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Not all subsequent films and TV shows that have dealt with gay male/straight male partnerships have been this cartoonish. But many still follow the basic pattern that sexuality is character.

The 1994 film Threesome starred Josh Charles and Stephen Baldwin as Eddy and Stuart, two college students who become close friends, and who unexpectedly wind up with a female room-mate. Eddy, who is gay, is intellectual, sensitive, cultured and tidy. Straight Stuart is dumb, thick-skinned, bull-headed, and a slob. (The central irony of the screenplay is that Alex, their heterosexual female roommate, therefore prefers-- because she has more in common with him--Eddy).

The Michael J. Fox vehicle Spin City (1996-2002) was a sitcom about the Deputy Mayor of New York City and his co-workers. It set up a prickly friendship, and eventually a joint living situation, between Michael Boatman's intelligent, well-dressed, tidy and fastidious gay Carter Heywood, and Alan Ruck's rude, macho, insensitive straight Stuart Bondek.

All of these stories, including Partners, intend to be gay-friendly. Underlying them is the suggestion that the differences between (stereotypical) gay men and straight men could be a bond between them, rather than a source of conflict. Gay men and straight men could turn out to complement each other, to each have qualities that are of use to the other.

This suggestion became the message of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (2003-present), the reality makeover show that explicitly set out to prove that straight men need gay men. Once again, sexual orientation provides character here. Gay men are fashion-conscious, cultured, well-groomed, while straight men are slobbish Neanderthals devoid of taste.

The difference between the two types will provide not only comedy, but a heartwarming outcome. Gay men will give straight men the benefit of their skills, to help make them better looking, better dressed, more successful in relationships, etc. In return, straight men will provide gay men with... well, what exactly?

When Queer Eye premiered on television, commentators pointed to a sort of social progressiveness in the fact that it was just as limiting, patronizing and stereotypical to straight men as it was to gay men. It presented them as clueless apes who were about ten years behind the times of their fabulous gay buddies. And, watching the show, it cannot be denied that part of the shtick is for the Fab Five to frankly humiliate their chosen straight guy. They bring all his disgusting personal habits to light and ridicule him (not to mention frequently copping a feel along the way).

The show also provides some heartwarming “now I've overcome homophobia” resolutions along with the heartwarming “now I have a better life” ones. Straight men spending time with the Fab Five find themselves unexpectedly bonding. In a sense, then, what the straight men of Queer Eye are offering gay men in reward for their help is acceptance of their existence.

This might seem like not much--except that even this little is still too often in scant supply. Given the intense and aggressive homophobia that does persist in America, there is something both positive and necessary about a show that demonstrates that swishy gay men and butch straight men can share a space, without physical violence having to be the result.

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