When it comes to "High School Musical 3" is the gay glass half full or half empty?

Thanks to the $42 million dollar opening weekend box office take for Disney's High School Musical 3, it's finally safe for that last oppressed minority group to express themselves without fear of humiliation and social opprobrium. Yes, that's right — it's now okay for super popular jocks to sing and dance. Did you ever think this day would actually come?

Yes, I'm a little bitter and you can find out why, after the jump. 

We already covered how the character of Ryan is still coded-gay in HSM3 (see his ever changing and colorful wardrobe of hats and shoes above). I thought I was over it until I noticed AfterElton.com reader afhickman posted a link to Stephanie Zacharek's review of the movie in Salon.com. Said Zacharek about Ryan's apparent gayness:

The fact that 'HSM 3' makes a place for a character like Ryan without definitively spelling out his orientation is part of what's endearing about it. This is a movie for preteens, after all: There's plenty of time in the future for "Am I or aren't I?" worries; maybe, for some kids, it's just enough to see a kid on-screen they can relate to, for whatever reason.

It sounds me to like Zacharek is saying when it comes to Ryan, the "gay glass" is half-full and we should be glad for it. I suspect I'll be in the minority here, but Puh-leeze. This is not endearing. It's a corporation being very careful so as not to offend their Middle American audience.

And I actually get that; the High School Musical franchise is an entire herd of cash cows for Disney and they aren't about to endanger that. Buy saying Ryan is endearing or giving Disney credit for coding him gay instead of just saying he's gay, makes me ill. (And not everyone sees the character as gay including this reviewer who thinks the movie puts those gay rumors to rest "despite those pink pants".) 

Imagine if Disney did this with a character's ethnicity or gender. Would Zacharek be think it so "endearing" if there were no real female characters in the HSM movies? If their existence was just hinted at? How about if a multiracial character could be interpreted as black but no one would come out and say it? (And for the record, when we contacted Disney for a comment, a publicist told me quite firmly they would have none.)

Yes, I know. This is one step along the road to an actual gay character. But forgive me for thinking with 2009 hurtling toward us, we were a little farther along than this.

And how ironic is it that theater, often the one safe haven for many a gay boy, has now been co-opted as the stomping grounds for high school jocks who get to be athletes and singers and dancers. Meanwhile, the gay boys get to be "coded". Hopefully, in the real world straight jocks and gay theater boys have learned to appreciate one another and straight boys have learned there are all kinds of masculinity. 

As for this being a preteen movie, Zacharek sounds just like the idiotic Gary Marsh, president of the Disney Channel, who told us his network included characters (Ryan) that could be interpreted as gay and that they couldn't include actual gay characters because they don't do sex. And would Zacharek say that preteens are too young to learn about racial tolerance? Should twelve-year-old boys not learn little girls can do anything boys can do until they are thirteen? Does she really think social mores and beliefs aren't already well-ingrained by that point? 

Anyway, enough about what I think. What do you think?