Here’s a question nobody is asking – at least, no sane person: “When straight men kiss, is it good for LGBT equality or a step back?” That’s the actual title of a Washington Post article Jan. 17. Apparently, actors Ryan Reynolds and Andrew Garfield kissed during the Golden Globes. Why? Who knows? But it upset The Post’s David Oliver, and not in the way it would upset most guys.
“How could this have happened at the same awards show where ‘Moonlight,’ a film that explored the black gay male experience, won best picture?” Oliver moaned. “A story from the more marginalized gay community was up for recognition, and the story of straight white men kissing was soaking up some of the spotlight.”
Oliver fretted that, although “two men kissing is now seen as so normal even straight men are doing it in public. might seem like a step forward for the LGBT community,” he worried it’s “actually detrimental, because it was seen as a spectacle.”
A spectacle? Ya think? Can’t imagine Pride Parade marchers minding a little spectacle, but there’s no pleasing some people. Luckily, Oliver found an expert to sooth him (libs love experts, after all). “When I spoke with Jane Ward, a professor of gender and sexuality studies at the University of California at Riverside and author of Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men [Really. That’s a book.] about kisses like these, she saw them as a recognition of sexual fluidity, which she views as a step forward.”
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Of course she did, because she writes books with titles like Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men. But Oliver was still a bit miffed. “While one closeted gay child could view that kiss as freeing and appreciate all the attention around it, another could hear their mother mutter ‘gross’ in the background and feel more trapped than ever — like they’re being laughed at, too.”
Again, there’s no pleasing some folks. But Oliver knows the answer: talking ad nauseam about it, in public, until everybody in the world has been forced to think about dudes kissing.
“We need to keep talking about moments like this, dissecting them for all their implications. Otherwise, the gay community risks losing its voice in this conversation entirely.”
I wouldn’t worry about that, David.
