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I’ve been trying to find the perfect queer holiday CD and it’s not been easy. I’ve listened to George Michael’s “Last Christmas” way too much recently, and I usually spend this whole season trying to avoid things that are too overtly merry. The obvious solution, then, would be to find something that signifies an honest spirit of the season without making me want to hang myself on a giant candy cane.  I keep coming back to Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

John Cameron Mitchell’s story of a transgender German woman who molds a young Midwestern boy into a rockstar, loses him, and spends her life trying to get him back (in every sense of the word) can easily sound  like a Lifetime movie on paper. However, there is so much more about it that fits a dark December night. It’s humor is subtle, its production design loud, and quasi-feel good ending is actually earned. But none of this is what qualifies it as an all-time queer classic. 

Instead, it is the music. Influenced by 70s glam and other rock of days past, Hedwig creates instantly memorable tracks out of her own pain, frustration and fleeting love. I always want someone to cuddle with after I watch this movie, not because I’m crying (which I might be) but because I want someone to appreciate just how harrowing a journey we have both been through together. Much like the Holidays. Full circle!