A lot of people felt that Will & Grace—it was a teevee sitcom back in the day—trafficked in awful gay stereotypes. Some folks called it a gay minstrel show. It didn't really bother me. Sure, Will & Grace offered an unrealistic portrayal of gay life—a guy who looked like Will couldn't get laid? in Manhattan? with that apartment?—but Friends offered a pretty unrealistic portrayal of straight life and you never heard any breeders fuming about it. Anyway, Max Mutchnick, co-creator of Will & Grace, doesn't care for the "usual suspects" at pride parades.

Dykes on bikes, Tarzana Trannies, Jewish Leather Daddies and Kathy Griffin's mom. Don't get me wrong. I love these people. Let's call them the "Usual Suspects." They fought for my rights and taught me how to dance. But they should no longer be representing "the pride." It's a different time. For god's sake, Larry Craig is a life-long homosexual. What I'm trying to say is that "unremarkable" mainstream people are gay, too. So I cringe when a local newsperson shoves a microphone in the face of some young 95-pound twink (Straight Translation: a twink is a skinny homosexual with a lot of moxie). The twink looks into the camera and screams into the reporter's microphone: "Get down here now. The drinks are big. But you know what's bigger..." He laughs in a high-pitched cackle and his "girlfriends" join in. I wish they'd read more and drink less.

Seems to me that the problem here is the local newsperson and not the 95-pound twink, a human being who has a right to leave the house and have a good time and talk to whomever he cares to, microphones or no microphones, and just as deserving of his full civil rights as any "mainstream" gay person. There are "mainstream" types at pride parades; if the local TV newspeople prefer to interview the twinks and trannies and leather daddies, Max, that's their problem. And seeing as we've managed to come as far as we have, as fast as we have, with Dykes On Bikes and trannies and leather daddies and 95-pound twinks at our pride parades, Max, we really don't need to start hiding them 'em away now. They have nothing to be ashamed of, Max.