Alonso Duralde recently joked to me that this year will offer the spectacle of the gayest Oscar race in history, and he should know hes the author of the new book “101 Must-See Movies for Gay Men (Advocate Books, $14.95). Though Ive known Alonso for almost two decades (a fact dropped to make both of us feel old), as a straight guy, Im not allowed to use puns like Oscar, is that a sword in your hands, or are you just GLAAD to see me?? So Ill just let Alonso talk us through this years Oscar race.

Alonso and I worked together in Dallas in the 1980s, where he came out to a group of newspaper entertainment writers: Imagine a 20-something admitting hes gay in Texas, in the 80s, in his first major newspaper job and youll get an idea of Alonsos brass. His book offers funny essays on films ranging from obvious choices to quirky entries, such as the Liz-Taylor-and-Richard-Burton bomb “Boom!” to “Fight Club” to “Jackass: The Movie.” Today, when hes not busy counting his book royalties, hes the arts and entertainment editor of The Advocate. Herewith, his insights:

Q: You’ve called this the gayest Oscar race in history, and even neophytes are beginning to realize that, but could you just point out some of the more engaging points of your argument?

A: Admittedly, I’m being somewhat facetious when I say it, but when “Brokeback Mountain” is the movie dominating the general awards season conversation — and then, on top of that, you have Philip Seymour and Felicity doing the Hoffman-Huffman one-two in the acting categories, playing, respectively, one of America’s most legendary gay authors and a transgender woman — then it’s all about what bloggers like to refer to as “The Ghey.” The Golden Globes even threw in Cillian Murphy’s trans performance in Neil Jordan’s underseen “Breakfast on Pluto” for good measure.

Q: In your estimation, how can Brokeback Mountain? NOT win the Best Picture Oscar at this point? Is there something you liked better?

A: There’s always the possibility that “Brokeback” seemed like such a done deal early on that Academy voters might assume it’s a shoo-in and vote for something else. But certainly, from where we’re standing right now, it’s the movie to beat. “Brokeback” was my favorite movie of 2005, but it’s got two very close runners-up: “Capote” and Gregg Araki’s powerful, heartbreaking “Mysterious Skin.”

Q: The Globes this year were far more political than before — films like Syriana,? Good Night, and Good Luck.? and Munich? all pointed to issues that seem to me to be of far more urgency to Americans. Yet Brokeback Mountain,? which in its artistry assiduously seemed to avoid political commentary, seemed to inspire more op-ed pieces than those other films that were gunning for them. What’s your take? Was the idea of gay rights simply more palatable than anti-Bush-administration propaganda (the anti-gay thing having pretty much disappeared after he got re-elected)?

A: I think there are two kinds of political movies — you’ve got your “Fahrenheit 9/11″s and your “Syriana”s that wear their politics on their sleeves, and then you’ve got your “Passion of the Christ”s and your “Brokeback Mountain”s that, due to their very subject matter, just wind up pushing people’s buttons. In the case of “Brokeback,” I think many people have had to face, for the first time, the idea that being gay is about love as much as it’s about sex, and that’s something that the demonizing evangelical Christian Right would just as soon you not think about. People have also had to grapple with the whole “gay cowboy” paradigm — If I love Westerns, will my Real Man status be compromised be seeing this film? Is America ready for representations of gays that goes beyond the minstrelsy of “Will & Grace”? Is Hollywood cramming its lefty perversions down the nation’s throat? These questions, and more, have piqued a lot of pundits’ imaginations.

Q: What was your take on all the will-BBM?-play-to-the-heartland stories? And is there a reason, beyond the artful storytelling, that audiences country-wide are embracing the film?

A: There has been a thriving queer independent cinema movement for at least 15 years in this country, but since most of those films don’t get theatrical play outside of major urban centers that have thriving gay populations, no one ever asked if those movies would sell “tix to hix in the stix,” as Variety might have once put it. And I don’t think anyone worried that the cartoonish antics of “The Birdcage” or “In & Out” wouldn’t play in red-state America either. But in “Brokeback,” you have almost a perfect storm — acclaimed director, hot actors (with firmly-established hetero credentials), and Larry by-god McMurtry, even. So since there was a chance that “Brokeback” *could* do well around the country, that opened the whole discussion. In the final analysis, people are going to see “Brokeback” for the reasons they went out to see “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” or any other movie that defied demographic expectations — it’s a good movie, and people are telling other people to go see it.

Q: The New York Times recently ran a story that suggested that the film was meeting with resistance in some portions of the country, that it was still controversial, though most evidence seems to suggest that mainstream audiences are OK with it. Who do you believe? And if it’s not the NYT, why do you think the paper insisted on positing the film as still controversial?

A: I think sometimes the media can be late in getting the memo about what people in general really think. Commentators like to think they shape public opinion — and, occasionally, they do — but I think that for the most part, the public leads and the opinion-makers play catch-up. So while a movie like “Brokeback” can seem controversial on its face to people who see the nation in black and white — or blue and red — it doesn’t take into account all the brave LGBT folks in all the small towns who are starting gay-straight alliances in high schools and who are being honest about their lives to their friends and families and communities. The box office numbers prove that America is ready for “Brokeback Mountain” and ready to treat gays and lesbians like human beings. Not that there aren’t still several major bumps in the road, of course, but things are improving all the time.

Q: Do you consider BBM? ground-breaking, or just a really good movie? Or, of course, both?

A: Well, it’s really good, no question. I don’t know that it’s thematically ground-breaking, in the sense that there have been so many other notable gay-themed films, but it’s certainly the right movie at the right time. “Brokeback” arrives at a time in the national dialogue when the queer community is becoming more and more welcome at the big table. And I think the film has the potential to be the “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” of gay marriage — Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel opened many people’s eyes to the evils of racism, and I think “Brokeback” shows people that there’s a real, human cost to bigotry and homophobia.

Q: What’re your takes on Capote? and Transamerica?? Can they win Acting Oscars or will Academy members fret that they’re honoring too many “gay” films in one year?

A: I don’t think Academy members operate with that much of an agenda. I mean, no one worried about honoring two African-American lead performances a few years back. Ultimately, I’d like to think they’re picking the best performances, and the best ones this year — and I still think Heath Ledger will be serious competition for Hoffman in the Best Actor category — happen to be queer characters.

Q: Why should everyone who knows how to read buy your book?

A: At least three different people have told me I’ve written the best bathroom book ever written, and that’s a money quote right there. But I hope people find my book funny and informative. I’m the kind of person who gets asked by friends to make them lists for going to the video store or creating their Netflix queue, so now I’ve finally found a way for people to pay me to do it.