Homosexual Characters in Romance Genre

Homosexual Characters are hardly ever seen in romantic comedies, and if they are they seem to be an extra comical show piece in the whole film to add to the comedy of the film. They are hardly portrayed as equals of the heterosexual characters in the films and have very limited amount of screen presence usually lasting in minutes or even seconds sometimes.

However they're have been a wide range of films that have portrayed homosexuality as they're central themes however they are not romantic comedies and if they are they are independent films.

A big breakthrough film for portraying homosexuality in mainstream cinema was the film Brokeback Mountain. Till this date no film has portrayed homosexuality as well as this. Ang Lee won the Oscar for Best Director in the year 2006. The use of mainstream actors brought light to the film. Actors such as Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhall and Anne Hathaway brought even more success to the film with their brilliant acting. The film was backed by independent distributer Focus Features and with a budget of only $14 million the film became a huge commercial and critical success earning $178,062,759 and 3 Oscars.
Brokeback Mountain may be considered a contemporary classic with it's groundbreaking portrayal of not only romance but daring to portray homosexuality in front of the mainstream audience's even in the 21st century. As a media student I see that films like this to be made in the near future may still take some time, but what ever it may be it's worth a try.

 Posted by Bansari Raval