The Help is a beautiful movie that gives insight into what it might have been like to be a black maid in the sixties. It shows, in utter disgust, the degradation and dehumanizing behaviour that was once quite prevalent. It was poignant yet sweet and I cried my eyes out.
I truly believe with all my heart that 30 years from now we'll all be leaving a theater with wet cheeks and soggy kleenex, although, not from a movie about racism. No, this time the movie will show what it was once like to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or questioning. It will bring us back to a time when religious orders called them 'aboritions' and 'hated by God.' It will relay the struggles the youth of the LGBTQ community went through, with the bullying at schools and the pressures of straight parents, whose worst nightmares are for their kid to 'come out' to them. And it will show how the ignorant politicians closed their eyes to equality, only begging that they don't tell if no one asks.
We'll leave those theaters feeling smug and self-satisfied. "Look at me," we'll think. "I would never make derogatory comments about someone like that. I would never say 'fag' or laugh at someone pretending to be homosexual or use the word gay like it meant something lame or stupid. I'm horrified that people EVER acted like such heartless animals."
Until then, I'm getting sick of hearing people say things like, "If they want to be treated as equals, why do they get their own parade? Why do they need to make such issues over everything?" Well. The next time you get your face kicked in simply because you're straight we'll talk. You can have your own damn parade.
