Challenges of Homosexuals in the 1960’s

In the time period that the movie took place people who were gay were look down upon in society. During the movie Abby has a stroke and Edith is not allowed to see her in the hospital because the hospital staff did not know that they were in fact “family”. After Abby had passed Edith was not allowed to claim anything because they were not legally married. This paper will discuss the different ways that the movie “If Walls Could Talk II Segment I” proved to be effective and ineffective. Keywords: homosexual, legally married If These Walls Could Talk II Segment I” was a movie about a lesbian couple who had been living together for 30 plus years. In this movie they depict how the society does not accept homosexuals. This is seen when Abby falls off of the ladder and has a stroke, when she arrives at the hospital with Edith she is taken back and Edith asks to see her; she is told that she cannot see Abby because she is not family. She is also told that she would have to wait until visiting hours the next morning for non-family members to see her. What the hospital does not know is that in fact they are family.

The next morning Edith goes to see Abby and she is told that she had passed away earlier that day. Edith becomes highly upset because she had asked to be told if anything had happened to let her know. After Abby’s passing Edith called Abby’s nephew Ted who had plans to sell the house to cover the inheritance tax that would be slapped on him. Edith is very distraught by what she was told and said that both Abby and I had paid the mortgage on this house and it is rightfully mine. At the time Ted’s wife had been going through the house gathering stuff they might want.

They didn’t even leave one piece of Abby’s for Edith to treasure. My first reaction when I saw the movie was how greedy Ted was; all they wanted was Abby’s stuff so they could sell it and make a profit from it. If I was Ted I would have let Edith remain in the house because she had rightfully purchased it with Abby. I think that in the time period Abby and Edith’s relationship was very looked down upon, as depicted when Edith hid all the pictures of her and Abby together so Ted and his family would not know that they were together.

I believe that Abby and Edith felt the need to hide their relationship because it was looked down upon in society at that time and if people had found out they would have been misjudged. The movie also showed how when Abby died everything by law went to Abby’s family members because they were not legally married; if same sex marriage was legal Edith would not have to face losing the house to Ted along with all of Abby’s belongings. The challenges that homosexuals face today are somewhat different than they faced back in the 1960s.

Today homosexuals are not looked down upon as much as they were in the 1960s. Also in the 1960s same sex marriage was illegal but today there are more and more states that are allowing same sex marriage. I think that the film “If These Walls Could Talk II Segment I” had some very good points of effectiveness. These include selling the fact that homosexuality was not an accepted sexual orientation at that time, and if you so happen to be gay or a lesbian you were not of equal status as heterosexuals.

They proved this by presenting how at the hospital Edith wanted to see Abby but she was told that she could not see her because she was not “family”. They assumed that the definition of family was being a husband which she was not. The definition of family is a group consisting of one to two parents and their children. This definition does not say that the parents have to be one male and one female. There are many families that consist of two female parents or two male and parent and children; you rarely saw this in the 1960s but today you seemed to see this type of family more frequently.

This film also proved effective that if same sex marriage was legal then Edith would not have had to face Ted taking her house and her belongings. Once Abby passed away Edith was faced with the fact that Abby did not have a will that said that the house would be passed onto Edith. Ted; her closest living relative was to be given all of Abby’s belongings by law. If same sex marriage was deemed legal during that time Edith would rightfully have possession of all of Abby’s belongings including the house.

This would also allow Edith to have been able to see Abby before she died because she would be deemed a “family” member. They proved this effective because they showed that in the hospital that even if Edith would have said that she and Abby were together she would still have not been able to see her legally. The movie also proved this by showing that technically Edith did not have any right to the house because the mortgage was not in her name regardless of her paying half of the mortgage. This gave Ted the rightful ownership of the house.

This film did a great job getting the point that homosexuality was not an accepted sexual orientation at the time and that if same sex marriage was legal that everything would have been much better for Edith because she would not have to be faced with being kicked out of her house because Ted wanted to sell it. The film also had some points of ineffectiveness in the movie. A point of ineffectiveness that I found in the movie was that they did not show what happened after Ted and his family took all Abby’s belongings.

I believe that the people who watched the video are wondering what happened to Edith; whether she was she kicked out of the house or not. The film just ended with Ted’s family leaving and this leaves all of the viewers confused on what happened to Edith. There is another segment of the movie but that part picks up in the 1970s. If the film had completed the segment in which Edith is in I think that viewers would have gotten a lot more out of it. I know I was very interested in the movie and when I saw that the movie just cut off there and ended I really wanted to know what had happened to Edith.

I would have also wanted to know if she had started an activist group for awareness of homosexuals. I think if the film had done this that people would be attracted to seeing the other segments of the film. My opinion on the film “If These Walls Could Talk II Segment I” is that it was a very good movie that showcased how discriminated homosexuals really are especially in the 1960s. I thought that the movie did a good job representing that same sex marriage was illegal by showing that Edith did not have any rights to Abby’s possessions.

My standing on same sex marriage is that regardless of sexuality people should be able to share their lives together through marriage. Same sex marriage does not hurt anyone; it is like husband and wife just of the same sex. These couples should have the same rights as heterosexual couples because their lifestyle is not hurting anyone and they should be able to live like any other American couple. My opinion on the fact that Edith was not allowed to see Abby when she needed her most is that it was ridiculous how the nurses turned her away because they said she wasn’t family.

How did the nurses know that Edith could have been her sister or somebody else related to her that was not her husband. I think if people were more aware of people in their society and how they live their lives that there would be less discrimination, especially of the homosexuals. I know when my grandmother was in the hospital there were visiting hours but the hospital staff never limited the hours to family members and non-family members. We would just walk in and go see her.

I also think it is ridiculous that the hospital staff limited the visitations to husbands. Today most hospitals let the person who brought them to the hospital visit regardless of if they are family or not. Again if people were more aware of different people maybe the circumstances of Edith and Abby would have been different. I don’t think Edith and Abby had a chance at a fair life because of this discrimination. I also believe that if Edith and Abby were open about their relationship maybe people would have eventually accepted them as a couple.

In today’s day in age people are more open to the fact that more and more people are coming out as being gay. My personal stance on homosexuality is that I do not have an issue with it as long as those who are gay do not come after me. My friends who are gay or lesbian always say they are not trying to convert people to the other side; they just want to find someone who has a similar sexual orientation that they could spend the rest of their life with. These people are not doing harm to the society and people should respect them just as they accept straight people.

I hope that from watching this film people are more open to people who are gay, lesbian, or bisexual, and that they can treat each other with respect and not judge that person based on sexual orientation. I think if people were more educated about homosexuality they would also be more open to other sexual orientations. I hope for the future that discrimination against homosexuals stops altogether and everyone gets along like one big family, and not judge each other based on sexuality.