For many kids in America, being a teenager is tough. Add being a black teenager in today’s racially charged America, and circumstances get tougher. Then add being a black transgender or gay teenager living on your own in Washington D.C., and you have an even tougher situation, but one that makes the compelling subject of the documentary, Check It.
As vulnerable gay and transgender youth, they’ve been shot, stabbed and raped. So in 2009, a group of ninth graders formed a gang, called “Check It.” Today it has grown to hundreds of 14-22 year olds that roam the streets of D.C. ready to fight back.
“The Check It...have banded together as a family for self-preservation and to make up for a family that they didn’t have,” says director and producer Dana Flor. She came across the gang while working on a different film project in Washington D.C. and spent several years working with a few members, their mentors and documented their journey out of the cycle of poverty and violence.
"We knew instantly that this was an amazing story," says Flor. "The characters in this gang, the people in this gang are some of the most amazing cinematic characters we could ever hope to find and their stories we so memorizing when we first met them."
The film was made over a span of four years with constant contact between the subjects and the documentary producers. Flor admits that Check It members were skeptical at first and earning their trust took a lot of work.
"Trust in any relationship is a matter of time," she says. "Eventually they saw that we weren't going away and that we were going to allow them to tell their story and that they could trust us."
Flor notes that almost all of the gang members have identical experiences that brought them to Check It. Most come from a very conservative community that is not embracing of the LGBTQ culture. Many were rejected by their families, thrown out of their homes, got in fights in school or dropped out of school, and were constantly being bullied and threatened.
Check It claims the unique title of the only exclusively queer gang in the United States. But other than worrying about living openly, they are concerned about their daily basic survival. Many of the kids live on their own and work in the sex industry as a means to support themselves.
Flor says it's a dangerous and vulnerable way to live. "There is hope for them, but the situation is dire. There's a lot of danger for kids who are LGBTQ and come from a lower socioeconomic world where I think they're just not that accepted," she says.
Check It also formed out of the common cycle of violence, according to Flor. After being bullied for so long, they fight back on the streets by any means necessary, she says.. Many of the members are quick to anger due to the world they've been raised in. This also attributes to the assault, armed robbery and drug dealing charges many hold.
"The world that they're in, it's rough and tumble," explains Flor. "And you do have to defend yourself and they have been doing that for pretty much their whole adult lives."
While Flor doesn't condone the violence the Check It get involved in, she does understand it. "Violence is the reality for a lot of people in this country and there are very complex reasons as to why that happens."
However, Flor strongly believes that violence is avoidable when communities are given proper support and opportunities. "One of the key points in the film and for this community and communities like them, is that when these kids are given resources, when they're given mentorship, when somebody pays attention to them - they're incredibly responsive."
As Flor has gotten to know members of Check It throughout the process of the documentary, she says it's been an "indescribably wonderful" thing to see their transformation on and off the screen. Many of the elder members featured saw the need to move on and pursue their diverse passions to create a better future for themselves. "It gives me faith that people can change and if given the opportunity, these kids can do wonderful things," says Flor.
"These kids are very brave. They put their lives on the line to be who they are and I have great admiration for that. They're my heroes."
Check It screens one last time Thursdayafternoon at the Avalon Theater as part of the Milwaukee FilmFestival.
