The Gayt Christmas Ever: Insi 2020's Big, Queer Holiday Explosn

Contents:

• THE BT QUEER HOLIDAY MOVI TO MAKE THE YULETI GAY
• THE GAYT CHRISTMAS EVER: INSI 2020’S BIG, QUEER HOLIDAY EXPLOSN
• JONATHAN BENT WANTED TO CREATE A GAY UNCLE BUCK FOR THE HOLIDAY STER
• HAPPY HOLIGAYS: EVERY 2021 LGBTQ+ HOLIDAY MOVIE
• FALLY, HALLMARK’S HOLIDAY FARE MAK A GAY UPLE ‘PART OF THE FAY’
• SEE FIRST-LOOK PHOTOS OF NETFLIX'S FIRST GAY CHRISTMAS MOVIE SGLE ALL THE WAY
• MAKE THE YULETI GAY WH THE NEW LGBTQ CHRISTMAS MOVI
• 10 QUEER CHRISTMAS MOVI TO MAKE THE YULETI GAY
• 9 GAY-THEMED HOLIDAY MOVI

THE BT QUEER HOLIDAY MOVI TO MAKE THE YULETI GAY

Early the ntemporary queer holiday non, 2005’s The Fay Stone, which stars gay in Sarah Jsi Parker as a (shocker) snobby New Yorker spendg the holidays at her boyiend’s fay home, beme a queer h for s B-plot gay uple wh ambns to adopt a baby.

That is, gay and lbian Christmas movi actually center queer people now — same-sex holiday revelers csh and fall love, break up, rega romance, and jt live the same celebratory December existence every heterosexual (or closeted) character has gotten for, well, ever. Hallmark’s first-ever gay Christmas romance is a sparkly, trope-y film about the virtu of settlg down and startg a fay a glzy world where homophobia don’t exist.

Nearby, handsome sgle-gay-father-aspiree Jason (Gee Krissa) studi an adoptn pamphlet his ftively rated mansn while his dotg mom nsol him via phone om her home across the street.

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

Netflix’s first te gay Christmas movie (2019’s Let It Snow has a cute queer-teen subplot) follows plant daddy Peter (Michael Urie) as he heads home to New Hampshire wh his bt iend and pretend boyiend, Nick (Philemon Chambers), to avoid his mom’s (Kathy Najimy) naggg about his perpetual sgle stat. 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.

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

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 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. 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.

HAPPY HOLIGAYS: EVERY 2021 LGBTQ+ HOLIDAY MOVIE

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. 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.

“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.

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. 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.

FALLY, HALLMARK’S HOLIDAY FARE MAK A GAY UPLE ‘PART OF THE FAY’

Ben Lewis felt pelled to make sure that his character’s emotnal arc Lifetime’s The Christmas Setup would ronate wh gay dienc. 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.

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.

"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.

SEE FIRST-LOOK PHOTOS OF NETFLIX'S FIRST GAY CHRISTMAS 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. 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!

MAKE THE YULETI GAY WH THE NEW LGBTQ CHRISTMAS MOVI

In the movie, which buts Sunday, Bent plays Sam, a gay guy whose personal life suffers at the st of his profsnal life — work over marriage. '" Add to the formula the actor's love of the '80s classic Uncle Buck starrg John Candy, pl his sire to see a movie that was "really thentic to what 's like beg a gay man 2022.

" And that turned to me and my love for Uncle Buck, the movie wh John Candy that I grew up on, and I kd of put those ias together and I said, "What if Uncle Buck was gay? As gay men, we're navigatg what our liv look like wh kids, or gettg married, or whout kids, and 's not black or whe — there's so many different avenu to startg a fay and havg a chosen fay. 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!

10 QUEER CHRISTMAS MOVI TO MAKE THE YULETI GAY

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!

9 GAY-THEMED HOLIDAY MOVI

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. This year you might want to give Love Actually and The Holiday a miss though, and make the yuleti gay wh an LGBT+ Christmas film.

Released 2009, the film follows Gunn, a llege stunt who’s openly gay at school and is headg home – and back to the closet – for Christmas wh his fay. The two gay characters, Brandon and Jake, are fully accepted by their relativ and iends and their sexualy isn’t the ma foc of the storyle, stead foc on their efforts to adopt a child.