Harvey Milk, By Rob Epstein And Milk

As the years have gone by, you can see the change of how gays and lesbians are widely seen in mostly every tv show or movie in today’s society. This is something most of our own parents didn’t even grow up seeing gays throughout the media. Living in today’s time period, you’re able to see how the influence has changed the way people see gays and lesbians. The nation has become more accepting of the gay and lesbian culture verses back in the days of when our parents and even grandparents were our age. Not only was is rare to see homosexuals on television, it was portrayed negatively, and now you can see it portrayed positively.

I was very bothered by the comments Anita Bryant made during a televised speech that was shown in the film. She was an orange juice sales woman who was working to repeal laws that protect homosexual human rights; specifically in employment and housing. She described homosexuality as “tearing down the foundation of the family unit” and compared gays to prostitutes and thieves. She tried to convince the public that the traditional family was being threatened and that practicing or accepting homosexuality was blasphemy.

The topic of sexual orientation is both sensitive and controversial. This is evident in events, such as the Pride Parade, and also in media, where authoritative figures preach against it and speak of its “sinful nature” (Emmanuele, Blanchard, Camperio-Ciani, & Bancroft, 2010). Sexual orientation exists in various forms, it differs in the way it is viewed by different cultures, and researchers propose different perspectives to explain the emergence of an individual 's sexual orientation. In the discourse of sexual orientation,

In several cases, the desire to kill the queer self also occurs when it seems impossible to move forward without fully accepting and presenting oneself as queer. When this idea is seen on television it is presented in both the interpersonal and introspective forms. For example, the characters that attempt suicide, such as the eight queer women characters between 2001 and 2016, are illustrating the introspective act of assassinating the queer self by killing themselves. In contrast the interpersonal aspect derives from the idea of identity as zero-sum and therefore the queer characters who do not cover present a threat to the stability and validity of gay characters on screen. This paper will specifically investigate how the interpersonal side of "assassinating the queer selves" plays out on screen as a way to reinforce the importance of

The Child Called “It”, a book by David James Pelzer is a story of Dave's horrible childhood. Born December 29, 1960 in Daly City, California, David's life was wonderful; until, his mother started to drink. David's story is one of mistreatment and perseverance through tough times. Dave is now 56 years old and speaks to troops and other person's as a motivational speaker. It is his life’s goal to help others persevere through tough times.

The overall theme the creators of The Gay Agenda wanted to unveil was that “homosexuals are violent, degraded monsters and their evil agenda is to destroy the very fabric of American society” (737). Benshoff refers to a critic of the name Robin Wood in his article, “The Monster and the Homosexual.” Wood composed numerous essays during the 1970s, discussing the main theme in horror films could be categorized into three distinct categories: normality, the “Other,” and their relationship amongst each other (739). Throughout Wood’s composition, he states his theory of which most horror stories consist of a heterosexual couple, and during the plot, a monster arises and causes commotion (739). The “Other,” in the circumstance of real life terms, homosexuality is portrayed as the monster who is tormenting the relationship. Carrying on with this theme, Benshoff mentions other sources of media, including films and books, which portray homosexuality in a comparable

I have recently watched the movie called “The Laramie Project.” The Laramie project is about a young gay student named Matthew Sheppard, who was murdered in Laramie, Wyoming by two boys from the town named, Aaron McKinley and Russell Henderson. The evidence and testimonies from the case suggested that Matthew was attacked, because of his sexuality as a gay man. Matthew was beaten, tied to a fence and left dead in Laramie, Wyoming in 1988. This movie captures the reaction of the murder and draws on hundreds of interviews conducted by the theatre company with the inhabitants of the town, company members, own journal entries, and published news reports. After watching this movie, I reflected on my own perspectives and thoughts about a few issues in the movie, such as hate crime, the phrase “Live and Let Live,” and “flaunting it.”

In this paper, I will examine how women of color who deal with the lack of acceptance growing up because of their lesbianism help shape and/or will shape them to be future role models for LGBT people around the world. I will be using the coming of age drama, Pariah, directed and written by Dee Rees, as a primary source in order to argue how the cinematography in this film portrays Alike being the epitome of embracing one 's sexuality. I chose this film because it reminded me of a similar story that touched me in the form of a book written by Audre Lorde called Zami: A New Spelling of My Name. Standing up in what Alike believed in and taking a stand by fighting back against so many in the community deal with on a everyday basis is the driving force I will use to show how she took a big giant step

The documentary This Film is Not Yet Rated, provides an account about the MPAA and their rating system. The film contends three main arguments against the MPAA rating's prejudice between; sex and violent content, homosexual sex and heterosexual sex, and bloody and non-bloody violence, by their use of side-by-side comparisons. A main argument in the film is how the MPAA differs in its treatment of sexual content versus violent content. The documentary contends that main difference between NC-17 and R is that R would only show missionary position sex; while other type of sexual behaviors is NC-17. Side-by-side examinations of The Cooler and Scary Movie, is used as evidence for this argument.

While the Hollywood was struggling to make topic of homosexuality in films more suitable for audiences, the film Victim made its debut in the United Kingdom. This was the first film to star a homosexual character that stands up to fight against the oppression of homosexuals. While this was the first time in history that a film portrayed a gay character in a non-demeaning way, this would lead to the stereotype of sympathetic gay characters in film. One film that I would like to note that is a great example from the 90’s would be the film Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks as a gay AIDS victim that was fired because of his sexuality and disease. Hollywood targets Hanks’ character and makes him into a tragic figure. His character dies at the end of the film. In an interview with Jan Oxenberg, she points out that even though Tom Hanks’ film was very effective, it is just “a story about a gay hero who dies, who’s a tragic figure” and that it seems as if Hollywood and the film industry will never have a film in which the gay main character lives to see another day (Epstein). Another more recent film that demonstrates this sort of sympathetic gay character would be

To begin with, the documentary shows homosexual people’s realization of fighting for their own natural rights. Natural rights are those that are not dependent on the laws or customs of any particular culture or government, and therefore universal and inalienable. (Wikipedia) Garvin, one of the participants of riots in 1969, said in the documentary interview that ‘we had thought of women’s rights, we had thought of black rights, we thought of all kinds of human rights, but never thought of gay rights.’ (Stonewall

Is it right to be nice to a person that was mean to you in the past? Many people will say no you should do what they did to you, and make them see how you felt in the past. In the story The Bully by Roger Dean Kiser, it’s the opposite, you should be nice to a person that was mean to you. The story The Bully is about the protagonist Roger; back in middle school he uses to get bullied by Tony. As time passed the have met again in their late age in life at a restaurant, but Tony is in a wheel chair and Roger is nice to Tony. Despite their unstable past. Roger is a kind person and will not keep a grudge even towards other people that have bullied him in the past.

Unlike other movie, this movie tells the stories of LGBT people of color and shows the painful experience of growing up as a black, gay, and alienated person. Even though Chiron is shown as a quiet boy and doesn’t say much throughout the movie, when he does speak, it matters and touches the audience in the

Queer theory questions creations of normal and divergent, insider, and outsider.2 Queer theorists analyse a situation or a text to determine the relationship between sexuality, power and gender. Queer theory challenges basic tropes used to organize our society and our language: even words are gendered, and through that gendering an elliptical view of the hierarchy of society, and presumption of what is male and what is female, shines through. Queer theory rejects such binary distinctions as arbitrarily determined and defined by those with social power. It works to deconstruct these binaries, particularly the homosexual/heterosexual binary.4

Over the past decade, important and relevant movies has been made about the historical and cultural touchstones after world war 2. For instance: Americas history, the Vietnam war, John F. Kennedy, the women’s liberation and fight for equality. But there has been one glaring historical event, both in terms of importance of your culture and society. That is The Civil Rights movement – possibly the most influential social and political event in the 20th century, both in America and in the rest of the world. Until 2013 these paramount events had not been adapted for the screen. The movie “The Butler” - which I will write my essay about – gives an insight of the events that would later on change the world. Not only does the text interpret the events of The Civil Rights Movement, it also shows the labyrinth of getting a