ILENE CHAIKEN

There is an experience shared in common among a great many lesbians and gay men. We love movies and television, and we savor the great stories -- stories of adventure, stories of courage, stories of struggle, triumph, redemption, love -- oh, but when we get to the "love" part, there's always been a little internal maneuver we've had to execute. We transpose. Usually unconsciously and with fairly little effort, nonetheless we have, throughout our lives, translated and transposed and reorganized hundreds of stories of heterosexual love to our own homosexual experiences, substituting our fantasies, our obstacles, our objects of desire, ourselves in lieu of a person of the opposite gender.

Take that swooning love scene in "A Place in the Sun" -- so moving and memorable and transcendent. Of course, it wasn't the Elizabeth Taylor character to whom I related. Not for a moment did I want to kiss Montgomery Clift, beautiful and effeminate as he was. I wanted to be Montgomery Clift kissing Elizabeth Taylor. Or when Lauren Bacall put the moves on Humphrey Bogart in "To Have and Have Not" -- well, it was never that much of a stretch, really, to morph Lauren Bacall into a sexy butch top seducing some equally suave but submissive girl. Still, our stories were largely unrepresented in the popular culture, especially the stories of our emotional and romantic lives. Even as we gays have, for centuries, been responsible for creating and enriching so much of that culture, we've endured and accepted our own invisibility. Until now.

The simple reason that I'm proud to be standing here tonight -- among the 10 amazing gay women and the women of POWER UP, among my colleagues from Showtime and my colleagues from "The L Word" and some very, very good friends and many interesting acquaintances and intriguing strangers -- is that all together you comprise that leading edge that is radically changing our culture. Even in the face of the most sinister and cynical and stunningly mean-spirited administration ever to set national policy, you are committing the one radical act that is unstoppable and irrevocable, at once the bulwark against their bizarrely regressive political agenda and the stealth weapon that, boldly or slyly, moves the culture forward in the face of truly odious countervailing forces.


 


Telling our stories is absolutely the most radical act and the most pervasive. Our stories are far-reaching and life-affirming. I'm reminded of that when I go out with Angela Robinson and girls flock around her -- and I know they flock around her for all kinds of reasons -- but mainly to tell her how awesome and inspiring both she and her movies are. I'm reminded when I go to a BETTY show in Chicago and a woman corrals me to tell the story of how she was given the courage to come out of the closet after seeing her very first BETTY show 17 years ago back in Washington, D.C. I'm reminded when Lisa Thrasher describes to me going to the Tokyo Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and being greeted by a roomful of Japanese women all gleefully singing and knowing every single word of "The L Word" theme song. I'm reminded repeatedly when the women in "The L Word" cast share the letters they've received and the encounters they've had with people all over the country, telling them how moved and heartened and downright ecstatic they are to see their lives finally represented on a popular television show.

POWER UP is remarkable for bringing this group of women together and all the more remarkable for conceiving of and implementing an actual new model for growing and promoting talent, especially in a population that has been so long marginalized. Mentoring and collaboration -- two of PowerUP's cornerstones -- are fundamental to the success of all of our creative endeavors. Personally, it thrills and honors me to be able to look at this year's list of 10 amazing gay women and say that I've already worked with six out of the 10. Of the four remaining, well, I've talked with one about our working together, which, in Hollywood is tantamount to having already worked together, and the other three I hope soon to be able to add to my list. POWER UP has proven by multiple examples that the person you mentor today may well be employing several hundred others on her mega-budget studio movie this time next year.

Now, I believe women make a real and substantive difference when we run things, so I'm going to just come right out and admit that I think it's one of the reasons "The L Word" works in the funky, fluid, unlikely way that it does. From my fierce and imperturbable producing partner Rose Lam and my closest and most diversely gifted creative colleague Elizabeth Ziff, through the rest of our terrific writing and producing staff, the 10 women out of a total of 12 directors who came to work with us this season, and of course the stunning, smart, passionate cast of "The L Word" -- we workshop, debate, analyze, process, resolve and then process some more, in the way that only women can. I'm told that it's an atypical way to run a TV show. It's also challenging and consuming, but joyful. And in the end, our fluid, ambitious, overachieving, chaotic woman-run mode and method apparently is working in spades.

It wouldn't be, however, if Showtime hadn't already carved out their mission to prove that there is glamour and profit in telling the stories of people whose stories haven't been told. I've got to give major props to Bob Greenblatt, already much honored and awarded, for being a champion of our causes, affiliated with some of the most exceptional and groundbreaking television ever produced. And Jerry Offsay, a former POWER UP honoree, has probably put more gay stories on television than any straight white man in history. Then there's Gwen Marcus -- you already know that she's an amazing gay woman, but what you probably don't know is what a blissful comfort it is to have her there in that high-rise in midtown Manhattan, covering our backs and making sure that we stay the course, while her colleague Melinda Benedek does the same for us here on the West Coast. And finally, Gary Levine -- he wasn't on this year's list of 10 amazing gay women in showbiz, but he should be, because he's one of the smartest, most supportive and inherently feminist men any of us could hope to encounter in her professional career.

We are advancing, even in spite of the dark cloud that hovers over our nation's capital and wafts with toxic effect throughout the country. In either June or November, one of the most insidious anti-gay initiatives ever attempted will appear on the California ballot. The artists and activists and storytellers in this room will be critical to overthrowing it. Having finally begun to claim our place front and center in the popular culture, we are not about to give it up. Thank you, POWER UP. Thank you, Margaret. Thank you, Sarah and Alexandra and Daniela. And thanks to all of you for doing the bold, ambassadorial, entertaining, moving and life-altering work of our lifetimes.