IL2ÛÛ2
24
on the Side
n a February commentary, syndicated
columnist Paula Martinac recalls her anger
at browsing through her local gay and les
bian lending library and finding that “right
alongside Desert Hearts, Parting Glances and
other classic...movies was The Boys of St. Vin
Do cinem atic depictions
cent—a deeply disturbing film about the sexual
abuse of young boys by Catholic brothers at a
o f adult/youth relationships
Canadian orphanage in the 1970s.”
She is right to be angry. But she should not
b lu r an a lre a d y thin line?
have been surprised that even queer librarians
by Gary Morris
unthinkingly coupled homosexuality and
pedophilia in this way. The notion that all gay
men are either potential or
though not always, U.S. indies (L./.E., Happiness,
practicing pedophiles has sur
they do not equate Eban and Charley), foreign
vived beyond all logic, even in
h o m o se x u ality
imports aimed at small arthouse
queer circles, thanks to endur
and pedophilia, audiences (Our Lady of the Assas
ing homophobia, well-funded
instead consigning sins, Ernesto, For a Lost Soldier,
right-wing religious and politi
the problem to Clay Farmers) or sexually frank Gale Harold
cal groups (and their moun
individual pathol foreign or cable television shows
tain of phony scientific stud
ogy or institution (The Boys of St. Vincent, Queer as Folk). The
ies) and a fear of adolescent
al repression or, in fact that most of these works had only a lim
sexuality.
a few controversial ited, or in some cases no, U.S. theatrical
With movies reflecting the
cases, treating it as release suggests the level of anxiety that sur
popular mind-set, they should
a socially dis rounds the issue and any portrayal of it.
be the last place to Ltxik for fair
approved
but
The Boys of St. Vincent (Canada, 1994)
portrayals of an issue deemed
potentially posi follows the twin templates of
too dicey to discuss. Logically,
tive force. In repu institutional repression and indi
the same impulse that made
diating the equa vidual pathology. Based on a 1975
that librarian put The Boys of
tion of queer with scandal in Newfoundland, this
St. Vincent next to Desert
child
molester, three-hour made-for-TV drama
Hearts should be the driving
these works seem shows a Catholic orphanage as a
force behind films on the sub
to be doing what hotbed of gross physical and sexu
ject. Right?
some segments of al abuse that’s permitted by an
Wrong. A survey (if several
society cannot.
omnipotent church and a cowed
movies and television shows Dylan Baker and Rufus Read in Happiness
The first thing local police department. This bru
from the past three decades
to note is that tal and very timely work never
shows a surprising complexity in portraying these most of the films on this subject were made succumbs to the expected gay
relationships, with many variations. Typically, outside the Hollywcxxi mainstream, either as cliche. The main abuser, Brother
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and Randy Harrison in Queer as Folk
Lavin, is portrayed as a nutcase whose
molestation of 12-year-old Kevin is driven by
demons he can’t control. Any temptation to
read him as a frustrated queer is trumped by
his later life of marriage and children and hy
the film’s unrelenting portrayal of Lavin as a
straight-up, though not entirely
unsympathetic, psychotic.
The successful straight male
who’s also an out-of-control preda
tor occurs in other movies, most
notably Happiness (United States,
1997). Like The Boys of St. Vin
cent, Todd Soldonz’s film features a
paragon of heterosexual virtue,
here a respected psychiatrist who’s
at once charismatic and fatally
flawed. Happiness treats him as a
complicated character, both repug-
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