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But as Ennis learns to his dismay, once you set foot on Brokeback Mountain, you can't turn back. In the end, you pay the full price of love whether or not you choose to dare the summit. The only question is whether or not you get to enjoy the view, even for a little while.

Even in 2006, I know I live in the shadow of Brokeback Mountain. I think I've climbed pretty high on that mountain (I've had the same great partner for almost 14 years). But over the course of my life, I've paid a price too, in ego-crushing rejection, in disappointment, and in blatant discrimination.

And I know there are times when I've pulled back from daring the summit, thinking it would protect me from greater pain (it didn't).

Like Ennis, most of us pull back. And some of us, dreading the pain of unmet expectations or hearing the voices of self-hatred in our heads, try to avoid the mountain completely. But one way or another, we all still pay the price of love denied. I think this explains some of our community's unhealthiest addictions', especially to crystal meth and unsafe sex.

Hopefully, however, that's changing.

In my other life, I write books for and about gay teenagers. In meeting with them, I'm continually struck by how different they are from when I was a teenager myself.

Most of them reject the hateful anti-gay lies out-of-hand. What do they want most out of life? Not sex particularly, something that surprises a lot of people.

The young gay men I know all want a boyfriend. They want love -- desperately, achingly, completely.

As they each confront Brokeback Mountain for themselves, they will face their own challenges and experience their own pain -- some of which will come from the greater society, and some of which will be pathologies from within the gay community itself.

Will these young people reach the summit? And what of the rest of us, those men still broken and in pain from earlier attempts? Can we finally let ourselves truly love one another?

These are explosive, important questions that this movie asks of us, but it's about time someone did.

We finally have some of the freedom that Jack and Ennis yearned for. What will we do with it?

Let that be the last gay word.

Brent Hartinger's newest novel is Grand & Humble, a teen thriller. He is also the author of the gay teen novel, Geography Club, which is currently being adapted for the movies, and a sequel, The Order of the Poison Oak.  Explore “Brent's Brain,” his website, at brenthartinger.com.

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