Queer Beacon

GaySay: "as a goose"

This time it's Jared Leto.  I saw it at Queerty:

Leto: I’m gay

TyeinMusic: *!*

TyeinMusic: please tell me you're serious

Leto: as a goose.

He might have been kidding though...

Manginas, CamelToes, etc.

X-Men 3: The Last Stand (2006) - LightShed 10

Very good movie.  I think that X-Men 2 was the best of the three movies.  This third one was easily the worst of them, but still, it was a great blow-up-super-hero movie, even if the movie-making was not as good as the first two releases.

I was hoping that this third installment would be the best in the X-Men series just because it had the greatest plot for us so far. 

You should know by now that the X-Men movies are based on the comic book from Marvel.  This time, a pharmaceutical company develops a "cure" for the mutant gene.  With a single vaccine shot a mutant can go straight, immediately.  The government offers / forces the "cure" on the mutants and Ian McKellen plots an upheaval.  Ian rules as Magneto! 

I already said here that the plot hits even closer to home this time.  The movie does compel you to think about whether being gay is something that needs to be cured and whether the gay people would or should be subject to such a "cure" were it to be available. 

I guess the movie plot could also be seen as a parallel to a "cure" for other minority situations -- a "cure" for being black, a "cure" for being Jewish etc. -- and perhaps discussing a "cure" for being black could actually hit closer to home because of the three minority situations I mentioned (gay, black and Jews) the blacks are the only ones that are certain to be born that way, and consequently the ones that should be the least "blamed" for their minority situation.  On the other hand, it is still not clear whether us gays are born that way.  I have no doubt, from personal experience, that being gay has a very strong genetic component, a component that can certainly vary in degree from person to person, but I do concede that there seems to be no final scientific word on the matter.

Anyway, it is quite safe to say that no lucid and normal person would actually successfully apply the X-men 3 parallel to the Jewish and black situations because, fortunately, for a while now being black and being Jewish are clearly not something to be cured.  But being gay is still up for grabs in that area. 

Don't kid yourself, we are still one of the only minorities (if not the only one) that are still abused daily with little or no consequence to the abusers.  Look no further than this very recent example involving this Richard Cohen dude.  Cohen says he can "cure" homosexuality with hugs and other bullshit (in the pic he is hugging a "client").  You have got to watch the trailer at The Malcontent.  It's creepy, but it's shown seriously by CNN, which is an otherwise serious news channel I guess. 

Can you imagine what would be the consequences for Paula Zahn and Richard Cohen and CNN if they were involved with a segment on a "cure" for being black or being Jewish? I mean, if CNN were to ever allow that kind of material to be aired, can you just imagine what would and should happen to them? 

But when it happens to the gays, all we get is blog-rage, lots of posts denouncing the awful piece of journalism.  We are even seen as cry babies for that.  Blog-rage is certainly a great start, but we evidently do not have the reaction we deserve from society.  I suspect that all the blog-rage is seen mostly by the gays themselves and is unlikely to be heard by the general media.

Oh well.  I am furious, and I needed to vent on the Cohen crap, but now let's get to our gay movie review.

We had a small suggestion that there was a gay character in the movie.  She belonged to the dark side of the force and she gave me some serious lesbian vibes.  It would be bad to have the only gay be on the bad side, but I will certainly leave it out -- she could also be seen as androgynous, rather than lesbian.  She did confuse me, and I liked it.  She is one of the new mutants and is played by Omahyra Mota (the one on the left in the pic below).

We also had a little line that a mutant (the Juggernaut) says to another male mutant, something like: what are you looking at, pretty face?  But that's hardly explicit gay content, right?

I focus on explicit gay content because I believe that is what matters the most to us and that is the focus of this gay blog.  So, sadly, we have no explicit gay content in the X-Men: The Last Stand.   

That is sad because, as pointed out by one of my readers in a comment "There are two versions [of the X-Men comic books], because Marvel has two different "universes." In one, Colossus is straight, and that's the older "standard canon" universe for all of Marvel's superheroes. The second Ultimates "universe" is where Colossus is gay and is currently dating Northstar (openly gay mutant superhero - also the only mutant who is admittedly gay in both universes). Marvel [re]leased the Ultimates Universe a while back as a retelling and revamping of its classic characters, such as Spiderman, The Fantastic Four and The X-Men." 

I cannot thank my reader enough for such a great comment.  Later, I learned that Northstar is French Canadian, so I love him already. 

At Wiki, I also found out about two additional gays in the X-men comics: Flatman and Anole.

So, there could have been actual and explicit gay content in the X-Men movies (Colossus, Northstar, Flatman, Anole...), but there was nothing there. 

By the title of this post, and by my previous posts on this movie, and by the sheer length of my review thus far (I usually cut the No Gay Content reviews very short) you may already know that I will make a huge exception here. 

To start it off, you need to know that I cried in this movie.  Seriously, I did it in that scene in which a father is about to force his son, the Angel -- played very well by Ben Foster, to undergo the ex-mutant therapy, the single-shot-go-straight solution to the mutant problem.  You can actually see most of that scene in the trailer.

That scene was very powerful to me and is the main reason why I decided to make an exception and award a LightShed 10 for a movie without explicit gay content. 

I cannot believe it is possible to see that scene and not see the parallel with parents forcing their own, supposedly loved, kids to undergo ex-gay therapy in the real world.  That is certainly shown to be wrong in the movie, as it should be wrong in the real world.  Parents who force an ex-gay therapy on their kids are committing the worst form of parental abuse.  I really think the worst a parent can do to their kids is to teach them to hate themselves.

Moreover, we have bad "gays" (the mutants lead by Magneto) who gang-up to put an end to the "cure" crap.  Violence is certainly not the answer to our problems, but it was nice to see brave (even if crazy) "gays" (the mutants) onscreen.  They show the world that minorities, like the gays, do not necessarily have to sit quiet while they are subjected to vilification.  We even have the good "gays" (the X-Men) -- they sort of team up with a bad government to prevent the bad deeds from the mutants (the bad gays).  So, LightShed 10 it is.

Now to a lighter note on the movie.

The hotties were everywhere in X3, and for all tastes. 

New characters Eric Dane (he played the Multiple Man, pic on the left -- check out more pics here) and Ben Foster (he played the Angel who made me cry, pic on the right) lead the pack. 

You had seen Daniel Cudmore's Colossus here before.  He was hot in the movie and had quite a few small scenes. 

Wolverine was his usual self.  Hot in a manly and scruffy way (click for a larger version of the pic on the right and take notice of his bulge). 

In the movie, you can actually force yourself to see a possible relationship (which may be deemed to be a romance in the comic book version) between Wolverine and Colossus.  They are all friendly to each other, almost cuddly and "mancrushly," but the movie certainly does not even imply that romance.  You would need to read this type of stuff for that matter (read the posts by WeaponX7284 and Sion). Also, there's no real hint of gayness for Colossus.

Another scruffy type that I bet some people will love is Juggernaut, played by British footballer Vinnie Jones.

Get out now.  Go see this movie! 

The Devil Wears Prada - Trailer - Does Stanley Tucci Go Gay?

The trailer is a bit long, but it's good.  Meryl Streep as a bitch (capital C)?  I'll eagerly take it.  It appears Stanley Tucci goes gay in the movie.  Watch the trailer and tell me if you agree:

Anne Hathaway and Gisele Bundchen are also in the movie.

X-Men 3: The Last Stand - Our gay Colossus can convert body tissue in a steel-like substance. Seriously. What can you do?

I am so excited about the big release tomorrow.  I can't wait to see the third installment of my favorite comics based movie, X-Men.  I don't read comic books but I love and watch pretty much every movie that is based on one. 

Because of this post (which was published here and at aTypicalJoe) Alexander, from In Newsweekly, let us know about Prism Comics, which -- among other great things -- works like a Queer Beacon for comic books, talking about the gay content in the comic world.  If you are into comics, you must check out Prism. 

Alexander also let us know about this great interview with Danielle Bunten Berry (who was an accomplished game developer and a M-to-F transsexual -- pic on the left), and that a character from X-Men supposedly came out of the closet a few months ago.  I can't believe I was unaware of that.

The gay character is Colossus, who had a big cameo on X-Men 2, and I wonder whether he'll show up on X-Men 3 as a gay man now (his character is listed in the credits - YAY!).  I can't wait!  Colossus is played by Canadian hottie Daniel Cudmore (seen below rescuing kids on X-Men 2).  His superpowers?  Bitch can convert body tissue in a steel-like substance.  Again, he can convert body tissue in a steel-like substance.  Honestly, those comics people like to play serious mind-games with us gays.

Unfortunately, Colossus's wiki only tells us about his many straight relationships.  I found quite a bit of discussion on the gay matter here, here, and here.  In the comics world there is even indication of a possible relationship between Wolverine (Logan, played by Hugh Jackman) and Colossus. 

Watch the trailer one more time.  My review for X-Men 3 will be out on Saturday morning!

UPDATE ON MAY 26, 2006: head over to aTypicalJoe and Queerty for some very interesting comments.

Manginas, CamelToes, etc.

Self-explanatory category, don't you think? 

I'll be posting manginas, cameltoes and related matters from time to time.

Mangina of the day:  Kevin Costner!  Say hello to both of them.  I can't think of a better picture to start a category at a gay blog.

The New World (2005) - No Gay Content

Better than good, but not quite excellent. 

Here, Colin Farrell is John Smith, the English settler who fell for Pocahontas, played by Q'Orianka Kilcher.  Christian Bale is also in the movie -- he is also involved with Q'Orianka. Christopher Plummer is the boss of them all.

I had a conflicting feeling about this movie.  I thought it was stunning, I loved the short, poetic, introspective scenes.  The scarce dialogs.  All very ethereal, very Malick. 

The acting was superb, that Q'Orianka is amazing.  Colin Farrell and Christian Bale were very good too. 

So, despite the qualities pointed here, I still think the movie was not excellent.  The slow pace of the movie both helped and got in the way somehow.  All the time, you want to know what happens next, but it always takes a bit too long.

I liked FourFour's take on the flick.  I think FF's review hits the point: "The New World fucking rocks. I only fell asleep twice!"

No gay content.  No gratuitous Farrell-on-Bale action.  Damn it.

Queer Beacon Has a Logo!

Here it is:

GaySay: "I restrained this gentleman in a very aggressive way without hurting him."

I know, two GaySays in one day is a bit much, right?  But I couldn't resist this.  Dr. Robert Rey (aka Dr. 90210) restrained an 80-year-old crazy dude who was going berserk right before a flight landing.  Dr. Rey was in the flight, and here's his GaySay line:

"When you get a black belt, at that stage your brain just clicks into action," the doctor said. "I restrained this gentleman in a very aggressive way without hurting him."

You can read the whole context here.

(Previous posts in GaySay)

GaySay: "I cut myself shaving"

Seriously, she said it in her last Lost episode:

Michelle Rodriguez, I'll miss you.

(Previous posts in GaySay)