I Don't Dance
I Don't Dance
clip from
Disney Channel's
High School Musical 2
"Baseball, Dancing, Same Game..."
The Walt Disney company is claimed to have a homosexual agrenda. It is claimed that homosexual characters show up in Disney movies. Some claims even go so far as calling Gaston (from Disney's Beauty and the Beast) homosexual because of his mannerism and his talking about decorating during the song "Gaston".
Other arguments, like the one Donald Fadner makes in his paper "Disney Gets Religion", claim that movies like The Hunchback of Notre Dame is all about homosexual repression and the song "Out There" is about coming out.
These arguments seem far fetched but different groups looked into these arguments and found something more. Mark Pinsky, in his book "The Gospel According To Disney" says the Southern Baptist of the United States started a Disney boycott after they found out that the Disney company was offering health plans to the partners of their employees who were in same sex relationships. This lead to them to look into the movies even more to try and find anything that may even slightly represent homosexuality.
Ryan and Sharpay!
The fact that High School Musical is a Disney Channel Original movie, it is subject to the same argument, that there is a homosexual agenda to it. Sure enough, one of the characters is believed to be homosexual. This is never stated in either of the two movies but the argument comes about because of the characters attitude and mannerisms.
While researching for this site I stumbled up on a High School Musical Wiki site (http://hsm.wikia.com) about Ryan Evans (pictured to the right with his sister, Sharpay). He is the musical, theatrical rich guy in High School Musical.
The question is, what makes a guy homosexual? In the case of Ryan Evans there are many speculations and arguments. Mostly, the arguments come from people who hate the musical movie series or those who are avid fans of them, Ryan Evans or Lucas Grabeel (the actor who portrays Ryan). The question is, are they playing up on stereotypes when questioning the sexuality of this fictional rich kid?
Ryan's character was never written into the script as a homosexual so why do fans think he is? a couple of interpretations...
Ryan Evans!
#1) Ryan, throughout the run of both the movies, have been the only character at the end of both movies to not be interested in anyone romantically. Does this mean he's homosexual?

#2) Ryan is closer to his mother than he is his father. Ryan is closer to his mother than his sister is.

#3) In the first High School Musical when Ryan and Sharpay find that Troy and Gabriella's names are on the call-back sheet he thinks they are being Punk'd. He starts looking around and he says "I wonder if we'll meet Ashton". The claims are that Ryan seems to have a "school girl" crush on Ashton Kutcher. The idea behind Punk'd is that Ashton Kutcher plays candid camera pranks on big name celebrities. The fact that Troy and Gabriella was on the call-back list lead Ryan to believe they were being pranked... but why did he get so excited about Ashton?
#4) Ryan cares about his appearance, likes music and theatre and he LOVES to dance. It can be argued from the clip above that Ryan's only sport is dancing. This is very stereotypical homosexual? He's also seen doing yoga with his mother in the second High School Musical.

#5) In High School Musical 2, Ryan and Gabriella start spending time together. At one point in the movie Troy comes up to talk Gabriella and Ryan is there. Zac Efron, at this point, plays Troy to be seemingly a little jealous. Vanessa Hudgens plays Gabriella to be shrugging this off. Lucas Grabeel plays Ryan has if he is totally oblivious. The question is, does Ryan not know what is going on or is it that Ryan is trying to play it off? Maybe it's the fact that Ryan is not interested in Gabriella, or is he gay and Troy as no reason to worry? Maybe it's the fact that Lucas Grabeel didn't play his character right at this point? Either way, it makes a person wonder what is going through the character's head at this point.

#6) Finally, Ryan's mannerisms. because he is polite, and some of his actions seem "feminine", people assume he is gay. Take a look at his movements in a video such as "Humuhumunukunukuapua'a" or "What I've Been Looking For".
From these observations, does it seem as if Disney is trying to portray a homosexual character in their High School Musical series? Is there any more evidence that would make people feel this way, or is there anything to show us that people actually think this way?... yes...
One other reason people may think that Ryan Evans is a gay character is because of Lucas Grabeel, the actor who plays him. Although Grabeel as never come out, there are a lot of post on forums (such as imdb.com) of people asking if he is gay. Whether this matters or not, people seem to associate characters with the actor that plays them. The other reason for this is because Lucas Grabeel as played gay characters before. One character is Kelly Kuzzio from the UPN/The CW series Veronica Mars. This character was a gay jock who was hiding his secret until he found out that the other homosexual students in school were being targeted. It is known for people to assume that an actor is gay if he/she plays a homosexual character, and then their other characters usually take on that persona.
We're All In This Together!
Although it may seem like all this stuff is a little far-fetched, a lot of people pick up on these stereotypes. High School Musical as become a popular stage show as well. In one particular stage show done by Theatre of the Stars in Atlanta they had Ryan's locker filled with pictures of the guys basketball team. In other productions there have been pictures of Troy in his locker. One production even changed the script a bit to have both Ryan and Sharpay falling for Troy throughout the show.
So, is Ryan Evans gay? Is this Disney's homosexual agenda showing up in one of it's biggest Disney Channel Original movies? These things we do not know, and these things cannot really be answered. What is my opinion? Click over to the "What I've Been Looking For (Reprise)" section to find out my opinion on the things discussed on this website.
All For One
You Are Here! Humuhumunukunukuapua'a Work This Out
Fabulous! What Time Is It? Everyday!
Gotta Go My Own Way! Stick To The Status Quo! What I've Been Looking For!
What I've Been Looking For (Reprise)!
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