"But I'm a Cheerlear" Tght Me It's Ok To be Gay

Contents:

• DIRECTOR OF QUEER CLASSIC 'BUT I'M A CHEERLEAR' WANTED TO 'MAKE A GAY "CLUELS"'
• WAS IT GOOD FOR THE GAYS: ‘BUT I’M A CHEERLEAR’
• “BUT I’M A CHEERLEAR” TGHT ME IT’S OK TO BE GAY
• BUT I’M A CHEERLEAR REVIEW – A IC TAKE ON GAY-NVERSN PRACTIC
• ’90S GAY CLASSIC BUT I’M A CHEERLEAR GETS A DIRECTOR’S CUT WH NEW SCEN AND COMMENTARY

DIRECTOR OF QUEER CLASSIC 'BUT I'M A CHEERLEAR' WANTED TO 'MAKE A GAY "CLUELS"'

” The movie centers on a lbian high school cheerlear (played by Natasha Lyonne), whose parents send her to a nversn therapy mp to cure her homosexualy. And I thk the muny was so vastated by AIDS that there wasn’t a lot of edi gog on gay cema.

I wanted to skewer not only my muny, but also jt the absurdy of gay nversn.

It’s ridiculo to say that jt bee you bee more feme means you’re gog to be ls gay.

WAS IT GOOD FOR THE GAYS: ‘BUT I’M A CHEERLEAR’

I loved “Cluels, ” and I wanted to make a gay “Cluels. For sure — and sexism and homophobia.

I read that your first choice for the lead role turned down for relig reasons, and other st members were utned by their agents agast playg gay characters. Are gay actors still beg dissuad om playg gay characters?

I thk ’s better, but there’s a lot of homophobia the actg realm and that agents would still advise some of their clients not to take gay rol, pecially if their clients is gay and the closet. As someone who mak a lot of queer ntent, I still see a lot of closeted actors who don’t want to play gay rol bee they feel like they won’t pass or somethg.

“BUT I’M A CHEERLEAR” TGHT ME IT’S OK TO BE GAY

In this regular lumn, we’ll look at pictns of queers cema and ask, Was It Good For The Gays?

Gay nversn therapy has been a hot-button topic lately, even if ’s not as popular of an issue as same-sex marriage or other civil rights issu related to the queer muny.

— that would make procr like “physil pa, such as electroshock or electronvulsive therapy, touch therapy, pornography exposure or vom-ductn therapy” perfectly legal practic for therapists (I e that word loosely here) to exert on their patients, many of whom are mors that are forced to the so-lled gay rehabs by their parents. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan, an all-Amerin, girl-next-door type whose life is turned upsi down when her parents and iends stage an terventn and acce her of harborg homosexual tennci. But that don’t stop her parents om sendg her to Te Directns, a reparative therapy mp n by Mary Brown (played by the always wonrfully terrifyg Cathy Moriarty), who teach her charg they n overe their homosexualy by admtg their transgrsn (even if they have not acted out on ), performg genr-normative behavrs (such as hoework for the girls, yard work for the boys), fdg their “root” (i.

BUT I’M A CHEERLEAR REVIEW – A IC TAKE ON GAY-NVERSN PRACTIC

The trmatic moment that ma them gay), and, eventually, simulatg terurse wh a member of the oppose sex. You might pare this revelatn to the siar climactic reveal Frank Oz’s In & Out, which, I prevly argued, reli on silly stereotyp of gay men that sentially bas Kev Kle’s sexualy entirely on his effemate nature.

You have the jocks, the femm, the goth lbian, even a girl who is not gay, but only appears to be bee of her mascule look.

(Jan, who sports a fat mtache and a tight mohawk, shouts, “Everybody thks I’m this big dyke bee I wear baggy pants, I play softball, and I’m not as pretty as other girls, but that don’t make me gay. And the glor irony is that both Mary Brown and her send mand, a proud “ex-gay” named Mike (played wonrfully by RuPl placloth butch drag) both harbor their own ner tratns: Mary’s son, Rock, is clearly homosexual himself (the tight, ty nim shorts and his blatant sexual overtur toward the mpers are a tip-off), and Mike has hardly managed to fully reprs his sexual sir.

’90S GAY CLASSIC BUT I’M A CHEERLEAR GETS A DIRECTOR’S CUT WH NEW SCEN AND COMMENTARY

When Megan is eventually kicked out the mp after she’s ught bed wh Graham (who, unlike Megan, remas at the mp bee of prsure om her parents), she tak refuge wh a pair of lol gay men who attempt to save the mpers om Mary Brown’s domatn. But I’m a Cheerlear is good for the gays (and the non-homosexuals, too, who will seek out) simply for exprsg that tth.