The latest census survey shows their numbers have more than doubled in the past ten years, Consumer Reports marks them as one of the largest minorities to target market and their media influence is on an exponential growth spurt. The gay community is entering the media mainstream and they are doing so in force.
This week, thousands of gays, lesbians and queer film enthusiasts from all over the naiton will converge on Philadelphia for the seventh annual Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, the largest of its kind on the East Coast. The festival has been gaining both momentum and support since its inception in Philadelphia in 1995. These days it is a corporate extravaganza with over fifty sponsors ranging from Amtrak to Absolut and more and more heterosexual film buffs coming through the doors each year to take a look at what the gay community is doing with film.
In twelve days time, the festival will screen 66 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender feature films and 72 shorts, hailing from all over the globe. With all film festivals ,the films range in quality, content and format. A number of documentaries screened in this festival focus on the reality, both the everyday and the extraordinary faced by the gay community, while others take gay themes into the fictional arena with comedies and dramas.
Straight people are fascinated with the gay lifestyle, at least that is the reason gay comedian Jason Stuart thinks gay media is edging its way into mainstream markets. For every generation there exists media milestones marking the breakdown of cultural biases. For our generation there was "Ellen," Philadelphia and Boys Don't Cry, all followed by a montage of previosly untouched sexual territory, coming at such a rapid pace that yearly a more integrated and fully representative media environment begins to take shape.
Asked if he believes media will ever become a near reflection of our diverse and varied world of sexuality Stuart was adamant. "Oh definitely . You see, we have arrived and we're not leaving. We're taking our spot in life and in the world of the arts. We're here, we're queer and we're staying."
And stay Stuart has. Performing what has been called the quintessential straight-gay crossover with several mainstream films and appearances on just about every show that has graced NBC's fall lineup, including the ever-popular Will and Grace, Stuart is working to carve a gay niche in straight media.
For some gay artists, it isn't always about breaking into the mainstream. Despite this mass integration, mainstream media oftentimes fails to accurately depict certain aspects of minority communities. For these communities there exists a subculture of film thatflourishes in independent film festivals like the PIGLFF.
Why does any community need to specialize their film? Because despite advances in tolerance and despite the fact that the straight community may be "obsessed" with the queer lifstyle, the mainstream media has failed to address some of the more poignant issues faced by the gay community. Albeit the majors have been done a dozen times, violence, safe sex, AIDS, but saying that's enough is like saying the mainstream media would be adequate if all it ever talked about was birthcontrol, date rape and anorexia. Gay media in the mainstream is lacking in the little details that pepper the gay lifestyle--the nuances and needs that make gay life a unique experience beyond sexual preference.
Though a number of the films screened this past week do expose the seedy underbelly of certain aspects of the gay lifestyle, more often than not, they expressed the stories, happy and sad, of gay men and women moving through their everyday lives and confronting the everyday problems and joys that are unique to them as gay persons.
Doing a one eighty from "Will & Grace," Showtime's "Queer as Folk" has certainly fascinated plenty of straight viewers, with its gay themes and gratuitous sex scenes. Its festival cpounterpart, Metrosexuality, soon to be a British mini-series, focuses on the sexual underground in downtown London.
With over three million viewers per week, "Queer as Folk", the apolitically correct, oftentimes glammed out depiction of the gay lifestyle, is thriving in its cable and very mainstrem niche. Many times its more compelling than a soap opera, and just as addictive, though many viewers claim they watch to see just how far television will allow it to go. But the length the show goes for shock value can become a turnoff for those people who want more from gay media.
In his movie Circuit, which world premeiered last Friday at the film festival, Dirk Shafer was anxious to avoid gratuitous sex within the delicate subject matter of the darker side of the circuit party scene. "For me, I felt it was important not to make any of the sex too gratuitous," Shafer said. "All of the sex scenes that are in the movie are there for an artistic reason. In one it is a friend betraying a friend, in another a relationship is forming. I tried to handle them as artistically and visually interesting as I could.I think the straight community has really caught onto "Queer as Folk" and I don't think the sex scenes in my movie were any harder to swallow than many of those."
There was plenty of nudity and enough sexual conent for Circuit to be shocking to some conservative viewers, but its message of partying responsibly in this age of drug abuse and disease came across loudly with all of the compassion Shafer could have asked for.
Shafer says his look at the darker side of the circuit party scene is not directed towards straight media, but he wouldn't mind it becoming something that challenged some of the gay media on the curret scene. "Though the media is way more open to it and receptive in their gay portrayals, there is often something missing. I see so many sunshiny gay portrayals on tv and in movies which is why I think people can handle a darker look."
Maybe people can handle it, but since ignorance remains a staple of modern society, there remain many who can't. These are the same people who are lobbying to ban gay marriage and turn off the TV in disgust at the mention of a gay partnership. In this day and age those people will certainly have a lot of channel flipping to do, just to find a safe place in the shelter of their old school morality.
In the end, don't we all want the same things anyway, which Stuart was fabulously able to sum up. "I'd like to be Will on "Will & Grace". He dates now and he seems to want the same things that I want, love, success and a fabulous apartment"
