There are movie scenes that get burned into our memory
strongly for reasons peculiar to our personal constitution and deep-seated
affiliations. The following scenes
describe some of the most remarkable movie scenes in my mind.
The Normal Heart is
a film about the early days of AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) when
the disease was erroneously attributed to gays.
In one of the scenes, Albert (Finn Wittrock) was brought to the hospital
but died by the time he got in. No
doctor or any medical staff wanted to touch him. His body, placed in oversized black garbage
bags, was thrown in the trash alley.
Bruce (Taylor Kitsch), Albert’s lover, had to pay the orderly 50 dollars
just to get the body. Albert’s mother (Catherine
Chadwick) looked on, crying, and cried some more when Bruce held her. They then went to the funeral parlor to have
Albert’s body cremated.
A human being thrown in the trash, within hospital
premises. What the fuck!
I can only imagine how Albert’s mother felt, seeing her
child literally treated as trash. I can
imagine how Bruce felt losing his lover in a hospital that declined medical
care. Well, the hospital personnel
provided non-medical care brimming with inhuman touch.
I am acutely reminded of The Normal Heart because
of what happened to the United States very recently.
Earlier this month (this week), Texas passed Senate Bill
17 which would allow professionals (doctors, lawyers, judges, accountants,
pharmacists, et al.), based on their deeply held religious beliefs, to refuse
to give services to LGBTs (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender).
This is setting a dangerous precedent for future
discriminatory laws against my American siblings (the LGBTs).
It is wrong to use religion to impact the law. To these lawmakers, it is more important to
hate and discriminate than to serve humanity.
Albert in the trash alley may happen again. Well, Albert was trashed during the AIDS
crisis in the 1980s at a time, supposedly, when professionals – especially
medical professionals – could not discriminate in providing needed
services. What more with laws protecting
the professionals’ deeply held religious beliefs? Albert on a mountain of humans, trashed. Maybe.
Goodness, I hope not.
When will people learn?
REFERENCES
Christine Bolaños.
“Texas ‘Religious Freedom’ Bill Opens Door to LGBT Discrimination,
Opponents Say.” The Guardian. 6 Apr. 2019.
Web. 6 Apr. 2019. <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/05/texas-sb17-lgbt-discrimination-religious-freedom>.
[There are other news outlets that carried this
story. You can Google them (or use the
search engine of your choice)].
The Normal Heart. Screenplay by Larry Kramer. Dir. Ryan Murphy. Perf. Mark Ruffalo, Julia Roberts, Taylor
Kitsch, Finn Wittrock, Catherine Chadwick.
Home Box Office, 2014. Film.
