Philadelhia Movie
In the movie “Philadelphia” Andy Beckett works as a lawyer at the largest corporate law firm in Philadelphia. Although he lives with his partner, Beckett is not open about his homosexuality at the law firm, nor the fact he has AIDS. On the day he is assigned the firms newest and most important case, one of the firms partners notices a lesion on Becketts forehead. Shortly after he stays home in attempt to find a way to hide his lesions. While at home he finishes his complaint for the case he had been assigned to and takes it to the office with instructions for his assistant to file the complaint in court on the following day. Beckett suffered from bowel spasm at home and is rushed to the ER. While there he recieves a call asking for the complaint as the paper copy couldn’t be found. At the last moment the complaint is found. The following day Beckett is dismissed by the firms partner. Beckett claims someone hid the complaint for a reason to fire him. He claims he was fired because he is gay and has AIDS. His former employer claimed he was terminated due to poor performance. The message the movie sends out is that discriminating against homosexual people with AIDS is illegal. Andy had a hard time finding a lawyer to represent him due to him having AIDS. Even the lawyer who finally represented him was scared he would catch it. But he soon overcame that and realized he was no threat to his health but someone he learned from and became friends with. Andy himself was afraid of the disease even before he knew he had it for sure. But after being diagnosed he began to deal with it and the way it changed his life. Andy felt he must fight for his rights. Andy was at the library researching AIDS when the librarian ask him to go in a private room. His lawyer was there and witnessed what had happened. I guess this is when he realized Andy needed his help to protect his rights. The lawyer took the book Andy was holding and showed the librarian he wasn’t afraid to touch something