The film’s treatment of Don Shirley’s sexualy beli the difficult reali that gay men of lor like Jsie Smollett face to this day.
Contents:
- HOW ‘GREEN BOOK’ GIV SHORT SHRIFT TO A GAY LIFE
- HE DIED HOMELS AND FOTTEN. NOW GAY BLACK POSER JULI EASTMAN FALLY GETS HIS DUE
HOW ‘GREEN BOOK’ GIV SHORT SHRIFT TO A GAY LIFE
The scene as a shock: Shirley has been largely solo most of the film, and there is no ditn until then that he is eher gay (ed, there is mentn of a past marriage to a woman) or bisexual. Tony dit he’s acceptg of gay people om his time workg New York nightclubs. A few weeks ago Jsie Smollett, a star of the Fox show “Empire” and a sger-songwrer, was hospalized after he was attacked Chigo by two men shoutg racial and homophobic slurs at him, acrdg to a police statement.
(Ined other lbian, gay and trans people of lor face siar threats. And by not explorg Shirley’s lived experience, the film allows to move past the threat that he, Smollett and others aren’t many black and gay characters popular films and shows today. Wh that drama wng the Amy Award for bt picture jt two years ago (and wh Ali wng bt supportg actor for his role as a sympathetic adult a gay black boy’s life), “Green Book” feels like a Shirley’s fay has been outspoken about how the film mischaracteriz him and his relatnship to them.
He was proudly and provotively Black and gay. It didn’t matter whether you were whe or Black, straight or gay: He had somethg up his sleeve for any of .
HE DIED HOMELS AND FOTTEN. NOW GAY BLACK POSER JULI EASTMAN FALLY GETS HIS DUE
Eastman may have been weled for beg a gay Black man a mostly whe, if sexually fluid, new mic muny, but that only seemed to unrlie his outsir stat.
An sential rource on Eastman is the book “Gay Guerilla, ” eded by Renée Leve Packer and Mary Jane Leach. This was s before John Hugh movi were beg re-evaluated for not agg well and Green Book, a film about a gay Black pianist tourg the 1960s Deep South, was stantly beg lled problematic, or at least dated, upon s release, albe on s way to wng Bt Picture at the, don’t give 1986 too much cred. Wh great bounds beg ma for the LGBTQ+ muny, cludg the legalizatn of gay marriage the Uned Stat, more reprentatn film is necsary.
Thanks to directors like Patrik-Ian Polk, an openly gay Black director rponsible for films like The Skny and Blackbird, the number of Black LGBTQ+ characters has creased, raisg awarens to the particular stggl that only Black members of the LGBTQ+ muny face.