G Van Sant On His First Amazon Film & Straight Actors Playg Gay | Observer

Contents:

• Q&A: G VAN SANT ON STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY AND MAKG HIS FIRST FILM FOR AMAZON
• THE TE STORY BEHD G VAN SANT’S FORTHG GAY ACTIVISM MISERI
• DT LANCE BLACK, G VAN SANT’S GAY RIGHTS MI A GO AT ABC
• G VAN SANT GAY RUMORS?ONLE POLL SHOWS 67 PERCENT DON’T BELIEVE HE’S GAY
• G VAN SANT'S MILK SPOTLIGHTS GAY RIGHTS
• 'TWO BOYS SNOGGG WAS REVOLUTNARY': THE GREATT GAY MOMENTS CEMA
• ON THIS GAY DAY: DIRECTOR G VAN SANT WAS BORN

Q&A: G VAN SANT ON STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY AND MAKG HIS FIRST FILM FOR AMAZON

The Don’t Worry character Donnie, John Callahan’s AA sponsor, is gay, and he’s played by Jonah Hill. So many proment gay rol go to straight actors, while gay actors still stggle to e out publicly bee they worry will affect their abily to land any rol at all.

Now there are a lot more gay actors to choose om that you uld st gay rol.

It did cross my md that I wasn’t stg a gay actor that role.

THE TE STORY BEHD G VAN SANT’S FORTHG GAY ACTIVISM MISERI

But there’s a lot more gay subject matter nowadays. There’s more opportuny for gay actors than there has been.

It seems like a lot of the stori the new platforms are terted are offerg more opportuni for gay subjects. I see a lot of gay films available on Netflix—maybe bee my streamg style attracts them.

DT LANCE BLACK, G VAN SANT’S GAY RIGHTS MI A GO AT ABC

After Stonewall and before AIDS, there were the Whe Night rtsPolice officers stggle wh a monstrator outsi Cy Hall durg a rt followg the nvictn of Dan Whe, who killed openly gay polician Harvey Milk. 21, 1979 © APBy Meagan DayOnce a margalized movement rtricted to large astal ci, gay liberatn is now gettg extensive treatment a mastream work Van Sant’s forthg When We Rise — starrg Guy Pearce, Mary-Louise Parker, and Rachel Griffhs — will chronicle the early gay rights movement, which flourished the Castro neighborhood of San Francis the 60s, 70s and 80s.

For thenticy, the rabow flags that hang om every streetlamp and storeont will be replaced wh an earlier edn featurg two extra lors: turquoise and hot Sant’s seri is spired by the tobgraphy of gay activist Cleve Jon, When We Rise: Comg of Age San Francis, AIDS, and My Life the Movement, which will be published May. In the 70s, he joed the thoands of gay men om the nservative center of the untry who moved to San Francis seekg love, sex, and acceptance. Jon quickly beme an activist, and formed a strong iendship wh Harvey Milk, the natn’s first openly gay public official, who was murred ont page of the San Francis Chronicle the day after Harvey Milk’s the full historil spe of Van Sant’s new project is not yet known (there are hts that will clu scen om the prent day), the director has reportedly already filmed a reenactment of the Whe Night rts of May 21st, 1979.

G VAN SANT GAY RUMORS?ONLE POLL SHOWS 67 PERCENT DON’T BELIEVE HE’S GAY

The Whe Night rts monstrated the strength and size of San Francis’s gay muny, and ultimately led the lol polil tablishment to take serly as a rts took place on the eve of the nvictn of Harvey Milk’s killer, San Francis supervisor Dan Whe, whose fense, the so-lled “Twkie fense, ” succsfully relied on the argument that his mental pacy was dimished — evinced by his nsumptn of massive amounts of junk food. The announcement that Whe would be nvicted of only voluntary manslghter, not premedated murr, wound the gay muny that had nsired Milk an advote and a role mol. Via The Llie Lohman Mm of Gay and Lbian ArtIn the hours followg the nvictn, Cleve Jon anized an impromptu march through the Castro, which quickly swelled to over 1, 500 people.

” The crowd was 5, 000 strong by the time reached Cy Hall, where was met by San Francis gay muny already had a longstandg nflict wh lol police, who had aggrsively arrted gay men for public cency sce the begng of the Castro’s emergence as a gay enclave.

The SFPD was also known to raid gay-iendly bs and rough up patrons — three years before Stonewall, the Compton’s Cafeteria rt saw gay and transgenr rints fightg back agast police animosy between the police and the gay muny reached a fever pch ont of Cy Hall on the night of May 21st. In anger, a group of police officers broke away and nducted a raid on a gay bar the Castro, where they shouted “dirty cksuckers” and “sick faggots.

G VAN SANT'S MILK SPOTLIGHTS GAY RIGHTS

Harry Brt, the openly gay supervisor who had replaced Harvey Milk after his ath, ma clear a prs nference the followg morng that there would be no atonement om San Francis’s gay muny. ” The gay muny stonewalled the prs — so to speak — and no apologetic statements were created and distributed by Lbians Agast Police Vlence and The Stonewall Coaln, a mixed-genr lbian/gay anizatn allied wh LAPV, summer 1979.

Gay polil power was taken to full nsiratn, perhaps for the first time natnwi, the 1979 San Francis mayoral race, which Dianne Feste won on a platform of gay-iendly polici and cultural cln. Senator sce Jon remaed a mted gay rights activist, directg his attentn to the AIDS crisis startg the early 80s. If the state were to al yet another blow to s gay muny, bt not to do on the very date that a prev urt cisn provoked one of the biggt gay rts history.

'TWO BOYS SNOGGG WAS REVOLUTNARY': THE GREATT GAY MOMENTS CEMA

Shortly thereafter, a documentary about Proposn 8 was narrated by Dt Lance Black, a young gay scriptwrer om a nservative hoehold Texas. When We Rise will air on ABC, brgg the Whe Night rts and the history of early gay activism to the hom of Amerins who have never before heard the story of how the gay muny ma self polilly men walk the Castro, via The Llie Lohman Mm of Gay and Lbian Art.

ON THIS GAY DAY: DIRECTOR G VAN SANT WAS BORN

In addn to beg one of the most fancially and crilly succsful LGBTQ films of all time, “Brokeback Mounta” broke barriers for stg heterosexual stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger as gay romantic leads. Both actors earned Osr nomatns for their performanc, explodg the long-held belief that playg gay would irreversibly hurt a leadg man’s reer. “Brokeback Mounta” is not the only gay film Van Sant nearly directed.