Annotations for Anthony crivello and daniel cooney my dead gay son

Lyric: The world to love
Annotation:
In the off-Broadway version, after this line, rainbow coloured strobe lights can be seen on the back of the stage.

Lyric: Not half bad, your dead gay son
Annotation:
Just like with Heather Chandler’s death, the image of Kurt and Ram is distorted. Kurt and Ram (along with Heather C.) were definitely bad people. Because of J.D. and Veronica, they are made out to be heroes when they are really just not.

Lyric: Our job is now continuing the work that they begun
Annotation:
they are saying that their job -since a little earlier in the song they basically came out- is now to spread love towards the lgbtq and contradict less hate towards them. (see later in the song; “we’ll teach the world to love”)

Lyric: My boy’s a homosexual
 And that don’t scare me none
Annotation:
at this point, Kurt and Ram’s fathers get wiser and start accepting them for who they allegedly were. even if it was just a facade that Veronica and JD created.

Lyric: And I believe it’s all a part of his gigantic plan
Annotation:
Christians believe that God has a plan for everyone, so he’s saying that God wanted them to be homosexuals.

Lyric: They were not dirty
 They were not wrong
Annotation:
Ram’s Dad let’s people know that even if they were homosexual, they were not less then anyone. He tries to let Kurt’s Dad know that they weren’t deserving to die.

Lyric: These boys, they knew damn well
 Those folks would judge ’em, they were desperate to be free
Annotation:
Ram’s dad is trying to justify why Ram and Kurt “committed suicide”. He knows that he himself used to be homophobic, and the rest of the town was also very anti-gay. Knowing this, he is trying to say they “committed suicide” because they loved each other but felt like they were not accepted.

Lyric: Until I reared me one
Annotation:
Likely an intentional double entendre, given the later reveal that Ram’s Dad had a homosexual fling with Kurt’s Dad on a fishing trip.

Lyric: Dead gay son
Annotation:
Interestingly, in some productions, the dads will perform the final note with the identical harmonies and actions that Ram and Kurt do in their main song  Blue.

Lyric: And why he chose to let our boys get busy in the shower
Annotation:
Although Bill is trying to encourage acceptance of gay people, he still doesn’t really know much about them. Many of his new ideas about his son come in the form of camp and oversexualized stereotypes. Also, him turning around and saying he loves his son after bringing him up to be what Ram was, highlights the idiocy of this song.

Lyric: These boys were brave as hell
Annotation:
This is probably referring to homosexuality wasn’t accepted then. So them being able to accept that they were “gay” then would be considered very brave of them because they could’ve been harassed​ or even killed because of who they were.

Lyric: Readin’ some magazines
Annotation:
in the movie, J.D creates a bag of “homosexual artifacts”, including an issue of Stud Puppy. Bill could have been reading the magazine from the death scene of Kurt and Ram, and realized gay people aren’t so bad/ coming to terms with his own homosexuality.

Lyric: They were not dirty, no
Annotation:
A lot of homophobes stereotype gay men as overly sexual in order to dehumanize them and try to make them seem like sexual predators.

Lyric: And not perverse, no, no
Annotation:
Gay men are stereotyped as pedophilic by homophobes.

Lyric: And it’s time we opened our eyes
Annotation:
The murder and staged double-suicide of their sons, making it appear that Kurt and Ram were lovers has helped their parents open their eyes and accept homosexuality–first in their sons, then in themselves.

Lyric: Fancy-free and reckless
Annotation:
Before “gay” became synonymous with homosexual in the modern world, the word meant “light-hearted and carefree”,  as in the Oxford Dictionary.

Lyric: Well, I used to see a homo and go reachin’ for my gun
Annotation:
This is line is quite ironic given the coming out of Ram and Kurt’s dads very soon afterwards. This is not uncommon. Many anti-gay people have been shown to be  struggling with their own sexual orientation.

Lyric: They were not fruits
Annotation:
Fruit is an offensive slang or insult for a gay man, usually a flamboyantly gay man, although the gay community has been reclaiming this word.

Lyric: They were two bright red ribbons (Ooh)
 In the Lord’s long hair (Woah)
Annotation:
Red might be used because it’s a bright and noticeable colour, or to follow the meter and alliteration of “(b)right red ribbons”. But it may also reference Heather Chandler. Just as Paul and Bill looked up to Jesus Christ, Westerburg High views Heather C. as a leader/goddess. The Lord wears two bright red ribbons in his long hair, and Heather C. wears a bright red scrunchie as a symbol of power.

Lyric: Walk him and him
Annotation:
The published script quotes this line as “The cherubim walk him and him,” implying that angels can be homosexual much like humans can. To get technical, the Bible and traditional Christianity claim the opposite: that angels (and humans in the afterlife) are genderless and asexual, due to Matthew 22:30: At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.

Lyric: [RAM’S DAD, spoken]
 You wait just a minute, Paul
 
 [The CONGREGATION gasps]
 
 [RAM’S DAD, spoken]
 It is ignorant, hateful talk like yours that makes this world a place our boys could not live in
Annotation:
The preceding lines spoken at the funeral, unheard in the cast recording: Kurt’s Dad: I don’t really know what I’m supposed to say up here. I’m ashamed, certainly. My family has turned our town into a laughing stock. My boy Kurt wasn’t who I thought he was. When I think about the sick, disgusting things Kurt and Ram were doing… Bill is trying to get across the fact why (as written in Veronica’s forged suicide note) their sons died. To him, they died because they didn’t feel accepted by the community or by their own families, making it a “missapproving world” that they had to escape from. This environment of homophobia was even perpetrated by Paul and Bill before their sons died.

Lyric: The cherubim
Annotation:
Cherubim, plural for cherubs, are angelic beings who attend to God in the Judeo-Christian belief. They often are depicted as small, chubby children.  Cherubs are a common symbol of Valentine’s Day or love in general.

Lyric: They just had flair
Annotation:
This could be based off the stereotype that gay men are flamboyant, which kind of goes to show how poorly Ram’s dad knew his own son. Ram and Kurt arguably had the least flair (defined stylish and originality) of all the characters introduced to us in the entire show.

Lyric: Go forth and love each other now
 Like our boys would have done
Annotation:
This is, of course, heavily ironic, for which J.D. probably intended, since both Kurt and Ram were shown to be homophobic (and otherwise prejudiced). This  is especially apparent when they call J.D. a fag just before the events of ‘Fight For Me’.

Lyric: And wear a pearly necklace
Annotation:
This could have one of two meanings: A pearl necklace is a traditionally feminine ornament, and gay men are commonly stereotyped as being effeminate,  so this line is reinforcing the idea of Ram and Kurt being flamboyant gayboys. ‘Pearly necklace’ is sometimes used as slang. It comes from the gay male community. It refers to leaving a string of ejaculate on or around another man’s throat. It’s called a ‘pearly necklace’ due to the milky, somewhat glossy/ pearly sheen of ejaculate. This is another gay joke.

Lyric: They were two lonely verses
Annotation:
“Vers” is a slang term for a gay/bisexual man who is willing to be the top or the bottom during sexual acts. The term is a shortening of the word “versatile.” The usage of the term “vers(es)” in this line is a double entendre. On a literal level, Ram’s Dad is saying that his and Kurt’s sons are two aspects of the Lord’s grand plan and that they are lonely — but if we interpret that line in a sexual way, it means that Kurt and Ram were two lonely gay/bisexual men who were willing to top or bottom during sex.

Lyric: Paul, I can’t believe that you still refuse to get a clue
 After all that we’ve been through, I’m talkin’ you and me
 
 [The CONGREGATION gasps]
 
 [RAM’S DAD, spoken]
 In the summer of ’83
Annotation:
In a very iconic moment, Bill reveals he and Paul aren’t as hetero as they seem. With each word rhyming (from “you” to “clue” to “through”), you may expect the next line to be something along the lines of “me and you”, right? It would seem fitting, especially since the year could’ve also been ‘82 and no one would have cared. So why break the rhyming flow? A moment like this is very symbolic. You were most likely expecting one thing but got another. You may have expected “me and you” but instead got “you and me”. You may have expected these two men to be straight but instead… they’re gay. As hilarious as this scene is, it’s powerfully striking in using symbolism to present an atmosphere of expecting the unexpected by just simply switching “you” and “me”.

Lyric: Our boys were pansies, Bill
Annotation:
Pansy is a type of flower, and an informal and offensive insult for a homosexual man. Flowers are considered feminine, and gay men are often stereotyped as feminine. This line is spoken by Paul, showing just how little he thought of homosexuals and his hatred of his own son before Bill changes his mind.

Lyric: I love my dead gay son
Annotation:
This lyric is a direct quote from the Heathers movie this musical was based on.

Lyric: While Judy Garland sings
Annotation:
Judy Garland was a gay icon because they  relate strongly to her struggles, and because she was associated with many gay men. Her father was rumoured to be gay, but this was never confirmed, nor denied for that matter. She had many gay friends, and reportedly liked to visit to gay bars with them. Her second husband, director  Vincente Minnelli, was rumoured to be bisexual. Garland is best known for her role as Dorothy in the 1939 film  The Wizard of Oz, in which she sings “ Over the Rainbow”. The LGBT+ community is often respresented by a rainbow flag, so the song is fitting.  Plus, back when it was illegal to be gay, gay men identified themselves as “friends of Dorothy”, refering to Garland’s role in the movie.

Lyric: And now they’re happy bear cubs in the Lord’s big den
Annotation:
A bear is a type of gay man that is big, rugged, hairy, and masculine. So a bear cub would be like a toned-down version of a bear. They’d be less hairy, maybe shorter, definitely slimmer, and less ripped. Since Ram and Kurt were both stereotypical high school jocks, they could probably classify as bear cubs.

Lyric: Stripped to their underpants
Annotation:
Veronica led Kurt and Ram into the woods under the impression that they would “have a swordfight in her mouth.” The boys were clad in only their underwear when they were killed. For the entire second act, they are seen only wearing boxers.

Lyric: Just friendly fellows dressed up like their favorite Village Person
Annotation:
The Village People are  gay icons.

Lyric: They were just two stray rhinestones
 On the Lord’s big purse
Annotation:
Their metaphors have become more and more in line with stereotypes of gay men. Gay men are often assumed to be flashy, flamboyant, and feminine.

Lyric: That was one hell of a fishin’ trip
Annotation:
After this line, the two dads hug and kiss. During the rest of the song, the two dads sometimes sing lines together. They did not do this in the earlier part of the song; therefore, the two singing at the same time may symbolize the two coming out and being together. Before “ Big Fun”, the two dads tell their sons and the audience they’re going on a fishing trip. This would have implied that their affair was more than just a one-time thing, except the previous lyric is only talking about that one time six years ago. If there were more, he would not have just mentioned that one.

