by MATTHEW HAYS

One might expect mention of Montreal's internationally renowned gay circuit party, the Black & Blue, to show up in any number of places. But I confess to being dumbfounded to see journalist Tim Russert, host of NBC's highly rated political chat show Meet the Press, holding up a Black & Blue promotional flyer while cornering one of his guests on Oct. 10.

The moment came when Pete Coors, heir to the family beer fortune and Republican senatorial candidate for Colorado, was asked about his stance on family values. The politician has long been an advocate of his party's pro-life stance, as well as a supporter of President Bush's proposed amendment to the constitution, one that would restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples. How, Russert posited, does the candidate Coors reconcile his own political family values rhetoric with his company's sponsorship of a gay weekend of partying that includes a "leather ball" and "fetish party"?

Coors, clearly caught off guard by the Black & Blue question - not to mention discussion of a fetish party - appeared stuck in the spin cycle. He rather unconvincingly responded that there was no contradiction between the two stances: one was politics, he suggested, and the other simply business.

If the contradiction is troubling for the candidate Coors it should be equally troubling for the Bad Boy Club Montreal (BBCM, the organization behind the Black & Blue) specifically, and gays and lesbians generally. How can the BBCM allow the Coors logo to appear on their events?

BBCM president Robert Vézina concedes the sponsorship isn't one that he's entirely thrilled with, but explains that other beer companies have not wanted to sponsor BBCM events and, since BBCM is a charitable fundraising organization, they need free stuff whenever they can get it. The BBCM has long held sponsorship relations with Molson, he adds, but was recently referred to Coors in light of the pending Molson-Coors merger. This, he adds, will change once the dust has settled from the merger: then, he has been told, he can go back to having a Molson sponsorship and logo on BBCM material.

Though Coors has worked to win over gays in recent years - among other things, it now offers same-sex partner benefits to its employees - the Coors family is still firmly in far-right Republican territory (in other words, entirely anti-gay). In a campaign in which a Coors family member is running, that means gay dollars spent on Coors products are having a real impact (Pete Coors has reportedly spent millions of his own dollars on the hotly contested race).

The question then becomes, should gays put their money to a cause that is clearly damaging to American civil rights - especially at the Black & Blue, an event that was supposed to fuse our party animal to our political animal by raising money for AIDS-related causes.

Molson spokesperson Sylvia Morin says customers should not forget the groundwork her company has laid in terms of reaching out to gay customers. "The Molson family has been visionary in this regard," she suggests. But she also stops short of criticizing Molson's new corporate partner. "Perhaps we can work on softening Coors' stance on some of these issues. But no, we're not going to publicly shit on our partner in business."