The leather boys: MC Gainey, Kevin Durand, and Ray Liotta in Wild Hogs.
Earlier this week, Mark Ravenhill remarked that he was bored of writing gay parts into TV shows now that "gay writing [has] gone mainstream". Meanwhile, Adam B Vary notes in Entertainment Weekly that, two years after Brokeback Mountain made $178m and was nominated as Best Picture at the Oscars, "no major studio has greenlit a single gay film". Instead, he notes, we've seen a spate of "homoerotic homophobia" including 300, Wild Hogs and I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry.
The two statements are not as contradictory as they may at first seem. As Vary points out, Hollywood is struggling to catch up with the prevailing attitude towards gay people in America - particularly among younger audiences - where gay writing has indeed gone mainstream... on TV. Citing shows such as Will and Grace, Ellen, Nip/Tuck and As the World Turns, Vary explains that "While television has been fostering greater acceptance for gay people, movies remain stuck in the 20th century."
But it's the role of the gay character on TV where Vary and Ravenhill beg to differ. While Ravenhill laments the loss of the 'big' gay storylines, Vary sees it as a positive. Quoting Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball, he clearly sees it as a good thing that the more complex characterisations of a long-running TV series allows writers to "explore the more mundane details of [their] life... and therefore [homosexuality] can just seem more matter-of-fact."
"Personally, I think it's a relief that we are moving away from issue-based storylines as far as gay characters are concerned," says Charlie Condou, who plays Marcus Dent, the boyfriend of Sean Tully (Antony Cotton) in Coronation Street. "If we kiss on screen, it's because it's right for the scene, not because we are trying to make a statement. It's fantastic that the producers of Coronation Street can see beyond all that stuff. I'm surprised it's taking the other soaps so long to catch up."
Perhaps it isn't as challenging for the writer; but surely mainstream acceptance is the greater achievement. The reaction to JK Rowling's outing of Dumbledore (in the US particularly) shows how much more work there is to be done. "I think it's great that Dumbledore is gay," says Condou, "although I do (for once) agree with Peter Tatchell; that it would have been nice if she'd made it a little clearer in the text. It's a shame Dumbledore never had a relationship either; not exactly giving a great message to the kids is it? Having said that, he certainly knew how to put an outfit together, so I guess we should have all known."
Joking aside, wouldn't it be nice if we got to a stage where Hollywood writers had reached the same stage of ennui as Ravenhill? By 'normalising' homosexuality in TV shows, surely it's only hastening the time where Hollywood will come to accept that gay storylines don't have to equate to risky business.
