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.
I LIKE GAY MALE PORN, BUT GAY MEN REAL LIFE EAK ME OUT.
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 A'T GAY, BUT...
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.