In a continued effort to bring you all that is important in the world of gay entertainment and ensure that you are being spoon-fed images of gorgeous, commoditized manflesh, we present the newly-minted AfterElton Briefs. Following the usual assortment of carefully-selected news items, interested readers can find a refreshing pic of a hot man in underwear after the jump. Yes, we're serious.

• In gay movie news, Breakfast With Scot has been picked up for North American distribution by Regent Releasing (sister company of here! Films), who plan to release sometime this fall. if you want to weigh the upside/downside, check out the discussion over at our article on gay film distribution.

• Shelter: The New York Times has a sweet piece on the NYC LGBT Community Center, which turns 25 this year. The building itself dates to before the Civil War.

• Alright, THIS is why God created the Interwebs: Daily Drag Queen Affirmations.

• Okay, a few months back I posted a publicity pic of Dancing With the Stars hunk Christian De La Fuente at a birthday celebration for Milk-Bone dog biscuits. Above, he's pictured at a birthday party for a cow named Maggie Moo in conjunction with the Boys & Girls Club. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear his publicist and I share a brain.

• And in sorta-gay film news. Lake City, which stars Sissy Spacek and Soldier's Girl's Troy Garity, will receive a November 7th release, courtesy of Screen Media. While the film itself isn't gay, it is the debut feature of gay filmmakers (and partners) Perry Moore (best known to us as the writer of gay superhero novel Hero) and Hunter Hill.

• Well, this is kind of a bummer ... we wrote recently that Michael Ausiello had blind itemed about a big gay twist coming for a sorta-hit show. Well, he spilled his beans, and the good news is, it's a kinda fun twist with two great actors involved. The bad news (for us, although not for our sister site!) is that it's two lady-type actors.

And today's Briefs are brought to you by...

Hero author Perry Moore (Photo: Joyce Dopkeen for the NYTimes)

The 20th Annual Lambda Literary Award winners were announced on Friday, highlighting the best in LGBT writing for 2007.

Among the winners were AfterElton.com fave Hero by Perry Moore (LGBT Childrens/Young Adult), Call Me By Your Name by Andre Acimen (which we reviewed here) for Men's Fiction, and AfterElton.com's own Flying Monkey, Brent Hartinger, for his double-novel, Split Screen (Bisexual). Woo-hoo!

Big congrats to all the winners, which you can find over here.

With the gay geeks finally getting representation on Beauty and the Geek thanks to Gregg, I've been thinking about openly gay men in pop culture as well as the visibility of gay themes in the realms of science fiction, comics and video games. Overall, these are realms where gay fans frequently feel left out, but things are getting better. Here are six openly gay men working in those areas who have also helped improve visibility for those of us who'd like to have a superhero, space captain, or time-traveling immortal of our own.

Russell T. Davies

Davies became a well-known name when he created the original Queer As Folk, a series that was groundbreaking at the time for prominently featuring gay characters including Doctor Who fanboy Vince Tyler. Davies was a longtime Doctor Who fan himself and was eventually tasked with reviving the franchise. Davies' Who run brought queer characters to the franchise. While most gay characters were a part of the world's background, Davies' first season of Who gave us Captain Jack Harkness, a charming and roguish, time-traveling con artist. Captain Jack was a popular character who got his own spin-off series (we've discussed it occasionally) giving us the first bisexual male heroic lead on a mainstream sci-fi program.

One of the interesting tendencies of Davies is to reuse names, something that Davies says helps him flesh out a character. His Queer as Folk everyman Vince shared a name with the first companion in Davies' Doctor Who run, Rose. (And the Tyler name continued in a show that Davies didn't work on when the creators of Life on Mars named their time-traveling protagonist, Sam Tyler, after Rose.) He's introduced two smart and capable women named Jones (Prime Minister Harriet Jones and medical student Martha Jones) as well as Torchwood's super capable office assistant Ianto Jones. However, the character that has the geekiest lineage is Captain Jack who is named after Agatha Harkness, a popular character among gay Marvel readers. Naming your influential character after the tutor of a d-list comic book diva, that's geek cred.

Phil Jimenez

Jimenez's artwork first hit the comic shops in 1991, his amazingly detailed and realistic style quickly made an impression. Over time, his consistently strong work has built him a following that has made him one of comics' marquee names who publishers court for an exclusive contract (he's currently exclusive to Marvel and is working on the flagship Amazing Spider-Man, with his first issue hitting the shelves earlier this month).

Jimenez became a role model for gay comic fans in 1996 with an editorial that appeared the last issue of the Tempest mini-series that he wrote and pencilled. In the editorial, Jimenez publicly came out and touchingly remembered Neal Pozner the man who first hired him to work for DC Comics who became a mentor to Jimenez, as well as Jimenez' partner. Pozner died in 1994 and the eulogy was powerful not only for increasing gay visibility among comic creators but for bringing a gay relationship into the dialogue.

Clive Barker

Barker quickly made an impression as a horror writer, particularly after Stephen King praised him as "the future of horror". Barker has had a long and varied career that has included film (which includes the horror series Hellraiser as well as producing the film Gods and Monsters), comic books (Barker has an original series comic soon from IDW, who've previously published adaptations of his The Thief of Always and The Great and Secret Show) and video games.

• Gotta kiss them all... and kiss them multiple times, by my count:
  When it debuted in 2006, the ability to kiss boys in Bully was an optional feature that had to be discovered by players exploring every possibility in the game. However, now that the game is coming out for the X-Box, getting a kiss from one of the boys of Bullsworth Academy is a step towards earning X-Box gamerscore points (which offers bragging rights to other X-Box Live users). How's that for progress, games rewarding you for same-sex snogging. (There's also an achievement for kissing female classmates, that offers the same amount of points.)
  
  
• Small screen Paradise:
  Over at our sister site, thelinster shares the exciting news that a Strangers in Paradise TV series is in the works, with some fantasy casting for Francine and Katchoo. (My vote for Katchoo would be Katee Sackhoff, since the first time I saw her on Battlestar Galactica, I thought of the lesbian hitwoman/artist.) That got me thinking about casting the series' hot guys. I'm at a loss at actors the right ethnicity and age to play David Qin, except maybe Ivan Shaw, recently seen on The Book of Daniel. What do you think?

  

  I really like the thought of the GLAAD Media Award winner hitting the small screen and it'll be interesting how the series' gay themes would change in the adaptation -- I thought SiP creator Terry Moore showed a growing understanding of queer issues as the series went on and I'd love to see how he'd tell the story from the beginning now that his understanding of gay issues are more complex.
  
  
• A Rock Band party out of bounds:
  I'm incredibly bad at Guitar Hero so my interest in the multiplayer Rock Band hasn't been very high. However, hearing that the next set downloadable songs includes The B-52s raises my interest. Any chance a DDR player would find the drums easier than a string instrument?
  
  
• We're getting close to the point where the phrase "Everybody loves Tim Gunn" isn't hyperbole:
  This seems to be the week for my nerd crushes to reveal an appreciation for Tim Gunn. A few days after Tim appeared on The Daily Show, we got to see Grant Imahara do an imitation of Tim on Mythbusters' second James Bond special. Unfortunately, I haven't found a clip of it online, so I'll just have to share a screencap:

  

• Tales of what should be an age left behind:
  One of the biggest challenges of sharing a love of comics with someone who doesn't already enjoy that hobby comes when you encounter the comic shops that live up to those Android's Dungeon stereotypes. (I've certainly made my share of apologies for saying "Hey, can we make a quick stop to check out that comic shop?" to friends.) Sadly, this story of visiting Comics Ink in Culver City brings back those bad memories:

  "Amazing Spider-Man" #548... was not bad, despite what the retail troll behind the counter was telling customers about it. "You got cancer by touching it," he told one man buying a copy. "You've read it, but now you've got eye cancer. It's like visual AIDS."

  Sigh. "Visual AIDS." Who thought I could be nostalgic for "Worst. Comic. Ever."
  
  
• YALSA finds a Hero for young adult readers:
  We've mentioned a few times how YALSA, the Young Adult Library Services Association, has been inclusive of gay-themed books, something that can really be a help when you're young and struggling to accept yourself. Here's another example that's been brought to my attention, among their 2008 list of Best Books for Young Adults, is Perry Moore's gay superhero tale Hero.
  
  
• Link of the week:
  I heard that popular webcomic Shortpacked had a gay character, but when I checked it out it was in the middle of a storyline that left me a bit confused if the character really was gay or if it were just a way to turn down his co-worker, Robin. However, Pink Kryptonite alerted me to the current storyline, which has Robin scheming to set Ethan up with a regular customer, Thad:

  

  I was up late last night getting caught up on Shortpacked and, Ethan is a fun character to follow. I'm hoping he and Thad get together, they'd be a fun 'opposites attract' couple.
  
  

• I'm calling it a dress-me-up Logan:
  I've been a fan of out artist J Bone from the moment I first saw a Doom Patrol sketch he did during his Amateur Press Alliance* days (wow, that was almost a decade ago) and I'm loving the Wolverine paper doll he posted on his blog. He's promising more to come, including templates ready to be customized in your friendly neighborhood image editor.
  
  * Amateur Press Alliances, they were like blogs, except that you had to print out and mail a copy to each of your readers.
  
• Moore chat, more fun:
  Pride High creator Tommy Roddy had a chat with Hero author Perry Moore for Prism Comics. Roddy and Moore discuss Freedom Ring, the "Who cares about the death of a gay superhero?" list, the goals of Hero, the reaction of Moore's family along with the differences in how comics publishers and young adult lit publishers look at gay characters. I didn't realize Moore had a role in getting Hulkling and Wiccan written as a gay couple... or that that Moore was tuckerized into an issue of Young Avengers.
  
• From 'the news from unexpected sources' dept:
  I never would have expected to get this news from a toy manufacturer (who, apparently, also makes toys inspired by The Catherine Tate Show, how unusual), but it sounds like we stateside Doctor Who fans can expect to see the fourth season hit the Sci-Fi channel in April. It's a shorter wait time than previous seasons. I'm pretty excited about the upcoming season (and the Christmas special with Kylie Minogue) so the sooner the better.
  
  I'm most thrilled that I might be able to follow the discussion about the series -- I've spent that last couple seasons thinking things like, "Love and Monsters, I remember hearing about this episode... was that because people liked it or hated it?"
  
• Hm, I wonder how "Make it work!" would sound in simlish:
  EA continues the hype for the latest Sims 2 expansion, Free Time this time unveiling some details about arts and crafts in the expansion. Normally, this wouldn't be be a big deal but doesn't the sharp-dressed man in one of the screen shots look a bit familiar?

  

  It certainly helps that he's cheering her on as she sews. You know what would make Free Time rock? If there actually were a Tim Gunn NPC in the expansion and got him to record some simlish. I can just imagine "Boobasnotz" in his voice. If there's any game where a Tim Gunn cameo would be apt, it'd be The Sims.
  
• A withering Iris?:
  After attending YAOI-Con, I was disappointed that Iris Press wasn't there with their promised anthology magazine, BL Twist. Iris has started discussing its financial troubles. BL Twist may be canceled, but Iris is asking fans to help it get some of its unpublished titles on the market. I thought the Bay Area-based publisher had an interesting perspective that encompassed both straight female and gay male readers, so I'm interested in seeing how this one develops.
  
• More Cylons, more fun... uhm, more complicated discussions of nature vs. nurture:
  Oooh, Entertainment Weekly has a teaser image for the fourth season of Battlestar Galactica that inspired plenty of speculation about what we'll see. (So expect to find a few spoilers at the link.) I'm most excited about the thought of (spoiler redacted) taking on another character since I'm such a sucker for the philosophical discussions that the varying Cylon personalities can start (it's all very The Cloning of Joanna May). Meanwhile, the rumor mill says that the current Writers' Strike has improved the chances that we'll see proposed BSG prequel series, "Caprica".
  

2007 was quite a year for gay geeks, with gay representation in comics books, on science fiction television and in video games being a frequent discussion topic. While these topics aren't entirely new, this year the discussion was at its most active.

On TV, we saw ourselves more often, especially on BBC America's Torchwood ... even though we had frustrating setbacks on shows like Heroes. Things looked incredibly bright for gamers, who found themselves expecting a good number of games with expected gay-inclusiveness and found it easier to find each other.

Additionally, gay geeks became more visible. Logo debuted its collection of animation, Alien Boot Camp,which included bumpers showing gay fans at comics and sci-fi conventions, as well as gay comic creators like Alison Bechtel. For a long time, this subset of queers weren't seen often, with gay geeks being happily surprised when they found each other, but that's changing as our visibility within the gay community increases.

Let's take a look back at the past year, shall we?

Here they come, the sound of drums

If we were to declare a king of the gay geeks, Russel T. Davies would be the candidate to beat. The Doctor Who producer did plenty to increase gay visibility on sci-fi television. The past season of Who regularly showed gay people as simply a part of the human tapestry. More importantly, 2007 was the year Torchwood made its USA debut. The series quickly became BBC America's biggest hit and, seeking to maintain the momentum from season one's success, the network announced that the second season will air only two weeks after it airs on BBC Three.

The success of Torchwood, as well as Doctor Who, is a significant development for gay sci-fi fans. On Torchwood, Captain Jack Harkness is a very different way of portraying queer men on television: as a dashing, heroic lead. Meanwhile, Captain Jack's return to Doctor Who this season continued to show his relationship with The Doctor as one having the kind of strained affection previously seen only with female companions like Sarah Jane Smith and Rose Tyler.

While Doctor Who is an obscure series for American fans, it's a major franchise in the UK and the series is the target of constant rumors and speculation regarding arrivals and departures both in front and behind the cameras. Those rumors included talk that Davies' may be cutting back on his Who duties with Steven Moffat taking over the series. Moffat wrote some of Who's most popular episodes and created the gay-inclusive Coupling and Jeckyll. If the speculation has any merit, Moffat sounds like a promising replacement.

We're still holding on for our hero on Heroes, Monday nights

For some media pundits, Heroes is a solid example of what diversity should look like on television,; but for people who actively advocate for increased diversity, the show is a mix of potential and problems. Last December, we noted that early promotion for the series had Zach as gay but that the show had suddenly turned away from the idea. Discussion into the character continued into the new year. Out producer Bryan Fuller confirmed that the character was written as gay, only to have those plans derailed by the management of Thomas Dekker, who played Zach. In its second season, Heroes was supposed to add a lesbian character but she, too, disappeared before becoming a major presence.

We told you last week about People Magazine's 100 Sexy Men in 1 Minute video which included three openly gay men. In the current issue, the very gay-friendly publication has picked an openly gay man as its "Sexy Man of the Week": Narnia producer and Hero author, Perry Moore.

I'm not sure how long the magazine has named a "Sexy Man of the Week" but this is the first time I've heard of them highlighting an openly gay man this way. Moore's profile is also very open about his sexual orientation ("Partnered for 13 years"): Moore talks about how being gay informed his "seduction secret" and a romantic ideal of two surfer guys meeting. You can check out a scan of the full page at Perry Moore's website.

For decades a frequent argument against gay visibility said that a mainstream (read: heterosexual) audience couldn't find gay men sexy because women couldn't fantasize about them and men couldn't look up to them. Thus, it strikes me as very progressive for a mainstream publication to name an openly gay man as an example of sexiness and include his tips on romance.

People's annual Sexiest Man Alive issue hits the newsstands this Friday, and I'm really curious to take a look at this year's list.

• No gender-bending for King of the World
  A Chinese MMO publisher, Shanda, reportedly declared that subscribers who play a female avatar in their King of the World game must prove they are female outside of the game. A webcam session with a Shanda representative will provide that proof. When I play a female martial artist in a tight jumpsuit in City of Heroes all it means is that I'd like to pretend I'm as cool as Emma Peel, so the big deal over gender switching in MMOs always goes a little over my head.

• Perry Moore, Moore, Moore...
  I received a message from Hero author Perry Moore, who's been following the discussion into the list of gay heroes he assembled. He's thrilled to see discussion about the list and the state of gay characters in superhero comics and welcomes any comments, suggestions, updates and corrections. "The point of the list is to facilitate discussion about the status of gay characters in the media of comic books. It is such a non-issue in the world of YA books, but comic books really are light years behind."
  
  An edited version of the list appears in the October issue of Harper's Magazine as "To the Bat Closet", which takes the discussion to a new audience. Moore emphasized that he'd like to see this become a group effort: "It's ours, not just mine."
  
  In other Hero-related news, Brian hit the book party earlier this week and met the charming Moore (and Ricki Lake, who was delightful and looked fabulous), who tipped us off that he's already working on a sequel and that it will fill us in on the untapped mysteries of Goran and Thom's mother. Oooh! More when we know it...
  
  
• Wanted: Fight Club towel boy?
  They have every kind of game in Japan, don't they? In Duel Love you can use your Nintendo DS stylus to wipe off the sweat off of a nipple-less bishounen, fresh from a Fight Club-style match (for that added homoeroticism).
  
  
• Geek Site of the Week:!
  This week's site is Blockade Boy's comic book fashion blog. Not only can Blockade Boy can really deliver a snarky takedown on the worst in superhero fashion (and, seriously, who killed Janet Van Dyne's sense of taste?) but he also offers his own fashion redesigns like his interpretation of Fly-Girl from So Super Duper, his vision of a flapper version of Dazzler or his gender reassignment challenges, where he adapts a costume for someone of the opposite gender.

In 1999, the Women in Refrigerators list (also known as "WiR") spurred discussion in superhero comic fandom about the treatment of female characters. Assembled by a group of fans that included Gail Simone — who'd later go on to write superhero comics herself — the list drew reactions from superhero writers and artists and had a lasting effect on readers. The term "Women in Refrigerators" has taken meaning outside of comics as well, like when Television without Pity editors used the term to criticize one season of CSI.

Perry Moore, the author of Hero, takes a similar look at the treatment of gay characters in superhero comics with "Who cares about the death of a gay superhero anyway?", a list of over 70 lesbian and gay characters that was inspired by the 2005 death of Northstar.

Moore notes, "Yes, bad things do happen to all people, gay people included. But are there positive representations of gay characters to counterbalance these negative ones? Who cares about the death of a gay superhero anyway?"

Moore also takes a "by the numbers" approach to gay characters in superhero comics. Here are a few highlights:

• 65 The number of “Ultimate X-Men” issues it took for the hero Colossus finally to come out of the closet, thus alienating teammate Nightcrawler.
• Ages 4-10 The age-correlated sizes in which Wolverine Deluxe Child Costume is available for children for Halloween. Available with muscle torso, jumpsuit, boots, mask, and pair of claws. Northstar costume not available for impaling.
• ZERO. Number of straight X-Men that the most popular X-Man, Wolverine, has killed.
• ONE. Number of gay X-Men that the most popular X-Man, Wolverine, has killed:
• ZERO. Number of boyfriends Northstar has had since his coming out in 1992.
• TWO. Number of times Apollo has been the victim of male bondage and rape.

I'm definitely curious to what trends others see in the list Moore has assembled. For our superhero comic readers, I'm also curious to hear your overall perspective on what it's like to be a gay comics fan and how you react to (positive and negative) developments with gay characters.

Do you feel accepted by the major publishers as a part of the superhero audience? Do you watch for z-list characters who are gay or find hints at minor characters' orientation? When you see a positive development, do you worry that it will be undone?