Breakthrough Black and Latino Roles on the Big Screen

    by Rod McCullom - - 2007 has not exactly been a banner year for the portrayal of gay characters on the silver screen in the U.S. Indeed, the small screen has become the go-to medium for quality gay characters, from the wonderful array of portrayals on Ugly Betty and Brothers & Sisters to the budding gay teen romance on As the World Turns. But if there is a relative drought of mainstream gay characters in film, the current landscape for big-screen presentations of black and Latino gay characters is practically barren. In fact, except for the upcoming release of Maurice Jamal’s Dirty Laundry, “it’s barely a landscape,” notes veteran television producer Kevin E. Taylor. “It’s a window garden at best.” With so few representations of gay men of color currently at the box office, we decided it was time for a look back at the breakthrough gay roles for black and Latino men in film (an examination of breakthrough Asian roles will follow in another article). We sought out some of today’s most well-known black and Hispanic writers, producers, and social critics for their take on which roles about gay African American and Hispanic men were the most noteworthy. “ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN” The earliest major depiction of a substantial black gay character in American film was “Bernard” in The Boys in the Band from the 1970 screen adaptation of the off-Broadway play of the same name directed by William Friedkin. Bernard was the lone black gay character in the film and he pined away for the handsome and wealthy blond boy who lives in the house where his mother worked as a maid. “Where do we start with Bernard’s character? How many stereotypes were there?” asks the New Jersey-based Kevin E. Taylor, an award-winning producer with Black Entertainment and author of Jaded, a black gay romantic novel. Like the other characters in the film, Bernard was played by the same actor who originated the role on the stage — in this case Reuben Greene. His character “was everything stereotypical about black gay men trying to blend into the white gay community in the post-liberation era,” critiques Taylor. “And what a portrayal. Quiet. Sterile. Scared.” SOURCE OF THIS STORY