Telling Our Stories: A Panel on Queer Visibility and Authorship: Event Recap
Ethan Seavey and Nicole Caldwell
Two PLP team members reflect on our recent celebrity panel, and describe their biggest takeaways. If you missed this spectacular conversation, you can still buy a ticket for the recording by registering below at https://www.prideandlessprejudice.org/events. All ticket proceeds will be used to send LGBTQ-inclusive books to PreK - 3rd grade classrooms in the United States and Canada.
The author of Love, Violet, one of PLP’s 2022-2023 featured books, attended the panel from Italy, reflected…It's not too late! This amazing, chilling, vulnerable, hilarious, and inspiring conversation happened June 3, 2023, but @prideandlessprejudice has kept registration open so you can still see it! (SO good!) Plus, ALL PROCEEDS go to purchasing LGBTQIAP2S+ books for schools. This is everything at a time when our rainbow kids, as Alexandra Billings rightly says, are being "hunted." I love this organization so much.
Ethan (he/they): Development & Communications Intern
When Alexandra Billings (she/her, of Transparent fame) was guest starring as Madame Morrible in Wicked on Broadway, she would step out of the stage door after each show to a crowd of people asking for autographs and pictures. As an actor known primarily for her work on-screen, it was “jarring” to have such a vibrant response to her art. One day, surrounded by one of these boisterous crowds, she encountered a young girl who had seen the show with her mother. She was wearing a big princess costume and was amazed by Billings’ presence. Her mom explained that her daughter’s awe was because she had never seen another trans person of Billings’ age. It was the first time that little trans girl had the chance to see herself living a life as long and as fabulous as Billings’.
Billings shared this anecdote at Pride and Less Prejudice’s (PLP’s) online event titled “Telling Our Stories: A Panel on Queer Visibility and Authorship,” held on June 3, 2023. Her voice was strong and brilliant throughout the panel, and even the other celebrity panelists praised her for her wisdom covering various queer topics.
The event was moderated by Sa’iyda Shabazz (she/her), a gifted writer and editor, who created a space that was welcoming to the audience members as well as the famed LGBTQ+ celebrities in discussion. Speaking alongside Billings was Chris Colfer (he/him), famous for his character Kurt Hummel on Glee, who also somehow found the time to write and publish 18 books of various genres and mediums. Providing another valuable voice to the conversation was Cameron Esposito (she/they), a genderfluid comedian, actor, writer, and host.
A discussion blossomed from these four queer artists coming together, one that was rich in wisdom, and one that stressed the importance of PLP’s mission, especially today. When Shabazz asked about the panelists about their first encounters with queer stories, each had something powerful to say:
Esposito said that they went to a university where being their authentic self would have certainly led to expulsion. As she began to explore her identity as a queer, genderfluid person, her communities were online, through message boards that she was too afraid to post in. One specific community transformed before their very eyes into a space that was vocally anti-trans, and so they had to migrate away from this community. Their story reveals that bigotry exists even within our own communities, and it’s always important to question barriers and exclusionary beliefs.
Colfer shared that he grew up in a small conservative town in California, and that he “didn’t seek out queer stories as a child out of fear of being found out.” His story shows the importance of bringing queer stories to the mainstream, so that this fear can be alleviated. Children in the same position as him should have the freedom of exploration and expression.
Throughout the interview, he stressed that “queer stories are not just for queer people.” Even for people outside the community, there is a lot to learn from queer people, in their resilience and their self-confidence.
For Billings, the question was hard. The first positive queer story she heard was in her 40s; before then, “stories were handed down — you didn’t talk about them.” She recalls that it wasn’t like it is today, how books and media exist to validate LGBTQ folx as young people. “I began my transition in 1979 when it was illegal,” she said. “Speaking out loud was against the law […] I didn’t hear the stories; we were the stories.”
The first story she remembers that brought her joy was from a drag legend named Chili Pepper, who, when asked by the police why she was having a cookout at 2:00AM, responded: “It’s never too late.” It was the first time she learned that “we can make joyful noise out of terrible situations.”
As a young queer person these voices were invaluable. Shabazz put it well when she said, concerning queer storytelling and the importance of seeing queer stories, “I don’t think people outside of the community truly have an understanding of what that does to change your life.” Billings found the strength to respond to this message with another story from her own life, and it was about the first time she saw trans representation. At a critical, very dark time in her queer childhood, after facing years of ostracization, she flipped the channel to see beautiful trans women, who were “so sparkly.” She pointed to the screen and said, “Oh my god, there I am,” and it saved her.
For confused LGBTQ+ children, who are often viewed as outsiders, representation and availability of queer stories are essential to finding joy in life. As Esposito felt inspired to share, “when you show what is actually happening in the world to children, they just see themselves.” They also declared that we were not only once children, but that we are still children, that we are always young, and that we owe it to our youngest neighbors to share these stories.
At a time when children’s identification with the LGBTQ+ community is being increasingly invalidated by adults in power, it is essential to keep spaces for these dialogues. Towards the end of the panel, Billings passionately argued that one of the most important ways for people outside the community to help is to sit down and listen to queer people, to give them space to explain themselves, and then, to take direct action to help. In keeping with that spirit, thank you to our fabulous speakers, Alexandra Billings, Chris Colfer, and Cameron Esposito, and to the moderator, Sa’iyda Shabazz, for holding a productive conversation about the importance of queer storytelling.
Nicole (she/her): Development & Communications Intern
In the last decade, the representation of LGBTQ+ people in the media has skyrocketed, with countless movies, TV shows, books, and podcasts devoted to queer stories. But historically, queer people have not always been the ones writing those stories or acting in those roles. During the “Telling Our Stories: A Panel on Queer Visibility and Authorship” event on June 3, a celebrity lineup highlighted the importance of queer people telling their own stories. The panel, moderated by writer Sa’iyda Shabazz (she/her) featured:
Chris Colfer (he/him): actor, singer, and author (Glee, The Land of Stories)
Cameron Esposito (she/they): comedian, actress, and author (A Million Little Things, With Love, Queery)
Alexandra Billings (she/her): actress, singer, and author (Transparent, This Time For Me)
Panelists kicked things off by discussing the first time they saw or heard a queer story that had a significant impact on them. Alexandra shared that when she began her transition in the late 1970s, queer stories weren’t talked about or handed down as they are now. In reflecting on some of the pioneers of the time, she observed, “I didn’t hear the stories. We were the stories.”
Other stories shared by the panelists reflected the resilience of queer people in the face of injustices and the positive impact that seeing queer representation in culture and media had on them. Chris talked about how, when growing up, the first stories he saw that countered negative comments he’d been told about the gay community were two films. He recalled, “I remembered seeing The Birdcage and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar and I remember thinking, ‘Wow they’re fun.’ I didn’t know I was gay at the time…but they really changed my view on gay people.’”
Sa’iyda affirmed how powerful those experiences can be, stating, “I don’t think people outside of the community truly have an understanding of just what that does to change your life.” Panelists also reflected on the greater social impact of queer stories, including, as Alexandra stated, “The power of the queer voice” on the larger society including those outside of the LGBTQ+ community.
Cameron and Alexandra shared stories about how powerful depictions of queer people that break down tropes or stereotypes can be. Cameron discussed how playing the character Greta Strobe in A Million Little Things subverted some norms she had noticed in media, while Alexandra shared that a producer on the series Transparent spotlighted the variety of queer experiences, telling her, “Every queer person comes in every queer box. And every queer box is different and a gift.”
One recurring theme throughout the conversation was how affirming it can be to see the audience’s reaction to a queer character in a film, show, or story. Chris shared, “When I was on Glee and seeing the reaction to characters like mine was really when I realized how…essential it is to tell every kind of story that you possibly can.” Cameron spoke about how people just existing as their authentic selves creates a powerful force of change, acknowledging people for “Creating space just by their very being.”
Along these lines, Alexandra told the story of signing an autograph for a child and her mother after a performance of “Wicked” on Broadway. When the child’s mother shared that her daughter had never met another trans person before, Alexandra noted the power of this interaction, saying, “As a 10-year-old trans kid, to be able to look into your future and think, ‘I can grow old. I can get older, and not only can I get older, I can maybe have a job that makes people laugh.’”
The panel also focused on the challenges and importance of telling queer stories in the current political and social climate. Sa’iyda reflected, “[We are] living in a time where queer stories, especially, are being stripped from us and from our audience…our stories are being systematically pulled off the shelves and taken away,” but also that there’s so much space for queer stories right now.
Reflecting on where things have come from and where we’re going, Cameron shared, “We should always remember…Stonewall, but not every story has to be about that right now, and that’s kind of a cool moment to be in. We had to tell those stories to get here.” Cameron also encouraged people who have the ability and privilege to do so to “Be a little more expansive yourself. I promise it actually creates greater safety for me in the world. You might not realize this. Internal safety and external safety…if you have the privilege to do so, it matters.”
Alexandra wrapped things up with a compelling call for people to share their stories in whatever way is comfortable and authentic for them, saying, “Everyone on this panel and everyone listening needs to remember that there is a divine responsibility in telling your story. That doesn’t mean that you have to be on television to do it... any story that you release into the universe…it could be to your dog…matters. It matters. Everyone has the same power. All of us have this power for change…We’re not storytellers. We’re story makers. All of us. And all of us live in a fantastic place where anything is possible.”
