The City Paper's Best Of D.C. issue hits stands today. Pick it up! On a personal note, the yearly Best Of issue gives me some wiggle room to write on my non-Sexist-related interests. (Yes, I do have them, but they largely involve drinking). Check out my entries for Best Coffee Shop, Best Dive Bar, and Best Bar Game. But even when I'm not writing about sex and gender, I'm writing about sex and gender, and two of my Bests picks are of particular Sexist concern.

The first is on the three fine bloggers behind BYGays, who took the honors for D.C.'s Best New Nightlife Blog. Bradley Portnoy, Deb Greenspan, and John Marble, the ringleaders of BrightestYoungThings' new gay contingent, were nice enough to talk to me about heterosexuality in gay nightlife:

Introducing the newest addition to gay nightlife: straight people. “I like a party that’s about 40 percent gay,” says Bradley Portnoy, one of the founders of Brightest Young Things’ new LGBT nightlife contingent, BYGays—a site aimed at adding a queer twist to BYT’s party promotion and scene coverage. “To get gay people to your party, you have to show them that there’s a potential for them to get laid that night,” explains  Portnoy, 23. “When it’s 30 or 40 percent gay, you can identify where the gay people are and approach them and hit on them. If you don’t have that, the gays aren’t going to show up. But once you get to about 50 percent gay, the straight people start to feel alienated.”

The heterosexual discomfort, Portnoy says, has an innocent partying explanation. “It’s not homophobia,” he says. “I think everyone wants to make sure they can get laid without too much of a hassle.” But since when have gay nightlife promoters been concerned with getting straight people laid? [Read the rest here].

The second is Best Newlyweds, shared among the hundreds of same-sex couples who lined up for recognition at D.C. Superior Court this month.

The D.C. Superior Court’s marriage bureau typically processes about 10 marriage applications a day. On March 3—the first day same-sex marriage applications were accepted—151 couples waited in line; in the next five days, 315 more couples had waded through the process of getting hitched, all but a few of them gay [Read the rest here].

For more sex & gender-related stuff, check out the Reader's Poll which gauges local opinion on D.C.'s strip clubs, sex shops, drag queens, and gay bars.

Photos by Darrow Montgomery

Well folks, it's that time of the year again when I retire to my secret, undisclosed holiday-time punpkin'-pie sunshine bunker* for the remainder of the year. Things should get back on a regular schedule on December 29th, followed closely by another brief hiatus to allow for my first hangover of 2009. Until then, let's reflect.

I started this blog this fall, after jumping ship from the City Paper's arts beat to cover a subject a little closer to my area of interest—women (am one). Since then, I've written on contraception access, coy Internet sex fiends, and that sexy dunce ice queen who would become the Vice President of our hearts. Let's see what subjects ya'll found most interesting this year: in a list!

1. SEX/OBAMA: Electoral Dysfunction: In Search of Election Night Sex
2. SARAH PALIN: The Sexist's Vice-Presidential Debate Drinking Game
3. SEX/FIRE: The Good Guys Trial
4. OBAMA: Is This Man Your Ticket to the Inauguration?
5. SEX: Nude Coworkers: Disturbing?
6. SEX/SARAH PALIN: Star in the Sarah Palin Adult Film
7. SARAH PALIN: Now: Live-Blogging the Vice-Presidential Debate
8. GAY ENDURANCE CONTESTS: High Heel Race Seeks Volunteers
9. BOOBS: Breast Cancer Awareness Cake: Fail
10. WOMEN'S HEALTH: Yes, We Have No Birth Control

Thanks very much for reading. And let me know what sexy fire boob contests you'd like to see covered in 2009!

* Phoenix.

Photo via trialsanderrors.