Ask the Flying Monkey! (January 18, 2010)

Have a question about gay male entertainment? Send it to aftereltonflyingmonkey@yahoo.com! (Please include your city and state and/or country.)

Q: Dear Monkey, both wingéd and winsome, my other half has beseeched me to ply my troth to him and ask your opinion to settle our dispute. (I'll cut with the thesaurus now.) With The Princess and the Frog recently out, we got to thinking back over some of the other Disney classics, trying to decide which one was the most gay. I say it was Mulan due to the cross-dressing/gender issues theme and the voices of both Harvey Fierstein and George Takei in the cast. He says it was The Little Mermaid because the design for the sea-witch was based on Divine, the drag artist, and Howard Ashman wrote the songs, including the gay-resonant "Part of That World". Are either of us right? – Jeremy, Orem, Utah

The Little Mermaid (left) and Mulan

A: You and your partner both make compelling cases. Allow me to make several more:

The Hunchback of Notre Dame stars two out gay men, Tom Hulce and David Ogden Stiers, and (reported) lesbian Mary Wickes in her last role, and also includes a major “outcast” theme.

Pocahontas also stars Ogden Stiers (in two roles!), has a “forbidden love/love conquers all” theme, and includes at least two “coded” gay characters: Wiggins and Thomas (who is clearly secretly in love with John Smith).

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (left) and Pocahontas

Lilo & Stitch was co-directed by a gay men (Dean DeBlois), also co-stars David Ogden Stiers, and includes a coded gay couple, Jumba and Pleakley.

The music to The Lion King was written by Sir Elton John, stars openly out actor Nathan Lane whose character, Timon, lives with another male, Pumbaa, and the cast also includes Scar, a character who many people thought was a coded gay villain (single, effeminate, and childless).

Lilo & Stitch (left) and The Lion King

The point is, they’re all pretty gay. The Flying Monkey must, therefore, call it a draw.

Next page! A gay Sam and Dean. And an even gayer Sherlock Homo.