Are gay-for-pay actors socially progressive or gayfacing it?

GayWired visitors voted for their top 10 Hollywood gay-for-pay actors, or actors who are straight but have played gay roles.

The winners included Vancouver-raised Ryan Reynolds. (I wonder if his fiancée Scarlett Johansson knows about that?)

We've certainly come a long, long way, babies.

At one time, it was considered career suicide in Hollywood for an actor to take on a gay role, as Christopher Reeve did with a gay role in Deathtrap.

And numerous actors led closeted lives, including Rock Hudson who died in 1985 due to AIDS–related complications.

Straight actors playing gay roles openly is certainly progressive in helping to remove the stigma career-wise in Hollywood.

On the other hand, there is still some ways to go.

There's always been the protest of blackface (and even yellowface) when Caucasian performers played ethnic roles.

Should there be a similar outcry when it comes to straight actors playing gay roles? When straight actors play "gayface"?

Having straight actors play gay roles takes the roles away from openly gay actors, and the development of their careers.

There are very few openly gay A-list actors. (And undoubtedly still numerous closeted ones.)

And while I'm sure many gay actors do not want to be restricted to just playing gay roles, when there are high profile, mainstream gay roles, such as Brokeback Mountain, Queer as Folk, or Will and Grace, the end result is that the income and career-boost goes to straight actors, not openly gay ones.

Ultimately, the opportunity to develop openly gay celebrities in mainstream entertainment is taken away.

Not only as role models for the community (including for closeted youth living in homophobic environments), but also in developing bankable openly gay names, which is the bottom line in Hollywood.