Movies, Time, New Year

SO My friend Maggie, has an awesome blog (www.maggietoulouse.blogspot.com) about her predictions for the new year. My friends on MySpace.com all have blogs about their resolutions, and their last year, etc. I am writing about something that has been on my mind since, Friday.
I went to see BrokeBack Mountain Friday evening, at a private screening organized by my longtime friend Log Cabin Republican Patrick Killen. What a great guy, and I know that's shocking to most people because he's a republican.

This movie was amazing. For the record, Ebert and Roeper had their top ten lists of the year, and Brokeback made it on both their lists (5 and 7, not sure which was which).

So if you plan to see this film soon, don't read the rest of this. Enjoy it for yourself, then comeback and share your thoughts with me!

The story starts in the early 60s (we're talking about a time when most of America is fighting still over the Civil Rights Act, and the Vietnam War. And two men, who are ranchers or ranch hands, Cowboys if you will, show up to a ranch for summer work. They go out onto Brokeback mountain, and somewhere in the whiskey, the sheep herding, the horses, the tents, they have sex. (I don't recommend taking kids to see the movie, unless you can either have the conversation about two men having sex, or they are too young to catch the couple of glimpses of Jake and Heith consummating their love, it is love making)

They fall in love, but of course the summer ends, and they go on about their lives, after Jack is rebutted in his attempt to convince Ennis that they could buy a little ranch together off somewhere and make a life.

Years pass, Ennis gets married, and has a few kids, Jack gets back in touch, and they begin a routine of going up to Brokeback Mountain to spend a few days "Fishing."

Ennis eventually gets a divorce, somewhere in there Jack gets married and has a kid, and they keep going back. Jack never lets the idea go away, that they could buy a ranch together somewhere and have a roughstock operation (breeding bulls and cows, for rodeo, or other breeders)

Eventually, one of the postcards sent to Jack from Ennis planning for a fishing trip, was returned and Ennis calls Jack's wife to find out what happened.

This is where it gets tough, really tough... And of course I'm not telling the ending.

But here's the deal, this movie carries on into the 80s, and the entire time, we are reminded that this love is forbidden. The end reminds us of how far we've come, in this society.

I used to be afraid for my life, when I was in high school. I seriously thought on more than one occasion, that I wouldn't live to graduate. Here I am, with the Grace of God, Luck, Friends, and Family, successful in my life. But not all Queer kids are that lucky, even today, in this beginning of 2006.

I want everyone reading this, to please take time now to think about this.

Imagine walking down the street alone, middle of the day, in a town you grew up in, and hearing tires squealing. Most people think, kids, in their cars and their bad driving habits, but imagine thinking "oh shit, who is it, are they coming at me? What do they want? Do I turn around?"

What about walking down the hallway, after school, and hearing a couple of loud voices, deep voices, yelling at eachother, nothing serious, "dude did you see her?" "man how about this grade on that test" And thinking, 'Who is that, am I going to bump into them? What're they going to do to me?'

This is life for a Queer kid. It was worse in the 60s, As Ennis explains his father taking him to see the remains of a rancher who spent his life with another man, running a ranch together. Ennis's dad takes him to see the older mans body, after some men beat him up with a tire iron, they tied his genitals to the back of a horse and rode away dragging him until they ripped off and he bled to death. This is a particularly gruesome way to die, but its important to remember these types of things happened then.

I don't remember the 60s, 70s, or 80s, and not much of the 90s for that matter. But I remember High School, I remember UNM, I remember walking home from the bar that's less than a block away, last week.

I pray that in this year 2006, we don't have to deal with anymore hate crimes, Matthew Shepperd, Gwen Araujo, or anyone else like that. I hope that we can teach young men and women that LOVE is a Force of Nature, and that it doesn't matter for whom you feel it, its natural, good, and miraculous. I hope that we can work to ensure that no young person takes their own life just because they are sure it will be miserable, or because they don't want their parents to find out someone else took it for them.

Let's Pray that in 2006, we remember the by-line on this movie, "Love is a Force of Nature"
and Let's LOVE a little more.