As stated I just finished watching The Birdcage (1996). As someone who is watching it 20 years after it was first released, it struck me as a film with a mixture of elements of homosexual celebration, but also homosexual exploitation and homophobia.

Regarding exploitation and homophobia, at times the film taps into stereotyping to either please the audience (ie, slapstick laughs) or to portray a very mainstream view of what homosexuality represented at the time.*

Balancing out the negatives though, are many moments of homosexual celebration about individuals and gay culture as a larger construct.

So really my question is, how was this movie viewed at the time? Was it seen as mixing positive and negative views on homosexuality? Were people critical of this or were they happy there was a mainstream film discussing such things? In particular I am interested in the responses by people or groups who would have been identified as pro-LGBTI or Liberal at the time.

• I was 5 when the movie was released, so my assumption is affected by this .