Did you make the trek home to the hetero household you grew up in to enjoy quiet times around the television, visiting with aunts, cousins, and uncles, stuffing your face with joyous calories? Yep, I'm up here in snowy and icy Maine for a glorious 16 days. What the hell did I do?
Luckily, I have my personal laptop, my work laptop, and my iPad. Now if the uber slow internet access can keep up with my tech demands, it may be a fun holiday season.
As I sit here soaking in yet another Hallmark – Home for the Holidays Special where the single blonde successful daughter comes home to small town 'Merika with her broken empty heart, just to find a prince in disguise, or the love of her childhood, or the successful hometown geek to sweep her off her feet … wait … what was I saying? I think I just blacked out there for a second, realizing that it's a weekend-long marathon of these flicks. They're all the same, well 10% of the damsels are brunettes, and all so lovingly hetero.
I hardly expect Hallmark to break the mold and throw in a gay romance. I'm actually trying to think if they've ever had a gay character, supporting or otherwise, in one of their shows. If so, I am sure he was a florist or hair dresser, and most likely supplied the comic relief and that's it.
Where do we go for Holi-GAY stories? Do we just choke down all the hetero offerings and just realize that single gay people aren't meant to be happy during the holiday season? We don't live or belong in a Hallmark made-for-tv world.
Do we have any examples of gay holiday movies? The one gay movie from my childhood that pops to mind and is one we've all seen many times before is Rudolph The-Red-Nosed Reindeer. Okay, so he ain't a gay reindeer, but he's kinda one of us, no? He's our gay icon of Christmas! He's different, an outcast, and he accepts the misfit toys that everyone else has discarded. Gurl, if he ain't gay, he's a true ally of Dorothy.
And if you don't see the gayness of Yukon Jack, well then we agree to disagree. And that twink elf? You know those two are getting it on.
There are some other more blatantly gay offerings out there. These may be made by B, C, or D level studios and star the same level of actors, but they try to fill that holi-gay void.
Scrooge & Marley
Marley wasn't that the last name of my Lesbian English teacher in high school? Oh well. This time around Scrooge and Marley are men playing for our festive team. The story is of course a gay telling of the old classic A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. Little campy and a lot gay, this telling uses the three ghosts per usual to point out the bad historical choices made by Scrooge, making the choice for money and success over love. Does he find the love he lost? Does he realize he can be a sugar daddy and buy companionship? Does he buy a gay bar and have twinks flock to his lap and beer taps? I guess we will have to wait and see. The 2012 movie can be found online , but here is the trailer for your viewing pleasure.
Make the Yuletide Gay is another entrant in this "help me find a gay holiday story to save me from Hallmark hell." Of course we all want our boyfriend to show up at our home for Christmas, especially when we are not out. There's no time like Christmas present to unwrap the present of your son being a homosexual! We all have our perfect time to come out for many reasons. Apparently, the holiday season is a great time for some help from your boyfriend to decorate the Christmas tree with rainbows. But does he come out? Is there a way he can hide or mask his boyfriend being there? We shall see.
The two previous videos were from 2009 and 2012. One from 2013 that seems to embrace the yes men do love men idea is Red Lodge. from the VIMEO site we learn …
Red Lodge is a perceptive look at how marriage equality has affected gay relationships. It's also likely to coax a tear or two from the romantics out there. Wintry Montana proves a photogenic backdrop for the action.
Jordan (Joseph Kim) proposes to Dave (Richard Pierre-Lewis), his boyfriend of two years, expecting an enthusiastic "Yes!" Instead, he gets a, "Can't we just be in love and leave things the way they are?" Hardly the answer our handsome hero was expecting, and not the best timed response either, just before the couple are to spend Christmas with Jordan's kooky Aunt Vanity (Diane Kylander) up in Big Sky country.
Joining them for the holidays are Jordan's "sister" Lisa (Jessica Garibay), also raised by Vanity but enough younger than Jordan that he's had little chance to get to know her, and her nerdy/cute boyfriend Lace (Aric Weber). Add to this a frisky twink ski instructor (Ross Andrew Dibble) and you've got just enough characters for a 77-minute indie… Best of all are the two leads, the entirely winning Asian-Caucasian Kim (who goes by Joseph Daugherty these days), and his equally charming African American costar Pierre-Lewis. (And how refreshing to see actors of color as romantic leads!) – Stage Screen L.A.
Sorry to say, there's no trailer inserted here … it's the whole movie! Give it a shot?
There are others that don't have us as the main character. Too Cool For Christmas has a spoiled young girl finding out the meaning of Christmas while escaping from her two gay fathers.
This next one is a little more confusing to follow. is there such a thing as The Perfect Wedding?
Gavin (super-cute Jason T. Gaffney, Jolly) and Paul (drop-dead handsome Eric Aragon, The Interview), two young gay men, meet and fall in love over a holiday weekend where family and friends are planning the wedding of Paul's sister. The problem is, Gavin is posing as the boyfriend of Paul's ex and the two find themselves in a classic comic quandary as they try to ignore their feelings. First time feature film Director Scott Gabriel's cast includes Eric Aragon (The Interview), Jason T. Gaffney (Jolly), Apolonia Davalos (Jolly), Brendan Griffin (The Nanny Diaries), Sal Rendino (Blue Collar Boys), Kristine Sutherland (TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") and James Rebhorn (Independence Day, TV's "White Collar").
If interested, check out http://wolfeondemand.com/
I am not sure if any of he above pull at my heart strings or give me that warm glow of Christmas that the hetero Hallmark movies try to do to lonely straight women.
I may unfortunately have to resort to popping in my DVD of Love Actually. Even though there's not much gayness in the film, it is still one of me and my friends' favorite holiday flicks.
Is there an LGBT holiday flick that you enjoy year after year?
Is there one that other readers may enjoy?
Is there one that you would watch with your immediate family?
If you've never seen Love Actually, I would not recommend watching the trailer below. I'm glad I didn't for it gave too much away. But if you did watch the movie already, let's reminisce together.
h/t: gcn.ie, thegavoice.com
I’m a Hallmark Channel
I'm a Hallmark Channel fanatic, and I think I have seen just about all the movies. I love the male leads: David Alpay, Andrew Walker, Stephen Hagan, and Bobby Campo are cuties. I have never seen an out gay character though there are some implied gay characters and they're not overt stereotypes. Hallmark's target audience is female and straight, so I'm not bothered by the non-gay plots, but I would like to see more minorities represented. Of all the movies, only one has Latinos as major characters and there are no African American stories or main characters.