Gays have high hopes for Oscars
2006-02-09 07:09
New York - Jim Gilbert gets goosebumps just thinking about Oscar night.
"It'll be such an important night," says the 61-year-old amateur cowboy and rodeo competitor, who feels the movie Brokeback Mountain tells the story of his own gay life and struggles in a strikingly personal way.
United States gay activist groups are anticipating the March 5 Academy Awards, where the story of two cowboys in love is favoured to win as many as eight Oscars, as a rallying point and a crucial moment for their cause.
One group likens it to the April 1997 moment when comedian Ellen DeGeneres came out as a lesbian on her sitcom. Susanne Salkind of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest US gay rights group, said Oscar night will be an opportunity to raise gay issues "to another level in American culture".
Last Friday, the group sent e-mails to 120 000 members, encouraging them to hold house parties on Oscar night - just as it did the night DeGeneres came out.
Quotable quotes
When Ang Lee's soulful film premiered in December, the gay community was delighted - but, in some corners, sceptical that it would play beyond New York and California.
Now, though, the film is a clear hit. It has performed strongly across America, appealing to audiences both gay and straight, male and female. Because of its subject matter, it's one of the most talked-about films in recent memory - and a constant reference for late-night comics and internet spoofs.
"I wish I knew how to quit you," spoken by the character Jack Twist, is becoming a virtual catch phrase. And the word "brokeback" (used as an adjective, to describe something with gay overtones - sort of), is creeping into the American lexicon, too.
It isn't only Brokeback Mountain that's making gay rights groups anticipate Oscar night. Two other highly feted movies have gay or transsexual themes: Transamerica, with best-actress nominee Felicity Huffman as a man preparing for a sex change, and Capote, with best-actor favorite Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote, the gay author of In Cold Blood.
Will it have a lasting impact
"This has been a landmark year," says Neil G. Giuliano, president of Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (Glaad). "By telling our stories, this year's Oscar nominees have helped raise the visibility of our issues and have given millions of Americans a greater understanding of who we are."
Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, agrees, but sounds a cautionary note. Just because Brokeback is being embraced by Hollywood and popular culture, he says, doesn't mean the real world is catching up. It this huge chasm between popular culture and the reality of our lives."
For Gilbert, though, the emotional impact of Brokeback is so great that he cannot imagine it won't have a long-lasting effect.
A few weeks ago, before Brokeback came to his hometown of Battle Creek, Michigan, Gilbert drove more than 129km to see the film. He missed the first show by 15 minutes, waited in his truck for the next one, and drove back at midnight, emotionally drained.
"I really felt like I had lived through the experiences they were showing onscreen," he said. The similarities to his own life were striking: his early efforts to deny his orientation, his failed marriages to women, the desolation he felt when his male lover died.
Deep impact
Gilbert hopes that any Oscars Brokeback wins will bring home to straight Americans - for instance, his fellow church members - that gay people "can share the same love that a heterosexual couple can".
Some people who love the movie will be gathering at Woody's, a gay bar in Philadelphia, on Oscar night for one of the fundraising parties for the Human Rights Campaign.
The party's organiser, Norman Baker, says he realised just how deep an impact Brokeback was having when his 84-year-old mother, who has failing eyesight and doesn't go to movies often, asked him to take her, noting: "Everyone is talking about this film." He had come out to his mother in 1988, but the two hadn't spoken about his gay life since.
This year's Oscar party, the second annual such gathering, will have a theme, Baker said. Participants will be asked to dress as their favourite movie characters.
"Yes," he said, "we do expect a fair number of gay cowboys."
- AP