OUT in the SILENCE: Love, hate, and a quest for change in small town America

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Penn State Shenango

Sharon — A screening of OUT IN THE SILENCE, "a stunning new documentary" (Philadelphia Inquirer) by Oil City native Joe Wilson will be shown at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, November 4, in the Penn State Shenango Auditorium.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Joseph Wilson and Dean Hamer, filmmakers; Stephen Glassman, director of the Pennsylvania Commission on Human Relations; and Matt Chess, student activist and Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network member. The event, which is sponsored by Penn State Shenango faculty members and led by Dr. Missa Murry Eaton, assistant professor of psychology and LGBT ally, is free and open to the public.

Provided

Dean Hamer and Joseph Wilson's wedding announcement, published in the Oil City Derrick newspaper.

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• Penn State Shenango

Produced in association with the Sundance Institute, OUT IN THE SILENCE is an uplifting film about courageous local residents confronting homophobia and the limitations of religion, tradition, and the status quo in their conservative small town in the hills of northwestern Pennsylvania.

The aim of the film and associated community engagement campaign is to expand public awareness about the struggles gay people continue to face in rural and small town America and to promote dialogue and action in communities around the country that will help people on all sides of the issues find common ground.

It all started when Wilson, who married his long-time partner, Dean Hamer, in Canada, ran a wedding announcement in the Oil City paper, The Derrick.

"There was a firestorm of controversy and a flood of negative letters to the editor which said the paper should not have published the announcement, that gay marriage should never be recognized, and that it would have been better if I, as a gay person, had never been born," said Wilson on the phone from Washington, D.C., where he and Hamer live.

"One of the most interesting attacks, in the form of a letter-to-the-editor in The Derrick, came from a fundamentalist minister and his wife," said Hamer. "Over the course of the next three years, we actually became friends with the fervently religious couple. And once they got to know us as people, they underwent an incredible transformation, all of which is chronicled in the film."

The controversy also introduced Wilson, Hamer and their cameras to CJ, a gay teen being tormented at a high school in Venango County, and his mother Kathy Springer. With nowhere else to turn, Springer pleaded to Wilson for help after seeing his wedding announcement in the paper. Soon thereafter, Wilson helped to connect Springer and CJ with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Pennsylvania.

"As chronicled in the film, CJ's and Kathy's courage and willingness to speak out about their lives, with the key backing of the ACLU, will show audiences the remarkable change that is possible when people stand up for what is right in their community."

Wilson and Hamer are working with a variety of organizations, including the ACLU, to take the film to small towns and rural communities throughout Pennsylvania and across the country to help raise awareness about the lives and concerns of LGBT people and encourage viewers to get involved in efforts to promote fairness and equality for all.

The filmmakers will be at the screening and are available for interviews.

Visit OutintheSilence.com for information and to view the trailer.