(audience applauds) - The pace of progress is promising.

The HIV virus has been identified.

- You don't understand - What have you been doing for 14 months?

You haven't said the A word yet.

- [George] Thank you on behalf of a grateful government.

(audience applauds) - I may be a big dyke, but I have to tell you, I'm not the biggest, 'cause I'm gonna introduce to you the biggest.

The biggest dyke I ever knew.

She's from Provincetown, Massachusetts, and her name is Urvashi Vaid!

(audience cheers and applauds) - With hearts full of love and with an abiding faith in justice, we have come to Washington to speak to America.

(audience cheers and applauds) - We're also joined in the Firehouse Studio by Urvashi Vaid.

She's an attorney and longtime gay rights activist.

- At the ripe age of 11, Urvashi took part in a demonstration against the Vietnam War and she's had one foot on the front line working for social change ever since.

- Why are we sitting on the sidelines?

The power to change is in our hands.

There is a role for every single voice in this room.

I also share this recognition with my partner in life, my Wi-Fi hotspot, Kate Clinton.

(audience laughs) (audience cheers and applauds) - In 1988, I met Urvashi, who is an incredible organizer.

- And today I'm really pleased to have as my two guests Kate Clinton and Urvashi Vaid.

- You know, we met each other in the movement.

- Mm-hm, yeah.

- The so-called war movement.

- You can find a relationship in the movement.

I went to see the first show that you did in Provincetown.

- My dear partner, who at the end of almost every show says to me, "Well, that was too long, but you've gotta do more politics."

- One of Kate's jokes opens people's minds more than, you know, five hours of polemic, five hours of C-SPAN (laughs).

- This was the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Rights.

I said, "We've got to decide about this bisexual thing, if it's going to halve the number or double the number of people.

We've got to figure this out."

(audience laughs) Sort of like a gay math word problem, isn't it?

(audience laughs) (audience applauds) (outdoor hum) (traffic whirring) I remember standing behind her as she was giving this incredible speech and there were a million people.

I've never looked at a million people live before.

And then we came back to Ptown, and I think it really helped Urvashi to see the success of the march was that it was the beginning of local organizing.

She's had so much experience starting organizations.

So she'd been in D.C.

I was on the road a lot.

She left the task force because she had wanted to write this book, "Virtual Equality."

It really enabled her to come here full-time, and it was wonderful to be a citizen of Provincetown.

- Now writing probably what will turn out to be the most important book ever written about our movement.

- What I'm trying to write about is the future and whether the strategies that we've employed are going to carry us through the '90s into the next millennium.

- Her father was a writer, so she knew what was involved in writing.

She was happy to be among artists.

Activism was her art.

She came to this very building.

She had this huge office upstairs.

I don't know, there's a certain way about Ptown.

You know, everybody always says it could be the light, it's the light, but there is a different kind of enlightenment here.

She got to think about it here, she got to write about it here, and do it in this building.

One of the highlights of Urvashi's summers was when her pals from the old days in Boston would all come out here and it was a gathering time for people who were running organizations throughout the country, like The Center in New York City or the AIDS work in LA.

And they were all over, in Chicago.

There were some still in Boston.

- I would watch middle-aged guys walk up to Urvashi on Commercial Street and say, "I heard you speak at the 1993 March on Washington and it changed my life."

I met Urvashi on our very first day of law school in 1980.

There in the morning in the student lounge was Urvashi buried behind a copy of "Gay Community News."

So, of course, I went up to her, and she had a great line, which was, you know, "Haven't I seen you at demonstrations?"

When we got out of law school, we would come back together in Provincetown to recharge, connect.

We're going to Tea Dance and being silly, cruising, go to the beach at Herring Cove every afternoon.

We wanted to escape and relax, but we knew we had to organize there as well and talk about the direction of our movement, what we needed to change, what we needed to do better, how we were gonna pay for it.

All of those conversations were happening, as well as what we were gonna have for dinner.

- We would go to the Fine Arts Work Center to a reading or something and it'd be like, "They're coming for dinner.

I asked them."

I was like, "Oh my God, we don't really know them."

It doesn't matter.

She's an incredible Indian cook.

Oh my God, there's 12 people here, and then somebody else would show up.

Then before everybody left, they would dance like crazy for a while and then they would just go out the front door.

And then there was cleanup oh well (chuckles).

Then she would say, "Let's go downtown and sit on the bench in front of Spiritus and talk to people."

And she also loved the pizza.

Community was very important to Urvashi and what she created.

Every Friday night, people would come by with their favorite feminist things and read.

People on the street were going by going, "What's that?"

We'd be like, "Feminist classics" (chuckles).

- And I ask us all to do something we have not yet done as lesbians: to organize ourselves into a political force that cannot be ignored.

(audience cheers and applauds) - Urv was launching LPAC, the first lesbian super PAC.

An idea that was hatched over dinner with lesbians in Ptown.

I was working at change.org and a friend put us together and we meet for coffee.

Urvashi made it very clear in that first meeting how important it was to have all generations at the table.

And I felt excited that there was a gathering around lesbians' political power to gain kind of real visibility and representation, which the world has not said was possible.

And Urvashi said, "This is possible.'

- Does every single queer person feel safe?

No!

Does every single queer person experience the level of freedom, let's say, that I experience living in Provincetown?

No!

And I feel it's our responsibility to sustain and support a movement that is in Arkansas and is in Alabama and is in, for that matter, parts of Massachusetts where people are still struggling.

- When we were here together, we always went to town meeting, which was amazing to see what were the concerns of people.

Urvashi absolutely did believe in working local.

She appreciated being with people, making things happen.

- This is the 11th annual deck party in Provincetown.

11 years.

(audience cheers) Now we come to the most wonderful and important part of the night, the Provincetown Community Service Awards, to recognize some of the wonderful people and the hardworking people in this community who do local activism and really make a difference in town.

- It was an honor to receive the Task Force Award as an artist and as the organizer of the Swim for Life, which had just started a few years earlier.

And also right around the same time, I created the Provincetown Community Compact, which assisted artists and organizations to create projects in the community.

One of the things that Urvashi was promoting was you gotta start where you are and you gotta create community where you are.

And one of those projects is the Provincetown Commons.

- Want to acknowledge Urvashi Vaid, (audience cheers and applauds) who is fabulous all over the world.

(audience laughs) And we have been fortunate to have her strategic advice for the last two years and now are blessed to have her as part of our board of directors.

- To The Commons, Commons!

(audience cheers and applauds) - I think The Commons was important to Urvashi 'cause she wanted more people to be able to do their art, to do their work here, and have a place that was a community.

- We heard when Urvashi and I were talking and meeting with people is was that there wasn't enough spaces in town outside of the bar scenes that existed to convene and host events and really bring the community together.

We've set up our board of directors to have half year-round and half part-time residents.

The Commons exist for artists and entrepreneurs and people who work from home, art shows, art studios, meeting rooms.

That's where you're gonna be inspired.

That's where you're gonna collaborate.

Urvashi was the main driving force of getting The Commons up and running.

She wanted to help foster that next generation of young, queer, diverse people that are gonna fall in love with Ptown and can actually stay there.

Jimmy Lee is one of our artists-in-residence.

He's a fashion designer, makes all of his own clothes.

Jimmy Lee's fashion show was one of the first that really brought, you know, such an eclectic group of year-rounders and then also people who are vacationing to The Commons.

I think for Urvashi, the Jimmy Lee event, it brings joy at the forefront.

It's about celebrating, celebrating the work of a local resident, celebrating the work of The Commons.

It brings it all together.

It was hard in the beginning 'cause we opened The Commons right as the pandemic was starting.

(tense music) - I mean, during COVID, I just absolutely cherish that we were here surrounded by friends and the beauty of this place.

We walked Clapps Pond.

We walked the jetty.

For both of us, the jetty was very much a meditation.

You would walk out, and then by the time you came back, you had absolutely no idea what was bothering you.

I'm sorry that we can't all be together, - What she loved about Ptown was how real it was.

I mean, 'cause you had people to dinner.

You did things with them.

Oh my God, she loved Tea Dance.

You know, you would go dance and celebrate with them.

So that kind of sharing of a good time was really critical when, you know, Urvashi developed or had a recurrence of breast cancer.

And everybody in the neighborhood and a lot of neighborhoods, you know, were always checking in.

It's an experience that so many millions of us have, cancer.

I think it's important for people to know that we walk among you (laughs) and that we're doing incredible things.

- Urvashi continued to work during COVID and did a lot of Zoom meetings, and which often got quite animated.

- I feel excluded in nearly every space I'm in, and you know what?

(fist thuds) Newsflash, it's a fact.

I'm a brown lesbian with left politics, hello, living in a capitalist patriarchy that's racist and white supremacist.

What's the point of inclusion?

The places that are including me are social movements.

And Kate, come say hi to everybody, just- - Oh, yes, hi.

- If you don't mind, Elise, I'm just- - Oh, please.

- Hello.

- Come on in.

Ah, there you are.

- I was lying on the bed listening, so.

- Anyway, this is our wonderful panel.

I'm gonna flip it to our final panelist.

- Thanks so much.

Be safe, and we will see you out there in the next lesbian space.

(Kate chuckles) (Urvashi blows kiss) (wind whistling) - The tide goes in, and the tide goes out.

And that kind of rhythm of, you know, we've had a success with the gay movement, we've had a success here in Provincetown, but there's always, it can turn again.

You know, I think that the reaction, the anti-gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, against all of that right now is, like Urvashi always felt, is a measure of how well we're doing.

They're that freaked out, and probably she's very proud of that, and she should be.

I have to say, of all the places and things that I've done with Urvashi, I'm really happy that we had this time in Provincetown together because it was, you know, it fed us and certainly helped her feel refreshed to go back to the work that she was doing.

- And let's all work together, whatever our vision is of what we need to achieve and whatever our ways are of getting there.

We've got a role to play in our movement.

I thank you very much, very, very much.

I'm very proud to be a lesbian and part of our movement.

All right.

(audience applauds) - In her 1995 book, "Virtual Equality," Urvashi wrote, "My gay and lesbian family in Provincetown and around the country gave me the emotional and political foundation.

There are things to do, much of which will be completed long after my lifetime, ideas for bringing people together.

Whether we come together to solve problems like AIDS or to share support or to celebrate, all political change begins locally."

As June Jordan, one of Urv's favorite poets, wrote, "And who will join this standing up?

We are the ones we have been waiting for."

(uplifting music) - When all of us who believe in freedom and diversity see this gathering, we see beauty and power.

We call for the end of racism and sexism and bigotry as we know it, for the end of violence and discrimination and homophobia as we know it, for the end of sexism as we know it.

We stand for freedom as we have yet to know it, and we will not be denied.

(audience cheers) - [Announcer] Urvashi Vaid!

(uplifting music continues) (uplifting music continues) (uplifting music continues) (uplifting music continues) (no audio) - Hello, everyone.

Thank you, first of all, for watching "There Are Things To Do."

I am a filmmaker and playwright.

My name is Fermin Rojas, and I've had the great pleasure of serving as producer on our film.

And I'm joined today by the director of the film, Mike Syers, and the amazing humorist and activist Kate Clinton, who is featured in the film.

A little background on these folks.

Mike is an award-winning documentary filmmaker living in Provincetown, where he's founded a filmmakers group in America's oldest art colony.

For years, he was a member of the corporate world for Ernst & Young, where he created their first LGBTQ group and worked with the White House and then-Vice President Biden to create policy for the White House's LGBTQ initiatives, including marriage equality.

Also, please meet Kate Clinton- - Thank you.

- Who according to her website, is a self-proclaimed reluctant New Yorker, former Ptown year-rounder, a standup comic and humorist, and all-around good dinner guest.

For 34 years, she was the partner in crime and time with activist Urvashi Vaid.

And Kate, that's from your website.

Did I get it right?

- Yep, totally.

- Well, I think it's a little too humble because in all seriousness, you were one of the first prominent lesbian comedians appearing on national mainstream media in the 1980s.

And for years, you've been headlining fundraising events for many of the most important LGBTQ organizations around the country.

You're really an icon of our social movements.

- Thank you.

- So how is it that you and Urvashi, two forces of nature, came to know each other?

How did your worlds collide?

- I was mostly doing standup comedy all over the country.

So I do a gig in Denver, I fly all night and I get to Washington.

There's this conference in D.C., and then it was just absolutely boring and dreadful and I thought, "Why did I do this?"

And she came up to me after and she said to me, "You're very handsome."

I was like, "What?

Why, thank you, ma'am."

- Not to sidetrack for a moment here, but you said you were doing standup around the country.

Has that been your main genre for activism?

- You know, it was back then because it really was, you know, saying that you were a lesbian was like a career changer.

I mean, I remember doing a comedy club in New York and I talked about being a lesbian and the owner said to me after, "You can't do that lesbian stuff."

And I said, "Okay," the show was over.

And then years later, I did the same comedy club and he goes, "I thought you were gonna do more gay stuff."

But I think what that reflected was, you know, that the world was changing, that more people were coming out, and, you know, just over time, constant repetition, people being more and more out, I think it just changed and it widened my audience.

- What I'm hearing is it's a broad way of creating community, being visible.

So there you were, two young, hot political lesbians, and did you have any idea where your career paths were headed?

I mean, where was Urvashi in her political career?

Where were you in your careers at that time?

- So I was basically just traveling the country doing gigs and Urvashi was also traveling a lot.

She was with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

And, you know, really the hottest sexual stuff we did was scheduling.

You know, one time it was like, "Oh, we're both in Chicago.

That's great."

So we had this kind of long-distance affair for about five years.

And then finally what happened was, and I was in Ptown at the time and she said, "I'm gonna live in Ptown."

And I said, "That's great."

And she was gonna write a book, and that's what she did when she got there.

- The film title, Mike, that you selected is "There Are Things To Do," which is the final chapter in "Virtual Equality."

And I love it because it's an active voice rather than a passive voice.

On the topic of meeting, Mike, how did you meet Urvashi and Kate?

- I actually didn't know Urvashi and Kate before I made this movie.

The Provincetown Film Society wanted to make some short films about people that are important to the Provincetown community and I was honored that they asked me.

It actually wound up morphing into something much larger than any of us ever expected.

It was a film to be shown locally with the community.

It was just so well received, we felt that it was important to bring this film around the country.

This is a film that is about a very, very small sliver of one of the most important activists of our lifetime.

It's about her life in Provincetown.

I could not have made a film like this without the collaboration with other people.

Coming together as a community enabled us to bring something together that's so much more powerful.

- So what are some of the points from "Virtual Equality" or, Kate, even things that the two of you did to create community in Provincetown when you got here?

- Well, I think that a lot of it is about food, if I could say that.

You know, it certainly was with Urvashi and me, which is you invite people over.

You know, you actually have physical contact with them, and I think we're kind of losing that.

And it can start small.

I mean, it can be you have somebody over for dinner, they know somebody else, and then you say like, "I really am worried about this.

Can we do something?"

- The physical human interaction of exchanging ideas and breaking bread if you will.

- Yep.

And I think in that book, there are some chapters that are like a public service.

You know, there's so much, she gets so much information around the history of LGBT that is wonderfully written.

- Provincetown is a very, you know, LGBTQ-friendly, if not predominant, community.

This is the first biographical film about Urvashi Vaid.

A lot of it was filmed in the building where she wrote "Virtual Equality."

And so, Kate, was this something inspiring to you?

Why did you decide to get involved with the film?

- Well, I got a call from Mike Syers and he, you know, was sort of introducing himself to me, and in about the third sentence, he said that he'd been to the March on Washington and heard Urvashi speak and he burst into tears.

And I thought, "Perfect, you can make the film."

(chuckles) And it's set in Ptown because, I mean, there's a whole wider scale of her effect in so many different states and levels and organizations.

I mean, if you counted up the number of organizations she started, it's amazing.

- You know, what I learned from watching Urvashi speak, you know, she talked a while ago about complacency and I feel that there are generations of LGBT people who have grown up and come out in a timeframe where, you know, they've had rights and this is not the time to sit back and to be complacent.

- A lot of the issues she writes about that we were facing then are very, very prominent right now.

- And I think right now, at this moment in history, we need to get together sooner and be louder and we need to get our message out and we need to join up with other movements that are happening.

And that was one thing Urvashi understood perfectly, and she could have the most incredible philosophical ideas and then she would give you the list of how we're gonna do it.

- Urvashi was all about, you know, things happen at the local level because that's where we live.

In speaking with students, I remember after one of the screenings, some students was like, "Oh my God, like, I could never do what Urvashi did."

The reality is, is that do you think that Urvashi on day one expected to speak in front of a million people in Washington?

You know, she took one action and it led to another action and another action.

I think that we just need to remember to take an action.

We all need to take an action and, collectively as a community, we can move things forward.

- You know, I miss Urvashi terribly, but I feel like she's pushing me along.

Like, "Come on, come on, get active."

- I'm sure she is.

She's pushing all along every single day and I hope she never, and I know, not I hope, I know she never, ever will.

- You know it.

- I want to thank you all again for having watched "There Are Things To Do."

Thank you so much.