Contents:
- BETIFUL THG IS A MASTERPIECE OF GAY STORYTELLG
- I LIKE GAY MALE PORN, BUT GAY MEN REAL LIFE EAK ME OUT.
- I A'T GAY, BUT...
BETIFUL THG IS A MASTERPIECE OF GAY STORYTELLG
Betiful Thg Is a Masterpiece of Gay StorytellgThe 1996 Brish film portrayed s workg-class LGBT characters wh remarkable sensivy and Pictur ClassicsWhen Jonathan Harvey’s love story Betiful Thg buted 1993 as a play, he had no ia would eventually be herald as a crown jewel of gay storytellg. “But wasn’t tend to be a gay play, jt a play that happened to have gay characters.
Remend ReadgDpe Betiful Thg’s tle, gay life the early 1990s was anythg but pretty. AIDS, then a terrifyg new disease, had started killg thoands of gay men the prev . In 1987, Bra’s Prime Mister, Margaret Thatcher, gave a speech plag that, rather than learng to rpect “tradnal” valu, children were beg tght that they “have an alienable right to be gay.
” It was hardly a cince that Sectn 28—an amendment that prohibed lol thori om “promotg homosexualy” or teachg schools the “acceptabily of homosexualy as a pretend fay relatnship”—was enacted by Thatcher’s ernment the followg year. The film was genuely subversive for s time and place: Depictg gay kids who don’t succumb to the “plague” or ultimately bow to prsure om their bigoted peers was no small thg at a moment stricken by an pecially vilent, anti-LGBT mood. Inially, neher boy has fully accepted his sexualy, and Betiful Thg is a lite exploratn of the often-paful procs of g out that evolv to a gay film is filled wh charmg and poignant moments that uld be found any romantic dramedy.
I LIKE GAY MALE PORN, BUT GAY MEN REAL LIFE EAK ME OUT.
At another pot, a cur Jamie steals a gay magaze and, rrectly, tells Ste what “ottage” is (“It’s yogurt. Later, the two go to a gay jot—the first place they thk to go to where they n be public about their relatnship sans judgment— a scene that gently pots to the historil signifince of gay bars as safe spac. Wh the relatable and humane moments, the film telegraphed to s mid-1990s dienc somethg they hadn’t heard much before: Gay people are jt Betiful Thg div even eper.
I A'T GAY, BUT...
Through the film’s two other central characters, viewers also get an illumatg glimpse of gay love crosshatched wh other forms of opprsn rooted inty—primarily class—as well as a broar, arguably fuller pictn of longg for, well, belongg. ” Jamie asks Ste at one pot)—when they’re also stuck another—on a uncil tate wh fay members who might be unaware of their own anti-gay prejudic or who might react vlently to learng about their sexualy.
The primary characters are two gay teenagers, a mother doublg as the breadwner, and a young black woman, all plucked om the workg class.