The Struggle is Real

It's amazing what these people have been through.

In my assigned transcripts alone I have read about discrimination, difficult situations, and downright miserable conditions that my interviewees have survived. For example, in SpegalSprout, I found that Kathie Spegal had a hard time with the nuns at her all-girls Catholic school. She and her drinking buddies (term credited to Mr. Rayburn) carried around handkerchiefs that were a specific color to indicate that they were lesbians. The nuns called them to the office and taught them that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. So Kathie had to battle that at a very young age.

That may sound like a lot to deal with, but when I came to Lynn Sprout's story, my jaw dropped at the troubles she has gone through. Fast-forward to when her marriage (which wasn't to great to begin with) ended abruptly when she found out her husband was sexually abusing her children. To protect them, Lynn took her children and ran to Texas with her best friend. There they had to live in a worn-down barn and consume cheese, rice, and powdered milk provided by government cheese lines. That was the beginning of Lynn's first lesbian relationship. (Romantic, right?)

Anyway, I don't want to spoil everything, so I'll stop there. But I'm really shocked at how much our interviewees have had to live through, and I'm proud to be a part of making a documentary with stories from all these awesome people.