Do gay people go to heaven? |

Contents:

• NO ONE “JT SO HAPPENS” TO BE GAY
• SPOILER ALERT'S JIM PARSONS ON WHY MOVI NEED "EVERYDAY, BORG PEOPLE" WHO JT HAPPEN TO BE GAY
• THE GRIM TTH OF BEG GAY PRISON
• PARENTS OF GAY CHILDREN AND THE ISSU THEY FACE
• DO GAY PEOPLE GO TO HEAVEN?

NO ONE “JT SO HAPPENS” TO BE GAY

Show a gay man on TV, and you immediately open yourself up to a gree of scty that other artists ually have the privilege of avoidg.

When I watched the first season of Lookg 2014, HBO’s origal seri about a group of young gay men ntemporary San Francis (season two is currently airg Atralia), I was keenly aware of the burn that such expectatns mt have posed for the show’s creators. I uld already tect a distct self-nscns about how to approach the “gay issue” when I listened to the st terviewed on CNN last year, where they each went at lengths to strs the universaly of the them that the seri addrs. The actors assured potential viewers that the pot of the show was not to enpsulate gay life per se, but rather, to explore the liv of characters who “happen to be gay”.

SPOILER ALERT'S JIM PARSONS ON WHY MOVI NEED "EVERYDAY, BORG PEOPLE" WHO JT HAPPEN TO BE GAY

there’s been gay characters and gay shows on TV before, but never told this sort of way.

The show was marketed as a new take on what means to be a gay male morn tim. The dual terts set up a sense of ambivalence wh the seri about jt how “gay” tends to be. Those who have ed gay social workg vic will be faiar wh the term “lookg” as a shorthand exprsn for “lookg for sex”.

Often, Lookg dramatis the extent to which s characters appear tranged om the history of gay culture. Later, Patrick claims he is terted an OkCupid profile bee clus a Frank O’Hara quotatn, but then nfs that he actually had to google the famo gay poet. The scen play out a strange equivotn; there is regnn of a gay cultural legacy, but s ins are handled half-heartedly, as though they were ironic props.

THE GRIM TTH OF BEG GAY PRISON

The show seems to be announcg that is alg wh a new generatn of gay men, who require a new mo of reprentatn that is distct om the tablished cultural narrativ. Such rtraed and sober realism is not trailblazg and of self, but is te that we haven’t seen an enormo share of gay reprentatns on TV. In reprentatns of “gay” San Francis, we are acctomed to provotive lead characters who assume a path of rebelln or hab bohemia.

Do this timid, whe-llar and geeky character reprent a mol of gay subjectivy that is pecially “thentic” our ntemporary tim? Halper and Atralian thor Christos Tslkas, who have exprsed their disenchantment wh a perceived wang of radil thought gay culture, which creasgly steers towards assiatn and obeisance to the larger stctur unrpng wtern culture – nsumer palism, marriage, nservative genr norms. Benrson’s crique ns the risk of dulgg nostalgia, and there is a danger glorifyg past versns of gay culture whout acknowledgg their flaws and exclns.

Nohels, he strik a chord: there is somethg d and unrwhelmg about an approach to gay reprentatn that clar s “revolutnary” stat through s pictn of characters who are themselv the oppose of revolutnary, and an athetic that traffics well-trodn trop of naturalism. To be sure, many viewers – gay or otherwise – will probably relate to Patrick, and characters such as his are as servg of reprentatn as any other. But the polics of Lookg are worth qutng, particularly light of the show’s tenncy to distance self om gay history and to dimish the notn of cultural difference.

PARENTS OF GAY CHILDREN AND THE ISSU THEY FACE

The clatns do not monstrate a tremendo amount of rpect for the men who did and do participate an tablished gay culture. Then aga, if there were more diversy on screen, I doubt that a show like Lookg would ever have to sell self wh prs ems explag how approach s “gayns”. This piece was origally published at Spook Magaze on April 24, ’s the bold new trend marketg the homosexual: cintal gayns.

We wanted to make a film about a mathematician who happens to be gay — not the gay mathematician. Moore — who intifi as straight — here spouts a le that has bee remarkably mon as more and more actors, wrers and directors are lled upon to expla why their gay characters should his 2014 book Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobgraphy, Harris clus a letter wrten to him, purportedly, by Perez Hilton. Hilton wr: “You are a succsful and extremely talented actor, sger, father, and lover — who jt so happens to be gay.

DO GAY PEOPLE GO TO HEAVEN?

”In 2013, when was announced he had been st HBO’s now-ncelled Lookg, Rsell Tovey said: “I really want to do properly… Not someone who’s gay and miserable, dyg of AIDS, seclud, a b weird. But the fact that they are all men — Harris and Tovey both gay — dit that there’s a certa level of reflexive shame to the ments.

For a long time, when LGTBQI people turned up on televisn or film they were purely tragic characters, often wdg up evil, ad, or both bee of their sexualy (the gay villa archetype was perfectly skewered by edian Jam Adomian on his album Low Hang F). The last 20 years have proven televisn to provi the most egalarian form of populist queerns, wh portrayals of gay people advancg via flawed but signifint steppg ston like Ellen and Queer as ’s important that the wir public know that many LGBTQI people live or sire to live their liv together jt as any other uple would.

But ’s jt as important — perhaps even more so — that portras of our liv exist beyond le of cintal gayns feels like a backlash agast the negative portrayals of the past. As the gay rights movement has locked s sights on achievg marriage equaly — a victory more or ls motn, at least untri polilly stable enough for to be a possibily — has also had to double down on the post-AIDS crisis marketg of the mid-neti.