“Testimony: Take A Stand” video challenge ends Wednesday

There’s no time to lose – your chance to submit a 1 to 2-minute clip for Dustin Lance Black and the Courage Campaign’s video challenge is up this Wednesday at noon. *EDIT:* the deadline has been extended to July 4.

The Testimony: Take A Stand Video Challenge will be a collection of videos from LGBT people across the country talking about their own personal truths.  It can be about how you identify or how you’re getting there, and the challenges you still face, or about the ways that specific laws have affected you personally.

Clips will be posted on the Courage Campaign’s website – they’re expecting thousands – and at least three winners will be selected.  Those winners will be filmed professionally and produced into short ads to appear in communities across America.

Black – the screenwriter of Milk as well as HBO’s Big Love, told Out Front Colorado this has to do with California’s court challenge of Proposition 8 which banned same-sex marriage, along with other LGBT causes currently being decided by policymakers or in courts.  Black will be personally involved in selecting and filming the winners and turning them into ads.

“Judges don’t live in a bubble,” he said.  “Historically, the quickest way to create change is to tell our story.”

To see Black’s own video or tell your story, go to CourageCampaign.org, fill out the form and submit a video electronically, which can be shot with a digital camera or camcorder, cell phone camera or webcam.

Black asked that videos be branded by including the words “this is my truth” or “this is my testimony” at the beginning of the clip.

Make sure you can be clearly seen and heard in the clip.

Black said he’s hoping for diverse testimonies when it comes to age, ethnicity, religion, background and experience – to reach out to all communities and make sure people get a chance to hear real stories from LGBT people they could know.*e