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Mutant/queer connections also abound in the films' plot premises, underlying themes, and storyline. Even though none of the individual X-Men characters are actually “gay” in the movies, as a whole the mutants clearly function as a metaphor for queers.

Like gays, mutants can pass undetected throughout society. They develop and discover their “powers” at puberty. They are stigmatized, despised and feared by mainstream society just for being born different. Frequently, they are targets for “mutant bashing” and it is necessary for many mutants to keep their identities and true natures a closeted secret.

Mutants are safest amongst their own kind and seek out extended family living arrangements with each other. For younger, “coming out” mutants, there is Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in Westchester, New York, a place where mutants can be “in school with mutants–to be taught by mutants”.

Finally, mutants face socially sanctioned bigotry as the federal and local governments begin passing anti-mutant legislation.

X-Men poses questions about homosexuality that gays rarely address in our own queer pop culture. Just where does homosexuality fit in with human evolution? What actually are our defining “gifts” or “powers” that qualitatively validate us as a worthy part of human society? Other than our mere sexual orientation, what distinguishes us amongst all creatures on earth?

The time is not far off when it may actually be possible to predict the sexual orientation of unborn fetuses. It was only several years ago that gay groups urged the makers of the futuristic sci-fi film Gattaca to delete a scene where expecting parents are informed of nearly every possible genetic disposition their unborn infants carried. The parents are asked if they want to know whether their child would be gay or straight – with the understanding they could either choose their child's future sexual orientation or even abort the fetus if the child's future sexual orientation was not to their liking.

Gattaca's filmmakers agreed to nix the scene, as it gratuitously and unfairly lumped homosexuality in with assumed “undesired” human traits, and unfortunately implied that anti-gay sentiment is a parental option.

The upcoming X-Men: The Last Stand boldly goes where Gattaca dared only hint at. The Last Stand takes the series' underlying theme of alienation and social intolerance to its terrible yet logical conclusion. The film's entire plot is based on a "cure" for mutations.

The introduction of a cure presents each mutant character with a choice whether to accept themselves as they are or take the chance at becoming "normal." Such a controversial issue directly touches on many of the issues surrounding homosexuality in the real world: Whether or not being gay is a choice; what it means to be normal; whether society should tolerate those who aren't.

In fact, Sir Ian McKellen agreed to reprise his role in the third film because he believes the movie sends out an important message to gay teenagers.

"X-Men is a story about mutants, about people who feel disaffected with society and whom society is hard on. It appeals most to young blacks, young Jews and young gays”, he told reporters at the British Independent Film Awards. "There are people who think gay people can be cured. My reaction to the idea that I can be cured as a mutant is as contemptuous as my view of people who say I need curing of my sexuality. The idea that black people could take a pill that would cure them of being black is abhorrent to me."

The X-Men's gay sensibility even extends to the film's ad campaign. As TV's Smallville did in its initial ads, where it used the very emotive, very Matthew Shepard-ish gay imagery of a young, beaten, shirtless Clark Kent tied to a fence-post–so too posters for the upcoming X-Men: The Last Stand offer the iconic gay imagery of a young handsome, shirtless angel (think Angels in America). In fact, this gay iconic image is an actual character in the film, the mutant Angel.

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