By Charles Karel Bouley II

I don't like to nit-pick. OK, I love to, but sometimes I do overlook things when there's a greater good of sorts involved. That's why when I saw the promo on Logo (Viacom's gay/lesbian channel) for upcoming movies that said, "Logo salutes those who were brave enough to play gay," I only went ballistic in the privacy of my bedroom. I kept my disbelief at the fact that a gay channel would salute someone straight that played gay and hail them courageous to myself, in hopes it was just beginner's bad luck. An over-zealous programming meeting that resulted in a cute idea on paper but a culturally bad one in practice.

Well, the silence is over. They've broken this camel's back, or broke it, I should say, with the release and subsequent press hoopla surrounding Brokeback Mountain.

The highly-anticipated release of Brokeback Mountain by Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee, starring two allegedly straight hunks Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in a romantic plotline with each other was being hailed again even before the movie was released. First came the accolades for the two stars. Gay goddess Madonna saw the film and told the British magazine Attitude that she believes, "They're really good, those boys, and they did a great job. It's very brave of them."

And sadly, as the story of the film unfolds, the press has managed to paint what a bleak and deserted wasteland the film was in due, in part, to homophobia. According to the Hollywood Reporter's story of Nov. 11, 2005, the movie struggled for years to get made in part because no actors would commit. According to the story, actors would read it, love it, and then their agents would advise them against it, even though it was, according to most, the best script they'd read in years.

The implication? That the actors obviously had no courage and turned down a great role out of institutionalized homophobia. And our media, with their "brave enough to play gay," feeds right into that.

Well, say it with me, poppycock.

What would really be brave would be for the media, including our own, to stop acting like being gay or playing it is in some way sensational (don't get me wrong, it's fabulous, but earth-shaking?).

First of all, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal are actors. Actors are paid, usually large amounts of money, to be somebody else. In others words, they are paid to play people not themselves. What would you do for a few million? I'd kiss Ann Coulter for a few million. Talk about bravery.

So why on Earth would playing gay be a problem? And why does it take more courage to play a gay person than a mass murder? Or a killer that eats his prey with fava beans and a nice Chianti? Play a racist? No problem. Member of the Klan? Go ahead. In fact, actors take on roles all the time and embody despicable or reprehensible characters. No one clamors to them and tells them how brave they are. So, I guess to filmmakers and audiences alike you can play any kind of sick, twisted mass murdering racist bigoted idiot on the planet and that's fine. But play a gay person? Stop the presses.

And that's the media's fault -- the nice, liberal media. It's they that make a big deal when a straight guy kisses another straight guy on camera. Are they, and thus America, so insecure that they actually believe if two guys kiss on screen, off screen they're gay? Bi? Curious? Are we still in that much of the Dark Ages when it comes to being gay and the actual root of it?

And what about gay playing gay? No, if we're going to make a gay film, a groundbreaking gay film, we'd better use straight people.

The fact is gay people have to play straight all the time, in movies, in life, at work, and no one writes on an on about their bravery.

Look, this may well be the best gay film ever made. Ang Lee is brilliant, and I am a fan of both Ledger and Gyllenhaal and, as a gay man, would pay big bucks to see them make out, so the $10 admission and $75 at the snack bar will be nothing. But can we stop with the bravery thing?

If gays and lesbians are to be truly recognized as full-fledged humans with all rights afforded there from, the media must remove gay as a primary adjective. Just as I believe we must stop awarding people like Tom Cruise damages when someone says they're gay. So what? We have to progress to a point where being gay is not only not libelous but not newsworthy. Perhaps a nice sidebar to a story, not the story.

No, when I look at Brokeback Mountain all I see is fear. In the story, I see the fear of two obviously gay people too afraid to actually commit to their love so they run off and marry women and live a life unfulfilled out of fear. I see the fear of movie studios, too afraid to make the movie with Gus Van Sant years ago and the fear of countless Hollywood actors who wouldn't take the parts. I see the fear of a still-homophobic corporate press that grabs on to the sexuality of the stars instead of the quality of the script, a press that throws around words like bravery and courage when referring to pampered stars playing well-scripted roles. I see the fear of theater owners, who already are hesitant to book this film in smaller markets. I see the fear in those in Wyoming, who have already spoken out saying there's just no such thing as gay cowboys (well, hon, 12 men, 100 head of cattle, three months away from civilization ... somebody was getting some). I see the fear of the critics, who say things like New York Daily News critic Jack Mathews who predicted that it may be "too much for red-state audiences, but it gives the liberal-leaning Academy a great chance to stick its thumb in conservatives' eyes."

Alan Ball, director of American Beauty and creator of the award-winning Six Feet Under, was asked about straight actors playing gay characters on his HBO series. His answer sums it all up best.

"It doesn't take courage for a straight actor to play a gay character, but only a coward would turn one down."

Seems Hollywood is full of more cowards than heroes. And to anyone who may want to give or get a pat on the back for playing gay, until you've lived gay, until you've been denied a job because of it, or had to hide in a Hollywood closet, until you've had your jaw smashed or watched a generation of your friends die of a disease while government did nothing (Reagan era), don't speak to me of courage.

It takes courage to be gay and out, not to play it, write it, produce or direct it.