‘Power Rangers’: David Yost on Why a Gay Superhero Is a Step Forward – The Hollywood Reporter

Contents:

• ORIGAL BLUE POWER RANGER DAVID YOST ON GAY REPRENTATN NETFLIX'S POWER RANGERS RNN SPECIAL
• GO, GAY POWER RANGER!
• ORIGAL POWER RANGERS STAR DAVID YOST TEAS ‘AWOME’ GAY REPRENTATN RNN SPECIAL
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

ORIGAL BLUE POWER RANGER DAVID YOST ON GAY REPRENTATN NETFLIX'S POWER RANGERS RNN SPECIAL

Some people have been sharg imag of queer ins and homophob alike wearg exprsns of disapproval—RuPl owng on the phone, Ltle Edie rantg Grey Garns, Aunt Lydia swlg The Handmaid’s Tale. If policians, rporatns, and police are okay wh the gays, why march at all? Gay sire, the exprsn of trans and fluid inti, and asexualy each suggts different ias of what a “productive” life looks like.

The HIV/AIDS crisis was—and still is—worsened by stigmas agast gay sex. Moreover, homophobia roots self a sense of revulsn—a notn that certa kds of sex and bodi are weird, unnatural, and wrong. Some people are simply sayg “yuck” to people wearg the same amount of cloth you’d expect to see at any beach—and “yuck, ” of urse, is exactly how homophob react to gay Cisg the age of nsentStep back, though, and the objectns bee almost reassurg.

7 percent of high-school stunts say they’re gay, bisexual, or not sure of their orientatn. Some may even have been enuraged by seeg a gay-themed T-shirt at Target, or a drag queen a yogurt mercial.

GO, GAY POWER RANGER!

Across two seasons, the show has ma a plethora of pafully te-to-church-life referenc: Jse Gemstone tells his youngt son that a “masturbatn alarm” go off heaven whenever he touch himself, the church support group for married people is full of upl who hate each other, and piful patriarchs are nstantly mimizg the strong women around ’s the tense nnectn between Kelv Gemstone (Adam DeVe), the youngt son of Eli Gemstone, and his voted mullet-wearg ex-Satanist follower Keefe (Tony Cavalero), that nstut the weird, queer-tged heart of The Righteo ’s somethg of an old joke at this pot that J uld have been a gay man; after all, he was a lifelong bachelor and mama’s boy who kept close pany wh an all-male group.

Keefe is ostensibly nverted to Christiany, but after two long seasons of homoerotic teasg and clever blockg, ’s clear by now that he wants nothg more than te timacy wh Kelv. This has led the Church of J Christ of Latter-day Sats, as is formally known, to velop a very strange relatnship to homosexualy, which some Mormon men are vol about their attractn to other men, but rema married to women and do not feel they are sners so long as they don’t act on the “temptatn, ” almost as if their sexual orientatn is a mental illns or substance abe problem.

The official term for this the LDS Church is “same-sex attractn, ” clilly abbreviated as “SSA, ” which the church officially separat om “homosexual behavr. ” The Church’s official stance, as listed on s webse, is that “intifyg as gay, lbian, or bisexual or experiencg same-sex attractn is not a s and do not prohib one om participatg the Church, holdg llgs, or attendg the temple.

ORIGAL POWER RANGERS STAR DAVID YOST TEAS ‘AWOME’ GAY REPRENTATN RNN SPECIAL

” The “s” is to act on your feelgs or tly live your inty, as “sexual relatns between people of the same sex” block your “eternal progrs” as a Mormon, which basilly means that you will be shut out of the hight glori of the LDS Church’s history of anti-queer bigotry and activism is fairly obv and open rerd, this belief has allowed the relign to dodge accatns of homophobia by sentially sayg, “We don’t hate gays specifilly, we jt thk they shouldn’t be havg sex at all. ”And if there’s any character televisn history who would claim he’s sufferg om “SSA, ” ’s Kelv Gemstone, a man who seems ntent — for now, at least — to timately habate wh another man whout nsummatg or even labelg the homoerotic unrton are a regular feature of McBri’s shows, which tend to explore plited, often outré male iendships. The absurdly tense and sexually charged scen of close physil timacy between Kelv and Keefe rell not jt Christ’s close bros washg his feet and tendg to his wound wh otment, but the oozg homoeroticism of Old Hollywood swords-and-sandals epics like Ben-Hur and Spartac.

Dpe the relig appeal, both are pretty gay movi: even if you’ve only seen Cluels, you know the famo scene om Spartac, when the enslaved Tony Curtis wash the body of his Roman master played by Lrence Olivier, and Olivier offers him a d sexual proposn the form of a culary metaphor: “My taste clus both oysters and snails. Origal Blue Power Ranger David Yost on gay reprentatn Netflix's Power Rangers rnn special "It's taken a long time to get there, " says the actor, who me out as gay after leavg Mighty Morph Power Rangers 1996.

In the begng, I certaly didn't want people to know that I was gay, " he said.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

""I put myself through nversn therapy bee I didn't wanna be gay.