A 17 year-old soccer playing Latina tries to make a video, "How to Start a Gay-Straight Alliance in Your High School," and runs smack into her principal's homophobia instead. After taking part in the Girls! Action! Media! workshop at Horizons, 16 year old Zaida Sanabia partnered with Beyondmedia to make this sobering and heartfelt documentary on school and family life for queer students. This Beyondmedia video is currently in distribution locally and internationally, and is used as a training tool on LGBTQ youth, school safety and homophobia.

Zaida Sanabia, now Beyondmedia's Youth Coordinator and the video's producer, conducts an ongoing program of screenings with discussions in high schools, drop-in programs, universities and organizations around the Chicago metropolitan area. A Fish has also shown on cable television and at 15 film and video festivals throughout the US and beyond, garnering two first-place awards. Recently Zaida received Chicago Foundation for Women's Ripple Affect award as "a shining example of the triumph of women and girls when given the opportunity."

The mission of Q’d In Media is to support queer and allied youth organizing and community building, combat homophobia in the many communities where queer youth live, learn and struggle, and make the real and complicated lives of queer youth visible to a larger public.

A consistent goal and strategy throughout all Q’d In Media projects is to apply media education in innovative ways to effectively address documented problems of special concern to partnering organizations.

Other Q'd In Media Projects

• A Fish Almost Eaten By A Shark
• Can LGBTQ + School = Safe?
• HIV: Hey, It's Viral!