In the Life: Ep. 1003, "Supporting Gay Youth"

on this edition of In The Life our best stories on gay youth safe spaces for gay kids exactly a 17-year-old award-winning playright and special guest host Wilson Cruz bringing gay teens together to share their thoughts is important all up next on in life America's gay and lesbian television news [Music] magazine in the life is funded in part by the H van amaran Foundation additional support provided by Michael a lepin Jeffrey B sorif the estate of Elden W tamblin Adam a funding collaborative empowering queer youth the Collingwood Foundation the Gil Foundation the Mitchell Gold company in the hopes of eliminating all types of fear and [Music] Prejudice the gay network gay.com and the annual support of in Theif members like you [Music] [Applause] welcome to in the life the television news magazine on gay and lesbian issues and culture I'm Wilson Cruz at the LA gay and lesbian centers Village information and programs targeted to gay lesbian B sexual and transgendered youth are an important part of what goes on here and over the years in the life has often explored topics affecting young gay men and lesbians who are trying to come to terms with society and their sexuality this special edition of In The Life features segments from path shows profiling groups and individuals who are tackling the tough issues gay youth continue to face some through activism and some through the arts and others by providing safe spaces where young gay people can talk openly about gender and sexual identity I mean before I came here I was just ready to drive my car off a bridge I mean I was real suicidal bunch of problems going on and my counselors just helped me a great deal in the last three weeks when I played Ricky Vasquez the gay teenager on the TV show my so-called life I got a letter from a woman whose son watched the program the young man had never told his mother that he was gay and a few years ago he killed himself our first segment is about this very serious problem the disproportionately high number of suicides among gay teens in 1997 Siri's host Katherine Linton filed a report on an Oscar award-winning short called Trevor that brought attention to teen suicide and the experience of kids who don't quite fit in I can't cover up my feet in the Name of Love or playing safe for a while that was easy 13-year-old Trevor is fascinated by two things Diana [Music] Ross and his best new friendship with pinky in the film it quickly becomes clear that his friendship is more than friendly and his interest in the Arts a little too much word soon gets out that Trevor may be gay and Friends reject him well I think Trevor really looks at what it's like for anybody who's ever felt like they didn't belong and that they aren't understood and that no one will ever understand them and sort of the desperation that that can cause and please if it's possible play end this love at my funeral it's my absolute fave Trevor in some way the sort of a warning call about what can happen to people when attention is not paid in some way when kids don't feel that they have any allies and know where to turn for understanding and support in our story Trevor's lucky Trevor makes it through and he's also an incredibly optimistic kid finally and fundamentally after this experience I think that he's got you know a great life force and that that's finally wins out for him in the film um but I think other people aren't so lucky I think Prejudice can kill Trevor was of course fictional we take you out of Cleveland where a young boy named Robbie Kirkland really lived Robbie like Trevor was artistic and not athletic and was teased and tormented there was one major difference Robbie Kirkland succeeded in taking his own life Robbie was basically playful would like to improvise and make things up he was a very fun loving delightful child and basically very shy all in all very shy at a young age Robbie also knew he was Different Robbie was 10 when he knew that he was gay according to his therapist when Robbie was in third grade he asked to be transferred to another school another Catholic school he was being teased on the playground when he was in maybe second grade I took him to a therapist for counselin to deal with the teasing and harassment um he would come home with his clothes torn the pants scrapes on him a rock was thrown at him I'm dying and no one cares I try to stand and walk I fall to the hard cold ground it feels as if to life I am no longer bound the others look and laugh at my plight blood pours from my nose I am not a pretty sight the pain is unbearable the world is not fair I'm dying and no one cares as Robbie got older he rarely told his parents of his experiences in school he was very uh quiet about stuff that would bother him uh and I don't really to this day I really don't know why uh whether he would think that we'd think negative of him I don't think so I just don't think that he thought it was something that you know I'm going to run to Mom and Dad every time somebody hurts my feelings Robbie found that the safest place to express himself was in his writing his best friend from Camp became his main Confidant dear Jen I'll tell you why people made fun of me I haven't told anyone else this and it's a secret you see I talk different you know I have a slight lisp s's come out th's and well I'm kind of sucky at sports so people they don't do it often or have done it recently sometimes only like a few people have called me gay if you're not an athlete as a boy growing up it is harder and I don't that's nothing do with your sexuality this has everything to do with uh just boys being the way they are if you're a boy and you're an athlete you got one leg up the only place Robbie found where Sports and speech didn't matter was on the internet well when he went online he was going on you know to chat with other kids and you know just for fun you know there's fun things to do so we thought the Kirkland soon discovered however that Robbie was busy in gay chat rooms and downloading gay pornography when confronted he ran away Robbie ran away in March of 96 and where he ran to was to someone that he met online we we found the number in his bag and also there was a suicide note um which he had written in February he had attempted to commit suicide I I did not know this until I found this note with Tylenol he took a whole bottle of Tylenol I'll be dead by the time you read this it's 5:30 p.m. mom's at Mass whatever you find I'm not gay sincerely Robbie Kirkland the boy who told himself to put on a smile shut up and pretend you're happy it didn't work he was very depressed I later learned the reason why he tried to kill himself he had tried to like a girl at school trying to prove to himself that he didn't have to be gay that this was something he could control and change so um we took him to the therapist and I said to the therapist if my son is gay I don't want you to change him this is the way God meant to to be I don't want him to live his life as a lie despite this support from home Robbie still had to face his grade school peers I yearn for high school because then I'll just be one face in the crowd and no one will notice me and I'll be left alone with High Hopes Robbie attended St Ignatius a Roman Catholic Prep School run by Jesuit priests in high school you know I I later learned that kids were already teasing him once he got to St Ignatius accusing him of being gay and and asking his best friend is he gay when Robbie Kirkland um when a young man is is gay at our school often enough we don't know that and I'm sure that there are that there is kiding that will go on sometimes good-natured and sometimes less so he just knew his future would be very very hard but he had told the therapist that he had hoped to find a lesbian girlfriend to be his cover to get through high school but Robbie did not make it through even his first year of high school on January 2nd one week after Christmas with his family and only two days before he was to attend his first gay youth support group Robbie Kirkland went to his father's attic and shot himself he was 14 those nine months you know when he ran away and took the town hall I think he had already given up on life he he was so unhappy it was too late almost so so what I saw for the last 9 to 10 months of his life was a very depressed withdrawn a teenage boy what keeps this family going is the work of speaking out in an attempt to save other boys like Robbie nothing brings Robbie back uh but uh basically it's the right thing to do given everything that happened uh you know if I can help if it helps anybody if it helps any kid if it helps any parent if it helps anybody uh then it's the right thing to do for Robbie's mother raising Awareness on the experiences of gay kids seems inspired by perhaps Robbie's shortest poem remember me I may be gone but I hope I'm not forgotten you know as I look back on it and I've thought about it I thought that the last 9 to 10 months of his life was a gift to me from God because had he died with the tal andol I never would have known that he was gay I would have I I would have been so confused and you know why is my son dead I wouldn't have understood it so I mean I I wish it could have been a gift that he could have lived and been helped with therapy and anti-depressants but unfortunately it wasn't to be but at least I have the insight to understand so that I can reach out to the other kids like him who are suffering and hopefully they won't commit suicide and maybe change our society and change the schools just a little bit so other kids don't have to suffer like Robbie like Robbie did proposed hate crime legislation relies on accurate statistics of anti-gay violence that's where you come in if you've been attacked or even threatened report the incident to the police if you don't feel comfortable filing a police report the hate crimes documentation Network offers a new way to report the incident online anonymously for a link to the hate crimes documentation Network and other organizations that offer support visit in thee life's website at inthe tv.org I'm Danny pintaro and you're watching in the life [Music] so many gay lesbian bisexual and transgendered teens share Robbie Kirkland's feelings of being an outsider and The Need to Escape in one way or the other the next segment focuses on an organization in Miami that works with schools and churches to educate the community about the special challenges gay kids face it's an organization whose motto might as well be just say yes with the task force and it's really my name is Martha Fugate and I'm the director of project gas I was in college before I discovered that I had this strange habit of falling in love with women and not men I was a homosexual I wasn't a lesbian because there were no lesbians in North Carolina where I was from like many others I looked it up in the dictionary and found out I had a mental disease one of the misconceptions is that it's easier for kids now and and I thought that myself when I started project yes but what I found out is it's really much tougher for kids because they're not coming out when they're 21 or 22 or independent they're coming out when they're 13 and 14 and 15 33% of teenage suicides are committed by lesbian gay kids I kept hearing that statistic wishing that somebody would come along and do something about it somewhat insulting to refer to it as a lifestyle cuz it is who they are we really looked at the four areas of a child's life School uh religion family and peers and we've looked at a way to either have an impact or approach other organizations that are working in those areas that will have an impact on the life of a kid one of the first things we did was a GED program for kids who have dropped out of high school so they can complete uh get a high school equivalency um degree when I came to project gu the first time I was I had a was just recently coming out of a very bad High School experience I was uh harassed on a daily basis I was called names um I had food thrown at me in the cafeteria uh I felt like the whole school was against me I didn't have any place to turn to and uh when i' go to my counselors uh they didn't know how to deal with this issue at all my senior year got a little rough because I wasn't I didn't come out till my senior year and you start to get looks from people in the halls and people pointing and then you hear people coming up I have a little sister who's cheerleader soccer player people are coming up to her your brother's what's this rumor going around about your brother your brother's gay and I didn't want her to have to have to deal with crap from people at school because of a decision I had made it's not just gay and lesbian kids it's their brothers and sisters it's their mothers and dads it affects the whole family unit I was overh helmed I was over overwhelmed with pain with a profound sadness and also with guilt um I was horrified at the fact that I that this child had been living with me this child that I adore and I never I never realized what was going on you know we're revisiting all these moments and uh he is the one that keeps telling me mama don't worry because you you're no longer the person that you werein I'm sorry my dad he took it really hard he didn't speak to me for almost 6 months and we were really close I mean he coached my soccer team he went to every school event I ever did and now all of a sudden he went to talk to me I couldn't eat dinner with the family anymore it was um I highlighted my hair and uh like 3 months after I told them and that's the first time my dad ever called me a why I was so afraid to come out to my parents was because I was afraid I would be rejected of their love that's that's the number one thing whether they think it's a sin and all that it's really extraneous but to have a kid that's dealing with this issue and is afraid that he's not going to be loved could sometimes you know as we' seen at project gu result in suicide or running away from home the other thing that we tried to do was to established the first um gay and lesbian PTA in the country we took it up to State and the state PTA just wasn't that comfortable with it and they refused to acknowledge the charter the church still has its position that nobody should outside of marriage have any kind of physical relationship when I first came out I kind of uh I was like there can't be a god there's no God because no God would create someone just so they can be constantly ridiculed have nothing but prejudice against them can cause their family and their friends to turn against them merely because of a feeling they haven't it's not a feeling it's a part of who I am I really didn't get involved with a project yes until I I learned that they were really having some difficulties um addressing issues of spirituality with their youth that they were coming in contact with so I participated in the training communication training that project yes uh gives it entails um being able to deliver the message of positive message to the people that we speak to without getting bent out of shape when people don't agree I went to that Communications course and that was the beginning of my speaking and uh I haven't shut up since then my didn't have the strength to confide it in us we're going to different groups of teachers and principles and do presentations about uh you know these issues and I think the most important thing that we're doing is creating uh the spaces where people can give themselves permission to talk about uh things like homosexuality and and you know what the uh gay and lesbian children go through we don't need to wait until we all agree on something before we start working together to have a world that's safe for kids because I haven't met anybody no matter what their beliefs about homosexuality who didn't want an environment that was safe for all kids [Music] queer Latino and Latina writers took to the stage in New York City for atos an event hosted by Barnes & Noble and organized by the Association of Hispanic Arts so I wrote with a secret pen closet writer closet case CL at Puerto Rico and hated Monday mornings and dated boys and loved girls but only in my journal I had great legs my mother invited friends over and asked me to parade around the bedroom in my underwear showing off my legs my mother would say doesn't he have legs like Miss Universe and one of her friends would add something like if I had legs like that I consider myself the luckiest woman in the world you may even be dragged down into the mud collectively like the people of California who voted for the anti-immigration legislation Proposition 187 they have a fear and what was their fear fear of theas my name is D shinsky I'm an mental patient and this is my story in Washington DC a play by Emily Solomon based on Daphne shelsky's Memoir the last time I wore a dress was staged at the source Theater what's my diagnosis the diagnosis is a major deal it's like belonging to a street gang it's your identity in the hospital when the doctor the play recounts shalinsky adolescent ordeals in various Mental Hospitals where she was treated for among other things gender identity disorder gender identity which you've had since the third grade according to your gender ID what this means is that you are not an appropriate them shalinsky herself was a part of the play standing at the back of the stage and painting images during each performance my work as an actor has given me more visibility as an activist especially on issues concerning gay youth last spring I was one of the speakers at the Millennium March on Washington for equal rights today I've been asked to come here and to accept the torch from those that have brought us this far and I take the torch and I pass it on to the next Generation the next segment is a profile of Youth activists Wendy O'Neal [Music] [Applause] in today's March commemorating Martin Luther King as with most marches youth activists play a major role and Wendy O'Neal is one of [Music] them are we spoke to Wendy at Spellman College where she's a fine arts major I grew up in New Orleans born and raised my father was involved in the civil rights movement in Snick and my mother is a teacher decided to come to Spellman uh because it was far enough away from home and I knew I wanted to go out of state and I thought well this is a historically black women's college and it's perfect for me Spellman is uh struggling with diversity just like many other campuses are around the country um and I think the Assumption here is that since we're all black women we're all going to be the same and that's not true so um we've had to deal with homophobia on all levels Wendy challenged that homophobia when she helped form the Spelman lesbian bisexual Alliance we recognized here it's bman once we got kind of into organizing that we didn't know what we were doing um and so and that we needed some help um and a friend of mine knew some people who knew some people who had told them about this institute that was happening Wendy applied to the National gay and lesbian task Force's youth leadership training institute to learn the skills of Grassroots organizing in the summer of 1995 she along with 24 other young leaders from all over the country were in the institute's first graduating class I learned about taking care of myself um as an organizer for to to organize for the Long Haul I learned how to do do specifics when I'm organizing how to go through the steps of um designing something you know how to get it from in my head to um an actual thing there's a now a 25 person strong National Youth organizing Network and I can call any of these people anytime I need to for support just to say hello just to say you know I had exams and I worked all day you know a 12-hour shift and I you know had to cook dinner for my girlfriend and I'm tired it was the best experience that it could have possibly been Wendy's latest project is organizing a monthly Story Circle it's a circle of people who've been called together to tell stories to each other based on your own experiences for me it's useful as an organizing tool to find out um who's in my community what we think is important about being in that Community what what are the issues that we're living with in an intersection for example I know that we're dealing with racism sexism homophobia class issues and'll get what was important to me in my project was was that it' be a celebration of my life and the people that I live with I think being an activist is about loving who you are and sharing it and um making sure that there that that we live in a world that is not hostile to anyone's existence theen just spit it out okay what's the best thing I could tell you um that you've met a fabulous guy for me hello to everybody watching in the Life still to come on in the Life safe spaces for gay kids in the midwest there's a group for youth of color there's a group actually starting this month for de lesbian KU and a determined 17-year-old playright you can rewrite your play without the Les but first activism can take many forms it can mean taking to the streets and being vocal and visible or it can mean working quietly to provide care and comfort to those who need it earlier we told you about Robbie Kirkland suicide well Robbie took his life just two days before he was scheduled to visit a gay youth support center where he would certainly have met other teenagers struggling with similar feelings on that same program Katherine Linton visited two groundbreaking centers in America's Heartland where adults and peers offer gay youth the support and tools they need I grew up in a very small town right outside of Indianapolis that's about as homophobic as you can get I know in my school in particular uh it's a constant it's an everyday battle just to get through the day and uh there's not a passing period that goes by that I don't hear dke yelled down the hall and I know it's directed at me cuz I'm the only person out at school you go through the denial and I'm not gay there's no way I'm not gay you know there's just so much that goes through your head when you're growing up I mean I've had these feelings since I was like 5 years old I was like okay there's Barbie and Ken I'll play with Ken iy was the first gay lesbian group to have a a crisis line for for teenage children who are questioning their sexuality and and we were the first in the country to have that hotline and I guess it makes me feel proud to know that something like this can happen here iy is one of the oldest gay youth groups in the nation we're very proud of that fact the Indiana youth group or iy is also unique and consisting of 10 chapters Statewide it was founded in 1987 by a couple Chris Gonzalez and Jeff Warner who have since passed away started off initially in Jeff and Chris's living room on very small medium and and has grown to where we are today so uh this December we'll be celebrating our 10 year anniversary so we're very excited about that to be able to come here and be yourself and talk freely and uh not have to worry about what someone's thinking or what someone's going to say about you and with your parents not here it's just an incredible opportunity I have a different outlook on life now I mean before I came here I was just ready to drive my car off a bridge I mean I was real suicidal bunch of problems going on and my counselor just helped me a great deal in the last three weeks hey I can drive our youth are involved in our program as well it's my goal to make this as peer driven of a program as possible what Steve found in his work is a recent study that shows Indianapolis is not immune to the problems associated with most cities what they found in one month 500 youth living on the streets in downtown Indianapolis that was a staggering report it's staggering from my standpoint because then you start to look at some of the reasons those kids are homeless um many times sexual orientation issues are right up there with the top to uh three for a reason a youth would leave their home another city facing similar problems is Minneapolis a city where many gay youth in the midwest land after leaving home right I found an attorney and I sued my school one of them was Jamie nebz the safe school's Advocate and successful plaintiff in the 1996 Landmark lawsuit against his Wisconsin high school for suffering anti-gay violence initially I ran away from um my hometown and went to Minneapolis in St Paul and after arriving there I realized that there was a center for G lesbian youth called District 202 and I immediately got involved what is District 202 it's a community center by and for lesbian gay bisexual transgender Youth and allies my vision is that the youth Define it and that the youth have the vision for it um and that my job is just to help make it happen testing positive for the HIV virus sparked 29-year-old Michael cap continued involvement with District 202 as head of their new 7,000 ft space he oversees discussion groups HIV education socials and Outreach programs there's a general support group that meets in there there's a group for youth of color there's a group actually starting this month for DEA lesbian gay youth uh HIV positive youth Riot girl you name it like iy youth have a major role in shaping the center the other piece where youth helped to Define it is through hiring practices any adults that are hired here are hired with youth on the hiring committee youth were also involved in designing the new space which led to the addition of a bathroom for transgendered or questioning youth three bathrooms women bathroom gender neutral and then men's bathroom we started with two brought the drawings to the kids and the youth said you got to have a transgender bathroom brought it back to the Architects they're like huh they were very cool about it though just a relaxed atmosphere you can just hang out do you know do what you need to do talk to other people who look like you you know and where you're not feeling ostracized you know people aren like pointing at you without District I probably wouldn't have my jobs and I probably would be in a shelter or something or in jail or something I don't know so unlike most youth agencies who say let us help you and provide the services District 202 says what do you want to do and how can we be of help with that a lot of times we don't have our families we don't have our communities to support us and so the G lesbian Community is our family it is our community and they need to be there to advocate for us for safety for um for letting us be kids all youth to doing it themselves you know so that's cool so we do make them yes youth centers and support groups like District 202 and iy can be Lifesavers for gay youth knowing and being able to talk to other people like yourself means a lot when you're feeling isolated and lonely and life can be more hopeful when you have a safe supportive place to go the website out proud helps people across the country find information resources and local sources of friendship and support you'll find a link to out proud on in thee life's website at in theel LIF tv.org take a look spend some time learning about the resources available to gay lesbian bisexual transgender and questioning youth I'm Jordan Roth and you're watching in the [Music] Life in October the gay lesbian and straight education Network which works to end anti-gay bias in K through 12 schools held its conference in Chicago Illinois welcome to uh our fourth annual National Conference teaching respect for all uh you are over 800 people from a record 47 States the keynote was given by Bob Chase president of the National Education Association who weathered much criticism from conservative members of his Organization for voicing the importance of showing support for gay and lesbian students and teachers this is not a matter of promoting a quote unsafe and abhorent lifestyle as one of our members put it but a matter of protecting one of the most valuable populations from unsafe and abhorent behavior it's not a matter of recruiting gay or lesbian students or teachers but of retaining them my two moms are Marilyn and Adrien My Two Dads are Michael and um Barry there's all different kinds of families there are families with one parent two parents some relatives a foster parent kids who are R from their aunt or their uncle or their grandma or just one mom or two moms in 1996 Deborah chasnoff brought the discussion of homosexuality into American classrooms with the controver commcial film it's Elementary and what we heard in the in the course of Distributing its Elementary is that teachers are now saying okay um I I get it I want to do more to make this a safe school learning environment I want to do something to end the silence around gay people in among CH you know in the discussions with children but I need resources to help me do that and NASA family is um one of a ser series of uh media resources that we're producing that give teachers a tool to use in the classroom to talk about issues of diversity and do it in a way that includes gay and lesbian people for the first time in media that's for [Applause] [Music] children this film has a very very wide appeal to a constituency much broader than the G lesbian Community because it there are so many different kinds of families reflected in it and there are a lot of families not just those headed by gays and lesbians that um are underrepresented and invisible to children in the media well that's a family is the first part of a three-part series we're producing called respect for all and the other two um films one will be about name calling and one will be about stereotypes there is lots of kids who have gay parents but they just don't want no one to know because they think someone's going to make fun of them some people might but some people won't that's a family and its accompanying curriculum guide will be distributed to schools religious organizations and social workers across the country theater can be an exciting and Powerful forum for expression when I played a young drag queen named angel in rent I had the opportunity to create a character who wasn't the usual stereotype the final segment on the show is about a controversy caused by one play and the 17-year-old who wrote it in a tale about censorship and determination Samantha Geller received an outpouring of support from lesbian and gay artists including in the Life correspondent Tanya Barfield who is herself a writer long Samantha Geller is a teenager and aspiring playwright from Charlotte North Carolina who recently wrote a one-act play called life versus the paperback Romance the plays about um a blind woman and a woman who writes paperback romances and they fall in love Samantha submitted her play to the Charlotte young playwrights festival and was chosen as one of the five winners but her play was the only one that was not produced the subject matter was considered inappropriate for a junior high and high school audience and I thought that was bull crap because I mean when I was in Middle School I was already questioning and I don't see where it could be unacceptable I read the play I'm reading the play I'm looking for it where's the anal sex where's the violence where's the stuff that could get really upset about and I read this marvelous gentle evocation of two women characters who feel real to me I'm a fan of The Hourglass shape hourglass it's like out and in and out show me I have no idea how to show you do you have an Hour Glass well I guess then how the hell am I going to figure it out uh okay see where it can be all that exciting it is you couldn't pick a more benign lesbian play to get by in North Carolina what is wrong with you people I think I first read about what happened to Sam in the New York Times actually Holly Hughes is a performance artist who knows about censorship in 1990 she was one of four artists targeted under a congressional statute on indecency as a result their grants from the National Endowment for the Arts were rescinded some people called us the na a 4 other people refer to us as Karen Finley and the three homosexuals if there's anything that's less fundable than than queer theater it's got to be queer Youth Work Hughes organized a reading of Samantha's play at the public theater in New York City to raise money for gay youth organizations the night before Samantha and Veteran writer Dorothy Allison read from their work at blue stockings a woman's bookstore in New York New York's Lower East Side now how do we want to do this want to go first it's really exciting I've never done a reading at a bookstore before I've never attended one I'm just shaking with excitement getting to read with one of the best authors of Our Time Dorothy Allison Allison National book award finalist and author of Bastard out of Carolina had come to New York to help publicize the issue when I was 17 um I didn't know any outgate people at all first of all I want to say how glad I am to be here with [Applause] Sam I said okay I will come and help you do pre publicity because I've been in this position you know I've been going along doing my work getting published and had somebody slap me in my face and say what the hell do you think you're doing you're a dke which is exactly what happens and then you feel like somebody has grabbed you pull the ground out from under you and told you that the thing you want most do in the world you really can't and aren't allowed to do and the guy called up and he said you just won you get $100 I was like woo you know's that was what was surprising that she'd won an award you know he's like you're one of five top writers your play will not be performed on stage because usually queer material particularly children's playright contests would have just been censored and you have three choices one you can rewrite your play without the lesbians and actually it was Samantha who decided she wasn't going to take this in fact other plays with gay content had won in the past but the artists had always agreed to edit out the content one last question what is your best hope of what it's going to come out of your coming to New York and the production of the reading at the public that it will be seen by middle and High School audiences in Charlotte North Carolina the fact that any of this is happening the fact that the reading's happening is just so amazing to me and now I'm meeting the people that I just wish I could even come close to when I was a kid good evening welcome we're so glad you're here uh I am Kate Clinton and this evening I'm going to be your MC your dosent the dominatrix for the evening I didn't think it was going to be as as big an undertaking as it's turning out to be this is how lesbian organizing happens and she says well if I get a certain number of names who will agree to come and do this thing then we can get a theater please welcome hold on Leah [Applause] delaria dear Samantha thank you for providing what the dram turs like to call the inciting event for tonight's extraordinary celebration gay and lesbian artists including myself came to the public theater to support Samantha and to speak out against censorship I started working on this and I started thinking oh I could get really great statements from a queer artists who'd been censored I realized that was all Queer artists look around you take these men and women in these are the people fighting the good fight for people like you and me I'm very clear that this would not have happened as well or as quickly or with as much success if some of us didn't have the kind of power that we've established the opportunity to do something for a young queer kid was great so thank you all for coming tonight please welcome to the stage Mary Louise Parker Lisa cron and Tanya Barfield I like you I love you you're the most amazing person I've ever met and I want to love with you forever I wanted to tell you this but I was scared you might not have wanted me [Applause] given that that we don't necessarily have to be the same kind of people all the time or even agree when we are attacked we Bond and fight back that's a wonderful thing since the publication of my novels I have received letters from students concerned about the omission of gay and lesbian books from their school libraries this censorship is due to pressure from conservative groups and some parents many schools have pulled books with information about homosexuality from gay role models to HIV prevention from their Library shelves this kind of censorship can further isolate gay and lesbian youth who according to studies are three times more likely to commit suicide than straight teen for a list of websites that offer information and resources for Gay and Lesbian youth visit in the life's website at www.in thelevel life [Music] [Music] like Samantha Geller other young queer artists are demanding to be heard here again is Tanya Barfield with the story during the '90s a new generation of poets exploded onto the scene in coffee houses and colleges all over the country they were on The Cutting Edge of a provocative new genre called slam poetry the initial idea was to get audiences listening to what is often considered a rather sedate art form but as you've probably guessed by the name slam poetry is anything but it has shocked and challenged live audiences as well as the mainstream literary Community a poetry slam is a competition where artists are rated on both verse and verbal skills up next three queer poets who are champions of the slam Style I believe Harriet Tubman should be on the dollar bill we've had our fill of wife boy faces time to change places I believe Hillary not bill should have worn the crown slam is evocative it's real it's gritty slam poetry is rebellious but you see my friends my sisters and my family cuz they love and accept meas and don't consider me you want to play with me you can just quit orientalizing cuz I ain't going to change my cottet Cal for you or my mother if I lose you go from Seattle to Maine people are slamming quick quick quick quick quick moves in a traffic dodging dance I didn't want to be white but I was told I had no choice I don't know if I'll ever get used to cruising at bars you learn by doing or so I'm told my entire life I was an actress and my entire life I'd done these dumb girl parts so I just I just got so sick of those parts um that the rage I mean there was rage contained in my first my first poems um and the first time I heard my own voice I think I probably started to cry because I had never really um been entitled to that before when I finally pulled out of you know drug dealing prostituting whatever um there was a time when I seriously thought that I was HIV positive I wanted to leave something behind I wanted to leave a message message I never liked poetry at all I just wanted to be an actor and I thought you know I'd be Miss Saigon but it didn't happen like that so um I had to write and slam came down you know people responded well and it was a kind of response that I never got as an actor and a lot of people who enter the slam who are really successful have come from other art forms that you know wouldn't accept them I slam because people listen when you slam and because I have something to say I think in terms of poetry and I think in terms of lyrics and your voice is your guitar and your body movement is your Rhythm and it's like being a one person band yeah they'll Rob your job soak up the last three drops in this trickle down down down under country are you pizaro or Cortez my mot is don't bore people so every time I do a slam home I feel like you know it's like my Broadway showstopping moments you Asians got the best skin what do you orientals [Music] use slime is also making poetry accessible just to get the message across of queer identity um Filipino identity and um making it fun and showing that that we are multifaceted human beings I'm a man in love with a man I'm a gay man and I live with a man this Prejudice is the pain that clouds my eyes and Knots my spine the scars on the back of my head when I was out on the streets I hung out a lot with members from the house Community I went to a lot of different balls and basically they were just stylized competitions and when I first entered the slam scene I noticed the similarity I mean the only difference was that people were competing with words and not competing with like Runway or like voguing and I wanted to bring these two worlds together because they were two worlds that had influenced me so much as it turns out I mean the the Poetry balls that we've had have been very successful on the Edge of Insanity only in blue moons do I see Humanity I've only brushed against love I've never touched it the slam attracts just teens in general because they they need slime because they want the truth told to them and they also want to um say something it's probably the most rebellious eloquent way to really speak it's this celebration of this different thing that is really great you know and really cool and and I wish I'd had that when I was first you know experiencing those feelings I wish i' had had a stage to talk about it on and had had other people scream for me and applaud those feelings as opposed to you know closing the book and going on with my homework as long as people have something to say as long as a coffee house culture exists as long as um the internet hasn't taken over our lives um we will always be slamming I think poetry in general is very healing you know when you know when you let go of the words you know um it's a great feeling I think slam poetry has a long lifespan and I think I think that's because people are so desperate for this this connection to each other I believe art is universal if you're a white male artist talking to straight white men I believe feminisms in reversal when we believe art is universal cuz then we're just them the government asks me to check one if I want money I say how could you ask me to be One race that we do not understand is hate for all of us that in the Life thanks for watching and see you next time I can't cover up my feelings in the Name of Love or playing safe for a while that was easy and of living for myself is what I'm guilty of go on and sentence me I'll still be [Music] free that's why I got to the one night my parents know what to do but I saw some things before I can't through now do you [Music] think'll get there heaven knows how we will get there but we know we will [Music] [Music] in the life is funded in part by the H van amaran Foundation additional support provided by Michael a lepin Jeffrey B sorif the estate of Elden W tamblin Adam a funding collaborative empowering queer youth the Collingwood Foundation the Gil Foundation the Mitchell Gold company in the hopes of eliminating all types of fear and [Music] Prejudice the gay network gay.com and the annual support of in the Life members like [Music] you for