Small Town Gay Bar (Documentary)

The lives of gays in the Deep South are explored in this documentary, which looks at two bars in rural Mississippi that cater to a homosexual clientele. While the film certainly does address the ills of gay bashings, ignorance, harassment, and picketing; the documentary is first and foremost a touching celebration of the endurance and tenacity required of gay people living in the South, and how these clubs work as an island of acceptance for a small, family-like community, that is to be clung to and cherished at all costs. It is a low budget and rough-around-the-edges, but considering it came back in 2006 it's a well-made documentary.

As the self-explanatory title suggests, the film focuses on two isolated gay bars in Mississippi: Rumors, in Shannon, and the wild, anything-goes Crossroads in the woods outside Meridian, which shuttered two years ago and was replaced by the tamer Different Seasons. We see interviews of various patrons who offer candid accounts of living with fear and oppression — forced to keep their sexuality under wraps in the workplace and often with their families, battling attacks and public exposure from the religious right. The film also underlines the close alignment of racism and homophobia within the social prejudices of the South. Redneck hypocrisy is exposed via the hate campaign of an activist preacher who believes that notions of all-embracing Divine love only “fan the flames of fag lust.” The most unsettling insights are delivered in an account of a man brutally beaten, strangled, stabbed and partially decapitated over several hours before his body was dumped and set on fire. The victim’s brother continues to be subjected to anti-gay slurs in the wake of the killing.

The documentary tries to cover everything. Right from gay bashing to anti-gay church stance, and also the joy of people having fun and meeting potential lovers and partners in the bar. It also empowers gay people to come out and live the life they want. I, personally, would have never expected or even thought that small towns in rural America would have thriving gay bars and business. To be honest, not sure of theses places exist today, but it is heartening to see how people of LGBT community had a safe heaven and a place they could feel themselves in bars like these places. Not every gay person has the luxury to up and leave their hometowns and move to big cities. It is about time, people are made comfortable and not afraid for their lives in their comfort zones and hometowns. (5/10)