The open call for Stonewall Uprising and Gay Rights in 2011 will run from November 29th, 2010 to February 14th, 2011. During that time, video submissions will be available for public review, community comment and viewer ratings on the Lab website.

Judging will be based upon a combination of factors including video and audio quality, broadcast potential, storytelling ability, authenticity, relevance to the call and reviews or comments from the WGBH Lab community.

After the February deadline, WGBH Staff will select 15 videos for our guest panel of judges. They will help us award 5 shorts with $1,000 dollars each. Judges will also make recommendations for which video they think best tells the story of gay rights in America today. WGBH Lab and American Experience reserves rights to final airing decisions.

DEADLINE: February 14th
Between now and the deadline, we are eager to see what kind of stories you send to us. We’ll share them on our blog, in our Twitter feed, on our Facebook page, on Tumblr and with our groups of friends, so don’t wait!

Cyndi Lauper: A Grammy and Emmy award winning artist with more than 25 sterling years and global record sales in excess of 30 million, Cyndi Lauper has proven that she has the heart and soul to keep her legion of fans compelled by her every creative move. In June 2010 she released her 11th studio album entitled Memphis Blues, which sat atop the Billboard Blues Chart for 14 consecutive weeks and is her 5th top 40 album of her career. 2011 promises to be another amazing period for this career artist as Lauper is set to release her autobiography through Simon & Schuster, launch her own reality show in partnership with Mark Burnett Productions, complete work writing the music for the Broadway show "Kinky Boots," and continue her philanthropic work on behalf of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community through her foundation, the True Colors Fund, and its Give a Damn Campaign, which works to inspire straight people to get involved in advancing equality.

Founder of Rosenblum Media, which includes the Travel Channel Academy, Rosenblum Films and Rosenblum TV. He is the creator of the videojournalism style of news reporting. Rosenblum built the first major VJ-driven local TV news operation at NY News. He later went on to train VJs at Voice of America, the New York Times, the BBC, German Public TV, Dutch Public TV and many other VJ-driven news operations around the world. On the board of Video Volunteers, an international media organization empowering the voices of the world’s unheard communities, he shares his training methods with the developing world as a tool in social change. Rosenblum blogs daily about the latest developments in the world of video and the media as well as future trends in technology and equipment. His latest feat: New York Video School, a complete online digital school, entirely done in video: www.nyvs.com .

Dan Savage is author of the internationally syndicated relationship and sex column Savage Love and the weekly podcast Savage Lovecast. He is editorial director of the Seattle weekly The Stranger, where he was formerly Editor-in-Chief. He is a regular to contributor to PRI's "This American Life" and has been featured as a Real Time Reporter on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher."
Dan heard about the suicides of Justin Aaberg and Billy Lucas and had a reaction so many LGBT adults had. “I wish I could’ve talked to that kid for five minutes before he killed himself,” Dan recently said. “I’d tell him that however bad it was in high school or middle school...it gets better.” The It Gets Better Project was born.

Mark Samels was named Executive Producer of PBS’s flagship history series, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, in 2003 after serving as senior producer since 1997. Produced by WGBH/Boston, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE is television’s most-watched and longest running history series, and the recipient of every major industry award, including the Peabody, Primetime Emmy, Writers Guild and duPont-Columbia Journalism Award. Numerous films for the series have been recognized at major film festivals, including Sundance, and eight have been nominated for Academy Awards®. Prior to joining WGBH, Samels worked as an independent documentary filmmaker, an executive producer for several U.S. public television stations and as a producer for the first co-production between Japanese and American television. A native of Wisconsin, he is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Eric Marcus is the author of several books, including Is It A Choice?, Making Gay History, and What If Someone I Know Is Gay? He is also co-author of Breaking the Surface, the #1 New York Times bestselling autobiography of Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis.

Last year Eric served as associate producer and advisor on “Stonewall Uprising,” a new “American Experience” documentary that will air nationally on PBS in April 2011. In addition, HarperCollins recently published a revised and updated edition of Eric’s book Why Suicide? Questions & Answers About Suicide, Suicide Prevention, and Coping with the Suicide of Someone You Know.

Eric is a former associate producer for both “Good Morning America” and CBS Morning News. He is a graduate of Vassar College and earned his master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.