Different From the Others

Different from what? Unnatural and yet perfectly natural. Choice when there is no choice at all. Society driven by guilt. Others like us. Bloated Generals sat in Palaces and castles as young men were slaughtered on the fields of war. Nations, people, societies, Empires in ruin and numb from shock. A vicious treaty drawn up in the Hall of Mirrors that destroyed the world all over again. There existed a brief, an ever so brief moment, a mere 20 months when sanity prevailed. Men held hands in public, Moscow and St Petersburg were gay and free from discrimination, Germany, feeling the full brunt of blame had yet to established itself. At last we had learnt something from war but alas that breath of fresh air was snuffed out by man’s need for power. In that minute window of opportunity came something quite extraordinary. THE FIRST PRO-GAY FILM EVER MADE Four years after “Birth of a Nation”, before Valentino and Garbo there came a full-length motion picture so advanced in its depiction of same-sex love that could’ve be written by modern gay rights activists. I stumbled across it on YouTube, gay history that demanded to be told. The World Premier of Different From the Others.