Good Vibrations Magazine

Whenever I can, I try to catch the new show Ugly Betty.

Based on “Yo Soy Betty La Fea,” the Colombian telenovela, Ugly Betty features Betty Suarez as a hardworking Latina from Queens who works at a fashion magazine in Manhattan. Betty has a 12-year-old nephew named Justin, who is more excited about Betty’s job than Betty — he’s flamboyant, loves fashion and knows more about haute couture than most adults. So, does this mean he’s gay? Well, the thing is, the show doesn’t address his sexuality.

I just received the latest issue of the Advocate in the mail. (We just subscribed, I feel so grown-up!) and came across this article: Betty’s family secret? Does it matter whether Ugly Betty’s girly tween plays for our team?

In the article (written by Gretchen Dukowitz), Michael Jensen, editor of the gay web site AfterElton.com is quoted as saying, “Back in the 1980s it was a bold move to have a ‘possibly’ gay character on network television. Today, it’s just silly and makes the networks look cowardly. By not saying one way or the other if Justin is gay, they’re either communicating that there’s something wrong or shameful about being gay… or they’re playing games with viewers. Americans need to acknowledge there are gay 11- and 12-year-olds in society.”

And here is where I yell, I DISAGREE! Not about the fact that there are gay 11 and 12 year-olds… but that the producers of Ugly Betty need to somehow comment on Justin’s sexuality. And here’s why….

When watching Ugly Betty, I have been fascinated, and relieved, that the other characters in the story accept Justin in all his dramatic flamboyant glory… without sexualizing him. Obviously the kid is a queer (queer: 1. Deviating from the expected or normal; strange: a queer situation. 2. Odd or unconventional, as in behavior; eccentric) 12-year old boy, but why should the people involved with the show sexualize his eccentricities? (queer: 7. Of or relating to lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, or transgendered people)

Usually I am the first person to shout about “Visualization!” and how being out is so important in our society to “normalize” our community in the ever-ending battle for equal rights… however, in this case, I don’t think Justin should be “outed” and therefore, sexualized. I understand that 12-year-olds have sexualities, however budding, but unless a story line comes up where Justin’s sexuality will be part of the story, I think outing the kid will add an unrealistic air to the show.

(And by the way, “Lanced” is a term coined in honor of ‘outed’ former ’N Sync singer Lance Bass, which means that someone is “forced” out of the closet. You can read about it here.)

When the other characters in the show don’t sexualize the “quirky” personality of Justin, they are accepting Justin as he is. Besides, not all 12-year-olds have entered a sexualized phase of their lives. I certainly hadn’t, and nothing about Justin’s character, so far in the story, warrants the examination of his sexual preferences.

Furthermore, Jensen doesn’t consider the cultural aspects surrounding the issue.

Says my coworker Barbara: “As for Ugly Betty and the lack of acknowledgement towards the homosexual tendencies exhibited by the 12-year-old character — as one who is Latina herself and grew up in a very Latino household… it is not about the “shame” that the family has toward homosexuality that keeps them from making any mention of his sexuality on the show, but the fact that the character is 12 and SEX is typically non-existent in the context of the family. SEX is not talked about, encouraged to express, nor is there an avenue in which to ask questions. Now, I understand that this is a grave generalization, and that I am oversimplifying the cultural acceptance and tolerance that revolves around SEX, but know that many years of “don’t touch that or you will self-combust” conditioning is hard to de-program. With this I say — kudos to the makers of Ugly Betty for acknowledging the cultural sensitivities that revolve around SEX in a general Latino household. Selma (Hayek, the producer of Ugly Betty) knows — old-school Latino familia households don’t necessarily “hate homos”, often they just believe that SEX does not exist until you are an adult, and even then it is under the ever watchful eye of GOD.”

It feels strange and weird to be discouraging someone, even if it is a character in a TV show, to come out. But in this case, I feel like addressing the kid’s sexuality, out-of-context, or in a way that obviously calls him out as sexually “different”, we, as adults, would be placing sexuality into the ingredients when the pie isn’t even baked yet. (Wow, a pie analogy… it really must be time for the Holidays!).

On the show, Justin’s family accepts him as he is, and they don’t make it a big deal that he’s not a “typical” pre-teen. When he goes to work with Betty, he is looked at as just a kid and nobody thinks it is strange that he is so interested in fashion. I can just hear Tim Gunn’s (from Project Runway) voice right now, saying, “Justin, make it work.”

My friend JP adds, “As a gay man, I’m impressed with how easily accepted his quirkiness is by all the other characters — both at work AND at home — especially by his family. Betty thinks he’s charming and his mom and grandfather never once react negatively to his affectations. The gay character at the office is effete, but that’s expected in a fag, it’s harder to believe, and much more transgressive, that an effete little boy is OK in Rego Park. That’s in Queens, in case you miss the irony.”

Personally, I think Ugly Betty has done a great job with Justin’s character, and if and when his sexuality buds, you betcha I’ll be watching and cheering him on as he blooms. Go Justin!