Cameron Boyce: Gay Ally?

You probably remember 17-year old Cameron Boyce from Jesse (2011-2015), the most heterosexist/ obnoxious teencom on the Disney Channel.  He played Luke Ross, the privileged rich kid who somehow found himself orphaned and adopted by an even more privileged, rich family.  Luke is n aggressively girl-crazy heterosexual who keeps making leering sexual advances at every woman in sight.  Not my favorite teencom.

For some reason audiences liked him  -- maybe it was his abs -- and Cameron started appearing everywhere, as Luke on The Ultimate Spiderman and Austin and Ally, as someone else on Shake It Up and Liv and Maddie, as himself on The Hollywood Christmas Parade, Teens Want to Know, Disney 365, Win Lose or Draw, and Piper's Picks ("Cameron Tells What He Looks for in a Girl").

Jesse ended in 2015, but Disney's love for Cameron continued.

Fortunately, his obnoxious heterosexism did not.

In Descendants, the movie and animated series about the children of Disney movie heroes attending high school together, he plays Carlos DeVill.

Son of Cruella DeVill, the elderly fashion enthusiast who wanted to make a jacket out of 101 Dalmatians (1961).  I would have sworn she was past menopause.  Maybe he's adopted.

He doesn't have a lot of heterosexual interests, but he does buddy-bond with Jay (BooBoo Stewart), son of Jafar from Aladdin.  

Good choice.

In 2015, Disney gave him a star vehicle, Gamer's Guide to Pretty Much Everything, the second type of Disney plotline (someone famous tries to be normal).  Here he's Conor, a famous video gamer (I guess there are such things) who is forced to retire and go to a normal high school, where he envisions normal activities as video games.

He hangs out with video game-playing friends, two male nerds, one girl, but doesn't seem to have much interest in girls (it was on Disney XD, the "guy's channel").

Most recently, he's had an episode of Code Black, the medical show, playing Brody, who was abused at a camp for troubled teens.

I can't find out if Cameron is gay or gay-friendly in real life. When I do a google search with a keyword "gay," I hit too many gay fan fictions.

See also: Jesse

Bob Hoffman, York Barbells, and Muscletown U.S.A.

If you're going to do any serious muscle building, sooner or later you'll have to leave behind the Nautilus machines, go into the weight room, and pick up a barbell or a dumbbell.

Barbells are on a bar, so you use both arms at once.

Dumbbells are separate, one for each arm (called "dumb bells" because they're silent).

Athletes have been lifting weights to gain strength and muscle mass since ancient times, but the classic modern barbell, with round weights attached to either side of an iron bar, appeared in 1902, when physical culture pioneer Alvin Calvert founded the Milo Barbell Company in Philadelphia.  At first he sold globe-shaped barbells that had weight increments 2 1/2 pounds, but customers complained that it was too difficult to take apart the apparatus to increase the weight.  By 1910, he was also selling plate-loaded barbells that could be adjusted easily with a twist of a bearing.

In 1935, Bob Hoffman bought the Milo Barbell Company from Calvert, renamed it the York Barbell Company, and set about publicizing the benefits of weight-lifting.  He sponsored thousands of bodybuilding competitions, published dozens of books and magazines, and made sure York Barbells could be found in nearly every gym in the world.


The problem with the barbells was, they didn't wear out.  Once you bought a set, you were fixed for life.  So in order to stay solvent, an ever-increasing customer base was necessary.  During the 1980s, as weight training machines became popular, that customer base started to diminish.  Bob Hoffman's death in 1985 almost brought about the company's demise.

Today York Barbell is marketing itself to general consumers, young people interested in a healthy lifestyle, not just power-lifters.

Still, every bodybuilding enthusiast has made a pilgrimage to York, Pennsylvania, where a giant image of a bodybuilder revolves atop the company headquarters.  Inside, the Weightlifting Hall of Fame has some interesting artifacts and exhibits.

While you're in town, check out the York Murals, murals of important local events and celebrities that adorn local buildings.  Bob Hoffman's Muscletown U.S.A. is at 37 West Philadelphia Street.

Hank Williams: A Dynasty of Homophobia

Hank Williams (1923-1953) was an Alabama boy who suffered from poverty, heartbreak, physical injury, alcoholism, all of the woes that fuel the ballads, meanwhile writing mournful songs that formed the genre.  Some are recognizable even to people who hate country-western music:

"Lovesick Blues"
"Why Don't You Love Me Anymore"
"Lonesome Whistle"
"Hey, Goodlookin'"
"Honky-Tonk Blues"
"I'll Never Get Out of this World Alive"

He was a lifelong Republican who proclaimed it an "honor" to support President Eisenhower.  We don't know about his attitude toward gay people, but one can probably assume that he didn't cotton to them much.

Here's a photo that seems to show him nude.

He died of a heart attack on January 1, 1953, at the age of 29, leaving a son.

Hank Williams Jr. (born 1949) began his career by covering his dad's songs, but soon struck out on his own, blending country with blues and rock.  More experimental, he has not had quite the impact of Hank Sr., but he has won some accolades for songs like:

"Born to Boogie"
"My Name is Bocephus"
"Ain't Misbehavin'"
"All My Rowdy Friends are Coming Over Tonight"

A lifelong Republican, his extremist views have caused controversy.  He has called President Obama "the Enemy," compared him to Hitler, and claimed that he's "a Muslim who hates America and loves gays."

Naturally he hates "queer guitar pickers," proclaiming homophobia as an American tradition.

Hank Williams III (born 1972) does country-western, capitalizing on his uncanny resemblance to his grandfather, but he is primarily interested in punk and heavy metal.  He is principal vocalist for the punk band Assjack, and he has also performed with the punk-metal groups Arson Anthem and Superjoint Ritual.

His albums have won some acclaim, too:
Straight to Hell
Thrown Out of the Bar
Rebel Within

As crazy...um, I mean conservative...as his dad, he disapproves of liberal actor Tom Hiddleston (top photo) playing the original Hank Williams in a biopic, and includes the line that he "don't want no faggot looking at him" in his anthem "Dick in Dixie."

Well, here he is.  Take a look.

But at least his sister Holly, Hank Jr's daughter, is a gay ally who loves her lesbian following.

 "Growing up, my best friend was gay," she tells Nashville Pride.  "He was invited to all of my slumber parties."

Hear that, Hanks?  There was one of them in your house!

The uncensored photo of Hank Sr. is on Tales of West Hollywood.

Inclusivity Alert: Gay References on "The Middle"!

In a jaw-dropping development, The Middle,  the most aggressively heterosexist tv program since Fringe, featured not one but two gay references in Wednesday night's episode.

In case you haven't noticed, the long-running series is about a dysfunctional working-class family in "The Middle," a small town in Indiana: dour dad Mike, perpetually-frazzled mom Frankie, college-aged Axl, over-exuberant high schooler Sue, and weird junior high schooler Brick.

In six seasons, there have been no references to gay people or same-sex desire or relationships, not one, except for an running gag about the swishy stereotype Brad, who doesn't realize that he's gay -- no one does except Mike and Frankie.

Wednesday night's episode, "Flirting with Disaster," had three plotlines.

1. Sue and Brick go to a science fiction convention.  No gay content, but you do get to see the muscular Michael Foster, who has variously played Conan, a bouncer, a Muscle-Bound Writer, and a Gay Protester.

2. Mike's father-in-law Tag asks for help with his upcoming driver's test.

Mike: "When you see someone carrying a white cane, what does it mean?"
Tag:    "That he's gay."
(Mike glares at him.)
Tag:    "What? What do they want to be called now?"
Mike:  "No, it means that he's blind!"
Tag:    "Blind and gay?  That's going to be tough!"

Ok, not bad. The elderly Tag comes across as slightly homophobic, but Mike doesn't.

3. Axl (Charlie McDermott, top photo), who I haven't been following much since he stopped hanging around in his underwear, comes home from college with a hot friend we've never heard of before, Finn (Matthew Atkinson, left).

Frankie flirts with Finn.  He responds.  She relishes her ability to still attract Cute Young Things, but then Axl tells her that Finn is "granny bait": He often uses his attractiveness to get special favors from elderly women.

Ok, it's not what you're thinking -- Axl means extra helpings of tater tots from the lunch lady.

Horrified at being labeled a "granny," Frankie decides that she'll go back to flirting with the elderly security guard at the bank: "At least she thinks I'm hot."

A throwaway line playing on our sexist presumption that security guards are always male.  But it also reveals that there are indeed gay people in Orson, Indiana, that Frankie is aware of them, and that she is completely comfortable being the object of same-sex desire.

None of the kids were around during either of the scenes; they remain unaware of the existence of gay people.  But two references in a single episode of a series that has thus far being utterly silent?  Cause for celebration.

See also: Brock Ciarlelli, the Uncle Tom of The Middle; Axl in Underwear: The Middle.