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AFTER KAL PENN’S COMG OUT, HAROLD AND KUMAR FEELS EVEN GAYER
Sure, the eponymo protagonists sniff out weed and women, but they also chase their dreams — and a eply homosocial bond wh each ’s already so much that was gay about this movie upon s 2004 release.
And light of Kal Penn’s recent revelatn that he is gay, engaged, and (hopefully) plans to ve me to his “big ass Indian” weddg, Harold and Kumar has assumed a ep, meta-textual queer ronance. But the movie also smartly nonts stereotyp lodged at Asian Amerins, tailg social dynamics many of actually enunter, like parents who stnchly steer toward medil school (rais hand) or assumptns about our work bee Asian Amerin men are often femized by domant culture, a bunch of meatheads keep jokg that Harold and Kumar are gay for each other. The duo also engag no-homo humor themselv, and the vibe is ribbg rather than tolerant.
The joke isn’t that Harold and Kumar might be gay, but that only a mouth-breather would make that ’s a sly distctn that sets the movie apart om others of the era that leaned to gay panic for cheap lghs. And the movie’s queer bona fis are ever more obv retrospect, regardls of Penn’s newly rved place the gay Hollywood Mount Rhmore of my md.