Brokeback Mountain tells an uncomfortable story. For those, like me, too young to directly remember, it is jarring to see an era in which gay men routinely married women and had kids. For those who grew up in an age of gay straight alliences and corporate diversity programs, Jack and Ennis must appear as alien as a Martian. But like any good fiction, this story represents real people. People who grew up in an era of virtually no choices for LGBT people.

America in 1963 had no gay actors, doctors, teachers, or clergy. At least not openly gay versions of those. Moral clauses kept gays and lesbians out of those fields. There were no such things as non discrimination policies or laws. McCarthy, now remembered as an anti communist bully was also a homophobic one. Homosexuals were seen as security risks and perverts. In that America, the notion that two cowboys would ride into the sunset in each others arms was simply crazy talk.

Gays and lesbians tend to be horrible about having a sense of history. We honor Stonewall but forget about the Machete Society. The stories of the real life Jacks and Ennises are often lost to today's gay and lesbian. But it was the injustice and frustration of those people which led some to take those tenative steps toward equality that directly led to the world we live in now. A world, that for all its flaws, sees 3 of the largest 6 states with gay rights laws, an entire region with them, and four states with either full civil unions protection or outright same sex marriage. A world, that for all its faults, where the vast majority of corporations include gays and lesbians in their diversity training and protections. A world, that for all its faults, sees openly gay teachers and gay straight alliences in many of our high schools.

Jack and Ennis are, like it or not, a very real part of our history. People who felt forced to comply with society's dictates and marry and have kids were our first out parents when they eventually tired of the lies. The spouses involved in those marriages often became our allies due to the direct knowledge of how that pressure had ended up hurting them. Without the real life Brokeback Mountains, there would have been no Stonewalls. Without the real life Brokeback Mountains there would have been no custody cases.

This movie, even if it wins the Oscar it is now favored to win, won't solve the problems of the world. It also won't open closed minds. But it will, if we let it, give us a sense of history that many of us sorely lack. Instead of condeming the Jack and Ennises of the world we ought to thank our lucky stars we were born in a world that is alien to theirs. We should bow down to those brave few who helped changed that world. Thanks to those people, we can only guess if we would have behaved differently than they did. I, for one, am happy not to know what I would have done faced with that world.