The Gayt Movi That Aren’t Explicly Gay: 28 LGBTQ Cult Classics – IndieWire

Contents:

• THE BLON ONE (2019) *GAY ADULT DRAMA*
• THE GAYT MOVI THAT AREN’T ACTUALLY GAY, OM ‘BARBIE’ AND ‘BURLQUE’ TO ‘VENOM’ AND ‘ROAD HOE’
• BARBIE SAID “GAY RIGHTS!” LONG BEFORE MARGOT ROBBIE OR GRETA GERWIG SHOWED UP

THE BLON ONE (2019) *GAY ADULT DRAMA*

) And Kate McKnon, playg a so-lled Weird Barbie who experienced an extreme haircut and makeover at the hands of an experimental child, never actually answers the qutn anybody would have upon seeg her gay-ass haircut and knowg the actor’s sexualy. Yet even if no one says , Weird Barbie is clearly Gay Barbie. Andrew Ahn’s father once told him that there were “no gay people Korea.

In a culturally nservative muny, where gog to church and buildg a fay were heavily emphasized, Ahn felt his gay inty kept him “om beg able to participate Korean culture. ” Then, he started equentg GAMeBoi, a weekly Asian Amerin gay party at Wt Hollywood’s Rage Nightclub. He learned to embrace beg both Korean and gay, so much so that he directed “Fire Island, ” a groundbreakg queer Asian Amerin rom- released last year.

Beg Asian Amerin and LGBTQ+ n feel lonely, wh stutns such as ethnic church often disavowg non-heterosexual relatnships while tradnal LGBTQ+ spac such as gay bars n be unwelg to people of lor. “Fdg plac like GAMeBoi, where beg queer and Asian do -exist … It’s not like a 1, 000-year-old Korean cultural rual, but I uld create a new rual, ” said Ahn, a recent Friday, hundreds packed QT Nightlife’s monthly K-Pop Night at Micky’s, a Wt Hollywood gay club a block or so east om the old GAMeBoi posed for selfi a pk Barbie box wh dis balls hangg overhead.

THE GAYT MOVI THAT AREN’T ACTUALLY GAY, OM ‘BARBIE’ AND ‘BURLQUE’ TO ‘VENOM’ AND ‘ROAD HOE’

” (Michael Owen Baker / For The Tim) Even historilly gay neighborhoods like Wt Hollywood or San Francis’s Castro district, Asian Amerins have long been ignored or fetishized, seen as feme and weak. In 2019, then-Wt Hollywood Mayor John Duran argued that he did not appropriately touch a member of the Gay Men’s Chos of Los Angel bee “he’s a skny Korean kid wh pimpl on his cheek. ” Asian Amerin advocy groups cricized Duran’s remark, wh API Equaly-LA potg to the long history of discrimatn agast Asian men gay muni such as Wt Hollywood, whose clubs “ed to require three forms of photo intifitn om anyone they perceived as Asian.

” said Crisman, a 36-year-old gay Korean Amerin rearcher and artist. On this night, he had brought some female high school iends who wanted to experience the gay clubbg scene. Explicly nceived as a haven for gay men, was known for s youthful clientele, celebry patrons, and notorly hedonistic vibe; beme even more of a draw wh the openg of “The Backlot, ” an adjacent performance venue that featured some of the biggt “A-list” acts of the era.

“Stt Forb’ visn was to have a place for gay whe men only, ” Saltarelli tells . Sadly, that joy mt now be forever tempered by the knowledge that Koko, whose life sh so brightly om the screen, has been lost to – who, though thori say there is no evince her ath was motivated by homophobia or transphobia, is neverthels yet another victim of the eply embedd hate and vlence that hnts our culture and mak movi like this one seem so very, very prec.

BARBIE SAID “GAY RIGHTS!” LONG BEFORE MARGOT ROBBIE OR GRETA GERWIG SHOWED UP

If “Barbie” tells anythg, ’s that a movie don’t have to be gay to be, well, gay. So what mak a movie gay if isn’t explicly? Cast a few top-shelf gay ins there — your Bette Middlers, your Joan Crawfords, your Faye Dunaways playg Joan Crawford — and pecially have them reparteeg bchy l tearg each other to piec, and have an athetic that’s outre and unironilly mp, and you’ve got the wng-formula starter-pack for somethg licly fabulo and queer, even if not by tentnal sign.

But settg a precent for movi now nonized by gay culture that don’t technilly have any (non-d, anyway) gay characters were some of Hollywood’s most all-time legendary actrs: Bette Davis “All About Eve” ma “’s gog to be a bumpy ri” an idmatic quip, while Elizabeth Taylor then ma Bette Davis’ “what a dump” even more inic aga the openg le of “Who’s Aaid of Virgia Woolf, ” livered while gnawg down on a chicken wg. Ed Bianchi’s 1981 “The Fan, ” meanwhile, livered perhaps the greatt gift to gay film fans of a certa era stg Lren Ball as an agg actrs stgglg to hold onto her legacy while beg stalked by, what else but, a psychotic gay fan. Films like “9 to 5” and “Steel Magnolias” keep ptivatg bee their sts are all top-to-toe, inic-among-the-gays women who n duce tears and lghs and shout unfettably quotable l the same scene.