Sexual freedom has always been a burning issue in many countries and is banned in many cultures. But in western countries gays are accepted and there are laws against discrimination. Gays are open about their sexual course without reticence. Earlier in Hollywood no star was could publicly declare being gay. Now anyone come forward and declare who they are without any fear of job loss or prosecution. And this trend has become a common phenomenon in Hollywood and gay people are not only accepted but are employed in large numbers.
In October, the two stars had a furious fight on the set, on Grey’s Anatomy, the hottest hospital show on American Television. Isaiah Washington was ready to go with a scene, but some of the other actors were not. He and Patrick Dempsey - who both play surgical residents in a fictional Seattle hospital - started exchanging words and, at one point, Washington grabbed Dempsey by the throat. According to news reports at the time, Washington said: “I’m not your little faggot like that guy.” Or something along those lines.
And the gossip-mongers on the internet quickly started asking who exactly the “faggot” might be. Afterwards T R Knight, a 33-year-old actor on the show who plays an emphatically heterosexual doctor called George O’Malley, issued a statement to People magazine.
I guess there have been a few questions about my sexuality, and I’d like to quiet any unnecessary rumors that may be out there. While I prefer to keep my personal life private, I hope the fact that I’m gay isn’t the most interesting part of me.
Eve Gordon, a (heterosexual) film and television actress says, “It’s a death sentence for your career. All my friends who are gay keep it secret. They don’t even know where to draw the line socially... It’s like being a Communist in the McCarthy era. It’s a gigantic terror. So coming out is an incredibly brave thing to do.”
But Hollywood and the rest of the media have been preparing Americans to accept homosexuality for so many years that most voters are neutral on the subject. One such effort was done by director Ang Lee who made a Brokeback Mountain controversial Academy Award winning film that depicts a complex emotional, sexual and romantic relationship between two men in America West.
In i980’s gay men endured AIDS in disproportionate numbers, Hollywood rushed to raise funds and awareness of the disease. And the Aids crisis made it easier to break the taboo i.e. the depiction of gay characters on screen. The death of Tom Hanks’ Oscar-winning turned as a lawyer died of Aids in Philadelphia (1992). His death brought a turning point that made playing gays acceptable.
An openly gay actor called Jack Plotnick plays a womaniser on the Lifetime Network’s series Lovespring.
A recent biography of James Stewart revealed that, at the start of his career, Louis B Mayer was so worried about the implications of Stewart’s lack of association with women that he obliged him to visit a private brothel he kept near the MGM lot. Part of the job of powerful gossip columnists like Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons, who took money from the studios, was to keep the public behavior of gay actors in check and make sure their secret stayed safe from the American public.
But now things are changing. People are desirably accepting homosexual relationships and big role is being played by celebrities. What will be the consequences of coming out so publicly is yet to be seen!
