A dangerous world for gay people
The show: Gaycation, Season 1, Episode 2 The moment: The admission
Co-hosts Ellen Page and Ian Daniel are travelling the world, exploring how different cultures react to LGBTQ people. In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, they talk to an ex-cop, known only as El Grande, who hates gay people and has killed several.
“If I saw gay people I’d run them over,” says El Grande, whose face and voice are disguised. “I think every pigsty must be cleaned out.”
Page covers her mouth. “I want to say that I’m gay,” she whispers to someone off camera. “Do you think it’s safe?”
She turns back to El Grande. “We’re gay,” she says. “Do you think it would be better for the world for us to be dead?”
After watching three episodes, I was briefly concerned that they weren’t differentiated enough. People have different reasons for their homophobia — in Tokyo, it’s about family pride; in Rio, it’s about Catholicism — but the conversations have a similar arc. And as the hosts point out, a handful of people can’t speak for a whole culture.
But then I realized the similarity was the point. Like good therapists, Page and Daniel are willing to say the same things and hear the same things, over and over, in the hope that somewhere something will click. Someone will see them differently and a change will start to be made.
They certainly have the temperaments of therapists: though often shaken (the statistics on violence against LGBTQ people are staggering), they remain calm. And brave. They keep the conversation going, hoping to be heard. Gaycation airs on Viceland. Johanna Schneller is a media connoisseur who zeroes in on pop-culture moments. She usually appears Monday through Thursday.