In the Life: Ep. 1009, "Pride"

on this edition of In The Life a lesbian Explorer TS to the ends of the Earth promoting self-defense in the battle against cancer and leather as a lifestyle listen more on in the Life America's Gay and Lesbian News Magazine [Music] in the life is funded in part by the H van amaran Foundation additional support provided by Richard am and Peggy daniger Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro Fred P hawber and Tom hey William J Resnik Rick Wyland the rainbow endowment the Reed Williams foundation the Mitchell Gold company is in the hopes of eliminating all types of fear and Prejudice thank you buolo Vineyard celebrating over 100 Years of passionate wine making and proudly supporting in the Life bolier Vineyard Rutherford California and the annual support of in Theif members like you [Music] welcome to in the life in our gay pride episode I'm Katherine Linton to celebrate gay pride we'll look at some extraordinary stories that highlight the diversity of the gay and lesbian community on this program we'll profile a woman who exemplifies commitment to her community correspondent Mason essf brings us the story of Nancy lenu who having just won her own battle against cancer was confronted with the loss of her life partner to the disease through strength and determination lenu turned her own adversity into a crusade for others having professional compassionate touch uh seems to be part of the healing process for a lot of cancer survivors correspondent Hal German reports on a marginalized segment of the gay community that's fighting for acceptance and and Andy hum on how Gay Liberation cultivated a cult classic but first let's turn to Family Matters as our viewers know stories about gay families have been a regular feature on in the life for this episode we turn our lens to the Sons and Daughters of gay parents for a kid having a gay or lesbian parent can bring distinct challenges as well as unusual rewards for our future story we look at the issues these children face and an organization that is offering them support we have six children together here ages from 20 on down to six four of them are biologically mine um two are biologically sataras we brought everybody together not to say that it hasn't had its ups and downs The Brady Bunch yeah so how's your yearbook project going pretty good well I have two moms it's it's a normal thing I'm not eating with my hands mother not really so how I've been living with them for 10 years you know I mean it's like I'm kind of used to it I think the only time it becomes an issue is when it's someone else's problem unfortunately for the millions of kids growing up in the US with a lesbian or gay parent it is often someone else's problem my friends don't call my mom names and I don't like it our friends like still make fun of gay people we're like we don't feel comfortable telling them we just kind of like combine our two moms into one cuz like sometimes we're talking about one mom sometimes talking about another one being a child of a gay or less being or bisexual transgender parent is very similar I think to growing up as a gay person in that you unconsciously are learning all of these defenses and you don't even know it's happening when you're walking with your two dads and you see kids from your school coming you step away from them wanting to just kind of edit your life a little bit or not be embarrassed there was this one girl in um my elementary school that I had considered a friend I told her that my parents are gay and later on that week she said to me my mom told me that if your parents are gay then you're going to be gay and I don't want to be your friend anymore because of that and I got really hurt by that to counteract the taunts stigma and isolation six young adults with lesbian or gay parents came together in 1990 to form collage which is headquartered in San Francisco our mission is to serve any daughter or son or person with a lesbian gay bisexual transgender questioning parent collage is here so that all of the children who are growing up can feel like they have a home of people who understand their experiences and share their experiences of their family background well collage stands for um children of lesbian and gay environments or something like that I don't know what the E stands for we have 30 chapters around the country and um about 30 perspective chapters in the pipeline we have all kinds of stuff on our website and discussion groups and support groups and pimp programs and newsletters led by young people for young people we get between 5 and 10,000 calls and emails and letters every year there are still people who call here all the time who are so glad to hear about us because they never ever knew that there was one other person in the whole world who had a gay parent they thought they were the only one I mean really in 2001 that still happens I grew up in San Francisco in 70s with a gay dad and a lesbian mom I can switch from potluck mode to drag queen mode in heart beat it's really not a big difference to me we're just parenting a kid like hundreds of thousands of other parents across the country are just parenting their kids you know and when we go to collage that's what it feels like it's just normal of all the and discrimination and general ignorance and misinformation that's out there you can sort of boil it down to about three points for kids who have cleer parents that our parents sexually abuse us that because our parents are lesbian G bisexual transgendered we will be as well and that we will be socially stigmatized to a degree that we will not be able to function normally in society all the social science studies that have been done on us to date show that we grow up to be fine but I do believe that we are affected by homophobia I do believe that having to grow up in a world that is unsupportive of our families and our culture and our Our Lives hurts us and I think that it would be really great if Society was less homophobic so that we could Blossom even more into the full potential of of Our Own True s your lunch is made and it's in here okay when Gabriel first went to school there was name calling he was just in kindergarten and he was barely 5 years old and a second grade boy called him gay because he was in the bathroom with his best friend my reaction was to become an activist and we immediately met with the principal we um organized a workshop for the teachers we did a parent education night at the school schools need to have a zero tolerance policy for slurs one of the biggest things that I hear from kids is that they hear [ __ ] and Dyke all the time and every time they hear it it's like a wound it's just so painful and it goes completely unchecked we just felt that we wanted our kids to have a sense of pride in in their families and to just have it be kind of normalized I mean we have African American heritage month and CCO de Maya and we wanted an event it's an amazing thing when you think about a public school having a gate Pride assembly a lot of schools do cultural celebrations around different identity groups you know there are also great ways to do different Pride celebrations we really wanted it to be an affirming positive event and uh I think that it has been when gay families are brought together they often discover they have similar challenges and ways to support each other one of the things that was most fulfilling for me coming to collage was meeting other people whose dads had had either died from AIDS or who had or who were HIV positive because my dad is HIV positive and it was something that I was of course in great pain around Brianna was adopted by my late partner Kevin she was just over a year old when Kevin and I met and we started living together as a family and then um Kevin got very sick with HIV Banna was you know right by my side and Kevin's side throughout his whole disease process Banna was five when Kevin died about a year after that I met Greg it certainly colored that aspect of her childhood but it also was an opportunity for her to experience the depth of love that she had for Kevin and his love for her and how much incredible Joy he received from her Presence by his side I mean it was amazing to watch um and I know that that has has enabled her to be as open and and loving and trusting with people as she is when I came to collage and I met other people who had been through it and who had survived it and who were able to support me and who showed me that I would be able to survive it as well that was very very meaningful for me and that has been a gift that I have tried to pass on when I ask a child what have you learned from growing up in a lesbian gay bisexual transgender home what they say is I have learned to be a stronger person from dealing with difference I have learned to have a greater sense of empathy and a larger commitment to social justice for all people because of the Discrimination that I have faced in my own life they're growing up into these incredibly vibrant fascinating interesting strong compassionate people who are going off to their own schools and their own careers and starting their own families and and spreading all of that change I mean and I I think it's incredible and I think in 20 years or 40 years we're going to see in America that's totally different because of that a typical day in our household starts at 5:30 a.m. when Michael leaves for work at 6:30 I make breakfast pack lunches and get the kids ready for school Adam's bus leaves at 7:30 Rose drops Mariana at daycare on the way to school and I Drive Madison to hers as heads of a family John and I take part in the same overwhelming and rewarding ritual that millions of Americans go through each day but society's traditional support structures don't always extend to families like ours organizations like family Pride are trying to change that with programs like parenting groups advocacy training and a Local Schools project family Pride provides information and support to parents like us around the world for a link to family Pride log on to the in life website at in the LIF tv.org where're the you're watch watching in the [Music] life in the mid1 1970s an over-the-top Stage production called The Rocky Horror Show made a journey from London hit to Broadway flly up to feature film where it quickly bombed then it was suggested that the movie about a singing dancing transvesti alien might attract the late night Urban crowd and the experiment was tried out at the Waverly theater in the heart of New York's Greenwich Village and a new millennium Rocky Horror recently returned to Broadway how do you do looking at the decade that spawned The Rocky Horror phenomenon it's clear that gay and sexual Liberation was the fuel igniting those midnight crowds when it came out it didn't really come out because no one knew what to do with it so they kind of buried it at Fox and someone started sneaking it to um art houses and campuses and gay community founded movie came out at the peak of an era of gay sexual Liberation it was an exciting time to be gay and uh also uh experimentations in gender were sort of prevalent in the media Rocky hard came into my life in late 1976 and I became part of that original group of people that started the now famous audience participation I've seen it for sure over 2,000 times salpo was really the driving force he was so into it and he would go on stage before the screening and announce to everybody what you had to do he would ask if there are any virgins in the audience you know people who' never seen Rocky hor before and he would tell you what this is all about participation started gradually it happened without us realizing it was going on in the beginning everybody would just sing along with the songs and then there was a kindergarten teacher who sat in the front row of the balcony and he was the first person to shout at the screen and when Janet put the newspaper on top of her head in the rain he yelled out buy an umbrella you cheap [ __ ] and everybody laughed and then it became like a race like oh that was really clever what could we say next time and then we found out that it was happening in other theaters cuz somebody would come to the Waverly and take it to another theater and then they start doing it and Rocky just took off it was it was a phenomenon once you saw the movie with the cult audience which was basically disenfranchise people living on the edge a lot of gay kids who were just coming out for the first time it really was an inspiring experience because obviously they drew a lot from the message of the movie which was don't dream it be it it was a very big gay audience going to see Rocky the group of friends that I went with we were all gay and we all went to see Rocky hor because it was like the thing to do once word got out that all that this audience participation was happening and it was achieving this kind of a strange cult status it attracted more people so the straight audiences came and because it was the West Village it was a really good mix going on everybody just wanted to get into those high heels and fishnets he was sexy and he was like a good fairy of liido he just kind of awaken the sexual spirit inside [Music] everybody there was a feeling in the theater that of of absolute freedom people were like you know I'm going to get up and do my thing you would actually think that people kind of outed themselves within the theater you know the the the gay people and the straight people were loving it and this was only the mid-70s fast forward 25 years and The Rocky Horror Picture Show has claimed it own unrivaled place in film history with 20th Century Fox staking that claim in a new Anniversary DVD and with a second New York stage try producers are betting that in the New Millennium Broadway is finally ready for the genderbending sexually charged rocky [Music] horror directed by choper Ashley with choreography by Jerry Mitchell the new troop of aliens and unsuspecting humans are headed by Alice Ripley Jared emic R Esparza Sebastian laa Daphne Ruben Vega rockar Joan Jet Leah [Applause] [Music] delaria and Tom hwit as Dr Frank N ferter I'm not much of a man by the lot of day but by night I'm one hell of a l also on board to help Broadway regulars navigate the wild plot is Dick kavit as the narrator this is the rocky horror show we were two weeks into rehearsal before anybody broke the news to me that I was not the one who got to wear ladies panties and gers I'm stuck with the narrator's role the Broadway production today really doesn't disappoint the Diehard fans they stay faithful enough so that you're satisfied by what they're doing and yet they reinvent it enough so that it's not just the same old thing we've updated it in a lot of ways and made it way more turn of the century New Millennium stuff yeah just casting me as Eddie I mean is is is one example [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Leah delaria is playing the meatloaf role and she's also playing Dr Scott so she's playing two male [Applause] roles it just sort of latches onto the absurdity of sex and sexuality and uh explores that in a very funny way you like it didn't you 25-year-old producer Jordan Roth was born just about the time kids first began lining up for Rocky Horror Rocky seems to have been a really seminal experience for just about everybody these messages of don't dream it be it Invent Yourself celebrate yourself be the sort of star of your life those messages were really important I'll see you shiver with T whatever that movie says especially to lonely kids you know has turned out to be something that I'm quite proud of don't dream it be it is a great message and at a time when kids are having some sexual ambiguity and all the kids that are left out or don't know what they're doing are a little bit too odd they can put on this outrageous Garb and and go somewhere where they're accepted for who they want to be that's why the movie celebrated among teenagers because it's it's at that point in people's lives when they need their identities validated and um welcomed that message spoke to a whole generation and it continues to speak to new generations we still got a lot of work to do around the way people view us uh you know in quom gay lesbian bisexual bibity Bobby boo you know we we still we still have a lot of work to do about that but we have come quite a way case in point Ro on [Music] Broadway on this month's in the news at the University of Madison in Wisconsin gays lesbians and straight allies rallied against Fred Phelps creator of the God hates [ __ ] website and his supporters Fred Phelps is protesting in Madison because the school board elected an LGBT youth Advocate to uh help students deal with issues uh regarding homosexuality and when I found out I immediately told everyone I knew Ma and other local activists decided to put together a fundraiser modeled after one organized by Keith or in Ann Arbor Michigan earlier this year while Fred was coming to Ann Arbor to protest the um queer visibility week that the University of Michigan uh does every year at the same time of course he always um likes to protest wherever he goes um churches that he considers too liberal bars um where um gays and lesbians congregate hearing that Phelps was planning to pick it outside the outbar a gay establishment that he owned or decided to do something different we decided however if he's going to be out there spewing his hate we were going to take advantage of that to build our community and help fund uh one of our organizations so the idea is that for every minute he's out there he's going to help us raise money or came up with the idea for a pledge drive for every minute that Phelps and his supporters picketed the outbar individuals could pledge a certain amount of money that would go to a local gay organization the longer Phelps picketed the more money was raised by the time um all was said and done we were raising $125 every minute so we ended up raising $7,500 for wash now rainbow Action project in about a 50h hour pledge Drive in Madison or's concept was quickly embraced so far we've raised online we have collected over $2,000 we're about to reach the $3,000 Mark we'll probably do it this afternoon unfortunately there are those who have not lived in a world of acceptance and whose ignorance leads to words and acts of hate it is critical that we speak out in a loud clear voice and say to them your hate is not welcome here we rally today to counter the signs and slogans of hatred and oppression the money raised from the Madison event estimated that at $6,000 went to the local chapter of glisten the gay lesbian and straight education Network for a youth scholarship fund that will help high school students further their education in LGBT studies similar fund drives are now underway in Los Vegas Santi California San Antonio Portland Maine and Fred Phelps hometown of Topeka Kansas I'm elen Harris and you're watching in the live [Music] still to come on in the Life a lesson in leather and a 3mon 1700m trek across the Antarctic but first over the years in the life has explored Health topics of interest to both gay men and lesbians ranging from AIDS to hepatitis to cancer next we introduce one Chicago woman who not only fought back against her own B with cancer but now fights for the health and wellbeing of others getting my arms between me and danger hand with a black belt in karate Nancy lenon knows how to defend herself in threatening situations but back in the spring of 1987 the danger Came From Within I was actually diagnosed with breast cancer on my 35th birthday Nancy had always been athletic but it wasn't until her mid 20s that she found out she had a talent for the martial arts I was in love with it from the very first day after moving to Chicago in 1984 Nancy and her partner Janette papz started plans to open the women's gym it was a place where lesbians congregated and felt welcomed and comfortable and I had a very public role in my job despite this and her remarkable ability to lead self-defense classes Nancy felt alone in her battle against cancer I really did not know any young women I didn't know any lesbians with breast cancer Nancy bought her disease as aggressively as she knew how with a myectomy chemotherapy radiation and she survived striking power coming down but for Nancy cancer would continue to be a danger if not for her than for the one she loved it was only about a year and a half after my experience that Janette was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer which was not at all the same kind of situation um as mine pancreatic cancer usually and it was in her case also discovered very late um when it was essentially not treatable for Nancy it was time to say goodbye to the woman who nursed her through her disease oh that's it's still painful it's a long time ago but um she was a great she's a great woman great inspiration to me and um I still really miss her you got a Stress Management appointment today yes I do after janette's death Nancy transformed the women's gym into a women's day spa and eventually opened a dojo a karate studio she named the businesses Thousand Waves that's based on a on a then saying that is one wave sets thousands in motion she very strong and compassionate respect and acceptance and humility creative strong compassionate here's your goodies friends counted on that compassion when they asked her to help create the lesbian Community cancer project as we formulated our official mission statement it was to provide Direct Services and support to women with cancer and their self-identified families um and to Advocate um in public forums for Change and um with regard to lesbian health and there was always a dual mission of advocacy prevention and support services one of those Services is a buddy program ny's current buddy is debah Lang who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998 and is still receiving treatments I can look back at NY and say okay she got back doing what she loves um perhaps there's there's hope even though our situations aren't exactly the same perhaps There's Hope for me to get back to a life that I can once again Embrace so what's bothering you today in addition to ongoing support groups clients of the lesbian Community cancer project are also given free access to all of ny's spa facilities including therapeutic massages oh it's been wonderful um I have weekly massages just about weekly when I'm not in the hospital from the cancer having professional compassionate touch uh seems to be part of the healing process for a lot of cancer survivors in January of 2001 the lesbian Community cancer project celebrated its 10th anniversary with this huge event in Southside Chicago for the more than 1,000 guests who attended it was a time to look back in Pride to what Nancy and her friends had accomplished you will find young people old people black people white people brown people um handicap people anyone in the lesbi gay trans Community usually finds their way here while sampling the food in spirits attendees wander through exhibits bid at silent auction or dance the night night [Music] [Applause] away the $85,000 raised at the 2001 event cover many of the cost of lccp services that money allows us to run free clinics on the North side and the south side of town and we're hoping to expand to the west side we serve over 400 women annually and we give free guing exams free mammograms and what's nice about that is that it's the envir where you go and you're talking to a woman who understands that you're a woman you don't necessarily get pumped about whether or not you're on what kind of birth control and whether or not you need to get a pregnancy test every year lccp recognizes Community Leaders with the coming out against cancer Awards but most are there to celebrate the work of lccp it's very important work and um no one else is doing it in our city and it's the only agency that has the word lesbian in in its title that I know of that is um such a public institution and and I think that's something that all Chicago lesbians feel proud of Nancy also takes pride in her partner Sarah Len they began dating shortly after cancer claimed janette's life starting a relationship with somebody whose partner had recently died within the last year was unique and we needed to really talk about that she need needed to grieve and have the space and the freedom to miss Janette and grieve her Sarah shares nany's talents in the martial arts and is a black belt herself I was really in love with Nancy and I really knew I wanted to be with her and really was ready to commit to a relationship Nancy says that it was scary getting involved with someone after a myectomy entering into an intimate relationship with somebody with a changed body was a just another Factor but she's wonderful and made that possible made me feel brave enough to undertake that in October of 2000 Nancy and Sarah celebrated their 10th year together when you fall in love and you meet somebody that seems very compatible and you're very excited about turning your life away from a long extended period of pretty unremitting sadness um I went for it for this month's in the Arts a look at three of the films featured at the 25th anniversary San Francisco International gay and lesbian Film Festival the oldest and largest of its kind a French Road movie called The Adventures of Felix opens the fest with a story of a young HIV positive Arabic Frenchman on a quest on Route Felix stops at his clinic for a quick checkup Canadian Leia pool's first English language film Lost and Delirious Tells A Tale of passion and Discovery in a girl's boarding school she gets serious nightmares gay pride is a celebration of many things including of course sexuality next we explore one segment of the lesbian and gay community whose alternate sexuality alarms some and intrigues others those for whom leather is more than a fashion statement bondage domination the sexual exchange of power those who seek out these activities can be gay or straight in fact some of the largest leather groups cater to heterosexuals but in this report we meet some of those in the gay community who not only wear leather they live it in New York City one week before the Gay Pride Parade each year one segment of the community Begins the party early at the fulam street East Fair these men and women gather to celebrate a common Bond their identification with leather it's a great Gathering of the tribe where we have vendors and Community groups and entertainment and raise money for various charities [Applause] [Music] the leather Community has become an increasingly visible Presence at LGBT events dating back to the 1987 March on Washington what's the Allure this 1995 short film offers a peak inside the gay leather world and a clue to the answer leather armor and gloves thin tight and a cap sends a message cuts through a lot of games hankies armbands Keys you know what you're getting right from the start sex it's leather sex that energy that two folks that are having a power exchange are aware of it's communicating openly about your fantasies your desires leather sex for me is kind of edgy sex and power and passion it's just a different form of of loving really it's just a untraditional way of loving but to Outsiders the leather Community remains a world synonymous with sat masochism and that's where the problems begin I believe one of the biggest misconceptions people have about leather folk is that we're only about pain or whips and chains there are many many various parts that go into a leather scene and it sometimes it's not about pain at all can be about uh fantasy or fetish the most important thing for people to know about the SM leather fetish community and and the people who practice SM is that we aren't violent people and that we aren't abusive people in fact we're very responsible we try to go about our sexuality in a responsible way still it is a form of sexuality that has had a hidden history but not anymore this is the leather archives and museum in Chicago its executive director is Joseph Bean because the world is trying so hard to make leather folk believe they're wrong we're here to maintain the artifacts of leather lives and to validate the existence of a leather Community The Collection traces the history of gay leather clubs and contests art and literature including the first mainstream publication that catered however subtly to a leather friendly adult readership that publication was Justice weekly a periodical about crime and legal punishment with a friendship section in the back the earliest straight and gay leather personal ads but they would say things like docel gentlemen living in New York wishes to meet one or more more powerful men in the same area who find the subjects of this magazine interesting and scanning Those ads through the decades is spectacular history of sexual Liberty a spectacular history of leather sex today that history has a symbol the leather flag created by author and educator Tony deblas its blue black and white stripes with a red heart has been adopted by leather clubs and organizations around the world whatever you think the colors are and whatever you think they mean which for me that means a rallying point now you can be very subtle about telling the world you're end leather just by seeing that all four of those colors are well represented in your car costume living room they look around leather folk will say hm one of us among the most visible leather organizations today are those which seek to educate adults how to engage safely in leather sex none is better known than gmma the gay male SM activists their Credo safe sane and consensual play everybody has something deep down inside that they they are afraid to express and what we many times offer people is a way to play where they know that they'll be fine the next day was it safe does it seem that the people were aware of whatever they were doing and therefore could it have been approached sanely and was it consensual if the answer to any of those is no then it is not what the leather archives or the leather Community uh would represent themselves to be doing and I believe in safe saying and consensual um I also think we need to add fun to that but when one lesbian couple Sarah humble and Glenda Ryder opened a space in Baltimore where adults could learn and experiment with safe leather play the city shut them down as adult entertainment likening them to a strip club adult entertainment by this city of Baltimore's definition it's basically any touching any touching anything that appeals to the purian interest which about rules out Home Depot for some of our friends we didn't have a liquor on premises and there was no money exchanging hands for that for those Play services um we thought that we were not adult entertainment humble and Ryder Enlisted the help of the National Coalition for sexual Freedom met with city council members and organized a letter writing campaign to the mayor the result the city backed down and the good thing with Baltimore city is that we've learned how to do it right we've learned how to mobilize our community we've learned how to talk to local officials and how to educate them that what our our educational social groups are doing is worthwhile yet even with their increased visibility many who live the leather lifestyle complain that within the broader gay community they sometimes feel like second class citizens a minority within a minority it's tough enough when when you realize you're gay and you come out into the gay scene when there's something else lurking within you and you realize that oh wow I I think I'm I'm turned on to leather that that's a second coming out and again the criticism that because of its edgy sexuality the leather Community hinders political progress for all gays and lesbians one sore spot last year's Millennium March y Lea man many felt March organizers had discouraged a leather presence in Washington in an attempt to present a more mainstream view of gays and lesbians to the media and the world I was very saddened by that there's a a saying within the gay community that our diversity is our strength and we want to remind them that they're fighting to be who they are we're fighting to be who we are and to feel comfortable to be who we are inside and not to put on a camouflage just to blend in the way everyone wants us to be privacy rights will be good for all of us uh sexual freedom and freedom from discrimination on the basis of whatever connection to sex will be good for all of us and we have to use that solidarity we have to find that solidarity or we really cannot Advance into the next millennium the way we could what no one disputes is the leather community's clout when it comes to fundraising for Gay and Lesbian charities in San Francisco at the largest and best known Gathering of the clan attendees to the annual fulam Street Fair last year raised more than a quarter of a million [Music] dollar New York's smaller version of fulam also raises thousands for groups like the antiviolence project in the last few years we've been a beneficiary of funds from some of the activities including fom Street East that gmsm puts together just as other folks in the LGBT community are very interested in issues of violence so are people in the SM and leather Community there's no difference the leather community's political activism is also growing with the creation of an annual leather leadership conference you can call it minority because it's clearly not a majority of this country just like gays and lesbians are not a majority but it's a significant minority and it needs to be respected we are not going away by being ignored we will not be left [Music] out our final segment is about an bankof no not the actress who immortalized Mrs Robinson in the movie The Graduate this Anne bankof is an adventurer of a different sort who has laid her own claim to fame as a celebrated Explorer in 198 6 she was the only female member of a team that dog sled 1,000 miles through Canada to the North Pole 7 years later as an out lesbian she led a woman's expedition to the South Pole 660 M and 67 days on SK skis and last year she set a new goal for herself on November 13th 2000 bankr and Expedition partner leave arneson set out to break a world record as the first women to cross Antarctica on foot the two women used skis cleat and sails to make their way across this forbidding and foreign landscape they pulled sleds that weighed 250 lb full of food and equipment and endured temperatures as low as 30° below zero with winds gusting up to 100 mph they made history 94 days and 1,717 M later an and Le shot this remarkable video footage themselves being on this trip and and trying to describe it is what we saw and what we felt seeing all of that is really hard because um in in 97 days we saw so much variety most people think it's a blue white boring flat place but we travel on glaciers the plateau is different than the glaciers the construction of the snow or the makeup of the snow and ice is different every day the lighting is so astounding it's changing during the day and when that lighting changes in such an enormous place when you're this little speck it changes your whole surroundings an extraordinary day was Christmas day and we had been hoping to sail it was snowing on and off which is very unusual in Antarctica and uh so it was very hard to distinguish what was ground and what was sky was you know ens shrouding us the wind picked up in the afternoon and we got so excited that we packed up everything within uh 40 minutes I think and we were hooked into our sails and we started to sail but it was still the white out and then the sun came out and burst through some of that white and uh it was it was magic however not every day was Christmas some days were extraordinarily difficult their fingers and noses were numb from frostbite and the terrain was often treacherous [Applause] when we started the trip and we were going up the glacier and and the snow was quite deep and our sleds were 267 lbs you know and I'm weighing in at at 130 you know that's it was hard uh and you think how am I going to do this you have these moments of you know what I call the heart Thumpers and you realize that you're extremely isolated so you know we got into very difficult areas and we you know would come back and we'd say yeah if we did get hurt here it would be hard to get rescued I mean you recognize those kinds of things this was an and Leaf's first expedition together these two women one lesbian and one straight grew up on separate continents but they shared a childhood dream of growing up to be explorers day 74 dang eth day the eighth day without wind and we pull oh we have been pulling it's hard I think it took me only a day or two that I really felt that we were sister Spirits or sisted Souls because we had this kind of common uh experience from the kids I was reading the same books in alsoo like and did in St Paul we just got to know each other two and a half years ago and um uh leave wrote me in 1993 I had just returned from Antarctica she was about to embark on a solo Expedition very similar route to the one we had just completed and was interested in um knowing about wind direction Etc for a variety of reasons just you talk to everybody you can before you go um and I knew I wanted to return to this remarkable continent so I sort of stuffed her number away and I thought I need to meet this woman for one reason or another one because I want to perhaps travel with her if she's crazy enough to go by herself that's just what I'm looking for well I didn't know that an was a lpan before I actually came into her house and Pam and and I met Pam and but but by then I had met I talked to her and uh we had exchange mail or or or letters so I had a positive feeling and to me it was more important uh that she had a good relationship with her partner than that that she actually was a lesbian because going on an expedition like that it's kind of uh can can affect the Expedition if the person you go with uh has a bad relationship good to see you she has a good sense of humor and it's fun to be with her and uh some days was really depressing in uh the wind did not come and we had to work hard pull the sledges and we said ourselves that we're today I'm depressed so we put up the video camera and put up our mouth Harps and made some jokes we don't talk a lot on these Journeys we've got face masks on the wind is blowing we're in single file you're exhausted they're not elements that are conducive to conversation anyway and it's it's a long long journey so I always say that we have lots of friends that we climb and kayak with and do outdoor Endeavors that are very skilled but they're very clear that they don't have the personality to go on a a 100 day Expedition and we do we we Revel in the fact that we will have this time away it feels like a privilege to us and in fact the time went very fast preparing for a trip like this is grueling work in addition to securing endorsements getting supplies and testing equipment there is the physical aspect of the training which takes each woman up to 6 hours a day in the warmer months when there's no snow on the ground Anne runs for 2 to 4 hours dragging tires to simulate the weight of her sled the outdoors is her gym she strengthens and tones by chopping all of the wood she uses to heat her house and by canoeing in a nearby River as former School teachers both bankra and arnison are dedicated to using their Adventures to inspire young people and girls especially to follow their dreams they are working in partnership with schools and Educators to bring the lessons of their Journeys to a global classroom through the internet I used to be an elementary school teacher and a high school coach in ' 885 when I uh was chosen to go on an expedition to the North Pole I took a sabatical and that sabatical has extended to now so uh I never returned to the formal classroom in part because I realized that I could do these Expeditions and still be a teacher my classroom would just be a bit broader and uh have more flexibility my kids would be not just my 30 kids they would be classrooms all over the country and then now uh in a global setting Sandra Leslie please no this is an when we were on the ice we communicated through a satellite phone every day we would give a report which then went on the website utilizing our voices it is day 30 uh the 13th of December we W to 18 below and I mean it's just phenomenal the way in which we could be so remote and still feel very um intimate with our audience and have such a large audience this has been a life process and concretely it's been 11 years in planning the Traverse so I have needed positive voices whether it's coming from my partner Pam whether it's coming from what I call my inner circle of really good friends that that knows me uh and sometimes it comes from kids because kids are still so optimistic they don't look at me as a woman woman or somebody that they perceive as small they're just like that's a cool adventure go and I can get energized by that bankof and arnison completed their expedition in February making history as the first women to cross the entire Antarctic land mass on foot since their return they've been visiting schools and youth programs meeting a few of the three million children who accompan them on their Journey via the Internet when I was a teenager I was expelled from the Boy Scouts of America to feel the pain and stigma of discrimination is something that I would never wish on any young person so it made me especially happy to learn that the girl Couts of America had designed a program to coincide with Anne bank's Antarctic Journey people in our community have a lot to offer America's youth the campfire boys and girls the national 4 Council the Boys and Girls Clubs Of America and the Girl Scouts all prohibit discrimination against gay men and lesbians for for more information log on to the in Theif website at inthe tv.org I'm James Dale and you're watching in the life from all of us at in the Life thanks for joining us and we'll see you next month [Music] in the life is funded in part by the H van amaran Foundation additional support provided by Richard M and Peggy daniger Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro Fred P hawber and Tom hey William J Resnik Rick Wyland the rainbow endowment the Reed Williams foundation the Mitchell Gold company in the hopes of eliminating all types of fear and Prejudice thank you buolo Vineyard celebrating over 100 Years of passionate wine making and proudly supporting in the Life bolier Vineyard Rutherford California and the annual support of in Theif members like you [Music]