X-Men is the gayest movie of the summer so far. I'm gay, my writing partner is straight, and we lay out the whole super gay nine yards in our column this week if you want to check it out. http://gayandlesbian.aol.com/straighten-out/

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Honestly, I'm pretty sick of gay agendas. I'm not anti-gay, but I don't feel the need to constantly be told that I have to celebrate everything gay in order to be considered a tolerant human being. Can anyone tell me exactly what Superman has to do with gayness? He's not even an outcast like the X-Men are, he's adored by everyone worldwide, he's a rockstar, the ultimate symbol of mass adoration. The whole "outcast" metaphor doesn't work there. It's just typical pandering.

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In response to T., I would hardly think that deciding to market a superhero movie or any movie for that matter directly to gay audiences as a "gay agenda". The article is simply questioning whether or not marketing directly to gay audiences would effect the amount of money a particular movie will make. For example, "Brokeback Mountain" tried not to market it as a "gay" movie, but a "love" story. It would go on to gross close to 80 million. Now, whether or not marketing strategies effected the amount of people who saw the movie cannot be measured. Allowing gays to marry would be a "gay agenda." Gays right to adopt children would be a "gay agenda." This article is about how to market a movie.

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The article talks about how it's "depressing, really" that more isn't being done to market it to gay people, then lauds WB for taking out advertising on gay channels. So if advertisers don't go out of their way to appeal to gays, they're homophobic? That's ridiculous. As if gays don't watch any mainstream TV shows or read any magazines? I'm black, but I don't call WB racist for not showing commercials on BET or specifically marketing in Ebony magazine. It's just ironic for people who claim they want the same treatment as everyone else to separate themselves and demand to be pandered to.

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So now when people advertise attractive men they should only be doing for gays or they're homophobic? I totally agree. Let's market all movies featuring attractive women to lesbians, or we won't look politically correct!

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There's a book titled "Seduction of the Innocent" which discussed the gay angle in comic book fifty years ago.

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I'm with T., H., and Joe, who reflect how I felt when I first read articles on the issue. Pure marketing hype with no real relevance to gay issues like marriage, etc.

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To all the "offended" straights- you have movies being marketed to you all day, everyday as 'straight' and often with some pretty offensive gay images. sometimes those images are even funny to me. I find the comments about pretty women for lesbians hillarious when we have straight guys oggling over women gone wild, and mutliple other posters, video games, images etc to titilate you 24/7, 365. I walk down the street and I will see straight sex everywhere all the time. 99 percent of the time, I don't have a problem with it until I hear bogus "I am tired of the gay" stuff commentary. It's just dishonest considering the society we live in to claim that just because you once in a blue moon hear the word gay- that somehow means you are being inundated with it. it's as if the mere mention of gay is somehow wrong in your book, and that is probably what the article is getting at as homophobic. essentially we are suppose to what? cater to your discomfort? that's sort of the point isn't it? that somehow its wrong to market what is really a straight film to gay people based on the themes that the gay person may relate to rather than the themes a straight person may relate to? why is there even a need to debate whether this marketing tactic is okay and comfort groups and straight men who have a problem with this? this is the core problem. you can have T&A in every other film- sometimes gratiously so- and no one bats an eye- but mention gay- and its an agenda. why is either wrong? my answer would be neither are wrong in this case. although I would say marketing brokeback as a love story was amusing b/c it could imply that its not both, but I understood that they were marketing the part of the film universal to all audiences. Why not understand they are doing the same here?

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How can you not see the relationship between Superheros and gay people? According to the fundies we caused 9/11 and hurricane Katrina. Now there's some power!!

Seriously though, I'm going to attempt an intelligent response which will largely be ignored. Why does Superman hide his identity as Clark Kent? There really is no logical explanation for it. He could live his entire life as Superman, but he doesn't. Why do some gay people feel the need to act differently when they are around straight people? hmm... similarity?

And what Martha was calling "depressing" is the fact that companies fear that advertising to gays would turn off straight customers. And it is.

Using your "WB" analogy, what she is saying is that it would be sad if WB did advertise on BET, only to find that because of this white people stopped watching the channel. See how irrational that sounds?

Are you super macho types aware that your beloved Budweiser and Miller sponser our pride festivals? Shock! Horror!

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People just need to get over themselves. Who cares where they advertise? If you're watching a show and see a commercial, then i guess you were the target audience. If you don't see it... then you weren't. Life goes on. As for the agenda thing, T. is just in the closet and super-sensitive to the subject, that's why he feels inundated.

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Elliot, there's a basic in-story reason why Superman keeps his identity secret, to protect his loved ones. Using that tenuous link you mention, wanted serial killers have an interest in keeping their identities secret, does that make Superman a serial-killer allegory as well?

And Tim, accusing me of being in the closet for criticizing lame pandering? Mature.

The only geographic areas and demographics that aren't gay-friendly are (1) areas gays have no interest in living anyway and (2) demographics Hollywood isn't interested in targeting anyway. No harm, no foul.

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Elliott, There are several reasons for Superman's Clark Kent identity. Protecting his loved ones and privacy and peace and quiet being a few. Your analogy is not a good one. Superman doesn't want to be in the spotlight 24/7. In one way Clark Kent serves as downtime. The Rock star analogy is much closer. It's the same reason celebraties use an alias when they check into hotels.

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T., you're right, it was inapprpriate. I apologize.

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I think that Charisma Carpenter should be cast as Wonder Woman in the upcoming feature film and Katharine McPhee should portray Wonder Woman on the WB's Smallville. All these girls need are some blue eye contacts. They have the rest.

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