Boze Hadleigh - Inside the Hollywood Closet: A Book of Quotes

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FirstEdition February 2020

Portionsof this book originally appeared in the 2000 edition of In or Out:Hollywood Gays andStraights Talk about Themselves and Each Other publishedby Barricade Books.

Asever, to Ronnie

Whata difference two decades make! In 2000 I published In or Out, a quotecollection focusing on gay Hollywood. At the time, there were few outcelebrities, the Hollywood closet was pretty much all-encompassing and legalgay marriage was a pipe dream.

Ive since come acrosssuch a plethora of interesting, insightful, entertaining and engrossing quotesabout todays, yesterdays and tomorrows Hollywood and what it means to begay, lesbian or bisexual in show business, that I decided to re-collect them.This collection includes some quotes from In or Out, but is primarilycomprised of new material.

One reason for this new publication is that a lot of thestars mentioned or quoted in 2000 have largely faded from view and memory.Another is that so many quotes were from heterosexuals, since LGBT+ celebs weremore tight-lipped back then. Yet another reason is theres no need to stresswhats now common knowledge, i.e., that gay people dont choose to be orbecome gay (and cant become ex-gay) and are not invariably child-less (orchild-free) or lonely in old age like so many heterosexuals with absentoffspring.

Gathering the myriadquotes that open our eyes and raise our eyebrows, from an exciting variety ofsources and behind-the-scenes viewpoints, all into one place was the goal ofthis project. The concentrated result hopefully presents a juicy yetenlightening overview of what is and what was, peopled by a galaxy ofnon-clones who each has something to sayand theres plenty to say!

Non-gays in the allegedheartland view gay characters on a screen and hear of openly gay performers andassume gays are now equal to heterosexuals in Hollywood. If only. Also, toomany young LGBT+ folk are unawarethanks partly to mainstream medias avoidanceof the subjecthow terribly unfair life was back when the phrase gay rightswas a joke or a hoped-for concept.

Yes, theres still a long way to go, and the threat offascism in government is obviously not eradicated, but baby, weve come a verylong way. And if we speak up and stick together, were not going back!

However, its too oftenassumed that all is peachy in Tinseltown, that today its easy to be openly gayand highly successful. Hollywood is more complex than that. If youre not onthe screen itself you may have considerable leeway. Unless, say, you directaction movies. If youre a comedian of either gender you can probably beprofitably out, and if youre a singer with no plans to act, you can likely beopenunless your specialty is romantic ballads.

If youre selling sex, the required brand is hetero-sex, andmost anybody very attractive or mainstream is marketed in a sexual way andexpected to live that way. Then theres the double standard. A good-lookingfemale can say shes bi and perhaps not suffer professionally. A hunk doesntdare reveal a same-sex fantasy, let alone one long-ago homoerotic experience.

Most of the public still doesnt believe in a sexualspectrumyoure either gay or youre straight, a word whose meanings weredesigned by straights to be positive, so why buy into that? (the opposite ofstraight is bent or crooked, not to mention on drugs, alcoholic, dishonest,impure, etc.).

If a movie has a lead gay or lesbian character its stilltypically cast with a heterosexual. At least now we have several out directors.Gay-themed films are still very much the exception, though LGBT+ charactersincreasingly populate the big screenlook at 2019s Oscar nominees. And by nowmost people have been exposed to same-sex kisses, even between males unlikein 2000 of the Common Era.

A major advance in general and in celebrity journalism inparticular is that saying someone is gay is no longer automatic grounds for alawsuit. Laws dont necessarily reflect fairness, they reflect majorityattitudes, and this legal step forward is due to the growing visibility ofLGBT+ people that weakens harmful stereotypes and increases social acceptance.

These quotes sheddingmemorable light on a riveting topic are intended for everyone, straightstoofor, who doesnt have a LGBT+ relative, friend, coworker, role model orfavorite performer? They hopefully offer fascinating, often surprisingbackground to the younger reader and they update and perhaps astonish, evenhearten, the older reader. But what is younger and what is older? Age andother differences are less pronounced among gay people than among straights,who are more into hierarchies and labeling (and often dissing) differences.

This book stresses that public figures, who for better orworse are role models, have responsibilities. Ive often heard someone askabout a newly outed star, what about Xs right to privacy? If you want thatmuch privacy, become an accountant. Besides, knowing someone is gay isntknowledge of their private life and habits and doesnt strip away their privacyany more than knowing theyre left-handed.

The LGBT+ movie star who earns millions per filmenough in ayear or two to last their own and their kids lifetimes, presuming they choosekidsdoes owe something to truth and integrity and to less fortunate peoplelike them. For one thing, LGBT+ teens still kill themselves at several timesthe rate of straight teens. Much of that reflects a lack of positive gay rolemodels.

Several of this booksquotes illustrate the selfishness and foolishness of putting money first,before truth, fairness, other people and personal happiness. The out actor istypically deprived of several career opportunities and theres definitely stilla lavender ceiling. By contrast, the gay actor who lies and hides behind agirlfriend or wife (and possibly kids) is rewarded professionally, socially,media-wise and otherwise. Which is the more decentand the happierindividual?The chapter on the closet, Out and Outing, sheds ample light .

This books chaptersdelve into four sometimes overlapping categories. The core of each is actingand we are all actors, as whoever penned the Shakespeare plays wrote long ago.Much of life is acting, and as gay or lesbian children growing up inheterosexual households we learn to act early, out of self-preservation. Abigger proportion of us consider becoming professional actors, partly becausewere already good at it, partly because its a paying chance to try on otherpersonalities, also becauseso we imagineits glamorous and fun.

But acting, for a child or grown-up, should be part-time anda choice. Pretending 24/7 is no way to live, yet most gay Hollywood stars,especially male superstars, are expected to act off-screen too. Too much of thepublic still expects actors to be, or be very like, what they enact. Images andmasks still entrap a big percentage of celebrities. Character actors have aneasier if less well-paid time of it; their off-screen lives are rarely asscrutinized as those of stars.