The gay lip lock seen round the world. Censored by me. While I still can. You know. Sam The Man.

Everybody’s seen the Michael Sam draft moment. I’m reminded of the old movie Speed. “Pop quiz, asshole:” If you’re the first openly gay guy drafted by the NFL, “What do you do? What do you do?”

Well, obviously, you confirm everyone’s worst stereotype by sobbing like a girl when the call comes and then you French kiss your boyfriend on national TV to drive home the point that you’re the first openly gay guy to get drafted by the NFL. Oh. And then you insist that you should have been drafted in the third round, not the seventh.

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Need to explain the title. Lady Laird and I discovered an amazingly charming reality show about a troupe of competitive hip hop dancers from Memphis, Tennessee. Not one of those shows where you spend all your time laughing at the participants.

To the contrary. The show is called Bring It! And it’s funny, yes, mostly due to the stage moms, but also impressive and inspiring. This kind of dancing is intensely competitive, even confrontational given that contests end in “Stand Battles,” where two troupes dance in response to one another for multiple rounds.

The dancers range in age from about eight through eighteen, and they endure ferocious discipline, long hours, and a, well, Lombardi-type coach who knows her real job is building character, confidence, and a relentless work ethic. They’re called the Dancing Dolls. Here’s a sample of what young girls can do when they’ve been taught to dance in synchrony.

Here’s a glimpse of just how tough she’s prepared to get.

And here’s a glimpse of the coach and her youngest students. She made mistakes in her own life. She wants to armor all the girls against those mistakes.

One more clip. You may think hip hop dancing is lewd. It’s a cultural distinction. The coach is adamant that she’s not teaching her girls how to be strippers and hookers. Here’s a Stand Battle against a troupe that does the spreadeagle thing. It’s called Stinky Diva because the Dancing Dolls mock their opponents for the spreadeagle thing. Even teenage girls know when too much is too much. ESPN, take note.

Last word before the end of the Timeout. Lots of competition among the Dancing Dolls. Lots of Stand Battles. They win, they lose. She cuts dancers from upcoming performances without ceremony. But there is never any sobbing or blubbering. They are learning how to take failure and come back stronger.

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Where were we? Michael Sam. Actually, there were two stories worthy of note in his draft performance. First, his blubbering and sloppy exhibitionism. Second, the ESPN determination to run the footage over and over and over and over and over and over again, as if we — their customers — needed to be slapped in the face with their superior sense of what we should approve and admire.

The point is not original with me, but it’s still pertinent. When Tebow got drafted, he was mocked for his ostentatious Christianity. When Sam got drafted, we got mocked based on the assumption that we would be hatefully offended by his ostentatious homosexuality.

Why? Because homosexuality is suddenly cool. Not because ESPN is chock full of closeted queers. That would be slightly more acceptable. But gay people are a tiny minority. The desire is to rub our faces in it, to demonstrate their cultural superiority to the rest of us troglodytes. People like me who never watched Brokeback Mountain and never will.

It’s the same impulse that drives lib politicians to outlaw cigarette smoking everywhere while fighting for legalization of marijuana everywhere. Even though Patrick Kennedy (yes, those Kennedy’s) points out that no heroin addict ever started with a needle in his arm.

It’s the same impulse that causes the MSM to flat not cover the Gosnell trial, even though he’s probably the most prolific serial killer in the history of serial killers. Even Ted Bundy might have shrunk from sawing off a baby’s head on its way out of the womb.

What’s bad is good and vice versa. The tyranny I’ve mentioned before.

Gay guys are cool? Try these facts on for size.

The sometimes-deadly disease syphilis is exploding in the United States, with most of the increase since 1995 among men who have sex with men (MSM), according to a new report from the Atlanta-based Center for Disease Control (CDC).

As recently as 2000, researchers believed the total elimination of syphilis was within reach. The recent dramatic increases in infections, coupled with the observation that syphilis closely tracks with other diseases like AIDS, have the medical and scientific community deeply concerned. The CDC report considers “the increase in syphilis among MSM is a major public health concern.”

According to the report, “During 2005-2013, the number of primary and secondary syphilis cases reported each year in the United States nearly doubled, from 8,724 to 16,663; the annual rate increased from 2.9 to 5.3 cases per 100,000 population.”

The report also says that “men contributed an increasing proportion of cases, accounting for 91.1% of all primary and secondary syphilis cases in 2013.” Most of the increases came from men who have sex with men, which were responsible for 77% of cases in 2009 but 83.9% in 2012, what the report calls “the vast majority of male… syphilis cases.”

The report warns that the numbers in the new report are likely far less than the true number because only 34 states and the District of Columbia fully report sex of sex partners.

The report raises a particular concern about what it calls “co-infection rates.” “There are reported rates of 50%-70% HIV co-infection among MSM infected with primary or secondary syphilis…”

The notion of co-infection follows closely a report just published by independent researcher Dale O’Leary in the prestigious Linacre Quarterly of the Catholic Medical Association, found at the bottom of this article.

O’Leary reports that researchers understand the problems of health among MSM are now so vast and interrelated they are considered a “syndemic,” a linked set of health issues involving two or more afflictions acting in concert within a specific population. According to the medical literature, among MSM these would include diseases like syphilis, gonorrhea, and HIV but also such pathologies as partner violence, drug abuse, and psychological disorders. Treating a single part of this puzzle would not solve the whole problem.

The HIV/AIDS infection rate alone is bleak. From 2008 to 2010 the new HIV infection rate grew 12%, from 26,700 to 29,800 cases reported. One in five sexually active MSM carry the AIDS virus, but nearly half of those don’t even know it. However, HIV/AIDS is not the only problem, as the new CDC report on syphilis makes clear. According to the Linacre paper, “MSM are far more likely to be diagnosed with other STDs, some of which have become resistant to commonly used antibiotics.”

The paper reports on a 2004 outbreak of something called lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV), considered rare in the developed world prior to 2003, which includes “tender, enlarged lymph nodes in both groins.” A 2004 outbreak in the Netherlands among MSM has led to its spread in the European Union and the United States almost exclusively among the HIV-positive.

Another linked pathology is Hepatitis C, “which can lead to liver cancer, can be [sexually] transmitted and is spreading not only among HIV-positive gay men, but also among HIV-negative MSM.” Human papillomavirus is epidemic and has led to a “dramatic increase in anal cancer among MSM, especially those who are HIV positive.”

Included in this particular syndemic, according to the Linacre paper, are issues related to mental health, including higher risks of “suicidal ideation, substance misuse, and deliberate self harm than heterosexual people.” According to the paper, even the Southern Poverty Law Center, an advocacy group for MSM, admits “that LGBT people suffer higher rates of anxiety, depression and depression-related illnesses and behaviors like alcohol and drug abuse than the general population,” though they chalk this up to “homophobia.”

Why don’t we care what ESPN thinks is cool? Because what isn’t cool isn’t. Sometimes what’s wrong reveals itself in the simple fact that it’s poisonous to life, health, and happiness. If you think you know better, Michael Sam, Bring It!