BY ROB SALERNO - Like a pimple just about ready to pop, the "Santana's a lesbian" plot-line came to a big ugly head on last night's Glee, as Santana dealt with being outed in a Congressional campaign by coming to terms with her sexual identity, confronting her family and reestablishing her relationship with her girlfriend by being sang at by various members of the two glee clubs.

Now, I generally think the show's goal of making sure that all its viewers know that gay people are okay and deserve love and affection is laudable, but I was pretty horrified by how this episode repeatedly presented being gay as something that straight characters react to instead of the lived experience of one of its main characters.

From Rachel's early admission that she was scared to go to college in New York without her "best gay" Kurt to the announcement that the glee club's assignment of the week was to sing songs by women so that Santana would feel better, it was like the gay kids just exist in the show as set pieces around which the other characters dance.

At least Santana realized the absurdity of the "Make Santana feel less isolated by singling her out and singing about how messed up her life is now" assignment. I also cringed through Kurt and Blaine's rendition of Pink's anti-suicide song "Perfect," and I'm glad the writers didn't try to sell that on its face. 

Finn seems to be so worried that Santana will commit suicide that he makes an oblique reference to Jamie Hubley and Jamey Rodemeyer before mumbling a maudlin version of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" at her. Points off for that, Finn. "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" was written by a man.

The worst scene of the episode came when a previously never seen sophomore football player finds Santana and offers to take up the "challenge" of "straightening" her out. This leads the entire female cast to tell the dude to bug off because being gay isn't a choice and lesbians don't just exist to titillate straight guys. They do this by singing Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl," which is a song about straight girls teasing lesbianism to titillate straight guys.

Fun fact #1: This isn't the first time Glee has tackled this song, although in the pilot episode it was mostly for laughs. 

Fun fact #2: This isn't Perry's most homophobic song. Before she became the poster child for It Gets Better, she had a song called "Ur So Gay (And You Don't Even Like Boys)."

Anyway, this sequence mysteriously makes Santana feel better, even though it's an example of all the discrimination she's going to face for the rest of her life. At the end of the song, she announces that she's already come out to her family and everything was okay, which, what? That's a pretty major event in this story and the writers decided to do it off camera? I guess Santana's story doesn't really matter at all unless the boys of New Directions can mumble intently about it while the girls gyrate.

Okay, there's also a fairly well-written but ultimately meaningless scene where Santana comes out to her grandmother, who kicks her out. But since we've never even heard of this character before and it's not like Santana doesn't have other family, it's hard to see why I'm supposed to care all of a sudden.

Actual lesbians appeared in the soundtrack, with Puck rocking a pretty great acoustic cover of Melissa Etheridge's "I'm the Only One" and Santana and Shelby pulling off a solid duet of kd lang's "Constant Craving." 

Two weeks ago, I wrote, "I also hope they can find a new direction for Santana rather than having her turn her bitchiness up to 11 in order to protect herself while hate-singing "I Kissed a Girl" at the male members of New Directions." There's still some time on this storyline to work that out, but it's becoming a big mess the deeper it goes. 

One final thought: why does no one seem to care about Brittany being a lesbian? 

 
BY ANDREA HOUSTON - Sun Media is fuming as it reacts to "the developing story" that the gay community is stepping up its attacks on the Sun News Network.

Two Sun TV commentators, Brian Lilley and Michael Coren, have recently devoted long segments to activist campaigns targeting homophobic and transphobic ads that ran in both the Toronto Sun and on Sun TV. Rather than discuss the larger issues, both Lilley and Coren react with knee-jerk rants that the gay community is trying to "stifle free speech."

Local teacher, activist and former federal NDP candidate Michael Erickson is described as a "freedom hater" by Lilley for his petition and a series of demands to make amends for ads activists have called transphobic. He recommends sensitivity training and disciplinary action for whoever approved the ad.

"This is starting to sound like a threat," he says. "This is starting to sound like Michael Erickson, the NDP candidate and high school teacher, wants to run this company. 

"But Erickson is not done yet! He wants to control our minds, too."

Then last week Toronto activist Justin Beach launched a devilish campaign, dubbed Operation Sunset, calling for a boycott of the Toronto Sun's advertisers. He is promising to release blocks of names and the contact information of advertisers periodically.

Unfortunately, Lilley didn’t bother to do much research (tsk tsk). Beach is, in fact, not a gay man. He says the Sun has previously cited him incorrectly as an "Occupy Toronto organizer."

Coren, on the other hand, says he has done his research and has determined with authority that the ad is accurate and not at all misleading or hateful.

Tell that to Chris Bolton, the chair of the Toronto District School Board (he knows nothing about education), who has also launched a complaint against Sun Media.

He says Sun TV spread a knowingly false, homophobic and transphobic campaign that alleged that the new curriculum forced children to crossdress, set up same-sex kissing booths and march in Pride parades. Not surprisingly, Sun Media denies it supports hate speech or is inaccurate.

"Censorship! Censorship! Censorship!" Coren declares. He introduces a "gay libertarian" who calls Erickson a "bully" and laments that gay community leaders are more leftwing than gay (is that possible?). “Their politics come before anything else.”

Both Beach and Erickson, and thousands of others in Ontario, want the government to produce its sex ed curriculum and think the ad from McVety is hateful.

Michael Coren admits at the start of the clip, "If [the ad] causes people to be killed or beaten up, that shouldn’t be on air." Erickson says that's exactly what the Canadian Christian College ad does for students questioning their sexual or gender identity. On Nov 30, Erickson will debate Charles McVety on the John Oakley Show on AM640.

Beach made an appearance on the Jim Richards Showgram Nov 29 talking about Operation Sunset. "I find it ironic that a newspaper is arguing against free speech."

With more than 400 jobs on the chopping block, and Sun Media scrambling for viewers, we may be witnessing the end of the media company. Rather than investigate actual news, Sun Media chooses to pick fights with human rights activists. It's sad, really. 

Erickson agrees. "They are fabricating enemies. I am a teacher. They are obviously desperate for viewers. Desperate people do desperate things." 

And, frankly, I'd question the stability of anyone who actually considers Sun TV or the Toronto Sun serious news outlets, especially given the news Nov 29 that Mayor Rob Ford's press secretary, Adrienne Batra, has accepted a job as "comment editor" of the Toronto Sun and municipal commentator for Newstalk 1010.

This clears up any uncertainty that the Toronto Sun isn't merely a communication machine for the mayor's office.

BY ROB SALERNO - Falcon-exclusive gay pornstar Trent Locke was in Toronto this weekend, where, he claims on his Twitter account (@TrentLockeXXX), he was robbed of his money and iPhone 4S. If Locke's TrentUnlocked blog (NSFW) is anything to go by, his phone is full of nude bathroom mirror pics and shots from various porn sets. So if anyone comes across a black-market iPhone full of nude pics of the furry hunk, do the right thing and send it back to him after you're done masturbating.

Locke is using his old iPhone 4 now, which is why there were two Grindr profiles of him in Toronto all weekend, in case you were wondering. Luckily, Locke's passport wasn't stolen, so he'll have no trouble getting back to the relative safety of Los Angeles at the end of his visit. 

Speaking of Twitter, the condom maker Durex found itself in an embarrassing PR flap this week when its South African branch sent out a bunch of misogynistic jokes over its Twitter account @DurexSA. Seems like the PR firm they hired had been trying to start a #DurexJoke meme, but the whole thing backfired when they sent out a bunch of tired old misogynistic jokes instead. I mean, really, this was one of the best ones they could come up with:

After feminist organizations complained, the DurexSA tweeter defended the jokes, making the situation even worse. South African journalists started talking about it, noting that the tweets came at the beginning of an international event calling for an end to violence against women and children. 

Both Durex and the PR firm have since apologized for the misogynistic jokes and have deleted the offending tweets. 

BY ANDREA HOUSTON - Gerald Hannon almost convinced me to go into sex work.

I recently visited the award-winning Toronto journalist and retiring sex worker at his cozy Maitland Place apartment ahead of his big retirement party at Goodhandy's tonight (Nov 25), and to research another story. We got talking about why he started selling sex in the first place.

Hannon entered the oldest profession for the oldest reason of all: money. "I had just left The Body Politic after 15 years. You don't save any money working there, so I was broke."

At the time, he was living communally in a house with five other men. "I wanted to live on my own. And I decided to be a freelance writer, which, as you know, that takes a while."

Worried about what to do for income, he spoke to a friend, activist and sex worker Danny Cockerline (great name for a sex worker). "I was whining to him about how I'm going to make it as a journalist."

Cockerline told him to sell his body to pay the bills while his writing career got off the ground. "I was shocked. I said, 'I can't! I'm in my 40s. I'm not full of cum or very well hung."

Cockerline told him there are niche markets for men of all ages, sizes and quantities of cum. "If you don't think there's a market for guys your age with bifocals, you're wrong."

With no moral objection, Hannon decided to give it a try. For his first client, he offered himself as a duo with a friend at a cut-rate price. 

"Guys aren't coming to make love. They're coming to get their rocks off. Once it's done, about an hour, sometimes more, I can get back to work writing."

But more than that, Hannon enjoyed the work. "It led me to worlds I would have never imagined visiting. Worlds of free-flowing male erotic desire." He met charming, funny and sexy men, many of whom would have made wonderful dates otherwise, which likely would have ended with sex anyway. 

As a fellow journalist, I can't deny the prospect of this is tempting. Glamour! Money! Sex! Free-flowing erotic desire! An hour of "work," then the rest of the day free! I could write a book.

He grinned and nodded playfully with a wicked look in his eye. 

"As a fellow writer, think about it. If I can still corrupt you, given your reputation."

With 13 magazine awards under his belt and his place firmly cemented in Toronto's media royalty, perhaps Hannon's onto something.

Young journalists, take note. 

If you're in Toronto, join Gerald Hannon tonight (Nov 25) as he celebrates 25 years in sex work at Bone Weary: A Fond Farewell to the Sex Trade at Goodhandy's on Church St. Please dig deep with a $5 to $10 donation (more is fine, too) -- all going toward Maggie's: Toronto Sex Worker Action Project.

Xtra's Sasha Van Bon Bon interviews Hannon about his retirement here.

BY ANDREA HOUSTON - Perhaps the best way to fight the Toronto Sun is to hit them where it hurts: their income.

Toronto activist Justin Beach thinks so. That's why he has launched Operation Sunset, a new campaign aimed at shining some light on the Sun's role in helping spread hate.

Beach is asking people to send a message to The Sun by not supporting its advertisers. Consider shopping at stores other than The Bay or HMV this holiday season. Go to Mr. Sub instead of Subway.

Over the next few weeks, Beach will be periodically publishing the names of Sun advertisers on the website. The first batch includes The Bay, Porter Airlines, Subway, HMV and Ontario Energy Group.

"Advertising is where The Sun earns its money," he says. "Also, The Sun supports the Ford administration that is trying to close libraries, parks, reduce service on the TTC and lay-off public workers.

"It seems irresponsible for Toronto companies to continue to support a paper that wants to seriously damage the standard of living."

The campaign is targeted at the Toronto Sun, which Beach describes as a "a right-wing propaganda machine," as opposed to the Sun News Network, which everyone everywhere describes as a right-wing propaganda machine.

Toronto Sun publisher Mike Power could not be reached for comment.

The Sun pulled out of the Ontario Press Council in July. At the time, John Honderich — a former publisher of the Star and the current chair of Torstar's board of directors — called the decision “most disturbing,” adding “Sun Media will abide by its own standards of journalism and not be accountable to anyone.”

In October, the Toronto Sun refused to apologize for running an ad in its Oct 2 edition that activists have called transphobic.

The ad, from the Institute for Canadian Values, is a slightly modified version of a full-page ad that ran in the National Post on Sept 24 and Sept 28. Following a social media outcry, the National Post issued an apology and stated that the proceeds from the ad sale would be donated to a queer charitable organization. 

A version of the advertisement subsequently ran for weeks on Sun TV.

Then this month, Chris Bolton, the chair of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) announced he plans to file a formal complaint against Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party and Sun Media over homophobic campaign flyers that were distributed during the provincial election and a transphobic television ad campaign that aired for three weeks following it. 

Media companies should realize there are consequences for what they do, says Beach. "It's important for people to realize that where you choose to do business is a form of democracy." 

Follow the campaign on Facebook and Twitter. 

Follow Xtra reporter Andrea Houston on Twitter at @dreahouston.