In 1994, The Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth produced a documentary on the passage of the Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights Law of Massachusetts, which I appeared in.
Gay and lesbian youth making history was a thirty minute documentary on the historic events of 1992 and 1993 that lead to the creation of the Governors Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth and the passage of the Gay and Lesbian Student Rights Law which I worked on.
REBECCA SPENSE: This video produced by the Massachusetts Governor’s commission of Gay and Lesbian Youth chronicles the historical events of 1992 and 1993 when gay and straight students made history. This was an exciting time for me and many other students across Massachusetts. We held rallies at the statehouse, public hearings from Western Massacusetts to Boston. And we lobbied our legislature on Beacon Hill to pass a bill protecting gay and lesbian students from discrimination in public schools. What you are about to see shows the power of young peoples voices and the dramatic effects of their courageous actions.
Lulu Savage, Youth Advocate
LULU SAVAGE: Seeing how government is treated in this society. It’s treated with respect. It’s treated with a lot of power. And if they can see that a group like that — an organization set up by Governor Weld – set up by the government is going to be working for our needs and for our problems — which is so vast today. It’s an incredible thing for him to do for him to be able to say, “We’re going to help you out here. We understand this is something that’s killing you by being a gay youth and we want to help you out.”
I know for me, it just all of a sudden made me sit back and say, “Wow, someone out there actually cares and I can keep living and keep going, because someone will help me.”
Whereas before, I came across this, or came across gay culture, or came across people who actually cared about gay youth, it was a very very lonely time, and still is a very lonely time, because people don’t accept gay youth as real human beings and often times don’t accept gay people or youth alone as real human beings. And to have the governor’s commission set up to help out with high school is just an incredible undertaking