In the Life: Ep. 1911, "Twilight No More"

in the life is funded in part by the hman amaran foundation Arcus Foundation the estate of Richard W wand and by the annual support of in the Life members like you coming up on in the Life Encore presentations of three stories from our archive first how a work of art inspired a fight against teen suicide art has an enormous capacity to change people's lives and to open their hearts then a conversation with Edmund white and dork Wilson with Stonewall we started coming out in the daylight not Twilight people anymore and finally a celebration of the sisters of Perpetual Indulgence putting face on is definitely about respecting that tradition of the the sisters who' gone before me [Music] for over 10 years the Trevor Project a crisis hotline designed specifically for LGBT youth at risk has offered support 24 hours a day 365 days a year the origins of the Trevor Project lie in a little theater in Manhattan's Lower East Side in the short play Word of Mouth writer and actor James Laine Drew from his own experiences to tell a story of gay teen SU side the play later became a short film simply called [Music] Trevor hey hi I'm James leine and um welcome to my place this is my office desk and this is where the Trevor Project all began at the time I was putting together the material for this show that I was doing called Word of Mouth that particular day I was listening to the radio and I was listening to a report on NPR about gayen suicide and at the time it was 33% of all gayen suicides that they know of uh were attributable to homosexuality I got the idea to actually write something about gate suicide that was personal so I sat down and I started writing there was an incredible opportunity to tell a particular story about a particular boy and you know you know I drew on a lot of my own experiences of growing up I grew up on the other side of the George Washington Bridge in a little town in New Jersey called Hasbro Heights I'm going to take you now to the place where Trevor was first performed as a stage play okay so this is the famous l Mama theater and this is where I first performed word of mouth and Trevor and we're going to go inside wow the incredible thing about l Mama is that it's like a piece of New York history where like sort of theater began in the like ' 60s the amazing thing is it hasn't changed at all and please if it's possible Play Endless Love at my funeral it's my absolute Faith don't cry too much it would have been like a skillion times worse if I had lived your loving son Trevor my love hey there's only you in my life the only thing that's [Music] f i met James the scene because I went to see his show Word of Mouth down at l Mama and it truly was one of the best one man shows I'd ever seen I just knew that I had been incredibly touched by the piece and that I found myself laughing and crying at the same time which isn't an experience I get that often the light bulb that went off in my head was I have to call Randy Stone Randy was a casting director and I thought he's got to see this guy he's got to see this piece it happened that Randy Stone uh was in town the next day he came to see the show and Randy walked out and I could tell he had been crying and had been as moved by it as I had and Randy came out and said to me immediately we need to turn this into a film I can't cover not feel in the name of safe for a while that was the thing about Trevor it sort of seemed like a miracle it came together so quickly and then we got the call that Trevor had been nominated for an Academy Award but they weren't only nominated they won the Oscar for best short film in 1995 when it happened it was almost like okay well that's amazing and that kind of an experience when you hear your name on the Oscars I think there's this sense that it just becomes very unreal we sold it to HBO and we got Ellen degenerous to do a amazing back wraparound presentation hi I'm Ellen degenerous and I would like you to uh watch this next movie this was right at the point that Ellen had first come out so she was white hot she was on the cover of everything it really was at that point point that we knew the film was going to be on air that the Trevor Project was born I quickly did research and realized there was no one who had um a hotline that was focused on and dedicated to kids who were gay or questioning it just seemed like we had to do it the first call center we hooked up with a um an existing Suicide Prevention helpline in LA and now it's you know we've been able to actually have call centers at the Trevor offices and La in Washington DC there's a call center here which was opened this past year in memory of Randy Stone who died last year Trevor helpline this is Anish the Randy Stone call center we're here in lower Manhattan in the financial district so we have uh room for four of our counselor stations we're here 24/7 that we're the nation's only suicide and Crisis Intervention helpline for lgbtu and questioning youth I have been a counselor on the Trevor Project since September of 2007 I wanted to be a counselor for the Trevor Project because I grew up in a very small town and um I felt that I was alone and different As I Grew Older I really felt that I wanted to be a support system for other kids who felt that way growing up what's it like to be a counselor I can tell you that no two phone calls are the same every youth that reaches out to us has something different going on in their life but one of the a lot of the common themes are that they're feeling alone they're feeling scared and they're feeling isolated a good counselor can help ameliorate some of those feelings that they're having we are answering over 12,000 calls a year from youth all across the country most of our calls come from right here in this region here the Midwest and Southern parts of the country I would say our average age of our caller is 15 what motivates me to do this and to give myself to these kids is the fact that they're just kids you know they deserve to have a wonderful healthy happy life we have an annual fundraising event here in New York City called Trevor New York we're going to be honoring Alan for his Superior work in film and television we're celebrating our 10th anniversary year and we've got lots of entertainment Adena Menzel Sandra burnhard it's a little bit of music a little bit of Comedy Alec MAA so it's a great evening lots of stars and celebrities come out for it the Colin Higgins Foundation gives out uh three awards every year to youth who have triumphed over adversity these are gay te and so at our event we are more than honored to be able to bestow those Awards out they come with a $10,000 uh Grant to each individual our final youth Honore is Perry Shelton the youngest poet ever featured on HBO's Russell Simmon presents death poetry receiving this award is exceptional it makes me feel like all this work that has been done that the creator has used me for or it it it's it's being listened to my mom doesn't even know that I've had thoughts of suicide and and it's obviously because I never told her young people need somebody to talk to and that's all the Trevor Project and people who are associated with will listen I hear a lot of pain from a lot of our callers but what constantly makes me feel so amazing is that there are so many great volunteers who take time out of their lives to answer these phone calls and talk to young people who are feeling so much in their lives great and again I really believe deep in my heart and always have believed that art has an enormous capacity to change people's lives and to open their hearts and that's what I wanted to be a part of I've definitely decided to live through tomorrow [Applause] [Music] I challenged my school's no same seex day policy at prom because they would not let me go with my girlfriend that's why I stood up so that I can make my my portion of the difference I hope to inspire people to stand up and also make a change [Music] [Music] I mean you were you were sort of a satanic figure because you were always in leather yeah uh Edmund white and dork Wilson are powerful writers critics even old friends we brought them together to discuss their firsthand accounts of the Stonewall riots and how bearing witness to the uprising impacted their work and views of the LGBT experience you you were active in the very beginning of gay theater technically the first modern gay plays uh were done at the Cafe Chino on Cornelia Street written by myself Lanford Wilson Robert Pat trick we never realized what we were doing was Brave of my four Chino plays too are gay plays in in some much that they were open gay characters they don't discuss being gay uhhuh that's not what the subject matter of the plays are which play is that uh pretty people there's an out character in it that has no no stereotypes he just happens to be a very attractive young man and he's gay you might not have been surprised by it but I think I was that openly gay materials being everybody was we didn't think about it how did you uh decide to write about gay subject matter actually how did you well for me I'm sure it was a lot more tormented than for you I mean I think in my case I I had actually written a gay novel in the 60s which was pretty good and it went to 25 Publishers and it was turned down often times by editors who themselves Were Gay and who years later told me you know I really liked that book of yours but I didn't dare accept it because people would have known I was gay I don't know that Gay Liberation per se had any direct response to Gay Culture oh I think it did I think it absolutely did because for instance there were organizations that see I moved to Rome in 1970 and by the time I came back a year later I was shocked by how different everything was so because it was very dramatic for me and when I and one of the things that was happening was the uh gay academic Union which would have these meetings where people you're right I I think of the movement I think of the activist movements yeah but there were these intellectual movements and I remember being invited by student organizations to Princeton to different gay organizations student ones that later died out Gay Liberation originally and first and foremost Meant For Us sexual Liberation it meant sexual opportunity because what a lot of people forget is that is that is that there were ve it was very hard for gay and lesbian people to meet each other yeah I I agree with you that it g gave sexual freedom but I also think it gave identity absolutely through all through education education the identity was of a minority group rather than of a sickness yes oh yeah after the World's Fair in 64 or so the mayor was uh always closing gabars he was closing before world the world's fair because he wanted to clean the city up for the World's Fair and the idea was that tourists would be appalled and disgusted if they saw any gay activity little realizing that many people would come to New York for that maybe around 66 or 7 gay bars began to reopen and then there were quite a few of them and there were a lot many more visible gay people on the street yes and more people were coming out yeah I arrived in New York out I've always been out I came out in the 50s and a wheat Ranch toown High School in Washington state but it but it was very rare I know then when all the bars began to reopen everybody thought oh few that horrible period is over and uh and now we're going to be free and so when the stone wall was raided and closed I think it really upset people because it seemed like a throwback to well also a slightly earlier era in that era when Bars were raided they were never raided on the weekend they were always raided on a slow night because the police and the bar owners had agreements it wasn't the police raid it was the ATF who raided because they had found out that the police were in collusion with the mafia owners I mean of course what's famous about Stonewall is that the customers resisted and soad the what's actually what happened all the customers got out on the sidewalk and the police were trapped inside not knowing there was no back exit out of the I was there oh I I didn't know sorry I was there no I was there because I just happened to be walking past I wasn't actually in the bar nor did I go to that bar very often but I was walking past with a friend and of course we were intrigued and we stayed there and I was so a in middle class that I kept trying to get everybody to calm down oh come on guys you know and but even in spite of myself in spite of my awful bis self-hatred I uh found myself excited people weren't angry first of all there was astonishment that we were doing it and and when we would say things like slogans like gay is good patterned after black is beautiful it struck us as hilarious yes there was a great gleefulness about it but there was also a feeling that was Preposterous because after all it was really at Stonewall I think that people that gay people first realized that they might be something like a minority group rather than a medical diagnosis because up till then we were sick and there was always some point in the evening where we'd all say oh God we're sick and then some yeah right right and then but I never had a problem with it well you probably didn't but everybody else did well not everybody else did the kind of the world you lived in yeah most of the people I knew didn't I was in therapy for years and years trying to go straight I was engaged twice you know the typical middle class person suffering over the whole thing and then the the wonderful thing about Stonewall for jerks like me was that it it was liberating yes the gay world was in the dark the term one of the terms for the time was the Twilight world at Twilight gays came out from under their rocks or whatever sure and with Stonewall we started to coming out in the daylight not Twilight people anymore not Twilight people anymore yeah John Irving wrote you in open letter and I think he mentions in it that the gay marriage phenomena going on at the moment uh revitalizes the movement yes I mean John Irving lives in Vermont he's straight man of course the great writer of the world according to GARP and so many other wonderful books and he was very active in campaigning for it in Vermont and it does look as if that is the current big issue I mean for people like me who who never liked married and and also didn't like the idea that gay people should be assimilated to the to the mainstream Community that's now a lost cause and and and I've given up on it and what I now see is is that that that the marriage issue goes right to where people live I mean it's all right to say yes you gay people can have job security and yes you gay people can produce your musicals or whatever but when you want to get married it it feels like one of the central institutions of our society and especially when you want to adopt children or have children of your own it's funny we don't change you and I bottom line I don't think we do no I guess not well we're we're still here and uh and and it it's it's really been great to see you again yes [Music] indeed I was raised to Christian and my spirituality has never waned God had been whispering in my ear for a very long time stand up and tell your truth the minute I acquiesced to my truth and realized oh you're coming out my life got kind of magical and much much easier when you think of nuns what comes to mind black flowing habits strict Catholic school rules you probably don't think of men in painted faces or silver lame but the sisters of Perpetual Indulgence defy all expectation with their Unapologetic brand of humor since their first appearance in San Francisco on Easter Sunday in 1979 the sisters have used the power of parody and their irr wit to educate entertain and raise money for local charities we are 21st century knowns I tell you a little bit about what it takes to become a sister you start as an aspirant and you Aspire for a couple of months we use the term Ministry very Loosely because my Ministry is making someone laugh putting a swallow on somebody's face and raising money for groups that cannot we have sisters that are very spiritual um we do a lot of Outreach work in hospices and hospitals uh we all touch a different aspect of the community and that is our entire Ministry once you're done aspiring you start to perspire and you become a postulant once you're a postulant you work on that for a while and you learn to put on makeup we view our our appearances as canvases so this is the canvas the blank canvas we paint the canvas white first and then we add our own interpretation of who we are after that you become a novice and after that you become a fully profession sisters everyone is so afraid of humor and laughter this is a joke I mean it's not mocking someone but it's opening you up it's the idea of the Holy fool the ancient idea that there's someone who stands looking completely absurd and gives you permission to say things completely true and honestly without any misperception or covering or avoidance or hypocrisy sister Terror as a member in the order as a member in the order of the sisters of Perpetual Indulgence of the sisters of Perpetual Indulgence dedicate myself to Public Service dedicate myself to Public Service social activism social activism and spiritual enlightenment spiritual enlightenment not all sisters originally wore white Faith um in the beginning uh but sister aarva um did to protect her anonymity and over time it's become tradition it's not every day you see a man in a nun's habit with clown makeup on and that can be very jarring to those who don't understand it this was me last Easter when we um did the zombie Easter and so I decided to come at St Rita the sisters really started in 1979 and with a few guys wanting to do something a little different on an Easter Sunday and has grown into this organization of 500 plus nuns around the world we were bored and I had brought some Catholic nuns habits from Iowa with me we threw them on we went out into the community and the reaction was so strong we decided to form a social activism uh Social Service organization in San Francisco the organization was formed with the intent of Performing community service performing theater um Street Theater and to educate the public on social and health issues we realized right away that the nuns habit contains a lot of social stigmas all in one gender issues gender identity issues and and religious bigotry issues uh so the habit to us is is like a lightning bolt I think one of the biggest misconceptions about sisters is that people think we mock nuns but what I'm doing is I'm celebrating a very old vocation that women have carried for Cent and all I'm doing is for this cury I'm taking it outside to the other side of the walls and I'm finding those people that wouldn't step into a church or a temple or a synagogue but who need just some loving touch and some care and some sensitivity putting a faith on um is definitely about respecting that tradition of the the sisters who've gone before me and made it you know made this a trademark in a sense this is a flag that sister Phyllis rode in AIDS life like a wh AIDS hit the order as hard as it hit every other organization the order in 1981 was about 20 people Strong by 1987 it had been reduced down to six we did the world's first AIDS benefit before the acronym AIDS was coined AIDS really in many ways allow that spirituality to come out you know it it took took people to place they hadn't been driven to before so that by 1982 8384 that's probably one of the main focuses of the order is educating the public about HIV and AIDS raising money to fight it um doing what they can to save as many people as possible we do a lot of service in providing funds available we provide grants this last year we actually provided $85,000 of money out to our community here in San Francisco for bisexual transgendered gay lesbian healthc care homeless any kind of providing where that is a little bit underfunded here in the city in San Francisco we raise over $200,000 a year it's in direct Ministry 100% in 100% out we buy our own jewelry uh we make our own wimples so there's no overhead being a none there are three things the sisters do in my opinion fundraising fun raising and Consciousness raising and occasionally a good oldfashioned Barn raising if we have time thank you for watching in the life to learn more about the issues in tonight's stories and how they affect you visit our website at inthe tv.org you can also watch extended interviews sign up for monthly air date alerts and download past episodes 247 [Music] n in the life is funded in part by the hman amaran foundation Arcus Foundation the estate of Richard W wand and by the annual support of in the Life members like you [Music]