Joe Scarborough ain't the only one under fire this morning! Spandex-loving fitness guru Richard Simmons finds himself in homo-journo Brent Hartinger's sights for what Hartinger calls his "gay minstrel show," as exhibited in this Bridgestone commercial.

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AfterElton editor Michael Jensen and boyfriend author Brent Hartinger cruised through the gay jungle to investigate the evil bitch gay queen. This here's the video of their harrowing journey.

And, no, we don't know if the boys were on acid when they made this. We have our suspicions.

• Brent Hartinger talks with Making Love Screenwriter Barry Sandler about Brokeback Mountain. [Big Gay Picture]

• Brokeback is not a gay movie. It is a movie about loneliness. And this straight reviewer thinks everyone can relate to that. [MSNBC]

• The Book of Daniel’s creator has spoken out about the show’s cancellation. [After Elton]

• Madonna is starting to look a bit like Little Edie. It’s the best costume of the day! [Vimeo]

&bull It’s time to Ask a Republican! This may be funnier than the Grey Gardens/Madonna video. [Ask A Republican]

Last week the gay blogs were all over the story of Brent Hartinger’s book Geography Club being banned in Tacoma, Washington. Bradford Shellhammer recently caught up with Brent to discuss his book, Oprah, and how Queerty readers can help.

What happened with your book being banned?

Well, for a few days, I wasn't exactly sure. But now I've talked to a lot of the people involved and started to piece it all together–a little bit like Woodward and Bernstein investigating Watergate!

Basically, some parents complained to the library of a high school in University Place, Washington. They had learned the that library carried my book and that it was "gay." They hadn't read it, but that was enough to make them furious. The library referred them to the PTA, who basically said, "Sorry, we can't ban a book for being gay." So the parents read the book and made a long list of "objections," none of which were the gay thing exactly. Then they presented that list to the superintendent of the school district. One of their objections was the fact that my main characters first meet through an Internet chat room (though, while there, they chat until they know for a fact that they are definitely both students going to the same high school, so we're not talking about an "anonymous" hookup here!). Anyway, the superintendent had just seen a special on Internet predators, and I guess the school had had a problem with that in the past. So she zeroed in on that, and decided to ban the book–in part, I'm sure, to appease the angry parents.

Here's where it gets interesting. No one was supposed to find out about what had happened. But an anonymous person–let's call them "Deep Throat"! –went to the local newspaper. They wrote about it, then the AP picked it up, and all the local news broadcasts, and then it went nationwide on the blogs and in USA Today. Needless to say, it's been CRAZY on my end!

There will be a school board meeting in December where they will consider overturning the ban. I will try to be there to speak, but I've been getting these emails from this Leviticus-spouting whack-job, so I'm a little worried about someone slashing my tires.

The interview continues after the jump.

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