"I'm From Driftwood" 50-State Story Tour: Collecting and Sharing True LGBT Stories

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ABOUT WWW.IMFROMDRIFTWOOD.COM: www.ImFromDriftwood.com collects true LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) stories from all over the world--from the smallest towns to the biggest cities--to help gay youth feel not so alone. The hundreds of written stories and over 50 Video Stories (http://www.imfromdriftwood.com/new-video-stories/) range from the furtive life of a gay man living in Indiana during the ultra conservative, and unforgiving 1950s, to a clandestine underground gay-straight alliance in present day Indonesia. While some stories recount bitter memories of violence, hatred, and intolerance, most are a testament to the most common of human emotions - optimism, love, honesty, and hope. Together, these stories offer rare insight, and lend indisputable humanity to the lives of LGBT people everywhere, giving gay people young and old the world over a sense of community and a reassurance that they are not alone.

ABOUT THE ROAD TRIP: LGBT people are everywhere. IFD is going to prove it.

In September 2010, IFD Creator Nathan Manske, and Video Director and Editor Marquise Lee, will set out on a four month tour of the US, traveling by van to all 50 states (they'll fly to Alaska and Hawaii) with the goal of bringing IFD off the computer screen and into America. Along the way, they will meet the many faces of LGBT America, and through both Video Stories, Audio Stories and written word, bring their stories to the world.

Along the way, they will have Reading Events at cafes, bookstores, bars, community centers, college campuses and other venues where they will read stories from IFD and talk about the site and its purpose. They will also have days devoted to filming and recording Video Stories and Audio Stories.

They'll add a regular blog page to IFD chronicling their adventures. Marquise will film their journey and will make short YouTube videos about their progress. They will publish regular Video Webisodes as well as written updates about their journey.

To help them please follow this link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/manske/im-from-driftwood-50-state-story-tour-collecting-a

they collected more than 14.100 $ and have still 4 days to collect the remaining 900$.

Nathan Manske is the creator and editor of the LGBT, true-stories blog "I’m From Driftwood" and a freelance copywriter. He is indeed from Driftwood, Texas, but has lived in Brooklyn, New York since 2003. For creating IFD, Manske was selected as one of The Advocate's "Forty Under 40". His inclusion, along with the others on the list of "young activists, artists, and other standouts" was described by the publication as “proof the qualities that make a leader are often innate—and that the gay movement is still in good hands.” IFD also gained notable recognition from other on- and offline media outlets including The Austin Chronicle's "Best of 2009", Instinct Magazine, NPR, AfterElton, Andrew Sullivan, Towleroad, Queerty, Houston Press, and The Austin American-Statesman.

Before creating I’m From Driftwood, he spent 4 years as a full-time copywriter, working first at Hanft Raboy & Partners, then Berlin Cameron & Partners, and has fortunately been able to combine his personal passions with his profession. His Chemistry.com television commercials raised awareness as well as eyebrows by taking on eHarmony’s discriminatory policies towards gays and lesbians. eHarmony has since changed their policies. He also found a way to actually get paid for being a geek by writing the third X-Men film’s interactive website for 20th Century Fox. Other work has included Match.com, in the U.S. and the UK, Lincoln, VitaminWater, Sony, Comcast, Howard Johnson’s, Diet Pepsi, Hertz, and Showtime. Nathan received an Advertising degree from the University of Texas at Austin.