I now pronounce you taking extremely small steps toward acceptance

The other night, after my workout (no there weren't any examples of hot beefcake there then, either) John and I decided last minute to go see a movie. I'd looked up the movies prior just in case we made said decision, and knew that the only thing on at that hour was a 9:50 showing of "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry". I'd heard relatively unkind things about the movie, and the previews weren't anything that compelled me to rush out and see it, but for $3 I figured we couldn't go too wrong.

It's usually when I go into a movie with that attitude that I end up being pleasantly surprised in one way or another...Children Of Men, as an example. Though I can't say I walked away from last night's Adam Sandler vehicle wanting to necessarily recommend it to anyone, I will say that there were several things I was kind of pleasantly surprised about.

The movie, in case you missed either the previews or someone else's bitchy review of it, is about two straight firemen who pretend to be gay and partnered to utilize benefits for the sake of getting Adam Sandler a desperately needed face lift...or something. Which serves as the perfect platform from which to make a good number of gay jokes while still not necessarily making fun of gay people (since the jokes are about two straight guys that are pretending to be gay, you see). And make the gay jokes they did...everything from Liza-record-buying, to the old dropping-the-soap-in-the-shower gag (which, by the way, makes me wonder...if you're so loose down there that you think someone could slip it in you while you're bent over just long enough to pick up a bar of soap, don't you have bigger things to worry about...like where your colostomy bag is?).

But, refreshingly, the movie also used the whole straight-man-in-a-gay-world scenario as a means to show the protagonists (and the audience) just how despicably cruel and vicious homophobic straight folks can sometimes be towards gays. There's a confrontation scene between a church group and a crowd of AIDS charity goers that actually was slightly moving. There's even a moment at the end of the film where one of the guys tells his friends (and, presumably, the audience) "don't say faggot...it's just hurtful".

Unfortunately, these moments are also balanced out by a good number of frustrating examples of ignorance in the name of humor. All too often, it ends up being the straight-guy-in-gay-clothes that has to end up standing up for the silly queers who cower instead of standing up for themselves. And when a big, burly, scary fireman played by Ving Rhames is inspired to come out himself...he goes from badass motherfucker to silly, prancing queen in about 10 seconds. Who knew that uttering the words "I'm gay" had such power?

So, the moral of the story is this: the straights are finally, maybe, starting to see the light just a teeny-tiny bit...and realizing that they can sometimes be real dicks towards gay people. But, as for the perception of who the average gay guy is...they're still having a hard time letting go of the stereotypes. But I guess any little stumbles of progress can actually seem like giant leaps to those that are making them.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go re-organize my library of musicals while I listen to Judy Garland...and wear a dress.