What Am I Doing on eBay?

When: June 14-24, 2007
Where: eBay

What about those Tracy Quan Mystery Photos on eBay?

Well, this year, I’m participating in a charity auction to benefit MIX NYC, New York’s Lesbian & Gay Experimental Film Festival. I got involved for very personal reasons, which I’ll get into shortly.

You can bid on my mystery pics — or those of 150 unusual suspects — and support a fabulous LGBT cause! 150 of us (…Norah Jones, Annie Sprinkle, Meredith Monk…) were asked to shoot a disposable camera. The undeveloped (signed) cameras are auctioned on eBay to raise funds for the MIX NYC Festival.

My pics are from deep inside the New York Interior — not a single one was shot outdoors.

Filmmaker Hima B., former exotic dancer and union organiser, is my very personal reason for getting involved.

She runs a free summer programme in media training for LGBT youth. This programme began in 2006 to help develop the next generation of media artists, targeting marginalized youth. Intensive training lasts several weeks, and results in completed short videos by each student, which are late shown at the MIX Festival and other venues.

Hima B., programme leader, is widely admired as the maker of “Straight for the Money” a documentary exploring the lives of lesbian sex workers. (SFTM: nice riff on the sex industry term “gay for pay.”)

As a former teen runaway, I feel honored to be part of the MIX NYC benefit auction. It took many years for me to learn how to tell my story because I was afraid I would lose control of my past. For a long time, I was in the closet about my teen prostitution years. Not because I was ashamed. Simply because I didn’t know how to prevent the establishment media from stealing my history and distorting it.

I’d like other young people to be telling their story sooner, and I think Hima’s project is very important. I like the fact that it’s not aimed exclusively at runaway teens. Projects which ghettoize are not just paternalistic. They are often dangerous to people’s safety, they make it harder for us to grow up and lead normal lives, and many teenagers are afraid to participate.

Hima’s programme is open to all LGBT youth, but especially marginalized youth. So it’s based on integration. We hear a lot of empty rhetoric about inclusion, but this is a real example of inclusion in action. Hima, it goes without saying, is a fantastic role model for kids who feel silenced or intimidated by the powers that be.

It’s also nice because it’s for ordinary, not super-wealthy, donors — bidding starts at US $50. You have until 24 June to place a bid on eBay, if you would like to support Hima’s project.

So! Visit MIX NYC to find out more about the auction. Visit eBay to place a bid on my camera. Or, go here to bid on the cameras of Kenny Scharf, Ann Magnussen and many, many others!