Love Is Love

Scene 1. City Street, Manhattan- Dusk

Two men run down the street, trying to escape a group of three police cruisers. Suddenly, a fourth cruiser rockets out from an alley before them. Disoriented, the two men are powerless to save themselves as they are surrounded. The camera focuses on the insignia on one of the car doors, which reads Police of the Church of New York State. Among the officers emerging from said car is a brunette woman in her late thirties wearing a black trench coat, identified by the badge on her chest as Sergeant Margaret Goodson.

Margaret: Hold it right there! Sirs, you have the right to remain silent! Anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law!

Man #1: Bullshit! You’re sending us to one of those concentration camps!

Margaret: They’re called reeducation camps, sir, but we’re not sending you there. We’re just going to ensure you’re registered as sodomites and pagans.

Man #1: We’re not pagans, you stupid bitch! We’re Muslims!

Margaret: First of all, any religion that does not worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is of the Devil. Second of all, foul language is just as bad...

Man #1: FUCK YOU!

The man punches Margaret in the face and makes a run for it.

Man #2: Jimmy, don’t!

An older, heavy-set police officer in his early sixties with a horseshoe mustache and heavy male-pattern baldness steps up and stuns Jimmy with a cattle prod, leaving him twitching on the ground. The officer, identified as Mark Goodson, Chief of Police, gestures toward his fellow officers.

Chief Goodson: Get these twinks out of here!

Police Officer: Yes, Chief! Come on, faggots, on your feet!

As the other officers move in to detain the two men, the officer notices Margaret vomiting into a nearby trash can.

Chief Goodson:

Oh my God! Maggie, sweetheart, are you alright?

Margaret:

I’m fine, Dad. I just feel sick all of a sudden. My apartment’s just a few blocks from here.

Chief Goodson: You sure you don’t want a ride?

Margaret: I’m fine. I can walk.

Chief Goodson (calling after her): Want me to get you an extra sick day for tomorrow?

Margaret: Fine.

Scene Two: Remote Alley- Later That Evening

As Margaret walks down the street, she looks toward an abandoned storefront. She notices it is covered with propaganda posters for the U.S. government bearing various messages of religious obedience bigotry, like “Obey Jesus or Perish” or “Creationism... Because a Monkey Wasn’t My Uncle.” She suddenly lashes out at a poster bearing the message “Homosexuals Are Possessed by Demons,” violently crumpling it in her hands and flinging it in the general direction of some nearby dumpsters. Margaret is startled when the mound of trash the poster lands on explodes, a dirty and disheveled man sitting up and emerging from it.

Margaret: Hey, what the hell’s going on here?

The man panics, throwing trash at Margaret as he struggles to get on his feet.

Man: NO! Stay away from me!

Margaret: Calm down. I’m here to help!

Man: No, you’re not! You’re gonna take me back to the camp again! I’m not going back, dammit! I’m not going back!

Margaret: Calm down, for God’s sake! What are you talking abou...

Margaret pauses as she grabs the man’s hand and notices that the left bears a tattoo. It shows a rainbow. Now she understands why the man is so afraid of her.

Man: Let go of me! Let go!

Margaret: You expect me to take you to the police in your condition? Listen to that cough. You need some medicine.

Man: What doctor’s gonna treat me? They all think I’m an abomination!

Margaret: I didn’t mean at the doctor. I meant at my place.

The man stares at her incredulously.

Man: Why would you, of all people, want a gay man in your house?

Margaret: Because I’m a servant of the people, and I wouldn’t be serving you if I left you on the street like this. Now come on.

Scene Three: Ext. Apartment Complex- The Next Morning

The camera focuses on a brick apartment complex that serves as Margaret’s home.

Inside the apartment, we see the man sitting alone on Margaret’s couch with a plate of food on the coffee table in front of him, although he doesn’t seem interested. Margaret enters the kitchen with a bottle of cough syrup.

Margaret: Here, have some of this. It’ll help with that cough.

The man hesitates, then takes the bottle and sips.

Margaret: Well, since you won’t talk to me, I decided to look up your file in the database. Your name is Duncan Allen, age 25, born and raised in Atlantic City, New Jersey. You were registered as a sodomite at age 16, hence the tattoo. You were warned repeatedly not to act on your unholy urges, but you did anyway. So you went to the state reeducation camp at age 19, along with your partner, Joey Lauren. But you escaped four years later. And you’ve been hiding in the deserted tunnels under Manhattan ever since.

Duncan stares off into the distance, not answering.

Margaret: Look, Duncan, I know you’ve been through a lot, but I want you to know that I’m here to help.

Duncan: I don’t want your help.

Margaret: I’m not like everyone else in the Church Police, Duncan. I know the Bible says it’s wrong for you to have the kind of relationships you do, but I don’t think that excuses how your people are treated.

Duncan laughs bitterly.

Duncan:

Of course, that fucking book. The one that condemned sixty thousand European women to be burned at the stake because they were witches, and the Bible said to kill them all. The one that condemned millions of Africans and Native Americans to death because it was the white man’s duty to be their overlords. The one that condemned Joey to death because he couldn’t take the electroshock or the starving or the beatings because your kind said he was diseased.

Margaret is clearly hurt by Duncan’s words.

Margaret: Look, Duncan. I don’t send people to those camps. I just make sure they’re registered.

Duncan: Does that make you any less guilty?

Before Margaret can answer, there is a knock at the door.

Margaret: You should hide. I don’t want anyone to know you’re here.

Duncan rushes over to her bedroom and hides in the closet.

Margaret: Who is it?

Chief Goodson (O.S.): It’s your father, Maggie.

Margaret slides the lock and lets him in.

Margaret: What are you doing here? I thought it was my day off.

Chief Goodson: It still is. I’m just here to follow up on a lead we got recently.

Margaret: What kind of lead?

Chief Goodson: We recently had a possible sighting in this area of a sodomite who escaped from the New Jersey Reeducation Camp about two years ago. Name of Duncan Allen, looks like this.

The chief holds up a wanted poster with Duncan’s face on it. Margaret keeps a straight face.

Margaret: I’m sorry, Dad, I don’t have any new information on that front.

Chief Goodson: Well, if you have some to share in the future, don’t hesitate. We don’t want any of these faggots running around our streets.

Margaret: Of course not.

Chief Goodson: Alright, enjoy the rest of your day, Maggie.

Margaret shuts the door as he leaves.

Margaret: He’s gone, Duncan.

Duncan emerges from the bedroom, confused.

Duncan: You didn’t turn me in.

Margaret: Of course, I didn’t.

Duncan: You realize that if they catch me here, you’re going to the camps with me.

Margaret: I know.

Duncan: And yet you’re still helping me. Why?

Margaret: Because I don’t feel like I’d be serving God by turning you in, even if the Bible says so. Me and God haven’t been on speaking terms the last few years.

Duncan: Is that what this is all about? A crisis of faith? If so, then why not just quit Him and move on?

Margaret: For one thing, because atheists go to the camps too. If I’m going to figure this out, I need some outside help.

Duncan: What do you mean?

Margaret: I’m going to see my pastor.

Duncan: What?! You want to tell a priest about your problem with a gay man?

Margaret: He’s not like that. He got in trouble with the law a few years back for protesting the new theocracy. He only barely avoided the camps because of his political connections.

Scene 4: St. Patrick’s Cathedral

We open at the famed church around noon. The camera focuses on signs posted around the church’s front entrance bearing more extremist rhetoric: “Homosexual Marriage is an Act of Treason,” for example, or “Abortion: The Ultimate Child Abuse.”

Inside the church, we see Margaret kneeling in front of the prayer candle display, discussing her problem with the church’s Archbishop, Andrew McCafferty, a man of fifty-five with a grey beard and thinning grey hair. He does not seem particularly perturbed by Margaret’s confession.

Archbishop: I must say, Margaret, this is a very interesting situation you’ve found yourself in.

Margaret: Are you not mad at me? Even though I’m going against God’s law here?

Archbishop: Whoever said that being gay was against God’s law?

Margaret: It’s in the Bible, isn’t it?

Archbishop: Yet I sense that you lack trust in the Holy Word. Am I incorrect in this assumption?

Margaret (hesitant): Well... no, but...

Archbishop: But even though same-sex relationships are explicitly condemned in the Books of Leviticus and Romans, you think they must be wrong somehow.

Margaret: Look, Father, I’m sorry, but God’s word is really starting to piss me off, okay? I’m tired of rounding up innocent people so fundamentalist crazies don’t have to look at them. I want to God, but I don’t want to hurt people to do it. What should I do?

The Archbishop looks around to see if the coast is clear and pulls a piece of flesh-colored tape off the back of his left hand.

Archbishop: I think it’s time I told you, Margaret.

Margaret: About what?

The Archbishop replies by holding his left hand in front of her face. Margaret is shocked to see a rainbow tattoo. She stammers, unsure of what to say.

Archbishop: I know what you’re thinking, Margaret. It seems impossible. A man of my orientation serving a God that supposedly hates my guts.

Margaret: But.. why?

Archbishop: Long before I came to this church, I was convicted of sodomy and sent to a reeducation camp. My family was wealthy enough to bribe the officials to let me go, but not before I spent two weeks there, watching the methods they used to “pray the gay away,” so to speak: shock therapy, exorcism, food, and water deprivation, all that good stuff. When I got back to my parents and told them what I saw, they took action the best way they knew how; by secretly channeling funds to underground resistance movements in the hope that they could make the United States shed this tyrannical new theocracy and return to the democratic ideals of its founders. One of the services we provide is ferrying so-called “heathens” to places like Canada or the U.K., where they can escape this oppression.

Margaret: You’d be willing to help Duncan, then?

Archbishop: To the best of my abilities. And between you and me, Margaret, we are always looking for new recruits for our cause.

Margaret looks worried and confused.

Margaret: I don’t understand, Father. You’ve been mistreated by those who followed God’s word, and now you say you serve him?

Archbishop: There’s a reason for that. All that “God hates fags" business is, pardon my language, bullshit. Leviticus also calls the consumption of pig flesh and shellfish an abomination to God, and yet for some reason, you never hear the fundamentalists calling for that to be banned. And as for the Romans, we all know what a bunch of perverts they were. Do you honestly believe that Paul was describing people in committed monogamous relationships? No! He was talking about pedophilia and casual prostitution!

The Archbishop gets off his knees.

Archbishop: I know you’re not a vindictive person, Margaret. I trust you to make the right choice.

He departs, leaving Margaret to consider her options.

Scene Five: Ext. City Street- Dusk

Later that evening, we see Margaret and Duncan sneaking out of the same alley where they first met. A taxi cab pulls up to their location. The driver is Archbishop McCafferty, disguised as a blue-collar cab driver.

Archbishop: Calling all political refugees.

Duncan: Are you sure this is going to work? With your position, the police are going to be extra vigilant.

Margaret: They won’t be able to touch us once we hit Quebec. Then when we take the plane to London, we’ll be untraceable.

Duncan looks hesitant but then shrugs.

Duncan: Well, it’s better than being stuck in this godforsaken country.

Margaret: Let’s go then!

Chief Goodson (O.S.): Not so fast, Maggie.

Margaret freezes at the sound of her father’s voice. She sees him standing alone on a street corner, pointing a gun at them.

Duncan: Fuck me.

Margaret: Dad, I can explain.

Chief Goodson: Save it for the interrogation room, Maggie! You and your little faggot are both under arrest!

Archbishop: Mark, as Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, I command you to…

Chief Goodson: You think your position will save you when I expose you for the treasonous heathen that you are?! I’ll throw you into the New York Reeducation Camp so fast it’ll make your head spin. And your parents’ money won’t get you out this time.

Margaret: Bullshit!

She draws her gun and points it at her father.

Chief Goodson: Maggie, have you lost your goddamn mind?

Margaret: You’re taking the Lord’s name in vain, Dad!

Archbishop: Mark, is one man worth all this trouble?

Chief Goodson: Maggie, you swore an oath to God!

Margaret: Yes, I did. And I’m going to fulfill that oath by saving this man.

The chief stares angrily at his daughter, then reaches for his two-way radio. Margaret’s nerves get the better of her, and she shoots her father three times in the chest.

Duncan: Jesus Christ!

The chief slumps against a lamp post, a look of betrayal in his eyes. He coughs once and falls to the ground, dead. The three refugees stare in horror until the Archbishop hears police sirens in the distance.

Archbishop: We’ll have to abandon the taxi. We don’t know how much information he has on us.

Duncan: But how are we gonna get to the rendezvous point?

Archbishop: Underground. You wouldn’t happen to know if there are any abandoned tunnels near here, would you?

Duncan pulls out a map and hands it to the Archbishop. He then rushes over to Margaret, still staring at her late father’s lifeless body, as the Archbishop looks it over.

Duncan: Come on, Margaret, let’s go.

He pulls Margaret after him as the Archbishop points out an abandoned subway tunnel on the next street over.

Fade to Black.

Author’s Commentary

Before you ask, no, this isn’t a Handmaid’s Tale fanfic.

It’s just me pouring out my fears of the tide of religious zealotry sweeping the country in the opening months of the Trump administration. I’m pretty sure it was March or April of 2017 when I composed this manuscript. It’s kind of hard looking at this piece now in the wake of the George Floyd protests and the recent “trans people are groomers” narrative that’s been sweeping through the American right wing like the bubonic plague. I guess I didn’t realize just how bad it would get when I first wrote it.

I don’t have much to say on this one. I guess it’s just my way of showing solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community. Let me know if I did a good job, as always. Till next time!