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Gay Characters in America's Favorite Novels Part 2
I'm going through the list of America's Favorite Novels, as determined by a PBS survey, to see if there are any gay characters or gay subtexts. Some of them I've read; others I ran away from in...
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Gay Characters in America's Favorite Novels. Part 1
Last summer PBS broadcast "The Great American Read," a listing of the top 100 best-loved novels as derived from a survey. Many of them I've never heard of, and others I've heard of but ran away from....
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Why We Watched "Amen" in West Hollywood
When I was living in West Hollywood, Saturday night was cruising night; at 9:30 pm, just after The Golden Girls, you headed out to Mugi (for Asian men), Catch One (Black men), Basgo's (Hispanic men),...
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Bobbseys, Boxcars, and Beefcake
I was never much of a fan of the mystery genre, but many gay kids liked the gentle, pre-Hardy Boys exploits of The Famous Five or their American counterparts, the Bobbsey Twins and the Boxcar Children....
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"Just Friends": Dutch Rom-Com about RIch/Poor Boys and their Overbearing Mothers
Just Friends, on Amazon Prime, a tv-movie from 2018: "Something beyond the pleasures of a young gay love story, and the conflicts with their families have nothing to do with their sexuality." It...
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"Hunter x Hunter": My Cereal Was Getting Soggy, So....
When I turned on Netflix, Hunter X Hunter jumped out at me, and I had a full bowl of Cheerios and didn't want to search. A good enough reason to watch.Left: The show is apparently popular enough for...
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"American Gigolo" Reboots: Less Homophobia, but Less Nudity
In February 1980, when I was a sophomore at Augustana College, my first boyfriend Fred took me to see American Gigolo, to catch a glimpse of Richard Gere's biceps, chest, abs, and penis -- the first...
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"Secrets of Summer": Teens Save an Argentine Jungle Resort with a...
Secrets of Summer, an Argentine teen drama originally titled Cielo Grande (Big Sky). The icon displays two girls in the foreground, one with a surboard, and two guys in the background, one with a...
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"The Cuphead Show": Will Updating 1930s Fleischer Studio Animation Give Us...
The Cuphead Show, based on a video game, is drawn in the animation style of the Fleischer Studio of the 1930s: a worled where human, animal, and objects interact, bouncing constantly, singing to the...
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Daniel Stisen, the Hunk Behind the "Last Man Down"
The promo for the post-Apocalyptic thriller Last Man Standing, on Netflix, was entirely involved with a shirtless, mega-muscular Grizzly Adams-type chopping wood. What gay man wouldn't click on that?...
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"In Time": The Ten Minutes of Gay Teases Will Cost You Two Hours
In Time (2011) evokes a far-future world (with 1990s technology) where aging stops at age 25. Then you die, unless you can acquire more time. Jobs pay you in time (e.g., two days for eight hours),...
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"Wu Assassins": The Chosen One must Battle the Dark Lords While Fighting Off...
Wu Assassins, on Netflix: "An unassuming San Francisco chef" discovers that he is the Chosen One. Amid all the martial arts action, the trailer shows a girl-on-girl kiss. I'm more interested in...
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Netflix's New "Halloween" Remake: Will a 2022 Michael Myers Be Gay-Positive?
A remake of the psycho-slasher classic Halloween (1978) just dropped on Netflix. The original was heteronormative, but lacked the homophobic slurs common to most 1970s movies. Since this is a...
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The February Doldrums: Five Streaming Services, and Nothing But Boys Meeting...
Did you ever have a morning where nothing went right? It's 4:00 am, and I'm doing my usual run-through of Amazon, Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and Vudu, looking for something with gay characters, gay...
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Hap and Leonard: Gay, Black, and Angry in East Texas
I would never in a million years have believed that Joe R. Lansdale, a writer and martial arts expert who grew up in Gladewater, East Texas and now lives in Nacogdoches, East Texas, would have written...
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February Doldrums, Part 2: Looking for Men on Netflix
A couple of days ago, I did my usual run of looking for gay subtexts or gay (male) characters on my streaming services, and came up empty. Today I'm just looking for a male protagonist. I don't even...
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"When I'm 64": A Football Hooligan Comes Out during his Golden Years
When I'm 64: Two men of a certain age discover that they want the same things from their golden years: adventure. Could there be a gay subtext in a geriatric buddy bond?Scene 1: Am I watching an...
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"Pan": Transphobic Prequel to the "Peter Pan" Mythos
Last night for Movie Night we saw Pan (2015), a rehash of the Peter Pan mythos in which Peter and Captain Hook are friends. It was...not good.We begin with the interminable adventures of 12-year old...
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Julie and the Phantoms: Gay Teen Romance from Beyond the Grave
Julie and the Phantoms on Netflix, about an aspiring singer who starts a band with three ghosts, has the look and the feel of a Disney Channel teencom. Aren't they all about aspiring singers? But...
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"Restless": Porn Actor Turned Corrupt Cop Has a Very Bad Day
In Restless (2022), Thomas (Franck Gastambide), corrupt cop, muscle bear, and single dad to an army toy-loving daughter, is having a very bad day. First, inspectors from internal affairs are coming,...
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