Mr. Franco

Obviously, James Franco is a big fan of and for gay people. It is an enjoyable thing to know that he made this movie:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/movies/interior-leather-bar-spun-from-recreated-lost-footage.html?ref=todayspaper

I have been following James on Instagram and it does look like he is actually posting, that it is him. Or at least, he is feeding things to someone who is posting for him.

He is very comfortable being himself, whether he is playing a straight guy or making an art film doc about Pacino's Cruising or a parody video with Seth Rogen, making out with him after a good long motor cycle ride.

The point, it seems, that James Franco is trying to make is that the old labels of gay and straight are sort of fading away. He plays with all of it. Good for him.

He is younger than me by a good chunk and when I look at him on Instagram, it is clear that he is as much in love with the images he is sending out as his fans are. In other words, he is experiencing a clear gayish narcissism. And why shouldn't he? He's lovely and bright. He is enjoying his own image. You feel it.

This pushes people to speculate as to what his sexuality is. And the point he most often makes is that it does not matter what anyone's sexuality is. This is a good point.

I sometimes get bleary when I consider it. The most defining horror of my youth and the later enjoyment of my adulthood was the exact parameters in which my sexuality was confined. I do maintain that had things been a little different culturally and had women been a little less scary to me, that I might have had a more ambi life. Well, in fact, I did have that kind of life in college. A fellow member in the drama department who eventually became a famous person, in angry response to my sleeping with his on-again-off-again ex-girlfriend, threw me into a costume rack and said one word, "Decide."

Which, of course, is funny. I had no idea he was even following my antics. Plus, his girl was fair game at the time. But my bed greed pissed him off. I ran into him years later on set and he was kinder than a pussycat. I did not bring up the incident.

James Franco looks at men having sex with both genders with equanimity. And also, perhaps, with a bit of a boner. We won't ever know. But the point he seems to be making is that there is a continuum. But even larger than that, he thinks all bigotry is a ridiculous load of bullshit.

It's guys like him that help us all out.

I just hope he's doing okay.