"Brokeback Mountain" and beyond

We finally saw the glbt film of the year last night, and I have been haunted by Heath Ledger's Ennis ever since. He was so tight, so wary, so tightlipped, so heartbreaking--the American male stereotype turned in on itself to the nth degree. I have met men like Ennis before. He reminded me of a couple of men I knew as a child growing up in Wisconsin, and I wonder whatever happened to them.

Sadly, the film wasn't a period piece in other respects. Homophobia of the homicidal variety is still alive and well in this country, and Matthew Shepherd wasn't the last man to find that out in the "wild" west.

The west isn't really wild after all, is it? Rather hidebound to tradition, from all appearances.

But, the movie is being seen far and wide, so I hope that people who may be on the fence regarding our rights--to exist, if nothing else--will see the harm that is caused by forcing people into the heterosexual mold when it just doesn't fit.

Those people who can see this film and think that death by mob and a lonely life in a desolate trailer park is what these homos deserved--well, I don't know what to say, but you'd have to have a bit of coal where your heart is not to see their suffering and loneliness. Maybe it takes a leap, but I think their suffering and loneliness wouldn't be necessary in a world where "love thy neighbor" meant anything at all.

And the fact that this film got made--and made and recognized and heralded by critics--well, that does give one a little bit of hope. And Felicity Huffman's speech at the Golden Globes--I loved her before, but love her even more now. Note to Drew Barrymore: Honey, your continental shelf is no longer self-supporting. There comes a time in every women's life when gravity wins your body's tug of war, and yours has arrived.....

On other fronts, I have to break the news to the non-profit folks that I am signing up with the corporate sector tomorrow. I have enjoyed my walk on the non-profit side very much, but the prospect of financial insecurity looms too large. We have mouths and mortgages to feed, after all.

My mother, the child of the depression, would be so pleased. Me, I'm a little depressed....