In the Life: Ep. 1306, "The Latest Trend"

this month in the live jumps on the latest Trend as the LGBT Nation becomes the IT thing in the travel Market $ 58 billion a year and on Capitol Hill do we truly stand for equal rights and at Christmas this past house Hol season I came up with a doozy and find something missing all the way around these kids are invisible and they're dying all this and more on America's Gay and Lesbian News Magazine in the life in the life is funded in part by the H van amaran Foundation additional support provided by the Ford Foundation The Pride Foundation the Gil Foundation the Overbrook Foundation the Ted Snowden Foundation the Arcus Foundation The Lily aen Claus Foundation the BW Bastion Foundation the Fowler Bombadier charitable Family Trust And in the Life members like you welcome to in the life I'm Cherry Jones in a world designed and Polished by The Fab Five and Charmed by Will and Grace it seems the LGBT community has arrived tonight in the latest Trend America's Gay and Lesbian News Magazine looks at and Beyond this newfound celebrity questioning Queer as witch folk you cannot try try to rewrite history and to pretend like we don't exist investigating the b word I'm the guy that will pick on you and like beat your ass and introducing the queer eye for the big guy gaining some extra weight not being you know totally gy toned became eroticized as healthy but first being a cultural trend is one thing but in today's world perhaps the real game AG of a group's it factor is its value as a target market a major Trend Blazer in the queer Market is the travel industry which has devised lots of new ways to spend the gay dollar around the country and in honor of a community on the Move in the life is resurrecting out and about and taking it on the road in recent years the gay travel Market has experienced a tremendous surge with record numbers picking up their suitcases and plenty of new Publications and websites to tell them where to go gay travel is booming $58 billion dollar a year that's how much the gay and lesbian travel Market is actually worth so that's a lot of money Ed salvado is the editor of the magazine out and about which has no relationship to this series every year um out and about has published uh our editor's choice award and and very importantly a destination of the year in 2002 we bestowed that award on New York City and primary reason being um the great resiliency New York and New Yorkers have shown um since September 11th particularly in the gay Arena I started go after 911 because I wanted to celebrate all that was wonderful about New York we all became very aware of the difficulties of living here and I real realized that this is the largest gay hub for women in the country go NYC based in SoHo likes to think of itself as the road mapap for the city girl I started this magazine to celebrate being gay in New York as a wonderful experience I feel like a lot of people who are gay from other parts of the country come to New York because it's a place where they'll be accepted where there's um tolerance and equality and maybe that's not as available in other parts of the country two guys or two gs walk up to a c at a hotel ask for bed no one bats an eyelash actually the bed and breakfast um scene in New York is sort of a hidden secret most of these are located in or around Chelsea typically the owner lives there so you can pick his brain about um the gay scene what to do and that's a big deal for people some of the larger hotels that seek out the gay traveler include uh the the W brand it's sort of big Mainstream Boutique Hotel and when gay tourists travel to New York there's no end of media Outlets trying to catch their eye sometimes you feel a little awkward or some Travelers do asking about you know is there a gay bar in the neighborhood if you're visiting and you may be a little bit reluctant to talk to someone reveal that you're gay to the con um go online great place to start I would also suggest going into our chat rooms emailing just I aming people and saying hey what should I do tonight also you can pick up some of the the local Publications easily anywhere down what I was a gay woman just arrived in New York I have a couple of options just in Manhattan on a given night you could party in the cubby Hall esita hot Hannah's Lava Lounge Heaven Saints wonderbar ston wall Starlight Ruby fruit bar and grill Meow Mix Henrietta and that's on like a Monday our first priority is to celebrate those that make an effort to court the gay community because they want our business there and because they appreciate us there is now a perception that we not only have money and have jobs and have leisure time and have Expendable income but we are very brand loyal and we want to put our money with organizations that support us one such place is Deborah's lifel food it's life love food because it's more than just a restaurant I put my heart and soul into every dish that goes out I'm openly out about my sexuality you know that lesbian owned and operated I think there certainly people that want to come and be comfortable holding hands openly so it does matter to them gay scene in New York has really expanded Beyond Christoper Street I mean that's where it all started you know decades ago and in fact a really great pilgrimage that people make is to shered in square to see stone wall to see where the gay movement actually started but since then the gay um areas have really migrated out north to Hell's Kitchen East to the East Village and a lot of actually a lot of gays and lesbians moved to Brooklyn there's the whole cultural aspect of New York that draws uh Legions of visitors I mean whether it's Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center or the many many museums it's really the nerve center of so much publishing um fashion uh money business everything the first time you visit or even the 10th time you visit you walk down the street and you can't believe there's vampire State Building or there's the Statue of Liberty or the clop clop of horses in Central Park it's just it's New York there are 25,000 restaurants and bars in this city there is more theater per square in than any other city in the planet you have more ethnic diversity here than any place on the planet it is a magical City it can be Hell on Wheels to live in but it's always exciting for the gay community in 1984 Greg lanus won gold medals at the Los Angeles Olympics in both the platform and springboard diving competitions at the 1988 Olympics he again won double gold making him the the first diver ever to win back-to-back double gold medals and in 1995 Greg came out as a gay man living with AIDS and revealed that he had set that record after he had been diagnosed with HIV I'm Leslie Gore and you're watching in the life based on mainstream media representations one would assume that the LGBT community is roughly 85% male 99% white 0% trans and 100 100% waxed and plucked in the real world one group has made a lifestyle out of bucking that image or perhaps I should say butching that image in San Francisco in the mid 80s after the epidemic hit these guys were kind of responding or reacting to a number of things gaining some extra weight not being you know totally gy toned became became eroticized as healthy there was also a very different kind of phenomenon where men were looking for ways to reconnect all of our friends had died or moved out of town and said you know we've got to start going out and I walked into the Lone Star and it it it was a Eureka moment I there were guys that had beards and were were Bears looked like me the physically they didn't fit the mold that they did tend to you know be singled out or feel separated out because of their their physical appearance yeah I think the whole bear movement started you know because there because we needed an alternative to what we are seeing in the magazines and everything everyone is not like that and you know everyone has their certain definition of of what they think is beautiful if you're wise exercise all the fat off take it off over here over there when you're seen anywhere with your hat on wear a Mel wave in your hair keep you young and beautiful it's your duty to be beautiful that's right girls keep young and beautiful if you want to be L being a bear is about you know being inclusive so we're trying to bring as many people from The Fringe as possible if you don't feel like you belong to the Chelsea muscle crowd you don't belong to any of these other like predefined areas in V Community you belong to the Bears though I love bearss the whole Community it's comfortable so there's this whole kind of philosophy of bears are about not having attitude bears are just kind of laid-back easygoing well yeah I you know bears are snuggly and not afraid to be affectionate bears like to have fun the reason the club exists in order to create as many of these opportunities as possible for Bears to get together and congregate we love love love to have parties raise your hand if you want to play it's a fun social event it's different it's different than the bars my hair and the purpose of the game is to get from one end to the other while being blindfolded by correctly answering multiple guest questions a play Party B non denominal worship service C Dean Goble D big whoopy bear in room 832 see see we call them the get to know your NE bear games you know it seems no pun is too painful there's a dizzying amount of bear related puns that I've encountered and used Through The Years one cannot have a cultural Identity or Community identity without having one's own lingo and there is a very elaborate bare bare language or be sling husbear is like husband my my my hus bear is back they're looking back there somewhere yeah hus Bears has been a very popular term and my response was but my partner he really loves the term wolf like wolf or wolf like that means you think someone's hot never underestimate the power of one group to then subdivide itself there there's and so in the bear Community there any number of terms bear otter Cub wolf I've even heard and everybody had has their own definition of them bears are all about having you know hairy chest and big beards and a big belly and just being big guys Cub generally is often thought of as a younger bear some people are no I'm not a bear I'm an otter which means you're a slender physically slender bear I guess wolf I hear and I still haven't figured that one out for a while I uh went around telling people I was a moose um just for the hell of it but then of course there's some people who take it very seriously and then you get this endless tension between is this person a beer with a small beer or a capital B where somebody else is you know you know girlfriend get over it it's just it's a joke we'll get people both sides of the shapes they like to do everything from lift weights to have potlock dinner parties you know within within the first four years of this there were there were self-organizing bear clubs all over the country the bear phenomenon went Global in half a dozen years well people come from Australia Switzerland Japan kind of parallel the circuit party scene is a kind of a bare circuit as well that people travel from place to place and and Country to Country these are large Gatherings of bears in the hundreds to thousands as you find up to a thousand people potentially attend these in our consumer culture that you are a community you are an identity when you are a Nish market so there was this kind of race to sell product to bears for all the bare necessities the simple Bare Necessities forget about your worries and your St and I've noticed it's cropping up more and more uh in mass media hey Wayan who's the bear oh is that the Mr Burns you're always talking about no he's nobody shut up Stuart nice to meet you steuart the media tells us this is what a man is supposed to be and these are the people who get rewarded in our societ Society uh what is all of that about there are some people that they need a little bit of extra help sometimes in finding themselves and becoming part of the community the the thing about the bare movement it's allowed a lot of people who have been disenfranchised from the general mainstream gay population to realize that they're acceptable and accepted and that's a pretty great thing very back left arm yellow a visit to the black gay and lesbian Archives of the Shamburg Center in New York calls into question the power of our community's current popular image and reminds us that while major markets and the mass media may have only recently discovered our charms we've actually been around for quite a while while don't you know talking about a re sounds I think one of the um stereotypes surrounding um gay life and black life is that one is only defined by The Stereotype of being being black or The Stereotype of being gay Steven fullwood is a writer and manuscript librarian at the shamberg center for research in Black Culture he is also project archist for an Ever growing collection this is the black G lesbian archive an archive is set up to document the recorded history of black lesbians bisexuals gays transgender same gender loving queer questioning in the Life culture and history F Wood's desire is that black gay and lesbian history will become more visible able and more accessible to the general public the 5-year collection phase of the archive kicked off in 2000 we're in the third year of collecting and the shanberg center has agreed to be the official repository for the archive and this is to sort of kind of get a really good sense of what's out there what's been recorded the magazines the books the brochures the organizational records photographs audio materials historian Michael Henry Adams recently guest curated Harlem lost and found at the city museum of New York for African-Americans it's been relatively difficult to go back into the past to discover yourself and for gay African-Americans that Minority within a minority it's been almost impossible Adams has done extensive research for his upcoming title homo Harlem many of his recent interviews speak to the importance of recovering forgotten history what I find is when I'm talking to elderly gay people who are people of color on the one hand they've been traumatized by their experience of being black and gay and in many instances of being arrested or threatened with arrest for being black and gay even now when they're in their 60s 7s 80s and 90s imagine being afraid to declare who you are openly back at the shamberg archive contributor houti highlights the community's need to reflect on its everchanging identities I think it is a valuable effort that uh Steven has made calling this community to to meeting that old expression of calling the community to meeting uh to get us to look at the value that's in our very bones uh and how we can collect that uh to create a community conversation about who and what we are the the Shamburg is already home to the collections of several well-known African-American figures but the new archive Edition allows people to explore the materials with a clearer picture of who the contributing donors were it's been a wonderful Discovery to see just how diverse this community is some of the more rare items in um The Collection include the first and only three issues of moja which is considered to be the first black gay and lesbian newspaper produced here in New York City in 1978 I also have a fullrun of BLK which was produced by Alan Bell out on the California coast a box has come from juel Gomez who donated photographs and original materials from our own archive to the archive Samuel Delaney he's donated his books Lisa C Moore of Redbone press and editor of Lambda report has donated books from her press author editor Lisa Moore started Redbone press in 1997 and can attest to the importance of preservation a devastating fire threatened the future of red bone and destroyed Moore's Personal Collection of materials and the closer I got to my apartment I saw these flashing lights and we passed by and I see that the apartment that the fire was in was mine and there was a big black hole where my apartment used to be and I walk in and everything is just charred and black her latest project spirited remained viable only because her co-editor had a copy there were other pieces that I don't have these things are going to dis appear Without a Trace if we don't take the responsibility to document our own history imagine American music or American fashion or American dance um without the presence of African-Americans American um letters and literature without African-Americans but our accomplishments and achievements have been very marginalized well that's been doubly so for African-Americans who are lesbians and gays we need to show that we too are part part of what made um this nation a great place it's necessary for people's survival for them to know that it's okay to be all of who they are and be black and be gay and be lesbian now that this vital collection is in the protective hands of the Shamburg the lives of black gays and lesbians throughout the panafrican diaspora can truly be remembered reclaimed and celebrated I set up the archive to Aid in the preservation of this type of material because it was so limited in scope in certain institutions My Hope Is that this information will be used to to draw better histories of black AES and lesbians if you don't know where you've been you don't you can't Char a course uh for where you want to be you cannot try to rewrite history and to pretend like we don't exist We Exist all of us both the straight and the gay and people have got to accept that don't you know talking about a reolution soundss don't you know talking about a reolution sounds our current notoriety has also placed gay issues in the throws of America's presidential debates in the life has invited all candidates to discuss their plans for queer America in our new series campaign 2004 this month Congressman Dennis kusich presidential hopeful Dennis kinich recently traveled to New York City where he spoke to a packed room at the lesbian gay B seexual and transgendered Community Center thank you Congressman cassin's support of equal rights and civil Cil rights for the gbt community is unsurpassed by any presidential candidate his overriding philosophy is that same-sex couples and opposite sex couples should be equal in the eyes of the law including marriage presidential candidate Congressman Dennis cassin it's great to be here this afternoon with you and to uh talk to you about the mutual concerns which we have for this community and for our nation I have always been a strong supporter of the rights of of gays and lesbians and bisexuals and transgendered people I I think that that the whole range of issues in our society that need to be addressed that relate to uh ending discrimination are issues that are felt most keenly by gays and lesbians and bisexual transgendered people and those issues relate to discrimination in housing discrimination in employment access to health care and by addressing those issues you address the issues of the entire Society kusich finds the recent Massachusetts marriage decision particularly encouraging the decision of the Court creates a context in our society where we can ask you know what does America stand for do we truly stand for equal rights for equality of opportunity this community creates the opportunity for America to to heal in a profound way I Dennis kusich Dennis kusich elected to congress as an Ohio representative in 1996 kinich now the leader of the Congressional Progressive caucus challenges the notion that a progressive candidate is unelectable I got elected to the mayor of Cleveland defeating a republic incumbent I was elected to the state senate defeating a republican incumbent I was elected to the House of Representatives defeating a republican incumbent now how is it that I've been able to do that because my politics address people's practical aspirations and my politics don't separate people we have over a trillion dollars for tax cuts to those in the top Racket and And yet when you talk about the basic needs of America housing Health Care education jobs ho we don't have money for that that's the story but the only reason why people will Vote or even care to is that the message has to respond to their practical aspirations a lot of Democrats and a lot of politicians in general just completely marginalize this community and it's refreshing to know that like there's a par candidate who's willing to speak out on the issues the things that we're talking about here today okay they're inevitable they're inevitable we're we're talking about the direction the society must go so that's why I have this sense of hope and optimism about the inevitability of the Triumph of Social and economic Justice the question then is not if but when I'm Alex Sanchez and you're watching in the life tonight the second half of in the life is devoted to the upand cominging members of our upand cominging community with the politics of high school the students don't want a diversity Club they want to gay State Alliance The Fallout of having no place to go my daughter did not die in vain something is going to be done about this and Mrs claw's memories of this Christmas past but first national audiences may be embracing five designing queer guys on television each week but but in hallways and playgrounds across the country and far far away from the nearest television audience life is often not very fabulous for kids who are seen as different in this month's real toore filmmaker Deborah chesnoff reflects on her new film let's get real at this school there's all kinds of name calling and bullying most of the fights in Middle School come from Gossip I'm the guy that will pick on you and like beat your ass let's get real is a film that is really aimed towards kids who are somewhere between Sixth and ninth grade and what we try to do in the film is to open up a dialogue about what's really going on for kids at that age group when in terms of their experiences with name calling and bullying I've been called they've called me AAR D gay gay homo no shut the hell up I really don't care what you think kids talk honestly about the homophobia pushing them to the brink that they think about killing themselves they push they talk honestly about being harassed every day to the point where they have a fantasy of shooting someone we wanted to make the connections between what's going on and really talk about the power dynamics what do you get out of bullying another kid why are you picking that set of words what are you trying to get out of it finding these kids was um quite a project I'd go into classrooms and ask people you know okay who in this class has had an experience with name calling or bullying you all the hands would go up I'd go back into the into the hallway in a little desk in the corner and they would pour their guts out to me and uh so you're sitting there meeting kids and every once once in a while you know I met hundreds of kids to pick the 50 or so that are in the film and you know I would know somebody would come across you know they'd sit down and they'd look me in the eye and you know I could feel my heart strings pulling one person that stands out for me the most is Jasper and he's a kid that described being beaten up almost every single day being harassed relentlessly I would actually do this but if I had a gun I just feel like shooting him like right in the leg or somewhere really painful just to see them rain that's how mad I get sometimes I'm not to actually kill them I'd never kill someone but just just I sometimes I get so pissed at them I just want to see them in pain which is which is cruel but I mean they just pushed me to the Limit he was at the premiere of our film and it was the first time he had seen it and it was incredible to see him there and how proud he felt to be in it and he came up to me and he said I really like this film I hope it's you know I want can you get it in every school I think it can make a difference and uh you know it doesn't get that much better than that when you're a filmmaker the other person that really stands out for me every time I see the film is little girl very very shy they go around calling me names like ching chang CH or boley's daughter they said what does it feel like when that happens to you she just sat there for a second and then she says what she says in the film I just like get this fire inside of me that I can't put out and I just get r angry every time I see that I get goosebumps most of my friends they they call people like and stuff you'd always pick on like kids that seem gay or acted feminine for whatever reason you know those anti-gay slurs are like the number one slur of choice and kids use it to mean a lot of things gay is the universal word that's gay he's gay she's gay that teacher is gay this homework assignment's gay that pencil's gay that Pen's gay you know you could use it for anything sometimes people literally do mean gay and sometimes people mean gay as in stupid ready people kept on calling me especially in PE and it happened every day all six seven periods it's just I can't deal with that you know if someone if someone's right next to your ear going through the entire day you just want to turn around and talk I say a lot of things to kids like I'll swear at them like at the same time if they're like making me mad or aggravating me or something I'll just say something to him you just say it right in their face you never really say it behind cuz behind their back doesn't get to him and I don't know it just gets to him faster if you say like or something what we really came to learn and and really believe is that there's no kid who is a bully that you know every kid can find themselves at one point or another at a different point on the bullying Spectrum and there are bullying behaviors but you know inside everybody's a human being and there could be a lot of pressures H lot of forces pressuring kids um that cause them to act out and to be really mean to other kids I started calling people gay and it's cuz of my stepfather would um who would call me um those things if I was like acting weak or like not doing like the manly thing or I don't like the way people look at me like it just really aggravates me the way that people look at me that's basically what it's all about seeing how pissed off you get the other person when we've taken the film and shown it to students it is the kids who have who do the bullying that have the greatest impact on the class because they've never had the experience of hearing somebody who's in that role um be self-reflective and also you know self-aware enough to change I think it givs people full a lot of hope everyone else I didn't mess with they they didn't want to be my friend I walk up to them ask I play basketball no they be like no be like why not CU you like to pick on people too much they you to tell me that we're really inside me I have a good heart and like I don't want people to be thinking I'm a I'm a bad person I see some of the kids I used to bully we're cool now we talk we chill out together and like they go about their B I go about mine we've been blown away by the response to this film so far we've had school districts all over the country calling up wanting you know multiple copies of the film there's over 50,000 middle schools in the United States I'd love to get this film into as many of them as possible you know I think there is unanimous consensus across the board in this country that bullying and name calling are out of control you know it is any way you look at the statistics there's an epidemic and it is getting worse and the consequences no one can afford to ignore you know 75% of the school shootings that happen today are have been including the one like at Coline have been committed by students who are being harassed um often with anti-gay harassment and you know what happens to kids is that they boil over and nobody's taking it seriously and nobody's finding a way for kids to to to deal with the real issues that are going on this is a film for people who are willing to go that next step and get real according to the gay lesbian and straight education Network or glisten a 2001 National School climate survey found that four out of five lesbian gay by seexual transgender students experience verbal sexual or physical harassment at school and nearly one in three reported skipping at least one day of school in the last month out of fear for their personal safety I'm Pamela Sneed and you're watching in the Live While there may be little protection from bullying in the halls of our our schools the gay straight Alliance movement has given kids a peaceful tool to check the violence they face but the debate over lgbtq representation recently took a new turn at Stevenson High School in suburban Chicago the number of gsas registered with glisten jumped from 1,200 in 2002 to over 2,000 at the beginning of this school year but last year Stevenson High School decided they didn't need one you hear you hear all those words um I wouldn't say it's it's it is a problem here um I think that it's important we do address it as much as we can it's one of our biggest issues in our diversity Club Lisa Kaplan was a senior at Stevenson and president of the diversity Club a lot of people can't speak up for themselves and I don't really have that problem so I'm willing to be an advocate for anyone that's doesn't have the confidence to do it for thems the diversity Club organizes programs to help students be more inclusive of each other's cultures religions races and sexual orientations I would challenge a gay straight Alliance to do any more than we're doing Talia Stein was a sophomore and an advocate of setting up a gay straight Alliance I'm a proud to be a member of the diversity club and while they're trying the students don't want a diversity Club they want a gay State Alliance it's not really just about what the administration and faculty want we want people to understand human rights we want to understand culture we want to promote acceptance and valuing each other the Board of Education and the administrative team had diversity high on its list of goals that it wished to uh work on and so the club was formed in order to address those needs the problem with diversity Club as it stands right now is it's an adult generated adult structured Club the students want a gay stade Alliance people have been fighting for 6 years for for it you know petitions have been sent around the school getting over 500 signatures a piece the interest is there Talia says a GSA would give lgbtq teens and their allies a place together and would do a better job of attacking faculty apathy for their issues I understand the reasons for having a Gade Alliance in a school but I feel like we cover all of those reasons plus more you know I would challenge any other school to do as much as we do their main argument against the git Alliance is we don't like clubs that overlap in purpose so we're going to shove everything into one Club but you know Reliance isn't an issue of diversity it's an issue of sexual orientation and gender identification everything is diverse ping pong players as opposed to football players is diverse you shove them into the diversity Club this past year the diversity Club sponsored educational events for coming out day National Day of Silence and National gay and lesbian pride month the diversity Club has uh demonstrated that it is doing a great deal to address gay and Les lesan issues within the school in 2002 Talia applied for and received a grant from P flag to set up a separate GSA at Stevenson but when the school realized the money was not for the diversity club's LGBT programs they gave the money back yeah to have a separate gay trade Alliance outside of diversity club would overlap in purpose so we returned the check with great respect Lisa says a GSA would begin a process of fragmentation allowing groups to break off from the larger Club it factions people off and we're about you know everybody being involved in everybody's cause not just their own we have 4,300 students and yet the programs are equipped to address the needs of each individual that same year Stevenson was selected as one of America's best public high schools and while Talia Lisa and Janet Jesse all share pride in the school the the issue of how best to combat homophobia Still Remains unresolved not against diversity Club it's kind of a misconception among the administration and members of diversity club that I'm not with them and I am Talia is still committed to a separate GSA she resubmitted her application in December 2003 as of press time school officials said no decision on the gsa's future had been made I don't feel that the two clubs are exclusive of each other I feel that a GSA and a diversity Club can coexist quite peacefully and work together really well to achieve the goals that we all want to achieve queer kids especially kids of color remain invisible in the mainstream's trendy portrait of gay America this Omission reflects the reality of many of their lives a reality which as the 2003 murder of Sakia gun Illustrated can have deadly consequences in the life goes to Newark New Jersey to revisit the circumstances that left Sakia and her friends with no place to go in May 2003 15-year-old Sakia gun was brutally stabbed to death at a bus stop in Newark New Jersey the murder galvanized the local LGBT community tonight in the life looks at a call for Change and one community's effort to create it A car pulled up and was trying to talk to the girls telling them to come here and none of the girls went so they was telling them we gay so the guy got out the car telling them why you over here with these they the guy was 29 years old 59 210 lb anybody in their right mind can see that these children I mean that these were children when he put the knife to her neck she swung at him and got them off of her then they went to run again and he grabbed her and he just stabbed her in the chest Valencia said as she was looking at her in the car kept saying don't go to sleep don't go to sleep she said her eyes roll in the back of her head once a kid died in my arms I immediately went to like a stage of shot like I couldn't believe it when Valencia lost Sakia she had like she went to a very traumatic stage um it was at like she was a time bomb getting ready to explode she really didn't know what to do there was so many people in one year that I have known that lives have been taken because of something so dumb something that it shouldn't even matter you know this happen so often here in nework it happen so often in the black community um young black kids get killed every day all day every day any time of day so I think we've many of us have uh become um desensitized to the horror of having a young person's life uh ended that way but veteran activist laqueta Nelson was so compelled by sakya's murder that she came out of retirement founding an organization to do something about it the Newark Pride Alliance Incorporated came about as a result of the murder of Sakia gun in order to address the issues that were affecting the gay and lesbian Community uh with special emphas emphasis on the youth Nelson is focused on finally achieving a long-sought youth center which would provide a safe place for kids like Valen To Go part of what uh led up to these young people's deaths is that they've had to go uh places to to neighborhoods and to communities far a field from their home to find places where they felt safe all that hatred and all that violence we don't bring it to New York especially to um The Village we don't bring it there you leave all that stuff wherever you came from there you could walk down the street all types of night I mean you're still going to be careful but you really have to don't have to worry about anyone coming to get you or saying something to you in Jersey we really don't have anywhere to go to be freely with our sexuality so you come out here to be around people like us rather than seeing this as a national problem that deserves news media attention this has been treated again as a local crime problem as a problem that perhaps only the gay media should be concerned about and the gay and lesbian media has not as far as I can ascertain really paid attention to those specific concerns of gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgender youth of color so all the way around these kids are invisible and they're dying as everyone knows kid was a real close friend of mine I'm happy to see that people out here fight fighting against bias crimes it's a shame that we have to walk down the street not knowing what's going to happen to us a very important part of the work that the new Pride Alliance has before it and that's to educate the people about the lives of gay and lesbian people and and gay and lesbian children and how homophobia and hate crimes and name calling and beating up and things like that how it affects the the the children and the people that these acts are directed at as well as how these Acts affect the community as as a whole the community was further traumatized in the aftermath of Sak's murder after she died there was a statement that the principal had made a um when you live a certain lifestyle things like this deserve to happen to you but I didn't hear him say that so I don't know the truth in spite of the alleged attitude of their principal over 2,000 students attended sakya's Memorial in G Community we all want family anyone fell behind the other one picks them up to make sure we right on the same track there's no one going to be left behind ever the emotion of the day captured almost everyone including mayor sharp James who attended the services and promised full support to the community center he came to the funeral and that's when he promised us he said well he'll help us get it Center anything we want it he'll help us get it but every since that day you can't even get him on a phone after initially agreeing to be interviewed for this story the mayor's office later declined I think the new community has failed to gain this been Community not only just the youth but the adults too because this has been an ongoing problem for a long time by now New York should have some type of cultural center for the children it's um homophobic this issue about a community center is not a new issue is it's a it's something that we've been fighting for for many years but it's taken s Kia's murder to bring the light to these people oh there is a problem there with the young gay you know uh African-American gay and lesbian youth no it's not new this has been going on for a long time do have children standing off the streets wanting to come there to play basketball wanting to come there to read a book would to come there just sit there and hang out with their friends because they can't hang out on in front of that house because they got to worry about a drive bar just it would actually have people come there because they want to do something with their lives I don't think that young people today really have a sense that they can make the world better and they don't really have a sense of what better means I think there's so confused and so overwhelmed in an effort to make Newark a safer place the Newark Pride Alliance is working in concert with P flag to get these issues out of the closet thank you um although my daughter's physical is not here it's people like you and everybody that's support me that keeps alive within me and I than everything that everybody's helping me do thank you I deeply want the world to know that I am trying to get this Center that my daughter did not die in vain something is going to be done about this there needs to be a paradigm shift in this state as well as this country with respect to how how people in the general public see gay and lesbian people a a a an an image has been implanted in their mind since time and Memorial of us being unclean UNH wholesome Wicked Unworthy of of of life people fear the unknown and what people fear they tend to hate but if you understand something you would learn not to fear it you would learn not to hate it you would learn probably even to love it or like it all those young lesbians and all those young kids that we hugged and tried to console at s's funeral we promised them that we were going to do something to make things better for them and that's what we're going to do we're going to get them a community center so that they can go there and they can gather and feel safe because that Community Center is going to be a place where they can come and not fear that they're going to be hurt in any kind of way and finally Harvey's own take on Santa's Thanksgiving Day surprise these words are making me nervous well so far that's not offensive come on Papa what do you say every now and then you do something that takes on a life of its own this past holiday season I came up with a doozy last October I got a call from Macy's as part of their annual Thanksgiving Day Parade they' created a new float of a Thunderbird convertible with a giant penguin on the back how would I like to ride in this year's parade sounded pretty lame to me but then I had a bright idea an idea I might brag that would shake the nation as you may already know in Hairspray I play a big fat woman who wears a big red dress I thought what if that big fat woman was Mrs Santa Claus how subversive would that be to have a drag queen appearing as the most famous woman of the season in the most famous parade in America the parade shot from lame to irresistible when I told Macy's they enthusiastically embraced the idea Not only would I appear in a Mrs Santa Claus costume on their new float but they would commission a Christmas song for me to sing William Ivy long went right to work on my costume along with Santa Hela outfits for the three young ladies who play the dynamites in our show and our musical director arranged the song for us and under the watchful eye of Macy's own directors we pre-recorded it and Reed ourselves for the big day meanwhile on the other side of New England down came the decision on gay marriage from the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts party time not so fast no sooner had the court found denying us our rights to marry as unconstitutional the screams of outraged heterosexuals echoed through the Canyons of hate known as the media marriage is the Sanctified Union between a man and a woman the homosexual agenda threatens to destroy our American way of life well we've all heard this before but this time I was doubly offended because he was a decision from a court based on a state's constitution written by John Adams founding father of our nation these conservative yahoos profess to know what is better for America than John Adams I don't think so so I sat down and wrote an noted peace for the New York Times using my upcoming gig in the Thanksgiving Day Parade I'm used what if Santa really was in a same-sex relationship with those political grinches deny this man who brings the world nothing but joy and good will his right to marry of course they would I concluded and then using examples of great gay Americans through history I discussed how our accomplishments are appropriated by heterosexual Society while our rights and dignity are denied I asked how many heterosexual Patriots hold their hands over their hearts as they sing America the Beautiful while never acknowledging that a lesbian wrote those words we provide the music for countless weddings I put forth but are denied dancing at our own well the New York Times loved the piece and they printed it on the day before Thanksgiving I was too busy doing my Wednesday matina to notice the doooo hit the fan but by the time I came off stage there were reporters surrounding the Neil Simon the theater and a flurry of phone calls to answer seems Macy's had gotten a couple of calls of complaint okay a couple of thousand calls of complaint that a man was to be Mrs Santa in their parade Macy's denied any such thing was going to happen according to their three press releases I was not dressing as Mrs Santa Edna from Hairspray was dressing as Mrs Santa when the Press got to me I truthfully had a problem figuring that one out I mean I Harvey firin I'm a real person my character from Hairspray is not and neither is oh I hope the children are out of the room for this Miss Santa so whether I called myself Harvey or Edna turnblad or Edna St Vincent Malay as far as I was concerned there would be a man dressing as Mrs Santa Claus in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade period and we all went about our merry ways Thanksgiving Day and for weeks that followed I read and heard and heard about reports that I've been tossed out of the parade that I've been banned from riding on Santa slay that I've been shamed and scolded and told off in no uncertain terms by Macy's Santa and the American public lies children I'm here to tell you it's all lies it is Edna turnblad otherwise known as Harvey firin to the Delight of Macy's and the two and a half million people lining that Parade route I rode on my float as planned waved to the crowd and received their hollers and screams of support right back at me I then sang My Santa song to the tens of millions more who viewed it all on television toys around the tree and the bad kids they get clothes I should know I got this when the parade ended I was thanked by Macy's Limousin away and then given a check in pay payment for a good day's work they also sent me photos a thank you note and this swell laminated plaque to commemorate the day what I find most shocking about this whole incident is not that the Press totally lied about the plain facts facts that could be verified by anyone simply by watching a television no what shocks me most is that not a single newspaper radio station tabloid magazine columnist or pundit answered the argument I made in my oped piece not one of them took on the question of how the Bush Administration can spend $ 87 billion bringing freedom to all Iraqi people while seeking legislation to deny basic rights to our own citizens not one reporter or commentator questioned the constitutionality of legalizing bigotry isn't that a bigger story than a man a wash and a sea of balloons and clowns wearing a dress so what did we learn from this two things the press cannot be counted on to report a story they are as bright as the person who writes the press release they are reading from call them liberal call them conservative the American Press is as easily distracted as a preschooler secondly if they did actually discuss the merits of our issues we would win the debate and equal rights could never be denied us we have the constitution on our side they have spin Superstition and bigotry so we need to force the de bait out into the Open start writing those letters be wary be vigilant and always remember that the Press is out to sell advertising space not truth and something else you have to do as a good citizen the next time you're at a ballpark and they stand up to sing America the Beautiful You must elbow the person next to you and say I just love a good lesbian sing along don't you I'm Cherry Jones for all of us at in the life here at G Lounge in New York City thank you for watching and we'll see you next month in the life is funded in part by the H van amaran Foundation additional support provided by the Ford Foundation The Pride Foundation the Gil Foundation the Overbrook Foundation the Ted Snowden Foundation the Arcus Foundation The Lily aen classus Foundation the BW Bastion Foundation the Fowler Bombadier charitable Family Trust And in the Life members like you