Bad Gays: A Homosexual History - Harvard Book Store

Contents:

• SHOULD STRAIGHT ACTORS STILL PLAY GAY CHARACTERS? 'IT'S PLITED'
• JACK WHEHALL FAC BACKLASH AS DISNEY'S 'FIRST GAY MAN'
• WHAT’S WRONG WH BEG “GAY”? HERE’S WHAT THEY DON’T TELL YOU -- AND ’S REALLY DISTURBG.
• HOW TO ACCEPT THAT YOU ARE GAY
• BAD GAYS: A HOMOSEXUAL HISTORY
• WHY WE NEED TO GET TO KNOW THE “BAD GAYS” OF HISTORY
• THE CUR CASE OF GAYFACE

SHOULD STRAIGHT ACTORS STILL PLAY GAY CHARACTERS? 'IT'S PLITED'

Kane said she has worked wh some patients who felt nfed bee they intified as gay but didn't act like the gay characters they saw on problem here, she said, is that some of the actors lean to stereotyp, perpetuatg them. She remembers when Matt Bomer – a cisgenr man who intifi as gay — was st the small budget film "Anythg" as a transgenr woman 2017, replacg a trans actrs who was origally st the role before the stud wanted a bigger name. "It's almost rctive to say straight actors n't play gay characters bee that impli an 'otherg' of gay people, or that gay people are so fundamentally different than straight people that one uld never play the other.

However, there needs to be a distctn between actors who put effort to takg the LGBTQ rol serly, and the actors — like Corn "The Prom" — who perhaps jt relied heavily on stereotyp to portray a gay character. While overt referenc to homosexualy were long prohibed film, skilled filmmakers created characters that displayed subtle yet clearly queer one handled this more ftly than director Aled Hchck, the master of spense and psychosexual anxiety -- who often st closeted gay actors gay-ish rol. This stereotype of an effemate villa (seen four more tim on this list) taps to the viewer's homophobia -- makg pecially gratifyg to see them feated by the more macho hero.

Damagg StereotypeWaldo Lycker -- Lra (1944)Gay actor Clifton Webb is at his most bchy and ntrollg as the evil queen who attempts to transform Gene Tierney's myster and tular Lra. Damagg StereotypePhilip and Brandon -- Rope (1948)Farley Granger and John Dall star this fictnal variatn on the real-life Leopold and Loeb se -- a story of two upper-class gay guys who m a murr jt for kicks.

JACK WHEHALL FAC BACKLASH AS DISNEY'S 'FIRST GAY MAN'

Hch Knows BtAddison DeWt -- All About Eve (1950)Gee Sanrs earned a Bt Supportg Actor Osr as the manipulative queen bch theater cric, spirg a generatn of wty, evil, proto-gay villas.

Thoroughly ReprehensibleCathere Tramell -- Basic Instct (1992)Sharon Stone had her most inic role -- and triggered howls of prott om the gay muny -- as the bisexual serial killer this stylish piece of misogynist trash. Evil But AwomePrce Edward -- Braveheart (1995)Peter Hanly plays a pathetic, simperg -- and historilly accurate -- gay prce the famoly homophobic Mel Gibson film that swept the Osrs. ) Thoroughly ReprehensibleGovernor Ratcliffe -- Pohontas (1995)Gay actor David Ogn Stiers voic the va, foppish villa (a time-honored gay stereotype) this ls than historilly accurate Disney film.

WHAT’S WRONG WH BEG “GAY”? HERE’S WHAT THEY DON’T TELL YOU -- AND ’S REALLY DISTURBG.

Ripley (1999)Matt Damon giv his most plex and overlooked performance as a gay chameleon who revents himself to jo the high society world of Ju Law and Gwyh Paltrow -- which leads to murr.

HOW TO ACCEPT THAT YOU ARE GAY

Evil But AwomeXerx -- 300 (2007)Rodrigo Santoro is the bejeweled borrle drag queen villa this overblown epic that's equal parts homophobic and homoerotic. In early December, Netflix dropped s highly anticipated mil edy “The Prom, ” starrg Meryl Streep, Nile Kidman, Andrew Rannells and Jam Corn as fadg Broadway stars who set out to help a lbian teen take her girliend to the film, helmed by out director Ryan Murphy, got mixed reviews, but some lambasted as “homophobic” and “offensive” bee of the stg of Corn, a straight actor, what they saw as an “aggrsively flamboyant” riture of a gay character, Barry Glickman, is a narcissistic theater actor who dons sparklg tuxedo jackets, talks wh a stereotypil gay lisp while flailg his hands around and scrib himself as “gay as a bucket of wigs. "Melda Sue Gordon / NetflixErik Anrson, who ns the film se Awards Watch, lled “The Prom” a “geo and vibrant productn” but tweeted that Corn’s “performance is gross and offensive, the worst gayface a long, long time.

” It was the first time an openly gay actor played a gay character a leadg role a TV part “helped fluence a whole generatn of people who beme wrers and actors and ntent creators, who wanted to see more people like Ricky, more LGBTQ people of lor, and I thk we're seeg the benef of that today, ” said Cz, who served as executive producer of Apple TV’s "Visible: Out on Televisn, ” a 2020 doceri about the history of the LGBTQ movement through the lens of Amerin Cz ma his but “My So Called Life, ” televisn has been creasgly hirg LGBTQ actors to play LGBTQ characters.

In 2020 alone, queer actor Kristen Stewart played a lbian Hulu’s Christmas rom- “Happit Season, ” out actors Sarah Plson and Cynthia Nixon played love terts Ryan Murphy’s Netflix seri “Ratched, ” gay actor Dan Levy played a queer character the Emmy-wng Canadian show “Scht’s Creek"and several openly gay actors starred the Netflix adaptn of the Tony Award-wng queer play “The Boys the Band.

BAD GAYS: A HOMOSEXUAL HISTORY

Straight and cisgenr ‘privilege’While straight and cisgenr actors are given many opportuni to play rol outsi their own genr and sexualy, many gay and trans actors say they are given far ls leeway. He said the movie bs is “a very heterosexual bs” that’s “n mostly by heterosexual men” and lamented that straight actors takg gay rol has a stiflg effect on gay actors who, like him, are no longer nsired for heterosexual parts.

Most notably, perhaps, Tom Hanks, who won an Amy Award for his portrayal of a gay man dyg of AIDS the 1993 film “Philalphia, ” and Hilary Swank, who won the Osr for her performance as transgenr man Brandon Teena the 1999 film “Boys Don’t Cry. ” The amy also nomated actors Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal for their rol the 2005 gay wboy film “Brokeback Mounta, ” Jared Leto for his portrayal of a trans woman the 2013 film “Dallas Buyers Club, ” actor Cate Blanchett for her role the 2015 lbian romantic drama “Carol” and Eddie Redmayne for his portrayal of a trans woman the 2015 film “The Danish Girl.

“To have quote-unquote ‘straight’ actors sayg now, ‘Hey, I won't take that part, bee 's gay, and you should give to a gay person, ’ feels like another way to stigmatize our stori, " Babb said. “What would do is would block all those actors om actg outsi of their lane and so, is that gog to stop my transgenr actors om playg nontransgenr rol or gay rol?

WHY WE NEED TO GET TO KNOW THE “BAD GAYS” OF HISTORY

“Hontly, a transgenr person playg a gay role would be a really good possibily, and we would unrstand really well, bee we've had to all grapple wh sexualy as an issue.

THE CUR CASE OF GAYFACE

It has bee accepted wisdom most pole circl – as well as schools, ernment, rporate Ameri, and certaly the popular culture – that homosexual behavr is a normal and natural variatn of life. As Gabriel Rotello—thor of Sexual Elogy: AIDS and the Dty of Gay Men and founr of OutWeek Magaze—wrote, “sexual brotherhood of promiscuy … any abandonment of that promiscuy would amount to a munal betrayal of gargantuan proportns.