Blog Watch: Joe.My.God.
In a new feature, Polari spotlights exceptional LGBT voices in the blogosphere. This week it’s Joe. My. God.
Joe. My. God. For a start, it’s a great name for a blog. The name, with the extra emphasis provided by the three stops, tells you what you need to know: it’s funny and it’s gay. Joe is one of the leading bloggers on the web, and he’s lightning fast. If you follow him on Twitter it’s obvious which websites & publications are following him and rushing out stories in his wake.
Joe’s blog started back in 2004. In the beginning it was more traditional, and more personal, but as the blog has developed over the years he’s turned it into a conduit for LGBT stories. And he’s good at telling you what you need to know in a way that is fast and funny. “Tea Party candidate and pro wrestling jillionaire Linda McMahon won today’s GOP Senate primary in Connecticut after outspending her moderate opponent by 12-1,” a post today begins. That sort of economy of delivery is a real talent. It’s so effortless that it’s almost unnoticeable. He covers a great many stories and is acutely aware that to do so the information has to be short and it has to be concise.
I like how he deals with that great confidence trick of the right-wingers: making the perpetrator seem like the victim. There is no point engaging with them on their terms, and pointing out the absence of logic, because they are not interested in logic. And so he has fun with it. “One Millions Moms is offering middle school students a free comic book version of the bible which includes extra hate for those unimpressed by the original,” he notes. “Students are encouraged to request multiple copies for their heathen unsaved classmates.” Why get caught up in the shuffling of quotes from the good book?
On one of the more tabloid stories doing the rounds this week, the cheating of Anderson Cooper’s boyfriend (from the pages of the vile Daily Mail), Joe writes, “The number of fucks we should give about this: ZERO.” Exactly. But then he does link to a video made by Taiwanese animators who look into the question of open relationships and run a story about what happened with Anderson and Ben Maisani. It’s as ridiculous as the story. And to think, this story has been run as “news” on major LGBT websites.
What Joe manages to do is to run a blog that is in effect a well-curated hub. It is no wonder that news sites follow his lead. Plus, he has a great hat.
Click here to read Joe. My. God.
If you’d like to nominate a blog, or even write for the featured blog column, click here to get in touch.