But… I’m A Cheerleader! 🏳️‍🌈

Yesterday, I watched one of the great classic gay movies for the first time, But I’m A Cheerleader. I knew that conversion camps existed, but I had never given much thought as to how the experience would be. For those in the dark, conversion camps are where LGBTQ+-identifying/acting kids, boyish girls, and feminine boys are taken in attempts to convert them to be straight.  These conversion processes are reportedly extremely damaging to children’s mental health in the long run, not to mention unsuccessful, and it’s not hard to see why.

There was (is?) an ex-gay movement promoting the notion that one’s gay or queer sexual orientation can be “cured” if you catch it early and then undergo conversion therapy (or just by sheer old willpower). There are many people claiming to be successful ex-gays on the internet. Most, if not all, are deeply Christian. I respect their choices and beliefs; I also think that children should be given the opportunity to make their own choices and beliefs.

So in the movie, Megan, a high school cheerleader, was confronted by her parents, accusing her of being a lesbian because she was a vegetarian, had a poster of Melissa Etheridge, and had pictures of girls up inside her locker (instead of guys). She also didn’t enjoy kissing her boyfriend. Her parents then had her forcibly taken to a conversion camp called True Directions by an ex-gay super straight guy, Mike, played by RuPaul(!!). She then undergoes the conversion process with an interesting bunch of kids, including Graham, played by Clea DuVall. Megan understandably is confused as to why she was even there, because well, she’s a cheerleader — feminine to the bone, just with feelings for other girls. Obviously, there was a drought of LGBT representation in film and TV at the time, and 90s and early 00s kids had a hard time with identification.

The conversion camp kids are invited to secretly go out in the middle of the night by a couple of ex-ex-gay men, who take them to a gay bar, because they wanted to show the kids an “alternative” way of living, an alternative way of how life could be as themselves. Cutting to near the end, where Megan goes to the ex-ex-gays and tearfully tells them “I thought you could teach me how to be a lesbian, what they wear, where they live. You know.”

The ex-ex-gays say “Megan, we can’t help you with that. There’s not just one way to be a lesbian. You just have to continue to be who you are”.

What a nice, simple, elegant, Oz-like message, all neatly tied up with a ribbon and delivered in Apple-quality packaging.

Pride, at the end of the day, is a celebration of bravery for embracing and loving exactly who you are, in all your shapes, colors, and forms. Who you are, no more, no less. No labels and expectations necessary. We are who we are, and it’s beautiful.

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