‘Home Improvement’s’ Al Borland Needs To Be A Gay Icon

I’ve been waiting for Home Improvement to hit a streaming service for years. Not because I’m a particularly big fan of the show, although my memories of the Taylor family take up prime real estate in my brain’s nostalgia town. No, I have been waiting for it to stream because that’s the way Kids These Days^TM discover shows of yesteryear, and I have long believed that Home Improvement’s burly and bearded Al Borland (played with doofy dignity by Richard Karn) is a gay icon in waiting.

You read me right: a damn gay icon in waiting. When Home Improvement hit Hulu almost a month ago, the time finally seemed right for a bunch of Generation Z gays to discover the wonder that is Al and flood Twitter with GIFs. As far as I can tell from my corner of Gay Twitter^TM, that has not happened yet. I want this to happen, and thankfully my job affords me a platform to preach the Gospel of Borland. So, here we are. Brace yourselves for GIFs and incongruously studly early ’90s promo photos!

First thing’s first: I know Al Borland isn’t gay. I remember his multi-season relationship with orthodontist Dr. Ilene Markham. Pssh, as if I didn’t spend every Tuesday from 1991 to 1998 watching Tim Allen grunt his way through calamities. I’m not new here! But as I’ve rewatched Home Improvement over the years as I’ve come into my own as a sometimes-bearded, plaid-wearing gay, Mr. Borland grabs my attention now. That’s because while he’s not canonically gay, he is one of the absolute best masculinity role models in all of sitcom history. That’s why there are actually two cases to make here, and I’ll start with the more all-encompassing one:

• Al Borland is the manly man that every wannabe manly man should aspire to be.

Masculinity is a hell of a thing. Even though it’s carved out of granite and beef jerky, it buckles under the slightest pressure. Wear a color outside of the black/gray/navy/khaki rainbow? Wuss. Show any emotional vulnerability? Sissy. Treat women like human beings? Whipped. Show interest in anything outside of sports? Wimp. Masculinity is so fragile that companies release the exact same products in black packaging just to trick men into buying girly things like earplugs, yogurt, and tissues.

Al Borland doesn’t have time for any of that noise–a feat made all the more impressive considering he almost exclusively shares scenes with proud caveman Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor. That’s the dynamic they have on show-within-a-show Tool Time: Tim, hyped up on machismo, pumps everything he touches up with so much man-power that it explodes in his (well, usually Al’s) face. Al, on the other hand, plays the grounding force, reigning Tim in with an unwavering “I don’t think so, Tim.”

This is what makes Al the best. His masculinity is unflappable, and he is without a doubt more knowledgable than Tim in every area of manly expertise. Tim’s role is showman, Al’s role is getting shit done. But on top of that, Al contains boundless enthusiasm, compassion, and–most importantly–sensitivity. He doesn’t buy into the bologna that women are inscrutable nags, and he is just as passionate about bingo as he is about sports. Tim’s masculinity is confined by tradition, whereas Al’s comfortably exists alongside bad puns, a chunky chortle of a laugh, and his close bond with his mother.

When gay men come out, we have to do a lot of reckoning with masculinity and how we relate to it. Traditional ideas of masculinity tells us we can’t like a lot of stuff (even innocuous things like the color purple and hugging). Tim’s all about traditional masculinity, and a lot of Home Improvement deals with his struggle to preserve that masculinity in the face of, like, everything. Al doesn’t have that problem. Al’s confident in his abilities as a handy man, and he will proudly show off the teacup cabinet he made for his mother, okay? Al shows straight men that their masculinity doesn’t have to be restrictive, and Al shows gay men that lean more towards the macho that there is room for them in masculinity as well as any fabulous flourishes they may have. Al Borland is a masculinity icon, everybody!

What’s great and stealthily progressive about Home Improvement is that no matter how much Tim dogs Al (and Al’s mother–leave her alone, Tool Man!), the Detroit metropolitan area f’ing loves Al Borland.  He gets wheelbarrows full of fan mail, Tim’s own kids recognize Al as the real star of Tool Time, and women find Mr. Borland unbelievably sexy. That brings me to my next, very gay, point:

• Al Borland is sexy. Like, real sexy.

Why, you ask? Well, did you read the previous point I made? Maybe Al isn’t sexy and he knows it, but he’s confident in his manliness and he knows it–and that’s hot. Al’s the kinda guy that doesn’t judge, the kinda guy that wants–and succeeds–at being an actual nice guy. He’s also deeply into commitment and romantic love, and he ain’t afraid who knows it! He wants to hear violins and accordions (yes, accordions) when he finds that special guy gal!

And then, I mean, just look at him.

Just as certain gay men have adopted straight sitcom starslike John Goodman and Nick Offerman into the ranks of Gay Icon-dom, the same needs to be done for Al. Not only does he sport a beard so sweet it’s eye candy, he fills out the best plaid shirts outside of Portland. ’90s Richard Karn is essentially a model for married bears/fashion designers Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra.

Tool Time? More like drool time.

So, Al Borland is a manly man totally in touch with his softer side, and he’s hot to boot. I also posit, to the imagined Gay Tribunal that gets to decide who gets into the Gay Pantheon, that it’s incredibly easy to do what all LGBTQ people deprived of representation have to do and read queerness into Al Borland (even though he is, duh, canonically straight). For one thing, he’s a man in his mid-30s that is still a bachelor, close with his mother, and not afraid to express his feelings and dole out hugs when warranted. All that actually makes Al the sweetest boyfriend ever to the few women he dates across Home Improvement’s eight seasons, but I’m sure it also made Al a flannel-wearing beacon of hope for a bunch of gay teenagers back when the show was originally airing, back before we had actual gay characters in network sitcoms.

As if all that wasn’t proof enough of Al’s gay bonafides, his signature phrase makes for perfect response GIFs on Twitter!

“Real men know a woman’s place is in the kitchen!”

“If a superhero was white in the ’60s, they should be white today!”

“Guys will be guys, right?”

“Actually it’s about ethics in local TV programming!”

“Homosexuality is a disease!”

Al is the gift that keeps on GIFing, and he’s your new gay icon. Gay or straight, go forth and celebrate the complex, beautiful man that is Al Borland, and may he help shape future generations of men.

Also, like, that’s a forearm right there.

Watch Home Improvement on Hulu