The word \u201csurvivor,\u201d particularly when it comes to entertainers, has become such a trope. For goodness\u2019 sake, it\u2019s the ultimate reality\/game show on the tube. And when a Real Housewife or Love Island contestant groans about being a \u201csurvivor,\u201d you can\u2019t reach for the remote fast enough. But then there\u2019s Logan Lynn.<\/p>\n
Addiction dragged his life through the dregs; he has been a guest at the White House (during the Biden administration) for his LGBTQIA+ activism; he has suffered homophobic abuse and harassment via orchestrated online attacks; and he\u2019s been singled out with the National Council for Mental Wellbeing\u2019s Award for Excellence for his commitment to mental health and substance use treatment. But, in our recent conversation, when I said \u201cmiracle,\u201d it was almost as if it was a bit of a trigger word.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, that\u2019s an interesting word \u2026 a loaded word \u2026 from my childhood,\u201d said Lynn. Indeed, he was referring to his childhood in a fundamentalist Christian home, hostile to anything that was not heterosexuality. But when I assured him that I was referring to his nearly 19 years of long-term sobriety, he nodded approvingly.<\/p>\n
\u201cActually, I think it\u2019s the right choice or word. Part of my deep gratitude is that I remained myself. I\u2019m still me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The documentary \u201cThe Pain and the Power\u201d confirms that in every way. The film, named Best Documentary at the London Independent Film Awards, will be showcased by the Idaho Film Society in Boise on Wednesday, Sept. 9, and will feature a rare in-person appearance by the man who is the centerpiece of director Cai Indermaur\u2019s film.<\/p>\n
There are so many ways to approach a documentary, especially with a force of nature as its centerpiece. Some artists have been known to round the edges for their own biopics. Others amplify, soften, or stretch the truth to ridiculous lengths. But \u201cThe Pain and The Power\u201d is moment-to-moment truth. It stings. It hurts.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s where the \u201cpain\u201d is. Your heart will break a few times in the first thirty minutes of the film, particularly when you watch a young Logan hiding his truth. You see, his queerness came early. In fact, he doesn\u2019t remember anything before being gay.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, even before I had language, that\u2019s how I identified,\u201d Lynn told me. \u201cI just came by it with honesty.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the pain is also in the fact that he grew up in a home of fear. Fear of damnation. Fear of hell. Fear of \u2026 well, just about anything that was not defined by fundamentalism.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t get to pick the family you\u2019re born into \u2026 or the church,\u201d said Lynn. \u201cGay was not good in that environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Naturally, I had to ask him to reflect on his upcoming visit to Idaho, knowing there are young men and women, just like the young Logan, living in their own shadows of fear.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s similar to how it was when I was a kid. I think of social justice as a pendulum, swinging back and forth. Hopefully, someday we\u2019ll meet somewhere in the middle,\u201d he said. \u201cBut my heart is broken because of all the work we\u2019ve done. I feel for people in Idaho. I feel for the queer and trans youth that are growing up in an environment where they\u2019re told they\u2019re not good enough. That they don\u2019t belong.\u201d<\/p>\n
He took a breath.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess my call to all of those young kids is just to hang on. There are people that love you. There are places where you belong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps my favorite scene in \u201cThe Pain and The Power,\u201d wasn\u2019t the most visceral. In fact, it\u2019s quite light-hearted. I double dare you not to smile when it happens. Early on, we see a home movie where a young boy, grinning ear to ear, stares right into the camera.<\/p>\n
\u201cHello, I\u2019m Logan Lynn and I am going to sing for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, it\u2019s the 1980s. Does he sing Barry Manilow or the Bee Gees? No way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am going to sing Debbie Gibson and \u2018I get lost in your eyes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s adorable. And between then and now, Logan Lynn has recorded 12 studio albums, including the soundtrack of \u201cThe Pain and The Power”, 70 EPs, 42 singles, and 48 music videos.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s the \u201cpower.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The word \u201csurvivor,\u201d particularly when it comes to entertainers, has become such a trope. For goodness\u2019 sake, it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[13153,9,24,63,122,124,123,126583],"class_list":["post-336977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-email","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-screen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}