3Way TV

Power Up Gala

Posted by Nancylee Myatt on November 11th, 2008

Thank you. I’m touched and overwhelmed – although it could be that last Maker’s Mark I had before I came up here. First I want to thank Stacy and Lisa and Chris and the team at Power UP, for honoring me and for putting together a great evening to celebrate visibility and an organization that has continually fought for and created in-roads for lesbians in the entertainment business.

I want to thank my friends, who are my family, for giving up your Sunday night. For washing your hair, pulling on the spanks and coming out here to share this evening. If it weren’t for each and every one of you I wouldn’t have had the courage and the resources to do half the things I’ve done. And it totally helps that you guys will work for booze and snacks.

In typical writer tradition, I did not write this speech until this morning. I had weeks to pull it together but there were so many other things that I needed to put to bed before I could actually sit down and write — I had to clean the house, make soup, scrapbook, answer all the requests on Classmates.com and Plaxo, and watch Practical Magic again for the 34th time. My plate being clear I was ready.

So I asked a few people this morning for their thoughts:

Maile suggested I turn my thank you into a drinking game. Every time I say “Dude” you guys take a shot. Nice, Dude.

Paige said I should keep it clean and for Gods sake don’t sing. Like she knows me (hey Bridget forget the song).

Tommy Lynch wanted me to use this opportunity to pitch a show to those of you here tonight who might want to do a show with us. Only this time he’d like to work for a network that would allow the two hot girls who fall in love to be in the shower a lot.

All good pitches. But here’s really all I want to say, that I haven’t already said in the scripts and shows I’ve written and produced.

You probably don’t know much about me.

My father married a pure Cherokee
My mother’s people were ashamed of me
The Indians said I was white by law
The white man always called me “Indian Squaw.”

Half Breed, that’s all I ever heard
Half Breed, how I learned to hate the word
(Everyone sing out!)
Half Breed, she’s no good they warned
Both sides were against me since the day I was born.

Thank you to all of you who continue to support gay and lesbian visibility in the media. To all of you amazing and talented actors who are willing to be gay on screen. To the straight and gay writer- producers who fight to put the stories on the networks at the risk of not getting anything on the air.

As Sarah Warn pointed out on Afterellen.com this week “There are statistics to support the clear correlation between visibility of gays and lesbians and attitudes towards homosexuality. And as long as lesbians aren’t included in these stories, we won’t be included in our culture in other meaningful ways – including at the ballot box.”

Right now, in this political climate, we have turned a corner. One large step forward for America, but one giant leap backwards for equality. With a television landscape that can’t seem to find room for our stories, this is the time when we must stay the course.
I know it’s not easy, I know that better than most. I know so much of it is out of our hands, that our opportunity to create and work has very little to do with our talent. It’s heartbreaking and discouraging not to be able to do the thing that we were born to do.

But we must keep defying gravity. Keep finding new ways to get in, to get heard, to create opportunities for yourself and the community. And as Maeve and the 3Way team and I recently discovered, you’ll be giving the audiences what they want. And when they show up, the money follows, and when the money comes, we win.

I used to say when we couldn’t get ahead, “Don’t take it personal its business.” But now it’s time to take it personal and make telling our stories the most important part of the business there is.

To that end, next week I’m pitching a movie to Lifetime that I think will cross all demographics. It’s called “I do it with women and yes, you can watch.”

And here are a couple of other projects I’m working on –
“MILF the Susan Sarandon Story.”
“Girls who like girls who like… girls.”
And “Lady Robbers who were comfortable shoes.”

In closing I’d like to say, follow your dreams. And when that doesn’t work – Drink. And when that doesn’t work – Cry. And when that doesn’t work – write a web series.

Thank you…

(Nancylee Myatt, Hollywood, California 11/9/08)