Brokeback Seeks to Break Barriers

Brokeback Mountain is your classic Western, a film about wrangling cows (okay, so really they wrangle sheep) on a mountain in Wyoming. Its characters are tough rugged John Wayne type-men who also happen to be gay. Brokeback Mountain is getting great reviews, but can a "gay film" break through to the mainstream? Brokeback is making an effort, enlisting Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon director Ang Lee and big celebrity names Jake Gyllenhall and Heath Ledger as its ensemble. Surprisingly, activist groups like Focus on the Family who usually boycott movies with gay themes, have had little to say about this particular film. Gay activists hope that the film will highlight the difficulties that homosexuals face in the world today and generate empathy towards gay rights movements, particularly the recent hot topic of gay marriage. Neil G. Guiliano, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation says of the film, "It will be moving for anyone who is open to seeing the challenges and difficulties of what at that time, and even for many today, is the self-imposed and society-imposed necessity to live dishonestly."