In 'Moonlight,' Growg Up Black, Gay And Poor In 1980s Miami : NPR

Contents:

• GAY, BLACK, AND REVOLUTNARY: THE IMPORTANCE OF 'MOONLIGHT'
• MOONLIGHT IS A BETIFULLY NUANCED GAY G-OF-AGE TALEMOONLIGHT IS A BETIFULLY NUANCED GAY G-OF-AGE TALE
• HUH? LORD JAMAR SAYS ‘MOONLIGHT’ AND ‘BETY AND THE BEAST’ ARE PART OF A GAY AGENDA
• 'MOONLIGHT' EXPLOR OFTEN UNSEEN GAY, BLACK MALE EXPERIENCE
• MOONLIGHT IS A POWERFUL AFFIRMATN FOR GAY BLACK MEN: WE’RE SUPPOSED TO EXIST
• MOONLIGHT REVIEW – VASTATG DRAMA IS VAL PORTRA OF BLACK GAY MASCULY AMERI
• ‘MOONLIGHT’ CAPTUR THE COMPLEXI OF GROWG UP GAY AND BLACK AMERI
• HOLLYWOOD, LGBTQ ACTIVISTS LA-LA LAND AFTER PRO-GAY ‘MOONLIGHT’ WS BT PICTURE
• 'MOONLIGHT' REVIEW: GAY TRIPTYCH FEATUR GREAT PERFORMANC
• ‘MOONLIGHT’ GAY THEM WILL TT CHE CENSORS
• HUH? LORD JAMAR SAYS ‘MOONLIGHT’ AND ‘BETY AND THE BEAST’ ARE PART OF A GAY AGENDA
• ‘IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO BE VULNERABLE’: HOW MOONLIGHT REFLECTS BEG A BLACK GAY MAN THE US
• IN 'MOONLIGHT,' GROWG UP BLACK, GAY AND POOR IN 1980S MIAMI

GAY, BLACK, AND REVOLUTNARY: THE IMPORTANCE OF 'MOONLIGHT'

The movie tells the story of Chiron, a young, Black, queer man, on a qut for self-acceptance amidst the homophobia of his peers and socenomic circumstanc of his Atlanta neighborhood. For example, they may view whens as feme and homosexual, and th posn themselv as the heterosexual man whose masculy is reaffirmed through sex wh women. Other Black men only engage homosexual activy on the “down low” (DL).

For example, some Black men equent gay hip hop clubs where they do not need to “e out”; they n enjoy a space where they n explore their sexualy wh other men while simultaneoly performg heterosexualy by actg “hard” wh hip-hop mic. Many were aaid that the abe ma their sons act “too emotnal” and that they would bee homosexual. The latt Amy Award for Bt Picture was earned by a film pictg the story of a poor, gay, black boy South Florida.

MOONLIGHT IS A BETIFULLY NUANCED GAY G-OF-AGE TALEMOONLIGHT IS A BETIFULLY NUANCED GAY G-OF-AGE TALE

It was not the kd of muny which beg gay would be okay.

HUH? LORD JAMAR SAYS ‘MOONLIGHT’ AND ‘BETY AND THE BEAST’ ARE PART OF A GAY AGENDA

Beg a person of lor and queer is already a hard batn to showse our morn media, and to me, addg a harsh soc-enomic background and a movg storyle centered around gay love seemed to be an impossible feat. Through Moonlight, the gay storyle is told scerely s grand, timate moments, as well as s twisted, melancholic on.

One of the film’s most memorable scen when a teenage Chiron star at himself his bathroom, his face bloodied om a fight wh homophobic school bulli. Like Carol and Brokeback Mounta before , Moonlight nveys the pa of the ntug social stigma around homosexualy, the search for eedom and love, and the nstant stggle to munite and drop personal barriers. Moonlight rembl Brokeback Mounta and Carol s lh stagg, tensely ternal performanc, and treatment of the gay experience a very specific i.

Dpe renewed lls for people to judge the film on s own importance, the distrsg accatns of rape agast Parker – s star, as well as wrer and director – have meant s red-rpet-to-awards glory is lookg nsirably ls assured.So no movie was perhaps ever more sorely required to prevent another #OsrsSoWhe than Moonlight: Barry Jenks’s drama trackg a black gay man at three stag over his life.The film has had an extraordary embrace on the tumn ftival circu; s brilliance has left few stumblg out of the cema unmoved.

'MOONLIGHT' EXPLOR OFTEN UNSEEN GAY, BLACK MALE EXPERIENCE

It is a sentiment that, oddly, echo that of Parker, who claimed he would never play a gay character bee of the need to “prerve black masculy”.“Growg up, you’re told that beg a black man, you have to be that much better than your unterparts,” says Trevante Rhos, an ex-athlete turned actor who mak a hntg imprsn as the twentysomethg Chiron.“You have to be stronger, more mascule and the most domant force the room at all tim. You have to straddle the fence.”In the film, Chiron regulat his behavur orr to prevent people om knowg he’s gay, but the bulli at school and his cel mother are aware of his sexualy and persecute him as a rult. Jt se you didn’t know, Lord Jamar om the hip-hop group Brand Nubian is homophobic, transphobic, sexist and many other thgs that n only be revealed , you gused , a s-down wh VLAD TV.

In a recent tch-up wh the channel, DJ Vlad qutned Lord Jamar on recent media news, such as a gay character beg Bety and the Beast and the recent Bt Picture Osr w for the film “Moonlight-g” (Lord Jamar’s words, not ours).

Lord Jamar rpond wh another claim that a “special tert group” is phg some sort of gay agenda.

MOONLIGHT IS A POWERFUL AFFIRMATN FOR GAY BLACK MEN: WE’RE SUPPOSED TO EXIST

When DJ Vlad brought up a gay Co-Cola mercial volvg a pool boy, Lord Jamar ranted, “Why all of this now?

It’s not that they love gay people…this jt fs to a certa agenda that they have.

MOONLIGHT REVIEW – VASTATG DRAMA IS VAL PORTRA OF BLACK GAY MASCULY AMERI

Acrdg to Lord Jamar, “you take out the gay sh*t that movie, that ltle movie would have never even gotten any kd of regnn by the Amy. Never md any artistic mer or geni the movie has (a movie Lord Jamar hasn’t seen by the way) — only won Bt Picture bee ’s gay.

‘MOONLIGHT’ CAPTUR THE COMPLEXI OF GROWG UP GAY AND BLACK AMERI

DJ Vlad also asks Lord Jamar when is the right age for a kid to be exposed to gay “ncepts” and “imagery. ” He later asserts that eventually kids will be exposed to the gay-ns at some pot. Lord Jamar then argued that he gets upset when people try to e “the gays” to ntrol Black people.

” So, acrdg to Lord Jamar, homosexualy is a vis that mt be ntaed or else the whole Black populatn will fall victim to ?

The irony of all of this is Lord Jamar then go on to discs his gay iend (who’s probably Black) that he grew up wh and who’s gay weddg he attend.

HOLLYWOOD, LGBTQ ACTIVISTS LA-LA LAND AFTER PRO-GAY ‘MOONLIGHT’ WS BT PICTURE

Lord Jamar Says ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Bety and the Beast’ Are Part Of A Gay Agenda. The one-sentence synopsis of the film—a young black gay man’s g-of-age story—would almost certaly lead one to expect a polemic agast social jtice, a cematic broadsi agast the impendg horrors of the Age of Tmp.

This is not a race-relatns story the ve of Pl Haggis’ “Crash” ( fact, there are no whe characters at all), a gay love story à la Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mounta, ” or an explicly polil crique like Ava DuVernay’s “13th. '"It's almost taboo to be a black Amerin man who is homosexual, or a black man who is homosexual bee growg up you're told that you have to be that much more imposg, that much bigger, that much better... "It's kd of oxymoronic to be homosexual and have those same attribut.

'MOONLIGHT' REVIEW: GAY TRIPTYCH FEATUR GREAT PERFORMANC

""It has universal them about humany, about our universal search for love and also 's reprentg the gay muny a way that I don't thk they generally are reprented, " the actrs said.

‘MOONLIGHT’ GAY THEM WILL TT CHE CENSORS

Janelle Monae, who plays a surrogate mother figure to Chiron, said she hoped movie-go would "feel more empathetic towards the black, poor gay male experience and that we ntue not to ostracize those who are different om . It was the first time I’d seen anythg that was gay.

HUH? LORD JAMAR SAYS ‘MOONLIGHT’ AND ‘BETY AND THE BEAST’ ARE PART OF A GAY AGENDA

Media was whe, and gay media wher still. For a long time I thought beg gay was a whe thg, and I was an anomaly. In the UK, LGBTQ people are livg more thentilly than ever and choosg to do so at an earlier age, which Stonewall boss Ruth Hunt put down to “an explosn of role mols and people talkg about beg gay”.

Meanwhile, the naway succs of RuPl’s Drag Race is helpg to stabilise the cult of masculy that has historilly left feme gay and bi men beg seen as an embarrassment to the muny. Whby/Getty ImagUnlike marriage – which, for all s importance, reflects a simplified happy-ever-after whout acknowledgg the plited journey LGBTQ+ people make om self-disvery to self-acceptance – Moonlight basks the mss of queerns: the bullyg, the solu, the awkwardns; and ref to gloss over the impact that race has on gay black of this is specific to the poor black Amerin experience, but issu of hypermasculy, poverty and the experience of beg ma to feel like a send-class cizen are found black muni all over the world.

‘IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO BE VULNERABLE’: HOW MOONLIGHT REFLECTS BEG A BLACK GAY MAN THE US

The weight of beg a mory wh a margalised muny prs heavily on every ame Moonlight, providg the most plete reflectn for black gay youth that the mastream has ever of Moonlight’s most quietly potent scen, where “Ltle” Chiron ss a rickety bath he’s had to fill by hand, epomis how betifully Moonlight articulat the plitedns of queer black childhood.

By reflectg the ways we as black gay people navigate the world, Moonlight offers a chance to make peace wh the sacrific we ma as youngsters, and heal. And for black gay kids who stumble across Moonlight, as I did Gee Michael’s mic all those years ago, that reprentatn will answer qutns that took some of years to unrstand.

IN 'MOONLIGHT,' GROWG UP BLACK, GAY AND POOR IN 1980S MIAMI

The creasgly documented humany towards Ain Amerin men by police and the btal act of homophobia that took mostly Hispanic liv at a gay club Orlando have awakened many to the bleak knowledge that progrs is stallg and stead, regrsive views on race and sexualy are still dangeroly pervasive. It’s a thrillg, eply necsary work that opens up a much-need and rarely approached on-screen nversatn about the nature of gay on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by Tarell Alv McCraney, the film follows the life of a man three key stag.

It’s yet more levy that helps the film om beg unrelentgly Jenks don’t pull any punch showg the cshg lonels and horrific vlence of beg a gay man a culture where homosexualy is seen as a weakns. We see the visible and visible srs that velop om a lack of acceptance and by the time we fally meet adult Chiron, played wh credible nuance by ex-athlete Trevante Rhos, he’s trapped by his own sire, regulatg his behavur to remove anythg that uld be seen as “gay”. It’s betifully choreographed and easily the most believably timate gay pairg sce Andrew Haigh’s Weekend.

Moonlight is a profoundly movg film about growg up as a gay man disguise, a difficult and damagg journey that’s realised wh staggerg re and licy and one that will ronate wh anyone who has had to do the same. We’re starved of the narrativ and Jenks’ electrifyg drama shows why they are so hugely important, providg an dience wh a rarely seen portra of what really means to be a black gay man Ameri today.