conversation from a movie I saw last night

The movie's called "Weekend". I generally liked it, but this bit really hit me hard.

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"Look: straight people like us as long as we conform, we behave by their little rules. Imagine your friends, if you suddenly started getting all political about being a fag, or you got suddenly, like, camp, or swishy, or talked about rimming all the time."

"But that's not what I'm like, is it? That's not who I am. "

"Well, trust me. They like it as long as we don't shove it down their throats."

"Okay. Well, why should I just shove it down their throats?"

"Because they shove it down our throats all the time. Being straight. Straight story lines on television; everywhere: in books, on billboards, magazines. Everywhere. But, oh, the gays. The gays. We mustn't upset the straights. Shh! Watch out! The straights are coming! Let's not upset them. Let's hide in our little ghettos, let's not hold hands, let's not kiss in the street. No. We have the chance to make up our own shit. We can grow our own garden and put little flowers and pansies and gay gnomes in it and water features and water sports and swings, but no. Everybody wants to concrete the fucker over and get a gas barbecue."

"You're obsessed with concrete. You're absolutely obsessed with the stuff."

"But why should you have concrete when you can have whatever you want? I'm not saying people shouldn't forge relationships; all I'm saying is we don't need someone to sanction it, to make it legitimate, to make it respectable."

"Yeah. Heaven forbid."

"And don't tell me that people get married because of love. People get married for the same reason that they buy a house or buy a dog: to tie them down so they can go, 'Oh, no, we couldn't possibly go away this weekend. Who'd look after Buster? Couldn't possibly leave Buster alone'."

"Glen, maybe sometimes people just like dogs."

"And it's not even proper marriage, anyway. In America, they went out on the streets, and fought for equal rights, and over here, people are too busy on fucking Grindr or shaving their arses to be able to do anything. Where's their fight?"

"Well, it's a fight, isn't it? For something you don't believe in."

"That's not the point."

"Well, it is! It is, kind of! A man standing up there, with another man, saying that, 'I love you, and I want to get married'. I think that's a pretty fucking radical statement. I mean, standing up and saying, 'I want to spend the rest of my life with you', when everybody's looking at them, saying: it's wrong, it's disgusting, it's sick. I mean, people say that we should go to Hell for this. Fucking go to fucking Hell! I mean, why do people fucking say that?! Do you know what I mean? So, actually standing up and saying, 'You know what? I love you, and fuck you, and fuck you; I don't give a fuck what you fucking think. I don't care.' That is pretty fucking amazing."

"But why do people have to feed into the system?"

"Oh my god. Now you sound like a fucking teenager, Glen. I mean, earlier, you asked me if I thought people got married because they love each other."

"Yeah?"

"Right. Okay. Well, maybe they do. Maybe they do. And, yeah, maybe . . . fucking maybe it is stupid, and maybe they will get divorced, and all that kind of shit, but fucking who cares? I mean, why does it bother you so much, Glen? Why does it bother you that maybe two people fucking love each other, and they want a relationship, and they just want to be happy? Why do you think it's going to be different in America?"

"Because it will be."

"Have you ever been properly alone?"

"Of course I have."

"I mean, properly alone? Sat in a hotel room in Portland, all by yourself, no friends. Alone."

"Yes."

"I don't believe you. I don't believe you. In a week, you're going to go completely mental. Of course you are, because you will be alone, you'll have no friends, and you're going to compromise, because that is what people do: they compromise, because nobody, fucking, fucking nobody can deal with being by themselves."