Theatre Rhoceros: A Gay Company on JSTOR

Contents:

• THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

From gay rights in Harvey Milk’s electn – and vastatg assasatn – through to last year’s regnn of the cy’s gay and leather cultural district, San Fran has always been a vibrant LGBTQ+ haven. In the first episo of Lookg, —HBO’s lovely new seri about a group of gay men livg San Francis created by Michael Lannan and directed by Weekend’s Andrew Haigh—Patrick (Jonathan Groff), a vio game signer, fds himself on a first date wh an onlogist who never plays vio gam.

Here we are, simultaneoly pletely faiar and unfaiar terrory: the bad first date that is, also, the bad, gay first date—and a bad, gay first date that is not the B storyle, will not be followed by scen starrg straight people, and do not feature stereotypilly mpy gay men. It’s 2014 and there have been—as Ey Nsbm observed her glowg review for The New Yorker—a number of shows by gay men, but none as lmly, sularly gay as Lookg, which ntas ls than five (small) speakg parts for straight people. Lookg featur three gay men who are, as the tle suggts, searchg: for partners, for reers, and, mostly, for themselv.

What a shame that a show wh such promise—and which had a terrific queer storyle featurg a real-life gay actor—had to e to such a disappotg end.

Empire never tried to hi s own soaps, and always paid good attentn to the stggle of Jamal (played by Jsie Smollett) livg as a gay hip hop artist.

ACS: Versace argu the magnu of that tragedy uld have been avoid were not for a society rife wh homophobia, where same-sex upl uldn’t marry, queer Amerins uldn’t serve the ary, and where succsful men lived closets and empty, straight marriag. Sorry Hannibal fans, but only one horror/mystery seri drippg wh homoeroticism mak the cut here.

But rarely has a show ever been this pro-LGBTQ, as evinced by the terracial, trans-cis gay uple of Nomi & Amana (trans actrs Jamie Clayton & Freema Agyeman). The San Francis-based show about the everyday liv of gay men ed s often soapy storyl of sex, datg, backstabbg, and iendship drama as a greater prism by which to view the changg inty of the LGBTQ muny, and s place the world. She-Ra tak place a world of genr and sexual fluidy, of same-sex upl prented a matter of fact way, of gay parents, nonbary characters and where butch women and femme men have sex symbol stat.

What grand and gay adventur will she have store for . And next year is gog to be even the first major stud gay rom-, to queer-clive horror, to Harry Styl playg a queer p, the next year will have a ton of great LGBTQ+ ntent on the big screen. Billy Eichner wrote and starred this gay rom- wh an all LGBTQ+ prcipal st, cludg Bowen Yang, Ts Madison, Guillermo Diaz, and Le Macfarlane as Eichner's love tert.

The movie, which is beg lled the first gay romantic edy by a major stud, jt wrapped filmg and is schled to h theaters Augt 22, 2022. Tells the story of bt iends Jane and Lucy, when one of them gets a promotn to move to London and the other out as gay. Lol San Francis news statn KTVU aired a short behd-the-scen segment on the highly anticipated new HBO seri, "Lookg, " which follows gay iends tryg to fd love the "Cy by the Bay.

When asked about a televisn seri set San Francis pictg the liv of morn day gay men, an onlooker rpond, "I thk 's past 's time.

"Even though San Francis is heavily tertwed wh gay history, the liv of gay men the cy are rarely explored on film or televisn asi om the ocsnal projects like "Tal of the Cy, " "Milk, " or this year's film ftival h, "Tt. Milk (2008) Archectural Landmark Milk is a bgraphil film that picts the life of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay dividual to be elected to public office California.

In orr to addrs the vlence and civil rights issu agast homosexualy, Milk be a gay rights activist and then a member of the San Francis Board of Supervisors. The film honors Milk’s ntributns to gay rights and was released around the same time that Proposn 8, a measure to ban same-sex marriage California, was passed, before beg overturned urt.