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Our production company, Surviving Jesse Productions,
refers to Jesse Helms. He is central to my personal education in the perils of living
as an openly gay man from North Carolina. In my childhood, Helms was the assistant
CEO of the local television station. He wrote and presented daily editorials on the
station and the Tobacco Radio Network. His daily ranting on the evening news was
part of every family dinner in my house. In 1973 he was elected to the Senate and
ten years later, as AIDS began to take a firm and deadly hold on the gay community,
Helms had reached a level of power in this country that allowed him to publicly announce
that AIDS was the result of “the disgusting and immoral activities from a homosexual
movement [that] threatens the strength and survival of the American family…these
[homosexuals] are intellectually dishonest in just everything they say and do. They
start by pretending that it is just another form of love. It’s sickening.” Through
legislation and anti-gay speeches on the Senate floor, Senator Helms used the American
government to do great harm to lesbian and gay Americans. He has been a verbal terrorist
in a position of great power. The artists in Surviving Jesse Productions create work
that presents an alternative to an epidemic of intolerance and misunderstanding.
In times marked by sadness faced with courage, our work comes from a place where
fear is defeated with love, and art can reflect remarkable displays of human warmth,
humor, and energy.
One of life’s true ironies is that without the
love and encouragement of other people, we would never be able to survive the darkness
inflicted on us through the fear and dispassion that seep into all parts of society
and culture. Actually, we could not survive ourselves without the support of
our own “family of people”. Surviving Jesse Productions, fortunately,
is composed of a family of artists who came together – connecting, trusting,
and joyfully moving forward.
— Rodger Blum |
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