Like Kelly, some are down to make out or hook up with gay men in real life, a community that reluctantly calls itself girlfags or "girls who like boys who like boys." But more common is to fantasize about two hot guys having hot sex.
It's been more hush-hush-and can feel more taboo-but some straight women feel the same way about gay men. Pretty much every threesome in pop culture is between a lucky man sandwiched between two sultry women (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Savages, Wild Things), whether lesbians or just conveniently gorgeous, sexually fluid women. Straight guys have long salivated over same-sex lady action: "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" is the rallying cry of the basic bro six beers deep at the bar, urging his girl friends to go at it for his enjoyment. A recent summer fling was a bisexual guy who was usually with men. In fact, she says, "Queer guys are my type." There have been other makeout sessions and hookups (but not intercourse) with "effeminate" guys who were either gay or seemed like they "swung both ways," she says. Her friends make fun of her for it, but she doesn't care. It wasn't the first time Kelly has made out with a gay man…and it probably won't be the last. Like, Oh, hey, this feels right," she remembers. "We started dancing, and it just happened. But he was also, in Kelly's eyes, super hot. He made her laugh when he showed her that he'd packed an extra suitcase filled only with shoes. They met the previous day at a social-media marketing conference and became buddies, sitting side by side while Kelly trolled Tinder and he swiped through Grindr. Rather, my point is that a long history of excluding same-sex affection from public view and the refusal to see or reveal queer lives has had specific effects on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people.It's after-hours at a bar in San Francisco, and Kelly, a straight 19-year-old college student, is making out with a gay guy. I certainly don’t mean to suggest some causal link between American sitcoms and the acts of a mass murderer. In light of the horror of Orlando, discussing Will and Grace seems trivial. It’s just shocking imagery and I didn’t want to shoe-horn it in. Director Jonathan Demme argued that a kiss might have repelled audiences, telling Rolling Stone in 1994: The lovers dance together and hug, but they never kiss. But the arrival of that first gay screen kiss didn’t mean that things had changed forever.Īs late as 1993, the film Philadelphia focussed on a gay male couple, one of whom was dying of AIDS. In cinemas, the first gay kiss seen in Australia may well have been in the British film Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971), released locally in 1972. Long-running soap opera Neighbours (1987-) waited 27 years before showing two of its male characters kissing.Ĭam and Mitchell kiss for the first time on Modern Family, in the second episode of the second season. Australian television has been equally reticent. Modern Family’s Cam and Mitchell live together and have adopted a child, but it wasn’t until season two that they exchanged even the most innocent of kisses. Sit-com Will and Grace (1998-2006) went several seasons before gay character Will ever kissed a male partner. Whenever it looked like he might be about to kiss, the camera panned away discreetly. Popular 1990s soap Melrose Place (1992-1999) was known for its steamy romances, but gay character Matt only ever participated in an occasional manly hug. The growing presence of gay characters on television has not necessarily indicated growing comfort with displays of same-sex affection. But similar acts between two men continue to be framed as something from which audiences must be shielded. This is accepted as appropriate children’s entertainment because the desire these kisses convey is heterosexual. The entire premise of stories that became films like Snow White and The Little Mermaid is that a kiss from a man will save a woman (or girl).