In the Life: Ep. 1805, "Mobilizing Hope"

[Michael Billy:] Coming up on "In the Life": the house and ballroom scene is alive and well in Newark, New Jersey. [Francisco Roque:] It's essentially a sense of family that's created. [Billy:] A Conversation With... New York Governor David Paterson and LGBT chronicler, George Chauncey. [Paterson:] I think people need to separate their fears and their anxieties from their conduct. [Billy:] And we go on the down-low in Cleveland. [Abigail Child:] It's how you're invisible if you're gay and Black. Or bi and Black. [Billy:] All this and more on "In the Life". Documenting the people and the issues shaping the gay experience. [Announcer:] "In the Life" is funded in part by: the H. van Ameringen Foundation; Arcus Foundation; Newpol Foundation; The Estate of Richard W. Weiland; Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS; and by the annual support of In the Life members, like you. Welcome to "In the Life". I'm Michael Billy. February is Black History Month. But this year is different thanks to the inauguration of President Barack Obama, a milestone in race relations and a source of pride and inspiration for us all. On tonight's episode, we shift our focus from the grand national stage, to the smaller scale of daily life for LGBT African Americans. ["In the Life" theme music] In 1990, the film "Paris Is Burning" documented the flair and cultural importance of the gay ball scene, and the African American and Hispanic LGBT people who thrive in it. The ball community, carefree, artistic and sexually-charged, spread beyond New York across the country, as HIV/AIDS also spread. New Jersey rates fifth in the nation for overall cases of HIV/AIDS. Facing the music, individuals and organizations in Newark have responded by targeting the ball community. Houses like the House of Jourdan, have become active in promoting HIV awareness, as well as testing for HIV at their events. Tonight, we examine one of those events, the Enchanted Ball, to see how activism and artistry come together in the latest incarnation of the ball movement, we call "Ballroom 2.0". [club music] [Jack Mizrahi:] It's not just about ballroom tonight. It's really about being aware, protecting yourself. [ball attendees:] Make a promise. These bands represent the promise. I'll take an HIV test. This is a ball where people come and have fun. [Man:] Ballroom has gone all the way back since the 1800s. And the late 1800s to 1900s. And they used to have balls in the 1930s during the Depression Era, called the Beaux Arts Balls. There was people that were poor. There was people that were rich, and they would all go to these balls. [Billy:] The ball scene peaked in the '80s. And with the release of Madonna's hit single "Vogue" in 1990, the scene found a mainstream audience. [club music and noise] [Bernie McAllister:] Now vogueing. Vogueing is actually - it was a way of battling without fighting. It was supposed to be, in a way of being able to fight without having to put hands on each other. And that's what that was about. You were supposed to be able to shut somebody up if you can work your hands and do a step that they couldn't do. And make the crowd go up, much like breakdancing. [club music and noise] [Evelyn Williams:] Bernie McAllister is the father of the House of Jourdan. He used to actually walk balls but he saw his role as a father as a opportunity to begin to bring HIV prevention and education as well as, you know, helping young people to take a different road in their lives. [Billy:] A study conducted in five U.S. cities found that 46% of Black men who have sex with men, or MSMs, were infected with the HIV virus. This increase in HIV strongly points to the need for prevention and education targeting Black communities. [Michael Robinson:] One of the things the ballroom scene has done is taken on this initiative, this sort of button campaign around, making people aware of their status. I am astonished that all of us are out here on a Wednesday night, for a mini ball on a Wednesday, and just how fierce those runways were tearing it up. [club music and noise] [Francisco Roque:] The Enchanted Ball is an event that we put on early in the Spring of 2008 and it was an unbelievable opportunity for us to partner with another organization. Essentially what happened was GMHC decided to partner with POCC, People Of Color in Crisis, and the two of us came together because we have a history of working with the house and ball community and so it was very important that we show a united front and that we were really about the work. Now we're looking at how do we begin to get testing into venues that are not considered what you would call your traditional venues, but places where particularly young people go, which may be in the evening or early morning, such as bars, such as social venues, as well as maybe just cultural events. [Man at ball:] And don't forget that there's a HIV testing going downstairs for free with a $20 incentive. [Man #2 at ball:] By test, we're going to show that it means you must... [Roque:] When we go into a venue like a bar, a gay bar, and instead of just hand -having outreach workers hand out palm cards, we actually look to change the structure of, of the venue. So we might have messages in cocktail napkins. We might have condom bowls or condom dispensers in the venues. We'll have PSAs that are playing abovehead and on flat-screen TVs at the venue. And these things begin to actually structurally change the environment in a way that encourages people to have dialogue. [Jack Mizrahi:] The campaign tonight is "Make Promises". It's like I promised myself that every time I engage in sexual activity that I'm going to be safe. And we want everybody to make promises to one another. [Emcee:] Well, there's a promise for you to stay healthy, a promise for you to stop smoking, a promise for you to stay off drugs. A promise for you to stop drinking, a promise to take care of yourself and friends and a promise to do no one harm. I think we should all make a promise to ourselves, no matter what it is. [Man #3 at ball:] It's not just going to a ball, per se. It's going to a ball, you know, they check on your health. You know, they're providing a lot of services, good services, checking on a lot of people that are displaced from families and what not and, and actually making it a real good thing. [Billy:] Newark, New Jersey has become the epicenter of a new movement among the ball community to coordinate and implement HIV awareness in the houses themselves. [Williams:] When we look at the houses in the ball community, it's really a very interesting social phenomenon. By coming into a house, they move into now, a social support system. [Roque:] It's essentially a sense of family that's created among these young folks who may not otherwise have that feeling at home or may not have support in other environments. And so they create these little pockets, these families called houses, and they come together. And there's a lot of mentorship that happens, so there's a lot of strength and, and beauty within the community and there's a lot of resiliency there. The houses are actually built on the concept around an actual house, where there's a mother and a father and children. And it formed out of that because there was a large homeless issue as children were coming out to their parents, they were getting kicked out and so they had nowhere else to go. I am a product of being pushed away from my family. You know, coming out as, you know, gay and I found refuge as a Givenchy. Here is a self-contained, defined community that one can begin to provide services to and to introduce prevention activities through the mothers, through the fathers, and then hopefully the children too. One of the things that we have in our houses, you either have to be in school or you have to be working. Some do both. If you can learn to multi-task, then that's great. But time management's something that we help to work with them. You know, there's diff- many different aspects they are, they're trained in. How to make resumes, how to interview, how to dress for these things. Some of these things are, are brought from the ballroom scene. But also, what is socially appropriate as well. A lot of stuff that we learn from the ballroom scene we use in reality, like Rajan said. [Pudgy:] When we go for job interviews, "Okay, I can do this. I know my resume is good," and stuff like that. So sometimes they do play off each other. [Rajan:] We was put on a probationary period. Like you had to have, you had to be in within the month, you had to have [?] yourself street, with a job, anything, like something so you can be able to walk. Like he wouldn't let nobody walk that didn't have a job, wasn't in school or anything. And I believe that that's good, because that makes you stronger. [club music and noise] [Williams:] So it's not just about walking the balls. It's also about, you need to also do other things to take care of yourself as a human being. [Pudgy:] I'm happier now because I have a family that I love and I know they love me back. I care for and more - anything I can relate to them a lot. The more people understand how they can support each other within families, within social structures, those sort of values and that support, I think absolutely impacts a person's esteem and a person's feeling of worth and an overall sense of, you know, access. And I think that, that would really impact somebody's decision-making around using condoms or not and impact their risk for HIV transmission. [Billy:] With increased focus and awareness around HIV prevention, the ball community and its houses have set their sights on leading by example. To date, the gay ball community remains one of the most active and progressive sources for outreach in the fight against HIV/AIDS. [McAllister:] From your left to your right, they're mine, all my babies. On their way to college, some getting back in school. Some of 'em reaching the top of the ballroom scene. They're all mine, the House of Jourdan. [club music and noise] [Roque:] We let the young people run their ball. They competed for their categories. All the houses came. And it was really a great way for us to get young people tested. We tested a lot of people at that event for HIV. And it was really an unbelievable evening. It was very supportive and was a great example, I think, for young people of community work, and what community work could look like. [club music and noise] ["In the Life" theme music] [music] If some politicians think it's too risky to support gay marriage now, imagine the moral backbone it took 15 years ago. But David Paterson did stand-up for marriage equality back then as a New York State Senator. And now as Governor, he's leading the charge to legalize gay marriage in New York. Governor Paterson says his long time commitment to gay civil rights has deep roots, in his experience as a blind African American and childhood memories of gay family friends he called Uncles. He talks tonight with Yale professor and LGBT chronicler, George Chauncey. [George Chauncey:] Welcome Governor Paterson. It's good to talk with you again. [David Paterson:] Thank you very much. This last Spring, you electrified the supporters of gay marriage equality when you directed state agencies in New York to treat the marriages of people - same-sex couples who'd gotten married in California, Massachusetts, Canada and other jurisdictions with full respect and full equality. [Chauncey:] This was an unprecedented move and a really courageous decision which was acclaimed by many people and denounced by many others. So I would love to have a chance to talk with you about what some of the sources are of your support for gay equality. And then to move on to the question of gay marriage in particular. Well, I would like to think that even if I were not a supporter of marriage equality that I would have given full faith and credit to the legislation of other states, where New York does not have any statute prohibiting that. [Paterson:] I don't think there could have been any other way that a public official could have acted as Governor, than the way I acted, unless they chose to unilaterally ignore the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of New York. Now, I guess a lot of people do that, but I'm not one who's going to. I wonder if you could talk some about what the background is to your long-term support for gay rights. [sigh] When I was pretty young, I learned that I had a disability and would be discriminated against it, oddly enough, by other African Americans. Even the president of our local NAACP chapter wouldn't have let me have a job when I was a teenager working in a catering service. [Paterson:] We had a lot of my friends working because no one asked me if I could pack lunches for children. Similarly, I was once in a conversation in a room full of blind people who didn't realize that I was African American. And I heard some of the most racist remarks I've ever heard in my life. So I think I learned early on that there's a universality to the inability to understand other people, how they live their lives, what they look like, where they originate. And, I think, as far back as I can remember, I was someone, who because I was isolated in many situations, wanted to speak for those who were also isolated, but might not have a voice. [Paterson:] My parents knew a, I guess, what was a gay couple and we knew them as uncles and we even stayed over their apartment, the apartment building that I now live in, even when, when my parents were on vacation. So I guess I had a comfort zone with gay and lesbian people from an early age. And I think it's tragic that at this time in our history - we have 23 world conflicts, civil wars in many countries - that we actually have to spend that much time trying to figure out how to leave everybody alone. We're having a tremendous economic crisis in this country, and I think pretty soon people are going to have to borrow money from their neighbors to get gasoline to drive their cars. And I don't think they'll care whether their neighbors are living with - men with other men, or women with other women, or a man and a woman. It's just an affection, that in my opinion, is as pure as it is perfect. So why do you think so many people are upset by the idea of gay marriage? I mean, you just made a really eloquent case for why people shouldn't worry about this and take it as a matter of course. And it obviously has become such a contentious issue. I think people need to separate their fears and their anxieties from their conduct. Now I remember the first time I saw two men kiss. I was standing there. I thought I was gonna have a stroke. [Paterson:] [laughs] It was just something I'd never seen before, and it made me feel uncomfortable. [Paterson:] And I think that - I understand that people have these anxieties. And I think that although I'm now a lot more comfortable, things happen in my life, even today, that I'm unaccustomed to, unaware, have no reference for, and I probably react the same way as we all do. [Chauncey:] Mmm hmm. [Paterson:] A little chagrined at first. We don't really know how to take it. Our instant react- responses are often somewhat negative. [Paterson:] But then it comes to your conduct. Here's where you have conscience, the ability to think about things before you act. And why? If anyone thinks... some of the absurd views, that for instance that the gay and lesbian lifestyle affects children. Well, there were times when there was very little evidence of gay or lesbian lifestyles in our society, didn't seem to - how did the children become gay? [Paterson:] Because they were born that way. [Chauncey:] Mmm hmm. [Paterson:] It's really very simple. Now a group of ministers came to see me recently, very upset, that I would be in favor of marriage equality. And said they thought we should just have civil union. I said, "When we were fighting for civil union, I never saw any of you come in here to support it." And they said something like, "Well, they're gonna do it anyway, so you can't stop 'em." So then let's not stop 'em from getting married. I wonder what's your sense of how the place of gay people has changed in African American society in the last several decades. They seemed, there seemed to be among Black people a little resentment that I would see it as similar as a civil rights issue. But I don't think that's coming from reason. That, I think, comes from a feeling that gay and lesbian people will be able to incorporate themselves into society a lot better than African Americans would, even though they would get these rights much later. [Chauncey:] Mmm hmm. [Paterson:] So I think that what that was, is not necessarily an anger toward gay and lesbian people per se as much as it was an admonishment and vilification of a society that has begun to give women, to give people of different national origins, and gay and lesbian citizens a greater opportunity in our society but still struggles with the racial issues that were there from our founding Declaration of Independence and Constitution. [Chauncey:] Mmm hmm. Just because the society is still discriminating is no reason for us to line up as if there's some seniority that exists among those who are obtaining rights. We all should have had them from the very outset of this country, and should be fighting for them every step of the road, of the way. Many of Dr. King's closest associates, his widow Coretta Scott King, John Lewis, Julian Bond, Jesse Jackson, have been very powerful and eloquent supporters of gay civil rights and have argued that in their own vision it is a logical next step in the struggle for human rights. That it comes out of the struggle that they were so important in initiating. I'd like to believe that Dr. King, as soon as he became aware, would have spoken for gay and lesbian citizens in this country. And again, would have gone a way what would have been predictable in favor of the higher value and the higher calling. [Paterson:] And the fact that he wasn't here in the '70s and '80s, to have been such a historic figure as he was, probably caused us to have to work it out ourselves and obviously take longer. [Chauncey:] It's an honor to talk with you, and I'm a great admirer of the courage you've displayed on this issue and many other issues. Thank you for your work. [Paterson:] Well, thank you. [music] Governor Paterson observed that prejudice against LGBT people among AfricanAmericans and Hispanics is fueled by the ethnic discrimination they have suffered. The stigma of being LGBT in the African American community drives many gay and bisexual men to keep it on the down-low, leading double lives, denying their true sexuality, at times even to themselves. According to documentary filmmaker Abigail Child, being on the down-low is a complex lifestyle with many meanings, and even more complicated to capture on film. In our Real to Reel, we talk with the filmmaker who followed four men in Cleveland for her documentary "On the Downlow". [Abigail Child:] Down-low is not only a Black man married to a woman who's going out and having secret gay sex. Down-low can be a lot of things. It can mean you're not out to your friends, you're not out to your family. It can mean you need to protect your job, you need protect your relations. [Interviewee:] People may make the down-low seem like it's guys who dress like dope dealers, dress like thugs. And that's the guys on the down-low 'cause he sleeps with a woman that sleeps with a man at the same time so he's on the down-low. You can be on the down-low from a lot of things. [Kerwin:] You know, I've seen guys that I would look at and wouldn't even know messed around. I even know a guy now that's married. He is a white guy. He said he stayed with his wife for the kids. [laughs] He's on the DL, most definitely. [Child:] It's actually a much wider, much more open self-identification. That's, that's giving Black men a permission to be gay, or to at least, experience same-sex love without, you know, putting them under labels they don't want to be. It's about being Black in America, how you're invisible. And in this case, it's how you're invisible if you're gay and Black or bi and Black. [Kerwin, voiceover:] I identify myself as being bisexual, of course, 'cause I do - I am still attracted to females. As far as being on the down-low, that comes in with the territory depending on where I'm at. [Kerwin, on screen:] Why I didn't know y'all made 'em at your store. People may look and perceive one thing, but they'll never say it because they can never tell. Are they down-low, are they bi, are they gay? And, you know, they self-identify as down-low, and I think it is a African American sense of not being gay. It's got more masculinity about it. You can be a thug and down-low. You can be, you know, you can be anything. [Interviewee #2:] A thug is always in the ghetto and always, you know, in the streets. And that's where I'm at. I didn't came - I came up in the streets. I lived in the streets. So I'm a thug. Like, my real family, they probably would disown me if they knew about me. And I probably wouldn't have some of the friends that I got now out here, if they knew about me. So that's why... someone would want to be down-low. Just, just from the reaction of other people they friends with will have about it, or their family will have about it. I think in the Black community, it's a bigger issue because of the role in the church. [Kerwin:] My pastor, he likes to talk to me a lot about my sexuality as far as, you know, how I need to change my life, and how I need to, you know, go live my life straight. I'm not living right by God. My dad, because he's the, you know, the standard military guy. "I've been in the Army. I want you to play football. I want you to play something. I want you to do something. Don't be gay." [laughs] [Child:] It's important because it's part of the community that isn't spoken about. I mean, it's important for the women lovers of these men, but it's actually important for the men themselves. And I think for kids or people in the world who have some hesitancy in a world that is not completely liberated, to be gay, to be, you know, to be out, to be proud. Kerwin used the film to come out to his father and to his colleagues, so clearly he was somebody - he wanted to tell the story. [Kerwin:] It's been really hard and complicated trying to decide how I was gonna do it, or, you know, how I was, how it was gonna take place anyway. Not knowing what he was gonna say too, plays a big factor 'cause I'm his only son. And he was in the Army, so that's gonna probably [laughs] be a lot on him to handle. [Operator:] Please enter your prepaid card number. [phone buttons] [Child:] In the film we'd, we'd actually spent the Saturday phoning him all day and not getting through and then waiting till the next day and the father finally answered. [Kerwin:] I can tell you anything, right? [Father, on phone:] Uh... yeah. [Kerwin:] Okay, um, well, [laughs] since I was like 16 years old, I've been like... [laughs] I've been bisexual, and I don't know if you ever knew it or... [Father, on phone:] I me- mean... we've heard things. You know, what I'm saying. Things have been said or whatever. But, I guess it's different hearing it, but, um... [Father, on phone:] Listen. You my son. You know that right? [Kerwin:] Yeah. [Father, on phone:] I love you, man [?]. I'll support you whatever you do. [Child:] We do live these complicated lives and complicated desires. And I, I mean, I view these guys is extremely courageous for making the choices they were making in their lives. It was a very complicated life they were trying to hold together. And that seemed really worthy of, of looking at. Thank you for watching "In the Life". To learn more about how tonight's stories affect you, and to hear more about the issues and people shaping the gay experience, please visit our website at inthelifetv.org. You can also sign up for monthly airdate alerts and download past episodes 24/7. I'm Michael Billy. Thanks for tuning in and please join us next month. [club music and noise] [Announcer:] "In the Life" is funded in part by: the H. van Ameringen Foundation; Arcus Foundation; Newpol Foundation; The Estate of Richard W. Weiland; Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS; and by the annual support of In the Life members, like you. [logo music] [logo music]