Why Such Sad Stars?

The two Dyer chapters for this week explore Judy Garland as a gay/camp icon, focusing specifically on the issue of her authenticity, and how it plays into this icon status. The Meyer article cites the obvious issues of authenticity that Rock Hudson's roles bring up, and discusses what he represents now that both his public and private life are up for scrutiny. Both Garland and Hudson, it seems, are gay/camp icons. My question is, why?

The surface answers are obvious. Both went through hardships, and dealt with having to hide their true selves to work in the industry they loved. However, my issue is that the two stars most associated with gay identification onscreen had such tragic ends. Surely, this is a part of their icon status -- their tragedies make them and their hardships even more famous. But why pick -- as your best point of identification and representation -- two stars who both died so tragically?

This seems to speak to a cynicism, a nihilism ... a "something bad" on the part of the gay perspective. Either the community is settling for something -- Garland and Hudson are the only stars that easily readable as icons for the movement -- or another thing entirely is going on. I am not ready to buy the former explanation. Cary Grant, for instance, is just as effeminate as Hudson onscreen, and his relationship with Rudolph Valentino was more public than any Hudson had with a lover. Why not him? As for Garland's replacements, other musical stars such as Liza Minnelli come to mind. While I believe that Minnelli too is a touchstone for gay culture, she is not nearly as ubiquitously associated with the community as is Garland.

I think the selection of Garland and Hudson that Deyer and Meyer speak to acknowledges the deepest pessimism the gay community has. Compare Garland and Hudson to Jennifer Lopez -- who we were talking about last week as the icon for Latinos. Although she's surely gone through hardships (dating P. Diddy must have been one in itself), she is not a tragic figure. Latinos have faced oppression, ostracization, etc. -- as has the gay community. However, the Latino one chooses a success story as its point of identification, where the gay community goes with cautionary tales.

Perhaps the fear that they will never fit in, never be understood, is more pervasive in the gay community. I can't see any other reason why stars with such tragic ends are the touchstones of gay/camp icons, when this really isn't the case with the other minority groups we've covered.