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Import: The Top 11 Gay Characters in Mainstream Movies

By Creativity, Journalism, TV, Online Streaming & FilmsNo Comments

When’s the last time you saw a gay character in a mainstream movie? A while? Recently? Although gay people are under represented in the film world, there are more of us around than you might think.

We’ve put together our list of the top 11 gay characters in mainstream movies. Each one of them is terrific in their own special way. Here’s the list:

11. Dr. Frank-N-Furter – The Rocky Horror Picture Show

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(Image Credit: Fanpop)

Dr. Frank-N-Further (Tim Curry) from The Rocky Horror Picture Show is technically bisexual. He seemed to prefer men to women, after all he created Rocky, but we also see him get it on with Brad and Janet.

10. Michael Caffrey – Billy Elliott

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(Image Credit: Great Blus @ Tumblr)

Michael Caffrey (Stuart Wells) comes out in Billy Elliott after warming Billy’s cold hands on his body. It’s brilliantly shot and shows that to Billy, Michael’s friendship is more important than whether he likes boys or girls.

9. Jack Twist – Brokeback Mountain

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(Image Credit: Fanpop)

Jack Twist’s (Jake Gyllenhaal) journey to self-acceptance is a beautiful one. It’s great to see his character grow in confidence as he accepts his sexuality, even if what happens to him at the end did leave us a bit traumatised.

8. Ennis Del Mar – Brokeback Mountain

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(Image Credit: Jonathan Hurwitz)

Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) is reluctant to form an emotional connection with Jack in Brokeback Mountain. But after learning about his childhood memories of what he saw done to gay men we could understand why.

7. Blaine Tuttle – Cruel Intentions

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(Image Credit: GoFugYourself)

Blaine Tuttle (Joshua Jackson) was so brilliantly 90’s gay in Cruel Intentions. Blaine was openly out and self-confident, as well as being mean and sinister.

6. Stuart Dakin – The History Boys

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(Image Credit: What Else Mode @ Tumblr)

Stuart Dakin (Dominic Cooper) is a sexually confident pupil in The History Boys who tries to seduce his male teacher at the end of the year.

5. Irwin – The History Boys

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(Image Credit: Ma Vie En L’air @ WordPress)

Irwin (Stephen Campbell) was the Teacher in The History Boys. A geeky character who encourages his students to follow their passion. There’s a spark between him and pupil Stuart Dakin (played by Dominic Cooper above), but Irwin is too afraid of the consequences of acting on his attraction.

We couldn’t resist adding in a picture of Irwin and Stuart together here:

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(Image Credit: Sinclair_furie)

4. George Downes – My Best Friends Wedding

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(Image Credit: Omundodoemarco @ Blogspot)

George Downes (Rupert Everett) is best friend to Julianne Potter (Julia Roberts) in Hollywood flick My Best Friend’s Wedding. He’s any openly gay man who charms everyone.

3. Graham Dashwood – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

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(Image Credit: Total Film)

Graham Dashwood (Tom Wilkinson) is a High Court Judge in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. As a teenager in India he fell in love with a boy. But when the families found out Graham was shipped back to Britain and he never went back. He lived a life as a bachelor until the start of the film where he goes back to India to find his former lover.

2. Armand Goldman – The Birdcage

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(Image Credit: Screen Used)

Armand Goldman (Robin Williams) is the owner of a popular nightclub The Birdcage in the film of the same name. Hilariously funny, he tries to play it straight for his son’s fiancées parents.

1. Albus Dumbledoor – Harry Potter

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(Image Credit: Fanpop)

Albus Dumbledoor (Richard Harris / Michael Gambon) was Head Teacher of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Harry Potter books and films. It was never said that he was gay until author J.K Rowling outed him, but his fabulous robes and flare of body language (particularly when Michael Gambon took over playing him) hinted at his sexuality.

So whom have we missed? Who’d make your top list of gay characters in mainstream movies? Comment below or on our Facebook page.

Published by: The Gay UK on Saturday 2nd August 2014.



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My iMac and The Blue Screen of Death

By TechnologyNo Comments

I’m sat here writing this post on an old, dodgy and excruciatingly slow old Windows 7 laptop. Why? Because my iMac (see iMac Part 1 & iMac Part 2) has shown me: a black unresponsive screen, several not-booting-up grey screens and the infamous blue screen of death.

I won’t bore you with the tedious details of how this occurred; but when the Recovery software wouldn’t work I knew I needed a genius appointment.

apple-mountain-lion-hard-drive-icon Steve & I booked an appointment with an Apple Genius in our local Apple Store and went along. The genius did some testing and discovered that the hard drive had failed. I’ve never been so thankful to be in the European Union (EU).

I’ve had my iMac about a year and a half. EU law means Apple have a two year warranty rather than their standard one year warranty (without Apple Protection). The genius arranged for the repair, told us they’d pay the cost and that it would take about a week.

For the next week I have no access to photos, music, TV, films (both downloaded and DVD’s) and a limited ability to browse the internet. These are things I can easily live without for a week. But there’s never a convenient time for a computer to break and the timing is particularly bad.

This week I have some important documents to write and need to reference some other documents in my Documents folder. This will create some hassle and difficulty.

Luckily, I learned the important lesson about backing up files some years ago. I use Time Machine which saves a backup volume to a separate hard drive and then copies new or changed files once an hour. I can’t use Time Machine’s backups or access the folders/files until I get my iMac back.

That’s where my manual backup on another separate drive comes in. I backup important files (Documents, Pictures, Music & Movies Folders) whenever I make significant changes to them. So at least I’ll be able to access the reference documents I need while the iMac is away for repair.

I bought an iMac because I heard loads of people say: “It just works.” I’ve told many of my family & friend’s how great the iMac is for that very reason. I was disappointed to learn that Apple use Seagate hard drives, which are notorious for problems. If you don’t believe me just do a Google search. With the price of the iMac you’d expect good quality. But after learning about the use of Seagate hard drives I’m starting to worry about what other low quality parts are in my iMac.

I’ve become a bit disillusioned with Apple not standing by the iMac for more than their standard one year warranty (outside the EU). Do Apple really expect customers to buy such an expensive device for it only to last a year? Probably not. But the fear of problems with such an costly device and a short warranty is most likely a deliberate act to sell it’s Apple Protection to customers.

When I bought the iMac I was an Apple enthusiast; but not so much so any more. I just want a reliable hardware with software that “just works.” If Apple can’t provide this, then perhaps I’d be better back on Windows? At least with Windows I know where I stand.

I’ll give you an update on the iMac when I get it back. In the meantime I’m using the free time enforced upon me to catch up on some reading.

Hopefully write soon,

Antony

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