In the Life: Ep. 1302, "Borders"

[Host Lesley Gore] On this month's, "In the Life," [Gore] Wars. [Gore] A war within the war against AIDS. [Dr. Ron Valdiserri] Federal funds cannot be used to directly promote sexual activity. [Shana Krochmal] We're gonna talk straight about sex to people who need that information. [Gore] A child caught between countries. [Juan Carlos Zaldivar] The revolution was the biggest thing in my life. [Gore] And Billie Jean's back. [Billie Jean King] It was a very tumultuous time in society. [Gore] Singer Lesley Gore hosts, [Gore] America's gay and lesbian news magazine, "In the Life." [Harvey Fierstein announces over theme music] "In the Life," is funded in part by, [Fierstein] The H. van Ameringen Foundation. [Fierstein] Additional support provided by, [Fierstein] The Ford Foundation. [Fierstein] The Pride Foundation. [Fierstein] The Gill Foundation. [Fierstein] The Arcus Foundation. [Fierstein] The Lily Auchincloss Foundation. Michael A. Leppen [Fierstein] The Jim Stepp & Peter Zimmer Funds of the Stonewall Community Foundation. [Fierstein] And by the annual support of, "In the Life," members like you. [Lesley Gore sings, "You Don't Own Me."] And, don't tell me what to do. [Gore sings] Oh, don't tell me what to say. [Gore sings] And please, when I go out with you [Gore sings] Don't put me on display. [Gore sings] I don't tell you what to say. [Gore sings] Oh, don't tell you what, [Gore] Welcome to, "In the Life." I'm Lesley Gore. Unlike most racial and religious minorities, gays and lesbians are rarely born into cultures that share our experiences as gay and lesbian people. It's even possible that our birth cultures don't have a place for us. We have to find each other, and create communities that reflect, and support the LGBT elements of our lives. But we do not then cease to be descended from families and birth communities with rich identities of their own. Nor do we cease to be a part of broader society. So if we are to be whole people, we often, must become living bridges between separate and sometimes seemingly incompatible cultures. Tonight, America's gay and lesbian news magazine explores, "Life on the Verge." [Gore] Gay Hollywood's producing duo. [Peyton Reed] You're the "American Gigolo," guys right? Yeah. [Reed] No, they, ah, they won the Tony for that didn't they? No, I, I, yeah. I don't know. [Gore] What it feels like for a gay. [Lisa Moore] I am, ah, one woman in a one bedroom apartment taking on the black church. [Gore] And the surprising conclusion from Harvey. [Fierstein] There are too many positive gay role models. [Clapperboard claps] [Gore] But, first, the political boundaries of health care. Correspondent Wayne Barbin reports from the battle lines being drawn, inside the AIDS epidemic. [Driving music] [Shana Krochmal] There have been a lot of questions around the work that we do. [Music] [Wayne Barbin] They call them shocking, provocative. [Barbin] Even outragious. [Barbin] The Stop AIDS Project of San Francisco, calls them, [Barbin] effective. [Barbin] To Shana Krochmal, the organizations communications director, [Barbin] they're a blessing and a curse. [Shana Krochmal] The audits and investigations have been about politics and not about public health. [Barbin] The Stop AIDS Project has been investigated twice in the last two years, [Barbin] by the Department of Health and Human Services. [Barbin] Why? The organization's edgy approach to HIV prevention. [Krochmal] We know that twenty years, into the epidemic, what it takes to catch the eye of a guy walking down Castro street is libel to raise an eyebrow in Washington. That's okay, we're not here targeting, safer sex messages for teenagers in say, Fort Wayne, Indiana. We're here talking to the gay and bisexual men of San Francisco. And we know that it's important to be relevant. We have to look and sound like the men who we are trying to reach. [Barbin] But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention charges workshops with titles like, Great Sex, [Barbin] Boudilicious and Men for Hire, [Barbin] actually promote sex. For an organization that receives federal funding, [Barbin] that's against the law. [Dr. Ron Valdiserri] There are certain restrictions put on our funding by the United States Congress. One of them, it specifically says that, federal funds cannot be used, to directly promote, sexual activity, whether that's homosexual or heterosexual. [Barbin] Dr. Ron Valdiserri is Deputy Director of the CDC's National Center for HIV, STD and TD prevention. [Barbin] He says, Stop AIDS has been investigated and audited, [Barbin] but he also acknowledges that in each case, the organization was cleared. [Phone rings] [Barbin] Shana Krachmal calls the scrutiny harrassment. [Krachmal] We need the CDC to talk straight to us, because we're going to talk straight about sex to people who need that information. And, what we need to continue to be able to do what we're doing is a very clear and consistent set of guidelines about, what they're going to have a problem with. [Barbin] Some community based organizations say, Stop AIDS has become a lightning rod in a firestorm raging between liberal safe sex messages, and conservative ideology in the current administration. It's a war being waged on a number of fronts including the question of what defines obscenity. [Wayne Shields] Our members are nervous. They're afraid. And they're also frustrated. Because they're not allowed to continue on the research that can help us. Gaining the information that can make a healthy and informed decision, based on science. [Barbin] "The New York Times," broke the story. [Barbin] "Certain Words Can Trip Up AIDS Grants," [Barbin] Words like, sex workers. [Barbin] Men who sleep with men. Anal sex. Transgender. [Barbin] And gay. [Barbin] Several HIV researchers who's work relies on grants from the National Institutes of Health, [Barbin] said they'd been warned by government health officials to clean up their grant applications. [Barbin] Purging such so called sensitive language. [Shields] I've heard from individuals who work at organizations who receive grants from the government who work in the field of sexuality or HIV/AIDS, or any kind of advocacy that runs counter to, um, the current administrations ideology. Who have been sub, subjected to, ah, additional audits. And additional, um, oversight. [Barbin] Nearly ninety organizations, representing more than, two million researchers, scientists and advocates, [Barbin] have signed a petition asking Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, [Barbin] not to blur the line between politics, [Barbin] and public health. [Shields] Primarily because of some of our, ah, moral belief systems that have developed over the years, anything to do with sex is frightening. Ah, more so in the U. S., than almost any other developed country. [Barbin] Naturally we came here to the National Institutes of Health. For a response to the concerns of censorship. They sent us to the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency which oversees the NIH. [Barbin] There, we were told that the allegations are completely untrue and sent back here to the NIH. Which, after originally offering to provide a written response, later called and said, they couldn't do that. [Shields] In the world of politics, all it takes is a little momentum to kind of change the composition, of, policy. [Barbin] And now, Congress is getting involved. [Barbin] The House Government Reforms Committee Special Investigations Division, recently released a report entitled, [Barbin] "Politics and Science in the Bush Administration." [Barbin] It accuses the government of, "manipulating, distorting and interfering with science." [Barbin] In a number of instances. [Barbin] Blaming in part a political and ideological agenda. [Barbin] Among the examples sited, quote, "At NIH, officials have told scientists who study HIV and AIDS to prepare for political interference with their research." [Barbin] The White House issued a strong denial following the report, saying, quote, [Barbin] "This administration looks at the facts and reviews the best available science based on what's right for the American people." [Valdiserri] The epidemic has changed since 1981 and we have to change with it. [Barbin] Back in Atlanta, Dr. Valdiserri and others have recently released a new initiative. [Barbin] Focusing on those who are HIV positive. [Barbin] It's called, Advancing HIV Prevention or AHP. [Valdiserri] The focus of the initiative is to reach out to those, estimated two hundred and fifty thousand persons in America, who are infected with HIV and don't know it. [Barbin] The new program will make HIV testing a routine part of medical care in people considered at risk. [Valdiserri] Our studies show that the majority of new infections in the U. S., are occurring, from people who are infected with HIV and don't know it, and then engaging in unsafe sex and other activities that transmit the virus. So, what we want to do is work with these folks. To get them diagnosed early. It's good for their own medical care. It's also very good from a prevention point of view. [Barbin] Dr. Valdiserri says the new strategy is backed up by sound science. [Barbin] But there's a problem. [Barbin] Like everything else, it costs money. [Barbin] Part of that money will come out of funding for prevention efforts aimed at those who are HIV negative. [Barbin] Efforts like condom distribution, clean IV needle programs, [Barbin] and educational workshops. [Martin Ornelas Quintero] The issues that those organizations, that are uniquely positioned, and are best qualified, by having the history with, ah, the communities that they serve. May no longer receive the resources they need, to keep, negatives, negatives. [Quintero] That's where we're extremely disturbed. [Barbin] Martin Ornelas Quintero is the executive director of LLEGO. [Barbin] The nations only non-profit organization devoted to the needs of the Latino, Latina, [Barbin] gay, bisexual and transgender communities. [Barbin] He thinks the new initiative is unbalanced. [Barbin] And LLEGO is just one of more than two hundred CBOs crying foul. [Ana Oliveira] We're very concerned that in 2003, that the, the vision of public health is such a reductionist vision. [Barbin] Ana Oliveira is Executive Director of the Gay Men's Health Crisis. A national leader in the fight against AIDS. [Barbin] She says the shift to a medical model emphasizing testing for HIV and treatment for those who test positive, [Barbin] is fraught with problems. [Barbin] Not the least of which is financial. It really means that the government, kind of, well, is announcing to us that, we are shifting away from this other emphasis of community education, community prevention, HIV negative prevention. Since 2001, we've been on record as saying, and this is with extensive input from the communities, that, we've got to start, doing a better job, for ongoing prevention, for people who are positive. That's, that's not new. [Barbin] To fund AHP, the CDC plans to pull more than 35 million dollars out of primary prevention programs. [Oliveira] We should be having major campaigns. Billboard campaigns. Subway campaigns. Um, educational campaigns in schools. We should be having, ongoing, ongoing information giving. Around the education of AIDS, embedded in the lives of people. Not just, segregated out in some institutions, but in the daily lives of these people. Embedded in the daily lives of people. And, um, Not emphasizing that, is a major mistake. First of all, our overall HIV prevention budget is over eight hundred million dollars. So, you have to put thirty five million dollars in perspective, compared to eight hundred million. The, ah, majority of our resources do in fact target high risk sero negative persons. [Oliveira] Where it becomes difficult is, when we, the CDC expresses that it is in the medical encounter, [Oliveira] that HIV prevention counseling will take place. [Oliveira] Traditionally, we know that our medical system is tremendously over burdened. Physicians, um, physicians visits, certainly in the public, system, tend to be underpaid. To deliver the kind of quality care that is already needed. [Barbin] In order to push for a balance between prevention efforts and those who are HIV negative and those who are positive, [Barbin] representatives of a number of community based organizations met with Dr. Valdiserri and other CDC officials. [Barbin] The result? An admission by the CDC that it was wrong in the way it announced the new AHP initiative. [Quintero] Our communities are the experts. We built the AIDS movement. We built the AIDS infrastructure. We know what we're talking about. Now is the time, for us to work in partnership with CDC Part of what we were hearing from those organizations is, CDC you're presenting this initiative, in such a way, that you're inadvertently sending a message that you only care about people after they've become infected with HIV. That was a pretty important message for us to hear. Because first of all, that's not true. Ah, that is not where we're coming from, but we need to do a better job of communicating. [Barbin] Still investigations continue at a number of organizations focussed on HIV and sex education. [Shields] Normally, this many audits don't happen. And the reason is this group focuses on comprehensive sexuality education. They talk about prevention, they talk about the use of condoms. [Shields] And that is something that the current administration is not real keen on. [Barbin] Dr. Valdiserri says all of this has nothing to do with politics or ideology, and everything to do with accountability to the American public. America, in general, is bored with AIDS. Which is unfortunate. We're still talking about a deadly, incurable, sexually transmissible disease. But most Americans think it's no longer a problem, and quite frankly, because they think that, they want to know what dollars are being used for. [Barbin] Still the question many LGBT and mainstream health organizations are asking is, [Barbin] whether there is a common thread running through all three of these issues. [Oliveira] You can talk about diabetes. You can talk about, ah, cancer. Easier than you can talk about AIDS in the [?] society. The bottom line is that, um, CDC is not backing away from working with community based organizations, like Stop AIDS. They are vital, ah, and necessary to a comprehensive approach to preventing HIV. [Barbin] Stop AIDS could not agree more. [Barbin] They're not letting up on the work that is their mission and their passion. [Barbin] And their safe sex messages will continue as is. [Barbin] Messages like, "HIV is no picnic," [Barbin] to drive home the ravages of risky behavior. [Barbin] And despite what she sees as a campaign of intimidation, [Barbin] Shana Krochmal says her program will continue to cooperate with the federal government. [Krochmal] We're not chasing a money trail, we're not here to get more bucks out of the federal government or to cheat the taxpayers. [Krochmal] We are here to help people, [Krochmal] save their lives and save the lives of the friends and lovers who they care about. [Paris Barclay] It was back in 1992 when I first moved to L. A. and I stumbled into a group called, Project Angel Food. They're serving meals for people living with HIV and AIDS. And, I became a volunteer and eventually a board member, found that was a great way, to make amends to my own ex lover who died in 1989. I'm Paris Barclay. And you're watching, "In the Life." [Gore] In Hollywood, where art and business and politics often intersect. Two producers find themselves at another juncture. One where their gay identities, meet the mainstream. [Gore] Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks are young, successful and openly gay. [Gore] And they are two of the busiest movie producers in Hollywood. [Rachel Dratch] We're talking about Bruce and Dan, [Renee Zellweger] Why? [Laura Kightlinger] Why would anyone talk about them? [Peyton Reed] They're the, "American Gigolo," guys right? Yeah. No, they ah, they won the Tony for that? [Bruce Cohen] I was making movies from the time I was a little kid and I was always turning, school projects into slide shows and, [Cohen] 8mm films. [Cohen] It never occurred to me until college that you could actually do that for a living. [Dan Jinks] I was not a particularly happy kid for awhile. I always felt like, I just didn't fit in. [Jinks] But from a very, very young age, [Jinks] I had this ridiculous fascination with, with, ah entertainment, in general. [Gore] After graduating from Yale, Bruce started to work in the Industry. [Gore] First in distribution, and then as a second assistant director. [Gore] His first picture was, Steven Spielberg's, "The Color Purple." [Cohen] Working on, "The Color Purple," was just a completely amazing experience. And met a lot of incredible people who, sort of, went on to shape, [Cohen] the rest of my career in many ways. [Gore] Bruce continued to work with Spielberg, on, "Always," and "Hook." [Gore] Eventually, he started to produce films, such as, "Alive," [Gore] "The Flintstones," and "Too Wong Foo." [Cohen] When I came to Los Angeles, I was out. [Cohen] But in my professional life, that was another story because, again this was, the Eighties, and people just weren't out, at work. When I went and told Steven, [Cohen] to me, I really saw that as, my coming out professionally, because, I worked with Steven Spielberg and he knew, so I sort of, it didn't really matter to me if anyone else had a problem with it. [Gore] Dan's first love was theater. [Jinks] In eighth grade living in Miami that I started to work at a children's theatre. [Jinks] And that was a big turning point for me in so many ways. I, found people who were like me. [Gore] Following graduation from NYU, [Gore] Dan begin working in the theatre, but quickly moved to film. When I first moved to Los Angeles, [Jinks] I wasn't sure, how comfortable people were, [Jinks] discussing their sexuality. The turning point for me was, and kind of how I got to know Bruce, was, [Jinks] Bruce and a woman named, Nina Jacobson, who now runs Walt Disney Pictures, co-founded an organization called, "Out There." We got this idea, of, could we create, an organization of out gay and lesbian activists in Hollywood. The first meeting actually was held at my house, and, ah, we had a few meetings, and we got a lot of attention and, "Out," magazine wanted to take a picture of the steering committee. [Jinks] And it was one of those things where I said, "Well, God, I don't know if I want to be in a publication, saying that I'm gay." [Jinks] And then I thought, well you know what, if there's one kid in, in Milwaukee, who sees this group of people and sees that, "Wow, these people are all successful, and they're open about they're sexuality." Then that's going to give me the courage, I know that sounds sort of pretentious to say, but that was my thinking at that, at that moment in time. There's a long tradition in the entertainment industry, of, ah, producers and directors and executives getting very involved in fund raising activities and political activities. Um, so but, that had never been gay, oriented before, but it was a logical next step. [Gore] In 1998, Dan and Bruce decided to combine their talents and form a new production company called, Jinks/Cohen. [Jinks] The huge wonderful stroke of luck of our entire career, ah, with an agent giving us a screenplay called, "American Beauty," by this, [Jinks] pretty unknown screen writer, named, Alan Ball. And um, that sort of changed our lives. Forever. [Alan Ball] A lot of people wanted to buy, "American Beauty," Ah, and um, I met with every one of them. And the thing about Dan and Bruce, is, is, first of all, they were so enthusiastic. I've read a fair number of scripts and I thought that it was the best script I'd ever read. [Annette Bening/Carolyn Burnham] If you don't complain, what is this? Yeah, let's bring in the laugh meter and see how it goes on that one. [Crash] [Kevin Spacey/Lester Burnham] Don't interrupt me, honey. And second of all, they, I said to them, what, I want, I don't want to be, you know, shut out of the process. This is an incredibly personal piece of work, [Ball] and I want to be able to be a part of this process once you're up and running, and they said, absolutely we, we give you our word that that will happen. [Ball] And it did. Again, you know, somebody sticking to their word, that's rare, in Hollywood. [Laughs] [Gore] In 1999, "American Beauty," went on to win five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. [Jinks] You know, winning the Academy Award was, [Jinks] the most exciting, and frankly, most surreal thing, [Jinks] that ever happened to either of us in our lives. [Jinks] Here we were, two guys in our thirties, ah, [Jinks] getting up on stage and, looking out at the audience and there in the front row is, Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep, and it, it, it was, [Jinks] kind of mind boggling, outer body experience. [Cohen] I can say now, without reservation that the actual experience, [Cohen] far exceded any fantasy or dream of it that I could ever have had. [Gore] The follow up features to, "American Beauty," were, "Down With Love," [Gore] an homage to the sex comedies of the 1960's, and "Big Fish," [Gore] directed by, Tim Burton. [Gore] Both Dan and Bruce are also politically active. [Cohen] I did my first door to door campaign for a democratic candidate when I was four years old. [Cohen] And I've been a political junkie ever since. [Cohen] We really have our roughest and scariest years ahead of us in the gay and lesbian rights, movement. [Cohen] What's coming up on the road to equality, [Cohen] is much scarier for America. The right to marry. [Cohen] The right to adopt children. I'm co hosting a fund raiser for Howard Dean, who's running for president. And I think is, the most outspoken, for homosexual rights, candidate, ah, we've, we've had. [Gore] So, given their activism, [Gore] Are these two, members of the infamous gay mafia? Well, we've, you know, we've been shooting a movie, so we've missed some of the meetings of the gay mafia. [Jinks] I think the fact that there are so many gay people in Hollywood now who have so many divergent groups of friends. [Jinks] that I think the whole expression, gay mafia, is a, is a, pretty dated, ah, expression, and, ah, I've never seen any evidence of it, of it existing. [Jinks] I have a feeling that being gay in Hollywood has probably, ah, [Jinks] helped me as much as it's hurt me. There are, [Jinks] dinner parties I'm invited to, [Jinks] because I'm gay, and the same way, there are these straight macho guys who go on rafting trips together, ah, where business is being done, subtly, that I'm not invited on because, they don't invite the gay guy. So, you know, I think probably it all evens out. [Cohen] I really credit the Clinton Campaign in '92, as one of the water shed moments that really changed, [Cohen] the situation of gays in Hollywood, as far as, whether they were out or not. And a lot of people came out around that, ah, period and the New Year since. But, um, in 1990 there weren't a lot of people out in Hollywood. It's been really exciting over the last decade to see how dramatically the landscape has changed in this town and how people who, [Jinks] were not very open to working with gay people in the work place, that's just you can't do that anymore. [Gore] The borders that have most deeply, aren't always those between ourselves and the mainstream. But often lie within us. Where our LGBT and our cultural identities meet. By documenting the untold stories of black lesbians, one writer who set out to unearth the chasm between race and sexuality and gender. And in that process, she may have found a way to reconcile her competing identities. [Lisa Moore] I would call my approach grass roots. I would also call my approach DIY, do it yourself. [Gore] D. C. based, Lisa Moore, [Gore] runs RedBone Press, one of the only black lesbian publishing houses around. [Gore] Lisa Moore's passion is connecting people with information. [Gore] So when she recognized the limited number of books available to young, black lesbians, RedBone Press was born. [Moore] It was, like, 1995 that, a, a friend of mine's younger sister, she had come out to herself, but she didn't know anybody else. [Moore] But she came and she seen all the books on my bookshelf and she said, "Do you have anything about black lesbians?" And I thought, [Moore] well, I've got, "Home Girls." [Moore] And she said, I've seen that. And then, I'm looking, and I'm thinking, okay, there's got to be a book, of, like, coming out stories for black lesbians. [Moore] But I discovered that there wasn't, so I kind of, put it in my head that, well, I could at least put them together, and shop it around. [Moore] And what ended up happening was that, I published the book myself. [Gore] 1997 yielded RedBone's first effort, [Gore] the anthology, "Does Your Mama Know?" [Gore] A two time Lamda Literary Award winner. [Moore] There are forty nine stories by forty one writers. [Moore] And they basically, are poems, letters, essays, [Moore] and they are the stories of people coming out to neighbors, mothers, friends, sisters, lovers. And, you know, people being okay with that. [Moore] The title, "Does Your Mama Know?" [Moore] is very germane to what the book is about. I mean, if your mama knows, everything's okay. [Moore] I had women who were grandmother's that said, "Where was this book when I was coming out?" You know, "I got married, had kids, divorced my husband, I've got grandkids and I wish that this book was there." I've had women come up to me in the past year and say, "I love your book. I just got it last week." [Moore] "You know, it helped me come out to my mom." And, you know, I'm just happy to have been able to help facilitate that. [Sharon Bridgforth] "and Bull-jean love her," [Bridgeforth] "go git she aunty," [Gore] After the coming out stories of Mama, RedBone's focus shifted to the Bull-jean stories. [Gore] An out and proud Southern celebration from Sharon Bridgforth. [Bridgforth] put Sweet out myself. Sweet ain't got me nothing but love. [Moore] The Bull-jean stories was about the character of Bull-dog-jean and her life and loves. But within the stories, she's very ensconced in her community. [Moore] She's not ostracized at all. She's walking down the street, saying, "Hey, how you doing." [Moore] Everybody knows who she is and she knows who they are. It's not like she lives on the edge of town. You know, and nobody talks about her, people whisper about her. It's not that at all. [Gore] In her ongoing reclamation of history, Moore is venturing into new personal territory. [Gore] The documentary film. [Moore] It's called, "Sassy B. Gonn, Searching for Black Lesbian Elders." [Unidentified speaker] I don't want you to think there was no homophobia, that it was, anything you did, no. And you say, in the church. you could know the choir director or the musician or the organ player, or whatever, whatever, was a gay guy, but where were the lesbians. My mother would be saying things like, "Don't you all be making fun of her." And I'd be thinking, making fun of her? Lord, if you only knew what was going through my head. I want to run out there and hold her hand and walk up the street with her. I was interviewing older black lesbians in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties and asking them about, what being a black lesbian was like. During segregation. And after segregation. [Unidentified Speaker] It wasn't our time to be outspoken, but it's your time to be outspoken. So do it. And, ah, we did what we could, when we were strong enough. we did as much as we could. We would be scared to walk down the street, holding hands. [Off screen] Mm, hmm. But you know, I feel, I have [?] People really, really respond to it, especially young people. They want to know what it's going to be like being old. [Moore] They don't know, that there's people that have lived through some things that they can tell them about. [Gore] Inundated with questions from fellow writers looking to publish, [Gore] Moore and her colleagues organized, Fire and Ink. [Gore] A writer's conference that aims to provide support for LGBT writers of color. [Moore] We have people that wanted to publish. We had sub publishers though. [Moore] We had performance artists there. We had poets there. We had playwrights there. We had screen writers there. And they all came together to, talk about writing. [Moore] Talk about getting the work out there. Talk about, [Moore] the actual writing process as well as the business of it. [Moore] Talk about how to network. Talk about how to get our work into academia, because, getting work into academia, ensures its longevity. [Moore] People come into workshops crying because they have to write things. And they had never been in such an affirming place before. Where they could be all of themselves and be black and gay and lesbian. [Moore] Or trans or bi. [Moore] You know, and write about what they wanted to write about and have people support that. [Gore] And now, RedBone faces perhaps it's biggest challenge to date. "Spirited." [Gore] A collection of essays on religion and spirituality is Moore's latest project, [Gore] and it promises to attract attention. [Moore] There's so many black gay and lesbian people that go to church week after week, and have it, [Moore] pounded into their heads that the bible hates this. The bible says, the bible says. [Moore] If you come out as a gay and lesbian person in a black community, you risk being ostracized from that community. [Moore] And a community is what gives you strength and you risk being shut out. [Moore] A lot of gay and lesbian people will just not come out. [Moore] And it's just kind of blowing my mind in the past few days, of editing this book, that, oh, my God, [Laughs] I am ah, one woman, in a one bedroom apartment, taking on the black church. [Moore] I feel that the work that I do, connects people with information that is so necessary. [Moore] It's necessary, [Moore] for peoples survival if you will. For them to know that it's okay, [Moore] to be all of who they are. And be black, and be gay, and be lesbian. [Andre DeShields] The late, Bayard Rustin, spoke passionately to give a voice to the African American civil rights movement. He wrote the first civil rights act. Organized the March on Washington. And was integral in bringing non violence to the movement. The same movement that forced him out because his gayness, was a political liability. I'm Andre DeShields, and you're watching, "In the Life." Still to come on, "In the Life." [Gore] A child of the Mariel Boatlift. [Juan Carlos Zaldivar] One of my uncles came back with a boat and wanted the rest of my family to come to the States. [Gore] How Billie Jean King changed America. [King] I didn't go pro. We created professional tennis. [Gore] And Harvey doubles back. [Clapperboard claps] [Fierstein] In our effort to remove the stigma of having AIDS, have we created a culture of disease? [Gore] Only ninety miles of water separates Cuba and the United States. [Cuban music comes up under narration and continues] Yet making that journey has left generations of immigrants psychically stranded between countries. And between deeply held ideologies. The gay film maker Juan Carlos Zaldivar, it was leaving his beloved Cuba, and coming to America, that also allowed him to come out. So, if for him, these two cultures preclude one another, how can he locate his identity and his home. In tonight's Reel to Reel, "90 Miles." [Cuban music] [Juan Carlos Zaldivar] In 1980, I was a thirteen year old Communist, living in Cuba. [Zaldivar] The revolution was the biggest thing in my life. [Zaldivar] Bigger than religion or anything else. [Cuban music] [Zaldivar] I was a Communist. And so was my sister. And we never, the idea of leaving the island, or deserting the revolution was never really, put forth, by my parents, so I, I just assumed they were, as much for the revolution as we were. [Gore] In 1980, more than a hundred and twenty five thousand Cubans were allowed to immigrate to the United States, in what became known, as the Mariel Boatlift. [Gore] An historic event that began when thousands of Cubans stormed several embassies and demanded political asylum. [Cuban music] [Zaldivar] Guevara appeared on television, and declared that all those people were parasites of the revolution. [Zaldivar] And if they wanted to leave the island, they could leave. [Cuban music] [Zaldivar] In Miami, the Cuban community in exile, immediately started sending boats over to take their families to the United States. [Cuban music] [Local Reporter] Over two hundred tiny fiberglass boats left Key West today. [Reporter] Most know they will wait with several thousand other boats in Mariel Bay for two weeks to a month, [Reporter] before being allowed to board their refugee passengers for the ninety mile passage. [Zaldivar] When the Mariel Boatlift happened in 1980, it became a very important event in Cuban history. It also became a very important event in my life. [Zaldivar over chanting protestors] That Spring, instead of going to school, my class would join demonstrations that publicly humiliated the people who were deserting. [Zaldivar] They were called, acts of hate. [Zaldivar] We'd build bonfires. [Zaldivar] And would make dummies out of uniforms that people left behind. [Zaldivar] We would stuff them with their pillows, and then we would burn them. [Protestors chant] [Zaldivar] One of my uncles came back with a boat. [Zaldivar] And, ah, wanted the rest of my family that was still living in Cuba to come to the United States. [Zaldivar] And at that point, my father gave the decision of whether my family would leave to me and to my older sister. [Zaldivar] I was angry. [Zaldivar] I didn't want to leave. [Zaldivar] I said to them, "How can you take us to a place where I'll be forced to take drugs in school." [Zaldivar] Where you can't go out alone at night. [Zaldivar] And where my grandparents won't be able to see a doctor if they get sick. [Pachuco speaking in Cuban Spanish] [Zaldivar] My father raised me a Communist, I think, to protect me, because he felt that was the best way that I could evolve and, and, and become somebody in that society. But at the same time, by not believing that, he created this rift between him and I. I understood it all, I think, [Zaldivar] best, when I was in Cuba in 1999. [Zaldivar] And while I was there, the Elian Gonzalez demonstration started. And I understood, I think, watching the, watching all of the, the propaganda that was being said and all of, the rhetoric that was being said at the, at the demonstration. As an adult, how difficult it must have been for him. [Zaldivar] Having raised a child to believe in something he didn't believe. [Zaldivar over music] When I got to Miami, I didn't find the United States to be the way that I expected it. [Zaldivar] I was able to go out at night. [Zaldivar] I wasn't being mugged or raped or killed. [Zaldivar] It was clean. [Zaldivar] And my cousins were nice. The other thing that contributed to the, [Zaldivar] the distance between my father and I was the process of immigration. [Zaldivar] Ironically, you know, he was the one with all the expectations and I didn't want to leave. But, [Zaldivar] because I was younger, I adapted easier. [Zaldivar] And he had a harder time adapting to the United States. [Zaldivar] He was all of a sudden raising a kid that, was speaking, learning a new language faster than he was. [Zaldivar] I was assimilating to that new culture that he couldn't assimilate. [Zaldivar over music] When it was time for college, I immediately decided to leave Miami. [Zaldivar] In New York, I got the urge to kiss another boy for the first time. [Zaldivar] I wanted to develop my own identity and I couldn't do that in Miami. [Zaldivar] Life in Miami thrived on keeping things the way they used to be. [Zaldivar] My mother and my sisters were supportive. [Zaldivar] But I was worried about how my father would react to my attraction to another man. [Zaldivar] I was afraid that he would think that I had been lying to him all my life. [Zaldivar] His response surprised me. [Zaldivar] I was ready for it to become a big issue. and when it wasn't, I, I felt, wow, that's, ah, that's not only really great, and I'm very lucky to have that in my life, but it's also, ah, ah, really interesting how, despite all the other differences that exist between him and I, you know, that which is normally the biggest rift, between a father and a son, [Zaldivar] ah, wasn't. I find really interesting the correlation between the whole process of coming out, or accepting homosexuality in our society. [Zaldivar] and all the parallels that exist in us accepting other types of changes in our life. [Zaldivar] in this case, the process of immigration. [Zaldivar] We reject change. And part of it is, because it asks us to question ourselves. And to, sort of, reinvent ourselves. [Zaldivar] And I think, most people don't want to do that because, for something you take on, it takes a little while, to reevaluate and to come up to a new place where you feel comfortable with that. [Music, laughter, greetings] [Zaldivar] After my first trip to Cuba in 1998, [Zaldivar] I think the emotional impact for me was, a feeling that sense of, ah, nearness and togetherness with the people, my family that was there. [Zaldivar] And really having that feeling that I belonged there and that I, there was no question about it. [Relative speaking Cuban Spanish] [Zaldivar] I decided at that moment, I was going to try. [Zaldivar] to find a way to make a, to make, to make a, [Zaldivar] that bridge for my self, and I didn't really know how it was going to be. [Zaldivar] And so far, I think, it has been this movie, really, that has created that. You know, the film did play in Cuba. [Zaldivar] Ah, in 2001. [Zaldivar] And then we got a call a week later that we won the Havana Film Festival, it got the Best Documentary Award. [Zaldivar] And that to me was, it sort of closed the circle because, um, even though, yes, there's a huge difference between the two countries, um, the film managed to speak to an experience that is, the same on both ends of the story. [Lisa Leslie] Hi, I'm Lisa Leslie of the World Champion Los Angeles Sparks. And you are watching, "In the Life." [Theme music] [Gore] Billie Jean King wanted to be a professional athlete. But the governing political, social and athletic institutions, had no place for a female pro. Billie Jean rose to the challenge. Creating bridges between her identities as athlete and as woman. She became one of tennis's greatest legends. And with her tennis game, she changed the culture. [Music] [Audience cheers, applause] [Music] [Donna Summer, Song, "Bad Girl"] Bad girl, bad girl, da, da, da bad girl. [Summer sings] Bad girl, bad girl, da, da, da bad girl. [Summer sings] Bad girl, bad girl, [Song continues under dialogue] [Billie Jean King] I already knew about the time I was twelve years old, [King] that because of my gender, that I was, discounted. [Donna Lopiano] In the, 1950s, 1960s, [Lopiano] there were few opportunities for girls to play sports. The girls basketball team played a grand total of four games per season. Ah, and only, [Lopiano] played against neighboring institutions. there were no such things as, [Lopiano] state high school championships or national collegiate championships. [Lopiano] So, I think it's fair to say that it was, um, a desert for, ah, women in sports. [King] When I played nobody really knew what I was doing and didn't care. [King] They just knew I was gone every weekend away to a tournament. And everybody'd go, "Why are you doing that? That is so stupid. You should be with us, going to slumber parties." [Gore] By 1966, she was the number one ranked female player, in a sport that had no professional league. [Gore] Billie Jean hammered away at the glass ceiling. Pushing for unification and equal opportunity. [King] I didn't go pro. We created professional tennis. There was a group of us, in 1970, called the original nine. We signed a one dollar contract with Gladys Heldman, [King] who at the time was, um, publisher of "World Tennis Magazine." She went out and got the money from Philip Morris to be the sponsor. [King] And that's the reason we were able, [King] to have women's professional tennis the way everyone knows it today. Serena. [King] Venus. [King] Lindsey. [King] Monica. We're the ones that started that. [Gore] The birth of the Virginia Slims tournament would give rise to the Women's Professional Tennis Tour. [Gore] And to financial independence for players on the tour. [Jones] A luxury King, and the original nine, labored for. [King] We knew we weren't going to be the the big winners in this whole thing. We knew the next, [King] generations were going to be the big ones. I made one million nine something. Chris Evert made eight or nine million. [King] Martina made twenty million. And now, we don't know where these other ones are gonna go. [Gore] The Seventies saw an enormous push for legislative change. [Gore] One of the most important laws was Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amendments. [Gore] Which mandated that educational programs receiving federal funds not discriminate on the basis of sex. [Gore] It was a grand slam for King, who was a key lobbyist for the amendment. [King] Before 1972 which is me, pre Title IX. I couldn't get a, atheletic scholarship to college. Where as my counterpart, a guy, a man, a male, could. [Lopiano] Women weren't admitted to law schools, weren't admitted to, ah, medical schools. People forget that in 1972, if you wanted a, a credit card, you had to get your father or your husband to sign an application. [Gore] While feminists celebrated the victory and the WPT evolved, [Gore] former number one men's tennis player Bobby Riggs plotted a media event that would be unparalleled in sports history. [Announcer Howard Cosell] Live from the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, the tennis Battle of the Sexes. Billie Jean King versus Bobby Riggs. [King] It was at the height of this movement. We had Watergate heating up. [King] Vietnam cooling down. We had Roe versus Wade. It was a very tumultuous time, um, in society. [Gore] After repeatedly dodging his challenge, King finally accepted after Riggs highly publicized match with the top female player. [King] I only played him, because he beat Margaret Court in the same year. [King] She was number one in the world in 1973. He beat her very badly, very soundly. And after she lost to Bobby Riggs, then I had to play. [Bobby Riggs] The male is king and the male is supreme. I've said it over and over again. I still feel that way. Girls play a nice game of tennis, for girls. [Gore] Fifty million television viewers watched as the circus-like event played out in the public eye. [King] Jerry Perenchino, the promoter, said, "Would you get on this Egyptian litter." Because he thought I wouldn't. I said, "Absolutely! Showtime, let's go!" [Cosell] Just to show you how Billie Jean King has been approaching this match in her own mind as she playfully, even joyously, waves to the fans. Well, you know, there's a sense of entertainment around this. And I like that. [Crowd noise, cheers, music] [Cosell] Game, set, match! [Audience cheers, music] [Gore] Billie Jean's next high-profile event was of a slightly different nature. [Gore] In 1981, a palimony suit brought by her former lover, outed Billie Jean. [Gore] Threatening not only her financial security, but also the vitality of the women's tour. [King] I had just gotten all these fantastic endorsements. I was just gonna retire. [King] And, ah, this was when I finally was going to get to cash in on the big bucks of those, of those days. I mean, now it would be such a small amount, but it was millions. [Announcer] And, if you're new to Virginia Slims, these ladies play the best two out of three. [Martina Navratilova] The sponsors of the women's tour were very nervous, you know, this is twenty years ago we're talking about. And, ah, you know, sexuality was not talked about and Billie Jean was the biggest star. [Announcer] Beautiful. Oh, we've seen some outstanding tennis, [King] Everybody said, if I said anything they wouldn't have the tour. I mean, that is a major responsibility, I think. [Gore] But with the lawsuit making the daily papers. [Gore] Billie Jean acknowledged the affair and went on to publicly embrace her sexual identity. [Court noises] [Female announcer] Ah, what an angle. [Male announcer] Beautiful. [King] I would never out somebody, because everybody has to do in their own time. But, I'm glad I'm out. But, I probably would have done it, my own, my own way, in my own time. [King] But, it's okay. The truth sets you free. That's for sure. [King] And also I'm capable person. I can still work. And I do World Team Tennis now. And, you know, I found other ways to make a living. [Gore] King has continued her fight for equality, well into her so-called retirement. [Gore] Co-founding the Women's Sports Foundation. And with executive director, Donna Lopiano, the foundation is tackling some major issues. [King] The reason I created it is because, um, [King] trying to help change attitudes and also create, participation and leadership opportunities for girls. [Lopiano] One of, ah, our recent projects has been to attack homophobia in sport. [Lopiano] It has become common practice for, ah, people who don't want girls to play, to label female athletes as lesbians. And for some girls that deters them from playing. [Gore] And the Women's Sports Foundation is only one of the many reverberations of Billie Jean's famous victory. [Lopiano] It wasn't about sport. It was more, ah, about, you know, the public realizing that women don't fold under pressure. [King] It gave women a lot more self-esteem. A lot of women asked for a raise for the first time the next day at work. [King] And, and got it. Um. [King] I have people tell me every single day of my life since that match, every single day, I go out in public, somebody has a story to tell me about that match. [Navratilova] It went beyond tennis. It went beyond sports. It really, I think empowered women in a way that, [Navratilova] Gloria Steinem couldn't imagine. Ah. And, and I know Billie was trying to tell her that sports and social change were intertwined. And, and Gloria didn't quite get it then but I think she gets it now. Because, [Navratilova] ah, quite often, I think sports is a precursor to social change. [Gore] And finally, in Outtakes, Harvey's own take, on a fight he holds dear. [Clapperboard claps] [Harvey Fierstein] So, whaaaaat happened was, [Fierstein] The words are making me nervous. [Hyperventilating] [Clapperboard claps] So, whaaaaat happened was, [Hyperventilating] [Fierstein] Well, so far that's not offensive. [Clapperboard claps] [Fierstein] Come on Papa, whatya say? [Clapperboard claps] I bet you thought you'd never hear me say this. There are too many positive gay role models. Here's the thing. Over the last twenty years, fighting the AIDS crisis, we've done everything possible to dispel the negative conotations that came with being HIV positive. After all, it's been our relatives, our friends, our boyfriends and girlfriends. Ourselves. Who are being discriminated against, because of a virus. We have enough trouble staying alive without suffering the manifold prejudices laid on us by those who knew no better. So, we produced advertising and created enlightenment programs. Spent endless hours making certain, that having AIDS, or being HIV positive, was nothing to be ashamed of. We did a great job. Maybe too great a job. [Clapperboard claps] After all the effort exerted to convince the world that AIDS is not a gay disease, we now have a generation, embracing AIDS as their gay birthright. Our young men are seroconverting in rising numbers. Four Americans are becoming infected every hour. Many see HIV as a rite of passage. An inevitable coming of age, in their lives. I hear of young people seeking the disease. Seroconverting by choice. As an entree into the cool, queer, inner circle, that being negative denies them. My question. In our effort to remove the stigma of having AIDS, have we created a culture of disease. We all see the ads for HIV drugs. They illustrate hot, muscular men, living life to the fullest. Thanks to modern science. Other ads showing couples holding hands, sending the message that the road to true love and happiness, is being HIV positive. Is the message, you're going to be okay, which is terrific. Or is the message we're sending, you wanna be special, get AIDS. HIV equals popularity and acceptance. Which would be tragic. And let me state, in no uncertain terms, my heart goes out to all who have the infection and the complications and the struggles. And while I pledge my energies and resources to the fight for a cure, and continued care, and justice for all those with the disease. I still think we need to examine what we're teaching our gay and lesbian and transgender and bisexual youth. In my viewpoint, the messages the drug companies are now spreading, are lies. The truth is that AIDS is not fun. AIDS is not sexy. AIDS is not manageable. AIDS is a progressive, aggressive, debilitating, deforming, terminal and still incurable disease. The drugs can bring on heart disease, kidney and liver disease and a host of daily discomforts. I'd like to see that painted on the entrance to a bare back party. Unlike the photos in those ads, most of my friends who are on cocktails, are not having the times of their lives. They spend their mornings in the bathroom, throwing up or suffering with diarrhea. They spend their afternoons at doctors appointments and clinics and pharmacies. And they spend endless evenings planning their estates and trying to make ends meet because, for long periods of time they're not well enough to support themselves and their new drug habit. And those are just the friends for whom the drugs work. For most women, the cocktails are nothing but a drain on finance, internal organs and stamina. And even if the drugs work as well as they are selling them, should we be creating a community of drug dependency? Dear listeners, we have done a terrific job of removing the stigma of having AIDS from the general culture. But in doing so, we've become failures at removing the disease from our community. HIV is an almost completely avoidable infection. It's hard to get. No one can just hand it to you. You need to be compliant in some very specific behaviors to be at risk. In fact, if every person now infected vowed, that the disease ended with them, we could wipe out the ballooning number of new infections from our community. But instead, we're selling our next generation, into drug slavery and their destiny to medical researchers. All because, we'd rather treat each other as sexual objects, then family. [Clapperboard claps] And thanks to the powerful drug companies who are making billions off of us. And the medical community that's gained our all new captive audience to fill their appointment books. And thanks to AIDS charities that have become a career for many. We have created an industry of disease that would crumble if AIDS was cured or wiped out of our community. I'm calling for us to stop spreading the virus. I am calling for us to resist, the normalization of disease and once again embrace health. I'm calling for an end to the false advertising for drugs. I'm calling for us to stop minimizing the infection with cute little names like the gift or the bug. I want to see an ad campaign showing the hot sexy man saying, "I don't have AIDS. I don't want to waste my life and my resources on drugs. I am taking charge of my body, my health and my destiny. I am a negative role model. I'm Lesley Gore. For all of us at, "In the Life," here at O. W. bar in New York, thank you for watching, and we'll see you next month. [Some audio content removed due to copyright restrictions. Lesley Gore, "It's My Party."] [Harvey Fierstein over theme music] "In the Life," is funded in part by, [Fierstein] The H. van Ameringen Foundation. [Fierstein] Additional Support provided by, [Fierstein] The Ford Foundation. [Fierstein] The Pride Foundation. [Fierstein] The Gill Foundation. [Fierstein] The Arcus Foundation. [Fierstein] The Lily Auchincloss Foundation. Michael A. Leppen [Fierstein] The Jim Stepp & Peter Zimmer Funds of the Stonewall Community Foundation. [Announcer] And by the annual support of, "In the Life," members like you. [Theme music] [Theme music]