what Mitch says by Mandy Iverson part 1 of 2 M an unhealthy obsession with gay people. He's my best friend, so he thinks he knows things like this about me. He isn't really wrong. I have a bad habit of putting people of homosexual orientation on a pedestal, regardless of whether or not it's earned. In this way, I suppose I box them up the same way people who think they're sex fanatics or void of the Lord do. But it's hard for me to help it. All the same-sex lovers I've come across in my lifetime have been ridiculously cool, and I can't help but think it's more than just coincidence. And as a straight woman whose best friends happen to largely be gay men and women, it's hard not to feel a little inferior, a little boring. itch likes to tease me that I have For as much as Mitch teases me about this, it is largely his fault. Mitch is dangerously bisexual. I say dangerously so because he wears it so well. No one is safe from his prowess. We're both drawn to large hairy men, and I had to sit Mitch down once and make him promise that he'll never steal one from me. So you mean there are some things best friends can't share? he taunted, but I was serious. I've lost count of how many "straight men" have "changed their mind" because of Mitch. In the seven years I've known him, I've seen his advances fail once. Mitch makes many advances. Mitch continued on next page Photo above: Mandy and Mitch pose August 16, 2008 while attending the wedding of a friend. Photo by John DiGilio. www.qviewnorthwest.com | Q View Northwest - Spokane Edition | November 2008 | 2