UN AMOUR A TAIRE

I'm running out of drinking buddies for two reasons.  The first is their fault, the second is mine.  If you want an evening of light banter, do not ask me for my opinion on something of import.  My blame lies in the fact that I'm incapable of resisting a soap box and if you're stupid enough to put one at my feet--and in a bar--you're even more stupid if you think I'm not going to jump on top of it.

The other night one of my friends committed the cardinal sin of using the words "breakthrough" and "Brokeback" in the same sentence.  You might as well have thrown raw steak at a ravenous lion with the expectation that the wild beast would just yawn and turn away.

Don't get me wrong, Brokeback Mountain was a great little flic and a gut wrenching story and while it might have provided Jake and Heath with bragging rights to the claim that they're so cool they dared to play gay for pay, it did nothing for gay rights.  It changed nothing in Hollywood, it changed nothing in Washington and it changed nothing for 15-year-old Larry King or Republican Sally Kern.  And it added nothing to our knowledge base.

And the other "Brokeback" issue that pisses me even more than the "breakthrough" nonsense is the notion that if it ain't made in America, it ain't made.  American hubris.  I'm guessing that one of the things that ultimately leads to the violent and painful collapse of empires is hubris.  And America is suffering from a serious case.

Republicans and Democrats, Evangelicals and atheists, the old and the young alike--few of us can resist referring to ourselves as the "greatest nation on earth."  I would certainly accept the greatest show on earth, but the greatest nation?  By what standard?  We're way down on every list that counts: literacy, freedom, civil rights, human rights, health care, life expectancy, standard of living, environment, economic growth, crime, and so on and so forth.  And on a more light note, other nations also make better movies.

Some months before the December 2005 release of Brokeback Mountain, a magnificent and authentically breakthrough movie was also released, A Love to Hide (March 2005), a movie that I would argue was and is the most important gay film made to date. 

Of course it wasn't made in America so it didn't count, it didn't matter.  It didn't star hot young gossip magnets off the pages of PEOPLE or US Weekly.  It didn't provide juicy material for Entertainment Tonight or Inside Hollywood.  Oprah didn't notice it.  And it wasn't made in English but rather in French--so a big old Texas yawn.

As far as I know, A Love to Hide wasn't even reviewed by most American critics, not even the illustrious New York Times.  Again, it's as if a film not made in America is a  film not made.

Without even going into the content of A Love to Hide, I will say that in my opinion this movie is not only the most important gay film ever made, it will change you and change your understanding of the world as you now know it.  And while the story is set in World War II Paris, it speaks very much to the America of today.

The film also faces the fact that the only "racial cleansing" law not swept away by the American liberation of Europe from the Nazi occupation was for homosexuals.  In fact the Nazi laws criminalizing homosexuality remained on the books until 1969.  As is the case with queers being slaughtered by our allies today, in post World War II Europe, Washington didn't give a crap.

Speaking as a Jew, as a queer and as an American, I must say, as I have said before, that it is only through hubris and dishonesty that we are able to demonize the Nazis as much as we have.  By lying to history and by lying to ourselves we are able to define and describe the Nazi atrocities as "them" and not us--and nothing could be further from the truth.

It is breathtaking to consider how we have managed to define the genocide of Native Americans, the atrocities of slavery and mass murder of the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as not so bad compared to the Nazi labor and death camps.  American hubris.

One of the most horrible and agonizingly painful issues addressed in A Love to Hide is the monstrous medical experiments that were conducted on gay men during the 30s and 40s.  In fact the very same hormone treatments and brain experiments were practiced in these United States on gay minors against their will--and with the consent of their parents--continuing into the early 60s.

Lobotomies of homosexuals stopped in Western Germany only in 1979. In the 17 years since 1962, 30 homosexuals underwent operations on the hypothalamus. In Norway lobotomy victims got 100,000 nkr. in compensation (18 of the 35 first operations in Norway were fatal for the patients).   In Sweden more than 3,300 were lobotomized, the Danish number was a record high 3, 500, the Norwegian number was 2, 500. Denmark was the world leader numerically in proportion to the population with lobotomies and the last operation took place as late as 1981.

According to a 1998 Swedish television documentary which examined an example of a lobotomy used to "cure" a lesbian, lobotomies were pioneered by the Portuguese Dr. Egas Moniz (1874-1955) in 1935 , for which he was awarded the Nobel-price in 1949.

This spurred doctors like American Walter Freeman to brutally operate on no less than several hundred American homosexuals during the 1940s using a golden ice pick.  In fact, young homosexuals and homosexual prisoners were cured of their sexual deviancy through the use of lobotomies, hormone treatments, electro-shock aversion therapy at least through 1960.

A Love to Hide demands an answer to the very compelling question: who is to be held accountable for what has been done to the gay community, even today in 21st Century Europe.  And anyone of us in this country who experiences A Love to Hide must ask that very same question about gay Americans.  And if no one is held accountable for these American crimes and horrors, how are we as a nation ever going to move forward?  We must make room for true breakthroughs and not just the fake breakthroughs like Brokeback Mountain and in order to do that we must look beyond ourselves.  The Europeans are doing so as evidenced by masterpieces like A Love to Hide and the results are magnificent.

Comments

[Tim]

There is breaking news from Canada this morning about 17 year old homophobic comments by a conservative member of parliament Tom Lukiwski and the contrite apology he's been forced to make. How different from your country is that?

You can read about it here: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2008/04/03/lukiwski-video.html

[Joel Williams]

Yes. Nobody has been held accountable for the atrocities of slavery and racism. And Strom Thurmond just "changed" his position and was elected again and again.

[chandler in lasvegas]

Richard,

You are a Gay Cassandra. For those of us who are immune to Apollo, you are a beacon of wisdom and insight.

I just LOVE the subjects you write about. You make me feel smarter than I really am.

Now if I could only find a muse that makes me feel prettier.

Thank you.

[Alan down in Florida]

Accountability - what a good bookkeeper has.

In the modern world that's all it means. Everything is always somebody else's problem and somebody else's fault.

Another excellent post my friend.

[Will]

I had an acquaintance when I was living in Cologne that had undergone forced electroshock treatments when he was a youth in the 50s in Germany because he was gay.

Richard, I'd love to buy you a drink, soapbox present or not.

Best,

Will

[Tim]

I was commenting to a young man the other day that his generation will have to live with America not being the super power that it once was. Slowly the idea that America is on the top is fading as other countries rise and surpass in all areas.

[chamblee54]

I essentially agree with what you said today.
However, after the way you distorted that article about Chelsea Clinton in the Philadelphia gay bar, I must take what you say with a bit of skepticism.

Richard responds: Distort? I stand by my view, the reporter resorted to stereotypes, one after the other. Surely the reporter could have use meaningful quotes. If you think I distort when I express my sincere opinions please feel free to stop reading my blog.