I have way too much time on my hands. This led me to getting into an online argument on Facebook with several people I do not know about the film Brokeback Mountain. I, and at least one other person I do know, as gay men of a certain age, found the film offensive. To me it reverted back to decades of negative depictions of gay men and gay life in Hollywood movies.
After years of work to gain acceptance I get frustrated with the media of today. It appears that gay men are only acceptable to mainstream America if we are clowns. The stereotypical couple on Modern family with it's swishy, overly hysterical gay character, or the over the top drag of RuPaul's Drag Race come immediately to mind. Depictions of "normal" gay men are difficult to find. Depictions of "normal" gay couples are even more rare. The mentors of a gay life of work and family life, without drag or campy drama, virtually non existent.
I remember the struggle to get where we are, the experiences of coming of age in a time when we had to hide in fear. I sometimes get frustrated with younger gay men who do not seem to have an understanding or respect for what it took to obtain the rights they take for granted.
Perhaps, due to the death toll of AIDS, we lost most of the elders that would normally pass an oral history from one generation to the next. Perhaps the youth of today are too engrossed with what happened 15 minutes ago to look back at the history that brought them to this moment we are in now. Perhaps I just need to lie down and take a nap.
when in doubt: get horizontal.
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