"The Wizard of Oz"

Wassup Hepcats!
So the twinnies have been enjoying a picture that's been playing on cable television lately, a picture called "The Wizard of Oz". It's fairly old, but you've prolly heard of it. Wicked Witch, "We're not in Kansas anymore", Toto, "I"m melting!", "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain", flying monkeys, et cetera. Dorothy you may recognize from slutty Halloween costumes.
I confess I've never been a fan. In fact, I'm not sure I'd ever seen the whole movie straight through until we watched it in college after smoking pot and synching it up to "The Dark Side of The Moon". (By the by, getting high and watching the Lollipop Guild Munchkins do that little dance, well... if you've never done it, I won't ruin it for you.)
So this week was really the first time I've sat and watched it. And some things stuck out - the effects and whole mood of the picture hold up better than you'd think they would. Not the Munchkins, though, some of them have weird Alvin and the Chipmunk voices, and when they sing they gesture and point at each other like sophomores in the high school play.
But one thing was this: The Tin Man was gay.

GAY TRAILBLAZER

I'm not sure whose choice this was. He was called the Tin Woodman in the book, which is definitely kinda gay. I've never read the book, but a careful Wikipedia search reveals that it was published in 1900, so we're gonna go ahead and rule out Original Source Material. The actor playing the Tin Man was Jack Haley, who would later play for the Chicago Bulls and be friends with Dennis Rodman. Solid maybe. Also, Buddy Ebsen (who was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me) was cast to play the Tin Man, but was allergic to the paint and almost died. Hard to imagine Jed Clampett  gaying it up as the Woodman. So we're gonna give this to Jack Haley as artistic license.

Some Facebook commenters have pointed out that no one in this story is a paragon of butch masculinity. Could a case be made that The Scarecrow, The Cowardly Lion, or even Toto were not candidates for opposite marriage? No, and that's homophobic just thinking it. And plus, this is a children's movie! We are obviously a gay-friendly household, but to insinuate a little dog is gay just because he's little and cute? For shame.

Plus, have you SEEN the Tin Man? (Look above. Case Closed.)