As a gay man, I'm not automatically offended if a straight (or bisexual) actor portrays a gay character -- as long as he does the portrayal justice, and refrains from pandering to people's homophobic tendencies offscreen (*cough!* Kerr Smith *cough!*), then I'll take it.

However, I do agree there is something spiritually empowering about seeing another openly gay person cast as a gay character, and then really killing it in the role. Just sort of a "You go, bro!" form of vicarious camaraderie.

But, overall, I'm fine with straight actors in gay roles as long as the character doesn't end up getting tokenized.