The best queer science-fiction (alternative perspective)

Rating: 9/10 (23 June 2015)

While not the most appreciated and perhaps not the most innovative, breathtaking or technically exquisite, Divergent series have become my favorite science-fiction & distopia on screen in the recent decade.
What rings my personal bell is unintended parallel to a topic, that was never before "discussed" on screen. There is an old tradition in native American tribes of two-spirited people. If a boy (or girl) in his/her early pre-teenage years did not show required characteristics of its own gender, a ceremony was held to find out what are his inclinations. If a boy chose weaving utensils or girl went for the bow&arrows, he was considered a two-spirit - that is having male and female spirit in one body. These people were not punished, condemned or persecuted - they were considered quite important for the survival of the tribe. Having both male and female characteristics, they were believed to possess talents to bridge the world of men and women, settle the disputes, harmonized them. As much as bridge between material and spiritual worlds - they have become healers, shamans, storytellers, organizers of the ceremonies.
Even if this traditional role was not considered "sexual orientation", but it was gender based ("third and fourth sex"), it nicely translates into contemporary language. While straight people are naturally more competitive, self-centered (me, my wife, my kids, my family) and also they are much more prone to become specialists (they tend to excel in one thing, but are often narrowly focused on this one domain only, without much understanding of the importance of the others ... they are experts always competing with the other experts "who's better"), queer energy is more generalist, cooperative, inclusive, seeing bizarre interconnections between various topics, seeing things from the perspective, a "bigger picture". Hence - the harmonizers, the bridge between worlds, the glue among the professions. There are more artists, teachers, caretakers among them - that's exactly the modern version of shamans, storytellers, those who educate and give different perspective, those who are able to see things from multiple sides.
While even the contemporary LGBT/queer movement is afraid to discuss these quite provocative queer histories and myths, it is interesting to see the exactly same topic being shown on screen. We see the majority of specialist (factions) who tend to quarrel who's more important for the society, compete for the power over the other factions ... and the rare (!) hated (!!) minority (!!!) of the generalists (divergent) who have the abilities to appease the eternal wars among those talented only intellectually (erudite), physically (dauntless), socially (abnegation), green (amity) or have strong sense of justice (candor).
This - competition versus cooperation, specialists versus generalists, majority versus minority and also the omnipresent "versus" - are the most hot topics of the contemporary world. Gives us more of it!