In the Life: Ep. 1002, "Retrospective"

on this edition of In The Life gay filmmakers bring race and ethnicity into Focus Aid Service Groups seek new strategies for survival plus a teenage Dropout returns to school as president of San Francisco's Board of Education that's what it's all about education I'm serious and in the nation's capital a lesbian artist gets a major retrospective of her work all this and more on this edition of In the life in the life is funded in part by the H van amaran Foundation additional support provided by Michael ale lepin Peter Zimmer and Jim steep the arch and Bruce Brown Foundation the Collingwood Foundation the Gil Foundation the mitell gold company in the hopes of eliminating all types of fear and Prejudice thank you the gay network gay.com and the annual support of in the Life members like you [Music] welcome to in the Life America's gay and lesbian cultural news magazine hi I'm Katherine Linton in the early Decades of the 20th century Europe and Paris in particular was the center of a vibrant artistic and literary Community among the writers intellectuals and self-style Bohemians who gather to discuss their work or the issues of the day were a number of gay men and lesbians two of the most famous of course were gertude Stein and Alice B toas but another American expatriate a painter named Romain Brooks also gained recognition mostly because of her penetrating portraits of women who are members of this so-called Salon Society on this episode of in the Life we'll tour a major retrospective of the work of romae Brooks the first to examine how her sexuality influenced her art the term political activist correspondent Jonathan Kart profiles Wanita Owens a high school dropout who's a respected educator activist and now political candidate and Darius Taz introduces us to a special group of gay men and lesbians who are exploring their sexual identity developmental disability is a broad category that can include people who are mentally [ __ ] the number one thing all the group members say that they want is to meet other people possibly have a relationship have a boyfriend or a girlfriend but first a report on the new Direction being taken by two long-established Aid Service organizations with recent medical advances people with HIV and AIDS are living longer and better lives this has led to the belief that the AIDS crisis is over and as a result contributions to Aid Service organizations are down between 1997 and 1999 for example large grants by foundations decreased by more than 20% in light of this some groups are re evaluating their mission and the way they raise money Mason essf has the story in 1988 Carla gerell was a newly ordained Presbyterian minister at this Washington church it was here she started a service to feed people sick with AIDS that's partly what people of Faith are called to do is to meet human needs that's what Jesus did using the small kitchen in the church's basement food and friends got it start at the time organizations such as Meals on Wheels refused to reach out to AIDS patients they were very honest with me they said we're afraid our volunteers would re would would be afraid to have contact with people with AIDS with only limited space but boundless determination the staff and volunteers of food and Friends started feeding those unable to feed themselves their goal was clear we probably saw ourselves as a temporary solution until um the hoped for cure for AIDS would be discovered and aids would go away and people would no longer be dying of AIDS hey Max how are you Max lton has been a client of food and friends since he was diagnosed with AIDS in 1992 well I can't say anything bad about fooding fence because they've been both to me all these years they've been friends and they've also provided me with a lot of food they've seen me through my roughest hours but today Max's meals come from this 3,000 ft facility in 1995 food and friends moved allowing them to serve more than a th000 clients a week but as the organization expanded the ravages of the disease decreased one of the things that a lot of AIDS organizations are experiencing these days is the problem of raising money for Aid Services now that the bloom is off the rose so to speak last night andig Sniderman placed Reverend gerell as executive director under his leadership food and friends no longer anticipates closing its doors when a cure is found instead they are now serving people with other debilitating diseases we need to be mindful of the financial bottom line providing services to people with AIDS and non- AIDS related illnesses means there is a much larger donor Community Food and Friends gets referrals from local Cancer Centers and hospices and since January 2000 they've added over 100 new clients the new service helps them raise money is also attracting a substantial number of new donors who are not so AIDS interested but indeed they're very interested in people with breast cancer colon cancer Alzheimer's are you Brenda yes here you go Brenda Dudley is recovering from breast cancer under the new program she gets a delivery every day brinda says the meals give her energy to run her shop with her life partner Sharon I'm here all day long from 8 in the morning to 9: at night and I don't have time to cook at home and and the food is just is it's convenient it's available it's it's a blessing I can't you know say anything but it's just it's Heaven Sent in 1973 15 years before food and friends was founded another organization got its start in the basement of a church the Whitman Walker Clinic was testing and treating gay men for sexually transmitted diseases a decade before anyone knew about AIDS the irony of the AIDS epidemic of course is that it forced places like Whitman Walker Clinic to grow into Bop and grow they did while they still operate an anonymous STD clinic Whitman Walker also encompasses several Regional centers in 1994 they opened the max Robinson Center as a commitment to minorities and the poor AIDS isn't over the the crisis isn't over there's still a lot of need and we need to continue to maintain our level of support and AIDS services are perhaps more necessary than ever since patients are living longer but since the demographics have changed so has some donor interest they don't see their loved ones dying when they don't see people struggling on the streets that they once used to see when there aren't obituaries in the papers every week is not as hard to Mo not as easy to motivate people uh to give in the same way however with Walker is not cutting back on aid services but instead is expanding its gay and lesbian services in such areas as fertility and adoption breast and ovarian cancer and teenage homelessness we not only want to make sure that we being responsive to the health needs of people with HIV we want to be responsive to the health needs of gay and lesbian bisexual and transgender people in this community that we serve and it's appeal to don't to a more to a more generous donor base to turn our back on the real epidemic is certainly a compromise of our mission to end AIDS as editor of P magazine Brad peebles's concern that public apathy is leaving AIDS organizations with little choice I don't think we can judge them and say that it's right or wrong I think they're responding to an environment um to really real threat which is that funding is on is going sort downward slope um so I admire their efforts to retool and reorient it I worry about who gets left behind Reverend gell worries whether the organization she founded will continue its commitment to people with AIDS an organization needs to keep relooking at its Mission every time and and if it's focused on meeting a need it's okay but if it's focused on keeping itself going and is not in touch with Community needs and it's not okay personally though she can appreciate the new service if my mother was ill and needed the kind of service that food and Friends provides a hom delivered meal I would want her to have that because the quality of the service and the food and the volunteers as new treatments have developed paradoxically AIDS funding of all kinds has dwindled foundations government and the gay community now seem to be suffering from what is commonly known as AIDS fatigue along with the larger nationally known AIDS groups there are hundreds of regional and local organizations and many of these are the hardest hit the Center for Disease Control provides links to many of these local organizations find a group in your area and find a way to support them to learn more go to the inthelife website at www.in thee. .org this is Alex aelle and you're watching in the [Music] life the term political activist conjures up images of protesters taking to the streets or shutting down institutions all in the name of change when Owens considers herself an activist it's just that she wages her battle from within the system back when she was a teenager Owens dropped out of high school because she was harassed for being a lesbian 35 years later after earning a Doctorate in Education and serving as president of the school board here in San Francisco Owens is The consumate Insider and she's using her position to challenge the status quo in high school I just you know was an awkward 15-year-old trying to deal with my sexuality and I was referred to as a Butch and not a fem and that was my that's how I identified and that at that time was not acceptable I mean I been threatened standing on the corner that I'm going to you know someone would come to me and say I'm going to kick your ass so school was not comfortable anymore I wasn't involved in that the politic ICS of my of that time in my coming out I found that to be a luxury I couldn't afford that I'm I'm a woman with brown skin I'm a woman of color I'm a lesbian um to be part of a major movement I couldn't afford that I had to think about survival and I knew that there had to be more and I wanted more uh and that's why I decided to go back to school in 1980 Owens received a master's degree in Multicultural education after teaching for many years pursued an assistant directorship at city college I applied for a position I was one of the finalists in in administration for at city college and I was removed and why was I removed and one of the questions was is she a lesbian whether or not homophobia played a part in her contentious appointment to assistant director the process pushed Owens to publicly acknowledge her sexual orientation when I tried to move up and go into a higher position I was challenged and that's when um my orientation my sexual orientation became became an issue and that really opened the door and and and thrust me uh out there as an out lesbian Dr Owen served on a number of boards including the police commission and as president of the Board of Education we have not done a good job job for our queer youth we need to be at the table we need to affect change in the curriculum in the books that they read and more gay lesbian um bisexual transgender people hired in positions out people that's very important role models there was something that I wanted to do that would be lasting that would be remembered and youth would take pride in and and people in San Francisco would be very proud of and that's when I had envisioned creating a mural but not just a mural that would go into an administrative office uh or building but a mural that would be in an educational setting such as a high school that mu shows it from skaters to uh musicians to artists to uh you know politicians and this just shows what what uh the gay lesbian Community has contributed to you know this this country and that's what it was all about is to educate the young people and say and and they happen to be this happens to be a gay person or this happens to be a lesbian and this is the or you may not have even known it it's the only mural of its kind nationally in it's high school it's phenomenal she's very funny and people don't see that and she has the most beautiful smile and people say to you I love your smile but she doesn't show that so people are afraid of her you know I'm not one that choly speechless or anything like that and as Linda says I need to smile more and and show that person side of of me that a lot of people don't get to see she is an activist and she's an intelligent activist um she is the only lesbian with a Chance a real political chance of being elected to the Board of Supervisors this year welcome to San Francisco Board of Education member and candidate for the Board of Supervisors Dr Wanita Owens if I'm going to do it Now's the Time to do it and I knew that it was going to be difficult I'm running in a very challenging District I'm the only woman 10 guys I have fought for Safe Streets community policing and Leadership roles for women and people of color as a San Francisco police commissioner he's planning to move to membership on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors she will arrive there however uh frankly not with the unanimous support of the gay and lesbian community of the two gay Democratic clubs in San Francisco only one gave Dr Owen its endorsement her critics consider her willingness to compromise on certain issues a weakness someone had said to me once you know you need to stand firm on one position you know life's not black and white there's a lot of Grays yes I can stand firm it's a broader social issue human rights civil's rights absolutely abortion absolutely those things are they're not negotiable but when we're dealing with factions communities then you need to start thinking about compromise you start you need to start thinking about negotiation she's moved from being just identified uh as a lesbian politician into the mainstream her enthusiasm and her intelligence uh I think makes her a good role model for young people see that's what it's all about education I'm serious good for you I feel like I'm constantly breaking a glass ceiling constantly and we don't have enough men or women of color gays lesbian bicycle transgender in the political Arena today in 39 States gays and lesbians can be fired despite job performance with no legal recourse this does happen and it must be stopped I look around and there's been many times I'm it and I shouldn't be there should be more before 1977 there wasn't a single out gay or lesbian government official anywhere in the United States then Harvey Milk won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and brought the issue of gay rights officially into America's political discourse today we have over 150 out elected officials in various areas of government the gay and lesbian Victory fund is dedicated to keeping our community community in the political conversation by endorsing qualified gay and lesbian candidates and raising money to support their campaigns to learn more about the victory fund go to the inthelife website at www.in thelovetash and you're watching in the life [Music] on this episode in the Arts homo core a KN of gay Rock and rap returned this fall for its second season to the legendary New York nightclub CBGB I think that this particular venue has been really good for us just cuz there's so many different bands performing and everyone comes and watches all of them that we've gotten a lot of good fansing [Music] at gave people an opportunity to really get together and like perform specific like gay Act [Music] at the Kennedy Center in Washington Irene Ferrera took to the stage with the sounds of [Music] Venezuela I was born and raised in Venezuela so my music has all that Caribbean infuence uh being right on the equator I I also think I Venezuelans we were're pretty intense people so we have a lot to express a lot to [Music] say I believe in in Equal justice I believe you know maybe because I'm a lesbian also I'm very aware of um the Discrimination that goes on in this country I was able to be just to be myself so it was a very natural thing for me to come [Music] out and finally Academy award-winning directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey fredman were in New York to talk about paragraph 175 their powerful new documentary about gays under the third right paragraph 175 is the name of the section of the German penal code that outlawed homosexuality between sexual acts between men and between men and animals um and it dates back to the beginning of the German Republic in 1871 and it was revised and really put into use in a big way by the Nazis that a couple things we were trying to accomplish one was to actually give recognition to the men who wore the pink triangle when I got the first time to the police and they asked me you are homosexual man and I said yes I am everybody knows it I I never said I'm I'm not persecution did happen and it was parallel to but very different from what happened to the Jews for example it's been playing at film festivals all over the world and winning all kinds of awards paragraph 175 which won awards in Berlin and at Sundance will be coming to theaters across the [Music] country still to come on in the Life shattering myths about sexuality and the mentally [ __ ] and gay filmmakers on how race and ethnicity color their work you're completely invisible there's no representation of like indian-americans in in film in America but first our next segment reminds us that long before the modern gay rights movement there were courageous gay men and lesbians who refused to conform to accepted conventions we look at the life and work of a woman who in her day was seen as a rebel and a renegade today she is heralded as a revolutionary and role model she lived from 1874 to 1970 and this is not only her portrait but her work in Paris in the early 1900s Roma Brooks an ex Patriot American was painting striking images of the women in her life some were lovers and some were friends part of a circle of women who challenged accepted definitions of what it meant to be a woman as well as the negative connotations of being homosexual Brooks's contribution was to put a lasting face on her community now a comprehensive retrospective of her work and companion book are giving the gay community the opportunity to ReDiscover a revealing and extraordinary artist Roma Brooks is a really landmarked figure in the development of gay art and gay lesbian Consciousness because she was the first artist to really deal with lesbian life and personalities as her primary subject matter any woman at that period of time who would go out of her way by choice to paint lesbian subjects bisexual subjects uh would have been extraordinary in any art historical context the idea of a of of a kind of visible lesbian identity was really emerging for the first time within mainstream culture this is an absolutely unique opportunity to see the work of romae Brooks this exhibition is put together not only with the works from the Smithsonian American Museum of Art but from Seven museums I believe in France retrospective right now of for work is very important because there has been a real transformation in the way we understand pictures and artworks to operate historically so that a show now as opposed to say 30 years ago will focus not only on um the artist's aesthetic achievement but also will think about the way the images say particular things about people or about the culture that they were produced in [Music] romae Brooks lived in the lesbian capital of the early 20th century she was in Paris she knew everybody who was anybody and in Paris at that time women and especially lesbian women really dominated the cultural scene uh there were two rival salons groups of people that gathered for cultural exchange and so forth and one circled around Brooks and her lover Natalie Barney a writer and the other circled around gertrud Stein and her lover Alice toas it was the first period at the first place where fairly openly gay people could have some kind of cultural life of their own and have a real impact her work focuses almost exclusively on women and um at the same time there are several images that I that are distinctly about trying to visualize a lesbian identity Brooks's portrait of un truebridge is one that she actually referred to in a letter as a sign of the age to amuse some future feminists she really was particularly interested in how these paintings reflected a certain idea about her contemporary culture so that for example the short hair of uh unat truebridge is an incredibly fashionable way for women to Bob their hair and also the sort of the I think deliberately emphasized um made up lips and the the very prominent pearl earrings all in some ways almost exaggerate a sense of femininity and then that's placed in contrast with the kind of severe tailoring and the Very binding cat this image of Peter a young English girl that um has a real gentleness and sensitivity to the sitter's personality um and a real quietness of to the portrait itself that is somewhat I think at odds with what the Contemporary audience would have seen as um the somewhat shocking nature of the fact that she's wearing a man's suit what's unique about Brooks is that any of the people that she was exhibiting for and selling to would have known perfectly well what these Works were about because she made portraits of her lovers she made portraits of well-known own lesbian personalities and sold them to those people and exhibited them as such I do think that there was a segment of her viewership that would also have understood these as particular strategies that uh lesbian women were adopting at that time to in some ways recognize one another in culture this painting is in some ways the the key image to her work in particular because it's a self-portrait it's very much about her creating a public identity for herself I think her 1923 self-portrait is probably the lesbian icon you know of the modernist period so to speak because it presents such a positive image such a self-contained image such a stylish image I saw it as an extraordinary forceful compelling cruy portrait with this more or less androgynous appearance she's reflecting uh changes in um you know women's identity associated with the idea of the Modern Woman sort of early idea of female Liberation this is a painting called Spring from 1912 and it's also uh one of the images for which I Rubenstein the Russian dancer was the model and it was painted while the two of them were involved in a personal relationship between 1911 and 1914 most of her nude work that she did is centered around Ida Rubenstein and I think Ida Rubenstein became a kind of physical ideal for her exploration of the female nude there was a relatively concentrated period where she was thinking about the subject of the female nude and what's interesting about it is that was still a fairly controversial subject for a female artist to paint and she definitely did not back away from that controversy this motif of the white is Al is is one that was specifically associated with Roma Brooks's work as an interior designer so in a sense what Roma Brooks has done is identify this space that this nude female figure is in as her own living space and there I think she's definitely trying to force a recognition of this erotic connection between her as the artist and this female nude as the model and this painting called The Crossing in which for all intents and purposes Ida Rubenstein is shown as a dead woman but she retains that sense of the almost icy eroticism of ID rubenstein's figure there were certain limits on being a female artist at the turn of the century and what she does is press those limits and change those limits and I think in part her own personal sexuality is what uh motivated her to really test those boundaries and to try to revise them in the last 30 years we've had a whole development of gay and lesbian cultural theory that lets us see what the connections might be between art and life and in her case the connections are very powerful the exhibition itself is a huge change I mean in the 80s you couldn't do what has been done today in terms of talking about Roma as a lesbian putting up Place cards with information saying lesbian lesbian lesbian the LW was just not to be used now it's out and it gives us an opportunity to look at our history as gays and lesbians and bisexuals and to look at how people presented themselves how their identities as it were were shaped and formed and matured the idea of gayan lesbian identity has been somewhat erased from the historical record the idea of in a sense rewriting history to include that um is something that's important to a lot of Scholars so it is a very rare opportunity to see romae Brooks in her entirety and in this manner the uh exhibition will travel to the California Berkeley museum of art and after that it will go back to all of its owners [Music] [Music] the most recent round of film festivals has turned up an especially interesting group of gay and lesbian themed movies by and about people of color in the Life talked with the principles of two films about the role race and ethnicity played in the taking financing and distribution of these features Patrick Ian paulk's first film called punks follows the escapades of a group of gay African-American men in West Hollywood lny Kravitz he makes me wet the artist formerly known as prin oh do you remember the inside album jacket to 1999 M that photo with Prince laying in the bed ass up Buck Naked I hadn't even hit puberty yet but I was absolutely obsessed with that photo I think that's when I first realized I was gay the big thing that attracted me to the piece was that uh the four guys in the film were men of color who were not killing each other you know it's like yeah I want to I I'd like to I'd like to be a part of a film where you know we're actually shown loving each other you know that we do love each other and that we do care for each other and that we do try to take care of each other Marcus you are young successful you have all the time in the world and you wasted fantasizing about and just because you're lonely you expect me to sit at home with you on a Saturday night pulling Taffy and watching videos well I'm sorry Sandra d it ain't going to happen I ain't got that kind of time to waste he bit how about that what did you do he's in his early 30s he is HIV positive he um has the love of his life in his life who loves him in spite of the fact that he's HIV positive he has good [Music] friends playing the character gave me a chance to like go back to what I what I remembered about uh about uh what love could be holding out for that kind of love why is it so hard for you to know how beautiful you are no [Music] no you trust me and sometimes I don't even trust myself I thought for the most part it would be the first time in um American Cinema where we had an African-American character who was homosexual who who was also living and not dying with his HIV Oh Marcus come on you bust your ass at the gym then cover up all the results like a monk come on man you need to dress a little bit more openly be free free your mind and your ass will [Music] follow I feel that I've contributed to something that was that is a breakthrough film I know that it's a first of its kind most of the people who've seen it they've had such a good time watching it and and it's it's intriguing it's fun and it's beautiful to [Music] watch Chutney popcorn marks the feature debut of the winner of in the life's 1997 short film and video contest IA ganatra directed co-wrote and stars in This Charming story about a lesbian's attempt to win approval from her indian-american family baby why do you make your life so much harder huh I want you to be happy like sua I'm not getting married mom forget it I want grandchildren are you too selfish to give me that Mom I'm a lesbian I'm not starina you have no shame when we finished the script we decided to go to to Los Angeles to Hollywood and meet with some companies and see if they would be interested in producing the film we met with this one company who was like we love the script it's really funny we just need you to change one little thing and then we could get it all going we want you to change all the Indian people to Italian people and then um they came back to us actually in a couple days and said well they don't have to be Italian they could be Jewish there's one other company that was um really interested and had all of the financing in place and was ready to shoot right away and they just said you know we just have one little change for the rewrite and um we'd like you to make both sisters straight that idea of the least common denominator and let's let's water things down so it appeals to as many people as possible um I think it's insulting to audiences you know I think audiences are smarter than that and you know what I found with this movie was the more specific I was and the more willing I was to put myself on the line and show a really specific experience the more Universal it was and the more people could relate to [Music] it Dyke [Music] Dyke total big old Dyke big old [Music] Dyke forget it she's straight game lesbian audiences I think were already for like you know a movie to move beyond the coming out story and not have the fact that this character's gay be the obstacle and be the central focus of the story Total day what you call her that's great why don't you just appropriate the culture of our oppressors is you you know this family happens to be Indian you know and and that's not the obstacle or the main point of the film and this one character happens to be gay and that's not the obstacle like no one has a problem with that the problem is her sister can't have a baby and she's going to have the baby for her sister and everybody has a problem with that what is this nonsense hey you were just yelling at me about being selfish what yeah I mean like don't drink the last soup of soda in the fridge rep place the ice trays once in a while not and have a baby for your sister you're just being used to perpetuate the heterosexual family model do I have to touch it Mina and Lisa where exactly healthare professionals Christ forget [Music] it you call Reena and you tell her to stop this nonsense you know everybody walks out of chatting popcorn and says that Mom was just like my mom you know because it's not about being Indian or being lesbian or being of color or being oppressed it's you know all of us have a mom that's a pain in the ass sometimes and all of us have you know the feeling of of wanting approval the idea of people only want to see things exactly like themselves that sort of idea and that sort of thinking in Hollywood I hope it's not true and I hope we can prove that it isn't by having films that show something different be successful [Music] on this episodes in the news protesters gathered outside CBS for the September premiere of do Laura slessinger's new television talk show Laura slesinger is on record for calling gay people biological errors and deviant her bizarre and roast views about people are in direct opposition to the views of established medical and mental health professional organizations my name is Iris lumor and I'm a pay flag mom as a mother I can only shudder to think of how my gay son would have felt growing up if he had heard her talk about homosexuals the way she does as we went to deadline Dr Laura's new show was still on the air but these protesters in New York as well as those in dozens of other actions across the country were hoping that Dr Laura might be cancelled by CBS welcome then to this very queer homy and in a different type of gathering thousands of Christians assembled in Decal Illinois to address the concerns of gay lesbian bisexual and transgendered persons many of us would never have assumed or believed that such a gathering could take place it only can occur when men and women of Faith stand up together allowing us to be agents of justice and change in the communities that we inhabit our power comes from the very source which can overcome death and silence so be the fire sit in the fire and share the flame this welcoming movement will become a truly transformed and transforming movement when we care as passionately about eliminating racism classism and ableism as we do about car eliminating homophobia with the support of dozens of churches the 4-day event included workshops Bible study and [Music] concerts here what God says Rise plead your case before mountains I believe that in every other great movement for justice in the history of humanity there has been a spiritual core that has moved it [Music] Forward our final segment is from the in the Life archives it's an eye openening and rarely told story about a group of people coming to terms with their sexuality after it first aired inquiries poured in and this past September the rainbow support group in Connecticut hosted a gathering of mentally [ __ ] people from all over the country this community is seldom thought of as sexual much less sexually identified but as Darius deaz tells us this impression is far from the truth once a month at the gay and lesbian Community Center in New Haven Connecticut a unique Gathering takes place the rainbow support group provides a safe space to address the needs of a very specific segment of our society mentally [ __ ] adults who identify as gay lesbian bisexual or transgender for more than a year now this group has provided affirmation and support to this minority within a minority you got to make sure you wear comfortable shoes if we want this group is possibly the first group of its kind in this country that is discussing what it means to be gay and have a disability in the fall of 1998 John Allen founded the rainbow support group in response to a need being voiced from within the human services field the group is funded through the Easter Seals Goodwill Industries of New Haven Connecticut from all over the state I was getting calls from agencies saying that they had an individual that was gay or was lesbian or or were crossdresser and could they bring that person down for a service we started to realize that hey maybe there really is a need for this it's just groundbreaking to hear mental retardation and sexuality discussed in the same context and also uh to take that one step further to hear homosexuality discussed in in that same context want to take your coat off and come sit down hi are Hi how are you tonight Judy Tomkins is our founding fa facilitator she just has a wonderful understanding of what it means to have mental retardation she is heterosexual but she's in a way like a Dr Ruth where she just has a wonderful understanding of sexuality and what is a natural part of being an adult and she just has this great way of getting people to talk about what going on inside of them you just want us to find more women yes you guys don't you have any women friends you get in the group developmental disability is a broad category that can include people who are mentally [ __ ] but developmental disabilities can also include autism other kinds of severe learning disabilities person who is [ __ ] means that their IQ Falls below a certain point which is actually the bottom 2 and a half% of people testing the number one thing all the group members say that they want is to meet other people possibly have a relationship have a boyfriend or a girlfriend or just to hang around with people who feel the same way they do but other issues come up staff not being supportive sometimes people trying to change them you know trying to get the guys to date girls it's hard to believe in this day and age that people don't know any better than that but they don't seem to the first portion of each rainbow support group meeting is a time to reconnect when the members and their staff have a chance to catch up then each individual speaks privately with the facilitator sometimes it's just personal issues you know sometimes people just have hard time they have a hard time at work they have a hard time with their boss they have a hard time with their housemate you know sometimes they just want to vent just like anybody else does they always just want to kind of fit in you know they don't want anyone to think there's anything different about them so they just want to be like everybody else and I think part of being here is that they feel that way plus they don't have to hide the whole sexual thing here you know they're just so relieved other people do this stuff you know it's like they can hardly believe it sometimes during its first year a core group of participants from all over Connecticut was formed Unique Individuals who have overcome many challenges in their lives I want Joe I'm glad to see you will oh I said I come here every month and Allan identify as gay you help me Lear to better to do better Andrew is bisexual Pam is currently the group's only lesbian and Ben is a straight man who crossdresses the point is it's not easy it's not easy for her and plus it's not easy for me Joe knew who he was when he walked in here I mean he was just like oh God there's other people that are gay I'm so glad to see you and he just had no problem at all accepting it he's who he is and he knows who he is that I feel I feel fine about this I don't have a problem with it at all my sister she says if you don't have a problem with she said that's that's okay too she said so she knows you're gay you know how she they you met her Adrian is Joe's direct care support staff Mondays are her day off and she on her own time will bring Joe down to the group that is dedication I hope that Joe would find someone I really do I would love to see him um come to this group and meet someone that he's interested in and of course pursue um a friendship first and then of course relationship if that happens I thought there would be more women we all thought there would be more women when I first met Pam uh literally within the first sentence of our introducing ourselves um she came right to me and said you know I'm Pam I'm gay and can you help me find a partner I would describe Pam as a a quietly surprising person she she may appear to be shy but she's bold in some other areas of her life guess what I just got on the internet you did you get on the internet H seems as though she was like a little Dam that was held back for a number of years suddenly with the right environment the right supports and particularly this this group the floodgates are opened and she's shooting off I enjoy it more Ben is an individual that I think has had one of the most difficult times in trying to get to this point he was in a horrible living situation where his support staff were trying to force him to conform to what they felt was right for him rather than listening to Ben because of the crossdressing it's been a different kind of situation with Ben that he had a little bit of trouble trying to relate to the other people in the group but I think that he started to realize that it's all kind of the same thing and he feels more comfortable one of the things that was really exciting was at our recent holiday party here at the center we were able to uh provide some introductions for him to connect with with the support group for crossdressing and then made some instant new friends what did that feel like for you Ben to see that feels like well if you could do it I could do it they feel that there is no one out there that really truly understands what's going on inside of them and so that is really one of the the biggest things that this group has been able to do is to break down that sense of isolation that people feel you didn't see that over there in that corner over there I didn't I I saw people with handicaps aren't allowed to have normal sexuality they have no sexual outlets and we kind of create problems for them and they get themselves in trouble because they have no way of expressing their sexuality at any level but if they could come here and see other people who were gay who had normal lives and were comfortable with who they were that they could kind of grow from that and feel supported from all of us at in the life thank you for watching and we'll see you next [Applause] [Music] time the One Night in a disco on the outskirts of fris I was cruising [Music] in the life is funded in part by the H van amaran Foundation additional support provided by Michael ale lepin Peter Zimmer and Jim step the arch and Bruce Brown Foundation the Collingwood Foundation the Gil Foundation the Mitchell Gold company in the hopes of eliminating all types of fear and [Music] Prejudice the gay network gay.com and the annual support of in Theif members like [Music] you e