I'm not much of a movie reviewer, but I wanted to write something about the documentary Small Town Gay Bar which I saw tonight. Here's what I hacked out on IMDB:
I grew up in Raymond, MS. Didn't "come out" until I was living in Houston, TX. One thing that I'm not wild about is the selection of Mississippi. Whenever a film maker wants to highlight bigotry and intolerance, they head for MS. You can find pretty much the same in almost every state, but I guess it's more fun to pick on Mississippi and paint everybody there as racist, sexist, bigot homophobes. I've been in gay bars in Laredo, TX (which Rumors reminded me of) and Lakeland, FL. and it's pretty much the same.
I did like it from the point that I'm always curious about gay life in MS. I haven't had the chance to return since I moved away back in 1992. I always wonder about it and who I grew up with who might be gay.
The thing that gets me is that gays are opposed to narrow-mindedness, stereotypes and bigotry, but we can pick on Mississipians, "rednecks" and "hillbillys" as in other posts. There's plenty of gay rednecks and hillbillys and I'm sure you saw a few in this film. What's more, there's the obligatory reference to Republicans by Alicia/Jim(?). The reality is that democrats have their fair share of homophobes as well (Rev. Fred Phelps for one). Their just able to hide it. Some of the most anti-gay laws recently have come from the democrats.
It just seems strange to me that one bigotry is supplanted by another and that's supposed to be ok.
But I digress. Overall, I did like the film and found it very informative. I would recommend it to others to get an idea of what gay life is sorta like in MS., even though I really didn't experience it. I would also say that perhaps some of the big city gays like in the Montrose, Castro, WeHo etc. might see that even as all of us have to put up with intolerance, some have more than others.
It just amazes me that it's ok to replace one form of intolerance for another.
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