Summary
The group heads to Wales in a bus. They ask Joe what he told his conservative parents as an excuse to be able to go on the trip and he tells them he lied that he was doing a residential course in "choux pastry" at a college. The members of the group laugh at him and cheer "Bromley!" Meanwhile, Gethin stays behind at the bookshop, where someone has spray-painted "Queer" on the facade of the building.
In the Welsh town, Sian posts a sign about the fact that the group is visiting that evening. She tells one of her fellow committee-members that every time she puts up a sign, someone takes it down. As the other women scowl at her, she covers the poster with an absurd number of staples.
In the bus, the lesbians on the trip sing about how every woman is a lesbian at heart. Some of the men disapprove of their generalizing, but this does not deter them. Dai visits the pub in his town, where a band plays country music and the patrons have torn down the poster announcing the arrival of the gay group.
The group arrives in the town and the group goes into the Welfare Hall apprehensively. The older woman who initially answered their call, Gwen, comes out into the hall, and tells Dai that "[his] gays have arrived." Sian, Dai, Dai's wife Margaret, the chair of the welfare committee, Hefina, and some others come out and greet the group. Cliff, the club secretary, steps forward and invites Mark to sign their book. Gwen goes to ask the group a question about lesbians, but Dai shushes her and asks who in the group will be making a speech. Before he goes into the main room, Dai says, "Welcome, all of you. To be honest, I never thought you'd come."
When the group goes into the main room, everyone stares at them and Dai invites Mark onto the stage. Mark tries to make some gay jokes that fall flat, before telling the miners that his group wants to help them, as gays "have been through some of the same things [they] have been through." He then tries a different tack, saying, "If one in five people are gay, then one in five miners must be gay."
The members of the group all sleep in one room of Dai's house. As Dai gets into bed, he insists that everything will work itself out, even though his wife looks unsure. Downstairs, some of the group members want to go home, but Mark insists that he came there to help. With his leadership, they all agree to stay.
The next day, Cliff takes the group on a tour of a Welsh castle. "According to legend," he says, "The maiden Sabrina came here and became the Goddess of the River Severn." Dai and Mark go on a walk and Mark tells him that, having grown up in Northern Ireland, he knows what it means for people not to talk to one another, and that is what motivates his political passion. Dai shakes his hand, suggesting that this symbol of two hands is what the labor movement is built around. "You support me, I support you," he says.
Suddenly, they see a squadron of police cars driving towards the town and the miners complain that police abuse has been particularly aggressive lately. At this point, Jonathan shares that police harassment is illegal and that a cop can only stop someone if they think the person is going to do something illegal. The cop is then required to charge the person within 24 hours, with concrete evidence that could stand up in court. Sian becomes fired up by this realization and goes to the police station immediately, confronting the policemen.
As the gay group unloads the bus, they debate whether or not they should downplay their sexuality to fit in more. As the most flamboyant member of the group, Jonathan takes offense to this, suggesting that they are living in the past. The group goes to the Welfare Hall to drop off donations, and many of the men who are there leave abruptly. Dai tries to persuade them to stay, suggesting that the gay group is helping them.
Cliff informs the men that the gay group is the only reason many of the men got out of jail, because they told Sian what to say to the police. One of the men, Carl, comes over and extends his hand to shake Mark's hand, inviting him to have a pint. As everyone has a drink, Gwen asks the lesbians if all lesbians are vegetarians and Stella informs her that she and Zoe are both vegans, which confuses her even more. Gail asks Ray and Reggie about their cohabitation and which of them does the housework.
Hefina, Sian, Dai, and Margaret confront a committee member, Maureen about her refusal to let any of the members of the group stay at her house. She tells them she is concerned about AIDS, but Hefina tells her it's unlikely she'll get AIDS from having some gay people stay at her house. Maureen still refuses, and points out that the Welfare Hall has become completely segregated based on sexuality. With a serious expression, Hefina goes to Carl and tells him to go and spend time with a gay or a lesbian, but he insists that he's already reached out.
Later, as they dance to "Karma Chameleon," Gail tells Jonathan that it is not typical for men to dance in the town, and Sian agrees that "Welsh men can't move their hips." Jonathan goes and puts on another song, dancing flamboyantly around the hall, much to the delight of the women assembled. Everyone cheers for Jonathan as the song ends, and he says, "God, I miss disco."
After the party, everyone in the town is fired up from having fun, and Carl asks Jonathan to give him dance lessons. At home, Maureen complains to her sons about the fact that the gay group is ruining the reputation of the town. Sian and her husband talk about what a good night it was and invite Joe over to stay at theirs.
The next day, LGSM drives home, dropping Joe off in Bromley. At home, Joe's mother asks him how his pastry-making weekend went, and he tells her it was the best experience of his life. Later, Joe gets photos developed from the trip. We see a montage of the miners striking against the police as the gay group raises more and more money for them.
One day, when Steph, Joe, and Jonathan are collecting money, Steph complains that she has nowhere to go for Christmas, and Jonathan invites her to his house for the holiday. At Joe's house on Christmas, an announcement about AIDS runs on television, and Joe's father makes an off-color remark.
Analysis
In this section of the film, we learn more about the perspectives of the townspeople in Wales. Sian and Dai are portrayed as basically the only members of the community who are remotely open-minded about the imminent arrival of the gay group, while the other townspeople tear down the posters and anticipate the arrival with fear and suspicion. Thus, Sian and Dai become protagonists in their own parallel narratives. While the gay people from London are on a journey to form a political alliance with the miners, their sympathizers in the town must grapple with the prejudices of their fellow townspeople and work as political allies of the gay group to bring about more widespread acceptance in their community.
The integration of the gay group into the mining community is not a smooth one, as the miners look at them with skepticism and thinly veiled contempt. As Mark makes a speech upon their arrival, the miners wear stoney faces and barely respond to his comments. Suddenly, what has seemed like a worthy political alliance is revealed to be a rather clumsy and awkward one. The working-class outlook of the village is not amenable to the sensibilities of the gay group, and many of the townspeople leave immediately after Mark makes his speech. Their contempt for homosexuality is indiscreet and straightforward.
In this section we begin to see more clearly the individual perspectives and motivations of each group's leaders, Mark and Dai. Mark tells Dai that he learned from growing up in Northern Ireland that people have to work together and that no one group's rights are more important than another's. Dai shakes his hand, telling him that the labor movement is all built around connection and working together. These two men are each motivated to see their respective movements flourish and become stronger through connection to other movements and spearhead the process of bridging the gap between the labor movement and the gay rights movement.
It turns out that the gay group does indeed have knowledge that is very concretely helpful to the striking miners. When Jonathan informs Sian and Dai that it is illegal for police officers to detain people without concrete proof of a crime, Sian gets a group of miners out of jail. The fact that the gay men, who have had their fair share of dispiriting experiences with the police, can advise the villagers on how to deal with police harassment wins them favor among some of the miners. One of the miners, Carl, immediately extends his hand and invites Mark to have a pint with him when he hears what the group has done.
The trip to the mining town is ultimately a success, and the gay group manages not only to teach the miners about how to stand up to the oppressive forces of the police, but also how to have fun. At the Welfare Hall on their final night, the room erupts into a dance, with Jonathan leading the way. His flamboyant and showy dancing, rather than cause a negative stir, only delights the women of the town and makes the night into a memorable one. While the response to the newcomers is not unambivalently positive, many genuine connections are made between the gay activists and the miners.
