9 Most Powerful LGBT+ Movie Scenes Ever

Unavoidably some people will think it’s cliche to express a deep sentiment through a poem, especially in movies. But who was complaining when they did it in 10 Things I Hate About You? Nobody, so suck it up.

The film sees Alike try to come to terms with her own lesbian identity in the face of adversity and pushback from her religious mother. Navigating her relationships with two queer women in her peer group and trying to find her own voice in the community, Alike is up against a lot.

By the end of the film unfortunately Alike’s mother still refuses to be on her side, failing to reconcile her religious and personal ideas of what her daughter should be with the true identity of the girl. Alike makes the decision to leave home and go to college early, but makes it clear that she is not running from problems: she is choosing to grow.

Reading out her poem from a well-worn notebook, she describes through her poem how her heartbreak over her family and her first Queer relationship has opened her heart and allowed her to bloom. She assures the audience that her leaving town is not running from who she is but choosing to free herself from its oppressiveness. She is not broken, she is free.