Jonathan Bent on Hallmark's gay Christmas movie The Holiday Ster |

Contents:

• THE GAYT CHRISTMAS EVER: INSI 2020’S BIG, QUEER HOLIDAY EXPLOSN
• WHY HALLOWEEN IS 'GAY CHRISTMAS' TO MANY LGBTQ AMERINS
• JONATHAN BENT WANTED TO CREATE A GAY UNCLE BUCK FOR THE HOLIDAY STER
• MAKE THE YULETI GAY WH THE NEW LGBTQ CHRISTMAS MOVI
• THE BT QUEER HOLIDAY MOVI TO MAKE THE YULETI GAY
• HAPPY HOLIGAYS: EVERY 2021 LGBTQ+ HOLIDAY MOVIE
• MAKE THE YULETI GAY: INSI THE MAKG OF THIS YEAR'S LGBTQ HOLIDAY MOVI
• 12 MERRY AND GAY MOVI TO SPICE UP YOUR HOLIDAY
• GAY CHRISTMAS CARDS

THE GAYT CHRISTMAS EVER: INSI 2020’S BIG, QUEER HOLIDAY EXPLOSN

This holiday season has gifted dienc wh four—y, four—gay Christmas roms: Hallmark’s The Christmas Hoe, Hulu’s Happit Season, Lifetime’s The Christmas Set-Up (December 12), and Paramount’s Dashg December (December 13). There have been more mastream gay holiday roms released 2020 than every other year rerd pop culture history bed. “I thk when they said make the Yuleti gay, they meant , ” said Jonathan Bent, one half of the gay uple at the heart of Hallmark’s The Christmas Hoe.

By featurg a married gay uple ont and center (Brad Harr plays Bent’s onscreen spoe), the film is a major step forward for the work. '” The works—Hallmark, Lifetime, Paramount—fally donned their gay apparel, jtifyg s of passn for this historilly heteronormative holiday.

WHY HALLOWEEN IS 'GAY CHRISTMAS' TO MANY LGBTQ AMERINS

Bee, honey, the gays have always been here for Christmas—even if Christmas hasn’t always been here for . “It’s so classic, so typil that the queer muni have often loved a lot of the stutns that have not necsarily loved back, ” said Ben Lewis, the other half of The Christmas Setup’s gay power uple, sharg a sentiment echoed by pretty much everyone else terviewed.

And so I thk for gay men, I thk even for Christmas enthiasts, I thk we’re chasg after that childhood fort and safety that maybe we missed at that time. Victor Garber—a hero to a generatn of gay people thanks to his work on Broadway, Tanic, Alias, Legends of Tomorrow, and jt beg Victor Garber—played straight Happit Season as closeted Harper Caldwell’s uptight polician father.

I remember meetg a lot of gay kids when I was growg up who weren’t so happy about Christmas and, not unlike Happit Season, would have to go home and pretend [to be straight]. “Your hoe be this other thg for this season, ” said Lee, touchg upon many gay men’s reason for the season. That seri—Holiday Home Makeover—serv a different purpose 2020’s avalanche of gay ntent.

JONATHAN BENT WANTED TO CREATE A GAY UNCLE BUCK FOR THE HOLIDAY STER

That show is hosted by an out gay man who sually refers to his partner ont of the straight fai he’s been tasked to make merry.

Even if gay dienc haven’t seen leral gay characters on screen, we still have our touchston. Benjam Bradley lov Christmas Connecticut for gay in Barbara Stanwyck, and Na Wt returns to Whe Christmas every year thanks to the looks and stunts of Vera-Ellen and Rosemary Clooney. BenDeLaCreme realized as an adult that Christmas at Pee-wee’s Playhoe is “the gayt thg, ” part bee “Miss Yvonne is the bt Christmas drag queen anyone uld ever hope for.

Frank Oz, for example, is not a gay man, but somehow created Miss Piggy, who is the most inic, most nonil ‘gay’ character. ” While thkg aloud, Lewis realized why so many Christmas specials seem so low-key gay. Particularly wh stop motn — to put that amount of pastakg tail, the amount of hand glterg that mt have gone to the makg of any one of those movi, is textbook gay.

MAKE THE YULETI GAY WH THE NEW LGBTQ CHRISTMAS MOVI

“I thk [Happit Season is] groundbreakg bee ’s an hont-to-god holiday-themed rom that is for queer people, by queer people, ” said Jkx Monsoon of Happit Season, Hulu’s star-studd, major stud gay holiday rom starrg Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis.

THE BT QUEER HOLIDAY MOVI TO MAKE THE YULETI GAY

That may be why he didn’t ially nsir makg Dashg December a gay romance—and then leapt at the chance to make this particular dream e te (a dream starrg out actors starrg Peter Porte and Juan Pablo Di Pace). ” This simple tweak opened up the entire story for Helgren, turng what was jt a uple sentenc of plot to a full-fledged screenplay that speaks to not only the holiday season, but to the specific experience of beg gay a small, ral muny. By stg gay actors, the performers felt embolned to put their own experienc to their characters.

The scene that mattered the most to Bent, and every sgle queer person watchg The Christmas Hoe at home, was Brandon and Jake’s kiss—y, a gay kiss on Hallmark.

Ben Lewis felt pelled to make sure that his character’s emotnal arc Lifetime’s The Christmas Setup would ronate wh gay dienc. The new, LGBTQ+ holiday films and seri are gog to make the yuleti hella gay this holiday season!

HAPPY HOLIGAYS: EVERY 2021 LGBTQ+ HOLIDAY MOVIE

Drama and secrets get exposed this brand new, queer-clive fay saga that featur a gay uple played by Broadway actor/photographer Anthony Chatmon II and out mol Derek Chadwick! Nonbary actor Hugh Sheridan is takg on their first gay role, playg the happily married David alongsi hubby (played by Nicholas Brown) the Asie Christmas rom- Christmas on the Farm! Directed by Tony wner Michael Mayer and starrg a stacked st that clus Michael Urie, Philemon Chambers, Le MacFarlane, Barry Bostwick, Jennifer Robertson, and edy screen legends Jennifer Coolidge and Kathy Najimy, Sgle All the Way is Netflix's highly-anticipated, first gay holiday film and tells the story of a gay man named Peter who is "sperate to avoid his fay's judgment about his perpetual sgle stat, " acrdg to the film's official (and relatable AF) scriptn.

Emmy-wng TV in and Drag Race legend RuPl is gettg on all of the gay cheer this year by releasg her very own special holiday special for VH1, aptly entled The Bch Who Stole Christmas! Tellg the story of the Diaz fay, the seri featur a gay uple, as well as one of the first transgenr love stori to ever be featured a holiday rom-! Part of the Hallmark Channel's imprsive and packed slate of 41 brand-new Christmas movi beg released this holiday season, the upg sequel to last year's gay-clive The Christmas Hoe, tentatively entled Deck Those Halls, is rng the origal st for another round of queer holiday cheer, cludg Mean Girls alum Jonathan Bent and Brad Harr, the two actors who played the loveable hband-hband duo the first movie.

Brad Harr and Jonathan Bent played Hallmark Channel's first gay married uple the 2020 holiday movie The Christmas Hoe. "It's so tertg: I went om hidg who I was to the world and kissg Ldsay Lohan Mean Girls to starrg as part of the first gay uple a Christmas movie for the biggt Christmas work the world, " says the actor, who me out publicly 2017.

MAKE THE YULETI GAY: INSI THE MAKG OF THIS YEAR'S LGBTQ HOLIDAY MOVI

2, Netflix dropped Sgle All the Way, starrg Michael Urie and Philemon Chambers — the first out gay Black actor to headle a holiday movie — as Los Angel-based bt iends who disver that they may be somethg more durg a Christmas vis to Urie's small-town home. "And I thk what’s so great about this year is that the aren't stori about beg gay — they are stori about love, and that's somethg we n all intify wh. "I'm extremely proud that the problems the characters have [are] the same problems that a straight person might have, " Urie, who sred his breakthrough screen role as Vansa Williams's out gay assistant on Ugly Betty, tells Yahoo Entertament.

12 MERRY AND GAY MOVI TO SPICE UP YOUR HOLIDAY

"They are not alg wh g out wo; they are not alg wh feelgs of shame; and they are not alg wh homophobic fai.

"Philemon Chambers and Michael Urie star Netflix's first gay-themed holiday movie Sgle All the Way. (Photo: Philippe Bosse/Netflix)Chambers agre that ntemporary LGBTQ stori — holiday-related or otherwise — have evolved beyond the kds of g-out stori that played outsized rol movi like The Birdge and even Happit Season, where gay upl feel pelled to hi their inti om their loved on. "If they thk gay people don't love Christmas, then they're livg unr some kd of heterosexual rock.

GAY CHRISTMAS CARDS

If you don't like watchg gay people love Christmas, then you n go fd one of the lerally thoands of other straight Christmas movi. As we take over, Christmas movi will be herently gay, and the on about straight people will have to be scribed as straight Christmas movi! "Merrie cherryAn extravaganza of the supernatural, all thgs sweet and larger-than-life stum, many LGBTQ Amerins like Roberts hail Halloween as "gay Christmas.

" But the ntemporary excement around the supernatural holiday has a long history wh the LGBTQ morn phrase "gay Christmas" actually stems om an earlier queer nickname for the holiday, "bch Christmas, " acrdg to Marc Ste, a profsor of history at San Francis State Universy, and thor of "Cy of Sisterly and Brotherly Lov. "Durg the 1950s and '60s, Philalphia's LGBTQ muny celebrated "bch Christmas" by drsg up drag and partyg the cy's gay bars, Ste said.

"Followg the wave of LGBTQ activism and visibily sparked by the 1969 Stonewall rts, more formal versns of queer Halloween celebratns began poppg up "gayborhoods" around the untry. " As a gay man, he scribed Halloween as one of the only tim a year growg up when he was not "ostracized or punished or cricized for havg the flamboyant, creative tennci.