Chinese Closet (2010)

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This is my first review. I am a disabled Black queer nonbinary woman, but despite the adversities in my life, I have yet to deal with explicit discrimination regarding my sexuality fortunately. But, that might change soon with certain laws as I live in Southern US. This movie spoke to me. It told the stories of Chinese gay men and how they navigate their life and experiences with work, social life, family, and friends due to the highly negative outlook on homosexuality in China. To think that a lot of this happened so recently and that it still occurs on a global scale is disheartening. Knowing that radical homophobia amongst many cultures is primarily due to European colonialization makes this even more impactful. Knowing that historically in China and other non-Western European cultures never had an issue with what we now call queer or LGBTQIA+ and how it was embedded and often celebrated in the culture to where families are broken apart, people are ostracized, their lives are ruined, and can even be killed.

I am just happy that media like this film exist where people can tell their stories. They tell their truth and how they navigate trying to live to their fullest selves despite it. What it showed me is that the real monsters are not those who love who they want to love or who live authentically, but those who go out of their way to try to ruin our lives for it because they've convinced themselves that it is unforgivable and evil. Have they not looked in the mirror?

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