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Documentary on murder of Talana Kreeger to raise awareness of LGBT hate crimes

Talana Quay Kreeger

Talana Quay Kreeger

Talana Quay Kreeger, 32, a lesbian, was found murdered in the woods near Wilmington, NC in 1990. She was the victim of a hate crime.

Sadly, the hate continued even after Kreeger’s death.

Funeral homes and churches refused to take her body or hold services, concerned a memorial would attract a large crowd of people who were LGBT. Police in effect blamed the victim, saying it was not in the best interest of people who are LGBT to be too visible.

National Association of Social Workers member and filmmaker Tab Ballis, MSW, is working to complete “Park View,” a film about the tragic murder of Kreeger. He hopes the film will educate the public and spur support of initiatives to stop hate crimes.

Despite positive movements such as the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage, “Park View” is relevant today because  people who are LGBT are still under threat, Ballis said.

You can watch a trailer of the film and make a contribution to help complete The Park View Project on the film’s fundraising page. And follow the project on Facebook.

This year there was a horrific mass shooting at the Pulse LGBT nightclub in Orlando and North Carolina passed an infamous bathroom law that prevents people who are transgender from using the public restroom of their choice.

“In particular, it appears that a false sense of security has made LGBT people even more vulnerable to the specter of hate crimes in recent years — and these attacks are disproportionately directed towards individuals who are too old, too young, too poor, too isolated to insulate themselves from harm,” Ballis said.

Ballis is private practice clinician and part-time faculty member with the University of North Carolina Wilmington School of Social Work. His short film “My Marriage Is Not Threatened By Gay Marriage In North Carolina,” which protested a North Carolina ballot initiative to ban same-sex marriage, won a 2013 NASW Media Award for best documentary.

tabballis

Tab Ballis and others are seeking funding to complete Park View.

The Park View Project has gained  momentum from Stephen Sprinkle’s book “Unfinished Lives,” which looks at the hate crime murders of Kreeger and 13 other people.

The producers of Park View and the local LGBT advocacy organization The Frank Harr Foundation  are  trying to raise $15,000 to complete the film and show it at film festivals.

Ballis did research by interviewing community members who mourned Kreeger, reviewing the court case file and poring through archival news footage and news articles.

“Decades later, the LGBT communities of Wilmington still bear the scars of this and other hate crimes that reached a peak during the conservative political backlash of the late 1980s in the United States,” Ballis said.

 

 

 

 

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  1. Go fund me page would be ideal to raise the needed money to complete this project.

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