By Gary Barlow

State Street, that great gay street

Have you found the holiday season to be lacking a little something? Maybe not gay enough for you? Well, two of our alert readers—Glenn Amoroso and Keith Charbonneau—spotted just the thing to fill you and everyone else who ventures out on State Street downtown this Christmas season with plenty of holiday “gay” cheer. We usually don’t do photos in Freeform, but how could we not run this photo of one of the Chicago Transit Authority’s special holiday decorations adorning the Red Line entrance on State Street between Randolph and Lake? Thank you, CTA, for reminding us that the holiday season is indeed the gayest time of the year. And Merry Christmas to you, too!

Survive this

Then again, maybe one block of State Street isn’t enough gay space for you.

If that’s the case, check out “Shipwrecked: Lost on Lindeman Island.” That’s the name of a very special post-Mardi Gras outing planned by an Australian company, AllGayCruises.com.au.

The company has rented the entire island for the six-day, five-night excursion for gay men. That includes accommodations, meals, snacks, dance parties and beverages, all for a little more than $1,100.

And in case you’re wondering, Lindeman Island is off Australia’s northeast coast, close enough to the Great Barrier Reef to allow for excursions while you’re enjoying your gay holiday. And it’s not “Survivor” either. The tropical island is a full-fledged resort, with a golf course, swimming pools, beaches, sailing, kayaking and more. It’ll be like Saugatuck on steroids, a “bustling hub of activity,” the company promises. I bet.

Joy to the world

Just in time for Christmas, of course, the pope has come out with his annual “Bah, humbug” message for gays and lesbians.

In a statement to mark World Peace Day, Jan. 1, Pope Benedict declares that gay and lesbian couples who want to marry are “an obstacle on the road to peace.”

In a grand tour of circular, laborious reasoning, Pope Bennie says that “marriage between a man and a woman” is “the primary place of ‘humanization’ for the person and the family.”

He goes on, of course, to the grand finale, where he declares that anybody “who circumvents the institution of family undermines peace in the entire community.”

OK, Mr. Pope Dude, could you, once and for all, please explain how people who love each other and want to get married and live happily ever after as loving families, undermine anybody else’s ability to do that?

Bah, humbug, indeed.