several people that said they thought gays were just like everyone else until they saw a gay rights parade. That's when they realized gays are actually wackos. Men dressed up in drag and dry-humping each other. That sort of thing.

Wince said...

"My gay kids are more fun than my straight ones."

For calibration purposes, where exactly does she place her kids on the "fun continuum" relative to a "Barrel Full of Monkeys"?

MadisonMan said...

No Men in Shorts tag, yet the linked to article shows one.

Trapper Townshend said...

The gay guy in the article who "doesn't understand legalized monogamy and normalcy" is an "AIDS project coordinator."

Seriously, the anti-gay-marriage folks should take lessons from the NYT. It's been putting out a much more devastating case than they do.

Blue@9 said...

These people truly deserve each other.

I would hate to be a guest at such a wedding, no matter whose vision won out. It's not a celebration-- it's a statement!

Carol_Herman said...

Well, Triangle Man (@ 1:03 PM) ... it's all how you take a biblical mean to be. For me, milk means cows.

Seems that cows were lacking.

You want to drink milk from goats and sheep? Go ahead.

But you'd think the Good Lord would know cow milk was better.

To each his own interpretation.

Which is the way it should be.

As to the best line I ever heard spoken about psychiatrists ... it was spoken by Mort Sahl. Who was asked when he was about 56 years old ... if he had "dabbled" in gettin analyzed. (Which was a very popular activity back in the 1950's. And, 1960's.) He said "no." And, then he added "but if I was, I'd ask for a refund."

As to a mom who "picks" a favorite or two among her own children ... I'll say I don't care how much training she got ... she isn't fit to be a mom.

Shanna said...

You want to drink milk from goats and sheep? Go ahead.

People do drink goats milk. And goat cheese is awesome.

madAsHell said...

hardcore music and people being naked

If they were in Wisconsin, they could hire union thugs to chant:

"This is what marriage looks like!!"

KCFleming said...

"I want it to be really queer and outrageous and angry, with a punk-rock drag queen playing hardcore music and people being naked."

Extremism in the pursuit of the libertine is no virtue.

MadisonMan said...

And goat cheese is awesome.

So is sheep cheese. Try some manchego sometime. Yum!

Phil 314 said...

You are the way you are because of genetics...

you'll learn enough about life, through living life ...

that much can be taken with grains of salt.

That's why there's sweet and savory. The "milk & honey" schtick, I never understood ...

because there were now cows in Israel or Egypt. It would have been easier to see an elephant. And, describe a tiger...

As to the best line I ever heard spoken about psychiatrists ...

it was spoken by Mort Sahl. Who was asked when he was about 56 years old ... if he had "dabbled" in gettin analyzed. (Which was a very popular activity back in the 1950's. And, 1960's.) He said "no." And, then he added "but if I was, I'd ask for a refund."


From gay sons through salt to milk and honey by way of elephants ending up with Mort Sahl and psychoanalysis.

Well that was a fun "flight of ideas". And I'm finding myself thinking of grains of salt also, lithium salt.

That might make for a more settled and rational trip

julie love said...

Its a sense of freedom, and actually finding joy in yourself that gives them the extra boost.
The new generation is perfectly ok with it and so am I.
www.gofundme.com/to-be-female
Help if you can, thanx
.....julie

galdosiana said...

I would hate to be a guest at such a wedding, no matter whose vision won out. It's not a celebration-- it's a statement!

As much as I agree that this article shows a ridiculous woman and a bunch of nonsense, I do have to say that the "statement" weddings are not just limited to this gay couple...virtually ALL weddings these days are statements instead of family celebrations. Case in point: when preparing for my wedding, I decided to amuse myself one day in the bookstore Wedding aisle. One of the books started out by calling the wedding a "show" and by noting that you want to make sure your "cast of players" is fun enough to make the party your guests deserve. If your best friend is not too outgoing, then you don't want her as a bridesmaid. These statements were just the first few sentences.

Materialism in weddings is absolutely rampant. I'm getting married this Friday, and we're just having 20 of our closest family members and friends. We're having the reception at a cottage in a state park, and we're doing a barbecue, swimming, hiking, etc. I believe a wedding should be about honoring and spending time with the family you already have, and celebrating the one you are about to begin. People should not feel obligated to spend an average of $27,000 on flowers, dresses, tuxedos, favors, hall decorations, etc. just for one afternoon. Funny thing about those extravagant weddings: all of the ones I've ever been to have ended in divorce within a few years.

Carol said...

I think she's just trying to be a Cool Mom.

I knew a bunch of old people in the 1970s who, after so much cultural battering, decided to Accept Everything. I wish they hadn't.

Freeman Hunt said...

"Leave us to our plain porridge and Muszak," said the boring brothers. "All this talk of festivities gives us headaches!"

Rose said...

Hilarious.

Zachary Sire said...

Onion article?

Chuck66 said...

"Funny thing about those extravagant weddings: all of the ones I've ever been to have ended in divorce within a few years."

Gald.....I have noticed something similiar. The more expensive the ring, the shorter the marriage. It seems rich guys who want a trophy wife, and a gal who wants to be with the guy with the expensive car and big diamonds, tend to find out they really don't care for each other after the novelty of being married wears off.

Chuck66 said...

I wonder if part of the expensive pagent thing is related to a less religious society. Instead of being a religious ceremony that starts two people off to be spending the rest of their lives together, it instead is an event used to show off and draw attention to yourself.

Triangle Man said...

I wonder if part of the expensive pagent thing is related to a less religious society

Watch an episode my "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" and see if you still feel the same way. Very religious society, but incredibly showy weddings.

Jose_K said...

cows are not the only source of milk consumed by humans.
here, we eat female goat milk candy.
Gods eat mead, or beer, and honey. perhpas someone was a teotheter and changed mead for milk.
BTW:the queen of the kenites made the king of philistean to drink milk to make him sleep before slaining him

Quaestor said...

Sophisticated, angry, naked, and untacky.

Borish, sullen, naked (yeah, too bad) and trite are more likely. To me a wedding is like being immersed in warm treacle up to my chin -- enough to put me off my feed for a while but survivable. A wedding such as that described by Ms. Grey would be like something devised by Tomás de Torquemada to make me confess to judaising or something. I'd confess to anything to avoid being confined in the same room with such a spectacle.

Gays tend to believe they have smarts, taste, discretion, urbanity, etc. by default, and the pop culture poobahs who write for fish wrappers like the NYT, LAT, BG, et al. encourge them to think this way because they wouldn't know good taste if it bit 'em in the ass.

Ken Green said...

You really do have to wonder about this, the rate of true homosexuality has rarely (if ever) been measured at more than 2 percent of the population. (These are the people who only have sexual relations with the same sex.) How can you possibly have 2 out of 4 children be gay? I think there's a lot of political self-identification going on here.

Fred4Pres said...

Crappy parent. I agree, do not single out your kids.

It is okay to single them out for praise, when they deserve it. But that is not the type of singling out going on here.

Freeman Hunt said...

I've been to weddings. You want all those people naked? Yow!

YoungHegelian said...

'“But I don’t want a proper wedding,” he added. “I want it to be really queer and outrageous and angry, with a punk-rock drag queen playing hardcore music and people being naked.” '

So, you're reformed Jews, I take it?

Joke: How do you tell what kind of a Jewish wedding you're attending?

If it's Orthodox, the bride's mother is pregnant.

If it's Conservative, the bride is pregnant.

If it's Reformed, the Rabbi's pregnant.

Oh and link to Onion on gay pride parade:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/gaypride-parade-sets-mainstream-acceptance-of-gays,351/

Thanks, I'm here all week!

Quaestor said...

Freeman Hunt wrote:
I've been to weddings. You want all those people naked? Yow!

At most weddings I've been too lately I've already seen the bride naked, so that no big whup. It's the bridesmaids I wonder about. But at a gay wedding? Who are the bridesmaids? Are there two grooms or two brides? Are the bridesmaids interchangeable with the groomsmen? WTF is going on here!?

BTW I'd like to inform you all that I've been totally happy for a month with Zorin-OS 5. Finally, a Linux you can live with, one that takes les effort to administer than to use productively. If any of you dudes have an old WinXP box lying around that's too weak to run Windows 7 smoothly dump that old Redmond shit and install Zorin-OS -- it's the Fountain of Youth, man.

Shanna said...

So is sheep cheese. Try some manchego sometime. Yum!

Never had it. If they ever happen to have it at the store, I will try it (but I'm not in Wisconsin, you know :) I don't know if she have sheep cheese in Arkansas.

Victor Erimita said...

Would be OK if she said her hetero kids were more fun than the gay ones? Or would that be hate speech? I get so confused.

Chip Ahoy said...

Land of milk and honey.

True, cows aren't the only mammals that produce milk.

Even so, inside the tomb of Ti at Saqqara, a painted bas relief describes one of the most touching animal-related scenes known in ancient Egyptian art. The famous vignette depicts two nude men leading a shallow crossing of a group of cows. The man in the front is carrying the braying calf that is making clear eye contact with the stressed central cow of the group.

I carved this image myself when I first started messing around with scratching into poured plaster. The image hangs in the foyer of a Cheesman Park penthouse, so it's the first thing you see when you walk into the place (along with another fresco I painted in the Egyptian style, but that one has nothing to do with cows).

There are cows everywhere in egyptian art and in their hieroglyphics. Cows and specific parts of cows. But the statement is about milk, not cows. So we have vessels to contain milk and also pictures carved in stone depicting cows being milked.

Egyptian hieroglyphics, Gardiner's Sign list.Category W, Vessels of Stone and Earthenware. There are two very common signs that depict clay jugs used specifically for milk.

#19 sound = mi, or mr (older), milk jug with handle carried in net, two attached to a pole
#20 sound = irtist, milk jug with cover.

More straightforward is this low relief detail carved onto the side of a sarcophagus.

Man milking cow, Queen Kawit, wife of the pharaoh Mentuhotep II, 11th Dynasty

jamboree said...

Well gay guys are certainly more fun than het married couples when traveling. Sometimes they're the only one keeping up the conversation in the B&B dining room.

harkin said...

"Everything would be lovely and sophisticated and not tacky"....and angry.