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Loading ...Can gay entertainment convert Red America?
Gay men in entertainment have made incredible strides in recent years, scoring at the Oscars, the Emmys, on Broadway and the bestseller lists. It’s enough to make a person think that we’ve arrived. That we’ve entered some golden age, where all will be perfect, or nearly so, from here on out.
Not so fast. For one thing, despite a few high-profile projects, we’re still not represented in books and movies and TV shows in numbers anywhere near our actual percentage of the population.
And as I’ve written before, we’re especially under-represented in stories that aren’t specifically about Being Gay, or in genre projects like fantasy, mystery, or science fiction.
Basically, we’ve conquered the urban areas, the blue states, and most of the European Union; we’re finally starting to become well-represented in our strongholds, in our little specialized media niches: online, or in art house theaters, on cable television, and in Broadway theaters or big city bookstores and libraries.
But there are still vast swaths of the world where gay content is almost unheard of, or where the gay content that does exist is watered down or “balanced” so as to not “offend” conservative Christian sensibilities. Last year, the Oklahoma state house went so far as to pass a bill requiring that all public libraries put gay-themed books, even picture books, in a special “adults-only” section. But I’ll hazard a guess that public libraries in Oklahoma aren’t buying a lot of gay-themed books to begin with.
In other words, for all our recent success, gay content is still controversial; we still haven’t quite gone mainstream. Brokeback Mountain, for all its acclaim and publicity, made “only” $83 million in domestic release, slightly more than half of what the last Tom Cruise movie Mission Impossible 3 made, which, incidentally, was considered a disappointment. Another Gay Movie, which has been seen by literally every gay person I know, has made less than a million dollars in domestic release.
So how do we break out of our entertainment ghetto? After all, gay people live everywhere. And people everywhere need to know how we live. No one would ever suggest it’s acceptable for stories with African American content to be censored from much of the country, right?
But moving ahead won’t be easy. In fact, the obstacles we face may be some of the scariest and most infuriating that we’ve faced yet.
That’s because the obstacles we face now are institutional ones.
A few weeks ago, I had an interesting conversation with an author friend who was considering writing a teen science fiction book with a main character who is gay. Her editor loved the idea, but warned her that, despite her solid track-record, her book probably wouldn’t be picked up by chains like Walmart and Target—outlets that now represent 40 percent or more of the book market. For a teen book like the ones this author and I both write, gay content also effectively rules out placement in a book club or school book fair—placements that can literally mean sales of hundreds of thousands of books.
Chris I must agree and Ross you make me giggle. I was pleased to see what you wrote about Peter as he was hard headed and could not get out of his own way most of the time but you do point out some good stuff. I also studied the Bible for more than thirty years on my way to becoming a minister. “Coming out” is so important not just for today but the future. I have five grandchildren that understand that being gay is ok and who we are so yes the next generation I believe will be more open and honest with who people are.
Our church has gay and straight couples there, has a gay organist, a gay senior warden, an occasional gay priest, a wonderful welcoming environemnt feeds the needy, etc.
What I love is when the neocon Christians start saying “Our mandates are eternal and unchanging!” Because I’ve study the bible, and biblical traditions. And yes even Christianity can change. Great example, Kosher. For about two thousands years Jews were not allowed to eat pork or other “unclean animals.” Then Peter (a good practicing Jew) has a dream where Jesus basically says, “go ahead, have some bacon.” And suddenly it’s okay. Plus it’s kinda funny to watch them pick and choose which parts they fallow, and to who they apply. Ted Haggart, John Edwards, Larry Craig, Bill Clinton, Ronald Regean, Elliot Spitzer, John McCain, none of these men support(ed) marriage equality, and said that marriage is a union between a man and a woman. But it didn’t stop a single one of them from either going outside of their marriages, or ending them, and the Bible is pretty clear that marriage is a life long commitment. Hypocrites, all of them.
Daniel – see my post on 8/17 @ 1:25am. The books help long term, both as info for decent people, and resources for gay youth, etc.
But as someone I know who said – the whole problem is generational, and while we fight to help the situation now, it is going to take time, and the next generation to really change things here “in the land of the free and the home of the bigots”. (Sri, but I couldn’t resist – truth is truth, especially when it points out hate, especially religious hatred.
Nothing is more important then “coming out”. As you break down the closet, more and more people discover that gay people are everywhere, their friends, co-workers, family etc. And they discover that they are ordinary, decent people, not the ogres and monsters portrayed by right wing churches, who have nothing to sell except Hate, for which they recieve money and power, their real stock in trade.
And look at MA and gay marriage- now, it is more or less a non-issue in the state, except for those – the right wing conservative churches, whose tales of doom are being exposed, and people see that while gay marriages have had about a 1% breakdown rate, for str8 people in their “sanctified, holy marriages”, the number is almost a majority. 50%
And with the internet, and as kids come out, and their stre8 friends accept them as equals, the “halls of hate”, with their holy books and stained glass windows, will more and more be filled only with dust, while more and more people join churches that remember that Jesus said “as you do to the least of your brethren, you do to me.”
Analyst is a goof, right?
You have several competing forces against you:
Evolution and natural selection.
Tradition.
Conscience.
The substance of faith & love through authentic Christianity.
God himself.
From a Christian perspective, all these should not dispense persecution or judgment. But, that they resist and stand against a declining culture at all serves gays, your conscience as a deterrence to vile behavior. That is enough until you are handed over in reprobate to your lusts by your own demand. You have that freedom that we have given you. No authentic Christian will take it away from you. You r real freedom is from persisting in your own initiatives that only appear to be right for you. But as has been said, Deception: “when you think you are right but you are wrong”.
So, you must ridicule and use shame attempting to make it hold over your opponents. It is the only weapon you have. It is a false weapon, only strong if we are ignorant and weak, succumbing to emotion and sympathies. The limbic traps that are your only temporary hiding place.
Civil legislation may bring outward coercive force but cannot convince our hearts to be falsely shameful, as you have chosen for yourselves. It just cannot happen.
There is no logical and objective tool you have to convince others that choices of using orgasms in idolatrous affectionate behavior is ever going to be made right. You have a season where your boldness and arrogance is perceived as empowerment. But it isn’t but a futile and temporary attempt.
One more thing, “phobic” is not an accurate term to be cast upon us each time we speak out against the vile behavior of homosexuality. We do love the person just not their choices for their identities. It was not meant for man to claim an identity with how he uses an sex-organ for pleasure whether for straight sexual perversions or the homosexual. Doesn’t matter.
Saying the word homophobic can apply to some but not all and certainly not to the core curators of Biblical faith, the authentic Christians. It is like calling someone a racist when they have no ill towards a race, but only their behavior. The sum of a group’s behavior is called culture, not race. But if a group can cast their opponents as hating, or phobic for unchangeable attributes alone, then they assume they have gained high moral ground in the debate. This has not happened. It cannot happen. We are not bigots or phobic. We are under the advisories of Biblical mandates. I submit that the One who made us sets the rules, then who are we to challenge that? All previous challenges have proven futile.
Ross I do not believe you are just ranting as there are many places in America that if you do not have the ability to grab TV by means of a dish on your roof or have interent gay entertainment is not found easily. But the good news is things are changing and gay entertainment is becoming, although at a slow pace mainstream. It takes time for things to come full circle. Gay writers do face some tuff times because of the conservative right. I am a writer and my desire is to write gay fiction. At this time gay fiction has a very small outlet but it is getting better and it will continue to grow as time goes by. For gay writers starting out such as myself we have a tuff road as there are not many places to submit or sell our work. In fact one of the bigger writers web sites I have submitted work to is a very hard place for gay writers to work due to the fact there are plenty of anti gay injections by straight writers. There are several gays that use this web site often but many do not identify as gay. It will take more gay writers who are out as gay writing actual real gay stuff in order for things to continue to move ahead. I also agree that writers for movies need to show the real gay world not just the pretty boys and girls. One movie that did show real gay life and people and one I most enjoy is “Outing Riley”. There are thousands of gay writers in America who want to make it big in the enterainment business and many will it just takes time.
Daniel: Comparing your experience to mine, I simply have to say then that you lucked out. I currently live in a town of 800 people in South Dakota and have no access to gay material save via an internet connection.
However you make a good point when you highlight you’re access. The problem is not that reds don’t have access to our media, it that we aren’t in there’s.
Like Gray Coyote said, we need the people who sound like them, talk like them, who LOOK like them. We’re trying to get into their conservative hearts and minds by having a pride parade in they’re living room (from their POV).
Believe me, they do fear that we are going to try to sleep with their men. My cousin brought a bunch of his friends home during college, and one was so paranoid that even though I barely acknowledged his presence he still thought I was hitting on him. I know that many are thinking, “Well if he’s that stupid then to hell with his hick ass,” but these are the very same people that go out and propose the mini-DOMAs. I’m not say that we have to deny who we are, but when you’re trying to dispel myths about yourself you need to present that you’re basically just like them.
Personally I think the best way to get that point across is to present stories like Staff Sergeant Eric Alva, (the first American wounded in Iraq) Who by his own words (accourding to his wiki) comes from a family of servicemen. A man who is deeply committed to something that conservatives value highly (the military). When we present him as 1) A Marine 2) a war hero 3) a veteran and 4)gay in that order, we get in the house and change minds. If we go 4 first we get a slammed door. But if we present enough stories like Alva’s (not necessarily military related), we can start to change the order to 1,2,4,3 then 1,4,2,3 and finally 4,1,2,3 if we choose.
It’s just gonna take patience.
Sorry for the rant. And thanks to anyone who stuck through it.
As someone who does not live in “the ghetto” I have to say that the author seems to have a jaded attitude towards these places. I live 10 min from Oklahoma, and my local public library has a vast resource of LGBT material. LGBT books are being added monthly, and every video store in town carries LGBT movies. And it is a very conservative Christian community. So how has being able to rent “Outing Ted” or “East Side Story” helped solve any of the issues our community is dealing with? I already have access to what you say I don’t have access to…and having that access hasn’t done anything to “convert red state america” as the title of this article suggests.
There has been top selling Science Fiction with gay characters and storylines for decades in the work of Samuel Delany, though it is not always identified by critics or readers as gay. Check out Samuel Delany.
Well I have an answer to in sci-fi/fantasy books. I’m writing one now with gay themed characters. However I cant give any other information than that, I don’t want to spoil the plot!
If ENDA were to pass, writers can sue on sexual orientation / fender identity grounds.
All though it would be dificult for any one writer to sue successfully, a gay lobby reprenting the community as a whole could make inroads into these industries with lawsuits.
I guess the better question is: Where’s our Andy Sipowicz? In case you’re wondering who I’m talking about, it was the character played by Dennis Franz in NYPD Blue.
The pretty boys need to go to the side when it comes to depictions of gay people. One thing the red areas identify with is people who look like them. Glammed up types need to go away. Just like them, they have flab, and they aren’t the prettiest. So let’s go for that market.