Don't Move On.
Support kids and LGBTQ people in our country.
A birthday link roundup to not feel completely helpless - Protect kids, Protect LGBTQ rights
Ok, let’s get right to the point which is: it’s terrifying to live in this country. As a parent of small children, as a friend of queer people, as a friend of parents of queer children. Dropping off our kids last week after the Nashville news, one who goes to a small parochial school with one door — it’s all actually been too much to bear.
But I also think an important thing we must do is stop moving on. Don’t move on, I tell myself after the panic subsides. In general, we all feel helpless and exhausted, especially parents. Even our president says there’s nothing he can do. We have to go on living, so we do. But, in light of giving and being alerted to ways to make change always being an important step for me to not feel completely helpless, I’m sharing this information and links in hopes people will find a way in to this conversation.
Tennessee, which just saw a preventable gun-made bloodbath of children, has just put time, money, and energy into a sweeping ban against drag shows. Florida, a state that banned books and discussing topics of sexuality with children, overnight passes concealed carry no-permit rules. What an absolute waste of our resources and mental capacity. Capacity which should be going towards protecting kids.
Human Rights Campaign is now tracking over 100 new anti-LGBTQ bills all over the country — which I find to be an especially cruel distraction from the destruction of education and the promotion of firearms in society. They reported in February:
90 bills that would prevent trans youth from being able to access age-appropriate, medically-necessary, best-practice health care; two have already become law, in Utah and South Dakota, more bathroom ban bills filed than in any previous year, and 28 anti-LGBTQ+ bills which have passed at least one chamber, 10 of which are specifically anti-trans.
At the same time, many of these states continue to do very little about gun violence, gun sales, and public education — problems that actually matter and effect the health and safety of each and every child. At the same time, guns are killing more children than car crashes per year.
This is the only country where this happens. The problem IS THE GUNS. Without the guns, children don’t die of gun-inflicted wounds. Three nine-year-olds and three teachers in Nashville, elders in a Buffalo grocery store, children in Texas classrooms, physicians at a hospital in Tulsa. We don’t need to ~imagine~ a world where shootings like these don’t happen. Because that is the rest of the world.
For my birthday, I ask that folks check out these sites and give or sign or find a meet-up as ways to help and protect children, LGBTQ people, youth who may feel that bills and current climate are here to literally kill them. I also ask that folks would have hard conversations with family and friends who do not think guns are the problem. We need to have community movement on these subjects, because there are clearly agendas that are winning.
The Trevor Project is a safe helpline and community for LGBTQ youths. https://www.thetrevorproject.org/
GLSEN was created by educators who want to protect and help kids get through bullying and create compassionate learning environments. https://www.glsen.org/about-us#snt--1
Sign a GLAAD petition to tell lawmakers that banning drag is dumb! https://donate.glaad.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=189
Learn more from Equality Texas about the bill that would ban all affirming healthcare for trans youth and how to get involved: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11Xr1fbL4Gzta_nE0rJfkHlVgPZ8_umvXRxWrVmaEaK0/edit
The US is the only country in the world where gun violence is the leading cause of death for children. What can even be said? Please give, please vote to end guns forever, please force your family to surrender their firearms. Please protect our children. Give and get involved with Everytown USA. As a parent, as a human, this is too much to bear at this point.
Ask people to surrender their guns. I’m serious. As communities come to realize that guns are the problem, here is a tangible way to create lasting change in neighborhoods and cities: Gun Buybacks. No more guns means fewer homicides and suicides. There’s no good gun trade. No one benefits. It is actually that simple, and it does not have to be a partisan issue.
One example of how this worked in another country is Australia. Here is a case study to show how effective gun regulation and gun buybacks had a lasting effect on homicides, suicides and in particular femicides.
An additional case study here from Switzerland.
surrender.
Musings
Well, there’s always a lot of things I want to write about. But I will hold onto some thoughts I am having about AI to just give space for this rage and support. That is what I need today!
Obviously happy that Succession and Yellowjackets, two of the best written shows to me, have returned to our screens. Gargantuan bag. Yes.
Events & Releases
Upcoming screening of MAKING WAVES: THE COCOA CINNAMON STORY at RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem, NC! Crew and protagonists will be attending screening. Tickets on sale this week.
APRIL 14 / 4:30PM / REYNOLDS PLACE THEATRE
APRIL 20 / 4:00PM / REYNOLDS PLACE THEATRE
You can also tune into RiverRun online. Congrats to this NC fest on its 25th anniversary!
Other notes for documentary lovers 💌
Was originally thinking this post was going to be more about my fears for the future of the humanities, etc. Here’s a letter that I signed to the Duke Chronicle compiled by friends of Center for Documentary Studies.
HOPE is a small word but it means a lot. Lately I am finding hope, mostly in these dark rooms called theaters. Listening to people who care enough about their work and others’ to sit and respond. To trust the audience and their peers. Residencies, magazines, theaters. Places. Centers. When you dissolve the centers, places, the hearts of things, no one should be surprised if the cultural ecology attached to those things dies off. Internet connection or not, we need place. We need heart. We need gatherings, buildings, worlds.
Proud of my friends who pitched at CPH:DOX - Julie Wyman’s ‘Untitled Dwarfism Project’, producer Jonna McKone.
The incredible Southern Documentary Fund Convening Returns! I think it’s already sold out, which is great! But check it out.
Amazing opportunity for filmmakers through a new IF/Then collaboration with NBC Universal: NBCU Academy and NBC News Studios, in collaboration with IF/Then Shorts, launched the Original Voices Shorts Pitch, a national open call for diverse filmmakers working on archival and journalistically driven short documentaries highlighting underrepresented communities to pitch their works in progress.