Jags' Maxen is first male Amerin pro sports ach to e out as gay - ESPN

Contents:

• WHY HASN'T THERE BEEN A GAY ACTN HERO YET?
• JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
• OUT GAY PRO WRTLER AC MACK LEAV THE RG AS AN SPIRATN
• A YOUNG GAY MAN MEETS A STRANGER ONLE THE SHORT FILM ‘JAMIE’ – WATCH
• STEP-BY-STEP INSTCTNS FOR SHOOTG YOUR SHOT WH GAY GUYS

WHY HASN'T THERE BEEN A GAY ACTN HERO YET?

While the plete absence of gay men actn films for the longt time is unrstandable, though disappotg, om a historil perspective, the perd for unrstandg end s ago. The lack of gay actn stars through the '70s and '80s should e as no surprise, nsirg gay people were classified as havg a “psychiatric disorr” by the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn om 1952-1973 (at which pot "gay" was downgrad to mere "sexual orientatn disturbance. There were certaly gay ins and hero the real world sense before beg gay was given the stamp of sany early ‘70s (Waters’ himself surely earned that signatn), but nothg when to onscreen man of actn kd of reprentatn.

But the new lennium surely had to brg wh at least one garish, over the top Die Hard on Gay Cise that’d be looked back on as very problematic one day. Sure, there are exampl of gay supportg characters actn movi, but they eher be the dt before creds roll, need to be rcued, or, if they’re lucky, get to putter around the background and say somethg clever. It might not even necsarily be the dienc themselv at this pot, but more an stance where stud brass refe to accept that tim have changed enough for a gay man to save the day.

There’s a fairly standard dumb jock character throughout ParaNorman who is only revealed to be gay the last few mut, and not any way where he’s the joke of the suatn.

JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

It wouldn’t be difficult at all to ntrive a circumstance where some Jason Statham-que badass pummels his way through 90 mut of opponents before gog home to his lovg hband or poppg to a gay bar. By that pot, if the hypothetil filmmakers are any good at their jobs, the dience would be sold on his actn hero chops to the pot that even the most reluctant viewer would e around on the ia that gay guys n save the plane om terrorists, too. Stuff like Glass Onn and Our Flag Means Death have done well at utilizg the eventual reveal approach, the former by wag until the sequel to slip a quick scene of gay domticy and the latter by lettg the dience assume they’re watchg jt another se of queer-bag before actually havg Steed (Rhys Darby) and Blackbeard (Taika Wai) profs their feelgs for one another and kiss.

Once upon a time, studs were wary of all thgs gay bee turng away possible ticket buyers was the number one no-no, probably still is, except that world is kd of over. It’s nsired by many to be one of the first exampl of gay imagery film, and a remr that homosexual reprentatn has been wh the medium om the very begng.

That clip appears The Celluloid Closet, Rob Epste and Jefey Friedman’s documentary based on Vo Rso’s study of homosexualy the movi, along wh untls exampl of how gay characters showed up, per narrator Lily Toml, as “somethg to lgh at, or somethg to py, or even somethg to fear. Some have been documents of a moment or era of gay history, some have been ed as rrectiv to s of negative clichés, and others have simply celebrated the fact that the movi n be queer, they’re here, get ed to .

OUT GAY PRO WRTLER AC MACK LEAV THE RG AS AN SPIRATN

It is nowhere near a prehensive ndown of every great movie to feature out-and-proud hero and villas, or a queer sensibily, or even jt visible (and/or risible) exampl of gay life cema; we uld have easily ma this list twice as long. The performanc are staggerg: Al Paco as the ignom Roy Cohn; Jefey Wright is the sharp-wted gay nurse who tends to him; Mary-Louise Parker as a pill-poppg hoewife wed to a closeted Mormon; Emma Thompson as an imper (and sometim sassy) angel; and Meryl Streep four rol, cludg the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg. Yet the film remas one of the first ank big-stud treatments of uncloseted gay and bisexual men, as follows eight iends (and one htler) who’ve gathered a New York Cy apartment to celebrate a birthday party.

L like “show me a happy homosexual and I’ll show you a gay rpse” will still make you crge, but the film remas a time psule of a moment when men were nflicted wh how they “got” to be gay. It works bt as a signpost and a throwback — jt ask the all-gay st who starred the a major Broadway revival, or Ryan Murphy, who’s adaptg the cematic remake as a savage, ic perd piece for a new generatn.

It was still nsired a bad reer move for a movie star to play a gay role 2005, and Hollywood’s track rerd was ls than stellar when me to treatg homosexual romanc wh the same pth as heterosexual on (if emed f to tackle such stori at all). A page-to-screen take on Vo Rso’s semal book regardg LGBTQ reprentatn (and misreprentatn) the movi, Rob Epste and Jefey Friedman’s documentary prents the perfect show-and-tell plement to the late scholar’s work — you n lerally see the evolutn of cematic homosexualy as progrs om punchle to social pundry, sikick-and-stock-villa fodr to queers beg the hero of their own stori.

A YOUNG GAY MAN MEETS A STRANGER ONLE THE SHORT FILM ‘JAMIE’ – WATCH

Filmmakers, actors, and screenwrers weigh on the joy of seeg gay characters visible, if sometim veiled, on film, as well as the way Hollywood aid perpetratg negative stereotyp. And clips of everythg om silent two-reelers to Osr-wng blockbters monstrate how the movi have reflected, reacted, and eventually e to broan public attus about gay life. To say that William Friedk’s thriller about a serial killer targetg gay men New York was ntroversial would be puttg dly: Village Voice lumnist Arthur Bell (whose verage of murrs the Wt Village bar scene was a partial spiratn) lled the script “the worst possible nightmare of the most uptight straight”; tablishments that had agreed to operate sudnly whdrew their support; activists dispted filmg at every turn; theaters were picketed; and one massive prott led to a traffic-stoppg s- and arrts.

) But 40 years after Al Paco’s unrver p first stepped to the Mhaft, this lurid exploatn movie has been reclaimed by gay film crics such as Nathan Lee and Melissa Anrson, noticeably for the way prents the late ’70s leather-bar scene wh an almost véré-like sense of observatn.

Mixg herage-drama aspects wh outré postmorn flourish and a heightened sense of homoeroticism, the movie prents the relatnship between the two men as a polil act as much as a romantic one; Edward’s army is refashned as ACT UP-style activists, and the behd-the-scene machatns of Edward’s wife, Isabella (longtime Jarman llaborator Tilda Swton), double as a crique of Bra’s opprsive, historilly strict anti-homosexual laws. Set on the muddy, wdswept moors of Yorkshire, Francis Lee’s but feature follows Johnny (Josh O’Connor), a young gay man leadg a ad-end existence on his fay farm, and Ghehe (Alec Sereanu), a Romanian migrant worker who to help out durg lamb-birthg season.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTCTNS FOR SHOOTG YOUR SHOT WH GAY GUYS

The HIV vis h the gay muny around the same time that the personal mrr h retail shelv — which is one reason David France’s Osr-nomated film about the formatn of activist anizatn groups ACT UP and TAG (Treat Actn Group) has such a shatterg impact.

Told bs and piec over 10 years — and chartg how Pl and Erik tersect and fall apart and tersect aga over time — this romantic drama is startlgly clear-eyed about the stggl of s gay characters to accept themselv as well as their partners. Blendg readgs of his work wh sequenc of geo men tuxedos dancg and cisg each other (or posg naked), the movie specifilly plac Hugh’ verse a homoerotic ntext; the work of fellow gay wrers Jam Baldw, Essex Hemphill, and Robert Bce Nugent also acpany black-and-whe scen of gay clubs, gay celebri (keep an eye out for Bronski Beat sger Jimmy Sommerville as an angel), gay inography, and gay love.

Terence McNally, who died March om plitns related to COVID-19, adapted his own Tony-wng play for director Joe Mantello, and the film is the perfect remr that McNally was one of the great chroniclers of gay love, gay relatnships, and what meant to fd a chosen fay who would support you through good tim and bad. And even though director Leonte Sagan and the film’s -wrer Christa Wsloe toned down some of the more-erotic overton om Wsloe’s play, was still explicly a story about homosexualy that honored the characters’ mutual attractn. A heartbreakgly gentle portra of a young man’s very rough life growg up gay Miami’s impoverished Liberty Cy neighborhood, Barry Jenks’ lyril send film, prented three acts, juxtapos moments of credible tenrns between men wh bursts of sual celty.