Essay: Exploring Opposition to LGBTQ Rights in Moonlight



Tucked away inside a closet, sexuallity has been a very difficult topic to discuss about throughout history. In the past, sexuallity has rarely been mentioned in film let alone talked about at all. Being gay has been a social stigma that was frowned upon by people of all races. People of homosexuallity were punished for there “shameful” thoughts and motives. Even today in 2018, there is still a lot of controversy surrounding sexuallity and the LGBTQ community. Only recently that you were allowed to be openly gay with same sex marriage after President Obama's decree in 2015. In an effort to give leeway to this matter, many people have given insight on it. In film, many movies included openly gay actors and gay characters with gay narratives. In this case, Moonlight exemplifies the harsh realities of how people see gays. Chiron throughout his life has struggled on who was and who he would become. Living in Miami and Atlanta, these are the areas where especially the black community doesn’t go well with sexual identity. However, through mise en scene and film elements, the director was able to portray Chirons evolution finding his true self in adulthood despite his troubled childhood and disturbed teenage years.

From the beginning, we notice that the scenery where Moonlight takes place is a harsh and threatening environment for adults, nonetheless children. The movie begins with a car pulling up to what looks like a “Trap House”, in which we see a drug dealer named Juan (Mahershala Ali) emerge to check on one of his “associates”. This setting displays the environment where Chiron is coming from, a drug infested area where “business” takes place. This environment also serves as foreshadowing in Chirons adulthood, a future drug distributor. However if one notices, the film does not introduce the main protagonist right off the bat, it starts off with his natural habitat that he ultimately struggles with and lays out the foundation for Chirons childhood adversity. The beach has been a predominate zone for Chirons character development. The beach was the first place where he has a father figure, Juan, show him how to swim. The beach was the first and last place where he was sexually attracted to his best friend Kevin, and the last scene the audience see. The last seen was a flashback of a kid Chiron gazing into the ocean as a way to reminisce the fact that he has reached his pinnacle self in adulthood.

Throughout the film, there were many symbols that have gone unnoticed. The various meals given to Chiron are in fact displaying his evolution. For example, in the beginning where Juan finds little Chiron in an abandoned apartment, he soon takes him to a restaurant to further get to know who he was. In his teenage years, Theresa (Juan's Girlfriend) comforts Juan with a meal after a long day of being bullied at school. In adulthood, his long lost best friend, Kevin, connects with Chiron through Cuban food and wine. Since Chiron was and still is a quiet person, these various characters like Juan and Teresa have a difficult time getting into his mind. Through soul food, there is no need for verbal communication, the food already speaks to one's soul. Furthermore, the moon may be an obvious symbol for homosexuallity. The moon symbolizes femininity, a characteristic Chiron hides from people. Juan when speaking heart to heart with Chiron says that “In Moonlight, black boys look blue”. Not only does the moon give way to Chirons sexuallality, but the moonlight is a way for Chiron to show affection where society doesn’t see fit. Society forces males or in this case black males into masculinity, but the moon acts as a sense of protections from these norms.

Throughout the film, Chiron has been called many names, Whether it may be blue or black. The director uses these “colorful” nicknames to represent the faces he goes through in life. At an early age, his nickname was blue to display who he was as an innocent child. Blue symbolizes sincerity and overall aspects of a child. Furthermore, many people called him black when going into adulthood. The color black displays a sense of mystery because of its absence of color. This most definitely represents Chiron because us audience knows nothing of him. Not only does black represent mystery, but sense of hardness or masculinity as well. As Chiron develop, his “blue” that symbolizes vulnerability ultimately “hardens” into Black as he reaches adulthood.

Moonlight’s version of aiding the LGBTQ community provides the harsh realities of being gay. Little; Chiron; Black, has always been oppressed and forced into a box of his own. The environment he lived in was not a place meant for vulnerable and innocent children. However, this adversity has made him come out of his shell and evolve throughout the film. Through the symbolism of food, and various colors, the director has given us audience the sense of his success in adulthood.