By Jeffrey R. Epstein

I moved to Los Angeles in the mid ’90s, the peak of the New Queer Cinema movement when filmmakers like Gregg Araki, Todd Haynes, Rose Troche and Cheryl Dunye broke through portraying LGBTQ+ characters as the messy, complicated, hilarious, wonderful people we are instead of the stereotypes often found in mainstream cinema at the time.

I had grown up outside of Boston, and despite incredibly supportive parents, I was bullied mercilessly at school. I was called a “fag” and “gay” before my bullies (or I) fully grasped what it meant. Many times, I thought about self-harm, and for me, no amount of parental love could extinguish the mental pain inflicted by my tormentors.