‘Out at Work’ Available on DVD

by aflcioblogger, Jul 17, 2009

Seventeen years ago, a couple of New York City filmmakers, Kelli Anderson and Tami Gold, made their way to AFSCME’s District Council 37 in Manhattan to videotape a conference on lesbian and gay rights in the workplace for a monthly show they produced on public access television called “Labor at the Crossroads.” 

As it turned out, this was the beginning of “Out at Work,” a compelling documentary about life on the job in the United States. After it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival—an extraordinary event in itself—Variety would praise it for its “inspiring human dimension.” And some 40 million people would eventually see a version of it on HBO. 

Both versions of “Out at Work”—the original documentary film and the HBO presentation—are now available for the first time on DVD from Transit Media Communications at 1-800-343-5540. Mention it if you’re a union member and ask about their discount. 

The original idea of “Out at Work” was simple enough. It told about three workers who had little in common except that each was LGBT and confronting colossal challenges connected with discrimination on the job. What’s more, each had an extraordinary story filled with grief, courage, confusion and moral grace.

* Cheryl Summerville, a cook at a Cracker Barrel restaurant outside Bremen, Ga., was fired for being a lesbian. Lest their be any doubt about the reason, her termination paper included this line: “Reason for termination: Employee is gay.” 

Summerville learned from the American Civil Liberties Union that such discrimination was legal in Georgia (as it still is to this day in 29 states) and she had no recourse. But this eventually led both Summerville and her partner, Sandy Riley, to transform their lives and become activists in the LGBT movement in Georgia. 

* Ron Woods, an auto plant technician with Chrysler, joined a protest against Cracker Barrel’s homophobia when the chain opened a restaurant in Michigan. His picture appeared on the front page of the Detroit Free Press, and he came to work at the Chrysler engine plant to find his picture on the wall announcing to his 3,000 co-workers that he was gay. 

“My life became a living hell,” he said. He was viciously harassed and physically attacked on the job because he had come “out.” With the support of two leaders of his UAW local, however, things did get better after he transferred to another facility, and his new co-workers slowly began to accept him. They even elected him shop steward and then delegate to the UAW convention, where he introduced a successful resolution calling for a ban on sexual orientation discrimination in union contracts. 

* Nat Keitt, a public library clerk in the Bronx, was—unlike Woods and Summerville—completely accepted at work. “I’m out on my job. I was never in!” he said. But he had a different sort of crisis to contend with: He was facing financial disaster. His partner of 10 years, David Sanabria, had HIV/AIDS and his disability benefits were running out. Because New York City public employees had no health benefit coverage for domestic partners, Keitt was incurring tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt to pay for Sanabria’s medical expenses—and the debt was growing rapidly. 

The good news is that Keitt’s union, AFSCME’s District Council 37, campaigned for domestic partner benefits. It won that struggle in time to provide health coverage for Sanabria in his last days and save Keitt from even greater debt. 

It’s unlikely that you’d forget these narratives. It’s impossible that you’d forget some of the most vivid images in ”Out at Work”: 

• Summerville and Riley, a warm and deeply affectionate couple, cooking their meals and bathing their Boston terrier together, and later standing side by side as Summerville speaks at a rally.
• The intensely idealistic Woods as he describes the threats and violence he had to deal with at work because he’s gay, and the later image of Woods speaking before the UAW convention and receiving a dramatic standing ovation from thousands of his union sisters and brothers.
• Keitt in one scene caring for and joking with the man he deeply loved, in another scene attending his funeral, and in yet another scene, celebrating the domestic partner benefits at an AFSCME victory party. 

More than anything else, it is the images of these extraordinary people who look so deceptively ordinary that explain the enduring power and beauty of “Out at Work.”

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