A Gay Old Time at the Oscars

"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore," were the very first words spoken at the opening of the 78th Annual Academy Awards show, assuring gay and lesbian viewers from the get-go that the night was going to have a little gay kick to it. It was as if Dorothy Gale looked out at us and winked.

Was there ever a gayer night at the Oscars? The first 10 minutes were so gay, I thought I had tuned in to the GLAAD awards on one of the gay cable channels. We expected 'Brokeback Mountain' jokes, and we got our first one when former Oscar hosts Billy Crystal and Chris Rock were shown poking their heads out of a tent to say they were too busy to host this year. We were treated to seeing Jon Stewart come out of a dream in which he's in bed with Halle Berry, only to realize it's George Clooney snuggled up to him instead. They played the joke straight, that is, without embarrassment or homophobia, with Clooney batting the lashes of his bedroom eyes, and Stewart realizing he's scored PEOPLE magazine's Sexiest Man Alive, 1997. Lucky!

It's hard to imagine a better host than Stewart to shepherd the way for a gay night at the Oscars. He's one of our most visible straight allies, frequently taking on gay bashers on 'The Daily Show,' whether they be congressmen, the White House or Joe Blow in Anytown, USA. Stewart uses humor to expose hypocrisy and intolerance. He congratulated Philip Seymour Hoffman at the beginning of the night for his role in 'Capote,' citing it as a groundbreaking film that showed America "not all gay people are virile cowboys. Some are actually effete New York intellectuals." The one Stewart joke that took a cheap shot was when he addressed the audience as "ladies, gentlemen, Felicity." Yeah, it got a laugh, but we really don't expect trans-bashing from Jon Stewart.

In a hysterical montage of western film clips, winks and nods by macho "gay cowboys" were mashed together to show that Jack and Ennis weren't necessarily the first gay ranch hands. Two of our favorite moments included John Wayne promising one lucky buck, "I'll have you spread-eagled on a wagon wheel," and totally hot Gregory Peck telling a shirtless Charlton Heston, "the goodbye I have in mind will take a little more room than what we have in here." Gay innuendo: It's in the eyes of the beholder.

The jokes served to do what jokes do -- dispel people's unease with uneasy topics, like gay cowboys (read: gay sex) -- but the fact remains that the gay community had a lot riding on the night's awards. We won some, and we lost some. Felicity Huffman lost out to Reese Witherspoon for Best Actress, and neither Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal or Michelle Williams won awards for their nominated 'Brokeback' roles. Philip Seymour Hoffman was a frontrunner and won the award for Best Actor. 'Brokeback Mountain' took home three awards out of eight total nominations, including Best Original Score, Best Screenplay (Adapted), and Ang Lee won for Best Director, marking a huge triumph.

In the gayborhood where I live, you could almost hear a primal scream of anguish ring out when 'Crash' was announced as Best Picture. We wanted 'Brokeback Mountain' to clean house, and we expected it. We wanted to hear Heath Ledger say something important for gays up on that stage. Best Picture would have been the ultimate affirmation, at least at the Oscars, that gay love matters.

The fact that our beloved 'Brokeback' didn't win Best Picture is certainly a huge disappointment for gay fans, but the Oscar buzz alone made this movie a huge deal. Those two handsome cowboys who fell in love got America talking. They got people into theaters and in doing so, demystified gay love. It almost doesn't matter that 'Brokeback' didn't win as big as we wanted it to, because, in the end, gays have won more hearts as a result of people seeing this movie, and that matters for quite a lot.

Kenneth Hill is a senior editor at aol.com/gay.