Rebel preacher man Jay Bakker simply can't convince Joel Osteen to love the gays.

The men met last week to discuss mega-church leader Osteen's offending silence on gay rights, a cause close to Bakker's heart. Bakker, whose mother was gay icon Tammy Faye Mesner, traveled to Osteen's church in Texas last week to raise the clownish pastor's awareness of the universal gay plight.

In a surprising move, Osteen agreed to seat Bakker and activists during his Sunday sermon, but won't budge on his anti-gay take:

In the end, Bakker said, Osteen was most gracious, had chairs reserved for the LGBT community Sunday morning and made time to meet after the 11 a.m. service.

During their chat, the two men agreed to disagree.

"I don't think homosexuality is a sin, and they do," Bakker said, "but it was very nice of Joel to introduce me to his family. I met Joel's wife and mother, and they were just great. … I'm really grateful."

And, in the end, Bakker still has the support of the gays, which we think is far more important than - well, just about anything in the universe.

We all knew Tammy Faye was saying her peace last Thursday on Larry King, but we could have no idea that the 65-year old former Televangelist would die a mere hours after her interview aired.

Unlike so many of her peers - Jerry Falwell, for example - Messner made it her mission to fight for the gays. As she reminded Metro Weekly in 2002:

…PTL was one of the very first [Christian television shows] to help the gays. And I was probably one of the first ever to have a gay man on my show. And so I think they remember that. They knew that we accepted them. Many of them watched PTL because they felt accepted by us and they were accepted by us. PTL loved everyone. We didn't turn anyone away. And I think the gays appreciated that. We accepted the gay community when most religious elements did not.

That's some seriously good work, yes, but Faye never took herself too seriously, "I consider myself very down to earth. If you call that campy, then I guess I'm campy." Tammy, babe, you were campy, compassionate and all around fabulous, girl!

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Tammy Faye Messner made an appearance on Larry King last night. Hopefully you all had a chance to hear what she had to say - if not, you're in luck, because reader Alan sent along this collection of clips from the interview, including Tammy Faye discussing how the gays lent her a helping hand after Jim Bakker fucked her over.

Son Jay also points out that Tammy Faye helped provide the bridge between the Evangelical movement and gay churches, particularly Troy Perry's Metropolitan Community Church. Even if you're not Christian or religious in any way, shape or form, you can't deny Tammy Faye's impact on our world. And, despite the terminal cancer, she's still as cheery as ever. And her eyelashes still look swell!

Here's the transcript of Tammy Faye's appearance. Read it and weep - literally, it's heartbreaking.