A typical frat rat has a secret lurking in his closet in this gay-themed drama. John "Griff" Griffith (Daniel Chilson) is a student at a college in Southern California, where he lives with his friends in a fraternity house. Griff's frat brothers and his best friend Todd (Niklaus Lange) don't know that he has been having an affair with Pete Bradley (Don Handfield), another member of the frat who lives in an off-campus apartment. While Griff acts "straight" and talks about women with his beer-drinking frat brothers, his involvement with Pete has been going on for some time. Pete has accepted his homosexuality and is tentatively inching out of the closet; he wants to have a real relationship with Griff, based on more than furtive sex, but Griff is unwilling to acknowledge that he is gay. Pete asks Griff to meet him at a gay coffeehouse; their conversation turns into an argument, and Pete storms off in a huff. The next day, Griff learns that Pete is in the hospital; while walking home, he was attacked by gay-bashing yahoos and is now in a coma. Griff must now resolve his confused sexual identity, as well as his feelings for Pete. Defying Gravity was the debut feature for writer/director John Keitel.