Ten years after: Even more of a fantasy

First off- I love this film. It's funny and warm. It's everything that people should be, in a situation such as this, about a minority who many don't understand, and who many more, actively DON'T WANT to be understood. The fact that most people AREN'T homosexual naturally makes some people uncomfortable with it- as the film depicts, and then rises above. Unfortunately, our society hasn't risen above it's own paranoia, and as one being there, so to speak, In & Out now seems even more of a fantasy than it did on it's release- as the fuss about being gay and gay rights have been much more actively attacked in the intervening years.

In 1997, "ELLEN" was still keeping viewers wondering if the lead character was in fact gay- the first network television show of it's kind. The miltary's Gay Agenda report had been issued just a few years before this, and there wasn't a constant ongoing political argument about gays as there is now. The twin towers in New York had not then tumbled down, and there wasn't a climate of war to give more weight to the anti-gay "Gay Agenda" report. (I just did a search of "gay agenda" on Google- ten pages of links in, and no mention of the original report- just a lot of pros and cons on the contentious debate- the term has become a mantra of the paranoid reactionary.) In 1997, Jerry Springer was really into the "fighting" phase, and fussy audience members and guests were physically striking at each other and being separated by "security" as if it were all normal behavior. Were the smiles smiles of amusement, or was the whole thing fake? Did it matter? Once more on TV: "gay" (or different) and fuss, fuss, fuss!!

As a transgendered person- that program seemed to make all the difference in the world- as sophmoric as it was, I can divide my own experience in living in this world into pre and post Jerry Springer. There was an incredible difference when that show came on. When I was studying Communications and media at Indiana University in the '70s, they told us that there was no correlation to violence on televison and in real life (and it was somehow a Liberal claim) I didn't really believe that there couldn't possibly be ANY correlation then, and Jerry then made that clear to me- The "diss" was rising fast! It was a public knee-jerk reaction to something airing twice a day and stirring their passions.

I was living in Hollywood then- alone again, naturally- and although occasionally attending Transgender support groups, I wasn't at all active in Gay Rights- in fact Transgendered had just then earned an "official" staus within the gay community dialogue. But just about that time I heard of a peaceful protest being planned dower in front of Paramount, about Dr. Laura (Schleschinger is it?) who was moving from radio into television and they quoted a few things anti-gay she'd said. I was then getting fed up with what I was seeing in the media- forever "liberal" we are told- and so I thought I might like to go down there and take a look and lend my support. So I made a poster board sign- "Entertainment- Not Hate" I figured it was better than some thoughts I'd had about chaining myself naked to the Chinese Theatre after seeing a trailer and hearing the song "Dude Looks Like a Lady" when "Mrs. Doubtfire" opened there.

Down at Paramount there were more gay supporters than not- but I was surprised by the size and vocality of the counter protesters (Being LA and West Hollywood right down the street and all), and while most of the passing motorists expressed support for the gays, the incident got a critical anti-gay reaction in MAD Magazine, I later stumbled across and which always seemed liberal when I read it religiously as a kid.

A recent search of "gay activism" on the net revealed that there is just about as much along the "anti-gay" lines as along the gay support lines listed, and when searching for legal support, I couldn't find any on the net for Indiana. In fact the LBGT web link for gay synpathetic lawyers (found only after a lengthy search of it's own) listed not one single attorney in Indiana that I could contact for a personal legal matter, about people systematically practicing gay hate crimes against me.

Anyway, this movie hit home for me when I saw it a couple of years after- being born and raised in Indiana, being a teacher and having felt discriminated against in that arena- I was after all in a gay "bracket" whether I wanted to be or not- people put me there, and I must say even more automatically than most gay folk themselves have to live with- being discreet hasn't been much of an option for me the past twenty three years now- and I'm not sure if there's been a single day go by when I haven't heard totally unprovoked insults in all places public. The attitude now more than ever seems to be to just keep the accounts of their hatred coming- and they don't seem to mind- it fits in with some kind of strategy of discouragement they mistakenly believe- like the idea that gay folk can be somehow rehabilitated- which seems to be rising again in their unsympathetic diatribes.

Now the whole issue of being gay seems to have been stirred up with much politics for little gain. Like the other reactionary issues of public school prayer (which flies in the face of Jesus' own instructions of how and when to pray) and the issue of abortion (legal or not, isn't it a bad thing?) being gay is now more than ten years ago somehow everyone elses business instead of our own. It's being used to create votes and move emotion- and terribly overblown- bordering on the paranoid. A few legal pronouncements sometimes pale in the raging atmosophere of hatred. Gays are purported to have a movement of people, politicians, and financial means that they in reality simply don't. Can't we just get over it all, like the people in this film?

Despite the positive sentiments, IN & OUT is still a Hollywood mainstream movie, and so it still adheres to some things- in the end, it's not a gay wedding or any kind of gay union, but a renewal of hetero vows- and Principal Newhart is still disturbed by the sodomistic overtones (EW!) of Howard's participation in the conga line to the tune of "I've got to be a macho man"
Yes- ten years after, when the word "queer" has enjoyed a peculiar renewal here in Indiana- how true indeed, in a public mindset much different than the fantasy here.
God in heaven, God above, be a God of truth and love