Despite the bonanza that was the Portland Lesbian and Gay Film Festival I feel like I don’t have a good grasp on the the gay movies of 2007. I stayed far away from the exploitative feel good comedies like I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and though I attended several more indie flicks I may have missed a couple of the best and brightest. (Although Itty Bitty Titty Committee, The Bubble and For the Bible Tells Me So have got to make any list). So for a more complete rundown of the year in queer film I suggest checking out the analysis from AfterEllen and AfterElton.
Bisexual hottie Captain Jack with Captain John from ‘Torchwood’What I was good at was sitting on my toosh and watching the boob tube. So let the top 5 gay moments in television begin.
5. Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World
Making irony with puppets is the best way to exploit gay stereotypes. And it’s pretty funny for a Logo produced show.
4. Torchwood & Battlestar Galactica: Razor
While I wasn’t wildly impressed with the Torchwood pilot the mere fact that there is a hunky bisexual male in the lead role of a sci fi television series, let alone that they don’t shy away from the man on man action, is revolutionary. Sci fi is looked upon as male dominated world and to a large extent it is, even though women and queers have high stakes in the genre. In future or alternate worlds life could be better, less oppressed. Even in distopic visions equality has a chance to reign supreme. So while gay science fiction fans fight to be represented in the here and now, the worlds sci writers create holds much promise.
And because this is such a heated issue in the sci fi community I have also decided to include BSG’s special event Razor. Though it may have made the lesbian characters each their own brand of evil I do truly believe the creators were attempting to listen to the pleas of their gay fanbase while maintaining the integrity of their story. And since BSG is probably the most critically acclaimed sci-fi TV shows since Star Trek, it’s prime real estate for the placement of queer characters. Here’s to hoping there will be more in the upcoming final season.
3. A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila
‘A Shot at Love’Oo, ah, give me what I need. As much as I initially protested this show, and I still admit it’s schlock, this became my guiltiest pleasure of the year. It really kind of was what we needed to satiate our puerile interest in the nastiest 20 somethings on the planet (except our precious Dani, of course) duking it out for the love one supposedly bisexual myspace hottie. The kisses were sometimes too gross to watch but the drama, fights and hospital visits were well worth it.
2. What Perez Sez about the VMAs and 2007
This fearless blogger ain’t afraid to say anything to anybody nor of poking fun at himself as well as celebs. And this makes him ridiculously real and funny. Someday I wanted to see Perez unedited. This is the future if television folks. You heard it here first.
1. Ugly Betty & Dirty Sexy Money
ABC was this year’s network leader in gay characters, despite that the numbers were down pretty much all over primetime. What ties these two shows together besides being a part of the (arguably of course) most gay-friendly network is their groundbreaking portrayal of trans characters.
‘Ugly Betty’I’m quite sad to say that the show that tops my list is actually not yet on my viewing schedule. (I missed the boat last year and somehow just was never to get on board. I have the first season DVD set waiting for me at the library so I’m sure I’ll catch up eventually.) But though I may not have direct insight into the show a lot of folks have a lot of good things to say about Betty both as a very gay friendly show and as a fantastic comedy of any kind. (I did finally catch up with Dirty Sexy Money, however, and the storyline is almost as good as the cast.)
Patrick Darling with mistress Carmelita in ‘Dirty Sexy Money’On UB, Rebecca Romijn plays Alexis Meade, showing us that transladies can be just as smokin’ as, well, as Rebecca Romijn. DSM takes a slightly different track, casting an out trans actress, Candis Cayne, as the Congressman’s mistress. She may be more identifiable as a transwoman than Romijn but she’s still quite beautiful. More importantly a trans actress is a major part of a successful show. The first as far as I know.
But while DSM may have one flagship trans character, Betty has several others in the mix that are fully fleshed out characters with real personalities including the flaming Marc St. James (Michael Urie), his new boyfriend, Cliff (David Blue), and the young gay-in-training teen Justin Suarez (Mark Indelicato).
For more of the queer year in TV visit AfterElton’s big break down.
