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Jeremy Brett: A Bisexual Sherlock Holmes
Jeremy Brett (1933-1995) will forever been known as the quintessential Sherlock Holmes, paired with Edward Hardwicke's Watson in seven British tv series and moviesbased on the Arthur Conan Doyle...
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Blake McIver: A Gay Little Rascal Speaks Out Against Bullying
If you saw the 1993 retread of the classic Little Rascals, you probably remember Blake McIver as Waldo, who stole Darla from Alfalfa.He also played Derek, Michelle's antagonist on three seasons of the...
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Alex Cord: Roping Cows and Kissing Guys in the 1960s
One of the few Hollywood hunks of the 1960s who wasn't discovered by gay agent Henry Willson, Alex Cord (born Alexander Viespi) was a professional rodeo cowboy before the acting bug hit. After...
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Fall 1983: the Bodybuilder on Crutches
When I was in graduate school at Indiana University, there were 30,000 students wandering around on the 2,000 acre campus, but still, everybody knew Jimmy, a graduate student in psychology. He was a...
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Spring 1983: Reading Faulkner: Redneck Muscle and Boys in Drag
In the spring of 1983, my gay South Asian friend Viju and I managed to get through a horrible class in Modernist Literature by finding gay content anywhere we could in the turgid, heterosexist...
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Brian Austin Green: The Gay Teen of Beverly Hills 90210
Gay teens of the 1990s remember Brian Austin Green as David Silver on Beverly Hills 90210. Especially in early seasons, when he had a gay-subtext buddy-bond with Scott (Douglas Emerson).Beverly Hills...
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Fall 1984: My Student Gets Naked in Class
I hated almost every minute of my year at Hell-fer-Sartain State College in Hayseed, Texas (1984-85), but there was one incident that almost made it worthwhile.One of my students in Survey of English...
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The Electric Company: Bringing You the Power
Kids in the 1970s who were too old for the numbers and letters of Sesame Street graduated to The Electric Company (1971-77). Instead of "Come and play, everything's a-ok," they yelled "We're gonna...
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Summer 1984: Country Boys with Guns
Studying for my M.A. at Indiana University was lots of fun, but an academic failure.1. Faced with 3,000 possible courses, I went crazy: South Asian Anthropology, Russian Folklore, Mandarin Chinese,...
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George Nader: Actor and Gay Activist of the 1950s
Lots of monsters landed in space ships during the 1950s, or crawled out of the ocean, but by far the most ridiculous was Robot Monster (1953): a guy in a gorilla suit and a diving helmet. He's killed...
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Robert Gant: Gay Action Hero
In the 1950s, there were no "openly" gay actors. To make a public proclamation was unthinkable -- even a rumor could mean the end of your career.Today agents, casting directors, producers, directors,...
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Summer 1984: My Big Fat Indian Wedding
The 1997 episode of Seinfeldwhere the gang goes to India for a wedding always gives me a weird nostalgic vibe. In 1984, just after my second year at Indiana University, I traveled to India for a...
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Fall 1984: The Closet Queens of Hell-fer-Sartain State College
Many people have been asking about the real name of Hell-fer-Sartain State College, where I taught for for a year after getting my M.A. (it was actually only 8 months, if you don't count Christmas and...
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Buster Crabbe and Johnny Weissmuller: Duelling Tarzans
In 1931, MGM was auditioning musclemen with exceptional swimming ability for a new movie about Tarzan, the Edgar Rice Burroughs pulp hero. It would be a big deal, the first Tarzan talkie, with real...
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Fall 1984: Bruce Figures It Out
You remember Bruce from Augustana, the English/drama major who was pro-gay rights, but flew into a rage when anyone insinuated that he was personally gay?When we graduated in 1982, he spent a year in...
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer
My partner is making me watch the entire series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) on DVD, in order, for the second time. And I already saw many episodes when it originally aired, so the third...
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Luke Perry: From Teen Idol to Hot Gay Nerd
Viewers of the prison drama Oz in the spring of 2001 were treated to the sight of disgraced evangelical preacher Jeremiah Cloutier (Luke Perry) having his towel stolen as he leaves the shower, forcing...
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Redboy 13: Heterosexist Preteen Spy
Redboy 13 appeared in theaters in 1997. I'd never heard of the director, or the star, Devon Roy-Brown. But I thought "A teenage spy? There must be lots of gay subtexts!"So I bought a ticket and went...
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Escaping to West Hollywood 1: Is It Still There?
During my year at Hell-fer-Sartain State College...um, I mean Lone Star College in a far, far north suburb of Houston, all I could think of was escape. I hated everything about Houston: the endless...
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Ted Wass: Bare-Chested Comedy
Why was Ted Wass never a teen idol?Soap (1977-1981) was an iconic 1970s soap opera spoof about a dysfunctional extended family -- including Jodie (Billy Crystal), the first gay character in a starring...
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