"The Imitation Of Life..."

This is perhaps my favorite scene from the original and still the best, 1970's "The Boys In The Band."  Although I would come of age more than 10 years later, in the midst of the AIDS crisis, this film poignantly reflects the loneliness, fear and anxiety that for the first 40 years of my life I believed would be my fate as a closeted gay man in deep denial of what I knew to be my truth.  In fact, although the film only alludes to a happy ending for Hank and Larry, it was enough to give me hope as I struggled with my own doubts about the nature of love and my hopes for any future happiness.  

I first saw this film on CBET-TV 9 out of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It was one of many films that Canadian television bravely aired which would never even have been considered in the U.S. in the era in which I grew up.