The Journey of a Gay J | HuffPost Voic

Contents:

• CHURCH OF GAY J
•  PRI MONTH 2020 IAN GALLAGHER GAY J MARRY MICKY KOVICH SAVED LGBTQ TEENS ARRTED R FIRE
• J AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN
• WAS J GAY?
• THE JOURNEY OF A GAY J
• CHURCH OF GAY J
• 'SHAMELS' CROSS NEW LE WH 'CHURCH OF GAY J'
• IAN IS GAY
• SHAMELS SEASON 8 EPISO 10 REVIEW: CHURCH OF GAY J

CHURCH OF GAY J

He saw the boy who’s father had him set up to be kidnapped for beg gay and all the attentn om the other lost young kids jt sent him to an extreme manic spiral.

The pot the show this was the most obv at is when he was preachg the gay word and the dramatic background of the r beg blown up. "Church of Gay J" is the tenth episo of Season 8 of Shamels. Back 2010, when the US adapted the origally Brish dramedy 'Shamels', we were troduced to a shy, young teenager lled Ian Gallagher, wh a secret stache of gay porn.

And that isn't close to half of all the absolutely bizarre sh Ian has pulled on screen which rightfully earned him the tle of 'Gay J' both on screen and the fandom.

 PRI MONTH 2020 IAN GALLAGHER GAY J MARRY MICKY KOVICH SAVED LGBTQ TEENS ARRTED R FIRE

Gog off his bipolar meditn for the send time life only add to his ever-soarg sh by fightg for the muny, and th was birthed Gay J — an avatar of Ian that fans have clung on to sce we met him Season 8, back 2018. And this isn't the only inic thg Ian had done that season as 'Gay J'.

After someone at Church rerds Ian's nontatn and the vio go viral, he is given the 'Gay J' moniker and begs attendg protts more equently. At one such prott, Ian ws people over once aga by g CRT to save the life of a homophobic pastor who gets a heart attack at the venue. He and Trevor take up the task of nng a shelter for the homels and naway youths om the muny and the lodgg facily overflows wh young people gatherg mass to tch one look at the 'Gay J'.

J AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN

So Ian pulls his socks up and propos the hell out of Mickey to give the gay weddg of the year — by simultaneoly stagg a fake bri to make all look like a straight weddg bee the venue owner is a ragg homophobe, and Mickey's father has blown up the origal settg.

The most astoundg fdg om the newly disvered lead dic is that J Christ was unambiguoly and openly gay.

It seems clear now that this is ls a negative repudiatn of fay and more a posive exhortatn to jo affirmatn of a gay liftyle and is at least one new parable, that of the two young men. Before, one might have thought that, given Mary's virgy, Joseph's attu was reflectg the ambigui of his stat the fay; but now seems more probable that we have here a classic example of the Frdian triangle: over-posssive mother, hostile father, gay have we known so ltle about all of this before?

WAS J GAY?

The classilly ted Pl, who was himself gay, saw that same-sex activy was imil to the succs of Christiany the highly homophobic societi which he lived.

After the Supreme Court's historic lg on gay marriage, seemed like all the proudly homophobic Christians me out of the woodwork to talk about how much they still hate gay people.

As a straight Jew, the homophobia amongst J's followers has always stck me as a b of a surprise: Worshippg at the feet of a ripped, hung man, seems at least a ltle homoerotic. But 's J himself who lights up my gaydar like a Christmas tree.

THE JOURNEY OF A GAY J

Reverend Bob Shore-Goss, an openly gay senr pastor, has wrten several books on the subject, cludg Queerg Christ and J ACTED UP: A Gay and Lbian Manifto. He holds a doctorate gree Comparative Relign om Harvard, and he serv on the Natnal Advisory Board of the Center for Lbian and Gay Studi Relign. Oh, and he believ that J was gay.

I got touch wh Reverend Goss, who laid out the Biblil evince and explaed how his theory plays by Flickr er Wag for the World VICE: Was J Christ gay? Pl, I would say, would probably be scribed as a closeted homosexual today, but they didn't have those words at the was homosexualy perceived J's time? Now, homoerotic relatnships the ancient world are really mon, pecially the Greek and Roman J himself ever addrs that?

" J says about the fah of the Centurn, who is a homoerotic relatnship, that "there is no greater fah than I've enuntered Israel. " They're utterg this homoerotic phrase that was uttered by a Centurn an actual homosexual relatnship wh a youth. But a church of the send century would unrstand that this is a homosexual relatnship and wasn't a big what evince is there the bible of J's homosexualy?

CHURCH OF GAY J

But what this has to say is that there was some sort of homoerotic relatnship, a love seems that, like anythg else the Bible, you n draw your own nclns, cludg that J was gay. I once had a lbian stunt tell me, "J wasn't gay, he was perfect.

Now what they say about gays is we are trsilly evil and trsilly disorred. Even evangelils will say that J was perfect so that, orr to be saved for evangelils, you mt be heterosexual to be VICE News: Tears, Lghter, and Triumph for a Lbian Couple the Supreme Court's Gay Marriage CaseBut if J was gay, and he was perfect, then really 's only the gay people that are gog to heaven, right?

'SHAMELS' CROSS NEW LE WH 'CHURCH OF GAY J'

I want to say that all sexuali are an origal blsg bee we're ma the image of I'm gettg om this the most is that J, as a queer human dividual, uld at least relate to the stggle of gay men—feelg like outsts, havg vlence perpetrated on them for their queerns, whatever may be. Yeah, I'd say that you're absolutely on solid ground wh your if J wasn't gay, I image he'd certaly feel more kship wh the mory of homosexuals than the heteronormative Christians who preach hate.

And often tim they're vehement about bee they have so much ternalized homophobia, which dit to me that they have those same attractns to the same sex that they need to stamp them out other people. Could J have been gay?

IAN IS GAY

I've played the central role of Joshua Terrence McNally's gay passn play Corp Christi for the past ne years now. (Part of Facebook's gay algorhm, I'm gusg?

" This is the foundatn of most of the emails I receive on a daily basis, the sner beg me, the s beg my homosexualy.

SHAMELS SEASON 8 EPISO 10 REVIEW: CHURCH OF GAY J

I went to Father Gee the next week to ask him for clary, and that's when he told me that J didn't approve of homosexualy, and that if you were homosexual, you were gog to hell. I didn't know I was gay at the time -- fact, I didn't really even unrstand what "homosexual" meant -- but my heart that sentiment felt false.

In retrospect I n see that my subnsc self, who had not yet alt wh his gay inty, felt ostracized om the only muny he'd ever felt a sense of belongg to. I was now a young gay man explorg the words and stori I'd grown up lovg, then hatg, and unrstandg them a visceral way that was much more timate than readg them om a Bible. The qutn I get asked over and over aga is how I uld "blaspheme the Savr by makg Him gay.