Homophobic? Maybe. But at least Midnight Cowboy showed me gay men on screen | Ryan Gilbey | The Guardian

Contents:

• HOMOPHOBIC? MAYBE. BUT AT LEAST MIDNIGHT COWBOY SHOWED ME GAY MEN ON SCREEN
• 15 CELEBS YOU DIDN'T KNOW HAVE GAY KIDS
• IS JON VOIGHT GAY?

HOMOPHOBIC? MAYBE. BUT AT LEAST MIDNIGHT COWBOY SHOWED ME GAY MEN ON SCREEN

” So is wh Midnight Cowboy, one of the classics of the short-lived New Hollywood era and the only X-rated film ever to w an Amy Award for bt long-standg myth is that the Motn Picture Associatn of Ameri’s pdish ratgs board, repelled by Midnight Cowboy’s scen of fellat, sodomy, homosexualy, and sadomasochism, slapped an X on the film before s release May 1969. Fortunately, the tth is a better st of characters clus one of the film dtry’s preement power brokers, who got squeamish over the sex scen and generally rnchy subject matter of the movie; a gay film director who was still the closet even while he sought to make a movie that alt openly and ankly wh sexualy, straight and gay; a polilly nnected former ai to Print Lyndon Johnson who tried to steer the motn picture dtry around the shoals of ntroversy; and a clever psychoanalyst wh a passn for power who provid the phony ratnale that allowed the stud head to do exactly what he wanted to story tak place at a pivotal moment Amerin cultural and polil history, when homosexualy was still wily viewed as a ntag disease and a dire threat to Amerin youth, while filmmakers were stgglg for more eedom to tell adult the storm ro Midnight this is a Hollywood story, let’s start wh the man wh the most money and power.

15 CELEBS YOU DIDN'T KNOW HAVE GAY KIDS

” Adultery, premaral sex, homosexualy, and abortn for any reason were not allowed, nor was anythg else that might “lower the moral standards of those who see .

Hollywood was even more squeamish when me to homosexualy. Still, jt as other adult them started to seep to mastream Amerin films, homosexualy took s first baby steps out of the closet, but only films that picted gay people as praved, unhappy, and self-stctive.

The films should have rried a surgeon general’s warng: Homosexualy, like cigarette smokg, n be hazardo to one’s first Valenti toyed wh the ia of killg the Productn Co outright and replacg wh a simple utnary label: “For Mature Audienc. His bs plan turns out to be fatally flawed—the only ctomers who show any tert Joe’s sexual prows are a handful of gay men, while he himself be fair game for a seri of predators who quickly relieve him of his small stash of sh. One of those on his feet appldg was Arthur soon had send was early sprg 1969, and New York was enterg a new era of revolutnary change the way many creative people thought about and picted homosexualy.

IS JON VOIGHT GAY?

Mart Crowley’s The Boys the Band, the first mastream play to foc on gay men, had opened six months earlier to sold-out crowds off-Broadway. The Stonewall rts, a landmark three-night nontatn between ps and gay and lbian bar ctomers Greenwich Village, were jt around the rner.