Why the Gay and Bi Men of 'Boys the Band' Still Matter

Contents:

• BOY BAND MEMBERS WHO ARE OUT AS GAY, BISEXUAL OR QUEER
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY THEATER, THREE ACTS
• THE BOYS THE BAND: WHAT WAS ALAN'S SECRET (IS HE GAY)?
• WHY THE GAY AND BI MEN OF BOYS THE BAND STILL MATTER
• 'I'M GAY AND A BOY BAND!'

BOY BAND MEMBERS WHO ARE OUT AS GAY, BISEXUAL OR QUEER

Most out gay boy band members talk about their early reer days of havg dual personas - the public heterosexual teen male, and the private gay dividual - creatg an thenticy paradox. Per Outsports, Maxen is the “first publicly out male ach a major Amerin men’s pro sports league, ” wh WNBA ach Curt Miller, who publicly me out to the media as gay 2015, also a publicly out male ach an Amerin profsnal sports league.

Wily regnized as South Korea’s first openly gay K-pop artist, the sger and actor Go Tae-seob, who the stage name Holland, starred a BL drama last year and believ that the growg visibily of BL books, TV seri and movi is a posive step. “Whether you are a heterosexual woman tryg to ject your sexual tonomy to the world, or you are a gay man who wants to see posive reprentatns of male-male romance, BL n be ed, ” he said.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

In other words, where Bud Light has buckled unr prsure as bigotry grows agast the LGBTQ+ muny, Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hodson wants his new boozy brand to be the anthis of that.

“The key issue that Bud Light tapped to was the fact that they didn’t unrstand their re dience and know enough about them,” Hodson, a gay man, told CNN about the ntroversy that began when the Anhser-Bch beer brand sent fluencer Dylan Mulvaney a n of beer. Hodson built up a strong social media followg on TikTok and Instagram durg Covid-19 and is g some of the money om that (as well as om iends and fay) to help fund Gay Water. “Gay is an umbrella term and the ia behd the brand is to be as clive as possible, which means we want alli, we want straight people to be part of this muny we’re buildg.”.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY THEATER, THREE ACTS

Gay Water might not have the ep pockets pared to s petors, like Whe Claw, but “even at small sle, pani of many siz are havg succs makg spir-based seltzers and premixed cktails,” Bryan Roth, an analyst for Feel Goods Company and edor of the alhol beverage newsletter, Sightl+, told CNN. “There’s lots of space the spir-based seltzer tegory which Gay Water n play, pecially if the brand n offer a cultural or emotnal nnectn that will feel more excg than the prospect of another peapple-flavored vodka seltzer om natnal or ternatnal rporatns,” Roth said.

Of urse, other drks e the word “gay,” too, cludg Gay Beer and So Gay Rosé, Hodson noted, which are also tryg to reach the queer muny and offer them an alternative the straight-domated space. Experimentg wh femy the safety of the home — even somethg as mcule as selectg girl characters vio gam and livg virly through her abily to kick ass — seems to be a shared gay experience for many of .

It feels remiscent of the adoratn that gay fans hold toward old Hollywood beti like Joan Crawford and Judy Garland, or the pageant-style exaggeratns of femy that unrpned so much of early drag culture. Part of Barbie’s gay appeal might be that, spe beg plastic and unmalleable, she n transform herself to anythg: doctor, lawyer, judge, journalist, and vet, or whatever Mattel thks will sell the most dolls.

THE BOYS THE BAND: WHAT WAS ALAN'S SECRET (IS HE GAY)?

) As the world’s most famo doll, she has been st as both an aspiratnal hero and a rctive villa — the gay world, this polarizg dualy often turns women to ins.

Now, I feel proud of my ltle gay self for havg the urage to play wh those fabulo dolls — and of my parents for buyg me the toys I wanted, not the on I was supposed to like. When Mart Crowley’s “The Boys the Band, ” the granddaddy of gay plays, first appeared off-Broadway, offered an si peek to what had been nsigned to the shadows: gay male life as is experienced outsi the characters this 1968 drama, New York iends gathered for a birthday celebratn, slurp cktails, tra bchy repartee, assemble to a chos le, flirt, flame out and throw fs.

Between the dulgence of flamboyant stereotyp and the ternalized homophobia of Michael, the alholic protagonist and psychologil arsonist, the drama only seemed to pound unflatterg ritur. Vo Rso went so far as to clare “The Celluloid Closet, ” his irreplaceable 1981 book on homosexualy the movi, that “The Boys the Band” ma the “bt and most potent argument for gay liberatn ever offered a popular art form.

WHY THE GAY AND BI MEN OF BOYS THE BAND STILL MATTER

”As I said to my gay BFF after watchg the new Netflix versn of “The Boys the Band, ” which rn the st of Joe Mantello’s Tony-wng 2018 Broadway revival, Crowley’s landmark work is both dated and eternal, a perd piece that still has somethg urgent to say.

The film, dited to Crowley, who died this year, betifully summons a vtage gay New York that was buildg exorably to some of the character subtleti get lost the dnken shuffle, Mantello’s dited pany honors the munal bonds that have transformed characters om such different backgrounds to a fay. Perhaps the most remembered le om the play is Michael’s sperate crack at the end: “Who was that ed to always say, ‘You show me a happy homosexual, and I’ll show you a gay rpse. Homosexuals Donald and Michael are discsg a birthday party the latter is givg for their iend Harold, when Alan, an old heterosexual llege acquatance of Michael's, telephon and asks if he n vis.

'I'M GAY AND A BOY BAND!'

Michael then acc Alan of beg a "closet" homosexual and goads him to llg a former llege iend whose advanc Alan had once spurned; Alan dials a number and blurts out his love to the person on the other end, but Michael's brief victory is ed when the person turns out to be Alan's tranged wife.

The ftivi beg to pall, and the guts start to leave, but not before Harold vastat Michael by characterizg him as a nrotic, unable to live eher the homosexual or heterosexual world.