Your Thoughts

To the Creators of this Dvd:
     
    Well, What can I say; but Thank You for everything,the impact of your project is gonna be really great & possitive!!! Live life to the fullest!!! By the way here is a Hawaiian saying that I Learned ” I ka ‘Olelo no ke ola, I ka ‘Olelo no ka make ”
(” In speech there is life & In speech there is death”).

      All in all this Movie( Out in the silence) was the best movie of my life!!! Im am so proud how the mother embraced and loved her son with no questions asked. We need parents like her throughout the world. This dvd helped me in ways beyond my words. I am so thankful for who I am, Growing up myself was definetly hard but today I survived as well.  I am really proud of all the kids that stepped up & out to be heard. I feel that God don’t make mistake, He just makes people like Us more special, and Im eternally greatful for that. This Movie will help the future generations to come.

Mahalo nui Loa ( thank you very Much)
-Kahele Napeahi .

Incredible film!! I was not happy to see and hear the extent of homophobia in a part of the state where I grew up. Hopefully enough people will see this film and it can begin to make a difference!

Good point. I hadn’t tohught about it quite that way.

Well I too live in a small town of about 5,000 people, I live in the hills of California, now most people think California is such an accepting and liberal state well that is not completely true. sure most of the state might be OK, but in the small towns its just as Conservative and small minded as the rest of the small town’s ( all over not just the south ). Here the big thing is Christian beliefs, religion, and sports As far as i know i am literally the only gay teen or youth in my town, and possibly only say 4 other teens or youth in the whole county. My point is i understand the struggle Cj had went through, my experience was not as harsh because i am simply still to afraid to fully come out in this town, but through high school there where all the kids who thought i was gay and of course made my life hell. After Seeing this DOC, i was really inspired, not just for the plain fact that you should be able to be your self, but also that against all the hateful people there are people trying to make a change, and people are starting to change.

I would love to actually be able to talk to C.J. because not only did he go through that all, he is still trying to make a change, and as a teen its not always the easiest to be herd or taken seriously. I work as a teen peer educator trying to teach just plain sex ed and safe sex and just have other teens to talk to.

Anyways i really loved this DOc “out in silence” its inspiring, i feel like there is hope out there.

I am a former conservative Christian and avid AFR listener. My heart has been changing for the past two years as my eyes have been opened. AFR is brainwashing people. They are not spreading the love of Jesus Christ but hate. This is a very dangerous thing. This documentary made me cry when I watched it. It put a face to all the people I used to think of as sinners. AFR is trying to hold back a whole class of people by working to deny them of their civil rights. What right does anyone have to tell someone they cannot marry the one they love? They are putting people’s lives in peril by their hate speech. I hope this film opens the hearts and minds of people. I am behind the message 100%. It is a very thoughtful and thought provoking film. It is very well made. I live in Ms. about 20 miles from the birthplace of AFR. You can imagine how ultra conservative it is around here. I really hope this documentary can be brought to my town.

I very simply believe that it is individuals like yourself that are ruining this world.  I know people like you are making a difference, but its pointing the children of tomorrow in the wrong direction.  Homosexuality is wrong, and I will stand with that believe until I die.  I am so tired of it being pushed on straight people, your not a minority, quit trying to make everyone feel like your lives are so awful because of us. 

I haven’t even seen the movie, and still I am moved by just knowing it exists.  My college’s Safe Zone and LGBT Alliance Teams are showing the film during our Pride Week awareness events, and I can’t wait.  Just from reading synopses and being so close to the situation and Oil City itself.  I grew up in Jamestown, now live in Greenville, and spent a lot of time in Oil City, for athletic competition dinner stops on our way to cooks forest to camp in the summers. 
High school was the worst, and I remember how hard it was to balance having your secrets and trying to live true to your life.  A difficult thing about being an out bisexual female is that most people (straight men) don’t believe you and the people who do (females) are no longer comfortable with you, constantly afraid you’ll “hit on them.”  Most anyone else just doesn’t understand.  The loneliness, emptiness, and hopelessness is very real in small towns.  I could never come out to my parents (I’m sure I never will) because they were raised and are the same people that are immersed and perpetuate this hostile environment blindness to LGBT issues that exists in places like Northwest PA.  I know of people who have been threatened both in my hometown and my current town. It’s beautiful that C.J.‘s mother was so supportive, to the point of reaching out FOR him.  It’s also heartwarming to know that the views are changing around here.

I can’t wait to see this film!

Thank you for this very informative, tasteful and heart-felt film. I am humbled by the strength, courage and selflessness that CJ was able to find in himself when defending the rights another person, and in doing so exposing himself to the bigotry of his home town. I am a 22 year old gay male who grew up and will be moving back to a “red-neck” town in northern British Columbia. Fort St. John is a small town based on the oil industry and so it has a tendency to attract a rougher more transient crowd. Growing up I never had to deal with harassment of being gay in a rather conservative town… but this is only because I was so great at hiding my true self. I knew that I was gay as young as 12 years old, but never had feelings for another guy until around the age of 15. Using the internet as a way to immerse myself in the homosexual culture I was able to quench that part of myself, without having to reveal myself to my friends, family or community. I can truly appreciate the terror that this young man was subjected to… I may have been lucky in the sense that I was not brutalized, but I became so good at wearing a mask of “who people expected me to be” that I almost lost myself. I have considered suicide before, I even dated a woman for 2 years in an attempt to live the lifestyle that people expected of me… that would be easier. The channels carved through my soul by the sorrow and shame I felt during that time in my life will likely always be a part of myself. I only came out last year, after my younger brother passed away, because I could no longer live a life where I lied to myself and those around me. I hated myself, became depressed and would have rather ended it all… I didn’t. I had spent the last 4 years in Vancouver working on my Pharmacy degree and was fortunate to be in a place where I could find the support necessary to help me through the most difficult time in my life. Now, being in a better place, I know that I am going to use my experiences to be part of the change for a better society. I will go back to Fort St. John, will openly express myself as any other person would, and will be the target for the harassment, the bigotry and the hatred that is founded in the misunderstanding of some people within the community. I will do it all because I am going to be a part of the change that works towards a society where young kids, adolescents and adults that are gay don’t have to live in fear suffering for who they are. Like the quote in the beginning of the film indicated, “if we don’t speak up we will still be afraid, it is better to speak up”. I will share this film with every on that I know. Thank you.

Tyler

Bravo! What a beautiful film! I wish ALL the best to you all!!

When I watched this documentary it really upset me that in today’s society there are still people who don’t accept or understand homosexuality. I’ve never been able to understand why people think that someone would choose a life full of prejudice and hate. I have been very lucky that my friends and family are very accepting and understanding and I am very thankful that I always have their support. However I know there are a lot of places where this is not the case and I think that in this documentary could have opened a lot of people eyes to the suffering and hate many gay teenagers go through growing up. I’m 18 now and I am at university, where everyone seems to be a lot more accepting. However I remember first being outed as gay at school, and the fear I felt as a 15 year old genuinally worried for his life in a place where the word gay was used as a daily insult and sexual orientation was never talked about much. Luckily I was never attacked or seriously bullied because of my sexual orientation as I had a lot of good friends who, at the first sign of any abuse, would act out with me. But I wish it were the same for everyone. I wish they would bring a documentary similar to this out in the UK. I myself would gladly produce something that I know would make a lot of people realise that sexual orientation is not a choice and no one should be made to feel the way CJ and the hundreds of other teenagers are made to feel every day at school. Thank you for making this documentary I just hope it really does help change people.

Josh