‘Call Me by Your Name’ is already 2017’s gay drama of the year

Contents:

• GAY TEACHER OF THE YEAR FANS LGBTQ PRI IN VIRAL PHOTO WH DONALD TMP
• GAY RIGHTS
• ‘CALL ME BY YOUR NAME’ IS ALREADY 2017’S GAY DRAMA OF THE YEAR
• BT GAY ANTHEMS OF 2017: CRIC’S PICKS

GAY TEACHER OF THE YEAR FANS LGBTQ PRI IN VIRAL PHOTO WH DONALD TMP

Anyone terted gay experience or gay films already knows to distst mastream media's efforts to explo and tegorize queerns by promotg gay movi as different, and each so-lled advance as a breakthrough simply bee fally breaks to the media's ual the Hollywood film dtry go through s biggt sexual panic sce the 1920s, reflectg a breakdown heterosexual relatns, gay filmmakers who prevly were swept to the margs by wardly homophobic crics and gatekeepers, have steadily ma the only movi ncerned wh what means to be human among of the twelve superb films transcend Hollywood's nscendg approach to gay self-py disguised as romance. MEDIA REPRESENTATIONWhile lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer people rema unrreprented media, acrdg toLGBTQ media advocy group GLAAD, 2017 produced a number of noteworthy highlights volvg LGBTQ characters and storyl.

GAY RIGHTS

“But LGBTQ characters Hollywood still lack diversy, wh people of lor and transgenr people grossly unrreprented, ” she “Moonlight, ” a g-of-age story about a gay black man, ma history by beg the first LGBTQ film to w the Amy Award for Bt Picture, other LGBTQ stori have received mastream regnn, too. “While the tails of the s differ, is clear that fatal vlence disproportnately affects transgenr women of lor, and that the tersectns of racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia nspire to prive them of employment, hog, healthre and other necsi, barriers that make them vulnerable, ” HRC stated s report. Chechen lear Ramzan Kadyrov has nied the allegatns, claimg, “We don’t have any gays” to 100 LGBTQ people were reportedly arrted the ex-Soviet untry of Azerbaijan September after raids on bars and private hom, acrdg to activists and lol media reports.

‘CALL ME BY YOUR NAME’ IS ALREADY 2017’S GAY DRAMA OF THE YEAR

Azerbaijani officials nied allegatns of an anti-gay crackdown and said the raids were part of a mpaign to stop prostutn, but activists charge that police specifilly targeted gay men and transgenr women Baku, the Eurasian natn’s Central Asian untry of Tajikistan announced October has piled a list namg 367 spected gay cizens to tt them for sexually transmted diseas. The announcement of the Osr nomatns, wh eight gog to "Brokeback Mounta, " gave entertament reporters their expected lead: "The star-crossed wboys of 'Brokeback Mounta' emerged as Osr trailblazers, the story of doomed love between two men poised to bee the first gay-themed film to lasso the top prize. " Still, every time we go around the faiar track there are differenc, and they are worth notg even while we experience déjà vu all over, let's start wh this year's "explosn of Osr-bag performanc which straight actors play gay, transvte or transgenr characters" as Caryn Jam put The New York Tim (Nov.

" But whout doubt, the most heavily publicized and discsed performanc of this year's crop are those of Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger "Brokeback Mounta, " the so-lled gay wboy movie that won bt picture honors at the Venice Film Ftival.

The optn was held by Jam Scham, then by Stt Rud, who wanted to make the film wh openly gay director G Van Sant, after "Good Will Huntg" gave him big-screen clout; not surprisgly, Hollywood mor st Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as the likely leads.

BT GAY ANTHEMS OF 2017: CRIC’S PICKS

The project never got gog, and eventually was picked up by Scham, wh director Ang saga of a strong gay-themed plot that somehow n't get ma is a Hollywood staple, and those who've followed the tal will rell the fate of Patricia Nell Warren's 1970s btseller "The Front Runner" and Randy Shilts' bgraphy of Harvey Milk, "The Mayor of Castro Street, " both optned many tim but still not produced. The fact that few filmgoers remember the 1969 movie "Stairse" is due more to s medcre script than to the fact that two of Hollywood's most notor heterosexuals, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison, starred as a long-time gay uple. Siarly, Shirley MacLae ("The Children's Hour"), Rod Steiger ("The Sergeant") and Marlon Brando ("Reflectns a Goln Eye") all survived the reer threat of a gay role, even while their characters all paid the obligatory price by mtg damagg to the myth of reer-suici-by-gay-role is the imprsive list of Osrs won by straight actors for their amazg feats pictg queers.

Villas when a movie treats them badly (thk "The Birth of a Natn"), and victims when they're beg treated more praise the straight actors have garnered for their awome achievements portrayg gay folks somehow obscur the realy that every day on Hollywood's large and small screens legns of lbian and gay actors are nvcgly portrayg heterosexual characters. When this happens, and one mt assume will eventually, will be a Jackie Robson moment that might pave the way for other queer talent ('s also a safe gus that 's more likely that a woman will pneer here than a male actor) David Ehrenste has noted that those actors who have e out--among them Chad Allen, Mchell Anrson, Robert Gant, Randy Harrison, Peter Paige (the last three beg the only openly gay st members of Showtime's "Queer as Folk")--are "left to fend for themselv die and pay-TV clim....

" Whether the slim roster of openly gay talent has actors who would be credible ntenrs for the parts, even were they allowed to dn, is a qutn that pots back to the enforced closet which the dtry locks gay straight actors take on gay rol, we n expect to enunter showbiz gossip tend to nvey the heterosexual bona fis of any actor st a gay role. "Still, as Salon's Rebec Traister put , "If the I's do get dotted on Gyllenhaal and Ledger's ntracts, 's worth notg that both will n ls of a risk of beg 'taken for gay' than many of their lleagu; Gyllenhaal dat supercute wunrkd Kirsten Dunst, while Ledger squir Naomi Watts, 11 years his senr, to lots of events vered by Us Weekly. " Apparently not havg read any of the promotnal material on the film, the actor says that he don't believe Ennis and Jack are gay: "I approached the story believg that the are actually straight guys who fall love, " he says.

It's not enough, apparently, that the dience n safely know that 's not harborg romantic fantasi about an actor who's really battg for the other team, we mt also be assured that we're not beg emotnally engaged and moved a long time has been obligatory for any gay-themed movie to be prented as universal, orr to appeal to the often mythil crossover dience. When William Wyler ma the send film versn of Lillian Hellman's "The Children's Hour" 1961--the first versn, "The Three, " also directed by Wyler, 1936, transmuted homosexualy to adultery--Wyler was quoted: " 'The Children's Hour' is not about lbianism. " This le was later echoed by Rod Steiger 1968 (" 'The Sergeant' is not about homosexualy, 's about lonels") and Rex Harrison 1971 (" 'Stairse' is not about homosexualy, 's about lonels") about their gay rol, and by director John Schlger about his 1972 film (" 'Sunday, Bloody Sunday' is not about the sexualy of the people, 's about human lonels").

Even more ridiculoly, the lead-up to the 1982 "breakthrough" stud "gay film" "Makg Love, " wrten by openly gay screenwrer Barry Sandler, producer Allan Adler was quoted, "We're not anx to have 'Makg Love' fed as a gay movie.

Lehmann-Hpt seemed que sympathetic to the novel, and ngratulated Leavt for creatg explicly homosexual characters, th enablg the cric to "discern a rolutn to the old bate over whether or not homosexual art is herently limed. " The novel nclus wh the narrator wnsg the Stonewall rts, and Lehmann-Hpt nclud his review: "Gay liberatn has arrived; is their Bastille Day and we fd ourselv cheerg, even the face of what we know is to e--and what Mr. And note that "what we know is to e"--AIDS, of urse--somehow Lehmann-Hpt's md sts the value of gay liberatn 1993 playwright Tony Khner astonished the theatril world wh the succs of his epic, "Angels Ameri, " wng Pulzer and Tony awards and sellg out theaters for a two-part, seven-hour "gay fantasia on natnal them" (as "Angels" was subtled).

Wrg the Chigo Daily News unr the appropriate headle "Angels reach beyond gay issu, " Richard Christiansen offered a reprentative sample: Some of the reason for Khner's succs n be attributed to the strength of his voice as a member of the creasgly vol gay muny of this untry.

It's a great Amerin love story, " and proclaims: The magnificent thg, though, that happens durg the unravellg marriag of the two men, as the film hastens toward s heart-rendg pletn, is that you stop thkg of the men as men, or gay men, or whatever, and you start thkg about them only as human begs, people who long for somethg, for some kd of unn they are never likely to The New York Tim, Caryn Jam, who has already noted that our awarens that the actors are straight "mak easier and maybe more acceptable for middle-class heterosexual viewers--a group that do, after all, clu most of the dience--to embrace characters whose sexual preferenc we don't share, " assur the story "ronat wh the emotns attached to any love facg surmountable obstacl.

A Utah movie-plex owner, and proment Mormon, pulled the film out of Salt Lake Cy's largt venue, but was dog well at other area theaters and was named bt picture by the Utah Film Crics Christian right has been predictably hostile but somewhat unpredictably muted s rponse to the film, perhaps bee the "gay wboys" do not live happily ever after. "In the same piece, "former homosexual" Alan Chambers is quoted as sayg the Goln Globe Awards was liberately phg the envelope wh the nomatn of ntroversial new films that center around the issu of homosexualy and transsexualy. "Saturday Night Live, " a show that has long exploed crass "gay jok" the spir of "equal opportuny offenrs"--the print of the Uned Stat and gay people are equal the ey of the fearls satirists--shed to offer a tired sk featurg Alec Baldw and Will Forte as gay prospectors.

The aclas for the actors, however well served, nnot alter the fact that there is an unmistakable tge of mstrelry here, when gay actors are locked to the closet by their own ambns and the paranoia of the dtry, and dienc mt be firmly assured of the heterosexual crentials of those playg gay for pay.