Newsweek ( Sept. 3 ) , in its 'My Turn' column, lets retirement home resident Loraine Barr talk of the love that will finally say its name. After the death of her partner of 44 years, Barr has decided to come out: 'For heaven's sake, I'm 88 years old. No one can fire me.' Make this woman a gay pride parade marshal, please.

We all knew dancer Rudolf Nureyev as young and wild, but a new documentary reviewed in The New York Times ( Aug. 26 ) , Nureyev: The Russian Years, shows all that wildness started much earlier. The film unearths an early lover, East German Teja Kremke ( a guy ) who met Nureyev in St. Petersburg ( then Leningrad ) when both were students. Kremke originated the idea of Nureyev defecting to the West, which he did in 1961. Tragically, Kremke was detained by the KGB and not allowed to join Nureyev. Film clips show that Nureyev's incredible leaps were already there in his teens. Much of the material for the film is also in a book ( Nureyev: The Life by Julie Kavanagh ) due out in October.

Who'd believe that Episcopalians would be pushing the envelope for gay rights in a situation that could be a major sacrifice for them? The Chicago Tribune ( Aug. 29 ) says that a lesbian priest, the Rev. Tracey Lind, is in the running for bishop of Chicago. If Lind makes it, this could very well push the church into schism ( splitting ) because of powerful homophobic African congregations who have basically ordered the American church to distance itself from gay issues. ( They have no legal standing to do this, by the way. )

It's a little confusing—both right-wing and left-wing bloggers are for and against the court case reported in the Chicago Sun-Times ( Aug.26 ) . To simplify: Two meth dealers got caught, sent to jail and got out. As felons they can't associate with each other. They sued saying they were a gay family and had even had a niece in their foster care. The court agreed. The case is now going higher in the system. Are you for or against the defendents in this moral conundrum?