(S)he's gay!?!?! Not that there's anything wrong with that..

[etcj]

After seeing the thread about Asian American males to be celebrated, I guess I'd just start a thread here about GLBT Asian Americans to be celebrated. I know the list might be hard to populate, but maybe that will speak to something else. So pick a Asian or Pacific Islander person who has made a significant contribution to the GLBT community that you think should be celebrated...can be a celebrity, famous person, prominent person, or a plain ol' smartie.

I'll wipe out the obvious one right now: Margaret Cho.

Ha, so now you guys have definitely have to think a bit harder.

[hooligan]

After seeing the thread about Asian American males to be celebrated, I guess I'd just start a thread here about GLBT Asian Americans to be celebrated. I know the list might be hard to populate, but maybe that will speak to something else. So pick a Asian or Pacific Islander person who has made a significant contribution to the GLBT community that you think should be celebrated...can be a celebrity, famous person, prominent person, or a plain ol' smartie.

I'll wipe out the obvious one right now: Margaret Cho.

Ha, so now you guys have definitely have to think a bit harder.
isn't helen zia LGBT? i'm not sure someone pointed that out to me.

[teaz0r]

is bd wong gay?
i like him.

[etcj]

isn't helen zia LGBT? i'm not sure someone pointed that out to me.
Hey hooligan, to answer your question...

Surprisingly though, what gets buried in the process is Zia's own memoir; her story fades against the backdrop of the larger social battles she reports on. In one of her most personal moments, recounting coming out as a lesbian ("Out on the Frontlines"), Zia's story becomes a distant memory as she examines how the fight for same-sex marriage in Hawaii led to a split within the venerable Japanese American Citizens League. Zia is a gifted journalist, but her objective prose seems better suited for telling other peoples' stories than her own.

So, I guess that quote proves that she is a lesbian...although she's much more well known as a feminist though. Asian American Dreams is great if you haven't read it before.

[hooligan]

Hey hooligan, to answer your question...



So, I guess that quote proves that she is a lesbian...although she's much more well known as a feminist though. Asian American Dreams is great if you haven't read it before.
thanks, i'm reading the book now. :D

[etcj]

Here's my pick: Jet from KCET's Senior Year...the first young, gay, Asian high school student to be featured on TV.

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/senioryear/images/scrap_jet_photo.jpghttp://www.pbs.org/kcet/senioryear/images/scrap_jet_photo_2.gif

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/senioryear/kids/jet.html

[>:^|]

Merle Woo, activist
Kitty Tsui, poet

[kitty]

is bd wong gay?
i like him.

yah. I pick him.

[kasia]

those women in 'dragon ladies'.

[Danny]

Yeah agreed, BD Wong rocks... one of the most talented asian american actors of our generation... kinda sucks that he is one of those actors that everything he has done has been exceptionally good, yet he is not recognized by his peers....

[Napoleon Chynamite]

Yeah agreed, BD Wong rocks... one of the most talented asian american actors of our generation... kinda sucks that he is one of those actors that everything he has done has been exceptionally good, yet he is not recognized by his peers....

I don't remember him flooring me in Jurassic Park, or Executive Decision. But maybe I just don't know good acting when I see it.

[hooligan]

I don't remember him flooring me in Jurassic Park, or Executive Decision. But maybe I just don't know good acting when I see it.
right now, i'm trying to think of a movie he's been in that i've watched and remembered him in.

[kboy75]

right now, i'm trying to think of a movie he's been in that i've watched and remembered him in.
he's also on TV on Law & Order: SVU

[Danny]

right now, i'm trying to think of a movie he's been in that i've watched and remembered him in.

7 years in Tibet
The Ref
Father of the Bride
The freshman
Oz
There was another movie he was in whose name is escaping me at the moment where he played a gay guy one of his stellar performances....

[hooligan]

7 years in Tibet
The Ref
Father of the Bride
The freshman
Oz
There was another movie he was in whose name is escaping me at the moment where he played a gay guy one of his stellar performances....
wow, i've only seen father of the bride and that was like ... 7 years or so ago.

[Martino]

7 years in Tibet
The Ref
Father of the Bride
The freshman
Oz
There was another movie he was in whose name is escaping me at the moment where he played a gay guy one of his stellar performances....

You're probably thinking of And the Band Played On, in which he played Gandalf's --- er, I mean Sir Ian McKellen's boyfriend.

His last two movies were doomed to go straight-to-video, but he's in Marc 'Monster's Ball' Forster's next movie, a supernatural thriller called Stay.

I'm ... er ... a bit of a fan of his.

[Danny]

You're probably thinking of And the Band Played On, in which he played Gandalf's --- er, I mean Sir Ian McKellen's boyfriend.

His last two movies were doomed to go straight-to-video, but he's in Marc 'Monster's Ball' Forster's next movie, a supernatural thriller called Stay.

I'm ... er ... a bit of a fan of his.

there you go... he was stellar in that role....

[Martino]

there you go... he was stellar in that role....

I believe there is a section about that movie at:

http://www.bdwong.moonfruit.com

[krome]

"More often than not the characters were sketchy at best, effete or gay seeming. Hollywood loves to stereotype."

It also says he's recently a father himself (but the babies died prematurely).

So, is he really gay, or does he just play a lot of gay characters?

[Martino]

"More often than not the characters were sketchy at best, effete or gay seeming. Hollywood loves to stereotype."

It also says he's recently a father himself (but the babies died prematurely).

So, is he really gay, or does he just play a lot of gay characters?

Well, BD Wong is gay, but he doesn't really play a lot of gay characters, though a lot of gay stereotypes turn up on his CV. He has done around 21 films. By comparison, he has done around the same number of stage shows, but is regarded much more of as a star in theatre. He has enjoyed some interesting roles, including Peter Pan (opposite David Ogden-Stiers' Hook), Charlie Chaplin (yes, Chaplin not Chan) and Linus in the Broadway version of You're a Good Man Charlie Brown.

The stereotyping clearly came from the fact that he was a slight, slim young Asian American man with a boyish manga grin. His breakthrough stage role was a gay character - controversially so (M Butterfly is a critique of Western exoticism of 'Orientals'). Hollywood system tried to pigeon-hole him the way it did with others of his generation. I think he did quite well despite that.

To my certain knowledge, he has played effeminate or fey characters in The Freshman, the aforementioned And the Band Played On, and the two Father of the Bride movies, and some guys of ambiguous sexuality in a few others. There have been a few roles were he is ... um ... very man-dom. He was an ex-lover of the female lead in The Substitute 2.

Incidently, gravelly voiced actor and director Harvey Fierstein is the godfather of his son.

[etcj]

I'm ... er ... a bit of a fan of his.
RICE QUEEN! :tongue:

[Martino]

RICE QUEEN! :tongue:

Mmmmmmmmm ... a bit of a rainbow queen, and obsessive movie queen certainly, but I don't find BD Wong particularly attractive in himself ... I've always thought he has had it in him to be an A list actor, that there were artificial constraints on his movie success.

There are actors who treat their profession as a job, and those that treat it as a vocation ... actors who play most roles as 'themselves' (Matthew Broderick?), and method actors (luvvies?) who agonise over the 'motivation' of their character, and so on. BD Wong is in the latter group.

You should compare Wong in Executive Decision, Seven Years in Tibet and Substitute 2 in quick succession - even his body language and the way he walks is different ....

As I said, obsessive ... :o(

[Martino]

Do I lose karma points?