Downloaded from YTS.MX
(Bright theme music)
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
- Sorry?
- Yeah, um.
Tom, um, I've got something tonight,
sorry, just, I can't, um.
Yeah, bye.
- He's a gay guy with a disability.
(crowd cheers)
- [Narrator] I've been searching for a boyfriend
for some time now, but I can't seem to find Mister Right.
People with disabilities are not asexual,
and we wanna be in relationships.
(typing)
- [Narrator] My counseling sessions have become
a main feature in the play.
Counsellor: Thomas, you're meeting new people every week
and you're constantly hopeful
you might find Mister Right,
but last week, you said that you were always
the one who bolts from a relationship
when love is involved.
You shut them out when they get too close.
But why do you think you do that?
(audience laughs)
- Thomas, getting hurt is a risk you take, isn't it?
it's the same risk as giving
your details out to people you meet online.
Counsellor: Okay. What do you want in a partner?
Counsellor: Tom? Tom? Thomas?
Thomas?
(floor creaks)
(doors slam)
- [Narrator] I grew up in the country, just west of Geelong.
My parents are sheep farmers,
but they also own a stock feed supply store.
- [Narrator] I love coming home to the farm.
- Tom, out of my five children,
he's the fourth in line.
As a result of the traumatic situation with the birth,
he did develop cerebral palsy,
which we weren't really aware of at the time.
Hello, love.
You've come to watch some netball?
- Which parts are awesome?
(netball players shouting)
(whistle)
- They told us that he would be deaf and blind
and not able to function normally,
and we just said, "Oh, well.
"We'll just see what happens, and go with it," and, yeah.
Yeah, I suppose, from my aspect of it,
we've never really looked at it as Tom having a disability.
People have felt confronted at times,
because you weren't supposed to take children that had a
disability into the public eye as much as we did.
He did high jump at primary school.
He did high jump.
Anything that was on, he was in a fashion parade.
So he walked down the red carpet with his little walker,
in the fashion parade, all dressed up.
Yeah, why not.
Where there's a will, there's a way.
He's had the intent to be a star since he was little.
Yes, definitely.
Well, he is already.
In our eyes, he's always, yeah.
(crowd cheers)
- [Narrator] It frustrates me that people with disabilities
aren't portrayed in stories on TV, and,
even if they are, they're not in relationships,
especially not gay relationships.
- Good to see you-
- [Narrator] I went to the Logies as a journalist
for a gay magazine,
and I asked TV stars
why we don't see people with disabilities on TV.
Cheeky, I know.
(laughter)
I love Poh.
- That's a hard call.
Um...
- People just need to tell the stories as they are.
- As long as they are capable of doing it,
it would be great.
- [Woman] Why aren't they having any sex on TV?
- Why aren't we having any sex?
Well, we'll see if we can fix that tonight as well.
- No matter who you are, what walk of life you take,
we will always support more sex on TV.
But look...
like you're saying that people with disabilities are
not getting sex on TV,
but people without them are also not getting sex, so let's...
- Don't turn everything into a plug for women for you.
Always trying to get women.
(laughing)
(Camera shutter)
Pleasure, pleasure, it was great to see you again.
- Thank you, all the best.
Thank you for having us.
(dance music)
- [Narrator] When you pick up someone
you don't really think about it.
I score free drinks from cute bartenders who know me.
(dance music intensifies)
I meet guys, I flirt hard.
When I come up to the guys on the dance floor
they think I'm really drunk or deaf.
They don't realise I have Cerebral Palsy.
(dance music)
I met this one guy, Sam.
But I ended up going home alone.
(music fades)
Counsellor: Thomas,
do both your parents know you're gay?
- When did you tell them?
- What did you say?
(cheery music)
- Hey, how's it going?
Thomas' Mum: He's always opened up to me about being gay,
and that he was hoping to meet somebody.
I suppose initially I thought, oh okay,
but didn't really
acknowledge that, that was ever going to happen.
But then I have seen that Tom's
continued to want a male partner.
Well of course, everyone does deserve love,
and everyone's quest is a little bit different.
But, I think Tom has got a powerful,
like it's been at the forefront of everything he does,
it's always there for him that he's pursuing
and wanting to find that genuine intimacy
that has probably eluded him many times.
(light guitar riffs)
- [Play Narrator] Year seven,
always the same country kids on the school bus.
The boys didn't let me on the back seat.
Saw me as weak,
laughed.
Thought I was crazy,
threw coins at my head.
No fool wants to be the next victim.
Year nine,
sometimes I got to the backseat first.
Wanted to shake the boys up.
I wouldn't move.
They'd roll their eyes and they'd push me.
- Kids can be cruel at that age,
and they did bully him.
He's come home to us upset, wouldn't want to go back to school.
we said, "You have to go and face it, just face it."
Basically we sort of said you've gotta deal it yourself
as much as you can without us getting involved,
and, which he did, you know.
- [Play Narrator] There they were,
scared I wanted to pick them up.
Thought I might be,
thought I might want to.
Didn't understand why I was gay.
All the time the drivers watching in the rear view mirror,
his finger pointing to the front seat.
No room on the back of the bus for weak people.
(light cheery music)
- [Narrator] We've had so many rehearsals
and developments for my play.
It has taken a whole team of people
about six years to get my show on the road.
- He's a gay guy with a disability.
- Scene two, night club flashback, 4:00 am.
- [Narrator] First, I had to remember my lines.
- Wait, did you say John?
- [Narrator] But there was always a bit of partying
and flirting in between each rehearsal.
Which was fun.
- Sorry, I'm just trying to do it without...
(laughing)
Why don't you tell them about your disability
before you meet them in real life?
- [Narrator] I was meeting a few nice people online,
but a lot of them were creeps.
- He just wants sex though, he said 'horny'.
- That was you?
You said, "Are you horny?"
(laughing)
Tom.
- Do you think this is a good way to meet people?
- Sometimes.
- And now you're gonna, oh Tom.
- You're too picky.
- Scene seven, the gay sauna.
(audience laughing)
- Mate, does your family know you're here?
- [Together] Fuck no!
(audience laughing)
- They exit to an off stage private room.
Lights dim.
(phone ringing)
- Can I help you please?
- Pardon?
- For Karen?
- You're looking for?
-For Ian?
- Ian Braden?
- A?
- Yeah.
- Oh, um..
okay now.
- So you're not ringing for a doctor?
- Yeah, what are you worried about?
(laughing)
- Sorry?
- Do you want the doctor?
- No?
- Hmm?
- [Narrator] I was stuck in a bit of a rut.
I'd wasted all this time looking
for guys in all the wrong places.
Obsessing about people I hardly knew.
I hadn't even revealed that I had a
disability on my profile.
(techno music)
- Oh sorry, I'm Jake, you're Dom?
- Ron?
(light cheery music)
(guitar strumming)
- When I first went online, I was just...
I kept telling myself,
I'll just have a look, just see what's there.
And I think the rest does it for you,
your mind takes over
and I think
you begin to be ready but without
actually realizing that you are ready yourself.
- The first experience seeing Tom was
quite nerve racking for me because I
didn't know how to take Tom with his disability.
He sent me a link to a video that he did,
a very quick snap of what he does for a job,
I then realized that
he did have the disability.
Before he sent me the video I had no idea
that he had the disability.
- And I was so impressed
with what he had show'd me and what I'd watched.
- So he's just, I guess, inspirational.
I know that sounds really, really tacky.
But, he's someone who I think has just
got such a positive outlook and he's
got a lovely imagination and flare and,
an enthusiasm that is quite contagious.
(woman giggles)
And he would just do the stupidest things,
and just make me laugh my head off.
Sometimes in very inappropriate ways,
and very inappropriate times.
Like when he wanted me to open his backpack
and there was a thing of lube in there!
I'm just sitting there going,
okay you did that on purpose.
And he would do stuff on purpose
to get me embarrassed.
Bloody cheeky bastard, but yeah,
he's definitely good for a laugh.
(laughing)
It's full of personal things
that I would rather not get out of his bag.
Okay, I'm putting your little--
- [Narrator] So much was happening.
My show was about to premiere.
And at the same time my business was thriving.
I returned to my old school to give a
presentation from Center for Access.
Going back there was like facing my fears
about the kids who bullied me.
But I'm much stronger now, and wiser.
(applause)
(typing)
- You're saying that a condition can get better,
a disability kind of stays the same?
- Me?
(students laughing)
- Me?
- Center for Access delivers a range of general
communication and disability awareness training
for programs in Australia.
With...
Ah, sorry.
(students laughing)
- Umm...
I'm not really sure,
I understood some of it.
(typing)
(laughing)
(typing)
(applause)
- [Thomas' Boyfriend] Where are you?
("call lost" beeping)
- [Thomas' Boyfriend] That's what I'm saying to you.
You've got to understand where I'm coming from
from my end as well.
- Just do what you can do.
(anxious violin music)
- [Narrator] I want to kiss you so bad.
My tongue down your throat.
- [Narrator] Feel your mouth on mine.
- [Narrator] Your sweet breath,...
(bright theme music)
- [Narrator] Breaking up with Blair was hard.
But I finally got myself back together
and started to move on.
I had time to write again,
and the play, my one man show,
was really starting to take shape.
(hopeful violin music)
(audience applause)
- Another kiwi?
(laughing)
(audience cheering)