Horrors in the Closet: A Closet Full of Monsters
A closet full of monsters is a scary place where "straight people" can safely negotiate and articulate their fascination and/or dread of "difference" in sexuality.
homophobia
Filmmaker Marlon Riggs Knew That Silence = Death
In turning the camera on himself, even in his most vulnerable moments as a sick and dying man, filmmaker and activist Marlon Riggs demonstrated the futility of divorcing the personal from the political. These films are available now on OVID TV.
Of Purges and Prescience: On David France’s LGBTQ Documentary, ‘Welcome to Chechnya’
The ongoing persecution of LGBTQ individuals in Chechnya, or anywhere in the world, should come as no surprise, or "amazement". It's a motif undergirding the history of civil society that certain people will always be identified for extermination.
‘Miss Iceland’ Is a Brilliant Novel of Sexism, Homophobia, and the Writing Life
Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir's Miss Iceland Is at once a poetic, light-hearted narrative and a sharply edged social critique that is caustic and righteous in its portrayal of the enduring nature of sexism, misogyny and homophobia.
Artist Ria Brodell Offers an Enlightened View on Holy Cards (and History) with ‘Butch Heroes’
While it's unlikely that you will ever come across an acknowledged gay, lesbian, or transgender person featured on an official holy card, it's quite possible that some individuals thus pictured snuck in under the radar, so to speak. Ria Brodell's Butch Heroes brings that tragic oversight to light.
‘Boy Erased’ Is an Easy-to-Swallow Capsule of Sexual Repression
Director Joel Edgerton's well-intentioned drama about gay conversion therapy fails to deliver any new insight or even a good cry.
When Sexually Frustrated Angry White Men (Mis)Read the Classics
Donna Zuckerberg’s Not All Dead White Men is a powerful study of the ways the alt-right distorts the understanding of ancient Greek and Roman literature to serve hateful interests today.
All the Right Intentions Can’t Bring ‘Boy Erased’ to Life
The tragedy of conversion therapy is confronted in Boy Erased, a well-meaning but perfectly conventional message movie.
Gay Conversion Therapy Onscreen: Joel Edgerton On ‘Boy Erased’
Actor-director Joel Edgerton details the sensitive process of making Boy Erased and how the film could act as a lifeline for families who have experienced gay conversion therapy.
Hannah Gadsby’s ‘Nanette’ Makes Us Realize the Present Tense
Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette is a cultural milestone not only because it demands a better future, but also teaches the present moment and where we might go next.
Historian Martin Duberman Puts Us to Task with ‘Has the Gay Movement Failed?’
Has the "gay movement" failed? Not yet, suggests this historian's survey. But it urgently needs to reinvent itself.
Camp, Satire, and Serious Artistry in Carnival Krewsing
Gay carnival culture in New Orleans offers an interesting parallel to African American culture, observes Unveiling the Muse.