Is Hollywood Too Gay?

OK - it is Friday, January 6th. The amount of work I have done rewriting Harvest Home is exactly zero. So much for the 3 hours that I set aside yesterday. I am hoping that I will have some time to work on it this afternoon. This morning is already dedicated to getting my haircut. And while I'm out I may as well go to the grocery store and the bank. Net/net: No work on the script will actually get done until this afternoon.

For those of you who are familiar with the March 2005 draft of the script, I am making significant changes to the story and the characters. I will be removing the center section of the screenplay (Cady's grandfather's death) and spending more time on the 1970s section and present. Another principal change is the addition of a gay character. I've given this much thought and feel it is integral to the story and bringing out more in the other characters.

There has been much media and dinner conversation lately around the attention Hollywood is giving to gay characters. Could audiences end up oversaturated by movies with gay leading men and women (e.g. Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Transamerica, etc.)? Dad feels that virtually every script he reads has an "obligatory" gay character. It does seem that meaty roles that the Academy favors have been packaged in the form of a gay character (Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Philadelphia, Boys Don't Cry, etc.). I believe that America is just now able to accept these characters' homosexuality and understand that, while it does not define them, it contributes significantly to who they are. I think it just a matter of enlightening oppressed minds. I don't think that the minds and manners of 1950s America would have been able to comprehend now dated films like Boyz In the Hood or Norma Rae, let alone the intensity of films like Crash or North Country.

Bottom line: I'm adding a gay character. My story, my screenplay, my choice.