As I may have mentioned, I am taking a trip to SAN FRANCISCO as part of a summer course. What kind of course, you ask? Well, technically it's in the Women's Studies department, but really it's gay (Ah, you say, That makes sense now.) and movies. We get to attend the Frameline Film Festival and write critiques of the films, as well as film our own documentay. My group's assigned topic is activist filmmakers, which we kind of morphed into film festivals as sites of social change.
We are staying in a condo owned by a fantastic Australian man and his partner. In the back there is a lovely bamboo garden that is going to be a refuge for many of us during the hectic coming weeks. I had a picture, but my computer is being weird and won't let me show you.
That first night after we unpacked, half the class went out with the professors for sushi. Have you ever had sushi with a professor? It's intereresting. Especially when they drink sake. It was only sometime that night that I realized I was actually IN FREAKING SAN FRANCISCO, and it made me a little loopy. I'm still a little loopy.
Because today I got to see the HRC building that used to be Harvey Milk's camera shop, and the Harvey Milk Memorial Elementary school (seriously, everything's named after that guy here. He's like L.E. Phillips is in Eau Claire.) And THE Pride Flag (which I don't think is as big as the, what, 20x30 one we have in EC? But it was actually flying, so who could tell), and I wandered through the Haight (which I learned is not spelled "Hate," which makes a lot more sense, since it's where all the peace and love hippies hang out).
But if you go to San Francisco, and you're queer, the Castro Theater is the gay mecca. Harvey Milk appears on the screen, and the whole place bursts into cheers and applause - because everyon knows who he is, everyone worships him, and they're not afraid to show it.
It's not like a janky old movie theater. Think of a fancy opera house - like the Ordway in Minneapolis, though I was put more in mind of the Semperoper in Dresden. I was seated on the end of our group, next to a nice stranger who explained the references in the old Frameline trailers that they always play on opening night, and I told him about us being a student group from Wisconsin.
This year the opening movie was "Vito," a documentary about the life of activist Vito Russo. If you don't know about him, you should, and a good way to learn about him is through that documentary. First the guy spent ten years writing a book on Hollywood portrayal of gay characters while running an activist group, and then in the eighties he got big into AIDS activism - even before he himself was diagnosed with AIDS. Around that point in the film, you could hear the entire theater sniffling. I was literally handing out tissues left and right - one to my classmate and one to the nice stranger next to me. Seriously, they say Minnesota nice, but we're also reserved - we don't talk to strangers in the theater.
I love this city. I thought going to college and befriending other gays was a mind-blowing moment for me, but coming here, and seeing the gay everywhere - it's changing my worldview. But since I am a cynical bitch (and proud!) I realize I cannot live on a gay island for the rest of my life. And it makes me think of what kind of narrative I want to create. The worlds where sexual orientation doesn't matter and everyone is effectively bisexual - those are nice fantasy and commentary, but that's not what we aspire to. Gays and straights are always going to be different, the way men and women are always going to be different. But that doesn't mean we can't get along. What we need is more peaceful crossover between the gay and straight worlds.
Looking at the odd little shorts I've jotted down since I started this course and have had queer theory coming out of my ears, I realize that is something of a recurring theme: a gay jock rooming with a straight nerd, a sibling too young to understand what her brother means when he says he's gay, a straight-identified girl whose attempts to find her lesbian friend a date cause her to question her own sexuality. Crossover. Communication. And with increased presence and visibility, I believe that we can show straight people they have no reason to fear us, and gay people they have no reason to fear straights.
But I do love this city. I have decided, with the help of one of my professors who has lived just about everywhere, that I would much rather go to Monterey than New York. I have a plan for my life! I know what I'm going to do when I graduate! And I'm no longer panicking! San Francisco has done wonderful things for me.
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