In a cover interview for the Australian edition of men's fashion glossy GQ, Taylor Lautner, the 19-year-old star of The Twilight Saga film series, was asked by the interviewer if either Gus Vant Sant or Dustin Lance Black made a pass at him when the trio were out having dinner last summer to which Lautner replied: “No, definitely not. I think they know I’m straight. But they’re great guys. They’re a lot of fun.”
The question posed by the GQ writer has since raised eyebrows; with US gay news magazine The Advocate asking “Was GQ's Question Homophobic?”
“Would GQ have asked Lautner the same question if he'd dined with two older straight women?” asked Advocate writer Jeremy Kinser.
Meanwhile in his first post on his new blog, Black wrote that he thought the question to be "unprofessional" as it perpetuates stereotypes about gay people and implies that "gay men are by nature sexual predators."
The 37-year-old outspoken LGBT activist and 2009 Academy Award winner (Best Original Screenplay) for Milk wrote: “Really Mr. GQ writer? I’m curious, will you be asking all of the handsome actors I’ve ever had the privilege of working with or meeting if I made passes at them as well? I’d love to be there when you ask Sean Penn that same question.
“Or, Mr. GQ writer, were you projecting your own unprofessional desires onto me and Gus? Perhaps? Or worse still, are you a homophobe?
“Above and beyond this clear attack on my character, I’m shocked that GQ would allow their writer to lean on the scurrilous, outdated stereotype that gay men are by nature sexual predators. I mean, would you have asked this same question if it were Diablo Cody and Kathryn Bigelow at dinner with Mr. Lautner?
“Leaning on lies, myths and stereotypes about gay people is hateful, harmful and outdated. It’s not the 1950s anymore GQ, it’s 2011 and it’s time to grow up.”
Black’s latest screenplay, J. Edgar, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as controversial FBI founder J. Edgar Hoover, is opening in the US next month.