Queerama (2017) Movie Script
1
About one person in 20
of both sexes is homosexual.
On any busy street,
you pass half a dozen every five minutes,
because, contrary to popular opinion,
most of them
don't look any different from anyone else.
People can only tell the obvious ones,
but they are a tiny minority.
J" For TC and his Honeybear
J" The world will not stop moving
J" For rendezvous and longing stares
J" And hearts that won't stop burning
J" Before that Honeybear had given up
J" He felt so sad and lonely
J" Then one night he looked up and he saw
J" He saw his one and only
J" When TC came onto the scene
J" He entered in on golden wings
J" And with him he brought butterflies
J" Of crimson red and emerald green
J" 'Cause before TC, Honeybear was waiting
J" Was waiting for him patiently
J" TC took his fear away
J" Became his one and only J"
(Reporter)
Homosexuals usually live two lives,
one of which is completely concealed
from their family and colleagues.
- No one knows, no.
- (Reporter) How would they react?
They'd be tremendously shocked.
The reason is that
I live a very normal life back home
and I really live two lives.
One here and one up North.
(Reporter) It is estimated
one man in 20 is a homosexual.
These men are a minority.
They receive minority treatment,
face prejudice and intolerance,
stand accused of depravity and vice.
Whereas male homosexuality
is a crime in Britain,
female homosexuality is perfectly legal.
Lesbians can be open about it.
(Reporter 2)
Yet, for women who love women,
unqualified acceptance by our society
still does not exist.
So lesbians receive
the minority treatment:
intolerance, suspicion,
and often disgust.
(Reporter) In the heterosexual world,
the homosexual
disturbs conformist values,
is shunned and perhaps misunderstood.
Most homosexuals
must lead a secret, dark existence.
J" The world came crashing down on them
J" With all of its ferocity
J" And Honeybear was terrified
J" He said, "Do not take him, take me."
J" Before that, Honeybear had given up
J" He felt so sad and lonely"
I'll soon be back.
Don't leave me here alone.
Where are you going?
J" Then one night he looked up and he saw
J" He saw his one and only
J" And he said, "Please don't take him
J" 'Cause I love him.
J" He's my joy and my life."
J" For my love, I won't hesitate
J" I will give him
All that his heart can take
J" And I'll trust him fearlessly
J" I want him to be free"
(Reporter) Among the ancient Greeks,
it was normal practice.
Socrates and Plato,
the two greatest of philosophers,
were both homosexual.
So was Alexander the Great.
Julius Caesar: every woman's
man and every man's woman.
Many of the kings of England
were homosexual.
William Rufus, for instance,
and Edward ll,
who was the most notorious example.
Perhaps the two greatest artists
of all time were homosexual:
Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
At home, romantic poets
like Shelley and Byron.
The biggest scandal
surrounding a British homosexual
blew up around Oscar Wilde.
(Oscar Wilde) "The love that
dare not speak its name in this country.
In such a great affection
of an elder for a younger man,
as there was between David and Jonathan,
such as Plato made
the very basis of his philosophy,
and such as you will find in the sonnets
of Michelangelo and Shakespeare.
It is that deep spiritual affectation
which is as pure as it is perfect.
It is in this century so misunderstood
that it may be described
as the love that dare not speak its name,
and on account of it,
I am placed where I am now.
It is beautiful. It is fine.
It is the noblest form of affectation."
(Reporter) Are they born that way
or do they become like it?
Well, I don't think
they are born that way.
I think the damage is probably done
very early in infancy,
in some cases, sometimes later.
The amount of sexual drive a person has
may certainly be decided
partly genetically, but not its direction.
J" We could have skipped this part
J" I could have taught you
How to love yourself
J" I waited patiently
J" I hoped that
You would be the one to come to me
J" I tried to talk to you
J" I thought that
You would recognise the need
J" That you had deep inside
J" But you have to get there by yourself
J" I don't understand, help me please
J" Tell me everything to make me see
J" You know that I would give you anything
J" I'd take away the pain
Yeah, I'd take away the stain
J" I don't understand, help me please
J" Tell me everything to make me see
J" You know that I would give you anything
J" I'd take away the pain
Yeah, I'd take away the stain J"
Because lesbians are a cross-section
by the sheer law of averages,
there are naturally many to be found
in professions
predominantly staffed by women,
like nursing and teaching.
(Reporter) You're a school teacher,
and as you must know,
a tremendous number of parents
are very frightened at the idea that
their daughter might
be taught by a lesbian teacher.
What's your comment on that?
I suppose there is a danger
in some cases, but...
I mean, if this was something
really dangerous...
no man would be allowed
to teach at an all-girls school.
And no-one is going to suggest that.
As far as I'm concerned,
my professional life and my private life
are utterly separate,
and have to be utterly separate.
(Reporter)
Do you feel attraction for the girls?
None at all.
J" I don't understand, help me please
J" Tell me everything to make me see
J" You know that I would give you anything
J" I'd take away the pain
Yeah, I'd take away the stain J"
(Man) Recently, I have seen some
children,
very young children,
between three and four...
And even people I work with remarked that
there is no question that these children
will grow up to be homosexual.
They are very sensitive
and are far more gentle children
in comparison to other children
perhaps of the same age
who are brisk and rough-and-tumble.
And one felt that
there was something there...
that was sympathetic.
J" Help me please
J" Why don't you come to me J"
(Reporter) Once a girl is lesbian,
can anything be done to change that?
I think so.
If she is still fairly young
and she is dissatisfied herself
with her way of life.
This depends terribly
on how early the damage was done,
how deep it goes...
And again,
I suppose on her own feelings about it.
J" I would give you anything
J" I'd take away the pain
Yeah, I'd take away the stain
J" I don't understand, help me please
J" Tell me everything to make me see
J" You know that I would give you anything
J" I'd take away the pain
Yeah, I'd take away the stain J"
(60s upbeat jazz plays)
- You could talk to him.
- It's not a mother's job.
He's always been a mother's boy.
He never once forgot mother's day.
(Father) I don't remember him
bringing a single girl home.
I knew there was something,
but I just couldn't put my finger on it.
Oh, come on now.
He was going to be a bachelor, a celibate.
Your son's not one of those, is he, Hilda?
(Telephone rings)
Where's Jo?
(Mother) Couldn't she come?
I'd so looked forward to meeting her.
(Pans clanging)
I tripped over the central heating.
I'm always falling over!
I hope I haven't wrecked it.
(Comic trumpet sting)
J" I've felt uncomfortable
Since the day that I was born
J" Since the day I glimpsed
The black abyss in your eyes
J" There's no way you could make
All of this shit up on your own
J" It could only come
From the mastermind of lies J"
My parents weren't affectionate.
And I always grew up
with a dislike for my father.
And a tremendous attachment to my mother.
There's nothing wrong
about that young man of mine
that a good woman won't cure.
(Priest) May the Lord
be in your heart and on your lips
that you may, with truth and humility,
confess all your sins,
in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
J" I can't believe that
I've considered taking my own life
J" 'Cause I believed the lies
About me were the truth J"
May Father give me a blessing...
J" It will be magic
To watch your transformation
J" When you realise that you've been had
J" It's enough to make a guy
Like me feel sad J"
Yes, Sister.
J" 'Cause you tell me that
Jesus, he hates fruit loops, son
J" We told you that when you were young
J" Or pretty much anything you want him to
J" Like sitcoms, paedophiles and kangaroos
J" Morons who cut in line
J" Three-bean salad and parking fines
J" And when we win this war on society
J" I hope your blind eyes
will be opened and you'll see
J" The arrogance it takes to walk
J" Around in the world the way you do
J" It turns my brain to jelly every time
J" The rage and fear I'm feeling
Have begun to make me sick
J" And I think that
I might be about to commit a crime
J" And you tell me that
Jesus, he hates homos, son
J" We told you that when you were young J"
Men?
You look like a couple of queers!
Ah, don't take any notice
of what Dot said.
I tell you,
she had me worried for a minute.
Just because our Arthur's marriage
hasn't gone right yet,
you've no call
to talk about him being queer.
It's ridiculous!
Ain't it?
(Screams)
No!
Suppose there was.
Is that something to get at a lad for?
Well, it's not normal, is it?
Where you going?
To get a refill for my lipstick.
O Father, give me your blessing.
It is three weeks since my last confession.
And I accuse myself
of dishonouring my parents, many times.
J" 'Cause Jesus, He hates faggots, son
J" We told you that when you were young
J" Or pretty much anyone you want him to
S' Like niggers, spies, redskins and kikes S'
I don't know what's the matter with you.
You ain't normal!
- Aren't we getting off the subject?
- Shut up!
J" And when we win the war on society
J" I hope your blind eyes will be opened
And you'll see J"
Nature would've done it.
A father should help a lad like that,
not turn on him like the mob would
when it sees somebody different.
(Reporter) When in the end,
the penny dropped, how did you react?
With relief more than anything.
Relief that knowing,
of being certain at last,
what I was and how I fitted in.
I think uncertainty,
not knowing what you are,
not knowing how you fit into society,
this is the worst thing of all.
(Reporter)
The mother of one of the lesbians
who's appeared in this programme
told me how she discovered
that her daughter was homosexual.
How did you react at the time?
What did you feel?
Well, at first, terrific shock.
And fear, to a certain extent.
Not for ourselves and not for...
What people would think, really,
but fear for her,
what she'd have to face
in her future life.
I think that was the worst part about it.
A minority of lesbians
can be recognised as such.
(Reporter) This 19-year-old girl has worn
nothing but boys clothes for some years.
Well...
I was brought up with boys.
I've got no sisters.
I think I was more or less
a tomboy from the start,
from a very early age.
How do the shop assistants react
when you walk in to buy men's clothes?
Well, nine times out of ten,
they don't know that I'm a girl.
But there is the odd occasion
where I've gone into a shop
and they've said, "Yes, sir,"
and somebody has said, "ls that a girl?"
Good morning, sir!
Oh... Good morning, "miss".
Good morning. A red rose, please.
There.
- Thank you.
- Thanks.
- Good morning, Kate!
- Good morning, sir.
Could I have a buttonhole?
I haven't got any... A few violets?
That'll do nicely!
Do you mind if I pay on Saturday?
(Campy giggling)
Strewth!
What do you make of that, Sam?
(Laughs)
Well, boys will be girls,
and girls will be boys!
J" Stranger, when you look at me
J" Eyes strong as steel
J" Light as day
J" Born a mystery
J" You're the in-between
J" Boy or girl
J" Wilder, than I've known before
J" Fire rushes through every vein
J" With that smile that sings
J" You'll be killing me tenderly
J" Every word is soft as fur
J" I'm drifting deep J"
Yes, sir?
Get in there!
Come on! Move!
Crisp, sir.
Sit down.
Your hair's dyed.
Yes, sir.
A man dying his hair
is a sign of sexual perversion!
J" Stranger, will you remember?
S' Stranger, make me remember you S'
I am Dr Crow.
You are surprised?
Yes, I am.
I expected you to be a man.
- Or a woman...
- I am both.
With the combined
mental and physical endowments
of both man and woman.
You must have great difficulty
with your clothes.
- Do you read your Bible?
- Not constantly.
"Male and female created He them".
Male and female created He "me".
(Reporter 2) Steve and her girlfriend
don't often walk the street for pleasure.
There's too much risk involved.
Risk of public mockery.
Undisguised amazement. Crude jokes.
Many lesbians of course,
aren't so aggressively masculine as Steve,
and for them it's not so bad.
But for Steve, who is 24
and whose whole instinct
cries out to her
to feel and act like a man,
her appearance
makes her constantly vulnerable.
When I was 15 or 16,
I met this girl
and I was with her for six months
and I got engaged to her.
I really forgot that I was a woman.
And she thought she was pregnant,
because there are some things
that a lesbian can use
and I got away with using one of those
and she didn't know the difference.
And the next thing I know...
Her mother kept on
about us getting married,
so I thought I'd better get out of it,
because I knew
I couldn't get married to her.
And so then I hopped it.
Next thing, the police are after me.
The girl thinks she's pregnant
and they're taking me to court
for breach of promise and that.
They took me to court
and then it all came out,
that I was a girl.
(Reporter) No cure has yet been found
for the homosexual condition.
Perhaps none ever will,
but I asked homosexuals
if they would still choose
to remain homosexuals
if they had the opportunity to change.
No.
The society being what it is,
I would be heterosexual.
If you could live life all over again
and could choose,
would you choose to be homosexual?
Not unless it was thrust upon me
as it has been...
by the fact that I am,
and there is nothing I can do about it.
Heaven knows I've tried.
No, there's absolutely no advantage
in being a homosexual
in a heterosexual world, obviously.
And there's no happiness, really.
J" You just want to live your life
J" The best way you know how
J" But they keep on telling you
J" That you are not allowed
J" They say you are sick
J" That you should hang your head in shame
J" They are pointing fingers
J" And want you to take the blame J"
- A brain specialist?
- Psychiatrist.
I thought as much.
You want to psychoanalyse me, don't you?
You want to look inside my brain,
see the wheels go around!
Now, wait a moment...
(Man) To dissect me like a guinea pig
then show me off
to your distinguished colleagues
as an interesting case.
Now that's fit, isn't it?
(Decker) Hardly, but it's possible
that I may be able to help you.
Perhaps you'll have a case
to make your complexes stand on end.
You can write a big fat book about it!
(Laughter)
J" This pain
J" It is a glacier moving through you J"
(Reporter) Doctors,
more than most people,
should perhaps understand
what causes men to be homosexual.
This man is a doctor,
but he is also a homosexual.
It just makes you feel
you might just as well be in prison,
'cause it's a sort of prison anyway.
- Do you think you need help?
- (Man) Yes, I do.
I think every homosexual needs help.
Homosexuality is one manifestation
of a failure to fully develop.
- (Reporter 2) Does your mother know?
- Yeah.
What does she think?
She just thinks it's disgusting.
She can't accept it.
J" So don't you become paralysed with fear
J" When things seem particularly rough J"
(Reporter)
Did you find it hard to come to terms
with the fact that you are a homosexual?
Yes, from when
I was about 16, until about...
20, 22 or 23.
The whole of that time,
it was associated in my mind with guilt,
sordid matters...
elderly, unpleasant men.
J" Don't you pay them fuckers
As they say, "No, never mind"
J" They don't give two shits about you
J" It's the blind leading the blind
J" What they want is commonly
Referred to as theocracy
J" And what that boils down to
Is referred to as hypocrisy
J" Don't listen to anyone
J" Get answers on your own
J" Even if it means that sometimes
J" You feel quite alone
J" No one on this planet
Can tell you what to believe
J" People like to talk a lot
J" And they like to deceive J"
(Reporter 2) Don't you ever go
to your family at Christmas?
I'm not in the family, dear.
Never got on with them anyway.
I did have a friend...
J" This pain
It is a glacier moving through you
J" And carving out deep valleys J"
We lived together for years.
J" And creating spectacular landscapes J"
A real love-match it was, you know.
And I've never wanted anything since.
J" With precious minerals and other stuff
J" So don't you become paralysed with fear
J" When things seem particularly rough
J" This pain
J" It is a glacier moving through you
J" And carving out deep valleys
J" And creating spectacular landscapes
J" And nourishing the ground
J" With precious minerals and other stuff
J" So don't you become paralysed with fear
J" When things seem particularly rough J"
(Reporter) I think one of the barriers
to public acceptance for you
is that normal people,
or most normal people,
find what you physically do, disgusting.
Well, personally, I find that
what a normal heterosexual couple do
is just the same for me.
I find it...
Well, I won't say disgusting,
but unnatural and repulsive.
Sorry for them? Not me.
It's always excuses.
Every newspaper you pick up,
it's excuses.
It's the environment.
Too much love as kids, or too little.
They can't help it.
We are in danger
of permanently damaging our social fabric.
(Man) This is dealing
with a twilight area of abnormal people.
What is lesbianism?
What causes it? Can it be cured?
I wish I was normal.
I want to be cured!
- (Reporter) Would you like to be cured?
- No.
Why not?
I'm perfectly happy the way I am.
I have no desire to be heterosexual.
I don't see any advantages
in being heterosexual.
Except for the fact
one might have police protection, but...
No, I have no desire to change.
Even if I could.
(Reporter) Can you tell by looking
at a woman whether she is a lesbian?
- Not at all.
- You think that's a complete myth?
An absolute myth!
Because I've been looking out hard enough!
(Woman) For years and years and years,
I've fallen in love with various women,
but they've never reciprocated my feeling.
Not until I was 36
did anyone reciprocate my feeling.
And I used to fall in love
and then feel
quite happy about it at first,
and I thought, "Oh, but it's hopeless,
she won't reciprocate my feeling".
And I was right. She didn't.
I very often remain friendly
with that person,
but, of course, I was very disappointed.
(Reporter) Most homosexuals dread
getting old, dread losing their looks,
fear in particular the final loneliness
of living without a companion.
Like men needing wives,
they search for someone
with whom they can establish
a lasting relationship
which includes warmth and protection,
as well as sex.
These two have done that
and have lived together for 26 years.
They might almost be a married couple.
But they're still queer, in the minority.
Have they been happy?
(Married man)
Compared with a lot of married couples...
Reasonably, yes.
Reasonably happy.
After all,
everything is made for married people.
It's not made for people like us...
Things are awkward, aren't they.
(Reporter) A comfortable house
in Wandsworth,
indistinguishable from thousands of homes
owned by married couples.
It's where a lesbian couple
have lived for four years.
A domestic life which began
as conventionally
as any normal married couple
when they fell in love.
Homosexual practices
may not be approved of,
homosexual love cannot be denied.
The feeling of being in love,
I'm sure it's exactly the same
for men and for women.
A feeling of deep emotion towards someone.
And with me, it happened quite suddenly.
I had in fact
only known Julie a few days.
J" My love is the rarest jewel
J" And he grounds me with his love
J" My love, he is rich like caramel
J" And he moves me from above
J" He sees me with tiger eyes
J" And that's where I make my home
J" His heart is a shield
J" Which protects me from the vilest foe
J" His smile's an elixir
J" Which heals the wounds
Of my darkest years
J" When my love is quiet, I consider him
J" And he drives away my fears
J" My love, he reveals himself
J" With tenderness and grace
J" My love has constructed with his arms
J" For me the safest place
J" His laughter destroys my doubts
J" And lifts me up so high
J" His voice it is soothing
J" Like a warm breeze on a Summer night
J" When he envelops me
I give myself to him
J" And my soul takes flight"
(Reporter) Most homosexual partnerships
are not so lasting.
This young waiter
talked about the break-up of his.
Initially, I think
one of the main reasons why it started
is we were very young
when we came together.
We were both 19.
He was much more a man about town,
much more worldly than I was,
and I looked to him
for a great deal of protection.
And as the years went by
and I began to develop,
I became more and more independent of him,
but I certainly didn't love him any less
than what I did from the beginning.
But I think that he resented the fact that
I was no longer
dependent on him for anything.
And this was the cancer that
started in our relationship
and eventually made it break.
J" Horrifying as it was for me
J" To see your face today
J" I guess I knew that
It would happen at some point
J" And I dreaded it because"
How'd I ever think
you were so marvellous?
Bertie, for God's sake, go away!
I have to, George.
I didn't want to hurt you.
J" So you observe the strict rules
J" Laid out in the books of etiquette J"
No! Please!
Happy, are you? Happy?
I despise you!
I disgust you, I know,
because you disgust me.
When slaves love each other,
it's not love.
I'm not married to you, George!
All right then.
Stay with me.
You're the only one left.
J" You know I hate this fucking town J"
Come back!
J" Without running into someone"
No, don't turn away from me.
Take in your arms.
J" Somebody whom
You desperately want to see
J" But you know
It's only going to cause more grief
J" 'Cause there is nothing left to say
J" And he can't hear you anyway J"
I'm making a real effort.
- What am I supposed to do?
- Deakin is here to look after you!
Your chaperone.
Keep you out of my hair...
Yeah, if he can stand up!
Look, calm down, George!
Or take another pill!
J" 'Cause I really want to hate you
But my intellect reminds me...J"
I love you, Francis.
He loves you not...
J" And I wanted to be your friend
J" But I couldn't pull it off in the end
J" And I'm disappointed with myself
J" 'Cause I thought I could
J" But then again you always made it clear
J" That you do not care either way
J" Which begs the question
J" How can I still claim to love you?
J" You told me time and time again
J" That you don't lose, you always win
J" And that to make an effort
J" Would just be beneath you
J" You know, I hate this fucking town
J" You cannot even leave your fucking house
J" Without running into someone
Who no longer cares about you
J" Somebody whom
You desperately want to see
J" But you know it's only going
To cause more grief
J" 'Cause there is nothing left to say
J" He can't hear you anyway J"
- Stop, Martha!
- I can't stop.
I love you too much to stop.
I thought you loved me.
What did you feel for him?
I have a right to know.
What do you want to know?
I shall tell you.
You won't be content until you know.
Until you've ripped it out of me!
I stopped seeing him
because I wanted him.
Do you understand? Because I wanted him!
(Reporter)
Men who choose to love other men
are treated
not only with intolerance and contempt,
but prosecuted and jailed.
As a result, they become vulnerable
to violence, blackmail and persecution.
Parliament has been asked
to consider a bill to remove that threat
by legalising homosexual acts
between consenting adults in private,
but a change in the law doesn't guarantee
a change in attitude by the rest of us.
For many of us, this is revolting:
men dancing with men.
Homosexuals in this country today
break the law.
(MP) I'd been to a party
at one of the embassies.
And I'd been to the House to vote
and then on my way home,
I thought I might take a little exercise
and I went into the park
and I met a young guardsman
and he went with me
and we went
into the darkness of the trees...
I went into this toilet and...
I suppose, two or three times
over the course of an afternoon.
And I came out and somebody,
a young person,
said that
they was arresting me for importuning.
J" Stockholm is a place that I adore
J" But the syndrome by that name
J" Is one that I abhor
J" Patty Hearst cannot compete with me
J" I bet she thinks she can
J" I'll prove her wrong at tea for free
S' Words dent mean anything to you S'
You're a pansy, aren't you!
Pansy?
J" Emotions turn right in to lies
Like black turns in to blue
J" Because the fear has made you blind J"
What's that, apart from being a flower?
So they took me to some police station.
Took my fingerprints.
I was beaten up in a public lavatory
and left lying on the floor.
It was all rather messy
and rather nasty, I'm afraid.
J" No more tangles
J" No more tears
J" No more reindeer games
J" With narcissistic queers
S' Or any other such type oi human being S'
A man had in fact
made advances to me first of all...
And when I was vacated,
he waited outside and beat me up.
And of course, I couldn't do anything.
I couldn't call the police.
Unfortunately,
we were discovered by the police
and one of the park keepers.
And I was then arrested.
And I was inside from Saturday afternoon
until Monday morning.
I never slept. Just sat and cried.
I can only accept this brief, Mr Wilde,
if you assure me on your honour
as an English gentleman
that there is no truth
in the charges against you.
Ladies and gentleman of the jury,
it is indeed a sad and sickening sight.
I assure you, as an Irish gentleman,
that there is no truth whatever
in any of it.
The judge said afterwards
it always astounded him
that in this type of case,
all these homosexuals
could produce witnesses
who would swear that
they were of good character, and so on.
Why on earth shouldn't a homosexual
be of good character?
S' You spend your days tied up 'm knots S'
I want my phone call!
My phone call! My phone call!
J" You know how to tie them
In your flesh and in your thoughts J"
The Earl of Dudley,
in the House of Lords last year,
gave his opinion that
prison was too good for all homosexuals.
J" Tell me how does one
Learn that at your age
J" So that it sticks J"
It is really hell for a person.
And you get the feeling
you want to jump off a bridge.
You don't know what to do.
You walk the streets and...
You don't know a single person to talk to.
Nowadays, I imagine...
you could find out information somewhere,
but you couldn't then, before the war.
It was all hush-hush.
J" No more angles
No more dumbing it down
J" Gee, your hair smells perfect
J" But I cannot stand to have you around
S' Not now
S' Or any other time S'
Sorry I'm late, sergeant,
but I just couldn't leave home
without something bright and gay
for the poor indisposed constables.
And here we are, with my love.
Oh! What have I said?
With my very best floral greetings!
"L am the love
that dare not speak its name".
Do you see in that anything improper?
No, nothing much.
(Wilde) Anything is good
that incites thought in whatever age.
Whether moral or immoral?
(Wilde) I think that
the realisation of oneself
is the prime aim of life.
And to realise oneself
completely through pleasure
is finer than to do so than through pain.
Enlightenment does not produce tolerance.
Tolerance is the result of boredom.
The facts have to be repeated
over and over and over,
and in the end people say,
"Alright, so you're queer,
just talk about something else".
And then the work is done.
And this is the work, of course, of time.
Not of people and not of legislation.
Legislation makes almost no difference.
It is the result of public opinion.
You can't really force,
especially in England,
a law upon a people
who is totally against it,
because they will get around it.
The more laws you have,
the more fixers and the more snoopers.
(Reporter 2) The swashbuckling approach,
the heartiness, the thumping stride,
the tough man's clothes.
These things are natural
to some lesbians,
but mostly unacceptable
to people outside that world.
This means that for lesbians
who want to relax
in the kind of clothes
and way that make them happy,
there are few places to go.
One of them is a club in Chelsea,
a place where there's no need to pretend.
There they can dance,
drink, flirt', make friends,
discuss their problem
with others who will understand.
(Reporter) Normal people often say that
they find the idea of physical sex
between two women disgusting.
What do you say to that?
I regard sex as an expression of love.
If you love someone, I think it's...
Well, I think, quite honestly,
it's cruel to withhold sex from them
if this is what
they and you want from the relationship.
I think it is as cruel
as it would be in a normal marriage.
What do lesbians actually do?
(Doctor)
Allowing for the anatomical differences,
the same sort of things
as any normal couple do,
with all the variations
which normal couples indulge in.
J" Dial up my number now
J" Weaving it through the wire
J" Switch me on
J" Turn me up
J" Don't want it, Baudelaire
Just glitter lust
J" Switch me on
J" Turn me up
J" I want to touch you
You're just made for love
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia la
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia la
J" Coils up and round me
J" Teasing your poetry
J" Switch me on
J" Turn me up
J" Oh child of Venus
You're just made for love
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia la
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia la
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia la
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia la
J" You know I walk for days
J" I want to waste some time
J" You want to be so mean
J" You know I love to watch
J" I want to love some more
J" I'll never be the same
J" A broken heel like a heart
J" I'll never walk again
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia la
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia la
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia la
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia Ia J"
With two men, it's much easier.
Very quick, sometimes,
and it can all happen in half an hour.
They may not have even spoken.
(Reporter) Don't the anatomical differences
between men and women
mean that the sexual relationship
can't be the same?
They make little difference.
It's the person that matters.
Not the sex.
(Reporter)
Would you say you were promiscuous?
I am, yes.
Why?
Because I keep searching
for someone to fall in love with.
And when I don't find it
in one person, I move on.
- (Man) How long does it take?
- (Doctor) Give it 10 days. They'll ring.
(Man) 10 days,"...
It's a long time
to keep your fingers crossed.
J" When I woke up today
The air was very strange
J" I couldn't feel my skin
J" And there was evil in my bones J"
(Reporter) Tonight, TV Eye talks
to those with the killer disease, AIDS.
One of the victims is in hospital.
The other is at home.
Both are in their mid-thirties
and homosexual.
They tell what it's like
learning to live under sentence of death
and ask, "Will society learn
to live with them too?"
J" When she had to kill those aliens J"
(Reporter) The history of AIDS
in Britain is short but dramatic.
The first death was recorded in 1982,
when the word AIDS was hardly known.
It was simply a mystery killer disease.
But then the death toll grew,
not fast by the standards
of many other diseases,
but fast enough.
Until today, there have been 58 deaths,
and alongside it, the panic.
A fear that anybody could catch it.
All the doctors can do is to stop
each new problem being the fatal one.
J" And it was there
With a frightened voice
J" That I began to cry out loud
J" I feel just like Winona Ryder
J" In that movie about vampires
J" And she couldn't get that accent right
J" And neither could that other guy J"
(Reporter) Are there potentially others
than your lover who could be at risk?
Oh, I feel sure that there could be.
I don't know
would be the answer to that question.
If, as I understand it,
the disease can...
stay in the body, and...
not manifest itself in any illness
for as long as four years,
as I understand it,
then obviously that's the truth, yes.
Many others?
Yes, I've always been
a relatively well-adjusted gay.
(Reporter) What are you ashamed of
in Britain today?
Talking as a Londoner,
I think in London itself,
the amount of...
how rife homosexuality has become.
And it does...
You say it's worse now?
I think it has become worse.
One of those things you have to live with.
(Classroom commotion)
(Teacher) Alright!
Those at the beck settle down.
Will you keep quiet!
- Sir!
- If you have any questions, hands up.
- Sir!
- Yes, Christopher?
Is it true that you're bent?
(Laughter)
Would you mind repeating the question?
Is it true that you're a queer?
(Laughter)
There's a rumour going round
that you're a queer!
- Come on! Admit it!
- Yes, it's true.
(Raucous outcry)
(Teacher) All right, now you know.
Get on with the work.
The question arose and I discussed it.
I answered their questions.
(Headteacher)
But you must be more careful about it.
J" What you got is a black belt in BS
J" But you can't hawk
Your pretty wares up in here any more
J" Hit your head
On the playground at recess
J" Etch-a-sketch your way
Out of this one, reject! J"
They were asking me
the usual stupid questions
that children of that age do ask
because they don't know anything.
They're not taught it anywhere,
certainly not in this school...
(Reporter) In Trafalgar Square today,
over 3000 people listened to speakers
demanding changes in the law
relating to the age of consent
for homosexuals.
The speakers were urging a reduction
from the age of 21 to 16 for homosexuals.
According to the law,
young gay men don't exist.
If you're 16, 17, 18, 19 or 20, and gay,
then you're not here.
Well, I'm here, and we're here,
and we will not be quiet
until we get equality!
What my honourable friend is seeking to do
is to get this house to vote
to legalise the buggery
of adolescent males.
Does she really think that's what
our constituents sent us here to do?
J" What you got is a black belt in BS
J" But you can't hawk
Your pretty wares up in here any more
J" Hit your head
On the playground at recess
J" Etch-a-sketch your way
Out of this one, reject! J"
(Woman) How can we advise young
gay men about the dangers of AIDS
when what they're doing
is supposed to be
strictly against the law?
Heterosexual activity is normal.
And homosexual activity,
putting your penis
into another man's arsehole,
is a perversion.
(Speaker) Order! Order!
We can well do without talk like that!
(Laughter)
The Ayes to the right were 280.
The Noes to the left 307.
So the Noes have it...
16... It's not 16. 16 has lost.
How do you know?
They've just had the vote.
16 has not happened.
They're going to now vote on 18.
We've lost 16!
(Loud booing)
- How much have we lost by?
- 27 votes.
Bastards!
(Loud booing and chanting)
People who don't know anything
about our lives or about being gay
are telling us how to live
and who we have the right to sleep with.
And we're just really fed up with it.
We've been waiting for change
and still, it's thrown back in our face.
We're still not treated as equals,
still being devalued.
Everybody is furious
and it's not surprising, is it, really?
(Crowd) 16 now! 16 now!
If everybody was a lesbian
and if everybody was homosexual,
the world would collapse.
The human race would die out
in a matter of a few generations.
One of the definitions
of a living organism
is that it should reproduce itself.
If everybody were homosexual,
this planet would be dead.
I think people are really worried
about homosexuality in general.
I think a lot of people
are really scared of it as well.
They don't really understand it
and it almost horrifies them.
The thought of a couple
walking down the street,
of the same sex, holding hands.
And I think they'd rather
walk away from it, avoid it
and not talk about it
than really look at it openly
and try to find out what it's about.
I know a lot of people who are bothered
by the fact that homosexuals, in general,
do try to press their views
on other people.
And through programmes like this,
they are almost forcing
their ways upon the majority.
Anyone wanting more information
from organisations dealing with lesbians
should send us
a stamped addressed envelope
for our fact-sheet.
J" It is difficult for you
To be so beautiful?
J" Or do you find the advantages
Tend to outweigh the disadvantages?
J" Am I being rude?
J" I'm sorry
J" I've never really had
The appropriate attitude
J" Punk's not dead!
J" Do you think that life is easier
When one looks as good as you do?
J" Or do people always say
That you're a narcissist?
J" Do they ingratiate themselves to you
And act all obsequious?
J" Come on now baby
You can tell me
J" It's just between the two of us
J" Snug slacks, baby
Snug slacks
J" Now you're giving me
A different kind of panic attack
J" Sick joke, baby
Crack smoke
J" Now take me out in your pick-up
For a midnight poke
J" I said Stonehenge, baby
Drug binge
J" Now you got me all damp
Down in my underpants
J" Snug slacks, baby
Snug slacks
J" Now let's get you out of those
S' And see what kind oi punch
'(our manhood packs I'
That's quite nice...
Just a minute,
those girls there are taking the mickey.
Want me to give them some verbal?
You did the last two!
Let me do these.
'Ere, you ain't taking the piss out of us,
are ya?
Don't look like that.
I'll tell you, darlin'.
I get paid for making people laugh
and I object to you two
having it for nothing, alright?
Right, where were we?
Ta! That's it...
Yeah, I like that. It looks good.
How do you think
homosexuals reveal themselves
when they're talking
about ordinary topics?
Perhaps in the assumptions
they make about their future
which are going to be different
from heterosexual futures.
I make a deliberate effort
in my conversation, sometimes,
to imply that marriage is in my future.
But talking at ease,
I might give away the fact that
in practice, I know it's not
going to be any part of my future.
Is a relationship like this
a sort of imitation marriage
or is it something quite different?
(Woman) It's not in fact
an imitation marriage.
It is a real marriage in the sense that
it is a union between two people.
It can't in fact be precisely the same
as a heterosexual marriage.
There are no children, as you say.
But in any other sense, it is in fact
a marriage between two people
and it is a permanent association
of two people.
When there is no opprobrium,
when there is no humiliation
heaped on homosexuals from outside,
they will cease
to have to confirm or deny.
Unfortunately, of course,
toleration has come in a form
that is slightly insulting.
That is to say, one imagined
the message when it came would read:
"Forgive us for having
for so long allowed our prejudices
"to blind us to your true worth,
"and cross our unworthy threshold
with your broad-minded feet".
Instead the message now reads:
"Oh, come in.
The place is a mess. You'll love it!"
Will you marry me?
J" Boy, you knock me on my ass so hard
J" How could I know that
you was holding that ace card?
J" When I saw you my jaw hit the floor
J" Now I don't want them other boys no more
J" You sent a laser beam of love to my soul
J" You made me shake so hard I lose control
J" My sweet director
Won't you give me the part?
J" 'Cause you're the one
Who jump started my heart
J" 'Cause you're my
Supernatural defibrillator
J" You are my heavenly re-animator
J" You are my super sexy stimulator
J" You are my loneliness exterminator
J" Come on baby 'fore I come unglued
J" Don't make me wait, boy
That would be so rude
J" You got me where I always wanted to be
J" Right in front of you
And down on my knees
J" I feel like someone punched me
Right in my head
J" I need to lay down, baby
Take me to bed
J" You leave me gob-smacked,
Dumbfounded...
J" Bound and struck, stunned and shot
Fuddled, discombobulated
J" 'Cause you're my
Supernatural defibrillator
J" You are my heavenly re-animator
J" You are my super sexy stimulator
J" You are my loneliness exterminator
J" You are my supernatural defibrillator
J" You are my heavenly re-animator
J" You are my super sexy stimulator J"
I will not accept a pardon.
To accept a pardon means
you accept that you were guilty.
I was not guilty of anything.
J" Not guilty of anything...
Not guilty of anything...
J" 'Cause you're my
Supernatural defibrillator
J" You are my heavenly re-animator
J" You are my super sexy stimulator
J" You are my loneliness exterminator
J" You are my supernatural defibrillator
J" You are my heavenly re-animator
J" You are my super sexy stimulator
J" You are my loneliness exterminator J"
About one person in 20
of both sexes is homosexual.
On any busy street,
you pass half a dozen every five minutes,
because, contrary to popular opinion,
most of them
don't look any different from anyone else.
People can only tell the obvious ones,
but they are a tiny minority.
J" For TC and his Honeybear
J" The world will not stop moving
J" For rendezvous and longing stares
J" And hearts that won't stop burning
J" Before that Honeybear had given up
J" He felt so sad and lonely
J" Then one night he looked up and he saw
J" He saw his one and only
J" When TC came onto the scene
J" He entered in on golden wings
J" And with him he brought butterflies
J" Of crimson red and emerald green
J" 'Cause before TC, Honeybear was waiting
J" Was waiting for him patiently
J" TC took his fear away
J" Became his one and only J"
(Reporter)
Homosexuals usually live two lives,
one of which is completely concealed
from their family and colleagues.
- No one knows, no.
- (Reporter) How would they react?
They'd be tremendously shocked.
The reason is that
I live a very normal life back home
and I really live two lives.
One here and one up North.
(Reporter) It is estimated
one man in 20 is a homosexual.
These men are a minority.
They receive minority treatment,
face prejudice and intolerance,
stand accused of depravity and vice.
Whereas male homosexuality
is a crime in Britain,
female homosexuality is perfectly legal.
Lesbians can be open about it.
(Reporter 2)
Yet, for women who love women,
unqualified acceptance by our society
still does not exist.
So lesbians receive
the minority treatment:
intolerance, suspicion,
and often disgust.
(Reporter) In the heterosexual world,
the homosexual
disturbs conformist values,
is shunned and perhaps misunderstood.
Most homosexuals
must lead a secret, dark existence.
J" The world came crashing down on them
J" With all of its ferocity
J" And Honeybear was terrified
J" He said, "Do not take him, take me."
J" Before that, Honeybear had given up
J" He felt so sad and lonely"
I'll soon be back.
Don't leave me here alone.
Where are you going?
J" Then one night he looked up and he saw
J" He saw his one and only
J" And he said, "Please don't take him
J" 'Cause I love him.
J" He's my joy and my life."
J" For my love, I won't hesitate
J" I will give him
All that his heart can take
J" And I'll trust him fearlessly
J" I want him to be free"
(Reporter) Among the ancient Greeks,
it was normal practice.
Socrates and Plato,
the two greatest of philosophers,
were both homosexual.
So was Alexander the Great.
Julius Caesar: every woman's
man and every man's woman.
Many of the kings of England
were homosexual.
William Rufus, for instance,
and Edward ll,
who was the most notorious example.
Perhaps the two greatest artists
of all time were homosexual:
Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
At home, romantic poets
like Shelley and Byron.
The biggest scandal
surrounding a British homosexual
blew up around Oscar Wilde.
(Oscar Wilde) "The love that
dare not speak its name in this country.
In such a great affection
of an elder for a younger man,
as there was between David and Jonathan,
such as Plato made
the very basis of his philosophy,
and such as you will find in the sonnets
of Michelangelo and Shakespeare.
It is that deep spiritual affectation
which is as pure as it is perfect.
It is in this century so misunderstood
that it may be described
as the love that dare not speak its name,
and on account of it,
I am placed where I am now.
It is beautiful. It is fine.
It is the noblest form of affectation."
(Reporter) Are they born that way
or do they become like it?
Well, I don't think
they are born that way.
I think the damage is probably done
very early in infancy,
in some cases, sometimes later.
The amount of sexual drive a person has
may certainly be decided
partly genetically, but not its direction.
J" We could have skipped this part
J" I could have taught you
How to love yourself
J" I waited patiently
J" I hoped that
You would be the one to come to me
J" I tried to talk to you
J" I thought that
You would recognise the need
J" That you had deep inside
J" But you have to get there by yourself
J" I don't understand, help me please
J" Tell me everything to make me see
J" You know that I would give you anything
J" I'd take away the pain
Yeah, I'd take away the stain
J" I don't understand, help me please
J" Tell me everything to make me see
J" You know that I would give you anything
J" I'd take away the pain
Yeah, I'd take away the stain J"
Because lesbians are a cross-section
by the sheer law of averages,
there are naturally many to be found
in professions
predominantly staffed by women,
like nursing and teaching.
(Reporter) You're a school teacher,
and as you must know,
a tremendous number of parents
are very frightened at the idea that
their daughter might
be taught by a lesbian teacher.
What's your comment on that?
I suppose there is a danger
in some cases, but...
I mean, if this was something
really dangerous...
no man would be allowed
to teach at an all-girls school.
And no-one is going to suggest that.
As far as I'm concerned,
my professional life and my private life
are utterly separate,
and have to be utterly separate.
(Reporter)
Do you feel attraction for the girls?
None at all.
J" I don't understand, help me please
J" Tell me everything to make me see
J" You know that I would give you anything
J" I'd take away the pain
Yeah, I'd take away the stain J"
(Man) Recently, I have seen some
children,
very young children,
between three and four...
And even people I work with remarked that
there is no question that these children
will grow up to be homosexual.
They are very sensitive
and are far more gentle children
in comparison to other children
perhaps of the same age
who are brisk and rough-and-tumble.
And one felt that
there was something there...
that was sympathetic.
J" Help me please
J" Why don't you come to me J"
(Reporter) Once a girl is lesbian,
can anything be done to change that?
I think so.
If she is still fairly young
and she is dissatisfied herself
with her way of life.
This depends terribly
on how early the damage was done,
how deep it goes...
And again,
I suppose on her own feelings about it.
J" I would give you anything
J" I'd take away the pain
Yeah, I'd take away the stain
J" I don't understand, help me please
J" Tell me everything to make me see
J" You know that I would give you anything
J" I'd take away the pain
Yeah, I'd take away the stain J"
(60s upbeat jazz plays)
- You could talk to him.
- It's not a mother's job.
He's always been a mother's boy.
He never once forgot mother's day.
(Father) I don't remember him
bringing a single girl home.
I knew there was something,
but I just couldn't put my finger on it.
Oh, come on now.
He was going to be a bachelor, a celibate.
Your son's not one of those, is he, Hilda?
(Telephone rings)
Where's Jo?
(Mother) Couldn't she come?
I'd so looked forward to meeting her.
(Pans clanging)
I tripped over the central heating.
I'm always falling over!
I hope I haven't wrecked it.
(Comic trumpet sting)
J" I've felt uncomfortable
Since the day that I was born
J" Since the day I glimpsed
The black abyss in your eyes
J" There's no way you could make
All of this shit up on your own
J" It could only come
From the mastermind of lies J"
My parents weren't affectionate.
And I always grew up
with a dislike for my father.
And a tremendous attachment to my mother.
There's nothing wrong
about that young man of mine
that a good woman won't cure.
(Priest) May the Lord
be in your heart and on your lips
that you may, with truth and humility,
confess all your sins,
in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
J" I can't believe that
I've considered taking my own life
J" 'Cause I believed the lies
About me were the truth J"
May Father give me a blessing...
J" It will be magic
To watch your transformation
J" When you realise that you've been had
J" It's enough to make a guy
Like me feel sad J"
Yes, Sister.
J" 'Cause you tell me that
Jesus, he hates fruit loops, son
J" We told you that when you were young
J" Or pretty much anything you want him to
J" Like sitcoms, paedophiles and kangaroos
J" Morons who cut in line
J" Three-bean salad and parking fines
J" And when we win this war on society
J" I hope your blind eyes
will be opened and you'll see
J" The arrogance it takes to walk
J" Around in the world the way you do
J" It turns my brain to jelly every time
J" The rage and fear I'm feeling
Have begun to make me sick
J" And I think that
I might be about to commit a crime
J" And you tell me that
Jesus, he hates homos, son
J" We told you that when you were young J"
Men?
You look like a couple of queers!
Ah, don't take any notice
of what Dot said.
I tell you,
she had me worried for a minute.
Just because our Arthur's marriage
hasn't gone right yet,
you've no call
to talk about him being queer.
It's ridiculous!
Ain't it?
(Screams)
No!
Suppose there was.
Is that something to get at a lad for?
Well, it's not normal, is it?
Where you going?
To get a refill for my lipstick.
O Father, give me your blessing.
It is three weeks since my last confession.
And I accuse myself
of dishonouring my parents, many times.
J" 'Cause Jesus, He hates faggots, son
J" We told you that when you were young
J" Or pretty much anyone you want him to
S' Like niggers, spies, redskins and kikes S'
I don't know what's the matter with you.
You ain't normal!
- Aren't we getting off the subject?
- Shut up!
J" And when we win the war on society
J" I hope your blind eyes will be opened
And you'll see J"
Nature would've done it.
A father should help a lad like that,
not turn on him like the mob would
when it sees somebody different.
(Reporter) When in the end,
the penny dropped, how did you react?
With relief more than anything.
Relief that knowing,
of being certain at last,
what I was and how I fitted in.
I think uncertainty,
not knowing what you are,
not knowing how you fit into society,
this is the worst thing of all.
(Reporter)
The mother of one of the lesbians
who's appeared in this programme
told me how she discovered
that her daughter was homosexual.
How did you react at the time?
What did you feel?
Well, at first, terrific shock.
And fear, to a certain extent.
Not for ourselves and not for...
What people would think, really,
but fear for her,
what she'd have to face
in her future life.
I think that was the worst part about it.
A minority of lesbians
can be recognised as such.
(Reporter) This 19-year-old girl has worn
nothing but boys clothes for some years.
Well...
I was brought up with boys.
I've got no sisters.
I think I was more or less
a tomboy from the start,
from a very early age.
How do the shop assistants react
when you walk in to buy men's clothes?
Well, nine times out of ten,
they don't know that I'm a girl.
But there is the odd occasion
where I've gone into a shop
and they've said, "Yes, sir,"
and somebody has said, "ls that a girl?"
Good morning, sir!
Oh... Good morning, "miss".
Good morning. A red rose, please.
There.
- Thank you.
- Thanks.
- Good morning, Kate!
- Good morning, sir.
Could I have a buttonhole?
I haven't got any... A few violets?
That'll do nicely!
Do you mind if I pay on Saturday?
(Campy giggling)
Strewth!
What do you make of that, Sam?
(Laughs)
Well, boys will be girls,
and girls will be boys!
J" Stranger, when you look at me
J" Eyes strong as steel
J" Light as day
J" Born a mystery
J" You're the in-between
J" Boy or girl
J" Wilder, than I've known before
J" Fire rushes through every vein
J" With that smile that sings
J" You'll be killing me tenderly
J" Every word is soft as fur
J" I'm drifting deep J"
Yes, sir?
Get in there!
Come on! Move!
Crisp, sir.
Sit down.
Your hair's dyed.
Yes, sir.
A man dying his hair
is a sign of sexual perversion!
J" Stranger, will you remember?
S' Stranger, make me remember you S'
I am Dr Crow.
You are surprised?
Yes, I am.
I expected you to be a man.
- Or a woman...
- I am both.
With the combined
mental and physical endowments
of both man and woman.
You must have great difficulty
with your clothes.
- Do you read your Bible?
- Not constantly.
"Male and female created He them".
Male and female created He "me".
(Reporter 2) Steve and her girlfriend
don't often walk the street for pleasure.
There's too much risk involved.
Risk of public mockery.
Undisguised amazement. Crude jokes.
Many lesbians of course,
aren't so aggressively masculine as Steve,
and for them it's not so bad.
But for Steve, who is 24
and whose whole instinct
cries out to her
to feel and act like a man,
her appearance
makes her constantly vulnerable.
When I was 15 or 16,
I met this girl
and I was with her for six months
and I got engaged to her.
I really forgot that I was a woman.
And she thought she was pregnant,
because there are some things
that a lesbian can use
and I got away with using one of those
and she didn't know the difference.
And the next thing I know...
Her mother kept on
about us getting married,
so I thought I'd better get out of it,
because I knew
I couldn't get married to her.
And so then I hopped it.
Next thing, the police are after me.
The girl thinks she's pregnant
and they're taking me to court
for breach of promise and that.
They took me to court
and then it all came out,
that I was a girl.
(Reporter) No cure has yet been found
for the homosexual condition.
Perhaps none ever will,
but I asked homosexuals
if they would still choose
to remain homosexuals
if they had the opportunity to change.
No.
The society being what it is,
I would be heterosexual.
If you could live life all over again
and could choose,
would you choose to be homosexual?
Not unless it was thrust upon me
as it has been...
by the fact that I am,
and there is nothing I can do about it.
Heaven knows I've tried.
No, there's absolutely no advantage
in being a homosexual
in a heterosexual world, obviously.
And there's no happiness, really.
J" You just want to live your life
J" The best way you know how
J" But they keep on telling you
J" That you are not allowed
J" They say you are sick
J" That you should hang your head in shame
J" They are pointing fingers
J" And want you to take the blame J"
- A brain specialist?
- Psychiatrist.
I thought as much.
You want to psychoanalyse me, don't you?
You want to look inside my brain,
see the wheels go around!
Now, wait a moment...
(Man) To dissect me like a guinea pig
then show me off
to your distinguished colleagues
as an interesting case.
Now that's fit, isn't it?
(Decker) Hardly, but it's possible
that I may be able to help you.
Perhaps you'll have a case
to make your complexes stand on end.
You can write a big fat book about it!
(Laughter)
J" This pain
J" It is a glacier moving through you J"
(Reporter) Doctors,
more than most people,
should perhaps understand
what causes men to be homosexual.
This man is a doctor,
but he is also a homosexual.
It just makes you feel
you might just as well be in prison,
'cause it's a sort of prison anyway.
- Do you think you need help?
- (Man) Yes, I do.
I think every homosexual needs help.
Homosexuality is one manifestation
of a failure to fully develop.
- (Reporter 2) Does your mother know?
- Yeah.
What does she think?
She just thinks it's disgusting.
She can't accept it.
J" So don't you become paralysed with fear
J" When things seem particularly rough J"
(Reporter)
Did you find it hard to come to terms
with the fact that you are a homosexual?
Yes, from when
I was about 16, until about...
20, 22 or 23.
The whole of that time,
it was associated in my mind with guilt,
sordid matters...
elderly, unpleasant men.
J" Don't you pay them fuckers
As they say, "No, never mind"
J" They don't give two shits about you
J" It's the blind leading the blind
J" What they want is commonly
Referred to as theocracy
J" And what that boils down to
Is referred to as hypocrisy
J" Don't listen to anyone
J" Get answers on your own
J" Even if it means that sometimes
J" You feel quite alone
J" No one on this planet
Can tell you what to believe
J" People like to talk a lot
J" And they like to deceive J"
(Reporter 2) Don't you ever go
to your family at Christmas?
I'm not in the family, dear.
Never got on with them anyway.
I did have a friend...
J" This pain
It is a glacier moving through you
J" And carving out deep valleys J"
We lived together for years.
J" And creating spectacular landscapes J"
A real love-match it was, you know.
And I've never wanted anything since.
J" With precious minerals and other stuff
J" So don't you become paralysed with fear
J" When things seem particularly rough
J" This pain
J" It is a glacier moving through you
J" And carving out deep valleys
J" And creating spectacular landscapes
J" And nourishing the ground
J" With precious minerals and other stuff
J" So don't you become paralysed with fear
J" When things seem particularly rough J"
(Reporter) I think one of the barriers
to public acceptance for you
is that normal people,
or most normal people,
find what you physically do, disgusting.
Well, personally, I find that
what a normal heterosexual couple do
is just the same for me.
I find it...
Well, I won't say disgusting,
but unnatural and repulsive.
Sorry for them? Not me.
It's always excuses.
Every newspaper you pick up,
it's excuses.
It's the environment.
Too much love as kids, or too little.
They can't help it.
We are in danger
of permanently damaging our social fabric.
(Man) This is dealing
with a twilight area of abnormal people.
What is lesbianism?
What causes it? Can it be cured?
I wish I was normal.
I want to be cured!
- (Reporter) Would you like to be cured?
- No.
Why not?
I'm perfectly happy the way I am.
I have no desire to be heterosexual.
I don't see any advantages
in being heterosexual.
Except for the fact
one might have police protection, but...
No, I have no desire to change.
Even if I could.
(Reporter) Can you tell by looking
at a woman whether she is a lesbian?
- Not at all.
- You think that's a complete myth?
An absolute myth!
Because I've been looking out hard enough!
(Woman) For years and years and years,
I've fallen in love with various women,
but they've never reciprocated my feeling.
Not until I was 36
did anyone reciprocate my feeling.
And I used to fall in love
and then feel
quite happy about it at first,
and I thought, "Oh, but it's hopeless,
she won't reciprocate my feeling".
And I was right. She didn't.
I very often remain friendly
with that person,
but, of course, I was very disappointed.
(Reporter) Most homosexuals dread
getting old, dread losing their looks,
fear in particular the final loneliness
of living without a companion.
Like men needing wives,
they search for someone
with whom they can establish
a lasting relationship
which includes warmth and protection,
as well as sex.
These two have done that
and have lived together for 26 years.
They might almost be a married couple.
But they're still queer, in the minority.
Have they been happy?
(Married man)
Compared with a lot of married couples...
Reasonably, yes.
Reasonably happy.
After all,
everything is made for married people.
It's not made for people like us...
Things are awkward, aren't they.
(Reporter) A comfortable house
in Wandsworth,
indistinguishable from thousands of homes
owned by married couples.
It's where a lesbian couple
have lived for four years.
A domestic life which began
as conventionally
as any normal married couple
when they fell in love.
Homosexual practices
may not be approved of,
homosexual love cannot be denied.
The feeling of being in love,
I'm sure it's exactly the same
for men and for women.
A feeling of deep emotion towards someone.
And with me, it happened quite suddenly.
I had in fact
only known Julie a few days.
J" My love is the rarest jewel
J" And he grounds me with his love
J" My love, he is rich like caramel
J" And he moves me from above
J" He sees me with tiger eyes
J" And that's where I make my home
J" His heart is a shield
J" Which protects me from the vilest foe
J" His smile's an elixir
J" Which heals the wounds
Of my darkest years
J" When my love is quiet, I consider him
J" And he drives away my fears
J" My love, he reveals himself
J" With tenderness and grace
J" My love has constructed with his arms
J" For me the safest place
J" His laughter destroys my doubts
J" And lifts me up so high
J" His voice it is soothing
J" Like a warm breeze on a Summer night
J" When he envelops me
I give myself to him
J" And my soul takes flight"
(Reporter) Most homosexual partnerships
are not so lasting.
This young waiter
talked about the break-up of his.
Initially, I think
one of the main reasons why it started
is we were very young
when we came together.
We were both 19.
He was much more a man about town,
much more worldly than I was,
and I looked to him
for a great deal of protection.
And as the years went by
and I began to develop,
I became more and more independent of him,
but I certainly didn't love him any less
than what I did from the beginning.
But I think that he resented the fact that
I was no longer
dependent on him for anything.
And this was the cancer that
started in our relationship
and eventually made it break.
J" Horrifying as it was for me
J" To see your face today
J" I guess I knew that
It would happen at some point
J" And I dreaded it because"
How'd I ever think
you were so marvellous?
Bertie, for God's sake, go away!
I have to, George.
I didn't want to hurt you.
J" So you observe the strict rules
J" Laid out in the books of etiquette J"
No! Please!
Happy, are you? Happy?
I despise you!
I disgust you, I know,
because you disgust me.
When slaves love each other,
it's not love.
I'm not married to you, George!
All right then.
Stay with me.
You're the only one left.
J" You know I hate this fucking town J"
Come back!
J" Without running into someone"
No, don't turn away from me.
Take in your arms.
J" Somebody whom
You desperately want to see
J" But you know
It's only going to cause more grief
J" 'Cause there is nothing left to say
J" And he can't hear you anyway J"
I'm making a real effort.
- What am I supposed to do?
- Deakin is here to look after you!
Your chaperone.
Keep you out of my hair...
Yeah, if he can stand up!
Look, calm down, George!
Or take another pill!
J" 'Cause I really want to hate you
But my intellect reminds me...J"
I love you, Francis.
He loves you not...
J" And I wanted to be your friend
J" But I couldn't pull it off in the end
J" And I'm disappointed with myself
J" 'Cause I thought I could
J" But then again you always made it clear
J" That you do not care either way
J" Which begs the question
J" How can I still claim to love you?
J" You told me time and time again
J" That you don't lose, you always win
J" And that to make an effort
J" Would just be beneath you
J" You know, I hate this fucking town
J" You cannot even leave your fucking house
J" Without running into someone
Who no longer cares about you
J" Somebody whom
You desperately want to see
J" But you know it's only going
To cause more grief
J" 'Cause there is nothing left to say
J" He can't hear you anyway J"
- Stop, Martha!
- I can't stop.
I love you too much to stop.
I thought you loved me.
What did you feel for him?
I have a right to know.
What do you want to know?
I shall tell you.
You won't be content until you know.
Until you've ripped it out of me!
I stopped seeing him
because I wanted him.
Do you understand? Because I wanted him!
(Reporter)
Men who choose to love other men
are treated
not only with intolerance and contempt,
but prosecuted and jailed.
As a result, they become vulnerable
to violence, blackmail and persecution.
Parliament has been asked
to consider a bill to remove that threat
by legalising homosexual acts
between consenting adults in private,
but a change in the law doesn't guarantee
a change in attitude by the rest of us.
For many of us, this is revolting:
men dancing with men.
Homosexuals in this country today
break the law.
(MP) I'd been to a party
at one of the embassies.
And I'd been to the House to vote
and then on my way home,
I thought I might take a little exercise
and I went into the park
and I met a young guardsman
and he went with me
and we went
into the darkness of the trees...
I went into this toilet and...
I suppose, two or three times
over the course of an afternoon.
And I came out and somebody,
a young person,
said that
they was arresting me for importuning.
J" Stockholm is a place that I adore
J" But the syndrome by that name
J" Is one that I abhor
J" Patty Hearst cannot compete with me
J" I bet she thinks she can
J" I'll prove her wrong at tea for free
S' Words dent mean anything to you S'
You're a pansy, aren't you!
Pansy?
J" Emotions turn right in to lies
Like black turns in to blue
J" Because the fear has made you blind J"
What's that, apart from being a flower?
So they took me to some police station.
Took my fingerprints.
I was beaten up in a public lavatory
and left lying on the floor.
It was all rather messy
and rather nasty, I'm afraid.
J" No more tangles
J" No more tears
J" No more reindeer games
J" With narcissistic queers
S' Or any other such type oi human being S'
A man had in fact
made advances to me first of all...
And when I was vacated,
he waited outside and beat me up.
And of course, I couldn't do anything.
I couldn't call the police.
Unfortunately,
we were discovered by the police
and one of the park keepers.
And I was then arrested.
And I was inside from Saturday afternoon
until Monday morning.
I never slept. Just sat and cried.
I can only accept this brief, Mr Wilde,
if you assure me on your honour
as an English gentleman
that there is no truth
in the charges against you.
Ladies and gentleman of the jury,
it is indeed a sad and sickening sight.
I assure you, as an Irish gentleman,
that there is no truth whatever
in any of it.
The judge said afterwards
it always astounded him
that in this type of case,
all these homosexuals
could produce witnesses
who would swear that
they were of good character, and so on.
Why on earth shouldn't a homosexual
be of good character?
S' You spend your days tied up 'm knots S'
I want my phone call!
My phone call! My phone call!
J" You know how to tie them
In your flesh and in your thoughts J"
The Earl of Dudley,
in the House of Lords last year,
gave his opinion that
prison was too good for all homosexuals.
J" Tell me how does one
Learn that at your age
J" So that it sticks J"
It is really hell for a person.
And you get the feeling
you want to jump off a bridge.
You don't know what to do.
You walk the streets and...
You don't know a single person to talk to.
Nowadays, I imagine...
you could find out information somewhere,
but you couldn't then, before the war.
It was all hush-hush.
J" No more angles
No more dumbing it down
J" Gee, your hair smells perfect
J" But I cannot stand to have you around
S' Not now
S' Or any other time S'
Sorry I'm late, sergeant,
but I just couldn't leave home
without something bright and gay
for the poor indisposed constables.
And here we are, with my love.
Oh! What have I said?
With my very best floral greetings!
"L am the love
that dare not speak its name".
Do you see in that anything improper?
No, nothing much.
(Wilde) Anything is good
that incites thought in whatever age.
Whether moral or immoral?
(Wilde) I think that
the realisation of oneself
is the prime aim of life.
And to realise oneself
completely through pleasure
is finer than to do so than through pain.
Enlightenment does not produce tolerance.
Tolerance is the result of boredom.
The facts have to be repeated
over and over and over,
and in the end people say,
"Alright, so you're queer,
just talk about something else".
And then the work is done.
And this is the work, of course, of time.
Not of people and not of legislation.
Legislation makes almost no difference.
It is the result of public opinion.
You can't really force,
especially in England,
a law upon a people
who is totally against it,
because they will get around it.
The more laws you have,
the more fixers and the more snoopers.
(Reporter 2) The swashbuckling approach,
the heartiness, the thumping stride,
the tough man's clothes.
These things are natural
to some lesbians,
but mostly unacceptable
to people outside that world.
This means that for lesbians
who want to relax
in the kind of clothes
and way that make them happy,
there are few places to go.
One of them is a club in Chelsea,
a place where there's no need to pretend.
There they can dance,
drink, flirt', make friends,
discuss their problem
with others who will understand.
(Reporter) Normal people often say that
they find the idea of physical sex
between two women disgusting.
What do you say to that?
I regard sex as an expression of love.
If you love someone, I think it's...
Well, I think, quite honestly,
it's cruel to withhold sex from them
if this is what
they and you want from the relationship.
I think it is as cruel
as it would be in a normal marriage.
What do lesbians actually do?
(Doctor)
Allowing for the anatomical differences,
the same sort of things
as any normal couple do,
with all the variations
which normal couples indulge in.
J" Dial up my number now
J" Weaving it through the wire
J" Switch me on
J" Turn me up
J" Don't want it, Baudelaire
Just glitter lust
J" Switch me on
J" Turn me up
J" I want to touch you
You're just made for love
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia la
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia la
J" Coils up and round me
J" Teasing your poetry
J" Switch me on
J" Turn me up
J" Oh child of Venus
You're just made for love
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia la
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia la
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia la
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia la
J" You know I walk for days
J" I want to waste some time
J" You want to be so mean
J" You know I love to watch
J" I want to love some more
J" I'll never be the same
J" A broken heel like a heart
J" I'll never walk again
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia la
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia la
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia la
J" I need Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia Ia
J" I need ooh Ia Ia Ia Ia J"
With two men, it's much easier.
Very quick, sometimes,
and it can all happen in half an hour.
They may not have even spoken.
(Reporter) Don't the anatomical differences
between men and women
mean that the sexual relationship
can't be the same?
They make little difference.
It's the person that matters.
Not the sex.
(Reporter)
Would you say you were promiscuous?
I am, yes.
Why?
Because I keep searching
for someone to fall in love with.
And when I don't find it
in one person, I move on.
- (Man) How long does it take?
- (Doctor) Give it 10 days. They'll ring.
(Man) 10 days,"...
It's a long time
to keep your fingers crossed.
J" When I woke up today
The air was very strange
J" I couldn't feel my skin
J" And there was evil in my bones J"
(Reporter) Tonight, TV Eye talks
to those with the killer disease, AIDS.
One of the victims is in hospital.
The other is at home.
Both are in their mid-thirties
and homosexual.
They tell what it's like
learning to live under sentence of death
and ask, "Will society learn
to live with them too?"
J" When she had to kill those aliens J"
(Reporter) The history of AIDS
in Britain is short but dramatic.
The first death was recorded in 1982,
when the word AIDS was hardly known.
It was simply a mystery killer disease.
But then the death toll grew,
not fast by the standards
of many other diseases,
but fast enough.
Until today, there have been 58 deaths,
and alongside it, the panic.
A fear that anybody could catch it.
All the doctors can do is to stop
each new problem being the fatal one.
J" And it was there
With a frightened voice
J" That I began to cry out loud
J" I feel just like Winona Ryder
J" In that movie about vampires
J" And she couldn't get that accent right
J" And neither could that other guy J"
(Reporter) Are there potentially others
than your lover who could be at risk?
Oh, I feel sure that there could be.
I don't know
would be the answer to that question.
If, as I understand it,
the disease can...
stay in the body, and...
not manifest itself in any illness
for as long as four years,
as I understand it,
then obviously that's the truth, yes.
Many others?
Yes, I've always been
a relatively well-adjusted gay.
(Reporter) What are you ashamed of
in Britain today?
Talking as a Londoner,
I think in London itself,
the amount of...
how rife homosexuality has become.
And it does...
You say it's worse now?
I think it has become worse.
One of those things you have to live with.
(Classroom commotion)
(Teacher) Alright!
Those at the beck settle down.
Will you keep quiet!
- Sir!
- If you have any questions, hands up.
- Sir!
- Yes, Christopher?
Is it true that you're bent?
(Laughter)
Would you mind repeating the question?
Is it true that you're a queer?
(Laughter)
There's a rumour going round
that you're a queer!
- Come on! Admit it!
- Yes, it's true.
(Raucous outcry)
(Teacher) All right, now you know.
Get on with the work.
The question arose and I discussed it.
I answered their questions.
(Headteacher)
But you must be more careful about it.
J" What you got is a black belt in BS
J" But you can't hawk
Your pretty wares up in here any more
J" Hit your head
On the playground at recess
J" Etch-a-sketch your way
Out of this one, reject! J"
They were asking me
the usual stupid questions
that children of that age do ask
because they don't know anything.
They're not taught it anywhere,
certainly not in this school...
(Reporter) In Trafalgar Square today,
over 3000 people listened to speakers
demanding changes in the law
relating to the age of consent
for homosexuals.
The speakers were urging a reduction
from the age of 21 to 16 for homosexuals.
According to the law,
young gay men don't exist.
If you're 16, 17, 18, 19 or 20, and gay,
then you're not here.
Well, I'm here, and we're here,
and we will not be quiet
until we get equality!
What my honourable friend is seeking to do
is to get this house to vote
to legalise the buggery
of adolescent males.
Does she really think that's what
our constituents sent us here to do?
J" What you got is a black belt in BS
J" But you can't hawk
Your pretty wares up in here any more
J" Hit your head
On the playground at recess
J" Etch-a-sketch your way
Out of this one, reject! J"
(Woman) How can we advise young
gay men about the dangers of AIDS
when what they're doing
is supposed to be
strictly against the law?
Heterosexual activity is normal.
And homosexual activity,
putting your penis
into another man's arsehole,
is a perversion.
(Speaker) Order! Order!
We can well do without talk like that!
(Laughter)
The Ayes to the right were 280.
The Noes to the left 307.
So the Noes have it...
16... It's not 16. 16 has lost.
How do you know?
They've just had the vote.
16 has not happened.
They're going to now vote on 18.
We've lost 16!
(Loud booing)
- How much have we lost by?
- 27 votes.
Bastards!
(Loud booing and chanting)
People who don't know anything
about our lives or about being gay
are telling us how to live
and who we have the right to sleep with.
And we're just really fed up with it.
We've been waiting for change
and still, it's thrown back in our face.
We're still not treated as equals,
still being devalued.
Everybody is furious
and it's not surprising, is it, really?
(Crowd) 16 now! 16 now!
If everybody was a lesbian
and if everybody was homosexual,
the world would collapse.
The human race would die out
in a matter of a few generations.
One of the definitions
of a living organism
is that it should reproduce itself.
If everybody were homosexual,
this planet would be dead.
I think people are really worried
about homosexuality in general.
I think a lot of people
are really scared of it as well.
They don't really understand it
and it almost horrifies them.
The thought of a couple
walking down the street,
of the same sex, holding hands.
And I think they'd rather
walk away from it, avoid it
and not talk about it
than really look at it openly
and try to find out what it's about.
I know a lot of people who are bothered
by the fact that homosexuals, in general,
do try to press their views
on other people.
And through programmes like this,
they are almost forcing
their ways upon the majority.
Anyone wanting more information
from organisations dealing with lesbians
should send us
a stamped addressed envelope
for our fact-sheet.
J" It is difficult for you
To be so beautiful?
J" Or do you find the advantages
Tend to outweigh the disadvantages?
J" Am I being rude?
J" I'm sorry
J" I've never really had
The appropriate attitude
J" Punk's not dead!
J" Do you think that life is easier
When one looks as good as you do?
J" Or do people always say
That you're a narcissist?
J" Do they ingratiate themselves to you
And act all obsequious?
J" Come on now baby
You can tell me
J" It's just between the two of us
J" Snug slacks, baby
Snug slacks
J" Now you're giving me
A different kind of panic attack
J" Sick joke, baby
Crack smoke
J" Now take me out in your pick-up
For a midnight poke
J" I said Stonehenge, baby
Drug binge
J" Now you got me all damp
Down in my underpants
J" Snug slacks, baby
Snug slacks
J" Now let's get you out of those
S' And see what kind oi punch
'(our manhood packs I'
That's quite nice...
Just a minute,
those girls there are taking the mickey.
Want me to give them some verbal?
You did the last two!
Let me do these.
'Ere, you ain't taking the piss out of us,
are ya?
Don't look like that.
I'll tell you, darlin'.
I get paid for making people laugh
and I object to you two
having it for nothing, alright?
Right, where were we?
Ta! That's it...
Yeah, I like that. It looks good.
How do you think
homosexuals reveal themselves
when they're talking
about ordinary topics?
Perhaps in the assumptions
they make about their future
which are going to be different
from heterosexual futures.
I make a deliberate effort
in my conversation, sometimes,
to imply that marriage is in my future.
But talking at ease,
I might give away the fact that
in practice, I know it's not
going to be any part of my future.
Is a relationship like this
a sort of imitation marriage
or is it something quite different?
(Woman) It's not in fact
an imitation marriage.
It is a real marriage in the sense that
it is a union between two people.
It can't in fact be precisely the same
as a heterosexual marriage.
There are no children, as you say.
But in any other sense, it is in fact
a marriage between two people
and it is a permanent association
of two people.
When there is no opprobrium,
when there is no humiliation
heaped on homosexuals from outside,
they will cease
to have to confirm or deny.
Unfortunately, of course,
toleration has come in a form
that is slightly insulting.
That is to say, one imagined
the message when it came would read:
"Forgive us for having
for so long allowed our prejudices
"to blind us to your true worth,
"and cross our unworthy threshold
with your broad-minded feet".
Instead the message now reads:
"Oh, come in.
The place is a mess. You'll love it!"
Will you marry me?
J" Boy, you knock me on my ass so hard
J" How could I know that
you was holding that ace card?
J" When I saw you my jaw hit the floor
J" Now I don't want them other boys no more
J" You sent a laser beam of love to my soul
J" You made me shake so hard I lose control
J" My sweet director
Won't you give me the part?
J" 'Cause you're the one
Who jump started my heart
J" 'Cause you're my
Supernatural defibrillator
J" You are my heavenly re-animator
J" You are my super sexy stimulator
J" You are my loneliness exterminator
J" Come on baby 'fore I come unglued
J" Don't make me wait, boy
That would be so rude
J" You got me where I always wanted to be
J" Right in front of you
And down on my knees
J" I feel like someone punched me
Right in my head
J" I need to lay down, baby
Take me to bed
J" You leave me gob-smacked,
Dumbfounded...
J" Bound and struck, stunned and shot
Fuddled, discombobulated
J" 'Cause you're my
Supernatural defibrillator
J" You are my heavenly re-animator
J" You are my super sexy stimulator
J" You are my loneliness exterminator
J" You are my supernatural defibrillator
J" You are my heavenly re-animator
J" You are my super sexy stimulator J"
I will not accept a pardon.
To accept a pardon means
you accept that you were guilty.
I was not guilty of anything.
J" Not guilty of anything...
Not guilty of anything...
J" 'Cause you're my
Supernatural defibrillator
J" You are my heavenly re-animator
J" You are my super sexy stimulator
J" You are my loneliness exterminator
J" You are my supernatural defibrillator
J" You are my heavenly re-animator
J" You are my super sexy stimulator
J" You are my loneliness exterminator J"