Gays Call X Rating for ‘Henry and June’ a Stigma : Movies: Media watchdog group says the label is unfair. Universal Pictures plans to appeal.

An X rating unfairly stigmatizes director Philip Kaufman’s upcoming film “Henry and June” as pornographic, a gay and lesbian media watchdog group is charging.

The Universal Pictures film is Kaufman’s adaptation of poet-novelist Anais Nin’s account of her love affair with writer Henry Miller and her obsession with Miller’s wife, June. Among the material that is believed to have triggered the X rating from the Motion Picture Assn. of America’s Classification & Ratings Administration are three intimate scenes between the two women.

In a letter to MPAA president Jack Valenti, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation charges that the X rating has come to be associated in the minds of the public with pornography and most likely would not have been given to comparable heterosexual scenes.

“Is there no room under the current rating system for realistic portrayals of physical intimacy between members of the same sex without the stigma of pornography?” the group asks in the letter.

GLAAD Los Angeles chapter executive director Richard Jennings said that Kaufman’s movie is a prime candidate for the group’s efforts in promoting fair representations on the screen “since it is from a major film company and made by respected artists.” Kaufman’s last film was the critically praised “The Unbearable Lightness of Being.”

Jennings said GLAAD is concerned that the MPAA rating board has “no reservations giving R (restricted audience) ratings to movies showing gays and lesbians being blown away by heroes in such movies as ‘Last Exit to Brooklyn’ and ‘House Party,’ ” the latter which, he said, contained an “anti-gay rap song.”

“The message we get,” Jennings added, “is that it is OK to show gays and lesbians getting killed, but if you show them as complete individuals who have physical intimacy, you get an X.”

Valenti, who has been in Europe, could not be reached for comment.

A spokesman for Universal said that the studio plans to appeal the X rating in early October. There is no release date set for the film, but it will have its premiere Friday at the Venice Film Festival in Italy.