Tommy Knight: The First Gay Kid on Children's TV, Almost

I have taken down this post.

Dillon Casey's Gay Day

Dillon Casey's main claim to fame for gay fans is his steamy love scene with John Barrowman on the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood (2011), probably the first gay kiss on any science fiction tv series.

He hasn't played any other gay characters, although his web series, Living in LA with Dillon Casey, has an episode entitled Gay Day, in which he (in the underwear) and his roommate Jamie Spilchuk discuss the part.

And he's done a lot of other work of gay interest.

MVP (Most Valuable Player), a 2008 Canadian program about ice hockey.  It didn't last long, but it did get him a giant photo in his underwear in Times Square.

The beefcake-heavy Victor (2008), about Canadian swimming champ Victor Davis (Mark Lutz).

Being Erica (2009-2011), a comedy about a woman who can relive the past. There were several gay and bi characters. Dillon plays one of Erica's boyfriends, who takes off his shirt a lot.

Skins (2011), the American remake of the British teen drama with gay characters and nudity.  He plays a heterosexual who takes off his shirt a lot.

Nikita (2011-2013), a spy thriller with gay characters.  He plays a heterosexual who takes off his shirt a lot.

Jessie: The Disney Channel's Worst Show

I've reviewed a lot of Disney Channel programs, and there are usually ample gay subtexts, whether accidentally or by design.  But I've found nothing on Dog with a Blog, and Jessie (2011-)  is so bad, it's offensive.

The premise: country girl Jessie (Debby Ryan) moves to Manhattan to become an actress, and ends up a nanny to a wealthy couple with a biological daughter and three adopted kids: the diva Emma (13-year old Peyton List), the teen operator Luke (12-year old Cameron Boyce, left), cringeworthy black stereotype Zuri (9-year old Skai Jackson), and cringeworthy Indian stereotype Ravi (12-year old Karan Brar).

While negotiating their problems and her acting career, Jessie falls for guys, notably doorman Tony (Chris Galya), and is the object of crushes, notably from...Luke, who harasses her with sleazy come-ons.

The other kids, meanwhile, date and fall in love.  Emma gets a boyfriend. Ravi and Luke compete over girls. Even little Zuri gets a boyfriend (but at least they wait until the actress is 11).

I hate it when a tv series or movie depicts horny preteens.  It seems to be saying "Yes, heterosexual desire is innate, universal, rooted in biology, present from birth -- gayness is something that happens to you later in life, an addition, an event."

And I hate it when there are no gay subtexts to counterbalance the oppressive heterosexism.  Maybe Luke, who has a slightly gender-atypical interest in dance, and in one episode competes with Emma over a guy (Jack Griffo of The Thundermans).  Maybe his sleazy come-ons are a cover.

But that's all.  And it's not much.

I can't figure out what the problem is.  The producer, Pamela Eells O'Connell, has credits including not only the subtext-heavy Suite Life of Zack and Cody but Ellen, with its explicitly lesbian character.

Debby Ryan, who plays the focus character, is a devout conservative Christian.  Maybe her influence is keeping the heterosexism high in order to keep the gay subtexts out.

See also: Cameron Boyce.

Was Norman Rockwell Gay?

Most of my relatives are allergic to reading.  You never see a book in their houses.  My parents owned none.  My Grandma Davis had a few, but they were about art (she originally planned to become an artist), and no ancient Greek or Renaissance art with naked men -- she liked American regionalism, artists like Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, N.C. Wyeth, and Grandma Moses.

She especially liked illustrator Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), whose covers of The Saturday Evening Post and Boys Life depicted a stylized, ultra-conservative small-town America where men hung out at the barber shop, biddies gossipped across white picket fences, teen boys and girls shared sodas, and everyone cheered at Veterans' Day parades.

The world was so intensely heterosexist, so absolutely certain that every boy longed for girls and every girl longed for boys, that even as a kid I found it disturbing.  

And the characters -- not realistic so much as grotesque.  No handsome faces or muscular physiques to be found anywhere, just hideous caricatures of what human beings looked like.  Rockwell seemed repulsed by the human body, and wanted viewers to share in his revulsion.

Except for soldiers, sailors, and teenage boys.  They were occasionally depicted as attractive, with tight chests and gleaming muscles.

Soldiers, sailors, and teenage boys?  Does that suggest that Rockwell was...um...

In American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell, Deborah Solomon suggests that he was gay.  He had strong same-sex friendships throughout his life, and marriages "of convenience."  He nurtured his male models, often becoming their life-long friends.

But then...where's the homoeroticism in his art?  The muscular physiques, the buddy-bonding?  Rockwell depicted an infinite number of male-female bonds, but barely any boys together or men together.  The only significant male pairs are young boys and adult authority figures: fathers, doctors, teachers.

It seems more likely that Rockwell was attracted to the "innocence" of youth, its freedom from icky things like sex.

Solomon finds homoeroticism in "The Runaway," where a cop brings a young boy to a diner before returning him to his parents.

I don't.  Try J.C. Leyendecker, for real homoerotic illustrations.

The New Boyz: Shirtless Instagram Pics and a Gay Tweet

You have to be very careful in reviewing rap artists.  Homophobia is ubiquitous. For every gay-positive rapper, like Romeo, you find a dozen who bellow against gays with the raw hate of a fundamentalist preacher.

This photo of rapper Legacy, formerly part of the New Boyz,  offered enough beefcake to warrant further investigation.  But I proceeded with caution.

New Boyz consisted of Ben J (Earl Benjamin) and Legacy (Dominic Thomas), two California teens from the same high school who were originally antagonists, but bonded through their love of music.  They began performing as the Swagger Boys in 2008, then as the New Boyz.

Theire single "You're a Jerk," released in the summer of 2009, popularized the "jerkin'" style of dance and reached #24 on U.S. charts (#4 on rap charts).

They released two albums, Skinny Jeans and a Mic (2009) and Too Cool to Care (2011) before breaking up to pursue solo careers.

Their lyrics are extremely heterosexist -- every other word is "girl! girl! girl!"  Or, more likely "hoe!"  They're extremely sexist, too,

But I didn't notice any homophobia, except maybe in an exchange in "Cashmere," where they compete over a girl:

Legacy: I was wonderin' if you could be my first date here
Ben J: Excuse my friend, he's kinda new to meeting girls cause he's used to men.
Legacy: Used to men!
Ben J: Girl, this dude is stupid huh?
Legacy: Yo, I ain't gay.
Ben J: Man, why don't you tell the truth for once?
Legacy: She want me.
Ben J: You don't even got a mustache yet.

Even that seems very mild.

Two more things you should know about the New Boyz:

1. Legacy is fond of shirtless instagram pics, some considerably more explicit than the top photo.

2. Ben J apparently came out in a tweet:

I am admitting to being gay, can't be fake with y'all no more.  Take it or leave it. Thanks for all the support though!!

Jerry Quarry: Boxer with Something Extra

When I was a kid, my friends and I liked to read boxing magazines and watch boxing on tv.  Not because of the pummelling -- because of the beefcake.

Our favorite boxer was Jerry Quarry, the Bellflower Bomber (1945-1999).  He was big.  Not just famous -- big.  

A heavyweight -- 6 feet tall, 200 pounds, with beneath-the-belt gifts obvious to anyone who looked.

Want a better look?

Born in California to a family of boxers, Jerry won the Golden Gloves amateur boxing championship in 1965, at age 19, and then went pro, fighting such greats as Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali (he lost to both, twice.)

He was all over tv, guest-starring on such kid favorites as Batman, Adam-12, Land of the Giants (starring bodybuilder Gary Conway), and The Hardy Boys.

He never gave up in the ring, no matter what -- he could take punch after punch forever. Sometimes the referee called the fight just to keep him from suffering any more injuries.

After retiring in 1975, Jerry tried several business ventures and ill-advised comeback bouts in 1977 and 1983, but years of pummelling took their toll in physical and mental decline.  In the end his brother had to look after him.  The Jerry Quarry Foundation is an advocacy group dedicated to raising awareness of pugilistic dementia.

Not a lot of gay rumors in the life of "ladies man" Jerry Quarry.  Sometimes you could be an icon for gay kids in the 1960s just by being big.  And never giving up.

Dean Geyer: Fundamentalist Plays Male Prostitute

Teen idol Dean Geyer was born in South Africa but grew up in Melbourne, Australia, where he received a black belt in karate and studied music.  He placed third on Australian Idol in 2006, and his single "If You Don't Mean It" reached #10 on the Australian pop charts in 2007.

In 2008-09 he played bad boy Ty Harper on the soap Neighbours, but decided to leave.  Word has it that the sexy storyline conflicted with his fundamentalist Christian beliefs.

But not to worry, fundamentalist Christianity has no problem with fighting or homophobia, so he had no qualms about starring in Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown (2011), about four fighters who band together to save their mentor. One of them, Case (Michael Jai White), has a sleazy gay dad, which causes the others to lambast him with homophobic slurs.  Nice.

Next Dean starred in Terra Nova (2011), a short-lived sci-fi series about people who escape the devastation of contemporary Earth by going back in time to dinosaur days.

And in 2012-2013, surprisingly, he appeared on the doddering Glee as Brody Weston, a student at NYADS who romances Rachel, but becomes such a close friend of Kurt that there are internet groups devoted to shipping the couple.  He moves in with Rachel and Kurt.  One episode shows him hanging around the apartment naked.

Wait -- didn't working so closely with a gay actor playing a gay person conflict with Dean's beliefs?

Later it is revealed that Brody is a male prostitute, which means his clients are men.

What fundamentalist church does he go to, again?

Fernando Lamas: Was the Latin Lover Bisexual?

Have you seen the tv commercials about a heterosexual kitchen sponge with a Spanish accent who says his favorite part of a woman's body is her hands?

I don't know the origin of the stereotype of the "Latin lover," a man who can win the heart of any woman with a sultry smile, but Fernando Lamas is a good bet.

The celebrity died in 1982, but his presence was so over-the-top that he's still being parodied today, in the characters of Fernando on Saturday Night Live and "The Most Interesting Man in the World" in Dos Equis beer commercials.

Born in Argentina in 1918, Lamas racked up trophies for amateur boxing, fencing, and swimming before coming to Hollywood in the early 1950s.  He starred in some movies, mostly about men seducing women: The Merry Widow (1952), The Girl Who Had Everything (1953), Dangerous When Wet (1953).  Mostly about him seducing his costar off-camera.

He wasn't particularly hunky, but he was handsome, suave, and sophisticated, the last of the old-style romantic leads.  Unfortunately, he was increasingly anachronistic in the era of Hollywood beefcake,when gay talent agent Henry Willson was flooding the market with massive pecs and bulging biceps.  By the late 1950s, Fernando was relegated to the wasteland of guest roles on tv Westerns.
But, like the Gabor sisters, his fame came not from his acting so much as for his hetero-romances: four marriages, innumerable liaisons, flings, and affairs.

Not a lot of homoerotic buddy-bonding in his performances -- the IMDB assigns the keyword "friendship" to only one of his projects, an episode of Starsky and Hutch that he directed.

Not a lot of homoerotic buddy-bonding in real life, either.  He preferred the company of women, even when he wasn't sleeping with them.  

What do you say about an actor who spends all of his time off camera with women?  Right -- you say he's gay.  Because of course, heterosexual men can't stand being with women.

The conservative Republican was not pleased with the gay rumors so he "disproved" them by sleeping with the rumor-mongers' wives.  

He's identified as bisexual on some internet lists, but no one is naming names.

His son Lorenzo started off his career playing gay-vague characters.