51 Years Out! - CJ Janovy; Unknown

today on k pr presents fifty one years out celebrating gay liberation history of play you and laurence i'm kay mcintyre fifty one years out it's a week long commemoration of the fifty first anniversary of the lawrence gay liberation front the first major lgbt q advocacy group at k you and laurence it kicks off october eighteenth with events through october twenty third one of those events is no place like home kansas lgbt community activism a panel discussion on tuesday october nineteenth in the big twelve room at the kansas union by no small coincidence no place like home is the title of her recent book by cj generally she's director of content up the road at kcur cj joins us from her home in kansas city cities great to talk to you again thank you caitlin shetterly why is this story of lgbt q activism in kansas and what makes it different then say activism elsewhere that was a really

good question and i'm not sure it in a real way in a realistic sense how different it is from lgbt activism anywhere else i would say some universal czar that's most most of the progress has been made by small groups of people doing or equipped with whatever tools are available to them whether that's the legal system or or the educational system or friends and family members but certainly in rural areas of of the country progress has been slower than in a place like san francisco or the worker ali what made it he uses so interesting to me as a journalist covering efforts but around lgbt activism in the air in a decade from about two thousand five to twenty fifteen was just that kansas is so central literally in the in in america but also sort of yodeling and metaphorically that's thanks to

known book and movie from which my book drew its title everyone in the world thinks they know about kansas because of that was it was him and also unique to kansas was the westboro baptist church that was that as an author and there was a lot to work with there how did you in your book no place like home how did you explore and access those stories of activism in kansas i told him very specific story of stay why organizing it can be combined with local organizing in response to the fact that kansans passed a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage in two thousand and five and then a decade later exactly in twenty fifteen the us supreme court legalized gay marriage across the country inside talked about profound changes in public opinion over that decade and what i did was i visited places all over kansas where small

groups of activists were getting to work in their home town their community their neighborhood ends and we're really focusing on and try to get their rights non they're mostly through non discrimination but efforts at local levels in places like saliva manhattan engines and but over the course of that decade also we saw this emergence of transgender folks leading these conversations and leading policy efforts around the state so vets are the overview of what my book is about and certainly in there in the week of events as planned people will see is you know that ten years is a very small slice of activism in kansas but it's built on the foundation of a previous activism and it also that there are seagulls to be done as well the story's not over exactly what surprised you the most when you were diving into the story of activism

and in kansas yeah and i should say i'm surprised by this because i am from the midwest as well i grew up in nebraska but what's so striking about the activists that i spoke with in the stories they told is how much they love their home state even when they're home state does not appear to love them back and so there's is a story of people who for whatever reason chose not to leave and go to a bigger city or a place that might have on the surface been more lgbt q friendly they decided that even if it felt like a hostile place it was worth it to stay and try to make it better and you are you know my reporting i began to think of my work as a love story you know that you know people love kansas that much and still i feel like just a really profound observation and that that i saw i'm visiting with cj janet be the author

of no place like home lessons and activism the day is part of a panel discussion no place like home which is part fifty one years out next week at the university of kansas city can you tell us the story of one of those people you encountered in your research are or somebody that you've encountered along the way that you think really symbolizes that's the story in kansas it's hard to it's hard to so name one named kay because they're there just so many people and they're so spread out all over the state but honestly answer the first person who comes to mind as a trans activist named stephanie not who died a couple of years ago she was one of the people that i profiled in the book and she was absolutely central to the work of equality kansas which is the was a white lgbt advocacy organization and she held leadership roles in in

different capacities over the years and her organization called the kansas state wide trends gender education project that was built on her work really i'm going anywhere and everywhere and telling her story all over this day she gave hundreds of present patients at any group of people who would listen to her church groups long employment brown bags during pride month civic organizations and she hadn't an amazing personal story and she was incredibly open and loving tip to anyone who would listen in her grace really set an example and educated so many people and the work that she did lay had such a solid foundation for the activists who've come since she she aspired to

run for office which she she never actually did right now when the folks on the on the panel with me on tuesday is stephanie buyers of wichita was the first openly transgender member of the kansas house of representatives and so only you know stephanie not is just one example of that of the book kind of brave individuals who put themselves out there and connected with people on a deeply personal level in and build networks and laid a foundation for those who have come since white would you like people to know about the story of activists and an lgbt q kansas what star would you like to leave people with i think it was what i said earlier about about how much a gp tiki people love their state and belonging in their state laws are such a beautiful

story there were themes that emerged in my conversations with folks about the nature of activism and asher melissa about these three main themes you know the first first lesson was to prepare to lose you know we're fighting a difficult cause chances are you're going to lose a few times before you really make progress in that in that in the course of those losses you gain friends again allies again experience to gain information and eventually you can start winning so thats lesson number one prepared a loose lesson number two is to be gentle with your allies especially in tense times it's easy to sort of get in to internal disagreements with folks were actually you know supporting your cause and so especially in the use of social media where people seem inclined to fight amongst themselves i really saw saw

the need for folks to understand that being gentle with your supporters was crucial and the third lesson really was just something there were people that i interviewed you well you know our brave enough to say it is to speak out and for the media awarded to speak at that statehouse rallies there are people who really couldn't afford for whatever reason to be in public so they wrote anonymous check supporting baked a lemon bars and so there's always a need for lemon bars so lesson number to resist do something so those three lessons prepare to lose be gentle with your allies do something were the lessons that emerge from my work and visiting with cj genevieve no place like home is not just an award winning book it is being made into a motion picture tell me about this this is such an honor and i've i've been part of the team's working with oscar winner kevin willmott that

too to produce a documentary version of of the book of originally we started filming in last several years ago and when the book came out and kevin's idea and the idea of smaller producers on the team was to was to was to do a documentary version of the book but what would it's turned into really is a sequel i think because so much has continued to happen the book came out in january of twenty eighteen and in the years since we have seen a people be elected to the kansas house of representatives we've seen a trans person be elected and her office and you know there've been new waves of discrimination come clean that progress and so much of the documentary now and concerns what's what's happened since the book came out so so cindy boren it but there's new people also and it's

just a real privilege to work with and wal mart how has the working on a documentary version of no place like home than different than writing a book or a new book can't get it can be a pretty solid in that that vote the actual writing the recording and the writing can be very solitary and at some point you need editors any designers improve readers an atlanta team of folks to help you get a book out into the world documentary filmmaking that team isn't is involved from from the very beginning and so you know it hits it's up it's a hot at filmmaking as a high a resource my endeavor you need you need a videographer is singing sound technicians you need the right location you need a lot of things that are really don't need when you're just interviewing someone for a book or an oregon newspaper article or sick or something like that so berman it says it

sees a much more collaborative process and i was happy to turn over the sort of story framing and the narrative thinking ending the big picture vision i was i was you know honored and thrilled to turn that over to the genius of kevin walmart and just watch him nazi things that that i never saw really in in these stories what's the timeline look like for that tom i've learned that filmmaking is a whole different process from writing books or doing the news and that it's dangerous to speculate about when a documentary film might be due and i had i hope that it's soon we'll look forward to that no firm date yet on its relief was a visiting with cj genevieve the author of no place like home lessons in lgbt activism it in kansas no place like home is also the title of

a panel discussion taking place on tuesday october nineteen as part of fifty one years hour cj thank you so much for the thing with us today thank you so much rami khouri i'm kate mcintyre keep your prisons will continue right after this