Boys on the Side
Apart from Jane's early comment that Robin is the "whitest" person in the world (or something like that), Boys on the Side portrays the interracial friendships without making a big deal of the racial differences, "flirting" with the idea that the women's friendships come from their shared experience as women and are not strained by racial differences or Jane's homosexuality (as Robin attempts to explain in her testimony at Holly's trial). Likewise, Robin says that she is not a lesbian but she "understands the inclination." Robin implies that she is not opposed to same-sex love, and the film certainly flirts with the idea of serious love between Jane and Robin (and also mentions Jane's past crush on Holly), although it may always be platonic love on Robin's end. The most blatant comments on race and homophobia come from Robin's mother, whose initial shock at both Jane's race and sexual orientation when she arrives in Tucson is evident. However, from the time the three women hit the road, Jane's race and homosexuality are almost nonissues, and certainly less the focus of the film than Robin's struggle with AIDS. In an effort to avoid showing the extremely marginalized character in a less-than-ideal situation, Boys on the Side puts Jane in a stable interracial lesbian relationship, avoiding the potential problems Jane could have faced--and perhaps would have in the real world.