Director of queer classic 'But I'm a Cheerlear' wanted to 'make a gay "Cluels"'

Contents:

• DIRECTOR OF QUEER CLASSIC 'BUT I'M A CHEERLEAR' WANTED TO 'MAKE A GAY "CLUELS"'
• WAS IT GOOD FOR THE GAYS: ‘BUT I’M A CHEERLEAR’
• ’90S GAY CLASSIC BUT I’M A CHEERLEAR GETS A DIRECTOR’S CUT WH NEW SCEN AND COMMENTARY

DIRECTOR OF QUEER CLASSIC 'BUT I'M A CHEERLEAR' WANTED TO 'MAKE A GAY "CLUELS"'

” The movie centers on a lbian high school cheerlear (played by Natasha Lyonne), whose parents send her to a nversn therapy mp to cure her homosexualy. And I thk the muny was so vastated by AIDS that there wasn’t a lot of edi gog on gay cema. I wanted to skewer not only my muny, but also jt the absurdy of gay nversn.

It’s ridiculo to say that jt bee you bee more feme means you’re gog to be ls gay. I loved “Cluels, ” and I wanted to make a gay “Cluels.

For sure — and sexism and homophobia. I read that your first choice for the lead role turned down for relig reasons, and other st members were utned by their agents agast playg gay characters.

WAS IT GOOD FOR THE GAYS: ‘BUT I’M A CHEERLEAR’

Are gay actors still beg dissuad om playg gay characters? I thk ’s better, but there’s a lot of homophobia the actg realm and that agents would still advise some of their clients not to take gay rol, pecially if their clients is gay and the closet. As someone who mak a lot of queer ntent, I still see a lot of closeted actors who don’t want to play gay rol bee they feel like they won’t pass or somethg.

A lot has changed sce the summer of 2000: Gay marriage is now legal throughout the Uned Stat, RuPl has an Emmy-award wng TV show, and more and more public figur, om policians to fluencers, have e out as gay, bi, or trans. Durg the scene when Megan adms to herself that she is, fact, “a homosexual, ” she reach her emotnal peak wh a dramatic ugly-cry, cross-eyed and droolg.

I don't thk anywhere the movie did they try to make Christians look stupid (hey, the homophobic Christians are pretty good at makg themselv look stupid WITHOUT help).

’90S GAY CLASSIC BUT I’M A CHEERLEAR GETS A DIRECTOR’S CUT WH NEW SCEN AND COMMENTARY

I thk this movie do make fun of many straight people, who claim that gays are recg, when is actually the other way around (as one n see by the existence of Te Directns, and the fact that when Megan asks them to teach her to be a lbian, they tell her that they n't do that). Y, he’s talkg about But I’m a Cheerlear, and y, this is further proof that Natasha Lyonne is one of the most powerful queers the 1999 film, Lyonne stars as a high schooler sent by her parents to a gay nversn therapy program, where she ultimately learns to embrace her sexualy. “The whole pot of But I'm a Cheerlear was that I was a femme lbian who was nfed bee my parents were like, ‘How uld you be gay?