It’s been an age since I watched the movie and I was surprised this was a short story, since it’s fairly meaty. Just shows the short scenes pack a punch. Plenty of small details I didn’t see in the movie that brought this up a notch. The ending is especially fantastic, and it drives home a few things: How important representation is, for one.

If queer people don’t see themselves in others and all they learn is homophobia and violence for who they are, the amount of isolation and the damage that causes is staggering. Imagine thinking a whole state probably doesn’t have any other people like you in it. The stymieing of a happy and productive path can, and often will, harm everyone around that person. The notion that the only people who pay is the ostracized is so limited. Not realizing the potential of the most marginalized always hampers the community at large. Always.

That’s why it’s so heartbreaking. The ignorant are harming themselves, and they don’t even know it. More than misguided, to destroy something without trying to understand it, I think that’s something close to what we call evil. For good reason.