But I'm A Cheerleader (DVD 2003)

Having enjoyed the movie, I was impressed by how poignant and insightful the story line accurately portrayed the Fundamentalists in their misguided belief that human sexual identity can be "re-tooled" and forced on people, especially our youth, because "they" believe that their god deems it as wrong. Actually, I was bothered by how judgmental, accusatory and condescending some parents were as they "dis-owned" and gave-up on their children because of their children's gender issues.

Megan's rude awakening comes when her friends and family decide to do an intervention and send her to a heterosexual conversion camp. She protests vehemently, but everyone offers up the evidence. She's a vegetarian, she hates kissing her boyfriend, her locker is filled with photos of women in swimsuits and she has a Melissa Etheridge poster over her bed. She has to be gay, to which Megan, of course responds -- let's say it all together now -- "But I'm A Cheerleader."

Megan is escorted to her life-changing experience by counselor Mike (Ru Paul in a decidedly inspired out-of-drag turn). The camp is a quaint -- or is it terrifying -- pink Victorian house/compound where young men and women confess their sins like guests at Homosexuals Anonymous. Supervising everything is the quintessential 50's woman Mary Brown (Cathy Moriarty), who is almost religiously devoted to her job, even as she's blind to her own pin-up perfect son rock's (Eddie Cibrian) own homosexual tendencies.

Funny and filled with lots of hidden messages But I'm A Cheerleader will entertain you and make you think at the same time.