'Bety and the Beast's 'gay moment' may have been much ado about nothg

Contents:

• OPNBETY AND THE BEAST'S GAY AGENDA IS PROOF HOLLYWOOD HAS GONE BONKERS
• IT'S NOT JT FROZEN: MOST DISNEY MOVI ARE PRO-GAY
• SURPRISE: THE NEW BETY AND THE BEAST MOVIE HAS DISNEY'S FIRST GAY CHARACTER
• 'BETY AND THE BEAST'S 'GAY MOMENT' MAY HAVE BEEN MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHG
• JOSH GAD SAYS LIVE-ACTN BETY AND THE BEAST DIDN'T 'GO FAR ENOUGH' PICTG GAY CHARACTER
• JOSH GAD SAYS HE DON'T THK 'BETY AND THE BEAST' DID 'JTICE TO WHAT A REAL GAY CHARACTER A DISNEY FILM SHOULD BE'

OPNBETY AND THE BEAST'S GAY AGENDA IS PROOF HOLLYWOOD HAS GONE BONKERS

In the past, if gay liv and issu were ever portrayed at all on screen, was typilly om the perspective of whe, cisgenred men. Last year saw the release of Billy Eichner’s Bros, the first romantic edy penned by an openly gay man for a major stud, while the great Billy Porter also ma his directorial but wh Anythg’s Possible, a teen romance volvg a trans high school stunt.

To that end, we enlisted some LGBTQ+ cultural pneers, as well as Time Out wrers to assist assemblg a list of the greatt gay films ever ma.

IT'S NOT JT FROZEN: MOST DISNEY MOVI ARE PRO-GAY

At the time, simply allowg the gay muny to tell their own stori, their own words, was a radil act, and Livgston gave her subjects space to discs the pleasure and pa of queer existence wh unvarnished honty. Tall, lunkish Texan Joe Buck (Jon Voight, his bt ever role) to the cy wh dreams of beg a gigolo to society ladi, but gets more attentn the lonelier rners of the gay muny.

The film never puts a p on Joe’s own sexualy, but the gay unrtow is clear his gradually tenr iendship wh scuzzy street htler Ratso Rizzo — immortally played by Dt Hoffman. Cultural theorists have spent many hours batg the answer to that qutn, wh some suggtg that 's simply a matter of mp and others diggg eper and equatg the black-and-whe nservatism of the film's Kansas scen to reprsn and even homophobia, and the lour and energy of Oz to beg out and proud. In explorg Edward II's sexual relatnship wh the unpopular Piers Gavton (Andrew Tiernan) – a rare example of a gay romance the lerature of the time – Jarman lash out at tablishment forc then and now.

SURPRISE: THE NEW BETY AND THE BEAST MOVIE HAS DISNEY'S FIRST GAY CHARACTER

Jarman's tert is more morn than historil, but he forcefully and playfully mak his pot about homophobia through the ag. Here was a film centred on a lbian relatnship but directed by two male movie nerds, a product of the post-Taranto irony boom which a gay relatnship was ed as a shock tactic to make an otherwise tradnal crime flick stand out om the crowd.

Image John Waters directg a teen take on ‘Cool Hand Le’ and you’ve got a rough ia of this geni pray-the-gay-away satire, which Natasha Lyonne’s pom-pom prcs is sent away to re-tn mp when her parents and iends spect she’s a ltle that way cled.

'BETY AND THE BEAST'S 'GAY MOMENT' MAY HAVE BEEN MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHG

One of the biggt fundraisers was a group of gay and lbian mpaigners London – who saw the harassment of the mers by Margaret Thatcher’s ernment as mirrorg their own persecutn. Callg themselv LGSM (Lbians and Gays Support the Mers), they set off om London two mib and a clapped-out mpervan to a village South Wal rryg buckets of loose change raised gay clubs.

JOSH GAD SAYS LIVE-ACTN BETY AND THE BEAST DIDN'T 'GO FAR ENOUGH' PICTG GAY CHARACTER

A before he sparked outrage wh Cisg , the thriller which Al Paco go unrver a gay leather bar to hunt down a serial killer, director William Friedk prented this portra of a group of New York iends on the cp of liberatn. Set around a birthday party, ’s one of the first featur to al wh gay life on s own terms, cludg p boozg, relatnship stras and laceratg recrimatns. It's noteworthy for some electrifyg performanc, transplanted om the stage – playwright Mart Crowley adapted his own h play – and lotn footage shot at Juli, now the olst survivg gay bar Manhattan.

The enfant terrible of radil German cema stars his own 1975 feature as a workg-class gay boy who wants love, crav acceptance and happens to have won the lottery — the cue for his mercils exploatn by more savvy acquatanc. In the sce s release, director Andrew Haigh’s tenr and nuanced film about gay life morn Bra has bee somethg of a blueprt for a certa type of timate and naturalistic form of queer cema, wh films like Olivier Dustel and Jacqu Marte’s Theo and Hugo, Luc Castro’s End of the Century and Hong Khaou’s Monsoon clearly bted to . For years, ‘playg gay’ was seen as a brave move for young male movie stars (what did Hollywood thk: that straight women would get all nfed and sudnly stop fancyg their boy-csh?).

JOSH GAD SAYS HE DON'T THK 'BETY AND THE BEAST' DID 'JTICE TO WHAT A REAL GAY CHARACTER A DISNEY FILM SHOULD BE'

It ma over £140 ln worldwi, which means that Ang Lee’s mcular yet lite cematic terpretatn of a slenr Annie Proulx story will be hard to beat as the hight-grossg gay romance of all time. Culled om a longlist of hundreds, movi nsired for the list promently feature gay, lbian, trans, or queer characters; ncern self centrally wh LGBTQ+ them; prent s LGBTQ+ characters a fair and realistic light; and/or be seen as a touchpot the evolutn of queer cema. And we regnize that some of the films the list will re-igne healthy bat that have been fixtur of discsn around LGBTQ+ films — straight actors playg gay characters, cis actors playg trans characters, and the historil domance of whe male perspectiv.