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Kickin It: Jack and Jerry, a Modern Romance
Kickin' It (2011-) on Disney XD, is set in the struggling Bobby Wasabi Martial Arts Academy, run by Rudy (Jason Earles, previously of Hannah Montana). Five misfit students band together to form the...
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Father Dear Father: Gay-Friendly Britcom without Gays
In the spring of 1977, during my junior year in high school, I couldn't wait for 10:00 pm on Thursday nights, for the logo of Thames TV, with Parliament, Big Ben, St. Paul's Cathedral, and London...
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Sterling Beaumon: Not All Bad
After the gay subtext-filled How to Eat Fried Worms (2006), Luke Benward and Adam Hicks starred in the Disney Channel's Mostly Ghostly (2008), which was unremittingly heterosexist. Max (Sterling...
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Are the Pantos Gay?
Before researching my post onFather, Dear Father, I had never heard of a pantomime or panto, in spite of my years of study of English literature and hours of watching British tv. Apparently everyone...
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The Dandy and the Gay Cult: The Last Days of Pompeii
When I was a kid, my church didn't like anything "worldly," not even literature. Novels were at best a waste of time, and more likely they would promote heresies like atheism, Catholicism, and...
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The Hard Times of RJ Berger: A Teencom Where Size Matters
Would you watch a tv series about a high school nerd who suddenly becomes popular with the ladies when they discover that he has an enormous...um, you know?Even if it was on MTV, not well known for its...
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Uncle Tom Award #2: High School Musical
Time for another Uncle Tom Award, given to the actor, director, or producer who most effectively promotes heterosexism. Award #2 goes to Kenny Ortega and Lucas Grabeel of High School Musical.The...
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Milton Berle: Television's First Drag Queen
In an October 26, 1967 episode of Batman, Batman and Robin ran afoul of Louie the Lilac, who trapped them in a man-eating lilac bush and later got them. . .um. . .all wrapped up in each other (Batgirl...
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Southern Baptist Sissies: Gays vs. God, Yet Again
Sordid Lives (1999) became #2 on my list of 10 Gay Movies I Hated because of its dreary insistence that gay life in Texas today is stuck in a pre-Stonewall dark Age, with a drag queen undergoing...
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Sonny with a Chance/So Random
Speaking of Southern Baptist Sissies, Matthew Scott Montgomery has played a nearly-gay character on the Disney Channel.The teencom Sonny with a Chance (2009-2011) starred Demi Lovato as the Sonny, the...
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Good Times at the Gym
When I moved to West Hollywood in 1985, I saw many celebrities at the gym -- not big stars, but some current and former sitcom favorites like Ron Glass of Barney Miller, Matt McCoy of We Got It Made,...
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Ross Lynch and His Brothers: Gay-Positive or Homophobic?
You may think of Ross Lynch as just the star of the Disney Channel's gay-subtext Austin & Allie, along with Calum Worthy (middle), who stars in this satiric anti-straight marriage PSA. Both appear...
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Ronnie Burns: Gay Teen of the 1950s
The comedy team George Burns and Gracie Allen spent years on Vaudeville and in movies with sketeches about George being exasperated by Gracie's daffiness, but anxious to date her anyway. They moved...
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King of the Golden River: Boy Meets Dwarf
Shortly after I was born, my parents bought a set of Colliers Encyclopedia and The Junior Classics, an anthology of mostly Victorian-era stories like Alice in Wonderlandand Jackanapes. During my...
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Love, Sidney: Tony Randall Plays...Um...You Know
In a 1972 in the gay-vague After Dark magazine, Tony Randall said that he'd recently seen some gay porn. "Just terrible! Just disgusting! There's nothing to watch in that. It confirms something I've...
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Johnny Depp's Lone Ranger: For Heterosexuals Only
Johnny Depp makes movies by heterosexuals for heterosexuals, positing a gloriously gay-free world of oddball outcasts who both swish and leer at the ladies: Edward Scissorhands, Benny and Joon, What's...
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Madame's Place: TV's First Drag Queen Sitcom
In 1982, I got my B.A. in English and Modern Languages and moved to Bloomington, Indiana, to study for a M.A. in English. I wasn't planning on an academic career; I thought the M.A. would assist me in...
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The Mostly Unfabulous Adventures of a Middle School Heterosexual
In 2006, researching an article on gay subtexts in children's media, I watched several episodes of every program airing in the early evening hours on Nickelodeon, the Disney Channel, and the Cartoon...
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Beefcake and Bonding Under the Dome
I don't watch a lot of prime-time tv, due to its incessant heterosexualization, but I have made an exception for the first three episodes of Under the Dome (2013), because I found the premise...
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The Boy Who Cried Fabulous
Speaking of Unfabulous, it evoked gay potential because the word "fabulous" has been gay-coded since the 1990s, keying in to the stereotype of gay men as overly-enthusiastic and overly-emotional.On...
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