By Gary Barlow

The Rice complex

One of the few instances in which the Bush administration got some credit in gay circles was when the president tapped openly gay diplomat Michael Guest to be ambassador to Romania.

But last week, at a going-away party, Guest didn’t mince words as to why he was leaving the State Department.

“Most departing ambassadors use these events to talk about their successes. …But I want to talk about my signal failure, the failure that is in fact causing me to leave the career I love,” Guest said.

He then pointed the finger squarely at Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

“For the past three years I’ve urged the secretary and her senior management team to redress policies that discriminate against gay and lesbian employees,” Guest said. “Absolutely nothing resulted from this. And so I’ve felt compelled to choose between obligations to my partner—who is my family—and service to my country. That anyone should have to make that choice is a stain on the secretary’s leadership and a shame for this institution and our country.”

Rice could simply issue an order giving the spouses of gay and lesbian employees the same rights partners of heterosexual employees get, including medical care and transportation overseas.

Rice’s response? A spokesperson said, “These are complex issues.”

Right—it’s always a “complex issue,” isn’t it, when people are asked to give up their bigotry and prove that their rhetoric about “supporting families” actually means something?

In a perfect world…

On the other hand, there’s always the example of the Netherlands if our State Department needs pointers on spreading liberty and respect for all families.

In a recent letter to the Dutch Parliament, a government minister said the Netherlands would step up its efforts to persuade other countries to give equal rights to gays and lesbians.

And the commitment really means something, since the Netherlands provides more foreign aid per capita than almost any other country. Beyond that, the Dutch government also announced plans to spend about $3.7 million to promote equality for gays and lesbians within its own borders.

In contrast, it would probably take that much just to bring our country’s Republican presidential field into the last century on gay issues.

Bring money, please

And for those who think financial threats can’t make other countries change their tune on gay issues, take a look at what happened in Grenada in recent weeks.

First, the government said it might block gay travelers from disembarking on its shores when cruise ships dock at its port of St. Georges.

In response, Canadian gays and allies started canceling reservations for trips to the Caribbean island and demanded that the Canadian government cut its foreign aid to Grenada.

That, shall we say, “changed the course” of the discussions and led Grenada Tourism Minister Clarice Modeste-Curwin to issue a statement “following several days of consultations on the matter.”

“We will continue to welcome all visitors and we will work, along with our population, to ensure that their time and ours will be enjoyable,” Modeste-Curwin said. “Grenada respects the rights of all persons of all persuasions and lifestyles.”

Not to mention “persons of all foreign currencies.”

Driving Mr. Lexus

Finally, I realize porn stars don’t get much respect. On the other hand, Toyota may be going a bit far in its threat of legal action against Swiss-based EBOYS Studios and one of its actors, Lexus.

Toyota wants Mr. Lexus to quit using that name and it wants EBOYS to quit distributing films he’s in and pull his existing films from stores.

So where did Lexus, the auto, originate? Well, some sources say the Toyota concept that preceded Lexus was actually named Alexis after, yep, super diva Joan Collins’ “Dynasty” character. And when Toyota came out with Lexus, they got sued by LexisNexis, the database folks. Eventually a court threw out the suit, saying there was little chance that consumers would confuse the car with the database.

Now, Lexus (the porn star) is attractive, for sure, but I doubt anybody’s going to confuse him with a luxury vehicle or even assume that he somehow represents Toyota when he’s performing. And what slippery slope does this go down? What if his name was Ford? Would he be able to pursue his chosen career then? And I’m not sure, but I’d be shocked if there haven’t been porn stars named Ram.

I say Toyota should just let it go. Or come, as the case may be.