Film idea: Coming of Age LGBT film in the South US

I was thinking of Love, Simon but I had an idea for a film idea. a coming age film of an LGBT teen in the Southern United States growing up during Jim Crow. It doesn't matter the race to me if it were White or Black or Latino. I mean if the main character were a LGBT white teen in the South, we could see their POV how Jim Crow impacted them. I mean does anyone know what I mean. If it were a non-White LGBT teen could see how they are preceived as a person of color and a member of the LGBT community. Navigating between LGBT discrimination in their community versus Jim Crow and racial bigotry as well. Does anyone think that could be a good film idea?

 

There hasnt been a film Ive seen that references to same sex interracial teens in the South during Jim Crow. I mean that doesnt mean it never happened. I mean when schools were being desegregated and public facilities in the South were being desegregated, they have been some opportunities for gay teens in the South to meet across racial lines.

You forgot to mention about Hispanics because homosexuality was a taboo subject amongst families back then. Roman Catholicism and strong patriarchy back then in the 50s and 60s in the Southwest

 

What time period if I may would be interested? 1900s? 1910s? 1920s? 1930s? 1940s? 1950s? 1960s?

Also what state would be interested in. You have to realize that the Klan was strong in areas of the South, particuarly in rural Southern counties. And also the threat of lynching.

If I were to write a screen play maybe it would have involved two teens that were Hispanic and White that were closeted bi guys that lived either in rural Texas either in Central Texas or South Texas. It starts around 1960 and follows them to the early 1970s. Hispanic people has some flexibility to cross through Jim Crow's color in Texas. I'm not saying Hispanic people never experienced discrimination, but I'm just saying that the color line wasn't as rigid compared to black people.

 

@Linning @YeahpIdk. You like my ideas for so far. Maybe I would settle on writting a book out of this first if I could.

 

@Linning. I'm thinkng more of early 1960s to early 1970s Central Texas(a rural town near Austin or Waco area) or South Texas(a town between San Antonio and Laredo). I'm thinking of having a Mexican American teen and an Anglo(White) teen. I would like to portray them as bi sexual at least. I'm not sure what social class they would be, I'm thinking the White boy would be lower middle to middle-middle class. And the Mexican American boy would be working/lower middle class. Maybe they meet at the recently integrated elementary schools. Google "Brown v. Board of Education 1954." School segregation was slowly erroding in the South and there would have been some interactions between Anglos and Mexicans in Texas with African Americans however, it would have varied depending on what Texas county you lived in though.

The story would continue through the early 1970s, when they enter the Vietnam War which was still going on at that time. They would be in their late teens or early 20s.

 

I feel like my film idea is somewhat loosely based on my late teens and early 20s to mid 20s. I mean I feel like I'm writing about myself to a degree plus maybe tying some of my dad's background in the mix. I mean my dad is not gay or bisexual, but he grew up in the 1950s-1960s. He was born in 1952, and later enlisted in the USMC during the later years of the Vietnam War(1970-1971). I'm tying my life during my late teens(18 or 19ish) through my mid 20s(so about now at age 26) but maybe combing somewhat of my dad's background to a degree. That's one idea that's floating in my brain right now.

I'm Hispanic male but I've been around White males more the past several years. And I've had some crush/desire over close white males I've been around as well. So that's why I tie it in.

I mean I'm thinking about having a rural, conservative setting like Central Texas(like Kerville, Texas or Martindale, Texas or New Branfuels, Texas or Taylor, Texas or Granger, Texas) to make it feel authentic. I mean I have to be real and include the fact that these places during that time may have had some racism or bigotry towards people of color and to a degree people who were LGBTQIA+. I mean I'm sure of the extent of a LGBTQIA+ in these places, but I do recall that there was a community in Galveston since the early 1900s I recall mentioned in an article and there was a LGBT community in Houston. Idk if anyone that has a focus on LGBT History in Southern United States please let me know. Or if I can find the article I read about Houston, Texas or Galveston, Texas LGBT history I'll let you guys know.

 

KyleD the colorline during Jim Crow for Mexican Americans was a lot different for African Americans actually. I mean we were technically considered White by law but more of a second-class white status in actually.

See Martha Menchaca, "Recovering history, constructing race: The Indian, the Black, and white roots of Mexican Americans."(2001)
Ariela Gross, "Texas Mexicans the Politics of Whiteness." Law and History Review(2003) https://gould.usc.edu/assets/docs/Texas_Mexicans.pdf

Depending on the city in Texas during this period, these teens could've attended a public school together.

Plus also add to this is the Mexican American community in Texas(especially in South Texas area) was heavily Catholic and patriarchy. To an extent given from what I've heard from my dad about this period, homosexuality was a taboo and largely not spoken of in public and rarely in a family setting. It was considered in the same category if a girl was knocked up and was unwed mother.

I don't want to portray these guys as 100% gay, I want to portray them as bisexual or at least some platonic/bromance and maybe some curiosity of their sexuality. I mean want them at least have some sexual encounters with girls around their age in this story as well.

I'm trying to at least look for some books relevant to LGBT history in Texas during this period and it's pretty limited compared to areas such as New York or LA or San Franscisco,

 

I wouldn't be surprised if there were gay white southern men during the antebellum(pre-Civil War) and Reconstruction and Jim Crow. Whether or not these men supported white supermacy and Jim Crow is another story itself.

 

Another idea I've been having thinking about is setting the timeline a little further around the late 1920s/early 1930s in urban Dallas, Texas. My grandfather attended public school in the Dallas public school system and graduated high school at a vocational(techinical school) near the downtown Dallas area. I inquired on an ancestry Facebook group and mentioned my grandfather by his name and location in Dallas he lived in around the 1930 US Census. A nice lady screenshot what appears to be a HS yearbook from 1931 I believe of that technical high school he attended. There was a mixture of Anglo(White) and some Spanish surnames on a list of people with honor roll at the time. I didn't see pictures of the students just names and average grade they earned.

I'm thinking maybe having an urban focus on Dallas in the late 1920s or early 1930s maybe as a seperate story. Mayba a bisexual Mexican American and bisexual Anglo boys growing up in Dallas in a poor neighborhood.

 

I haven't done much research on my story yet. I mean I'm leaning towards Dallas, Texas circa 1930. There was some degree of racism and sergregation at that time.

 

I wouldn't be suprise if gay black and white teens had secret romantic/sexual relationships during Jim Crow behind their parents baclin the South.