It’s a dinner party at Dr. Dave’s house and Michael is finally going to meet David’s friends. Knowing that they come from two totally different worlds, he panics that he will make an ass of himself and so the gang helps him with proper dinner party etiquette. That is something I never had a problem with. I think I read Emily Post’s ‘Etiquette’ when I was a 16 or 17 and I read Shakespeare too when I was 14… yes, I was an odd child displaced by time or age or something. I became a disciple of Martha Stewart in the 90s so entertaining is second nature. But back to Michael, the best advice to always give someone in that situation is to be a keen observer and watch what other people do. Most of the time it works, but there are the exceptions where the most refined person can be the sloppiest diner.

That wasn’t the case with David’s friends, although they were nice enough, they were very pretentious and I dare say even stuck up when Michael told them he was the manager at a Big Q. I suppose they expected him to be manager of Macy’s or something. Personally, I’m a Wal-Mart man myself. Michael had a feeling all evening he knew one of the guests but couldn’t figure out how. Then it came to him and he blurted out that he knew him from The White Party and that the dude gave him crabs. Everyone looked horrified, but I think they all deserved to hear some frankness. Later, Michael figured he f—- up royally and that David was gonna dump him, but surprise, the doctor asked him to move in!

Emmett certainly has no trouble being frank about what he wants when he is online in the guise of his screen name, PITTS9X6. I think it was the night for cyber sex! Earlier in the evening I had watched ‘Closer’ with Jude Law, Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, and Natalie Portman and Jude and Clive were going at it in a chat room. Too bad Jude was pretending to be Julia. One can only wish. ::SIGH:: Emmett freaked out when his online trick wanted to hook up in the real world and when he went to delete his screen name, the moniker suddenly took human form in the body of a hot shirtless hunk. Em’s been using Pitts to express his repressed sexual desires and fantasies. When presented with the possibility of meeting someone, Emmett, wavered but Pitts said, “I had to come from somewhere, didn’t I?” And he did, he was a part of Emmett and with Pitts’ help, Emmett was able to bring out his inner sexual being and mad the hook-up. To his surprise, the other guy was in a similar situation and Em got a good boost to his confidence.

For the first time, Justin is truly separated from his family and starting to feel the emotional toll of being disconnected and continues to hope that his father will come round and accept him for who he is. Brain knows that will never happen and tries to persuade Justin that it’s not worth the anguish. Brian knows a thing or two about the tumultuous relationships of fathers and sons. His own father is a useless drunk and not five minutes after Brian went to see him at a dive of a bar to give him one more chance, he hit Brian up for money and asked him to stay and have a drink, which he had to pay for as well. Brian asked why he had kids if he knew he wasn’t the marrying kind and a family man. Though it wasn’t verbalized, Brian got the picture all too clearly of what Jack Kinney was getting at. The encounter and relationship strikes very close to home as my own father was heavy on the booze and although not physically abusive, there were close occasions of trying to break doors down, throwing glasses of whiskey and calling me a “bawl ass.” Granted, I would cry at the drop of a hat, but it was hurtful and scarring to a young child. My brother, even into adulthood, continues to find something amusing about it, though I do not, and I still get teased by him with that nickname every once in awhile.

After his encounter with his father, Brian turned to the one person who could comfort him. Michael knew right away that Brian had once again tried to mend fences with his father, hoping that he would change somehow. It never will happen, Michael reminded him as he cried himself to sleep in Michael’s arms.

My poor little queer boy eyes saw more than they ever imagined they could when Mel appeared full frontally nude in probably the steamiest lesbian sex scene to be on TV. I adore Melanie and Lindsay and there is no question that Michelle and Thea are beautiful women. The scene was played flawlessly by these two magnificent actresses and deepened your concept and appreciation of the relationship and love between these two characters. If I were a straight man, I probably would’ve been drooling, but alas I’m not and if ever I doubted being gay, my queerness was reaffirmed.

We saw yet another side of Melanie as well when Gus took sick and had to be rushed to the hospital – a caring and compassionate mother. They wouldn’t let her go into the examining room with Lindsay and the baby because she had no legal rights. When they tried to explain their relationship, there was a clear sense of discrimination and the nurse at the desk was curt and huffy calling Mel, “Miss or whatever you are.” Brain came in and in a surprise twist, he stuck up for Mel and fought for her to be allowed in, but in the end, they would only let Brian go through. Afterwards, Mel and Lindz realized that they needed more of a legal standing and asked Brian to sign over his parental rights to Mel. He was all too eager to do so in the beginning, but after weighing his relationship with his own father, Justin’s with his, Michael without his, and his own concern for his son’s well being, decided that there was no choice. He could not give up his legal rights as a father.