Out director Ira Sachs slams his new queer film’s NC-17 ratg, llg the MPA “anti-gay” - LGBTQ Natn

Contents:

• OUT DIRECTOR IRA SACHS SLAMS HIS NEW QUEER FILM’S NC-17 RATG, LLG THE MPA “ANTI-GAY”
• BETIFUL THG IS A MASTERPIECE OF GAY STORYTELLG
• WE MOVED TO
• 'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY
• KEN HAS ALWAYS BEEN BARBIE’S GAY BT FRIEND—NOT HER BOYIEND
• GAY FURRY HACKERS ARE TARGETG US STAT FOR PASSG ANTI-TRANS LEGISLATN

OUT DIRECTOR IRA SACHS SLAMS HIS NEW QUEER FILM’S NC-17 RATG, LLG THE MPA “ANTI-GAY”

“We’re talkg about a select group of people who have a certa bent, which seems anti-gay, anti-progrs, anti-sex — a lot of thgs which I’m not, ” he told the L. In other words, where Bud Light has buckled unr prsure as bigotry grows agast the LGBTQ+ muny, Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hodson wants his new boozy brand to be the anthis of that.

BETIFUL THG IS A MASTERPIECE OF GAY STORYTELLG

“The key issue that Bud Light tapped to was the fact that they didn’t unrstand their re dience and know enough about them,” Hodson, a gay man, told CNN about the ntroversy that began when the Anhser-Bch beer brand sent fluencer Dylan Mulvaney a n of beer.

Hodson built up a strong social media followg on TikTok and Instagram durg Covid-19 and is g some of the money om that (as well as om iends and fay) to help fund Gay Water.

“Gay is an umbrella term and the ia behd the brand is to be as clive as possible, which means we want alli, we want straight people to be part of this muny we’re buildg.”. Gay Water might not have the ep pockets pared to s petors, like Whe Claw, but “even at small sle, pani of many siz are havg succs makg spir-based seltzers and premixed cktails,” Bryan Roth, an analyst for Feel Goods Company and edor of the alhol beverage newsletter, Sightl+, told CNN.

WE MOVED TO

“There’s lots of space the spir-based seltzer tegory which Gay Water n play, pecially if the brand n offer a cultural or emotnal nnectn that will feel more excg than the prospect of another peapple-flavored vodka seltzer om natnal or ternatnal rporatns,” Roth said.

'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY

Of urse, other drks e the word “gay,” too, cludg Gay Beer and So Gay Rosé, Hodson noted, which are also tryg to reach the queer muny and offer them an alternative the straight-domated space.

Betiful Thg Is a Masterpiece of Gay StorytellgThe 1996 Brish film portrayed s workg-class LGBT characters wh remarkable sensivy and Pictur ClassicsWhen Jonathan Harvey’s love story Betiful Thg buted 1993 as a play, he had no ia would eventually be herald as a crown jewel of gay storytellg.

In 1987, Bra’s Prime Mister, Margaret Thatcher, gave a speech plag that, rather than learng to rpect “tradnal” valu, children were beg tght that they “have an alienable right to be gay.

KEN HAS ALWAYS BEEN BARBIE’S GAY BT FRIEND—NOT HER BOYIEND

” It was hardly a cince that Sectn 28—an amendment that prohibed lol thori om “promotg homosexualy” or teachg schools the “acceptabily of homosexualy as a pretend fay relatnship”—was enacted by Thatcher’s ernment the followg year. The film was genuely subversive for s time and place: Depictg gay kids who don’t succumb to the “plague” or ultimately bow to prsure om their bigoted peers was no small thg at a moment stricken by an pecially vilent, anti-LGBT mood. Inially, neher boy has fully accepted his sexualy, and Betiful Thg is a lite exploratn of the often-paful procs of g out that evolv to a gay film is filled wh charmg and poignant moments that uld be found any romantic dramedy.

Later, the two go to a gay jot—the first place they thk to go to where they n be public about their relatnship sans judgment— a scene that gently pots to the historil signifince of gay bars as safe spac. Wh the relatable and humane moments, the film telegraphed to s mid-1990s dienc somethg they hadn’t heard much before: Gay people are jt Betiful Thg div even eper. Through the film’s two other central characters, viewers also get an illumatg glimpse of gay love crosshatched wh other forms of opprsn rooted inty—primarily class—as well as a broar, arguably fuller pictn of longg for, well, belongg.

” Jamie asks Ste at one pot)—when they’re also stuck another—on a uncil tate wh fay members who might be unaware of their own anti-gay prejudic or who might react vlently to learng about their sexualy. Then, as now, the story criqu a culture that herently valu the stori, if not existenc, of “non-normative” Betiful Thg may not have the mastream clout of other films on BFI’s list, such as Todd Hayn’s electrifyg 2015 perd piece Carol, s prence the pantheon of gay cema ntu to expand what dienc might nsir the genre of “great” films, promptg broar awarens of historilly overlooked perspectiv that are nohels worthy of attentn. After all, Harvey, a gay man of workg-class orig, was the one who brought this cultural touchstone to may not have tend to create a gay story.

GAY FURRY HACKERS ARE TARGETG US STAT FOR PASSG ANTI-TRANS LEGISLATN

” Departg om the tired and tirg pictns of gay people as outsts, seedy sexaholics, and victims, Betiful Thg offers plited characters moored a world which any sort of gay nuance or texture is often redacted. A gay baret owner and his drag queen pann agree to put up a false straight ont so that their son n troduce them to his fiancée's right-wg moralistic parents. A young man returns to his fay farm, after a long stay ex-gay nversn therapy, and is torn between the expectatns of his emotnally distant father, and the memori of a past, lovg relatnship he has tried to bury.