Out of the Past — Studio C

“Teaching America’s hidden history,” The Daily Cardinal, October 5, 1998

At the beginning of her senior year at East High School in Salt Lake City, Utah, Kelli Peterson would have seemed, to herself and to her classmates, an unlikely spokesperson for a national movement. Reluctantly thrust onto the national stage before her 18th birthday, Peterson doggedly asserted her rights and the rights of all gay and lesbian students — indeed, students of all persuasions — demanding the right for the Gay Straight Alliance, a modest organization she co-founded, to meet after school one day a week.

Having only recently come to terms with her own sexuality, Peterson sought to give other students who had felt the same sense of isolation and shame an informal outlet to voice their feelings and establish a sense of unity. School board members, faculty, parents, and some students, however, didn’t welcome the idea with the same enthusiasm as the dozen or so students who would join the group. In fact, this rigid faction of parents and pols held such contempt for this one extracurricular group that they voted to suspend the rights of all extracurricular groups, including the Bible club.

Out of the Past, 1998 winner in the Sundance Film Festival category for Best Documentary, unfolds as a dramatic narrative, interweaving Kelli Peterson’s contemporary saga with these historical accounts, offering effective counterpoints between past and present. In one sequence, Peterson narrates a passage from her own writing, disclosing private reflections on her sexuality. A moment later we are examining Michael Wigglesworth’s own encoded musings of three and a half centuries ago.

Kevin Jennings, associate producer of Out of the Past, believes that the history presented in the film, no matter how remote, serves a purpose that far exceeds dramatic effect. “There’s this aching void in the consciousness of many gay people,” Jennings says. “Where did we come from? What is our history? What is our heritage? The fact that the top five history text books in America do not even mention the words ‘gay’ or 'lesbian’ speaks to the complete ignorance that our nation has on the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people to this nation’s development.”

Jennings, who blames an education system “which has thoroughly whitewashed our history to remove these facts from it,” is seeking to redress this void of knowledge through the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a national organization he founded four years ago, and through projects like Out of the Past. Jennings sees it as his “professional responsibility” to combat homophobia and has established that as the aim of GLSEN, focusing the organization’s work in K-12 schools.

“We want to make sure that this is the last generation that experiences the hate and the isolation that we experienced as young people,” Jennings says. “When people are presented with an image of the past in which lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people are absent, that shapes their view of the future. I think that it is no surprise that young people grow up to be bigoted if they are not gay and self-hating if they are gay.”

Formerly a high school teacher of 10 years, Jennings calls schools the “final frontier of the gay rights movement,” but sees it not as a conclusion, but a new beginning.

“Lesbian and gay people, because of homophobia, did not [traditionally] have access to resources, such as fellowships and doctoral grants, that have allowed us to do research,” Jennings says. “There’s been a real upsurge in the amount of research over the last few years, because those resources are becoming increasingly available, thanks to the recognition by universities that lesbian and gay studies is a valid field of academic inquiry.”

Out of the Past grew out of Jennings’ book Becoming Visible, which was the first publication of gay history designed for high school students. The filmmakers saw high school students as their target audience as well, but the scope of the project grew far beyond their initial intentions, receiving a theatrical release and showings in almost every major city in the country. PBS stations intend to broadcast the program this month at the same time that a small company of men and women closely involved with the film, including Gittings and Peterson, as well as Jennings, are fanning out across the country to present special screenings of the film.

Within the gay community, the film has been a revelation not only to audiences but to Jennings himself. “[One thing] that was revealed to me is the incredible hunger on the part of the gay community to know its history, and the sense of loss and emptiness that we as gay people have because we don’t know our heritage,” Jennings says. “When people finally learn that heritage, [they] learn that don’t need to be ashamed, that they have something to be proud of.”

The film’s appeal hasn’t been confined to the lesbian and gay community, however.

“What has been amazing to me about the film is its appeal to people, regardless of sexual orientation, regardless of age, regardless of their education background,” says Jennings. “People who are professors of lesbian and gay history have loved the film as have 13-year-olds. It seems to have a life changing experience on the people who see it.”