Gays In Film

The Hollywood film industry since the 1960's has portrayed homosexuals as monsters. By showing such things as long hair, make-up, piercings, psychopaths, and also groups of men in the absence of women, the industry has done an amazing job of using gay stereotypes to characterize such creatures. In movies such as The Lost Boys, Nightbreed, and The Birdcage, Hollywood has explicitly depicted homosexuals as outcasts, loners, and when seen in the public eye... as monsters. Homosexuality is a character trait that is rarely shown in film, and when it is addressed has become "monsterized".

In the movie The Lost Boys, a group of vampires terrorize a small town. In the opening scene, the viewer is shown four young men, all with long, bleached hair, make-up, earrings and tight clothes walking around the town fair. The carnival manager throws them out saying that he thought he had told them to never come back to this place again. This is the first instance where the director of this movie clearly "monsterizes" the gay stereotype. By showing the viewer these young men that are dressed in the manner that they are, the audience already knows who the "monster" is.

This movie revolves around the interactions between the vampires and a family that has recently moved to Santa Clara. The older brother, Michael gets involved with these vampires because of a girl (her name is Star) that is always hanging around them. They take him to their cave and lead him through initiation in order to become "one of them". Michael drinks blood from a flask and begins to see drastic changes in himself within the next couple of days. He sleeps during the day and goes at night, wears different clothes, separates himself from society, and also begins wearing an earring. This behavior is symbolic of the loner, or outcast persona that gays in society are constantly faced with , and the new clothes and earring are symbolic of the femininity that homosexual men tend to show. By showing Michael's changes both mentally and physically, the director subtly "monsterizes" gays.

Although Michael went through initiation in order to join this group of vamps, he never really becomes one of them. Throughout the movie Michael fights the urges and realizes that he is not "one of them" and never will be. The reason that he initially joined the group was to be with Star; to satisfy his heterosexual needs, yet much to his demise, the vampires constantly interject with these feelings and strive to keep the two apart. Michael and Star have to keep their heterosexual relations secret from the vampires or else they will be killed. These feelings are what make Star, just like Michael, realize that she is not truly "one of them" either. She, like Michael, fights the urges to become a monster; to become a degenerate. These two characters are able to fight these "monster" tendencies because they are normal, heterosexual humans that belong in regular society, rather than outcast and hidden from the world.

One of the most explicit films that portrays homosexuals as monsters is Nightbreed. This movie is a war between the normal world and the monsters. In the beginning of the movie, the main character, Boone, is framed for several murders by his psychiatrist. Boone is seen to the public as a psychopath and immediately becomes an outcast. He is placed into a psychiatric ward and meets another psycho that constantly speaks of this place known as "Midian". This place is where the monsters belong, and supposedly where psychopaths like himself and Boone can be treated fairly and are treated as equals rather than monsters.

Even before Boone was sentenced to this psychiatric ward, he felt that he was different. When he was with his girlfriend he would constantly leave and speak to her about how he didn't feel as if he belonged in society, as if he were different. This is what sparks his interest in this town known as Midian; he wanted to find a place where he belongs.

Upon his arrival at Midian, Boone realizes that he truly does belong here, and that these "monsters" are just like him; they are his people, and this is where he belongs. This is where many similarities between gays and monsters become evident in this film. For instance, Boone's girlfriend comes to Midian in order to convince Boone that he does not belong here, and that he needs to leave and come back to her. When she asks the monsters where Boone is, they tell her that there is no one living in Midian by that name, and that she does not belong here. That she is not a monster, and that if she comes into the caves of Midian she will be killed. The reason that she will be killed