Upon Seeing The Imitation Game With My Friend

It’s after midnight and I’m just getting in. This is my first night staying with my buddy Ron in Staten Island. I’ll continue my apartment search tomorrow. I also have to follow up with the producer by sending him a script and continue to seek a steady gig and funding for the next Mehadi project (big announcement coming soon).

It’s quite a schlep out here from Manhattan. After you get off the ferry there’s still a short bus ride to get to Ron’s– well, usually short. I missed my stop so by the time I realized it this bus driver said it would be another hour before she got back around to the ferry for me to give it another shot so I should get off at the next stop, cross the street, and wait for the S78 going in the other direction. It was about another half hour before that one came along. I stood in a slushy snow bank and stared in the distance as if it would make the bus come faster. Isn’t it strange how people do that? Next time you pass a bus stop, notice how many people are just standing there staring in the direction from which the bus will eventually come. In some ways that’s how I live my life– looking expectantly for what is to come.

I’m very, very tired. We did a lot of walking today in Manhattan. “We” is my buddy Luke Denton and me. I tell you I love that guy so much it’s pretty much impossible to describe. He is such a good friend to me. We watched two movies together at BAM: The Wild Things and The Imitation Game. Both were great movies. The Wild Things is smart and funny and had me belly laughing loud. The Imitation Game is a brilliant work of art. If you haven’t seen it, I beg you to. It’s not easy to watch of course. At the end of it, I felt like I’d been kicked in the chest. A good argument could be made that we might not have won World War II without the work of Alan Turing. For all the jingoistic worship of that war and how much it’s held up as “the good war,” it is amazing (perhaps not really)  that almost no one ever mentions a gay man had so much to do with the Allies’ victory. That sure doesn’t get talked about much in the history books and classrooms in America!

I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t know that much about Alan Turing to include what happened to him in the end. I was stunned at the end of the movie. Luke knows me well and I’m sure knew I would be heavily effected by it. As the lights came up in the theatre, he turned to me and asked, “How you doin’?” I answered with what was in my heart in that moment, “I don’t understand why they hate us so much” which let go the floodgates and I had to work to pull it back together. Luke is an awesome straight ally and he wants to champion the cause of our overcoming. I wish there were more like him. Cultural homophobia has been the single most devastating and pervasive negatively impacting factor in my entire life.

I’m so glad I saw that movie. I’m glad for a lot of reasons. I can say that it has renewed my resolve to do everything I can to end homophobia and the persecution of my people. And I am, like never before, losing patience with those who make our lives hell because of their ignorance. Ignorance is no longer an excuse. Things must change and I’m tired of being told to be patient.

See y’all tomorrow.