Prairie Homophobe Companion? No Way.

"The country has come to accept stereotypical gay men -- sardonic fellows with fussy hair who live in overdecorated apartments with a striped sofa and a small weird dog and who worship campy performers... If they want to be accepted as couples and daddies, however, the flamboyance may have to be brought under control."

Garrison Keillor in Salon

These words got the host of A Prairie Home Companion in trouble with some gay advocacy orgnizations and media outfits. While I don't blame folks like Dan Savage for offering a loud retort to this article (your average department store could surely afford the occasional shoplifter, but they have to make examples of the ones they catch to set an example for others thinking of pulling larger schemes against them), a few things are clear to me.

• This was a satirical observation and not intended to be taken literally.  Anyone with a modicum of cultural literacy is familiar with Keillor's schtick. And in the absence of that, the rest of the column should have tipped them off.
  
• On a moral level, I don't know how much different this was from Ann Coulter's recent jab at American society's need to rehabilitate/re-educate anyone who offends.  While homosexuality was the subject of their remarks, it was in neither case the object.
• The mainstream media is not interested in this story because it was started by a soft-spoken entertainer from the Land of 10,000 Lakes, rather than a leggy blonde bombshell who likes to speak in quippy soundbites.  If you don't believe me, try GoogleNewsing "Garrison Keillor."  The result set is almost exclusively gay-oriented blogs and news outlets.

I'm going fishing out at Lake Wobegon.