Jansen Panettiere: Gay-positive actor buddies with Jake T. Austin, stars in fundamentalist and "Girl of His Dreams" movies

Teenagers often find themselves pushed into heterosexist vehicles, regardless of whether they support gay inclusitivity or not. Jansen Panettiere is no exception.

The younger brother of female star Hayden Panettiere, Jansen was born in Palisades, New York in 1994, began securing guest roles on tv in 2002, at the age of eight.  He also did voice work on cartoons and appeared with his sister in the thriller Tiger Cruise (2004).

His first star vehicle was the Nickelodeon movie The Last Day of Summer (2007), in which the 12-year old Luke (Jansen) relives the same day over and over, and uses it to win the girl of his dreams.  Yawn.

At least he took his shirt off, in case any gay preteens in the audience weren't too upset by the heterosexism to look.

After the fundamentalist Secrets of Jonathan Sperry (2008), Jansen starred in The Perfect Game (2009), about a group of Mexican boys who become the first non-U.S. team to win the Little League World Series.  It's an underdog-triumphing film, with nearly every Hispanic child actor in the business, including Moises Arias (Hannah Montana), Jake T. Austin (Wizards of Waverly Place), Ryan Ochoa, Gabriel Morales, and Carlos Padilla.

No girls around, and Jansen became best friends with the gay-friendly Jake T. Austin. They uploaded a youtube video called "The Closet Chronicles," which doesn't appear to be about the gay metaphor.

Next came 8, a 2012 movie version of the play about the fight to repeal Proposition 8, the amendment that banned gay marriage in California. Many actors, gay and allied, appeared, including Kevin Bacon, Matt Bomer, George Clooney, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Brat Pitt, Martin Sheen, and George Takei.

More after the break

Jake T. Austin's Gay Posse

18-year old Jake T. Austin was formerly the gay-vague wizard Max on Wizards of Waverly Place,  and is now starring in ABC Family's The Fosters, about a family with two Moms. He also has upcoming movies playing Huckleberry Finn and a misfit zebra named Khumba.  He's never made any public statements about his sexual identity, but he's seen with guys all the time, and the rumor mill has linked him romantically with nearly every teen hunk he's ever met.  Most aren't gay, and some don't have any gay connection at all.

1. Christian Fortune, who has appeared in some Disney Channel teencoms and shorts, and will star in the upcoming buddy-bonding horror movie Youngville (2013).  He and Jake are doing a webseries together, The Adventures of Sebastian, about a nerd (Jake in glasses) and his cool brother (Christian).  No gay connection.

2. Moises Arias, previously the villainous Rico on Hannah Montana and Sue's wrestler boyfriend on The Middle.  He played Max's conscious on Wizards.  Gay connection: buddy-bonding on Hannah Montana, and Biaggio, the "person without a gender" who thinks he's gay in The Kings of Summer (2013).  (Nothing yet on Moises' brother Mateo).

3. Ryan Ochoa from The Perfect Game, plus recurring roles on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel teencoms, a member of the boy band The Ochoa Boyz.  On my list of Unexpected Disney Channel Teen Hunks.   He and Jake are seen together often in real life.  Androgynous.

4. Gabe Morales (left), from The Perfect Game.  Primarily a dancer, he starred in the 2013 comedy In Security with Ethan Embry.  Gay connection: well, he's a dancer.

5. Cole Sprouse, who starred in the Disney Channel's Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Suite Life on Deck (pictured: his twin brother Dylan).  He's currently attending NYU, studying archaeology.  Gay connection: two subtext series.

6. Jansen Panettiere, who also played a kid with two moms.  Another of Jake's frequent companions.  They have collaborated on a webseries called Tales of the Closet.

7.Gregg Sulkin, who played Alex's werewolf boyfriend on Wizards, and the object of Max's gay-subtext crush.  Gay connection: the gay-themed movie White Frog (2013).

8. Adam Irigoyen, who plays Deuce Martinez on Shake It Up.  Gay connection: subtext series.

9. David Henrie, Max's older brother Justin on Wizards of Waverly Place, who will be appearing in Grownups 2 later this year.  Gay connection: actually, he appears to be homophobic in real life.

So, which ones has Jake really dated?

Best bets: Christian and Ryan, but probably none.  He tweets quite often about the attractiveness of ladies, so he's probably Straight but Not Narrow, with both gay and heterosexual buds in his posse.

Kings of Summer: Three Boys Alone

Most boys-alone movies isolate the kids through a tragic accident -- a plane crash in Lord of the Flies, a terrorist attack in Toy Soldiers.  But in The Kings of Summer (2013) aka Toy's House, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is now in limited release, the boys head out into the wilderness by design.

Tiring of the oppression of adult society, nerdish teen Joe Toy (Nick Robinson) and his muscular best friend Patrick (Gabriel Basso, below) build a house in the woods near their home and vanish, hoping for one last summer of freedom before high school.  Tagging along is Biaggio (Moises Arias, right), an eccentric outsider who claims to have no gender.

These are affluent kids, so they outfit their retreat with furniture, a boombox, and video games, and sneak into town for groceries, but they still bring a sense of wildness to their adventure, and homoromantic freedom with many scenes of the three swimming, dancing, slicing watermelons with swords, and hitting each other in the shoulder to demonstrate their affection.  Soon they have formed an alternative family.

Unfortunately, there is some homophobia that cast a shadow on the gay subtext. Biaggio worries that he's gay because he coughs a lot and gets sinusitis. Turns out he actually has the debilitating disease cystic fibrosis.  That's not nearly as bad!

Also some racism, sexism, and a lot of profanity, including the f-bomb every five seconds.

And the summer ends with the boys acquiescing to their heterosexual destiny: a girl shows up, and both Joe and Patrick like her.

But for awhile, they had each other, and a summer that could have lasted forever.

Seattle native Nick Robinson is currently starring in Melissa and Joey (2010-) with Melissa Joan Hart (formerly Sabrina the Teenage Witch) and Joey Lawrence.

Gabriel Basso (left) has starred in Alabama Moon with Uriah Shelton and Super 8 with Joel Courtney, and on the tv series The Big C (2010-2013), as the son of a woman with cancer.  He also appears in the music video Kyle and Donny: The Anatomy of Tide, which is mostly devoted to close-up shot of the two semi-nude musclemen.