In the Life: Ep. 2011, "Gaycation"

[Announcer, over music] "In the Life," is funded in part by, [Announcer] The H. van Ameringen Foundation. [Announcer] Patricia Kind, in honor of her brother Henry van Ameringen. [Announcer] Arcus Foundation. [Announcer] The Estate of Richard W. Weiland. [Announcer] And by the annual support of, "In the Life," members like you. [Narrator Triple Edwards, over music] When the LGBT community comes together to have fun and commune with nature, [Edwards] these networks of support often celebrate and change societal  perceptions about what it means to be gay. [Edwards] This month on, "In the Life," lesbian volunteers bring positive visibility, and lend a helping hand to local communities while vacationing in the Caribbean. And then we visit rural Pennsylvania, to experience the world of gay camping, at Camp Oneida. Oh, we're here! [Laughs] [Theme music] [Jen Foster singing, Sweet theme] La-la-la. La-la-la. [Edwards, over singing] In November, 2009, Sweet launched its first eco-friendly lesbian cruise. [Edwards] Companies like Sweet offer LGBT travelers a chance to make a difference in the local communities they visit. [Edwards] Whether it's cleaning up beaches or providing books and computers where they're needed, [Edwards] these Sweet volunteers or Sweeties, [Edwards] are helping to do some good while on vacation. [Jen Foster singing] La-la-la. La-la-la. [Shannon Wentworth] Sweet is a lesbian travel company dedicated to, um, changing the world while we're on vacation. [Suzanne Westenhoefer] For years we would go on these ships and get off and see, poverty. [Westenhoefer] And beaches full of crap. [Westenhoefer] Shannon and Jen and Jen thought about let's like still go on the ship. Still do the vacation. Still cruise. But when we get off. Let's change something. [Westenhoefer] The cruise is going to happen anyway. Women are going to go on vacation together. And, we're adding the volunteerism on top of it. Bonus! [Music] And I got a, a Spam can from Denmark. Buddha! [Edwards] At the first port of call, Costa Maya, Mexico, [Edwards] a hundred and fifty Sweeties picked up over two hundred giant bags of garbage. [Wentworth over bus noise] Mexico's coastline has the unfortunate happenstance of being in, um, an ocean current that drags trash from all over the world and deposits it on Mexico's shoreline. Eighty-five percent of the trash  we're going to pick up today was not generated in Mexico. [Group] One, two, three, You're not gonna believe how much trash is out here. Seriously, it's gonna break your heart. [Volunteer] We'll take care of it. [Wentworth] Crazy dolphin choking material out here. [Volunteers chatter] she means, [Wentworth] Okay. [Laughter] [Wentworth] It's experience or education, right. When we're on that beach, um, in Costa Maya that first day and the women are, you know, we're playing a game, collecting trash. [Wentworth] Everybody can agree that it is really bad to have, to be in paradise with a bunch of trash. I feel like we're a bunch of lesbian hunters and gatherers. Oh, yeah, baby! [Laughter] [Volunteer] Okay, somebody was probably really looking for this. Whoo! [Wentworth] We found all kinds of, stuff. [Wentworth] And without me having to preach, [Wentworth] you know, I don't have to say anything. People were like, I want to be more mindful of my trash. [Nikki] It was made fun. [Nikki] Yeah, we grabbed, you know, some gloves and trash bag and picked up all this debris and got some stickers and some bug bites and all this kind of jazz. [Nikki] And, you know, we're jumping in this awesome water. And just the whole, like, we're all doing it together. [Wentworth] And what I really wanted to happen was for the guests to then come to me and say, "We can do more. Work us harder. Do this. Do that. [Cynthia Prince] You spend, most of your life, taking away from the planet. And so, now I'm proud as an African-American woman, and being almost fifty, to spend the second part of my life, giving back. [Jen Rainin] Shannon and I had a series of conversations, about, um, you know, what, we wanted to be when we grew up. And what we wanted to our lives to look like. You know, we don't have a bunch of money right now, so let's give our time. Because time is really the greatest gift that you can, that you can give. We are ambassadors when we  going on these community service projects. Um, we're bringing with us a really positive attitude, and, um, and our belief that we can make a difference. [Calypso style music] [Denise Frank over music] When I came to Belize in 2005, [Ambient street noise] [Frank] I came out to my Peace Corps staff. [Frank] I asked them is it okay and safe to come out as a lesbian affiliate. And, they basically told me no. That it would be, in fact, I was informed that it might be to my best interest to tell people I was married and that my husband died. [Frank] I have been here four and half years and I haven't met one out affirmed lesbian. [Frank] This is the first announced, lesbian cruise coming in since then. There have been others, but they don't announce, and declare with the court that they're here. [Frank] So there's press about your lesbian voluntarista status and I think it's been very positive. [Edwards] While in Belize, [Edwards] Sweet volunteers painted bright cartoon characters on the walls of a children's hospital ward. [Edwards] And the across town other Sweeties painted three children's classrooms, [Edwards] read stories to kids, [Edwards] and donated books to the school's library. [Kim Simplis Barrow] Thank you very much for being here. And, um, I hope you enjoy your stay. I know you're not doing any tours or anything but, [Barrow] I am sure you will leave Belize with a sense of great satisfaction. [Wentworth] The people who volunteer with us they feel so, [Wentworth] good afterwards and they have so much energy about it. And the thing that we've seen, [Wentworth] is that creates a ripple effect throughout the rest of their lives. Like that's my favorite part, of coming home from our cruise where we did seven different community service projects. Is hearing the, about the projects that have forked off of that. [Wentworth] We had, um, [Wentworth] some guests organize a holiday party and normally they do a gift exchange and this year they did a bring a book to send to Belize. [Wentworth] To build on the library that we created when we were there. [Applause, chatter] Yay! You guys are going to be at the library too. [Librarian] You want to build a big library. [Wentworth] I get to hear these stories everyday of how this, [Wentworth] small project that we did, you know, two to four hours, has led to something much bigger and much more impactful. [Foster singing] Last Saturday night, sat, saturday night. Glass. [Volunteer over song] The next one. And if we find a bottle we're supposed to try to look for the country it came from or the company and put it right here. [Volunteers chatter over singing] Here's a wooden, [?] [Wentworth] In November, we did a beach cleanup. [Wentworth] We planted twenty five mangrove trees in a, in a wetlands, [Wentworth] devastated by Hurricane Hugo. And we also refurbished a community park. [Jan Hackman] We are here today helping, [Hackman] with the Rotary Club and some of the people that actually live here, to do some projects for maintenance and improvements in the park. [Mary Belge] I teach science. I teach high school environmental science. [Belge] And it's very important to me that, um, [Belge] when I plan this vacation that it was carbon neutral. [Belge] And also that there was a chance to get out to the communities. [Belge] Instead of being a big ship that just comes into port. [Belge] And it's filled with consumers. [Belge] I wanted to be part of the producers and to help, um, the individual communities that we came into. And this is the second project that I participated in. I think I'm gonna take back a much better sense of my vacation having, ah, been more than just personal indulgence. We're going back to Cozumel in September and they have a whole list of things they want us to do while we're there. So, we're there for a week, this September and we're going to build on those projects we're going to do, [Wentworth] some more, um, beach cleanup and we're going to do some, [Wentworth] sea turtle habitat restoration. And we're also going to do a baby sea turtle release. And go out and see, you know, we're going to go see if our mangroves are growing.  We're gonna go see, um, check out our community park. [Music] [Rainin] We're in the E-learning Center in Roatan and we donated a couple of computers and those are getting set up. [Camilla T. O'Brien] Two computers are down. [Thelma] Yeah. [O'Brien] One is over there. One is in my car. They died last week. [O'Brien] Your timing couldn't be better. To bring, [Laughter] We're really grateful. [Chatter] [O'Brien] The problem here is on [?] and we don't have enough schools for all the children. We have approximately forty thousand school-age children. And less than, twenty-five percent actually go to school. [Thelma] It's great when you can see a kid say, "I learned to read this year and, [Thelma] "I am glad that you were here to show me how to do it, and, "I'm, my mom and my father's, they are proud of me." [O'Brien] The need is huge and they need to be bilingual. It, it's a Spanish country, but it's an English island. So there are, I mean, there are all these wonderful, facets of our life here. So the learning centers are English and Spanish. [O'Brien] The Sweet group was coming to the island, and they wanted to volunteer. I mean, this was, totally, we've never had this, so, [O'Brien] we said, "Love it! Yes, please bring 'em." [O'Brien] The kids, they'll remember the computers. But, what they're going to remember is all these, crazy gringos who came down, [O'Brien] and painted and cleaned up and fixed their school. That's huge for them. [Chatter] [Applause] [Wentworth] We made a huge, [Wentworth] impact on the communities we visited. Like for a day, every city we went to was totally a buzz with, these lesbians were doing this really good thing, you know, and we represented, um, you know, not only lesbians but also the United States, in a way that was, um, was really, really remarkable and  that's, that was, um, was exciting. It was, it was, neat to watch, like the kids, you know, these girls who maybe have never seen, so many expressions of gender diversity, you know. Looking at, like, wow, she has short hair and tattoos. And she looks like a, you know, a sweet ole grandma and like, I mean, we had such amazing diversity on this trip. And it was just really, really beautiful to see people going, "I thought I knew what a lesbian was. But, I don't." [Theme music] [Edwards over music] In rural areas, all over the United States, there are campgrounds specifically for gay men and lesbians. [Edwards] It's a trend that's blossomed over the past few years with nearly one hundred camps around the country. [Edwards] Camp Oneida, located in Pennsylvania, [Edwards] is one of these different kinds of camps. [Pink Martini, Hang on Little Tomato, instrumental over sanding noise, music continues under dialogue] [Kevin King] I made the mistake of saying I was going camping every week. And Anthony reminded me this is not  camping. This is camp. [Unidentified man] You got a saw, power saw, like that, okay. [Vince Whorall] Honey, just because it's a gay campground, doesn't mean we don't have tools.  [Man] Well, I know, dude. [Man on left] Oh, we're here! [Laughter] [Adam Kaplowitz-Sayer] This campground is my family. My community. [Adam] The people who care for you are here. [Hang on Little Tomato, Instrumental continues] [Ron MacIntyre] It's, not a Bear's camp. It's not a leather camp.  It's not, [MacIntyre] a drag camp. But, it's got all those communities in it. [Instrumental continues] I think our youngest seasonal's  about twenty five, twenty six. And our oldest seasonal is in his seventies. [Derek Sutherland] We have people come to Oneida from everywhere. [Sutherland] From Washington D. C. From Rochester. From Syracuse. Philadelphia. New York. [Sutherland] And then all the little small towns in between. [Kevin] I mean, there are people here who don't know you from Adam. [Kevin] And they're willing to give you a hand, if you need anything. [Adam] I look forward to it every weekend. Okay, it's Wednesday. I only have two more days. [Vince Whorall] And a lot of the lesbians, [Vince] don't have quote-unquote a lesbian campground to go to. Where as Oneida welcomes them. [Vince] We're all family. And that's what our family values are. We all watch out for one another up here. [Instrumental continues] [Employee chatter] [Derek Sutherland] Stop your whining. Stop your whining. I'll give you something to whine about. [Sutherland] I think what most people are looking for is, the basic need of acceptance. Basic acceptance. For who they are. What they do. How they live their life. [Sutherland] Now I was nineteen when I came out. I got caught up in the whole bar scene and the whole bar life. You know, everything was a party. No responsibility. We're so good. That's the order. [?] [Sutherland] I met Thomas in 1993 and we're still together fourteen years later. [Sutherland] He gave me the little boot in the butt that I needed to put me back on the right path. [Sutherland] That's gonna be a little bit. Everybody came up at once so we're cooking as fast as we can cook. [Sutherland] I started working here in two thousand. I, I actually took a very very huge salary cut. Because I wanted to make sure this place was always here. Because this was our home. [Customer] Thank you. [Sutherland] You're welcome. [Sutherland] I think, [Sutherland] both of us, in a sense, found that, little missing link. You know, that little piece to make us complete. and it was family. [Music, chatter] [Sutherland] Grab the plates from the day before, and, [Employee] Got it. Watercress, go to four. Watercress. [?] [Music, chatter] [Entertainer] How would you like to do me a little favor? [Kevin] Sure. [Entertainer] How would you like to lei a few people. [Kevin] Okay! [Laughter] [Music, clapping] [Music, cheering] [MacIntyre over drum music] I haven't seen any of the campground this weekend yet. [Music] [MacIntyre] We probably have about fifteen golf carts on the campground right now. [MacIntyre] And we got areas now we're just strictly golf car parking. This is Anthony's right here. Anthony and Kevin. How's the deck going? [MacIntyre] This is the builders weekend, huh? [Laughter] [Anthony Minson] I have to, [Anthony] move the whole deck out away from the trailer, so I can put the supports up to put a roof over it. [Kevin] Yeah and of course we had to go to our favorite toy store, Home Depot, [Laughter] the other day 'cause, I said to him you need a tool. I'm sure you need a power tool. Because, he uses the power tools but I like buying power tools. [Kevin] So I guess the trick is we have to move this out a bit, huh? [Anthony] Well, pulling it forward means taking all the supports and everything else out, and, [Anthony] But it's nice 'cause when it comes time to do the roof, I, I'd, there's a bunch of people, I'm going to have a roof raising party. [Kevin] It's nice to have that sense of community. [Anthony] In this particular camp I go down and help other people that need help and, many hands make light work. And these people are, that's what I love about this. They will be here. [Kevin] In a heartbeat. [Anthony] When I say it's time. [Anthony] Well, I mean, it might not hurt that I have food and, and, and some cocktails and stuff, but, [Laughter] they'll be here. [Adam] Like I always say. You take a gay man into the woods, he redecorates. [Music] [Adam] And we [?] back in here. [Adam] We have a lot of fun here. [Adam] The style of decorating is very varied. I missed that gene. I don't decorate. [Pink Martini song, "The Gardens of Samson and Beasley"] Under Orion's starry sky, I lie in the moonlit garden. Wondering where to cast my eye. For all that I see is heaven. [song continues under dialogue] [Adam] You can just let it all go. [Adam] Be as gay as you want. Be as silly as you want. [Martini singing] Oh, why does it have to end. [Sutherland] It's almost a necessity to flare it up, and kind of be able to express yourself that little bit more that you can't get away with in your own home community. [Martini singing] Samson and Beasley. [Adam] You can see what, the person is going to be like just from looking at their site. [Music] [Kevin] This is one of the pride and joys. Put a lot of time and effort into, ah, [Kevin] just making this little garden. [Kevin] It's made up of things that we've collected over time. [Anthony] But it also reflects a lot of what's been going on at camp. Because like, [Anthony] like this, the hat with the glasses and the skull we had a cocktail party, where it was a Blues Brothers cocktail party, so, [Anthony] the hat and the glasses wound up there. Like last weekend it was pouring down rain so I couldn't do anything outside so I wound up underneath the deck and I had, chiseled our name in the plaque that's in the middle there. [Anthony] I'm out there tapping away. He says, "What are you doing?" I said, "Well, come and look." [Laughter] [Kevin] I don't want to sound a little too mushy here, but I'm going to. I met, I met this man, fell in love with him nine years ago. [Kevin] I just never knew it was supposed to be this good. [Anthony] New Jersey started, ah, [Anthony] domestic partner. [Kevin] Right. [Anthony] We were, [Kevin] the ninth couple in Asbury Park. [Anthony] Ninth couple in Asbury Park. [Kevin] The law went into effect on a Saturday. [Kevin] It's like, we'll wait and we'll do it on our anniversary. [Kevin] He didn't want to remember one other date, really what it was. [Laughter] And it's no longer groom and bride. It's now partner A and partner B. So, occasionally we refer to each other affectionately as partner A and partner B. [Anthony] We did it right in our living room that night. [Anthony] Our biggest celebration is the day we met. [Kevin] That's right. [Adam over Pink Marini song, "Aspettami"] This picture is of my partner and I cutting down trees acting like real, [Adam] um, lumberjacks. Yeah, lumberjacks. [Adam] I met him when I was, [Adam] twenty years old. [Adam] I looked at him. From the moment I saw him, and I said, "He's the one." I didn't have a doubt in my mind. [Adam] When we got together we both loved camping. And we were actually kind of tired, of the straight, campgrounds, where you could just sit there and pretend you're brothers or friends or, you know, going there fishing, or whatever. So, we pull in through the gate and, [Adam] every single campsite that we drove by waving, "Hi, how you doing. Welcome to Oneida." This, that and the other, and just, [Adam] We didn't want the weekend to end. [Martini, singing] As I miss you, Take my hand. And pull me near. And never let me go again my dear. [song continues under dialogue] [Adam] He was losing weight, feeling awful. He went from being the most, healthy, strong guy, [Adam] to, [Adam] a man who was, in so much pain he was in the fetal position crying on the floor. No warning. No nothing. He was diagnosed with cancer. I came up here. There were people bringing up recliners for, for my partner to just, sit in and be comfortable instead of, being so, skinny sitting in these plastic chairs and trying to, have any cushion. [Adam] People bring brownies or cakes  or food or, [Adam] The outpouring of love, and, the feeling like, I wasn't doing this alone. [Adam] That's what this campground is. I mean, [Adam] that's the reason why I'm here. [Adam] He died of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. [Adam] He was a wonderful man. Greatly missed by a lot of people here. Especially me, obviously. [Martini, singing] my heart will be blue. On the day I come back to you. [Unidentified] This is good. I'll take down our, [Vince Whorall] Um, what are you gonna do? [Unidentified] Well, walk under, are we okay here? [Vince] Yeah, well you figure in stilettos, [Vince] Wigs are gonna hit right about here. [Adam] Yeah, you can like right now. [Vince] Well, some of us aren't garden gnomes. Some of us are tall. [Horn honks] [Unidentified] This weekend would be masquerade weekend. This is really the last big hoorah for the season. [Vince] You know what's gonna drive you crazy. This thing right here.  That metal box. That's gonna drive you nuts. In every picture all I saw was that  damn plug box. [Vince] Later on I'll be dressed up. I do Alexa Ciccone. I was a, Miss Camp Oneida the previous year. [Hedge clipper noise] [Vince] I work here as a guy. [Vince] You know, lift hundred, hundred and twenty pound logs and I'm walking around in six-inch stiletto shoes. [Vince] I've won five titles and this was by far the best one I've ever won. [Hedge clipper noise segues to, Eurythmics song, "I Need A Man"] [Vince] Before I came here I was always really, really nervous. As far as performing up here they gave me the self-confidence to do what I want to do. [Eurythmics, "I Need A Man," Instrumental] [Annie Lennox, sings] Hey, boy, [Lennox] c'mon! [Lennox] I'll take you anytime. Whooo! [Fire crackles] [Anthony] That works. [?] Hello, hello. Hello, hello. [Anthony] You guys hungry? Let's do some construction. [Kevin laughs] Across the way there, they're like, aren't you supposed to be up on that roof 'cause Anthony was just doing a layout. [Kevin] And I said, "No, I have dishes to do. [Laughter] [Power saw noise] [Anthony] Next spring, it will come out this way, over the deck. I'll put posts out here, come out this way and, [Anthony] enclose the deck. [Rattling noise] [Kevin] This is the last weekend here for the season. [Anthony] Where are the batteries? [Anthony] There should be another one right over on the, [Kevin] And then, [Kevin] it's, out of here tomorrow six o'clock tomorrow. They, wipe the codes. Lock down the gate. And Camp is closed 'til April. Officially closed. Makes it a hard weekend. It's hard to believe that six months has already passed. [Martini, Hang on Little Tomato, instrumental] It's, gonna be tough, not like, waking up, Thursday, saying what do I have to put in the car for Friday because we're going to camp. [Laughter] So, um, [Anthony] I guess everything in balance. [Anthony] And it's it's wintertime. It's time to hibernate and get the stuff done at home. [Vince] We're all friends. [Vince] What's the saying? Lovers come and go. Our friends are forever. And these people up here are, forever. [Instrumental continues] [Vince] Because that's the sad part, is you don't know, from, season to season. God forbid, somebody doesn't come back.  So that's why we all try to stay close. [Martini singing] forgotten me. It's dark, I cannot see. [Martini] Why does this rain pour down. I'm gonna drown, in a sea, of deep confusion. [Song continues under dialogue] [Adam] In the beginning you look and say, "Oh, it's six months." And next thing you know is that six months is gone. Then of course it starts and then you're blink and it's done. And six months have gone by and those six months in the winter seem to just, go forever. [Martini singing] You gotta hold on, look up to the sky. Something's coming up ahead. To turn your tears to dew instead. [Edwards] Thank you for watching, "In the Life." [Edwards] To learn more about the issues in tonight's program or to tell us your thoughts about the show. [Edwards] Text I, T, L, two, six, nine, eight, six, six on your mobile phone. [Edwards] And visit I, T, L media dot org to watch more web exclusives and sign up for, "In the Life," air date alerts. [Theme music continues under volunteer chatter] I got a Spam can from Denmark. Baby doll leg. [Music] Okay, somebody was probably really looking for this. [Music] [Announcer, over music] "In the Life," is funded in part by, [Announcer] The H. van Ameringen Foundation. [Announcer] Patricia Kind, in honor of her brother Henry van Ameringen. [Announcer] Arcus Foundation. [Announcer] The Estate of Richard W. Weiland. [Announcer] And by the annual support of, "In the Life," members like you. [Theme music] [Theme music]