Can Gay Stars Shine?

If there’s one TV show on the air that reeks of blatant heterosexuality, locker-room testosterone, and defiantly retrograde T and A, it is, of course, Fox’s proudly lowbrow Married… With Children. So why do gay viewers have reason to adore it? (No, the answer isn’t Peg Bundy — though she is a perennial choice for Halloween drag.) In gay circles, Married's claim to fame is that it employs Amanda Bearse, the first openly lesbian actress on network television.

Bearse, 37, who plays next-door-preppy Marcy D’Arcy with indefatigable good cheer, was outed by the tabloids four years ago. ”It was the call I knew someday would come,” she recalls. ”It came on a date that had a lot of charge for me — the anniversary of my brother’s death. So when my manager said the National Enquirer was going with a story, I said, ‘So?’ It just didn’t matter compared to the larger picture. I said not to deny it.”

Part of Bearse’s aplomb stemmed from her decision never to hide her orientation from her colleagues, beginning with her stint on ABC’s daytime soap All My Children. ”I never minded people having information as long as it didn’t fall into the hands of people who were prejudiced,” says the actress, who now lives with her girlfriend, her girlfriend’s 8-year-old daughter, and her own 2-year-old adopted daughter, Zoë. ”I’ve been in therapy. I had my own homophobia, like it was okay for other people to be gay but not myself. Fortunately, I’m over that.” She’s been working ever since.

If Bearse’s experience were typical, then the subject of openly gay performers could be closed right now. But her story is still rare. While Hollywood’s attitude toward homosexuality has relaxed in recent years — especially for off-camera talent — gay performers still face the fear that coming out will ruin their careers. Their closet doors might as well bear the label Open at your own risk.

In the similarly public arenas of sports and politics, some pioneers have successfully crashed the barriers. When she retired from women’s singles professional tennis last year, Martina Navratilova was applauded and welcomed into the broadcast booth. On the House floor, gay congressman Barney Frank has not only been reelected in Massachusetts but also enjoys new visibility as the designated Democratic attack dog. And in the wake of Olympic diving gold medalist Greg Louganis’ revealing his homosexuality and his AIDS diagnosis, his autobiography, Breaking the Surface, became a No. 1 best-seller. But within the entertainment industry, these are the exceptions that prove the old rule.

In the hierarchy of out performers, musicians may be at the top — from uncloseted gay singers like k.d. lang and Janis Ian to Melissa Etheridge, whose career took off after she acknowledged her homosexuality in ’93. Touring last year as Green Day’s opening act, the queer-punk band Pansy Division (with songs like ”Bill & Ted’s Homosexual Adventure”) drew some catcalls, but, says frontman Jon Ginoli, 35, ”what we’ve gotten back is overwhelming gratitude.” And Boy George, 34, soldiers on: His new album, Cheapness & Beauty, features one single, ”Same Thing in Reverse,” which, he boasts, is the ”gayest pop single I’ve ever heard.”

Next come the stand-up comedians, among them Bob Smith, who claims to be the first openly gay comic to appear on The Tonight Show; Lea DeLaria, who outed herself on The Arsenio Hall Show and has since had recurring acting roles on Matlock and Saved by the Bell; Jason Stuart, who chose to take the plunge on Geraldo; the stand-up comic who calls himself Ant (seen on WB's UnhappilyEver After); Suzanne Westenhoffer; and Kate Clinton. All say they have a common goal — to star in their own sitcom, playing network TV's first gay leading comic role. And gay stage actors are showing up in character parts on film and TV: Stephen Spinella, a two-time Tony winner as the prophetic Prior Walter in Angels in America, appeared as a computer scientist in Virtuosity, and performance artist John Fleck has a regular role as a secretary in the upcoming Steven Bochco series Murder One.

If most of these names are unfamiliar, that's no surprise. To date, no major movie or TV star has voluntarily acknowledged being gay — though there are plenty of candidates available. "I don't think it really matters so much with comedians, musicians, or character actors," says Sandy Gallin, 55, the powerful gay producer and manager. Voicing a showbiz truism, he adds, "I would say the only real risk that a performer has is [if he's a] leading man. It's a psychological thing on the part of people who hire actors — they feel the public won't buy a homosexual male in a love story with a woman."

The counterargument is that no leading man has tested the proposition. It can be noted that the bisexual Montgomery Clift's embrace of Elizabeth Taylor in A Place in the Sun still packs a seductive wallop, and Rock Hudson's pursuit of Doris Day remains frothy fun. But a better indication might be an Entertainment Weekly/Gallup poll, in which 62 percent of Americans said they wouldn't have a problem watching a gay actor n a straight love scene. As producer Laurence Mark notes, "The audience has to suspend disbelief in a movie theater to a certain extent anyway."

Hollywood, of course, is less concerned with protecting public sensibilities than with guarding its own investment in A-list talent, which is why the most strenuous gatekeepers of the closet door are often a star's closest advisers. Says publicist Howard Bragman, "If you're talking an 'A' star, you're talking a$25 to $50 million-a-year business, of which managers, agents, and publicists are taking 30 to 40 percent off the top, and nobody wants to risk it." Least of all the stars themselves, especially if their careers and reputations (and, in many cases, heterosexual false fronts) are already established. To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar executive producer Bruce Cohen predicts that when a major star comes out, "we're not going to see a 35-year-old. It's going to be a rising 22-year-old who's going to seize that moment."

It's possible that that moment may be greeted with a blase response by a public that is now savvier about gay actors and gay characters. Indeed, America's living rooms have begun to see a growing populace of TV actors who are gay or bisexual onscreen and off — from Roseanne's Sandra Bernhard to My So-Called Life's Wilson Cruz and Kids in the Hall cast member-turned-Larry Sanders Show regular Scott Thompson. "I haven't seen anyone whose career hasn't advanced since they've come out," says Bragman, who helped Sheila James Kuehl (The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis) and the late Dick Sargent (Bewitched) come out in '91."You end up getting more respect, since you're willing to stand up for yourself."

However, in a business where rejection is masked by disingenuous smiles, there's always typecasting — the bane of every actor's life — to worry about. When a gay actor loses a part, "you're told very little, just that you are not right for the role," says stand-up comic Stuart, who has snared guest spots on The John Larroquette Show and seaQuest DSV. "But when I read for a dorky explosions artist in Die Hard 3, I did hear back that they thought I was 'too gay.'"

Despite its liberal posture, Hollywood isn't as progressive as it pretends — even among gay execs whose own open sexuality puts them in powerful company. "Most of the homophobia I've experienced has been from gay people," says Craig Chester, 29, who has acted in indie films like Swoon and soon will be seen in I Shot Andy Warhol. "I got in every agent's door after Swoon. But I discovered that the kiss of death is not to be gay but to say you're gay. There are a lot of self-loathing homosexuals out here."

"There is not an entertainment company, not one, that doesn't have gay people working there," notes mogul David Geffen. "Some are in the closet, but it isn't always for fear of their jobs. They just live in shame and embarrassment, and they pay a price for making that choice."

But encouragement can come from surprising places: straight white men. DeLaria, 36, cites Matlock star Andy Griffith as "my biggest champion — can you believe that?" Says comedian/budding actor Ant, 26, who will appear on the syndicated Night Stand next fall, "The straight ones gave me all the breaks." He credits his success to — of all people — Don Rickles, who saw him perform one night. In shows, "I [used to] talk about my girlfriend Marcy, even though I was really with someone named Mark. The audience didn't need Angela Lansbury to solve this mystery. Rickles said, 'People can see right through you. You should come out.' And the day I did and started doing gay, campy material was the day I started getting successful."

But most gay performers reveal their orientation only within a small universe that does not include their public. Says one who attends parties at the homes of some of Hollywood's top gay power players: "These parties are just like going to the Playboy mansion, except instead of voluptuous girls you have beautiful boys. You'd be amazed who you see. But there's a kind of code of silence." Adds Bragman, "There is Hollywood out, and then there is out for America."

In such a looking-glass world, routine encounters with the press become particularly tricky minefields. The days are long gone when a studio would protect a big-name star from scandal sheets by trading dirt on a more disposable contract player — as Universal was once rumored to have done to keep Rock Hudson'shomosexuality out of the pages of Confidential, the National Enquirer of its day. Now it's every gay celebrity for himself. "I don't discuss my private life" is the most commonly heard mantra used by gay performers. The mainstream press, although bolder about asking the question, rarely presses the issue.

At the same time, dozens of underground gay publications dish about closeted gay celebs with impunity. And the online gossip channels buzz with speculation, some well-founded, most not: Just check out the Celebrity Talk! folder in America Online's Gay & Lesbian Community Forum. Closeted performers dread the impertinent questions posed by fans on services like AOL and CompuServe, which have fast become required stops on publicity campaigns.

The waves of cyberspace are unlikely to play host to a proliferation of coming-out parties anytime soon; it's a step that remains charged with emotion — especially for the well-known. But don't expect secrecy to rule either. An agent told Dan Butler, who plays the aggressively heterosexual Bulldog on NBC's Frasier, that he would hurt his career if he went ahead with The Only Thing Worse You Could Have Told Me..., his one-man Off Broadway show about being gay. But Butler says there's been little fallout. "I've never made a secret of it," he says. "You should live your life as if change has happened. That's the only way it's going to happen."

(Additional reporting by Gregg Kilday)