YMMV / But I'm a Cheerleader

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Jan has loads of this. Is she, in fact, a straight butch girl as she tearfully claims? Is she (or rather, he if this is the case) actually a transgender boy (or a nonbinary individual) who has been mistaken for a lesbian girl - and if so, what's his sexuality? Or is she a lesbian who is just desperately saying whatever she thinks will get her out of True Directions quickest, as many poor youths in such camps will do? There's evidence to suggest any one of these possibilities is the case, and it's largely left up to the viewer to decide what they think is the truth.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: True Directions' tactics are somewhat exaggerated, but some viewers may be shocked at how similar they are to actual conversion therapy programs — mostly in the use of aversion therapy (like electroshock) and trying to make LGBT people act in more gender conforming ways. Historically, these programs were even worse than what we see here. Methods including aversion therapy, lobotomies, nausea-inducing drugs, and chemical castration were used to "cure" a person of their non-straight tendencies. Nowadays, most conversion programs in the United States stick with therapy, psychoanalysis, and (if the program is religion-oriented) prayer, though on occasion you'll hear reports of a (usually unlicensed) camp reverting to the old methods or employing full-on torture to get results.
• Awesome Music: Tattle Tale's "Glass Vase Cello Case", a hard-hitting and achingly soulful folk punk track that plays during the climactic Love Confession scene at the graduation. Many fans of the film still get teary-eyed hearing it to this day.
  "Breathe into my hands are cupped,
  And like a glass to drink from.
  Are you still,
  Still breathing?
  Are you still breathing?
  Are you still,
  Still breathing?
  Are you still breathing?
  Breathe into my hands are cupped,
  And like a glass to drink from."
• Cult Classic: Made next to no money at the box office, but remains popular among LGBT viewers.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • When Nancy Bloomfield meets Megan, she tells her and her parents that they were lucky they "caught her" before she went to college, seeing liberal arts colleges as bad examples that would have only made her gayer. This is an opinion a lot of conservatives hold, seeing Universities and Colleges as liberal brainwashing apparatuses, an opinion that has only grown more and more prevalent in The New '10s and The New '20s.
  • The film is about how traumatizing and soul-crushing homophobia is, with the young gay and lesbian characters being forced to "become" straight and punished if they're "caught" being their true selves. Clea Duvall plays Graham here, and she gets a happy ending where she embraces her own lesbian identity and finds love with another girl. But at the time this was filmed, Duvall herself was in her early 20s and still deep in the closet, per her own words. Duvall wouldn't come out as a lesbian until 2016, when she was almost 40.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • The movie features a humanizing portrayal of a family of two dads raising a kid. Within two decades of this movie's release, gay people being allowed to marry and adopt would become legal across America.
  • Clea Duvall (Graham) actually did come out as gay in 2016. She has since admitted that she was aware of her sexuality while making the movie, but (ironically) was very closeted at the time.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Dolph, played by Dante Basco, telling Megan to "Shut the fuck up, you stupid little bitch!" is especially funny to those who know him from his roles as Prince Zuko and Jake Long, both of whom have to deal with younger sisters who could easily be addressed in a similar manner.
  • Seeing Megan suddenly realising she’s gay and receiving warnings about the dangers of the ‘homosexual lifestyle’ is particularly hilarious for anyone who’s watched her act in Orange Is the New Black.
  • Flashforward to 2020 and see Melanie Lynskey act as a conservative activist in Mrs. America.
  • In keeping with the fact that True Directions favors the Pink Girl, Blue Boy trope, the camp's official colors seem to be pink, white and blue... So the pamphlets that Mike gives Megan's parents include a design that looks like a slightly altered Transgender Pride flag. Said flag was invented in 1999, but not officially flown anywhere until 2000, so it seems unlikely this was intentional (though it does seem like something the filmmakers would have included for irony if it were a more widely known symbol at the time).
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: It's one of the films that gained second wave of viewers thanks to being covered by This Film is Not Yet Rated , attracting people to just see what the fuss was all about.
• Paranoia Fuel: For any viewer who was unaware beforehand of the existence of conversion therapy, the realization that places like True Directions actually exist can definitely be this. Even more so when you learn how these camps used to be (and in some cases, still are).
• Retroactive Recognition: Given that this film was largely overlooked in its day, many people are more likely to recognize Natasha Lyonne and Clea Duvall for their roles as Nicole "Nicky" Nichols in Orange Is the New Black and Sofie Bojakshiya in Carnivàle, respectively.
• Signature Scene: Megan confessing her love to Graham at the graduation ceremony...in the form of a cheer routine.
  "One, two, three, four: I won't take 'no' anymore!
  Five, six, seven, eight: I want you to be my mate!
  One, two, three, four: you're the one that I adore!
  Five, six, seven, eight: don't run from me, 'cause this is fate!"
• Values Dissonance: Megan says she doesn’t drink, but Graham goes to buy her one anyway. At the time, a popular way to get someone to loosen up. In later decades, ignoring or dismissing someone’s refusal of alcohol is more often seen as rude or toxic behaviour.
• Values Resonance: Since the late 1990s, it's become much more widely accepted (particularly within the LGBT community) that gender roles and presentation can be just as fluid as sexual orientation, and that openly gay people can still vary widely in how strongly they identify (or don't identify) with conventional masculinity or femininity. With this in mind, Megan's journey of self-discovery—which features her gradual realization that embracing her sexuality doesn't have to mean rejecting traditional aspects of femininity that feel meaningful to her—is likely to resonate strongly with many viewers.

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