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I'm Cally Crossley This is the Cali Crossley Show. Last week Jarrett Barrios stepped down as the president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation which is more commonly known as GLADD the circumstances surrounding his resignation involve a $50000 donation that AT&T made to go ahead and a letter from Barrios to the federal government supporting the telecom juggernaut. This incident has raised all kinds of questions. What should relationships between non-profits and corporate America be. What is the role and relevance of blat in 2011 and what's next for Barry else the former state House star and first Latino an openly gay legislator in the Senate. From there we need a filmmaker who has scored the rights to make a movie based on Stephen King's 10 o'clock people. A gruesome tale of an ex smoker who learns that bad habits die hard. Up next the good and bad. Getting ugly. First the news. From NPR News in Washington I'm Lakshmi saying Venus and

Serena Williams are both out of Wimbledon each eliminated in the fourth round. This marks the first time in five years that neither sister will play in the quarter finals. The first to go a Serina who lost to Marion Bartoli of France 6 3 7 6. Her older sister Venus was defeated by a Bulgarian Svetlana Pironkova 6 2 6 3. There's a verdict in the retrial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. NPR's David Schaper reports from Chicago. The federal jury considering Blagojevich his fate is expected to announce the verdict soon after old District Court Judge James Zagel says the jury has told him it has reached a verdict on 18 of the 20 corruption charges against Blagojevich that the verdict will be read in courtroom between one in two Central Time this afternoon. The former Democratic governor is charged with fraud conspiracy bribery and extortion. The most explosive accusation is that he tried to cash in on his power to appoint a replacement in the U.S. Senate to take the place of then President elect Barack Obama in 2008 and sell or trade the seat for

personal gain. Lloyd has testified he engaged in nothing more than political horse trading and says he is innocent of all the charges. His first corruption trial last summer resulted in a hung jury on all but one count with one juror holding out on most of the charges. He was convicted of lying to the FBI. David Schaper NPR News Chicago. At the Supreme Court today a big victory for the makers of video games. The high court threw out a California law that tried to ban the sale or rental of violent games to children under the age of 18. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports the case was a test of the First Amendment. Writing for the seven person majority Justice Antonin Scalia said state legislatures couldn't create new categories of unprotected speech just because they're unpopular. California had tried to keep violent video games from children by passing a law that would find stores $1000 for selling or renting brutal games to them. But Justice Scalia said there's not enough evidence to show that kids are hurt by the games or that parents want the state's help in protecting their children.

Scalia wrote the California law would carve out an entirely new area of free speech regulation that's both unprecedented and mistaken. Carrie Johnson NPR News Washington. Minnesota Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is officially in the race for president. She launched her campaign today in her birthplace of Iowa which holds the first Republican nominating contest through caucuses. On Saturday the Des Moines Register released results of the Iowa poll that showed Bachmann in a statistical tie with presumed GOP front runner Mitt Romney. At last check on Wall Street the Dow is up more than 100 points at twelve thousand thirty six Nasdaq up nearly one percent twenty four point twenty six seventy seven. This is NPR News. Five current or former New Orleans police officers are beginning their trial on charges stemming from a shooting days after Hurricane Katrina. Eileen Fleming of member station WW N-O reports jurors may consider the

chaos caused by the storm as a factor in the defense. The federal judge presiding at the civil rights case has ruled there will be no general testimony about the desperate conditions prevailing after the 2005 storm. But defense attorneys will likely ask jurors to factor in the stress officers were under as blooding covered much of the city. The trial now getting underway involves unarmed civilians trying to cross the Danziger Bridge. Two were killed and four hurt. An earlier trial involving police operating in the chaos after the storm resulted in three convictions over a man who was shot and his body burned in an abandoned car. Officers in the current case maintain they were responding to shots fired at police. For NPR News I'm Eileen Fleming in New Orleans. Nebraska authorities are trying to reassure the public that Missouri River flood water leaking into the turbine building at a nuclear plant near Omaha is not a threat. The Omaha Public Power district tells reporters there is no nuclear material in that building where pumps are being used to address seepage. The head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was scheduled to inspect the facility

today. The system used to recycle contaminated water at Japan's damaged nuclear plant is down again and undergoing repairs since the earthquake and tsunami tons of fresh water has been pumped to cool the reactors a process that contaminates the water. Water recycling system used to clean the water and reuse in the cooling process was operating at full capacity for a while today but it had to be halted because of a leaky hose. This is NPR News. Support for NPR comes from the NE E Casey Foundation promoting a life long family connections for children and youth on the web at ECF dot org. Good afternoon I'm Kelly Crossley. This is the Cali Crossley Show this hour we're discussing the recent shake up at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation which you probably know as glad we could go glad president Jarrett Barrios resigned. And since then many board members have also left. Things started to

unravel when it became known that GLADD was one of the liberal groups that both supported the AT&T T-Mobile merger and received large charitable donations from AT&T. Now this incident is raising all kinds of questions about the relationship between non-profits and corporate America. The relevance and purpose of GLADD in 2011 and what's next. What's next for Jarrett Barrios. Joining me to sort through all of this are Jeff Epperly former editor of bay windows. Tom Lange founder of know thy neighbor and Arlene Isaacson co-chair of the Massachusetts gay and lesbian political caucus Welcome to you all. Thank you. Thanks. You can jump in on this conversation with us at 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. Do you think this is much ado about nothing. And do you think it's time for all non-profits to be very clear about their relationships with corporate sponsors. 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 8 7 7 3 0 1

89 7 and you can send us a tweet or write to our Facebook page. So Tom Lenk What was your first reaction when you heard about the resignation of Jarrett Barrios. Well it wasn't surprising to me to note that an organization like GLADD which is an LGBT activist organization or at least it's supposed to be would have something like this happen because we develop corporate people to get to a position in a glad that supposed to look at the media. It's supposed to basically police any sort of defamation to the LGBT community. But we groom these corporate people they become you know these these big wigs at these organizations and then all of a sudden they go in they get involved with something like this so I wasn't surprised. OK. So how about you Jeff. I'm not surprised at all I think. Glad as all has some confusion about what its mission statement is and what exactly does. It's been that way with land for a long time but specifically with Jarrett Barrios I think that he came from a

background electoral politics where I think taking money from corporate interests is really not seen as a bad thing so it's not surprising that some of that might transfer over to the latter. How about you Orly. Well initially I felt some degree of sympathy for the organization because I've been on the boards of and worked for so many non-profits over the last 20 plus years and I understand that in the advocacy world in the political advocacy world you are you or non-profits are often asked to take positions on a variety of issues. And it's our job as advocates to outreach to different sectors and say Would you support us on X Y and Z. And having been on both the receiving and the sending side of those messages I had some degree of sympathy at first and still do as to the phenomena of how that transpires. And I was hoping that we'd be able to talk about that a little bit today. OK. Now let me just ask this question because maybe there are people listening saying oh it sounds bad. He took money from a corporation from AT&T The Boston

Globe editorial this weekend says wireless phone service has about as much to do with gay rights as zebras have to do with water skiing that's the opening line of the editorial. On the other hand let's look like look at this from a business standpoint. There's a large body of gay folks with mobile phones. Hello. That's how they're using them. And so why shouldn't an organization that is advocating for the rights of gays and understands that its constituency is using the technology say hey we can accept a donation from AT&T that's sounds maybe perhaps naive to those of you sitting at this table and Tom Lang's giving me the evil laugh. So I'm going to let you go first. Well I mean why is that so bad. Well you know it's not accepting money from AT&T is not bad having a person on the board of truth Koren Otto who was an AT&T lobbyist and recently exposed to as a person that worked for the Heritage Foundation a right wing organization of course we all know the Heritage Foundation the big Republican think tank taking the

money isn't wrong. It's then when you go off of your core mission like glad did when Jarrett then gets involved in you know this merger with T-Mobile and 80s merger with T-Mobile at that point you know are our activists out there and the grassroots people and the average LGBT people like with any minority group. Wants to know that the watchdogs are watching them. We should not have to be watching the watchdogs at all times to make sure that what they're telling us and putting out into the world is on our best using with our best interests in mind. Jeff did you feel betrayed. Oh I think it's basically boils down to to whom you were listening. I mean I think AT&T would say along with GLAD originally that this wasn't the best interest of the Gay Lesbian unit but if you listen to common cause and consumer groups this merger is not a great thing and of course the elephant in the room is net neutrality which AT&T opposes which says that you know the Internet service cannot throttle Internet service for reasons that it has to be the same for everybody.

And AT&T has opposed net neutrality and that is most definitively against the interest of our community. Let's just put that on the table again so people can catch that went by fast for people who don't know what net neutrality is so there is a move by some corporations including AT&T to say we should have the right to determine who gets so much bandwidth and who doesn't. And right now what we have is that anybody can have as much bandwidth as they want. That's called right net neutrality. Right. You know Kelli if I can take this conversation to a little bit higher level I mean higher as in 30000 feet high not more noble. If you look at the question of how does a nonprofit an advocacy group decide what positions it's going to take on what issues. Seems to me that there should be two or three standards that they use no matter what the issue is and since I know nothing about net neutrality I can say this without saying whether it's good bad or indifferent of the AT&T merger good bad or indifferent. But the thing that all non-profits who are asked to take positions on different political issues has to have to consider is number one. Is there a solid

reason is there a justification why should I take a position on X number two. They have to decide if it's compelling. Does it speak in a very compelling fashion to either the people they represent the interest they represent or their organization. And number three you have to be prepared to explain it and to justify it and to be able to defend it if you're approached now. I originally had sympathy for them because I've worked for example for in the labor world for many years and as part of the labor world I helped orchestrate having the gay community contact the labor world during our battle on same sex marriage and specifically ask labor union after labor union would you take a position in support of same sex marriage. And we had to frame it I was part of it. You know labor you know would say Well same sex marriage has nothing to do with the union world and so we framed it we said well marriage doesn't. But you represent workers and you try and get the best compensation for them that means the best benefits and they can't access the best benefits they can access Social Security and Medicare and health insurance and pensions without travelling through a marriage license. Therefore if they're denied the right to have a

marriage license license they can get the equal pay for equal work that everyone else you represent would get labor unionist traditional conservative in some cases anti gay unionise would say oh OK I get it you know you're right and some of that would end up lobbying the legislature saying I don't give a damn about gay marriage but you know I've been a labor unionist my whole life I fight for people's benefits therefore I have to fight for gay marriage regardless of what I may think of it personally because it's about labor union rights workers rights. I tell that story by way of saying the gay community has very often approached the labor world the business world in support of our issues and we want them to be open to it. So it's not surprising or strange that the business world would sometimes come to us and say Would you take a position on our issues. The question is did it make sense was it justifiable and was it compelling. And I think also the question is if I may ask and put it this bluntly Tom Lange was this just a sellout. I mean it just you know on the one hand we can argue I can argue for the constituency question as I did. But on the other hand you can say Hey Arlene has

just made a very strong case for if it if it benefits us if it's supports us that's one thing. But maybe there are just some in some situations where it's just a sell out. Well I think you know getting back to what Arlene said you know she said that you have to take a very clear position on this we've not heard Jarrett's position on this yet. We heard the blaming of his assistant for doing this. We've heard all these rumbles from the various blogs about how we didn't want to step down and then finally he did. But where's the explanation. So to me it's going to be sellout until we we hear something different why did he do this and why is this in the best interests of the LGBT community. OK that was Tom Lange He's my guest and he's the founder of know the neighbor. Also with me is Jeff Epperly former editor of bay windows and Arlene Isaacson co-chair of the Massachusetts gay and lesbian political caucus. Let's take a caller Sam from Burlington Massachusetts you are ninety nine point seven The Kelly Crossley Show. Go ahead please. Hey thanks for taking my call great conversation. I would just

remind our guests and all of our listeners that nonprofits and for profits are at different reasons for being and for a for profit corporation. The reason why you incorporate is to form an entity that is legally bound to its shareholders to maximize their profits. So that is the reason why corporations exist. Corporations exist to maximize profits for their shareholders. That's not true of non profits not profits for the most part are mission driven. So it would be very very naive for a nonprofit to think that a for profit was up to anything else but now actually much in profits and they are bound to do so by law. But can there be an intersection of we can maximize our profits at the same time support your mission. Yeah sure but it would be really really naive because you don't want to ask yourself why is

this. In what ways just maximize the corporation's profits and can we shift. So you know we step through it through the window. They were doing this for only one reason and that is to maximize their profits and you see that's what you should be looking. Follow the money and say do we support making a maximum profit. That's a way to look. You're hitting that you know getting the nail right in the head. The question is what's assume as the caller rightly points out the corporation is doing it simply for self-serving purposes. But that doesn't exclude the possibility that it could have beneficial results for the advocacy group and it could be say the corporation want to take a position against discrimination and maybe they're doing it because they want to sell more products to the gay community. Well that's self-serving but it also benefits us simultaneously. I'm not so sure I think if we just look we just look at the cell phone service and Internet service for that matter is like in this country under providers like AT&T we have the slowest service for the most amount of money out of most Western

countries and just and that's with with the competition we have now we have less competition. I don't see how that's possible going to all consumers much less game was being considered. Yeah actually I misspoke I didn't mean specific to AT&T I meant if you had Corporation X who was selling widgets and they wanted to sell to the gay community so they took a position for same sex marriage. They may be doing it so they could sell more widgets to the gay community but we benefit by their position that's what I meant. So Sam was Should Jarrett Barrios been forced to resign. I don't have traditionally that but I would venture it in that it's rare that a corporation making increasing their profits is benefits the consumer. I would venture the opinion that like everybody else the gay lesbian bi community besides from their other roles are also consumers. It would be hard for me to imagine a situation where a nonprofit would be in favor of being charged more. I don't I don't see how that benefits anybody.

All right Sam thank you for a very great call. OK. I think Thompson also is is noteworthy which is it's not a problem having a lobbyist for a corporation on your board but one who supported so many ultra right wing groups and anti-gay groups is problematic in the extreme. And I can say as we go to break that that was some criticism of Jarrett that he had some relationships with people that didn't seem to be not in support of gay rights will talk about that. On the other side of the break we're talking about the recent shake up of GLADD and the resignation of Jarrett Barrios. You can get in on this conversation at 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. Do you think Jared Barrios should have resigned. Would you like to see him come back to Massachusetts and return to state politics. And what about Vlad. Have they gone astray from their original purpose of advancing equality for members of the LGBT community. 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. We'll be back after this break. Your dial on eighty nine point seven.

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If you're just joining us we're talking about Glad and the resignation of its president Jarrett Barrios. I'm joined by Geoff Epperly Formerly Editor of bay windows. Tom Lange founder of know the neighbor and Arlene Isaacson co-chair of the Massachusetts gay and lesbian political caucus. You can get in on the conversation at 8 7 7 3 0 1. Eighty nine seventy eight 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 and you can send us a tweet or write to our Facebook page. We're having this conversation on the heels of a major decision in New York to approve same sex marriage and I bring that up because there's a lot of lobbying going on there a lot of interaction between nonprofits other corporations in the corporate world and the corporate world. I bet if we peel back a layer we'll probably come up with something that a little bit toward Tom Lange right. You know as always. Yeah well it's clear that I mean there have been many articles written so far saying that Cuomo and our community did in New York what we did here quite

candidly went to corporate heads and we sat down I sat down personally with the heads of some major Fortune 500 companies and said Would you help us because your name associated with US would help or would you write a check to legislator X Y Z because that will help them understand they can survive reelection if they vote with the gay community that they won't be this won't be a career ending vote for them. So it sounds like that happened in New York so there is an acceptable I believe intersection between corporations and profit and nonprofit advocacy. But are we failing that we're not pushing glad to give us a statement. Again I go back to the whole point. We're not knowing what 88 What does the 80 T-Mobile merger have to do with us. Right. What do we know we don't know. We haven't heard anything from anyone and if you know now with the with the gay marriage the same sex marriage win in New York is this just issue just going to go away until it crops up again somewhere or they move into some sort of stealth Moldovan mode. I don't mean just glad but the other organizations that are going to be afraid of the bloggers

and the people finding out about these things. You have to run away. I read something article has an armada of lawyers and lobbyist who have been working similar. Community groups to get them to come on board with this. I mean I think 18:2 knows that if it's going to go up just against Congress and anti-trust laws they're going to win this. The only thing is going to lose this this merger for them is public opinion is if somehow public opinion turns against it. So they're actually brilliant in this strategy they're brilliant. But the idea that somehow they're there doing any of this for the good of the communities the WCP and so on and so forth is a little hard to imagine. Well I'll raise it. Recent merger in the Comcast merger had some similar kinds of issues swirling about it Comcast but you know merge within the NBC Universal and took that over and there were huge hearings that is a little bit different where the people. We're really concerned about what they felt was going to be the lack

of diversity on the other side of the merger. In fact it would get worse not better. And Comcast people argued successfully they had a lot of quote friends to write come to the meetings and say and stand up for them. And now I just note that they have a very huge diversity board on that board by the way is Jarrett Barrios on the other side of this merger. It's too soon to see how this is all going to play out. But it seems that this you know asking for support in some public way in this case the issue was more in perhaps clearly defined because it was around the issue of diversity will you were programming will your staffing be more diverse if this merger goes through. Friends said yes it will and we support you and here we are. So this is going online which leads me to this question that is the nature of advocacy necessarily change now in 2011. So can a glatt be effective in the way that it was when it as effective as it was when it started. I mean maybe at a certain point as time you started off this way

you know you groom people to get to a certain point where they can interact with various corporations and corporate types and maybe they become corporate in their dealings and it gets away from the mission. Or is that just too naive. Well I need to go back to what you first said about it is advocacy has advocacy changed in you know now 2011. Well now with the social media. We're we have a lot of sofa sitting computer you know laptop holding cell phone holding people that are actually going to be the police dogs and the police dogs in the watch dogs of of our movement like with any Again any minority movement these boards. I mean if you think about what happened with glad that person that troop Corps nado thing all of his information is entire bio was on the GLAD GLAD website you know so it still wasn't a secret it wasn't a secret just to remind people who don't know who he is I'm from the Heritage Foundation which has stated opposition to it. So I think these people have to clean up their acts I think that this sort of

this sort of hack hack ism or whatever we're going to call it is something that's been going on for decades it's probably ever since politics has started. But now we have social media and people are going to be watching these things and it can do it a lot of disruption I think that are our activists online can disrupt a lot. In the big organizations that are doing good work if there are these big organizations aren't watching themselves and keeping it clean where an 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 7 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 You're listening to eighty nine point seven WGBH an online at WGBH dot org I'm Kalee Croslin we're talking about Glad this hour and the resignation of its president Jarrett Barrios. I'm speaking with Jeff Everly former editor of bay windows. Tom Lange founder of know the neighbor and Arlene Isaacson co-chair of the Massachusetts gay and lesbian political caucus. And you can get in on the conversation at 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 and you can send us a tweet or write to our Facebook page. I want us all to listen to this I know Laurie.

I mean I mean speak first and then oh I was just going to say that one way in which the nature of advocacy has changed over the last 20 30 years in the deal BT community in particular is that it used to be. A world of volunteers only my organization the Mets game has been a political caucus was all volunteers and continues to be so actually today we had brief stints with some paid folks but only brief. What's changed in our world is that increasingly we've moved toward setting up organizations with paid staff and rightfully so because you need people who can dedicate full time work to our advocacy and then they've grown like other populations of nonprofits they've grown larger and larger more staffed and more sucking in more money needing more money more money than they can get from just the GOP community alone which pushes them out into courting corporate donors. So the question is how much damage has been done to GLADD specifically. We can look larger but certainly just to glad Here's Laurie Perper a former co-chair of GLADD on the mike Cigna reli show reacting to Jarrett Barrios

his letter of support for AT&T. What do you think needs to happen with this organization. I've had several conversations and most of us believe that unfortunately the brand name has been so tarnished at this point that it can't be revived even if you could find a way to go in and replace the board and the president. So my you know I'm of the opinion that the organization needs to go away and stop using gay dollars and simply dissolve. Well Jeff this goes back to questions that people have had for quite a while about glass Mission Statement from people who don't know Glad my opinion is that it's the biggest reason for being is as it does three award shows every year New York San Francisco and they're called the gladder wars where they basically give suck up to the industry and if a ministry give awards to things like willing grace which they gave so many awards to anyway. And and it's just big glitzy red

carpet affair and it seems it's just a big night of backslapping. And if you think that's seems to be their reason for being. And if you think that's a staging award show it was a good thing for your nonprofit do then. Great wonderful let's do it. If not I don't see what it does other than that. So for your for your money Laurie Perper is correct. Go away. I agree. OK. I mean many people would argue that there is a diminished need for an organization that monitors for our community the entertainment industry in the days of when you can have an out lesbian with a talk show like Ellen generous. Well when you can have a television series like Modern Family with built in positive gay couples as as role models gay parents the need is very different now than it was 20 years ago when GLADD was first formed. I imagine it might still be necessary though perhaps not in the Massachusetts's of the world but in the Idaho's of the world with a maybe some local news or entertainment shows that are still agree just leave homophobic. But in the

major metropolitan areas it's clearly a diminished need. Personally I think that me even be increasingly the case for many of the gay organizations I used to joke with people 20 years ago that my organizations make the main mission should be to put itself out of business to no longer be needed. And I think that should be the case for all of us. When you lead go away Tom. Well unless it gets it gets back to its grassroots core mission you know back what it used to be because just like Arlene said it does and it has responded to grassroots activists. You know I think it responded to the young lady the lesbian down in the South that was you know going to be asked to leave her prom you know. So that sort of thing it does very well. And but this whole As Jeff saying the whole award ceremony in the amount of and I think it's the second largest story. Well while you're here here know the neighbor being back in 2010 which was only last year last April we found out that kiss went away and 165 other radio stations across the nation were

being had this right wing. Conservative Christian talk show called Dawson McAllister lived still in KISS want to wait at midnight where they target children they say right on their website. Between 13 and 29 to call in with their most inner deepest darkest secrets and concerts. Well to make a long story short we know they neighbor expose this because a young man had called in and when he called in and said You know I've got a relationship problem with my boyfriend. He was sent directly to Exodus International by this talk show that was on his one away. That is terrible Exodus International is the organization that uses ex-gay therapy techniques to an advisory organization rights anti-gay organization. Well glad we did this and Arlene was on my small limited list serv and we were doing this from a very grassroots standpoint we want to expose this get it out in the press call it Clear Channel that owns the show. Glad sort of co-opted the whole thing they got in unbeknownst to me took it over. Had Exodus International

removed and somehow some sort of backroom deal was made between Clear Channel and whomever I'm not going to on air say it was glad but somebody now directs LGBT youth or LGBT and questioning youth who call in as they are as young as 13 years old. To focus on the family. Another anti-gay another anti-gay group so to say the least one anti-gay group with another one that was supposedly the result of the advocacy Gladden took over glad took over our project and then before you know it they were sending out their mission accomplished statement. And you know I I still to this day I think it had something to do there must be some sort of corporate money move between these organizations and Clear Channel if it's not glad something's coming from somewhere. So as far as you're concerned you can go away in this case it didn't happen because it was a corporate thing but in certain instances you know it's it needs to redefine itself at least in the in the least. How do you maintain a balance between the advocacy of the mission driven advocacy and what clearly are some situations

that made you uncomfortable and others and left Jeff to think all they do is have a red carpet ceremony. I mean Jeff I mean how can how could they come back to being their mission. I think when when they totally lost me was when they went after a writer for Vanity Fair which is actually sounds a little redundant I think about it but anyway. You can email to Jeff Everly okay and a gay writer going to fit Vanity Fair who made fun of an episode of Glee. Now I'm like Glee I think the songs are kind of acting as a little over the top but I think I mean to go after a gay writer because he made fun of Glee. One episode leads me to believe that they don't have enough to do. OK. I would just say this I would offer this small pushback I don't you know I can't speak on behalf of GLADD But you know our lane you articulated You know what you want to do is have these advocacy groups put themselves out of business I think that's great. But I look and see

that America has a black president and there is so much stuff being said out there that has to be refuted. Just from a racist standpoint right that you know those organizations that are in the business of advocating and making clear those things actually have more work to do now than they ever it is they can go away at exactly and that's the question. How do you decide when you're there. And a lot of people would say well if you got a black president you there Well clearly we're not there. And same thing within the GOP Tea community. We've made major advances with in Massachusetts we have marriage you know who'd have thunk 30 years ago that 20 years ago but we still have more to do. But hopefully we'll have less and less to do. Now we started a conversation with looking at Jarrett Barrios as well specifically can he come back to Massachusetts will revive a career here. What will happen. He's had quite a distinguished career. I mean the guy magnet who loudy from Harvard Georgetown Law School

State Senate you know head of the Blue Cross Foundation and then off to gladden more and more and more and God knows what else. Lauded in many circles but some people got big issues with him. Timeline. I love how I have to take this when we have the bay windows here we have a caucus here and they give it to know their neighbor. Thank you. I don't know I think Jared will go where he wants to go I think it's always been. I mean I even looked at and wrote about Jarrett being on the Blue Cross heading the Blue Cross Blue Shield foundation that I. I said that combined with his Hillary support Hillary Clinton support at that time he wanted to take over the health care aspect of Hillary Clinton's presidency. Jarrett is very smart and Jarrett will go where Jarrett wants to go. Does does Massachusetts want him back. Ask the people of Massachusetts. I don't know about that. All right there's always a place for someone who's smart or hardworking and committed to our community. There is always going to be a place that they can find

somewhere to work. And he is smart and hardworking and I think one piece of this that makes me hope that he finds his way back somehow is that I think that we don't have enough strong Latino role models in this community and I think I would going to see him come back if for no other reason than that. You're right. Well let's you know and gay as well. At the same time. How do we get people outside of the community that we're discussing here the gay rights community to understand why this is really a terribly important people understand there. There is a very much an ongoing need for an organization like Glenn in its former time line as you would say its former mission driven way as opposed to what's happened now and that when something like this happens it seems kind of small and some seems personal but it really isn't. How do you how do you explain that to people. You know so they understand that there's really a broader issue here. Well I think the fact that we have same sex marriage in only six out of 50 States speaks volumes about the fact that our committee has a long way to go in. Forty

four states and minimally and I would argue in the other six as well where we're increasingly finding acceptance. But there is there's lots of work still to be to be done not just for the gay community when it comes to same sex marriage but for the transgender community and for many on a variety of issues. So there's work to be done and glad certainly can do a piece of that work. And ex-members I should mention six members of the board have resigned so they've expressed their own happiness as well with Gerrit's resignation or his or his actions and as you see that's a big statement about Want to know organization to shape itself up. But if I can push also regarding the transgender community we have the transgender equal rights bill that's coming up now in the state it's been kicked around the state for three plus years. So you have people looking for basic human rights and then if you take that into a glad perspective transgender people are still the people I think probably one of the last groups you know we used to say it was the gay community but it is the transgender community where they're made fun of. They're misunderstood and it's

vicious there. They were attacked and they have really no voice which means we don't see the statistics as much. And you know let's just go back to GLAD GLAD recently and I think in the L.A. award of the San Fran award they gave an award to Kim Cattrall Now we all love. You know sex in the city yeah. Unless we're transgender a transgender person sent me one of the episodes where Kim Cattrall when she moved into her new apartment and they had those. Remember the hookers and the prostitutes of course were prostitutes were women of color right. And they were transgender. And the most rotten things that you could imagine were said about in that episode from all aspects all the actresses about transgender people. It was disgusting it was sent to me I said oh my gosh I watched this. Glad did not take a stand on this. I mean you know that there was a clear case of damage but glad did nothing it gave its award to Cam and. And we're hearing now through their media director the young man that's the media director that. Glad loses gay and lesbian

support when it reaches out and goes after people that are or organizations that are defaming transgender people so that we have on record now and it's you know so they need to really start looking at themselves and really start to you know come back to our community from what you know and start you know being concerned about all of us not just their own corporate interest it seems. Last word Jeff. The word is defamation I think you said it. If they can go back to that core purpose to address and highlight and respond to defamation against this committee as members of this community in all our forums that includes a trans transgender community then I think that they have a place although they have been supplanted somewhat by bloggers. Some of our bigger bloggers I think probably have a bigger audience than they do in kink mobilize more people with a few keystrokes. But the thing about keyboard commandos is that they have limited usefulness in our community because they often don't write

checks and a lot of people will support an organization so if they can get back to that word defamation addressing that I would support them. I don't think we've heard the last of this I'll be interested to see where this goes. Thank you all for your insight. We've been talking about glad in the recent resignation of its president Jarrett Barrios. I've been speaking with Jeff Everly you just heard him former editor of bay windows Tom Lange founder of know the neighbor and Arlene Isaacson co-chair of the Massachusetts gay and lesbian political caucus. Thanks all. Thank you thank you. Thank you Kelly. Up next it's our regular Monday feature local made good. If you dial in eighty nine point seven WGBH. With. With. With. With

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Good afternoon I'm Kalee Crossley. This is the Cali Crossley Show. It's time for our regular Monday feature local made good where we celebrate people who bring honor to New England. Today I'm joined by E.J. Meyers. He received the blessing of horror Master Stephen King to turn King's short story. Ten o'clock people into a short film Myers wrote the screenplay and is raising the funds to finance it. Filming begins in the fall. E.J. Myers welcome. Kelly Are you fine Congratulations. Thank you thank you so much. I just have to. You got to explain how this came about because Stephen King has a reputation for being sort of close to the vest about all of his products so the fact that you and I know you're very talented but let's just say you're a known. Table them. Oh yeah. To close the deal. It's pretty amazing Tell us about it.

Certainly well and well let me start from the beginning I you know I was actually sending a lot of screenplays to end on into the industry for a while and I just never really pursued it like I should have. And you know I've been involved in management for a long time as well and you know management takes a lot of the time away. So it was difficult for me to pursue any kind of career in film but recently you know I just decided you know what I'm just going to go for it. And I had approached king in his offices to actually seek the rights to make a film based on his novel Gerald's Game. I thought it could turn out to be a great independent film but unfortunately you know big studios have pushed they've already actually bought the rights to that. And you know unfortunately I couldn't do that so I got that second story that came to mind was the 10 O'Clock People had read it as a child appeared in 1993 as nightmare in dreamscape. And I just thought it would be a great story to tell especially you know in this economy and there's a lot of commentary in there I just felt it would be a great story and a fun

story to put together. Give us just a brief overview of what the story's about. Certainly it's about a man who attempts to quit smoking and in his attempt. It happens all happens upon these these creatures that are masquerading around as humans so very Steven King and Harry to me I can't. I'm up at night when I read this stuff so I can only imagine what you're going to do this all years should be fun should be a blast. Now you did not start even though you have an artistic background you are doing some other stuff as you said you went to the Rhode Island School of Design you live in Rhode Island but you weren't going toward filmmaking and then you just made a different turn. Yeah I mean I just you sometimes you just got to do is a lot of thinkers out there there's a lot to do as I decided I was going to be a doer this year so you know I wrote the screenplay for the 10 O'Clock People

also produced the original screenplay to king in his offices just to show I had some talent that I could do this at least put together a good screenplay and you know was basically just told to go for it you know the worst thing he owns All right so if I produce a bad film which I won't I promise. If I produce a bad film he can shelf video owns the rights but if I can produce a top notch quality film you know with a lot of effort and you know the rights could be mine and they could be commercially mined so it's you know my first and could be my last chance but I'm very confident in my abilities. So where did the $1 come in. Connected to the rights I know you gave him a dollar. Yeah it's just one of those things he does easily you know. He's like you know well you gotta give me some money for the right so one day you know I asked for a dollar I hear you go you know. Somehow I think that was yours. Yeah. The studio is paying for Gerald's Game the rights for that. Paid a little bit more what do you think. Oh yeah a few hundred thousand I have to. I got a guesstimate on but

you know he's a good guy I mean he gives people opportunities. They actually gave an opportunity a similar opportunity to Frank Darabont filmmaker of The Green Mile and also director of The Shawshank Redemption. So he has a history of giving somebody a chance and giving independent filmmakers a chance on his property. So I'm lucky that you know he's given it to me and I plan to do to his product right. Now you've you've been casting it and you've got one actor that some may recognize from the Matrix trilogy. Tell us about him. Yes Clayton Watson is also an award winning Australian actor. He appeared as a kid in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions and he's a great guy. He read the script and basically said listen I want to be a part of this so I couldn't turn him away he's a great actor. He actually won an award in Australia for a series that he appeared in called Always Greener. So you know he's been around you

know the film industry for a while and you know he's trying to just keep himself saw himself out there as far as the American audience is concerned and I think he's a great asset to this to this production. Well the filming take place in New England. It will all take place in Rhode Island. We're going to be filming in Providence. Some scenes will take place in Lincoln and you will probably kind of kind of they're off of that a little bit but it will be in Rhode Island I plan to make sure it stays in Providence Rhode Island area who knows we might end up in Massachusetts and that's I mean oh yeah then I did look west. Cali please do so. OK well we also have asked or requested that King appear in the film he's sitting on the request so you know I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I don't mean the script as a as a cameo or as a real it's a cameo it's you know at the end of the film you know he may he may or may not show up it depends on how everything

goes but he didn't say no. So now we've established that you you know it's your first big filmmaking venture and that you paid him a dollar and what your budget and how are you going to make it on this budget. Right now we have a budget of 10000 We started out with and you know we also have you know an award winning producer that has decided to come on as well his name is Daniel Kramer. Oh he's director of her talk graffiti he actually won in a war Tony Award for his revival of author Miller's A view from the bridge and he's been a director of photography and also a fast fashion photographer for a while. Oh and I was impressed with his work he wants to come on board he has equipment so that knocks off some of that. You know what I mean. So this film will be made. It's just a matter of how it's going to be made king King the way he describes the creatures within the film Orsini and his story is very

unique. They you know they're described as you know creatures with misshapen heads and you know the way he goes into detail. I want to make sure that I can bring that to the screen the best way I can and the only way we can do that is through makeup High-Level makeup and special effects. So we're trying to raise the funds to you know to do that and hopefully you know we can we can be successful with that campaign. Well that's if Usually it's very expensive so again what is your budget. You avoided the question. Well right now it's going to be about 50000 right now. But we needed the additional thirty eight thousand a to actually get the creatures the way we need it to be but if not we're just going to you know probably do the jaws cam you know use with Spielberg technique and you know or what Sam Raimi did and Evil Dead just have the p o v of the creature and you know there's ways you can get a recut point to get around. You know around things but if you look at you know films like Paranormal

Activity which were only produced for you know $11000 I mean they had some pretty good special effects in there as well and the budget is would be considerably smaller than ours so you know it can be done and I think we can we can you know bring something out that impresses people. Well we're seeing all the time that small budget films are you know going on to do phenomenally well so that's these days and times that's not unusual certainly. But you made a decision that you won't be doing film we're going to do it's all digital as I understand it is and explain to people what that means. Digital is basically just bypassed the actual 35 million if you film off of a 35 millimeter camera you have to go through processing all that to transfer it over with digital basically you record it and you can put it on you know your Apple Computer and just kind of put it together that way with the Final Cut Pro It's a very simple process easy inexpensive and you know cut costs considerably.

Now you're going to initially just distribute the film through film festivals but I think to myself If you're digital internet seems to be the absolutely best place to go to. I mean one of the best absolutely well that will depend because once the films completed King report will request a copy and see it first. So we would you know first go to the film festival row and then you know we would see if the you know King likes it which he will. OK. He will have it. He'll give us the yeah a I mean you can you can only go so far as your confidence takes you know. So I mean if he likes it he'll he'll be around us the rights to you know put you know put it on the Internet you know see if we can put it on Sundance things like that so we this is a big opportunity a big chance for us right you know. Let's. You're pretty much guaranteed a success I would think some of you done it well as you say you're going to do with Stephen King's name attached right. So this all got just really exciting. It's absolutely it's just a blessing that he's allowed me to do this and

you know I mean like I said I just plan on giving it the best my best effort and so far I've you know had a lot of help a lot of people coming forth trying to you know put this to production you know get this production to go forward so you know I'm very confident that it's going to be done we start shooting October 21st as of right now and we you know assimilate a great cast we already have like I said Clay and Watson So we're still casting you know the couple all the characters and you know in that then Kramer is a great the director of photography and with thankful thankful to have a guy like that so it you know it moving forward and it's and it's a really positive experience and I hopefully it leads to more films online. In Massachusetts there's been just a big. Burst of made in Massachusetts movies the film seen here is really gotten robust. What Yeah what's happening in Rhode Island. Rhode Island there's a pretty tight knit film community. I mean it's not it's not as I would say as seen as the Boston community like you

know you've got Matt Damon Ben Affleck and what have you but you know there's been a few filmmakers that came out of Rhode Island and you know along here but you know they they've come out like the Farrelly brothers Michael Kherington who directed Outside Providence and you know Federal Hill so that you know there's been a history of filmmakers that have come out of Rhode Island but as of right now it's a very small tight knit community. And hopefully you know if I can make this film you know at some you know get some eyes towards Rhode Island as far as you know filmmaking a haven of some sort I mean obviously it's not going to be ever be on a level of Boston or Massachusetts in the whole as a whole but I think there's an opportunity there and I mean you know I would like to represent the state and obviously New England the best way I can because you know there's some big shoes to fill out there. Well it certainly would be exciting for people in Rhode Island. Yeah. Good jobs right. You're absolutely. Make Rhode Island your permanent place for filmmaking. Yeah definitely definitely. I mean that's my home and if anything I mean you

know you got to represent right. Well OK. So what's your word to people who are listening to this thing. Wow. First time out of the gate since I'm the Stephen King and he's doing it. You know how do you how do you what do you say to people. Just because you got to follow your dream I mean if you want to do something or you have a dream make sure you just do it. You know you can't if you don't have a do it or you never try to do it then basically you know it's never going to happen. You've guaranteed yourself it's not going to happen so I've decided that I was going to do something. And then you know so far so good we'll see where it ends up but I mean it's been a great opportunity so far. Well thank you very much for being our Monday's local made good. AJ Myers and good luck to you. Thank you so much Cal I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you. I've been speaking with E.J. Meyers he's making a film based on Stephen King short story. Ten o'clock people to learn more visit our website or check his out at 10 o'clock people dot org. If you missed

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