Why was this scene deleted from the final cut?
SPOILER ALERT! I assume you saw the movie so I’m not holding back.
I’ll say it, I’m gay and I love Bruno! I admit I was guarded when I entered the crowded Seattle theater Friday night. I read the criticisms of GLAAD and others who thought Bruno was gay black face. I’m sorry they didn’t get the joke.
Bruno is not gay black face, but rather a conglomeration of every stereotype imposed upon our community by the outside — the media, some heterosexuals, right wing religious leaders and even ourselves. Bruno exemplified the absurdity of those stereotypes, and did so smartly.
The right wing always campaigns against us by falsely claiming gays and lesbians are a danger to children. In Washington we are fighting to protect Domestic Partnerships from a petition campaign. The top of the petition says, “Preserve Marriage, Protect Children.” Sasha Barren Cohen took this misguided argument and ran with it. The Bruno character did everything short of committing pedophilia with his African baby he purchased with a U2 Red Ipod. Since we were in on the gag, the mostly heterosexual audience thought the scenario was hilarious. Why? Because it is ridiculous to assume that gays would treat a child so carelessly, and by giving Americans an opportunity to laugh at that absurdity the next time they hear a talking head regurgitate the values of heteronormative Christian values and their superiority over any alternative family, perhaps subconsciously they will remember Bruno and realize that the image the anti gay agenda is trying to portray is insane. Perhaps, just perhaps, they will laugh right in their faces as we should at anything so absurd.
I fail to see the danger of laughing at Cohen’s hyperbole of a gay, Austrian, fashionista. Perhaps it was the portrayal of Bruno’s sex life that made some members of our community squeamish. Bruno’s repertoire was nothing short of delicious. He is the freak in bed most of us would love to claim to be. Of coarse, most of our sex lives are pretty vanilla. I never used Champagne that way before and I doubt I could! But the audience got the joke. They laughed just as hard as I did when Bruno gave his gaysian boifriend a spin. Gay men have a reputation for being adventurous in bed and I can only imagine what that must mean to some in the heterosexual community. If they imagine my sex life is anything like Bruno’s, then I’ll wear that badge of honor.
While we are talking about sex, I think it is worth noting that the only time the mostly straight audience responded with revulsion was during the heterosexual swinger scene when a guy was performing cunnilingus on a woman. Why did that gross them out? Why didn’t they laugh at that like they did when Bruno was getting plowed by a dildo powered by an exercise bike? The audience assumed the swinger scene was real, but they knew the sex scenes with Bruno were an act and not representative of the gay community. They got the joke.
There is a generational divide in the gay community. I don’t have any scientific data to back up my theory, but it is fair to guess the majority of LGBTs who are offended by Bruno are more seasoned. They are trained to be offended by movies like Bruno. I don’t blame them. Their upbringing was far more repressed than some of our new tweener gays’. The younger generation grew up with shows like South Park and more tamely the Simpsons. They understand dirty in your face satire. They know that to be offended by it makes them part of the joke. Rashid Robinson wrote an op-ed on behalf of GLAAD in the L.A. Times about Bruno:
It’s not that we don’t get it. The makers of the film “Bruno,” Sacha Baron Cohen’s just-released follow-up to “Borat,” have said that they intend to satirize and expose homophobia. But even when filmmakers have the best of intentions, there can be a disconnect between the concept and the execution. In “Bruno,” the satire often loses sight of the way gay people are treated in real life.
Robinson does not get it. In fact it is GLAAD that is reinforcing the stereotypes of the gay community. They make us look like uppity easily offended sissies. Robinson refused to validate Cohen’s exposure of homophobia in nearly all its forms. Bruno was victim to workplace discrimination, he tried to pray the gay away and fails, he tried to marry his partner and is denied, and he even experienced violence for kissing another man. Mostly heterosexual audiences are introduced to these important realities while turning the homophobic culture into the punch line. Will anyone in the Friday night audience take homophobes seriously again? I doubt it, but I doubt they did to begin with.
GLAAD and others also failed to see the power of celebrity. The last few moments of the film were a celebrity packed We Are the World type song about Bruno. The last line of the song was sung by Snoop Dog, “Bruno’s gay” he shrugged his shoulders, “Okay.” Celebrity power like Snoop Dog, Sasha Baron Cohen, Elton John, Bono, Sting, and others are far more valuable than any complaint GLAAD issues or speeches given by Joe Solemnese from the HRC. Celebrities appeal directly to the people we’re trying to reach, the next generation of voters.
Sure this movie is not going to win us any favor in the Focus on the Family crew. Nothing will. Will Bruno help us secure our rights? Maybe, maybe not; but if we are depending on pop culture to secure our rights than we have a lot more problems in our movement than I already thought.
And finally, GLAAD is ignoring the amazing conversations that Bruno created. The water cooler discussions are not jokes about gay parents as GLAAD said it would be, but rather a discussion of the violence Bruno experienced at the end of the film during the cage fight. People are talking about the Christian trying to “cure” Bruno of his homosexuality. People are talking about celebrity and the desperate lengths people will go to achieve it. People are talking about Paula Abdule sitting on the back of a Mexican.
Gays really need to learn to laugh more. I know life is not easy for us. We’re getting attacked in a thousand different directions. But if we can’t take a break and laugh until we cry once in a while, even if we are laughing at ourselves, we’ve lost. I know it may not be popular to say it right now, but I’ll say it again. Yes, I’m gay and I love Bruno!
