This story is about four months old, so I'm a little late coming to it. But I feel it is quite significant. I've borrowed the title straight from Out Magazine. A young up-and-coming American actor, Lucas Hedges, star of the 'gay conversion therapy' film, Boy Erased, with Nicole Kidman, came 'out of the closet', according to reports, by admitting that he was not totally 100% straight. He explained that during his high school years, he was primarily sexually attracted to his own male friends. Not till his early twenties, did he discover that he really preferred women. He further clarified that he was neither gay nor bisexual, but some where in between bisexual and straight. A health teacher in his high school had explained to his class that human sexuality exists on a continuum, with human beings spread out along the continuum, not simply placed in one of three boxes, gay, straight,, and bisexual. In other words, there are infinite variations in human sexuality, with groups of people clustered around the main poles of 'gay, straight and bi' with subtle differences in degree between one person and another. Well, this has been common knowledge among psychologists for years, so it's surprising it has taken so long for this common insight to reach the mainstream. Lucas explained that since he had taken on the role of a young gay boy subjected to gay coversion by his fundamentalist Christian parents, it was important for him as an actor and a public figure to be as honest as possible about his human sexuality. I can't help thinking this is a reference to last year's 'gay hit', Call
Me By Your Name, in which the two 'straight' actors of the film, Arnie Hammer and the remarkable young actor, Timothee Chalament were continually asked about their own sexuality and whether working together on the film revealed anything to them about their own sexual natures. Given the nature of the film and it's cultural importance for gay people, I felt the quesiton was entirely fair. Yet, both actors -with immense charm - deflected the question every time. This highlights my point above. Culturally, we are still at that point where it is extremely difficult for public figures to admit they might have some small degree of bisexuality in their natures. Its either one or the other, gay or straight - with the bisexuality category sitting there designed to include everyone else. Lucas seems to be referencing the behavior of these two actors last year. He is acknowledging that there is a certain responsibility an actor should take on when assuming a role of this nature. Honesty and openness. Needless to say, the story of Lucas's admission caused a lot of comment, and I'm not sure why, except to say there are still a lot of cultural controls in place about what we may and may not say, and may and may not think in our culture about human sexuality. . I was a high school teacher for over thirty years, and for five of those years (in the 1990's), I was part of a sex education team and we also taught our students about the continuum of human sexuality. So there is really nothing novel about young Lucas' revelation. What is novel is that it is a public comment, because even now, in 2019, some people are shocked by the suggestion that straight males can have within them some element of same-sex attraction that doesn't
change their predominantly heterosexual nature. And now here we are - finally - with a young Hollywood movie star (nominated for two academy awards already in his young career) bringing the subject up and out into the open. What young Lucas has done here is out himself as a perfectly average, healthy young heterosexual male. The significance of this for young adolescents, especially gay teens, can't be exaggerated. A young 'straight' celebrity has admitted to having some element of gayness in his nature - thereby normalizing gay inclinations as powerfully as any gay celebrity 'coming out'. Judging by the petty gay-bitchy comments under the article in Out Magazine, there are still people within the gay community who don't get the point. This is a victory for us, and Lesbian American talk show host, Ellen Degeneres, was quick to recognize this fact and invite young Lucas onto her show. Fortunately, the comments under the YouTube video were much more enlightened than those in Out Magazine. We should all be grateful for Lucas' candor and honesty.
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