Out

"Word Is Out" (1977) is a groundbreaking documentary about individuals in the Gay Liberation Movement. It is being releaed again to theaters and offered on DVD in June. It is history. It is a representation of an imprtant part of my human experience. I wrote submitted this story to the film's blog on its Web site.

When I first saw "Word Is Out", I was a 27 year old, "out" registered nurse in a state hospital. I went to work in psychiatric nursing because I took care of two gay male patients during nursing school in 1975. They had both been imprisoned as adolescents in locked state hospital wards for being gay by their families in the 1930s and 1940s. They had been electro-shocked, beaten, and one had been lobotomized after multiple escape attempts. They had become institutionalized. Their lives had been ruined.

I swore to myself that I would not knowingly let this happen again to another homosexual person. So, at my first viewing of "Word Is Out", I cried like a baby. Tears of pain and joy and pride. At that time, it seemed to make all my risks and challenges of being "out" and being political worth it. It still makes me feel that way whenever I see it. Thank you so much for bringing it out again.