I was a kid in 1997, but I know it was a different time and Stephen King seems like he would be progressive, but that plot point was stronger here and wrecked the mini series for me. Maybe, it was just him being apart of party/vain life styles, which do have some gay people in them. It would have been better to have gay heroes too.
He may have written better gay characters later though and people change to be more accepting.
What is it that you're actually talking about?
shareOne of the ghosts who badgered Jack was gay. In the book, this is mentioned that he had some old lover he lead on (learned that on line) and in the mini series he's mean to a so called "friend". The ghost girl Jack flirts with implies that the friend is a lover.
shareYou obviously are referring to the book since they don't really touch on that in the miniseries, but to answer your question:
Referring to the characters - No. Having a homosexual villain and being afraid of that same villain (as they try to take over your family and mind) is not homophobia. They weren't afraid of ghosts because of the ghost's sexual preferences.
Referring to the writers - No, don't be silly and unfair. Furthermore, adding a homosexual hero just "because" would be bad writing.
It is covered in the mini series, like when the ghost woman says he found a "friend". I think making the only gay character a villain is dated, leaning towards homophobia. He's apart of vain party life.
shareAs viewers/readers we don't know if he is the only gay character. Perhaps the kind doctor who lives in town is gay? You may be overthinking it.
As a side note, Mr. King seems to be a very forward thinking individual and I'm sure his intent was to entertain and not purposefully force a "gay bad guy" trope on all of us. ;)
Anyone in there could be gay, like you said, but the only guy we know of is a villain. Stephen King is someone I consider forward thinking too, but it was the 90s (and older, when he wrote the book) and if I was to sit down and write something society and my time would affect me too. I just wish there had been a clearly good set of gay characters to balance things out.
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There are some sick gay people out there, but there are also people capable of beautifully falling in love with another person of the same gender.
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