Well, I finally broke down and watched it. I watched High School Musical 2, the movie a lot of the gay community has been raving about lately.
My high school was unique, and really did not follow the theme of High School Musical 2. For me, it was okay for everyone to be in the drama club. In fact about a quarter of our club were jocks, a quarter were geeks, there were bandies, and yes there were a few of the drama club queens. So in some ways, I cannot relate to the movie as someone before me made it acceptable for everyone to be in drama club.
Similar to the movie, this unity allowed my school to have one of the best theatre programs in the state of Ohio. We were basically able to take a show to the state conference for the premiere show whenever we wanted. Due to financial reasons this only happened every 3 years, but when we went the reviews were always great and there was always a lot of hype for our show. One year, people were scalping the free tickets for $50 to people unlucky and unable to get a ticket.
However, this unity in drama club, and to a point across any club/team within the school does not mean my high school didn’t have similarities. If you changed the drama club in the movie, to being a gay guy or a lesbian you then had my high school. It seemed like the two major things that could get you outcast in my high school were being gay, or being in a gang.
When one of the guys in the drama club in my high school came out of the closet, most people stopped associating with him. Before he came out there were quite a few people he hung around with, but once he came out that group dwindled to maybe 5. Everyone started avoiding him at all costs. He was still respected as a great actor, but you just weren’t his friend.
I think that is why the gay community likes High School Musical so much. The movie symbolizes the challenges we faced in high school, and the challenges we honestly still face today. Personally, I do have several problems with the movie (the gay guy that Disney doesn’t have the balls to come out and admit is gay for one) but the movie was startling successful in showing the challenges faced by everyone in trying to fit in.
The movie can best be summed up by the title of the last song in the movie “We’re All in This Togetherâ€. And we are, not just those of us that are gay, but those who still like cartoons, and those who have a different accent, and those who are divorced. Everyone is trying to fit in so they can have friends, but what we need to focus on is who we are and getting our friends to accept us for that.