OUT IN THE SILENCE

"Out In The Silence: A Film Everybody Should See"

2012-01-29T17:13:00.000-08:00

by Christopher Haight for the Daily Kos - Fri., Jan. 27, 2012:

Today marks the end of No Name-Calling Week, which was created by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) to bring attention to name-calling in schools. From the website:

No Name-Calling Week was inspired by a young adult novel entitled "The Misfits" by popular author, James Howe. The book tells the story of four best friends trying to survive the seventh grade in the face of all too frequent taunts based on their weight, height, intelligence, and sexual orientation/gender expression. Motivated by the inequities they see around them, the "Gang of Five" (as they are known) creates a new political party during student council elections and run on a platform aimed at wiping out name-calling of all kinds. The No-Name Party in the end, wins the support of the school's principal for their cause and their idea for a "No Name-Calling Day" at school.

Motivated by this simple, yet powerful, idea, the No Name-Calling Week Coalition created by GLSEN and Simon & Schuster Children's publishing, consisting of over 40 national partner organizations, organized an actual No Name-Calling Week in schools across the nation. The project seeks to focus national attention on the problem of name-calling in schools, and to provide students and educators with the tools and inspiration to launch an on-going dialogue about ways to eliminate name-calling in their communities.

Of course, many of us are well aware of the existence of name-calling in our schools. And those of us who were unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of it certainly don't need to be reminded of how destructive it is in young people's lives.

One particular day in middle school sticks out in my mind. Probably because it summarizes my entire early adolescence. I was in gym class, which was my least favorite class for obvious reasons. I refused to get changed or shower (for obvious reasons), which already made me suspect, not that I wasn't already. We had to play some game that involved locking arms with another person. Needless to say, there was not a line to lock arms with me. In fact, when there were only two of us left, the other person refused to touch me. I'll never forget the look in his eyes. It was as if I was a piece of trash. And truthfully, that's how I felt.

I had a pretty shitty school experience, to say the least. If I wasn't the faggot (which I was pretty much every day, as my peers knew before I did that I was gay), I was the fat-ass. I could count my friends on one hand. From about sixth grade until high school, I went through pure hell. Had I not believed in hell, I probably would have been suicidal. I certainly wished for death.

No violence was ever committed against me. For the most part, I wasn't touched. It was all words. Words matter. Words can kill. They didn't kill me, but they killed my spirit for years to come and profoundly fucked me up in ways that I'm still grappling with to this day. Yes, words really do matter. I was one of the lucky ones.

Given my own personal experience, I feel a little bad that I haven't at least written something for No Name-Calling Week. It has been a busy week, and I just remembered today that No Name-Calling Week is coming to a close. I think a good way to end No Name-Calling Week is to recommend a film that tackles the subject (and many others) in a moving and deeply inspiring way. The film is called Out in the Silence.

I first heard about Out in the Silence when I received an e-mail about its screening in my old city, Erie, Pennsylvania. I went to the screening and was able to meet Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer (yes, that Dean Hamer), the filmmakers. By the end of the film, I was in tears. It hit really close to home.

Out in the Silence is a documentary that takes place, interestingly enough, about a half an hour down the road from where I grew up, in Oil City, Pennsylvania. This is a deep-red part of the state, in what I call the Alabama section of Pennsylvania, where tolerance is in short supply. It follows the experience of CJ, a gay teen who had to leave school because the bullying was so brutal. None of the teachers or administrators cared, which is really highlighted in one scene of the film in which a school board member laughs during a meeting when CJ's mom asks what is being done about the bullying situation. The film follows CJ's struggle to get the school board to address the problem of bullying in the school district, a struggle that takes him all the way to Harrisburg and ends with ACLU intervention.

That's not all, though. The film also addresses the homophobic culture of the area, which helps enable bullies in the first place. It looks at the uproar over the filmmakers' wedding announcement when it was published in the local newspaper. It features Diane Gramley of the AFA of Pennsylvania as the main villain who fights progress in northwestern Pennsylvania, however slight, tooth and nail, even going so far as to sabotage a local lesbian couple's business's grand opening.

Out in the Silence is about more than CJ and Diane Gramley and a bunch of backwoods bigots, though. It's about a town's gradual evolution. The film is a hopeful one which traces the evolution of a local preacher, who railed against the wedding announcement in the beginning of the film and joined CJ in Harrisburg in the end. It's about humans' capacity for change, and it points to a future in which teens like CJ won't have to drop out of school because of intolerance.

In short, it's a film everybody should see. And I really wish it was mandatory viewing for youth. It might make a few think twice before throwing "fag" or any other hurtful word (anti-gay or not) around. It's really short (under an hour) and available for free on Hulu. Here's the trailer:

Former Dallastown School Board Member Opposes Screening of Gay Film

2012-01-26T00:34:00.000-08:00

Hmmmm -- Fox News says that "Out In The Silence" is "a film about a small town struggling with a fear of homosexuality in their schools and community." We thought it was about courageous small town folks challenging bigotry and discrimination and building the movement for inclusion, fairness and equality for all.

"Out in the Silence" Screened by Dallastown Area High School Gay-Straight Alliance
WPMT - Pennsylvania's Fox News - York - Harrisburg - Lancaster - Lebanon

Dallastown (York County) -- On Wednesday, Out in the Silence, a film based on the struggle of gay life in Oil City, Pennsylvania was shown as part of Dallastown Area High School's anti-bullying week.

The hour long documentary sponsored by the high school's Gay-Straight-Alliance was shown as an educational tool for the community.

Lori Riddle, advisor to the group said, "They are people too, they have real lives, stories and heart breaks."

But some people disagree that the school should not have been the backdrop for a gay themed film.

Carroll Tignall, a former Dallastown Area School District board member, said, "I'm concerned about the purpose of the event and that's why I am here to find out more about it."

Tignall added, "I'm concerned why the school facilities are being used and personnel for the event."

Despite the opposition from some, the Alliance made it clear under accordance with the district and the law they are a district sponsored organization. Riddle said, "This is no different than the school showing a movie night and the Prayer Club having a meeting at the pole."

Tignall responded saying, "That sounds like a third grade response."

See the Fox News video report HERE.

Youth Activism Award Winners Announced!

2011-12-10T18:09:00.000-08:00

Highlighting and honoring courageous young people who are speaking out to end anti-LGBT bullying, bigotry and discrimination in their schools and communities, the winners of the First Annual Out In The Silence Award for Youth Activism for 2011 are:

Grand Prize ($1,500): Farrington High School Gay-Straight Alliance, Honolulu
Impact Award ($750): Oregon Student Equal Rights Alliance, statewide
New Group Award ($500): Equality Club-Arapahoe Community College, Littleton, Co

FROM FILM TO CAMPAIGN TO NATIONAL AWARD
by Joe Wilson & Dean Hamer, Out In The Silence Campaign

Two years ago, as stories about the alarming rates of anti-gay bullying and youth suicide were beginning to receive national attention, we started traveling to small towns and rural communities across the country with Out In The Silence, our PBS documentary about the brutal bullying of a gay teen and his family's courageous call for accountability, to raise awareness about the problems and help people develop solutions.

While the campaign revealed that tremendous challenges remain for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in cities small and large, it also introduced us to the vibrant new, youth-led equality movement that was emerging - with little or no recognition or support from established advocacy groups - to push for change at the community level in powerful and exciting new ways.

Inspired by these bold efforts, we launched a new national Award for Youth Activism to encourage, highlight and honor creative and courageous young people and their work to call attention to bullying and harassment and promote safe schools and communities for all.

The award competition was announced this past June in partnership with GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. In no time, more than 100 student, youth and ally groups, coast-to-coast and beyond, registered to participate by committing to hold free public events throughout the month of October, which marks LGBT History Month, Ally Week and National Coming Out Day. The events included a wide range of activities - from film screenings, town hall forums and information fairs to art exhibitions, spoken word and original musical performances.

The program exceeded all expectations, and today, International Human Rights Day 2011, we're excited and honored to announce the winners of the first annual:

Out In The Silence Award for Youth Activism

The $1,500 GRAND PRIZE AWARD goes to the Farrington High School Gay-Straight Alliance of Honolulu, HI for "Going Loud," an October 21st student-led program, attended by more than 200 people, that included a day-long art showcase, live music, spoken word performances, ethnic food fair, film screening and discussion, launch of a "Safe Space Program" outreach campaign, and featured presentations by Farrington High School students and Principal Al Carganilla, Hawai'i Supreme Court Justice Sabrina McKenna, Family Court Judge Paul Murakami, and popular Hawaiian comedian Augie T.

Not only did "Going Loud" organizers manage to bring together an incredible array of community sponsors and supporters to help amplify the event's message during two months of online and community outreach, promotion, and education, they re-invigorated a dormant peer-to-peer support group at the high school and succeeded in involving local middle school students, the Boys and Girls Club of Hawai'i, and members of a large conservative Evangelical church. Perhaps most importantly, they used the film, and their extraordinary voices and creativity, to demonstrate that homophobic and transphobic bullying, harassment and discrimination are experienced by, and must be addressed across, all ethnic, racial, class, gender, geographic, and religious groups. Youth in the Rainbow Nation are on the move!

The $750 Impact Award goes to the Oregon Student Equal Rights Alliance, which coordinated film screening, discussion and speak-out events throughout October on campuses all across the state - including Southern Oregon University Ashland (pictured), University of Oregon Eugene, Eastern Oregon University La Grande, Lane Community College Eugene, Western Oregon University Monmouth, and Portland State University - "to call attention to the day-to-day lives of LGBTQ students, educate the public about issues faced by LGBTQ youth, and call people to take action on campus and in communities for inclusion, equality, and access to higher education for LGBTQ students in Oregon."

The events reached hundreds of college and high school students, community and campus leaders, and administrators, parents, and allies. And the best part is, these events were just the beginning. OSERA is committed to using momentum generated by the events to continue promoting justice for the LGBTQ community, changing diversity and tolerance trainings to help prevent gender discrimination, and strengthening state anti-bullying legislation.

The $500 New Group Award goes to the Equality Club at Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, CO, for a National Coming Out Day event that brought more than 250 people together to see and hear, like never before on this conservative small town campus, the faces, voices and concerns of LGBT students and their allies. Spearheaded by a young military veteran and his organizing team, the events included film screenings and powerful coming out stories and discussions, a panel about discrimination and its effects by former armed services members, the formation of a new campus "Safe Zone" program, and a celebratory public balloon release to help people let go of their fears and announce a new era of visibility and equality for all in the region.

To these three extraordinary groups, CONGRATULATIONS and THANK YOU for your hopeful activism!

In addition to the award winners, several other groups that participated in the program and did amazing work on their campuses and in their communities deserve an Honorable Mention:

Naugatuck Valley Community College Gay-Straight Alliance - Waterbury, CT
Queer Action at Virginia Commonwealth University - Richmond, VA
Hammond High School Gay Straight Alliance - Columbia, MD
Community College of Baltimore County Rainbow Club & Honors Program - Essex, MD
Ringling College of Art & Design Gay Straight Alliance - Sarasota, FL
West Chester University's LGBTQA Services - West Chester, PA
St. Xavier University Alliance - Chicago, IL
Broward College Gay Straight Alliance - Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Aragon High School Gay Straight Alliance - San Mateo, CA
Blackburn College Common Ground - Carlinville, IL

Thank you all and stay tuned for announcements about how to support and participate in the 2012 Out In The Silence Award for Youth Activism.

Out In The Silence Award for Youth Activism 2011 Shortlist Contenders Announced

2011-12-05T07:07:00.000-08:00

The shortlist of contenders for the First Annual Out In The Silence Award for Youth Activism were announced today.

The awards, a $1,500 Grand Prize Award, $750 Impact Award, and $500 New Group Award, will highlight and honor courageous young people who are on the front lines in one of the most important civil and human rights struggles of our time: ending bullying & discrimination and achieving dignity, respect, inclusion, fairness and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

The award competition was announced by the Out In The Silence Campaign this past June, and in no time, more than 100 student, youth and ally groups, coast-to-coast and beyond, registered to participate by holding free public events throughout the month of October, which marks LGBT History Month, Ally Week and National Coming Out Day. The events included a wide range of activities - from film screenings, town hall forums and information fairs to art exhibitions, spoken word and original musical performances.

The shortlist of contenders includes:

Naugatuck Valley Community College Gay-Straight Alliance - Waterbury, CT

Queer Action at Virginia Commonwealth University - Richmond, VA

Hammond High School Gay Straight Alliance - Columbia, MD

Oregon Student Equal Rights Alliance - statewide

Community College of Baltimore County Rainbow Club & Honors Program - Essex, MD

Equality Club, Arapahoe Community College - Littleton, CO

Ringling College of Art & Design Gay Straight Alliance - Sarasota, FL

West Chester University's LGBTQA Services - West Chester, PA

Farrington High School Gay Straight Alliance - Honolulu, HI

St. Xavier University Alliance - Chicago, IL

Broward College Gay Straight Alliance, Safe Zone Team & Student Success - Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Aragon High School Gay Straight Alliance - San Mateo, CA

Blackburn College Common Ground - Carlinville, IL

Winners will be announced in The Huffington Post
on International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011.

Role Models and other Glimpses of Self

2011-11-23T10:28:00.000-08:00

A Message from Betty Hill, Executive Director of the Persad Center, the nation’s second oldest licensed counseling center specifically created to serve Pittsburgh's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community:

Barbara Grier, lesbian-themed novelist and publisher, died this week. She and 3 other women founded Naiad Press in 1973 “to publish books about lesbians who love lesbians and where the girl is not just going through a phase.”

She was overwhelmed by the volume of orders for her books. While she was surprised at the demand, I am not.

Think about the thrill of a young lesbian who finds a story that reflects how she thinks and feels and loves in the world in the midst of a lifetime of stories and books where she is out of place and cannot relate.

It speaks to me about the need for evidence and reflection that is hungered for by a population of people who are made invisible in their world.

Heterosexism is institutionalized isolation.

In heterosexism, it isn’t just that GLBTQ people are a minority and so you don’t run into them as much as heterosexual people; there is deliberateness about omitting any signs of the minority population’s existence.

It sends the message that there isn’t just fewer of you, “we wish there weren’t any of you.”

GLBTQ people are seeking signs of their existence and of their realities.

You figure out who you are in the world by seeing signs of yourself in others and in aspiring to bring into life what sparks as a glimmer of you in people you admire. Barbara Grier brought stories of lives that were glimmers of hope to the reality and existence of women who love women.

We need visible signs and safe spaces to sort out our way of relating in the world.

This can happen in small and everyday ways where we acknowledge and name the relationship between a family member and his partner, or where we include the possibility that some kids may want bring a same-sex partner to the school dance, or while we watch “Dancing with the Stars” that we talk about the challenges of being transgender, and we make information available to young people about sexual or gender orientation.

Persad works with organizations to help them eliminate institutional heterosexism and homophobia. We can conduct on-site assessments of environments, policies, practices and staff /worker attitudes and understanding, as well as to assist in achieving goals to improve diversity and inclusion.

Designing For Impact: Out In The Silence

2011-11-22T10:32:00.000-08:00

from the "Designing For Impact: Social Justice Documentary," a report by the Center for Social Media at American University:

Sometimes fear and hatred come from ignorance. When that occurs, the best way to eliminate hate is to foster understanding.

The film “Out In The Silence” started with an "unexpected" same-sex marriage announcement in the local newspaper of Oil City, PA. Letters and phone calls from all over the town rushed in. A few people showed their support, but many expressed their resentment.

Among the supporters there was a mother. Her gay teenage boy C.J. was being bullied in school so badly that he refused to go to class and even became suicidal.

Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer, the filmmakers and the couple in the marriage announcement, know exactly how it feels to be a gay man in a small town. They found C.J. and were determined to help. They tried to connect people in and outside the LGBT community, searching for common ground.

The results?

"Out in the Silence" is their message to the world. It aims to raise awareness of what LGBT people face especially in relatively rural area. It has inspired so many people, activated so many gay and lesbian organizations and grown into a huge campaign.

Five weeks into our release of "Designing for Impact" report case study, this time we will look at how "Out in the Silence" initiated LGBT campaigns. We will analyze the way the filmmakers have responsed to obstacles, and used various media and distribution channels to build networks and reach out to a broader audience.

Read the full case study report HERE.

Letter from Indonesia: "I Have Decided Not To Run Away"

2011-11-16T20:59:00.000-08:00

We receive many beautiful notes from people near and far who have been affected by the stories in "Out In The Silence." This one from Shila in Indonesia is particularly inspiring:

Dear Joe & Dean,

My name is Shila and I’m from Indonesia, a country known as having the largest Muslim population in the world.

I got the chance to see your movie, "Out In The Silence," a few months ago at Q! Film Festival in Jakarta, and I have to say, it was a life-changing experience.

I lived for a few years in Canada just a few months after I came out as a lesbian. Life got easier because Canada is obviously a very gay-friendly country. I also was very blessed with the fact that my family and friends were very accepting about me being gay. Despite all of the love and acceptance given by my loved ones in Indonesia, I still thought that it’s better for me to live in Canada for good and to never come back to closed-minded Indonesia. I wanted to save myself.

But your movie changed me.

I remember you saying how you respect the people who decided to stay in Oil city and have the courage to live their lives openly in that small town portrayed in the film. I thought, wow, you’re right. These courageous people have probably helped and inspired more young kids like CJ compared to those who choose to live openly outside of their hometown.

And then I remembered my friends who organized Q! Film Festival, the biggest queer film festival in Asia, and the overwhelming size of the audiences this year.

Imagine, the biggest queer film festival in Asia is in the largest Muslim-populated country in the world!

My friends decided to stay, even though they could’ve chosen to live elsewhere in the world, and they have made a huge impact in the lives of people here, gay and straight.

I have always wanted to help create a change in the lives of young gay people. You guys have made me realize that, maybe, I could create a better change if I come back to my small-minded hometown and slowly help the people here build awareness towards LGBTIQ people.

How will I do that? I don’t know. But most importantly, I have decided not to run away to Canada anymore, and I thank you guys for that. I really, sincerely, thank you. I hope this realization would be helpful for a lot of young lives here.

Thank you, again.

Regards,

Shila A.
Indonesia

On Screen/In Person Mid-Atlantic Tour November 2011

2011-10-28T07:01:00.000-07:00

OUT IN THE SILENCE is being featured in the inaugural season of On Screen/In Person, a film tour sponsored by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation "designed to bring the best in new independent American films and their respective filmmakers to communities across the mid-Atlantic region."

The screening sites are:

Norfolk, VA -
Chrysler Museum of Art -- Nov. 9 - 7:00 PM

Lynchburg, VA -
Riverviews Artspace -- Nov. 11 - 7:00 PM

Charleston, WV -
Clay Center for the Arts -- Nov. 12 - 5:30 PM

Oswego, NY -
Oswego Cinema at SUNY -- Nov. 15 - 7:00 PM

Wilmington, DE -
Theatre N at Nemours -- Nov. 17 - 7:00 PM

Vineland, NJ -
Frank Guaracini Jr. Fine Performing Arts Center -- Nov. 19 - 2:00 PM

We'll be doing our best to use these events to help raise the visibility of LGBT voices, issues and concerns, and to promote dialogue, organizing and action for change toward justice and equality for all.

Also in November, we'll be doing special events in:

Jamestown, NY - Jamestown Community College -- Nov. 5 - 6:30 PM

Clarion, PA - Clarion University of Pennsylvania -- Nov. 7 - 7:00 PM

WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

Betrayal in Butler -- Call for Rally on Oct. 27!

2011-10-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

from PFLAG Butler - Oct. 26, 2011:

As you may or may not know, PFLAG of Butler County Pennsylvania has been working quietly with Mayor Stock and Butler City Council to create a HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION in the City of Butler. We have been at work on this since last year.

In September the City Council voted to approve the first reading of this ordinance and they voted unanimously to do so. The next step was for a second and final reading of the ordinance at the October meeting (tomorrow night) with a vote to enact it. If there were no objections then the ordinance would be law. All that changed today.

We received an email from the Mayor telling us that the bill would not pass because of the objections of some council members (there are a total of 4 members on the council). We had been in constant communication with the mayor to see if she had received any objections from anyone. We were assured that all was well -- until today -- the day BEFORE the final vote.

If they vote on it tomorrow night then the issue and our effort will be dead. Once a bill has been disapproved chances for a rematch are slim to none. We are strongly encouraging the Mayor and Council to NOT vote but to shelve the idea so that we can address the issues with them.

To make matters worse an article appeared in the Butler Eagle this evening which misrepresented the intentions of the Human Rights Commission. Council member Bratkovich and the City Attorney Coulter told untruths about the commission and its important work. They took this issue to the public after they asked us not to do the same. We feel betrayed and are quite angry at the treatment we have received.

We have no choice now but to go public, go big and bring the issue to them in a new and more aggressive way. That’s why the officers and board of Butler County PFLAG, in a meeting this evening, decided to call a RALLY together before the meeting tomorrow evening.

This is the first step in a strategy we have developed to bring this effort to the public and let everyone know what it is EXACTLY that we are asking.

All marginalized groups, i.e. mental and physically handicapped, the elderly, veterans, as well as sexual and gender minorities, would have been protected by the commission whose main task would be to mediate complaints of discrimination and render decisions to empower those who are oppressed to take their causes to the courts. The Commission, like all commissions in Butler, would be totally volunteer and requires no budget.

Please join us tomorrow, Thursday October 27, at 6PM at the City Building for a show of strength and support around this important issue. Is Butler a place where discrimination is given free reign? Is Butler a place where people who are vulnerable are powerless to confront their persecutors?

Please consider showing your support by being there! If you bring signs please make your slogans be about JUSTICE and EQUAL PROTECTION OF THE LAW UNDER THE US CONSTITUTION! Be positive about our aim. We don’t wish to give any media coverage the chance to call us names or to further misrepresent out intentions.

In addition, contact the council members individually. Flood their emails and phones. Their contact information is found HERE.

The Council members are Bratkovich, Reese, Kline and Schontz. Let them and Mayor Stock know how you feel.

You will receive any updates via email and on this Facebook page throughout the day on Thursday. We’ll be in touch. Can we count on you?

Occupy Clarion University of Pennsylvania for Equality

2011-10-17T17:30:00.000-07:00

"Out In The Silence" at Clarion University of Pennsylvania
(With Special Performance by Folk/Rock Legend Namoli Brennet)
Monday - November 7 - 7:00 PM

OUT IN THE SILENCE, an acclaimed film that looks at an issue of urgent local and national concern -- fairness and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people -- will kick off Clarion University's Equity Week: Building Communities of Inclusion and Empowerment.

Sponsored by the Office of Social Equity and the Martin Luther King Jr. Committee, the event is scheduled for 7:00 PM, Mon., Nov. 7 in the Hart Chapel.

Namoli Brennet, a major contributor to the film's soundtrack will open the event with a few songs, and filmmakers Joe Wilson, a native of nearby Oil City, PA, and his partner Dean Hamer will be on-hand for a post-screening conversation to get the audience fired up about challenging anti-LGBT bigotry and discrimination and building the local movement for justice & equality for all.

The Clarion screening holds special significance because Western Pennsylvania is not only the setting for the stories in OUT IN THE SILENCE, it is home base for the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, the state affiliate of the American Family Association, a national 'traditional values' organization that was recently designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for the “thoroughly discredited falsehoods and demonizing propaganda it pumps out about homosexuality and other sexual minorities.”

The American Family Association of Pennsylvania also features prominently in the film as a result of the role it plays in promoting anti-LGBT attitudes and policies in the area and throughout the state.

OUT IN THE SILENCE captures the remarkable chain of events that unfold when a same-sex wedding announcement and the brutal bullying of a gay teen ignite a ﬁrestorm of controversy and a quest for change in the small Pennsylvania town of Oil City. Tough and wrenching, inspiring and entertaining, this Emmy Award-winning film is challenging audiences across the country, and around the world, to rethink their values and consider how they can help close the gaps that have divided families, friends, churches, and communities on these issues for far too long.

The film was produced in association with the Sundance Institute and Penn State Public Broadcasting, premiered at the 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in New York, and won an Emmy Award for Achievement in Documentary.

“The characters in the film are just ordinary people – a kid and his mom, two women who start a business, an Evangelical preacher and his wife – but their stories get at the heart of how anti-LGBT stigma and repression continue to harm individuals and divide communities,” said filmmaker Wilson. “That's why we're using it as a tool for education and activism, especially in small towns and rural communities, where there often isn't any visible or organized gay presence at all.”

At the heart of the campaign is a dedication to the idea that small acts of LGBT visibility in places where they are rare, and sometimes unwelcome, help to raise awareness and open-up dialogue in profound new ways and create ripple effects and opportunities to organize for change that go far and wide.

Some of the campaign's events have been targeted by opponents for protests and threats. For example, at an Oct. 10 event in Tupelo, Mississippi, home of the American Family Association, acts of intimidation and a bomb threat were made in attempts to thwart the event, but they failed to derail the first-ever public pro-equality rally in the community.

More often, however, “Out In The Silence events have become forums, a place to meet where there has been no place, to talk where there is a desire to talk but little occasion,” wrote JoAnn Wypijewski in The Nation.

Filmmaker Wilson hopes that Clarion students, faculty and administrators, as well as state and local elected representatives, civic, community and religious leaders will attend the event to express their support for inclusion, fairness and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and all people, particularly youth, who call the region home.

To see a trailer or for more information about the film, please visit: OutintheSilence.com

A Shout Out to Tupelo Ally Bob Spencer!

2011-10-13T20:28:00.001-07:00

During each and every conversation that takes place after an OUT IN THE SILENCE screening, we talk about the important role that allies play in any and all struggles for social justice -- the simple idea that it is not the responsibility of oppression's victims alone to stand up, speak out, and take action, i.e. put their lives on the line, to vanquish injustice, but that it is the shared responsibility of all who call a community, a state, a nation home, particularly those who may not have quite as much at-risk, at least in the immediate sense, to help create that better world.

While we've come to know many, many incredible straight allies in the struggle for inclusion, fairness and equality for LGBT people over the past two years as we've traveled the backroads of rural and small town America with the OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign, none have inspired us like Bob Spencer of Tupelo, MS.

Bob is 70+ years old. He was active in the civil rights movement, has been involved in international solidarity work, and is now helping to bring spiritual enlightenment to the world as a Lay Minister with the local Unitarian Universalist Congregation.

As if that wasn't enough, Bob has now made it his personal mission to bring the phrase "liberty and justice for all" to life for LGBT folks too. He's an unstoppable dynamo!

Bob was the inspiration behind and the lead organizer for the recent, and what may have been the first-ever, pro-LGBT equality rally in Tupelo, which also happens to be the home of the notorious anti-gay hate group known as the American Family Association.

Bob worked for months to build a strong coalition of local and regional supporters. He secured a venue and helped to fend off under-handed attempts by the AFA to crush such local support and have the event canceled. And, he made sure that media paid attention and gave the event the visibility it needed to reach a wide audience throughout the region and across the country.

Called Give Hate A Holiday, the Oct. 10 event was wildly successful. Despite the minor interruption of an anonymous bomb threat early in the day, it brought hundreds of people together, helped make new connections and alliances in the community and across the state, and has already spawned the creation of a new group, the Tupelo LGBT Community, to continue to build and carry the movement forward.

Bob Spencer is the perfect example of the difference that one person can make, and how a seemingly small act of personal conviction can be the spark that ignites a fire in the mountain for extraordinary change.

Thanks Bob, for being such an ally!

Yours in Solidarity,

Joe Wilson & Dean Hamer
OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign

Take A Stand Against Hate in Western Pennsylvania -- Building Change Film Festival - Pittsburgh - October 14

2011-10-11T15:39:00.000-07:00

Award-winning Gay Rights Doc to Screen in Pittsburgh's Building Change Film Festival

OUT IN THE SILENCE, an acclaimed documentary that looks at an issue of urgent local and national concern -- fairness and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people -- will be featured in Pittsburgh's Building Change Film Festival, part of Building Change: A Convergence for Social Justice, the first-ever gathering of people and organizations from across Southwestern Pennsylvania who share a common goal of advancing social justice and change in our region and world.

The screening is scheduled for Friday, October 14 at 5:00pm at the Point Park University Theater. Filmmaker Joe Wilson, a native of nearby Oil City, PA, will be on-hand for a post-screening conversation to get the audience fired up about building the local movement for justice & equality.

The Pittsburgh screening holds special significance because Western Pennsylvania is not only the setting for the stories in OUT IN THE SILENCE, it is home base for the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, the state affiliate of the American Family Association, a national 'traditional values' organization that was recently designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for the “thoroughly discredited falsehoods and demonizing propaganda it pumps out about homosexuality and other sexual minorities.”

(The American Family Association of Pennsylvania features prominently in the film as a result of the role it plays in promoting vicious anti-LGBT bigotry in the area and throughout the state.)

A highlight of the post-screening discussion will be an examination of the explosive new SPLC Intelligence Report titled “THE PROPAGANDISTS: Bryan Fischer, the American Family Association & the Demonization of LGBT People.”

At an Oct. 10 screening of OUT IN THE SILENCE in Tupelo, MS, home base for the American Family Association, "A Bomb Threat Failed to Derail First-ever Equality Event in Tupelo!"

OUT IN THE SILENCE captures the remarkable chain of events that unfold when a same-sex wedding announcement and the brutal bullying of a gay teen ignite a ﬁrestorm of controversy and a quest for change in a small Pennsylvania town (Oil City). Tough and wrenching, inspiring and entertaining, this Emmy Award-winning film is challenging audiences across the country, and around the world, to rethink their values and consider how they can help close the gaps that have divided families, friends, churches, and communities on these issues for far too long.

The film was produced in association with the Sundance Institute and Penn State Public Broadcasting, premiered at the 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in New York, and won an Emmy Award for Achievement in Documentary.

“The characters in the film are just ordinary people – a kid and his mom, two women who start a business, an Evangelical preacher and his wife – but their stories get at the heart of how anti-LGBT stigma and repression continue to harm individuals and divide communities,” said filmmaker Wilson. “That's why I'm using it as a tool for education and activism, especially in small towns and rural communities, where there often isn't any visible or organized gay presence at all.”

At the heart of the campaign is a dedication to the idea that small acts of LGBT visibility in places where they are rare, and sometimes unwelcome, help to raise awareness and open-up dialogue in profound new ways and create ripple effects and opportunities to organize for change that go far and wide.

Some of the campaign's events have been targeted by opponents for protests and threats. See “Potter County Library Faced Threats Over Gay Documentary” (Harrisburg Patriot-News)

More often, however, “they have become forums, a place to meet where there has been no place, to talk where there is a desire to talk but little occasion,” wrote JoAnn Wypijewski in The Nation.

The Pittsburgh screening is especially significant because the region is home to one of the most homophobic and transphobic members of the state legislature, Rep. Daryl Metcalfe of Butler County. Metcalfe is consistently one of the biggest obstacles to achieving justice and full inclusion for Pennsylvania's LGBT residents, and a regular promoter of divisive measures such as the ANTI-marriage equality constitutional amendment being re-introduced this year.

Filmmaker Wilson hopes that state and local elected representatives, civic, community and religious leaders will attend the event to express their support for inclusion, fairness and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and all people, particularly youth, who call the region home.

To see a trailer or for more information about the film, please visit: OutintheSilence.com

Film Synopsis: When a popular 16-year-old jock is brutally bullied for coming out at his small town high school, his mother reaches out for help to the only person she feels she can trust, an openly gay man who lives 300 miles away – native son and filmmaker Joe Wilson, whose same-sex wedding announcement ignited a firestorm of controversy in the local paper. Returning home with camera in hand, Wilson documents the harrowing but ultimately successful battle waged by the teen and his mom against recalcitrant school authorities, the efforts of a lesbian couple to restore an historic theater in the face of vitriolic anti-gay attacks, and his own unexpected friendship with an Evangelical preacher. Intertwined with these heartfelt stories is Wilson's exploration of the role that the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Family Association plays in stoking anti-gay bigotry in the town. At once tough, wrenching, inspiring, and entertaining, OUT IN THE SILENCE ultimately shows the individual and community transformations that are possible when people, on all sides of these challenging issues, lay down their swords and take the time to get to know one another.

As walls are torn down and bridges built, OUT IN THE SILENCE offers a fascinating and moving commentary on America's culture war.

Quotes:

“A stunning documentary” - The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Film Critic's Pick-of-the-Week” - New York Times

“Though the film is made by two gay men, it doesn't seek to promote a “gay agenda” or to stereotype the “religious right.” It's simply a matter of trying to understand attitudes in small-town America.” - Christianity Today

“Most moving are the stories of heterosexuals who transform because of their relationships with GLBT people.” - American Library Association

“After 'Out In The Silence' played at Williamsport's Community Arts Center in September 2010, I was compelled to write the following message on the film's official website: “Your film does cause one to reflect on one’s own behavior and prejudice. I consider myself a progressive African-American, but the film caused me to doubt my relatively conservative attitudes about homosexuality and the bigotry against gays and lesbians. Mistreatment of another human being is wrong. But, I have not taken a strong stance against the bigotry. I will do better.” - Richard James, Founder, Billtown Film Festival

Bomb Threat Fails to Derail First-Ever Equality Event in Tupelo

2011-10-10T15:35:00.000-07:00

Media Advisory: For Immediate Release -- October 10, 2011

Bomb Threat Fails to Derail First-Ever Equality Event in Tupelo

Tupelo, MS – First the venue hosting a screening of “Out In The Silence” as part of a first-of-its-kind pro-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality event in Tupelo, Mississippi, was pressured by local "family values" advocates to cancel the event, then it received an anonymous bomb threat as things were getting underway.

The intimidation and threat occurred at the Link Centre on Main Street as organizers and allies were gathering outside the building to welcome attendees and offer a public display of support for efforts to raise LGBT visibility and build the local movement for inclusion, justice and equality for all.

Tupelo holds special significance as the setting for these events as headquarters for the American Family Association (AFA), a national organization designated as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for the “thoroughly discredited falsehoods and demonizing propaganda it pumps out about homosexuality and other sexual minorities.”

The bomb threat followed a press conference at which the SPLC unveiled an explosive new Special Report titled “THE PROPAGANDISTS: Bryan Fischer, the American Family Association & the Demonization of LGBT People.”

The threat was investigated by the Tupelo Police Department who swept the building and cleared it for use. The film screening took place as scheduled followed by a powerful community dialogue where a diverse audience pledged to join together, speak out against homophobia and transphobia and build the movement for change in Tupelo and beyond.

Co-sponsors of the event included: Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Tupelo -- Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Oxford -- PFLAG Oxford/North Mississippi -- Gulf Region PFLAG -- University of Mississippi Gay-Straight Alliance -- OUTlaw at The University of Mississippi -- Mississippi Workers' Center for Human Rights – ACLU of Mississippi – Unitarian Universalist Mid South District -- Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations "Standing on the Side of Love" Campaign – Believe Out Loud – Americans United for Separation of Church and State -- Tennessee Equality Project -- Georgia Equality -- Equality Federation -- GetEQUAL.

###

UPDATE: Rally Urges Support for LGBT Community - from the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal - Oct. 11, 2011

TUPELO - Demonstrators outside the Link Centre on Monday held up signs reading "Love" as they showed their support for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

The event, called "Give Hate a Holiday" was organized by the Unitarian-Universalist Congregation of Tupelo and brought together about 35 legal analysts, gay rights activists and their supporters.

"Homosexuals do not expect special rights, only human rights," said Amanda Todd, an attorney and organizer of the Tupelo chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, or PFLAG.

Speaking alongside Todd at a press conference prior to the demonstration were representatives from the ACLU, the Tennessee Equality Project, the Mississippi Workers' Center for Human Rights and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Earlier this year the SPLC designated the Tupelo-based American Family Association a hate group. The SPLC based its designation in part on comments made by Bryan Fischer, director of issue analysis at AFA and host of "Focal Point" on American Family Radio.

Mark Potok of the SPLC called Fischer's comments about gays "outrageous" and "intentionally false." Potok referred specifically to comments Fischer made in a May 27, 2010 blog post in which he endorsed a theory that links gays to Adolf Hitler, the Nazis and the Holocaust.

AFA President Tim Wildmon said that comments on blogs like Fischer's don't necessarily reflect the positions of the AFA, adding that while he believes the Bible plainly teaches against homosexuality, "I reject the notion that we're doing anything that fosters hate against LGBT people. That would be un-Christian."

At noon folks were dismissed from the press conference and gathered along West Main Street holding signs proclaiming their belief in the fair and equal treatment of gays. A march that had been planned at AFA's headquarters was canceled because of traffic safety concerns.

Filmmaker Joe Wilson, whose documentary "Out in the Silence," about a Pennsylvania teenager picked on because he's gay, said events like this raise awareness within a community and help deter injustice. The film was shown twice at the Link Centre on Monday.

galen.holley@journalinc.com

Give Hate a Holiday -- Tupelo or Bust!

2011-09-23T15:32:00.000-07:00

GIVE HATE A HOLIDAY
Take a Stand for Justice & Equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & All People
Tupelo, Mississippi
October 10, 2011

A very special series of events will take place in Tupelo, MS on Monday, October 10, to help raise visibility and public awareness about the lives and concerns of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Mississippi and throughout the South, and to help build support for ongoing local, state, and regional efforts to make our communities more just, inclusive, humane, and safe for LGBT and all people who call them home.

In line with recent high profile public debates about bullying and youth suicides, safe schools, family equality, military service, racial intolerance and other civil and human rights concerns, there will be an emphasis on the perspectives and needs of LGBT youth, as well as efforts to help bridge the gaps, created by those who use religion and politics as weapons of hate, that have divided families, friends, churches and communities on these issues for far too long.

Tupelo holds special significance as the setting for these events because it is headquarters for the American Family Association, a controversial national organization recently designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for the “thoroughly discredited falsehoods and demonizing propaganda it pumps out about homosexuality and other sexual minorities.”

The Give Hate A Holiday events will begin with an 11:00 AM press conference at Tupelo's Link Centre, featuring coalition representatives, to offer statements and answer questions about its purpose and goals. Mark Potok, Director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project will also unveil an explosive new Special Report titled “THE PROPAGANDISTS: Bryan Fischer, the American Family Association & the Demonization of LGBT People.” Additionally, Southern Clergy for Inclusion will release “A Southern Proclamation” in which they proclaim God’s love for all, including LGBT persons and publicly apologize where they have been silent.

The public events events will start at 12:00 Noon with a peaceful and colorful demonstration on Main Street in front of Tupelo's Link Centre where participants are invited to declare, with banners, posters, chants and other creative forms of public witness, their commitment to the struggle for inclusion, fairness and equality for LGBT people and to call out to others to join the movement and take a stand.

At 2:00 PM, in the Link Centre Concert Hall, there will be a free public screening of OUT IN THE SILENCE, the acclaimed, hopeful and inspiring documentary film about courageous local residents confronting homophobia and the limitations of religion, tradition and the status quo in their conservative small town, followed by a dynamic town hall-style public forum aimed at engaging the audience in an action-oriented dialogue about inclusion, fairness, and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and all people in Mississippi, throughout the South, and across the country. Filmmakers Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer will be on-hand to help lead the discussion, and the public is invited to participate and to share their perspectives on the issues, and ideas for promoting change, with the audience. (There will be a Repeat Screening and Town Hall Forum at 7:00 PM for those unable to attend the 2:00 PM showing.)

Following the film screening and town-hall forum, participants are invited to continue the conversation in the Link Centre's Reception Hall and to visit with representatives of local, state, and national groups and organizations to learn about the work and how to get more involved and take action. (If you or your organization would like to set-up an information table, please contact Melanie Deas at: mdeas@link-centre.org)

Co-sponsors of the Give Hate a Holiday event include: Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Tupelo -- Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Oxford -- PFLAG Tupelo -- PFLAG Oxford/North Mississippi -- Gulf Region PFLAG -- University of Mississippi Gay-Straight Alliance -- OUTlaw at The University of Mississippi -- Mississippi Workers' Center for Human Rights -- ACLU of Mississippi -- Unitarian Universalist Mid South District -- Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations "Standing on the Side of Love" Campaign -- Believe Out Loud -- Americans United for Separation of Church and State -- Tennessee Equality Project -- Georgia Equality -- Equality Federation -- Out Now Youth (Springfield, MA) -- GetEQUAL -- and YOU! (To put your group's name on the co-sponsor list, contact Joe Wilson at: QwavesJoe@yahoo.com)

PLEASE JOIN US to TAKE A STAND AGAINST HATE and FOR JUSTICE & EQUALITY for ALL!

About the Film: When a popular 16-year-old jock is brutally attacked for coming out at his small town high school in the hills of western Pennsylvania, his mother reaches out for help to the only person she feels she can trust, an openly gay man who lives 300 miles away – native son and filmmaker Joe Wilson, whose same-sex wedding announcement ignited a firestorm of controversy in the local paper. Returning home with camera in hand, Wilson documents the harrowing but ultimately successful battle waged by the teen and his mom against recalcitrant school authorities, the efforts of a local lesbian couple to restore an historic theater in the face of vitriolic anti-gay attacks, and his own unexpected friendship with a conservative evangelical preacher. Intertwined with these heartfelt stories is Wilson's exploration of the role that the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Family Association plays in anti-LGBT controversies. At once tough, wrenching, inspiring, and entertaining, OUT IN THE SILENCE ultimately shows the individual and community transformations that are possible when people, on all sides of these challenging issues, lay down their swords and take the time to get to know one another.

OUT IN THE SILENCE was produced in association with the Sundance Institute and Penn State Public Broadcasting, premiered at the 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in New York, and won an Emmy Award for Achievement in Documentary. The film has become the centerpiece of a dynamic grassroots campaign aimed at raising visibility and promoting dialogue and civic engagement in small towns and rural communities across the country.

Media Contact: Joe Wilson -- Email: QwavesJoe@yahoo.com

A press kit and more information about the film and community engagement campaign are available at: http://OutintheSilence.com

"A Bible-Believing Christian Response to Out In The Silence" - Featuring the American Family Association of Pennsylvania's Diane Gramley:

Stand Against Hate and For Justice & Equality -- Tupelo or Bust!

2011-08-24T08:29:00.001-07:00

GIVE HATE A HOLIDAY
Take A Stand For Justice & Equality for LGBT People
Tupelo, Mississippi
(Home of the American Family Association)
October 10, 2011

12 Noon
Main Street - Tupelo Link Centre
Colorful Demonstration of Support for LGBT Equality
(Banners, Posters, Chants & Creative Public Witness Welcome!)

2:00 PM
Link Centre Concert Hall
Free Public Screening of "Out In The Silence"
Followed by Town Hall Sharing / Take Action Public Forum

"Out In The Silence" is an acclaimed, hopeful and inspiring film that has become a dynamic grassroots campaign about love, hate and the quest for justice & equality in heartland America.

4:00 PM
Link Centre Reception Hall
Information and networking fair with representatives of local, state, and national groups and organizations to learn about the work and how to get involved and take action.

(If you or your organization would like to set-up an information table, please contact Melanie Deas at: mdeas@link-centre.org)

Co-sponsors of the Give Hate a Holiday event include: Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Tupelo -- Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Oxford -- All Saints' Episcopal Church of Tupelo -- PFLAG Tupelo -- PFLAG Oxford/North Mississippi -- Gulf Region PFLAG -- University of Mississippi Gay-Straight Alliance -- OUTlaw at The University of Mississippi -- Mississippi Workers' Center for Human Rights -- Unitarian Universalist Mid South District -- Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations "Standing on the Side of Love" Campaign -- Americans United for Separation of Church and State -- Tennessee Equality Project -- Georgia Equality -- Equality Federation -- Out Now Youth (Springfield, MA) -- GetEQUAL -- and YOU! (To put your group's name on the co-sponsor list, contact Joe Wilson at: QwavesJoe@yahoo.com)

PLEASE JOIN US to TAKE A STAND AGAINST HATE / FOR JUSTICE & EQUALITY for ALL!

For more information see: Give Hate A Holiday - Tupelo or Bust!

Hope Over Hate in Northwestern Pennsylvania

2011-08-11T14:24:00.000-07:00

Award-winning Gay Rights Documentary
to Screen in Boonies International Film Festival

OUT IN THE SILENCE, an acclaimed documentary that looks at an issue of urgent local and national concern -- fairness and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people -- will be featured in the inaugural Boonies International Film Festival in Warren, PA.

The free screenings are scheduled for Thursday, August 18 at 7:00pm at the Struthers Library Theater and Friday, August 19 at 12:30pm at the Warren Public Library. Filmmaker Joe Wilson, a native of nearby Oil City, and LGBT and Ally residents and natives of Warren, will be on-hand for a post-screening conversation with the audience.

The Warren screenings hold special significance because northwestern Pennsylvania is not only the setting for the stories in OUT IN THE SILENCE, it is home base for the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, the state affiliate of the American Family Association, a national 'traditional values' organization that was recently designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for the “thoroughly discredited falsehoods and demonizing propaganda it pumps out about homosexuality and other sexual minorities.”

(The American Family Association of Pennsylvania features prominently in the film as a result of the role it plays in promoting vicious anti-LGBT bigotry in the area and throughout the state.)

OUT IN THE SILENCE captures the remarkable chain of events that unfold when a same-sex wedding announcement and the brutal bullying of a gay teen ignite a ﬁrestorm of controversy and a quest for change in a small Pennsylvania town (Oil City). Tough and wrenching, inspiring and entertaining, this Emmy Award-winning film is challenging audiences across the country, and around the world, to rethink their values and consider how they can help close the gaps that have divided families, friends, churches, and communities on these issues for far too long.

The film was produced in association with the Sundance Institute and Penn State Public Broadcasting, premiered at the 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in New York, and won an Emmy Award for Achievement in Documentary.

“The characters in the film are just ordinary people – a kid and his mom, two women who start a business, an Evangelical preacher and his wife – but their stories get at the heart of how anti-LGBT stigma and repression continue to harm individuals and divide communities,” said filmmaker Wilson. “That's why we're using it as a tool for education and activism, especially in small towns and rural communities, like Warren, where there often isn't any visible or organized gay presence at all.”

At the heart of the campaign is a dedication to the idea that small acts of LGBT visibility in places where they are rare, and sometimes unwelcome, help to raise awareness and open-up dialogue in profound new ways and create ripple effects and opportunities to organize for change that go far and wide.

Some of the campaign's events have been targeted by opponents for protests and threats. See “Potter County Library Faced Threats Over Gay Documentary” (Harrisburg Patriot-News)

And this:

More often, however, “they have become forums, a place to meet where there has been no place, to talk where there is a desire to talk but little occasion,” wrote JoAnn Wypijewski in The Nation.

The screenings in Warren are especially timely in light of the recent passage of the Marriage Equality Act in nearby New York, a major milestone in the state's journey toward justice and full inclusion for its LGBT residents, while Pennsylvania, still without any protections for LGBT people in employment, housing or public accommodations and without comprehensive anti-bullying policies to protect youth, gears-up for another divisive battle around an ANTI-marriage equality constitutional amendment being re-introduced this year.

Filmmaker Wilson hopes that federal Congressmen Mike Kelly and Glenn Thompson, State Senators Mary Jo White and Joseph Scarnati, State Representative Kathy Rapp, and other local elected representatives, civic, community and religious leaders will attend the Warren event to express their support for inclusion, fairness and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and all people, particularly youth, who call the region home.

He is also hoping that residents from neighboring communities in New York attend in solidarity and to share their more enlightened perspectives on the issues.

For more information about the film, please visit: OutintheSilence.com

New National Award for Youth Activism!

2011-08-11T12:01:00.000-07:00

The OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign, in partnership with GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network), is thrilled to announce a new national Award for Youth Activism to highlight and honor the courageous young people who are on the front lines in the most important civil and human rights struggle of our time: achieving dignity, respect, inclusion, fairness and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

The award was conceived in response to the tragic epidemic of teen suicides that captured the nation's attention last year and the renewed, and troubling, efforts of anti-LGBT voices to stir the bigotry, hatred and fear that puts youth at-risk and has divided families, friends, schools, and communities on these issues for far too long.

A $1,500 Grand Prize, $750 Impact Prize, and $500 New Group Prize, will be awarded to the student, youth, and ally groups that most effectively raise LGBT visibility, call attention to bullying and harassment, and promote safe schools, inclusion, fairness and equality for all by holding an OUT IN THE SILENCE film screening & speak out event in their school or community during the month of October -- which marks LGBT History Month, Ally Week and National Coming Out Day.

Entering the award competition is easy. To be eligible to win, and to receive a FREE DVD and Event Planning Toolkit, check out all the details and register by Sept. 26 HERE!

Award Winners will be announced in The Huffington Post on December 10
-- International Human Rights Day!

About the Film and Campaign: Based on the true story of a courageous teen who stands up to bullying and harassment in his small town high school after a brutal gay-bashing, OUT IN THE SILENCE provides a hopeful and inspiring call to speak out and take action against all forms of bigotry and discrimination. Since its June 2010 premier in the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in New York, and subsequent broadcast on PBS stations across the country, the film has become the center of a dynamic grassroots campaign aimed at raising LGBT visibility and promoting dialogue and civic engagement, particularly in small towns and rural communities where there often is no visible or organized LGBT presence at all.

Screenings of this Emmy Award-winning film are a great way to spark new thinking, capture the attention of leading local decision makers, and recruit new allies to the movement for equality.

YOU CAN HELP by spreading the word
to student and youth service groups in your area.

Take Action - Silence Is Meant To Be Broken!

OutintheSilence.com

Find the Award for Youth Activism on Facebook

GLSEN offers many resources and support for schools to implement effective and age-appropriate anti-bullying programs to improve school climate for all students. Check it all out at: GLSEN Anti-Bullying Resources

Support LGBT Youth & Protect California's FAIR Education Act!

2011-08-04T19:36:00.000-07:00

You can help fight bullying and harassment of LGBT youth across California by spreading the word about a new national Award for Youth Activism!

The OUT IN THE SILENCE Award, with a $1,500 Grand Prize, a $750 Impact Prize, and a $500 New Group Prize, will go to the student and youth groups that most effectively raise LGBT visibility, call attention to bullying & harassment, and promote fairness & equality for all by holding an OUT IN THE SILENCE event in their school or community during the month of October -- known as LGBT History Month and for National Coming Out Day.

To be eligible to win one of the awards, and to receive a FREE DVD and Event Planning Toolkit, interested groups simply need to register their event HERE.

These events will be a powerful way to help protect California's new FAIR Education Act.

Signed into law by Gov. Brown just last month to ensure that all students receive an accurate account of the historical contributions that LGBT people, and other underrepresented groups, have made to the economic, social and political developments of the state and the nation, anti-equality forces are already mobilizing to erase the FAIR Education Act from the history books.

They have been given until mid-October to collect 500,000 signatures to qualify a referendum, that would overturn the law, for the June 2012 ballot.

This attack isn't just an attempt to censor the contributions of LGBT people, it's also an attempt to revive the lies and bigotry that put LGBT youth at-risk of bullying, harassment, violence, and worse.

Your help in spreading the word about the OUT IN THE SILENCE Award for Youth Activism is a great way to help communities organize against this bigoted assault!

Award Winners will be announced in The Huffington Post on December 10
-- International Human Rights Day!

Based on the true story of a courageous teen who stands up to bullying and harassment in his small town high school after a brutal gay-bashing, OUT IN THE SILENCE provides an inspiring call to speak out and take action against all forms of bigotry and discrimination. Screenings of this Emmy Award-winning film are a great way to spark open dialogue, capture the attention of leading local decision makers, and recruit new allies to the movement for equality.

For all the details:
OutintheSilence.com

Is It A Choice? A Scientist's View

2011-07-14T15:31:00.000-07:00

When Tim Pawlenty said the science was "in dispute” about whether being gay is genetic, that sure came as surprise to molecular biologist Dean Hamer, Co-Director of the OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign.

By Dr. Dean Hamer for The Advocate:

In a recent interview, Tim Pawlenty was asked “Is being gay a choice?” The presidential hopeful replied that “the science in that regard is in dispute.”

As a working molecular biologist, that was certainly a surprise to me.

In fact, the scientific community has long regarded sexual orientation – whether gay, straight, or somewhere in between – as a phenotype: an observable set of properties that varies among individuals and is deeply rooted in biology. For us, the role of genetics in sexual behavior is about as “disputable” as the role of evolution in biology. Come to think of it, pretty much the same folks are opposed to both ideas.

The empirical evidence for the role of genetics in sexual orientation has steadily mounted since I first entered the field in the early 1990s. Back then, the only quantitative data was derived from studies of unrepresentative and potentially biased samples of self-identified gay men and lesbian. But in the intervening 20 years, studies of twins – the mainstay of human population genetics – have been conducted on systematically ascertained populations in three different countries. These studies are notable because they have large sample sizes that are representative of the overall population, they’re conducted by independent university-based investigators using well-established statistical methods, and the results are published in the peer-reviewed literature.

Each of these studies has led to the same fundamental conclusion: genes play a major role in human sexual orientation. By contrast, shared environmental factors such as education, parenting style, or presumably even exposure to Lady Gaga, have little if anything to do with people's orientation. While there is a substantial amount of variation that cannot be ascribed to either heritable or shared environment, the differences might also be due to biological traits that are not inherited in a simple additive manner.

One criticism frequently leveled at my work was that sexual orientation couldn't possibly be inherited because “gays don't have kids.” As the gay father of a daughter with lesbian mothers, I always had to shake my head in disbelief – but now there is a solid scientific explanation for how genes that increase same-sex attraction might persist or even increase in the population. Careful family studies by two groups of investigators show that the same inherited factors that favor male homosexuality actually increase the fecundity of female maternal relatives, and that this effect is sufficient to balance out the decreased number of offspring for gay men and maintain the genes over the course of natural selection. This explanation may not be the only one, but it serves to show that the evolutionary paradox is not necessarily overwhelming.

Another criticism frequently brought up by politically motivated critics of the research is that there is still no single identified "gay gene." However, the same is true for height, skin color, handedness, frequency of heart disease and many other traits that have a large inherited component but no dominant gene. This doesn't mean that sexual orientation is a choice; it simply confirms that sexual orientation is complex, with many genes contributing to the phenotype.

In certain animal model systems, the precise genes involved in sexual partner choice have in fact been identified and their neuro-biochemical pathways have been worked out in detail. Humans may be more socially and culturally complex, but it is likely that some of these mechanisms are preserved, as they are for every other behavioral trait we know.

Given the accumulated evidence, why might Pawlenty assert that the scientific community is still debating the role of biology in sexual orientation? Probably because that's what the religious fundamentalist groups that vehemently oppose LGBT rights want people to think, and have spent considerable time, effort and money trying to promote.

There is good reason for their opposition to the scientific findings. Studies in college classrooms have shown that exposure of students to information about the causes of sexual orientation has a direct, positive influence on their opinions about LGBT civil rights. This fits with polling data showing that people who believe that gays are "born that way" are generally supportive of full equality, whereas more than two thirds of those who believe it is "a choice" are so opposed that they favor the re-criminalization of same-sex relations.

I would never want my life, liberty, or pursuit of happiness to be subject to a DNA test or any other sort of scientific analysis. Basic rights are just that – basic. But it is essential to acknowledge that lack of scientific knowledge can actually result in having our rights and freedoms taken away through the actions of misinformed voters, legislators and judges.

At least Pawlenty acknowledged that science has some role to play. I doubt that would be the case for his competitor Michele Bachman, who considers sexual orientation to be so malleable that people can “pray away the gay”. She's hopeless. With Pawlenty, it might just take some education – and plenty of Lady G, of course.

Dean Hamer is a molecular biologist who works on human genetics and HIV prevention and is the author of several scientific books including The Science of Desire. When he's not in the lab, he is visiting small towns and rural communities with his husband Joe Wilson on the OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Help Us Speak OUT IN THE SILENCE in Pennsylvania's Most Conservative Communities

2011-07-12T20:09:00.000-07:00

On May 2, State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, the Pennsylvania General Assembly's "No. 1 Conservative," introduced House Bill 1434, a Constitutional Amendment to Protect Marriage Between ‘One Man and One Woman’ in the state.

Not only would such a measure NOT 'protect' marriage, it would cause real harm to real people by denying fundamental rights and protections to families comprised of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people -- excluding them from the institutions of marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships.

Such mean-spirited, politically-motivated attacks also stir up irrational fears and hatred of their targets, putting LGBT people at-risk of losing jobs, housing, access to higher education, personal safety, and sometimes their very lives.

We believe that a vast majority of Pennsylvanians have a more welcoming and inclusive view of their LGBT families, friends, and neighbors, even in the conservative districts of the Marriage 'Protection' Amendment's 37 co-sponsors.

That's why we want to hold very public OUT IN THE SILENCE town-hall screening events in these co-sponsors' very communities, helping to bring people of good will there together to effectively express their support.

And we need your help!

If you live, or care about what's happening, in one of these legislative districts, we want to work with you on an event to raise visibility and help build the local movement for change.

Please check out the list of target legislative districts below and be in touch with us to get involved: QwavesJoe@yahoo.com

Thanks

If Not Us, Who? And If Not Now, When?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Penna. Marriage Protection Amendment (HB 1434) Co-Sponsors

Daryl Metcalfe (R) – Butler County / Cranberry Township

Scott Boyd (R) – Lancaster County – Lampeter

Stephen Barrar (R) - Chester / Delaware County - Boothwyn

Michele Brooks (R) – Crawford / Lawrence / Mercer County – Greenville & Meadville

Martin Causer (R) – Cameron / McKean / Potter County – Bradford & Coudersport

Jim Christiana (R) – Beaver County – Monaca & Aliquippa

Paul Clymer (R) – Bucks County – Perkasie

Jim Cox (R) – Berks County – Sinking Spring

Tom Creighton (R) – Lancaster County – Manheim & Denver

Matt Gabler (R) – Clearfield / Elk County – DuBois & St. Marys

Mark Gillen (R) – Berks County – Reading

R. Ted Harhai (D) – Fayette / Westmoreland County – Monessen

Doyle Heffley (R) – Carbon County – Lehighton

Dick Hess (R) – Bedford / Fulton / Huntingdon County – Bedford

David Hickernell (R) – Dauphin / Lancaster County – Elizabethtown & Columbia

Scott Hutchinson (R) – Butler / Venango County – Oil City

Rob W Kauffman (R) – Cumberland/Franklin County – Chambersburg & Shippensburg

Fred Keller (R) – Snyder / Union County – Mifflinburg

Mark Keller (R) – Franklin / Perry County – New Bloomfield & Chambersburg

Jerry Knowles (R) – Berks / Schuykill County – Tamaqua

Timothy Krieger (R) – Westmoreland County – Greensburg & Youngwood

John Lawrence (R) – Chester County – West Grove

Jim Marshall (R) – Beaver County – Beaver Falls

Carl Walker Metzgar (R) – Bedford / Somerset County – Somerset & Hyndman

David Millard (R) – Columbia County – Berwick & Bloomsburg

T. Mark Mustio (R) – Allegheny County – Moon Township

Donna Oberlander (R) – Armstrong / Clarion County – Clarion & Numine

Jeffrey Pyle (R) – Armstrong / Indiana County – Ford City, Apollo, & Home

Kathy Rapp (R) – Forest / Mckean / Warren County – Warren

Mike Reese (R) – Fayette / Westmoreland County – Mount Pleasant

Brad Roae (R) – Crawford County – Titusville & Meadville

Rick Saccone (R) – Allegheny / Washington County – Jefferson Hills

Curt Schroder (R) – Chester County – Exton

Jerry Stern (R) – Blair County – Hollidaysburg

Richard Stevenson (R) – Blair / Mercer County – Grove City

RoseMarie Swanger (R) – Lebanon County – Lebanon

Will Tallman (R) – Adams / York County – Hanover

Randy Vulakovich (R) – Allegheny County – Glenshaw

Stop Hate & Homophobia in Springfield, MA -- July 5 Protest at Barrows Park

2011-06-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

For Immediate Release: June 30, 2011

Springfield, MA

“Stop the Hate and Homophobia Coalition”
Organizes a Protest Calling for Community Support
to Stop All Violence Against Sexual Minorities

SPRINGFIELD, MA – On Tuesday, July 5, 2011 from 12:00-1:00 pm, organizers are calling for all concerned about the recent brutal violence against an openly gay man to meet at Barrows Park in Springfield, to stand in solidarity against violence, and along side of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Two-Spirit, Intersex, Queer, Questioning, Neutral and Allied community.

On the early morning hours of Tuesday, June 28th, an openly gay man, whose name remains anonymous, was violently attacked by 5 males and 4 females ranging in age from 12-19. He suffered head trauma as well as other injuries. The victim reported that slurs were being used during the beating, including one of the alleged perpetrators saying, “That’s what we do to faggots.”

This incident happened at the tail end of Gay Pride Month, and followed a week of Gay Pride events in our city; one which was a Flag Raising event that involved institutional proclamations read aloud by Mayor Sarno and City Council President Tosado calling for “Springfield residents to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless or sexual orientation or gender identity.”

In response to the incident, openly gay City Councilor Amaad Rivera states, “Hate is not a Springfield value. Only together can we create a community that safe for everyone. No one should have to suffer violence for being who they are.”

When Youth Community Organizer, Michael Hall, from Out Now, Springfield’s only Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Youth organization, was asked about the beating he stated, “It just really reminded me of how one incident like this, that is motivated by the hating of gay people, can leave us feeling afraid all over again.” “I just really believe there needs to be institutional education/curriculum that focuses on LGBTQ people, at every level of the public school system, for starters,” added Hall.

“I find this all so disturbing, yet we must try to use this as an opportunity here,” reports Holly Richardson, Community Organizer, Out Now, and Arise for Social Justice. “If we are to truly tackle anti-gay violence we must treat this beating not as an isolated incident. With people living and working in our community like Scott Lively, an internationally recognized anti-gay minister; and this kind of extreme violence occurring a week and a half after Springfield’s Pride/Visibility Week, I believe it’s important to address homophobic violence (and oppression, in general) with a root-cause analysis, starting with asking ourselves what would cause a group of young people to act in such a way toward an openly gay man?”

The Stop the Hate and Homophobia Coalition was formed in January 2011 upon learning that Scott Lively was living and ministering in Springfield. Lively is president of the Abiding Truth Ministries, which has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and he has been running the Holy Grounds Coffee House on State Street, right near Commerce High School. The coalition deplores hateful messages and actions, and calls for community education about the impact of homophobia on our communities, as well as calling for community leaders, neighbors, co-workers, family members, etc. to speak out against homophobia whenever it is perpetrated. The coalition involves a number of community-based organizations, local college professors and students, members of the faith community and individual community members.

Contacts:
Holly Richardson
Out Now, Arise for Social Justice
413.348.8234 (cell)

Amaad Rivera
Springfield City Councilor
413.342.1784

Pennsylvania Hate Group Prevents Progress

2011-06-26T16:31:00.000-07:00

As if the economic downturn of the past few years has not been challenging enough, Pennsylvania must now overcome being seen as a conservative, intolerant backwater unwelcoming of diversity, and unable to retain or attract talented residents, as much of the rest of the country forges ahead on issues of equality, dignity and respect for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people – (see New York for the most recent example).

This debacle is the result of a vicious, and public, anti-gay campaign being waged by the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Family Association, an extremist organization recently added to the Southern Poverty Law Center's designated “hate group” watch list.

While the Venango County-based organization has long spewed demonizing homophobic and transphobic propaganda, it has ratcheted up its attacks in recent months as several municipalities across the state have organized to do locally what the legislature has failed to accomplish for state residents: add sexual orientation and gender identity and expression as protected groups in non-discrimination laws.

In the crosshairs of the American Family Association of PA's campaign-of-hate is the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, the agency charged with eliminating discrimination against the state's most vulnerable populations.

Until just a few weeks ago, the commission was headed by Stephen Glassman, a champion of civil rights for all Pennsylvanians who had been providing expert analysis and support to these important and successful municipal efforts to prevent discrimination.

While Glassman decided to step down from his role as commission chairman when the state's new conservative Republican governor, Tom Corbett, took office early this year, the American Family Association of PA intensified its attacks against the agency, perhaps with the aim of intimidating any and all state or elected officials who do not adhere to its archaic and exclusionary doctrine of religion-based bigotry and discrimination.

If Pennsylvania is to remain a keystone of the American ideals of liberty and justice for all, it is going to have to find ways to rise above the ugliness of the hate groups that continue to call it home.

You can help by letting Governor Corbett, and all of your elected representatives, know that you support full equality for all people in Pennsylvania, including the state's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents.

And, you can support the important civil rights work of groups like the ACLU of Pennsylvania, Equality Pennsylvania, Equality Partners of Western Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Diversity Network, and Keystone Progress, among others.

Out In The Silence -- Hope Over Hate in Springfield

2011-06-02T20:58:00.000-07:00

Film Screening to Shine Light on Quest for Equality

A special screening of OUT IN THE SILENCE, the acclaimed documentary about courageous local residents fighting against homophobia and the forces behind the anti-gay bigotry and discrimination that continue to plague conservative small town America, is the Kick-Off event for a Week of Pride celebrations in Springfield, MA.

The free community event takes place on Wed., June 8 at 6:00 pm at Springfield Technical Community College's Scibelli Hall Theater. The screening will be followed by a dynamic town hall-style dialogue featuring members of the Springfield Pride Committee and filmmaker Joe Wilson.

While Wilson is thrilled to be a part of the Pride celebrations, the event has additional significance to him because Springfield is home to Abiding Truth Ministries, an anti-gay “hate group” much like the American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA), the organization at the heart of the challenges he documented in OUT IN THE SILENCE.

“Time and time again I've seen how these extremist groups stoke the fires of hatred and bigotry in small towns and rural communities, and I understand the importance of challenging them on their own turf,” said Wilson. “This event in Springfield will help to shine light on, and counter the dirty deeds of, one of the worst of the worst.”

Springfield's Abiding Truth Ministries was founded by Scott Lively, a notorious religious right activist known for his provocative anti-gay activities, including the discredited claim that “the Nazi Party was entirely controlled by militaristic homosexuals,” work on an Oregon ballot measure to have homosexuality codified as “abnormal behavior,” and travels in Eastern Europe and Uganda to assert that “homosexuality is a personality disorder and an evil institution” worthy of the death penalty. In 2008, Lively launched an effort to “re-Christianize” Springfield. Shortly thereafter, his Abiding Truth Ministries, like the American Family Association, was put on the Southern Poverty Law Center's official “hate group” watch list.

OUT IN THE SILENCE shows Wilson being drawn back to his small Pennsylvania hometown to share the story of a teenager tormented at school because he is gay, and the struggle the teen's mother goes through to get school authorities to do something about it. In the film, Wilson also strikes up an unexpected friendship with a conservative evangelical pastor, and follows the trials and tribulations of a local lesbian couple who can catalyze the rust-belt town’s economic revitalization if they find community acceptance. Intertwined with these heartfelt stories is Wilson's exploration of the role that the local chapter of the American Family Association plays in stoking anti-gay bigotry in the town. At once wrenching, entertaining, and inspiring, the film ultimately shows the individual and community transformations that are possible when people, on all sides of these challenging issues, speak out and take the time to get to know one another.

OUT IN THE SILENCE was produced in association with the Sundance Institute and Penn State Public Broadcasting, premiered at the 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in New York, and won an Emmy Award for Achievement in Documentary.

A press kit and more information about OUT IN THE SILENCE are available on the film's website: http://OutintheSilence.com

Follow OUT IN THE SILENCE on Facebook.

Out In The Silence in Springfield -- Film Screening to Kick-Off Week of Pride Celebrations

2011-06-02T12:44:00.001-07:00

Springfield, MA – June 1, 2011 – In an effort to raise lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) visibility and engage the community in new conversations about inclusion, fairness, and equality for all, the Springfield Pride Committee is sponsoring a free community screening of the acclaimed film OUT IN THE SILENCE at 6:00pm, Wed., June 8 at Springfield Technical Community College's Scibelli Hall Theater to Kick-Off a Week of Pride Celebrations.

A dynamic post-screening dialogue will be led by members of the Pride Committee and feature special guest, filmmaker Joe Wilson.

OUT IN THE SILENCE shows Wilson being drawn back to his small Pennsylvania hometown to share the story of a teenager tormented at school because he is gay, and the struggle the teen's mother goes through to get school authorities to do something about it. In the film, Wilson also strikes up an unexpected friendship with a conservative evangelical pastor and his wife, and follows the trials and tribulations of a local lesbian couple who can catalyze the rust-belt town’s economic revitalization if they find community acceptance. Intertwined with these heartfelt stories is Wilson's exploration of the role that a local 'family values' group plays in stoking anti-gay bigotry in the town. At once wrenching, entertaining, and inspiring, the film ultimately shows the individual and community transformations that are possible when people, on all sides of these challenging issues, speak out and take the time to get to know one another.

“Time and time again I've seen how screenings of this film have helped to bring diverse audiences together, have an uproariously good time, and begin to imagine how they can take collective action to make positive change in their community,” said Wilson. “I have great feelings about this Springfield event and the foundation it's going to help lay for important future work there.”

OUT IN THE SILENCE was produced in association with the Sundance Institute and Penn State Public Broadcasting, premiered at the 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in New York, and won an Emmy Award for Achievement in Documentary, but Wilson and his partner and co-director Dean Hamer, are more interested in using it as part of a grassroots campaign to promote dialogue and civic engagement in smaller cities, towns and rural communities.

A press kit and more information about OUT IN THE SILENCE and the campaign are available on the website: http://OutintheSilence.com

###

Contact:

Holly Richardson
Springfield Pride Committee
T: 413.348.8234
E: outnow@comcast.net
W: http://www.outnowspringfield.org/OutNow.html

Joe Wilson
OUT IN THE SILENCE Director
T: 202-320-4172
E: QwavesJoe@yahoo.com
W: http://OutintheSilence.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quotes

“A stunning documentary” - The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Film Critic's Pick of The Week” - The New York Times

“Though the film is made by two gay men, it doesn't seek to promote a “gay agenda” or to stereotype the “religious right.” It's simply a matter of trying to understand attitudes in small-town America.” - Christianity Today

“Most moving are the stories of heterosexuals who transform because of their relationships with GLBT people.” - American Library Association

"Out In The Silence" Tour of Mid-Coast Maine -- June 12-20

2011-05-27T23:51:00.000-07:00

OUT IN THE SILENCE will have its Maine premiere, presented by Equality Maine, as the closing night feature in The First Annual It Gets Better – LGBT Maine Film Festival at The Grand in Ellsworth – Sun, June 5 at 7pm - and will then be featured in a June 12 - 20 Tour of Mid-Coast Maine in an effort to engage residents of small towns and rural communities in new conversations about inclusion, fairness, and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people locally, around the state and across the country.

The tour is being coordinated by Out! As I Want to Be, the local non-profit serving LGBT & Questioning youth and their allies aged 14 – 22 in Mid-Coast Maine, as well as local residents and groups in each host community. Filmmaker Joe Wilson will be on-hand for dynamic post-screening audience conversations.

Tour Schedule

June 12 – 4:30pm – Holocaust & Human Rights Center of Maine, 46 University Dr., Augusta, ME -- (Sponsored by the Religious Coalition Against Discrimination)

June 13 – 7:00pm – The Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor, ME

June 14 – 10:30am - Vinalhaven School, 22 Arcola Lane, Vinalhaven Island, ME

June 15 – 5:30pm - Farnsworth Museum, 16 Museum Street, Rockland, ME - (Followed by special dinner/fundraiser for Out! As I Want To Be)

June 16 – 6:30pm - Camden Public Library, 55 Min Street, Camden, ME - (Additional sponsors are The Community School, the CHRHS Gay Straight Alliance, and The Rig.)

June 18 – 6:00pm - Belfast Free Library, 106 High Street, Belfast, ME

June 20 – 7:00pm – The Waldo Theater, 916 Main Street, Waldoboro, ME - (Sponsored by Equality Maine)

For more info contact: Dora Lievow, Director, Out! As I Want To Be --
E: dora_lievow@yahoo.com T: 800-530-6997

Out! As I Want to Be, the film tour's primary sponsor, trains volunteer advisers, offers after-school programs, and chaperones trips to special events around the state. With this tour, Out! hopes to provide a springboard for Mid-Coast Maine residents, students, educators, clergy, civic leaders, elected officials, and community organizations to begin working together more intentionally to support our LGBTQ youth.

OUT IN THE SILENCE shows Wilson being drawn back to his small Pennsylvania hometown to share the story of a teenager tormented at school because he is gay, and the struggle the teen's mother goes through to get school authorities to do something about it. In the film, Wilson also strikes up an unexpected friendship with a conservative evangelical pastor and his wife, and follows the trials and tribulations of a local lesbian couple who can catalyze the rust-belt town’s economic revitalization if they find community acceptance. Intertwined with these heartfelt stories is Wilson's exploration of the role that a local 'family values' group plays in stoking anti-gay bigotry in the town. At once wrenching, entertaining, and inspiring, the film ultimately shows the individual and community transformations that are possible when people, on all sides of these challenging issues, speak out and take the time to get to know one another.

Produced in association with the Sundance Institute and Penn State Public Broadcasting, OUT IN THE SILENCE premiered at the 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in New York, has been broadcast on PBS, and won an Emmy Award for Achievement in Documentary. But the filmmakers are most interested in using it as part of a grassroots campaign to help raise LGBT visibility and promote dialogue and civic engagement, particularly in small towns and rural communities.

“We’re hopeful that screening events with this film in Maine will help people begin to find common ground on issues that have divided families, friends, and communities for far too long,” said Wilson.

For a press kit and more about the film, visit: OutintheSilence.com

On The Road Again - April 2011 Udpate

2011-04-02T21:51:00.000-07:00

Silence Was Meant To Be Broken

The OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign is hitting the road this month to help support the efforts of courageous young activists organizing to bring attention to and help overcome anti-LGBT bullying, harassment and discrimination on their campuses and in their communities.

Please join us if you're in the area!

April 4 - James Madison University - Harrisonburg, VA

April 7 - Lafayette College - Easton, PA

April 8 - Wilkes University - Wilkes-Barre, PA

April 11 - Allegheny College - Meadville, PA

April 12 - Bethany College - Betheny, WV

April 13 - Bucks County Community College - Newtown, PA

April 14 - The Dietrich Theater - Tunkhannock, PA

April 15 - Eastern Monroe Public Library - Stroudsburg, PA

April 23 - Bay Area Youth Summit - Aragon High School - San Mateo, CA

Many additional events are on the Screenings Calendar HERE.

==================================================

OUT IN THE SILENCE in California

With support from the Columbia Foundation, the OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign is launching a major initiative to help raise visibility and connect, inspire and mobilize LGBT people and Allies in small towns and rural communities across California.

In partnership with state and local groups, the Campaign will conduct town hall-style events in public libraries, churches, schools, colleges and universities, community centers, and local theaters aimed at garnering the media and other forms of public attention necessary to help build bridges across the religious and political divides that have harmed families, friends and communities for far too long.

If you have ideas to contribute or would like to be involved,
please contact OITS Campaign Director,
Joe Wilson -- Email: QwavesJoe@yahoo.com

==================================================

Living Out Loud

"If you asked me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you:
I Came To Live Out Loud"
- Emile Zola -

THANK YOU FOR SPEAKING, LIVING, ACTING OUT IN THE SILENCE WITH US!

OUT IN THE SILENCE at Bethany College

2011-04-02T15:04:00.001-07:00

OUT IN THE SILENCE

Hosted by the Student Activities Council & Gay-Straight Alliance

8:00 PM
April 12

Phillips Lounge

Bethany College
Bethany, WV

"A Reminder of the Need to be Open in the Public Square"

2011-03-17T09:02:00.000-07:00

Remarks delivered prior to the screening of "Out In The Silence" at the World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC - March 16, 2011:

Good afternoon, I am Fabrice Houdart, the President of World Bank GLOBE, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender “Staff Club” of the World Bank.

Let me first welcome Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer the co-producers of the documentary “Out in the Silence”. We thank you for accepting the invitation to join us. It took 4 years for Joe and Dean to shoot and edit “Out in the Silence”. It is an often appalling, but ultimately a hopeful documentary about homophobia.

This documentary is a great tool to remind LGBT people of the need to be open in the public square and at work, not only for themselves, but also for the benefit of their community.

This documentary also tries to answer many of the questions that were raised in the past month here at the World Bank by staff members who openly objected to the distribution of the LGBT workplace survey launched by GLOBE.

Questions such as:

“[What is] is the ambiguous and controversial agenda that lies behind the banner of discrimination based on “sexual orientation”?“,

“why should there be an exclusive class of staff members of whom all the others should be “supportive”?”

“[are the activities of GLOBE] a step toward indoctrination and the restriction of the freedom of thought and religion?”

and finally “doesn’t the staff have the freedom to judge homosexual acts to be objectionable on moral, religious and/or other grounds”?

Although these statements do not favor discrimination directly, the effect of what they stand for ultimately leads to discrimination. The same forces that Joe Wilson went to film in rural America and the fear of a so-called “gay agenda” are present everywhere in the World even right here in the heart of a development institution.

The message of the documentary you are about to discover is that the first step to fighting bigotry is for LGBT people to be out and visible so as to initiate a dialogue.

In an institution where survey results show that 56% of LGBT staff is not out to their supervisor and the majority is not out to their colleagues, it is a challenge which justifies the need for an increased presence of GLOBE not only at Headquarters but also in our Country Offices.

Thank you for coming and please enjoy the screening of "Out in the Silence".

If Not Now for Fairness and Equality, Then When?

2011-03-13T20:15:00.000-07:00

by Joe Wilson:

During a recent visit to Durango, CO for a screening of my film, OUT IN THE SILENCE, in the Durango Independent Film Festival, I was verbally assaulted and physically threatened in an anti-gay tirade by two prominent local businessmen, Joe Leder and Michael Fletcher, while having dinner in a downtown restaurant.

I became the target of their anger, and Leder's raised fist, after I approached them and their female companions to say that I, as a gay man, was disturbed by their loud and mocking references to “queers” in a public setting, and hoped that they would think about the consequences of such behavior in the future.

I decided to say something because, as the co-director of a documentary about equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, I regularly urge audiences to speak up when confronted with intolerance.

How could I not practice what I preach when in such a situation myself?

While Leder, Fletcher and their companions eventually moved on, I was too shaken by the episode to venture out for the film festival-sponsored “gallery walk under the stars” that evening. Rather than risk more trouble, I hunkered down for the night in my hotel.

The next day, film festival personnel and many other community residents expressed embarrassment about the incident and promised to take their concerns to Leder and Fletcher. But I couldn't help but wonder what it must be like to be a victim of such, or worse, abuse and not have anywhere to turn for safety or compassion.

What about the student tortured at school whose teachers turn a blind eye and whose own family would reject him if they found out he was gay? What about the adults who have spent decades alone and in hiding because their church pastors preach that the “homosexual lifestyle” is sinful and wrong? What about the basic rights of millions of LGBT people – to education, employment, housing, marriage and family-formation to name just a few – that have been lost or never enjoyed due to the pervasive bigotry and discrimination that goes unchallenged, day-in and day-out, in towns large and small across the nation?

To those who believe in the promise that all people are created equal and endowed with the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we have an obligation to ensure that such rights are realized.

If not us to work toward these goals, then who? And if not now, when?

It's time to speak out in the silence for fairness and equality for all!

Please Join the OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign

OUT IN THE SILENCE in California

2011-03-12T09:53:00.000-08:00

Local Youth Organize Events to Speak OUT IN THE SILENCE

Against Bullying & Discrimination in California

Screenings of award-winning film to help build bridges
on gay issues, bullying and teen suicides

Redwood City / Clovis, CA — March 14, 2011 — A series of free community screenings of OUT IN THE SILENCE, "a stunning documentary" (Philadelphia Inquirer) about the harrowing, ultimately successful battle waged by a gay teen and his mother against recalcitrant school authorities when the teen is brutally attacked for coming out in his small town high school, will follow the film's local premier in the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival (Sat., March 19).

The events, organized by Gay-Straight Alliance, parent, church, and other community leaders, include:

March 22, 7:00pm – Mill Valley Public Library

March 23, 7:30pm – Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

March 25, 5:00pm – Leon S. and Pete P. Peters Educational Center – Clovis / Fresno

The screenings will be followed by a Q & A session with filmmakers Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer, GSA leaders, and other community representatives aimed at engaging audiences in conversation about building the movement for inclusion, fairness, and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people locally, in California and across the country.

OUT IN THE SILENCE was produced in association with the Sundance Institute, premiered at the 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in New York, and has won praise from critics and film festivals around the world. But Wilson and Hamer are most interested in using it as part of a grassroots campaign to help raise LGBT visibility, support local organizing and advocacy work, and promote dialogue and civic engagement in smaller cities, towns and rural communities.

At the heart of the campaign is a dedication to the idea that small acts of visibility, particularly in places where they are rare, unexpected, and sometimes unwelcome, help to raise awareness, open-up dialogue and create ripple effects and opportunities to organize for change that go far and wide.

California Gay-Straight Alliance leaders have spearheaded the organizing for these events as a way to help communities respond to the tragic rash of suicides among gay youth that captured the nation's attention last fall and to help counter the pervasive harassment and violence LGBT students face on a regular basis in schools across the state.

To see a trailer or for more information about the film, please visit: http://OutintheSilence.com

OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign work in California made possible by a grant from the Columbia Foundation.

###

Contact
Jason Galisatus
President, Aragon High School Gay-Straight Alliance
T: 650-521-1772
E: ahs.gsapresident@yahoo.com

Justin Kamimoto
Clovis North Gay-Straight Alliance
E: justinkamimoto@gmail.com

Joe Wilson
OUT IN THE SILENCE Director
T: 202-320-4172
E: QwavesJoe@yahoo.com

Film Synopsis: When a popular 16-year-old jock is brutally attacked for coming out at his small town high school, his mother reaches out for help to the only person she feels she can trust, an openly gay man who lives 300 miles away – native son and filmmaker Joe Wilson, whose same-sex wedding announcement ignited a firestorm of controversy in the local paper. Returning home with camera in hand, Wilson documents the harrowing but ultimately successful battle waged by the teen and his mom against recalcitrant school authorities, the efforts of a lesbian couple to restore an historic theater in the face of vitriolic anti-gay attacks, and his own unexpected friendship with an Evangelical preacher. As walls are torn down and bridges built, OUT IN THE SILENCE offers a fascinating and moving commentary on America's culture war.

Quotes:

“A stunning documentary” - The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Film Critics Pick-of-the-Week” - New York Times

“Tough. Wrenching. Inspiring.” - OUT Magazine

“Out in the Silence is recommended for all viewers and deserves a place in all library collections, particularly those libraries serving small and rural communities.” - American Library Association

“The recent Out In The Silence screening was the most significant, public and positive event that GLBTQ people in the Klamath area have EVER experienced. EVER. Really. Our group is experiencing it as a watershed event and it has instilled a lot of energy and hope.” - Christy Davis, Supervising Librarian, Klamath County Library Service District, Klamath Falls, OR

“After 'Out In The Silence' played at Williamsport's Community Arts Center in September 2010, I was compelled to write the following message on the film's official website: “Your film does cause one to reflect on one’s own behavior and prejudice. I consider myself a progressive African-American, but the film caused me to doubt my relatively conservative attitudes about homosexuality and the bigotry against gays and lesbians. Mistreatment of another human being is wrong. But, I have not taken a strong stance against the bigotry. I will do better.” - Richard James, Founder, Billtown Film Festival

Gay Filmmaker Gets Death Threat on SUNY Campus

2011-03-10T13:03:00.000-08:00

PLATTSBURGH, NY - Prior to Erin Davies's presentation at SUNY-Plattsburgh, where she showed clips from the film that is dedicated to whoever vandalized her car, a student came running in to give her the news. “There’s writing on your car. I just went out to put a note on your car and saw It.” said Alex Fauchet, the treasurer of the GLBT club on campus. Erin asked what type of writing, and the students showed her pictures they took. She ran out to assess the damage. “Faggets + Dikes Must Die” was written on her driver’s side window with black dry erase marker in the same place “fag” was spray painted nearly 4 years ago. “It wouldn’t have been so shocking in the beginning, but after four years and not having it happen. It’s a shock now. It amazes me what people feel comfortable doing when no one’s around. If someone thinks that I’d be open to having a face to face conve rsation about it, but writing on my property when I’m not there to defend myself is just cowardly.”

After showing clips from the film, Erin opened up the conversation by asking what students thought the response would be to having the fagbug on their campus. No one guessed that it would be targeted the way it was. Ten out of around eighty people who were in the audience knew already what had happened. Erin informed the remainder of the audience by putting up a photograph she took of her window, “Faggets + Dikes Must Die.”

This is what was written on my car on your campus about an hour ago. It’s the first time in four years this has ever happened. It didn’t happen on my road trip and I put the car in every vulnerable position you could imagine around the entire country. It hasn’t happened driving the car in my everyday life. It hasn’t happened at any other campuses I’ve been to and I’ve been to almost 100 schools with the car over four years. How does this make you feel?”

“I was shocked that anyone would do such a thing on a vehicle in plain site. What would they have done if it had been out of site? The thought of what could have happened if the car had been farther from campus is unsettling.” –Alex Fauchet

“I'm embarrassed by the actions of the individual who vandalized Erin Davies's car. I feel that this will only contribute to the stereotype that small cities and towns are close-minded and intolerant based on the actions of either a student who wasn't even raised here or a local resident.” - Kathryn Castillo

“It was incredibly upsetting to hear that this was the first time negative graffiti
has defaced the Fagbug since the original incident, and I was saddened but
not surprised that it could happen here.” –Jocelyn Cook

“Although, I'm surprised that it happened. Plattsburgh is not an area that I believe to be very educated on diversity.” -Sarah Wild

“I have lived in Plattsburgh, NY for 3 and half years. Being a gay man I have experienced homophobia all to often in this town. Unfortunately, this also happened to Erin while she was here to give her presentation. I wish the place I call home would evolve and realize that homophobia is a severe problem here. I hope homophobia and acts of violence against gay people in Plattsburgh, NY will change in time for the better. I guess we can all have a dream.” -Dan Sturrock

“This person clearly does not represent the whole campus, however, this will be the memory that will be taken away from that night. What this person did has not only affected Erin but has also affected the entire campus community.” - Hayley Gentner

A student who was physically attacked as part of a hate crime introduced Erin at the beginning of her program. Erin spent a majority of the evening talking about the incident and climate in Plattsburgh.. There was fear in the audience and many stories were shared that backed it up. “At the same token places that are more remote appreciate my presence that much more. The students were so excited to have my car on their campus. They were all outside cheering as I arrived.”
A police officer circled the outside of the auditorium asking Erin, “Would you like to make a report?” “Well, it’s not the way I planned to spend my evening, but of course. I’m a firm believer in documenting things like this. How can you change or fix a problem if no one knows the problem even exists?” The incident was filed as criminal mischief and hate crime.

Once Erin returned to her car after the event, a smile came to her face. She had 12 new hand-written notes left on her car to add to her collection. One included a pastel colored bracelet and the note said, “Here’s a bracelet to remember me and your journey to Plattsburgh. I made this bracelet in my first Day of Silence, the same day your car was vandalized.”

“Things like this make it worth every discomfort or struggle I have or may continue to endure.”

Erin sees the message she received as another teaching moment. “It doesn’t make me feel afraid. I feel even more motivated to educate people on the intolerance that exists. It’s everywhere. People need to know that”

More info at OUTmedia

OUT IN THE SILENCE on Arizona Public Media

2011-02-21T21:08:00.000-08:00

Interview by "Arizona Illustrated" host Kimberly Craft:

In 2006, human rights activist Joe Wilson published an announcement of his wedding to his same-sex partner in his small hometown of Oil City, Pennsylvania. That one act sparked a whirlwind of controversy, and it led Wilson back home in an effort to chronicle and understand his home's relationship to homosexuality, inclusion and equality.

Now a filmmaker, Wilson joins the studio to talk about Out in the Silence, the widely acclaimed documentary that grew from his experiences. He shares the story behind the movie, its impact on his hometown and his hopes that it will strengthen Arizona's efforts to heal community divides.

Arizona will host several screenings of the film, sponsored by the Pima County Public Library System, ACLU of Arizona, Wingspan Anti-Violence Project, The Amancio Project, and the Yuma High School GSA. Screenings are scheduled for:

Feb. 22, 7:30pm - The Loft Cinema - Tucson

Feb. 23, 6:30pm – Arivaca Old School - Arivaca

Feb. 24, 6:00pm - Yuma County Main Library - Yuma

Feb. 25, 1:00pm - Salazar-Ajo Library - Ajo

In addition to the film's hopeful and entertaining stories, and dynamic post-screening discussions with filmmaker Joe Wilson and local organizers, the Arizona events will feature performances by special guest Namoli Brennet, a Tucson-based transgender musician. (Brennet's music is a major feature of the film's soundtrack.)

February Update: OUT IN THE SILENCE in Arizona, California, Colorado, and beyond ...

2011-02-06T18:58:00.000-08:00

OUT IN THE SILENCE in Arizona

Puts Spotlight on Efforts to Heal Community Divides

As Arizonans grapple with the effects of last month's tragic shooting spree in Tucson, an amazing coalition of groups has organized a series of exciting OUT IN THE SILENCE screening events to help bring people together AND to rock their socks off! In addition to the film's hopeful and entertaining stories and dynamic post-screening discussions, the events will feature special performances by hauntingly inspirational Tucson-based musician, and OITS soundtrack contributor, NAMOLI BRENNET!

Hope you can join us ...

Feb. 22, 7:30pm - The Loft Cinema - Tucson

Feb. 23, 6:30pm - Arivaca Old School - Arivaca

Feb. 24, 5:00pm - Yuma County Main Library - Yuma

Feb. 25, 1:00pm - Salazar-Ajo Library - Ajo

Sponsoring organizations include the Pima County Library System, ACLU of Arizona, Wingspan Anti-Violence Project, The Amancio Project, and the Yuma High School GSA.
==================================================================

ADDITIONAL UPCOMING EVENTS
The OITS Campaign will be out on the road
in many other spots as well ...

Feb. 9, 8:30pm - The Dome @ Artisphere - Arlington, VA

Feb. 12, 3:00pm - Uniontown Public Library - Uniontown, PA

Feb. 13, 1:30pm - Christ's Evangelical Lutheran Church - Beaver Falls, PA

March 3, 9:00am - Durango Independent Film Festival - Durango, CO

March 5, 3:00pm - Durango Independent Film Festival - Durango, CO

March 10, 7:00pm - University of Scranton - Scranton, PA

March 19, 7:00pm - Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival - Sebastopol, CA

March 30, 7:00pm - Wabash College - Crawfordsville, IN

Stay Tuned, Many More In-The-Works ...

Full screening schedule HERE. Is your community on the MAP?

=====================================================================================

Launch of California Initiative

With support from the Columbia Foundation, the OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign is launching a major initiative to help raise awareness and connect, inspire and mobilize LGBT people and allies in small towns and rural communities across California.

In partnership with state and local groups, the Campaign will conduct town hall-style events in public libraries, churches, schools, colleges and universities, community centers, and local theaters aimed at garnering the media and other forms of public attention necessary to help build bridges across the religious and political divides that have harmed families, friends and communities for far too long.

If you or your organization have ideas to contribute or would like to be involved, please contact OITS Campaign Director, Joe Wilson -- Email: QwavesJoe@yahoo.com

The age-old quote from Margaret Mead may be a bit overused, but it sure applies here:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has."

=====================================================================================

YOUR SUPPORT MAKES A DIFFERENCE

At the heart of the OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign is a dedication to the idea that small acts of LGBT visibility in places where they are rare and unexpected help to raise awareness and open-up dialogue in profound new ways and create ripple effects and opportunities to organize for change that go far and wide.

To help us continue building the movement for justice, equality, and human rights for all, particularly out in small towns and rural communities, please get involved.

DONATE NOW

THANK YOU FOR SPEAKING, LIVING, ACTING OUT IN THE SILENCE!

LGBT Film Hits Home in Scranton

2011-02-06T18:52:00.000-08:00

by Rich Howells for The Wilkes-Barre Times Leader:

SCRANTON – A free film screening of “Out in the Silence” sparked a lively and oftentimes personal conversation about inclusion and equality for the local lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community on Jan. 29 at Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church on Wyoming Avenue.

Filmmaker Joe Wilson received a mass of hate mail for placing a wedding announcement to his partner Dean Hamer in his local newspaper, but he was also sent a letter from Kathy Springer, a woman from his hometown whose son, C.J., was being bullied for also being openly gay.

The couple returned to Oil City, Pa., to chronicle the 16-year-old’s struggle for acceptance and confront ongoing bigotry in the small town that Wilson had moved away from years before.

The award-winning documentary touched many of the more than 60 attendees, including hosts Rev. Peter D’Angio of St. Luke’s and Rabbi Daniel Swartz of the Temple Hesed. They were joined by Rosanne Kolberg, a member of NEPA Citizens In Action whose daughter is gay, and Jessica Rothchild, president and founder of Scranton Inclusion, the University of Scranton’s first officially recognized gay-straight alliance, for a subsequent Q&A discussion.

“This is a town like Oil City that has faced and is facing economic problems. I’ve got to feel like that niceness could be turned into a much broader welcome than it is, especially given some of the other towns around here and the way they treated immigrants, for example, and that can be turned into an island of welcoming in a stormy sea,” Swartz said.

“It’s been important for Peter and me to speak up because, unfortunately, sometimes, on issues like welcoming the LGBT community, religion has been on the wrong side. There are plenty of us who believe that all of us are created in the image of God.”

D’Angio, an openly gay pastor who leads “a progressive faith community” in his church, said that he has had his own “Oil City moment” in Scranton when he reached out to another local pastor, who considered him a sinner for being a homosexual.

“It can be a lonely place for all of us who are LGBT in this city, and I would hope that the conversation would get us to have gay-straight alliances that don’t just exist at the University of Scranton but exist in the city for the good of the city,” D’Angio said.

Rothchild said that while University President Rev. Scott R. Pilarz and Diocese of Scranton Bishop Joseph Bambera have not tried to ban their alliance, they did have some difficulty forming the group and have been wary of others who are not as tolerant.

“Being in such a religious community, and especially at the University of Scranton, it has been a bit difficult. We’ve had a few issues where we’ve had to watch out for people who are more radical in their beliefs and don’t want us doing what we want to do,” Rothchild said.

Kolberg, who says she gets “verklempt” whenever she watches “Out in the Silence,” said that her daughter is marrying her partner soon and stressed that acceptance starts at home.

“Thank God my daughter did not have to drop out of school or be harassed, but there are many other kids that are still getting harassed, and that’s one kid too many,” Kolberg said.

Those in attendance also came forward with their own tales of discrimination and perseverance.

One Scranton woman named Debbie said that she found a local church where she felt included until she applied for membership.

“I was told that unless I denounced my life, and I must say ‘life’ because if I choose the word ‘lifestyle’ that implies I have a choice, I couldn’t become a member of that church,” she explained. “I still go to that church every Sunday. The pastor and I know each other, and he knows my story very well, and he has to see me sit there every single day loving God with all my heart. Sometimes you have to stand up and you have to be present in a place where you’re not wanted.”

Is Rep. Barney Frank Now in the Cross Hairs of the American Family Association?

2011-01-10T09:49:00.000-08:00

Is Diane Gramley of the American Family Association (of Pennsylvania), an official "hate group" as designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center, now putting openly-gay Congressman Barney Frank in the cross hairs of the right-wing 'culture war' by saying:

"Barney Frank and others in Washington have a goal of normalizing, through legislation, a lifestyle that has been considered abhorrent and unnatural throughout history. Hopefully new members of the 112th Congress will not view their job as simply a game in which to keep score, but a responsibility to preserve the American Way. America spoke on November 2nd and the returning members of Congress as well as the new ones need to listen to what America had to say.

"We'll put Barney Frank on notice. A Sleeping Giant has awakened and the majority of Americans do not share in your goal setting. Americans are tired of waking up to find an America that they hardly recognize. This is not a game to them, it is a war to get our country back."

Here is Gramley's "News Release," frighteningly titled "Let The Games Begin," in its entirety (pasted below before it is purged from her web site):

American Family Association of Pennsylvania
News Release

For Immediate Release: January 5, 2011
Contact: Diane Gramley 1.814.271.9078 or 1.814.437.5355

Congress is Sworn In: “Let the Games Begin!”

(Harrisburg) — Today the 112th Congress was sworn in. But apparently some view their job on “The Hill” as simply a means to further their own agenda of remaking the United States into something most Americans would not recognize, noted the American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA), a statewide traditional values organization.

After President Obama signed repeal of the law banning homosexuals in the military, misnamed ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ after a convoluted Clinton policy, openly homosexual Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts was quite honest about his intention as well as those of others who want to normalize the homosexual lifestyle. He said, “For those who are worried about the radical homosexual agenda, let me put them on notice. Two down, two to go.” He was referencing the passage of hate crimes and repeal of ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ and he is simply waiting for the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (another misnamed bill) and the repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) before he has a complete victory.

“To Barney Frank and others this is simply a game, a means to further their personal agenda, and they are keeping score. Apparently they are not concerned about what is best for this nation, if they consider it in opposition to what they want, they will ignore the facts and vote to force all of Americans to accept homosexuality as normal. Some examples of ignoring the facts are the denial that there is a homosexual agenda and CDC statistics about the dangers of the homosexual lifestyle, “remarked Diane Gramley, president of the AFA of PA.

Barney Frank and others in Washington have a goal of normalizing, through legislation, a lifestyle that has been considered abhorrent and unnatural throughout history. Hopefully new members of the 112th Congress will not view their job as simply a game in which to keep score, but a responsibility to preserve the American Way. America spoke on November 2nd and the returning members of Congress as well as the new ones need to listen to what America had to say.

“We’ll put Barney Frank on notice. ‘A Sleeping Giant has awakened and the majority of Americans do not share in your goal setting.’ Americans are tired of waking up to find an America that they hardly recognize. This is not a game to them, it is a war to get our country back,” Gramley further stated.

# # #

For information about the OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign for Fairness & Equality, see this link: OutintheSilence.com

Vitriolic and Hateful Rhetoric Is A Threat To Us All, Not Just Public Officials

2011-01-09T09:05:00.000-08:00

In the wake of the recent tragic events in Tucson, where a troubled young man went on a shooting rampage that killed six people, including a federal judge, and gravely wounded Representative Gabrielle Giffords, a wrenching debate over anger, vitriolic rhetoric, and violence in American political culture, finally, has been set off.

We cannot help but be reminded of the inflammatory language, threats and implicit instigations to violence that emanate from those who call themselves "Bible Believing Christians" in the hills of northwestern Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, and be concerned about the consequences for those who have long been in their crosshairs.

We reprise this article as a renewed call to conscience for us all.

"Bible Believing Response" to OUT IN THE SILENCE Promotes Anti-Transgender Violence

Dispatch from Coudersport, PA:

by Joe Wilson, August, 31, 2010:

Diane Gramley sat peacefully behind Robert Wagner in the Coudersport Public Library as the retired physician shared his views on transgender individuals with the assembled audience. “I'm gonna put a ball bat in my car,” he said, “and if I ever see a guy [Wagner refuses to use proper pronouns] coming out of a bathroom that my granddaughter's in, I'm gonna use the ball bat on him.” Moments later he added: “In the good old days, before 'she-males' existed, they just called such people perverts.”

Gramley is no stranger to such ideas. As President of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Family Association, a 'traditional family values' organization based in Mississippi, she spends much of her time planting similar seeds of suspicion about the dangers posed by “men who think they are women,” her disparaging term for transgender females. She also crusades relentlessly against what she and the AFA call the “homosexual agenda” and the type of legal protections that her and Dr. Wagner's threatening rhetoric suggests are needed for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

Gramley was in Coudersport, a small town of 2,600 residents in the sparsely populated north-central part of the state known as the Pennsylvania Wilds, as a special guest of Dr. Wagner for what he titled “A Bible Believing Christian's Response to OUT IN THE SILENCE,” my documentary film about the quest for inclusion, fairness and equality for LGBT people in the small town where I was born and raised, Oil City, PA, just a two-hour drive from Coudersport.

Gramley, who also happens to call the Oil City area home, plays a central role in OUT IN THE SILENCE as a result of the firestorm of controversy she helped to ignite in opposition to the publication of my same-sex marriage announcement in the local paper. It was that controversy that compelled my partner, Dean Hamer, and I to go back to my hometown with our cameras to document what life is like there for LGBT people, and to show hopeful and inspiring stories about the growing movement for equality.

The film was produced in partnership with Penn State Public Broadcasting, received support from the Sundance Institute, premiered at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, screened in Tribeca Cinemas Doc Series, and has been broadcast on PBS stations around the country. We're now using it as an educational tool in a grassroots campaign to help raise LGBT visibility and to bring people together in small towns like Oil City and Coudersport to begin building bridges across the gaps that have divided families, friends, and entire communities on these issues for far too long.

As part of this campaign, OUT IN THE SILENCE had screened just a month earlier for a standing-room-only crowd in the Coudersport Public Library despite vehement opposition from Dr. Wagner and the efforts of the local Tea Party and a small group of fundamentalist preachers to shut the event down and have the library 'de-funded' for making its space available for such a program.

Wagner's “Bible Believing Response,” he told the crowd of approximately 60 local church people, “was intended to expose the filmmakers’ real agenda and to question the directors’ assertion that the community should tolerate alternative lifestyles.”

During the two hour program, Wagner asked special guest Gramley a few questions about her experiences as a minor subject of the film, but he used her more as a prop, seated silently behind him, providing an odd sort of legitimacy as he put forth offensive theories and mischaracterizations about LGBT people, including that “AIDS is the gay plague” and “gays can't have families.”

Dean and I were in the library for the presentation. We made the six-hour drive to Coudersport from our home in Washington, DC because I wanted to bear witness to this event, to experience for myself, if only for a few hours, what it feels like to be so close to such willful ignorance and brazen cruelty.

As I sat there, listening to 'amens,' snickering laughter, and even a roar of approval from the people around me when asked if they agree with the AFA assertions that there “should be legal sanctions against homosexual behavior” and “homosexuals should be disqualified from public office,” I felt a sadness unlike any I have known before. A sadness for those who fall prey to such bigoted and hostile bombast, who carry the feelings these things stir into their homes and family relationships, and for the communities that suffer the sometimes-violent consequences of such mean-spirited divisiveness.

But as I looked at Gramley, unmoved next to Wagner, condoning the ugliness without a word of protest, I thought of all the courageous people who have attended OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign events over the past many months in far flung places, including there in Coudersport, who refuse to be silent anymore, who are working for change in their communities against great odds, and I was inspired all over again.

It is in their spirit that we will continue our campaign to speak out in the silence and to help build the movement for fairness and equality in small towns and rural communities across America.

I hope you'll join us! Learn more at OutintheSilence.com

2010 YEAR IN REVIEW

2010-12-28T14:56:00.000-08:00

HOW DO YOU MEASURE, MEASURE A YEAR?

This has been a remarkable 'five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes' for the OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign. While the struggling young artists and musicians of RENT measured their years in sunsets, midnights, cups of coffee, laughter and strife, we'll remember 2010 for the thousands of miles traveled, small towns visited, friends made, and hearts and minds changed.

Here are a few of our 'moments so dear' ...

ADDRESSING TEEN BULLYING

Seth Walsh, a gentle thirteen-year old boy living in the rural Kern River Valley of central California, was one of at least a half dozen LGBT teens who took their own lives this year because of homophobic harassment and bullying. In response to this tragic epidemic, OITS made a special effort to support youth by:

- Holding "End the Silence" events at nearly 200 high schools in 31 states in collaboration with the GLSEN (Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network) National Day of Silence

- Making the film and resources available at no-charge to all interested schools

- Facilitating the formation of new gay-straight alliance groups in small towns and rural communities across the country

- Promoting safe school and anti-bullying policies and legislation at the local, state and federal levels

These efforts have had real impact, including in Seth's home town where an OITS screening coordinated by courageous local residents catalyzed the formation of a new Kern River Valley community group that is now working with school authorities and town officials to forcibly address school bullying, harassment and discrimination.

BUILDING THE MOVEMENT THROUGH GRASSROOTS OUTREACH

At the heart of the OITS Campaign is our dedication to the idea that small acts of LGBT visibility in places where they are rare and unexpected help to raise awareness and open-up dialogue in profound new ways and create ripple effects and opportunities to organize for change that go far and wide. In 2010, this included:

- More than 300 community events in public libraries, town halls, church basements, book shops, colleges, and universities

- Groundbreaking rural tours across Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Pennsylvania

- Partnerships with over 50 organizations including chapters of the ACLU, Equality Federation, PFLAG, and GLSEN, in addition to Equality Partners of Western PA, Community Safe Zone Project of the Persad Center, Rural Organizing Project, Community of Welcoming Congregations, Freedom To Marry, and dozens of local human dignity groups across the country

- Support for efforts to enact local non-discrimination policies and other activities to make communities more welcoming and inclusive. One of many highlights was a proclamation by the Mayor and City Council that Sept. 13 is OUT IN THE SILENCE Day in Oil City, the beautiful small Pennsylvania town where OITS started and where the stories in the film take place.

CRITICAL RECOGNITION

We were honored and humbled by several kudos from the film and television world this year, including:

- Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Documentary from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Mid Atlantic Chapter
- Premiere at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Lincoln Center followed by screenings at the Tribeca Doc Series, Outfest, Frameline and more than 50 other festivals around the world
- Festival awards including special jury prize for Bravery in Storytelling from Nashville, Social Significance from South Dakota, and Best Documentary from Outtakes New Zealand
- Rave reviews in the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Village Voice, Variety, Advocate, Christianity Today, and dozens of local newspapers
- PBS broadcast to over 80% of the national market

WHY WE'VE GOT TO KEEP WORKING TO MAKE IT BETTER

In a recent Newsweek article, It Gets Better Project founder Dan Savage declared that "the culture war is over" and that LGBT people have now achieved full acceptance in the U.S. Apparently Dan has never visited Coudersport, PA, where local fundamentalist ministers and Tea Party activists threatened to defund the public library and fire the librarian simply for hosting a screening of OITS. When those efforts failed, they held their own "Bible Believing Christian Response to OITS" a month later in the same library, expressing their violent views toward LGBT people quite clearly.

Such attacks are still all-too-common. The good news in this case is that the blatant hatred and hostility inspired other local residents, with the help of Equality Partners of Western Pennsylvania, to form a community group that is working with town authorities and mainstream church members to move Couderpsort toward becoming a more welcoming and inclusive community for all.

Such stories, which are still happening in communities across the country, are why we must continue our efforts to make it better for everyone, everywhere, now!

YOUR SUPPORT MAKES A DIFFERENCE

As 2010 comes to a close, we're making even bigger plans for 2011. Already in the works are rural tours in Arizona, Maine, Maryland and California, legislative efforts around employment nondiscrimination, safe schools, and marriage equality, and a dynamic new outreach effort with LGBT youth.

None of this work is possible without your support.

PLEASE DONATE NOW

THANK YOU FOR SPEAKING, LIVING, ACTING
OUT IN THE SILENCE!

For More Information Visit:

OutintheSilence.com

Follow On FACEBOOK

Yo Dan Savage, We Love You But, It Hasn't Gotten Better For Everyone Yet, So ...

2010-12-21T19:11:00.000-08:00

Please stop saying (as you did most recently in a NEWSWEEK interview) that “the culture war is over and done” and that all we need to do is focus on legislative progress simply because we have Glee and Ellen, and now, at least, the repeal of DADT.

Despite tremendous gains in the pursuit of justice and equality, and major shifts in beliefs about and attitudes toward LGBT people, over the past several decades, far too many of us, particularly younger people and particularly in smaller cities, towns and rural communities, continue to live in the shadows, unable to live openly or speak out for fear of losing our families, friends, jobs, livelihoods, personal safety, and sometimes our very lives.

Each and every time we do a community screening of OUT IN THE SILENCE somewhere in the American heartland, we see and hear about this reality. And each and every time we see and hear about this reality, it is shocking, devastating, infuriating, etc., etc., etc. ...

Perhaps you'll be able to join us at one of these events sometime, where courageous local folks are rising up to share their stories, and powerful grassroots organizations are working with them to develop creative strategies to promote understanding, justice and equality for all in what are still very challenging environments.

As your important campaign implies, it does get better, but only when we do the work together to help make it better.

Joe Wilson & Dean Hamer
OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign

To Our Oregon Friends ...

2010-12-16T15:31:00.000-08:00

And all those involved with the Rural Organizing Project, Basic Rights Oregon, PFLAG Oregon, Community of Welcoming Congregations, and dozens of community-based human dignity groups across the state:

This is a long-overdue thank you for all that you set out to do, all that you accomplished, and all that you shared with us during our recent tour of beautiful rural Oregon with the OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign.

At each stop along the way we were overwhelmed by your warmth and hospitality, fired up by your enthusiasm and hunger for justice and equality for all, and inspired more than words could ever convey by your fearless dedication to the hard work of organizing for profound and sustainable social change.

In what has often been a dark and lonely journey through other parts of the country, you reminded us of the goodness and light that is possible when people and communities come together to build upon what they have in common rather than what sets them apart.

We will carry your example of collaboration and your message of hope for a more just and humane world with us for a long, long time and share them with everyone we encounter everywhere we go!

Yours in gratitude & solidarity,

Joe Wilson & Dean Hamer
OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign

AN OPEN LETTER TO ROBERT WAGNER AND DIANE GRAMLEY: STOP BULLYING TRANSGENDER PEOPLE

2010-11-24T19:39:00.000-08:00

This past August, Coudersport, PA resident Robert Wagner convened a “Bible Believing Christian” forum at the Coudersport Public Library at which he threatened to violently attack transgender individuals with a baseball bat.

Forum “special guest” Diane Gramley, whose Venango County-based American Family Association of Pennsylvania regularly plants seeds of suspicion about the dangers posed by “men who think they are women,” Gramley's disparaging term for transgender females, condoned Wagner's incitement without a word of protest.

(The American Family Association, parent organization of the AFAofPA, was recently designated a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization.)

A video of this verbal assault, which attracted national media attention, can be viewed here:

Each November, the world commemorates the Transgender Day of Remembrance, a time to mourn and honor the many transgender lives tragically cut short by hatred, fear, and violence.

We are writing this open letter to call on Wagner and Gramley to take responsibility for the consequences of their rhetoric, publicly apologize for their remarks, and denounce anti-transgender bullying, discrimination and violence.

We also urge readers to raise their voices with others in the community to express support for the right of all people to live free of fear and discrimination, with dignity and respect, regardless of their actual or perceived gender identity and expression.

Please let your voice be heard by writing a letter-to-the-editor of your local paper and sharing news of your action here on the Out In The Silence blog or the Out In The Silence website.

Thank You,

Joe Wilson & Dean Hamer
OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign

Will You Speak Out In The Silence To End Bigotry, Bullying & Discrimination?

2010-11-15T12:29:00.000-08:00

Will You Join Us to Speak OUT IN THE SILENCE
to End Bigotry, Bullying & Discrimination?
Award-winning documentary to be shown
at Teaneck International Film Festival
to help build bridges on gay issues, bullying and teen suicides

Teaneck NJ – OUT IN THE SILENCE, an Emmy award-winning documentary about religious attitudes toward same-sex unions and the struggles faced by gay teens, will be the closing film at the Teaneck International Film Festival. It will be shown at the Puffin Cultural Forum, 20 Puffin Way, Sunday, November 21, at 8:15 p.m. Tickets are $5 if purchased in advance (at Teaneckfilmfestival.org, or at local stores: Animations, Brier Rose Books, and Teaneck General Store) and $7 at the door.

The screening is being held in response to a controversy over a same-sex wedding announcement appearing in the New Jersey Jewish Standard newspaper and the suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi, says Jeremy Lentz, the festival's executive director.

"The purpose of this screening is to expand public awareness about the difficulties lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people face in suburbia and small town America," continued Lentz.

Filmmakers Joe Wilson and New Jersey native Dean Hamer will follow the screening of their “stunning documentary” (Philadelphia Inquirer) with a Q & A session about inclusion, fairness, and equality for LGBT people. Rabbi Steven Sirbu, of Teaneck’s Temple Emeth, State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), and Jeremy Lentz, Executive Director of TIFF, will participate in the post-film discussion which will be moderated by Sandi Klein (1010WINS).

OUT IN THE SILENCE touches on one of the most urgent human and civil rights concerns of our time, particularly in this area, where the suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi, recent hate crimes against gays, and the debate over marriage equality which began with an announcement in a local newspaper, have been making headlines and sparking discussion and debate. “We’re hopeful that the inclusion of the film in the Teaneck festival will open up dialogue and civil engagement on this topic throughout the region,” said Wilson.

The film, produced in association with the Sundance Institute, premiered in the 2010 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at New York’s Lincoln Center and has won kudos at film festivals nationwide, as well as a Mid-Atlantic Emmy award for outstanding achievement in documentary. But Wilson and Hamer are most interested in using it as part of a grassroots campaign to raise LGBT visibility, build bridges across identity lines and morally charged religious divides, and advocate for safe schools.

Wilson and Hamer did not set out to make a documentary about LGBT issues, but after the couple announced their wedding in Wilson’s small hometown newspaper, there was a firestorm of controversy initiated by the head of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, who happened to live in the town.

“In Pennsylvania, as in suburban New Jersey, there are people who try to use religion as a wedge issue to divide communities,” said Wilson. “But as we documented the controversy over three years, it became apparent that many more people wanted to have a civil dialogue and close the gaps that have divided families, friends, and neighbors for far too long.”

Two key figures in the documentary are an Evangelical preacher and his wife who start off as vehement opponents of same-sex unions. After getting to know Wilson and Hamer over several years of filming, and meeting other LGBT people in their community, they have a change of heart and become close friends.

“It was a remarkable journey for all of us,” said Hamer. “It just goes to show the type of transformation that is possible when people on opposite sides of an issue lay down their swords and get to know one another.”

The film also documents the harrowing, and ultimately successful, journey of CJ, a gay teen whose mother contacted Wilson after her son was brutally gay-bashed at high school. Their efforts to hold the school administrators accountable lead to anti-bullying measures being introduced in the school system.

“The recent rash of teen suicides due to anti-LGBT bigotry, bullying, and harassment is a tragic reminder of how far we have to go to counter the intolerance and homophobia that are claiming young lives,” commented Wilson. “We need the sort of courage demonstrated by CJ translated into a national movement for safe schools for all students everywhere.”

The OUT IN THE SILENCE community engagement campaign has so far conducted more than 200 town-hall-style screenings across the country. The film has special appeal and relevance for youth, who often identify with the spirited gay teen who is a central character in the documentary. The campaign has provided free DVDs and outreach materials to over 200 LGBT student groups across the country.

###

The filmmakers are available for interviews.

For more information and to view a trailer please visit http//:OutintheSilence.com

Press Contacts:

Jeremy Lentz, TIFF Executive Director, 917-607-4470, jeremylentz@msn.com

Joe Wilson, OUT IN THE SILENCE Co-Director, 202-320-4172, QwavesJoe@yahoo.com

Dean Hamer, OUT IN THE SILENCE Co-Director, 301-326-8355, Deanhamer@aol.com

Hate Rears Its Head On Rural Oregon Community College Campus

2010-11-06T01:08:00.000-07:00

On the first day of the OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign's Rural Oregon Tour, aimed at helping to raise lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) visibility and support the efforts of state and local groups building the movement for fairness and equality for all, the Linn-Benton Community College campus was plastered with inflammatory fliers even as the audience was watching the film.

The fliers used the words “JIZZFEST” and “CUMTASTIC” to ridicule and stigmatize LGBT people as nothing more than sexual deviants. They also purposely listed the contact information for the head of the college's new Diversity Achievement Center, which hosted the screening, to send a message that any attempts to promote equality and inclusiveness will be met with resistance.

While the shock, fear and pain caused by the incident was palpable in the room as it came to the audience's attention, the act also brought into stark relief the very real and immediate challenges still faced by LGBT people on a daily basis right there in the community, and helped to quickly move the post-screening conversation to the work that needs to be done to address such problems in a meaningful and systemic way.

In addition to an investigation and response by law enforcement and the college administration, LBCC Diversity Center staff and allies will be working hard in the days ahead to demonstrate that the campus is a welcoming, safe, inclusive and culturally respectful place for all and that it is no place for hate.

They will undoubtedly be joined by members of the groups that organized this OITS rural tour and have been working hard to build the movement for social and economic justice for all in Oregon for the past two decades. These groups include the Rural Organizing Project, Basic Rights Oregon, Community of Welcoming Congregations, Oregon PFLAG, and dozens of local human dignity groups around the state.

Please support the important work these groups are doing on behalf of justice and equality for all by joining us at, or helping to spread word about, the upcoming tour events in communities across Oregon.

More information about the tour can be found HERE.

Thanks for your support and solidarity.

To contact filmmakers Joe Wilson & Dean Hamer, see OutintheSilence.com

Close To Home

2010-10-14T12:56:00.000-07:00

The comments delivered by Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns in response to the recent rash of suicides by LGBT youth apply very fittingly to Venango County as well.

Bridging The Gaps In A Small Community

2010-10-13T23:09:00.000-07:00

Below is a reflection on an OUT IN THE SILENCE Screening & Community Dialogue sponsored by the White River Valley PFLAG in Spencer, IN. This is what the building of the movement for inclusion, fairness and equality for all in rural and small town America looks like. Beautiful and Inspiring!

Film Screening, Dinner, Dessert, Dialogue – and Drab Carpeting?

by Jonathan Balash, President of Spencer Pride:

Last night, I found myself staring at a patch of bland carpeting in the middle of a crowded room. Around me, people discussed important issues affecting the LGBTQI community – a community to which I and my husband Jacob are proud members. And yet I stared at the floor.

Let me step back for a moment and set the stage for you.

We were at the Presbyterian Church Cornerstone Hall in our small Midwestern town of Spencer, Indiana. Spencer is a rural community with a population of approximately 2500. It is situated in Owen Valley along the west fork of the White River, and sandwiched between miles of soybeans, corn, and fields of livestock. The crowd that filled the large open room had come out to attend White River Valley PFLAG’s Out in the Silence Film Screening and Community Dialogue.

I am the secretary of our chapter. Alongside our chapter president Judi Epp and a few core PFLAG members, I had spent a significant amount of time over the past two months planning for the event. We kicked off the evening with a member of the Presbyterian Church who said a short welcome and prayer. Then, Judi and I introduced ourselves, PFLAG, and finally the film itself. After I pressed play and adjusted the volume accordingly, I stood back with other PFLAG members to take in the impressive crowd. We had planned on 25 people attending the event, but we all secretly had hoped for 50 people. I counted more than 50 in attendance and shared a few excited glances with Judi.

But that wasn’t it. The door opened and members of the church’s youth group filed in. Now we were at 55. Wait – again the door opened. 59. 60. 63. And so on, the door kept opening until our crowd reached 77 people! I was beside myself that our community could fill a large room for an event focused on gay and lesbian issues! Young and old, church-goers and secularists, students and teachers, the room filled with diversity. Our members quietly scrambled to add more chairs as each new couple or group entered the lowly lit room where the film was playing.

Quickly we doubled our food order from the local Pizza Hut.

As you may already be aware, Out in the Silence is a critically-acclaimed documentary that focuses on the issues of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals who live, work, and love in a small rural community in Pennsylvania. Ever since we had been introduced to the film several months ago through an e-mail from our field coordinator, Brooke Smith, our chapter had wanted to hold the film screening and community dialogue. There are so many parallels between the film and our own local community.

The film stirred up a lot of emotion among the attendees. At moments there were tears, while at other times the sound of laughter filled the room. Most of the audience kept their eyes focused on the screen as the various story lines unfolded. I kept pinching myself that we had such a great turnout! Our PFLAG members scrambled to cut ice cream cakes that had been donated by our local Dairy Queen.

The movie ended and after a brief break where we served food and refreshments, the crowd returned to their seats as I introduced Mary L. Gray, a distinguished Indiana University Professor of Communication and Culture and author of the recently published book Out in the Country. Mary’s research about rural LGBTQI youth is well-known to us and we had met her at a previous event. She was also recommended by the filmmakers of Out in the Silence, so we were excited and honored to have her participate in our event. First, Mary laid the ground rules – use “I” statements, respect one another, etc. – then she had us all move our chairs in to a large circle. She then began to facilitate the dialogue.

Dialogue topics ranged from the film itself to teen suicide to religious perspectives on homosexuality. The crowd represented both sides of nearly every topic, with the passions of one person often leading to the unease of another.

Hence the carpeting. And my shoes. I realized how I should have given them a fresh coat of polish before I came to the church.

I am an out – and very outspoken – man. Yet something as simple as talking about an issue so close to my heart can be difficult to do. Quotes from the Bible were read and it was made quite clear by several attendees that surely no good would ever come from my identity as a homosexual man. I know better than to believe these things, of course, but it doesn’t make them any easier to hear.

I was playing a good host, smiling and looking attentively around the room during the conversations that were comfortable to me. Yet the moment that the Bible was quoted, my eyes trailed back to the floor. Was this to hide weakness? Insecurity?

As the dialogue continued, I realized how difficult it must have been for the conservative Christians to attend this event, surrounded by mostly LGBTQI affirming individuals as well as a whole assortment of LGBTQI-identifying people. I admired their bravery at coming to our event. I doubt I would have been willing to do the same had the situation been reversed.

I began to be more conscious of my view, and I started to keep my head up regardless of the topic. It was wonderful to hear so many people who were willing to stand up for their gay sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and friends.

Judi spoke from her heart near the end of the discussion. “Some people – like myself – choose to live the truth. Some people choose to live a lie. And some people can’t choose either. So they can’t live at all. That’s just unacceptable.”

Her words sent a message deep inside of me. As she said them, I looked around the room and saw the nodding heads of a few people who still clenched bibles in their hands. Although all we could agree on was that discrimination and violence toward youth was unacceptable in our community, I knew that would be a great place to start.

It was important for us all to have taken part in the event. For those individuals who were already affirming, it was important for them to see what challenges still exist in our community. For those individuals who were “against the very premise of the event” (direct quote), it was important for them to see that we aren’t just hiding in the shadows. We have supporters. And for those of us who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, it was important to see and understand both of those things.

The discussion ended after 45 minutes when Mary brought it to a close and thanked everyone for coming out to participate. “I was struck by the level of commitment from everyone in the room to continue the conversation, even when it was clear that there was disagreement,” Gray explained to me after the event. “I believe conversations like the one we had tonight bring us one step closer to better supporting LGBT and questioning youth because these discussions help us see the genuine concern we have for each other and our community members. It's inspiring.”

Judi, our chapter president, had the following to say about the dialogue: "Our intention was to start a conversation about being gay or lesbian in the rural Midwest and we certainly did that! The attendees represented a wonderful cross section of the local community and thanks to our facilitator everyone who wanted to speak was given an opportunity to do so.”

Once the dialogue finished the hall began clearing out. Approximately 20 people remained and continued the discussion in smaller groups. My husband was in one of these groups, being questioned by several conservative Christians that he had known in years past. I had checked on him to make sure that he was ok (which he was) and then I went back to standing near our PFLAG informational table answering questions that were posed to us by the departing crowd. Within half an hour the crowd had dwindled to only our members who cleaned up, debriefed, and then went home for a long night’s rest after a fruitful evening that had taken us months to organize.

I reflected on the experience out loud with Jacob on the way home, and then again silently to myself in the time since then.

“We hope this is the beginning of a continuing conversation with this community,” Judi told me today, with determination in her voice. “Our November meeting of the White River Valley PFLAG will be the next opportunity to continue the important conversation that began last night.” The November meeting’s theme will be “Continuing the Conversation: Reflections of Being Lesbian or Gay in A Small Midwestern Town.”

I hope that we have a nice turnout at our meeting now that we’ve gotten good publicity from the film screening. I even hope that a few people show up who were among those bible-quoters from last night’s event. I think we can all learn from one another. At least we have a place to start.

And I promise that I won’t be looking down next month. I’ll be looking forward to the next steps in bridging the gaps within our small community. Spencer doesn’t have a GLBT center or any cute bookstores with gay pride flags flying out front, but it does have people who are willing to communicate with one another about challenging issues.

What more could I ask for?

Prayers Go Unanswered at OUT IN THE SILENCE Screening in Altoona

2010-09-28T00:06:00.000-07:00

September 28, 2010 - By Scott Muska

Joe Wilson and his partner Dean Hamer have been traveling all over Pennsylvania for the past year showing "Out in the Silence," a documentary they made to expand public awareness about the difficulties that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people face in rural and small town America.

Their goal is to have at least one showing - followed by a question and answer session - in each of the state's 67 counties, and their first in Blair County at Penn State Altoona's Slep Student Center Monday night. About 50 people attended.

"We're trying to show this at any place where we can promote dialogue and mutual understanding," said Wilson, adding the majority of the reaction to the documentary has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive. "I think we were able to demonstrate some of the problems gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender [GLBT] people face in their communities and have had a lot of people come together to discuss them and what kinds of solutions there are."

Yolanda Avent, the school's director of institutional equity and diversity, and Frank Chumbiray, sophomore and president of the school's Gay Straight Alliance, teamed up to bring Wilson and Hamer to the school after they saw the documentary earlier this year.

Avent said she hoped the showing and subsequent discussion would help lessen the ambiguity that sometimes surrounds the GLBT lifestyle.

"If you don't put a face on something, you can make a monster of it," Avent said. " I hope we can break down some of the barriers and borders that sometimes exist."

The film focuses very heavily on the problems a 16-year-old boy faces in a rural town in western Pennsylvania, something Chumbiray hopes may help others come out confidently in the future.

"In past years, in my high school, it was something you couldn't really talk about, and I hope his story helps another 16-year-old come out and maybe have not as many issues," he said.

A prayer service held by members of the Faith Baptist Church of Altoona and led by Pastor Gary Dull (pictured, right) outside the Slep Center prior to the showing was one of only three similar occurrences in more than 80 showings, according to Hamer.

About 15 members gathered around a picnic table and prayed that "nobody at all" would show up to the event and referred to any act of homosexuality as "wicked and sinful." They also prayed that a mishap like the projector failing to work would prevent anyone from seeing the documentary and also that the film's footage would be replaced by the "gospel appearing on the screen."

Dull said one purpose of the peaceful prayer vigil was to pray for people to realize that real happiness is found in accepting Jesus Christ, and not in illicit sex.

After speaking briefly on camera with Wilson and Hamer, Dull and the others left before the showing, something Wilson had hoped they wouldn't do.

"The fact that they can't even be open to discussion and that people misuse religion to promote that mentality is to me shocking and painful," Wilson said. "I think since they wouldn't even listen to what we have to say, that just shows what they're really about."

Oil City Council Proclaims Day of Recognition for "Fair and Equal Treatment for All People"

2010-09-15T08:48:00.001-07:00

Fairness and Equality Proclamation Signed by Oil City Council

City council members signed a proclamation Monday night that designated the day (Sept. 13) as Joe Wilson Day. The tribute refers to former Oil City resident Joe Wilson who with his partner Dean Hamer, directed and produced the award winning film “Out in the Silence.”

The film celebrates diverse lifestyles and was shot in Oil City and the surrounding area.

“Joe Wilson’s film shows Oil City to the rest of the country as a town capable of positive change and documents progress in fair and equal treatment for all people in this community,” notes the proclamation.

Council was asked in June by local resident George Cooley to adopt a formal human rights policy and to embrace Wilson’s film on tolerance in small towns. The documentary tells the story of a gay high school student and explores small-town reaction to same-sex marriage.

"Many important topics were discussed at last night's City Council meeting," said Cooley, "but we were proud to see the Oil City Council sign the proclamation. This is a first step in a marketing attitude toward our city. It is also a step towards a progressive Human Rights Initiative."

"A Special Blend of People"

ARTS Oil City

"Bible Believing Response" to OUT IN THE SILENCE Promotes Anti-Transgender Violence

2010-08-31T10:42:00.000-07:00

Dispatch from Coudersport:

by Joe Wilson, August, 31, 2010:

Diane Gramley sat peacefully behind Robert Wagner in the Coudersport Public Library as the retired physician shared his views on transgender individuals with the assembled audience. “I'm gonna put a ball bat in my car,” he said, “and if I ever see a guy [Wagner refuses to use proper pronouns] coming out of a bathroom that my granddaughter's in, I'm gonna use the ball bat on him.” Moments later he added: “In the good old days, before 'she-males' existed, they just called such people perverts.”

Gramley is no stranger to such ideas. As President of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Family Association, a 'traditional family values' organization based in Mississippi, she spends much of her time planting similar seeds of suspicion about the dangers posed by “men who think they are women,” her disparaging term for transgender females. She also crusades relentlessly against what she and the AFA call the “homosexual agenda” and the type of legal protections that her and Dr. Wagner's threatening rhetoric suggests are needed for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

Gramley was in Coudersport, a small town of 2,600 residents in the sparsely populated north-central part of the state known as the Pennsylvania Wilds, as a special guest of Dr. Wagner for what he titled “A Bible Believing Christian's Response to OUT IN THE SILENCE,” my documentary film about the quest for inclusion, fairness and equality for LGBT people in the small town where I was born and raised, Oil City, PA, just a two-hour drive from Coudersport.

Gramley, who also happens to call the Oil City area home, plays a central role in OUT IN THE SILENCE as a result of the firestorm of controversy she helped to ignite in opposition to the publication of my same-sex marriage announcement in the local paper. It was that controversy that compelled my partner, Dean Hamer, and I to go back to my hometown with our cameras to document what life is like there for LGBT people, and to show hopeful and inspiring stories about the growing movement for equality.

The film was produced in partnership with Penn State Public Broadcasting, received support from the Sundance Institute, premiered at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, screened in Tribeca Cinemas Doc Series, and has been broadcast on PBS stations around the country. We're now using it as an educational tool in a grassroots campaign to help raise LGBT visibility and to bring people together in small towns like Oil City and Coudersport to begin building bridges across the gaps that have divided families, friends, and entire communities on these issues for far too long.

As part of this campaign, OUT IN THE SILENCE had screened just a month earlier for a standing-room-only crowd in the Coudersport Public Library despite vehement opposition from Dr. Wagner and the efforts of the local Tea Party and a small group of fundamentalist preachers to shut the event down and have the library 'de-funded' for making its space available for such a program.

Wagner's “Bible Believing Response,” he told the crowd of approximately 60 local church people, “was intended to expose the filmmakers’ real agenda and to question the directors’ assertion that the community should tolerate alternative lifestyles.”

During the two hour program, Wagner asked special guest Gramley a few questions about her experiences as a minor subject of the film, but he used her more as a prop, seated silently behind him, providing an odd sort of legitimacy as he put forth offensive theories and mischaracterizations about LGBT people, including that “AIDS is the gay plague” and “gays can't have families.”

Dean and I were in the library for the presentation. We made the six-hour drive to Coudersport from our home in Washington, DC because I wanted to bear witness to this event, to experience for myself, if only for a few hours, what it feels like to be so close to such willful ignorance and brazen cruelty.

As I sat there, listening to 'amens,' snickering laughter, and even a roar of approval from the people around me when asked if they agree with the AFA assertions that there “should be legal sanctions against homosexual behavior” and “homosexuals should be disqualified from public office,” I felt a sadness unlike any I have known before. A sadness for those who fall prey to such bigoted and hostile bombast, who carry the feelings these things stir into their homes and family relationships, and for the communities that suffer the sometimes-violent consequences of such mean-spirited divisiveness.

But as I looked at Gramley, unmoved next to Wagner, condoning the ugliness without a word of protest, I thought of all the courageous people who have attended OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign events over the past many months in far flung places, including there in Coudersport, who refuse to be silent anymore, who are working for change in their communities against great odds, and I was inspired all over again.

It is in their spirit that we will continue our campaign to speak out in the silence and to help build the movement for fairness and equality in small towns and rural communities across America.

I hope you'll join us! Learn more at OutintheSilence.com

==========================================================

"The Other Side"

2010-08-25T14:44:00.000-07:00

‘Bible-believing, Christian’ response to documentary planned in Coudersport

By Bob Hooftallen - August 21, 2010

It’s been nearly a month since a documentary pitching tolerance for alternative lifestyles was shown at the Coudersport Public Library.

At the time, the screening of “Out In The Silence,” a movie about a gay teen’s struggle to survive in a small town, prompted some Coudersport pastors to question not only the focus of the movie and its impact on the community, but also the decision to show the film in a place that is supported partially by tax revenue.

In an effort to address each of those concerns, a Coudersport resident has reserved the library for a program depicting the “other side” of the gay lifestyle debate, essentially testing the library board of directors’ commitment to the right to assemble and speak no matter the topic and offering an opportunity for people to hear a rebuttal to “tolerating” alternative lifestyles.

Dr. Robert Wagner, a relatively well-known Coudersport physician who created a stir in the 1980s with his self-published “True Press,” has scheduled the program from 6:30 pm to 8 pm Wednesday.

Wagner’s description of the program is “a Bible believing Christian response to ‘Out In The Silence’ and related topics.”

Guest speaker will be Diane Gramley, President of the American Family Association of Pa.

When it was first reported that there may be a response to the filming, the documentary’s director, Joe Wilson, hinted that his organization would attend. He has since changed his tune.

“What we’ve learned over the years is that it’s much more productive for us, and the movement, to focus on building relationships with potential allies than it is to engage with those who hold extremist views (about our movement),” he said. “Our work continues to reach a broader audience and we’ve expanded our network of allies. That’s what gives us hope.”

Wilson, who has made several successful documentaries, recently learned that Out In The Silence has been nominated for an Emmy Award by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Mid-Atlantic Chapter.

Boro Hears Film Concerns

Coudersport Borough Council members heard concerns about the previous screening and kudos for Wagner’s planned program during their meeting Wednesday evening.

Calvary Baptist Church pastor, the Rev. Richard Kuehlman, expressed his concern for tolerating such programs in Coudersport.

“As a religious leader in the community, I cannot see how an abnormal lifestyle should be tolerated by our community,” he said. “My concern is that there are already so many problems in Coudersport among our youth . . . Is this a lifestyle that we want to promote to (them) as acceptable?”

Pastor Kuehlman, who has lived in Coudersport for close to seven years after living in Japan for the previous 23, also said he was concerned that the program went on, despite “great protest from the community.”

“It seemed to me that when this took place, nobody seemed to care and the minority was going to do what they were going to do,” he said.

Pastor Kuehlman, who said he is “grateful” the opposing view will be presented Wednesday, questioned whether or not his church, or others, could hold religious events in publicly funded places.

“If this (the documentary) is an acceptable thing, can I hold a tent revival in a park?” he queried.

Borough Manager Marlin Moore said he would gladly check to see if that would be legal. He also noted that he did question the borough solicitor as to whether or not the airing of the film violated any laws. The answer was “no.”

OITS Supports NJ Library that was attacked for LGBT book

2010-08-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Ms Sweet,

We read about the recent dispute over whether the Burlington County Library should carry "Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology" with concern. As noted in the American Library Association Library Bill of Rights,

"Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community...Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues."

We would like to help you in this important goal by providing the Burlington County Library with a copy of our PBS documentary OUT IN THE SILENCE and an accompanying Discussion Guide. OUT IN THE SILENCE tells the story of a small town confronting it's own homophobia, and has won numerous awards including a recent Emmy nomination. We believe it will be a timely and useful addition to your collection.

Over the past year we have been screening OUT IN THE SILENCE at public libraries across the country, and these events have been wonderful opportunities for communities to have a civil dialogue over issues that have divided families, friends and neighbors for far too long. Please let us know if we can help arrange a screening in Burlington or help your library in any other way.

Sincerely,

Dean Hamer and Joe WIlson
Co-Directors/Producers
http://outinthesilence.com

OITS August Newsletter -- From Lincoln Center To Your Local Public Library

2010-08-23T00:53:00.000-07:00

"Back Hills Mom" Wows Lincoln Center, Vows To Fight On

OITS had its official premiere in New York on June 21 before a sold out audience at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater. The screening was part of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival.

The highlight of the evening occurred when Kathy Springer, the self-described 'back hills mom' who plays a starring role in the documentary, was introduced and brought on stage to a prolonged standing ovation.

During a lively discussion led by Boris Dittrich, Advocacy Director of the Human Rights Watch LGBT Rights Program, Kathy vowed to carry on the fight that began when school authorities in her small Pennsylvania town stood by and did nothing as her son was brutally gay bashed. She emphasized the importance of making schools everywhere safe for all students.

There will be many opportunities for Kathy (pictured here with Terry, her amazingly-supportive husband) and other allies to join the OITS Campaign as the film continues to tour across the country as part of the Traveling Human Rights Watch Film Festival, which bears witness to human rights violations through storytelling in a way that challenges each individual to empathize and demand justice for all people.

Listen to a podcast about OITS with Joe, Dean and HRW's Borris Dittrich, hosted by Amy Costello.

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Film Screening Supports Non-Discrimination Ordinance

OITS events help communities come together in exciting new ways, as The Main Line Times reported about a recent screening in suburban Philadelphia:

"The community room at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute was standing-room-only for the screening of a new documentary film called Out In The Silence. But that wasn't the most remarkable thing about the 100-plus turnout for Jason Landau Goodman, whose organization, Equality Lower Merion, hosted the event.

For the Main Line, 'this was the first community LGBT event they could ever recall,' Goodman said of the audience, a diverse group that included different ages, some same-sex partners, but probably just as many or more heterosexual couples.

For Goodman, the local college student who last month urged the Lower Merion Township Board of Commissioners to adopt an ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, it was a big step forward in the visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues here."

Read the entire article here: Film Draws Supporters of Non-Discrimination Ordinance

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And The Emmy Goes To ...

OITS is proud and honored to be nominated for an Emmy Award in the documentary category by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Mid-Atlantic Chapter. Winners will be announced on September 25th. Wish us luck!

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Will You Join Us In "Going Public" ?

The OITS Campaign believes that real change requires being out there, openly and visibly, in the full light of the public square, linking the struggle for justice and equality for LGBT people to the broader quest for a more inclusive and democratic society for all.

And we need you to be a part of it by bringing OITS to your public library. You can host a local screening or have a DVD and Discussion Guide sent to your hometown library. Check out the screening kits here, let us know your plans, and we'll help you make it happen. Thanks!

Order a DVD from Amazon

Buy a 5-pack and Help Spread the News!

Download the Discussion Guide and Event Toolkit

You Can Sign-Up To Receive Future OITS E-Newsletters Here: Join The Mailing List

Proposition 8 Dispatch From the Culture Wars Front

2010-08-18T15:56:00.000-07:00

Bill Lichtenstein for The Huffington Post:

The US District Court decision on August 4, overturning California's Proposition 8 and its ban on same sex marriages was a watershed moment for proponents of equal rights for gay and lesbian Americans.

Within hours of the landmark decision, pundits ranging from MSNBC's liberal Rachel Maddow to Fox's ultra-right wing Glenn Beck, began postulating that the ruling signaled a new "post-homophobic" era in America.

Maddow, who among news anchors may well be America's most trusted lesbian, led her show for the two nights after the decision with celebratory coverage of the ruling. She went so far as to taunt GOP leaders for being uncharacteristically quiet during the 24 hours after the US District Court decision.

Speaking presumably to Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and John Boehner, among others, Maddow asked at the top of her August 5 program, "Where were the outraged Republicans? Where are you? You guys used to be so good at this."

At the same time, Glenn Beck, who is to liberal causes what "Mikey" was to breakfast foods in the 1970s Life cereal ads ("he hates everything"), turned heads by telling Fox's Bill O'Reilly that "I don't think marriage, that the government actually has anything to do with . . . [what] is a religious right," and then added a quote from Thomas Jefferson: "If it neither breaks my leg nor picks my pocket, what difference is it to me?"

In the wake of the decision, both sides held their breath as Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker gave opponents of the ruling six days to appeal it. On August 16, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals left in place Prop 8 and its same sex marriage ban in California, as the case winds its way through its appeal process toward the Supreme Court, where it may ultimately be decided. Depsite forcing Golden State gay and lesbian couples to put their nuptial plans on hold, this delay has one possible plus for same sex marriage proponents.

Loyola Law School professor Richard Hasen told the LA Times, that "If this case takes another year to get to the U.S. Supreme Court, there could be more states that adopt same-sex marriage and more judicial opinions that reach that conclusion."

In fact, despite the dramatic victory in the federal court, the battle over same sex marriages in the US continues to rage at the state and local levels.

Streak of "31 Straight Victories" Brought to an End

Over the past decade, gay marriage opponents have racked up an impressive winning streak of 31 straight victories against no defeats when the issue of same sex marriages has been on the ballot in state elections. Loss number 31 was in Maine, on November 3, 2009, when voters repealed a law that had allowed gay unions. The 31-0 streak was brought to an abrupt end by Judge Walker's Prop 8 decision.

As recent events have been developing in San Francisco, filmmakers Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson have been traveling the country with their feature documentary film, Out in the Silence. The film captures the remarkable chain of events starting with the announcement of their wedding, which ignited a firestorm of controversy in the small Pennsylvania hometown Wilson left long ago.

The documentary tells the story of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights in rural America, and premiered at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, was broadcast on PBS stations across the country, and has been shown at over 400 community and school screenings accompanied by public discussions.

Currently, Dean, who has worked for the past three decades at the National Institutes of Health, and received international attention after the journal "Science" published his research in 1993 that he had identified a "gay gene," and Joe, a human rights activist and native of Oil City, Pennsylvania, where the documentary takes place, are traveling with the film through all 67 counties in Pennsylvania, a state that prohibits same sex marriage.

The following is Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson's "dispatch from the front" regarding the latest battle in America's 2010 culture wars:

Plaintiffs Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier at federal courthouse.

"The images of the plaintiffs in the Proposition 8 case standing on the steps of the Federal Courthouse in San Francisco during the trial, were typical of the now standard media portrayal of gay America: out, proud, comfortably middle class, living in a big city or suburb.

But there is another side to gay America that is rarely seen. It takes place in conservative, often deeply religious small towns and rural communities where those who are found, or even perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, strive to fit in rather than to stand out. For these people coming out means risking their families, friends, jobs and livelihoods, their safety and at times even their very lives.

Our documentary film, Out in the Silence focuses on the harrowing, ultimately successful battle waged by a 16 year-old gay student and his mother against recalcitrant school authorities when the teen was brutally gay bashed for courageously coming out at his rural high school.
Filmmakers Hamer (L) and Wilson (R) in Oil City, Pennsylvania

We've reached half of our goal of screening the film in all 67 counties in Pennsylvania, and most of the events have been greeted with enthusiasm. But in Coudersport, a town of 2,650 people along the northern border of the state, we received an email from Keturah Cappadonia, a town librarian just two days before the scheduled screening informing us that the event would have to be canceled. The reason, as the Harrisburg Patriot-News later reported, was that 'after several hours of people pointing their fingers in her face and telling her she was going to hell, Keturah Cappadonia cracked' and was reduced to tears by the experience.

The controversy resulted from, no surprise, an alliance between fundamentalist Christians and right-wing conservatives. Pastor Pete Tremblay of the Coudersport Free Methodist Church told a local news web site that the film was 'designed to get people to give up their convictions based on the word of God and accept these practices as equivalent to God's design for human sexuality. It is propaganda.'

Pastor Tremblay went on to request that people 'call the library...and in a Christian manner inform them that this event is not a benefit to our community, and ask that it be canceled.'

He was joined in his condemnation of the film by George Brown, president of the Potter County Tea Party, who said he was upset at having to be 'attacked for our beliefs at a public library we support with our tax money. This is wrong and cannot be tolerated.'

Brown also told the web site that $1.5 million of local taxes was used to support the library (the actual number is $42,000), and went on to say that 'Should this agenda be continued, we may need to ask if the library should be defunded.'
Diane Gramley, head of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania

That appeared to be one threat over the line for the library board. Following a quick phone meeting, they unanimously decided that the screening would go ahead as originally planned and issued a public statement for the library patrons:

The mission of any public library is to serve a diverse community with varying opinions about what is and is not objectionable material . . . We believe the library would fail in its mission if it did not provide information about ideas or topics that each of us might find uncomfortable at some level . . . American libraries are the cornerstone of our democracy. Libraries are for everyone, everywhere.

And so two days later, on the evening of July 28, 2010, a standing room only crowd gathered in Coudersport's public library, made up of mainstream members of the community along with lesbian, gay, bisexual and heterosexual, transgender and cisgender, young, middle-aged and senior citizens, together with a goodly handful of reporters, all gathered together in a public place and ready to talk about a subject that had divided their community for far too long.

As soon as the film was over, one of the opponents in the room quickly rose and read from a long list of objections to the film, including that 'most homosexuals are very well off.' Another spoke at length of his belief that homosexuality is against 'God's word.'

But then, gradually, slowly and often in tears, the LGBT folks and their family members, friends and allies began to recount their personal experiences.

A teenager described how he had been harassed at school when his classmates discovered his father was gay. 'I didn't understand why my friends turned their backs on me,' he said. 'To accept everyone is the only way to go about living.'

Then the teen's father - a local business owner, Episcopal Vestry member and former Republican Party Chair - spoke of the acceptance he has quietly gained over his 30 years in the town.

Another young man, visibly nervous, publicly announced for the first time that he was proud to be both gay and Christian, even though his church had rejected him. That prompted a local minister to stand and announce that her church was supportive of LGBT people and would serve as a resource for those who wanted a welcoming spiritual home.

When a woman with a small child in her arms offered to make a financial donation to the library to offset any losses due to the screening, she was greeted by a solid burst of applause.

The topic of marriage equality was never even mentioned. But audience members did circulate a sign-up sheet for people who wanted to work with one another and Equality Partners of Western Pennsylvania to try and make Coudersport a more welcoming and tolerant place. By the time the event was over, the majority of the people in the room had signed up.

While it was painful, even frightening to observe the open hostility of the handful of individuals who attempted to stop the meeting from occurring, and then to disrupt the conversation with angry diatribes and personal attacks, people in the community have told us that it was actually useful that it all took place in full light of day because it revealed the seriousness of the problems that LGBT people face, often alone and without any networks of personal or legal support in such an environment.

The other screenings throughout Pennsylvania, which has a law on the books prohibiting same sex marriage, drew good crowds of local LGBT people and allies including educators, social workers and business owners, but only one minister showed up, in Emporium, PA. After watching the movie he took off his white collar and placed it in his shirt pocket. 'Sometimes I'm embarrassed to be associated with the clergy in this area,' he said. 'My religion is about faith, not about hate.'

Visit the official "Out in The Silence" web site at Outinthesilence.com
"Out in the Silence" can be seen On iTunes or purchased on Amazon.

"The Film Portrays Oil City In A Very Favorable Light"

2010-08-07T17:48:00.000-07:00

OUT IN THE SILENCE, and its portrayal of the quest for fairness & equality for LGBT people in small towns & rural communities, just received the most important honor imaginable, recognition from the Oil City Arts Council, an amazing organization and group of people working for change in the very community portrayed in the film.

Our gratitude will be shown at each and every screening as we continue to share news of the great efforts underway in Oil City to help make it, and the surrounding area, more welcoming and inclusive of all who wish to call it home!

Text of Letter:

OIL CITY ARTS COUNCIL
August 5, 2010

Dear Joe,

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Oil City Arts Council, I am sending our deep appreciation to you for the sensitivity and sense of community that you expressed in your film, OUT IN THE SILENCE. We feel that the film portrays Oil City in a very favorable light with regard to the interpersonal relationships and personal concern for human rights displayed by our residents.

We hope that you will feel welcome to visit Oil city often and that every opportunity will be taken to show your film to new audiences.

We send our congratulations on your artistic achievement with OUT IN THE SILENCE and wish you success as you continue your creative endeavors.

Sincerely,

Libby Williams
Co-chair
Oil City Arts Council

The Truth Hurts

2010-08-05T17:55:00.000-07:00

As the facts about the recent OUT IN THE SILENCE screening in Coudersport continue to come out, the controversy that Diane Gramley of the American Family Assoc. of PA and her new-found-friends-in-bigotry, such as the "reporter" at the Cruddy News blog site, are trying to whip up is just making them look like out-of-touch extremists.

The truth hurts.

But what hurts more is hearing about and seeing the pain that such activist-bigotry causes real people in real communities, like beautiful Coudersport.

Fortunately, as this article helps reveal, these real people are getting sick-and-tired of those who misuse religion to support their "family-values" crusades and are starting to speak out, and organize, for change in the silence of rural and small town America.

Screening of Documentary Draws Debate

By Brent Addleman, Editor of The Potter Leader Enterprise

There was little silence following the showing of the documentary film “Out In The Silence” on Wednesday evening at the Coudersport Public Library.

A heated question-and-answer session emanated from the middle of the library that featured plenty of vitriol being thrown around the room in the form of questions of acceptance, deterring discrimination and even attacks on the library in the form of patrons no longer donating to help fund the organization because the film was shown.

About 80 residents attended the showing.

The film documents the struggle of a gay teen in rural Pennsylvania and was shown to a packed house that drew moments of laughter during the movie and moments of tension following.

Coudersport resident Bob Wagner opened the question-and-answer session with statements regarding the standing of gays and lesbians in society.

“I think the lesbians, gays, transsexuals and trans genders are doing quite well in America,” Wagner said. “June 21, USA Today talks about the gay teen girl that couldn’t take her girlfriend to the prom. She was honored in the White House by Barack Obama. The week before you were honored in New York with the annual gay parade endorsed by the mayor, and, of course, you have one in San Francisco endorsed by the mayor. You have the highest per capita income of any group in America. I don’t think you’re doing too bad. Are you ever going to be happy?”

While Wagner stated what he feels is a good standing of gays and lesbians in the community, he also made it clear he disagreed with their lifestyle choice.

“There’s quite a gay community in Coudersport and I think they are doing quite well,” Wagner said. “In spite of my statements here, I think you will find most of them I am on speaking terms with even though I disagree with their beliefs.”

Drawing the ire of the crowd, Wagner gave one final comment regarding his own plans for a forum.

“I am renting the Coudersport Public Library and I will be speaking and giving some more insight to the other side of the agenda,” Wagner said.

According to Wagner, everyone is invited to attend the event.

Joe Wilson, co-director and co-producer of the film, made a valiant attempt to calm what was quickly becoming a volatile environment.

“There seem to be some who do not want an open, public forum,” Wilson said. “That is what we are trying to deal with. We are going to try to be patient. We’re going to try to be respectful and make sure that everybody that wants to join in this conversation has the opportunity to do so.”

A woman from the crowd stated she felt what the library and Wilson and his partner in the film, Dean Hamer, have done in purveying a clear message is a good thing, inciting clapping from the capacity crowd.

“The film speaks to the issues many young people, in particular, experience in our school systems,” Wilson said. “The big question is how are the schools, parents, community equipped to address the situation. I don’t know what the situation is here in Potter County.”

Marty Montgomery, a pastor from the First Baptist Church of Roulette, then questioned Wilson and Hamer about the film and their ideals.

“I understand you folks want to improve the dialog between the gay and lesbian community and those who are not – at least I assume you do,” Montgomery said. “What I saw was what I consider gunpowder-type rhetoric. You said the library and yourselves were attacked and threatened. Would you tell me exactly what [occurred?]”

Wilson responded, “We read there were reports people were threatening to have the library de-funded.”

Montgomery then questioned Wilson as to the library losing funding being a threat to which Wilson gave a one-word answer, “Yes.”

On the issue of discrimination happening in schools and being a problem in Coudersport, Jessica Bonczar was quick to offer her own life experiences growing up in town.

“I’ve grown up here and I went to high school with several people that were gay,” Jessica Bonczar said. “I would like to say [discrimination] is an issue here. While I might not be gay, I watched some of my closest friends be bullied, harassed, threatened, treated like garbage. It is an issue here. It is. It is an issue everywhere. It is a human rights issue. This sort of thing is about intellectual freedom. People should be able to come together and have this sort of forum and discussion in a very civil manner. It is an issue here.”

Bonczar also addressed the library funding issue that was raised prior to the showing of the film.

“I have raised money for this library actively for years now, and it is a threat to have it de-funded,” Jessica Bonczar said. “We are struggling to stay afloat here. It is a threat.”

For Jaimi Bonczar, the film could be the starting point of understanding what gays and lesbians sometimes go through in small towns and teaching tolerance and acceptance.

“I went to high school here probably, well, 10 years ago,” Jaimi Bonczar said. “I also went to school with people who were harassed. This is a public forum. We all chose to be here. I think this could be a great place to start talking about this, how we can better support our own community. Be open-minded, be friendly to everybody. Our small town is just as important to me as the rest of the people. In our community, we care about each other – all of us, not just some of us. I really appreciate what you’ve done.”

Montgomery then interjected his own beliefs that homosexuality is the rejection of God’s word.

“In order for me to concede that the homosexual lifestyle is acceptable, then I have to decide that God’s word must be rejected,” Montgomery said. “That is the decision. I am referring to the Bible. Nobody is going to be able to take the Bible and say homosexuality is sin – you just can’t do that. All you can do is reject it or say, ‘Well I don’t take it literally.’ This is what I am asking. Is it OK with you, if I continue to believe God?”

Hamer fully supported Montgomery’s statement.

“Yes, absolutely, and if you do not want to be gay yourself and you do not believe in homosexuality for yourself or for people at your church, that is absolutely fine,” Hamer said.

Wilson then interjected that during the showing of the film storms that had passed through the area produced a rainbow.

Rev. Evon McJunkin, who has served in the area for 23 years at the First United Presbyterian Church, offered support to those seeking literature on homosexuality and Christianity.

“If there are folks that would like resources in support of homosexuality, I have them for you. I believe that God loves and accepts gays and there is evidence of scripture of that,” McJunkin said.

For Don Caskey of Austin, the plight of being homosexual in a small town is one that caused those he called friends to turn their back when they learned of his lifestyle choice.

“I grew up in Austin and I grew up as a gay man,” Caskey said. “I can’t believe I just said that out loud because there was a time in my life that was the worst thing I could have ever said.

“I told one other person that I was gay, and like what happens in small towns it went through a wildfire throughout the town. I grew up very active in the Methodist church there. I have lots of friends. I was very active in that church. A lot of people supported me, but the people that considered themselves the most religious wrote me horrible letters.

“ The people who I considered some of my closest friends who were very active in that church showed their love for me by not coming to the funeral when my parents died, by not talking to me for 25 years simply for the fact I am gay. I stand before you saying you can believe whatever you want, but you are not showing your love, the love of Christ, unless you are reaching out to everyone – and that includes those who believe differently from you. I would encourage everybody to reach out and love everyone.”

For Kevin Eukon of Coudersport, he wouldn’t change his choice of growing up and living here.

“I feel very fortunate that I come from a town like Coudersport,” Eukon said. “I grew up here and came out of the closet in 1982, 1983. There have been moments of discrimination in my life, but one thing I have noticed about this town that makes it such a unique, wonderful place to live is when things started to get out of hand the town fathers always pressed them down.

“ I don’t see the discrimination here. There are pockets of it here and there are pockets of it anywhere. I think one thing Coudersport has is a decent community full of decent people and when the discrimination or the nastiness gets too out of hand there has always been a town father that has helped me through it or helped take care of it or addressed the situation. I think we are very fortunate to live in a town like Coudersport.”

For one local youth, being the son of gay parents was a trying experience, but one he wouldn’t trade for the world.

“When I was a kid up until sixth grade everything was cool and my parents were just my parents,” the boy said. “At the end of the sixth grade, we got the word ‘gay.’ Then my parents became ‘gay’ parents and my friends stopped being my friends. They call me gay. I didn’t understand why my friends turned their backs on me. But, there is nothing I can do to change my parents. They are gonna be gay and I have to let them be gay. I’m not gonna be like, ‘Dad, I hate you.’ I’m not going to change them. To accept everyone is the only way to go about living. You can point the finger all you want, but it isn’t going to get you anywhere in the end.”

Potter County, PA Library Faced Protests Over Gay Documentary

2010-07-31T20:37:00.000-07:00

Thanks to good reporting by the Harrisburg Patriot-News, the truth about the smear campaign being waged by the Potter County Tea Party, a few fundamentalist churches, the Cruddy News blog, and the Venango County-based American 'Family' Association of Pennsylvania about a recent screening of OUT IN THE SILENCE in Coudersport is starting to come out in the wash.

The whole sad affair reminds us of comments that a Venango County school district superintendent made a few years ago about the American Family Assoc. of Penna.'s president, Diane Gramley:

"She likes to start a fire, then throw gasoline on it."

Potter County Library Faced Protests Over Gay Documentary

by Donald Gilliland for The Patriot-News:

After several hours of people pointing their fingers in her face and telling her she was going to hell, Keturah Cappadonia cracked.

In tears, the 28-year-old librarian in this rural town of 2,500 people typed an e-mail to Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer canceling the planned screening of their award-winning PBS documentary about the challenges of being openly gay in rural Pennsylvania.

Wilson and Hamer are traveling the state with their film “Out In The Silence,” and Perry County is on the list of future venues.

The film recounts the men’s return to Oil City after a plea for help from the mother of a gay high school student being bullied at school.

It has been reviewed favorably by the American Library Association and Christianity Today, but it’s getting resistance in some of the rural counties where Wilson and Hamer think it most needs to be seen.

Several churches in Potter County launched a campaign to force the local library to cancel, and the president of the Potter County Tea Party called for the library’s funding to be revoked if it didn’t comply.

The 58-year-old library board president, Jane Metzger, decided she would have none of it.

Regardless of what she thought of homosexuality, she was not going to compromise the library’s mission “because of the very loud voices of a few folks.”

“Basically we’re looking at intellectual freedom,” said Metzger. “That’s the bottom line. That’s what a library is for.”

A quick series of calls to the other members of the board resulted in a unanimous decision: the screening would go forward as planned.

The leader of the Potter County Tea Party, through a local blogger, claimed the library was allowing conservative Christians to be “attacked for our beliefs at a public library we support with our tax money. This is wrong and cannot be tolerated.” Later, he apologized for using the Tea Party name to express his personal opinion.

In the meantime, the filmmakers issued a press release, and the local blogosphere lit up in a bonfire of anonymous comments and accusations.

By the time people began to arrive for the screening two days later, Cappadonia looked shell-shocked.

“I don’t like controversy,” she said. “I know it’s a conservative community, but I never imagined it would get such a knee-jerk reaction.”

Some were saying Christian views would never be allowed an airing at the library because of separation of church and state. But the the library has six shelves of Bibles and Christian books in the non-fiction section, and Christian fiction is “wildly popular,” said Cappadonia.

Many Christians in Coudersport support the library. One said, “This is not a town that burns books.”

Cars quickly filled the library parking lot. Then they filled the lot for the neighborhood park next door. Then they began pulling onto the grass.

When the lights went down, all seats were full. People were sitting on the floor, sitting on bookshelves, standing between the stacks and against the wall. Many could not see the screen, but stayed just to listen.

As the film neared its conclusion an hour later, there was a flash of lightning outside, a sharp clap of thunder, and a double rainbow filled the sky.

Inside, a few opponents of the film offered their brimstone and walked out.

Applause erupted when a woman told the library board, “I think it’s good what you’ve done here.”

Some attempted to speak at length about “God’s Law,” and expressed frustration when they were asked to let others talk, too.

Openly gay members of the town — teenagers, adults and senior citizens — spoke briefly. Some said they felt embraced by the community and lucky to live there; others much less so.

Walter Baker, former chairman of the local Republican party and a member of the vestry at the Episcopal church, has owned a hotel in the center of town as an openly gay man for over 30 years.

“The people here are probably the most friendly people around,” he said. “They’ve been more than generous to me knowing who and what I am.”

A man from a town nearby said his church was very important to him, but when he came out of the closet “the people who considered themselves the most religious wrote me horrible letters.”

The discussion got loud a few times, but the consensus afterward was it was worthwhile.

When everyone was gone, Keturah Cappadonia locked the door.

Library board member Terri Shaffer sat on the floor and began ripping up the tattered duct tape patching the carpet.

The carpet “was good stuff when it was put in,” said Metzger. “June 1973 to be exact.”

Although the local Tea Party claimed “$1.5 million of local taxes” go to the library, the reality is its total budget last year was $117,000 - with less than $42,000 from local governments.

“I think it was a good experience,” said Shaffer. “Who cares if people get a little loud and speak their mind?”

Maybe the experience will bring in some donations — “especially from Harrisburg” she quipped.

Just then, there was a knock at the door.

It was one of the local ministers who spoke against the “homosexual lifestyle.”

When Cappadonia opened the door, he apologized to her.

“I feel badly about people coming in and badgering you,” he said.

Then he addressed Shaffer, saying “Terri, I hope I didn’t disappoint you too much.”

“It’s not my job to judge you,” she said with a smile.

Pa. Tea Party Apologizes for Documentary Controversy

2010-07-31T14:04:00.000-07:00

By Jeffrey Gerson for The Advocate:

George Brown, president of the Potter County Tea Party, has issued a public apology for his protest of the acclaimed documentary Out in the Silence when it screened at a local library on its tour throughout Pennsylvania.

In an interview with The Advocate, Joe Wilson, codirector of Out in the Silence, explained the project’s mission: “The purpose of the whole tour was really to use this film to raise awareness and visibility about the lives of LGBT people in rural communities and small towns and help strengthen the ability of LGBT people in these communities to begin organizing for change.” The tour has so far covered over half of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. Yet upon setting up shop in Coudersport, Pa., Wilson and Dean Hamer, his partner and codirector, met with controversy.

The film was set to be screened at the public library, Wilson explained, emphasizing, “just as any community group can do, or any citizen can use the public library for a program.” All was well until the duo received a call from the library director announcing that the event would have to be canceled. “She was receiving angry calls from local pastors for having scheduled a gay and lesbian program at the library. They were making threats that they were going to call for the library to be defunded,” Wilson said

An article that ran Monday on CoudyNews.com provides quotations both from Pete Tremblay, pastor of the Free Methodist Church and the Tea Party's Brown. Tremblay issued a request for people to “call the library ... and in a Christian manner inform them that this event is not a benefit to our community, and ask that it be canceled.” Brown took a different approach: “Should this agenda be continued, we may need to ask if the library should be defunded.”

The library's board of directors ultimately supported the film, saying they would not be threatened. The event was a success, Wilson reported: “It was the largest event in the library in a long time. We had a very supportive crowd from high school students all the way up to elderly people. There were conflicting viewpoints present during the discussion, though Hamer believes these were positive as well, as it made it clear how challenging it can be to be LGBT in that kind of environment.”

Brown issued an official apology for his actions Thursday, stating, “The Tea Party is not concerned with a gay movie, but I as a person was concerned with the library being the venue for the movie, and frankly that had little to do with our Tea Party mission either. In retrospect I should of used my personal email to voice my opinion.”

TEA PARTY APOLOGIZES FOR CONDEMNING LGBT DOCUMENTARY SCREENING AT PUBLIC LIBRARY

2010-07-30T06:56:00.000-07:00

An individual who identifies himself as the President of the Potter County Pennsylvania Tea Party has issued a public apology for criticizing a screening and community discussion of OUT IN THE SILENCE, a PBS documentary about the lives and struggles of LGBT people in small town Pennsylvania, at the Coudersport Public Library. The surprise flip-flop was issued online on the “Coudy News” website and is reprinted below in its entirety:

George Brown Responds
Posted on July 28, 2010 at 3:15 pm 
First, I would like to apologize to the members of the Potter County Tea Party. As one member pointed out, the Gay movie really isn’t what we are about, and that is a very true statement. The tea party is not concerned with a gay movie, but I, as a person was concerned with with the library being the venue for the movie, and frankly that had little to do with our tea party mission either. In retrospect I should of used my personal Email to voice my opinion since this issue had nothing to do with the Tea Party.

However, I do think [Jim Jones] of Solomon’s Words must be on heavy medication, or didn’t have his glasses on. I never said anything about a demonstration or about being mean to the library staff. I did say be nice and voice your opinion, and remember that the people you talk you just work there, they don’t make policy.

Where the threats of a demonstration came from I have no idea, but it was not from me nor from the Tea Party.

Regarding the Tea Pary and gays, we’re happy to have everyone, gay or straight, black, white, brown or red, it makes no difference to us. This is America folks and it is the greatest country in the world. Believe me when I tell you that we have a lot of members with very different political views, but we are all together in the belief that fiscally our country is out of control, and we the people are not being listened to.

For those of the area who made statements about not using the library, the folks at the library do a wonderful job so please reconsider, the library staff are very kind and wonderful people. One decision that someone does not agree with should not close down the library. Let’s be real, we are very lucky to have such a great library here.

I believe a lot of things were said by Solomon’s blog to get people excited. I believe that we in Potter County are fortunate to have each other for neighbors. Let’s love and respect each other, and go out of our way to help others out just as we did before the movie showed up at the library.

You are all in my thoughts and prayers.

God Bless America and everyone who lives here.

George E. Brown President Potter County Tea Party

Tea Party Attacks Public Library, Christian Minister and OUT IN THE SILENCE

2010-07-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

Tea Party Threatens Public Library and Attacks Christian Pastor Over Screening of PBS Documentary Film In Rural Pennsylvania Community

For Immediate Release: July 27, 2010

In a scene reminiscent of the recent racist smear campaign against public servant Shirley Sherrod, the Potter County Tea Party in rural northern Pennsylvania has launched an attack on a local public library simply for being the site of a screening of the award-winning PBS documentary film OUT IN THE SILENCE, and is attempting to vilify a conservative Christian pastor who appears in the film.

Produced in association with Penn State Public Broadcasting, OUT IN THE SILENCE is about the difficulties that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people often face in small towns and rural communities and the search for common ground on these issues that have divided our communities for too long. The film has been broadcast on PBS stations in Pennsylvania and across the country.

In the film, Pastor Mark Micklos of Fern Trinity Evangelical Congregational Church befriends filmmakers Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer, whose same-sex wedding announcement in Wilson's small hometown newspaper, The Derrick of Oil City, PA, was the target of a firestorm of criticism led by the American Family Association of Pennsylvania.

“To see the Tea Party, and so-called 'family values' activists attack a public library for hosting the screening of a PBS film and attempt to shut down the free flow of information and exchange of ideas in a community is shameful,” said Wilson.

“Their efforts are about exclusion, not inclusion,” continued Wilson, “and that's not the kind of country most Americans want to live in. It's also not helpful to economically depressed communities like Coudersport, where the Chamber of Commerce, elected officials and others are working hard to attract new business, residents and tourists by shining a positive light on the area, and overcome the perception that small towns are places where certain people and ideas are not welcome.”

“What's worse,” added Hamer, “is to see a good man like Pastor Micklos, who demonstrates true Christian values in the film, maligned by people who clearly haven't seen the film or even bothered to read the synopsis. If they had they would know the Pastor never compromises his biblical beliefs; he's simply trying to demonstrate what Christianity really means through a Christlike response.”

Despite efforts by the Potter County Tea Party and Free Methodist Church to shut down the screening of the film, the program will go on as scheduled at the Coudersport Public Library at 6:30 PM on Wednesday, July 28.

Those who would like to show support for the public library for the important role that it plays in a free and democratic society are encouraged to contact the Coudersport Public Library Board President, Jane Metzger, at cellojani@hotmail.com and/or the library at coudy502@hotmail.com, or 814-274-9382.

People can also share their viewpoints with local elected officials and with letters-to-the-editor in the local paper and online news sites.

Most importantly, the public is invited and encouraged to attend the screening so that people can come to their own conclusions about the issues involved.

For more information about the film, please visit: OutintheSilence.com

Review of OITS in Christianity Today: Coming Out In Small Town USA

Review of OITS by American Library Association: Love, Hate and a Quest for Change

American Library Association's Library Bill of Rights

###

Contact:

Joe Wilson & Dean Hamer
OUT IN THE SILENCE Campaign
T: 202-320-4172 or 301-326-8355
E: QwavesJoe@yahoo.com
W: OutintheSilence.com
Facebook.com/outinthesilence

Coudersport Public Library Response To Tea Party Attack

2010-07-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

To The Coudersport Public Library Patrons

The award-winning documentary ﬁlm “Out In The Silence” will be shown at the
Coudersport Public Library on Wednesday, July 28 at 6:30 p.m. The ﬁlm depicts the struggle of a gay teen in a small town in Pennsylvania.

The ﬁlmmakers, Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer have conducted more than 75 town hall style screenings in public libraries, churches, high schools, colleges, theaters and community centers around the state. Other area screenings are planned in libraries in Smethport and Emporium.

Some in our community have expressed opinions that the subject matter presented in this ﬁlm is objectionable to them.

The mission of any public library is to serve a diverse community with varying opinions about what is and is not objectionable material. The Library Bill of Rights (from the ALA, American Library Association) states (in part):

I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.

II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

We believe the library would fail in its mission if it did not provide information
about ideas or topics that each of us might ﬁnd uncomfortable at some level.

Our society’s beliefs and ideas are diverse. A public library, in support of intellectual freedom, must provide broad access to divergent viewpoints and materials.

While these viewpoints may not be popular or necessarily represent the majority’s opinion, they must be available.

American libraries are the cornerstones of our democracy. Libraries are for everyone, everywhere. Because libraries provide free access to a world of information, they bring opportunity to all people.

Coudersport Public Library

"We won't be ruled by bullies" vows library

2010-07-26T21:39:00.000-07:00

Update on the Coudersport story: There has been an outpouring of support for the Coudersport Public Library screening of OUT IN THE SILENCE. Encouraging words have been received from both local and distant allies through phone calls, emails and blogs. Vowing that "we won't be ruled by bullies with agendas", the library is planning to screen the documentary as scheduled on Wednesday July 28 at 6:30.

Clergy Threaten Public Library -- Promise “Large Protests” over Gay Documentary

2010-07-26T20:45:00.000-07:00

Coudersport, Pennsylvania, a farm town with a population of just 2,650 people, seems an unlikely location for a battle over lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. But when the public library scheduled a screening and community discussion of a documentary detailing the struggle to survive of a gay teen, this remote hamlet quickly moved to the front lines of America's culture war.

We've received phone calls all morning from clergy “screaming at us”, reported a library staff member. “They're threatening large protests and we don't know what to do.”

The film, OUT IN THE SILENCE, was directed by Joe Wilson, a native of the small town of Oil City, Pennsylvania, and his partner Dean Hamer. Produced in association with Penn State Broadcasting and the Sundance Institute, it had its premiere at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at New York's Lincoln Center and has been broadcast on PBS. But Wilson and Hamer are more interested in screening it in small towns and rural communities as part of a grassroots campaign to raise LGBT visibility and promote civic and political involvement outside the major cities.

When Wilson contacted the Coudersport Public Library about holding a free screening and community discussion, they were delighted to schedule the event for this Wednesday, July 28. But a week before the event, the librarian tried to postpone, citing concerns by the Board of Directors about “possible protests and community concerns.”

Meanwhile, however, Wilson had already placed advertisements about the event in local media, and the county newspaper, The Endeavor, published a front page article about the screening and its importance.

Given the publicity, the library changed its tune about postponing, informing Wilson by email on Friday that the screening could definitely take place.

But on the morning of Monday July 26, the library suddenly changed its mind yet again. They wrote Wilson canceling the event, stating that the library “cannot be involved” due to the large number of calls they had received from conservative ministers in the area.

“It's especially ironic given that one of the main characters in the film is an Evangelical Pastor who was initially very anti-gay, but became more understanding once he actually met gay people and saw us as human beings,” said Wilson.

By lunchtime on Monday the library had reconsidered, stating that “We want our library to be a forum for the exchange of ideas, not a place to be ruled by bullies with agendas.” As of 2:00PM the screening is back on schedule for 6:30 PM Wednesday July 28.

Wilson and Hamer have alerted the media, the state Human Relations Commission, and local law enforcement about the flap and threatened protests. None of the local churches have commented on the controversy.

In a recent review of the film, the American Library Association said: “OUT IN THE SILENCE is recommended for all viewers and deserves a place in all library collections, particularly those libraries serving small and rural communities.”

A press kit and more information about OUT IN THE SILENCE and the ongoing community engagement campaign, as well as a short trailer for the film, are available on the Penn State Public Broadcasting website: http://outinthesilence.com

CONTACT: Joe Wilson, qwavesjoe@yahoo.com, 202-320-4172

SEND A POSTCARD TO PRESIDENT OBAMA FOR NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY

2009-10-09T15:09:00.000-07:00

For those of us who can't, or choose not to, go to Washington, DC for the National Equality March on October 11, it is still important to join together in calls for action in the quest for fairness, equality and human rights for all.

While much of our energy is focused on the hard and necessary day-to-day work still to be done in our communities and in our states, a message to the president from out here where we are could be an important boost.

So, the idea is simple:

Get a postcard representing your community and send something along the lines of the following message to:

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

I live in [name of town, county, state].

Because of the threats of harassment, violence, and discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people and allies, I am often forced to live in silence, and fear, in my own community.

I'm writing to ask you to confirm your commitment to fairness, equality and human rights for all people, be a fierce advocate for change, and keep the promises you made in your inspiring campaign to: pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, expand Hate Crimes legislation, end 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' and repeal the Defense of Marriage Act now.

It is time to speak Out In The Silence!

[signed]

OutintheSilence.com

"When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak." -- Audre Lorde

OUT IN THE SILENCE on GRIT TV

2009-05-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

Got Docs: GRIT TV with Laura Flanders - It's popular on the right wing radio dial to pretend that homosexuality is something happening in San Francisco and other big city enclaves, but this week's Got Doc is about the love, and hate, of small towns. When filmmaker Joe Wilson announced that he was going to marry another man, his small Pennsylvania hometown erupted. But beneath the controversy, a mother reached out to him about help with her teenage son coming out of the closet. A film is coming out of this experience, "Out In The Silence", and the early buzz is overwhelmingly positive. We'd love to share a little more with you so check it out.