Sexual Identity In Gun Hill Road

Gun Hill Road is a movie about a family of Hispanic background in the Bronx dealing with the issues of their child’s sexual identity. It portrayed a moving transition of a family who has to adjust to a father who was absent for a few years due to his conviction, a son who is struggling with his sexual identity and a struggle to show their wants to the community they live in.

It appeared that the director had the story fixated mainly on Michael, the transgender homosexual boy, rather than the rest of his family and friends. Michael seemed to be set on his identity. He had regularly acquired and taken hormone pills and injections from someone who had these resources in the neighborhood. Though he had his mind up about who he was, his father continuously tried to push him to be a man.

The contrast between Enrique’s (the ex-con father) masculinity and forcefulness and Michael’s youth and blissful ignorance of his father’s expectations create Michael’s story to be more emphasized.

Michael’s father attempted to bond with his family. His wife and son were not who he remembered them to be. His absence caused the relationship between his wife and son and himself to be weak (if even existent at that point). He used activities such as baseball and making a trip to a prostitute in attempts to connect with his son and mold him into

She/he carried her/himself as a female by using hormones, make up, and clothing which are commonly associated as garb that females would wear. Therefore, he/she was identified as a female until she/he had to perform as a male. What people would associate him/her as was what they have known or seen him/her perform as, as well as the influence of the community around him/her. Because of that, problems were caused throughout the work because of the different ideas everyone had about gender and gender