Does James Franco even need to be out?

James Franco on the cover of VMan's Fall 2009 issue

…Nope. James Franco is a very pretty man. Sure, he’s not as pretty as Rob Pattinson or Zac Efron, but he’s got the movie star looks of iconic entertainers like Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Johnny Depp. He’s charming, playful, and sexually ambiguous. Does he have the talent of more serious men like Daniel Day-Lewis, Javier Bardem, or Sean Penn? That’s the question we hope will be answered with his latest biopic “Howl” where he plays beat poet, activist, and gay icon, Allen Ginsburg— albeit, a cuter version.

If Franco’s choice to play another gay character on the heels of his role in “Milk” surprises you, it shouldn’t. Because although Franco is not officially out, he has made important and telling decisions about the character he portrays on screen.

Someone once said to us about James Franco: “No, he’s not gay, he’s just fascinated by homosexuals.” Duh, we immediately rebuffed, “Because he’s gay!”

Franco is seemingly not afraid to kiss men on TV — as he did on SNL last December. Nor is he afraid to kiss dudes on screen, as he did in famous, gay director, Gus Van Sant’s “Milk.” He even courted the gay rumors by playing an increasingly homoerotic drug dealer in Pineapple Express. Everybody talked about it. We even heard rumors that Franco flirted with “his boyfriend” during his recent cover shoot for VMan. And by the way, have you seen his NYU student film project? His inspiration for the student film? “The Feast of Stephen” by Anthony Hecht. Gay, gay, gay!

But does Franco really need to be out? As our ideas about identity politics evolve, is it even our business to question his sexuality at all?

Think about it: Everybody knows that Anderson Cooper is gay, but he’s never “come out” and said the words “I’m gay.” It’s sort of obvious, no? He travels with his boyfriend. He hosts New Years Eve with Kathy Griffin. He professes his love for “Housewives’” Nene Leakes on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” — perhaps the gayest show on television.

Last fall, Gawker’s Brian Moylan wrote: “Saying Cooper is gay is no longer a scoop. It’s not a scandal. Even the humor involved in all the clever winking and nodding is past its expiration date.”

Likewise, we’ve all read the tabloids and seen the pictures of Queen Latifah or Jodi Foster, yet neither has made a Lance-Bass-style declaration to People Magazine. And where exactly is Mr. Bass’ career now? Exactly. Remember when Ellen declared her gayness back in 1997? Her show was canceled. And haven’t we heard enough from Rupert Everett about how his career landed in the toilet when he came out?

Even Colin Firth, who is straight, but plays a gay professor in Tom Ford’s “A Single Man,” told Parade Magazine recently:

If you’re a straight actor who takes on the role of a gay man, it’s obviously not the same as being one in this business. I think there are still some constraints against being openly gay. It is to do with whatever sexual taboos are in place. In Hollywood, I know that some actors are far more circumspect about keeping that secret hidden. There are not a lot of openly gay leading men.

Straight men can play gay on screen (see Sean Penn in “Milk,” Al Pacino in “Angels in America,” Philip
Seymour Hoffman in “Capote,” Tom Hanks in “Philadelphia,” and Javier Bardem in “Before Night Falls”) and be rewarded for it — those dudes were either nominated for or won Academy Awards for playing gay — but you can’t be an openly gay male actor and garner the same kind of attention from the Hollywood elite not to mention the American public.

Sadly, we still live in Sarah Palin’s America, not Obama’s. (And the gay men you run into worship Palin, as a pop culture reference, oblivious to her voting record.) You don’t believe me? Pick up a newspaper or watch television. We’re a long ways from the promise of gay rights, marriage equality, and general gay acceptance in America. Just because a few guys kiss on day time TV, it doesn’t mean gay Americans will have equal rights when it comes to polls and elections — and that’s when opinions really matter. Wake up homos!

On November 7, 1978, Harvey Milk told a cheering crowd:

To the gay community all over this state my message to you is so far a lot of people joined us and rejected proposition 6 and now we owe them something. We owe them to continue the education campaign that took place. We must destroy the myths once and for all — shatter them. We must continue to speak out and most importantly — most importantly — every gay person must come out.
…
As difficult as it is you must tell you immediate family you must tell your relatives. You must tell your friends — if indeed they are your friends — you must tell your neighbors. You must tell the people you
work with. You must tell the people at the stores you shop in. And once they realize that we are indeed their children that we are indeed everywhere — every myth every lie every innuendo will be destroyed once and for all.
…
And once you do, you will feel so much better.

Milk was assassinated a few days later. His murderer was acquitted.

Thirty two years later, after the Gay Rights Movement, after Stonewall, after the AIDS crisis of the 1980’s, and much, much after “Priscilla Queen of the Desert,” it is still okay to kill a gay person in America and get a way with it. It’s still considered career suicide for celebrities to come out of the closet.

So with that in mind, it’s okay James. You don’t have to come out. (Not yet, anyway.) We get it. But if you’re going to play it straight, then you really need to spend some time shaming more of America’s less enlightened citizens — because frankly, close-minded straight people should be publicly embarrassed and shamed by other, more progressive (albeit often silent), straight people. And we all know, few things work better than a little public shame for change to take place. Just ask Kanye West. Or Tiger Woods. Or Boy George. Or Larry Craig.

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