23/10/2025
Born to be a sissy, but say what you wanna — he’s here to stay. 🦁 Oscar-nominated actor and certified red-carpet provocateur Colman Domingo steps into Oz as the Cowardly Lion in : For Good, joining a gilded lineage of lions who’ve carved their legacies as kings of the forest — from Bert Lahrand Ted Ross to Gregg Baker, Nathan Lane, David Alan Grier, and beyond somewhere over the rainbow. Director Jon M. Chu revealed he slid into Domingo’s DMs back in March during Wicked reshoots, asking if he’d lend his voice to the forest’s fiercest king.
When first debuted the character in The Wizard of Oz (1939), he gave Hollywood its earliest “sissy” archetype in fur. His hand flutters, nervous shakes, and soft-spoken theatricality were a pre-Stonewall cipher for q***rness hiding in plain sight.
“If I Only Had the Nerve” was practically a coming-out ballad disguised as self-help, “Yeah, it’s sad, believe me Missy / When you’re born to be a sissy. Without the vim and verve”. And don’t forget when he carried with that ceramic crown on top of his salon fresh curls and opulent cape. He felt like CAWNT!!! In an era when “pansy acts” were being pushed off vaudeville stages and into underground clubs, Lahr’s Lion slipped through censorship wrapped in MGM fantasy.
When donned the mane for The Wiz on stage and film (1975–1978), he took the subtext of Black liberation and q***r coded liberation nightlife and eased it on down the road. His Lion wasn’t apologizing, he was testifying. “Cause if he happens to let you slide, don’t stand there — run and hide.” Ross’s portrayal crafted a hard exterior turning cowardice into charisma, the very thing q***r men had learned to weaponize for survival. The performance lived at the intersection of Broadway flamboyant polish, Butch Queen defiance with the cadence of a Baptist preacher. On stage, he won a Tony; on screen, he won immortality.
Enter , one of Hollywood’s most visible talents that happens to be Black+ Q***r, after nearly a century of the Lion’s q***rness lived in code is decoding for a new generation. No Shade, most importantly you know the red-carpet looks are gonna be Wicked!
