By Dean Poling
VALDOSTA — It’s a question that gives Roy Kirkland pause. But it’s a question viewers may wonder after watching his and Doug Sebastian’s new documentary, “A Cross Burning in Willacoochee.”
Had Kirkland not found another place to stay after a group of men yelled anti-gay slurs in front of his house on a night in 1993, does he believe he would have been harmed or killed?
After all, someone had earlier burned a cross in the front yard of his and Sebastian’s Willacoochee residence on July 21, 1993. The gay couple’s mailbox had been destroyed twice. Death threats had been left on their phone’s answering machine. A Willacoochee City Council member had already told a newspaper reporter that the South Georgia town was mostly “anti-gay.” Investigations into the cross burning had produced no suspects.
So, after all of this, when a group of men stopped in front of his house yelling threats, Kirkland left town that night to stay in a room in a Tifton motel where Sebastian worked.
Returning home the next day, Sebastian and Kirkland discovered their residence destroyed by fire. They found yellow police tape around the property, but firefighters and officials had already left the scene. Though authorities and neighbors knew where Sebastian worked, no one had called him about the fire. The streets were empty, which is strange for small towns where residents have a habit of regularly driving by the site of a fire.
Sixteen years later, seated in Sebastian’s house, looking back, does Roy Kirkland believe he would have been harmed had he stayed home that night?
“What if I had stayed? I have thought of that,” Kirkland says, adding that it has crossed his mind often in the past few months while making and premiering the documentary.
Kirkland doesn’t know what may have happened, he says, but he indicates that he may not be sitting here now. He and Sebastian may not be enjoying the budding success for the movie about a topic which once dominated and threatened their lives.
AN AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
Last weekend, “A Cross Burning in Willacoochee” played as an official selection in the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. This past Friday, Sebastian and Kirkland received word that the film won an award in the festival’s documentary category.
Given the filmmakers were unable to attend the New York showing, they are thrilled with the response. But they may still be more thrilled with the response “A Cross Burning in Willacoochee” received at the Atlanta Out On Film Festival, which they did attend.
There, Kirkland and Sebastian witnessed the audience response immediately. They heard people crying at certain scenes and laughing at the lighter moments in other scenes. They experienced the applause and ovations at the end of the film. They met audience members congratulating them and asking questions.
The film proved popular enough in Atlanta that it was given an encore screening. They hope to screen the movie soon in Valdosta.
Given their experiences, recognition for the film has been moving.
Though they have not been a couple since the late 1990s, Sebastian and Kirkland remain good friends and business partners in moviemaking. With Kirkland writing and starring and Sebastian directing and producing, they released the comedy “And There You Are” a couple of years ago.
Another comedy, “Grandma’s Blessings,” was to be the second film, but they postponed it for work on the documentary of their real-life experiences.
“Last December, during my latest move around Valdosta, I was stacking boxes on a shelf when a box of newspapers fell on top of me,” Kirkland says. “It was a box of newspapers about something I tried to forget for more than 15 years.”
LOOKING BACK
Long-time readers of The Valdosta Daily Times may recall past articles about what happened to Kirkland and Sebastian. The story was also featured in newspapers and on television news across the state and the South.
On July 21, 1993, the couple awoke to a knocking at their door. Kirkland’s brother, who was also their neighbor, wanted to know why a charred cross was in their yard.
Someone had apparently burned a cross in their yard as they slept, because Kirkland and Sebastian are gay.
The couple had met in Atlanta. Sebastian had grown up in a small town in Ohio. Kirkland had grown up in Willacoochee, one of nine children in a Mormon family. Kirkland says he realized he was gay as a child. His parents were accepting of him, but he moved to Atlanta as a young man.
Upon the death of Kirkland’s father, Kirkland and Sebastian moved to Tifton to be closer to his mother. They soon moved to Willacoochee.
They lived as an openly gay couple. They invited gay friends to their house for parties. While at the movies in Tifton, someone destroyed the couple’s mailbox. They gave it little thought. Family members warned the couple that some people were not comfortable with the couple’s “gay parties” and lifestyle.
Then came the cross burning and the events leading to the house fire.
Responding to the cross burning, one law-enforcement officer reportedly suggested that the couple throw it away. The Alapaha District Attorney’s office took the incident seriously; the Georgia Bureau of Investigation investigated the case.
Numerous news agencies ran stories about the cross burning and reported on the apparent apathy from many officials regarding an investigation into the cross burning and later the house fire.
The movie reminds viewers familiar with the case that no one was ever arrested for the cross burning. Voices were never identified on the recorded death threats. The house fire was never officially ruled an arson.
For the movie, Kirkland filed a Freedom of Information request for the GBI’s investigative report. Expecting a thick file, they received a thin package of less than two dozen pages. The details found in the GBI report could have been read in numerous newspaper articles on the incident.
After the house fire, Kirkland and Sebastian lived for several months in a motel room where Sebastian worked. Compensation for the fire was delayed by the insurance company’s investigation. In one of the documentary’s humorous scenes, Kirkland and Sebastian begin filming their deposition by an attorney representing the insurance company. The attorney tells them they cannot record the deposition, but Kirkland and Sebastian refuse to turn off their camera.
Eventually, then-Georgia Insurance Commissioner Tim Ryles became aware of their case, urging the insurance company to stop dragging its feet and settle the matter with due expedience. Ryles, now an insurance consultant, is one of the people interviewed for the movie.
CROSSROADS
“A Cross Burning in Willacoochee” tells Doug Sebastian and Roy Kirkland’s story, but they believe it is a story which many people can identify.
“The freedom to disagree is what makes America the greatest nation in the world,” Kirkland says. “But when some begin to cross the line to discriminate or condemn others because they are of a different color, religious belief or sexual orientation, that’s when America seems no longer the land of the free.”
Still, the filmmakers share a hope that attitudes may be changing.
Kirkland shares the story of living in another Georgia county following the Willacoochee incident. A group of teens at a nearby store gathered late into the night keeping Kirkland awake. He spoke to the store owner who refused to stop the teens from gathering.
The teens began regularly yelling anti-gay comments to Kirkland. He spoke with a county official, who said she’d stop make it stop. She arrived personally, spoke to the teens and dispersed them on the spot.
Because an official took a stand against discrimination, Kirkland never had any troubles there again.
More information: Visit www.acrossburning.com
