Brokeback Mountain Controversy
Inside Liberty Watch Today - Jan. 31, 2006

Heidi Harris has a cow over the hit movie Brokeback Mountain in her "Heidiology" column penned for the January Liberty Watch magazine (volume01/issue10/heidiology.php).

The movie has won four Golden Globes and an additional 35 awards and 43 nominations around the world. The awards span the entire category spectrum from Bernie Taupin's Best Original Song, Larry McMurtry's Best Adapted Screenplay, Ang Lee's Directing to all major characters garnering nominations, and of course multiple Best Movie nominations and wins. It will win some Academy Awards, and not because of any Hollywood agenda to push gay rights. Folks, this is a very good movie.

But Ms. Harris admits to having pre-movie anxiety about the "pup tent scene" where principal characters Ennis Del Mar (played by Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) consummate their relationship, and she never seems to get over it. Harris writes of the scene that she's "seen more romance on Animal Planet," and that she was "surprised at the brutality."

In the fantasy world of "Heidiology," evidently all sex is sweet and romantic with sweet nothings being whispered and smooth caresses offered. We all know this isn't the case, but brace yourself: the offending scene is anything but brutal. In fact, good old boy heterosexuals who are threatened by gay men and in turn commit murder, perpetrate most of the violence portrayed in the film.

Harris doesn't believe that what went on in the pup tent represents love. She seems to imply that homosexuals are incapable of it. It's almost as if she left the movie early but decided she wanted to complain about it anyway.

If she'd have paid a little more attention, Harris would realize that her suggestion: "If you and your cowboy buddy want to go live with each other in a remote cabin, feel free to do so," wasn't an option in the early 60's. I would remind Harris of the scene when Ennis remembered what happened to two suspected gay men that went off and lived together when he was nine years old. And besides, why should gay cowboys have to do that anyway. 

Harris seems to really get a burr under her saddle about Ennis and Jack being married to women, but using every chance they got to meet and go fishing up on Brokeback Mountain. "Once you take vows," commands Harris, "you're supposed to put your 'inner conflicts' behind you. You've made a choice - now live with it."

It is anti-human to expect someone to live unhappily ever after. Both characters struggled with their relationships, with their only joy coming when the rare occasion allowed them to be together. Ennis made a choice and lived with it and was unhappy because of it. He divorced his wife, sacrificed greatly to pay child support and never could have a satisfying relationship with a woman, but knew the consequences if he lived an open relationship with a man. Unlike his friend Jack, Ennis didn't have eyes for other men. He was a virtual prisoner to his love of Jack. He couldn't be with him and he couldn't be with anyone else, male or female.

Harris contends that Brokeback is "boring," and she pretending she knows what the rest of the theater thought when she saw the film, "and so did the left-leaning crowd who saw it with me." It's amazing that Harris "didn't care what happened to either of these men." Is she so devoid of interest in the human condition that these characters did nothing to invoke her curiosity? Someone should hurry and take her pulse.

In her review, Harris tells us that she is a "straight married woman," and just in case we forget four hundred words later she reminds us again. According to her, because of this, she can't relate to gay relationships that "are a mystery to me." Curiously however, as a group, straight women relate to gay men more than any other. They share qualities that many straight men don't have: such as nurturing, sensitiveness, and high-time preference. Ms. Harris is obviously an exception to the rule.

Straight woman Harris believes Brokeback "only serves to confirm the negative stereotypes of the gay lifestyle." She must be joking. Harris makes it sound like Ennis and Jack could star on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Instead, they are hardworking, generally broke, young cowboys coming of age in 1960's Wyoming. They pay their bills, go to church and help raise families. Jack even laments during the movie "what the government doesn't take is eaten up by inflation."

I think these two cowboy characters make better Republicans than Heidi Harris.

Doug French, Liberty Watch Columnist