Dang, missed the bus on this one but what the hell: turns out whether gay or straight, everybody loves a stick up their ass.

What if Fox News decides to use that cover photo for every story they run on gay marriage? Would it still be oh so funny? What is wrong with you guys?

You would let Fox News be your barometer and upset you?

Bad taste? Yeah but then it's the Stranger. I mean the most celebrated writer wished all the Republicans dead on Bill Maher's show a few months back. Did you expect anything less?

This is a clear case of uncalled grumpiness. The joke is not on the gay community but on the haters. They are the ones who should feel offended or laughed about. I believe it is a sign of maturity when you can make jokes about yourself, as The Strangers has done this time. My 5 cents.

I often find offensive humor funny, even that at my expense. This, though, actually took me for a moment out of my high of feeling finally vindicated as an equal member of society and reminded me that much of the world still sees my marriage as something perverse. I support your right to use jokes that don't make me laugh, still wouldn't it be nice for a week to focus on our victory rather than NOMs loss? Just my opinion.

I get the joke, but I don't think it's that funny. And I can understand if people who have been seriously told that their sexual orientation is as bad as bestiality don't want to laugh either.

Oh for fucks sake. The cover is wonderful—I would proudly frame it and put it in my home for my bigoted Mormon mother to see when (or if) she visits. Creating a visual of what right-wing nuts insist will be the result of marriage equality will only push their bigoted position even farther to the periphery.

I can't wait to point to this cover in 20 years and explain to my nieces and nephews that, yes, people actually said that this would be the result if marriage equality became a reality.

THIS COVER IS THE BIGGEST SETBACK TO GAY RIGHTS EVER. YOUR COVER IS BASICALLY SUPERHITLER.

The cover was perfectly predictable given The Stranger's moral duty to offend. Thus will it ever be until all the Puritans sadly seeking outrage have shed their mortal coils. (In other words, never.) It's like too many months (years!) of vilifying gay marriage opponents needed to be leavened with a poke in our own eyes, and where better to turn than man-animal? So, basically, yawn...whatevs.

Remember everybody getting upset about the 2008 New Yorker "fist bump" cover depicting the Obamas as every dumb false thing the right wing was saying about them?

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/…

Satire is always going to be a problem for some people.

I loved the cover! I guffawed. I remain so fucking happy for Washington state and am thinking about you all this afternoon while you marry the fuck outta people.

As a caprine rights activist I would be deeply offended ... if the cover weren't so damn hilarious. Thanks, Stranger, for making me laugh.

It occurred to me, reading the OP again, about how he interpreted the hugs insults of sexual discrimination. Since we all grew up w/ it, did he stop thinking that it was insulting? Or perhaps such horror, millenia old, ceased to become a mere insult, beyond being offensive, into a horror ingrained in the bones.

Whatever it was, Jahwistic cults everywhere (yeah, even you, Rastafarian asswipes) have a lot to answer for, far more than whatever satire the Stranger coughs up.

Right now the cover is giving me a boner. But, rest assured, I shall write letters to the editor Telling them what a sick bunch of degenerates they are just as soon as I'm done masturbating.

Ohhh, I get it: ironic homophobia is the new ironic racism!

@ 120, I'll accept that if you find black people engaging in ironic racism.

Now I see. Because some people at The Stranger are gay, it makes sense for them to be ironically homophobic. And because some people at The Stranger are black, it also makes sense for them to be ironically racist if they want.

@ 123, no. All I said was, I'll buy your comparison if you can find a real-world example of African Americans engaging in ironic racism. If you can't do that, then you don't have ironic homophobia here.

I have a feeling that you want to be outraged, and that you're going to be, whether you have a legitimate excuse for it or not. But that doesn't mean that we won't point out that your angry emperor has no clothes.

I do think the cover is silly and misguided, and at this point probably does more of a disservice to gay people than anything else, but I'm not outraged about it. To put things into perspective, I'm more excited about Christmas than I am concerned about this.

THIS IS THE IRONY DEPARTMENT OF THE KU KLUX KLAN OF ALT-WEEKLY COVERS! I GET IT NOW. YOU SET US BACK 5,000 YEARS!!

But like I'm totally not bothered. Whatever *comment* I don't care *comment*.

@ #94: That would be "capitals". "Capitols" are government buildings.

Re the original question: GMAFB! If anyone who is familiar with The Stranger fails to see the parodic intent of that cover, then I suggest that thestranger.com establish an intelligence tes for those who wish to sign in.

I'm personally straight, but live in a very blended household: L, B, T, and developing. I thought that it was VERY funny.

@Baconcat - Lol well I have an opinion about it, which is that it's dumb, but to say I'm "outraged" would be a massive overstatement. This is difficult to understand?

@128 It's not difficult to understand. It's just wrong.

You didn't just say it was dumb.

You just said it "does more of a disservice to gay people than anything else."

"Anything" else? More of a disservice than DOMA, gay bashing, or anti-sodomy laws? Reeeealy.

The hyperbole of you pearl clutchers.

You get called out on your context free sanctimony and then claim "well, I don't care that much" other than taking time out of your life by posting repeatedly how this is just so homophobic! But you decline to prove this assertion, because you can't. It's just some vague opinion. Well. Your opinion is invalid.

Guess what? The cover, it's not homophobic. One has to read into the cover and The Strangers intentions so extraordinarily uncharitably to divine homophobia from this artwork I'm surprised your knee jerk hasn't injured your ACL.

It's barely ironic. The word you're looking for is satire - while not always a get-out-of-jail-free card- the intelectual threshold for satire is usually too high for reactionary literalists to comprehend.

I know some people think that being an enlightened progressive means filtering literally everything that comes through their ears or eyeballs with some sort of ideology purity filter, but it doesn't. It means reserving judgement and assuming the best intentions while you look for context.

"I have glanced through the Stranger enough to know..."

Clearly you haven't, tho. Maybe read a few words next time, instead of just 'glancing'?

Does Marc realize that the photo on the cover is usually either irrelevant to the content inside the paper or tongue in cheek?

@tkc - By "more of a disservice to gay people than anything else", I didn't mean, "anything else in the history of the world". Now who's being melodramatic and clutching pearls? I just meant this type of image will likely be more misconstrued than it will be appreciated. And I did say I thought it was silly, which is a synonym for dumb. And I don't even own pearls. Okay, one bracelet, which I've never clutched.

See? People can just post repeatedly because it's fun, rather than because they're outraged.

those of you looking over your shoulder to see what fox news thinks are DOING IT WRONG.

Ignoring the assholes led to this victory, and will continue to lead to more victories. Keep it up, Stranger!