Political Animals (2016) Reviews

• Must-see film about lesbian legislators in California

  Red-1252016-10-11

  Political Animals (2016) is a documentary that was was co-written and co-directed by Jonah Markowitz and Tracy Wares. It talks about struggles to provide basic human rights that lesbians and gays now have achieved. It's easy to take those rights for granted, but, even in the mid- 1990's, the legal situation for lesbians and gays was bleak. Sheila Kuehl was the first openly lesbian politician to be elected to the California legislature. She was later joined by Carole Migden, Jackie Goldberg, and Christine Kehoe, all of whom also appear in the film. Progress for these four capable, competent women was very slow. Vote after vote in the California legislature were cast against what we would now consider laws that should never have faced any opposition. For example, laws prohibiting schools from discriminating against students on the basis of sexual orientation. Ultimately, these laws were passed in California, thanks--in large part--to the efforts of these women. And, of course, what was "unthinkable" in 1994--marriage equality--ultimately followed. What we learn from these women is that public outcry in the form of protests is effective, and so is working from within the system to pass progressive legislation. We also learn that you can't give up after early defeats. Sometimes, as in this case, the victories begin to appear, and then grow more frequent. This is a brilliant documentary. We saw it at the excellent Little Theatre in Rochester, as part of ImageOut, the outstanding Rochester LGBT Film Festival. This was another movie that had its New York State Premiere in Rochester. In fact, 17 films had their NYS premieres at ImageOut in 2016, and 8 more had the East Coast premieres at the festival. If you want to see new, great LGBT movies, Rochester in October is the place to see them! This movie will work well on the small screen. Find it and watch it. It's a marvelous and important documentary.

• A history of gender equality law through the California Legislature in the 90's

  tesshoffman2017-08-05

  Since we all have more or less the idea of how this story eventually turns out, I just want to say that watching this was like watching "Night of the Hunter," or "The Madness of King George." The first half of these two films was so painful it took me three viewings to stop turning them off partway through. But when I finished the two movies, I was glad I had. The first half of this is so painful to watch, I nearly told my host I was not feeling well and would have to leave. The words which come out of the opponents' mouths are hideous beyond belief. But I stayed, and am glad I did. Stick with it - you'll be glad you did.