Cecil, gay?

Cecil is gay and so is Mr. Beebe.

Now were they attracted to Lucy? Yes. But each in their own way but it wasn't sexual.

I think Mr. Beebe reacted badly to Cecil's announcement because he knew that Cecil would never be able to fully love Lucy in the way she deserved to be loved.

ETA: The book and film is about class differences. The only drawback to this wonderful version is that they tended to gloss over the class warfare. The film then became just about a girl growing up and finding true love. When it was really about a girl growing up and finding true love with a man below her class.

Emerson - Working Class
Lucy - Middle Class

It seems Cecil stands above them all and it was quite a score on Lucy's part to get engaged to him.

The question, I think,is sort of nonsensical, as all the characters are obviously fictional, all the while written by an author who was gay. I don't think any of the male characters in the story are supposed to be definitely gay, but I think they are all part of a reflection on what 'being gay'/liberated in a nonaccepting society means, or could mean.

Cecil is certainly one example of what having/feeling the need to inhibit your natural inclination could mean for your personality. But I'm fairly certain it was not the (gay) authors intent to make Cecil a definitely gay character.
I think he is meant to say something about inhibitions, and the sadness of taking them to heart to the point where you can no longer express or develop really warm emotions, because their natural life is the antithesis to inhibition.

As for the movie, I thought the most gay scene was the extreme and seemingly forced gayness ('carefree happyness') of the three men having a dip together, and suddenly acting all goofy and giddy around each other, for no other apparent reason than being naked and playing a bit with the water around two other naked men. That way of fast and sudden relinquishing of all sensible adult inhibition around men that you supposedly don't know all that well, just because you are naked with them in the water, strikes me as a pretty gay scene, in every sense of the word. If they had been old drinking buddies/ had had a less steep uninhibition, or had shown any hint of respectful caution around the personal limits of their unfamiliar company, the scene might just have suggested ordinary rowdy playfullness. As it were, it seemed sexually driven, and lacking the steady and hesitant buildup of a naturally playful relation, less the 'charged' atmosphere.

Of course he was gay. Not necessarily literally gay in the story, just codedly gay. This is Forster, after all. Codifying gay themes were his main reason for writing, as for many other writers, and the creators of this film were certainly tapping into that.

Besides the name-calling you appear to be trying to classify him as homosexual because he is unlikeable, and that's where your more political and judgemental opinion takes you. You offer no facts or observations to support your ignorant suggestion. "Such a homo?" Are you 12 yrs old? (Apologies to 12 yu olds.)

Cecil appears to be UNsexual, not homosexual. He is not getting close to the young attractive men in the house, he still wants to maintain his somewhat controlling relationship with Lucy. If he were gay, I'd expect him to enjoy her brother more, if not physically, at least visually. He certainly would not be enjoying a relationship of sorts with Lucy, trying to do his duty and begin a physical relationship, as difficult as this is for him. (BTW, gay guys are usually great kissers, not uptight, frigid ones. They just prefer kissing other men.) Cecil loves himself so much, there is not much room for anyone else. They've not given us any evidence he wants what he is too uptight to do with Lucy with men instead.

If he were gay, wouldn't he have been frolicking in the pond with the other guys--not that the younger brother and George were gay (they were just doing what they had done as kids on hot summer days. But the older minister chasing them seemed to have different overtones--tho I'm a woman and canno speak from experience)? The minister seemed to be closeted, and he jumped right in and chased the boys about, enhoying it more than he should have? The author would have taken that opportunity to identify Cecil as well, but he did not--he had him appear with the ladies, in his role as Lucy's fiance and her mom's soon-to-be-son-in-law...protective, shocked...NOT titillated or checking anyone out, NO wistful looks, etc.

OP, I can say in this age a guy saying someone sounds like such a homo is a red flag that you are dealing with homosexual feelings. If you were hetero, why would you care?

Do I think Cecil is gay? I think it is a STRONG possibility. After all this is EM Forster, and in his novel "Maurice" he made out that the high brow upperclass Clive was devoid of sexuality, because he was actually gay. In fact Cecil had many characteristics of Clive.

As for the fight about what some homophobes are writing... I'm gay and calling me homosexual is to me inoffensive. Calling me a homo is a jab, but I'm far too sophisticated to let that junior high name calling get to me. Sad to see these homophobes trying to destroy what actually could have been an intelligent conversation, but I've never known a homophobe to be all that intelligent.

Homo?

Freddy invited George for a bathe at first meeting, grabbed onto him twice in the pond, and then invited George to chase him naked around the pond. Later Freddy admitted being quite smitten with George. Freddy certainly was an interesting, fun loving character. Remember, at that time a gay man in the UK could be thrown in prison, and several decades before that men in the UK were still being hung by the neck until dead if accused and found guilty of gay sex.

As far as Mr. Vyse, or even Freddy, no, I never saw the story portraying them as gay.

Daniel’s character in this film and in his last film Phantom Thread have effeminate mannerisms but are attracted to women.

I thought the preacher guy might be gay though.