Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America

Last updated
Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America
Directed byTiffany Rhynard
Produced byTiffany Rhynard
Heather Mathews
StarringMoises Serrano
Edited byHeather Matthews
Music byDave Merson Hess
Release date
  • July 12, 2016 (2016-07-12)(Outfest)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America is a 2016 documentary about Moises Serrano, [1] who grew up queer and undocumented in Yadkinville, North Carolina. Produced by director Tiffany Rhynard and editor Heather Mathews, the immigration reform documentary had its world premiere in Los Angeles at Outfest on July 12, 2016. [2]

Contents

Moises Serrano

The subject of Forbidden is Moises Serrano. [3] When he was an infant, Serrano's parents fled Mexico in search of the American Dream. Forbidden to live and love as an undocumented gay man in the country he calls home, Serrano saw only one option—to fight for justice. He is just like the thousands of other young people growing up in the United States with steadfast dreams, however being gay and undocumented in the rural South presents tremendous challenges. This film chronicles Serrano's work as an activist, traveling across his home state of North Carolina as a voice for his community, and trying to forge a legal path for their future.

Serrano's journey illustrates the intersection of queer and immigrant issues, highlighting the challenges facing LGBT people growing up in the rural South, where racism and homophobia are not uncommon. Part of the film takes place in the spring of 2016, when presidential candidate Donald Trump invoked heated anti-immigrant rhetoric. At the same time North Carolina passed discriminatory laws against the LGBT community. Forbidden humanizes the issues of immigration and gay rights, demonstrating how one individual has the power to combat the destructive oppression of an entire group of people.

In claiming his identity as undocumented, Serrano risked deportation for himself and his family. His story demonstrates courage, conviction and an unyielding quest to challenge the circumstances in which he was born. Forbidden has inspired many other undocumented people to speak out, tell their stories, and join with like-minded politicians to affect change to U.S. immigration policy. [4]

Awards

Related Research Articles

NewFest: The New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival put on by The New Festival, Inc., is one of the most comprehensive forums of national and international LGBT film/video in the world.

Outfest is an LGBTQ-oriented nonprofit that produces two film festivals, operates a movie streaming platform, and runs educational services for filmmakers in Los Angeles. Outfest is one of the key partners, alongside the Frameline Film Festival, the New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival, and the Inside Out Film and Video Festival, in launching the North American Queer Festival Alliance, an initiative to further publicize and promote LGBT film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Audre Lorde Project</span> LGBT community and activism organization

The Audre Lorde Project is a Brooklyn, New York-based organization for LGBT people of color. The organization concentrates on community organizing and radical nonviolent activism around progressive issues within New York City, especially relating to LGBT communities, AIDS and HIV activism, pro-immigrant activism, prison reform and organizing among youth of color. It is named for the lesbian-feminist poet and activist Audre Lorde and was founded in 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Equality California</span> Non-profit civil rights organization

Equality California (EQCA) is a non-profit civil rights organization that advocates for the rights of LGBT people in California. It is the largest statewide LGBT organization in the United States and the largest member of the Equality Federation. The organization is based in Los Angeles.

Arthur Dong is an American filmmaker and author whose work centers on Asia America and anti-gay prejudice. He was raised in San Francisco, California, graduating from Galileo High School in June 1971. He received his BA in film from San Francisco State University and also holds a Directing Fellow Certificate from the American Film Institute Center for Advanced Film Studies. In 2007, SFSU named Dong its Alumnus of the year “for his continued success in the challenging arena of independent documentary filmmaking and his longstanding commitment to social justice."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Allen Harris</span>

Thomas Allen Harris is a critically acclaimed, interdisciplinary artist who explores family, identity, and spirituality in a participatory practice. Since 1990, Harris has remixed archives from multiple origins throughout his work, challenging hierarchy within historical narratives through the use of pioneering documentary and research methodologies that center vernacular image and collaboration. He is currently working on a new television show, Family Pictures USA, which takes a radical look at neighborhoods and cities of the United States through the lens of family photographs, collaborative performances, and personal testimony sourced from their communities..

Gay media refers to media that predominantly targets a gay, lesbian or LGBTQ+ allied audience. The primary target market for gay media may also more broadly be considered to include members of an LGBTQ+ community. Secondary targets are LGBTQ+ allies, and in some instances those who oppose gay rights may be targeted as a form of activism to change their minds. There are many types of gay media, and the type is determined by the purpose of the media presented. Gay or queer media can also be defined as web sites, films, magazines and other cultural products that were created by queer individuals, or groups that are typically out, meaning that they are public or open about their identity. Gay creators do not always include gay themes or issues in their productions but there is usually at least subtle references to queerness or acceptance in this media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Discrimination in the United States</span>

Discrimination comprises "base or the basis of class or category without regard to individual merit, especially to show prejudice on the basis of ethnicity, gender, or a similar social factor". This term is used to highlight the difference in treatment between members of different groups when one group is intentionally singled out and treated worse, or not given the same opportunities. Attitudes toward minorities have been marked by discrimination in the history of the United States. Many forms of discrimination have come to be recognized in American society, particularly on the basis of national origin, race and ethnicity, non-English languages, religion, gender, and sexual orientation.

Joseph DeFilippis is an American gay-rights and anti-poverty activist, who has served as executive director of two non-profit organizations and worked as a teacher, community organizer and public speaker. He is best known as the founder of Queers for Economic Justice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yosimar Reyes</span> Mexican artist

Yosimar Reyes is a Mexican-born poet and activist. He is a queer undocumented immigrant who was born in Guerrero, Mexico and raised in East San Jose, California. Reyes has been described as "a voice that shines light on the issues affecting queer immigrants in the U.S. and throughout the world."

LGBT migration is the movement of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBT) people around the world and domestically, often to escape discrimination or ill treatment due to their sexuality. Globally, many LGBT people attempt to leave discriminatory regions in search of more tolerant ones.

This is a timeline of notable events in the history of non-heterosexual conforming people of Asian and Pacific Islander ancestry, who may identify as LGBTIQGNC, men who have sex with men, or related culturally-specific identities. This timeline includes events both in Asia and the Pacific Islands and in the global Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora, as the histories are very deeply linked. Please note: this is a very incomplete timeline, notably lacking LGBTQ-specific items from the 1800s to 1970s, and should n0t be used as a research resource until additional material is added.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southerners On New Ground</span>

Southerners on New Ground is a social justice, advocacy and capacity building organization serving and supporting queer and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, uniquely focusing its work in the southern United States through community organizing for economic and racial justice. The organization is unique, as most of the places it does work in do not have an LGBTQ organization like it.

The National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) is an American federation of Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian. and Pacific Islander LGBTQ organizations. NQAPIA was formed in 2007, as an outgrowth of the LGBT APA Roundtable working groups at the 2005 National Gay Lesbian Task Force Creating Change Conference in Oakland, California. NQAPIA seeks to build the capacity of local LGBT AAPI organizations, invigorate grassroots organizing, develop leadership, and challenge homophobia, racism, and anti-immigrant bias. The organization "focuses on grass-roots organizing and leadership development."

GAPIMNY is an all-volunteer-run organization that provides a range of social, educational, and cultural programming for queer and transgender people who are Asian and/or Pacific Islander in the New York City metropolitan area to support each other. The organization's community building efforts is intricately tied to political education and mutual aid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennicet Gutiérrez</span> Mexican activist

Jennicet Gutiérrez is an activist for transgender rights and immigrant rights. A founding member of La Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement, much of her activist work supports trans women detained for their immigration status. She was named on Out magazine's Out100 list in 2015. Gutiérrez is based in Los Angeles, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Michael Barrett</span> American screenwriter and producer

David Michael Barrett is an American screenwriter and film producer in Los Angeles, California.

Sexuality, including same-sex sexuality, and other non-normative forms of sexuality have been central to the history of Chinatown, San Francisco. San Francisco's Chinatown, founded in 1848, is the first and largest in the United States. San Francisco was shaped by early Chinese immigrants, who came from the Guangdong province of southern China. These immigrants gathered in the Bay Area in order to join in the California Gold Rush and to build railroads in the American west. San Francisco's Chinatown made room for these early Chinese immigrants to live, and the area turned into a "bachelor society", where female prostitution was pervasive because of the Chinese Exclusion Act. As a racialized immigration region, Chinatown was viewed as an immoral place with the characteristics of "vice", "sluttery" and "sexual deviance" for a long time. These traits were incompatible with the mainstream culture and dominant norms of American society. From the mid-19th century, the state problematized Chinese female prostitution with the subject of sexual transmission, and the government began to go against industrial prostitution in Chinatown, as well as Chinese immigration. As the sex industry grew throughout the Bay Area, the government had to stop the anti-prostitution and anti-immigration law in the beginning of the 20th century. Just like the Castro district and other areas, Chinatown developed its own sexual industries and provided a variety of sexual entertainment to both immigrants and white visitors.

Filipino American LGBT Studies is a field of studies that focus on the issues met by people at the intersection of Filipino American and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender identities.

References

  1. Serrano, Moises (8 December 2014). "Op-ed: Undocumented, Queer, and Bullied". The Advocate. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  2. Isaac, Tim (24 June 2016). "Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America Trailer - Living as an undocumented gay man in the American South - Big Gay Picture Show". Big Gay Picture Show. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  3. Russell, John. "He's Here, He's Queer, He's Undocumented. The "Forbidden" Story Of Moises Serrano". NewNowNext. Logo. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  4. Finding home in the only country I've known | Moises Serrano | TEDxGreensboro - TEDx Talks on YouTube
  5. "Southern Poverty Law Center Social Justice Award".
  6. Television Academy
  7. Television Academy Honors Forbidden|Television Academy