Eating up Eating Out.

Your cover photo with the cast of Eating Out was outstanding--way to go, Ryan Carries ["Here Comes the New New Queer Cinema," April 26]! I'm from the same small community as Ryan, and it's true that gays are there, just never mentioned or acknowledged. Even the local weekly newspapers had stories on Ryan's success at being in a motion picture, but the word gay was never mentioned. I am excited to see gay cinema coming into its own. It gives us small-town gay men something to identify with; it helps us connect to a community that we're isolated from. As to whether it's appropriate for a straight man such as Ryan to be playing gay, who cares'? The director and the producers believed in him enough to hire him. It's all about the movies and the stories they tell.

Bill Beard, via the Internet

Imagine if Jet magazine put a cover story out heralding a comeback of black films that featured actors in blackface in the leads. If this were 1927 or so, that would not be hard to believe since black roles were traditionally played by white performers in the early part of the century so the white folks would not be made too uncomfortable. The fact that nearly every gay film with a budget of more than $10,000 (Latter Days; In & Out; Die, Mommie, Die, to name a few) features straight actors playing the leads shows me just how far we have to go.

James Cook, Los Angeles, Calif.

Eating Out was the first gay film I've seen that didn't get all mushy and serious. It was an in-your-face kind of film that rarely conies along.

John Toma, via the Internet

Thanks so much for your recent cover story on Eating Out. In recent years there's been a real shortage of new queer film, so it was gratifying to learn there are gay filmmakers out there who are still dedicated to bringing our life experiences to the screen. My partner and I went right out to see it, and we both commented afterward that the characters in the film felt like people we know (and it was a good script too.) I appreciate The Advocate keeping us abreast of current queer culture.

Michael Nelson, Venice, Calif.

I wanted to stand up for some of those directors and filmmakers of the mid 1990s to present whose flints Mr. Vary apparently does not believe are up to par to be included in American Queer Cinema--such as Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex, 1998), Andy Wachowski (Bound, 1996), Jamie Babbit (But I'm a Cheerleader; 1999), Thomas Bezucha (Big Eden, 2000), Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, 1998), and Lisa Cholodenko (High Art, 1998). There has not been a lack of good gay and lesbian films, in my opinion.

Skip Cohan, Seattle, Wash.

As someone who canto of age during the "first wave" of Queer Cinema, I was very interested to read about what The Advocate dubbed this "new" wave. Unfortunately, I found myself distracted by the remark of Eating Out director Q. Allan Brocka. He seemed astonished to find "an actual video store that really did have a sizable gay and lesbian section" in the far-remote locale of Tucson. Finding a GLBT film section of a corporate-owned video store isn't that unusual. Too many times small towns and small retail outlets are dismissed because they are in the red states--usually at the expense of all the GLBT people who live, work, rent, and buy there. Mr. Brocka's incredulity at finding a GLBT section is merely reflective of that unfortunate state of affairs.

Sharon Bowers, Greenville, S.C.