As in "Liberal" "Left" and "Lesbian." A columnist for the Progressive
and the Advocate
, Clinton offers deft takes on politics and culture, believing in laughter's ability to "subvert authority and promote democracy." If not laugh-out-loud funny, Clinton lands lots of one-liners. Our attorney general was "J. Edgar Ashcroft"; our author is no "America Frister." Noting that only Dick Cheney had acknowledged that his daughter, Mary, is gay, Clinton observes, "His lovely wife, Lon Cheney, demurs on the dyke thing." She's savage toward those would retool gays into straights, and passionate about the gay Catholics in the group Dignity willing to take on the church. The book mixes new material with previously published columns, and a few pieces are explicitly personal, such as one on Clinton's 11 years of coming out, and one in which she stands amazed that a movie like Boys Don't Cry
got made. Clinton, who also works as a comedian, has formed the Permanent Standing Committee to Impeach Bush, but her calling is clear from the mail-order minister's license she got to perform gay weddings: "Call me the Irreverend Kate Clinton." Done. (July)
