HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—On Friday night, the Free Speech Coalition honored the 30th anniversary of Jeffrey Douglas' leadership as Board Chair with a reception and dinner at the Kimpton Everly hotel, a block away from the historic Capitol Records tower. Held on the rooftop pool deck, the evening started with an open-wine-bar reception and buffet dinner, followed by tributes to Douglas from past and present FSC Board members.
"We found him," former FSC Board member Mara Epstein told AVN. "Gloria [Leonard] and I met him at a protest at the Federal Building on Wilshire. I don’t remember what we were protesting. But we brought him on, and the rest is history."
Former FSC Board member Kim Airs told AVN, "It's pretty amazing to see how far the FSC has come. To have the steady keel of Jeffrey Douglas over the years has been the good steady thread through all the different leaders and board members. He helped me open my store in West Hollywood. I consulted with him and he said 'It has to be in West Hollywood because, technically, it would be illegal to open it in Los Angeles.'"
FSC Executive Director Alison Boden started the tribute to Douglas, calling him "one of the finest people our industry has ever had the luck of attracting to us" before saying "the Free Speech Coalition would not exist without Jeffrey Douglas." Boden praised "his integrity, his passion, and an unwavering determination to stand up for the underdog in the face of seemingly impossible odds.... channeling the spirit of Clarence Darrow, and his belief that every person deserves dignity and respect." She pointed out that Douglas told her that as a defense attorney, he could improve the lives of a limited number of people, "but through FSC he could improve thousands of lives.
"And he has. Including all of yours. He has improved the lives of this entire industry, whether they realize it or not."
Doc Johnson founder and founding member of FSC Ron Braverman spoke next, reflecting on the history of the organization: "We wanted to make sure the First Amendment stayed intact throughout the United States. We would meet every other week, and we came up with the idea that everybody couldn't wait to belong to the Free Speech Legal Defense Fund. Of course, we were 500 percent wrong... It was only when Jeffrey Douglas came along and showed us what needed to be done, and understood what needed to be done: we needed an executive director and we needed a leader. It's his hard work and tenacity that has continued. He's been dedicated to the industry and everyone in the industry. You've dedicated yourself to all of us, all the people in this room, and we appreciate it, and we thank you. I hope we get another 30 [years], but... you know."
Former Executive Director Diane Duke remembered the ICANN hearings about the .xxx domain and their efforts to be heard, putting fact sheets under the hotel doors of board members "and they told us that we could speak if we would just leave their board members alone. So we did that, and we were actually victorious. Every time we fought these battles Jeffrey had so much enthusiasm. 'Yes! We can do it! You can do this! We can do this!' And we did, a lot of times."
FSC Board member and UC Santa Barbara professor emerita Constance Penley—the first academic on the FSC Board—spoke of a recent class session where she randomly selected students into research teams to talk with trans performer Ariel Demure, gay performer Rhyheim Shabazz, veteran performer Angela White, and Douglas. "My students trust me, but some of them were, 'We get the attorney?' I knew that it was going to be perfectly fine, and Jeffrey was going to blow them away. Once he gave an hour-and-45-minute lecture on the history of obscenity law. I knew he could keep everybody rapt, with his compassion for what he did and anecdotes like 'in this case, was this obscene depended on whether the fish in a woman's vagina was dead or alive.' Ten anecdotes like that."
Former FSC Deputy Executive Director and PASS Executive Director, Ian O'Brien, spoke of the recent production hold and Douglas' mentorship and support during the first production hold O'Brien was involved in: "I felt that a lot was at stake, that someone was going to die, or OSHA was going to shut us all down, or I was going to end up in jail—a super-dramatic way to frame it, but not entirely untrue—and I remember Jeffrey reaching out to me, out of the blue, to just check on me. To affirm that I was safe, and to ask what I needed personally... I believe Jeffrey's ability to provide leadership at the intersection of compassion and competence allows the industry to make decisions about its future in the face of enormous stakes. Jeffrey coached me through a number of leadership changes at FSC, and taught me that running an organization is a lot different than having a lot of opinions about how it should be run.
"Jeffrey often refers to himself a Pollyanna, that maybe he's a bit too optimistic. I'd argue that optimism is the only way things ever got better... Maybe you are a Pollyanna, but you're fucking good at it. And I think we're all better for it."
Current FSC Deputy Executive Director Valentine McLemore spoke of her involvement with FSC during her studies in law school, saying, "I remember being captivated by the way you talked about your work, your passion for the 1st Amendment, and the loving and caring, quiet and humble, but strong way that you spoke about your clients, friends, and your family, and the things that were important to you. I was like, 'Who is this guy? No one's like this. No one's this genuine.'
"But he is. He is one of the most genuine, caring, and passionate people I have evet met. There is a quiet strength and a quiet charm to everything that he does, everything he says, and he speaks with such conviction and intention when you talk about law, when you talk about anything. You choose your words carefully. You're not a loud braggart like the rest of us lawyers. You care about the mission and the values behind what you do."
After FSC Board Treasurer Cathy Beardsley presented him with a gift, which Douglas tentatively accepted until Beardsley reassured him, "It's very tasteful." He opened it and found a tie with the Free Speech Coalition logo, which he wrapped around his neck and tied, placing it in front of the tie he was wearing. "When you're fighting our battles, you'll be keeping us close to your heart," Beardsley said.
Douglas took the podium, speaking off the cuff ("I have a laptop here with notes, an outline of remarks I planned to make, but I'm not going to use it. It'll make it shorter and better.") saying, 'It's a very strange experience. It's like listening to my own eulogy, but there's no sadness. It's just joy.
"You have given me an evening, and a moment of time, that I literally will remember forever. One of the greatest moments of my life, and something that I will draw on forever. When I was a young man, I wanted to be a great lawyer. I wanted to be Clarence Darrow. I wanted to be a superhero. I would try cases on a routine basis, my clients would be acquitted, that would be the way it was. It didn’t quite work out that way. While I have been able to save people, I am not in the universe that I thought I might be... But this is a counterbalance to that excessively critical part of me that I will be able to draw on forever."
Douglas referred to that morning's Supreme Court decision in the Free Speech Coalition et al. v. Paxton case as "an unmitigated catastrophe. There are no hidden bright lights, and it's a loss that I never expected. But there is nothing that Clarence Thomas and the Five Horse-Fuckers of the Apocalypse could do, can do, that can drain from me the joy that you have all given me. And I trust that you are all getting joy from being so generous."
Speaking of the Free Speech Coalition, Douglas said, "When you can inspire collective action, you can make things better. Over the 30 years, the things that we have collectively accomplished are because of the dedication, the hard work, and the sacrifice that all of the people who have committed themselves to the Free Speech Coalition," asking all present and former FSC staff and Board members to stand and be acknowledged.
"People have spoken about my unflagging optimism, and that is unquestionably true. It's in my nature. The experiences I have had the last 30 years, working with you, and for you and for the selected family that you have made within the industry— it's just been the greatest. And I have been satisfied with that, and it's been more than enough. I never expected anything like this to ever happen to me, and I'm deeply grateful."
Douglas concluded his remarks by quoting from Robert M. Pirsig's 1974 book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:
"Trials never end, misery and suffering is just part of the condition. It's always present. But there are times when you know, and not just on the surface of things, but permeating everything, you know it's going to get better."
After a lengthy ovation, Boden concluded the evening, saying, "All of you came here tonight because you deeply value Jeffrey J. Douglas. I just want all of you to know that I did this because Jeffrey is one of the most incredible human beings I've ever met, and you are all here because you agree. Thank you so much and let's, please, give it the fuck up for Jeffrey Douglas!"—ending the evening with laughter and applause in the Hollywood night.
