Only a queer would look at Peter Pan and decide he’s a queer icon.
I had a similar email discussion the other day with someone along these lines. We had been discussing old movies and he was writing about his love of the old Laurel and Hardy movies. He wrote to me that there was a documentary called The Celluloid Closet, about homosexuality as depicted over the years in cinema. He said that L&H were underground heroes of the gay community. He pointed out one scene where Stan’s wife was annoyed with him (what’s new, right?), and he says to Ollie “She thinks I love you more than I love her.” And Ollie responds with something like, “Let’s not discuss that.” Now, Ollie’s response could just simply have been more in the nature of Let’s just not go that direction, but others saw it differently, I guess.
Anyway, my response to my friends was very much like yours: Only a deviant would look at the great Laurel and Hardy and see a gay couple.