Firebird

I love gay love stories. I love gay love stories that take place in a past that is not that far away, too. I want to go see this movie because the setting is eerily current and because the actors are incredibly attractive. But also because I cannot imagine what it could have been like to love a man in Soviet Russia during that time. Can you even imagine?

I think that anybody who has been in the Army, or Navy or related to anything Armed Forces at that time and up to Don't Ask, Don't Tell should have some kind of PTSD related to being gay or bisexual. There's a clear hierarchy in those settings and men are trained to follow orders and rules and regulations and loving another man was strictly verboten (it is still somehow taboo, mind you). I could understand how a man who has been in the Armed Forces would find difficult to even harbor the idea of having a relationship with another man and being open about it. When things like internalized homophobia and an absolute negation of your sexual orientation are paramount to surviving in such an institution, it's probably not unusual to find men with all kind of dysfunctions thriving in such settings. They would twist your brain for your own good. Survival of the closeted, I call it. 

I have never dated a Veteran (but would never rule it out, because they usually give me the What a Man, What a Man reaction) but I have worked with several Veterans and am friends with some and they are fantastic people. They can also be absolutely sui generis and prone to all kinds of fuckery because they've been conditioned to do things human beings are literally socialized into not doing. Killing other human beings, for example, without as much as raising an eyebrow. Also, they are trained to blindly follow orders, which in my case would be absolutely useless. I am not a good candidate for conscription,  but you probably knew that already.

So, Firebird. Yes, I wanna see this. It would even make me go to a theater, something I've only done twice during this past year. 

XOXO