It’s 🏳️🌈Pride Month🏳️🌈 in the year 2025 and it feels radically important to acknowledge this time. To honor those who came before us. To celebrate how far we’ve come. To continue to strive for a better tomorrow. 
GAY USA is a remarkable documentary from 1977 directed by queer filmmaker Arthur J. Bressan Jr. The footage was shot by multiple camera operators on one day, focusing on Gay Pride Parades occurring in various cities across the United States. It’s a snapshot, a home movie, a visual scrapbook of the early days of Gay Liberation and Gay Rights. 
The film is populated by a wide array of individuals and viewpoints. Interviews on the streets of these parades show that the LGBTQ+ community has always been as diverse and complex as the hetero-centric crowd. The only difference between us and them is we’ve had the ultra-conservative gospel-mongers lecherously peering through our bedroom windows and pointing a self-righteous, hypocritical finger at us. They should be using their right-wing pervy peepers to take a long, hard look at their own tarnished reflections in their Holier-Than-Thou purity mirrors before condemning others.
Yes, even the Bible Belt-whackers get to speak their ignorant minds in this documentary. Thankfully, the majority of GAY USA is focused on celebrating gay people as ultimately extraordinarily ordinary folk just being their best queer selves, despite the suffocating disease of hate festering and spreading through society thanks to politics and religion.
All that being said, I do have to add a couple of personal thoughts. My least favorite part involves a guy at a parade dressed as Santa Claus. He gave off some severely creepy vibes and I wonder why his interview wasn’t relegated to the cutting room floor. My favorite part is when a lesbian recites a poem about how straights want gays to not be so blatant, even as straights blatantly flaunt their sexuality all over the place. Her words ring so strong and true, they make me raise a fist and shout, “Right on!”
I feel GAY USA is a powerful look at a community combating prejudice by finding solidarity in voice and spirit. Even if that solidarity has splintered in this politically-charged day and age, it only proves we are as tragically human as heterosexuals. So, if you want to start your Pride Month celebrations with 1970’s retro flair, GAY USA may be the documentary for you!
SIDE NOTE: You can currently find GAY USA on You Tube.Freak Out…
and Be Blatant!
JLH
P.S. Pride Month is a perfect time to read a queer book or two…
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sounds like a good one to watch! maybe we'll have a fest. :)
ReplyDeleteA 1970’s double feature
DeleteGreat post, John! This sounds like a fascinating documentary. It's just a shame that almost 50 years onward, bigotry and ignorance continue to be more prevalent than empathy and compassion.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
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