Best. Gay. Week. Ever. (March 21, 2008)

I'M USED TO "BARELY THERE" GAY CHARACTERS, BUT THIS IS RIDICULOUS
For those of you who still read the comics in those quaint old-media things called "newspapers," there was something a little bit queer in last week's Luann. And I do mean "little".

For those unfamiliar with the strip, it centers around teenager Luann DeGroot and her various family, friends and acquaintances. Her brother Brad is a fireman who has the hots for fellow firefighter Toni Daytona, though he hasn't had the nerve to actually ask her out.

In last week's strips, he finally got up the nerve to do the deed when he thought his Captain was going to aks her first. Here is what followed.

As you can see, the strip never comes out and says the Captain (who has no first or last name) is gay but it rather heavily implies it. I wasn't the only one who thought so, as AfterElton.com reader Brenda also spied the strip and its gay possibilities.

Curious as to what exactly what was going on with the character, I contacted Luann's creator, Greg Evans, who told me that he wrote the strip specifically so readers could come to the conclusion that the Captain was gay — or that he wasn't. He was cool with either interpretation. Said Evans:

I like to think that society has progressed past the point of making a big issue of these things. The truth is, plenty of readers still find this material inappropriate for the comic page.

Evans also added that this was as far as that storyline would go. To which I say, "Sigh..."

Not to dump on Evans, but I don't see why he even bothered writing this open-ended interpretation. Does he really expect gay people to be anything other than exasperated by such a pathetic gay "storyline"? Honestly, if he's so concerned about being dropped because of upset conservatives, then don't even go there because, I'm sorry, but he gets zero credit for writing a character I can choose to believe is gay if I want. If I want to play that game, I'd rather do it with real people like Jake Gyllenhaal and Christopher Meloni. No wonder the comic pages are about as relevant as AM radio.

SURE THEY TALK FUNNY, BUT AT LEAST OUT GAY GUYS CAN DANCE ON THEIR SHOWS
AfterElton.com reader John suggested that those getting tired of waiting for an out gay man to compete on Fox's So You Think You Can Dance or ABC's Dancing with the Stars would like to hear the out Rhys Bobridge has made it to the top ten of Australia's version of So You Think You Can Dance.

The 26-year-old hails from Adelaide, Australia and his dance specialty is contemporary jazz. Rhys is a pretty free spirit who set off from home at a fairly early age to pursue a career in dance, and he also makes a pretty mean drag queen. I've included his audition clip from the show and part of the reason I like it is that it includes his dad talking about how much he supports his son.