Common Ground is a 2000 Showtime television movie directed by Donna Deitch and written by Paula Vogel, Terrence McNally and Harvey Fierstein. It stars Brittany Murphy, Jason Priestley, Steven Weber, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Edward Asner and James LeGros. The film contains three short stories about gay Americans during different time periods in the fictional town of Homer, Connecticut, and their efforts to find "common ground" or respect from the heterosexual majority.
In the 1950s Dorothy Nelson (Brittany Murphy) joins the United States Navy where she meets the Friends of Dorothy, a code name for a group of gay and lesbian sailors. Nelson meets Billy (Jason Priestley), who takes her to an interracial nightclub that tolerates gay people. However, the NCIS raids the nightclub, and Nelson is among those servicemembers who receive a Section 8 discharge for "sexual perversion." Returning to Homer, she tries to restart her life as a public school teacher, but her Section 8 discharge prevents her from getting a job. When her homosexuality becomes public knowledge, her mother expels her from the house, forcing her to seek shelter at a family friend's grocery store. However, the townspeople
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