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.)
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!
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 ...
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."
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.
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 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
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.
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 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
