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THE GAY INTROVERT TAK CENTER STAGE JAM SWEENEY'S STRAIGHT UP
Sweeney directed, wrote, and starred the productn about a gay man, Todd, who, turned off by the msy necsi of sex, tri to make a chaste relatnship work wh a woman, Rory (Katie Fdlay) Todd, the "purebred gay" filmmaker once stggled to meet men and only found meangful -- if not sexual -- nnectns wh women his life. Likewise, Sweeney had difficulti fdg a place the gay muny. Yet, as an Asian-Amerin who grew up Alaska whout LGBTQ iends, the media portrayals of gay culture -- bars, loud mic, hypersexualizatn -- felt alien to him.
Movg to Los Angel, where gay men seemed more likely to flock to the Abbey than the Wt Hollywood library, did not improve matters eher. "Growg up, fely felt like there was a very specific way to be gay, " Sweeney said. I felt like [beg] gay was changg who I was.
"I thk beg gay means I'm attracted to men. "You n live a pletely full, happy sex life as a gay man and not have anal sex, " Sweeney, apart om sex, Rory and Todd seem perfect for one another. " This tradn of gay snark, while ls prent blockbters, liv on social media spac like Twter, whose algorhm rewards wordplay and zgers that take down the mighty and all this md, Sweeney still marvels that Straight Up was ever ma s current form, particularly wh himself as the star.