If you're so tired of "stereotypical" gay men and you're such the archetype of what a gay man should be then what is stopping you from stepping up to the plate and being the face of the gay community? Michael Buck is an entertainer...if you look at his Peron75 YouTube account you'll see that he is just an average gay guy. Michael Buck isn't afraid to have his face all over the internet introducing his husband. Michael Buck isn't afraid to talk about gay issues. Sorry but I'm tired of the bitching. If you want to go after someone in the gay community go after the boys in the closet who won't talk about their sexuality. There are plenty of gay men and women in all areas of society with a voice...you're just too focused on your own internalized hatred..."I don't want the world to think I'm like that."

Chad Allen, Clive Barker, John Ameachi, Levi Kreis, Chip Arndt, Mark Bingham, Sacha Sacket...I could go on and on and I haven't even named one lesbian yet.

You only need search this site to see that we are a very diverse community.

Like Hip-hop? Athletes? Gamers? What happens when they do show average gay guys on tv like in Sarah Silverman? Some people bitch. It's a no win situation.

BTW...don't blame the gay community because straight America likes to portray us as extremes...that is their comfort level. But to say there are no shows showing us as average everyday guys is incorrect...Brothers and Sisters, Degrassi, Greek, Sarah Silverman, Six Feet Under, Book of Daniel, Wire, Rescue Me...

showing gays in a true light.  Remember it is not that long ago that homosexuality was "the love that dare not speak its' name."  When I was a teenager in the 70's gays and lesbians were virtually invisible on TV and in the movies. So we have made alot of progress.  In recent years more mainstream gay characters have made it into shows (e.g. Kevin in Brothers & Sisters).  Over the next 20 or 30 years you will see more and more characters like Kevin.

That being said there will always be stereotypical gays being noticed.  People like Chris Crocker thrive on publicity so it is not a big surprise that you see him in the media, that is what he wants.  I am not sure though why you care so much about the coverage the more flamboyant gays are getting.  Does it affect your ability to meet gays with similar interest to you?  If you like sports then check out websites like Outsports.com or RealJock.com, they are full of so called "straight-acting" gay men who love sports.  Also the social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook would also be good ways of meeting gays with similar interests.

Finally I find it a bit worrisome that you view some gays as "good" which implies that the ones that do not fit your definition of "good" are "bad" and flawed.  The more effeminate gays are just trying to live their lives as open gay people to the best of their ability, I don't see anything bad about that.

Cheers

JBE

I'd say skip the entertainment aimed at the general public and look at smaller shows or independent films.

I know it's the fantasy genre but I don't remember anyone talking about show tunes in Dante's Cove!!

 I think we, as gay people, get in to this thing where it's like "i'm not being represented in this way, or i'm being represented in that way", and I totally hear that.Anyone on this site that's seen my threads can tell you i've brought this up several times.I'm one of the biggest complainers, so I aggree with you to an extent, but not all of the gay men in the media are stereotypes.I can think of some great gay role models.GayTVluver listed some, but yes, you have to go through a lot of gay chocolate bars before you find one with a golden ticket.(....My bad attempt at being clever.It's hard.All I could come up with was this Willy Wonka reference as an analogy.)

GayTVluver was right about another thing.Gay characters who break the mold of the gay best friend, or assistant, or whatever usually don't last that long.One character like you described was Jake Dunne from Love monkey.I think he was an ex-football star turned sports commentator.He was also one of the group of four guy characters that the show centered around and they all accepted him.I think you would've liked him, but the show only lasted three episodes before it was pulled.The show came back later on VH1, but was canceled again.

There was also Playmakers on ESPN, which lasted only one season.The criticism of that show came from the NFL for once instead of us.admittedly, I took a little bit of glee in this because I wish more people would understand how not fun it is to be on the other side of such a negative portrayel.Anyway, Thad Guerwitcz, the gay character on that show was another self hating closet case.I was interested in seeing where it would go because they had the potential to do something with this character, but he ended up beating his boyfriend, and in the end was blackmailed by the team owner in to staying in the closet.

As far as gay men who are portrayed as distrustful of straight men, that's something I connect with.I have this kind of tribal, or clanish mantality.I'm not heterophobic, but I can understand the resentment that builds up in some gay people over living in a heterosexist society.Just look at the way they treat, or make fun of gay guys on straight guy channels like Spike TV, Which i'll elaborate on later in my own new forum topic.Ofcourse I can seperate the actions of a few from a group of people, but when I see some of the stuff i've seen in the realm of macho straight guys it just pisses me off.

Just the fact that we are so limited in the mainstream TV and movie media makes me feel that way.I think Heroes is one of the coolest shows around, and a huge hit, but the fact that there's never a lead gay character with a love life on shows like this urks me and makes me distrustful.It's gotton to the point where when a character like Calvin on Greek shows up i'm pleasently surprised because the given is that there aren't going to be any gay characters, or atleast none worth watching.