Tampa Gay & Lesbian Film Festival celebrates 21 years

By Melissa Russell

April Bates
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     TAMPA, Fla. – April Bates sat under the shade of a tent outside Tampa Theatre, waiting for the next movie to start. Around her, couples strolled hand in hand to the box office to buy tickets to see the next movie, “Mississippi Queen.” 

     “Queen,” which was screened on Sunday, Oct. 17, was one of many films showcased during the 21st anniversary of the Tampa International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. 

     The festival brought viewers to the Tampa Theatre in downtown Tampa and Muvico Baywalk in St. Petersburg. The films crossed genres of all kinds including documentaries and movie shorts. One documentary covered a punk band in “Le Tigre on Tour,” while another film, “I Killed My Mother,” portrayed a young man’s love-hate relationship with his mother.

     Bates said she had attended many of the festivals over the years and felt this was one of the best for content, production and entertainment. One of her favorite films was “Out in the Silence,” a documentary about filmmaker Joe Wilson’s controversial marriage to another man.


      This year was a peaceful one for the festival, Bates said. Over the years, she said anti-gay protesters had a habit of showing up and making a scene and one year members of the Ku Klux Klan showed up. Members of the LGBT community are well aware of the issues that still exist in society concerning sexual orientation. 

     Recent news headlines tell stories of the influx of "bullycides," a term describing bullying that leads to suicide.


     Paige Williams, director and producer of “Mississippi Queen” said the story of "bullycides" is not new and has always been there. 

     “It’s just that the media is now paying attention and I think that’s because of the “don’t ask, don’t tell”  agenda,” she said, but she does believe today’s generation is a lot more open than her generation or the generation before hers. 

     Williams’ film centers on the concepts of groups who are determined to convert people out of the gay lifestyle. Ex-gay ministries, such as Exodus International, exist all over the world.  

     A Southern girl from Mississippi, Williams realized she was gay her senior year of high school. Her Southern Baptist parents held firm to their anti-gay beliefs and sought help from Love in Action, a branch of Exodus. They soon started their own ministry and called it In His Time. 

     “Queen” spanned the course of two summers, following Williams, who has been married to her wife of 10 years and their young son, Jack. Williams charted a path through various places in the South looking for answers about church and homosexuality. 

     The film began with the interviews of ex-gay ministers who believed homosexuality was a sin, and who helped people seeking deliverance from their sexual addictions. Williams said it is during this time in the movie that people started shifting in their seats, but eventually became relaxed when she resumed telling her story. 

     During the conversations with the ex-gay ministers, Williams realized many of them still had same-sex attractions but chose to be celibate.

     “Gay isn’t the issue, it’s celibacy,” she said. “It’s a different take than you would ever think.”

      In their mind it was more about being obedient to God, she said, and she believed that did not change them as a person, it just stopped their actions.

     Williams said she thought the concept was highly unsuccessful. 

     "It’s extremely dangerous in terms of all the bullying and suicide stuff. I think it perpetuates that,” she said. “If there’s someone who doesn’t want to be a certain way and wants prayer, I can’t say that person is wrong, but as a group trying to fix a whole population - that’s crazy.”

     There were numerous stories about ex-gay ministers running off with same-sex partners, Williams said.

     “One woman called me who was an ex-gay minister with Love in Action, and she ran off with one of the women who came in to get healed,” Williams said. “Healed is what they call it.”

     “Queen” not only interviewed ex-gay ministers, but gay Christians as well. Their beliefs were different than those of the ex-gay ministers.  They believed they were loved and accepted by God as they were. They followed the teachings of Jesus, whom they say never mentioned homosexuality. The verses commonly used in anti-gay circles were from the Old Testament book Deuteronomy, and of later teachings of Paul.

     Williams said while she felt “Queen” was very much a film that was even-sided, the issue of whether being gay was a sin does come up.

     “There’s this whole thing about putting two people up against one another, but ultimately it’s about relationships instead of issues,” Williams said.

      She geared the film to be character-based rather than issue-based. She wanted it to depict “how we get along with people we don’t agree with,” even when those people are the ones we love.

     “That’s how we heal,” Williams said. “It starts a conversation and we begin to try to understand one another's points of view.” She believed this was what Christianity was supposed to be about.

     She said many in the gay community felt the film helped them realize how judgmental they were towards those who judged them, and wanted to focus on how to love one another instead.

     Williams said her son, Jack, had brought a change in her relationship with her parents. She also credits her film with raising the questions they needed to address. 

     Her parents message has evolved into a place of acceptance and non-judgment towards Williams. She said they now ran their ministry for people to receive prayer and support wherever they are in their lives.  

     Williams had also found acceptance in other religious forums as well.  University Congregational United Church of Christ in Missoula, Mont., premiered “Mississippi Queen” this past Sunday, and the Redemptive Film Festival in Virginia Beach, Va., will be showing the film in November’s festival. 

     Pastor Amy Carter of UCC said even with every person in the film being a Christian, she was struck by the diverse ways people understood sexual orientation. 

     “Everyone was speaking in the film from a deep place of faith, and so many came out so differently on accepting or rejecting homosexuality,” Carter said. She said the film ended beautifully with Williams’ mother saying, “I think I’ll just be your mama, and let God be God.”

     The film’s viewers were diverse in their own reactions to “Queen.” Andy Cordero wished there had been less of the Christian dogma in the film.

     “I think that people who have changed or whatever, are in their own delusion,” he said. “There are people in between gay and straight who don’t speak for me and they don’t speak for the kids who want to kill themselves.”

     Kathleen LaTerza came with her partner to see “Queen.” She said she knew that people who felt shame about themselves might seek balance in their lives with religion, but while they may live a celibate life it does not change who they are. She said the underlying agenda of anti-gay groups is not that they will “change you into someone who is straight, but will help you like yourself better and fit you into [their] way of thinking.”

     LaTerza said, like Williams, her relationship with her parents was renewed when she had her son. She felt it was the common ground of her child that brought her family together in a way they could relate and understand.

     “Maybe with Paige, the baby will help bring her family together,” LaTerza said.