LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth

CAMP Spotlight

The Academy Awards are coming to Rehoboth. And not just any Academy film. We've had There Will Be Blood and Juno and the others at Midway. But on April 12, attendees at the CAMP Rehoboth Women's Conference (part of the CAMP Rehoboth Women's Weekend April 11-13) will get the chance to see an amazing movie: Freeheld, a film by Cynthia Wade.

Little did CAMP Rehoboth know when they booked this film as part of their annual Women's Conference that the movie about two brave lesbianswould be the 2008 Academy Award Winner for Best Short Subject. That honor was preceded by awards at Sundance Film Festival and dozens of film festival awards around the country.

And although the Academy Award category is tagged short subject, the movie's topic is a very long-time subject that affects thousands of people here in Rehoboth and hundreds of thousands of Americans.

The movie brings us one lesbian couple's fight for equality in a moving, heartbreaking and ultimately triumphant lesson. When she was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, Hester wanted to transfer her pension to her longtime partner Stacie Andree. The elected officials of Ocean County, New Jersey (The Freeholders, as the members of the elected body are called) denied the requestrepeatedly, and with a host of insulting reasons, many of which included "the threat to the sanctity of marriage." Without that pension, Andree would lose her home and her partner.

According to press for the movie, "Detective Lieutenant Laurel Hester spent 25 years investigating tough cases, protecting the rights of victims and putting her life on the line. She had no reason to expect that in the last year of her life, after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, that her final battle for justice would be for the woman she loved.... The film is structured chronologically, following both the escalation of Laurel's battle with the Freeholders and the decline of her health as cancer spreads to her brain."

In her acceptance speech at the Oscars, film-maker Cynthia Wade said, in part, "Thank you. It was Lieutenant Laurel Hester's dying wish that her fight against discrimination would make a difference for all the same sex couples across the country that face discrimination every day. Discrimination that I don't face as a married woman."

During the fight for her rights, Laurel Hester said, "Twenty-four years is a long time in the closet. And were it not for this set of particular circumstances, I would not have to be here to announce my sexuality because, frankly, it's nobody's business."

But it became everyone's business when the media began to understand the inequality of the situation and brought the couple's struggle to the attention of their neighbors, their fellow citizens and area governments.

The film's producers say, "Despite the demands of her own declining health, Laurel's final act of bravery would serve to energize a grassroots movement that extended far beyond the confines of her local community and her home state."

The movie combines a fight for equality with the personal love story between the couple.

The film will be shown on Saturday, April 12th at 2:30 p.m. as part of the Women's Weekend Conference. It's just one more reason to sign up for the Women's Conference, have the opportunity to hear some amazing speakers (including Lisa Sherman, the General Manager of Logo Network) and then see this incredible film.

For information call CAMP Rehoboth at 302-227-5620.

LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 18, No. 02 February 08, 2008