If you haven’t yet read about “The Marriage Ref” negating all the good vibes Jerry Seinfeld sent out into syndication, then I suggest you scrap who you’re following on Twitter right now and start over. It’s an awful, awful show. Awful.

But before you lapse back into refrains of “I’m on Team Coco”, consider this curveball – maybe, just maybe, on an upcoming episode the Ref will have to tell one lesbian that seven dogs is plenty, and that her wife is right to protest the purchase of an eighth.

While this year’s Winter Olympics on NBC has been one of the most watched Winter Olympics to date, in the gay community I’m hard pressed to find others who have been watching with the same diligence as myself. I’m not a sports person per se, however I do watch the Olympics because I’m a proud American. For me it’s about being able to say “In your face Norway” or “In your face South Korea!” That truly never gets old!

“The L Word” is a hit show with gals of varying sexual identities, but I’ve recently started to believe that “The L Word” is not a healthy habit for the lesbian community. It has created a sense of delusional hope for its viewers. The writers and directors of this show can’t be saying that West Hollywood is a magical place in which these scenarios are likely to occur. West Hollywood must have shared characteristics of other cities. I’m assuming that living in other liberal, decent sized cities I must have enjoyed some similarities to “The L Word” universe. So, in taking my experience from both living in Washington, DC and Chicago, here are some myths that this show unfairly perpetuates.

While “Will and Grace” and other shows have slowly opened the door to gay characters on prime time TV, they are most often neutered, obnoxious stereotypes or punchlines. The fact is, while live action TV still has lightyears to go in terms of gay inclusiveness, a handfull of underground cartoons have featured well-rounded, sympathetic, realistic portrayals of gay charactesr that put any of the major networks to shame. While mainstays like Waylon Smithers, Stewie Griffin and Mr. Garrison are most often cited, there are whole cadres of such ‘toons that aren’t lauded quite as often.

The Autry National Center of the American West is one of Los Angeles’ most overlooked museums.  Perhaps people get turned off by the name, assuming it’s got nothing to offer but kiddie cowboy kitsch. And it does have plenty of that to offer. However, the museum offers a much broader–and queerer–view of “The West” than many people assume.

Episode seven of the new Fox musical comedy, Glee, was the first time we saw in-text acknowledgment of the number of minority kids in the cast. The cheerleading coach-cum-co-director, Sue Sylvester, separates out the marginalized students for a special performance number, tersely calling them out, “Santana. Wheels. Gay kid. Asian. Other Asian. Aretha. Shaft.”

Despite the awkward stereotyping that, to be fair, is completely in-character for Sue, this moment inspired cheers from many progressives. We’re not used to seeing such diversity on a major network program, and I, at least, have come to expect that these kinds of roll-calls will be limited to racial minorities and maybe queers. For Glee, then, I was thrilled the producers included Artie, a white straight male character, because of his disability identity around his use of a wheelchair.

Almost everything on television bugs me a little, from implausible storylines to incredulous relationships. Why do I keep watching? Because, like everyone else, I enjoy an occasional escape from reality that can only be provided in fiction. I don’t like reality television, and I don’t read fictional novels – I get different fixes from the TV than I do from books.

The one thing that has been really killing me about TV shows in the last few years is the seemingly grand-slam of sitcom tropes: The dopey/fat guy and hot wife combination.

Just starting off into its fourth season, the Adult Swim program The Venture Bros. is hands down one of my favorite TV shows, quite possibly of all time. I own all previous 3 seasons on DVD. I had Venture Bros. artwork as my computer desktop at work for quite some time. Friends and I watched all of season 3 in two sittings once, in preparation for the season finale. I’m sick for Venture!

Chris Farris and Todd Metrokin of Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV), DC’s LGBT anti-violence task force, have contributed to a report on the Federal Hate Crimes Bill by Dana Bash to air today on CNN.

Estimated air times:

4:15 PM
6:15 PM
7:20 PM (Lou Dobbs Tonight)
and again tomorrow morning on American Morning.

Brightest Young Things and Tig Notaro are teaming up to bring DC the Bentzen Ball comedy festival this weekend.