Straight Eye on the Queer Guys

Planet Out is currently collecting your stories on how your straight friends and family have reacted to gay and lesbian characters they have seen in the movies. They pose the theory that even if you found such films as In & Out and As Good As It Gets cringe-worthy, they may have actually led to positive responses from the heterosexuals in your life.

My first thought on the subject was of me and Big Edie watching Queer as Folk together ("See ma, it has Sharon Gless in it."), but that was a TV show (and she covered her eyes through most of it). Then there was the time I forced my metal-head brothers to listen to Erasure on a long family trip. Still not a movie, still doesn't count.

Then I recalled a particular weepy night long ago when, after watching Untamed Heart ("He ... (sob) ... left her (wail) ... his records!") with my brother and sister-in-law, I thought, "hey, let's continue down this road to despair" and popped in Longtime Companion. Despite more tears, I feel that they understood me a little more as a gay man, not just as their gay brother.

Visit Planet Out to submit your story, the best of which will be featured shortly on their sister site, Gay.com. I will link to that article when it is posted.

(After further inspection and a lengthy, fruitless site search, there is no direct link to submit your stories listed in the article in question. So I say submit them via the "letters to the editor" link here, and let them now that when they ask people for input, they should try to make it a little easier to do so. And you can tell them I told you to say that too.)

Links via PlanetOut.com, Imdb.com and Gay.com.