Mar 27-Apr 2

April 2, 7pm, Diversity and Social Justice Ed (703 S Wright)

Screening of "City of Borders"

City of Borders goes inside the vibrant community at the only gay bar in Jerusalem where people of opposing nationalities, religions, and sexual orientations create a sanctuary among people typically viewed as each other’s enemy. Co-sponsored by the LGBT Resource Center and Building Bridges.

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 I didn't realize it until we were a few minutes into the movie, but several things in my life right now have been revolving around these topics of religion and sexual orientation and this movie kind of rounded it all out.

I've recently found myself watching shows or documentaries on religion, specifically Christianity, since I've been raised a Lutheran yet still question it and religion in general.  Sexual orientation is also something I think about a lot recently because many of my friends are not heterosexual and are having to deal with all the political drama about same sex marriage and the opposing religious views people add on top it. So this movie kind of combined both of these, and gave me a perspective of these issues outside of the United States.

I guess I have never really thought about how these issues are laid out in other countries, and assume that they are different from how they are in the United States.  But actually, they were pretty similar.  I won't go into a lot of detail because I think we all know how religion and sexual orientation is thought about in the US, so just imagine that we aren't some superior country because other people are going through the same struggles we are, in almost identical manners.

Most of this movie though focused on how this gay bar brought people of different nationalities, religions, and sexual orientations together.  This was a pretty amazing thing.  Practically enemies would come to this bar and be free of all stress, judgments and hate from their everyday lives and come together as one - only needing to be there for happiness and love.  I think this is something other people from these countries and countries that aren't even neighbors can learn from.  If you put all the violence and hate aside, everything would be a lot more simple and everyone could work together as one to solve problems. Of course we know it's not that easy...

Another thing I found people could learn from, and was humorous, was one guy was walking along a fenced boarder with his dog.  The dog crossed the boarder, and the owner said something how dogs (animals) don't know the difference/being different isn't a worry of theirs.  I thought this was true.  Most dogs and animals are so loving and forgiving, and this is exactly how people should be too, definitely when it comes to fighting religions and sexual orientations (and other issues I suppose)... because technically we are all the same... so why should any of this be an issue? 

I really enjoyed watching this film, and found in beneficial for things I am currently questioning in my life.  I'm glad I checked the main blog one last time to see Harrison posted this.