Jake Allison
Jul 25, 2017 · 1 min read

Affleck didn’t talk about the difficulty of an on stage kiss with a woman he didn’t find attractive, he talked about the difficulty of a gay kiss. Presumably the crux of both issues would be the lack of attraction, but there was something different in his mind about not being attracted to a man, any man, and not being attracted to a particular woman, which accounts for his wording. That, I think, is where people are finding homophibia.

That said, it was 1997 people. People, even LGBT people, weren’t used to making the kind of mental gymnastics people go through today to be “open-minded”. The fact that he performed the kiss scene would have made him a hero back then. Will Smith famously refused (in the 90s I believe) to do a gay kiss scene ever. For someone who wants to be an actor especially, that is homophobic.

Jake Allison

Written by

Mid 40s trans man. Former IT professional. Looking ahead. My profile pic is a flamingo my wife drew.