Here And Now

I found this story of the first gay march in Haiti of any kind very moving:

A march yesterday was the first time demonstrators have declared their sexuality publicly in the Caribbean island nation of Haiti. Yesterday, 500 took to the streets in St. Marc wearing T-shirts saying "I am gay" ("Mwen Se Masisi") and "I am living with AIDS."

The AP reports:

"Organizers said they hoped the march will break barriers to reach more HIV-positive people and gay men with programs that have helped decrease the country's infection rate by two-thirds in the last decade. 'They suffer double the stigma and double the discrimination,' said Esther Boucicault Stanislas, a leading activist known as the first person in Haiti to publicly declare that she was HIV-positive after her husband died of AIDS in the early 1990s. About 500 participants that included health ministry officials and workers with United Nations programs followed a speaker-truck through the dusty city, chanting and carrying banners en route to the mayor's office. No officials received them. AIDS awareness marches have taken place before in Haiti, but Boucicault and organizers with New York-based AIDS service organization Housing Works called this one the first march to include an openly gay group in Haiti."

       With thanks to Towleroad, from whom this item was "borrowed."

From the original January 1971 review in Variety:

Harold and Maude has all the fun and gaiety of a burning orphanage. Ruth Gordon heads the cast as an offensive eccentric who becomes a beacon in the life of a self-destructive rich boy, played by Bud Cort. Together they attend funerals and indulge in specious philosophizing.

Director Hal Ashby's second feature is marked by a few good gags, but marred by a greater preponderance of sophomoric, overdone and mocking humor.

Cort does well as the spoiled neurotic whose repeated suicide attempts barely ruffle the feathers of mother Vivian Pickles, whose urbane performance is outstanding. She solicits a computer dating service to provide three potential brides: Shari Summers and Judy Engles are frightened off by Cort's bizarre doings, but Ellen Geer is delightful as one who goes him one better.

One thing that can be said about Ashby - he begins the film in a gross and macabre manner, and never once deviates from the concept. That's style for you.

Harold is a depressed, death-obsessed 20-year-old man/child who spends his free time attending funerals and pretending to commit suicide in front of his mother. At a funeral, Harold befriends Maude, a 79-year-old woman who has a zest for life. She and Harold spend much time together during which she exposes him to the wonders and possibilities of life. After rejecting his mother's three attempts to set him up with a potential wife, and committing fake suicide in front of all of them, Harold announces that he is to be married to Maude. However, Maude has a surprise for Harold that is to change his life forever.

- Rick Gregory, IMDb

Harold and Maude is a cult classic film directed by Hal Ashby in 1971. The film, featuring slapstick, dark humour, and existentialist drama, revolves around the exploits of a morbid young man – Harold (played by Bud Cort) – who drifts away from the life that his detached mother prescribes for him, as he develops a relationship with septuagenarian Maude (played by Ruth Gordon).

The film is number 45 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Funniest Movies of all time,^[1], number 69 in its list for most romantic ^[2], and number 42 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies. In 1997, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".^[3]

The film was a commercial failure when it was released, and the critical reception was extremely mixed; however, it has since developed a large cult following ^[4], and its influence is evident in contemporary pop culture. Filmmakers who have demonstrated the influence of this classic include Bobby and Peter Farrelly, who pay tribute to the film in their movie There's Something About Mary in which the character of Mary thinks that Harold and Maude is "the greatest love story of our time".

     - Wikipedia

If you can just appreciate each thing, one by one, then you will have pure gratitude. Even though you observe just one flower, that one flower includes everything.

     - Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, Branching Streams Flowing in the Dark

These men were obviously not gay (if they were, they wouldn't be posing affectionately with their partners in public). What happened that men stopped physically expressing affection for each other? Some have suggested that the rise in awareness of homosexuality made men afraid.

1809 illustration of a dancing dress

Those who were dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.

    -Friedrich Nietzsche