Friday, May 22, 2009

Know your lgbt history - Fright Night

What the heck just happened today. It's supposed to be the start of a quiet holiday weekend and suddenly news items are coming in like gangbusters:

California Supreme Court to rule on Proposition 8 Tuesday

Let's keep our fingers crossed that whatever the outcome may be, it will work out for our community in the long run.

But onto the post:

For my money, the best vampire movies are the ones which embrace the homoerotic aspect of the vampire legend.

There have been several which have done this (The Hunger, Dracula's Daughter) but my favorite was the 1985 flick Fright Night.

In Fright Night, high school student Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) discovers that his next door neighbor, Jerry Dandridge, (Chris Sarandon) is a vampire. Brewster enlists the help of a B-list actor, Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall) to stop Dandridge before he and his friends (Amanda Bearse and Stephen Geoffreys) become the vampire's next victims.

It wasn't a bad movie, but one particular scene  led to one of my biggest childhood crushes.

Dandridge corners one of Charley's friends in a dark alley but rather than attack him Christopher Lee style, Dandridge practically seduces the boy into allowing him to bite his neck.

I wonder how Sigmund Freud would decipher the scene:



Many of Fright Night's cast members have places in lgbt cinema history.

Chris Sarandon (the vampire) received an Oscar nomination for his motion picture debut as Al Pacino's pre-op transgender boyfriend in Dog Day Afternoon.

Amanda Bearse (Charley's girlfriend and the damsel in distress) became an lgbt icon when she came out while starring in the long running television show Married With Children.

Jonathan Stark (who played the vampire's attendant) later became a television writer and shared an Emmy award for co-writing the landmark episode of Ellen in which Ellen DeGeneres's character came out.

Roddy McDowall (Peter Vincent) - had been dogged for years about rumors of his sexual orientation.

And even the object of my crush, Stephen Geoffreys (you really didn't think I liked the vampire, did you) cemented a dubious place in lgbt film history by starring in several pornographic movies.

He has since made a comeback to horror movies. I saw a recent interview with him and he can still get my motor running. As a matter of fact, if he ever popped up at my front door, I'm conking him over the head and dragging him to Massachusetts, Iowa, or Vermont; whichever state is closer.




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Friday midday news briefs

ACLU blasts school officials over sixth-grader's Harvey Milk report - The school freaked out because of Harvey Milk's sexual orientation:

"Instead, the principal sent letters to parents giving them the option of not allowing their child to listen to the presentation by classmate Natalie Jones. Officials cited the district policy requiring that parents be notified before any classroom instruction about sex, AIDS or "family life."

It was a dumb and insulting thing for the school to do. But there are some out there who think that this is correct action when dealing with any mention of lgbts, including same sex families.

Remember the David Parker situation?

You know that part of 'The Boxer' that goes 'lie, lie, lie.'? Yea, well... - What's with the religious right? Every time they are caught in a lie, they continue to lie.

Transwoman wins Denny's case - The bathroom issue again.

Bill would give benefits to same-sex partners of federal workers - I'm down with that!

And don't forget that this afternoon, I will be posting another segment of Know Your LGBT History. This evening's post will be looking at the lgbt images presented in the motion picture Fright Night.






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South Carolina lgbts gain victory as discriminatory bill is tabled

My lgbt brothers and sisters in South Carolina deserve a huge pat on the back for stopping a nasty bill from being passed.

The South Carolina lgbt community gained a huge victory yesterday when a teen dating violence bill that excluded same sex couples was tabled in the SC Legislature.

This means the bill is officially dead for this legislative session.

The bill, created by Representative Joan Brady, would have required school districts to distribute written materials to parents and students about the dangers of teen dating violence.

An amendment was added by another representative, Greg Delleny, said that the bill could only pertain to heterosexual couples.

Delleny said he did this because he was afraid that schools would be "forced" to teach students about same-sex relationships.

Lgbts in South Carolina protested Delleny's actions in a variety of ways, including holding a press conference on the second floor of the State House with two other state representatives, Ken Kennedy and Gilda Cobb-Hunter.

Past posts on teen dating violence bill:

Press conference justifies my faith in South Carolina

South Carolina lgbts, allies will speak against discriminatory bill

Bill with anti-gay amendment passes

SC legislator wants to exclude gays from teen dating violence bill




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