In the Life: Ep. 904, "April - May 2000"

on this edition of In The Life a visit with the oldest living lesbian in America Two German filmmakers explore gender and identity and an interview with Madonna well the gay community is always been incredibly supportive of me plus any award winner Paris Barkley challenges Hollywood all this and more on in the Life America's lesbian and gay cultural news magazine in the life is funded in part by the H van amaran Foundation additional support provided by Michael a lepin Richard M and Peggy Daner Agnes Gunn and Daniel Shapiro Jeffrey B sorif William J Resnik Rick Wyland the Lily aen classus Foundation the Gil Foundation the Snowden Foundation the New York Community Trust the Mitchell Gold company in the hopes of eliminating all types of fear and Prejudice the gay [Music] network gay.com and the annual support of in Theif members like you [Music] welcome to in the Life America's gay and lesbian cultural news magazine hi I'm Katherine Linton whether you're in the darkness of a movie theater or in the comfort of your own living room those images that you see on screen can expose you to a world of people places and points of view that are vastly different than your own experience on this episode in the Life focuses on artists who are bringing us a new way of seeing the world especially when it comes to gender and sexuality they are on The Cutting Edge of film and video exploring new cinematic Styles and techniques and always working to bring original ideas to screens big and small near you in this program correspondent Tanya Barfield looks at the work OFA ainger a director who's been among the avangard of German filmmakers for nearly three decades how German talks with Madonna and rert Everett about bringing their star power to a movie advocating alternative families and you'll meet two African-American Pioneers one who's riding a new wave in television the other whose remarkable life began long before TV was even invented I wasn't in what you call a closet never but first first we bring you an eye-opening story about a special group of people in Connecticut who are coming to terms with who they are they are men and women who are hardly ever thought of a sexual much less sexually identified but as Darius deaz reports that is definitely not the case once a month at the gay and lesbian Community Center in New Haven Connecticut a unique Gathering takes place the rainbow support group provides a safe space to address the needs of a very specific segment of our society mentally Ed adults who identify as gay lesbian bisexual or transgender for more than a year now this group has provided affirmation and support to this minority within a minority so you you got to make sure you wear comfortable shoes if we walk this group is possibly the first group of its kind in this country that is discussing what it means to be gay and have a disability in the fall of 1998 John Allen founded the rainbow support group in response to a need being voiced from within the human services field the group is funded through the Easter Seals Goodwill Industries of New Haven Connecticut from all over the state I was getting calls from agencies saying that they had an individual that was gay or was lesbian or were crossdresser and could they bring that person down for a service we started to realize that hey maybe there really is a need for this it's just ground breaking to hear mental retardation and sexuality discussed in the same context and also uh to take that one step further to hear homosexuality discussed in in that same context want to take your coat off and come sit down hi are Hi how are you tonight Judy Tomkins is our founding facilitator she just has a wonderful understanding of what it means to have mental retardation she is heterosexual but she's in a way like a Dr Ruth where she just has a wonderful understanding of sexuality and what is a natural part of being an adult and she just has this great way of getting people to talk about what's going on inside of them you just want us to find more women yes you guys don't you have any women friends you get in the group developmental disability is a broad category that can include people who are mentally but developmental disabilities can also include autism other kinds of severe learning disabilities person who is means that their IQ Falls below a certain point which is actually the bottom 2 and a half% of people tested the number one thing all the group members say that they want is to meet other people possibly have a relationship have a boyfriend or a girlfriend or just to hang around with people who feel the same way they do but other issues come up staff not being supportive sometimes people trying to change them you know trying to get the guys to date girls it's hard to believe in this day and age that people don't know any better than that but they don't seem to the first portion of each rainbow support group meeting is a time to reconnect when the members and their staff have a chance to catch up then each individual speaks priv with the facilitator sometimes it's just personal issues you know sometimes people just have hard time they have a hard time at work they have a hard time with their boss they have a hard time with their housemate you know sometimes they just want to vent just like anybody else does they always just want to kind of fit in you know they don't want anyone to think there's anything different about them so they just want to be like everybody else and I think part of being here is that they feel that way plus they don't have to hide the whole sexual thing here you know they're just so relieved other people do this stuff you know it's like they can hardly believe it sometimes during its first year a core group of participants from all over Connecticut was formed Unique Individuals who have overcome many challenges in their lives I watch TV Joe I'm glad to see will oh I said I come here every month and Alan identify as gay you help me learn do better to do better Andrew is bisexual Pam is currently the group's only lesbian and Ben is a straight man who cross dresses the point is it's not easy it's not easy for her and plus it's not easy for me Joe knew who he was when he walked in here I mean he was just like oh God there's other people that are gay I'm so glad to see you and he just had no problem at all accepting it he's who he is and he knows who he is it said I feel I feel fine about this I don't have a problem with it at all my sister she says if you don't have a problem with she said that's that's okay too she said so she knows you're gay you know how she is you met her Adrian is Joe's direct care support staff Mondays are her day off and she on her own time will bring Joe down to the grp group that is dedication I hope that Joe would find someone I really do I would love to see him um come to this group and meet someone that he's interested in and of course pursue um a friendship first and then of course relationship if that happens I thought there would be more women we all thought there would be more women when I first met Pam uh literally within the first sentence of our introducing ourselves um she came right to me and said you know I'm p amam I'm gay and can you help me find a partner I would describe Pam as a a quietly surprising person she she may appear to be shy but she's bold in some other areas of her life guess what I just got on the internet you did you get on the internet seems as though she was like a little Dam that was held back for a number of years and suddenly with the right environment the right supports and particularly this this group the floodgates are opened and she's shooting off I enjoy it more Ben is an individual that I think has had one of the most difficult times in trying to get to this point he was in a horrible living situation where his support staff were trying to force him to conform to what they felt was right for him rather than listening to Ben because of the crossdressing it's been a different kind of situation with Ben that he had a little bit of trouble trying to relate to the other people in the group but I think that he started to realize that it's all kind of the same thing and he feels more comfortable one of the things that was really exciting was at our recent holiday party here at the center we were able to uh provide some introductions for him to connect with with the support group for crossdressing and then made some instant new friends what did that feel like for you Ben to see that feels like well if he could do it I could do it they feel that there is no one out there that really truly understands what's going on inside of them and so that is really one of the the biggest things that this group has been able to do is to break down that sense of isolation that people feel you didn't see that over there in that corner over there I didn't I I saw that saw be people with handicaps aren't allowed to have normal sexuality they have no sexual outlets and we kind of create problems for them and they get themselves in trouble because they have no way of expressing their sexuality at any level but if they could come here and see other people who are gay who had normal lives and were comfortable with who they were that they could kind of grow from that and feel supported hello my name is Betty degenerous and my kid is the greatest you know her she's Ellen and she's gay for too long gay Americans have suffered discrimination as long as our sons and daughters are excluded from the basic protection of law we must share that burden as a family so let's not waste one child and let them all reach for the star to find the link visit in theel life's website at inthe tv.org [Music] in our next segment from the in the Life archives we pay a visit to Paris Barkley an African-American and one of the most successful openly gay men in television Barkley is one of the creative minds behind City of Angels a new CBS drama that has a predominantly Black cast something that is rarely seen in network television Barkley gained his reputation as one of the Savvy directors in shows like er and NYPD Blue among the first in those fast-paced reality-based dramas when we spent a day with Barkley in 1998 he had just won an Emmy for that very popular police series Paris bar I I'll tell you a secret about the Amy I was so convinced that I would win the that I kind of knew and actually a p kind of fell over me I'd seen all the shows and I saw that show and objectively I thought this show is so great I got to win this Emmy thank my Earthly higher power Steven botko wherever you may be you know what I'm in the greatest place a man can be right now you know I'm really loved in my work I really enjoy doing it I'm honored and uh you know if worse comes to worse I can always melt it down because it's supposed to be actual [Music] gold this season I've begun as a supervising producer of the [Music] show which means I am the fifth ranking producer what I basically do is make sure that the show happens every day I do want to speak to Jimmy Smith if he calls by the way sing I'm in charge of spending $2.1 million every show to make the show come alive so that means that I supervise the casting the other directors who are directing the editing process the hiring and the firing of uh everyone in involved in the show first scene again okay and I if you could stand up it would be great sure I think you have to imagine that you're actually sort of dancing in front of him when you're doing it okay action on top of being the supervisor producer of the show I'm also responsible for directing five episodes a season and they're two different things the producer spends the money the director calls the shots the director directs the actors The Producers make sure the actors arrive and are there and are hired and are paid so basically are the two responsibilities while they seem to overlap actually very distinct they begin and end when shooting begins so sometimes I end up having to do both of them at the same time but only five times a year gratefully it just looks more interesting than shooting back wow wonder if we could get someone in the DJ booth and do that shoot back out towards it too it's interesting being an open the gate producer on a show that's known for its sort of Macho Sensibility I thought was going to be a predicament and difficult to navigate and a problem but from the first day I came on the show and actually I directed Two episodes just as a director for hire those are my first experiences I found it exactly the opposite of what I thought it would be do this we could do this handheld if we if we had to it's really quite embracing there are quite a number of gay people and lesbians involved in the production of the show and you know what there's no differentiation in how they're treated on this series take one people can tune in on almost any show and there's going to be some gay person some sort of gay mix in there and they're each going to be different CU each going to be from a unique Vision on our show Bill Brock plays John Irving who's a very unique character he's a little bit of a he's a little fastidious yet at the same time he's heartfelt and he's instantly loved he's our most popular character he gets more male than Dennis fron when he's on the show when I first started working in Hollywood as were doing television shows I didn't think that my sexuality was really going to be relevant so I didn't feel it necessary to let people know and actually I was afraid that if they did know they would have judgments and they would make decisions about me that weren't based on my personality but what they thought a homosexual would be like so I always kept it quite quiet by not revealing who I am I'm putting myself in more and more uncomfortable situations I'm uncomfortable with people and I've got secrets and they don't really know what my life is like So eventually it came out and from the time it came out some people didn't like me and some people stopped speaking to me and some people embraced me so now I am faced with a life in which I do not have to deal with homophobic people in my career at all because they're just not involved with me and it's it's it's a lot better this way okay let's look at this I just have to look at two scenes so it won't be too tragic boom can we just go to the close up now and just skip that whole Grand departa hasn't take you know what I'm saying just blow away that whole wide shot so you come right off of swiz and then saying take it to Grand departa hasn't well you got to get sitting down I still think could you got the garden spot huh James GRE I started as a writer I was writing musicals writing plays and then writing television commercials for advertising agencies from there I went to directing television commercials and then I started music video kind of production company let me argue for that I think the biggest turning point in my life that allowed me to actually be a director ctor was sometime around 1989 in the summer of 1989 I had started this company it was not very successful I really got involved as heavily as I could in drinking and drugs just to sort of assuage the pain of being a director who wasn't directing anything um and I just fell into an abyss you know I fell into a total depression that lasted for about 6 months I think I was watching uh the 4th of July fireworks in television and a commercial came on for 1 800 Coke cocaine they said if you have a problem with cocaine you should dial this number literally from that day on there began sort of an Ascension in my career I started to get a new Clarity I haven't had a single drink or any cocaine since that day that first day that I went to that rehab and suddenly you know I'm working like 14 hours a day and I'm not exhausted I'm exhilarated and suddenly I'm involved in different Community projects I'm doing all this sort of stuff and I'm finding all of this life that I I never had before K is our much sought after director of development project danger food delivers meals to people who are not in a position to cook for themselves for the most part people who are living with AIDS today they don't have the family and friends that a lot of us would have if we were in the same situation and they certainly don't have the means and so for $5 a meal we get to like just bring them a meal a volunteer they don't know a Stranger Comes and gives them a hot meal on any given day and they say thank you and it really moves all those in favor of approving the minutes please say hi hi right now I think the world is aching for tolerance for lessons of Tolerance I'm trying to create a show actually a 1 hour drama where that's the pivotal um crisis of the show which is trying to make the world more aware of the fact that once you get to know someone really get to know them you tend to love them because that's what I live by I live by the fact there only I heard this a long time ago there are only two kinds of people there are the people that I love and the people that I don't know yet [Music] the gritty realism of shows like City of Angels and NYPD Blue is in stark contrast to the almost otherworldly images German filmmaker IA ainger favors in her work a writer director and cinematographer for nearly three decades her films were filled with genderbending characters long before the phrase was coined her original style has long captivated Scholars and artists [Music] alike I just always uh was in awe of Ora's way of using fantasy Decor costumes and making these opulent Rich films she really to me is a incredible example of like the the the the way in which um lesbian and gay artists have been linked with the Avant guard through you know this like whole Century she is um a great artist a great filmmaker artist who just follows her vision no matter what as a filmmaker in the Forefront of the German New Wave urio ainger's work has won a following among feminists lesbians and gay men partly because of her sexual imagery and especially because of her refusal to conform to accepted convention of Storytelling one film in particular Madam X an absolute ruler has become an underground lesbian classic I remember in the beginning when this film uh were started in Europe uh there were a lot of critics from the uh a lot of feminist critic but here in in the state this film was becoming uh really the feminist film Madame X and after abute ruler has um an incredible performance by TOA blumenshine who was um ainger's collaborator in um a number of her early films and she plays the pirate Queen Madame X but she also plays the Figure Head of the ship she becomes Animated she starts to speak as the figure head of this ship [Music] what's strange and different about this film is that it's anti-realist it's completely throw story out the window although it has a kind of a story it doesn't give the the you know viewer many ways into the um sort of strange rituals that this group of women aboard a pirate ship inact except for through just looking and watching and wondering um what's going on from m in orando as the number and popularity of lesbian and gay film festivals have increased so has the inclusion of ainger's films often considered cult classics films often include transgendered characters and caricatures for example in the image of Dorian Gray in the yellow press the androgynous Dorian is a man played by a woman but dorian's ambiguous gender is only one element of the strange and inventive surroundings still it's an element that cannot be ignored especially by a gay audience that's used to reading between the lines when watching a film in one of ainger's films Johanna dark of Mongolia the Trans Siberian Express breaks down somewhere in the GOI desert the male characters disappear leaving only a group of European women who go and live among Mongolian herds women temporarily becoming a part of their world JN of far of Mongolia uh has uh two important uh facets of my work the first is a pure fiction work and the second the documentary in the first part you have the Trans Siberian Miss in the train it's like a museum of Europe and we have all this Travelers you know the music is [Music] important and then there's a second part outside really in the Mongolian desert in the desert in the wonderful grassland with the Mongolians her documentary work in China and Mongolia has an attention to women um to daily life um and to even just sort of detail that I think really is a feminist way of looking and hearing other people's [Applause] stories as gay lesbian film making gets more and more mainstream and more and more narrative oriented and just sort of we all want to be like the boy or the Girl Next Door her crazy films about you know Pirates or um you know trips on the Trans Siberian railroad become like really to be treasured as something different that just sort of sense of being completely confidently not in the real world um that her you know really most stylized set pieces have I think is a really appe healing aesthetic experience um because it's just you know celebrating outsiderness in a really in a really you know Larger than Life grandiose way I think my themes and my interests are so large and at the same time also so personal so it uh I think it uh it should be interesting for everybody just spit it out okay what's the best thing I could tell you um that you've met a fabulous guy for me hello to everybody watching in the [Music] [Music] Life in early February the Vermont legislature's joint committee held public hearings on same-sex marriage Mar these hearings were in response to the Vermont Supreme Court's ruling that the state must provide the same benefits to samex couples that it extends to heterosexual couples residents turned out in record numbers to express their feelings for and against allowing gay men and lesbians to legally marry is my understanding that government is responsible for protecting minorities from Injustice and abuse not responsible for imposing minority ven values on the majority do you have a neighbor or friend who's gay or a brother sister daughter or son probably so I urge you to consider them while making this decision how can we say that certain men and women May marry but deny the same right to others it doesn't make sense I urge you to support the right of all vermers to get married with all that canotes the legislature must now choose whether to include gay couples under existing marriage laws or establish a separate but equal domestic partnership program which would be the most comprehensive in the United States in late February green chimney Children's Services held its fourth annual conference at the Hunter College School of Social Work in New York City nine workshops were presented focusing on a wide array of services to glbt and questioning children youth and families in addition to social workers young people participated in the planning and presentation of the conference longtime activist Joyce Hunter co-founder of the hric Martin Institute focused on the difficulties that continue to face today's queer youth we still teach LGBT youth to be ashamed of who they are instead of affirming them at a very vulnerable stage of their development 18-year-old Jerry a children's services client talked about the many obstacles he has faced growing up and the positive outlook that green chimneys has helped provide him in his young life green music was like No Ordinary place it was like some something that you wouldn't expect to exist it's the best place to be thanks to the very carent and devoted staff my two teachers also the people who told me do not be afraid of who I [Applause] am on Valentine's Day United States Representative Gerald Nadler from New York introduced the permanent Partners Immigration Act at the New York lesbian and gay community center the bill seeks to provide same-sex partners with the same privileges given to Legal spouses under Federal immigration law one of the most egregious inequities that gays and lesbians face has to do with a shameful double standard in current immigration law I have heard many painful stories and after Consulting with many of the groups represented here today I decided the time to do something about to them was past due currently 13 countries recognize lesbian gay relationships for immigration purposes these 13 countries including Canada the United Kingdom and South Africa have shown us that it is possible to establish fair and Humane policies to respect all families and to extend equal rights to lesbian gay couples it is because we value all our families that we are here today lending support for this bill under the permanent Partners Immigration Act gay and lesbian US citizens will finally have the same rights as all other Americans to petition for their life partners at the conference members of bational couples were given the opportunity to call their Partners abroad Bob Dylan spoke with his partner in Germany Happy Valentine's Day and I miss you and um I just want to say that I think what we have here is a is a really great start it's a little phone call from one man to another but a great a great step for for all of us here okay and um and I miss miss you and I love you still to come on in the Life To Tell You Madonna and rert are in a family way at least on screen happy New Year happy New Year and the life of Ruth Ellis A Century of Pride but first openly gay lesbian and bisexual characters have been depicted in movies and on television for quite some time now but gender identity is a subject that is rarely addressed in popular films at least not in a sensitive or serious way but that changed recently when a critically acclaimed film about a real life story hit movie screens across the country Come On Turn Up the Music last year's surprise Hit Boy Stone cry exposed mainstream audiences to transgender issues through the story of Brandon Tina who was biologically a woman but saw himself as a man Tina was murdered in Nebraska in 1993 had a dream about you last night you did what happened come on tell me the dream someone walked me home last night I think it was you this is a story of love and acceptance and being who you really are with all of your heart and all every cell in your body being who you are and not conforming to what it is other people think you should be so you're a boy now what come on the film portrays Brandon's desire to live on his own terms and the violent events that take place when his friends are unable to accept his identity you can't just keep running you're going to end up in jail Brandon what's going on you want the truth don't you boy don't cry has generated widespread Acclaim including numerous awards for actress Hillary Swank you're like a little movie star yourself while boys Stone cry paints a chilling and tragic portrait of the consequences faced by one transgender person in Rural America a new documentary by independent filmmaker Monica troit offers us a distinctly different take on the subject gender knots is an upbeat glimpse into a community of transgendered people who are living and working in San Francisco welcome to San Francisco thank you this is not a documentary about the average transgendered or trans sexual person it's um it's privileged people who are not privileged you know because they inherited something or they have all the security these are exceptional people who um are very smart and very brave and um also I mean they moved to San Francisco they didn't stay in Nebraska I think it's going to be a great movie he's beautiful my kind of guy girl guy guy person San Francisco it's um a city which is famous for um that people find each other F you know that um people who are um different from mainstream that they have um the possibilities to get organized to to uh find their own support group good evening you know they're all more more or less like people next door um people you can meet and see that they are totally regular people and um there is also more to them than just their gender identity you see them in their you know regular surroundings and you get the feeling oh they're quite nice people you know I could see that I you know be friends with them Texas tomboy is a video artist I was attracted by Texas's energy and refusal to be defined in terms of gender I think just my my whole life I've really been into adventures and just seeing the planet and running around and being uh finding everything really interesting and fun and here comes Texas who is almost behaving like a 16-year-old boy though Texas is born I mean is born female and is already in his early 30s that was also Texas's first time to do this and Texas was totally courageous I really admired him doing [Music] that it was effortless it was absolute no fear at all just excitement Texas this jump out of the airplane that is kind of of symbolizes what people do when they when they start this you know the courage they need to do this it's not a fun ride to be a transgender person and to take hormones uh I think it's really important to stress that taking hormones is not like uh having a drink it is uh it does affect your body and you have to take it really seriously for for me it's been a really powerful way of feeling like I'm in control of my own body that it's um you know it's like it's like saying you know my body belongs to me and I'm going to do with it what I Choose You know to make myself happy until very recently access to hormones was limited and sometimes transgender people had to find alternative ways to get treatment we got it on the gray market and it was very weird very risky and um not a good scene at all um we went up to this weird little doctor's office the doctor was about 80 years old and he wouldn't let you do your own injections he wanted that $40 every two weeks to give you your injection Stafford uh embarked on this journey a few years ago then wasn't too sure whether um he she wanted to go all the way and be really male as a biological female and had second thoughts about it Stafford looks very uh androgynous and Stepford is quite tall she's um six foot something and has broad shoulders and so even when stepher doesn't take uh testosterone people would call her sir on the streets um but stord is totally unaffected by this and it's just Stafford I've never felt male and I've never felt female and I don't really concern myself with gender I just let people go the way they will with it and if they're confused then I let them be confused and you know I don't really have an answer for them so are you are you a boy or a girl yes Stafford made me a compliment once I really love that Stafford said to me oh Monica when I see you I never think of you as female I think of you as Monica I really like that Jordy Jones and I became good friends Jordy is a gender variant artist whose work reflect the unique sensibility I think when I'm 90 I want to be Quenton crisp well I think he's fabulous reading some of his experiences as um the sort of young person whose transgressions couldn't be hidden you I identified very strongly with that out and have you know a lot of respect for the humor and courage with which he lived his life and and became so much Quint and crisp and I'd like if I'm old to be very much JY everybody has a cocktail of possibilities in them I don't believe that anybody is 100% male or 100% female you know we all have to change the the Consciousness about this we all have to try to work to make for people to feel free and feel safe and secure in if they feel they need to embark on this journey to make it possible for them to not end up like you know Brandon Tina that's so gay homo you so you're a queer aren't you queer what are you a the next time you use words like these think about what they really mean better not be next time to find the link visit in the life's website at inthe v.org [Music] a gay Idol and a gay icon in one movie Hal German has the story hello he's leaving me well don't stop him just let him go Abby and then what rush over to my house and tell me all about it she is a gay icon he is rapidly becoming one in real life they're friends in the next best thing they're really good friends you're the only woman in the world world I would like to be ow by now you probably already know the plot Madonna plays Abby a far too close to 40ish woman who's about given up on ever finding her soulmate rert Everett is Robert who could be that guy except he's gay Abby and Robert share almost everything then one night yes they share that too and sure enough I have something to tell you is it uh bigger than a bread box not yet what happens next is Dr Lara's worst nightmare Abby and Robert decide to live together not as husband and wife but as Mom and Dad unconventional but it works they understand each other and I think they have a kind of candidness and honesty in their relationship that um that can only exist between a girl and her G friend Madonna talked to in the Life recently about her new film and her old friend and co-star rert Everett you just have to be a father and a friend rert is so you know fun and easy to work with that even if I hadn't n i sure I'm sure I would have had just as much fun but you know I think probably it add a little bit to the chemistry Everett star has been rising in Hollywood for years but the role that put him on the map was this scene from My Best Friend's [Music] Wedding his character was gay and Everett was open at the time about his own sexuality it certainly hasn't hurt his career Everett has gone on since to act in roles from Shakespeare to Shakespeare in Love I have a new one nearly finished and better the massacre at Paris even so Everett told in the life when the chance to play another gay best friend came up he couldn't resist you know I had such a response from America playing this charming witty debonaire character that I was looking very much for something that that had as it starting point that but moved on slightly to something you know slightly more substantial so this seemed ideal to me mus it but Everett insisted on rewriting his role which he says was at first to stereotypically gay and that my character was a kind of TV sitcom Queen from the 70s a flubby interior decorator I wanted my character to be you know a normal man really and I didn't want this idea that a homosexual is cannot have any feelings towards a woman you could be a homosexual and have a little something with a woman maybe and it doesn't even make you bisexual and I didn't want to show myself frankly to Middle America unable to Fu Madonna seemed unfair director John Schlesinger says Madonna's character needed a rewrite too though for more practical reasons in the original script that I read she was a swimming teacher and um quite rightly I think she said I don't want to get my hair wet all the time and uh it'll be constant weights to get it dried and everything why don't I do what I really know which is Yoga so that's what she is a yoga instructor which is where she meets Ben played by Benjamin Brad are you asking me out on a date yeah is that right by now Abby and Robert's son Sam is 6 years old Robert's reaction hi uh this Abby Reynolds house it's a funny kind of quite itchy scene great F but but it doesn't stay funny for long you know here's a woman who's in her sexual prime she needs love she needs romance she has a loving relationship with Rupert's character Robert but it's not enough it's been my D now what soon with their son Sam in the middle Robert's jealousy turns to resentment Abby and Robert take sides and things turn ugly I was watching the movie with a good friend of mine girl and she's gay and she slugged me in the arm so hard and she's like how could you do that how could you do that you well I won't say the word she called me but I mean you know she and I'm like excuse me this is not me I'm playing a character action writing heard over all the directors was schinger the openly gay director who won an Oscar for Midnight Cowboy and was nominated for another for Sunday Bloody Sunday that' be quite nice if you went down on the the sort of body sensuality as she's moving over and then go back into the position I didn't want the you know Madonna per se to be what the audience were really thinking about so we've been quite careful in how she's been portrayed but she's a considerable dramatic actress as well as being able to handle the light lightest [Music] still Madonna who won a Golden Globe for aita knows she has one group of fans in the audience she can always count on well the gay community has always been incredibly supportive of me from the very very beginning and I um I'm very grateful for that and have stuck by me through thick and thin do you think in generations to come relationships like Roberts and abies are going to be be more accepted absolutely I do Happy New Year happy New Year what makes a family is not necessarily what we've been brought up to believe we all have to be more open and accepting a families that are different [Music] our final segment spotlights a documentary about a woman who may not be a Trends Setter but we'd be lucky if she was her name is Ruth Ellis and she's been proud of being African-American a lesbian and out of the closet for almost all of her 100 plus years it's a remarkable story that might have remained Untold were it not for award-winning director Yvonne welin who was compelled to document this inspirational life when was the last time you had sex oh I guess I was about 95 Ruth is like us she's a person that has lived as she says an ordinary life and to me she's had a few extraordinary moments my name is Ruth charlot Ellis and I was born July the 23rd 1899 in Springfield Illinois the first time I ever saw Ruth Ellis she was dancing I was at the National Women's Music Festival in Bloomington Indiana and I was trying to figure out how old she was and and the next day I found out she was 997 I was really uh surprised at her age and her Vitality that's how I met people dancing mhm I go up and ask them may I have this dance and they said sure the more I talk to her the more I realized there was an amazing history in her the biggest challenge was trying to figure out how to tell her story I was in high school and the Armes was signed that was a big day all five and 10 cent store they sold out of 10 pans and things oh we had quite a day I made a decision to edit it historically so we start at the beginning of the century and we just kind of go through her life and kind of make it a social history documentary Martin Luther King made a way for the black people to have more privileges than they've had the greatest thing I ever attended was when they had to march here in Detroit you come in and you think you're going to hear this story about a black lesbian but what you end up hearing is an American history story as lived by a black lesbian uh I wasn't in what you call a closet never wasn't I didn't have anybody to now my parents my mother died early in life so I didn't have to worry about that but my dad and I had three brothers I never heard anything from them concerning me except one night my girlfriend and I would made a little bit too much noise my dad told me next time you girls make that much noise I'm going to put you out as a lesbian and African-American living in the 1940s and 50s Ruth Ellis witnessed many cases of discrimination and homophobia so together with her lover babe they opened their home to the disenfranchised and soon the place became known as the gay spot throughout the Midwest it sort of a Haven for the young people who didn't have any place to go mostly it would be men boys would come in and we'd let them stay there until they get on their feet if they get a job something like that or maybe they want to go to school in Detroit they're actually um building a gay and lesbian center for um teenagers who are street street teen who are getting lesbian and they're naming it the Ruth Ellis house um in her honor what was your greatest accomplishment joining the lesbians I think that the lesbian Community was dying for Ruth I mean it was like you know where are our foremothers you know has anybody been on this path before us and I mean it it isn't just that they that we welcomed her it was that we really wanted and needed to have a connection one of the things that Ruth says has changed for her the most is that she is more out she's out she's proud she's very out in her building if anybody ever makes a homophobic comment she goes you know when you're talking about them you're talking about me did you want to see the old gym I want to see the old gym okay we're not too far from there so my favorite moment in the documentary is when Ruth Ellis returns to Springfield and visits her high school and takes one last run around the gy every time I see that it still kind of brings a little tear to my eye meeting Ruth Ellis changed my life in a number of ways I count her now as one of my friends the main thing that has happened is I've kind of Taken on some of Ruth's life philosophy she doesn't let little things bother her she um which is great because I think you live longer right if you just don't get stressed out over the little things inhale and what other secrets of longevity did the filmmaker learn she does stuff like she always drinks 32 ounces of water every day and you know I mean she has these basic things that she does get on this old bike and go tell one of the things that I think that keeps Ruth so vibrant and energetic is that she exercises all the time Ruth couldn't believe that so many people were interested in little old her Ruth has received hundreds of emails because of this movie and one of the most amazing was a woman said I'm white I'm heterosexual I'm 6' one because you know Ruth is 4 fo8 okay and you would think that we are opposites but we're not and in seeing your story I'm seeing myself Living With Pride Ruth Ellis at 100 has played at many film festivals and was recently part of creatively speaking 2000 visions of new black filmmakers at Aaron Davis Hall in New York City I think it's a wonderful piece of film making it highlights the fact that there are um many aspects to the African-American Community the fact that Ruth is a lesbian has been around and out for over uh her lifespan has is really phenomenal um I think she was really a Pioneer in a lot of ways may I present Dr Ruth Alice the reason I called it living with pride is that she has always been true to herself she's never been ashamed of who she is she's always lived her life with pride and I think if she can do it we can do it Living With Pride Ruth Ellis of 100 will be screened weekly at New York City's Whitney Museum of American art through June 4th as part of Whitney's 2000 banial from all of us at in the life thank you for watching and we'll see you next time [Music] [Applause] [Music] Transportation up [Music] I [Music] in the life is funded in part by the H van amaran Foundation additional support provided by Michael a lepen Richard M and Peggy Daner Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro Jeffrey B sorif William J Resnik Rick wand the aen classus Foundation the Gil Foundation the Snowden Foundation the New York Community Trust the Mitchell Gold company in the hopes of eliminating all types of fear and Prejudice the gay network gay.com and the annual support of in the Life members like you a