Rich, Rachel, Josh, Dawn & the FIND Board:
FIND has been wonderfully supportive to me over the last five years. I ran production and cast a short out of your offices when I first moved back here in 2003. I've had a couple projects at LAFF, and most recently I'm producing "The Summer We Drowned", which has been through all three of the FIND labs and Fast Track. LAFF & FIND treat their Filmmakers and Fellows with great respect. I think that other festivals should take a lesson in hospitality from FIND & LAFF and I have been very vocal about this.
The last session of the Producer's Lab was Monday night after the news of Rich Raddon's support of Prop 8 was announced. For me it was a bittersweet ending to an otherwise amazing Lab. I felt like Rich gave me a kick in the stomach on the way out. I'm finding it extremely hard to reconcile how Rich's personal beliefs could be so far away from the diverse organization that he represents. To me one of the great things that separates FIND from other film entities is its true support of diversity, making a safe creative place for all of us.
I have so many questions. Rich, did you research Prop 8? Did you talk to any of your queer (GLTB) friends before donating? When you saw the campaign boldly lying, did you re-evaluate your position? Why do you think your church's beliefs should govern other people? What happened to the separation of church and state? Are the heads of churches infallible? Are their leaders playing God? What if all the churches stopped using God as a tool of hate, instead focusing on acceptance and love?
I was raised Lutheran, church schools and God every Sunday. My cousins were Mormon on one side and Italian Catholic on the other. Let's just say coming out wasn't easy in the 80's in the OC. Some twenty years later my mom, Mormon and Catholic cousins all voted no on 8! Change takes time and it's a slow course. Eventually my family realized that what they'd been taught was wrong. That queers were naturally queer, it wasn't something we made up or just decided to do one day. Maybe I’m an optimist, but it is my true hope that these thoughts will permeate all of the people who donated to and voted on Yes on 8.
We've made huge steps forward in some states and a few backwards in others. Are we still part of a group that doesn't count? It's ok to be gay as long as you don't demand equal rights. Fifteen years ago, all of my friends were consumed with AIDS; they were either dying or care-taking our young friends that were dying. I saw first hand that families had rights over lovers. If they wanted to they could come and take everything a couple had worked for. If a family member wanted to ban your lover from the hospital, they could. As a political statement I got "Dyke" tattooed on the back of my neck in the 90's- kind of an answer to all of my fellow queers who were unwilling or unable to come out of the closet as we watched our friends’ rights denied. Recently, I'd been thinking this tattoo was kind of passé. Ellen has a daytime TV show, right? Wrong, now is the time for ALL QUEERS in the entertainment industry and the entire world to come out. As long as people are in the closet, there will be shame. We are at the beginning of a new struggle for queer rights; we're no longer willing to be second-class citizens. Viva Queer Nation, break out the pink triangles.
That said, it is my true hope that Rich is able to see beyond his church and do the right thing. Man up; apologize with a true understanding that what you did violates our civil rights. This is the only way I can envision Rich being able to stay on at LAFF with support of queer filmmakers and their friends. Rich, I know your aren't a homophobe, but you have clearly acted in a way that violates the civil rights of the very people FIND & LAFF are meant to support.
Rich, please reconsider your actions and do so in a very public way.
Steak House