02.26.06
Gay groups’ big hopes for Oscar night
Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press
NEW YORK — Jim Gilbert gets goosebumps just thinking about Oscar night.
“It’ll be such an important night,” says the 61-year-old amateur cowboy and rodeo competitor, who feels that “Brokeback Mountain” tells the story of his own gay life and struggles in a strikingly personal way.
Gay activist groups are anticipating the March 5 Academy Awards, where “Brokeback Mountain” is favored to win as many as eight Oscars, as a rallying point and a crucial moment for their cause.
One group likens it to the April 1997 moment when Ellen DeGeneres came out as a lesbian on her sitcom. Susanne Salkind of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest national gay rights group, said Oscar night will be an opportunity to raise gay issues “to another level in American culture.”
On Friday, the group sent e-mails to 120,000 members, encouraging them to hold house parties on Oscar night — just as it did the night DeGeneres came out. It’s also sending out “Oscar party kits” to help in recruiting, and is offering prizes of T-shirts, bags and watches, depending on how many new Human Rights Campaign members get signed up.
“We want to transform this social occasion into something much more important,” Salkind said.
When Ang Lee’s soulful film about two cowboys in love premiered in December, the gay community was delighted — but, in some corners, skeptical that it would play beyond New York and California.
Now, though, the film is a clear hit. It has performed strongly across America, appealing to audiences both gay and straight, male and female. Because of its subject matter, it’s one of the most talked-about films in recent memory — and a constant reference for late-night comics and Internet spoofs.
“I wish I knew how to quit you,” spoken by the character Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), is becoming a virtual catch phrase. And the word “brokeback,” used as an adjective to describe something with gay overtones, is creeping into the lexicon, too.
It isn’t only “Brokeback Mountain” that’s making gay rights groups anticipate Oscar night. Two other highly feted movies have gay or transsexual themes: “Transamerica,” with best-actress nominee Felicity Huffman as a man preparing for a sex change, and “Capote,” with best-actor favorite Philip Seymour Hoffman as the gay author of “In Cold Blood.”
“This has been a landmark year,” says Neil G. Giuliano, president of GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. “By telling our stories, this year’s Oscar nominees have helped raise the visibility of our issues and have given millions of Americans a greater understanding of who we are.”
Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, agrees, but sounds a cautionary note. Just because “Brokeback” is being embraced by Hollywood and popular culture, he says, doesn’t mean the real world is catching up.
” ‘Brokeback Mountain’ is incredibly important for our day-day work because it clearly touches people at a visceral level,” Foreman said. “But the tragedy is, that breakthrough is not being replicated at the legislative and political level” — on issues such as gay marriage and hate crimes legislation.