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John Daley ReportingValerie Larabee, Executive Director, Gay and Lesbian Community Center: "Gay people are human beings and we deserve to know why that decision was made."
Utah's gay community wants to know why the new film "Brokeback Mountain" was pulled from a Sandy Megaplex, and is calling for supporters to stop spending money at the businesses of theater owner Larry Miller.
They're not calling it a boycott, rather it's a "call to action." Either way, the controversy over the abrupt decision to drop the gay cowboy love story "Brokeback Mountain" continues.
The movie "Brokeback Mountain" is breaking records at Salt Lake's Broadway Theater, but it's been pulled from the Jordan Commons Megaplex and a gay rights group is calling for supporters to protest with their dollars.
It's been called groundbreaking, award-winning and now controversy-inspiring. Last Friday Larry Miller, who owns Jordan Commons, told NPR station KCPW why the theater would be showing the movie.
Larry Miller, Jordan Commons Megaplex Owner, Friday, KCPW Interview: "I think it's something that I have to let the market speak to some degree and not consider myself, cause I don't think I'm qualified to be the community censor."
But shortly after that, an hour before it's first showing, the Megaplex dropped the movie, citing only a "Change in Booking." Now advocates for the gay community want an explanation.
Valerie Larabee: "The movie was scheduled to air at Jordan Commons and it was yanked without any real explanation as to the reason. So it leaves open the interpretation that it was yanked because of purported gay content."
The group sent out a "Community Call to Action" to its 2,500 members, asking them to protest with their dollars and avoid spending at Larry Miller's roughly 70 Utah businesses. But Miller is earning praise from the Utah Eagle Forum's Gayle Ruzicka. She calls it a "smart decision" but says she did not talk to Miller prior to the cancellation.
Gayle Ruzicka, President, Utah Eagle Forum: "It's about adultery, it's about deceiving and lying to your wife and your children. And I guess Larry decided he was sick of it and didn't want to promote it."
The move presents a number of dilemmas. For instance, the Utah Film Critics Association voted "Brokeback Mountain" the year's top film. Again, it's not being shown at Jordan Commons, though the nation's #1 film is a slasher called "Hostel."
Jeff Vice, President, Utah Film Critics Assn.: "A film in which characters are tortured to death, including a person who has their eye plucked out, a woman has her toe cut off with bolt cutters, another is tortured with a drill."
This story is getting plenty of attention. A quick Google search finds articles in Canada, Australia and Israel. Larry Miller has not yet commented on this story since the decision to drop the film. Our call to him was not returned today.
