Heath Ledger Frightened Straight Men

I came across this column on Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dennis-perrin/heath-ledger-frightens-st_b_83370.html) which I believe accurately identifies the irrational fear that too many allegedly straight men seem to exhibit when it comes to gays and gay issues. Of course the ones that really get me are the homophobic straight guys who in their fantasies seem to think every gay near them might want them sexually. They definitely overly flatter themselves. The reality is that NO gay guy with an ounce of style and sense of physical beauty would EVER find these jerks attractive - no matter how much alcohol had been consumed. These homophobes are in la la land. Or perhaps they are latent homosexuals. :) Here are some highlights:

Once news of Heath Ledger's passing spread wide, you knew it was coming, predictably and quite unavoidably. The queer cowpoke jokes. The sniggers and snorts from presumably straight men who think that Ledger dying at this point in his career cements his fag image for eternity.

But I do know the sound of hetero-fear, that nervous, adolescent chuckling that emerges when the closet door starts to open a little too wide. Were Ledger an actual gay ranch hand, it would be bad enough. But he was an actor who played a character in a fictional story -- you know, pretend. Not real. Yet when "Brokeback Mountain" initially appeared, I couldn't believe the amount queer-phobia thrown at the film, at Gyllenhaal and at Ledger. A lot of it was heard on sports radio, one of the last bastions of white male angst, . . .

I grew up with and around a lot of white guys like the ones I've been hearing lately, and I know the type all too well. They're sad, pathetic specimens, hanging on to some fantasy image of male strength and virility (which is, to use their reasoning, kinda "gay" in and of itself). Politically isolated, socially atomized, they look to blame or mock those ostensibly beneath them -- hell, anything but face the stark, political reality that shapes their every movement. Ultimately, the joke's on them.