Julia Baldassarra
20163814
When deciding to attend the Reelout Queer Film Festival in Kingston, Ontario for the first time I knew I needed to pick a film that would help enhance my knowledge of the LBGTQ+ community as I strive to become an active ally to this community. The movie Sex, Sin and 69 was the perfect choice to fulfill what I was looking for. Sex, Sin and 69 directed by Sarah Foley is about the history regarding the laws around homosexuality and homosexual relationships, specifically regarding marriage between two homosexual individuals.
Before the movie itself started a twelve-minute video about the Positive Space program and the history behind this program played. The positive space program was started at Queen’s University and the main goals are to celebrate sexual and gender diversity in the Queen’s University community. I felt that this video was the perfect thing to show before the movie as I felt that it enhanced the overall experience. By acknowledging that people are not always educated on the LGBTQ+ community but want to participate in programs such as the positive space program encouraged me to continue to expand my knowledge in order to become a better ally to this community. This video also helped tie into the themes of acceptance, societal growth and progression that were seen in Sex, Sin and 69.
The movie began with an overview on the laws in place before marriage between homosexual people was legalized. Prior to the laws being changed being queer (having non-normative sexual desires and sexual practices) was seen as a mental illness. People were punished for being queer, were imprisoned, and were sent to mental institutions. Some people were even subject to conversion therapy. The movie acknowledges that a key figure in getting the laws changed regarding homosexuality was Pierre Elliot Trudeau who at the time was acting as Justice Minister. A key line noted in the film was when Trudeau stated to reporters outside of Parliament that “the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation” (Folger). I really appreciated the insight into how Canada used to address since I find that we often hide the bad parts of our countries history, and I also found that growing up in the Catholic school system the ideas discussed in lecture such as normativity were present within my school community. Since the schools I attended focused on teaching what the Catholic school board considered to be normal I never got any education on the history of the treatment of LGBTQ+ community and the allies who were involved in changing the laws such as Pierre Trudeau, because of this I felt like I never fully knew the extent of Canada’s history until now. Another thing I enjoyed about Sex, Sin and 69 was the documentary style the movie was presented in. The director did a great job of incorporating media clips and photos from the year the law was being changed which helped provide context to the way society was when the omnibus bill was proposed. The director combined these media clips with clips of current people in the LGBTQ+ community who provided facts about the situation from the perspective of the people whose lives would change as a result of this bill passing. The formality of the film allowed the viewer to understand the seriousness of the topic, and fully immerse themselves into the thoughts and feelings of those who struggled to get acceptance within society.
Another thing I enjoyed about this movie was the diverse range of topics it covered regarding the LGBTQ+ community that many people may not be aware of. Sex, Sin and 69 featured key people in the movie who were well educated on the topics of two-spirit identity, being intersex and being transgender. While society is becoming more and more educated on the topic of transgender individuals until this year, I had some prior knowledge on what the two-spirit identity is but had no knowledge on what being intersex meant. By discussing these more unknown topics, the director of the movie is allowing more awareness to be made and creates more recognition of these different identities that many people often do not understand and can squash any misconceptions that may surround these groups of people. By continuing to discuss these topics we are continuing to defy the idea of normativity and create a new one that is accepting of all identities and views everyone as “normal” rather than out casting people who do not fit the past ideals society has had about people.
While there were many positive things about Sex, Sin and 69 there were a couple things in the movie that I wish they had done better in order to fully inform society of the oppression faced by the LGBTQ+ community. The first thing that I wish had been done better in the movie is more representation in the people they interviewed in the movie. In the film the topic of intersectionality was spoken about. Intersectionality, a term created by scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw is defined as “seeing distinctive systems of oppression as being part of one overarching structure of domination as a system of interlocking race, class, and gender oppression. Assuming that each system needs the others in order to function creates a distinct theoretical stance that stimulates the rethinking of basic social science concepts” (Kaufman, 2018). In my opinion if you are going to bring up such an essential concept in understanding oppression then the people, we are interviewing in this film should represent multiple diverse backgrounds in order to fully understand the various impacts these previous laws had on various racial, cultural and gender groups. To add onto this due to this lack of representation in the presenters the presenters in the film did acknowledge that even after the laws changed in 1969 many groups were still oppressed because of their race, gender, religion etc. however, I felt that this topic was glossed over and not given enough acknowledgement in the film. Even though we cannot deny that the laws did change in 1969 I feel it is important to acknowledge that while the laws may have changed the views of society did not change as quickly.
Overall, I do think that Sex, Sin and 69 was a great documentary and I would recommend it to anybody who wants to learn more about the changing views of Canadian society as I felt it did have many great elements and topics featured that are essential to understand as we continue to become more a more accepting and open society.
Works Cited
Kaufman, Peter, 2018. “Intersectionality for Beginners.”
Sex Sin and 69. Directed by Sarah Foley, 2019.
Word Count: 1096
Reelout+ Film Festival 