FREEHELD

Based on a true story, FREEHELD is about a lesbian couple that faces hardship when they try to collect pension benefits from the local government after one is diagnosed with terminal cancer. As the movie opens, Laurel Hester is a valuable asset to the Ocean County, New Jersey police force. Her cunning and creative solutions during investigations are among the best in her department. In fact, she and her partner, Dane Wells, have teamed up for more than 20 years. Throughout those two decades, Laurel has kept her homosexual orientation a secret. Ocean County is largely conservative, and the police force is no exception. Fearing that she’ll be kept off cases if her boss finds out, she goes to great lengths to cover up the truth. Now in her 50s, it’s been a long time since she’s looked for a relationship. In a renewed effort to find love, she joins a recreational volleyball league and captures the attention of a twenty-something woman, Stacie Andree. The two hit it off and spend their first date a local homosexual bar where Laurel unexpectedly runs into a fellow detective on the force. Both are rattled at being seen, which is something Stacie has difficulty understanding. Laurel reassures her by inviting her home for the night. The two begin an intimate relationship, and are soon discussing a permanent arrangement. Not able to apply for a marriage license according to New Jersey laws, they must settle for a domestic partnership and travel to a nearby state to obtain it. They settle into life together by purchasing a house, getting a dog, and Stacie finding work as a car mechanic in a small repair shop. Their world is turned upside down when Laurel visits the doctor to investigate a pain in her side. After a slew of tests, the diagnosis comes back as stage four terminal lung cancer. The best they can hope for is to buy some time with treatments. The only way for Stacie to stay in their house after Laurel passes is to receive the detective’s pension. Though the state law allows government pensions to be distributed in domestic partnerships, Ocean County is under no obligation to grant Laurel’s request. The Freeholders vote with their personal beliefs against giving Stacie access to the pension. When word gets out about the board’s decision, homosexual activists poor into the small town and aggressively petition the Freeholders to grant the couple the same the same rights as those who are traditionally married. Willing to back Laurel when no one else in the county comes to her defense, Dane, Laurel’s partner on the police force, knows that the only way to sway the Freeholder’s vote is to bring in the support of the police department. However, it’s an uphill climb as most don’t want to be seen as caving to a position they believe to be wrong. FREEHELD is based on the true story of Laurel and Stacie, which played a key role in advancing the cause of same-sex marriage throughout the country. This fact is emphasized as the movie closes and subtitles pop up over pictures of the couple’s real life counterparts. The titles recount the path that led to the eventual Supreme Court ruling in 2015 that allegedly legalized same-sex marriage nationally (it really didn’t). Popular comic actor Steve Carrell is brought in to play a Jewish gay activist and brings some comic relief to an otherwise weighty movie. For those who do not condone homosexuality, the imagery of two women engaging together in the behavior typical of heterosexual lovers comes across as awkward and unnatural. The age difference of the two also contributes to this. While the movie does its best to elicit an empathetic response from viewers for the plight of the couple, it’s difficult to get past the awkward of their relationship and emotionally connect with the story. This movie’s primary purpose of this movie is to promote the concept of same-sex marriage and make it more acceptable in mainstream society. Its argument is that homosexual couples deserve equality with heterosexual couples in the eyes of the law, and that love between partners of the same sex is no different than it is between those of the opposite sex. Christians occupy at least a few sets on the freeholder’s board and cite their beliefs in traditional marriage as the reason for their opposition to granting the pension, along with the fact that homosexuals may try to take advantage of the pension plan by simply claiming domestic partnership status instead of having to get married. Pro-homosexual characters try to undermine the sanctity of traditional marriage by saying that getting a domestic partnership license is much more difficult, trying to negate the argument that they can take advantage of the system in another way. Of course, anyone who is against homosexuality is depicted as mean-spirited, and Christians are shown as having no viable biblical reason for their beliefs. A minister testifies before the board in favor of Laurel, claiming Jesus never said anything about homosexuality. This isn’t true, if you study passages like Matthew 5:17, Mark 7:20-23 and Matthew 19:1-12 where Jesus defines marriage as heterosexual only. With their backs against the wall, the Christians in the movie eventually cave to the protesters’ demands. The outcome is touted as a victory for human compassion, but it’s ultimately a blatant defeat for morality and the holy institutions of marriage and family. FREEHELD also contains one scene with Laurel and Stacie in bed leading up to committing perverse homosexual acts, and they kiss in multiple scenes throughout the movie. Laurel is shown smoking in many scenes throughout the first half hour, implying her smoking habit was the cause of her lung cancer. FREEHELD also has some foul language, violence and difficult images of Laurel as she steadily loses her health. FREEHELD is definitely not a movie for children or teenagers. It’s Romantic, politically correct, homosexual worldview is abhorrent, as is its ham-handed depiction of Bible-believing Christians who oppose homosexual evil.