Philadelphia

The movie Philadelphia came on TV yesterday night. Had been looking forward to watch this film the whole week and it didn’t fail to deliver the message about discrimination.

*Spoiler warning*
It’s about a talented young lawyer played by Tom Hanks being fired from his law firm because he’s infected with AIDS and because he’s homosexual. He filed a lawsuit against his former employer for being wrongfully dismissed, lost of earnings and also for compensations. No lawyer in Philadelphia was willing to take his case until he finally turned to his rival lawyer played by Denzel Washington (who’s a homophobic himself).
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I have no doubt that Tom Hanks delivered one of his best performance (aside from Forrest Gump) which he really deserved an Oscar for the movie. This movie made me realized that homosexual was and still is a society’s stigma. I guess the situation is a lot different now than back in the ’90s. I have occasionally met some homosexual couples holding hands on the streets and nobody gives a damn. There’s even a yearly gay parade in Berlin and Cologne for homosexual couples called Christopher Street’s Day. It’s actually a demonstration against discrimination towards homosexuals. I haven’t had a chance to visit the parade yet. A friend of mine has been pestering me to go since it’ll be really an eye opener seeing so many homo-couples at once .

I noticed something whenever I approached the homosexual subject with some guy friends (not that I do that every time la), they would prefer to talk about some other subjects. I’m not even talking about Asian guys here, some are Italians, French and even Germans. I remembered while I was doing my internship in Munich, I wanted to visit one of the many gay bars there. My Italian colleague already promised during lunch to meet me up later in the evening so that we could go together to the (gay) bar. While I was getting ready to pack my things in the evening to go back and be ready for the night out, he suddenly came over to my place saying he’s not coming along because he’s not going to a gay bar! What the!! I didn’t tell him in the first place it was a gay bar la . So no fun and I was left without any plans that night. See, I don’t understand why some guys can be so homophobic.

I’m not being pro-homo here, mind you. But then as long as one is sure about oneself’s sexual orientation, there’s no fear of being swayed to the other direction right ?

p/s: The weather forecast said it’s going to snow tomorrow! At last it’s winter.

  1. the temptress | Jan 23, 2007 |

    Good for you! Denmark is finally snowing, according to my friend. Take pics of the snow? or your mark in the snow? Haha..

    psstt: CeBIT is happening in March 15-21, I’m thinking of extending my stay if EVER I’m going. Now at “planning” stage – shan’t jinx it yet. Will update as and when I can.

    double-psstt: My blog’s being checked by my colleagues, ermm, so, no work mentioned there, and no “hype” of my Germany trip there also..