The Gay Uncle was on the radio for the first time last night, peppered with questions for the sake of the “listeners” of OUT-Q, Gay Satellite Radio. He was quite certain how to respond to campy remarks about Liz Taylor’s knee replacements, and the near-successful stealth gay takeover of network television programming in the ’70’s, when everyone was either unaware or just too high to care. But he was less certain of how to react to the idea–presented by one of his interviewers–that a gay uncle’s job, when dealing with his butch lesbian friend’s kids, is to provide education in things “pink and girlie”. Now G.U. can swish with the best of them, but he’s also a gender constructivist of sorts (he’s been working on a new book about the subject called “Beyond Pink and Blue”) and thinks that part of the fun of being gay comes from questioning gendered stereotypes–gay, straight, or otherwise. He thus sees a role for himself in the life of his nieces and nephews beyond simply Hair and Makeup. He loves old trucks and gardening; attends drag acts and drag strips; collects 19th century English transferware and 21st century indie-rock. He sees life and gender as multivalent, in part because his lifelong work with kids has shown him that we all start out thinking that way.