What makes "Buffy" a gay icon?

Beyond the TV Show

He's not the only one. The musical episode has spawned Rocky Horror-like midnight screenings in Boston, New York, Chicago, Tucson, Pittsburgh and other cities across the country, where audience members sing along and act out the parts. This means that on any given night, there just might be dozens of Spike wannabes thrusting their pelvises in public — something else gay fanboys can thank Buffy for. The Buffy Sing-A-Long is just one example of how the Buffy universe has taken on a gay-friendly life of its own beyond the original series.

Another example is the predominance of Buffy slash fan fiction on the web. Check almost any fan fiction site, and you'll see Angel/Spike pairings that equal, if not surpass, Kirk/Spock — and it's no wonder. Here were two studly guys with a thing for leather, who seemed to spend all their nights prowling underground clubs and couldn't keep their fists off one another. Even Whedon, on his DVD commentary for Buffy spin-off Angel, acknowledged: "Spike and Angel, they were hanging out for years and years and years. … Are people thinking they never —? Come on, people! They're open-minded guys!"

Buffy may have generated enough homoerotic imagery to fuel countless gay fantasies and fan sites, but for such a gay-friendly show, it was sorely lacking in its depiction of actual gay male characters. Lawrence does remember one particularly interesting, stereotype-busting character who appeared early on in the series: a high school jock named Larry who mercilessly bullied Xander before coming out to him (and then coming on to him). Larry showed up again a few episodes later, now so comfortable with his sexuality that he proclaimed, "I'm so out, I got my grandma fixing me up with guys."

Buffy Didn't Get it all Right

Far more problematic was Andrew Wells, one of a trio of geek villains introduced in Season 6. One of Andrew's crimes was unleashing flying monkeys to attack the school play, and nothing says "Friend of Dorothy" like a Wizard of Oz reference. Everything about Andrew screamed gay, from his gushing over almost every guy on the show to some of his sophomoric dialogue. (Looking for hidden transistors, he tells fellow villain Jonathan, "I'll find it if I have to check every hole in my body — and yours!")

But the character never demonstrated any kind of self-awareness about his sexuality. Andrew remained a long-running variation on what has become a maddening television cliché: the girlie guy everyone but him knows is gay.

It is telling, however, that while main characters and fan favorites Angel and Spike are not even mentioned in the first two issues of the new comic series (although both will likely appear in future issues), Andrew has a key role to play, overseeing and training slayers under Buffy's command. He's still coded as gay, obsessing over Star Wars trivia and fashion (bemoaning "the cape and the little bell-bottoms" that Lando Calrissian sports in Return of the Jedi) but then immediately launches into a serious lecture about weapons and head butts.

It's as if Whedon himself is acknowledging there's more to tell about the character than previous TV seasons allowed. Perhaps the apparent maturation of Andrew's character promises similar progress in the treatment of his sexuality; it will certainly be interesting to see how Whedon himself handles this touchy subject.

What the Future Holds

Seeing what Buffy, Xander, Willow and the gang are up to now, as well as how their creator personally envisioned their futures, is what will no doubt drive many fans to comic book stores in the coming months.

The plot, so far, seems to be dealing with how Buffy's army of slayerettes is being targeted by the U.S. government as potential terrorists. It's the kind of timely, politically charged storytelling one expects from Battlestar Galactica, but lacks the thematic richness, emotional angst and personal relevance that gay fans of Buffy were initially drawn to. What it lacks in plot, though, it makes up for in the promise of compelling developments for its core characters.

Of particular interest to gay fans is Willow, whose name comes up in a context that is intriguing. Buffy's younger sister Dawn has apparently had a bad-boyfriend experience all her own (with amusingly extreme supernatural repercussions), but the only one Dawn is willing to discuss her problems with is Willow, which leads Buffy to say sarcastically, " Willow's the expert on boys since when now?" It's an uncharacteristically mean-spirited remark from Buffy — shocking, even, to hear her reference her best friend's sexuality in the form of a put-down.

But the fact that she says this hints at why Dawn might not want to talk to her in the first place. Buffy, for all her stellar qualities, was never very self-aware, especially in terms of her effect on other people. She doesn't see that it isn't what Willow doesn't know about boys that matters to Dawn; it's what Willow does know about relationships that counts.

Unlike Buffy, whose relationships have usually ended in tears or stakes through the heart, Willow has been in relationships in which she experienced true love — not to mention mutual respect — serving as a much more positive role model for Dawn. It's also worth remembering that it was Willow and Tara who served as surrogate parents to Dawn when Buffy was dead and buried and that, even now, Dawn looks to Willow for support.

It will be interesting to see how the Willow-Dawn-Buffy dynamic plays out in the 25–30 promised issues to come, as well as whether or not Willow is still with Kennedy, her lover post-Tara. Hopefully we'll get more face time for Willow, more insight into Andrew, and maybe even a new out and proud gay male character. Maybe we'll get two and can even see them getting some floating-above-the-bed-it's-so-so-incredible action. Now that would be something gay fanboys could sing about.