Independence Day and the gays

This is in reply to a forum post on IMDb.

There was Capt. Jimmy Wilder (Harry Connick, Jr.), a fighter pilot and best buddy of Hiller (Will Smith). Wilder is used as this "fun sidekick", but is never directly said to be gay, despite sometimes unintentionally creating or getting into gay situations, including his on-screen mannerisms that suggested gayness. Because of the ambiguity around Wilder's sexuality, the gays can take it that Wilder was gay, and straight people can argue that he wasn't, and that he was just comic relief.

Yet the characterization of Wilder showed him as gay to the best of my mind, then two years into Don't Ask Don't Tell (at which time I didn't know anything about), so he was the non-offensive gay character to me, despite all the ambiguity.

The end result is that I remember that for a very long time this was the only big sci-fi blockbuster that featured gays in a positive light in the military, or anywhere at all in the movie space of the genre. Wilder was then killed, and Smith was outraged. And that was that.

In conclusion, the scene between Wilder and Hiller of the proposal that wasn't was one of the cutest in the movie.