| I am sitting at my computer on the day after our 5th
Annual LAGPA Conference, surprisingly inspired by yesterday's conference. I say
"surprisingly" because when you are in the middle of working on some of the mundane
details necessary to put together an event, it is easy to lose track of what inspired you to
get involved in the first place. There was certainly nothing all that inspiring about trying
to create a preregistration spreadsheet for the first time on my relatively-new computer, or
having to call Microsoft in desperation on the day before the conference because I couldn't
make heads or tails out of "mail merge" in order to print out name badges. However, now that the conference is over, it is
easier to reflect on its meaning. I, and all of the people to whom I personally spoke,
was very touched and inspired by our Keynote Speaker, Dr. Betty Berzon. Her remarks were oral
history in the most powerful sense, describing what happened and what it felt like to be part
of the early movement to develop a gay and lesbian-affirmative psychology, and then to make
those very risky initial attempts to reach out to likeminded colleagues. All of the workshops
at yesterday's conference received positive feedback. I know the two that I went to were
top-notch. Mostly, though, I realize that my inspiration comes from just the fact that LAGPA
and so many more organizations like us, exist.
The weekend before the conference, my
partner and I went to two movies in one evening--she is a movie buff and through her, I have
been happy to discover that there are actually a number of wonderful movies being created and
exhibited out-there if you ignore most of what the Hollywood "blockbuster" mentality
produces. On this Friday evening, we saw Election and Love Letter. I was
quite shocked to discover that in both of these mainstream American films, lesbian subplots
were included. Neither film is "about" being lesbian or gay, and neither has been
advertised or marketed as a "gay" film. But both incorporated subplots which
portrayed slices of lesbian experience in a sympathetic and realistic manner which I would
imagine most people, women and men, gay and straight, might easily relate to.
To me, this is remarkable. I can't imagine
how my life might have been different when I was a teenager or young adult if I had been able
to go to the movies and see gay or lesbian experience incorporated into the plot. I also can't
help but think that simple events like our conference yesterday, multiplied by countless
similar events, groups, individual "coming outs," political acts' and so on,
actually are propelling lesbian and gay people to the brink of the 21st Century with the
chance to be incorporated into film and, most importantly, into life without hooplah or
judgment. |
