Production has started for Michael,
the upcoming film based on the life of “ex-gay” activist Michael
Glatze.
Glatze is the controversial publisher
and former gay rights advocate who gained notoriety for publicly
renouncing being gay.
Glatze and former boyfriend Benjie
Nycum in 2004 launched Young Gay America magazine (YGA
Mag), a bimonthly magazine for LGBT youth which folded three
years later. The pair, who met while working at XY
magazine, also co-authored the book XY Survival Guide.
The film is being produced by Gus Van
Sant. It stars James Franco in the lead role and out actor Zachary
Quinto (Star Trek Into Darkness, American Horror Story) as
Nycum.
On Sunday, Franco posted on Instagram
two images from the set.
“My new lover, SPOCK!” he captioned
a photo of himself in a car with Quinto.
In
a second photo of himself, he wrote: “New Film: Michael
Gay Activist Mode.”
In 2005, Glatze was featured in Time
magazine as a gay rights activist. Two years later, he publicly
announced he no longer identified as gay and denounced homosexuality
in two WND.com articles. In one article, he pledged to fight against
gay rights.