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Christopher George: Heterosexual Icon with a Gay Connection
When Steve Bond posed nude in Playgirl in October 1975, he was 21 years old and unknown, except for one role as a child seven years before. When Christopher George posed in June 1974, he was 43 years...
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Parker Lewis Can't Lose
The 1980s was the era of the teen operator, the teenager who works behind the scenes, enraging tyrannical assistant principals and college deans. He starred in virtually every TGIF sitcom, from Family...
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Leonard Bernstein's Mass: What I Say, I Don't Feel
When I was a kid, my church had no problem with classical music, but my parents hated "that longhair stuff," so there was none in the house. My first exposure to Bach, Berlioz, Beethoven, and Mozart...
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13 Nickelodeon Teen Hunks of the 1990s
Teencoms come and go quickly, and the hunks that inspired romantic fantasies in millions of gay boys and straight girls move on to other projects. Or other careers. Here are the beefcake, bonding,...
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Hey, Dad: Australia's Growing Pains
The U.S. was not alone in its 1980s obsession with TGIF sitcoms, the warm, fuzzy, "families stick together" reaction to the acerbic workplace comedies of the 1970s. Hey, Dad...! (1987-94) was the the...
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Mae West: Gay Icon of the 1930s
She appeared in ten movies between 1933 and 1943 -- a rather small body of work (during the same period, Mickey Rooney appeared in over fifty). And two others during the 1970s. Yet she is instantly...
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Kenan and Kel: Nickelodeon Gay Teen Duo
I'm not sure why African-Americans are excused from having to demonstrate that they're heterosexual every five minutes, but the Nickelodeon teencom duo Kenan and Kel (1996-2000) were excused. They were...
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Kentucky Kinfolk
I was asked why I named the horrible town in Texas where I taught in 1984-85 Hell-fer-Sartain. It's from a book titled South from Hell-fer-Sartain: Kentucky Mountain Folktales, by Leonard W....
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Chico and the Man: Anglo-Hispanic Gay Couple
There were lots of African-American characters on tv in the 1970s, but Hispanic actors continued to find themselves cast as Anglo or Italian. Freddie Prinze was one of the first to be cast as...
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The Looney Tunes Show: Only Heterosexuals Exist, Yet Again
On the latest version of the Warner Brother cartoon mythos, the Cartoon Network's Looney Tunes Show (2011-), Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are suburban housemates. Other WB characters appear in secondary...
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Dan Benson: Gay-Vague Beefcake of Waverly Place
With all the beefcake on the Disney Channel's Wizards of Waverly Place (2007-2013), it was easy to ignore Dan Benson. He's the one in the middle, squeezed between David Henrie and Greg Sulkin, with...
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Beverly Hills 90210
Soap operas are traditionally about beautiful people having heart-wrenching problems in affluent surroundings. Beverly Hills 90210 (1990-2000) became a huge success by moving the formula to high...
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Adventure Time: Gay-Positive Cartoon Series
The Looney Tunes Show notwithstanding, the Cartoon Network usually gets it right. Adventure Time (2010-) is a sort of reflection of the 1975 sci-fi classic A Boy and his Dog (with Don Johnson):Finn...
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Frankie and Erik in the Middle
The heir of dysfunctional family sitcoms like Roseanne and Married...with Children, Malcolm in the Middle (2000-2006) was about the middle boy (Frankie Muniz) in a family of miscreants, who happened to...
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How to Eat Fried Worms: They Tease You Because They Like You
When I was bullied as a kid, my parents said "They tease you because they like you." I was quite aware of the difference between good-natured teasing and savage taunts, but still, it is sometimes...
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Joe Manganiello: Gay Best Friend
Joe Manganiello, who starred as "Big Dick Richie" in Magic Mike (2012), is a strong gay ally, speaking at the HRC fundraiser in 2011, presenting buddy Matt Bomer (below) the GLSEN "Inspiration Award"...
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Lucas Black: Gay Subtexts in the South
In the movies, people from the South are homophobic even when they're not.Take this speech from Sling Blade (1996), in which 13-year old Frank (Lucas Black) explains why his mom's best friend (John...
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Tim Tyler's Luck: Gay Boy and Pirate in the Jungle
The results of the poll are in, and there were lots of votes for 1940s and before, but not many for the 1990s and 2000s. That doesn't really match my blog traffick:Mae West, gay icon of the 1930s --...
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The Puppy Episode: Ellen Comes Out
As you get older, childhood memories remain crisp and clear, but recent memories sort of fade away. I remember every detail of the 1970s, but the 1990s are hazy. Who would have believed that, just 15...
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Regular Show: It's Anything But Heterosexist
Another Cartoon Network show that gets it right, Regular Show (2010-) is about two young adult slackers, a blue jay named Mordecai (voiced by J.G. Quintel) and a raccoon named Rigby (William Salyers),...
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