A Little Bit About The Talk At The White House PART TWO!

Those people were experts and they were discussing serious topics.

The next bit was serious, too, but also just SO FUCKING AWESOME I CAN’T STAND IT.

By the way, listening to the guests, I started to feel two things…HOORAY! I am the only one talking about media stuff, and OH MY GOD these people are amazing. Both of those ending with another thought. WHAT AM I DOING HERE?

Okay, the next thing was the Keynote Speakers. That was myself, but first, a woman named Geri Jewell. She’s an an actress, writer, comedian, and more. She is a gay woman, and she has cerebral palsy. 

Now, I was not familiar with her, but holy crap, she was funny and moving and insightful and everything great. She was the first actress with a disability to play a character with the same disability on a prime-time tv show (Facts of Life), and later, she was on Deadwood. 

She had everyone laughing and crying. She said when she came out online, one of the first comments was, “Geri Jewell can’t be a lesbian, she has cerebral palsy!”

One of the most moving bits of her speech was, she grew up in love with the Carol Burnette show. She saw Carol making people laugh and she wanted to do that. So she wrote endless letters to Carol Burnette, as a kid, telling her that that was what she wanted to do, and of her physical difficulties.

Amazingly, Carol Burnette wrote back a hand-written response to almost every letter. And it wasn’t meaningless fluff, but hard, honest advice. She said not everyone gets their dream job. But she would never get it if she didn’t try. 

At this point, everyone is crying. Huge standing ovation for Geri Jewell, and quite a few tears myself.

At this point, I realize I am up next. So far, everyone has been an expert in their field AND a killer speaker. And I’m up next…what in God’s name is happening, I have to follow THIS lady? :)

Rebecca got up and introduced me. She is a little person, so she was on a stoop to reach the podium, and this has been a very dignified affair up until now…and she says, “This person is a BADASS writer and we wanted her here because she’s a BADASS ally who writes BADASS characters!” 

It was the best intro I have ever received, bless you, Rebecca!

Anyway, I had been worried for four straight days and nights, and I had to follow someone amazing. But weirdly, I wasn’t nervous at all during the speech. 

I talked about how shitty comics had been in treating these two communities and how they had been so supportive of us. I talked about the comics code and some of the recent strides we have been making, I talked about how all the threats of boycotts over lgbt content had amounted to jack squat. 

I honestly think it was a good speech, but the response was amazing, people were laughing and crying and I never loved a room full of people so much in my life, I’m telling you. The twitter feed for the event was #lgbtd, I think, and some of these amazing people were tweeting quotes from my speech for days after. I was just happy to have gotten through it and not embarrassed anyone!

Also, I ended with a quote right from a tumblr poster on my previous thread about coming to the White House. That poster’s words were so clear and so true that the room just had a hush for a minute to absorb them. That was awesome.

The next part was the best. It was amazing. It was five young people, doing a panel on Youth and Resiliance…they were all both people with disabilities and lgbtq and holy crap, they blew the doors off. This has GOT to be transcribed somewhere, if anyone has it, I hope we can share it, because these young people NEED to be heard. Their names were Rachel Bass, Allie Cannington, Ki’tay Davidson, and Scottie Thomaston. 

Closing remarks were astounding. 

It was SUPPOSED to be Kathy Martinez, the Assistant Secretary for Disability Employment Policy, Department of Labor. Ms. Martinez is a black gay woman, who is also blind, I am told, and a pretty remarkable speaker. But she was unable to make it. 

But that was okay, because the final speaker in her place was Dylan Orr, from the same department. Dylan is the first transgender Presidential appointee in the HISTORY OF OUR NATION.

This is why there was never any danger of anyone talking over these people, they simply are titans. Dylan started off talking about the strides and political will for change, and discussing some victories in civil rights legislation, but quickly moved into a more personal tone, and talked about his own life and struggle, and how he felt compelled to do what he could to make this better for others.

Again, tears all over the place.

Afterwards, everyone was hugging and taking photographs and I signed a surprising number of comics and programs. I got to speak to some of these people and it was…

…quite simply…

…the best day ever. 

Thank you everyone for inviting me and allowing me to attend this unbelievable forum. And thank you everyone on Tumblr who gave me suggestions and messages to bring to the forum!

I wasn’t able to livetweet any of it, I was too busy trying to follow it all. 

BUT!

There is some stuff out there. On Twitter, look at #lgbtd, and that has a lot of the choicest stuff from all the speakers.

Also, my husband did a very good job livetweeting at @rocketspouse, except he kind of messed up and STOPPED when it was my turn to speak because he was too proud of me. Adorable, you!

I have my speech, I may post it here, but you guys know most of this stuff already. The stuff I REALLY hope gets posted is everyone else.

But definitely go look at #lgbtd for Thursday of last week, there are photos and lots of great quotes. It was freaking ridiculously great!