Gavin Munn (Jonathan on Raising Dion and Abraham on The Righteous Gemstones) is lucky to have two supportive parents, willing to drive him as far as Atlanta, six hours away, for auditions and scenes.
1. "Punching or licking. Your choice."
Am I licking, or are you?
On Saturday morning, Jimmy came downstairs to the staff bustling about, cleaning bedrooms, mopping, vacuuming. Most of the family had already finished breakfast and scattered to the boat or the swimming pools, but Kelvin and Keefe were still in the breakfast nook. The youngest of the Gemstones was short, sturdy, muscular, and femme, a Tom of Finland drag queen, married to a long-haired muscleman with a fading “Hail Satan” tattoo visible on his forearm.
“Good morning!” Kelvin called, flashing the usual Look. “I hope you got a lot of rest, ‘cause we have a full day planned.”
Jimmy sat next to him. A waiter jumped forward to fill his coffee cup and hand him the breakfast menu. He ordered the Denver omelet and sourdough toast.
“To be honest, after the noise and honking horns of Metropolis, it was hard to sleep in the quiet.” Especially with his superpower revealing who was going at it at 3 and 4 am.
“Back when I was in Satan’s Baby, we toured in Metropolis a lot,” Keefe said. “I used to be a regular in the gay club scene up there. Have you been to The Metropolis Eagle?”
Why did Keefe think that Jimmy would be hanging out in gay clubs? “Your heavy metal past is a story waiting to be told. Maybe I can interview you later?”
He looked down at his mostly-eaten frittata. “Thanks, but I like to stay out of the spotlight. I’m the roots of the tree, and Kelvin is the branches.”
Ok, so he wouldn’t be getting much information from Keefe. Time to interrogate Kelvin. “So you came out publicly last year, but I’m sure the family knew long before that. How did you come out to them?”
“Well, I didn’t really need to come out to them – they knew long before I did, back when I was a kid and sneaked peeks at my sister’s teen magazines. It took me forever to figure it out for myself. I was in denial for years, until…” He hesitated. “I guess the kidnapping.”
Keefe objected, too: “But we were doing stuff back when we first met, when Gideon and Scotty….” Kelvin shot him a harsh look, and he trailed off.
Obviously Kelvin was trying to control the narrative, present himself as unaware until 2023, so he could claim not to know about Gideon and Scotty….who the heck was Scotty, and what did it have to do with Kelvin?
“Keefe, are you sure you won’t reconsider that interview? Maybe we can do it while swimming later. I heard that the Lake House was clothing optional?”'
Keefe flashed the Look and glanced at Kelvin, who nodded his consent.
City boy Jimmy learned to swim in a public pool, had been rescued from a sinking ship by Beast Boy, and was trembling with fear on the floating dock as Keefe dove into the 200-foot deep water of Lake Murray (Kelvin stayed behind to do some work with Prism.) He pulled himself up, rocking the dock – the guy weighed 200 pounds – and climbed up to the slide.
He paused. “Aren’t you coming in, Jimmy?”
“No, thanks -- I’ll just work on my tan. But I’m enjoying watching you.” Jimmy hesitated, realizing that it sounded like he was interested – and maybe he was. The guy was massive everywhere. Of course, he had a semi due to their proximity, but Keefe was bigger with a semi than most guys fully aroused. He'd definitely need an extra-extra big condom. If Jimmy was going to accept one of the three-way hints this weekend, it would be with the heavy metal rocker and his husband.
Keefe tumbled down the slide, dove in again, and then lay on the beach towel next to Jimmy – so close that they were touching, of course. .
“Tell me about how you and Kelvin met,” Jimmy suggested.
He grinned at the memory. “It was at Charleston Pride 2019. I was passing out fliers for Baby Queef – my solo act after I quit Satan’s Baby. Kelvin came to one of my performances, and that was it. For me, anyway. It took like three years to convince him that we should be more than sex buddies, and five years to talk him into marrying me.”
Keefe Chambers was on his way to an impressive career – lead singer in a heavy metal band, a solo act as a Satanic comedian, friends with musical giants Ozzie Osborne and Trent Reznor, covers of “It’s Raining Men” and “I’m Coming Out” that charted in France. But he gave it all up to stand in the wings, quietly supporting Kelvin Gemstone, his best friend, boyfriend, and eventually his husband.
“So Charleston Pride, June 2019, right?” Jimmy fished. "Was that before or after Gideon and Scotty?”
“Gideon came home from California later, after I moved into Kelvin's house. Maybe in January or February? Scotty came up a week or so later, and stayed through...well, stayed awhile.”
“A boyfriend?”
“Probably. I mean, we had them over for dinner, like they were a couple.”
“So Gideon is gay?”
Keefe patted his shoulder. “You'd better ask him yourself. He likes irises and Greek food.” He dove into the water again.
If Rev. Gemstone allowed Gideon and his boyfriend to live openly in his house in the spring of 2020, the thing that happened couldn’t be about being gay. Unless he started homophobic, kicked Gideon out of the house, and somehow the relationship was restored.
More after the break
Jimmy was prepared for a mansion rivaling Bruce Wayne’s – after all, the Gemstone motto was “Do It Big!” But he still wasn’t prepared for the Gemstone Lake House, on Lake Murray, South Carolina’s biggest reservoir. Tudor-style, with three round towers, four decks, eight bedrooms, two swimming pools, two boat launches, and a gazebo decorated with statues of the Greek gods Aphrodite and Apollo.
“Thank you for agreeing to the interviews,” Jimmy said.
“It’s a visit,” he corrected. “You’re our guest for the weekend. Think of yourself as family – a long lost cousin. You want anything, just ask.” Then he flashed The Look – everybody did, Jimmy should have expected it, but he was still taken aback. This was Jesse Gemstone!
But all Rev. Gemstone did was get semi-aroused, caress Jimmy's arm a bit, and lead him into the foyer and…the library, where the Gemstone siblings crawled after they were shot by Corey Milsap, and prayed for him as he died -- they prayed for their murderer!
“I’m surprised that you want to spend time at this place, when you and your brother and sister were shot and almost died here.”
He chuckled. “So, if I stayed away from every place where someone tried to kill me, I’d never go anywhere.” Then he hesitated. “This isn’t going to be one of those smear pieces, is it? Frankly, I agreed to the visit because I like some of your articles in the Daily Planet. You’ve got heart -- not like that Lois Lane and her muckraking interviews with Superman”
“It's going to be about the Gemstone Miracle, how you survive and thrive after adversity. I get you – I grew up in the South. In an Evangelical family.”
“But you’re not Evangelical anymore?” Uh-oh, Jimmy felt soul-winning coming on.
“I’m a gay ally – my sister is trans. And I just couldn't stand the homophobia in my home church."
“Why, do you have a piece in mind?”
As Rev. Gemstone showed him the dining room, kitchen, sun room, and game room, Jimmy wrote his introduction in his head:
A cross between Elvis Presley and Conway Twitty, with the Van Buren sideburns and rings on every finger, Jesse Gemstone lives the Gemstone motto of “Do it big!” He has been kidnapped by his uncle, assaulted by a close friend, and shot by another close friend, yet he doesn’t hesitate to open his home and his heart to a complete stranger.
“My brother and sister and their spouses will be coming up for dinner, and my oldest, Gideon, will be arriving tomorrow. Right now it’s just my wife and I, our other two kids, and their boyfriends.”
Wait – boyfriends? Didn’t Jesse and Amber Gemstone have three sons? Jimmy would have to check his notes.
Mrs. Amber Gemstone: The Preacher’s Wife
Mrs. Gemstone was in the kitchen, elegantly dressed, all in white as she brought a pastry – peach cobbler? – from the oven. She wiped her hands on a towel to shake Jimmy’s hand.
“You must think I’m an old fashioned Evangelical housewife, subservient to her husband,” she said, pausing as she gave him The Look.
“No, I don’t think that at….”
She caressed his arm. “But we don’t have full time staff at the lake house. The service goes home after making lunch, so we have to either eat out or cook dinner ourselves. But coming all the way from Metropolis, I thought you’d appreciate some real Southern cooking rather than the Root Cellar or Thai Thai.”
Jimmy pulled away. “I’d appreciate that, Ma’am.”
“Open!” She popped a spoonful of cobbler into his mouth – a big spoonful, and still steaming hot! He cried out in pain.
“Oh, I’m so sorry! Jesse, get a glass of milk for our guest!”
Amber Gemstone, resplendent in white, the picture of the elegant Southern woman, is expertly hiding some insecurity. She longs to be a traditional Evangelical housewife, following St. Paul’s admonition to “be submissive to your husband,” but the three-time sharpshooting champion of Charleston doesn’t take kindly to being submissive.
“Pontius and Stacy are out on a pontoon boat,” Jesse told him. “You can meet them later. Next up is my youngest, Abraham. He just turned eighteen.”
Stacy? Ok, Jimmy must have misheard. Jesse’s middle son had a girlfriend, not a boyfriend.
He led Jimmy out to the bigger of the pools – the one behind the lake house – where two teenage boys were playing a noisy sword fight game with pool tubes. They were high school aged, athletic. When they saw Jesse and Jimmy, they jumped out of the pool and ran forward.
“Boys, this is Jimmy Olsen, the reporter who will be staying with us this weekend. My son Abraham –” he gestured at the shorter boy, who had a muscular physique and a shock of unruly brown hair. “And this is his friend Ash” – tall and thin, with brown skin and curly black hair.
“Don’t be so retro, Dad,” Abraham said, flashing the Look as he took Jimmy’s hand. “Ash is my boyfriend. I’m gay.”
“Yeah, with a boyfriend, I figured.” He dislodged himself from Abraham and shook hands with Ash, who of course flashed the Look. His semi-arousal was obvious.
"I'll leave you alone to get acquainted." Rev. Gemstone vanished into the house.
“Go ahead and publish it in The Daily Planet,” Abraham continued.
“If there’s room in my article.”
“I figured it out when I was like six, but I was afraid to come out to Dad after what happened to my brother Gideon…”
What happened to Gideon? Jimmy smelled a Gemstone story that he hadn’t read in a bio or seen on CNN.
More after the break. Caution: Explicit
(I revised this story to get the Christmas Carol references right, and include a picture of Karl's cock.)
Cousin Karl nodded.
Vance paused to wonder again what the heck was happening. What was he -- the former head of a megachurch empire based on "old fashioned Christian morality" -- doing at a Queer Youth Game Night?
With his arch-nemesis Jesse...ugh...Gemstone?
Teaching his Cousin Karl to play chess while gazing at his massive biceps and wondering if he was big everywhere?
“This piece is called a bishop," he continued, trying to stop imagining Cousin Karl's dick.
“Well, I’ll be…now that you mentioned it, I can’t see it any other way! But it’s supposed to be bishop’s hat, like Catholic bishops, right? He moves diagonally.”
“So the Catholic guy can’t be straight? He must be gay.”
Vance laughed.
March 10, 2025: The Round-Table Discussion of Candidates for the Top Christ Following Man
The question is "Should public schools teach a class in world religions?," but Kelvin interrupts to brag about his Prism ministry. Vance seizes the opportunity to complain about a "homosexual" being nominated: "God's Word is clear on this issue."
Kelvin gets all flustered and starts blustering about the Levitical Code.
Vance isn't stupid. He knows that it's not fair to latch onto one verse from the Code and ignore the others -- and that one verse wasn't even about modern homosexuals -- gays -- it was about temple prostitution. He knows that only a few Evangelicals think that God hates gays. None of the preachers in the Cape and Pistol Society think so. But he continues to dig at Kelvin, and when the boy wins the Top Christ Following Man award anyway, he screams about "homosexuals in our midst" on national tv.
"The Queen and King can move in any direction," Vance continued, "But the Queen can go as far as she wants, and the King can only move one space."
"I get it," Karl said, grinning. "Queens are the biggest and baddest of the pieces. I guess that makes me a Queen."
Vance. laughed. "You're bigger than anybody I've ever seen. But not bad. I think you're really nice."
Karl looked down at his hands. "Thank-ee."
As usual, Vance is trying to dig at Jesse Gemstone. The infuriating braggart thinks he's a much better preacher, but actually he's more successful because he comes from the Baptist tradition, and Vance is Wesleyan -- God requires perfection, no sins in thought, word, or deed. No alcohol, no movies, no dances, no eating out on the Sabbath, no rock music, no secular literature, just the Word of God. No wonder Jesse's laissez-faire "God loves you no matter what" fills the pews at the Salvation Center, and draws millions of views on their streaming service.
Jesse's brother-in-law BJ was injured while pole-dancing -- disgusting! -- so Vance implies that he is gay, and asks "How many homosexuals in your family?" "Two," Jesse answers.
Vance wondered who Jesse meant: his brother Kelvin and...Cousin Karl? No, he probably meant his son Pontius. Tonight Vance dropped by Jesse's house to taunt him a bit, and heard that Pontius and his boyfriend Stacy (yes, a boyfriend) were going to Queer Youth Game Night at Kelvin's house. They assured him that it was just board games, but he imagined cocks pushing through glory holes and guys in slings being gang-banged, so Jesse offered to bring him over to observe.
Vance was only trying to be friendly when saw an unoccupied chess set and offered to teach Cousin Karl to play. And when he rubbed his leg against Cousin Karl's under the table.
"Ok, now the Knight, this horse-shaped piece, moves two squares vertical or horizontal, then one square perpendicular. Let me show you." He moved his Queen's Knight to C5. "It can also jump over other pieces, like that pawn, for instance."
"Sounds complicated."
"Well, anytime you do something that people aren't expecting, they're going to be confused. They may even get angry. But that's the place where you can be an individual, show them who you really are." He reached over and squeezed Karl's hand.
Karl turned to face him -- he was taller than Abraham, even sitting down! "How did it go?"
Left: Cousin Karl and Abraham from a few years ago.
"Like nothing. Like it was not a big deal at all." He fell against Karl's chest and hugged him.
"Your Daddy loves you," Karl said. "He doesn't care who you go out with."
"After what happened with Pontius, I was really worried. Hey, I gotta go tell Pontius and Stacy! See ya!" He rushed off.
"That boy is lucky!" Vance exclaimed. "You don't see many parents who are so accepting, especially when they have two gay kids."
"Three. I think Gideon is gay, too. He never says anything, but I never said anything to my Mama and Daddy, either. They just kind of figured it out when I started bringing boys around." He paused. "What about your folks, Rev. Simkins...I mean, Vance?"
The boy thought he was gay! Vance started to say "I'm just an ally," but then he figured that coming out as straight would decrease his likelihood of getting Karl's cock down his throat later. "I never really said anything to my parents, either."
More after the break