{"id":22213,"date":"2021-06-01T09:00:24","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T16:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=films&p=22213"},"modified":"2025-01-28T09:24:31","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T17:24:31","slug":"senior-prom","status":"publish","type":"films","link":"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/senior-prom\/","title":{"rendered":"Senior Prom"},"content":{"rendered":"

For so many high-schoolers, prom is a rite of passage in all of its love-filled, well-coiffed, abundantly photographed glory. But for generations of LGBTQ+ youth – especially those that grew up in the decades before Stonewall – prom has been emblematic of the exclusion from a world they could not experience as their authentic selves.<\/span><\/p>\n

But at Triangle Square, a haven for LGBTQ+ retirees in Hollywood, California, the idea of a \u201csenior\u201d prom has taken on an entirely new meaning. Over a night of dancing, kissing, and crowning of prom queens, these trailblazing seniors relect back on how far they\u2019ve come and their dreams for the next generation. Father Robert Clement, an openly gay clergyman and founder of the first LGBTQ+ church in New York, recalls the birth of the gay rights movement; Andi Segal remembers the undergound lesbian bars of Los Angeles; and Nancy Valverde, a Chicana lesbian from East L.A., recounts her many arrests for \u201cmasquerading\u201d in \u201cmen\u2019s\u201d clothing \u2014and her never-back-down nerve in the face of police intimidation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Senior Prom<\/em> celebrates our eldest LGBTQ+ generation who spent a lifetime fighting for the right to love openly and, via rich personal archives, retraces lives and legacies of resistance that helped change the course of civil rights.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For so many high-schoolers, prom is a rite of passage in all of its love-filled, well-coiffed, abundantly photographed glory. But for generations of LGBTQ+ youth – especially those that grew up in the decades before Stonewall – prom has been emblematic of the exclusion from a world they could not experience as their authentic selves. 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