No he didn’t, yes he did!

Here in the United States there’s a serious LGBT controversy involving a provocative Newsweek article which asserts LGBT actors can’t play straight roles. In other words you, pinky , should take of the Abercrombie T-shirt right now and stop calling girls your honey- you’re only fooling yourself. We both know, you can’t pull it off and even if you did it’d just look weird right? Well, not exactly. Certainly Ramin Setoodeh of Newsweek makes a rather convincing argument, it just came out wrong. Maybe we should get all Oprah on his ass and ask him what he was really trying to say? And investigate what the flowery reaction says about the LGBT community.

Setoodeh (a gay guy) innocently enough wrote the piece about LGBT actors who play heterosexuals. He starts off talking about Sean Hayes, who plays the queeny, eccentric, dude loving doll of a guy that is Jack from Will &Grace. Setoodeh says that Hayes is well known for his ‘slapstick’ comedic performances within and outside Hollywood, but rightly says ‘his sexual orientation is who he is’. Then, Setoodeh suggests that Hayes when playing a straight guy comes off ‘wooden’ and ‘insincere’. Insincere to whom exactly isn’t exactly clear, but his example follows a line of different characters he asserts just shouldn’t be playing straight.

Another example Setoodeh uses is Glee tottie Jonathan Groff. He again, drives that dagger further into the delicate hearts of our fellow queens, tweens and teens by asserting ‘something about his performance feels off’. Apparently, there’s something uniquely ‘distracting’ by the way Groff is getting down with a high school gal. You see, in Glee season 2, Groff is a hot jock frolicking on another team in direct competition with the Glee club. He plays high school football and isn’t afraid to try and bed his gal by playing Madonna’s Like a Virgin.

However, Setoobeh sees this as a ‘distraction’ and wonders if Groff’s character is ‘secretly gay?’ Madonna hello! Setoobeh makes an Interesting argument; over here the media has vilified him as someone who is making a controversial comment about the LGBT community. Personally, this reporter understands his argument, but totally disagrees with his insinuation. Setoobeh asserts in order to play straight you need to drop the tiara, and your hopeless mission trying to find your Edward Cullen. His assertion is what’s wrong with his argument, not necessarily the argument itself.

Setoobeh, kind of contradicts this assertion when he asks ‘why should sexual orientation limit a gay actor’s choice of roles?’ Agreed, (Oprah moment). Isn’t this the real question you need to be asking within your article? What a good question. Why should anything, sexual orientation, skin colour, hairstyle, choice of clothes, limit anyone’s opportunities- either at acting or not.

The LGBT community tends to be a tad dramatic when anyone makes a controversial statement about them. This is one of our biggest faults- that and Jay Manuel’s hair- seriously one light and it’s in flames. We should always stand up for what is right. But, Setoobeh’s argument was loosely based on his own personal opinion- which he is rightly entitled to- it just happens to be wrong.

The LGBT community needs to relax, put on some Cher videos and go have a game of rugby. For we, should always be tough and have an aspect of flamboyance and straightness. We should also not dish too hard when an opinion is wrongly constructed.

-Liam Cahill

NewsWeek Article http://www.newsweek.com/id/236999