"But I'm a Cheerlear" Tght Me It's Ok To be Gay

WAS IT GOOD FOR THE GAYS: ‘BUT I’M A CHEERLEAR’

In this regular lumn, we’ll look at pictns of queers cema and ask, Was It Good For The Gays? Gay nversn therapy has been a hot-button topic lately, even if ’s not as popular of an issue as same-sex marriage or other civil rights issu related to the queer muny. — that would make procr like “physil pa, such as electroshock or electronvulsive therapy, touch therapy, pornography exposure or vom-ductn therapy” perfectly legal practic for therapists (I e that word loosely here) to exert on their patients, many of whom are mors that are forced to the so-lled gay rehabs by their parents.

DIRECTOR OF QUEER CLASSIC 'BUT I'M A CHEERLEAR' WANTED TO 'MAKE A GAY "CLUELS"'

Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan, an all-Amerin, girl-next-door type whose life is turned upsi down when her parents and iends stage an terventn and acce her of harborg homosexual tennci. But that don’t stop her parents om sendg her to Te Directns, a reparative therapy mp n by Mary Brown (played by the always wonrfully terrifyg Cathy Moriarty), who teach her charg they n overe their homosexualy by admtg their transgrsn (even if they have not acted out on ), performg genr-normative behavrs (such as hoework for the girls, yard work for the boys), fdg their “root” (i. The trmatic moment that ma them gay), and, eventually, simulatg terurse wh a member of the oppose sex.

You might pare this revelatn to the siar climactic reveal Frank Oz’s In & Out, which, I prevly argued, reli on silly stereotyp of gay men that sentially bas Kev Kle’s sexualy entirely on his effemate nature. You have the jocks, the femm, the goth lbian, even a girl who is not gay, but only appears to be bee of her mascule look. (Jan, who sports a fat mtache and a tight mohawk, shouts, “Everybody thks I’m this big dyke bee I wear baggy pants, I play softball, and I’m not as pretty as other girls, but that don’t make me gay.

BUT I’M A CHEERLEAR REVIEW – A IC TAKE ON GAY-NVERSN PRACTIC

And the glor irony is that both Mary Brown and her send mand, a proud “ex-gay” named Mike (played wonrfully by RuPl placloth butch drag) both harbor their own ner tratns: Mary’s son, Rock, is clearly homosexual himself (the tight, ty nim shorts and his blatant sexual overtur toward the mpers are a tip-off), and Mike has hardly managed to fully reprs his sexual sir. When Megan is eventually kicked out the mp after she’s ught bed wh Graham (who, unlike Megan, remas at the mp bee of prsure om her parents), she tak refuge wh a pair of lol gay men who attempt to save the mpers om Mary Brown’s domatn. But I’m a Cheerlear is good for the gays (and the non-homosexuals, too, who will seek out) simply for exprsg that tth.

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” The movie centers on a lbian high school cheerlear (played by Natasha Lyonne), whose parents send her to a nversn therapy mp to cure her homosexualy. And I thk the muny was so vastated by AIDS that there wasn’t a lot of edi gog on gay cema.