See, my "Journey" started about a year or two ago. I was sat on my bed one morning and i think some people had posted on facebook about gay people being able to adopt legally and such, yet, i'd never actually seen a gay family for myself, i didn't know who made up these gay family's or what they were like. Unusually, i decided not to google this topic, but to go to youtube, i mean, someone must have posted about gay family's and any issues they were facing.
Well, dearest reader, people had. Infact, this was a bigger topic than i first imagined, because i also started learning about some of the issues which gay family's were facing and within moments, my heart was broken.
I want you to take a look at this.
See what i mean?
Granted, this wasnt the first video of theirs that i came across, but it didn't take me long to see this video. If anything, it served (for me) as much of an introduction to the family as it did shock me, because like i say, i had no idea that these issues existed for gay family's.
Within a couple of days, id watched a couple more of their video's and left a comment on one of the video's, i can't even remember what it said, but i think a day or two later i had an email off youtube telling me that someone had posted on my wall on youtube (Wait, i had a wall? My god, i didn't even know that!) Any how, Jay had commented to say that he was trying to reply to my comment and had deleted it by accident. I wrote back and made some sort of joke about it, but that kind of let me see a side which i hadn't seen in their video's, that these men were down to earth people. I mean, let's face some simple facts here, if you look at the view counts for some of their video's and how many people commented on their video's, these guys are sort of popular, yet they still had time to say sorry about deleting a post of mine by accident? Wow, i mean, i've had many comments removed by other youtubers, be it by accident or on purpose, and never heard anything about it, so yeah, i was kind of impressed.
I had already subscribed by this point, so of course i would get their new videos into my newsfeed thingie on youtube. One day they had posted a new video, ask a gay family. I watched it and was kind of impressed that they answerd questions which some people may have thought were too personal for them etc, but if appropriate, they would answer, pretty much anything. It took me some time, but i managed to watch all the ask a gay family video's and i felt like i knew them a little bit better, to the point that if i saw them walking down the street, i could say hello to them and not be worried that they would blank me or be rude etc.
Fast forward a few months and a gay issue came up in the uk, the gay blood ban (Insert dramatic music here). Now, I would have thought that this law would have been changed from a lifetime ban, to nothing, if you were gay, lesbian, straight... anyone, you could donate blood. Oh god no, how i was wrong.... see my video below...
I had really had enough of the LGBT community as a whole having to fight for every single right esp when you find out the reasoning behind it all.
Little side note here - Being gay was made illigal in the uk back when queen victoria was in power, she made being GAY illigal, but not being a lesbian. Why? Because she didn't believe that lesbians existed.
Anyway, when the news hit and i made this video, i uploaded it and spread it around etc, but i still felt abit hurt about this, so i wrote a massive (longer than the bible) email to Jay / Bryan to kind of vent my anger. I of course didn't expect a reply, i mean, these guys must get tonnes of emails, plus all the activity on their youtube, yeah, i wouldn't get a reply. But i was wrong!
The next day i had an email back from Bryan, saying that it's not unual for governments to change laws to make it look like they had brought up LGBT issues, where infact, the new laws were just as bad as the old ones, which was certainly true in this case.
Over the next couple of month's, i kind of hit a brick wall, i was depressed, i needed change in my life, but i didn't know what change. The Leffew family along with other youtubers kept me entertained over that time, i think more Jay / Bryan, because they will have felt just as bad as me at some points, yet here they were painting on a nice face, to tell us all what was happening and to keep us in the mindset that if you want change to happen, you gotta make your voice heard.
Time moved on and so did my attitude, i was getting back to being myself when i first started seeing video's about "The Right To Love : An American Family". Wondering why Jay and Bryan would be posting about such a thing, i watched the trailer video, only to find out that theyre kind of the reason behind this movie.
For a few weeks after, i kept it in the back of my mind and showed the video to a couple of people, who used it as a base to start a conversation about LGBT rights and such. Even my Nana (Grandparent to those who don't know what a nana is lol) went off on one saying about how it was wrong to treat people this way, in this day and age too. It really made me want to watch the film now though, to see what else there was to the "Depfox story".
I remember i commented on the video, asking if this was coming out into the cinema or on dvd and how i could get a copy if it was. Jay got back to me (He didn't delete my comment this time lol) and explained how the film would be touring around film festivals first, but the future of the movie was still undecided yet. Abit dissapointed with the news, because the thought came into my mind of "Aww, im not gonna get to see this now because it'll just be going around america, after all, look at the title, it's an american family, why would they bring it over here".
Still wanting to see it, about a month later i emailed Jay / Bryan about it, to see if there was any plans for it coming over here, because i really REALLY wanted to see the film. I recieved a reply off jay, who said that basically, no plans were in place at the moment, because they were working on their own launch of the film, but that i could contact film festivals about it and see if they would screen it and if they would, to pass on his email address and he would do what he could to get the film shown.
Great stuff! I set to work over the next week looking into film festivals that were likely to show the movie, i mean lets face it, a gothic film festival isn't very likely to show a film about a gay family are they? That's when the lightbulb in my head got turned on because an idea had come in. Set up a facebook page! I mean, i couldn't be the only one who wanted to see this film in the uk right? Turns out, i was right! The page got about 9 likes in it's first day... wow popular!
So i set it up to work like a community, in the hope that people would post details of film festivals and i could email them or someone else could and as a team effort, we could get the film on. Turns out no, i was posting all this stuff and nobody was really paying attention, to make matters worse, all the film fest's were getting back to me with "No" answers, if at all.
What to do? I mean, i'd been working as an entertainer for however many years, i'd organised lots of events before, soooo.... why couldnt i put this film on myself. I pitched the idea to Jay / Bryan over email and said that with their help, i could arrange the hire of a venue etc and it would work out great. Jay got back to me a couple of days later, happy that i was showing determination to see this film, but with some sort of bad news, that they, nor the producers had the money to be putting on events in other countries, although if i could make it happen, like getting funding secured, then they would help me as much as they could.
So, i set to work trying to find a sponsor. I tried Manchester gay pride. It's a festival which takes place for 1 week each year in august, and is one of the most popular and largest ones in the whole of europe. They got back to me within a few hours and said they would do what they could to get the film shown, inc applying for funding.
They suggested about hiring a cinema venue in Manchester, now while i won't name names because it wasn't good of them, i shall mention that theyre a cinema hire company and their building used to be a house.... on a corner.... *ahem*.
Anyway, they got back to me and said about how the film needed it's BBFC rating or something, so i'd need to contact the BBFC and get the film rated, then i could hire the cinema at X amount of pounds per hour etc. So about a week later, i was able to do the final costings, which came to just over £3,000. The voice in my head just went "Yeah, that's never going to happen, try something else". So i set again, looking for another venue.
It was about this time that Jay sent me a copy of the press pack that goes with the film, to send on to people who might be able to give the event funds to make it happen, i was sending it off left right and centre, but nope, not one finding group or charity got back to me with a "yes". Gutted! However, i kept my chin up and luckily i did because i came across the Zion arts centre (Which has now re-branded to Z-arts). They were kind of exited themselves to get the film shown as a part of Manchester pride. I explained Jay's earlier info that there was no money available for upfront costs and that the film couldn't be used to raise money for personal gain, if any money was to be left over, it had to go to a cause related to the film, like a marriage equality charity or LGBT rights etc.
A few months down the line and TONNES of facebook messages later, Manchester pride got back to me, good news, they were going to underwrite the costs of putting the movie on, not only that, but the theatre had kept the date i wanted free for me. I facebooked Jay / Bryan with the news, they were made up! .... So was i!!!!
You see, during my month's while i was feeling down and just not myself, these two had kept me going and now was time to pay them back so to speak. By grabbing their message via the film and running with it, showing the film to as many new people as possable.
Since that is the only way i can really help them out anyway, After watching their video's, i soon learned that Bryan didn't like people sending money, nor did he like to sell "depfox" or "gay family values" as a brand. Which is fair enough, because it would certainly attract some negative publicity off people who they need to support them.
Anyway, here's where i stand today.
Here's the advert for the film....
And here are the links to the UK showing of The right to love : An american family.
http://www.z-arts.org/events/therighttolove/ http://www.z-arts.org/events/therighttoloveevening
As brought to you by me.
Let me leave you with this thought though.
See, Jay / Bryan and the rest of the family, never predicted to be where they are today, featuring in a movie, rather popular on youtube and with friends and contacts world over who like and love them as much as me. So isn't it nice that i can turn around after the screenings and be able to say "You know what, their video's and attitude saw me through some pretty awful times in my life, so as a way to thank them, i've helped them bring their film to another side of the world".
Thanks for reading people, may i suggest as this was a long post that you now un-stick your hand from your face and go away from your computer for a break or something, pretty sure it's health and safety these days that youre not meant to read something this long without taking a break.
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