
My husband is obsessed with The Twilight Saga. I usually tell people this without qualifying that I am not too far behind, but it is true — I am also completely enamored with the series.
There isn’t any overt gay content in Twilight. And though I’m sure a connection could be made between society not accepting human-vampire love being similar to the challenges faced by same-sex couples or another connection between werewolves and LGBT people both feeling that they were born different, I still don’t know how much of a gay sensibility the series has.
Sure, there is eye-candy, if you either like the pensive twink qualities of Edward or the exotic gym-bunny aspects of Jacob. Plus I’m sure some lesbians are into the mysterious angst of Bella. Overall though, I can’t tell if my affinity for the vampire love story is rooted in being gay or not.
Regardless, the series just signed up to become a lot more gay. Bill Condon, one of the most talented openly gay purveyors of entertainment, will be directingBreaking Dawn, the fourth movie in The Twilight Saga.
Condon is the Oscar winner behind Chicago, Kinsey and Dreamgirls and he also directed this year’s Academy Awards ceremony that featured the amazing performance by Neil Patrick Harris. Condon beat out another openly gay super-director, Gus Van Sant, for the important job of closing out The Twilight Saga.
So what does this mean for the series? While I would personally love it if Condon orchestrated a huge musical number between the vampires and the werewolves, he has already assured the Twi-nation that there will not be any musical numbers and that he will stay true to the story.
It remains unclear how Twilight author Stephenie Meyer would react if Condon did throw in a gay character into the mix. Meyer has worked very hard to not let her personal political views be known, because there is already so much chatter about how her Mormon faith has impacted the series. Meyer’s required tithing to the Church caused The Advocate to smartly question how much Twilightmoney went directly to the passing of Proposition 8.
Perhaps the surface-oriented divergence between Meyer and Condon is a bridge to be explored? Breaking Dawn will be the result of collaboration between one of the most famous devout Mormons in the world and one of the most famous devout gay men in the world. Stay tuned to see how it works out.
Photo credit: Krik@