Friday, October 01, 2010

Know Your LGBT History - Beautiful Thing

It's been a sad time for the lgbt community, particularly our children. We fight so much for equality that sometimes we forget that there are other things we need to be concerned with such as self esteem and peer respect, as well as hope for the future. Those are the two things that our lgbt children need.

With that in mind, I want to feature one of the best movies that deals with lgbt youth.

Beautiful Thing (1996) is a simple movie of two young teens who fall in love in London. From Wikipedia:

Jamie (Glen Berry), a teen who is infatuated with his classmate, Ste (Scott Neal), has to deal with his single mother Sandra (Linda Henry), who is pre-occupied with ambitious plans to run her own pub and with an ever-changing string of lovers, the latest of whom is Tony (Ben Daniels), a neo-hippie. Sandra finds herself at odds with Leah (Tameka Empson), a sassy and rude neighbour who has been expelled from school, does several drugs, and constantly listens and sings along to her mother's Mama Cass records. While Jamie's homosexuality remains concealed, his introvert nature and dislike of football are reason enough for his classmates to bully him at every opportunity.

Needless to say, the two boys do fall in love and have to navigate a relationship throughout all of the mess.

And let me apologize for those who hate spoilers, but this movie has a happy ending which the following clip shows. Why am I revealing this? Because there is nothing wrong knowing that happy endings exist, whether in movies or real life:




Past Know Your LGBT History Posts:
 
Know Your LGBT History - Armed and Dangerous

Know Your LGBT History - The Proud Family

Know Your LGBT History - Suddenly Last Summer

Know Your LGBT History - Gay TV Now

Know Your LGBT History - Stewardess School

Know Your LGBT History - Up the Academy

Know Your LGBT History - Don't be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

Know Your LGBT History - A Different Story

Know Your LGBT History - Victim

Know Your LGBT History - The Color Purple

Know Your LGBT History - Making Love

Know Your LGBT History - A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge

Know Your LGBT History - Noah's Arc

Know Your LGBT History - Ode to Billy Joe

Know Your LGBT History - Adorable Adrian Adonis

Know Your LGBT History - The Night Strangler

Know Your LGBT History - All in the Family

Know Your LGBT History - Tongues Untied

Know Your LGBT History - The Celluloid Closet

Know Your LGBT History - Querelle

Know Your LGBT History - Theatre of Blood

Know Your LGBT History - Strange Fruit

Know Your LGBT History - Designing Women

Know Your LGBT History - The Children's Hour

Know Your LGBT History - Sylvester

Know Your LGBT History - Once Bitten

Know Your LGBT History - The Boys in the Band

Know Your LGBT History - Christopher Morley, the crossdressing assassin

Know Your LGBT History - Midnight Cowboy

Know Your LGBT History - Dracula's Daughter

Know Your LGBT History - Blacula

Know Your LGBT History - 3 Strikes

Know Your LGBT History - Paris Is Burning

Know Your LGBT History - The Women

Know your LGBT History - Soul Plane

Know Your LGBT History - The Player's Club

Special Know Your LGBT History - Fame

Know Your LGBT History - Welcome Home, Bobby

Know Your LGBT History - Barney Miller

Know your lgbt history - The Jerry Springer Show

Know your lgbt history - Martin Lawrence and that 'gay guy' on his show

Know your lgbt history - The Ricki Lake Show

Know your lgbt history - Which Way Is Up

Know your lgbt history - Gays in Primetime Soaps

Know your lgbt history - Boys Beware

Know your lgbt history - The Boondocks

Know your lgbt history - Mannequin

Know your lgbt history - The Warriors

Know Your LGBT History - New York Undercover

Know Your LGBT History - Low Down Dirty Shame

Know Your LGBT History - Fortune and Men's Eyes

Know your lgbt history - California Suite

Know your lgbt history - Taxi (Elaine's Strange Triangle)

Know your lgbt history - Come Back Charleston Blue

Know your lgbt history - James Bond goes gay

Know your lgbt history - Windows

Know your lgbt history - To Wong Foo and Priscilla

Know your lgbt history - Blazing Saddles

Know your lgbt history - Sanford and Son

Know your lgbt history - In Living Color

Know your lgbt history - Cleopatra Jones and her lesbian drug lords

Know your lgbt history - Norman, Is That You?

Know your lgbt history - The 'Exotic' Adrian Street

Know your lgbt history - The Choirboys

Know your lgbt history - Eddie Murphy

Know your lgbt history - The Killing of Sister George

Know your lgbt history - Hanna-Barbera cartoons pushes the 'gay agenda

'Know your lgbt history - Cruising

Know your lgbt history - Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones

Know your lgbt history - I Got Da Hook Up

Know your lgbt history - Fright Night

Know your lgbt history - Flowers of Evil

The Jeffersons and the transgender community 
 



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7 comments:

  1. best part of the movie is where he asks his friend who is constantly beaten if it is okay to touch him. as one who was abused severly at both home and away i burst into tears. nobody ever asks us if it is okay to touch us. they just do. and it always hurt. i am a 52 year old autistic and love your blog.

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  2. thank you inspector ;p

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  3. I absolutely adore this movie. Teen love and Mama Cass. What's not to love?

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  4. Anonymous6:26 PM

    Great movie. The British did make some very inspiring films that portrayed gay youth as normal.

    Another fave, Get Real. When the mom told the boys she'd have their balls as earrings I thought it was great.

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  5. i like to watch old movies and spot the characters that read as gay. there seem to be a lot of them in the low budget flicks of poverty row.

    one of my all time favorites is the ghost walks. it has a character who they describe as a pansy and a creampuff and nothing bad happens to him. he isn't ridiculed except by his boss who fires him every other minute. and he gets all the best funny lines in response. i found it quite refreshing. you can get it for free at the internet archive .org in the motion picture section.

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  6. Bill S5:39 AM

    That final dance scene is truly sweet.
    Incidently, Ben Daniels, the actor who played Sandra's boyfriend, is openly gay.

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  7. i absolutely loved this film, i even bought it on Amazon (Because i think they don't sell it here in Arizona.) plus with the subtitles, i could understand better what they're saying. I'm not sure if you saw "just a question of love" a french gay film or "shelter."

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