Healthy Self Expression

HOWEVER.

Having been in high school when Brokeback Mountain came out, I can tell you Heath and Jake took A LOT of heat for many of the scenes in it (including this one), because they WEREN’T all awkward and afraid to touch each other. They both went in with the attitude of “we’ve been hired to portray a relationship, and we’re going to do that.” I lost count of the number of times they were asked if it was weird/different to kiss another man. I think it was Jake who made the most confused face ever at the camera and kind of went “….no…..? A kiss is a kiss?” The speculation on their sexualities ran RAMPANT—at the same time that Heath started dating Michelle Williams (who played his wife, in the most positive-but-ironic turn of events ever). They literally were basically not allowed to say “queer people are people, and you don’t have to be queer to see that queer people can love and cherish each other emotionally and physically.” They did their best to do that, working against a mass media that was going “look, it’s a story about TWO MEN!! And they HAVE SEX!!! HOW FREAKY!!!”

Lawrence v Texas, the lawsuit that overturned sodomy laws that made gay sex illegal, was in 2003.

The cast was set before SCOTUS made that ruling. The film was already being planned at a time when gay sex was a crime in more than a dozen US states.

They couldn’t “get queer actors to play queer roles” because the majority of queer actors were deeply closeted, because it was a crime in a lot of places, including all of Texas and Florida. Your movie has a scene at Disneyworld? Can’t have known queer actors or they could be arrested during filming.