Law and Order: SVU with Special Guest Kathy Griffin as lesbian

[Rufusboi]

Originally Posted by Dylan

I thought he did a great job

However, I don't like when straights play queer. There's plenty of queers who can act...yet here's a straight guy winning an academy award for playing queer. It's insulting to queers. All of the major actors in that movie were straight, and that's bothersome to me.


Dylan

So what happens when queers play straights? David Hyde Pierce played a straight guy for years. Should he give up that part to a straight guy? Portia de Rossi plays straight parts? Should she refuse these? Jodie Foster? Vin Diesel? Neil Patrick Harris? Should they all refuse straight parts because they are gay?

I don't have a problem with straight people playing gay parts. It wasn't that long ago that straight people were scared to take gay roles because they were afraid of their careers. Famous straight actors taking on high profile gay parts, I think, helps all queers all over the world. Actors are no longer afraid to take on this role. Middle America gets their eyes opened a bit. You don't think Tom Hanks playing that role in Philadelphia helped us all lurch forward politically a few steps? And many of these actors use their time, money and position to support gay rights. I am in no way offended when any straight actor takes a queer role.

Consider this - there might be a lot of die hard Sean Penn fans who went to see Milk because he was in it. They came of the movies with an education about Milk and what he did. THe movie made Milk a person and it showed the long hard road of gay rights activism. Tom Hanks humanized AIDS. People saw that film. Saw Hanks in that film. And it changed many viewpoints about AIDS and the queer community.


Rufus