No, the Joe character was not gay, although if he was it would make no diffrence to me. He showed in several Stooge films he was partial to females. He did however portray someone who was very childish and a "sissy". Also somewhat effeminate like some gay men are. But I've known gay men who were very masculine, so that's not a good indicator of whether a guy is gay or not. It wasn't his fault he didn't mesh well the Stooges, he was just miscast. Jules White thought Curly was the whole act, so when they needed a new 3rd Stooge he thought of Besser because he was childish and fat, like Curly.