In lieu of Heath Ledger's sudden tragic death, I cannot help but remember his critically acclaimed movie Brokeback Mountain - which I think is his best performance ever, at least pre-showing of The Dark Knight (new 2008 Batman movie) where Health played the young Joker.

The story of Brokeback Mountain circled around the secret relationship of two men, lasting to 20 years of their lives. The emotion, the love displayed by the two main characters in this movie - played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal - is so strong and I guess true in the purest sense of the word love. Or maybe just pure passion?

After watching the said movie (especially that last scene), it made me think that maybe true love really has various faces that transcends time, space and maybe even gender.

Brokeback Mountain's last scene as described by Wikipedia:

In the final scene, Ennis is discovered sticking address numbers on the mail box of his small, run-down trailer in a trailer park on the prairie. A 19-year-old Alma Jr. drives up in her fiancé's sports car with the news that she's engaged. She asks her father to "give his blessings" on and attend the wedding.

Ennis asks her pointedly if this man really loves her since he now is finally aware of the importance of love in a relationship and marriage. At first he is reluctant to commit to attending the wedding due to a conflict with his work. Alma's evident disappointment moves him to commit to attending the upcoming wedding and celebrate Alma's engagement with two glasses of wine.

His missed opportunity of seeing Jack again for what would have been the last time due to a conflict with his job was a hard lesson. After Alma's departure, Ennis notices she has forgotten her sweater. Folding the sweater, he puts it into his bedroom area closet.

In opening the door the two shirts are again seen one inside the other with Ennis' shirt over Jack's, on a hanger hanging on a nail pounded into the closet door with the postcard of Brokeback Mountain alongside. Ennis carefully fastens the top button of Jack's shirt, and with tears in his eyes mutters, "Jack, I swear....", while slowly straightening the postcard.

In that last scene, I cried, since Heath Ledger's emotion is like being torn from the inside out.

So maybe true love can happen between two persons with the same gender? Maybe yes.

According to this study, same-sex couples are just as committed in their romantic relationships as heterosexual couple. Also, equal levels of relationship satisfaction has been found between the two.

Their finding disputes the stereotype that couples in same-sex relationships are not as committed as their heterosexual counterparts and are therefore not as psychologically healthy.

Results showed that same-sex relationships were similar to those of opposite-sex couples in many ways.

All had positive views of their relationships but those in the more committed relationships (gay and straight) resolved conflict better than the heterosexual dating couples. And lesbian couples worked together especially harmoniously during the laboratory tasks.

Those results are from two studies featured in the January issue of Developmental Psychology.

Maybe now we can stop stereotyping. We are all the same. We look for the same things in our relationships. Both ways, as long as the relationship we found are true and lasting, we are equally satisfied.

The movie Brokeback Mountain was critiqued in both good and not so good ways. While others have good praises (with several awards), there those who critically gave negative comments about the film.

I guess it will a long shot before society can look at same sex couples without bias.

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