Don't Erase Queer People, Assholes!

This post, my friends, is prompted by the horror of these images: In each one, Chris’s guest to the Fox Upfronts has been removed or replaced.

That green, white, and black smudge on the left used to be Will Sherrod. And look here: It would seem that Darren Criss has been pasted on top of Chris’s chosen seat-mate!

In response, I have one thing to say: Don’t erase queer people, assholes! There. I said it. I don’t usually swear, but this level of offense warrants it.

Why, you ask? Because …

Once upon a time, not so long ago (though it may seem that way to Glee viewers) there was an actor named Rock Hudson. He was a heart-throb and idol. However, it was unthinkable to be a gay leading man during those days. Therefore, he lived his life firmly in the closet, fake marriage and all. Nevertheless, rumors began to circulate in the 1970s that he and Jim Nabors were planning to get married (illegal everywhere in the USA at the time).

The two men never spoke again.

Sadly, Rock Hudson was diagnosed with AIDS in 1984. For a while, his illness was kept secret. Eventually, he revealed his diagnosis. In August of 1985, People magazine did an article about Rock Hudson and his sexuality. A few weeks later, the famous, handsome leading man died. However, his death did mark a change in the attitude of the US public towards people who suffered from AIDS. If someone as nice as Rock  Hudson could get AIDS, then anyone could get it!

In the nearly-thirty-years since Rock Hudson’s death, it hasn’t become much easier to be gay in Hollywood. People still say the same things that Emma, Beiste, and Artie said to Kurt when he auditioned for West Side Story: how can a gay man play a love interest? Who is going to believe it?

Now, I know you’re going to point at Neil Patrick Harris as an example that it’s just fine and dandy to be out and playing straight characters in Hollywood. But think: he is one man out of many, and when he came out in 2006, there were still peoplewho questioned whether he’d be able to be taken seriously as a leading man. Fortunately, he was already receiving raves for playing the womanizing Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother. If he hadn’t been, maybe he would have had his career severely curtailed. We will never know.

By now you are probably thinking “Well, fine, OK, but what does this have to do with shipping CrissColfer, cutting Will Sherrod out of a few pictures, and inserting the male-love-interest of our choice into a few others? We like gay people. We want gay marriage for Klaine. And we’d love it if Darren Criss could finally come out of the closet so Chris can admit his feelings publicly … “ Or whatever else it is you say when you justify cutting a human being from a photograph because he isn’t the sexy option for you.

Look, studios know how to sell their people. All the way back in 1938, MGM hired a dewy-eyed fourteen-year-old named Judy Garland to sing a song called “Dear Mr. Gable/You Made Me Love You” and gush about one of the studio’s leading men. Honestly, aside from having a much better voice than most of us will ever dream of, young Miss Garland sounds exactly like many a tumblr post as she relates her (fictional) swoon-worthy encounter with Clark Gable. This song launched her career.

The studio knew what it was doing. After all, the appearance of sexual availability has always been part of what Hollywood markets (both to adults and to teens). Thus, Hollywood would rather not have it’s sexy leads be gay, out, and proud. Indeed, I am sure that Fox would have preferred it if Chris Colfer had stayed nicely and ambiguously in the closet. Instead, he came out.

How could he!

Well, it’s OK, because now he has a handsome, straight actor (Darren Criss) playing his ex-boyfriend. Somehow, Klaine has been eroticized (and Chris desexualized) to the point that the fetishization of a fictional character has crossed over into the real world—leading to the monster that is CrissColfer. No matter how the actors protest, conspiracy theorists figure out a way to put their “dream couple” together. 

Even if they aren’t.

Even if half of that couple (incidentally, the one portrayed on Glee as the more feminine of the two)is in a relationship with another man. And no matter what Will Sherrod’s relationship with Chris is, Chris Colfer has stated that he has a boyfriend. And whether or not that boyfriend is Will, it is clear that Will is important to Chris, at the very least as a friend.

How dare he! How dare Chris have a male friend or boyfriend who isn’t the one we fantasize about!

Let’s erase Will Sherrod from photographs. Let’s make the inconvenient gay man not EXIST anymore.

Ah, that’s better. Now we can masturbate to the “gay couple” of our choice, unencumbered by the reality of Chris Colfer’s life. 

Why don’t we just go ahead and shove him back into the closet? I mean, really, why not? What is the good of him having been brave and coming out—even though that’s likely to cost him roles in the the future—if fans are going to insist on intruding into his personal life (whatever that may be) and erasing people who mean something to him? Because the person who means something to Chris Colfer apparently doesn’t mean enough to his ‘LGBTQ-supporting’ fans.

Poor Jim Nabors. Poor Will Sherrod. It’s just so inconvenient to be the gay guy next door—the one who interferes with a fandom’s fantasy. 

Maybe CrissColfer fans would feel better if Chris pulled a ‘Rock Hudson’ and never spoke to his ‘Jim Nabors’ again. Then, nothing would get in the way of their desires.

Yes. Let’s have them never speak again.

And, if they dare spend time together, let’s use Photoshop to wipe one of them out. Let’s use some digital wizardry to substitute our favorite straight man. After all, our “innocent” fantasy is more important than their reality!

Nevermind that Chris has a right to live his own life, even if he is famous. Nevermind that it must have been hard to expose Will—no matter what their relationship—to a public that he knew would attack. None of that matters.

After all, all of the Glee fandom is accepting of gay people! (Right?)

As long as they date who we want. As long as they are never seen with someone inconvenient. As long as their sex lives (or what we imagine to be their sex lives) don’t contradict with our masturbatory fictions. As long as they play their part as expected on and off screen.

God, it feels good to be liberal and to support same-sex marriage so Klaine can get together. God, it is liberating to know you aren’t a bigot because you can totally get behind CrissColfer.

God, it feels good to eliminate all evidence of the inconvenient other. Especially if that other happens to be part of the minority you claim to support. 

Don’t erase queer people, assholes.

If you do, you are not allies.