Best. Gay. Week. Ever. (August 1, 2008)

TRUE BLOOD'S VAMPIRES ARE NOT A METAPHOR FOR GAYS. EXCEPT WHEN THEY ARE. OR NOT. MAYBE. GOT THAT?
At the recent Television Critics Association in Los Angeles, out writer/director Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) was on hand to discuss his upcoming HBO show True Blood which bows in September. Based on the Charlaine Harris series Southern Vampire Mysteries, True Blood tells what happens when vampires are free to live public lives thanks to the invention of a synthetic drink called TruBlood.

In the pilot, Sookie (Anna Paquin) refers to the vampires situation as "coming out of the coffin". That prompted a journalist at the TCA to ask Ball how much the vampires were metaphors for gays in America. Said Ball:

I really don't look at the vampires as a metaphor for gays in a very specific way. For me, part of the joy of this whole series is that it's about vampires, and so we don't have to be that serious about it. However, they totally work as a metaphor for gays, for people of color, in previous times in America, for anybody who is misunderstood and feared and hated for being different. I think, because of the cultural climate that we exist in today, it seems like, oh, well, they are a metaphor for gays because gay marriage and gay rights and that kind of thing. But I think it's a bigger metaphor, and at the same time, it's also not a metaphor at all. It's vampires.

Hmm, sounds to me like Ball is trying to drink his blood and have it, too. Whatever the case, HBO marketing certainly isn't shying away from the gay metaphor angle. They've an entire fictional website called BloodCopy.com devoted to following the saga of the vampires that borrows so liberally from the gay rights movement that all it is missing are a half-dozen Bravo shows featuring vampire contestants, vampire judges, and vampire mentors. They've even got a dating ad that looks like exactly like the "REJECTED" ads Chemistry.com ran recently.

Alan Ball

(Alan Ball photo credit Getty Images)

Included on the site are various clips of people protesting vampires rights (see picture at the very top), enraged citizens demanding vampires not be allowed to teach children, and folks expressing fear of vampires "recruiting" otheres into their lifestyle. Also found on the site are links to the AmericanVampireLeague, a vampire organization running ads supporting equality for all citizens that could've been whipped up by the Human Rights Campaign.

None of this is a problem, mind you. I'm just saying if True Blood isn't, in large part, a metaphor for being gay then I'm actually a straight guy totally into Pam Anderson.

Also on the BloodyCopy.com site is an "interview" with Lafayette Reynolds (Nelsan Ellis), one of the characters on True Blood. Lafayette is the short order cook at the rural Louisiana restaurant where Sookie works and he happens to be very gay and very out. Here is the interview with him.

I've seen the first two episodes and as I've written before, this character gives me some cause for concern. In the second episode, he is portrayed as someone who aggressively goes after straight guys and in this clip, he again appears to be hitting on someone who apparently has indicated no interest in Lafayette.

I also have to say I'm not wild about yet another gay man of color shown wearing make-up and accessories normally associated with women. (One of the commenters on the BloodCopy.com site was baffled that Lafayette was actually a man.)

Lafayette Reynolds, Keith Charles (Matthew St. Patrick)

Don't get me wrong. I've got nothing against someone dressing however they want and pushing gender buttons is fine by me. And there are definitely gay men like Lafayette and they could probably kick my ass. Furthermore, Lafayette is no wimp himself doing road construction for a second job. I'm just saying Hollywood seems to give us this type of gay man so often you'd think he was the rule rather than the exception.

In fairness, Ball did give us a very different out African-America man in Six Feet Under with Keith Charles played wonderfully by Matthew St. Patrick. Which means that in my book Ball has certainly earned the right to write the gay characters he wants. And I'm curious to see where Lafayette ends up going. Well, except for the hitting on straight guys thing.

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