Research Essay

Queer Representation in Rent and the Affects it had on the LGBTQIA+ Community

“In these dangerous times, where it seems that the world is ripping apart at the seams, we all can learn how to survive from those who stare death squarely in the face every day and [we] should reach out to each other and bond as a community, rather than hide from the terrors of life at the end of the millennium.”- Jonathan Larson, “Rent.” “Rent” the musical, written and composed by Jonathan Larson, hits almost every social issue you can think of. This show is about a group of friends, who range in race, sexuality, class, just trying to survive whilst their homes, work, and so much more are being challenged. Set in Alphabet City, NYC, NY in the 1990’s, you can imagine the social and political climate of this era. One of the main topics discussed and portrayed in “Rent” is queerness and the AIDS epidemic. There are multiple queer characters and relationships in “Rent”. We also see many of our characters, queer or not, struggling with AIDS and/or HIV, some worse than others. “Rent” gave an admirable representation of queer people and lifestyle, futhermore greatly helping the New York City,  LGBTQIA+ community in the 1990’s. Though since the musical has come out, there has been much controversy over if “Rent” was actually an adequate representation of the LGBTQIA+ community during this time period. Some argue it was a quality portrayal, and others say that “Rent” glamorized being gay in the 90’s and the AIDs epidemic overall. 

A distinguished author with a PhD in Film Studies, Dr. Eleonora Sammartino, in her Journal, “Challenging ‘La Vie Boheme’: Community, Subculture, and Queer Temporarily in Rent” published on January 24th, 2017 by the European Association for American Studies addresses the topic of queer culture represented in Rent and argues that the film could be used as a springboard to critically reflect on the commodification of queer (sub)culture through a process that has brought Rent into the mainstream, in connection to the socio-cultural context of its production and reception. In New York City during the 1990’s, the LGBT community was definitely talked about and seen in the media, but not like it was after “Rent” premiered on Broadway. Since this show blew up and became very popular to a variety of different audiences, more and more people were being exposed to queer characters and the gay life style. One thing “Rent” did very well was spotlight the queer characters and tell their stories in a way that wasn’t demeaning. Many times in media, especially Broadway shows, if there is a gay character, being gay is that characters entire story/personality trait and they don’t get to express anything much deeper than the surface level of their sexuality. In “Rent”, the queer characters story’s were told in the same ways as the straight characters. Being queer was simply another one of their traits, like having brown hair or being a musician, it was not their only focus. 

This normalization of the queer lifestyle made the audience more comfortable with the LGBT community in real life, and it helped people see that being queer is just another trait about someone, it is not something that you should completely judge them off of. With this new found acceptance of the LGBTQIA+ community, we started seeing more and more of the community represented in mainstream media in positive ways.  In her article “PAPER and Pride: A Look at Gay NYC in the ‘80s and ‘90s”, 2016, Kat Ward asserts that the LGBTQIA+ community was very much real and exceedingly involved in all cultures by addressing newspaper articles, movements, and all different types of media regarding the queer community in this era. One example of the queer community represented in media from this article is the Paper magazine story titled “Love your Funky self; Getting the Feelings of Rupaul.” written by Nora Burns. In this article, queer icon and celebrity, Rupaul Charles, is interviewed by Burns. They discuss his new record, his experience with travel and spirituality, and much more. His sexuality is mentioned, but it is not the only thing the article talks about. Instead the article is highlighting his successes, such as the new album and his recent shows in Europe. In the aforementioned journal written by Dr. Eleonora Sammartino, she says “As queer subculture moves more and more into the mainstream, often being commodified, and queer identity becomes more visible, Rent emerges as symptomatic of this process itself as a cultural text where 30 years of American queer history are sedimented through its various media incarnations.” (Page 38) We can clearly see this put in action from Ward’s article and all the queer media she has included. 

On the contrary, people often argue that “Rent” was a very inaccurate portrayal of the LGBT community and/or lifestyle and that it glorified the true, dark reality of being gay in such a heteronormative society. Also, that it glamorized having AIDS and all the effects that come along with the virus, making it seem less serious than the epidemic actually was. In Judith Sebesta’s article “Of Fire, Death, and Desire: Transgression and Carnival in Jonathan Larson’s Rent” she discusses how the queer community was exploited in “Rent” and the negative effects it had on the real LGBTQIA+ community. This article combines a number of pieces of work together to express an overall idea. Included in this article are writings such as Sarah Schulman’s review of “Rent” for the New York Press. Sarah Schulman is a New York-based lesbian playwright, novelist, nonfiction writer and activist. Schulman brings up a lot of faults in Rent, like its similarities to previous writings that were not credited, but she focuses on the idea that Rent’s portrayal of queer characters was very poorly done. She states, “The first is that the lesbian characters, Maureen and Joanne, are bitchy and oversimplified: ‘Rent acknowledges that lesbians exist; therefore it claims to be tolerant. The fact that it repeatedly inscribes lesbian relationships as unstable, bickering, and emotionally pathological is the required conceit’.12” (Page 421) One of Schulman’s biggest issues with Rent was that it was written by a straight, white man.

 “In fact, a large part of her difficulties with the show lie in its creation by a heterosexual man and the straight perspective from which he approaches the material, portraying heterosexual love as true love, and, conversely, homosexual love as ‘either doomed or shallow or both’.13” (Page 421) 

Schulman is not alone in her beliefs, and other critics such as Robert Brustein also believed that “Rent” did not deserve the celebration it was receiving. Brustein writes “‘[Rent] fail(s) to penetrate very deeply beneath a colorful and exotic surface’ and exploits AIDS ‘for mawkish purposes’.17” (Page 422). Also mentioned in this article is Evelyn McDonnell of the Village Voice and her review of Rent where she argued 

“‘The play’s biggest fault is that two of the main characters are straight white guys – for the umpteenth time, the stories of ‘‘others’’ are made palatable by a dominant-voice narration. Sometimes Larson strains too hard to show how ‘‘cool’’ and ‘‘progressive’’ his characters are to have gay, black, and Latino friends’.20” (Page 422)

There are many, many other reviews that agree with these critics. Other articles saying yes, “Rent” had gay characters and community, but it was illustrated in a demeaning and embarrassing way to the real LGBTQIA+ community, hence making them look pathetic and receive even more hate and trouble from the world. 

Personally, I leave my sexualtity in the lap of the Gods, but there is absolutely no doubt that the LGBTQIA+ community has had a huge impact on my life. Growing up I loved Broadway shows, art, music, and all of these niche interests exposed me to the queer community quite early. I think the first time I watched “Rent” I was about 12 years old. Seeing the gay characters in shows, especially “Rent”, taught me so much about the gay lifestyle and what these people go through. It got me even more interested in getting involved in the community. Many of my friends and family members are part of the LGBTQIA+ community, I have seen their struggles firsthand. Having background knowledge about things like AIDs from musicals like “Rent” helped me help them. When I was young there was almost no queer representation in mainstream media. Thankfully due to shows like “Rent”, this is changing. My favorite part of “Rent” has always been the queer characters and their stories, it was so important to me when first diving into the queer community and overall taught me so much quintessential information. 

In Jess Garner’s article titled “Queer Representation in Media by Marginalized Queer People and Queer People of Color: ‘RENT;”, she discusses“Rent’s themes of togetherness, living for the present, dealing with social stigma and uncertain futures, and of the pursuit of bohemian abandon set a milestone for the depiction of queer characters in mainstream media.” (Page 1) Garner talks about how almost all the couples in this show, Angel & Collins, Maureen & Joanne, Mimi & Rodger, are all interracial couples. Also despite all the problems these couples might go through, their race is never one of the issues. “‘Interracial relationships are unquestioned,’ within the framework of Rent.” (Page 1) This was a huge step in society as there was almost no representation of interracial couples celebreated in pop culture, and certainly no queer, interracial couples. Garner brings up the song “I’ll Cover you” a beautiful love song, sang between Angel and Collins, a queer and interracial couple. With lyrics such as “I think they meant it when they said you can’t buy love, Now I know you can rent it, A new lease you are my love, on life, All my life, I’ve longed to discover, Something as true as this is, So with a thousand sweet kisses, I’ll cover you,” such a touching song sang by an ‘abnormal’ couple really reminds the audience that love is universal no matter race or sexuality. 

On the whole, as we dived into all the nuances of “Rent” by Jonathan Larson, we see there are many different ideas and opinions over the show’s representation of queerness and what it did for the LGBTQIA+ community in NYC during the 1990’s. The discussion of whether there were accurate portrayals and queer characters, versus the glorification of AIDs and the gay lifestyle in this piece of art is still being debated to this day, decades later. Was a straight, white man’s depiction of race, sexuality, class, and so many other issues accurate, or an overall misunderstanding that was not very well done?