Are gay movies still in the closet?

''The script just didn't hit the mark,'' counters a Disney spokesperson. ''It wasn't a political decision where we said we'd never make this movie.'' Maybe not. But if Disney's 180 was politically motivated, it wouldn't be a shock. Mouse execs are getting flak from right wingers for extending gay-partner benefits to employees; in addition, Disney is part owner of the California Angels, and major league baseball comes off as the story's villain.

Despite the strikeout of The Dreyfus Affair (over the last few months, the script was shopped to several other studios, to no avail), about 30 other gay-themed films are in the pipeline — many dealing with AIDS or gay martyrdom. Among the more high-profile:

— Next year, Fine Line will release Love! Valour! Compassion!, a low-budget comedy based on Terrence McNally's Tony award-winning play about eight gay men sharing a clothing-optional beach house. The biggest name in the cast: Seinfeld's Jason Alexander, who stepped in when Nathan Lane stepped out. ''It's the most flamboyantly gay role in the piece,'' says Alexander. ''I didn't want to be offensive, or a cliche. That was my biggest fear in taking the part.''

— Director P.J. Hogan (Muriel's Wedding) will shoot Angels in America, based on Tony Kushner's sprawling, award-winning play about gay men with AIDS, a project at one time earmarked for Robert Altman. The two-part, seven-hour play will yield two movies.

— The Mayor of Castro Street, an ages-in-development bio of slain San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, may also finally get made by To Die For director Gus Van Sant, who, ironically, was slated to direct the film years ago but dropped out during a bout of creative differences. ''We never had any resistance from Warner Bros.'' on the subject matter, says producer Craig Zadan. ''It was always just about finding the right director and cast.''

— Kevin Kline has just signed to appear in In & Out, about a star who, in his Oscar acceptance speech, outs a small-town teacher. (Tom Hanks, that is your beeper). There'll be no frilly dresses and no sad ending. But promises screenwriter Paul Rudnick (Jeffrey), there will be kissing: ''We'll have a tongue-cam.''

In fact, attitudes that were commonplace just a few years ago — including the old saw that playing a gay character could hurt an actor's career — seem to be eroding as well. Lois & Clark's Dean Cain, who chose to spend his series hiatus playing a gay bank robber in a low-budget drama called Independence, says: ''I probably wouldn't have taken a gay character at the beginning of my career. But now it's a much easier choice. This character is an action guy — that's a really comfortable place for me. The fact that he's gay is secondary.''

''There are still taboos,'' says Richard Jennings, executive director of Hollywood Supports, a gay advocacy group. ''Especially intimacy between two men. It's like the old taboo against interracial romance. But I think that will disappear over the next couple years.''

(Reported by Kristen Baldwin and Steve Daly)