Jake Gyllenhaal still can’t quit the gay rumors
Brokeback Mountain.Subscribe to our daily newsletter for a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.The 2005 film has become a modern-day classic with the tale of doomed romance between Gyllenhaal and his on-screen lover, the late Heath Ledger as Ennis Del Mar.At the time, both actors endured having their sexuality questioned for being so “brave” to play LGBTQ+ characters and that scrutiny continues today for Gyllenhaal.Just the other day, the fact-checking website Snopes.com had to debunk reports that the Spider-Man: Far From Home star had “finally come out of the closet” after a series of online ads shared the misleading claim in order to promote a clickbait article.
The ads featured images of the Oscar-nominated actor with various headlines that read: “Jake Gyllenhaal Comes Out and Speaks His Truth,” “Gyllenhaal Out of the Closet,” “At 42, Jake Gyllenhaal Is Finally Out of the Closet,” and “Gyllenhaal Out of the Closet: 30 Celebs that are out and proud of it.”The ads were for an article that originally appeared on Reference.com, per Snopes.But alas, anyone who actually clicked on the headline “Stars You May Not Know Are LGBTQ+” had to scour through 80 slides to find that Gyllenhaal was never actually included in the story.
Snopes confirmed that the purported claims of Gyllenhaal’s coming out were indeed “false.”While he may not be a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community, Gyllenhaal is a staunch ally with a history of empowering quotes in which he never caved to some of the homophobic rhetoric hurled before, after and during all the Brokeback buzz.“Part of the medicine of storytelling is that we were two straight guys playing these parts,” Gyllenhaal told The Times in 2021, while addressing that audiences today may take differently to two hetero actors playing gay. “There was a stigma about playing a part like that, you know, why would you do that?
