The Newsweek gay actor controversy refers to the reaction to a piece written in 2010 by Newsweek magazine writer Ramin Setoodeh in which he asserts that openly gay actors are not capable of convincingly playing straight characters. Setoodeh's article provoked strong reactions from both within and outside the entertainment industry.
Straight Jacket
In a Newsweek article titled "Straight Jacket" dated April 26, 2010, journalist Ramin Setoodeh reviewed the Broadway revival of Promises, Promises starring Sean Hayes as the male lead. Hayes had recently come out as gay in an interview with the LGBT-interest The Advocate magazine. Setoodeh found Hayes's performance "wooden and insincere, like he's trying to hide something, which of course he is". Setoodeh also challenged the acting ability of openly gay actor Jonathan Groff, who had recently joined the cast of Glee. While recognizing Groff as "a knockout singer and a heartthrob" for his Broadway performance in Spring Awakening, Setoodeh found that Groff's television performance was "off" and distracting.
From these two performances, along with how Setoodeh's perceptions of the performances of actors Rock Hudson, Tab Hunter, Van Johnson and Anthony Perkins—closeted or semi-closeted during their careers but now known to have been gay—changed with his knowledge of the actors' homosexuality, Setoodeh concluded that once the public learns that an actor is gay, the actor can no longer convincingly play straight characters. Setoodeh acknowledged the ability of actors Neil Patrick Harris and Portia de Rossi to play straight characters on television (on How I Met Your Mother and Better Off Ted respectively) but dismissed them with the claim that they are playing caricatures, not characters.
Backlash
The day after the Newsweek article appeared online, LGBT media website AfterElton.com denounced Setoodeh and his conclusions. Editor Michael Jensen noted previous articles by Setoodeh in which he claimed that effeminate characters on television were harmful to the gay movement and seemed to suggest that openly gay teenage murder victim Lawrence King was partially to blame for his own murder because of his effeminate self-expression. He pondered whether Setoodeh's opinion on openly gay actors was rooted in some issue of Setoodeh's own with effeminate men. Jensen questioned what Setoodeh, himself openly gay, hoped to accomplish with the article and asserted that by writing it, Setoodeh was only making it harder for gay actors to make the decision to come out.
Actress Kristin Chenoweth, Hayes's co-star in Promises, Promises, rose to Hayes's defense. Posting to Newsweek.com, Chenoweth noted that Hayes was nominated for Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Tony Awards and that "thousands of people have traveled from all over the world to enjoy Hayes' performance and don't seem to have one single issue with his sexuality". She accused Setoodeh of engaging in selection bias through his choices of actors upon whom he focused the article and found the entire piece "horrendously homophobic".
Following Chenoweth's response, Glee creator Ryan Murphy called for a boycott of Newsweek, writing in an open letter, "This article is as misguided as it is shocking and hurtful. ... I extend an open invitation to Mr. Setoodeh to come to the writers room of our show, and perhaps pay a set visit. ... Hopefully, some of the love we attempt to spread will rub off on Mr. Setoodeh — a gay man deeply in need of some education — and he not only apologizes to those he has deeply offended but pauses before he picks up his poison pen again to work through the issues of his own self loathing." In a second open letter, Murphy announced that Setoodeh had accepted his invitation and would meet with Glees writers and observe casting sessions. "I hope observing this process firsthand — and talking with our cast — will be illuminating to Mr. Setoodeh, and inform his future journalistic endeavors."