‘Hoe of the Dragon’ Begs Buryg Its Gays

Contents:

• ‘HOE OF THE DRAGON’ BEGS BURYG ITS GAYS
• GAME OF THRON: A FEMIST EPISO, A GAY EPISO, OR A DULL EPISO?
• ‘GAME OF THRON’: SO JOFEY HAT GAYS, ON TOP OF EVERYTHG ELSE
• THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985
• EDWARD GOREY, FRANK O’HARA AND HARVARD’S GAY UNRGROUND

‘HOE OF THE DRAGON’ BEGS BURYG ITS GAYS

I hate to troduce the possibily that he is reprentative of the typil morn day, self-loathg homosexual polician that seems to permeate today's polil arena wh illogil gay bashg polici and gay cur, but his behavr sure seems nsistent wh those morn day policians. To be clear, I mean no offense to the gay muny, so I apologize advance if I am off base here.

GAME OF THRON: A FEMIST EPISO, A GAY EPISO, OR A DULL EPISO?

It was all, of urse, somethg of a set-up: This week, after agreeg to marry her gay Laenor Velaryon, Prcs Rhaenyra curs Criston’s fury by refg to n away wh him; on the eve of her weddg, Criston vlently kills Laenor’s lover, Jofey Lonmouth, moments after Jofey not-so-discreetly approached Criston about how both of them uld rema lovers to the rpective almost-newlyweds. It’s the epome of the famo “bury your gays” trope, which se LGBTQ characters often wrten solely to meet some typilly vlent, tragic ath.

‘GAME OF THRON’: SO JOFEY HAT GAYS, ON TOP OF EVERYTHG ELSE

The aths of gay characters, pecially ostensibly ~historil~ shows like Hoe of the Dragon, tend to be mentary on the endurg stggl agast tolerance and anti-LGBTQ opprsn society. I’d jt like to see queer characters thrive for once—or, really, anythg stead of the leral gay-bashg we were all subjected to this impet for Jofey’s ath is jt as tratg as his actual ath scene. Later, when he perceived Jofey as tntg him about his sexual relatnship wh Rhaenyra, that was apparently the fal straw to btally kill a gay man, whose bleedg-out, mutilated rpse we’re then treated to.

Whatever HotD has store down the le, I’m disappoted by the grotque vlence felt pelled to flict on one of the show’s first gay characters, all bee some straight man was particularly secure about his masculy one night. And Brienne and Jaime have two of their bt scen together to date: his enunciatn of a cidly liberal (and entirely self-servg) philosophy of sexual eedom—straight, gay, twctual—and her rather persuasive dbbg of him on the bridge.

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

" Margaery handl the suatn wh characteristic, savvy ference, and soon she's got her fger on Jofey's crossbow's trigger—an image that n be read as sexual, as Chris poted out, but also as an exprsn of the soon-to-be queen gettg a grip on the stments of "known generate" le strik me as the wrers tryg, perhaps clumsily, to work another theme to the episo: attus about homosexualy. Perhaps bee the language to scribe and fe multiple sexual orientatns don’t exist Wteros, his fay speaks only phemism, but Laenor is gay and his lover is Jofey Lonmouth (Solly McLeod). And while n be argued that most characters the seri experience some form of horrific vlence, queer characters’ aths are often also marked by homophobic subtext that n’t be ignored.

EDWARD GOREY, FRANK O’HARA AND HARVARD’S GAY UNRGROUND

He is arrted by a relig sect for the crime of beg gay and havg been timate wh other men. And for those who will try to pat the homophobia as some sort of “historil accuracy, ” “Hoe of the Dragon” is a fictnal show set a world wh dragons and ice queer women of “Game of Thron” fared slightly better. )For those who hoped that Laenor’s troductn might signal that “Hoe of the Dragon” had learned the same lsons about LGBTQ reprentatn as has Daenerys’ arc, Lonmouth’s ath is particularly troublg bee of the way evok the homophobic “panic” that has long been ed to try to fend vlence agast queer people.