Here is some more.īruno gave me a new (and not new) thought about homophobia. What Bruno inspires in gays is a lot of talking and typing and thinking. After watching Bruno, a character played by Sacha Baron "Borat" Cohen, traipse across America and incite whatever homophobic responses and misadventures he can (especially in places like Arkansas and Alabama), gays seem ready to accept that Bruno, which opened last week, will not hinder their hopes for pop-culture progress. It seems they have found if not a friend in Bruno at least a very (very) tenuous ally in his over-the-top (and under-the-bottom) stereotype. But nothing can interest gay folks quite like monitoring how they are treated in movies and on TV. Depending on the day, the movement entails working state by state for gay rights at the altar (marriage licenses are becoming like souvenir snow globes - collect them all!), trying to get President Barack Obama's fleeting attention, fighting to partake openly in military life, trying to join whatever tributary of the mainstream still does not wish to have gay people in it, pressing the limits of employment-benefit paperwork and so on. There were many gay people in the audience, some of whom are involved, peripherally or otherwise, in "the movement." The movement stalls and sputters these days. 14, 2009Īmid the screams of shock and laughter at a packed preview screening of Bruno last week, one could also detect slight sighs of relief.