Yes, Buddy was gay

While this film was purposefully ambiguous in many regards, there is still sufficient evidence to determine that Buddy was gay. Buddy was not in love with Anne. Like his sister, Buddy was infatuated with Harris, and unable to get over him.

Why this doesn't work for many viewers? There are two major reasons. One is plain heteronormativity. Unless something is literally labeled "GAY" with a neon green light, many people just dismiss it. I won't get into this, but it's alive and well so I'm putting it out there.

The other reason, which I feel is more important, is that the film had many flaws in terms of writing and characterization, and one of it's major flaws was the characterization (and casting) of Harris.

Harris was supposed to be this brilliant charming man who was able to get Lila, Buddy, and Anne to all fall in love with him. Instead, we had this cardboard, two dimensional character. Because he was hardly anything to write home about, it was harder to believe Buddy, of all people, could have actually been in love with him too. "What so special about Harris?" viewers wonder and then realize. "Oh, that's right. NOTHING."

Had the film presented us a more charming and magnetic character, it would have been easier for us to understand the crossover appeal of this character with women AND men.


Nevertheless, there is still plenty of evidence why Buddy was gay/bisexual.


Buddy's Note
Symbolically, the greatest evidence we have that Buddy is not in love with Anne is the note that he carries with him. He carries this note, we're to assume, because it reminds Buddy of Anne. If you are in love with someone, and you choose a token of them to hold onto for 4 years, it would have some kind of meaning behind it, perhaps reflect the soul of the person you love. Buddy's note does none of this. In fact, it's holds nothing but meaningless drivel on it; and Anne herself labels the note as "stupid." The note is as empty as Buddy's romantic feelings are for Anne. He holds onto it, because he wants to appear normal and abide by the rules of the society he lives in, the same way Lila agrees to marry someone she's clearly not in love with. Buddy tries to do this grand romantic gesture, but he does it wrong, and Anne sees right through it.


Buddy's "Pretty Thought" Line
During Buddy's confession to Anne about his feelings for her, she tells him if he likes boys it's okay, and he responds, "Isn't that a pretty thought?" This line is important because it belies this sadness and melancholy sentiment about the society in which he lives. No, it's not "okay" for men to want to kiss men. Anne only believes that because she's idealistic and naive. She's never had to deal with the societal pressures that both Buddy and Lila have to face.

Anne's Epiphany
In the movie we see Anne piece together her own theory about Buddy. This is a character who knows Buddy very well. They been best friends for years, and she's also seen the night's events play out first-hand. The conclusion she comes to is meaningful. And her conclusion is that Buddy is using her. He is doing the same thing Lila is doing. They are both following through on what is expected of them, not what they truly want. Lila loves Harris but she's expected to married her fiance; she follows through. Buddy loves Harris but homosexuality is wrong; so he tries to follow through with Anne. But she see through him, and tells him, "If you want to kiss boys, do it." Of course, it's not that simple. It's Anne being idealistic and naive again. For Buddy it's even more difficult, because he has spent years convincing himself that he's in love with Anne and he's doing it out of self-preservation, too. Can you imagine just letting that go? Your illusion that you're normal, that things will be okay, suddenly gone? Buddy hasn't been strong enough to let it go, and he's ended up confused and miserable as a result. Had he lived, he may have had this epiphany later in his life, too, that he missed out on being his true self, but it wasn't his fault. He could have been braver, more idealistic, but he chose to be safe, and ironically that led to his death. Had Buddy not been suppressing his sexuality; had Buddy not been miserable; he never would have wandered drunk in the road.

Buddy's Kiss
The physical act of Buddy kissing Harris is meaningful. There is no reason to include Buddy kissing another man. Yet this is what happens. In context of our society, it's not difficult to imagine why a gay man would cling onto a heterosexual ideal as Buddy did with Anne. Anne is what Buddy should have wanted; what any man should have wanted. We can understand why he would try to convince himself to be with Anne even if he didn't truly love her. But why would a heterosexual man in love with a woman kiss another man? Then later say he had a crush on him? You try to reduce the character as just being a drunkard and thus render all his actions meaningless, but I would argue he was living his life with the most meaning and the most emotion, even if that emotion was misery. Mentally, he had given into the system, "love Anne; be with Anne" but emotionally, his life was wrecked because he was not being true to himself. And he lived every second of that movie feeling something intense while other characters were just floating through their lives.

Buddy's Unhappiness
The depth of Buddy's unhappiness and his constant need to drink is telling. This is not a result of Anne. Anne arrives and Buddy is already drinking and seems terribly unhappy. He immediately uses her to try to channel that away, but it's present. Now, before Anne meets Harris, Anne is single and not dating anyone. She and Buddy are best friends and were Buddy truly in love with Anne there was no obstacle to making that romance a reality. Instead, Anne arrives and although they share moments together, Buddy's main obsession is always Lila and Harris, and his misery is present from start to finish. Buddy is using Lila just as he is using Anne, though for different purposes. Anne is his ticket to secure a "normal" life and Lila is his ticket to vicariously fulfill what he actually desires, happiness with Harris.

Buddy's love of Harris
Buddy's love for Harris is evident throughout the film. His face lights up every time he sees him; he talks about him frequently, and finds anything excuse to bring him up. I've heard other people label it "hero worshipping" but that's hard to believe being as the character isn't actually heroic. Were he simply a hero, then everyone around him would be prone to the same hero worshipping but instead we are told directly from Lila that many of Harris' acts are "only" impressive to Buddy.


***

Buddy was written as ambiguously homosexual with enough subtext too fill in the gaps. However, nothing was clearly defined. IMO, you're supposed to feel as confused as Buddy is. The film is good, but the script could have been better, and the characterization of a lot of characters just wasn't good. If Harris had been more appealing, it would have been easier to understand how Buddy could have fallen in love with him.

Nevertheless, if you remove the queer element to the character of Buddy, you are literally left with a spoiled drunk who had no reason to be so chronically depressed.

As a character, Buddy has so much against him - he's miserable, an alcoholic, prone to emotional outbursts, postures romance with Anne, secretly crushes on Harris, engages in emotional manipulation through childish acts such as jumping off the cliff, and on and on. He's not easy to love on the surface. Yet, all of that really takes a backseat once we understand why the character is in pain. You understand that he is suppressing who he really is and his real desires and drowning himself in alcohol because of it.

Were Buddy the main character of the movie, he may have survived, and lived long enough to look back on his life, and see what changed in him from this time in the 50s to the present. Would he have embraced his sexuality? Married Harris? Found someone better? Live a long and happy life?

It's nice to imagine an alternate reality where Buddy didn't die and was instead given the chance to lead a life that was true to who he was on the inside.