Category Archives: LGBT

Remembering Bayard Rustin

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Bayard Rustin, prior to the 1963 March on Washington. |Image: AP via BuzzFeed

Really great piece this morning on BuzzFeed about Bayard Rustin, the architect of the 1963 March on Washington, which occurred 50 years ago today.

Rustin, the piece argues, has been mostly ignored by history because of his refusal to hide his homosexuality, even then, and his Quaker faith and temperament, which caused him to forswear all violence.

President Obama will posthumously bestow the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Rustin this year.

 

Takei to Receive Leadership Award for LGBT Advocacy

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The extraordinary George Takei. Who better to receive this award? No one that I know of. |Image: Examiner

 

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force announced iconic Star Trek actor and LGBT advocate George Takei will be the recipient of the organization’s 2013 National Leadership Award, reports the Associated Press.

via George Takei to Receive Leadership Award for LGBT Advocacy | Advocate.com.

Massey Leaves Iconic Gay Role as Will Horton

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Outlets covering gay entertainment news and those covering soap operas had plenty to write about Fri., Aug. 23, when, in a surprise move, two-time Emmy winner Chandler Massey announced that he had filmed his last scenes as Will Horton on the venerable NBC sudser Days of our Lives.

The story of Will Horton (Emmy winner Chandler Massey, left) discovering himself and his love story with Sonny Kiriakis (Freddie Smith) has been achingly slow, but powerful performances by the duo have overshadowed the typically tepid plotting.

AFTERGLOW. Sonny Kiriakis (Emmy nominee Freddie Smith, right) will find a strange new bedfellow in the new year when an as yet unannounced new actor takes over the role of partner Will Horton (double Emmy winner Chandler Massey, left) on the NBC daytime drama Days of Our Lives.

The 22-year-old Massey had announced his intentions to leave the role earlier this year when he won his second consecutive Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Younger Actor. He has said that he intends to finish college, which was interrupted during his freshman year when he won the role of Will Horton on DOOL.

“I’m done. It’s bittersweet, Massey is quoted as saying on The Backlot. “These four years have been so amazing I’ve built a family here. I’m so grateful to NBC and everyone for these amazing four years. It’s been my privilege and honor to work there.”

Massey was let out of his contract several months early for a variety or reasons. While originally saying that they would not recast the role, producers have now indicated that storylines have dictated a recast.

While many current fans of the show have taken to social media decrying the decision to recast, Massey — the fifth actor to play the role — has been vocal in his support of a recast for some time.

“I think it’s a good move [to recast],” Massey said in The Backlot piece. “I’m biased because I fell in love with Will and Sonny and I want Will and Sonny to be together.”

I agree with him. I fell in love with them, too. But, recasts have always been a part of the life of a continuing drama. After all, excluding babies, 12 actors assayed the part of Tom Hughes on As The World Turns from 1960 until Scott Holmes became “lucky 13” in 1987, staying with the role until the series ended in 2010. There’s hardly a role on a soap that has not been played by another actor at one time or another.

There’s no doubt about it: I will miss Massey, but I do believe that it’s more important that DOOL continue to tell this story and I hope a recast indicates that they tend to do just that.

There are plenty of young people, struggling with their sexuality that need to see other young gay people in a committed relationship to show them that it can be done — insane gunmen, unintended pregnancies, annoying and sometime borderline psychotic parents, drug dealing cousins, perjury, hot architects and Stefano DiMera aside — and that you can come home each night to the loving embrace of Sonny Kiriakis and his fabulous hair.

Thanks, Mr. Massey, for sharing your gifts with us. Your impact on the landscape has been indelible.

Because of DAYS’ shooting schedule, Massey will likely be seen as Will through December.

Other Recent Posts:
More Sands Through the Gay Hourglass — Revisiting and Revising
Like Sands Through the Gay Hourglass: Ticked Off at American Dramas. Again.
Charm of DAYS’ Gay Supercouple “Cannot be Denied”
Chandler Massey Takes Home Second Emmy
Daytime Emmy Q and A: Freddie Smith

GLAAD Looks at Gay Visibility in Hollywood Films – thebacklot.com

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HollywoodVineGLAAD Looks at Gay Visibility in Hollywood Films – thebacklot.com.

GLAAD has previously released annual Network Responsibility Index reports on LGBT visibility in television, but this marks the first time they’ve provided an analysis of movie studios. And what they found in this first report is not good.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the most homophobic place in America is (metaphorically speaking) the corner of Hollywood and Vine.

Wentworth Miller Comes Out

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Actor/writer Wentworth Miller. |Image: Kiyoshi Ota / Getty Images AsiaPac via BuzzFeed

Wentworth Miller Comes Out: ‘Prison Break’ Star Reveals He’s Gay.

Okay, unlike yesterday’s “revelation” about Lucas Cruikshank, at least I know who Miller is! Also, the reason why is important, too. We all have to stand up and take a stand against injustice and intolerance and horrifying whack jobs every now and then.

And, because every story deserves a bit of levity, here’s BuzzFeed’s take on it!

Nickelodeon Actor Comes Out

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Lucas Cruikshank, Nickelodeon actor and star and creator of the popular YouTube series Fred, came out of the closet in a Q&A video posted to his channel today.

via Towleroad (includes video embed — it’s kinda cute, actually)

I suppose this was inevitable — some young celeb comes out and I have no freakin’ idea who in the hell they are. I am officially old. *sigh*

Well, anyway, good for him. I think that the more young people who come out on their own terms and just get on with it, the better off we’ll all be. I envy the nonchalance of this generation. It certainly beats the angst-ridden youth of my generation.

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Lucas Cruikshank and Jennifer Veal. He came out today. I have no idea who either of them are because I am, alas, too damn old. |Image: screen grab via Towleroad.

The Straight Years — A New Website and a Look Back at How it Used to Be

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Got this tweet this past weekend from LogoTV —

syp

Of course, I had to check it out.

The premise is people who are out now showing old pictures of themselves when they were pretending to be straight — or simply hadn’t figured out how to come out of the closet.

Back when I was a pre-teen/teenager, there were three people on television that I knew were gay: Paul Lynde on The Hollywood Squares, Charles Nelson Reilly on Match Game, and Billy Crystal’s character, Jodie Dallas, on Soap. And that was it! At least that was it in my little insulated corner of the planet. No one talked about gay and straight. Were these my role models? No, thanks. That’s not it. I’m not like ANY of these men. (Although, I LOVED Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly — they were the epitome of hilarious to me in the 70s — I did not connect the dots.)

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Charles Nelson Reilly made the 70s a little bit funnier on Match Game. A gifted actor, teacher and director, the Tony-winning Reilly filmed his autobiographical stage show, The Life of Reilly, shortly before his death. |Image: nndb.com

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TV’s center square, Paul Lynde, was bitchy and campy and threw out one double entendre after another on The Hollywood Squares for years. Also known for stage and TV work, including memorable turns as Uncle Arthur on Bewitched, Lynde died of a heart attack in 1982 at age 55. |Image: crewmagazine.

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Billy Crystal as Jodie Dallas in Soap. Allegedly gay throughout the series’ 1977-81 run, Jodie had several relationships with women. Granted the show was an over-the-top spoof on soap operas, but commercial director Jodie was nobody’s idea of a role model.

Things weren’t that much better in the 80s, when Steven Carrington on Dynasty was television’s gay standard bearer. Carrington — played by Al Corley and then recast with Jack Coleman — like Jodie Dallas before him, had far more romantic entanglements with women than any gay man I’ve ever met. Then again, “conversion therapy” and attempts to go straight were seen as serious back then, as ridiculous as it sounds now. There was no touching, no actual affection shown between two men on TV then; not in those days when, after his 1985 death, the world was shocked to learn that Rock Hudson was gay.

Looking back on those “straight years,” I think that simply because they were there and we could have a conversation about them, Jodie Dallas and Steven Carrington began to pave the way for networks like HERE and LOGO and superstars like Ellen Degeneres and Rosie O’Donnell and Zachary Quinto and George Takei and Anderson Cooper and Neil Patrick Harris and shows like Glee and The New Normal and Will & Grace and Brothers & Sisters and The L Word and Queer as Folk on cable and the networks and Husbands and The Outs and Eastsiders and Submissions Only and Hunting Season online and iconic couples like Kevin and Scotty,  Luke and Noah,  Lindsey and Melanie,  Will and Sonny and, hell, Jack and Doug on Dawson’s friggin’ Creek just to scratch the very tip of the iceberg.

I finally figured it all out in my mid-20s and came out publicly after attending the 1993 gay march on Washington. Being surrounded by the largest crowd I’ve ever seen on the National Mall, I decided that I wasn’t alone. I had back up in case coming out was a terrible idea.

It wasn’t. It NEVER is. I just wish my “straight years” hadn’t lasted quite so long. Maybe they wouldn’t have if I could have seen more of myself on television, in the movies or in literature back then.

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The Corner Bar was a 1972 summer replacement series on ABC that is credited with the first recurring gay character on American television. Played by Vincent Schiavelli, “Peter Panama” was reviled by gay activists at the time for playing up all of the worst gay stereotypes. Schiavelli, far right, is pictured with cast members Gabriel Dell, J.J. Barry, Shimen Ruskin, Bill Fiore and Joe Keyes. |Image via sticomsonline.com, watermarked argentaimages.

How “Husbands” Predicted The Future For Gay Marriage And Digital Hollywood

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How “Husbands” Predicted The Future For Gay Marriage And Digital Hollywood.

Fortunately, Husbands has not had to worry about suffering from performance issues. When Bell and Espenson launched it two years ago as a web series on YouTube, it won a rave from no less than The New Yorker, and generated enough of a passionate fan base that the duo was able to raise $60,000 on Kickstarter for a second season. That season, which debuted on YouTube last year, saw a roughly 35% boost in viewership. “Everybody has access to the ability to make their own product now,” says Espenson. “It really is ‘the best will thrive.’ Like, whole networks are set up to guess what people are going to like. You don’t have to guess anymore. You can put it up and see what they like. That’s what we did. And they liked us.”

Excellent article and interview with Bell, Espenson and Hemeon about the impact of Husbands and finding new venues for content.

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Husbands’ co-star Sean Hemeon is flanked by series co-creators Brad Bell and Jane Espenson at the 2013 Entertainment Weekly San Diego Comic Con party. The much-lauded marriage equality series centers on Hemeon and Bell, who play a hilarious mismatched married couple in the crisply written show. | Image: Chelsea Lauren/WireImage.

It’s very interesting to me that the trio no longer use the phrase “Web series” to describe the show, now beginning its third season (and this time on CW Seed, the companion site to the broadcast network), but rather simply call it a “series.”

I think they are right — and it’s very interesting to see language and usage change — sometimes practically overnight.

Says Espenson: “There’s nothing on YouTube that you can’t see on your smart TV. There’s nothing on TV, essentially, that you can’t find online in some form. So [saying “Web series” is] like saying, “I heard a radio song” vs. “a CD song!” Well, what’s the difference? You can get it either place.

I’ll have to start checking myself.

Meanwhile, you can watch — please do; it’s terrific!! — the new season of Husbands on CW Seed.

Watch the first two seasons and some behind-the-scenes videos HERE.

Read some of the Husbands-related posts I’ve made over the last year HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Ben Whishaw Comes Out: Do We Care?

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‘Skyfall’ Actor Ben Whishaw Officially Comes Out As Gay, Reveals He Is Married.

In a statement obtained by the Daily Mail over the weekend, Whishaw’s rep confirmed the actor is gay and has been married to his partner, Australian composer Mark Bradshaw, for a year now.

“Ben has never hidden his sexuality, but like many actors he prefers not to discuss his family or life outside of his work,” his spokesman said Friday night. “Due to speculation, I can confirm that Ben and Mark entered into a civil partnership in August 2012. They were proud to do so and are very happy.”

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Ben Whishaw as Freddie Lyon in “The Hour,” the period drama from the BBC about newsgathering in the 1950s. The Beeb cancelled the show after two series, sadly, but it was great TV. For many in the U.S., “The Hour” was the first real introduction to Whishaw’s many talents. | Image: BBC

There’s part of me that’s happy about this. There’s another part of me that just thinks it’s not a big deal and, frankly, none of my business or anyone else’s.

I’m conflicted, I suppose. I believe that it is so very important for LGBT equality that people realize how many people live their lives vibrantly and openly and how that polyglot makes this a richer world.

But ….

I don’t know if I really need to know who Ben Whishaw sleeps with or is married to. It just has no relevance. He’s a fine, fine actor. He was great in the last James Bond flick, picking up the mantle of “Q” seamlessly from John Cleese and the magnificent Desmond Llewellyn. He was mesmerizing as Freddie Lyon in two seasons of the BBC drama “The Hour” and he was captivating as Sebastian Flyte in a less-than-stellar take on Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited.”

Is he less or more captivating because we know that the performer under the artifice is gay? My belief is that if he’s a fine actor, everything — everything — else is completely irrelevant.

Well, anyway, good on ya, Ben. I wish you, your husband, and your fabulous head of hair all the happiness in the world!