Jake Gyllenhaal still can’t quit the gay rumors

Today, December 19th, is Jake Gyllenhaal’s 43rd birthday and, much to the chagrin of queers around the world, he’s still not gay.

It’s been 18 years since Gyllenhaal entered the canon of queer cinema with his portrayal of closeted gay cowboy Jack Twist in Brokeback Mountain.

How about we take this to the next level?

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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.

The Clickbait

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.”

LGBTQ+ ally

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? And I think it was very important to both of us to break that stigma.”

He’s also previously discussed how he and Ledger wanted to properly honor queer relationships with their portrayals in the film.

“The relationship between me and Heath while we were making this movie was something that was based on a profound love for a lot of people that we knew and were raised by in our lives,” Gyllenhaal told Vanity Fair. “A deep respect for their love and their relationship.”

In 2015, Gyllenhaal further expressed his joy for LGBTQ rights after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality.

“When the Supreme Court [issued the ruling] just a little while ago, I felt like we [Brokeback Mountain] had been part, a little part and parcel of that movement. I was proud, you know? To me that’s really a pretty incredible moment. We had to wait a little while for it,” he said during a talk at LMU Film School.

“But when will it be OK for an actor to be gay? I mean, it’s OK now.”

Gyllenhaal also played a queer character in the 2019 Netflix comedy horror film Velvet Buzzsaw.

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In real life, Gyllenhaal has been in a relationship with French model Jeanne Cadieu since 2018. He was previously linked to Kirsten Dunst, Reese Witherspoon, and, as every Swiftie is well aware, Taylor Swift.

Gyllenhaal will next be seen flaunting his jacked up muscles in a re-imagining of Patrick Swayze’s ’80s romp Road House, which is sure to be on every gay’s must-see list when it premieres on Amazon Prime in 2024.

In honor of Gyllenhaal’s 43rd birthday, let’s respectfully gaze at more images from his plethora of sizzling performances:

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Related:

Thirsty video footage of Jake Gyllenhaal leaked over the weekend

Gyllenhaal surprised attendees at the UFC fight in Las Vegas over the weekend.