Coming out as a Cuomosexual

I was a big fan of Mario Cuomo’s back in the Reagan days. So much wanted him to run for president against the man I saw - still do - as the pivot point where America gave up its ideals of equality and equity. Thought he was the (fill in the blank with whichever geezer expression comes to mind - the cat’s meow, the bee’s knees…).  I was vaguely aware of the presence of his two sons, Andy and Chris. I knew that Andy had become governor of New York and Chris had become a TV newscaster. Another one of those accomplished families, I thought. How nice.

I began following Chris Cuomo in recent months as I struggled to counter the madness of the Fox/Breitbart propaganda machine with the likes of Robert Reich, Lawrence O’Donnell, Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, and a few others of their ilk. I tired quickly of the sharpness of the extreme left, despite the fact that they expressed my political view to a T most of the time. Morning Joe and Daily Kos do the heavy slugging against the bullies, but their relentnessness, necessary as it might be, gets tiresome after a while.  More and more I began turning to  Chris Cuomo, who, I thought, managed to keep a steady progressive take on the political scene without becoming stale. Maybe it’s more that he’s so easy on the eyes. Won’t hide from that possibility.

When it came out that he had caught the coronavirus I sat up and took notice. I’ve lost two friends in recent days, one from Alzheimer’s in Seattle and a high school classmate from the Covid-19 in New York. Another old friend is in the hospital with Covid-19 in London. On oxygen. Word came down from my friend Bill that an old friend of his had just died of Covid-19 at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. This is getting too close to home. 

When he began to include his brother Andrew, New York’s governor, in his reports and the two of them began to display their sibling rivalry and heavy-handed teasing, my admiration shot up for the both of them. There they were, Mario’s boys, all growed up and absolutely heroic. Laughing and being affectionate brothers. Not cowering or exploding in outrage. 

What started out as a casual respect for the newscaster, Chris Cuomo, turned into a focus

Left: CNN anchor, Chris Cuomo, the "meatball"
of the family; Right: New York governor,
Andrew Cuomo

on Chris Cuomo the man, and his up-close tale of somebody at the frontlines of the battle against the virus. It brought the illness home and gave me a way of channeling the abrupt loss of friends, the alarming statistics and the misery of the mismanagement of the disease at the federal level into a single man’s life, somebody to root for as a symbolic way of facing the pandemic with confidence. I followed his daily reports, how he chipped a tooth flailing about one night, how he lost ten pounds in a couple days, how he worried he might pass on the virus to his wife and kids.

Strange how a crisis can bring about the worst in people, the hoarders, the scoffers, the political opportunists, the Southern Evangelicals who insist on going to church, secure in their faith that the blood of Jesus will protect them from germs. And the best in people, the heroic doctors and nurses working, and sometimes dying, in intensive care, often without the necessary resources like masks and gowns. And the spirit lifters, like the Cuomo Brothers.

I began digging around to learn more about them. Listen, if you’ve got the time, to the Cuomo boys sing the praises of their father. I challenge you to find a more inspiring story of the love of family and especially a son’s - two sons’ - respect for their father.   First Chris’s piece; and then Andrew’s eulogy at his father’s funeral. The second is a bit long, but they are both worth listening to in their entirety.

Naturally, if you find yourself getting all sentimental and going overboard with adulation, it’s not a bad thing to step back and not take yourself so seriously. Have a good laugh at the human weakness that is hero-worship. Which is what Randy Rainbow has done, in probably his best composition yet. He quite evidently is as taken with the Cuomo Brothers as I am. And has the talent to create a brilliant parody of our fascination with a spoof on Grease's "Sandy." Have a listen.  Here's a link to Randy's "Andy" version.

Photo credit

And speaking of credit, much as I'd like to claim "Cuomosexual" as my own idea, it's Randy Rainbow's.