the awesome/terrifying freedom

the fans are voting with their money after all - clay is outselling ruben by 4-1.

affable (and boffable) ty pennington shakes things up on 'trading spaces.' i feel a little annoyed that my private saturday 'watch it while i'm making breakfast' show has become such a huge hit. it's got to be the gayest show on tv. let's see: vern is gay, frank is gay (wife? please), doug is gay. ty isn't gay. he's the ryan seacrest of carpentry which makes him an honorary gay.

i watched some of 'all over the guy,' a cute sitcom style romantic film about gay dating in la. the dweebier guy in the film (also the film's screenwriter) is an openly gay actor. his ultra sexy love interest is of course played by a straight actor. i've noticed a trend over the years that i've found a bit troubling: the continual casting of straight men in gay roles. eric macormack in 'will and grace', hal sparks, gale harold and scott lowell on 'queer as folk', stephen weber in 'jeffrey,' david and keith on 'six feet under' and in almost any film with a 'sexy straight acting guy.'

at first it was great! actors were casting aside the stigma that came with playing a gay role. remember when will smith refused to kiss anthony michael hall in 'six degrees of separation?' i will never forgive him for that. not that id want to kiss anthony michael hall either, but c'mon. he knew the role was gay - is he going to be an actor or a poser? can't commit to a kiss? you're a poser, get off the screen.

anyway - those days are over now. now we're hard pressed to find an openly gay actor who's playing the role of a straight-acting gay man. oh, there are plenty of opportunities for out actors to play nelly queens - just ask peter paige of 'queer as folk.'

don't get me wrong - i think the effeminate characters should appear in shows - remember when the gay community went on 'image patrol' and wouldn't allow 'negative stereotypes' to appear in the media? even a realistically effeminate character was seen as 'negative' (justly so for the time- it was too often used as a cheap, easy, derogatory laugh. thank god that's started to change). these were the years when the nightly news went to extra lengths during the coverage of the gay pride parade to pan past the glitter trannies and focus on the lawyers, doctors, and 'everyday folk.' 'we're just like you!! we could be your parents or kids!' it all screamed.

so now we're well into the era of post-gay political correctness: where the hoards of gay men running the entertainment industry (what do you think happens to all the drama fags?) are safely able to start writing tv shows and movies about their gay experiences.. except something is happening. rather than allowing more gay actors to get work playing themselves on screen, those plum roles end up going to straight actors who can 'stretch' and gain respectibility for taking the 'risk' of playing a gay role. it gives them cover stories in 'out' and 'the advocate' where they get to stress that they aren't gay and win all kinds of cool points from gay men and adoring housewives across the country.

i think a few of factors are at play here.

one: gay fantasy. gay men write, direct, and cast these films. how can they resist casting their fantasy men (the super macho jocks who beat them up in junior high) as themselves? we're attracted to masculinity. what could be more masculine than a straight guy?

two: gay self hatred. we still want to be those straight men, deep down. we want to see ourselves as the macho, tough men who jerk their heads when they look to the side - we want to see those guys that we wanted to screw us, screwing another guy.

three: gay actors good at playing straight must remain in the closet to protect their careers. we've come a long way, but not far enough for an out gay man to play straight roles. there are plenty of excellent gay actors who can play these roles but must remain in the closet to protect their careers. so when the part calls for a straight-acting guy, it ends up going to a straight guy. the only gay actors i can think of who have sort of succeeded in playing straight are michael t. weiss and rupert everett. michael t. weiss starred in the second rate aptly named tv show 'the pretender,' and rupert can only play straight in oscar wilde adaptations which pretty much cancels itself out.

so what now? perhaps one day the film industry will catch up to broadway, where openly gay actors are playing-straight, acting-straight, making out with women and making out with men all the time.