It was an act of violence that could never be undone.
A night whose consequences would live on in the body for the rest of his life.
There were all these other people writing versions of Scott's story. The media was telling it
through their own lens, and then the justice system was writing their narrative
and we wanted to tell Scott's story, with his voice and
have his version of what was true be shared and heard.
It was hard to express negative emotions because of the pressure
with every news story that would come out saying, you know, 'He's doing really well,
and he's hoping he can walk one day and he's started an
anti-homophobia, anti-transphobia campaign.' And so having
this film was so great because it gave me an
outlet through our relationship to delve into those harder
emotions. It's probably going to be a lifelong journey,
the pain that comes with this, and the devastation.
This was the first place that I thought of, the first place I
thought I wouldn't be able to come to after I was attacked.
There's this huge gap between the number of hate crimes that are experienced,
and reported, and then the number of hate crimes that end in conviction.
And I think it's important that when people leave the theatre, they have
an awareness of the fact that our systems aren't necessarily hearing
or serving or protecting the queer community in the ways that they could.
That's what this film is about. It allows us to look at
society, hold a mirror up to all of us and say okay,
this town had a hate crime, a gay-related hate crime.
We have to do better.
Having that charge, or at least investigating
it thoroughly, would recognize who I am as an individual.
If we can't name the crime for what it was, how can we talk about it?
And if we can't look to the law as  a reflection of what's actually being experienced
on a day-to-day basis, then how do we trust that these laws that
are put in place are actually here to protect all of us?
And we know that that's a reality, that's a truth about society, that marginalized
communities need to be heard by those who hold power.
