Andrew Gay Debate

[Ahm Shere]

I remember there being a thread on BW like this a couple of years ago, and I have been re-watching Season 6 again, and I was thinking, is Andrew gay?

I have to say, IMO I don't think he is. He does have after all, homophobia, as Andrew stated in Life Serial.

Jonathan: You have to hold hands
Andrew: With each other?!
Warren: Now you know what homophobia really says about you

Or it goes something like that.

Anyway, I just think he is camp. Camp means, he's like...girly, but he's straight.

Andrew always has been on the girly/childish side and I think that's what brings him out as being a 'possible' gay. I don't believe he is gay, and in S7, he idolises Xander.

What do you think? Is he gay? Or is he straight?

[sherrilina]

I remember there being a thread on BW like this a couple of years ago, and I have been re-watching Season 6 again, and I was thinking, is Andrew gay?

I have to say, IMO I don't think he is. He does have after all, homophobia, as Andrew stated in Life Serial.

Jonathan: You have to hold hands
Andrew: With each other?!
Warren: Now you know what homophobia really says about you

Or it goes something like that.

Andrew always has been on the girly/childish side and I think that's what brings him out as being a 'possible' gay. I don't believe he is gay, and in S7, he idolises Xander.

What do you think? Is he gay? Or is he straight?

I think he is probably gay--I mean, didn't you hear what Warren said, "You know what homophobia REALLY says about you?!" But seriously, not only is Andrew really campy and girly, and like to bake and stuff, but you'll notice he tends to really fixate and idolize guys throughout the series--first Warren, then Spike (remember his hug and breathless relief when he sees Spike alive in Damage?)--he seems to be almost in love with each of them. Then there's how he doesn't really notice/take interest in seeing two lesbians making out (which I think most straight guys would focus on, based on the whole thing with girl-on-girl many straight guys seem to like), instead looking at the window Xander fixed. And unlike Xander, Andrew never dreams or fantasizes about being with any of the many female slayers living with him--he seems to barely notice their looks at all, just treats them like neutrally, like sisters. So it seems to me that Andrew is probably gay....

[Anon]

Don't forget the scene in the comics when he's playing strip poker with several slayers and tells Xander over the phone that he'd be bored stiff if he was there. He's either gay or completely asexual.

[Valyssia]

Don't forget the scene in the comics when he's playing strip poker with several slayers and tells Xander over the phone that he'd be bored stiff if he was there. He's either gay or completely asexual.

You don't have my choice listed so... No vote.

Andrew is severely sexually repressed. Things sexual make him nervous as hell. I didn't read that as bored. Though Joss prolly storyboarded it as looking bored. Instead...nervous and trying to ignore what's taking place by hiding in a phone call. Be nonchalant...try to act cool to impress...by looking bored...acting too bored.

He seems very attracted, almost across the board, on the series. But way too freaked to ever act on any of the impulses. He even seemed attracted to Warren and Johnathan.

The question we should be asking is will the poor boy ever get laid? Oh...and if he does will he end up 30 - 40 feet tall and skulking around a castle?

Valyssia

[Rosamunde]

He's clearly gay. He fancies Spike. He is much more interested in Xander's carpentry than Willow and Kennedy kissing. I don't think of him as being especially camp, he's just so obviously gay.

Hm. I don't think I'm explaining my position very welll. I don't have any proof to hand because I never had any doubts that he was.

[Valyssia]

He's clearly gay. He fancies Spike. He is much more interested in Xander's carpentry than Willow and Kennedy kissing. I don't think of him as being especially camp, he's just so obviously gay.

Hm. I don't think I'm explaining my position very welll. I don't have any proof to hand because I never had any doubts that he was.

You took that as him being interested in the carpentry? I took it as him wanting to have an excuse to film the two women kissing so he could file it away for further...ahhemmm...study.

Val

[Dark Ages]

Well I'm gay a but I'm not campy or girly like. I do know alot of people who are and Andrew is totally GAY!. I have to say it. I hang out with alot of gays and straights and straits that are girly. They always show interest in females of some sort. Andrew doesnt, what so ever, he's always staring at Xander and Spike. Its also the way he carries him self. If Andrew isnt gay I dont know what is. And my gay - dar must be broken.

[Valyssia]

Well I'm gay a but I'm not campy or girly like. I do know alot of people who are and Andrew is totally GAY!. I have to say it. I hang out with alot of gays and straights and straits that are girly. They always show interest in females of some sort. Andrew doesnt, what so ever, he's always staring at Xander and Spike. Its also the way he carries him self. If Andrew isnt gay I dont know what is. And my gay - dar must be broken.

I get the idea that we're tripping over semantics... I'm not arguing that he's not attracted to men. In fact, I think he very much is... What I'm saying is that he's bi. He's omni-sexual.. LOL He's also so severely repressed in his ability to express his own sexuality that he comes off as the last thing on earth you'd ever want to go there with. He's the proverbial...show him an ounce of compassion and he'll go all puppy on ya. You'll have to get a dish and a leash...or a really heavy pair of boots to kick the puppy. Maybe a box of matches.

I'm going to stop before this gets any uglier. Think I made my point.

Val

[vampcruella]

Of course Andrew is gay, despite some homophobia.

Evidence: "And wasn't Jonathan just the cutest thing?

In Storyteller, he re-plays the tape of Xander and Anya, reciting all of Anya's lines.

At the end of Season 6 while he and Jonathan are in jail, he worries about whether Warren had really loved him.

When the Trio tape Spike and Anya having sex in the Magic Box, his first comment is "He is so cool!" His comment, "And the girl's hot too" is an afterthought.

I do not see any evidence that Andrew has any interest in the opposite sex.


He's obviously enamored of Spike and buys boots and leather coat in imitation of him. Remember Never Leave me? We see the boots and black leather coat, but the walk is obviously not Spike's.

I do not think this has anything to do with his homosexuality, but---
Andrew is a character who views life in terms of the comic books and pop culture he consumes. Nothing is wrong, nothing is real to him until he finally weeps at the end of Storyteller. He is seen both by himself and by others as a nonentity---a running joke is that no one seems to remember who he is. The explanation is always "Tucker's brother". This is a grown man who viewed Warren's killing of Katrina as "cool", and who still surrounds himself with action figures and mimics characters in comic books and movies.

[Thomas]

Andrew

Maybe he just wants to be loved? His brother was a total psycho, his parents are obviously detached, who'd not notice several hell beast freaking out in their garage? And his only friends consisted of Warren (a giant loser) and Jonathan (who also had no friends.) So, him looking for someone to care about him isn't hard to believe.

Enter Buffy Summers and her Scooby gang. They save the world all the time. Something a teenager, Andrew had to be 19 tops since he was Tucker's younger brother, who is obsessed with superheroes would just have a fan boy-gasim about. Imagine loving the whole superhero genre and actually meeting a team of superheroes?

He then sees Spike. Of course Andrew would idolize him. He's got a cool outfit and accent and he's a vampire who fights for the side of good and gets the girls. He's apart of the group of heroes, but really not. Spike's cool. He's like Wolverine with less hair. He's everything Andrew reads about in comics made flesh.

[Anon]

I've never seen anything that suggested to me that Andrew was interested in women, and I have seen quite a bit of evidence to the contrary. I'm not sure about Andrew hiding in a phone call, firstly because I didn't get the impression that it was him who made the call, and secondly because he had clearly been playing in a game of strip poker. If he found sexual things uncomfortable then he would probably have avoided it altogether. Also, he watched that scene of Spike and Anya, even though it contained (only) sexual content.

[kana]

To be honest, it's a mystery. Depending upon different conventions, some can see sexuality as a spectrum rather than an absolute. Andrew's attraction towards the other characters has been often been more to do with admiration as much as commenting on their physical appearence. Couple this with his effeminate demeanour and we have quite a quandry. The problem is that Andrew often lives in the world of fantasy and exploring sexuality can sometimes require emotional honesty, so if he is gay, I don't think he's brave enough or mature enough (in that respect) to admit it yet.

[ciderdrinker]

I don't think he knows what he wants. Like Kana said he doesn't live in the real world only his fantasy and therefore (in his fantasy) he can get anyone he wants, in reality he doesn't even know what he wants.

The maturity aspect is also true, to admit to being gay or straight to anyone would be struggle for him - just like it is for a young teenage girl to admit she's got her first crush - even to her friends.

The evidence we're presented with isn't conclusive either way. He is seen as being camp and only interested in men at some points and then at other times he's openly showing favouritism to women (At the end of The Girl In Question he is clearly going on a date with two attractive women).

Also Andrew is extremely influenced by those around him, and consequently would never state something so explosive as being gay in front of an misogynistic bully like Warren. Likewise, when staying with Buffy in a house virtually filled with girls, he turns to the most manly person there to gain guidance - Spike. He may not ask Spike his advice but definately tries on his persona for size, just like he did with Warren.

For Andrew to decide whether he was one way or the other he'd have to grow up and start being his own person - and from the evidence given that's a long way off yet!

[Risa]

If Andrew is straight, I'm queen of the nargals (or however that is spelt.).
He is totally obsessed with Spike. When Spike and Anya were getting fleshy in the Magic Box who did Andrew notice first? Spike. He wasn't even paying attention to Anya...and most guys would have zeroed in on her first. I've always thought Andrew was gay. From the first time I saw him I was like "he has got to be gay." Either that or he is really really really in need of a life and a good lay.

[Veverka]

From the first time I saw him I was like "he has got to be gay." Either that or he is really really really in need of a life and a good lay.

Well, he could be gay and also really in need of a good lay... which I happen to think is the case!!!

And yeah, for me it was also cemented when we saw him notice Spike first too, in the Anya/Spike sex scene. I took the 'you'd be bored stiff here' line in season eight to be a sexual reference, but I didn't think Andrew was especially interested in the goings on of the naked women, just that he thought Xander would... funny how we see it all differently!

[Wolfie Gilmore]

(At the end of The Girl In Question he is clearly going on a date with two attractive women).

It's not a date if it's two women in a guy...unless he's REALLY come out of his shell since season 7. I just assumed he was their walker/GBF. If Andrew could find a place to come out, the world of fashion might be just that.

Andrew never quite shows himself to be sexual, but romantically, he's only shown interest in guys.