Robbie and Pua Magasiva: Pro-Gay Kiwi Superstuds

The Samoan-born brothers Robbie and Pua Magasiva have been making a splash in New Zealand, due to their spectacular physiques and comedic talent.  They belonged to the Naked Samoans comedy team, and they have starred together in Power Rangers: Ninja Storm, Auckland Daze, the soap Shortland Street.  

Their most famous movie role is the buddy comedy Sione's Wedding, aka Samoan Wedding (2006).  Pua (left) plays Sione, who is getting married, and Robbie one of his bffs, all barred from attending until they "man up" by getting girlfriends.

Robbie, the eldest (born in 1970), has played several buddy-bonding roles, including Stickmen (2001), about an underground pool tournament,

Not to mention several gay positive roles, such as head stripper Adam Lima in the tv series The Strip (2002-03), which included gay and drag queen characters.














He had a homophobic moment when he complained that his "least memorable role" was Air Force Two Down, aka In Her Line of Fire (2006), because it was for "gay audiences."  It wasn't, although there were lesbian characters.

And a joke in Sione's 2: Unfinished Business (2012) had gay viewers upset:

One of the character's girlfriends has hired a personal trainer, but it's ok because he's gay.  Michael (Robbie) replies, “All girls tell their guys their personal trainers are gay”. Apprised that the trainer’s name is Marcel, Michael says, “Okay, that does sound pretty gay.”

Not nearly as homophobic as standard American buddy-humor.

But younger brother Pua (born in 1980) is aggressively gay-friendly.  He participated in the anti-bullying "Stop the Hate" campaign sponsored by the Rotorua Daily Post, and he played a gay character on stage in Tarell McCraney's The Brothers Size, about two Louisiana brothers, the younger, Oshoosi (Pua), just released from prison along with his male lover.

He also appeared in an Auckland stage production of Robert Lord's comedy Well Hung. 

In addition to his ongoing role as a male nurse who takes off his shirt incessantly on Shortland Street.

Que Pasa, USA: Bilingual Beefcake

I took Spanish every year from fifth grade through high school, but it might as well have been Klingon.  We never met a native speaker except for a teacher, we never heard it spoken on the street, we never saw it written on signs or posters.

So when PBS began to air Que Pasa, U.S.A.? in 1977, we watched eagerly, and even wrote reports on it to present to the class.

It was a sitcom about a family of Cuban immigrants in Miami.  The grandparents, Abuela Adela and Abuelo Antonio, spoke only Spanish.  The parents, Pepe and Juana Pena, spoke some English.  And the teenagers, Joe and Carmen, were native English speakers.

To accommodate both English and Spanish-speaking viewers, characters translated for each other, repeated statements twice, or made their meaning clear through context.

The plots mostly involved culture clash between traditional Cuban and "modern" American mores.  The grandparents are aghast when Carmen dates a black man.

 Joe does a report on gay people for his school newspaper (including a night in a gay club for research), and everyone assumes that he is gay.

In addition to the gay plotline, Rocky Echevarria, who played Joe, provided ample beefcake.  He usually wore an open shirt and extremely tight jeans, and there were occasional bathrobe or swimsuit shots.

Renamed Stephen Bauer, he went on to a long career as action heroes, gangsters, and streetwise cops, including the homoerotic best buddy of Al Pacino's Scarface (1983).  His penchant for very tight pants continued.

He also originated the gay character of Martin in  Bent on Broadway (1980), and starred in the gay-themed Versace Murder (1998).

In the 1980s, we began to get Telemundo, which opened up a whole world of Spanish-language programs, including Papa soltero

Dan Gauthier: Prime Time Muscle

Don't mix up Dick Gautier with Dan Gauthier -- no relation, and there's an "h."  Dan was born in 1963, one of the last of the Boomer kids, and worked as a model before his physique was displayed to the world on the gay teen favorite Married...with Children (1987).

He played a local hunk that daughter Kelly hooks up with during a family vacation in Florida.

Teen Witch followed (1989), which works well as a comedy, except that no gay boy leaving the theater could remember anything except for Dan's shirtless shots.


And then lots of starring roles on tv series, such as the aptly-named Muscle (1995). Dan played a police detective who dates Ellen's best friend on Ellen (1996-1997); a pro baseball player who dates Samantha on  Melrose Place  (1998); and various other hunks who date women, not to mention sheriffs, detectives, athletes, and nuclear family dads.

He also starred in movies in a wide variety of genres, including horror (Groom Lake, 2002), romance (Dating Games People Play, 2005), and comedy (Help for the Holidays, 2012).

Directors ordered Dan's clothes to stay on most of the time, recognizing that whenever his shirt came off, heterosexual women and gay men stopped paying attention to the plot.  But still he got his fair share of shirtless, underwear, and nude shots.

While his characters usually dated women, buddy bonding was not unknown. No gay characters, but he would be happy to play some.

He's a gay ally, even good at finding subtexts.  When he was on One Life to Live (2003-2010), he became best buds with Trevor St. John, who played Todd Manning, and suggested that their characters might have a romantic connection: "We could be daytime's first power gay couple!"

Caio Castro: Gay Homophobic Teen Idol

Born in 1989, Caio Castro was a 20-year old computer science student in Rio de Janeiro when he was cast as heartthrob Bruno on the teen soap Malhacao (Workout).

After a relatively short run of 21 episodes (2009-2010), he moved on to the telenovela Ti Ti Ti (You You You) for 26 episodes  (2010) as the heartthrob Edgar Sampaio.  His character wasn't gay, but he interacted with the gay Julinho (Andre Arteche).

Next Caio moved on to the telenovela Fina Estampa (Look and Essence) for 35 episodes (2011-2012) as duplitious medical student Jose Antenor. Again, he interacted with a gay character, Baltazar (Alexandre Nero).

Although he has a rather short resume to date, Caio has become a Brazilian superstar, with many public appearances, endless photo shoots, and 6 awards, including the 2011 "Gato del Ano" from the Brazilian Nickelodeon, and the 2012 "Idolo Teen."

He's also been subject to gay rumors, especially after being seen with gay fellow Malhacao star Micael Borges (left). But he denies them.

In an interview, Caio stated that he would prefer to be known as a "catcher" rather than a "queer" ("deer," a derogatory term for gay men in Brazilian Portuguese).

The statement caused a great deal of controversy in Brazil, where it was widely condemned as homophobic.  He later stated that he was misquoted.

Mark Spitz: The Speedo

When I was in junior high (1972-75), I didn't follow sports, so I barely recognized the names Wilt Chamberlain, O. J. Simpson, and Pete Rose, and I knew Bruce Jenner only from cereal boxes.

But since I tried to hang out with the swim team as much as possible, hoping for a glimpse of muscular boys in speedos, I heard quite a lot about Mark Spitz, who won 9 Gold Medals at the 1972 Olympics and was named Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World magazine in 1969, 1970, and 1971.

Besides, this beefcake poster was hanging on the bedroom wall of all of the swim team members, ostensibly to provide them with inspiration.  Or maybe they just liked the bulge.

My friend Dan thought he was dreamy, but I liked more muscle, and besides, the Castro Clone moustache was a turn-off.  I thought it made him look too feminine.

One of the first beefcake posters in history, it subjected Mark to a lot of leers and dirty jokes from comedians. In the Doonesbury comic strip, Zonker has a recurring homophobic nightmare that Mark Spitz is coming to "get him."

During the 1970s, Mark was all over tv: Sonny and Cher, The Tonight Show, The Dean Martin Comedy Hour, Hollywood Squares.  Always as himself, except for a 1974 episode of Emergency! where he plays a man who accidentally shoots his wife.

He continues to work as a sportscaster and commentator today.  I don't know if he is gay-positive or not.