Gay Movies
I went to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Film Festival at the Mission in San Francisco. The movies were the usual “Woe is me, how hard it is to be gay in America” at worst, and a fun/funny home movie of “How the local LGBT community taught me to love myself” at best. Excuse me, but I just have to roll my eyes in boredom.
Onscreen someone was complaining about how hard it is meeting new people and trying to decide whether to tell them he’s gay or not. Now, why all this unnecessary drama? When a close friend finally came out to me after two years of knowing each other, I just said, “Of course. I knew all along.” He was shocked, “Is it *that* obvious?” I’m like, “Who cares?” Unless I’m interested in having sexual relations with someone, I just don’t feel the need to let them in on my sexual preferences.
I’m not belittling the plight of gay people all over the world. Sure, gay people get depressed, ostracized, even killed in isolated incidents. But so do straight people for one reason or another. Every one needs love and recognition, no matter what race, gender or sexual orientation. Making movies about how difficult it is to be gay only keeps gay people in their little marginalized societies. It offers no way out, no silver lining on the cloud of complaints about the injustices in our society.
Young gay filmmakers should learn from two of my favorite movies: Hedwig and The Angry Inch, and Priscilla Queen of the Desert. The fact that the characters are gay is just icing on the cake. The true substance of these two films are rooted in universal themes: the search for love in this world, and the resilience of the human spirit.
