R.I.P. to a Gay Comedian... Scott Kennedy

Last week, a gay comedian died in his sleep. Scott Kennedy was funny guy that didn't need to overdress to prove he was gay.

He was an every man's gay. Something you don't see in the gay media or on TV. I just learned of his death yesterday, too bad none of the gay websites talked about him. I guess he wasn't cute enough or in a jockstrap.

Too bad, right? Luckily, Dave Holmes wrote a great piece about him in HuffPo.

Scott Kennedy was a brilliant comic who had all the trappings of success: a Comedy Central special, late-night appearances, a busy road schedule. But just as his career began to heat up, so did our military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. So he put his stateside career on the back burner to entertain the troops through several USO tours. Then he organized his own touring show, Comics Ready to Entertain, because -- get this -- the USO wouldn't take him to dangerous-enough military bases. Over the course of more than 50 trips to Afghanistan and Iraq, in up to five shows a day, he gave our men and women overseas a bit of the love they sorely needed. "You have to give them a little bit of home," Scott said at the time. "They have to feel normal once in a while."

Through most of his career, Scott Kennedy was also an openly gay comedian. With his ever-present football jersey, tattered ball cap and spare tire, he didn't look the part, and he used that to his advantage; when he addressed his sexuality onstage, it was usually toward the end of his set, after a new audience thought they had him figured out. Scott defied expectations and broadened minds. He was an out gay comedian in a time when it was not at all easy to be an out gay comedian, and often in places where it was not at all easy to be an out gay comedian, for example in Iraq and Afghanistan, or in front of our troops at the height of "don't ask, don't tell," or, hell, in a comedy club.

Please read the rest of this piece.

Rest in Peace, Scott.