The Same Difference Trailer – Looking at discrimination within the Lesbian community in a new doc

Although there’s a lot of talk about the homophobia LGBT people are exposed to from outside the community – and to a lesser extent individual, internalised homophobia – discrimination within LGBT groups is often ignored. Although there’s eye-rolling about things such as gay men’s seeming obsession with youth and large penises, the effects of such things are largely swept under the carpet.

Now a documentary has emerged, The Same Difference, which sets out to tackle discrimination and the internal policing within the lesbian community, as well as the way it can prevent some women being exactly who they want to be. It’s a topic that’s bound to cause some controversy, but definitely a worthwhile conversation to have – and gay men could do with their own documentary looking at a similar idea too.

You can take a look at a five minute teaser of the doc below.

Talking to Huffpo, filmmaker Nneka Onuorah says of the documentary, “One of the misconceptions I am trying to dispel through this documentary is the belief that there are rules to being who you are. In the lesbian community, for example, if you’re a butch lesbian you can’t do anything girly. You can’t be too beautiful, your pants can’t be too tight, if you get your hair straight that’s wrong and getting pregnant isn’t right. It’s almost like being a part of a gang. People don’t want to beat you or make you feel bad if you do something that’s out of the “norm” but we are gay we are already out of the norm. I also want people to see the true title of what “The Same Difference” means. We always judge others for things that they do, but we don’t see how the things we judge people for parallel with things we do that might not be right. It’s the Same Difference. Just like how there are some people who are a part of the heterosexual community that protest against us and think what we are doing isn’t right we are taking those same attitudes and putting them onto each other.”

She adds that The Same Difference is, “Important because it is something that is needed in the community. There are people who are suppressing who they really are to fit in, in fear of being jumped, outcaste and ostracized. It also isn’t a topic that is ever brought to light so it is an ongoing negative thing. This documentary is going to start a conversation and hopefully have people be more open-minded to being accepting of people who have different ways of doing things. Not just in the lesbian community but people in general. Who would have thought that there would be hatred amongst a community from the inside that already gets it from the outside.”