Carolina Paiz
"During our final season of Orange is the New Black, we explored a new kind of private prison that is spreading across America: immigration detention centers. Christina and her team came on as consultants to help us get our immigration stories right. She met with our writers, actors and production designers on multiple occasions, sharing her in-depth knowledge about immigration law as well as her experience in working to free immigrants from detention centers. In addition, she helped facilitate interviews with former detainees and even helped coordinate an actual visit to a detention center. Her input helped to shape our stories and our sets, prompting a well known immigration attorney to commend us on our authenticity, saying she now asks her clients to watch our season to learn how immigration courts and detention actually work.
We can thank Christina and her team for this. They were a truly vital part of our process. Our season wouldn’t have been as poignant or as tragically realistic without their collaboration and input. As a writer and executive producer, I can not recommend Christina enough!"
Image credit: Lisa Whiteman
Mario J. Novoa
"I wholeheartedly endorse Christina Fialho for her outstanding commitment and leadership in the realm of immigration reform and her advocacy for the LGBTQ+ immigrant community. As the co-founder/executive director of Freedom for Immigrants for over a decade, Christina spearheaded nationwide campaigns for immigrant rights. In addition to her significant achievements, I've had the privilege of working closely with Christina on documentary projects focused on the Adelanto Detention Center. Her expertise, passion, and dedication to illuminating the realities of immigration detention through storytelling have been instrumental in raising awareness about the issue.
My documentary, LA: A Queer History, reveals how LGBTQ+ people have had to hide in the shadows to exist, even today. We need film, television, and the media to tell more accurate and uplifting stories of the LGBTQ+ community, especially of bi+ people who make up a majority of our community. Christina's collaborative spirit and unwavering commitment to social justice make her an invaluable advocate and leader in this crucial cause."
Fiona Dawson
"When I first came out as lesbian/gay in 2004 at the age of 27 years, it was because my lived experience had been centered in a very binary social structure -- including within the "LGBT" community. I'd also divorced my husband and was madly in love with a woman. I held internalized biphobia and was not aware of any bisexual possibility models in my life or on-screen. Eight years later, and very single, I realized that the only reason I was turning down a date with a guy was because I'd kept the label gay. But if I was to be honest with myself, the truth was that I have the capacity to be romantically, emotionally, and/or sexually attracted to people of a similar or a different gender to my own. I am bisexual.
Positive, accurate, and nuanced bi+ representation in media is different for different bi+ people. But right now the monolith, tragic, hypersexualized tropes prevail. Given one in six Gen Z identifies as bisexual, the future is very queer and nonbinary sexual orientations need to be uplifted and explained in their full multidimensional perspective. For the psychological and physical health of generations to come positive representation of bi+ people and their stories is more urgent than ever. They certainly would've helped this now middle-aged bi+/pan/queer woman figure herself out a few decades ago."