Does MPAA = most parents are antigay? Why do squeaky-clean gay-themed movies--even those intended for family viewing--get slapped with strict MPAA ratings? The ratings board believes parrots want it that way. (Film).

"They make their arguments as if they were a housewife in Denver, and they're probably right that a housewife in Denver would be offended by gay sex scenes," says United Artists marketing chief Dennis O'Connor. He's talking about the Motion Picture Association of America, which he battled in 1998 over the lesbian movie Better Than Chocolate when he worked at Trimark Pictures. The guidelines laid out by the MPAA in its determination of movie and TV ratings make no specific mention of gay or lesbian themes and sexuality, but film distributors who deal with the MPAA-backed rating board, the Classification and Rating Administration (CARA), tell another story.

"There is no question that the folks that comprise the ratings board at the MPAA trail U.S. society as a whole in keeping current with societal norms," says Tom Ortenberg, president of Lions Gate Films Releasing. Ortenberg recently dealt with the board when Lions Gate's The Rules of Attraction was given a prohibitive NC-17 rating partly because of a gay fantasy scene in which Ian Somerhalder's character fantasizes that he makes out fully clothed with James Van Der Beek. "They told me specifically that this scene was among their objections," explains Ortenberg. "But this scene was strictly a fantasy. There was no nudity." Ortenberg objected to making cuts to the scene, and he won his battle--the film went out with an R rating after other cuts were made from the film.

CARA, which is based in Encino, Calif., says it makes its decisions using criteria parents would use when deciding what is suitable viewing for their child. A spokesperson for the MPAA contacted for this article scoffed at the idea that gay and lesbian films get harsh treatment at the hands of CARA, which is composed of "men and women just like you" who "make an educated estimate as to which rating most American parents would consider the most appropriate."

So are these "parents" on the board homophobic? "They claim they respond to parental feedback, which is usually negative," says O'Connor. "I remember they got a complaint from a person who had seen our trailer for Better Than Chocolate with their child and was offended."

But what about movies with gay content that were specifically made with a family audience in mind? Perhaps more disturbing than MPAA objections to controversial material like The Rules of Attraction is its decision to give PG-13 ratings ("Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13") to positive portraits of gay relationships in such wholesome-as-milk movies as Big Eden and Bobbie's Girt. "How does a family film like Bobbie's Girl rate a PG-137?" asks writer-producer Sam Bernstein of the made-for-Showtime drama, now on home video, starring Rachel Ward and Bernadette Peters as a lesbian couple who raise a young boy. "That's insane, and it clearly shows discomfort with the reality of gay and lesbian family life. There is no sex, no violence, and no bad language. There are a couple of closed-mouth kisses, that's all. The annoying thing is that I had them cover the nipples of the woman on the painted logo of the tavern where the movie is set so as not to cause offense. After all that, the PG-13 feels hurtful."

Similarly, Big Eden, one of the first gay movies not to be rated R, is so good-natured that its PG-13 rating feels absurd to many observers. "We knew that the MPAA was particularly harsh on gay movies, so we even filmed a number of different options without swear words," says the film's producer Jennifer Chaiken. "We needed to have options. I was worried that they would give us an R, although they gave us a PG-13 without cuts."

Distributors can reject the board's ratings and opt to release a film unrated, but the financial ramifications of making that choice can be fatal. "First of all, you'll never get into shopping mall multiplexes if your film is unrated or even with an NC-17; and second, it is rare for Blockbuster or Hollywood Video to stock an unrated film," explains Jon Gerrans, copresident of Strand Releasing, the independent company that specializes in gay-themed films. One film that got slapped with an NC-17, was released unrated, and hit big despite those handicaps was the homoerotically charged Y Tu Mama Tambien, although an R-rated cut has been made available on video for the Blockbusters of the world.

Gerrans recently battled the MPAA over a proposed NC-17 rating for the lesbian thriller The Monkey's Mask, starring Kelly McGillis. "To the conservative people on the board, gay and lesbian sex is one notch up on the acceptability scale from pornography. On Monkey's Mask, I was surprised at some of the scenes they suggested we take out to give it an R. For example, one sex scene, they felt, went on too long."

Strand has had numerous run-ins with the board. When they submitted Beefcake, Thom Fitzgerald's 1999 portrait of 1950s muscle-men magazines, the MPAA said that there were no cuts to make that would avoid an NC-17 rating. "They said that they wouldn't know what to change," Gerrans recalls. "The overall subject matter made it too difficult, so we released it unrated, and of course, then Blockbuster wouldn't stock it. There was obviously too much male frontal nudity, although the men weren't erect. The board, however, is very careful not to tell you why [they make their decisions] sometimes."

Tom Ortenberg says he knows exactly why those decisions get made: "They think they represent Middle America, but the only people they really represent are themselves."

Goodridge is U.S. editor of Screen International.

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