Happy Post-Independence Day!

I'm feeling particularly patriotic this week after our country's great gay rights leap forward last week thanks to a pair of Supreme Court decisions. You might have heard something about them. And if that wasn't enough to make you thankful to be an American during this July 4th weekend, some terrible developments in Russia are a reminder that things are so much worse-- and moving in the wrong direction-- in large parts of the world.

Putin on the Shits?

On Sunday,  Russia's soon-to-be divorcé President Putin signed a law against the "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations." The law imposes fines for providing LGBT information to minors, for holding gay pride events, for speaking up in defense of LGBT rights or even equating gay and hetero relationships. This bill applies to Russian citizens, media organizations and foreigners. St. Petersurg and other regional governments already had versions of this legislation on the books, and that's what got Madonna sued a few months back when she said this during a concert: "I am here to say that the gay community and gay people here and all around the world have the same rights — to be treated with dignity, with respect, with tolerance, with compassion, with love."

That's what you get when you don't have the equivalent of a First Amendment I guess. To add insult to injury Putin also just signed a law that limits the adoption of Russian children by people from any country that allows same-sex marriage. Forget the foreign gay couples that might be impacted, the real victims here are the 600,000 children in Russian state care.

Russia sucks. America rocks.

What are You Watching?

We're in the summer TV doldrums now and there just isn't a lot of interesting television to choose from. Of course we're following the wildly entertaining Teen Wolf around here with Heather Hogan's hilarious recaps (and Andy Swist's inspired paper doll series). We're also keeping up with True Blood and SYTYCD and even hatewatching Big Brother.

Another show I'm personally enjoying is Major Crimes, a.k.a. what TNT's The Closer became after Kyra Sedgwick departed. The police procedural stuff seems pretty old hat, but the gay(?) teen character Rusty (Graham Patrick Martin) and his relationship with Detective Rayder (Mary McDonnell) isn't like anything on TV before and makes for compelling viewing.

I'd love to hear reader's thoughts on Major Crimes... or any other summer series you are enjoying and wish to recommend to fellow readers.

Perez Dispenser

Over the years we've had our issues with Perez Hilton, mostly for outing gay celebrities like Lance Bass and Neil Patrick Harris. Oh, and we probably also secretly resented him for getting so damn famous by drawing crude stick penises on famous people's faces.

Back in September 2010 Perez recorded one of the earliest "It Gets Better" videos. He took a lot of flack for that move. A well-known bully recording an anti-bullying video? Soon after he announced that he was turning over a new leaf. He was going to dispense with the bullying and the penis graffiti to try being a nicer individual. Like many of you, we we're very skeptical.

Perez attended our Hot 100 party this year (kind of surreal, I know). While there, he took the time to film a second "It Gets Better" video. Just thought I'd share it with readers here.

Regardless of what you might think of Perez Hilton, he does seem to have largely kept his word and cut back on the celebrity shaming these past few years. Also, it's impressive the physical transformation he's made. Being sorta, kinda nicer obviously agrees with him.

Housekeeping

Our sister site AfterEllen this week joined us in making the transition from a Drupal content management system to WordPress. This is a big switch, and like us they are suffering various migration headaches and complications that will need to be worked out over time. Still, I do want to encourage TheBacklot readers to check out the new AfterEllen, and in particular their forums and private messaging. We will be getting those same features in the near future.

Well, that's it for this week.  If you have a question for me please post it in the comments. Or you can email me at thebacklot@outlook.com.

Hope you guys have the Best. Gay. Weekend. Ever!