Welcome Home, Bobby

I enjoyed this film a great deal. It raises points about American culture as relates to sexual identity in ways seldom handled. I saw the film as a fairly accurate portrayal of reality of being a possible-gay teenager (something about which I know first-hand).

Possibly the best scene in the film is when Bobby comes to family dinner dressed in drag. Not because he likes drag, but because that is what seems to be expected. He gives his father a bit of justified hell.

It's been almost two decades since I watched the film on CBS-TV one Saturday night, but I remember it vividly. Certainly not the greatest film on the subject of coming out, but it is memorable for many reasons among them:

The LOL absurdity: We see Bobby tickling his little brother just before bedtime. In walks dad, shocked and angry at the innocent horseplay. He then says something like, "Don't ever touch him again!" As soon as he leaves the room, Bobby's little brother says to a saddened Bobby, "You can play with me anytime." My friends roared with laughter when I recounted this supposedly touching (oooh, bad pun!) scene.

The positive message: It's okay to be gay (if that's what you want to be after watching all of poor Bobby's trails and tribulations). Quite refreshing during the Reagan years when Rock Hudson's death from AIDS shocked the world. In other films dealing with the subject of homosexuality the protagonist suddenly turned straight (as in "Tea and Sympathy') or died a tragic death (e.g. the 1961 film, "The Children's Hour).

In our current social/political climate "Welcome Home, Bobby" would be to controversial for network TV. It amazes me that "WH,B" aired in 1986. Were we more open-minded then? Of course I don't recall the film ever in reruns on TV.

Handsome lad takes a computer course and finds the male teacher making warm advances to him. The next thing we know, Bobby is contemplating coming out of the closet, much to the shame and embarrassment of his father. Being a typically rebellious youth, Bobby decides to live up to his father's vision of a 'sissy' by coming to the dinner-table in drag. Only in the movies...

I remember talking about this movie right after it played on t.v. with a "coming out" teen group that I'd been going to. I was the only one who hated it--I thought the drag scene was horrible and I was offended that the older man (and his buddies) would be portrayed as predators like they were. Creepy all around. The only thing that stood out as a positive was the scene where Bobby's teacher talks with him after school and writes "I am gay" on the board (I think it was the guy who played Tyne Daly's husband in "Cagney and Lacey") and tells him he'll be okay. This was one of the first times I'd seen a "normal", everyday guy as a homosexual. I wish they'd made the movie about him!

When I saw this TV movie in 1986 I was coming out and it really helped me at a time when I needed help. Timothy Williams did a convincing job. I felt the drag scene was a bit much. But overall it was a concise drama about coming out in a middle class family. I didn't feel it was stereotypical as it was a lot to cram into 100 minutes on TV. I think of this film every once in a while, and wonder why it's not on VHS or DVD. A year before the slightly more superior TV movie about homosexuality (Consenting Adult) played on ABC, so even then in the 80's being gay was becoming a topic of the day.

This was a good film, and like myself, I hope it helped other poor souls out there who were struggling with their own sexual identity.