'Spoiler Alert' - Jim Parsons and Ben Aldridge on their gay 'Love Story' :: Bay Area Reporter

Contents:

• IS ANDY PARSONS GAY?
• ANRSON COOPER: ‘BEG GAY IS ONE OF THE BLSGS OF MY LIFE’
• 'SPOILER ALERT' - JIM PARSONS AND BEN ALDRIDGE ON THEIR GAY 'LOVE STORY'

IS ANDY PARSONS GAY?

As much as some voic the field of munitn and ter have speculated if Andy Parsons is gay, there is no kd of evince that n rroborate this. While folks still say Andy Parsons is gay, their ments hold no nsistency or accuracy of any type. More and more celebri adm every year that they are gay, but this is not the se wh Andy Parsons sce this celebry never said so.

Although Andy Parsons has never admted to beg gay, the media always nsirs the likelihood of one day reportg on the other. “The time has e when we n serly and whout sensatnalism asss the gay and lbian experience of stud-era Hollywood, ” wrote William J. Mann “Wisecracker, ” a bgraphy that explored the very public “private life” of gay silent-era-leadg-man-turned-terr-rator-to the-lg-class, William Ha.

ANRSON COOPER: ‘BEG GAY IS ONE OF THE BLSGS OF MY LIFE’

Takg his cue om Neal Gabler’s “An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood, ” Mann’s new book about gay Hollywood, “Behd the Screen, ” enavors to expla how gays and lbians shaped the those rears ls than faiar wh the stud era’s rise and fall--or gay polics and social history, for that matter--are relatively well aware of the fact that the same-sex-oriented played a major role . The stickg pot is precisely how that role was played, given the paradox of the culture’s stated disapproval of gays and lbians, and the haven that plac like Hollywood provid for sexual nonnformists.

Although the film dtry’s gays and lbians had eedom, they did not--until the 1990s--have any real gree of make or break power. Mayer’s mom-and-apple-pie paeans to the fictnal ultra-WASP Hardy fay, and that “mory wh-and-whout” of gays who, while never igng to raise their voic, slipped one past the goalie, as the sayg go, om time to time--as, for example, Jack Cole’s eye-poppgly homoerotic “Is There Anyone Here for Love? ” Ever sce homosexualy was vented as a behavral tegory by Karoly Maria Benkert, a Hungarian physician, 1869 and adopted by the medil profsn as a quasi-disease (mental illns or “geic fect, ” take your pick) the 20th, a prolonged stggle ensued to get this “elephant the bedroom” (and everywhere else the “hoe” for that matter) regnized as a simple fact of this stggle has by no means end, the last four s have seen the “unspeakable” spoken wh creasg regulary, if not honty, tobgraphi such as Arthur Lrents’ “Origal Story By” and David Graham’s “Castg About.

” And jt last year, same-sexualy figured major news stori about everythg om hate crime laws to gay marriage bat to the Boy Suts ntroversy, the Salvatn Army sndal and the onle sexual pecdillo of HIV-posive reactnary uber-pund Andrew Sullivan. Or--to put the entire subject on a more vulgar Natnal Enquirer level--the movi are the most acceptable route to divg who’s gay and who isn’ don’t play that game.

'SPOILER ALERT' - JIM PARSONS AND BEN ALDRIDGE ON THEIR GAY 'LOVE STORY'

More important, he’s well aware that “the closet is not an appropriate nstct” for scribg gay and lbian life at any level the stud era; Mann prefers the far more helpful terms “overt” and “circumspect” to scribe people and ntexts.

The tegrated liv of today’s gay celebri weren’t possible back then. But, beg succsful, rpected and well-liked among his peers, Cor was able to navigate a “private life” the average gay or lbian of that era would em unparalleled s eedom.

And then there’s “I Remember Mama, ” Gee Stevens’ credibly movg tribute to “fay valu” produced by Louella Parsons’ lbian dghter, Harriet, and wrten by DeWt Boen--a brilliant gay screenwrer whose creds clu “Cat People. ”Clearly there were profsns wh the dtry that were more “gay iendly” than others. Mann tells much about the reers of set rators Henry Grace, Hopks (whose creds clu “A Streetr Named Dire”) and Howard Bristol (“Rope”) takg to acunt a gay-bashg cint the latter suffered.