By Gary Barlow

The Larry Craig Bathroom

Decided where you’re going on your next vacation?

Well, if you’re following the latest trend, you’ll be sure to schedule at least a change of planes in Minneapolis so you can check out the Minneapolis airport’s hottest new tourist attraction.

Yep, that’s right—it’s the Senator Larry Craig bathroom.

“People have been going in, taking pictures of the stall, taking pictures outside the bathroom door—man, it’s been crazy,” says Royal Zino, whose grandfather owns the Royal Zino shoeshine shop next door to the bathroom.

Other employees at the airport say that people are constantly asking where the bathroom is.

The bathroom, of course, is the one where Craig was arrested in June for allegedly trying to entice an undercover policeman into having sex.

Of course, we’re waiting to see people start posting pics of themselves actually sitting on the Larry Craig toilet. And since I’ve never been in the Minneapolis airport, I’m curious, as I’m sure many of you are, as to just how wide a stance it takes in there to be able to play footsie with whoever’s in the next stall.

I guess if you really want to have some fun with the gawkers, you could just sit in the neighboring stall, wait for someone to sit on the Larry Craig toilet and start waving your hand under the partition. Who knows? People might think you’re a U.S. senator and ask for your autograph.

Cooking the numbers

The so-called “ex-gay” crowd has come out with a new study that—surprise—asserts that “ex-gay” therapy really works…well, sort of.

Two anti-gay psychologists said last week that they followed 98 gays and lesbians who went through “therapy” to try to become straight, interviewing them three times over a 30-48 month period to see if they’d become straight.

OK—first off, they lost 25 of the subjects before the third interview, so they didn’t count those people. After all, you know, they quit. Maybe they became so straight that they didn’t even want to talk about it anymore, right?

By their own admission, the researchers found that of the remaining 73 folks, only 38 percent rated their “therapy” as successful. Of course, the former leaders of Exodus International, the anti-gay group that conducted the “therapy,” also counted their “therapy” as successful—well, at least until they fell in love with each other. Then there was the next leader, you know, who was “successful” until he got caught cruising in a gay bar in D.C. Anyway, if you’re looking for a new place to cruise, sounds like your odds would be pretty good at an Exodus meeting.

Gay night on Rush Street?

Some gay folks in Ottawa decided to look for a new place to party Sept. 14.

About 100 gays and lesbians took over a straight bar in Canada’s capital that night and plan to keep doing it. The partiers are members of a new Facebook group, Guerilla Gay Fare, and are modeled on similar gay groups that have sprung up recently in Washington, New York and Los Angeles.

Tim Campbell, who started the group, said they plan to take over a straight bar at least once a month. Not that the staff at the bar they took over, Tila Tequila in Ottawa’s trendy Byward Market area, reacted badly. Campbell said the gay folks were treated well.

“They said, ‘You guys are welcome here—this is a great thing,’” he told Capital Xtra newspaper.

So…anybody up for Rush Street this weekend?

All by ourselves

Speaking of tourists, so how was that out-of-town crowd last weekend on Halsted? A bit sparse, eh?

Well, maybe they were in San Francisco. After all, the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau just launched a new $180,000 campaign—with Southwest Airlines as a partner—to attract gay tourists.

Then again, maybe all the gay tourists last weekend were in Philadelphia, which has spent thousands this past year to boost its gay tourism. Or they could have been in Toronto or Montreal, which have become major gay getaway destinations in the wake of concentrated campaigns by governments there to attract gay tourists. Dallas and Mexico City are spending big bucks to draw gay travelers, too.

Meanwhile, Chicago’s campaign to attract gay tourism… Oh, wait—that’s right—there isn’t one. Oh, well, back to counting those empty barstools…