Out in the Silence

Joe Wilson:
What they call agenda, we call our lives.

Herself (Lorde, Audre):
[quote in opening scene] When we speak, we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.

[first lines]

Joe Wilson:
I've lived in Washington, D.C. for twenty years. It's where I met Dean, playing pick-up basketball, and made a life for myself. But no matter how long you've been away from home or how much you've changed, the place, you were born and raised in, always stays some place deep inside. For me, that place is Oil City. A small town with small town values in the hills of western Pennsylvania.

Joe Wilson:
[after speaking in front of the school board] It was obvious the school board wasn't concerned about C.J. or any gay student.

Joe Wilson:
This place is rough. If you are not a man, white, who likes to do the missionary position, it's over.

Kathy Springer:
[to the state legislative committee] I hope this never happens, where you're children are being tortured for being who they are.

Kathy Springer:
[mother of gay son] They weren't put on this Earth to be tortured like this.

Kathy Springer:
[to the state legislative committee] We've had our house threatened to be burned down. We've had phone calls by these boys saying, "We wanna see what color a f*ggot bleeds."

Kathy Springer:
[to the state legislative committee] He was vulnerable. He was scared. He didn't want to go to school. His grades were dropping. He was suicidal.

Joe Wilson:
Ever since the wedding announcement, I felt I'd been battling against people who use religion to deny people their basic rights and visibility. Pastor Micklos was open to looking at things in a different way. I never thought I'd become friends with someone who didn't view me as his equal. But his willingness to examine his beliefs, helped me see that not all religious people fell into the box I often put them in.

Himself (Blackwell, Thomas W.):
[state representative's response to Springer's testimonial and Gramley's speech] Sometimes black people have a problem with people who are different comparing their experiences with the black experience. Because of your experience, you are going to be able to help other young people, to making it into law, to make sure this doesn't happen again. God bless you for it.

Himself (Dahle, Ronald):
[father of gay son, who won the first lawsuit against a school board in Pennsylvania] What really irritates me is that I used to go out of my way to actually cause bodily harm to gay people. Okay? We used it like a sport. It was stupid. Then when you came out of the closet and told me you were gay, I thought, "Oh no. No. No." Then I got to thinking, that kid is yours. You're going to disown him for his sexual orientation or are you going to love him for who he is inside? I said the hell with it. I'm going to love him for who he is inside.

Herself (Gramley, Diane):
[head of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania speaking at the hearing on proposed anti-discrimination legislation] Civil rights have long been fought for disenfranchised groups of people. African-Americans led the fight for civil rights, seeking the right to vote and no longer requiring to sit in the back of a bus. But a person's skin color and national origin is unchangeable.

Joe Wilson:
Again, Gramley was trying to use race as a wedge to divide. But this time she was dealing with people experienced in civil rights law.