In what has been billed Oscar's "year of the queer," the romancing cowboys of "Brokeback" are joined by "Capote," the story of gay US author Truman Capote, and "Transamerica," the moving tale of a transsexual in the process of becoming a woman, starring Felicity Huffman.

And as this year's pink contenders for Sunday's Academy Awards have been warmly embraced by both awards show juries and audiences, at least two more gay-related films are already in the works.

"Infamous," also about Capote, stars Gwyneth Paltrow and James Bond star Daniel Craig and is due for release this year, while a top producer last month bought the rights to Peter Lefcourt's novel "The Dreyfus Affair," about a major league baseball player who falls in love with his second baseman.

"Before 'Brokeback,' Hollywood wouldn't touch gay love stories, no-one wanted to spend the money or weather the criticism," said author Patricia Nell Warren who published "The Front Runner," a novel about two gay track athletes, in 1974, and followed it with a story about gay cowboys two years later.

"A number of projects have been out there for some time but everyone was too scared to touch them. Now Hollywood is seeing that you can make money with a film about gay people, and it's opening the door to other projects," she told AFP.

In addition to the rash of gay-themed films, country legend Willie Nelson has issued a single about gay cowboys called "Cowboys are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)."

And more than 30 years after "Frontrunner" shocked US readers unwilling to believe that athletes could be gay, Warren says she is seeing renewed interest in her book, as well as speculation of a movie version with Paul Newman.

"My book was back on the Amazon best-seller list shortly after 'Brokeback,'" she said.

"Brokeback's" popularity is so widespread that the catchphrase uttered by cowboy Jack Twist to his secret lover of 20 years, "I wish I knew how to quit you!," is being bandied about in offices and bar-rooms across America.

The film leads the Oscars posse with eight nods including best picture, best director for Ang Lee and best actor for Heath Ledger, while Capote has five, including best picture and best actor for Philip Seymour Hoffman.

"Transamerica" scored two nods including best actress for Huffman, while all three low-budget movies, while not in blockbuster-style release, have been generally well received by audiences.

But only 24 years ago, director Arthur Hiller's drama "Making Love," about a married doctor who discovers he is bisexual, caused movie-goers to leave theatres when the lead character kissed another man in 1982.

And while films such as the 1993 AIDS tale "Philadelphia" with Tom Hanks and 1999's "Boys Don't Cry" touched on gay issues, they never tackled the love stories and were never nominated for a best picture Oscar.

Now that Hollywood has finally opened its arms to gay stories it will continue pursuing them, awards expert Tom O'Neil predicted.

"Gay people still suffer discrimination because of who they are and Hollywood now feels its important to keep fighting that battle, especially with a conservative administration in power in Washington," he told AFP.

Gay groups applauded the recognition that the crop of gay-related movies has given the homosexual community on screen, saying Hollywood is finally catching up with reality.

But Larry Gross, a professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communications, said that a few films with gay characters did not mean Hollywood was ready to come out of the closet.

He pointed out that all the actors playing the gay or transgender characters in "Brokeback," "Capote" and "Transamerica" were avowedly straight, while there are few, if any, A-list Hollywood stars who are openly homosexual.

He pointed out that the explosion of quality black roles in Hollywood that many industry observers predicted when Halle Berry and Denzel Washington won the best actress and actor Oscars in 2002 has not materialised.

"Gay stories are making money this year, but I'm not sure Hollywood's really ready for widespread gay content in films yet," he said.