Apparently Chicago was getting a little too big for its britches about their favorite son and it got a big old biotch slap. First Oprah announced that she literally had gotten too big for her britches. She admitted - and what tacky person asked? - that she has hit the double centenary pound mark. I’m sorry you feel so bad about it, Oprah, and for health’s sake you probably should try to shed a few pounds, but heck you are one big beautiful black woman, so don’t get all shamey, do what you can and look gorgeous in the meantime. It might be karma for that wheel barrel of fat you had carted out on stage a while back.

Then Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, with the very slim resume, got carted off for allegedly trying to sell Barrack Obama’s vacant Senate seat. It’s not like it’s never been done before, but you have to admire this guy’s level of transparency. Rod married Chicago alderman Dick Mell’s potty-mouthed daughter and rose to governor on a reform plank. Like the reform-minded guv from Alaska he got bored with the job and sought a national platform. There are no transcripts of Palin trying to sell Sen. Ted Steven’s old seat. Yet. Though we face huge state deficits, I hope my NY Governor Paterson doesn’t try to sell off Hillary Clinton’s senate seat. And who knew being governor was such a giant yawn?

The “expletive laced” transcripts made young Rod sound like he was off his meds. The subpoenaed Team of Rovals linked the scandal to Barack Obama, Tony Rezko and maybe Boss Tweed. With audacity of hype FOX news denounced the pay-to-play demands of the governor and wanted off with his bleeping bushy head. Meantime the slobbying, mendacious GOP sees “ethics” as their mantra for the next election. Gag me with a forklift.

It is sad that selling vacant senate seats is seen as a viable revenue stream in this economy. Desperate times. While America shopped, our unregulated capital markets turned into ponzi scum and high stakes poker parlors. Desperate measures. The damage continues to trickle down and very good, decent, hardworking people, who shower before and after work, are being hammered.

Ironically gay and straight are equal in the great leveling juggernaut of this recession. The LGBT community is reeling. Individual memberships, donations and corporate funding have dried up and LGBT groups are cutting staff or going under. The Day Without Gay is real and it’s here and threatens to turn into weeks and months.

Now more than ever it’s time for our own version of pay-to-play. In whatever year-end giving we can afford we need to support our LGBT centers and organizations, local, state, national and international. We also need to support straight organizations run by courageous out LGBT leaders. We need to lean on our straight allies to pay up with us.

It’s time for some Pay-to-Gay.