insomnomaniac

What I would have said...

...if I were half as smart as I think I am.

Alois finally saw Brokeback Mountain (I still haven't, seen it that is), and he had this to say about it:
So I finally saw the infamous "Gay Cowboy Movie."
I wish I could make more out of it than I did, but ultimately, I saw it as a story of two star-crossed lovers. At the wrong place, and the wrong time, with beautiful scenery.

See, the thing is, I've never really thought much about "gays." As I've said before, it really isn't much of a big deal to me what people want to do in the privacy of their own bedrooms.
As a young man with a fair-to-middling sixpack and David Lee Roth tresses, I got my fair share of propositions from men. But almost invariably, the fellows took it with nothing more than a debonair laugh and a shrug of the shoulders when I expressed my polite disinterest. I really had no reason to "have it in for the fags."

I've had good friends who are gay and still do. And we don't talk about sex, in much the same way that I don't discuss sex with my straight friends except in the most vague, general terms. Sex is something you do in your bedroom with (preferably) someone close to you. It doesn't involve a crowd.
"Brokeback Mountain" is a quiet story, and it would be even quieter if it could be set in a day and age when our adult sexuality was not much of a cause for conversation. And by "conversation" I mean the obsession of the media with sex (most disturbingly as it involves adolescents and preadolescents); the constant drumbeat from those wacko gays who are trying to sell something called the "gay lifestyle"; and most disturbingly, those on the Christian right who rail against homosexuality while leading a closeted gay double life.

Please, people: Ultimately, this should be about love. I am not an apologist for the "gay lifestyle," but I would certainly think that God has bigger things on His mind in this era of terrorist beheadings, the mindless feel-goodism of the left, and the selling of sex to children than whether two people of the same sex fall in love. We keep railing about homosexuality while denying gays the right to live the committed, monogamous lifestyle that we straights like to pretend we do, being the upstanding Godly people that we are. I have certainly known some "married" gay couples whose relationships could serve as shining examples to many of their hetero friends.

So with this said, I leave you with an intriguing review of the "Gay Cowboy Movie" from none other than Christianity Today. Perhaps the day is coming when we can stand back and let Jesus (who never had anything to say about homosexuality) judge the "gay sinners." I think the rest of us would be well-advised to remove the log from our own eyes first.

OK, so I admit it, I hate to sound like Hillary Clinton (no, really, I hate it), but my position on gay marriage has "evolved" over the years. Part of my new view is the result of my belief that there are bigger things to worry about than this, and part of it is the result of my conversion to Christianity. Far from making me less tolerant, it has made me more. It has made me realize that it is really about love.

I think I was so sick of having a "lifestyle" thrust in my face that I reacted by fighting against gay marriage, when it wasn't the marriage that was bugging me, it was the emphasis on sex, and the justification for gay marriage that it shouldn't matter what goes on in the privacy of someone else's bed. Now while that ought to be a no-brainer, the argument should have been (and really is), it shouldn't matter what goes on in the privacy of someone else's HEART. I really feel if it were put that way, more people like me would see the light as well, more people would stop reacting out of frustration with a sex-obsessed culture, and would start reacting out of compassion and empathy.

That's my take on it anyway.

Posted by insomnomaniac at November 13, 2006 9:50 PM | TrackBack