Thomas Allen Harris' 'Marriage Equality' Free on YouTube

In 2010 Tribeca All Access teamed with 46664 and the Nelson Mandela Foundation to select five TAA alumni to create short films in honor of Nelson Mandela’s principles and life’s work. Two years later, one of the films has gone on to help in educating and bringing awareness to marriage equality. Thomas Allen Harris’ 16 minute short film, Marriage Equality: Byron Rushing and the Fight for Fairness, is currently available for free starting today on YouTube in celebration of LGBT Pride month. The film follows Rushing, a Civil Rights Movement veteran and Massachusetts State Representative, who leads the charge to confront his own community of African American clergy who opposes same sex marriage; an emotionally divisive issue now legal in the state Rushing represents. "I felt that the marriage equality movement was a largely white movement that ignored the diversity of queer communities,” Harris told TFI in 2010. “But as I met and spoke with courageous African American leaders and activists, straight and gay, who I interviewed for the film, I was transformed and, as a filmmaker, saw the urgency of illuminating and highlighting the voices and perspectives of LGBT people of color in this movement for civil rights." Thanks to the film’s exposure on the festival circuit and on outlets like NPR, The Washington Post, Gay City News and numerous blogs and African press outlets, Marriage Equality played a part in the passage of the New York State 2011 same-sex marriage vote as well as the recent NAACP endorsement of marriage equality. Up next, the film’s partner, the National Black Programming Consortium and ITVS are sponsoring a national online discussion around the film and the issues it raises on June 12 @ 4pm EST. Learn how to join the discussion. Then on June 19 at 4pm EST, NBPC will host a livestream chat with Harris and fellow TAA alum Yoruba Richen, producer of The New Black, which won a TAA Creative Promise award at this year's Tribeca Film Festival. For more about the film go to Marriageequalityfilm.com.

See the short here: