High School movies showing positive gay images

[Glory-p3-mrs]

i am definetely going to have to see 'but i'm a cheerleader'

somebody suggested 'bring it on'
but i don't think 'bio' would work
i mean, there are two gay guys in the entire movie - one of which is on screen for about 15 seconds - and the other gets made fun of all the time for being 'fluent in fag'
and clare kramer's character is anti too, remember what she calls eliza's character?

anyway, i wouldn't recommend that one

[KathleenWolf]

mmm reading the thread "Lost and Delirous" comes to mind... it only came out last year... though it isn't maybe the happiest story... I think that the acceptance around the main characters is positive, though the main characters themselves are the ones who show the negative side persay

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"Are all you witches gay?" Buffy - Walking In Circles

[Righteous Babe]

i like lost and delirious alot, as soon as i seen it i got the movie stardom cause jessica pare was in it.

anyways jessica's characters sister and friends don't really react very well to it...

also want to say in but i'm a cheerleader another good movie, we don't really see american high school situation...

[xita]

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Originally posted by KathleenWolf:
mmm reading the thread "Lost and Delirous" comes to mind... it only came out last year... though it isn't maybe the happiest story... I think that the acceptance around the main characters is positive, though the main characters themselves are the ones who show the negative side persay

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I wouldn't recommend this movie as a positive portrayal at all. It isn't very contemporary either in that it comes from a book written in the 50s
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[Cipher]

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Originally posted by Kalita:
Another thumbs-up for Show Me Love (Swedish title: Fucking Åmål), though it's unlikely you'll find it... Great high school pic.

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Do you know what the accent over the A is called (the little circle)? I'm trying to figure out the proper HTML code for it. I know é (é), à (à), ô (ô), ä (ä) ñ (ñ), and ç (ç). The first letter can be changed to others for many of these (though apparently only those for which the accent is actually used; these don't all work: ã etilde; ĩ õ ũ ), including upper case. The examples with vowels above apparently work for every vowel. A tilde apparently also works with a and o but not e i or u. As far as I know cedilla only works with c.

If I could remember what the little circle is called, I could probably find the HTML code with a little experimentation. The problem with using the extended-ASCII characters is that they are not standard (not portable) and do not display correctly in some fonts or on some systems (the old Buffy web site used a non-portable ä in Doppelgängland and it showed as a space in my browser; if they'd used the standard HTML ä (as in Doppelgängland) it would display for everyone in any font containing the character even if it has a different numerical value). Since you can put HTML in Kitten posts, it's good to learn the standard way to include accented characters. (Editing to correct a typo in one of them, I discovered that editing (and possibly replying) collapses the HTML codes into the extended-ASCII characters, so that's one caveat.)

Anyway, getting back on topic...

Someone mentioned Bring It On; I'm not remembering any gay/lesbian content. Am I forgetting something? It's a good movie, and I don't think it would be rated R, so it might work if it has the content you want. I guess others pointed out what little "gay content" there is is not terribly positive.

But I'm a Cheerleader is a good movie, but it's rather specifically about an absurd cure-gayness camp (it seriously pokes fun at the idea and shows how absurd it is to think people's sexuality can just be redirected like that) rather than normal American culture, so that might not be quite what you want even if it wasn't rated R (I think). I got the impression you wanted something more subtle.

Of course, there's always Buffy episodes, though I don't know about availability in Korea. In the early ones (high school) there's Phases (right?) where Larry comes out to Xander (somewhat positive, though Xander's "hey, not me" (I was just a hyena) reaction might offset that a little). I think Earshot brings it up again (good episode to show high school students, too; more high school and less monstery). New Moon Rising is of course great, but doesn't make as much sense without the backstory about Willow and Oz (and it's college not high school, and much less real-world culture (Oz being experimented on by the Initiative...); I don't know if that'd make it unsuitable for what you're looking for). I think Earshot would be my recommendation as a Buffy episode to show, but that might not be workable. (It's among the six episodes in the US season 3 VHS box set, so it's commercially available, but I don't know about Korea. I don't think season 3 is out in DVD yet; season 1 just got released.)

Another very good TV series about US high school culture (without the mystical side) is My So-Called Life (as lion + dove and others have mentioned). Towards the end (only 19 episodes) are some that specifically involve the gay characters (Ricky is gay--or "bi" according to Angela in the first episode--the whole series but it isn't that significant until later). The World-Happiness Dance episode (dunno the official names, I call it "The Dance") might be a good choice. Ricky has a crush on a guy but is afraid to pursue anything and there's various maneuvering by various friends about the upcoming dance (Ricky's crush is just part of it, so it should be subtle enough). Unfortunately getting a copy ("legally") to show in Korea might be difficult; I don't know if they can even be purchased in the US (though if they can be, I want the whole series; my copies aren't very good; unfortunately I don't have DVD and I'm running out of space for more tapes).

I only saw one or two epsiodes towards the end, but the series Popular (WB) is about high school and seemed very gay-friendly. The particular episode I'm thinking of (the one I saw) was one of the last ones and involved the creation of a Gay/Straight Alliance. There's some negativity which is confronted (and in the end essentially defeated). Less subtle but might be worth checking out if you can find it.

Getting back to movies, the HBO original movie If These Walls Could Talk 2 (as opposed to the first one, which was about abortion) was mentioned. The only story close to high school is the middle section (college girls), which has nudity and sex sufficient to guarantee it's rated R (or TV-MA if it wasn't rated as a movie). It's a very good segment and well worth watching for any kittens, but probably not going to work for your high school class (plus, not at all subtle).

I'm still waiting for Lost and Delirious to come out on VHS (it's out on DVD at least), so I haven't seen it. Is that set in a Canadian school, though, or am I confused?

The problem is, there aren't very many movies about American high school culture that are even good (or maybe they don't seem interesting enough for me to go see them), much less that are specifically gay-friendly. Those that are seem to be rated R, which further cuts your choices. If you can get them, the school dance episode of MSCL and/or Earshot might be your best choices given the rating restrictions and topical interest.

[This message has been edited by Cipher (edited March 08, 2002).]quote:

[supermus]

I recommend Dawson's Creek for a TV show. IT's a pretty good depiction of American High School, and pretty gay-friendly.

[shellybean]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by wiccie:
[B]To Shellybean, in defense of "Election"; you forget, the baby dyke has a happy ending finding love on the soccer field of her Catholic High School.
oh right, I forgot about that.

My two favorite lesbian movies are But I'm a Cheerleader and Lost and Delirious. They are both SO good but completely different. I think both would be great to show but probably hard to find. thats the thing about lesbian themed movies, they're always independent and hard to find.

[GaBs_HoPe]

If you are really desperate and have time on your hands (like me) you can always try Morpheus for 'lost and delirious' because it's there. It's in 2 parts and are about 200 megs each. The quality isn't great but it isn't bad either (especialy if it's the only way you will get to see it).

Must say I love But Im a cheerleader, Lost and Delirious and Show me Love roked! I have a huge poster of it above my computer with the swedish title "Fucking Amal" Of course my grandparents just loved the fact that I have such a huge swear word above my computer

[Kalita]

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Originally posted by Cipher:
Do you know what the accent over the A is called (the little circle)? I'm trying to figure out the proper HTML code for it.

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I don't bother with HTML codes for accented characters; I just use the windows keypad code to type them in (using Character Map).

For example, to get Å, you hold down Alt and type 0197 on the number pad; å is Alt-0229.

I don't know how a Mac does it (and how a Unix machine would even interpret the character, don't ask). But it works for 95% of users, so I don't quibble.quote:

[linyjo]

to wong foo thanks for everything julie newmare is a older movei about drag queen but it has a very positive vibes it star john legwazomo wesley snips and patrick swaize

[Bones]

"Bring it On" is a PG rated movie (and an excellent one at that ).....

The gay character is subtley mentioned, and director didn't want to preach about it, and the movie does show that everyone around the character is aware of his sex preverence, and the character himself is comfortable with his sexuality......

Show Me Love airs occassionally on Foxtel World Movies in Australia, and is highly recommended by this poster

[Cipher]

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Originally posted by Kalita:
I don't bother with HTML codes for accented characters; I just use the windows keypad code to type them in (using Character Map).

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Yeah, that's the wrong way to do it on the web. The point of the web is universal access and portability regardless of OS and client. ASCII is only standard for 0 through 127 (00-7F hex), and HTML was given standard codes for accents and other characters outside the standard ASCII set specifically because extended-ASCII (80-FF hex) is not universally consistent.

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For example, to get , you hold down Alt and type 0197 on the number pad; is Alt-0229.

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Notice the accented A's in your example didn't copy. While Netscape displays the characters under the font the Kitten indicates (or the one it ends up picking from the list), it doesn't allow them to be entered into the text-edit pane. Since I don't know the proper HTML code, I can't add them back, either. I was hoping since you knew the Swedish title containing those accented-A's that you might also know what the accent mark is called (I only know the names of French accent marks, and they don't use that one).

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I don't know how a Mac does it (and how a Unix machine would even interpret the character, don't ask). But it works for 95% of users, so I don't quibble.

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In my xterm windows on Unix it has the hex value of C5 (decimal 197) as well, and I can enter it by alt-shift-E (alt-e for lower case, value E5 (229)). But if I send that to a printer, it could be some entirely different character that prints out (I tried before to print out a character map for extended-ASCII as a reference and found there was very little correlation between the characters in xterm (which probably match the common PC mapping) and the characters in the printer's default font).

If you use the proper HTML codes for accented characters, it should work for 100% of users (provided their display is capable of it and the font used includes them--I don't think they'd show up with accents on a braille terminal, for example; they should be mapped to the unaccented letter, which might not happen with the raw extended-ASCII characters).

Sorry for the off-topic rant, but this is a pet peeve of mine ever since the web developers (who ought to know better) screwed it up on the old Buffy web site and left the episode title showing as "Doppelg ngland" to my system.quote:quote:quote:

[eekiboo]

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Originally posted by La:
So far the only movie I can think of is Election, and I can't even remember if that's positive or negative. Any other suggestions?

~La

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Election is a good movie, imho. as one of the kitties mentioned, the lesbian character here had a positive ending. as for other movies, Fucking Amal (Show Me Love) is cool too (loved it) and there's a tv movie that was recently shown here in one of the Canadian channels, it's called "The Truth About Jane" - abt a teenage girl realizing she's gay and the effects of her coming out. (i loved this too) i know you probably won't be able to find these movies there. i can make copies of these movies in case you can't find it anywhere. peace

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Willow and Tara
Willow and Tara's Roomquote:

[willow's girl]

Has anyone mentioned Heavenly Creatures? Sad movie though. I gotta say my favorite lesbain movie, and my third favorite movie of any kind is But I'm A Cheerleader. It is sooooo funny, as well as being a beautiful love story. My crush on Clea helps too.
My other favorite gay themed movies are Get Real (such a great film), The Opposite of Sex and In and Out. And Jeffery is brilliant.
Damn it, we need more lesbian love stories in the movies. I should work on writing one

[La]

So Election is rated "18" here. Which means that I can't show it to my students. But Dangerous Minds is rated "15". ??? Strange. Both were R in the states (I didn't even realize that Election was R, I guess I forgot about the sex scenes ...) Poop. So now I'm trying to decide between Dangerous Minds, Bring it On, and Save the Last Dance. I still have a few more weeks before this lesson though, so maybe I'll find another movie that is actually here that I can show.

Eekiboo - thanks for offering to make copies, but I want to use a movie with Korean subtitles. Otherwise many of my students will stop paying attention and the noise level in the class gets really really high as they all stop paying attention and start chatting about other things

~La

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Taree: ah'm, yo' know...
Willer: Whut in tarnation?
Taree: Yourn...

[~KISMIC~]

Hey there wouldn't be anyone from Aus who has Show Me Love or Gia on video who would be willing to make me a copy would there? I actually hadn't heard/seen most of the movies you've all mentioned and so have now set out to see them all...Being in Aus though kinda makes this a little hard.

I don't really have any movies to add as the only movie with any gay content that I can think of that hasn't been mentioned (I think) is 'The Broken Hearts Club'. However it sounds like you're looking for a more subtle movie so no help there.

La, I love your idea for choosing a movie this way, wish the teachers here were as cool about the movies watched.

*~Kristy~*

[alexis_18]

i live in manila... and sad to say, i haven't really watched many movies about gay/lesbian here. usually, they really don't show these kinds of movies in theaters since this is a catholic country, they think anything not-heterosexual is a thing that'll make you go to hell. and to be able to watch those movies, i usually have to buy them on video (which costs a lot...) sigh...

thank God, they are still showing buffy on tv here, which is kinda weird, coz, tv is more "available" than the movies and they ban the films... whatever. i don;t really think i'm making much sense...

as for the movies i've watched, they are : Gia, Boy's don't cry -- so far these are really the gay-oriented ones.

[Genea]

Well La,I recently saw Get Real about two boys in a what i think was london or somewhere abouts thers. It has a few bad moments but in the end it has a good message about being yourself and being proud of who you are. I sa Election and personally I hated it but, my wife loved it so go figure.

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Sugarloaf
"Due to the recent presidential elections, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off."

[La]

Just an update, I've decided to show Dangerous Minds (doesn't have anything to do with gays/lesbians, I know) since I really want to show as much high school as I can. I'm thinking about also showing Never Been Kissed (also no gays or lesbians) as a contrast as well. Everyone gave such wonderful recommendations - thank you!

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~La

"No good sittin' worryin' abou' it. What's comin' will
come, an' we'll meet it when it does."
~Hagrid, from "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire".

[Queen of Denial]

hey alexis!
i'm in manila too!. anyway, if you're interested in other movies, i 've got a couple that were mentioned in this thread (high art, Lost and delirious, the incredibly true adventures of 2 girls, ITWCT2..the list goes on.) just email me and i could lend you or *coug*dub you copies*cough*

ches

[Gadget]

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Originally posted by ~KISMIC~:
Hey there wouldn't be anyone from Aus who has Show Me Love or Gia on video who would be willing to make me a copy would there? I actually hadn't heard/seen most of the movies you've all mentioned and so have now set out to see them all...Being in Aus though kinda makes this a little hard.

*~Kristy~*

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Gia should be available at any half way decent video shop..if not most shops will transfer copies in for you..I got it from my local shop

Fucking Amal (Show me Love)..I would try Video Shift in Balmain, Video Drama on Oxford Street, Civic Video Newtown or Video Ezy in Paramatta (oddly enough) pick an area with loads of gay people living there if you are not in Sydney...the Video shift in Balmain is perhaps the best place to get foreign films it has a website..www.videoshift.com.au..check it out

As for the actual topic I dunno..American High Schools are not my area of expertise I did find Show me Love a little cliched and not a very well made film but loads of people love it

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