 The room was full of "movie stars": Fran Drescher (The Nanny), Sharon Lawrence (NYPD Blue), Amanda Bearse (Give or Take an Inch), Jill Bennett (Dante's Cove), Jane Sibbett (Friends), Melanie Lynskey (Heavenly Creatures), and Honey Labrador (Queer Eye for the Straight Girl), among many others. There were photographers galore and a "red carpet" set up for photographers to shoot the stars in perfect lighting. There was a celebrity cocktail hour and silent auction (including an autographed bra Jennifer Beals wore in the Season Finale in the disturbing scene with Tina. It did NOT sell for its minimum bid of $500!!), followed by dinner in the stunning ballroom of the Park Plaza Hotel.
 PowerUP premiered three short films, winners of its short film competition: Billy's Dad is a Fudge-Packer, Prom-troversy, and Starcrossed. Billy's Dad is a Fudge-Packer, starring Queer as Folk’s Robert Gant, was filled with double entendres,
starting with the title. Prom-troversy was a great short about
two girls going to a prom together. Jane Lynch was a riot as an ultra-conservative
mother opposed to two girls going together. Starcrossed was
a heart-breaking film about two young gay men who face separation by
a parent.
Beals was presented the award at the end of the evening. Robert Greenblatt,
President of Showtime Entertainment, introduced her and showed a several
minute film highlighting her career. In her speech, Beals recalled her
mother creating stories in which “Jenny” was a character.
Beals recalled that she did not see herself on television. She was bi-racial
and female—and she was set apart. She felt invisible. “And
certainly when society fails to write your story there is an unspoken
message that the story is not worth telling.”
Beals’ identification as an outsider, an “other,”
remained with her when she spoke with the L word’s Ilene Chaiken
about the character of Bette. Of course, Chaiken was already addressing
the “otherness” of lesbians. For Beals, that was not enough.
Beals proposed that Bette be bi-racial in order to speak to even more
people who felt invisible, who did not see themselves on television,
and Chaiken was receptive.
The connection between all the “others” is, of course,
the first L word: love.
“To love, to love to love, even when you think the heart is
exhausted by anger and fear and hurt and disappointment and the latest
presidential election. To love. That is the larger task which connects
us all. That is the narrative to which I hope we all can strive.”
In a time of divisiveness, the degree of which had never been seen
in a presidential election, Beals dared to talk about what unites us.
She also broached the subject that many political analysts feel was
the source of the heartbreak of this presidential election: gay marriage.
“People talk about the sanctity of love...love is by definition
sacred. Not some love between some people but all love between all
people. How can anyone say one person's love is more sacred than another
person's? If indeed it is love, it IS sanctified. If it is indeed
love, the right to marriage is not questionable."
Beals sees the connection between racism and sexism and homophobia.
Bi-racial people are “other”. Girls are “other”.
Gay couples are “other”. These are the ones shut out by
the majority. Power is withheld from “others” and power
is horded by the majority. So what is the role of a television show
about a bunch of lesbians? In stories—all stories—“people
recognize their humanity.”
“Imagine if all of our stories were told? Like the Chart on the L word one day all the narratives would intertwine
and we would discover the power of our collective imagination and
we would see that to be victorious is not to have won simply for your
own sake but for the sake of others.”
There I stood, ten feet in front of Beals, with a few other photographers,
but my camera was down at my side. I had buried my head in the Olivia
cruise to ignore the heartbreak of not only the presidential election
but of 11 states passing marriage amendments and of the loss of Democratic
seats in both houses of Congress. Yet here stood Jennifer Beals, optimistic
that creating television shows and bringing the “other”
into the television sets—and hearts—of those who hold
the power will appeal to their sense of humanity and sameness, rather
than otherness. Somehow, I believed her. Beals for President in 2008
|
